Thursday, April 9, 2020

Looking Forward to a New Normal after COVID-19


 (*the old normal was referring to seeing my family, my grand-children,
my friends and church-family...)
 But that will never feel like the old normal either!
So much sweeter and holier than EVER before!)


Yesterday I texted my sister 'I miss the *old normal!!'
 After listening to this: Night of Prayer
I recant!
"Oh, God Help us never return to pick up where we left off!"
(if you stop listening before the end of the video how MUCH you will miss💕)





May we not dream of picking up where we left off before
A universal wake-up call came, pounding at our door
May we never be bitter at the fear and loss that spawned
A humble reassessment of life and its great Beyond

The harder that the shell has grown the more painful the break
Lord, You can melt a heart of stone, then, cause our hearts to ache
Until we yield without design or some safe-guarded sin
And with repentance genuine, Confess, and thus begin

May we never return to live half-loves of skin and bone
Afraid of who or what might infringe on its ‘comfort-zone’
But may we, heart and soul, be transformed through our minds renewed
Humbled into love, pure and true, with holy gratitude

And as we pick up pieces after this disease is spent
May we revere the Hand from whence each day’s mercies are lent
And may we never strive to return to what was before
But learn, through prayer, as we let go, God gives us so much more

© Janet Martin

If my people, who are called by my name, 
will humble themselves and pray 
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, 
then I will hear from heaven, 
and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chron.7:14

The Sweeter, Calvary


 The heavens offer an endless buffet of awe...
from morning to evening yesterday, a constant declaration of God's glory!
"The heavens declare the glory of God; 
the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Psalm 19:1

The less earth has to offer
The more we start to dwell
On what awaits hereafter
(Either Heaven or hell)
Heaven, the glorious promise
To those who trust in He
Who sent His Son to save us
From hell’s eternity

The less earth has to offer
The more we start to think
About the Divine Author
Above life’s little blink
We ponder the estrangements
That cut us down to size
And start to make arrangements
For Soul that never dies (if we are wise)

The less earth has to offer
The dearer Heaven waits
Time’s tear-anointed coffer
But the Segue to Gates
That will either swing open
To faith’s focus revealed
Or, past the point of pardon
Remain forever sealed

The less earth has to offer
The more our spirit yearns
For a Place so much better
Than this world’s brief returns
As eager expectation
Begins to override
Our natural inclination
To selfishness and pride

The less earth has to offer
The more we cling to God
The trials that we suffer
May seem a grievous rod
But wakes in heirs of heaven
A weight, worthy of care
The gift of sins forgiven
And hope beyond compare

Far sweeter than the laughter
That thrills this death-stoked dome
The endless ever-after
Of Heaven’s home-sweet-home
Forbid we stoop to scoffing
Truth’s Sole/Soul Supremacy
The less this earth's cold off'ring
The sweeter, Calvary

© Janet Martin

And if we are children, then we are heirs: 
heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ
—if indeed we suffer with Him, 
so that we may also be glorified with Him.
The creation waits in eager expectation 
for the revelation of the sons of God.…
Romans 8:17-19




Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Take Heart; The Cross Is Not The End


 Life since COVID-19 makes us really miss
'the good old days' doesn't it?
But these days many are turning to or turning back to God
What do we choose, suffering to draw us nearer to God
or ease and prosperity with God forgotten?!
 This Easter season we are without excuse
to kneel at the cross!


Love comes in many forms
So does hate
Life’s spirit-testing storms
Will abate
Nothing stays where it is
Forever
The bond that fastens This
Will sever

The loom that weaves and weds
Life’s duty
Entwines contrasting threads
For beauty
Take heart, when dark of night
Compasses
God’s everlasting light
Surpasses

When life turned upside down
Unsettles
And longing is a crown
Of nettles
When courage is a groaned
Surrender
God still abides; enthroned
Defender

Love comes in many forms
Staff and rod
Beneath the testing storms
Hand of God
Take heart, this woebegone
Hurt and loss
Pales in comparison
To Christ's cross

The cross is not the end
Then take heart
The eyes of faith, my friend
See in part
When death full sight imparts
We will find
A mist of broken hearts
Left behind


© Janet Martin


 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
    In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?

 In God, whose word I praise,
    in the Lord, whose word I praise— 
 in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can man do to me?

Psalm 56:3-4-10-11

Monday, April 6, 2020

Momentous Hierarchy


 It's Monday just in case you are having trouble remembering! ugh!!
Night shattered in a myriad of masterpieces...



To stand tall we must bow
To run well we must kneel
What is past happens now
Interlaced silk and steel
Forge a momentous wheel

To live well we must die
To be strong we must break
To be rich we must try
To give more than we take
So much future at stake

To succeed is to fall
But to get right back up
Life’s bucking bronc is small
Compared to mercy’s cup
So heave-ho and hup-hup

To hold on we must reach
To let go we must trust
To learn, Someone must teach
(We never outgrow Must)
Till
Soul to God, dust to dust

© Janet Martin

Praying for true strength today...

 That is why, 
for Christ's sake, 
I delight 
in weaknesses,
 in insults, 
in hardships, 
in persecutions, 
in difficulties. 
For when I am weak,
 then I am strong.

2 Cor. 12:10



This song was my leaning post exactly half a year ago 
when we suddenly bid farewell to one of our beloved pastors
Ron Seabrooke

Author Annie Johnson Flint's Story here
who knew many 'greater burdens and added affliction'

Another hymn of hope for these dark days...