Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

When People Fight...


Today's Daily Bread scripture reading
evoked tears, of both sorrow and joy!
Sorrow, because we seem to be a world at war with each other;
Family against family
brother against brother in the church.
citizens against the government
country against country,

Joy, because of the everlasting richness, rightness
and faithfulness of God and His Word!
The end is near.
Hallelujah!

Today's Scripture reading;

1 Pet.4:7-11
The end of all things is near. 
Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
 8 Above all, love each other deeply, 
because love covers over a multitude of sins.
 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 
10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,
 as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 
11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. 
If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, 
so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. 
To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. 
Amen.




When people fight, we lose sight of the bigger picture, oh
The power and the glory of the One who loves us so
He came to die so you and I, when we have run life’s race
Are saved from death and hell because He saved us by His grace

When people fight, we lose sight of our universal need
Repentance and deliverance from sin’s inherent seed
Through Jesus Christ, sin’s sacrifice, once and for all became
Salvation that cannot be found in any other Name

When people fight, we lose sight of the love that Jesus taught
Or seek a city yet to come, from Calvary unfurled
And therefore, we do not wage war with weapons of this world

When people fight we lose sight of Redemption’s crimson tide
The Lamb we led, with thorn-crowned head that we all crucified
Cried out,’ Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’
Oh God, forgive us when we miss the big picture of You

Forbid we meet you Jesus, with Your blood still on our Hands
Because we didn't repent and obey love's Great Commands
Forbid we, without thought of how we ought to love and live
Reject You, Son of God who came to redeem and forgive   

© Janet Martin

How true, oh, how true we are seeing Jesus' warning: Matt. 10:34-39

Christ Brings Division
34“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. 
I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 
35For I have come to ‘set[j] a man against his father
, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 
36and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 
37He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. 
And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 
38And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
  39He who finds his life will lose it, 
and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

morning by morning above the chaos
the heavens declare the glory of God
and the skies proclaim the work of His hands!
Ps.19:1



Friday, November 9, 2018

Real-ity Check!


In a perfect world we would never need to remember...
But pray we never forget
for History forgotten is History repeated!

 (photos from one of the memorial parks we visited; this one at the Port of Sydney)




That was real blood and mud and tears
That stabbed their teeth and eyes
So we can kiss curls
Of very real boys and girls
And sing them sweet lullabies

That was real fear and fire that burned
At the cost of a nation’s sons
So the future could stand
With a dream in their hand
Not the dread of loaded guns

That was real love and life that lay
‘neath the splay of smoke and sky
So this plot of loam
That we call home
Could raise freedom’s banner high

That was real horror; a glimpse of hell
Where the shell of bombs still stains
The fields and streets
Where commerce competes
On the ashes of what remains

That was real Now that shaped history
And the crosses of those who gave all
Where none have the ‘right’
With Freedom’s hind-sight
To pillage Past’s scar-stricken hall

That was real cost; where the price of war
Proves freedom is never free
And each drop we sip
From its Cup that we tip
Should foster gratuity

© Janet Martin



Friday, November 11, 2016

The Awful, Awful Cost of War

PAD Challenge day 11:
For today’s prompt, write a description poem.
Pick someone or something to describe.
Get in depth, or just brush along the surface.


So our young men and women can go off to work...

and come home to mother's supper-soup...



Beneath your ribs
Pulses the heart
Of a boy,
A brother,
A mother’s son
But, instead of
A baseball bat
They are teaching you
How to hold a gun
And on your cheek,
Your smooth, young cheek
Instead of a kiss
From a sweetheart dear
You are about
To taste firsthand
The awful gall
Of mud-and-blood tear
And many of you
Will never see
The Freedom
You are fighting for
Your boyish vim and
Sympathy
The awful, awful
Cost of war


© Janet Martin

The Truth
by
Archibald Lampman

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

No 'Free' in Freedom (a re-tweaked re-post)





Somber and steady up a tree-lined street
A stream of solemn soldier-ranks are led,
As sun-beams dance to the drummer’s beat
Filtering through the branches overhead
Beyond the tears and past the arc of trees
The music of a small child’s laughter swells
Stark contrast to the mourning infantry
Bowing beneath the tolling of the bells

Then, as the weeping bag-pipe song exalts
The melody of sweet Amazing Grace
Then, as the banner-covered coffin halts
For it has reached its final resting place
Then, as the last note fades the cannon flies
Its echo fills the air from shore to shore
Yet pales in the wake of a mother’s cries
“There is no ‘free’ in freedom anymore

Put down your banners, lay down your guns
My sweet baby boy has died
Tributes, salutes, many battles won
Won’t bring him back” she cried
“Take away all the roses for nothing will be
Like it ever was before
The price of freedom is too hard for me
There is no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

Freedom (part two)

Upon Golgotha’s rocky skull-strewn trail
A teaming, screaming throng of hatred surged
Swarming around a form blood-bathed and pale
Upon a place called Calvary they converged
Wild, wild with rage wages hate’s vicious roar
No one remains to defend Love unbound
Stark contrast to the cheers and praise before
Where palm-tree branches waved and decked the ground

Then as the violent blows of steel on steel
Accentuates the horror on the hill
Then, as they drive in hatred nail by nail
Against Love’s cries of ‘Father, not My will’
Then, as they praised and raised Life’s blood-stained cross
In victory, death’s maddened thousands roar
As Mary, his mother weeps for her loss
“There is no ‘free’ in freedom anymore

Take away your hammers, lay down your swords
My dear precious son has died”
As the lightning flashed and the thunder roared
There at His feet she cried
“Take away all your hatred, your jeers and chanting
For you have slain my Lord
Take away all your weapons and cease your ranting
There is no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

There is no ‘free’ in freedom, Love pays a price
Where hellish horrors run
There is no ‘free’ in freedom, its sacrifice
Save in Christ, is never done
There is no ‘free’ in freedom, red the river
That flows on its behalf
There is no 'free' in freedom; its signature
A blood-stained autograph

Janet Martin


Saturday, August 2, 2014

Of Flesh and Spirit War...




Ah, flesh and Spirit war
This battleground within
Bids us examine our thought
Of what is good or sin

Flesh wars against the Good
Its weakness covets filth
The Spirit bids us suffer long
To glean eternal wealth

Awesome Inheritance
How brief these wars of earth
Only what we have done for God
Will be of any worth

Ah, flesh and Spirit war
Tempter and Holy Word
Clash soundlessly within the mind
As deed reveals our lord

We know God is not mocked
What a man sows he reaps
Touch sacredly this gifted ground
Where eternity sleeps

© Janet Martin

Reading in Galatians 5&6. Warning and tender encouragement!