A Masterpiece of Reverence (in the making)

 

Romans 12:11

Do not let your zeal subside;

keep your spiritual fervor,

serving the Lord.

Ephesians 6:7

Serve with good will,

as to the Lord and not to men,

1 Corinthians 10:31

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,

do it all to the glory of God.

Psalm 100:2

Serve the LORD with gladness;

come into His presence with joyful songs.

1 Samuel 12:24

Above all, fear the LORD

and serve Him faithfully with all your heart;

consider what great things He has done for you.

💝💝💝

Dear poet-(whether-we-know-it-or-not!)

Here's to Fresh Fervour/Favour for Today's Poem-possibilities!

A little glimpse at yesterday's ballad 💗

Today, like a fresh page is laid beneath each poet’s pen
Where this new day the Lord has made glistens with grace again
For we, apt to forget the bent of breath, cut down to size
Composing, as Today is spent, a poem of replies
Intangible and permanent, moment-ink spills and dries

‘Oh God, have mercy on us all’ as lyrics rush reply
Blotting fresh pages as they fall, with love oft run awry
As mortal clashes with Sublime; with grace we cannot daunt
While give and take’s rhythm and rhyme, perplexes wishful want
We loot inkwells as old as Time, supplied with virgin font

‘Thy word is a lamp to our ‘pen’, a light unto our ‘page’
Thy Word is truth; foolproof, amen. Faithful from age to age
Then, with this day Thy goodness grants, may we, though sadly-flawed
Recognize Dried Ink's permanence; then seek to write, love-awed
A Masterpiece of Reverence to Thee, most gracious God

© Janet Martin

I Peter 3:8-12

Finally, all of you be of one mind,

having compassion for one another;

love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be [b]courteous;

9not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling,

but on the contrary blessing,

knowing that you were called to this,

 that you may inherit a blessing.

10For “He who would love life

And see good days,

Let him [c]refrain his tongue from evil,

And his lips from speaking deceit.

11Let him turn away from evil and do good;

Let him seek peace and pursue it.

12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

And His ears are open to their prayers;

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Of Awe and Love

Ps.33:8

Let all the earth fear the Lord;

let all the inhabitants of the world

stand in awe of Him

Ps.65:8-13

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;

where morning dawns, where evening fades,

you call forth songs of joy.

9 You care for the land and water it;

you enrich it abundantly.

The streams of God are filled with water

to provide the people with grain,

for so you have ordained it.[d]

10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges;

you soften it with showers and bless its crops.

11 You crown the year with your bounty,

and your carts overflow with abundance.

12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;

the hills are clothed with gladness.

13 The meadows are covered with flocks

and the valleys are mantled with grain;

they shout for joy and sing.

On Sunday morning the message was opened with this challenge;

When was the last time you were completely awed?

And closed with this challenge;

Do you fear God?

Do you love Him? 

(For message click HERE, then click on Aug.17)

These challenges were drawn from the beloved chapter of

Psalm 145

Have you ever tried to write out your depth of awe and love for God?!!

It's really quite impossible to do but still so worthwhile to try! 

It is bound to humble, challenge and perhaps help us 

reevaluate what we (should) prioritize! 

***

There is so no limit to the love of God for us, so then

There ought to be no limit to our love for fellowmen

There ought to be no task, no sacrifice too great or small

To do or give our best for He who gave His best for all

 

Whose tender mercies, new each morn proclaim great faithfulness

No matter what befalls God is true to His promises

He manifests His evidence in nature's ordered law

His word and workmanship evoke unsurpassable awe

As He o'erwhelms our souls with joy though sorrow's portions press  

He cheers our hearts with hymns of old  'great is thy faithfulness'  

Then as we meditate on Him, with worship sadly flawed

His whisper thunders deep within and leaves us sweetly awed

Without God, love and awe are like shadows, cast by Time's lease

With God, love and awe anchor everlasting hope-joy-peace  

...because His grace sufficient is enough to rush the heart

With endless hymns of awe and love, 'oh LORD, how great Thou art'

Janet Martin

Great is Thy Faithfulness 

How Great Thou Art

When the speaker asked us to try and remember when we were last awed

I leaned over to Jim and whispered 'every time I walk through a garden!!'

It is absolutely mind-blowing to witness the unfolding of seeds...

Dear Lucy, Of Memories We Treasure Now...

There is something heart-wrenchingly healing

as I compose each Dear Lucy poem/post!

Thank-you, Lord

This quote (author unknown), rings so true 🙏💓

When someone you love becomes a memory

the memory (and memories) become a treasure...

Tomorrow it will be 11 months since someone I took far too for granted

(Dear Lucy,  the middle sister of the five Martin girls)

 became a memory to treasure...and oh, what a bitterly-sweetest treasure!

Below is a group of friends that tried

to get together for at least a few of our birthdays

every year..(one friend absent from these shots)

These tea-parties have become cherished memories to treasure!

(Lucy, third from the left) 

Above photo Oct. 2023, a birthday tea at the café where Lucy served us with

honour and delight!

Lucy LOVED serving her friends and family either in her home

 or at various restaurants and cafés

where she worked throughout her life!

Below Mar. 27 2024 (Lucy's last birthday)

my mom, sister and I surprised her at work

and came for lunch

This memory plus many more while sitting at her kitchen table,

inspired the first four lines of this month's poem.

Your brisk, bouncy, efficient stride

Your happiness when serving us

Your table set with loving pride

Your pleasure in the detail-fuss...

Your brisk, bouncy, efficient stride

Your happiness when serving us

Your table set with loving pride

Your pleasure in the detail-fuss

Your smile, your spontaneity

Your tardy tune-in with 'what?! who?!'

Your love of home and family

And interest in others too

Your faith, that deepened joy and grief

Your prayers for fellow hopes and hurts

Your delight in each season's brief

Beauty-fest. Your fresh-baked desserts

Your 'artist's eye' for painting things

Your energy to get it done

Your sentimental renderings

Or humorous, quick-witted pun

Your love of books, of poetry

Of anything worthy to read

Of planting a garden to see

The miracle in every seed

Your kindred-spirit-common-ground

With we who  love the loss of words

When truth's epiphanies confound

The tongue, but leave hearts and souls stirred

Your boundless appetite for life

While weathering its 'yes' and 'nope'

From a fountain of mercy, rife

With opportunity and hope

Your encouraging wisdom born

From your own share of bitter blows

Your willingness to brave love's thorn 

To reap the beauty of its rose  

Your one-and-only-you, oh how

We miss your precious presence here

Where memories we treasure now 

Are love's beautiful keepsakes, dear

Reminding us, through smiles and tears

To thank God for the blessing of

Bearing the part sorrow reveres 

Because we were part of your love

By your sister Janet on

behalf of so many

'treasure-embracers' 

B-day celebration at D's house

(June 2021)

Another B-day celebration...

this one at my house (Sept.2022)

...and another below at 'J's'  house

(June 2023)

Ps.116:15 NIV

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants.

  

                       

                                                                                                               

For One and All, the Same

Ten thousand people doing something wrong does not,

as the number of wrong-doers increases,

eventually make the wrong right!

'They do it too' is a dangerous excuse if 'they' are doing wrong!

2 Cor.5:9-10 (read the whole sacred chapter HERE)

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

to be well pleasing to Him. 

10For 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...

We are well known to God

Our hearts, an open page

Then bow before Him, wholly awed

For He holds judgment’s wage

A wage we justify

With simple clarity

The track-record of our reply

Will prove if we loved He

…who suffered Calvary

To pardon our sin

So that all who believe will be

Heirs and co-heirs with Him

(To believe is to know

For all that we do not

That by the grace of God we go

Regardless of our lot)

The hour we believe

Repenting of our sin

Is the same hour we receive

Eternal life with Him

Through God’s Son, sacrificed

Salvation’s gift was wrought

Repentance, through the blood of Christ

Redeems each soul, blood-bought

How Mercy must have groaned

Knowing love’s albatross

To gain the joy of sin atoned

He must endure the cross

But there, belief begins

A lifelong wonderment

In He who forgives our sins

And makes the heart content

He arms us for faith’s strife

Through the might of His name

He is the Way, the Truth, the Life

For one and all, the same

© Janet Martin

John 3:14-18

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 

even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 

but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; 

but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned:

 but he that believeth not is condemned already, 

because he hath not believed in the name 

of the only begotten Son of God.

Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?

 

An August Aria

Earth is a garden billowing with threshing days...

 and flow’rs...

The kitchen is a paradise of aromatic thrill

Of vinegar and pickling spice, garlic, pepper and dill...

Earth is a garden billowing with threshing days and flow’rs

While a keen scythe is winnowing sweet summer of its hours

The kitchen is a paradise of aromatic thrill

Of vinegar and pickling spice, garlic, pepper and dill

The afternoon-sun scorches rural vistas with its blaze

While we seek north-faced porches to escape its sizzling rays

The landscape like a giant bolt of fabric unfurled, lies

In rippling sweeps/heaps of green and gold beneath heat-hazy skies

…a stage where cricket-minstrels hide to play their ceaseless tune

Tugging at heart-strings gently tied to dusk’s rose-tinted moon

And wafting softly on the air, fond good old days renew

In children’s voices falling where once we were children too

© Janet Martin

 

The Ongoing Interview

A year ago today/yesterday our truck was stolen 

out of our back yard during a family reunion

 ( the loss was just a truck and eventually it was recovered) but

I commented to some friends yesterday how it felt like that day began

a volley of staggering blows and losses,

a schooling in sorrow and the 

incomprehensible compassion of God poured through

people and His Word; evoking a keener awareness to a kind of

Interview, where God has always said

'Trust me' and delights in proving His faithfulness

if we are willing to obey and trust Him

A year ago today Lucy dropped by unannounced

with a bouquet of gladiolas, and much sympathy.

(and classic Lucy-greeting,

oh wow! Are you always dressed up like you're going for groceries,

even on a Monday afternoon of canning?!!) 😅💓

My, my I miss my spontaneous, speak-her-mind/heart sister💔😭

Because our truck was stolen (a friend reminded me much later) 

we, unknowingly had our last just-the-two-of-us, heart-to-heart afternoon together!

Before she left we hugged and said 'I love you'.

After the tragedy that ended her earthly life

Her husband chose Rom. 8:28 

And we know that in all things 

God works for the good of those who love him, 

who[a] have been called according to his purpose

as a grounding verse.

 Because of our stolen truck

God worked for good

Lucy's response to the nudge to come 

and give me a hug, amidst her busyness.

God gave me a memory to treasure forever...

(I can't begin to describe how the last year has

transformed joy/hope through incredible heartbreak!

My heart feels ripped, crushed and cradled!!)

The Interview between Father and Child,

to teach needful lessons is always painful, isn't it, daddies?

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

God hath shined.

Ps.50:2

We are God’s workmanship; thus, are part of an interview

With He who kindles every star, then dims them with the sun

Who, out of Zion pours perfection’s bespoke beauty through

A fathomless reflection of love’s work barely begun

While, 'gainst a universal scrim, His evidence of truth

Beckons us to remember Him in the days of our youth

The Interviewer of our days; the Kindler of each star

Delights to hear our heartful praise, while joy or sorrow roll

He tests and weighs worship’s reply; no matter who we are

He loves us; Lord of earth and sky and Saviour of the soul

He tries the highs of boast with blows; He refines gains with loss

To prove who we love most; with woes He points us to the cross

Each day runs rife with lows and highs; part of Love’s Interview

While life spills hellos and goodbyes, while we choose who to serve

In a world where anything goes (it seems), where liars woo/coo

Where change and Changeless juxtapose on Hope’s brief honing-curve

While breath by breath soft-dwindles what consumes Attention’s claim

While, like the stars He kindles, God knows each of us by name

...where while life lasts we are in an ongoing Interview

With He who shines through every star, and the sun cannot dim

Who gave His life doomed souls to save, who rose and overthrew

The deadly triumph of the grave, for all who trust in Him

Lord, tune our ears to hear, above the trials faith endures

The Interviewer’s perfect love, whose grace the soul secures

© Janet Martin

Take heart, all of us who are being 'interviewed/tested'...

James 1:2-8

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,

 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces [a]patience.

 4But let patience have its perfect work, 

that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

 5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, 

who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 

6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, 

for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

 7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

1 Peter 5:9-10

Resist him, 

standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge 

that your brothers throughout the world 

are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 

 And after you have suffered for a little while, 

the God of all grace, who has called you 

to His eternal glory in Christ, 

will Himself restore you, 

secure you, 

strengthen you, 

and establish you.

Of Love and Gratitude

These days gardener's and farmer's souls are a wellspring of gratitude to

the Divine Giver of every good and perfect gift! 

Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Like comrades, love and gratitude walk humbly, hand in hand

And weave through heart and soul, joy and contentment’s side effect

For love and gratitude enrich the commonest demand

They open eyes to blessings we would otherwise neglect

Where ups and downs we weather would oft be misunderstood

Without the transformation wrought/salutations sought by love and gratitude

We, all in This together would be less inclined to fret

If love and gratitude would be the pleasure of each heart

Then we would be less anxious as we peer toward the Yet

Equipped with love and gratitude, to do our humble part

To make the most of moments; both the happy and the sad

To take this day the Lord has made; to rejoice and be glad

We, without love and gratitude become quite self-consumed

And pave the way to misery, through jealousy and greed

For without love and gratitude, every pursuit is doomed

Much always wanting more without care for our neighbour’s need

Then pray each day that God through His faithful mercy renewed

Would transform souls into wellsprings of love and gratitude

© Janet Martin

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, 

that is the sky;

there is one spectacle grander than the sky,

that is the interior of the soul.

― Victor Hugo in Les Misérables

Heaven's Foretaste

Psalm 145:3
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised;

 His greatness is unsearchable.

Mercy is not getting what we deserve.

Grace is getting what we don't deserve

Ps.47:7-8

Sing praises to God, sing praises!

Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

7 For God is the King of all the earth;

Sing praises with understanding.

8 God reigns over the nations;

God sits on His holy throne.

Sing praises, for God reigns

With love in rich supply

When we withhold worship's refrains

Grace and mercy reply

Sing praises with souls awed

In every care unfurled

Greater is our glorious God

Than troubles of this world

Sing praises to the ONE

Who WAS, IS and Will BE

Whose unsearchable riches stun

Human philosophy

Sing praises to the Lord

In joy or sorrow’s lease

The wondrous riches of His word

Bestow gladness and peace

Clap your hands, shout for joy

Our King none can dethrone

Nor earthly enemy destroy

Salvation’s Cornerstone

Sing praise without reserve

For we have been blood-bought

Mercy restrains what we deserve

Grace grants what we do not

Let endless praises spill

To God, whose Sovereignty

And unsearchable riches will

Unfold eternity/eternally

Praise God with ransomed mirth

And humble gratitude 

Let Heaven's foretaste fill the earth

   With rapturous prelude 

© Janet Martin

Praise And Harmony "Behold Our God"