I Saw the Day Come Spilling...

 

Duty comes a-spilling with the beauty of new day

So does mercy unfailing to cup all our come-what-may.

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
    the name of the Lord is to be praised.

Psalm 113:3

Duty loomed large right from the get-go-do this morning, but somehow

between the mess-and-muddle-mayhem, mercy metes poetry...

Over and over I've come to the conclusion

that time does not lend itself to poetry

but poetry lends itself to Time!

I saw the day come spilling from a fount of ether tide 

It rolled across the skyline over sea and countryside 

It drew away the shadows on a chariot of gold 

To set before our hungry gaze new day’s untarnished mold 

I saw the dawn come seeping through yon deeper blue until 

The darkness disappeared into Mercy’s promise fulfilled 

Where, to life’s buffet table groaning with Hope’s rich supply 

The Giver and the Taker lights the Beacon in the sky 

I saw the morn come pouring over Bygone’s battered brim 

Where in sight’s grand restoring, I could almost picture Him 

And feel His whisper part the dark like waters of a sea 

Where time is still an open Ark for all humanity 

I saw the day come spilling through a flue of fading stars 

Ah, look, the Hand that grants it is a Masterpiece of Scars 

From love that none can fathom to the plight of human race 

God rends the brooding heavens and extends his gift of grace 

© Janet Martin 

Because We Are All Athletes

Discipline, not desire determines destiny.

Dr. Charles Stanley

I have a love/hate relationship with this Thing below.

It gets my heart-rate up just looking at it,

knowing the potential it has to make me extremely uncomfortable for a bit

to feel better for a lot longer!😄😜

Physical fitness is a fine thing,

but it should not be a consuming passion...

"For bodily exercise profits a little, 

but godliness is profitable for all things, 

having promise of the life that now is 

and of that which is to come."

1 Tim.4:8

We are all athletes, my precious 

In spite of age, shape or size 

It is not physical fitness 

That equips or qualifies 

We, in the race of a lifetime

Will not all receive the prize 

Only if we trust in Jesus 

And His blood that justifies 

Not with speed of feet so agile 

Not by fetes of great renown  

But the finish of the faithful 

Will receive the Victor’s Crown 

© Janet Martin 

1 Cor.9:24-27

The Need for Self-Discipline

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? 

Run in such a way as to get the prize. 

25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. 

They do it to get a crown that will not last, 

but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

  26Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; 

I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 

27No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave 

so that after I have preached to others, 

I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

 

 

Thirst Quencher

Sometimes despondency is due to the evil one seeking to destroy

but sometimes it is due to sin robbing us of love's pure joy...

Isaiah 12:3
With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation,

John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. 

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

So that we may have life, and have it more abundantly 

More than a forward-facing flight of ‘what might yet still be’ 

So that we may have life I AM became a man to show 

The Way we ought to live and love so that all men may know 

So that we may have life beyond this blip of you-and-I 

From this world to the next He came man’s Access to supply 

While we were still dead in our sins Life came and died for us 

Providing full redemption through His perfect Son, Jesus 

So that we may have life and have it more abundantly 

More than a grin-and-bear-it strife of what-must-be-must-be 

For I AM came and through His name our frames, though drought assails 

Will be well-watered gardens, like a spring that never fails 

The more abundant life is not a pampered gaiety

Not for the faint of heart or those who hate humility

Oh Lord, restore in us once more the image of Your Son

So we, with joy draw water from the spring of Salvation

So that we may have life, and have it more abundantly 

More than a forward-facing flight of timed futility

So that we may have life I AM became a man to show 

The Way we ought to live so love's well-springs will overflow 

© Janet Martin

The evil one burdens us with what isn't.

the righteous One frees us and fills us with joy through Who IS!!

On this glorious morning in this joyous season

though not a Christmas carol, the song below certainly could be

Hail to the Brightness of Zion's Glad Morning

To be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters do not fail

does not happen by ourselves 

but is contingent upon a sacred 'If' 

Isa.58:9-11

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you take away the yoke from your midst,

The [e]pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

10If you extend your soul to the hungry

And satisfy the afflicted soul,

Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,

And your [f]darkness shall be as the noonday.

11The Lord will guide you continually,

And satisfy your soul in drought,

And strengthen your bones;

You shall be like a watered garden,

And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

A Christmas Goodie!

Light of the Stable

Impressions of Sand or So It Flows or Patriarchal Sparkle

I couldn't settle on one title today.😏

This morning, as we pick up where we left off last night

may we have a real sense of Whose hands time's sands flow through...

Some summer tendrils snared a bit of autumn on winter's carpet

So it flows, wild woe and wonder 

Rising, falling, wave on wave 

Breakers of beauty and blunder 

Thunder through to Bygone’s grave 

In a sea of seasons sweeping 

Over time’s indulgent sands 

Holding, folding, laughing, weeping 

Dream-castles felled by demands 

Ever rushing and receding 

Over town and countryside

Curtain-fall and rise repeating

 Like an empyrean tide 

Pouring like sand, through our fingers 

While we touch what none can stay 

So it flows; where all that lingers 

Is a sense of Yesterday

What a shoreline lies behind us

Where momentous moments merge

From a Hand of loving kindness

To replenish what we purge

Of its sediment, impartial

To rudiments, vapour-thin

So it flows; a patriarchal

Sparkle pouring through our skin

 

© Janet Martin

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, 

created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 

which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

In Spite of Bitter-Sweeter or While We Ate Eggs

A few conversations with sisters/friends had me contemplating how much

bitter-sweeter this Christmas seems without the joy of family and friend get-togethers;

how photos in the mail are bittersweet; how keeping the enthusiasm

in much modified plans is bittersweet!

Then, nothing like children to shift our focus...

Why are you listening to this song? asked little Girl 

through mouth full of scrambled egg.

Um, because it talks about Immanuel, I answered...

(I love the words to the song below)

From The Squalor of a Borrowed Stable

 

Matt.1:23

"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, 

and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us").

...so, while we ate eggs we talked about God; 

God With Us, Immanuel

no matter what, or where or when we are never alone!

God is with us all the time so we don't need to be scared or too sad.

How often as I try to teach children my words preach to me...

Bitter-sweeter ring the anthems of the worship we employ 

Gratitude and longing duel in Hope’s bitter-sweeter joy 

As wonder and hunger mingle in a bitter-sweeter trust 

Where an ocean of emotion rolls through mankind’s Soul-full dust 

From the heart of Love Unfailing to this groaning, broken world 

Hope Immortal keeps its promise in each breath-banner unfurled 

Through the Christ-child, born of Mary, in a stable so forlorn 

Came man’s Scapegoat, our pardon, on that first glad Christmas morn 

Bitter-sweeter bow the branches laden with fresh fallen snow 

Mirroring the heart that gazes on a scene of long ago 

Where still faithful through the ages gleams the Star that cannot dim 

As from bitter-sweeter places we still come to worship Him 

Come, and raise a hymn of gladness to He who came to atone 

Praise Immanuel, God With Us, we are never all alone 

Praise the One whose name is Jesus, come to save people from sin 

So the bitter blight of Eden, by God’s mercy will not win 

Hallelujah, hallelujah, bitter-sweeter flows our hymn 

As we gaze upon the Christ-child who would be torn limb from limb 

Where love, faithful to his Father did not scorn salvation’s plan 

But obeyed salvation’s Author; Son of God born son of man 

Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise He who has overcome 

Greater is the One within us than this world’s most mighty sum 

He, who came to earth to save us with love none can comprehend 

Will not leave us or forsake us but is our most faithful Friend 

© Janet Martin 

Matt 1:21

She will give birth to a son, 

and you are to give him the name Jesus, 

because he will save his people from their sins."

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Echo-graphs...

For young people everywhere

Don't Give Up!

No child can outgrow their mother's prayers...

I really pray for our young people right now

with everything shut down

school online etc. 

Many are bored, restless and lonely!

Today, as I watched one of my childcare tots 

totter across the yard all bundled up

it reminded me of a (sort of) long ago world 

that seemed so permanent at the time;

when our own children were little.

Now they are young men and women,

and all this isolation is very hard,

esp. for young men who tend to perhaps not have

as many indoor hobbies as girls might.

(esp. if they play sports)

Please pray for our young people, 

that they use this as an opportunity to grow in their faith

and to become upstanding examples of man and womanhood.

Moms and dads, I guess we need to set good examples first, right?

This poem formed in my head as I watched the tot with one eye

and the little girl trying to touch the sky with her toes

from the swing I was pushing, with the other!

Photo Echographs...

They scatter on December's yard 

Like tatters of an old postcard 

And decoupage a mother’s heart 

In a collage of mem’ry-art 

They waft like echoes on the air 

A soft impression of Somewhere 

Entangled in a mother’s sigh 

Those whisper-grins of days gone by 

They sparkle in fresh fallen snow 

Footfalls muffled by come and go 

To mirror in a mother’s tear 

Reflections of sweet yester-year 

They tug and hug and ebb and surge 

Where past, present and future merge 

To urge within a mother’s prayer 

A tender plea for daily care 

© Janet Martin

Taking the Follow, Not The Lead

Christian's song after Faith was persecuted...

Excerpt from the book The Pilgrim's Progress  

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 23:2-3

He makes me to lie down in [b]green pastures;

He leads me beside the [c]still waters.

3He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Psalm 61:2

From the end of the earth I will cry to You, 

When my heart is overwhelmed; 

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Matt.6:13

And lead us not into temptation

but delivers us from evil,

***

Who we follow affects everything we do 

and everywhere we go!

***

A leader cannot force the follower.

The follower chooses his or her leader.

***

Dear Lord, a prayer to Thee for we

who seek to follow Thee

Keep us unmoved by reason that seeks to invade meek trust 

Help us, in each new season to surrender to Thy lead 

Remind us, we are mortal and the logic of our dust 

In its most shining hour is most fallible indeed 

Hone love’s steadfast ambition to follow and not to stray 

Shield us from finite vision rather than Your promises 

Lead us in paths of righteousness; let no temptation sway 

Lest we forget your sacrifice, enticed by worldliness 

There is a way that seems right to a man but leads to death 

Oh, let us never trust in it; but in Thy Word instead 

The spirit is so willing but the flesh, ah, but the flesh 

Is easily seduced when by our carnal nature led 

The way is straight and narrow that leads to eternal life 

Let not faith’s footsteps falter or be fooled by what we see 

For though where You lead may seem hard and troubled with much strife 

Tis but the wink ere death is swallowed up in victory 

© Janet Martin

The World is full of ways to go and wiles to follow

There in only One Way to life eternal...

Jesus said to him, 

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:6 

Saviour, Lead Me Lest I Stray

Sweet Beulah Land

He Leadeth Me

Lead Me To Calvary

Prov.4:26

Ponder the path of your feet, 

And let all your ways be established.

Following Jesus

Dr. Charles Stanley

Unplumbed Happiness

Life is too short not to cavort 

With friendly sorts, like trees and skies 

The long way home is like a poem 

Whisp'ring in nature’s paradise 

How good to sit and chat a bit 

With friends that flit with twitt’ring laud 

Who do not bear tomorrow’s care 

But leave its Wherefore up to God 

Time flies and soon the afternoon 

Is like a tune we used to know 

So, we should pause sometimes because 

The gauze of moments steals the show 

Don’t wait too long to learn the song 

That wafts upon the lofty breeze 

And softly blends the way that wends 

Through what time lends, to memories 

The wonder-strands from wander-lands 

Of grandiose 'hands-off' finesse

Softly become the glorious sum

Of perfect, unplumbed happiness

© Janet Martin 

This is the lure I couldn't resist...

before it darkened