Phoenix of Redemption

Do you ever marvel, (considering our track-record)

at the mercy that draws Redemption's phoenix of morning

from the dust and ash of Yesterday...

I began this poem yesterday morning before the sweetest 

summer solstice drew me into its eager embrace

and even though it was the longest day of the year, poof!

even though we lingered, while Gaze clung to day's glorious, fading fringes,

 Night fell

Some summer-solstice 'Shadows'/inspirations for this poem...

(my daughter is tending some chickens this week while their owners are away💖)

After the night the shadow hall of dawn unfurls anew

A runway for the beck and call of love and work to do

Into the arc of thinning dark the songbird’s greeting trills

To cheer us on as we embark upon mercy’s refills

After the night the color-world of dawn-to-dusk unfolds

Like laughter, morning is unfurled in blues, blush, greens and golds

Tranquility of slumber sheds its plush cloak; duty hails

To draw a world of sleepyheads toward beckoning trails

After the night like bright-eyed tots, time smiles, fretting forgot

The loveliness of re-Beginning exiles morbid thought

The wing that lowered over half the earth, speckled with stars

Is lifted, Mercy clucks; birth’s brood runs rampant o’er death’s bars

After the night the lust for life rekindles wilted joy

Trust is a well-rested housewife, and hope a whistling boy

How darling is the duty that waits to employ the hand

How virginal the beauty as daybreak unveils the land

Before fallible feet dash into meads where passions plead

Let’s fold our hands and bow our heads and pray the Lord to lead

Let's marvel where the phoenix of Redemption beams so bright

Let's praise the God of grace and love for Day, after the night

© Janet Martin

Grand-daughter wearing a dress I sewed for her mommy many years ago😊

Phil.4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always. 

I will say it again: 

Rejoice! 

5Let your gentleness be evident to all. 

The Lord is near. 

6Do not be anxious about anything, 

but in every situation, by prayer and petition, 

with thanksgiving, 

present your requests to God. 

7And the peace of God, 

which transcends all understanding,

 will guard your hearts and your minds 

in Christ Jesus.

What Gentle Joy God Sendeth...

Blessed be the Lord,

Who daily loads us with benefits,

The God of our salvation!

Selah

20 Our God is the God of salvation;

And to God the Lord belong escapes from death.

Psalm 68:19-20

So much sorrow, beyond our grasp of reason

but our God is the God of salvation!

To His loving kindness we cling!

Surely, His goodness and mercy will follow us

all the days of our lives!

 (Psalm 23:6)

Sometimes our hearts break with our own sorrows.

Often our hearts hurt for another's hurt!

We have in common One who loves us all!

From one deeply hurting this week returned this meek reply.

'we want to trust that God can provide what is needed'

Amen and hallelujah

I Can hear My Saviour Calling...

 

Be Thou My Vision

What gentle joy God sendeth

No step He does not see

On all the way that wendeth

To the soul’s destiny

No tear He does not tally

No storm He cannot still

No God-forsaken valley

No God-forsaken hill

No prayer He does not reckon

Where disappointments try

Where want and worry beckon

He whispers ‘here am I’

No gain He has not granted

No loss He has not known

No seed, when it is planted

He does not see is sown

No hurt He has not suffered

No matter what we face

The blows of life are buffered

With His sufficient grace

No temptation’s vice greater

No trickery too sly

To confound the Creator

Of earth and sea and sky

What gentle joy God sendeth

Where mercy’s fathoms brim

To cheer the way that wendeth

From this world back to Him

© Janet Martin

May Morning Melody

Psalm 62:5-8

Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

my hope comes from him.

6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

7 My salvation and my honor depend on God[c];

he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

8 Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our refuge.

Earth's table trembles 

with glimmers

of May's magical 

bloom-buffet...

With love’s mercies kindly given

And love’s mercies still to come

Pray we may be humbly driven

To He who our help/hope is from

We will never be forsaken

By the One who grants life’s worth

By He whose pure whispers waken

Nature’s plumes to clothe the earth

While time’s bubble full of trouble

Groans with mortal’s menial woe

Midst its mayhem and its rubble

By the grace of God we go

By the grace that authors flowers

By the grace that hears our plea

What a wondrous grace is ours

Grace that sets death’s captive free

In spite of calloused rejection

And the naïve wants we prize

Grace bends earth with birth’s redemption

And the darkness with sunrise

Threads the loom of breathless bowers

With summer’s glad symphonies

Hark! The limb grace strummed with showers

Bursts into a hymn of leaves

Bursts into a newborn garden

Bursts into first green and gold

Bursts into the perfect pardon

Of spring after winter’s cold

With such mercies kindly given

And such mercies still to come

Pray we may be humbly driven

To He who our help/hope is from

© Janet Martin

Psalm 121:1-2

...where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

Already Overflowing

But the fruit of the Spirit is 

love, joy, peace, 

forbearance, kindness, goodness, 

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

Against such things there is no law.

Gal.5:22-23

Whether ambassadors for Christ or not,

we all prefer being treated with

and surrounded by the fruits of the Spirit

named above,

rather than its opposing counterparts;

hate, misery, worry/war,

impatience, hardness, corruption

disloyalty/dishonesty, violence and rashness

When we view life in light of all the Lord

offers, provides and has provided

our hearts can't help but overflow with humble gratitude

for his everlasting love and faithfulness!

(Sometimes these poems are written to re-remind

my own floundering, susceptible-to-fear faith,

 of God's goodness

so I keep my eyes fixed on a Prize

 beyond all comprehension

and my heart overflowing with worship rather than worry!

Ps.45:1 NKJV

My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a [c]ready writer.

Already overflowing, though cares of life persist

We serve a God all-knowing who sees through morrow’s mist

This constant consolation with His redeeming grace

Attends the restoration where dread could take hope’s place

Through Mercy’s kind bestowing, the heart becomes a sea

Of wonder overflowing shores of eternity

He within us is greater; thus, the heart overflows

To know that our Creator, no power overthrows

No army can defeat Him, no threat can thwart His plan

Therefore, we ought to fear Him rather than schemes of man

And cling with grateful knowing to He who loves us so

His goodness overflowing this world of want and woe

Let us reason together; if God is for us then

His mercy is the tether His kindness metes; amen

His riches are exceeding; how sweet the Spirit’s fruit

(Earth’s storehouses are fleeting; corruption taints its loot)

Sin’s debt paid; nothing owing! The heart is rent with hymns

Already overflowing where thankful worship brims

Already overflowing; the glory of His grace

Like heaven’s halo glowing through tears God’s fingers trace

Where we are undergoing the growing pains of trust

While mercy is bestowing breath-by-breath dust-to-dust

Until, with nothing owing the heart becomes the soul

Already overflowing with faith at last made whole

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.5:20

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, 

as though God were pleading through us: 

we implore you on Christ’s behalf, 

be reconciled to God.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing 

Call To Dance

Writer's Digest poem-a-day (PAD) Challenge Day 2;

For today's prompt, write a second chance poem.

A ballroom, misty blue and gold dangles from waning moon

A sense of more than 'growing old' unfolds from night's cocoon

 The heavens, like a butterfly, spreads ethereal wings

 Hope's magnum opus fills the sky; creation sings and sings

For, to a track record of stumbles comes a call to dance 

 As from the Hand of mercy tumbles mortal's second chance

Upon its maiden voyage, morning's gleaming barge embarks

Laden with leaps of courage and the heralding of larks

Desire drives the dreamer wild with bud-bejeweled sweeps

Where quiet poet is beguiled to dredge ink-fueled deeps

And never waste the wonder that deserves more than mere glance

As boundless heavens thunder, soundless, with love's second chance

Janet~

Lam.3:22-23

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

A Picture of Perfection

February debuted in a blaze of glory!

 A picture of perfection is a morning, mercy-kissed...

Across the seam where earth and heavens fuse new day is drawn

Conflagration of blush and blues crescendo; it is dawn

The brunt of Being braces for fresh graces, soon the art

Of gossamer-like faces pressed to windows of the heart

A glamorous delight is kindled on yon hearth of pink

First rush of silence mingles with brushes and wells of ink

So, we delay the pressures of love’s dawn to dusky gait

Worship partakes of pleasures only God can orchestrate

A little like a flower breaks the bud once hard and cold

The trembling of an hour wakens petals that unfold

In sight and scent profusion like sweet honeysuckle mist

A picture of perfection is a morning, mercy-kissed

A little like an arbor spangled with hope’s purest wines

Like lower heights entangled in tendrils from Heaven-vines

Today tumbles in fairness, not from some strange far-off place

But, (oh, humbling awareness) from the garden of God’s grace

© Janet Martin

Thankful to be feeling, not best, but much better!

Thank-you everyone who expressed concern💗

Psalm 36:5
Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; 

and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

Lam.3:40-41

Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.

Save Pray...

 

From those who mourn for loved ones called from this world to the next,

(So, so many) 

to those who have lost or not found The Way in this world

(so, so many)

sorrow-storms roll, and what can we do

where no one can restore loved ones departed,

 or force repentance, 

or faith in God 

or love for Him?!

 Ah, yes. We can pray!

(for faith and love's increase in all of us)

It's been a little while since I shared

one of my most beloved hymns

Sweet Hour of Prayer

(lyrics in above link)

Sweet Hour of Prayer

What we can do nothing about (save pray) we ought to then

Rather than shake our fists and shout and berate fellowmen

Rather than fret and forget who (when we pray) hears us plead

The first thing that we ought to do is trust God with our need

Prayer is more than religious sport or platitude-regale

More than a sorry last resort, when all our efforts fail

Prayer is faith’s tender fellowship, as man to God confides

Where through His Word God will equip us for what life betides

Sweet hour of prayer, God meets us there; He comforts and sustains

He bids us leave our burdens where surrender rends dark chains

He stretches out His arms and draws us close; Love never fails

His whisper calms the storm that was, as ‘peace, be still’ prevails

What we can do nothing about (save pray) ah, pray we would

Rather than yield to dismal doubt while God works for our good

God, who is rich in mercy hears the humble heart’s request

And through our dialogue of tears, He works for our best

God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love for us

While we were dead in sin, He made us alive through Jesus

Thus, now no matter what we face His kindness can afford

Exceeding riches of His grace through Jesus Christ, our Lord

What we can do nothing about (save pray) where evil lurks

We ought to then; faith without prayer is like faith without works

With meek and contrite attitude, then pray and do not cease

Until hope's cup of gratitude flows over with God’s peace

© Janet Martin

The past two Sunday morning messages 

were focused on one of my most beloved passages of Scripture;

 Ephesians 2

Many are the times I whisper the sweet treasure of the beginning of verse 4:

But God, who is rich in mercy,

because of His great love with which He loved us,

5 even when we were dead in trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ

(by grace you have been saved),

6 and raised us up together,

and made us sit together

in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 that in the ages to come He might show

the exceeding riches of His grace

in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Worship Renewed (With Gratitude)

Life felt a bit heavy when I first got up this morning...

Doom and gloom headlines can steal the bloom of joy

just like that...

Better to lift our cup up the the One who overflows skylines

and timelines with everlasting wonder and/of love...

'Ah, see the world dew-pendant pearled, where daybreak steals the show'...

It is not hard on a morning like this

to 'Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; '

and to 'give thanks to him and praise his name.'

Psalm 100:4

Do not give up; but lift life’s cup of learning to thy lips

Trust in the Hand that pours time’s sand through scars to fingertips

Who breathes upon the dark of dawn until it disappears

Who stokes the reed of soul and seed with Mercy’s smiles and tears

Count not for naught the noble thought that sparks the kindly deed

Revere the care that stirs the prayer that groans from frames of need

And lean on he who drapes the lea with silver scarves of mist

Who stuns our gaze with wonder’s ways though hurts and griefs persist

Aha, the bell twixt heav’n and hell tolls with mercy renewed

And fills the earth with living’s Worth that births meek gratitude

And heaps Hope’s trays that leap with praise that snuffs the foolish plea

Till all we truly covet is more love, My God for thee

Ah, see the world dew-pendant pearled, where daybreak steals the show

And bends the commonplace with grace as skylines overflow

From fathoms of goodness and love dawn throbs with ‘I AM He

Who fills thy cup that you lift up with My sufficiency

© Janet Martin

I was going to share only verse nine from Psalms 96

until I read the whole chapter and wanted you to have the pleasure too!!

Psalm 96

Sing to the LORD a new song;

sing to the LORD, all the earth.

2Sing to the LORD, bless His name;

proclaim His salvation day after day.

3Declare His glory among the nations,

His wonderful deeds among all peoples.

4For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;

He is to be feared above all gods.

5For all the gods of the nations are idols,

but it is the LORD who made the heavens.

6Splendor and majesty are before Him;

strength and beauty fill His sanctuary.

7Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the nations,

ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

8Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name;

bring an offering and enter His courts.

9Worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness;

tremble before Him, all the earth.

10Declare among the nations: “The LORD reigns!”

The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved;

He will judge the peoples with equity.

11Let the heavens be glad

and the earth rejoice;

let the sea resound,

and all that fills it.

12Let the fields exult,

and all that is in them.

Then all the trees of the forest

will sing for joy 13before the LORD,

for He is coming—

He is coming to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness

and the peoples in His faithfulness.

Let the fields exult...

From Rent Reservoirs

Beauty and duty distractions kept me from my keyboard this morning...

but not from worship!

Surely the hour is an altar awaiting our sacrifice of praise!

Not difficult on a morning like today!

(I linked to the word brigantine in the poem

because grand-sonny wondered why grandma was looking at boat pictures)😊

He arrived while I was working on the first stanza

which is why my morning poem became an afternoon poem

...with a message that is wonder-full any time of day or night!

Once again, like yesterday, the sunrise was like listening to an orchestra...

From mercy’s boundless reservoir new morning meets its mark

On daybreak’s brigantine once more passengers reembark

Who knows what waits where welkin gates are grandly flung ajar

Where, only when time’s tide abates will we have won faith’s war

Heavens unfold the glory of love’s kind mercy renewed

Where we behold but fringes of unfathomed magnitude

Praise He who cups earth’s marbled globe in absolute control

And as we touch the hemline of His robe, He makes us whole

The train of the king’s glory fills the temple of the earth

Then tell the old, old, story of the Saviour’s lowly birth

Of how he left Perfection mankind’s sin-debt to atone

How, with His resurrection death and hell were overthrown

…and how all who believe in Him receive the gift of grace

Eternal life; no sentence grim when death’s dark door we face

Then come what may, where mercy’s kind compassion is renewed

We face the day with peace of mind and humble gratitude

...for He who rends dark yonder with a glimpse of Majesty

Where hearts thunder with wonder at whispers of 'let there be'

As mercy breaks the bower of the bud with crimson rose

And from a reservoir of love, God's goodness overflows

© Janet Martin

After the sun rose it disappeared for a little while...

...only to reappear with a sky-wide smile!

Sorry for so many pics 

but trying to pick only a handful out of a couple hundred wow-some photos

is no small joy-task!

Psalms 50:2 - 

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, 

God hath shined.

Like a World-wide Barge

Isa.26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace,

Whose mind is stayed on You, 

Because he trusts in You

In case you missed a few of the previous posts, an update:

My brother Lewis and his wife are passing through some storms of life.

Their almost 15 yr. old daughter suffered extensive injuries

 in an accident on the weekend.

While they stayed with her, Lewis's wife's mom passed away 

last night after a battle with cancer!

My sister-in-law suffered the angst of a mother wanting to be with her daughter,

and of a daughter wanting to be with her mother!🙏💔

Tango of mango and merlot, cotton-candy pink

Draws a world of eyes toward dawn’s mercy-immersed brink

Where time's twirl, so full of troubles takes its tender toll

On the body (but the chariot of the deathless soul)

Often we are prone to cater to Self’s dying dust

Rather than our Creator in whom we may trust

He is faithful though we do not understand His ways

Never does He break a promise (this world oft betrays)

Yet we are prone to seek answers not found in His Word

Doubting His love-letters because acumen is blurred

He, who unfetters each morning, like a world-wide barge

Bearing on life’s sea of learning (His most precious charge)

Once again, we embark where uncharted highs and lows

Wait to test our ways of thinking with what grace bestows

As tangos of mango, merlot, cotton candy pink

Fade, never the Giver’s love (no matter what we think)

© Janet Martin

His Love Cannot Fail

A Morning/Today Mantra

Sometimes it easy to drag yesterday's baggage into New-day/Today!

Sometimes it hard to cast all our care upon Him, 

for He cares for you/us...1 Peter 5:7

and leave them there!

And proceed with renewed ambition in what... 

He has shown you/us, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you/us?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your/our God.

Micah 6:8

Dawn’s door, once more has swung ajar

Eyes turn toward the east

Where mercy spreads on welkin bar

A lavish beauty-feast

And bids the sojourner of care

To trust the Artist of the air

Soon pink ink pales, gold fringes fade

Blue heavens crown the world

As this new day the Lord has made

Is furthermore unfurled

Where His hand cups each stepping stone

Poised on the crux of The Unknown

Then, pray we cast our cares on He

Who cares for one and all

May we with renewed fervency

Proceed and heed His call

To act justly with loving laud

And to walk humbly with our God

© Janet Martin

Well, it's off to the races graces once more!

Last night's finish-line, 

midst much background action-attraction-distraction-music...

...boasted fresh applesauce, finally!

On my need-to-do list all week!