Monday, March 4, 2013

Our God IS Sovereign





This is our God
Sovereign and sure
And none exceeds His power
By His promise
We will endure
In life’s most trying hour

This is our God
Immortal King
Father and Son and Spirit
Sustain-er in our
Suffering
He kindly helps us bear it

This is our God
Lion and Lamb
Offering and Vindicator
Man of sorrows
The I AM
Heaven and earth’s Creator

This is our God
He parts the seas
No army over-throws Him
Deliverer
Of mysteries
And none can fully know Him

This is our God
Faithful, the One
This life is but a vapor
Before we bow
Before His throne
To dwell with Him forever

© Janet Martin

Yesterday afternoon we saw face to face the couple we prayed for .They shared the details of their flight from raw and real danger. They are safely at home, waiting on the Lord. Pray they can keep good courage as they face sudden new unknowns. As they shared they constantly reiterated that in spite of everything, no matter what happened and happens, God is Sovereign and to Him be the glory.

Last night we watched the first episode of The Bible and again God’s sovereignty impacted my heart. This is I AM, the Same yesterday, today and forever. The God of Abraham and Isaac is the God of you and I. hallelujah! This is our God!

Prelude to Spring-song





Beneath the mute and mirthless shield
Of March-bedraggled cover
Tarries the bliss of daisy field
Of Queen Ann’s lace and clover

Beneath this staid and cheerless scrim
Of hollow quiet ringing
Trembles the touch that probes the limb
Into bloom-petal singing

Beneath the silent, snow-clenched scope
Of winter’s weary gumption
Quivers a season of new hope
And spring-song’s glad redemption

Soon this white space will bear the grace
Of emerald-golden sashes
As winter renders its embrace
To silver spring-song splashes

© Janet Martin

Something Softly Stealing...





The east is bathed in primal hints
Of something softly stealing
Across the ocean’s onyx glint
And midnight’s mystic ceiling

The past consumes each moment spent
The fount of future flowing
From vaults of mercy heaven-lent
To mortal touch bestowing

As on the brim where earth and sky
Meld in gold correlation
Midnight has laid its garment by
In morning celebration

Footsteps fatigued at dusk’s descent
Hearts heavy with care’s measure
Embrace life’s fervor once again
As mercy spills its pleasure

© Janet Martin

When I got up this morning the east was embellished with a gold and pink metallic sash, quickly dissolved in blue-gray wash so I used a photo from the archives.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Chicken-pox





When ya’ got the chicken-pox
You can’t be wearin’ shoes or socks
‘cause chicken pox got no respect
But perch on feet-soles, scalp and neck
And every crease, cranny of skin
That they can manage to squeeze in

When chicken-pox make a house-call
They are not courteous at all
We don’t see them till they hatch
And all we want to do is scratch
But mother says that we must not
Oh, how I hate the chicken-pox

'Bring me a swab of calamine,
A drink, a bath of oatmeal-grime'
How sweet and happy life will be
When I get past this misery
Of burning, itching agony
And chicken-pox melancholy

© Janet Martin

She prefers to be living in an oatmeal-bath these days;)
"Victoria; in the words of my mother, 'this too shall pass'. "
At least they will be better by Saturday, her 12th birthday!


Solace



 My 'Happy-place' is the corner of our living-room or The Poet's Den where I recently moved my ever-expanding poetry collection.

Poetic Bloomings invites us the share our 'happy place' today.

Soft surrender like no other
It’s a bit like coming home
To the arms of gentle mother
In the comfort of a poem

Timeless treasure tunes the silence
Promises from God to men
Murmur in the troubled darkness
As His whisper moves my pen

Ache of longing, fear of morrow
Flows in quiet tenderness
Melding pleasure, pain and sorrow
In this think-in-ink caress

Healer of heart-ache and hunger
Troubadour of sonnet-song
Passion, prayer and promise murmur
In the solace of a poem

© Janet Martin

Wonderful, Wondrous Wonder



 

We repent and are forgiven
What a wondrous, glorious thing
There is just one way to Heaven
Through the lifeblood of a King

Not by works or gold and silver
Is His justice satisfied
But as we trust sin's Deliverer
Him; Jesus Christ crucified

Oh, what love and great compassion
Suffering so we may live
Once for all; infinite offering
When we ask Him He forgives

© Janet Martin

When my hubby asked what was so urgent as I stumbled out of bed and turned on the computer I tried to explain to him through choked emotion, how sometimes it awes me anew ‘we repent and He forgives’. There is no limit to the mercy of the Kings of kings and Lord of Lords; the One who shed His own blood so we may live.

Friday, March 1, 2013

What Did You Come to See?





What did you come to see?
A reed tossed in the wind?
A man in fine array?
A voice of one crying?

What did you come to see?
The horror of blood shed?
A corpse of suffering
With thorns upon His head?

What did you come to see?
A cross? A king? A thief?
Or did you come to see a Lamb
Bearing atonement's grief?

Why did you come to gaze
At heaven’s mercy-seat?
Was it your hatred or your love
That drew you to His feet?

What did you come to see
As He cried, ‘it is done’?
A man upon a tree
Or Jesus, God’s own Son?

© Janet Martin



Like a Lamb





She tiptoed in on silver scrim
Of February’s waning
While poets slept softly she crept
Beneath Time’s astral awning

The gilded wing of darling spring
Consoles the frosted tresses
Beneath night’s arch keen, moody March
Whispers of Easter dresses

The phantom skien of moment-mein
Employs its muted measure
As on the hearth of quiet earth
We greet Spring's sweet harbinger

© Janet Martin

I think March came in like a lamb; calm but very cold!