Prime Example

PAD Challenge day 11:For today’s prompt, write a prime poem.

Our Prime Example grants pure, perfect purpose to

all we do...for Him!

Lest love leaves us looking for a little more than life can give

We should use its Prime Example to learn how we ought to live

He, for our benefit, looked far beyond the present price

Bringing many sons to glory through love’s precious sacrifice

He with a Father’s compassion primes dawn’s blush on eastern brim

Where He longs with time's extension to draw all of us to Him

How He cares for we who He formed in His image, soul instilled

Letting us through His son Jesus gain the joy His grief fulfilled

Lest we, caught up in the moment overlook The Greater Plan

(So much more to love’s big picture than these little days of man)

We should strive with awed endeavor to mirror God’s sympathy

(He who did not spare His Best for the sake of humanity)

We are all brothers and sister, born to love and not to slay

None of us is least or greater (no matter what people say)

All unworthy benefactors of love’s holy agony

And His precious Prime Example; only love can set us free

Then, lest love should leave us looking for less than Mercy’s intent

We should imitate the passion that left the temple’s veil rent

Allowing by faith, free access to approach God’s throne with awe

Granting hope far better than the letter of a works-based law

God is love; from, through and for Him we lack nothing if we trust

For he knows how we are formed and he remembers we are dust

As a father has compassion for His Children, so the Lord

Does not give what we deserve but reserves Heaven as reward

© Janet Martin

Beneath the Shadow of the Cross

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.” 

Psalm 91:1-2 

Oft-times when praying,
after thanking God for His gift of salvation and His faithfulness
I can get caught up in a long list of cares and needs,
some my own and some my fellow-travelers.

I want to learn to get caught up in worshiping Him and praising him a little more as well.

Lord, let me think a little more

Of love, more precious far than gold

As morning flings ajar its door

And mercy breaks night’s starry mold

Let worship be my chief delight

In spite of living’s certain loss

Lord, keep me by your faithful Light

Beneath the shadow of the cross

The cross, from whence Love, blood-red fell

To purchase pardon for mankind

And victory o’er death and hell

When we have left this life behind

Then let hope’s wonderment eclipse

The weight of sorrow’s albatross

And keep faith’s footing firmly fixed

Beneath the shadow of the cross

Let hurt and heartache’s honing knife

Keen hunger for your Living Word

And as we break the Bread of Life

May awestruck gratitude be stirred

That You, Love’s Perfect Offering

Held nothing back for mankind’s cause

So death cannot inject its sting

Beneath the shadow of the cross

Lord, let me think a little more

Upon your awful sacrifice

Then let me return, as it were

To stand beneath Redemption’s price

And feel the fathoms of Your grace

Dissolve and absolve Eden’s curse

And let me glory in my place

Beneath the shadow of the cross

© Janet Martin

 O death, where is thy sting? 

O grave, where is thy victory?

 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Cor.15:55-57

We Cannot Catch Love Like a Ball in a Glove...

PAD Challenge 16:

 Time for our third Two for Tuesday of the month!

 Pick one prompt or use both…your choice!

1. Write a catch poem.
2. Write a release poem.

Two things we cannot catch or force; Love and Belief!

We cannot catch Love like a ball in glove

Or Belief, like a cold or a chill

The wraith we call faith has no tangible shape

Like a bubble we chase for the thrill

We cannot suppose while we wiggle our toes

In slippers or sand on a beach

That grace can be caught without intent or thought

If we never take Time to reach

…and if like a fool who plays hooky from school

We dodge Mercy’s uttermost Gift

We will not catch a break from our Greatest Mistake

While ageless eternities drift

But, if by faith we believe, then by grace we receive

Release from the debt that we owe

Through shed blood of His Son death’s curse was undone

Because One True God loves us so

© Janet Martin

 It is rare indeed for anyone to die for a righteous man, 

though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

 But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

 Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood,

 how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!…

Romans 5:7-9

The Hope Of Man

 Sometimes when discouragement's condemnation threatens to deaden hope,

Sometimes when I say yep when oh, I should have answered 'nope'

Sometimes when I believe the lies of hope's vile enemy

I bow my head and lift my eyes...to Calvary

...to hear once more from days of yore the final declaration

Of "it is finished" as He bore and conquered death's damnation

and nothing and no one can alter Mercy's saving grace

Through Jesus Christ God's only Son whose love/life took our/death's place

The ways of man since Time began

Are not hard to predict

First Eve believed and was deceived

By folly’s rhetoric

Where we in turn must also learn

How disobedience

When we are wise in our own eyes

Yields bitter recompense/consequence

Aha, aha, the Time-tried law

Of lust and pride confirms

How without love our motives prove

We are all filthy worms

And without grace, ah, who could face

Death’s cold and morbid dread

The blood of Christ, love’s sacrifice

For sinner’s ransom shed

 Love’s Master plan, the hope of man

The hope of man assured

Through merit of a Saviour’s love

Upon a cross secured

Love’s uttermost becomes the boast

As Belief rends the tomb

Where ways of man since Time began

Would else lead to hell’s doom

© Janet Martin

Knowing Full-well...(what makes worthy the earthy)

This is a case where the previous poem fired another...

 Reading Hebrews 12, verse one, led to reading Hebrews 12 verse two, 

which led to writing this poem...(based on Phil.2)

(I guess tomato-picking is one poem later than I thought it would be😏)

Pondering The Promise of Eternal Life 

and He who authored it, and how, 

Sure does make worthy, earthly strife

and sure does make Holy the Now!

(Knowing full-well Hell's triumph but for death upon a cross!)

The Author and the Finisher of faith endured the cross

Thus, all we bear of this world’s care…He wore its sorrow too

In very nature, God, He donned a robe of mortal cloth

Knowing full well the horrors of the vale He would pass through

Knowing full-well the pain and rejection that He must bear

Knowing full-well, hell would prevail without His sacrifice

Knowing full-well His Deity, yet left Heaven to wear

A crown of thorns, a cross, knowing full-well sin’s awful price

Knowing full-well through death Life Everlasting would be bought

Knowing full-well how many would be saved and justified

Knowing full-well the agony before Triumph is wrought

Knowing full-well the wrath of God would-must be satisfied

Knowing full-well sin’s debt could not be paid by bull-ram’s blood

Knowing full-well his Father’s will and all it would entail

Knowing full well, He, King of kings would be the Lamb of God

Knowing full-well that once for all His Death would rend the veil

Knowing full-well that Final Sacrifice for sin was made

And living sacrifice will be the price believers pay

Knowing full-well that through His love our debt of guilt is paid

Knowing full well the full reward in Heaven some sweet day

© Janet Martin