Hope in God's Forgiving Love

Oh God, those things we think we need

But course of consequence withholds

Though often bowed with grief we plead

As aftermath of choice unfolds

Oh God, the rod of consequence

Though justified, and fully earned

Depends on mercy’s Providence

To meekly bear its lessons learned

Pride goes before destruction, oh

And haughtiness precedes a fall

Oh God, still, by your grace we go

Obedient to servant's call

Forgiveness redeems us from sin

But consequence of it remains

To teach this sorrow-skiff of skin

How faithfully our God sustains

© Janet Martin

 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.

      Lord, hear my voice!
            Let Your ears be attentive
            To the voice of my supplications.

      If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,
            O Lord, who could stand?

      But there is forgiveness with You,
            That You may be feared.

      I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,
            And in His word do I hope.

Psalm 130:1-5

When I Begin To See

When I begin to glimpse the love

That gave His life at Calvary

And paid sin’s debt for you and me

(and oh, how awful that debt was)

…when I begin to contemplate

Who Jesus IS, who He became

To save us from our guilt and shame

(and oh, that guilt and shame is great)

When I begin to realize

Where we would be without His grace

No hope for sinful human race

(and oh, no heaven when man dies)

…then all that I can do is bow

And wonder how such love could be

He gave His life for you and me

(then oh, what love we should live now)

© Janet Martin

How Good the Good and Sad the Bad...

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jamestrusl393633.html

How good the good we do

How sad the bad, then we

Should not point fingers; no

But seek humility

For all the good we do

Is by the grace of God

And there is no one who

Has not deserved His rod

Then we are oh, so glad

For mercy’s cleansing blood

For He forgives the bad

And He lives in the good

So then, how good the good

But oh, how sad the bad,

For all that oft ‘we should’

Is what we wish ‘we had’

© Janet Martin

 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

Rom.7:18-19 

A 'Grave' Matter

 The choices we make help create the landscape for those who, as of yet, have no choice...

Gravity of choice

Thy voice

Heeded in instants

Disappears

The echo of

A moment’s love

Reverberates for

Years and years

© Janet Martin

'This'

 Even though 'this' is not picture-perfect it is all we have. 

We should cherish it for who knows what morrow's 'this' will be...

This day grants a rainy-day inkwell;-) thank-you, rainy-windy-freezing cold May day;-)

Futile to fret for what is not

Nor let Thought plunder Past’s abyss

Better to look at what we’ve got

And seek to make the best of 'this'

For soft and swift the ‘This’ we clasp

Will disappear without a sound

Into a fathom ever-cast

Where none the key to it has found

Therefore, before we turn to crave

The ‘this’ we had but missed somehow

We should look well at what we have

And make the utter-best of Now

© Janet Martin