Spoiled For Choice

Psalm 100:3

Know that the LORD is God.

 It is He who made us,

 and we are His; we are His people,

 and the sheep of His pasture.

Isaiah 64:8

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; 

we are the clay, and You are the potter;

 we are all the work of Your hand.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, 

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand

 that we should walk in them.

Once more a smorgasbord of choice is set before our hungry eyes

Our bellies roar and soon give voice to more than we may first surmise...

Two wedding showers this weekend to celebrate our daughter's marriage

allowed us to be spoiled for choice of yummy refreshment...

and allowed our daughter to be showered with gifts/aka love!

On any given day we are spoiled for choice as we gaze at Mercy's Feast!

Once more life’s workaday resumes its give and take of smiles and tears

Day breaks across a splay of tombs left in the wake of Yesteryears

What was is gone; what waits to be, veiled by breath-sheer breadth of What Is,

The gaping yon of history shaped by Now-and-here’s That and This

Once more we meet God-granted morn and touch feet to tarmacs of grace

The heart, oft sweetly-softly torn twixt shiny, new and fond embrace

But no one can afford to waste Gift of Today in vain lament

While untried hordes of touch-and-taste soon slip away to Season spent

Once more a smorgasbord of choice is set before our hungry eyes

Our bellies roar and soon give voice to more than we may first surmise

Each soul approaches Mercy’s feast, with gratitude or thoughtless greed

For Want exposes man or beast in replies strewed, oft without heed

Once more we face what waits to be where He who grants life never fails

He sustains grace; His Constancy not by wild chance where love prevails

No matter what today may bring, fear not what lurks 'neath its façade

For we are not fortune’s play-thing; we are the workmanship of God

Once more we hold in hands and heart, Time's gift we too oft barely scan

Holy the gold, moments impart; holy the woo of God to man

Once more, Lord, we are spoiled for choice as at Mercy's buffet we gaze

Then thankfully lift our voice in melodies of humble/heartfelt praise  

Janet Martin

Spending time with extended family on both sides reminded me again

what a beautiful thing family is, and how dearly I love them all!

A glimpse of how God loves us infinitely more than we can

possibly imagine and showers us with gifts!

Sisters...💕💖💗

Wooed By Proof (of Mercy's Bide)

Today marks the sober anniversary of the great tragedy, often referred to as 9/11.

If we truly remember, Lord, 

help us to be a vital part of Your goodness and love in this world,

to shine your Light rather than join the noise and darkness of hate!

Ps.139:5

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

Day breaks; a gold, incoming tide, rolling across the countryside...

Day breaks; a gold, incoming tide, rolling across the countryside

Each dell and vale, an earthen bowl brimming and dimming night’s charcoal

Tableau; beauty’s banner unfurled, washes across a waking world

Bedazzling lawned and meadowed bars with wave on wave of silver stars

Rousing us from slumber’s repose to wade through streams where mercy flows

Unhindered and unruffled by mortal’s often-thankless reply

But on the threshold of Today/new-day, behooves us now, to pause and pray

Awed by God’s faithful custody of galaxies and you and me

This is the day the Lord has made, not to be anxious and afraid

But with confidence in His will, proceed, His purpose to fulfill

Rather than adding to the noise that lack of loving Him employs

Then, wooed by proof of Mercy’s Bide, sense Him in dawn’s incoming tide

...where so much more than we can see instills morn's regularity

God walks upon dawn's teeming tide, goodness and mercy, bona fide

Then let unbelief's lion's roar; He hems us in, behind, before

And lays his Invisible Hand upon all who trust His command

Janet Martin

Ps.118:1&8, 15-17, 21-24

(Read the whole awesome chapter HERE)

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever....

It is better to trust in the Lord

Than to put confidence in man.

The voice of rejoicing and salvation

Is in the tents of the righteous;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

The right hand of the Lord is exalted;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

I shall not die, but live,

And declare the works of the Lord.

I will praise You,

For You have answered me,

And have become my salvation.

 The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

 [c]This was the Lord’s doing;

It is marvelous in our eyes.

 This is the day the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Ps.56:3-4

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in You.

In God, whose word I praise—

in God I trust.

I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

Hope's-Hearty-Hello-Hails-Hymn

Ps.116:5

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;

yea, our God is merciful.

Ps.117

O praise the Lord, all ye nations: 

praise him, all ye people.

 For his merciful kindness is great toward us:

and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.

 Praise ye the Lord.

Ps.118:4

Let them now that fear the Lord say,

that his mercy endureth for ever.

Ps.119:49

Remember the word unto thy servant,

 upon which thou hast caused me to hope.

Hope's hearty hello hails

Fresco of moon and star

Dissolves...

Hope's hearty hello hails

Fresco of moon and star

Dissolves. The Hand that never fails

Draws daybreak's gates ajar

Today's teeming tide rolls

Across the sea and land

It rushes through our hearts and souls

Beneath mercy's command

...where poised Unknowns run rife

With life and death, and God

The age-old feet of trouble's strife

Are hope and mercy shod 

Hope and mercy endure

Transcending mortal woe

All who fear God, He holds secure

As praises overflow

...where joy and sorrow wings

Earthward with virgin zeal

Hark! from yon Heaven's belfry rings 

Hope and mercy's appeal

Thus we do not despair

No matter what appears

To rule the powers of the air

God's prevailing love/Word cheers

...and courage is renewed

Hope's anchor, though unseen

Rekindles hymns of gratitude

Where mercies intervene 

Janet Martin

Thank God, Because His Mercy Is Renewed (every morning)

Lam.3:21-23&25

Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness...

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him;

Imagine if, for one morning 

God did not renew His mercy and compassion,

and man was left to fend for himself!

All would fail, for all we have is from God;

all light, all love and all life

come from and belong to Him!

Rom.11:36

For of Him and through Him

 and to Him are all things,

to whom be glory forever. 

Amen.

Behold! Morning is breaking; mercy is renewed again

Thank God for all He orchestrates beyond our wildest ken...

What holy reason to proceed, anoints each step toward

What waits to be, (ultimately the glory/return of the Lord)

Behold! Morning is breaking; mercy is renewed again

Thank God for all He orchestrates beyond our wildest ken

What wealth at our disposal waits, beneath visual façade

We are so prone to trusting what we see, rather than God

Where to the eye, it may appear we are sky-worlds apart

Thank God for all He does to draw us nearer to His heart

In spite of all the times we do the Thing we should not do

Our Father in Heaven loves His children through and through

And delights to surprise us with gifts of goodness and grace

Thank God for all He gives to grant us glimpses of His face

When we repent, and put our hope and trust in Him, what peace

In a world where trouble abounds and wars and cares increase

His faithfulness sustains our faith no matter how we feel

Thank God for all He holds and nothing in this world can steal

Human nature oft overlooks and undermines The Best

Forgetting to do our part then leave to God the rest

But look! Morning is breaking; mercy is renewed again

Thank God for all that He forgives and then forgets. Amen

What holy reason to proceed, anoints each step today

What love at our disposal cheers us onward, come what may

What purpose and what power spurs and stirs our gratitude

Thank God for all He does because His mercy is renewed

Janet Martin

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Mercy's Manifestation

1 John 4:9-10

This is how God’s love was revealed among us: 

God sent His one and only Son into the world,

 ...so that we might live through Him. 

 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us 

and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

***

An angel gilds earth's sashes and lintels with gold-glazed white

She stokes yesterday's ashes coaxing from cold hearths, daylight...

An angel gilds earth's sashes and lintels with gold-glazed white

She stokes yesterday's ashes coaxing from cold hearths, daylight

Its Source no Else-force swindles; redemption rolls like a sea

From the Hand that rekindles virgin opportunity

This world, where woe and wonder war, where hope and heartache merge

Where Much is inclined to want More, is balanced on the verge

Of what sight perceives, but in part; Faith's dark glass cast between

The passages we learn by heart, and pastures, Heaven-green 

Each morning Bygone's bower bends with what yet waits to be

Mercy's manifestation rends the veil of history

With blessing beyond mortal ken, as traffic of clad souls

Rushes dawn's showcase once again with sacred 'fishing-poles'

Behold the banner of God's grace, each new day testifies 

Behold what manner of great love erases darkened skies 

Behold, divine delight unfurled from Favour's faithful Hand

An angel's wing wakens the world and morning sweeps the land

Janet Martin 

Lam.3:21-26

21 This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I hope in Him!”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,

To the soul who seeks Him.

26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly

For the salvation of the Lord.

Star of the East

A few more gems from Slim Whitman...

There's a Song in the Air

Long Ago there Was Born...

With Every Beaming Break of Day

'I believe it is very important for people to appreciate each other'

 -my Dad's thoughtful reply

to my 'I appreciate you more the older I grow' 🙏💓

As break of a new day dazzles creation

 I am so thankful for the gift of fresh opportunity

to forget past failures and regrets and press on...

Pressing on toward the Goal...

Phil.3:12-14

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect,

but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

14I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

Behold love, gold and silvered lined

Transcends the bars of yester-rue

With goodness and mercy, brand-new...

With every beaming break of day

For all that Bygone holds at bay

Of opportunity declined

Behold love, gold and silvered lined

Transcends the bars of yester-rue

With goodness and mercy, brand-new

With every gleaming gift of grace

In spite of what none can erase

God, rich in mercy meets us where

We all have darling, equal share

To take this day He made to fit

Faith’s freedom to be glad in it

With every teeming morning-tide

Rife with renewed mercies untried

To cheer the common ground, we trod

Of moments leading back to God

He overflows the part we see

With virgin opportunity

….to love Him and each other more

And to be truly thankful for

His favours, as He bids us trust

Goodness that baffles mortal dust

And kindly cheers us on our way

With every beaming break of day

With every beaming break of day

Oh, may we never cease to pray

For many sorrowing and sick

For courage, as we face the thick

Of unknowns waiting to unfold

Linings of gray, silver and gold 

Janet Martin

I am SO thankful I didn't know yesterday morning

that love would challenge me (in the form of a girl

who used to be in my childcare) to ple-e-e-eae hold her pet...RAT!!! 

'He's so cute and he doesn't scratch or bite' 😭

I was NOT as calm as the photos may seem to suggest!!! 

P.S. I agreed to do it only after they agreed to take a picture

as living proof that I did indeed

HOLD A RAT!!! 😆

Morning Hymn

Lyrics: 1. O, how lovely is the morning, when it is begun with God; Joy and thanks our hearts adorning, as behooves a child of God, Waking after night so fair in the Maker’s gentle care, Rising without grief or sorrow to a new and joyful morrow. 2. Let our eyes be raised to heaven where the sun is shining bright, And on hill and dale and meadow is dispensing life and light; But far more than sun in space beams the Saviour’s kindly face; Truth and kindness, peaceful nearness shine out in eternal clearness. 3. Even as the springtime flowers grow beneath the sun’s warm rays, So the Lord by His own powers makes us garlands for His praise; He invites most lovingly: Little children, come to Me! All should truly know Him ever, call Him Brother, Lord, and Saviour! 4. This day also He will guide us, in our work His help provide, And on wisdom’s ways He’ll lead us, standing ever by our side, That on this whole blessed day no mishap can come our way; And that under His rich blessing night will find us sweetly resting. 5. Through His grace made sweet and easy, we’ll His teachings understand, When he on the path of duty gently leads us by the hand. O, how blest the child that may in His grace begin the day, Whose desire and wish is wholly by His love to be made holy. ​ 6. Come then, Lord of life eternal, step into our midst, we pray; Help that we may not be merely hearers of Thy Word today. To our teacher, O, be near; bless the children gathered here; May we thrive in fullest measure, and Thy heart in us find pleasure!

For Each Today, Fresh Made...

'Put sprinkles on mine so I will be really happy'

ordered/requested an eager, innocent three-year-old recently

as he watched me scoop, wishing the ice-cream was blue, 

like the picture on the cone-box.

(is that how we sound to God sometimes??

Asking for sprinkles while he is scooping generous

helpings of ice-cream?!)

Stand in awe and sin not.

Ps.4:4

This morning I had all but the final two lines down in today's poem

before Duty prevailed...

Sausage to can...

Grand-kiddo helpers to pick peas...

Mercy, in tender splendor sets the wick of morn ablaze

For we, time's fortune-spenders in a sequence of todays...

Mercy, in tender splendor sets the wick of morn ablaze

For we, time's fortune-spenders in a sequence of todays

Where ups and downs, bound to perplex the architect of dreams

Wait, once again to test and vex and prove what love esteems

Creation's constant glory seals the evidence of God

Wonder, like holy thunders peals in each soul, humbly awed 

While laughter and tears ebb and flow, while sorrow-billows swell 

*Where holding turns to letting go and hello to farewell 

Let us reason together the Duty of you and me

To kind and humbly weather both beauty and misery

Not on our own but by the grace of God, who made all things

His steadfast Presence helps us face whatever today brings 

Mortal wish sometimes disagrees with purpose God-bestowed 

'An ice-cream cone with sprinkles please' is not a pleasure owed 

And all the 'sprinkles; in the world cannot compare, when weighed

With mercy's  faithfulness unfurled in each today fresh-made

Janet Martin

*Where holding turns to letting go and hello to farewell 

(the above lines inspired by the heart-wrenching tragedy of the Texas flood)

Tears and prayers flow...

To The Likes of Us

Each day is a little like a flower

that unfolds, blooms and fades, so fast!

A little like summer flowers, which

is why I am sharing another flower-garden meander today,

because this garden will not stay this way for long!

I like picturing God at daybreak,

with a watering can in his Hand

showering the earth with goodness and mercy!

Does that image fill you with

hope, joy and peace too?

Lowered to the likes of we

Through star-studded canopy

Rushing night’s dazzling veneer

Till its tea-lights disappear

God, so rich in mercy grants

A new day filled with fresh chance

To track records, vile and grim

As we disregarded Him

While we craved the fading fruits

Of this world’s grave-doomed pursuits

God so rich in love bestows

Daybreak, like a dew-kissed rose

Above our wayward bent

He unfolds a blush-gold tent

Grace affords to likes of we

Unmarred opportunity

Fills thoroughfares, still untrod

Lowered from the Hand of God

Thus, may the likes of us be

Thankful, with humility

Earth and sky thunders with Him

Where goodness and mercy brim

From God, patient, kind and true

To the likes of me and you

© Janet Martin

Isa.40:6-8

(read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

A voice says, “Cry out!”

And I asked, “What should I cry out?”

“All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like the flowers of the field.

7The grass withers and the flowers fall

when the breath of the LORD blows on them;

indeed, the people are grass.

8The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God stands forever.”e

Hope's Frame...

Good/Happy gorgeous, Friday May morning to you...

Across the eastward brink of earth, a sea of unplumbed moments tolls

Something about a new day’s birth wakens awareness in our souls

For He who sets before our gaze, Hope’s Frame filled with mercy renewed

To author a glad hymn of praise and unspeakable gratitude

Ahoy! The hours fleetly fly between daybreak and twilight’s knell

Soon their plumbed aftermath will lie like husks strewn where dusk’s shadows fell

Leaving behind the words and deeds we tossed like seeds along the way

A blend of fruit, flowers and weeds that will be threshed on That Great Day

…compelling us to pay close heed to track-records not finished yet

To study and ponder the seed that that we are so prone to forget

To regard with attentive care those who are following behind

And to be solemnly aware of sheaves we leave for them to bind

Across earth’s eastward brink a sea of unplumbed mercies bares God’s heart

His love for all humanity should bid us do our earnest part

To fill the Day that fleetly spans the distance between faith and sight

With love because His mercy fans the flame that fills hope’s frame with Light

© Janet Martin

Morning Has Broken

Eph.1:17-19 

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, 

may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, 

so that you may know him better. 

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order 

that you may know the hope to which he has called you, 

the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 

19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

today's poem was inspired in part by the passages above and below;

Does the phrase, 'God, who is rich in mercy'

not offer food for glorious meditation

as we wonder and ponder the riches of His 

great power and glory?!!

Eph.2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 

2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world

 and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, 

the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 

3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] 

and following its desires and thoughts. 

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—

it is by grace you have been saved. 

6 And God raised us up with Christ 

and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 

7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,

 expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Beneath a Rush of Rose and Gold

A glorious spring-like morning 

can't help but rouse a humble tip o' the poet's hat

to the Giver

Wishing/praying God's blessing of joy to you today!

(my extra-special joy comes today in the form

of two little girls who used to be in my childcare!)

Earth’s ridges reappear beneath a rush of rose and gold

Birds warble welcome-hymns of cheer where days to years run bold

From the hand of the Giver like a bud bursting with hope

Like a gleam-giddy river as the snow melts from the slope

Light eddies into nooks and crooks like ocean-surge run wild

It overflows the air like brooks, like laughter of a child

And suddenly, like lambs in spring, faith leaps with joy, reborn

Beneath the rush of mercy’s Wing, the night is turned to morn

© Janet Martin

Acts 17:24-31

The God who made the world and everything in it 

is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 

25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.

 Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 

26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; 

and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, 

though he is not far from any one of us. 

28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] 

As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, 

we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—

an image made by human design and skill. 

30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, 

but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 

31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. 

He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Morning (or Afternoon) Minuet

I needed to head out before I got this morning's post up...

Better late than never😅💗

I 'adopted' a bit of Anne of Green Gables' logic this morning

as I headed outdoors for my morning 'commune' with

my Heavenly Father...

In Ontario we are accustomed to white landscapes in February

making this year's gray-blue-bronze panoramas seem sort of surreal! 

The music of a new day starts to play upon the air

Earth emerges from beneath the soft surge of morning-tide

Where something like a greeting hymn and something like a prayer

Erases slumber’s eulogy from waking countryside

Hope’s precedence persuades us to face forward and look up

Where splendor of mercies renewed compels shadows to dim

And bids us by the grace of God, once more to hoist faith’s cup

And trust Him for whatever spills to overflow its brim

Then sing to Him, whose love anoints/appoints each virgin steppingstone 

And bow before the one whose perfect will, will lead the way

And worship He who shepherds us through valleys of Unknown 

And trust the Hand that orchestrates each moment of each day

The music of a new day crescendos and fills the sky 

A little like a lilting celestial serenade

Or like a welkin minuet that kindles love's reply

With raised voices, to rejoice in this day the Lord has made 

© Janet Martin

Psalm 5:3

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; 

In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.

Psalm 59:16
But I will sing of Your strength 

and proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning.

 For You are my fortress, 

my refuge in times of trouble.

I Will Wait For You

Lamentations 3:22-23

English Standard Version

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.