Consolation Prize

Thank-you Lord for Your works of art...

  

 
 

Thank-you Lord, for your works of art

You always satisfy the heart

The wonder of Your ways and means

Consoles this breadth of in-betweens

You wow us with Your majesty

In spite of all we cannot see

While Time unfurls trouble’s torment

To a world full of discontent

The forge of faith is full of prayer

The gorge of grace is full of care

Life would be too dreary to bear

Without You; You are everywhere

Lord, Your indescribable worth

Overflows hearts, heaven and earth

Pity the one who cannot see

Beyond visual periphery

...where hate can never overthrow

The love and grace whereby we go

And fear, for all its dread and doom

Can never infiltrate the bloom

© Janet Martin

Palm 92:4-8

For You, O LORD, have made me glad by Your deeds;

I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

5How great are Your works, O LORD,

how deep are Your thoughts!

6A senseless man does not know,

and a fool does not understand,

7that though the wicked sprout like grass,

and all evildoers flourish,

they will be forever destroyed.

8But You, O LORD, are exalted forever!

Wonder of Wonders...

Does the oldest love story ever fill you with newfound wonder?!

Wonder of wonders oft told and retold

Love’s oldest story that never grows old

Jesus left glory and became a man

For the fulfillment of salvation’s plan

Mercy of mercies, where can we begin

To spell the sorrows that suffered for sin

Spotless Perfection became sin for us

Mankind’s salvation through one Name, Jesus

Jesus, oh, Jesus Redeemer and Friend

Wonder of wonders that will never end

Mercy of mercies, you loved us so well

That you left Heaven to save us from hell

© Janet Martin

Phil.2:5-8

 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

His Ways...

Futile to try with script of men

To pry God’s language from His pen

But let the wonder of His ways

Anoint our blund’ring prose with praise

His ways, so much higher than we

Who are transfixed by what we see

Can, like no other mastermind

Waken the worship of mankind

Then, woe to we who dare to rave

While disregarding He who gave

For what is man of lowly limb

That God is yet mindful of him

And who are we to question He

Who IS, WAS and always WILL BE

The earth and its fullness thereof

Belongs to He who authored love

Behold, the beauty of the Lord

His ways too wonder-full for word

Where the author of Awesome art

Looks to the language of the heart

© Janet Martin

Psalm 19:1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

Without speech or language,

without a sound to be heard,

their voice has gone out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

Love's Roar...

 Here's to a world full of wonder...

Life’s landscape like a picture book unveils frame after frame

Of wonder to brighten time’s boulevard of morn to night

Where touch and taste of moments is a buffet none can tame

Until the Giver snuffs the wick that lends its faithful light

As care in sundry shape and size can strip us of wild cheer

And we would lose the will to laugh without love’s eyes to see

Glimpses of He who knows the very essence of our tear/fear

And flings across our gain and loss, proof of His majesty

To stir within us hunger for the One who loves us so

And does not leave us long in fights of wrong-right-greed-and-need

Where struggle to survive-succeed-surrender, tests us, oh,

And draws us to our knees with pleas for Him to intercede

Where what is seen who hopes for; what is evident, who trusts?

And what we hold we soon forget to fully thank Him for

While life is like a landscape filled with elemental Musts

And wonder in the One who stills fear's whispers with Love’s roar

© Janet Martin

 
Romans 8:15
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, 

but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; 

but of power, 

and of love, 

and of a sound mind.

1 John 4:18

 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 

For fear has to do with punishment, 

and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

and a reminder to Heidi that is good for us all!
(I'm reading the book Heidi because its been years since I read that never-gets-old story)

Take a Minute to Marvel...

Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows. 

James 1:17

Take a minute

Then look in it

Count God’s gifts to

You and I

Look how laughter

Sweetens after

Sorrow spills then

Passes by

Touch the places

That love graces

With meek, holy

Reverence

Soon the motion

Of Time’s ocean

Tunes a tide of

Severance

It is never

Always winter

Sea of seasons

Ebbs and flows

Trouble-bubble

Harvest, stubble

Winter harbours

Summer's rose

See, love's hours

Bloom like flowers

In the gardens

Of our hearts

Take a minute

And look in it

At the beauty

It imparts

Not for nothing

Is the Something

That we suffer,

Savour, oh,

We can weather

Any weather

Through the grace where-

By we go

Want is surprised…

Time is baptized

With mercies

That leaves thought awed

Take a minute

And look in it

At the tender

Touch of God

Over, under

Ages thunder 

With God's love

Misunderstood

Calm or chaos

God is with us

Always faithful

Kind and good

 

© Janet Martin