It's been an AWESOME first week of April sky-watch! I took my camera with me every night on my run to capture only a glimpse of His wonder! This is HE who died for you and I. This is the One who loved us so He sent His Only Son, to die in our stead. This is He who sets us Free!
"For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18
Life- Elvis Presley
He's Alive- Dolly Parton
The Power of the Cross
Friday, April 6, 2012
Our Pet Monkey
She has been known to swing
From limb to limb
But generally
She is somewhere
In
Blue-eyed
Piggy-tailed
Joy,
Cheeks
Bulging blissfully
with
B
A
N
A
N
A
S
© Janet
The girl in the produce section at the super-market
raised her eye-brows at the amount of bananas in my shopping
cart.
I quickly re-assured her that we have a pet monkey and her
name is Victoria,
and I smiled at Victoria, who was with me…
‘Oh!’ said the girl…and I knew then that she didn’t realize
the little girl with me was Victoria.
And I couldn't help but giggle a little, wondering what she was
visualizing…
NaPoWriMo asks us to write about an animal today;)
Hidden Hope
The meaning is hidden now…
I know
But you do not long remain
A child
…and our hope
Is to raise
Not a child
But honorable,
Independent
Willing
Hard-working
Contributing
Adults
My dear,
The present is always
Vapor on our fingers
But the future depends
On it
The meaning is hidden now
But what you are learning
Is not for today
But for an eternity of
Tomorrows
Janet Martin
Dad, Mom, the future is in our hands...ever so briefly!
Hidden Art
Poetics Aside Prompt: hidden
Mom, why do we need to learn this? they wail
To learn the art of learning, her reply
God, why do I need to learn this, she wails
To learn the art of trusting, His reply
Janet~
Mom, why do we need to learn this? they wail
To learn the art of learning, her reply
God, why do I need to learn this, she wails
To learn the art of trusting, His reply
Janet~
Hidden Ocean
Sometimes I keep hidden
Those thoughts I should let show
The pride I have in my children
And the gift of watching them grow
Oh, they all know that I love them
And often I tell them so
But the depth of it is hidden
In life’s constant ebb and flow
Beneath the holding and scolding
The trial and error of youth
I see the future unfolding
And past’s undaunted truth
Time’s swift tumble is hidden
In a volley of laughter and tears
It comes and leaves, unbidden
From moments to hours to years
…passing through my fumbling fingers
Its eagerness I cannot quell
But oft in the evening lingers
A low and bleeding knell
…because sometimes I keep hidden
Those things that I should not
While time speeds by unbidden
On the heels of second-thought
© Janet Martin
…I remember my dad telling me,
‘there is so much I want to say in too short a time’
Often he spoke by the way he lived and I am learning
as I watch my children grow, that what I thought at times
was ‘hidden’
was there all along…and suddenly I hear him, not by what he
said, but by what he did.
The photo was taken the other night when I insisted that Matt and Tori come with me on my run/walk. The protested vehemently and then ended up having a blast!
This could be the beginning of a beautiful...habit;)
The photo was taken the other night when I insisted that Matt and Tori come with me on my run/walk. The protested vehemently and then ended up having a blast!
This could be the beginning of a beautiful...habit;)
Inside the Bud
Under those freckles
And under your blush
Beneath your ‘caught-between’ voice
Of adolescent rush
Inside this bud
Of ruddy tan
I see the stirring
Of a man
© Janet Martin
Poetics Aside Prompt: hidden
Thursday, April 5, 2012
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.
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
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...
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
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