Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Till Life on Earth Is Through


Each new day overflows
With undefeated worth...


The gladness only God bestows
Undergoes grand rebirth



This time of year our hearts and minds start to turn Christmas-ward!
For the believer in Jesus, it is a glad celebration
 of the Living Hope, joy and peace we cherish every day!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
 as you trust in him, 
so that you may overflow with hope 
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13




We walk by faith, not sight
The joy that we proclaim
By God’s grace, is the chief delight
Of all who love His name

We do not hope in vain
Our God, faithful and true
Abides with us midst fear and pain
Of this world’s fleeting rue

Each new day overflows
With undefeated worth
The gladness only God bestows
Undergoes grand rebirth

As we fix our gaze
While weathering the wearing ways
Of time that lies between

By faith, reply reveres
The call that we receive
As we treasure God's Word that cheers
All who trust and believe

…while keeping watch, we pray
That faith will remain true
Until the great and glorious day
When life on earth is through

© Janet Martin


Matthew 24:42
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come.







Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Of Unrelenting Mystery


I'm SO excited to share the link to my friend's
 (and long ago next-door neighbor's) latest venture;
one she has been in training for in a sense, almost her whole life!
Check it out!

As I read about her journey to this point
it reminded me to remember no matter what season we are in,
when dreams seem stagnant in streams
 of Commonplace Commitments
or mundane musts 
or dire detours teaching trust,
God is always prepping the soil or
pruning the plant,
for the dream/hope to flourish and flower in
His perfect Timing.
Does it not make us all take heart exactly where we are,
 if but to simply pray,
'God, help me shine and grow for You today?'!
(where the Unrelenting Mystery of tomorrow waits...)


Wherever we are called to be
Whatever we are called to do
We have one charge, ultimately
To be a vessel God shines through

The highs and lows of day-to-day
Serve purposes we cannot guess
While we are learning to obey
And trust God’s faithful promises

Experience is not in vain
How often we are blindly blessed
While wisdom we have yet to gain
Is veiled in the pain of the test

The Here-and-Now that we are in
Is but a steppingstone whereby
We advance, always to begin
So much more than yet meets the eye

Petal by petal, buds unfold
Where masterpieces wait to spill
Like we, cradled in the kind hold
Of God’s perfect timing and will

What sacred common ground we share
Of Unrelenting Mystery
For who knows what waits to prepare
Us for what is waiting to be 

© Janet Martin


1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
 do it all to the glory of God.








Thursday, November 10, 2022

Tug of Ink


PAD Challenge day 10: For today's prompt, write a struggle poem.

To board dawn's gleaming barge
While seasons ebb and flow...



To know when to say ‘yes’
To know when to say ‘no’
To hold to hope and happiness
Amidst love’s letting go

So much to touch and kiss
So much that used to be
So much to balance with the bliss
Of unpenned poetry

Today is always new
Immune it seems, to age
Let’s never grow too old to woo
Its poetry to page

Let’s slow dance, cheek to cheek
What is to be will be
Enough, my love to learn to speak
In tongues of poetry

Let the masses deploy
Long ladders to success
Enough, my love, to feast on joy
Of poem happiness

To press past the façade
Of front-line highs and lows
And to feel the *pleasure of God
In poems to compose

To board dawn’s gleaming barge
While seasons ebb and flow
To stay true to the humble charge
Of life’s ink undertow

© Janet Martin

"When I run, I feel God's pleasure" Eric Liddell


Acts 17:28
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ 
As some of your own poets have said,
 ‘We are his offspring.’

Friday, June 24, 2022

When We Find The Key To Favor

Yesterday's 'favor' was juicy and sweet!


Not all fruit for our labor seems quite as visible and flavorful as fresh strawberries
but is every bit as sweet if we find the key to God's favor...
Then, what an indescribable treat, to savor joy!


Not in vain is noble effort
Though no ovations resound
Not for nothing is the labor
Though no compliments abound

What a diadem of honor
Crowns what appears commonplace
What pure purpose bids us onward
Though no eager crowds give chase

Though the push and pull of duty
Seems a thankless exercise
What a boon of hidden beauty
Tunes the struggle to the Prize

...when we find the key to favor
When from the moment we wake
Our joy is but to labor
For the name of our Lord’s sake

...when to labor is the favor
When love is its own reward
When work is worship, we savor
Joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord

© Janet Martin

Psalm 5:11-12
But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You [f]defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Prov.8:35
For whoever finds me finds life,
And obtains favor from the LORD;

Col.3:23
And whatever you do, do it heartily,
as to the Lord and not to men,

Luke 11:27-28
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out
, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Exactly Where We Are


Heb.12:1-2
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
 and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
  2looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, 
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, 
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I was convicted by the testimony from a suffering Christian in Afghanistan
who has committed to stay, even if granted the opportunity to leave,
 lest a soul could potentially be witnessed to
that might be lost eternally because they have not yet come to saving faith!
Oh, that we would all have such a commitment of faithfulness to our calling 
and such love for fellowman, exactly where we are!




Lord, be in us a Light so we may be a shining star
Help us be faithful in the fight exactly where we are

So many ways to spend our days and entertain a thought
Lord, keen in us conviction’s blaze to love the things we ought

…to be compassionate and kind; not bent on selfish quest
But ever keeping first in mind our mission and its test

We are all called to fight the fight until Death’s lowered bar
Then help us be a faithful Light exactly where we are

For we are encompassed by a great cloud of witnesses
Lord, help us throw off all that hinders and entangles us

Instill in us pure purpose as we seek to fix our eyes
On the joy set before us, ever pressing to its Prize

Time, like a spark that upward flies soon disappears from sight
Lord, help us be prudent and wise as we redeem its flight 

Then, fitted by Your Word let us not dread love's battle-scar
But help us to be faithful Lord, exactly where we are

© Janet Martin


Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Always and All For God

 


The fruit of our labour is sometimes strawberries.
The fruit of our faith, ah, who can fathom?!


This poem was inspired first by a glorious wave of morning-tide
rolling over the rain-washed countryside...





...before heading out for a berry delightful morning
 at a nearby pick-your-own strawberry patch!




Always, and all for God who gives, may our motive be
Each moment-metered life one lives leads to eternity
All that we have, by time is tried; a sacred sea that pours
In waves of morn-to-eventide, awash twixt Eon’s shores

In waves of morn to eventide awash twixt Eon’s shores
Across still gaping graves, time flies, in season-repertoires
While we must choose who we will serve and thus the Soul’s reward
Some never look beyond Self-worth, some live to please the Lord

Some never look beyond Self-worth, some live to please the Lord
Some set their sights upon this earth as if they can afford
To ignore what some cling to like a lifeline sure and keen;
The substance of things hoped for and its evidence unseen

The substance of things hoped for and its evidence unseen
Instills with awesome purpose what would oft seem harsh and mean
Aware while moments dance and race we owe their no return
Always and all for God who grants the grace that none can earn

Always and all for God who grants the grace that none can earn
Where mercy meets us face to face as surely as the morn
Where wealth accrued cannot provide that which will save the soul
When waves of morn to eventide no longer swell and roll

© Janet Martin

And whatever you do, do it heartily, 
as to the Lord and not to men,
Col.3:23

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen.
Heb.11:1


Friday, October 30, 2020

More Than Swift Sweep of Seasons...


The older I get the more it feels like seasons sweep through years
like the wind through leaves...


 






Thankfully life is much more than a legacy of leaves
Seasons but the effecting of what dust-to-dust conceives

In this swift sweep of seasons spurred by rise and setting sun 
Of appetites we feed or curb with seeds soon spilled and spun 
Whether shadows of doubt dark-fall, or clear appears the view 
God knows the ins and outs of all with which we have to do 

The break of day with seamless sway folds into noon, then dusk 
While we, students of Learning taste the grains that drain the husk 
And in the course of smacking lips, of samples bitter, sweet 
We start to sense an Immense Grip instilled in hands and feet 

The Matrix from which moments flow is without form or cast 
Where from a foothold we call Now future turns into past 
And from the Hand that gives, a world of hands reaches to take 
Where everyone who lives is loved by He who holds time's ‘cake’ 

…and no one is forgotten on earth’s awesome glockenspiel 
No matter who we are the Author holds and turns a wheel 
Which ushers tears and laughter through the flue of day-to-day 
Until the Ever-after brushes out Mercy’s buffet 

Ah, what a feast for thought is this; The One who grants Because 
Metes more than the analysis of scientific laws 
In this swift sweep of seasons spurred by rise and setting sun 
He knows the inmost ins and outs of each and everyone 

And what some deem as nothing but a blue dot flung to space 
Is Human Being’s common ground abounding with God’s grace 
Where He is the Good Shepherd of Time’s season-thoroughfare 
And we are all together sheep in pastures of His care 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 95:6-7

Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

  

Psalm23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: 
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: 
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: 
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.


Sunday, March 8, 2020

In Granted Toll or Breath of God



“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”
Romans 11:35-36 

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, 
who is the head.…
Ephes. 4: 14-15

What preciousness is depending on us to teach them Truth!

He gives to all a purposed call as breath of life instills
In frames of dust the sacred trust that breadth of days fulfills
What awesome charge! This fragile barge of froward tendency
By an obscure Divine Design, cradles eternity

He gives to each the will to reach; desire steers the hand
Where Thought conceives what deed achieves like seeds strewn on demand
Then pray we weigh and cull Thought’s sway; not driven to and fro
Or tossed about by baseless doubt when deceit’s tempest’s blow

He gives to us the glorious, grand opportunity
By His kind grace to run life’s race to certain victory
Not insecure, fearful, unsure, but shod with hope and peace
Until the fight twixt wrong and right is granted glad release

He gives to man Determined Plan; His Word, no flighty whim
Godhead ordains what grace maintains, all from, through and to Him
What awesome charge, His love at large is free to one and all
Where by His might we rise to fight and without Him, we fall

He gives; we take; futile to shake our fists at Mercy’s Fount
Time’s beckoning bears reckoning; we all will give account
Who can afford to hate the Lord or ignore what Love wills
In granted toll of deathless soul that breath of God instills

© Janet Martin


 The poem below was written in the 1800's!!
 Proof that Truth is always relevant and unchanged!
It's been a while since I've shared this one, right?
Writing like this deserves to be re-shared and reread!

This Present Crisis
James Russell Lowell  (1819-1891)

When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,        
And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime       
Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time.              

Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe,
When the travail of the Ages wrings earth's systems to and fro;     
At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start,        
Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart,          
And glad Truth's yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future's heart.   

So the Evil's triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill,       
Under continent to continent, the sense of coming ill,         
And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels his sympathies with God 
In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be drunk up by the sod,       
Till a corpse crawls round unburied, delving in the nobler clod.       

For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along,  
Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong; 
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast frame       
Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame;—          
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.  

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,          
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;      
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, 
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,     
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.   

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,  
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land?      
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong,     
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng          
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.       

Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments see,         
That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through Oblivion's sea;          
Not an ear in court or market for the low, foreboding cry   
Of those Crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet earth's chaff must fly;   
Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath passed by.          

Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record         
One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word;          
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—       
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.     

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,          
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,      
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din,
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—    
"They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin."    

Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood, 
Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the earth with blood,      
Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day,
Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey;—   
Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play?    

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just; 
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,   
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,         
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied. 

Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes,—they were souls that stood alone,    
While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone,   
Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline     
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,
By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design. 

By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track,         
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back,   
And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned
One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts hath burned   
Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned.

For Humanity sweeps onward: where to-day the martyr stands,     
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands;
Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn,    
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return     
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn.     

'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves       
Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves,        
Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime;—    
Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time?       
Turn those tracks toward Past or Future, that made Plymouth Rock sublime?          

They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts,   
Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past's;
But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath made us free,    
Hoarding it in mouldy parchments, while our tender spirits flee     
The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them across the sea.        

They have rights who dare maintain them; we are traitors to our sires,       
Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom's new-lit altar-fires;          
Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our haste to slay,
From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away   
To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to-day? 

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;         
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth;    
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be,          
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key.

This poem is in the public domain.