Easter/Hope Sonnet

Come; lay your sin-stained burden at His feet

Oh, do not try to carry it alone

He bids us come to heaven’s mercy-seat

Forgiveness pours in oceans from His throne

The way of man is doomed to fear and need

The vile deceiver taunts with poisoned fruit

Brushing his vulgar lies against our greed

Desiring to draw us from Saving Truth

But hark, what rings across earth’s weary field?

“Come;” it is by His stripes that we are healed

When will this endless war and fighting cease?

When will we lay down hate and embrace love?

Oh, look upon love's glorious Prince of Peace

Did He not leave His holy throne above?

To suffer in the place of wretched men

And give His life for all humanity

A ransom for our awful debt of sin

He died; a perfect Lamb, to set us free

How long will we resist Hope's grand appeal?

Come; it is by His stripes that we are healed

The wages of our sinful lust is death

The gift of God is everlasting life

He sealed redemption's plan with His last breath

As ‘it is finished’ lifts us from this strife

Dare we to scoff at such a work as this?

Or break his heart and turn away our eyes?

Dare we to face Him then without His gift

And thus reject eternal paradise?

The day of grace is now; oh will we yield?

Come; it is by His stripes that we are healed

© Janet Martin

Inspired as I listened to Alas, and did My Savior bleed (link in previous post)

³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

 ⁴ Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.  Isa. 53:3-5

For the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

I Don't Understand...

Just As I Am... 

Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed...

I don’t understand

As I look upon

His nail-scarred hands

and thorny crown…

…and as I think how He

put on flesh

so we may obtain

His righteousness…

…or how the perfect

Lamb of God

Left heaven

For this sin-cursed sod…

…or how, when He knelt

In Gethsemane

His thoughts were for

Humanity…

…and how, as He hung

Upon that tree

His cries were still

For you and me…

…or as the spear

Thrust deep, His side

It was still for us

He cried…

…or how, by

Jesus' dying breath

We receive life

Through His death…

No, I don’t understand

Why I receive...

...but this I know

I believe

© Janet Martin

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith

—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

 not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish 

but have eternal life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 

but to save the world through him.

John 3 :16-17

Cause and Effect...

Song: Jesus paid it all

Dear God,

Our hatred causes us to do the unthinkable

But oh, God

Your love causes us to believe the impossible!

Janet Martin

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, 

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Cor. 5:21

No 'Free' in Freedom...repost

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

Then, as the bag-pipe sound exalts
The melody of sweet Amazing Grace
The banner-covered coffin halts
For it has reached its final resting place
The last note fades, the cannon flies
Echoing across a distant shore
But none as stirring as the mother’s cries
“There’s 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’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

Freedom (part two)

Up the rocky skull-strewn trail
A teaming, screaming throng of hatred surged
Swarming ‘round a form so pale
Upon a place called Calvary they converged
Beyond the tumult, wild and raging
Not a solitary friend is found
Stark contrast to the shouts and praising
As the palm-tree branches decked the ground

Then as the sound of steel on steel
Rings beyond the horror on the hill
As they drive in each cruel nail
‘Gainst the cries of ‘Father, not My will’
And as they raise the blood-stained cross
In victory the maddened thousands roar
As Mary weeps her deepest loss
“There’s 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, your raging and ranting
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, oh what a price
So that we may be set free
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, love's sacrifice
Is beyond understanding for me
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, let us value each day
And cherish each living breath
Oh, what a price someone needs to pay
For the cost of freedom is death

Janet~

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross...Fernando Ortega

Before My Time

I've heard tell

Before my time

Poets revered 

Rhythm and rhyme

Janet~

Poetics Aside Prompt: before our time...
I just couldn't resist this;)

Before Micro-mentality

Before micro-waves, dishwashers

Riding mowers, computers, cell-phones

Before instant potatoes, rice, oatmeal or pizza

Before instant anything

Before gyms to de-stress

Or talk of fitness

 

Before X-box, i-pod, Nintendo

You-tube, game-boy and  500 TV channels

There were twenty-four hour days

Of hard-work…and play

…and front-porches in the evening

With families on them

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt:  write a poem about something before your time.

The Glory Days

Image Source: gazettextra.com

First game of the season...

They tumble onto the ice

Miniature robots

And darting minnows

Each a super-star

In the rite of innocence

Because at four and five years old

You can do nothing wrong

These are the true glory days

© Janet Martin

I read an article inviting kids to Mites/Tykes Hockey...

"Come! chill out and have fun because mites hockey is all about having fun! That’s all!"

What happened to the rest of the levels? Oh, right! Expectation…and fear of failure.
 

NaPOWriMo Prompt: In honor of opening day! 

Here is one of my all-time Favorites by Kenny Rogers

 

Sullied Intention

I would stay up all night to love

You. I am eager for your charms

I have no objection as you delight

Me. Weaver of a thousand poems…

Your phantom lips breathe thought

I have never heard

as my expired dream is stirred

and resurrected by a jot

of crazy longing in my thought

for you have never sought my heart

without intent to tear apart

the wall of my guarded torment

you scale it; the resistance I attempt

insists on begging you to stay

for you are never far away

and yet you dangle in mid-air

somewhere beyond

my hemisphere

perhaps, perhaps I ought to sleep

I cannot write; you’ve cut too deep

J~