This Is Personal (No Matter Who We Are)

 No matter who we are His gift/gifts are free...

No matter who we are or where; How smart or philosophical

Or poor in what the world deems rich or true or intellectual

The common ground we share is found not in survival’s rigmarole

But in the Bible-truth by He who breathed in man a living soul

Whether we are a super-star or obscure as a grain of sand

Or activist or pacifist or fist tight-clenched or outstretched hand

We all must choose who we will serve before that final Door we brave

Because we cannot thwart the One who will escort us through the grave

The Ultimate for all of us resides beyond what we can prove

The Evidence of faith must first put on The Greatest of These; love

For who of us can boast save in what grace of God alone allowed

Therefore no matter who we are, we all stand out in Mercy’s crowd

Where God so loved the world He sent His only Son to pay sins debt

No one is righteous save through Him and only Him (lest we forget)

Foolish to bicker or quibble where Opinion may disagree

Better to pray and guard that which outlives this brief mortality

…because no matter who we are we all will stand before the Lord

To give account; no one left out, He gives both rich and poor His Word

Where Truth is universal; no one the exception to the rule

His law is love, his judgments pure, His commands grievous to the fool

My dear, the common ground we share lies beyond time’s four-season sieve

Naked we came into this world and naked everyone will leave

For flesh and blood cannot inherit that which faith in Christ reserves

When then, no matter who we are, our Soul receives what Choice deserves

© Janet Martin

 

1 Peter 1:3-5

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope

 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,

 reserved in heaven for you, 

who through faith are shielded by God’s power 

for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

This Mortality

My, my, but mortal is master of disaster,

when lured by lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and pride of life!

 (For everything in the world--the lust of the flesh, 

the lust of the eyes, 

and the pride of life--

comes not from the Father 

but from the world.)

1 John 2:16 

It heaves upon the crest of earth in birth and death-wrought spree

It laughs and grieves abreast the breadth of immortality

As Time set in four-season spans twirls like a carousel

And man embarks and exits ‘neath the tolling of its bell

Where we prove, as we learn to love, the nature of the beast

Where deathless soul instills the glove upon which moments feast

And none of us can circumvent the Hour that must be

When we are called to shed the tent of This Mortality

It boasts; oh God forgive us when we forget Mercy’s girt

As we dare to puff out our chests and strut our stuff of dirt

As we forget to smote our breasts and cry out, ‘what is man’

As we ignore the Author and Finisher of our ‘can’

As we make wealth an idol rather than worship’s employ

As we take without uttering one phrase of praise or joy

Where grace is always greater than This Mortality’s mess

And God is always faithful to forgive if we confess

Each travels through this world but once toward a binding goal

When This Mortality becomes the chariot of the soul

Where for now we must all partake of trust’s manifold tiers

As waves of hope and heartache surge and merge with days and years

While dreams are dashed and born anew and lashed by winds of change

And all of us are headed to what Last Gasp will estrange

As we enter that which remains life’s Greatest Mystery

When Mortal sheds its rags and puts on Immortality

© Janet Martin

 For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable

 and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: 

 “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”…

1 Cor.15:52-54

The Conclusion of the Matter is Love

 And by these, my son, be further warned: 

There is no end to the making of many books, 

and much study wearies the body.

 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this:  

Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment, 

along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.…

Eccles.12:12-14 

The rivalry twixt heart and head wars where the score is hid

And often none but God bears witness to the victory

Where what we want oft seem at odds with God’s less-tempting bid

For love does not persuade us with promise of luxury

Mankind’s covetous nature led Eve to believe a lie

And since The Fall in Eden evil wars with what is good

The heart, ah, who can know it; it is wicked. You and I

Without the love of God can never choose the things we should

The altar where we sacrifice what would entice the flesh

Is not a public show; only God knows the full amount

But He, when we are finished with want’s little skirmishes

Will be the One to Whom we all will bow and give account

Surrendering of Self is not easy; no, not a bit

Aha, love’s hard-wrought battles are fought with our thought, not hands

Where what the world disdains is but true love’s prerequisite

The whole duty of man; to fear God and keep his commands

© Janet Martin

By this we know that we love the children of God:

 when we love God and keep His commandments. 

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.

 And His commandments are not burdensome/grievous, 

because everyone born of God overcomes the world. 

And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.…

 

1 John 5:2-4

 Mark 7:21-22
For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

Let's Just Love

I don’t care 

about the color 

of your face

I just look 

for its smile

We’re all part 

of the same 

human race

Let’s walk side

 by side awhile

Let’s stop abusing, 

misusing, 

confusing

What we all 

never get enough of

Let’s stop hating, 

debating, 

berating

Let’s 

just love

© Janet Martin

In This Breathing Space of Grace...

There’s room

For love

and grief

and joy

and hurt

And greed

and grace,

And fuss

And hope

and ‘nope’

And smiles

and need

and improvement

In all of us

© Janet Martin

 “Therefore we do not lose heart.
Even though our outward man is perishing,
yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

2 Cor.4:16