Holy, Holy, The Wake at Stake

 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, 

and Hell followed with him.

Rev.6:8

 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

John 3:18

Holy, holy earth’s cape of graves

Vulnerable, the foot that braves

Faith and fear’s yawning, conning waves

Help us, oh, help us, Lord

For we are prone to quench thirst’s yen

With lowly rise and fall of men

Where bluffing, boasting brogue of pen

Is mightier than sword

Pity, pity pride’s witty want

Enticing us to trust its taunt

Where enmity to honor flaunts

Its masterpiece of lies

And undiscerning eyes believe

What ignorance does not perceive

The awful end sin will receive

With devils in disguise

Laden with grace, soul’s maiden trek

Where life on earth is but a speck

Before the More that waits on deck

After The Choice we make

Tender, tender God’s mercy pours

Where splendor groans on hidden shores

While compassion and justice wars

Heaven or hell at stake

© Janet Martin

After-life

Redemption through His Blood
…For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.…Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. 

Hebrews 9:26-28

 

I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! 

Its rider was named Death,

Rev.6:8

‘Do you believe in After-life?’

I’ve heard the questioned posed

And much debate ensues about

‘After-these-eyes-are-closed’

Tis foolish to be ignorant

For God has made it clear

That after this life everyone

Before Him will appear

…and it is futile to suggest

There is another way

To the Giver of our Breath

We will return some day

But, Now, Today, grace-gladdened tides

Abound where mercy rolls

And Everlasting Hope abides

The saving of our souls

© Janet Martin

Then...

No tick of clock

No swift season-sweep

No moments pulsing

No waking, no sleep

No flesh and blood

No years fading fast

No dawn or dusk

Nor future nor past

 

No indifference

No unbelief, scorn

Nobody dies

And no one is born

No hypocrites

and no debate

When we pass through

That Final Gate

   

Then,

Heaven or hell

Is all there will be

In the home of the soul;

Eternity

© Janet Martin 

 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. Rev. 20:11

Found...Wanting

Poetics Aside Prompt; Scary

The banquet is ready

Earth is consumed with a cry

'Behold, He cometh'

The Bridegroom shatters the sky

Fire and wind

Is hurled, unfurled

Ah, yes! This is it…

…the end of the world

Those washed in His blood
Rise to meet Him in the air
Oh my God, oh my God
Why didn't I prepare?

Up on the hill

The ark of safety sits but

Its grace has ended

And the door is shut

All we can hear

Is the toll of a bell

And wailing and weeping

As the gates open to

Hell

© Janet Martin 

 For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

@ 2 Cor. 6:2

Of Grace, Hope and Truth

God’s truth is not annulled though centuries

Of sun and rain, of toil and spoil pass by

Though mortal passions rise; like summer’s breeze

Soon they are gone; to sleep beneath earth’s sky

An acorn struggles to its pinnacle

Time is the master of its little jot

The mighty oak tree, nature’s miracle

Crumbles to dust again and all is naught

But heaven’s truth; eternal and secure

Though generations pass; it shall endure

***

What is man’s hope beyond earth’s sullen grave?

What is the measure of moments that slip?

Earth’s transient gold and silver cannot save

Their worth is but a crumb upon the lip

God is not mocked; what He has said will be

And demons tremble at His Holiness

His sacred passion spans eternity

A fool despises Truth and Righteousness

His grace abides; we hope beyond life’s loss

Time cannot void the power of the Cross

***

Did heaven’s Darling die to save but few?

What is the hope sustaining mortal breath?

I could not breathe one joy, but for this Truth

His Grace will be enough in life and death

Failure would be man’s single Surety

But for a perfect Lamb to satisfy

The Love of He who died to set us free

And there are none who do not qualify

He died for sinners; sinners all are we

Time does not change this Truth that sets us free

***

His love is not a ball-and-chain duress

He does not bind us; no one is His slave

But servants we, in humble gratefulness

Choose to believe; His blood alone can save

Us from eternal hell; our just reward

But Perfect love beheld our hopeless dread

In Love’s compassion Jesus Christ the Lord

Offered Himself to die in our stead

In Him alone we know that we can face

Both life and death; for we are saved by grace

***

Eternity; a vast uncharted sea

Not marked by moments or hours or years

A day, a thousand years; how can it be

That they are equal where Time disappears?

This life is but a vapor on the wind

Soon we will bow the knee before His throne

As every earthly boast is left behind

Each man will meet his Maker one on one

And only we will answer for our Choice

Did we say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to Heaven’s Voice?

***

Three-score-years and ten or perhaps four

This is the span of man’s mortality

Dare we to turn our backs; coldly ignore

The Voice of He who died to set us free?

The fool says in His heart ‘there is no God’

Pity the one who chooses evil’s lie

Though ‘dust to dust’ claims flesh back to the sod

The soul within will not and cannot die

To all who accept His truth and believe

To them, eternal life they shall receive

***

Will we spurn hope’s lone Truth; challenge or laugh

At Love; and coldly spit against His face?

While mercy’s offering pleads on our behalf

And Love expands Time’s gasp and thus His grace

Will we in blind indifference ignore

The Call of He who paid our debt of guilt?

Will we despise His knocking on our door

And seal our fate; regardless of Blood spilt?

Oh, who can bear His Wrath when grace shall cease?

Or who can fathom Heaven’s sweet release?

 © Janet Martin

A Trolaan- Hell on Earth

They pose, like crudely painted Barbie dolls

Twilight is a silent cue

The street becomes a tainted shopping mall

That broad daylight hides from view

Hell begins for some before death’s kind grace

Hope, a wretched mockery

Here crawls the lowest form of human race

Hate feeding lust’s misery

Evil steals the child’s right to innocence

Eyes mirror desperate need

Employers trade young lives for petty cents

Enslaved to dead gods of greed

Veiled propriety rises with the dawn

Visage feigns blind ignorance

Violence wears a suit and carries on

Victims seek cocaine deliverance

© Janet Martin

 Poetic Blooming asks us to write a Trolaan.

Trolaan was created by Valerie Peterson Brown, and is a poem consisting of 4 quatrains. Each line of the quatrain begins with the same letter. The rhyme scheme is abab.
Starting with the second stanza you use the second letter of the first line of the first stanza to write the second; each line beginning with that letter.
On the third stanza you will use the second letter on the first line of the second stanza and write the third each line beginning with that letter.
On the fourth stanza you will use the second letter on the first line of the third stanza and write the fourth each line beginning with that letter.

Why this subject?...it exists...under our noses!

My daughters helped a street mission one week-end. Their horror stories are unforgettable. This is one that happens every night. As our youth were introduced to the streets the mission-worker told them what is about to transpire under the cover of darkness.
 

Whispers of Hell

When fiendish winds crackle

And seep through the walls

When anger, resentment

Hang like smoke in the halls

When kindness and patience

Have been snuffed by the flame

Of cold self-indulgence

Indifference and blame
When silence replaces
The echo of laughter
And jealousy graces
The once love-lit rafter

When all that is given

From our gracious Lord

As a foretaste of Heaven

Is crassly ignored

When prayer is neglected

And His Word as well

Then glimpses of Heaven

Become whispers of Hell

© Janet Martin

We all have bad days, but God forbid they out-number the good...

and God forbid we should seek hope without Him~

 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”Joshua 24:15

Of Things Temporal

Soon, my dear all of this will be nothing more than a memory

Both joy and sorrow are pebbles which rouse a ripple upon life’s sea

The hunger of longing; the sigh of contentment, both are a temporal lot

And only last a little moment before they are soon forgot

Darling, the wanting and missing of you will pass as the sigh of the wind

Even the holding and kissing of you can't satisfy the void in my mind

Mankind will never be able to fill the places intended for God

We cannot have true fulfillment until we sleep beneath the sod

The wind may rouse the waves on the sea but the deeps remain untouched

You may ignite a fire in me, but you will never be enough

Hope and fire and water and wind are earth’s greatest forces that be

Yet simply a brief foreshadowing of the things of eternity

Heaven and hell leave little glimpses upon this broken sod

But we know full well that all things immortal rest in the hands of God

Both joy and sorrow on this earth are fleeting; where one is the other waits

How sweet to know perfection is waiting for His own beyond Heaven’s gates

Janet~