Monday (or any) Morning Resolution List

Let me listen so I hear

Mercy’s music in my ear...

This is the day the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it

Ps.118;24

Let me listen so I hear

Mercy’s music in my ear

Let me look so I may see

Unfurled opportunity

Let me touch so I may feel

The raw rush of awe’s appeal

Let me savour flavours of

So much still to learn and love

Ere dawn’s bloom of hope and hurt

Strews its flower/hour in the dirt

Ere the room that I am in

Sheds its plume of bone and skin

Ere the flare of gifted breath

Snuffs the wick of life with death

Ere as Time’s last gasp is spent

The veil round the soul is rent

Let me taste Now’s hasting sum

Let me waste no drop or crumb

Ere dusk’s shadow-steeples fade

From this day the Lord has made

Ere ‘have’ disappears to ‘had’

Let me rejoice and be glad

Ere too late I vainly rue

The gate no hand can undo

© Janet Martin

Hopefully today's moments will be veggie-soup flavored!

with this recipe...

For Modern Day Adams and Eves...

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more crafty

than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

And he said to the woman,

"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'"

2 Corinthians 11:3

I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning,

your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

Gilt-edged dawns and gold-ambience-dusks

 are two of my favorite September things...

a bit like glimpses of a long-lost garden called Eden.

This poem's potential began a few mornings ago, though I was unable to

wrangle it into verse at the time due to other commitments...

Day wakens, crisp and silver-glossed

Dew glistens, on the fringe of frost

September morning, a showcase

Of mist-sashes and gilt-edged grace

Where modern-day Adams and Eves

Are still prey for he who deceives

And all the progress of the age

Cannot temptation's lures assuage 

Where Eden’s aftermath abounds

With unrelenting battlegrounds

And only God’s armor can stay

The charmer’s cunning ploy and play

Of ‘Did God really say?’ and such

To test the quests of taste and touch

With subtle rebuttals of scorn

For He who metes September’s morn

And tumbles before our eyes

Gilt-edged glimpses of paradise

Where each new day is like a flue

God's goodness ad mercy runs through

© Janet Martin

Ps.23:6

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

***

Before we face each day we ought to do an equipment safety check

so we are fitted for battle because

'we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,'...

Eph.6:10-18

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

11 Put on the whole armor of God,

that you may be able to stand against the [b]wiles of the devil.

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,

against powers, against the rulers of [c]the darkness of this age,

against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God,

that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,

and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,

having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able

to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

17 And take the helmet of salvation,

and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,

being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

From The First Moment of Waking...

A phrase from the last paragraph of yesterday's devotion seemed to

say, 'pick me, pick me!!' for today's poem...so I did💖

...and because I SO identify with the battle addressed, 

I am sharing the whole devotion

so you may also be encouraged and edified

From My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers

From the first moment of waking

Till the light of day grows dim

May our ‘lifetime in the making’

Be a living worship hymn

As life’s lyrics fill time’s pages

Binding sacred numbered days

May the Author of the ages

Be the purpose of our praise

In the highs and lows of learning

(Something we never outgrow)

May the increase of our yearning

Be for God who loves us so

Then, as we embrace the beauty

Of mercy’s enduring ways

May the common calls of Duty

Compose hymns of thankful praise

From the first moment of waking

Until daylight disappears

May the music we are making

Bring sweet pleasure to God’s ears

From the first moment of waking

May we join the melody

Of a love-song in the making

That will fill eternity

© Janet Martin

Today's devotion continues the sacred topic of prayer...

From the rising of the sun to its going down

 The LORD’s name is to be praised.

Ps.113:3

From The Rising of the Sun...

Especially Summer's Morning

I began this poem yesterday morning, a masterpiece of gold and jade.

Among other colors!

This morning's mercy-masterpiece is autumnal in its air...gusty, rainy and quite cool!

'beauty blooms midst brokenness...'

The roma tomatoes have been devastated by blight. I am so sad!

...and these are but tomatoes! 

Imagine how God's heart breaks as He looks

upon a heart, blighted with sin He longs to forgive,

 in a sinner He longs to redeem,

with a life He longs to transform!

 

While this morning feels fall-ish it is still August so let's celebrate its loveliness!!

Or, even better, the Giver of its loveliness!

Soft ushered through untrodden deeps, fresh from God’s faithful care

Daylight dissolves the dark and sweeps night’s shadows from the air

To beckon us to the threshold where summer morning streams

Like a gold welcome mat unrolled beneath our hopes and dreams

Wildflowers, tossed like colored stars bedazzle summer’s world

God’s smile unstoppers welkin jars, His paintbrush dipped, then twirled

Unfurling masterpieces where we’ve made an awful mess

His goodness never ceases; beauty blooms midst brokenness

His majesty adorning everything that He has made

Especially summer’s morning; like glimpses of Eden played

Like glints of paradise, to rouse a hymn of gratitude

To He who fills the earth and skies with kind mercy renewed

Then come, let us adore Him; He whose glory fills our gaze

Behold, who can ignore Him while creation shouts His praise

Behooving us to do the same where summer morning spills

Like a love song, from He whose Name, sweet joy and peace instills

© Janet Martin

Ps.100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Morning Wonder-storm

A bitty dawn-ditty before a little blogging summer-break.

See you, Lord willing, in August🙏💝

Heb.13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have,

because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Dawn’s countryside is steeped in mist-kissed hues

The Unknown cradled in a cup of gold

The pressing presence of impending dues

Glitters where dew bedazzled worlds unfold

The gleaming gong upon earth’s eastward edge

Is drawn by a hand that eye cannot see

By He who keeps His unwavering pledge

‘Wherever you go, dear, there I will be’

© Janet Martin

Praise God from Whom all bounty flows...

Perfect Fit...

When the backdrop of day is green

Because the bud has borne its sheen...

And when the crown of it is blue...

And when the dawn of it is new

And when its gown is lilac-starred

And its breeze like soft seas unbarred...

And when its flowers smile and nod

And when its Gardener is God...

Is it not enough just to fit

Into a teeny bit of it...

When the backdrop of day is green

Because the bud has borne its sheen

And when the crown of it is blue

And when the dawn of it is new

And when its gown is lilac-starred

And its breeze like soft seas unbarred

And when its flowers smile and nod

And when its Gardener is God

Is it not enough just to fit

Into a teeny bit of it...

And make the most of it because

Soon it will be the Day That Was

© Janet Martin

1 Chron. 29:11

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, 

The power and the glory, 

The victory and the majesty; 

For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; 

Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, 

And You are exalted as head over all.

Songs of May and Morn

It was a weekend of celebrating...

 Grandson's 1st birthday,

 

mothers/motherhood,

and May/gardening...

(helping grandpa plant potatoes)

Grand-sonny preferred planting potatoes to the tedium of planting peas...

When I handed him a little pail of pea seeds he proceeded to pour them into the

furrow rather than place them one by one,

 until gramma showed them how to space the seeds😅

I can't wait for them to begin witnessing the miracle from seed to fruit!

On this note, off we go on a new week rife with life's wonders and woes!

An orchestra of colour plays a melody reborn

To set both earth and heart ablaze with songs of May and morn

The author of all things ignites from minstrels great and small

A hymn of gladness, and invites us to join, one and all

To praise He who is faithful, absolute and wonderful

And eternally able to do the impossible

A symphony of splendor spills from He who does no wrong

It rolls across valleys and hills like a redemption song

To clothe the field with flowers and the tree with leafy sheen

To transform barren bowers with a thousand shades of green

And to remind the creature, awed at what God's love restores

To trust creation’s Teacher who sustains hope’s reservoirs

An invitation steals the show with holy thundering

A celebration peals ‘hello’ and beckons us to sing

In spite of cares we shoulder and the sorrows of this world

God cheers the awed beholder with His handiwork unfurled

And wakes a purer, meeker praise as melodies reborn

Once more set earth and hearts ablaze with songs of May and morn

© Janet Martin

Sometimes my morning worship/prayer/quiet time 

seems like a bittersweet duel between

groaning grief for what feels like 'impossible' prayers

and dumbfounded joy for His awesome Word and handiwork.

...a duel between sorrowful recognition/reconciliation 

of suffering the consequence of a sinful action

and awe for God's abiding faithfulness, kindness, forgiveness, love and grace

***

Isa.26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

A few recent devotions from My Utmost for His Highest