Thereby We Go

If we would count our failures, oh

How could we bear its dread dismay?

God’s grace whereby we humbly go

Forgives and grants us a new day

If we could see the debt we owed

And God forgave; all want would cease

God’s grace, whereby we humbly go

Forgives, and grants us hope and peace

Earth’s joy is fleeting, this we know

The best it offers fades like mist

God’s grace whereby we humbly go

Forgives in dawn-kissed amethyst

If we could catch one glimpse of Heav’n

Fear would falter and faith would reign

God’s grace, whereby we are forgiv’n

Waits to let Heaven make it plain

© Janet Martin

 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

1 Cor.15:10

The Best That We Can Do...

 Praise the LORD. 

Give thanks to the LORD, 

for he is good; 

his love endures forever.

Ps. 106:1

The best that we can do for God

Is praise His name from ports of sod

Inept are we to explain love

Save to raise praise to God above

The best that anyone can do

Is praise He who loves me and you

Inept are we to explain grace

At Calvary He took our place

The best way we can conquer fear

Is praise He who is ever near

Inept are we to explain this;

Nothing is greater than God IS

The best way we can live for Him

Is lift His name in praise, amen

Inept are we to explain He

Who hears the praise of you and me

© Janet Martin

It’s easy to sing God’s praise when things go our way.

What about those times when life doesn’t give us what we want?

Better then, to turn our eyes to Calvary, remembering He who took our place and praise Him for love’s redeeming grace!

Praise Him then, every day we live

Not just for what we get, but give!

I'm sure many of us in this area are praising Him for sending a much needed rain this morning... 

How will we give praise today?!

Life Is a Journey

Let it take us by the hand

Lead us like a lover, keen

Into Today’s foreign land

Where no one has ever been

Or seen what waits to unfold

Will it be gray, green or gold?

Let it fortify our feet

Life is a journey, oh yes,

Bitter mingles with the sweet

Heartache hallows happiness

Trust in He who frees dawn’s gate

He will make our pathways straight

Let it heal our heart’s deep hurt

Fill the hunger in its core

Not with prizes drawn from dirt

But through He Who we live for

Hallelujah, hearts applaud

Life is a journey to God

Hand-foot-heart, this skin-bone cage

Harbors want, fear, hope and need

Unknown spreads its morning stage

Take God’s Hand and let Him lead

For He knows and sees the way

Honor Him with trust today

© Janet Martin

Today my friend Diane has her third chemo treatment before tests tomorrow to see what is happening. Will you pray for God's peace to calm her and Steve, her husband?

Will you pray for trust when God's ways are not our ways?

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Prov.3:5-6

Summer's Serenaders

 I heard my first cricket of this summer yesterday morning as we drove past this fence-row of wildflowers when we were leaving the cottage...

The crickets have begun earth’s summer-song

Their serenade stipples night’s dewy deep

And wafts up to the space where stars are hung

And lures the poet from her place of sleep

To wonder at the strange staccato thrum

Their nocturne fills the air with vibrato

Where musky dark is like a stadium

That veils the choir yet hails us to a show

That bids us let its cadences pervade

Staid skin and bone until the heart of hearts

Partakes of this anointed serenade

And the sweet summer-sadness it imparts

© Janet Martin

The dark is not yet drenched with cricket-song, but softly stippled with the prelude to late-summer's crescendo.

Ebb and Flow...

It plays its ways

To a new generation

Unseen as the wind,

It leaves its mark

Time is a tide;

A seamless succession

Of birth and death

And light and dark

…it splays in days;

Tips trays of wonder

Green-kissed frost

And mauve-mist dale

Seasons salted

With swift splendor

Gift to earth

From heaven’s grail

…always waking,

Taking, leaving

Laughter, grief;

Time’s ebb and flow

Courses; forces

Through our being

An eternal

Letting go

© Janet Martin

This is another Matter of Time poem. 

After going to the same cottage for vacation year after year,

sitting at the end of the same dock year after year, 

becoming keenly aware of how much changes year after year,

in spite of what remains the same year after year,

the matter of time can take the idle, summer-sunset-intoxicated mind on quite a stroll!