Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Our God Is Not Like 'other gods'




 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex.20:3


Our God is not like ‘other gods’
Fashioned of stone, wood, wind,
And unlike any ‘others gods’
Our God is good and kind

Our God is not like ‘other gods’
Imagined through man’s lies
And unlike any ‘other gods’
Our God arranges skies

Our God is not like ‘other gods’
Where heathens place their trust
And unlike any ‘other gods’
Our God breathes life to dust

Our God is not like ‘other gods’
Of subjective design
Our God is Alpha, Omega
 And Providence divine

Our God is not like ‘other gods’
He loves us and He cares
And unlike any ‘other gods’
He hears and answers prayers

© Janet Martin


 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,
Isa.. 45:5

Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. 
Isa.65:24

1 Kings 18:21-38
 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 23 Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. 24 Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”
So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”
25 Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.
26 So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.
27 And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. 29 And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”[b] 32 Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” 34 Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.
36 And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”

Hello, Fellow-traveler, I'd Like to Inquire...





Hello, fellow-traveler, I’d like to inquire
What gives you the courage to climb ever higher?
What grants you the vim to resume undone task
Where yester-night you depleted fervor’s flask?

What gives you the get-up-and-go once again?
What drives you to doing what oft seems in vain?
Tell me, what rekindles the flame in your breast
Where yester-spark dwindled, snuffed by weariness?

And in spite of knowing that we cannot know
How, when or where life’s harsher tempests will blow
Tell me, what in spite of this draws you to rise
Forging ever forward toward life’s demise?

Hello, fellow-traveler, tell me if you can
What persuades you to the pursuit of a plan?
What bids you anew to avenues of sod?
Tell me, could it be the loving grace of God?

© Janet Martin

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, 
slow to anger, 
abounding in love and faithfulness.
Ps.86:15 

Essence of Existence





Break of new day, heavy with gray of rain
Dapples Duty's terrain as dark subsides
And hills spill over with time’s youngest tides
They wash across the world toward the drain

…that gapes, even as newness drapes the old
And shapes from yester-fancying Today
Already its mad rush of gray on gray
Eddies and swirls into the steady hold

…of moments lent and spent, a synchronous
Exchange that none can fully feel or grasp
This Essence of Existence girds each gasp
Where life’s verge merges with death’s impetus

…and splurge of gray surges to biding blue
We, hope-and-dreaming pioneers embark
On its current of daylight growing dark
Like sailors ever caught twixt old and new

© Janet Martin

Monday, January 25, 2016

Come, Climb, Dance or Fly a Poem





Come with me, dare to taste the yen of poetry, for oh
The heart can traverse fathoms where a foot will never go
Come, let its letters fuel what fetters of stringent law
Can never render; wonder, the accomplishment of awe

The foot for all its purpose practices pure principle
Of backward, forward, upward, onward walk-run-dance-stumble
The heart, oh but the heart can fly on syllables where ink
Turns letters into pictures and gray day to raving pink

Come with me then and step across cold thresholds steeped in fact
Climb past these elemental vestibules to worlds intact
Where lyric, lilt and rhyme render splendor with tender verse
And do not think too hard, for bards are exempt from Law’s curse

Kick off your wooden shoes, slip into gossamer and silk
Then climb the vine that leads to lands that flow with honeyed milk
And do not be afraid to dance, or at the least to try
For in the arms of poetry to fall is but to fly

© Janet Martin

In Spite of What We Wish We Had...





In spite of what we lack or wish
With all our heart and soul we had
We do not have the right to dish
Words to make fellow-travelers sad

 How quick the spit of spite set free
Can wound the spirit like a dart
Lodged deeply where eye cannot see
The thoughtlessness on our part

The heart for all its hidden pleas
That God alone bears witness to
Is ever better when our knees
And not our tongues, suffer its rue

© Janet Martin

 
Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.…
James 3:4-6