Abba-Advocate

You break the darkness with new dawn

Time flows ‘neath Your command

Lord, succor us to journey on

 And simply hold your hand

The Rock of our salvation knows

What vision cannot see

Lord, guide us on yet hold us close

…a child on Abba’s knee

Time is a sequence of ‘Befores’

Death simply quells its tides

And what a-waits beyond these shores

Ah, there our Hope abides

Oh, loving Abba-Advocate

A new day fills the sky

Lord, keep our eyes fixed on the Gate

That leads to by-and-by

© Janet Martin 

 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.…1 John 2: 1-2

We have friends overseas who have legitimate reasons for anxiety right now. They desire our prayers that they may keep the faith and trust in the Lord and not their own understanding!

Will you pray?

Of Flesh and Spirit War...

Ah, flesh and Spirit war

This battleground within

Bids us examine our thought

Of what is good or sin

Flesh wars against the Good

Its weakness covets filth

The Spirit bids us suffer long

To glean eternal wealth

Awesome Inheritance

How brief these wars of earth

Only what we have done for God

Will be of any worth

Ah, flesh and Spirit war

Tempter and Holy Word

Clash soundlessly within the mind

As deed reveals our lord

We know God is not mocked

What a man sows he reaps

Touch sacredly this gifted ground

Where eternity sleeps

© Janet Martin

Reading in Galatians 5&6. Warning and tender encouragement!

Life's Saturdays

Life laughs at dreams sometimes it seems

What use to suffer it tight-lipped?

Sweeter to soften our schemes

Like mist above a meadow stripped

We cannot rule nature’s cajole

But nature, if we listen, love

Pours poetry into the soul

From spools wafted in heaven’s trove...

…to spill in utter disregard

Of dreams or well-laid garden plans

It threads through moments to the heart

Where soon its ether fabric spans

…a year of seasons while we gaze

At dreams adapting to Time’s skeins

Ah, wonder weaves life’s Saturdays

Too swiftly back to back, it seems

© Janet Martin

While walking through the garden I had to chuckle at how nature rearranges my well-laid 'winter-garden' plans. oh well, we enjoy what is blooming; not what we wish had grown or bloomed.

Isn't it remarkable how fast Saturdays come...and go?! Especially summer Saturdays. I enjoy this writer's weekly articles in The Wellington Advertiser and this week he wrote how time flies ever faster the older he gets. 

I think to combat this the only thing we can do is slow down and enjoy what is, not what we wish was.

Dear God, help us to remember You hold the skein from whence life's moments fall.
Remind us then to glean and give our best to one and all.
Amen

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal. 6:9

Summer in Slow Motion

 

Noon plays like a cello through arc of green leaf

Time drapes warm and mellow, a fellow reposed

We scrawl on its awning with eyes half-closed

Lying unhurried beneath summer’s sheaf

 Loose-strife meanders through meadows sunlit

Laughing like stragglers with nowhere to be

We search the sky for its line on the sea

Willing the hours to stumble a bit

Down by the river where once we were young

And days were forever with nary a care

We pause, reaching to recapture its air

But moments melt like snow-drops on our tongue

Green is a girl, glad and daring to dream

Maiden of music and arms flung full-wide

Bronze is the mother that walks by her side

Hearing the echo of footfalls, it seems

That bend in the lane begs our feet to go free

We are not chained like convicts to life’s toil

Surely the pulse of youth throbs in earth’s soil

Summer spills petals like silk saffron tea

© Janet Martin

Unfolded Second Chance

Alarm-clocks seep through slumber-lands across the waking globe

Where morning dons from unseen Hands a fresh and gleaming robe

We rise to our thoughts and prayers; God hears and knows each one

While grace unfurls to earthy streets clean stairs to Heaven’s throne

Those farewell shades of blue on east and pink against the west

Reverse; and draw us from our little interlude of rest

Then clap those hands and sing for joy; the One who keeps us all

Offers clean hours to employ; we ought to heed His call

Too soon the drip of seasons slip to kindness wrought in thought

Today rolls in across a rift that yesterday we sought

It held those things we didn’t do and knew we could or should

Today unfolds in second chances from a gracious God

© Janet Martin

 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. Ps. 5:3