Sweet Recompense

Eph.2:14

For He Himself is our peace...

(Today's poem was inspired by the first line 

in today's Daily Bread Devotion scripture reading)

...and then, the outer fringes of His glory

filled the heavens where 'evidence of things unseen'

grants glimpses of Him!

Jesus is our peace; hell’s gates cannot prevail

Against the Cornerstone that keeps faith anchored in the gale

When we have known the truth, the truth will set us free

No longer owned by sin’s uncouth, lawless captivity

Faith’s crux of things hoped for; of evidence unseen

Anchors the Soul; the Goal more precious than what lies between

The delight of the Lord, no mortal can impart

From the wealth of His Word, He gives desires of the heart

His promises endure, nothing can take the place

Of joy complete; through the assurance of amazing grace

Peace; what sweet recompense when faith has made us whole 

Hell's gates cannot prevail against the Savior of the soul

© Janet Martin

Why, oh, why is it so easy to slip into the snare

of wanting what we see rather than what we know

(if the truth has set us free)

Oh!! Pray it has!

And if it has

oh, pray for all who still do not know the truth!

John 8:32

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Living Hope

Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners

Song by Matthew Smith

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!

Jesus! Lover of my soul;

Friends may fail me, foes assail me,

He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah! what a Friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a Strength in weakness!

Let me hide myself in Him.

Tempted, tried, and often failing,

He, my Strength, my victory wins.

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah! what a Friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!

While the billows over me roll,

Even when my heart is breaking,

He, my Comfort, helps my soul.

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah! what a Friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

He is with me to the end.

Jesus! I do now receive Him,

More than all in Him I find.

He has granted me forgiveness,

I am His, and He is mine.

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah! what a Friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

He is with me to the end

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah! what a Friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

He is with me to the end.

The Serious Business of Fruit

A fruit grower works hard to produce good fruit.

They consider the climate, the soil, the fertilizer and pruning, etc.!

We enjoy the fruit of their labour. 

Yum!!

(right now it's peaches!)

We can talk all we like, but talk is not fruit!

and unless it jibes with our walk, it's a lot of wind!

Jer.17:10

“I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”

How we live is serious business

The tree is known by its fruit

Talk is but wind tossing branches

‘Walk’ inaugurates the root

With what ‘talk ‘cannot refute

Who we love most is no secret

The voice of choice, loud and clear

The fruit of the tree will prove it

…who we most love and revere

Love is serious business, dear

Wisdom and folly bear witness

As harvest yields what was sown

Life and love are serious business

Because when the tree is grown

By the fruit the tree is known

"Let's address the heart of matters

And cut to the final goal

 Before time's hour-glass shatters

Before the tree bares the Soul

Where the fruit will tell the whole" 

© Janet Martin

Luke 6:43-45

A Tree and Its Fruit

(Matthew 7:15–23; Matthew 12:33–37)

43No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44For each tree is known by its own fruit. Indeed, figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor grapes from brambles. 45The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Preserving fruit from the garden grants lots of listening-opportunity, 

to be challenged and encouraged in our own fruit-bearing...

below are a few favorites from the past week!

Obedience: Evidence of a Strong Foundation (Part 1 of 2) - 08/07/23

Obedience: Evidence of a Strong Foundation (Part 2 of 2) - 08/08/23

 

one excerpt-

The church does not baptize on the assurance of faith; 

it baptizes on the profession of faith!

1 John 1:5-7

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, 

that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

  6If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, 

we lie and do not practice the truth. 

7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, 

we have fellowship with one another, 

and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Amazing Grace

The longing of the human heart is actually, 

ultimately a longing to know God

and be known by God, and

the solid joys and the lasting treasures

are only found in God

and only found in God's revelation of Himself in Jesus!

and only enjoyed by those who are prepared to say

'nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling'

- excerpt from the ending of the above message

Especially Summer's Morning

I began this poem yesterday morning, a masterpiece of gold and jade.

Among other colors!

This morning's mercy-masterpiece is autumnal in its air...gusty, rainy and quite cool!

'beauty blooms midst brokenness...'

The roma tomatoes have been devastated by blight. I am so sad!

...and these are but tomatoes! 

Imagine how God's heart breaks as He looks

upon a heart, blighted with sin He longs to forgive,

 in a sinner He longs to redeem,

with a life He longs to transform!

 

While this morning feels fall-ish it is still August so let's celebrate its loveliness!!

Or, even better, the Giver of its loveliness!

Soft ushered through untrodden deeps, fresh from God’s faithful care

Daylight dissolves the dark and sweeps night’s shadows from the air

To beckon us to the threshold where summer morning streams

Like a gold welcome mat unrolled beneath our hopes and dreams

Wildflowers, tossed like colored stars bedazzle summer’s world

God’s smile unstoppers welkin jars, His paintbrush dipped, then twirled

Unfurling masterpieces where we’ve made an awful mess

His goodness never ceases; beauty blooms midst brokenness

His majesty adorning everything that He has made

Especially summer’s morning; like glimpses of Eden played

Like glints of paradise, to rouse a hymn of gratitude

To He who fills the earth and skies with kind mercy renewed

Then come, let us adore Him; He whose glory fills our gaze

Behold, who can ignore Him while creation shouts His praise

Behooving us to do the same where summer morning spills

Like a love song, from He whose Name, sweet joy and peace instills

© Janet Martin

Ps.100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Thank God (for things that don't grow old, or change!)

 This poem was inspired in part as I inhaled a fresh, new August morning,

and in part as I marveled at the beauty of God's eternal Word!

Thank God for things that don’t grow old, or change, as ages woo

Like August mornings drenched in gold, mantled in mist and dew

Like waves that wash the shore but cannot pass its boundary

Like innocence of babe and tot, as precious as can be

Like laughter’s medicine to lighten loads that oft press soar

Like the lure of a country back road ready to explore

Like flowers, as they bloom and fade like petal-orchestras

Like worship as we praise, He who made and keeps nature’s laws

Like mesmerizing artistry of sun and shadow play

Like unplumbed opportunity in each and every day 

Like never-too-old-to-accede-so-much-still-left-to-learn 

Like 'we are known by word and deed'; respect, something we earn,

Like trees that make us feel so small beneath lofty leaf-tents

Like the lilt of a waterfall after winter relents

Like the eternal Word of God; a Light that will not dim

Like the heart repeatedly awed by the wonders of Him

Like the peace we find as we trust in His sufficient grace

Like happiness when kindness puts a smile upon a face

Like warm welcomes of home-sweet-home’s familiarity

…the adrenaline rush of Poem possibility

Gardens to gladden common cooks, and yards where children play

Like comfort of good food and books to keep the blues at bay

Like Today, always new, rife with moments not tasted yet

A buffet heaped with much to do before life’s sun is set

Like love of family and friends to help us weather cares

Knowing, no matter what life sends, it fits into meek prayers

Like thanking God while time runs bold in what it will estrange

For many things that don’t grow old, and ages cannot change

© Janet Martin

Like flowers, as they bloom and fade like petal-orchestras...

Echo Snow

 

Treasuring these summer days

before they fall in echo-snow....

Composed of moments none can see or feel with hands and feet

Aftermath of Reality, surreal and bittersweet

A collection of frames unfurled in worlds of yesterday

Cast of cadence and colors swirled, where echoes go to play

How seamlessly one season slips into the next, and strews

Behind, ethereal eclipses that dawn-to-dusk accrues

As love both celebrates and grieves the double edge of joys

A hill stippled with harvest-sheaves; a room emptied of noise

How steadily the ooh and aah of highs and lows arrange

An Intangible Panorama of what none can change

The habits of time undeterred; happiness of hello

Soon farewell-teared/tiered and Bygone-blurred where echoes ebb and flow

How soon the blue-green scenery of June turns August gold

Summer’s subtle origami tunes echoes, fold on fold

A brutal bliss of hug and kiss, hold hinged to letting go

As compilations of What Is turns into echo-snow

© Janet Martin

Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake

More Than Enough For Me...

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

(beautiful scripture at the end of the above video)

This morning's poem is inspired in part after visiting my cousin yesterday,

in a long-term care facility. He has been afflicted for many years with MS.

 His family bears a very hard cross!

Please, if you remember, keep them in your prayers...

More info here...

We cannot comprehend God's higher ways but 

plead for an unshakeable knowledge of his perfect love

for all of us!

***

Give me knowledge of Jesus Christ that naught can shake or move

Of He who humbly sacrificed Himself, His love to prove

Fill me with wonder every day, that He who made all things

Surrendered to death’s crude display and cruelest sufferings

To bring salvation once for all to all who call his name

And to redeem us from the Fall that brought Adam to shame

He gave us access to His promises, to satisfy

Hunger and thirst with righteousness only He can supply

Then, may the joy and peace He gives thus transcend everything

With the knowledge that Jesus lives and death has lost its sting

And nothing in this sin-cursed place can ever dearer be

Than the knowledge that by His grace Jesus has ransomed me

Then give me no knowledge but this; He loves me without end

No matter what may be amiss, He is a faithful Friend

On Him I lean, to Him I cry, He, trustworthy and true

Tries my reason with His reply, yet what more can I do

But yield my mortal will to He who paid sin’s penalty

This knowledge of His love will be more than enough for me

© Janet Martin

Isa.55:6-9

6Seek the LORD while He may be found;

call on Him while He is near.

7Let the wicked man forsake his own way

and the unrighteous man his own thoughts;

let him return to the LORD,

that He may have compassion,

and to our God,

for He will freely pardon.

8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways My ways,”

declares the LORD.

9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so My ways are higher than your ways

and My thoughts than your thoughts...

Rock of Ages...

Reason Enough...

Gorgeous skies last night

and this morning...

After a few months of often smoke-hazy heavens

we are thrilled to 'hear' them declare the glory of God once again!!

Psalm 19 tells us,

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

Whether the song is seen/heard and applauded by many

or by God alone, Our Creator and Saviour

 gives us 'reason enough' to sing/shine our hearts out!

Hallelujah!

What good am I, sighs the flower

Blooming in some hidden place

None to marvel at my beauty

None to stoop and kiss my face

None to pick me for a bouquet

So, some bedside I may cheer

None to linger in sweet pleasure

Tell me then, why am I here

From the stream high in the mountain

From the deep beneath wave’s crest

From the songbird in the forest

And the tree that held its nest

From the dense heart of the jungle

From the farthest, nameless star

Rings the reply to the query

For God’s glory, thus we are

Take heart, for nothing is hidden

From the God of earth and sky

He who knows/made all things beholds us

Hears the hymn of you and I

Is this then not enough reason

To let praise and worship brim

By God’s grace and for His glory

To gladden the heart of Him

© Janet Martin

1 Chron.16:23-36

Sing to the LORD, All the Earth

(Psalm 96:1–13)

23Sing to the LORD, all the earth.

Proclaim His salvation day after day.

24Declare His glory among the nations,

His wonderful deeds among all peoples.

25For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;

He is to be feared above all gods.

26For all the gods of the nations are idols,

but it is the LORD who made the heavens.

27Splendor and majesty are before Him;

strength and joy fill His dwelling.

28Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the nations,

ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

29Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name;

bring an offering and come before Him.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness;

30tremble before Him, all the earth.

The world is firmly established;

it cannot be moved.

31Let the heavens be glad,

and the earth rejoice.

Let them say among the nations,

‘The LORD reigns!’

32Let the sea resound,

and all that fills it;

let the fields exult,

and all that is in them.

33Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD,

for He is coming to judge the earth.

34Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

His loving devotionc endures forever.

35Then cry out: ‘Save us, O God of our salvation;

gather and deliver us from the nations,

that we may give thanks to Your holy name,

that we may glory in Your praise.’

36Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.”

Then all the people said, “Amen!” and “Praise the LORD!”

Agnus Dei

Simple Summer Saturday Morning Song...

 Happy Summer Saturday!

Summer-soft rustle in lofty leaf-tress...

Summer-soft rustle in lofty leaf-tress

Where breezes tousle, rousing happiness

Round sound of raindrop pitter-patter-plop

Bird-twitter-chatter, horse-clippety-clop

Tinkle of teacup and spoon as they meet

Ominous stumble/rumble of yon thunder-feet

Plush hush, morn lush with shower after shower

Click of keyboard unfolding poem-flower

Tick of the clock before workday implores

Scattering silence with Saturday chores

Clatter of dishes and splatter of mess

Sparkle of laughter, earthly heaven-ness

As Summer-Saturday spills its 'ahoy'

Beautiful bustle and hustle of joy

© Janet Martin

'Clatter of dishes' created some reunion food!

Potato Salad and

Queen Elizabeth Cake!

 

 Psalm 86:8-13

Among the gods there is none like you, Lord;

no deeds can compare with yours.

9 All the nations you have made

will come and worship before you, Lord;

they will bring glory to your name.

10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds;

you alone are God.

11 Teach me your way, Lord,

that I may rely on your faithfulness;

give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name.

12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;

I will glorify your name forever.

13 For great is your love toward me;

you have delivered me from the depths,

from the realm of the dead.