Call To Come, Let Us Adore Him!

 It is not hard to be filled with wonder by beauty we see...

What about Beauty that we cannot see, yet believe?!

Come, let us adore Him!

Come, let us not with idle bent

Fill thought with fear or discontent

But let us hear and thus be stirred

By the Glad News the shepherds heard

‘For unto us was born that day

A Saviour, Christ the Lord alway

With what we have in all we can

Let us love our fellowman

The gift of Jesus is no myth

Then let us honor Him therewith

Let humble hearts with Hope restored

Bow down and worship Christ the Lord

Equality with God, and yet

Christ came to pay the sinner's debt

Found in appearance as a man

He did not shirk salvation’s plan

Though King of kings and Lord of lords

He left His throne for cross horrors

…to trod for us the skull-strew hill

He bore our punishment until

In anguish and triumph He cried

“It is finished” then He died

And broke the grasp hell had on us

The Saviour of the world, Jesus

Jesus is love that sets us free

His perfect law of liberty

Is more than text upon a page

Deliverance, from age to age

Should charge our hearts with wonder wild

To worship Bethlehem’s Christ Child

© Janet Martin  

James 1: 19-27 

My beloved brothers, understand this: 

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,  

for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, 

and humbly receive the word planted in you, which can save your souls.

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man 

who looks at his face in a mirror, and after observing himself goes away 

and immediately forgets what he looks like.

But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so

—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, 

he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.

Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: 

to care for orphans and widows in their distress, 

and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Renascence of Spirit

Wishing you a wonder-full day!

You have enclosed me behind and before,
            And laid Your hand upon me.

      Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
            It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

 Ps.139:5-6

Its archive harbors hunger

That wends its age-old way

From night to day where Wonder

Is never held at bay

The one who seeks will find it

It kindles star-straked Yon

With eons sealed behind it

It breaks dark bars with dawn

And spills its mercy-shower

Across the mist-kissed lea

And fills the bud with flower

And pilots Poetry

No one too poor to wear it

The wealth that Wonder brings

A renaissance of spirit

It gladdens common kings

And wakens in worn Being

With Hope and nothing more

A whole new way of seeing

What we have seen before

© Janet Martin

 Last evening's Update from Dave's wife Karen; 

(To new-comers; I'm keeping readers updated on a journey that began here)

Hello everyone,

When I arrived at the hospital Dave said he already walked the halls this morning. A little later the physiotherapist came in again, took him for another walk and then got him to sit in his chair to have lunch. After lunch he got back into bed. Soon his parents came down for a visit. Wasn't long after his parent came he was just so tired that he had a rest while we visited for bit and then I went to the family room to put my feet up while mom and dad stayed with him until he woke up and they came and got me.

Later in the evening Josh and Krista came to pick me up. 

Another good day and his pain is under control so that really helps.

Thank-you SO much for your continued prayers!

Live-Love-Celebrate

It was one of those hit-the-shoulder-for-a-quick-photo days... 

a heart-full-o'-wonder and glory-hallelujah praise.

We are more than mouths gaping while shaping stuttered praise

We are ageless souls clad in the flesh of numbered days

We are more than hold-let-go, yes-no and maybe-so

We are Why Christ came to die and by His grace we go

We are more than skin-bone plunder, want-wish-wonder-wait

We are God’s beloved children; live-love-celebrate

© Janet Martin

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—John 1:12

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, Gal.3:26

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Rom.8:14

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Rom.8:16

The God of Ages Reigns...Merry Christmas

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

The God of ages reigns

Though fear may bid us doubt

Mankind admits again, again

What nature-legions shout

All living things must die

This is the way of dust

The God of ages does not lie

Therefore in Him we trust

He placed within man’s flesh

An ageless soul; aha

No mind can outwit Heaven’s best

Nor thwart love’s sacred law

...and love alone will prove

The God of ages reigns 

No dark is too deep to be moved

Nor guilt greater than grace

 

The God of ages reigns

What Bethlehem first heard

Though centuries have passed remains

Unchanged; His living Word

© Janet Martin

Have you become familiar with Him?

May we never lose love's wonder

but like shepherds, ah may we

bow in worship at the manger

of hope in humility!

For no pen can fully tell it

and no page can fully hold

what the heart is fully feeling

as love's wonder breaks thought's mold

Let us ponder 

the wonder

and worship

 the Savior

 as we celebrate His coming to earth, today!

J~  Merry Christmas!

 

Wonderful to Me...

Wonderful to me

The dawn that lights the lea

Ignites what soon will be

Before we seek our rest

Wonderful to me

Love persists faithfully

Where our humility

Is pitiful at best

Wonderful, oh God

The bounty of earth’s sod

Where oft we trip and trod

Across its treasure trove

Without a word of praise

Until life’s testing ways

Returns us to that place

To wonder at your love

Wonderful to me

For oh, how can it be

That immortality

Awaits beyond this gasp

For in the flesh, a soul

In brokenness, the Whole

In life’s journey; a Goal

That wonder cannot grasp

Wonderful, I weep

This sin and sorrow sweep

Is not too dark or deep

To keep You from our call

And with Your Staff and rod

You comfort us, oh God

I cannot quell with thought

The wonder of it all

© Janet Martin

“I like the word ‘wonderful’ ”, said Victoria. “It describes itself; full of wonder”

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  Ps.139:14

one more verse because today we remember...vividly!! 9/11

Wonderful to me
The darkness that must be
Is but part of a sea
Before the Great Divide
When Love will conquer hate
And open wide the Gate
To God. Amen. We wait
Where Hope and Faith abide