Thursday, August 3, 2017

May This Day...





May this day be like a highway
Leading to the sick and poor
Rather than a feckless my-way
Filled with lust for more and more

May this day be like a garden
Where we tend the tender root
Before harvest proves the hidden
Bent with visage of full fruit

May this day be like a chapel
Wall of wind and roof of sky
May we be a humble people
Singing songs to God on high

May this day be like a window
Facing north, south, east and west
Framing, in the wake of it, oh
By the grace of God, our best

May this day be like a front line
Where we war for Heaven’s gain
Knowing, though sight veils sweet Zion
Our fight is not in vain

May this day be like an altar
Where we burn idols of stone
As we make the heart a Psalter
Of worship to God alone

© Janet Martin

For Faithful Mercy Praise



 Psalm 40:5
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, 
And Your thoughts toward us; 
There is none to compare with You. 
If I would declare and speak of them, 
They would be too numerous to count.



 ...at first Grandson was not at all sure about the 'playpen' Grandma plunked him into while we finished blanching beans for his mommy's freezer...
But, after a moment or two of contemplating he seemed quite satisfied!(sorry the grin-shot blurred:(
oops, I forgot! This post was inspired by the breathy wisps of lavender birthing new day;-)


Benevolence of mercy’s constancy
Trails in a veil of lavender and pink
It drapes its ether shroud across earth’s lea
And draws our waking gaze to eastward brink
As we consider He whose might and grace
Are justice and redemption intertwined
He guards and quakes the cage where human race
Is privy to wonders, each God-designed

Whether of branch etched stark against near dark
Or buoyant with breeze-breathy seraphim
Whether of rivers carved into the rock
Or pretty petal-plumes detailed by Him
Nothing of human heart can fully hold
The magnitude of splendor such as this
The hemline of a robe purple and gold
Falls tender, from a star-enflamed abyss

To touch the eye with wild pleasure, ah, we
Will never tire of God’s handiwork
Time’s rampart groans with quiet majesty
Where angels tread and trembling demons lurk
We are engulfed, in spite of evil’s host
With Mercy’s unequivocal defense
For rebels This bestowed Love’s uttermost
And always supersedes man’s arrogance 

Or else we could not leap for humble joy
Doomed by the awful end that we deserve
How bittersweet Creation’s grand decoy
Would be; but Mercy tunes this earthy verve
Then, when ‘neath leaf-thatched blue we idly pause
To revel in a pool of cool respite
Pray, we lift high a heart of praise because
We walk in Mercy’s everlasting sight

For He does not forget this fretting clan
Who has nothing to boast save utter need
And its dependence on a Higher Hand
From whence Love’s floods of mercy intercede
He flowers careworn hours; scrawls a brook
Beneath half-moon pinned to twilight’s lapel
Mercy metes morning; everywhere we look
It shouts, thus man may whisper ‘it is well’

...and walk with confidence of heart and mind
Without need to cower in guilt, afraid
Of harsh tongue-lashings; God's mercy is kind
To we, fearfully, wonderfully made
Thus, forfeit not true hope for lawless gain
Then put away the old man for the new
The evidence of  Mercy makes it plain
Great God of love is God of judgement too

© Janet Martin

 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
your works are wonderful, 
I know that full well.

 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 
For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. 

Click on this link to the song below for a worthwhile read entitled Worship or Light Esteem

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Waning Melody





 
 

Wand wafts, lofty wind-chimes whisper
Strum a slow sun-shadow dance
Soft upon the yellow summer
Fronds fall prey to Thought-Rembrandts

Like a waterfall of flowers
Clover, sage So Long Songs lilt
Tumbling, noiseless from bloom bowers
To a hall of childhood spilt 

Paper airplanes, oak-leaf sailboats
Splay; a winsome interlude
Ere they fade, mosaic eighth-notes
On a page of Past subdued

Come, before the ruddy rushes
Fling their silk coats to the air
And the Thing we cradle pushes
Off into the Blue Somewhere

We are too polite to murmur
Tug of warring heart and mind
Lures us where the yellow summer
Plays on days soon left behind  

Ah, methinks I hear a cricket
Prelude to a symphony
Wafting in the lofty thicket
Of a waning melody

© Janet Martin


Overcomer





Oft hope would be foiled by failure
Fervor overcome with fear
Hunger like a honing saber
Strumming sorrow’s numbing tear

Disappointment would defeat us
Heartache, ah, terminal blight
Dark the dawn would break to greet us
Overcome by terror’s night

Long would be the road, and lonesome
Haunted by misstep and such
Discouragement like a prison
Barring lips from laughter’s touch

But for One, who grants forgiveness
By His grace joy fills this clod
Overcome with mercy’s kindness
From a faithful, loving God  

From wasteland He wakes a garden
Overcomes Past with Today
Provider of peace and pardon
As we how head-heart and pray

Keeper of His Promise, Heaven
Faith trusts in what none can see
Through Christ's blood sinners forgiven
Overcome hell’s destiny


© Janet Martin

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, 
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Heb.4:16

 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. 
In this world you will have trouble. 
But take heart! 
I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. 
And His commandments are not burdensome,
our faith.  
Who then overcomes the world? 
Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
1 John 5:3-5