Saturday, July 6, 2019

Concerning This Salvation Then...

This is a poem for we who believe to persevere with joy
for once we were lost!
...and for those who choose to live without Hope, to count the cost! 



Faith feels its way along the grace
That leads us to hope’s resting place
The battleground of righteousness
Is plagued with enemy’s 'success'
Yet hedged in by One who sustains
And counts earth’s loss for heaven’s gains
Do not despair where cynics lie
God hears our prayer and heeds our cry

And He for Whom we hope and hurt
For whom we sacrifice and work
For whom we know we have believed
Is able; victory achieved
Therefore, armed with triumph foretold
We are called to be strong and bold
For we serve, not some Unsure Thing
We serve a risen Lord and King

And without it, how could we cope
How could we bear care’s dust-to-dust
If man was all man had to trust
Then hope would be a cheerless tryst
For godless hope cannot exist
And life would be Death’s dreadful toll
Without Hope’s Lord that saves the soul

Concerning this salvation then
Exalt the Living Hope of men
Where Time cannot undo the Truth
As we wait for hope’s living proof
As faith beholds The Proven Word
Upon the throne of Christ the Lord

© Janet Martin




Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope 
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  
 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,  
 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation
 that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while 
you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  
 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—
of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—
may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  
 Though you have not seen him, you love him; 
and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him 
and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,  
 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, 
searched intently and with the greatest care...
1 Peter 1:3-10

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Gold-diggers



We learn from little ones to mine for moment-gold!





None can afford to make less than the most of what we hold
The secret to true happiness is found in moment-gold
Through time’s incessant change we find some things remain intact
The more that we are thankful for, the less we seem to lack

The season after planting and before harvest runs rife
With that which appears common but becomes the best of life  
Where we, merchants of moment-gold are on a spending spree
…a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity

Futile to fret about the Yet that begets come-what-may
These little girls with pretty curls soon up and fly away
And curious boys so full of noise and wonder’s joys grow tall
Honing a mother’s hunger in the hurry of it all

So much to learn in the return of what time tries to teach
Where wisdom that we earn comes from lessons long out of reach
Where happiness we find must still be mined from moment-gold
Where it is not too late to make the most of what we hold

(last verse optional)
(the pitter-patter of bare feet soon paves a lost highway
futile to gaze down airborne streets through haze of yesterday
futile to pine for prizes pressed in morrow's mystic mold
better to make the most of today's precious moment-gold)

© Janet Martin



  Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have,
 because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Heb.13:5

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Summer-tide...


 do you feel it?!
The tender tug from a team of phantom Steads that drew June
with subtle ease to Never-land

 Today we harvested mint leaves (before they go into flower)
so we can drink mint tea to our heart's content next winter while white gales howl
and hiss, rattling windows and bare branches ...doesn't today suddenly feel extra-blissful 😀



The fleeting font of moments metes its mist
Where Hunger’s ageless army wages war
Summer spills thrills in gold and amethyst
It tests the grist where vice and virtue spar  
And moves beneath the hooves of tick and tock
A carriage drawn by steads inside the clock  

The starting place of days is soon high noon
High noon shimmies across a southward slope
Where husk of dusk hoists up a wisp of moon
And tunes unfinished tasks with rest and hope
As mankind copes with strain of rod and staff
While proof of truth like grain is weaned from chaff

The scenes that sweetened winter’s meanest drift
Now keen a sudden, sentimental ache
The team that drew June’s chariot was swift
And left a cloud of wonder in its wake
Whilst mingling farewell’s bittersweet goodbye
With Expectation turned toward July

We find with thorn a rose, with rose, a thorn
Morn melts the dark that rolled in like a wave
The tender tug within the bosom borne
Will follow us, methinks, into the grave
We learn, as Reason yields its shield and sword
Each season has both challenge and reward

© Janet Martin



Tuesday, July 2, 2019

These Sacred Days of Courtship...




May the incense of true worship
Rise from hearts filled with love’s fire
May God’s unrestricted Lordship
Humble, utter awe inspire
May the hope that burns with reason
Stir us onward in the climb
Through the plant-to-harvest season
Till the very end of time

May it urge us to take captive
Every thought we entertain
For the enemy is active
In advertising false gain
He is eager to distract us
From the truths that matter most
Tempting us to exchange Jesus
For a more apparent boast

May God’s mercy and His goodness
(Though at times misunderstood)
Be the banner to remind us
That He works for our good
Then may this inspire worship
Knowing He is on our side
In these sacred days of courtship
Before the Groom claims His bride

© Janet Martin


 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
John 4:23

Monday, July 1, 2019

Summer Serenade...and Welcome, July







Summer, wash through us like wave-song
Turn the pages in your book
With the flutter of a baton
Teasing blue heron and brook

Soften hope’s hard lines with flowers
Drive us crazy with your smile
Dappling ditches, hills and bowers
With daisy and chamomile

Marinade your luscious moments
In translucent honeyed-gold
Let us savour your full flavour
Sweet and salty, sanguine, bold

Run your bow across a fiddle
Made of meadow-grass and wheat
Before buoyant strings grow brittle
In your whittling wind and heat

Let your hymn of nature soothe us
‘Neath a green-treed canopy
Satisfy the poet’s pathos
With its timbre of the sea

Summer, draw us to your garden
Saturate us with your sigh
Before you beg our pardon
In a leafless lullaby

© Janet Martin