Death's Grave Inevitable

 

2 Cor.5:9-10

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent,

to be well pleasing to Him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,

that each one may receive the things done in the body,

according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Death and Dying-Alistair Begg

Death can spring like a hidden trap; eternity unfurled

Without warning; light or darkness the soul’s forever-world

No in-between; one of two destinies, Heaven or hell

Waits at the Gates of Final Breath’s Grave Inevitable

Where we will all appear before the judgement seat of Christ

To receive just reward for deeds just as He has promised

Where time will roll up like a scroll, when God at last is seen

As Death’s Grave Inevitable rends the frail veil between

So, pray that we aspire to please Him, first and foremost

To make the God of our salvation our utter boast

Because He loves us so and has conquered Death so that we

At its Grave Inevitable will taste its victory

Death can spring like a hidden trap; eternity unfurled

Without warning it flings ajar the soul’s forever-world

Today we choose one of two destinies; Heaven or hell

Waits at the Gates of Final Breath’s Grave Inevitable

© Janet Martin

To Cling, Rather Than Understand

If we relied only on what we understood we would all be atheists!🙏

Prov.3:5-7

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall [b]direct your paths.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

Deuteronomy 13:4

You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him;

and you shall keep His commandments,

listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.

Psalm 63:7-8

For You are my help;

I will sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings.

My soul clings to You;

Your right hand upholds me.

Isa.41:10

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;

 I will strengthen you, I will help you, 

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”

What waits we cannot tell. Lord, all that we would ask

Is for Your Spirit to compel and fit us for love’s task

To run with hope, no, fly! To rise on eagle’s wings

And bid humility reply while to Thy law hope clings

To find our rightful place within your counsel true

And to commit this day of grace and what it brings, to You

To repent of pride’s sin and yield our will and want

To You, rather than flounder in a world of futile taunt

To trust in You; not lean on sight-impeded ken

But to cling to what is Unseen, forevermore, amen

Then, with pure joy to know the peace Your love imparts

Your right hand on our shoulders and your Word within our hearts

What waits to try and test we do not know or see

But to cling to Your Promises seals our victory

To know, at your right hand are pleasures evermore

To cling, rather than understand, oh Lord, thus we implore 

Amen

© Janet Martin

Isa.40:30-31

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall.

But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength;

they will mount up with wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not faint.

Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path of life; 

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

 At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Cling To Christ

 

Judge of the Secrets of the Hearts of Men

Blink-Ink or Weight/Gate of Imminence

This poem wanted to keep rolling, like waves toward a shore

because often we blink; and what once was will be no more

Where Time's persistent tolling is a very fine-tuned gong

and no one knows how near or far we are to its So Long...

Today a grieving family is laying their precious nine-year old boy to rest🙏💔

What we think would have been Best must rest in the hands

of the Giver and Taker of life/time; Blessed be the name of the Lord.

It drives deep in the heart once more

this sacred reality poured from Job's lips in ancient days...

And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, 

And naked shall I return there.

The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Job 1:21

Not one of us knows how soon what we have been given will be taken!

or when our book of life will be eternally bound as its last thread is severed.

Let's not take blink-ink for granted.

We blink it seems and night burns pink along earth’s eastward edge

The brink of a new day turns molten gold with mercy’s pledge

Unfurling, like an ocean we can sense but cannot see

Time’s weight of imminence rushing shores of eternity

…where tears, so many tears convey depths of both joy and grief

Of longing and fulfillment, apprehension and relief

Where years like a four-season barge traverse Time’s surf of air

And where no care or charge is too large to fit into prayer

Where oft the unexpected perplexes dreams dearly held

God’s patient purpose vexes man as Plan’s framework is felled

Where Time never stands still but forges on, through high and low

Where break of day soon spills into dusk’s gorgeous afterglow

…and then, we blink; the east burns pink, star-dazzle disappears

The brink of yesterday linked to the gray of yester-years

The green of youth at the mercy of truth’s unflinching stride

Its uncouth education borne on morn-to-morning tide

And nobody is exempt from forums of Much to Learn

We blink; and feast upon leased crumbs of summer’s sudden turn

While thoroughfares beyond our touch hinge to a new threshold

We blink; already dawn has shed its blush of pink and gold…

Where we (all poets in a sense) splash through ink-wells refilled

We rush the gates of imminence with ways and means, God-willed

Where verse on verse, we bless or curse, filled page soon strewn behind

Where blink on blink the ink dries in a book that God will bind

© Janet Martin

The Sands of Time are Sinking

The Book of This or Why Do You Have to Hurry So?

 

Why do you have to run and dance where green of youth is fleet

And dare the dust of innocence with eager, restless feet

Why do you rush my dear, beyond brushstrokes of Now and Here

Through sun sparkles on summer’s pond, you leap from childhood’s pier

Why do you have to tug at strings attached to hearts of They

More attuned to fine-feathered wings straining to fly away

Quite near enough, my lovely child, are morrow’s misted swells

Driving starry-eyed darlings wild with dreamland’s dinner bells

Why do you have to hurry so from worlds of girls and boys

You poise upon the ebb and flow of childhood’s carefree joys

Without a second thought of what will soon be borne away

While you are busy straining at a Big World held at bay

A feast of tears and laughter scatters while you grow and grow

A heaven-ness of happy chatter smiles, but you don’t know

That you are splashing through the brook of life’s most buoyant bliss

Why do you have to hurry so to close The Book of This?

...a cartwheel made of stardust and love's countless hugs and prayers

A petal-vault of wanderlust soon turned to creature cares

A gift we cannot treasure to the full of its extent

Until its outpoured measure makes us wonder where it went

© Janet Martin

Inspired in part by a girl who remarked yesterday

that she is not going to be a child forever!💖😘

 

 

Have Pity on Us, Father

He remembers that we are dust.

 As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

 For the wind passes over it, and it is [b]gone,

And its place remembers it no more...

Soon all this flourishing flower and field will disappear...

and the plant with all its beauty and vitality will be as it never was!

So too it will be with our bodies, but never the Soul!

Psalm 103:13-18 (NKJV)

As a father pities his children,

So the Lord pities those who fear Him.

14 For He [a]knows our frame;

He remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

16 For the wind passes over it, and it is [b]gone,

And its place remembers it no more.

17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

On those who fear Him,

And His righteousness to children’s children,

18 To such as keep His covenant,

And to those who remember His commandments to do them.

So much sorrow in this broken world to

author anguished cries to our Heavenly Daddy...

who remembers we are dust💔

Have pity on us, Daddy

(Thou knowest we are dust)

When we cry to Thee, ‘Abba’

Restore, renew our trust

In Thee, for Thou art able

To do what man cannot

Instill in us a table

Laden with feasts, joy-wrought

For even in our groaning

The joy of Thee abides

Through faith in the atoning

That Calvary provides

The hope of our salvation

Transcends life’s bitter blows

The thorn of tribulation

Cannot defeat The Rose

Thy mercies are eternal

Our numbered days of bloom

May draw from springs supernal

Carved in an empty tomb

Thus, though our frame will perish

As flowers of the field

The Soul with Thee will flourish

When heaven is revealed

Have pity on us, Daddy

Doubt’s dark despair forbid

As we cry to Thee, Abba

Like once dear Jesus did

Kindle in us a vision

When dust its due reclaims

Of hope's tear-stained transition

Instilling faith’s dust-frames

Our Father, (who art) in heaven

Bend Thine ear to our plea

That all may be forgiven

That all humbly fear Thee

And find in Thy compassion

Thy kind comfort to cheer

The Soul, clad in frail fashion

Of dust-knitted veneer 

Ignite in us Thy Presence

 Thou, Friend above all friends

Behold faith's smoking incense

As prayer on prayer ascends 

Until the mortal flower

Fulfills its ordained must

Have pity on us, Father

Remember, we are dust

In Thy name we pray

Amen

© Janet Martin

Hebrews 4:15-16 (BSB)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,

but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.

 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence,

 so that we may receive mercy and find grace 

to help us in our time of need.

Where Could I Go but To The Lord-Emmylou Harris

Dawn's Friendliness or Mercy's Grief

 Dawn's friendliness...

fills up the sky...

with mercies ever new

Dawn’s friendliness fills up the sky, where mercies ever new

Upon which mortal can rely, runs night’s dark ramparts through

And eases from its awning, stars, and floods the land and sea

With birth; unveiling earthen bars where darkness used to be

Refurbishing a color-world as Mercy’s hand unrolls

Today’s sacred runway, unfurled beneath feet bearing souls

Dawn’s brief, mist-mantled advent beams in beauty’s purity

Where mercy’s patient kindness streams in spite of apathy

The heavens, like a preacher everyone loves to applaud

A universal Teacher glorifying one true God

His evidence, like soundless thunder pours from boundless trays

To rouse in rebel-creatures wonder’s awe-enraptured praise

Dawn’s swift gift of perfection soon yields to workaday Must

Pointed in the direction of far more than dust-to-dust

Where mercy metes the holiness/Friend-liness of a new day of grace

God gathers mortal lowliness/emptiness in love’s kingly embrace

As goodness spills to refill dawn’s chalice with Mercy’s grief

For it is not His will that any die in unbelief

© Janet Martin

2 Pet.3:8-9

Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: 

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.c 

9The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, 

but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish 

but everyone to come to repentance.

On Conquering Futility

If we as gardeners only focus on what isn't growing or blooming

the way we had hoped or planned for,

we would miss what is!

So too in the garden of Life!

It's been years since I've grown snow-on-the-mountain flowers

and it's the first time for larkspur, 

(which could be why I am sharing SO many larkspur-shots)😅

 thanks to some seeds given to me

last Christmas from one of my gardener-friends.

I am delighting in their splendor! 

however, I thought the larkspur would be taller than the snow-on-the-mountain 

so the tiered flower-garden isn't quite what I had pictured,

but we enjoy what grew rather than what didn't...

like the straw-flower seeds I planted behind the marigold.

This sunflower below, as it grew larger began to obstruct the passage and the view in the arbor...

so I snipped it off for a centerpiece!

Here's to each of us to making the most of Today's 'garden'.!

Futile to wallow in regret

That no thought can undo

Better to focus on the Yet

Now runs its fingers through

Futile to pine for what once was

Leave Bygone on its shelf

And focus on what Is because

No day repeats itself

Futile to wish for what is not

With longing and lament

Better to give the best we’ve got

Before Today is spent

Futile to waste away in want

Better to kneel in prayer

And ask God to vanquish the taunt

Of defeat and despair

Futile to bear yesterday’s loss

Or surf Past’s frozen tide

Better to take up today’s cross

And trust God to provide

© Janet Martin

“‎"The best of men are just men at best.― Alistair Begg

Jesus-Always, Only

Awesome Anticipation...

Though this poem was inspired by daybreak it applies to every breath and step we take...

As the sun rose I was impacted by the profound realization of

One Day Nearer...

One day nearer to the coming

Of our Lord; and what will be

One day nearer to our going

From time to eternity

One day nearer to beholding

He who saves us by His grace

Each new daybreak is unfolding

One day nearer to His face

And the sacred understanding

Of all that we cannot tell

When the Truth will be unending

In either Heaven or hell

One day nearer to departure

From this world of toil and strife

From the woes of war and hunger

And the cares of love and life

From the hope of our salvation

To faith’s armor laid to rest

From the cross of tribulation

To the crown of righteousness

From this temporary running

To the everlasting Prize

When at last we shed the garment

Of faith’s living sacrifice

One day nearer to the hour

Of reckoning and reward

For man’s days are like a flower

Dust-to-dust, Soul to the Lord

One day nearer to forever

Then remember, while you may

Ere the silver cord is severed

And all but God falls away

One day nearer to the Awesome

Crossing of faith’s Finish Line

…the last petal of the blossom

Caught in nail-scarred hands, divine

© Janet Martin

2 Tim.4:8

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,

which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:

and not to me only,

but unto all them also that love his appearing.

1 Thess.5:1-10

Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to you.

  2For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 

3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly,

 like labor pains on a pregnant woman, 

and they will not escape.

4But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.

  5For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; 

we do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 

6So then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain awake and sober. 

7For those who sleep, sleep at night; and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.

  8But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, 

putting on the breastplate of faith and love,

and the helmet of our hope of salvation.

9For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, 

but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

10He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, 

we may live together with Him. 

11Therefore encourage and build one another up, 

just as you are already doing.

Still, Still with Thee

Glorious Day...