The Hope of Jesus

  

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The hope of Jesus soothes my soul

Sweet comfort in life’s trial and tear

The cross from which His pardon rolls

Soothes me when I would faint in fear

The hope of Jesus fills my heart

Life’s weight of care would crush my joy

Save for the peace His grace imparts

Where evil threatens to destroy

The hope of Jesus draws me on

For this is but a transient flight

To Heaven’s fair and final dawn

When at sweet last faith becomes sight

Hope; oh, precious gift of God

Beacon of promise in life’s pain

Until we leave this troubled sod

To where we never hope again

© Janet Martin

1 Corinthians 15:19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-hope-20-uplifting-scripture-quotes/#ixzz2esqBNfQK

Beneath Time's Gracious Sky

  

The other evening this line of cloud stretched as far as the eye could see...

Beneath Time’s wide and wondrous sky

Earth’s people live and love and die

Oh, little season on the sod

You are a steppingstone to God

And no one here can clearly see

Where that last steppingstone will be

Beneath Time’s sky of night and day

How swift a lifetime falls away

As everything our fingers clasp

Must be relinquished to the past

Our prayers and footprints stir the dust

In moment-monuments of trust

Beneath Time’s marked and measured roll

Before the rift twixt flesh and soul

We cannot choose what life will send

But we can choose where it will end

Beneath Time’s wide and wondrous sky

We choose the Gate to by-and-by

© Janet Martin

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Josh. 24:15

Of Warriors, Weapons and Whispers

When we wield this weapon we should seal in our mind

The scope and the length of its blade

The tip of this sword rends far deeper than skin

It shapes legacies being made

It draws, it repels, the keen flash of this blade

Sutures the wounds of a heart

Yet pierces through flesh and blood mien to create

Mind-numbing frameworks of art

The warrior that bears the might of this sword

Will report to Commander-in-chief

Of heaven and earth; the Master and Lord

Over Orion’s unfathomable sheaf

When we wield this weapon in combat or truce

To touch to the quick of man’s senses

We should be armed with Courage and Truth

And Awareness of its recompenses

Oh, powerful might of the common pen

A saber from which ink-drops spill

Man dies, but duration of thought will remain

In whispers that fall from his quill

© Janet Martin 

I posted this a year ago today...the words of that article helped to shape what I write;

I read an article this morning on the longevity of written word...

On Dreams and Wedding Plans...

 Sometimes it hits me a-fresh, full in the heart how, for all the dreams that never happened, God gave me more than I could ever have dreamed!

Some dreams come true

And some just die

That’s the way

Beneath Time’s sky

I look at you

All full of dreams

So unaware

Of moment-streams

The gift of youth

Is sweet and swift

You laugh, blind to

Moments a-drift

But as I smile

And look at you

I thank my God

For dreams come true

© Janet Martin

Here's to many dreams come true and just enough that don't, to keep the dream alive.

Live in the Moment

Live in the moment, says the motto my sister just gave to me as a reminder in this crazy time!

Live in the moment

Inhale, exhale

Spring, summer, autumn

To winter’s regale

Live in each moment

Its muddle and mess

For soon they slip softly

To past’s quietness

Live in the moment

And oh, do not pine

For fruit that has fallen

From yesterday’s vine

Live in the moment

Do not try to borrow

Strength for the measure

That waits in tomorrow

But, live in each moment

Both blue sky and gray

Are transient flickers

Fading away

© Janet Martin 

A month from yesterday is the wedding! Four weeks from tomorrow! and we are trying to finalize all the 'maybe we could do this' details...and still regular life happens beneath the big sky, so by the dear moment-measure of God's grace go I/we. Hope your moments are good today.

 

In Prayer

   

Before the gold and gray consumes

my thought and draws me to its care

Lord, let me rest a little while

within Your gentle arms, in prayer

The ebb and flow, the high and low

of living, I could never bear

My Lord, if first I could not rest

within Your gentle arms, in prayer

Then, come what may of gold or gray

on life's highway; I journey where

Your presence whispers still to me

within Your gentle arms, in prayer

Janet~

12 years ago many of us fell on our faces pleading to God; may we every day plead to Him on the behalf of all who suffer and all who do not know Him! 

Of Testaments and Trust

   

  

 Often I am stunned speechless by the miracle in a seed.

We sprinkle seed of faith on dust

A testament of our trust

Forbid it then that we should turn

And for a lesser portion yearn

The God who turns our seed to fruit

Beholds the blossom and the root

Forbid it then that we despair

Clinging to fear instead of prayer

For He who renders fruit to seed

Beholds and knows our every need

Forbid it then that we embrace

Our nothingness instead of grace

© Janet Martin

When we become small then God becomes big!

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9

Just As I Am

September-gold

Were I an artist of easel

And could I paint fair nature’s scene

I’d choose September’s tarnished sprawl

Of dusty blue and burnished green

And if my palette would but hold

One shade, I think I would choose gold

The gold of harvest, not yet gleaned

Of heavy sunlight gently screened

By not-quite-gold of maple leaf

I’d paint the gold of cornstalk sheaf

And golden-rod, sun-flower bloom

The gold of honeyed afternoon

The walnut leaf that stilly falls

Where summer fades and cricket calls

I’d paint the gold of late-day hush

The hill of parched and tangled brush

Where once we watched springtime unfold

Before earth traded green for gold

Gold-golden pear and golden tea

Canvas of golden memory

Ah, sweet September languishing

Against a summer wearying

Where every shade within its hold

Before it fades must pass through gold

© Janet Martin