So Much To Love!

I think a keyboard to the poet/writer is like a painter's tray to an artist...full of possibility!

Oh, how I would love to 'paint' all day....! But,

Today is full of a tempting array of loves to indulge other than one of life's best; little ones. 

It's been quite a while since I have had the freedom to choose a little,

 how I would like to use the hours of day! 

So much to love and SO little day...what is an oldish woman girl to do 😉

 Yesterday I saw a snow owl for the first time in my life! 

(thanks to a kind neighbor who called to let me know one is perched in a tree in his field:)

 ...then I turn to see dusk shushing the day beneath shadow-shawls...

...and once more I am blown away by how much 

the Creator has granted/planted to stir our worship to Him

So much to love; like shushing shadow-blues laid on gold bars

Before hues meld into black velvet heavens specked with stars

Or winter’s orchard, like a marketplace after the crowd

Where the scuttle of brittle leaves, in eve’s soft hush, seems loud

So much to love; March buds begin to puff like rosy cheeks

As we begin to count down days ‘til spring instead of weeks

Where sap runs drip-tip-tap as maple gold is mined from trees

Where napping nooks are tickled by the whiskers of a breeze

So much to love; a five-star meal of homemade bread and soup

The lark that stirs the dark with song; a snow-owl’s pristine suit

The reed that sports a russet overcoat, tattered and spent

Where Old Man Winter vexed its posture but left it unbent

So much to love; the cheerfulness of fellows, half-past three

Where they have not yet fallen prey to green-eyed jealousy

The way time sweeps its kitchen clean as bedtime prayers are said

And never bids us live again the day it tucks to bed

So much to love; the color-wheel of sight and sound runs rife

With what is soon an afternoon lost to the laws of life

Don’t let shut eyes or loosened sighs provoked by what is not

Cement a wall that stands too tall to notice what we’ve got

So much to love; soon time-enough like a worn work-glove lies

Where now the beckoning of what yet waits is like a prize

Before the reckoning; then with these gifts from God above

Be glad to be astonished by how much there is to love

© Janet Martin

Not The Red Carpet...The Gold Carpet!

Imagine if we ‘simply trusted’ knowing the One who knows what we don’t is enough!

Imagine how much futile fear this would save us!

As I was writing this post(happily celebrating my early laundry-start) wondering what this day would hold when it folds away like a fresh dried-in-the-sunshine-towel, suddenly my washing machine began a deafening, vibrating buzz and filled the laundry room with something that smells overheated and a lot like ‘trouble’.ugh!!!

Thank goodness for Ogram’s Appliance Repair in Floradale! 

He will be here today to take a look at it!

One sure sign of spring is when the sun rises on the other side of my brother Lewis's barn.

 He farms on 'the home-place'.

Now rolls from eastern skyline like a breaker made of gold

Across hills, valleys, streets and seas, a new day to behold

Once more we delve into a deep that teems with living’s care

And bids us choose twixt faith or fear to get from here to there

Ah, there is nothing new under the sun save each new day

The God of old is still the God who hears us when we pray

Yes, He who parted the Red Sea and led his people through

Is the same God today as then; He parts our waters too

Forbid we tromp across dawn’s threshold, bold without a thought

Of He who stokes the budded tree and earth’s big flowerpot

Forbid we simply take and take and never bow our head

To thank the One who sent His son to die in our stead

No one can boast a know-it-all of hours still unspent

Both rich and poor alike are at the mercy of God’s ‘lent’

Where no one can lay claim to more or less than God’s kind grace

Imagine if we trusted Him for each new day we face?!

The surf that spills o’er yonder hills and rolls through brook and fence

And tints the olden dirt beneath our feet with Imminence

Is ushered in then cupped in hands Nail-scarred. Holy. Sublime

He promises His faithfulness until the end of time

© Janet Martin

 Because of the Lord’s great love 

we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.  

They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lam.3:22-23 

No matter how often I hear or sing this song...it steals my breath!

Precious Lord and Saviour

Precious Lord and Saviour

Glorious Deity

Author of salvation

Fathers you and me

Precious Lord and Saviour

Friend above all friends

His love never wavers

 His love never ends

Precious Lord and Saviour

Sorrow’s comforter

Morrow’s blessed assurance

Death’s deliverer

Precious Lord and Saviour

Confidante secure

Hears our wordless hunger

Makes our calling sure

Precious Lord and Saviour

God of Heaven and earth

Fills us with His favor

This, love’s faultless worth

Precious Lord and Saviour

Faithful every day

Mercy and forgiveness

Meets us as we pray

Precious Lord and Saviour

Goodness beyond price

First You were Creator

Then The Sacrifice

Precious Lord and Saviour

Supreme dominion

One true God forever

And ever, amen

© Janet Martin

 For such is God,
            Our God forever and ever;
            He will guide us until death.

Ps.48:14

Ya' Got Trouble???

It bends our prideful will and tries the words we spout with ease

It leads the heart to places where a prayer is all it feels

It teaches us the meaning of ‘getting down on our knees’

Where otherwise we soon forget the Love that helps and heals

It makes us cradle joy with a most reverent esteem

It wakes within us wonder for life’s humble chug-and-chore

And when the brunt of it has passed like ripples on a stream

It takes the hand of someone somewhat wiser than before

It comes for our good though it does not feel good, oh no!

But we should try to bear its cross without complaint or spite

For if we pay attention we will note what comes will go

Gratitude’s affidavit more humble after its plight

So when it comes, though it is never an invited guest

We ought to do our best to weather it by God’s kind grace

For trouble, though it does not tell the reason for its test

After its tumult passes makes this world a brighter place

© Janet Martin

 

Until The Resurrection...

(This song below is written from the perspective of the disciple Peter)

I wrote the poem below trying to imagine what it would have been like
as one of the Marys or one of the disciples...

They did not see it then…With hearts all sorrow-torn

They turned back to their homes again their precious Lord to mourn

And wonder at His words they did not understand

The King of kings and Lord of lords slain beneath evil’s hand

And how they must have cried as sight tested Belief

Their precious Jesus, crucified as if He were a thief

And then the tomb was sealed and roman guards stood watch

The object of their hope repealed in death upon a cross

The horror of the day replaying o’er and o’er

With broken hearts they turn away; their Master is no more

The Way, the Truth, The Life, A corpse behind a stone

No Overcomer of the World or army overthrown

Only the echo of His cry upon the hill

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" ...then everything was still

How could He be a king?! No one could comprehend

The wonder they were witnessing as life came to an end

…and no one knew it then; what price had just been paid

Redemption for all sins of men on sinless Jesus laid

Nor how death became Life and broke its curs-ed power

How the Light of the World beamed brightest in His darkest hour

The peoples of the world seemed to have fought and won

With swords and insults boldly hurled at Jesus Christ, God’sSon

“Come down, come down” with jeers they spat upon His face

And laughed at He who commandeers the galaxies in space

(…no seed can save itself and still bud into tree

A soldier cannot save himself yet set his country free

Thus the Good Shepherd then If He would save his sheep

Knew love’s intense ultimatum; His life He could not keep)

“He said, I come to seek and save those who are lost

Though Lord, He came, humble and meek, knowing the price it cost

He came to give His life as ransom for mankind

Stepped from His throne to earthy strife; He left Heaven behind

But death could not prevail; No stone could seal the tomb

Of He who rent the temple’s veil and quelled the sinner’s doom

Love cannot be contained; on that bless-ed third Day

Victory could not be restrained but had its glorious say

'He is not here; He is ris’n', Are any words more dear?

Could any toll the bells of Heaven with greater joy or cheer?

Or dry the mourner’s tear or stop the scorner’s sneer

Or fill the heart of man with hope; than He is risen; He is not here?!

Once for all He died: the cross of shame Love braved

Jesus, the only name whereby the soul of man is saved

Then praise the King of Kings for joy His grace imparts

For our Redeemer lives on high and in believer’s hearts

So, when we weep our ‘why’ at heartache that must be

Or trouble raises its war-cry or grief its agony

Remember Sin’s Debt borne; and look to That Last Day

For on that Resurrection morn He’ll wipe all tears away

© Janet Martin

This is a universal joy, hope and peace, not to all, but to all who
' believe him and accept him'
 John 1:12-13

This poem is an accumulation of pondering the Easter Story and the book of Romans.
We are going through the book of Romans in our worship services for the next while.
This link will take you to the messages we have heard so far from Romans ch.1 to ch.5:1-11


Today's reading:
 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we^[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we^[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: 
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.