Someday Around the Throne of God

At yesterday's worship-service 

as we sang I was struck with an awesome rush of joy

as I thought of Someday, when from the four corners of the earth

God's family will worship without being hounded/distracted
by darts and daggers of the enemy!

Someday around the Throne of God, what a day that will be

As from each tribe and nation salvation’s worshipers kneel

Unhindered then, by mortal need or darts of enemy

Someday around the throne of God what flawless praise will peal

The Over-comer of the world with proof unfurled, will reign

No fears, no tears, sickness or pain can ever enter where

We’ll be with He who saved us from the wrath to come, through Him

Someday around the throne of God, what fellowship we’ll share

Someday faith will be sight, and hope will cease and so will prayer

From the four corners of the earth His followers will rise

Those who were dead will shed the grave and meet Him in the air

Someday, around the throne of God, worship will laud the Prize

His hallelujah hymn will thunder like a rushing tide

Someday a celebration unlike any earth has known

Will fill eternity when the Groom comes to claim His bride

And She will never cease His praise someday around God’s throne

© Janet Martin

 Rev.19:6-9

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude,

 like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 

 Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready. 

 Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

  Then the angel said to me, “Write this: 

Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” 

And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

To Know...

My sister-in-law now waits to see her dear mom again in 'land that is fairer than day'...
after they laid her to rest last week.

To live well is...

To know we did the best we could with kind humility

To know God works for our good no matter what may be

To know that soon we too will follow those whose footsteps cease

Into the faithful arms of God…to know this kind of peace

Brings courage to the harder parts that we are called to bear

Brings comfort to our heart of hearts and sweetness to the tear

Brings purpose to the passage that runs through the great unknown

Until we all will gather before God around His throne

© Janet Martin

2 Tim. 1: 12

…for I know whom I have believed, 

and am persuaded that he is able 

to keep that which I have committed 

unto him against that day.

Hard To Hope...

I heard someone wish for belief in Heaven after earth,

for the hope it gives to this life's fragility,

for the comfort it gives to loved ones left behind

but in doing so would also need to acknowledge the possibility of hell

(because God is love, holy and just)

So it is hard to Hope without recognizing

there must be Jesus aka Salvation!

  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. 

Jesus.

 (John 14:27) the whole chapter is AWESOME!

It shows the Way when Thomas asks,
“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Hard to hope without a heaven

Hard to hope without Belief

Hard to Hope without a reason

Higher than Time’s earthy Chief

Hard to hope without Salvation

Hard to hope without the Truth

Hard to hope through tribulation

Without knowing why, in Who

Hard to hope without Forgiveness

Hard to hope past what we see

Hard to hope, love, without Jesus

For without Him, 

Hope cannot be

© Janet Martin

 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

 In his great mercy he has given us new birth 

into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:3

But The Passing Through...

PAD Challenge 17: For today’s prompt, write a broken poem. 

Because we are prone to groaning 'whys'

where brokenness abounds

it is vital we fix our eyes

On the Healer of wounds

For He bore on our behalf

More than man understands

And wears love's sacred autograph

on out-stretched, nail-scarred hands

(for this is but the Passing Through

Before death's chilling seal

Transports us with that last gasp to 

all Heaven waits to heal)

...ah, who then can dare to afford

the everlasting cost

Of disregarding Christ the Lord

to be counted among the lost!

 

Then we of grin-groan-grit nuance

Of love’s laughter and tears

Of hope’s Immortal pursuance

While moments meld to years

‘Neath sky wide heath of dawn to dusk

Where seed of deed bears fruit

And scatters in its wake the husk

Of touch and taste’s pursuit

Where not one can undo the done

Or wipe spent seasons clean

Or force Belief or rain or sun

Or turn the fallow green

Then we of wonder, whim and wit

And ways common to man

Should entrust dust-formed grin-groan-grit

To Hope’s Incarnate Plan

…and not forget what seems so wrong

Or of small consequence

Or too impossible or long

Or without recompense

Is but part of The Passing Through

Before the Curtain Call

That will unveil Love’s Author who

Bore witness to it all

Who needs not to interrogate

(too late then to appeal)

As He makes known His own, the wait

Worth all one glimpse will heal

And banish from the mortal mind

Each agonizing ‘why’

Where hurt and hope is left behind

In the sweet by and by

© Janet Martin

Eyes on the Prize (Part 1-15)

1.

 Oh, what a prize on which to fix our eyes

While lesser gods appeal with pleasure’s trance

And wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing cover lies

With what seems satisfying at first glance

Oh, what a prize for us to press toward

Where Heaven waits beyond this finish line

The High Calling of Jesus Christ our Lord

Will make each earthy sacrifice divine

Oh, what a Prize when all is said and done

If we have fought the fight, finished the race

And kept the faith, then triumph has begun

Henceforth, a crown of righteousness awaits

Oh, what a prize prayer warriors march toward

To hear ‘well done’ from Jesus Christ, the Lord

2.

To hear ‘well done’ from Jesus Christ the Lord

Ah, let this be our hunger and our thirst

To recognize love’s ultimate reward

Makes worth all battles we must suffer first

This day of grace, someday will cease its pleas

The glory of the Lord will dim the sun

The stars will fall like unripe figs from trees

Tossed in the wind; then judgement has begun

Ah, pray we do not wait to bow the knee

And confess with our tongues that He is Lord

Too late; consider now what Then will be

Eternity… who can God’s wrath afford

Then call on Him, the Giver of the Prize

Believe on Him, Author of paradise

3.

Believe on Him, author of paradise

The Way, The Truth, The Life, He came to brave

The horrors only Mercy justifies

On Calv’ry’s cross He died each soul to save

Thus, there is no excuse that will withstand

When grace has sealed the Door to Safety’s Ark

As in the days of Noah, once again

He beckons ‘Come’ before the day grows dark

When everyone will wail because of Him

Yes, even those who pierced Him will behold

Who IS, Who WAS, Who IS TO COME, amen

The Almighty death’s mys’try will unfold

Where keys to hell and Heaven crown the sword

Listen; this is too grave to be ignored

4.

Listen, this is too grave to be ignored

Forbid we jeer or scorn the King of kings

Or turn a deaf ear to His earnest Word

And thus deserve the verdict Judgement brings

When all who have repented and believed

Will witness what faith could not visualize

Hope’s inheritance of endless life received

In Heaven; the unveiling of the Prize

So lift your head, if any suffer, pray

If any receive comfort, praise His name

No one is exempt from Reckoning Day

Will we live for his glory or our shame?

This is no glib, loud-laughing matter, love

No works of man can ever be enough

5.

No works of man can ever be enough

To earn the right to by-pass Calvary

No head-knowledge or vantage-point can prove

Faith’s Rock of Ages and trust’s guarantee

Will we accept His gift; will we refuse

We are creations of free will, not bound

Love never forces but He lets us choose

Who we will serve; there is no middle ground

No, no, oh, do not turn away and laugh

As if this is some scheme that fool’s inspire

For God will clear The Threshing Floor of chaff

And it will feed an unquenchable fire

The wheat He gathers up; it will not burn

Will we be wheat or chaff at His return?

6.

Will we be wheat or chaff at His return?

The Crux of mortal kernel never dies

Will we believe or join the proud who spurn

The gift of God and exchange truth for lies

Come, let us reason while there is still time

There must be more to life than dust-to-dust

There must be more to these moments that chime

Than wish and whim and selfish wanderlust

Where joy would a pitiful prelude

To sorrow’s empty, awful agony

Surely even a poor fool must conclude

There must be more to this than you and me

Aha, small wonder the greatest gifts none can prove

Where now abide these three; faith, hope and love

7.

Where now abide these three; faith, hope and love

The greatest of these, love; God’s All in all

As we who love and have been loved thus prove

What atheistic views seek to annul

For God is love; His Authenticity

In every tear, smile, wave, hug, cuddle, kiss

So we have glimpses of Him whether we

Believe in Him or deny who He IS

His divine essence no one can escape

No skin is thick enough all love to shun

For no one thirsts and hungers after hate

Love made us in His image; every one

Far more we are than a flesh and blood urn

Love is the common quaff for which we yearn

8.

Love is the common quaff for which we yearn

Its second miles and smiles are not in vain

God sent His Son for only He could earn

What only Love’s perfection could attain

Eternal life; for it is not love’s will

That any perish when time’s grace expires

But that all would believe while there is still

Redemption and exemption from hell’s fires

And whosoever calls on Him in truth

His perfect love will, in no wise, cast out

From aged patriarch to tender youth

He beckons come, believe and do not doubt

Love groans and longs to flings wide Heaven’s gates

But too many still wander…so He waits

9.

But, too many still wander so He waits

A Groom eager to meet His precious bride

Where the table has room for far more plates

It is His will that no one is denied

Entrance into the grandest Banquet Hall

But there is just one Way to enter in

Through Jesus’ blood that flowed for one and all

And frees us from the curse of death through sin

Oh, pray that glorious cleansing we have borne

A seat reserved in Heaven for that day

So when the Bridegroom comes we will not mourn

And be at last forever turned away

Doomed to the place each graceless Outcast goes

Rejection for the rejection we chose

10.

Rejection for the rejection we chose

God, rich in mercy, therefore lingers on

The devil rages, roaring to and fro

Knowing his numbered days are almost done

He tackles us, whoever we may be

Deception has no vice it will try

And if we do not stand on guard then we

Might fall prey to some sumptuous little lie

But if we ask of Him it will be giv’n

And if we seek from Him then we will find

And if we knock He, the door will open

No excuses for we, still sound of mind

If we choose to refuse, knowing the stakes

To disregard the love that mediates

11.

…to disregard the love that mediates

Twixt God and man is then to worship sin

Look, here is He whose workmanship creates

The wonders of the world and all therein

Where oft we stand amazed and gaze on He

Who wows us with His Everlasting care

See how the morning unveils land and sea

How spring returns to clothe limbs stark and bare

How rain falls on the just and unjust too

How hope is rekindled in human breast

After the storm of sorrow has passed through

See how, after day’s toil comes slumber’s rest

Then, to disdain what no man can compose

  Justly, befits us for Denial’s woes

12.

Justly befits us for Denial’s Woes

For God so loves the world His kind heart breaks

His Hand that hung the stars and overthrows

The enemy must wonder what it takes

To wake the one who slumbers without fear

When Judgement Day is too near to ignore

And Time, for all its tokens we revere

Will disappear like mist and be no more

He does not shake us to make us believe

We have His Word; ah, what more do we need

What else save His Appearing would achieve

Reaction that more than a few will heed

Oh bow your head, believers, gather where

The devil cannot thwart love’s humble prayer

13.

The devil cannot thwart love’s humble prayer

Here is a bulwark, safe from evil’s darts

And here the hope of nations feels the flare

That finds its way into man’s heart of hearts

Do not grow weary, saints-in-waiting, pray

There is no barrier prayer cannot scale

No prayer of love will ever lose its way

For God is love and love will never fail

Then do not faint or doubt in love’s reward

Remember, Jesus said, blessed are the meek

Know this, that if you labour in the Lord

Then He will make you strong when you are weak

Lift up your weary head, do not despair

God never gives us more than He can bear

14.

God never gives us more than He can bear

Nor will He leave us half-way through the race

His forgiveness, is a thorough affair

Then lean on Him; trust his sufficient grace

Press on; Triumph does not precede the Goal

The prize waits when the finish line is crossed

For all are athletes with a Living Soul

God’s love desires not one ‘runner’ lost

So He keeps vigil over one and all

Counts cups of water given in his name

He hears us call, He helps us when we fall

A friend who does not change; always the Same

Where Heaven is for real; no compromise

Oh, what a Prize on which to fix our eyes

15.
Master Sonnet
(first line of each preceding sonnet)

Oh, what a prize on which to fix our eyes

To hear ‘well done’ from Jesus Christ the Lord

Believe on Him, author of paradise

Listen, this is too grave to be ignored

No works of man can ever be enough

Will we be wheat or chaff at His return?

Where now abide these three; faith, hope and love

Love is the common quaff for which we yearn

But, too many still wander so He waits

Rejection for the rejection we chose

…to disregard the love that mediates

Justly befits us for Denial’s Woes

The devil cannot thwart love’s humble prayer

God never gives us more than He can bear

© Janet Martin