A Saturday Morning Soldier's/Servant's Song

Discouragement can hit any day of the week, any season of the year...
we must battle it, but not alone!

Sing to the one who precedes us in battle

He who has called us to trust and obey

Will not forsake us ; our Father is faithful

The God of the old is the God of today

Praise Him; Mercy still withholds Judgement’s vengeance

Grace still presides over mankind’s ado

Forgiveness flows from the Rose of redemption

The God of the old is the God of the new

Worship HE, with whom all things are possible

Enter His courts with thanksgiving and praise

Fear He whose power can cast the soul into hell

Fear not the fool who scorns His holy ways

Confirm your sacred calling and election

Approach His throne where groan and joy are wed

Bow before He, the Lord of earth and Heaven

For He is the God of both living and dead

Shout to the Lord all ye earth and its people

With one accord let awe’s melody blend

Sing to He whose love and law is eternal

Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End

Sing to the one who precedes us in battle

He who has called us to trust and obey

Will not forsake us ; our Father is faithful

The God of the old is the God of today

© Janet Martin

Psalm 98:4-9  (NLT)

⁴ Shout to the Lord, all the earth;
    break out in praise and sing for joy!
⁵ Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp,
    with the harp and melodious song,
⁶ with trumpets and the sound of the ram’s horn.
    Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!

⁷ Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
    Let the earth and all living things join in.
⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands in glee!
    Let the hills sing out their songs of joy
⁹ before the Lord,
    for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice,
    and the nations with fairness.

It's a New Day

 We are all pioneers, in a sense

Trail-blazers where none have gone before...

My one-day-a-week 'charges' LOVE to play pioneer days so yesterday for lunch

we smacked our lips over charred and creative concoctions and celebrated The Good Old Days😛

What will we celebrate today?!

It’s a new day; do not take it for granted

Heaven and earth spill with birth’s unchained hues

Here on the girth where man’s footsteps are planted

Cradle and grave fill with preordained dues

Mercy, once more metes morning’s resurrection

God is not dead as long as there is light

Hope frees dusk’s hostage weighed with apprehension

Faith finds fresh footholds where shadows take flight

Look, darkness bows beneath Now’s golden fingers

Yesterday’s morrow turns into today

Passes the baton as long as life lingers

Bids us be ready, to watch and to pray

What matter most, never changes its edict

Truth does not falter ‘neath time’s bequeathed verve

Creature is subject to Creator’s Verdict

We by the voice of choice prove who we serve

It’s a new day; do not take it for granted

Sing a new song to the Giver of Day

Here on the girth where man’s footsteps are planted

Harvest is coming; watch therefore and pray

© Janet Martin

An oldie but a goodie...

This is the day that the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Ps. 118:24

July's Choreographer...

 seven-syllable lines is not the norm 

but the Voice in my head insisted on this form!

Something simply needed to be written for this gem-of-a-July-day!

Wild, sultry winds toss luxuriant trees grounded in sweeps of green 

where subtle golden sheen starts seeping through.

Lilt of light strums gilt of gold

Beauty breaks birth’s virgin hold

From its mold of moment-mist

Ethereal tangos untwist

Torturing, teasing the heart

With fond fragments of love’s art

Driving dreamers gently mad

With the melody of Had

Where the ballad is a blur

…. July’s choreographer

Violinist’s serenade

Never sweeter timbre played

Runs a bow across the sky

Ruffles rows of corn and rye

Lofty, lithesome, sumptuous beat

Falling, light as pixie-feet

Soft as petals waft, sun-warm

Wild as wind before the storm

Wrestling from the restless tree

…July’s choreography

Vexes vim with wish and whim

Wakes a waltz in linden limb

Hails from pubs of hollyhock

Pales the hub that turns the clock

Hones the bones that stir the dust

Metronome of wanderlust

Whips the horse that hauls the cart

Hitched to lanyards round the heart

Causes quite a flower-stir

…July’s choreographer

Whispers in high, hazy noon

Tugs at twilight’s lazy moon

Plays a rousing burst of star

Makes us glad right where we are

Takes us by our hands and twirls

Wizened women like school girls

Searing, soothing, high then low

Tempo of hold-close-let-go

Soloist and symphony

…July’s choreography

© Janet Martin

Colm Keegan cover because Garth Brooks' version is not on Youtube...

This Side of Heaven or Summer Morn

This side of Heaven summer morning is its closest kin

Soft as the sigh of angels slips the light through night’s starred skin

And gentle as the touch of God’s hand stirs the sleepy breeze

Waking nature’s fair-feathered band in meadowland and trees

And on the girth of earth an anthem rises from the dew

The bloom unfolds its praises to the Maker of its hue

The brook gurgles in gladness at the mercy of new day

Farmers inhale the fragrance of heaven in fresh-mown hay

The gard’ner sings as worship from heart full of wonder brims

Heaven’s foothills spill miracles in rainbow-coloured hymns

Where milky-silky mist-scarf veils the valley like a bride

And we feel honoured to be guests of summer’s morning-tide

The happiness of hope is brighter on a summer morn

The heart a little lighter between earth and heaven torn

For surely this is holy ground and surely angels tread

In almost-Eden’s paradise (for we still toil for bread)

Ripple of teal and silver wheels across the glossy field

Where we stand on the brink of ink-wells ilk not yet revealed

Save for the tender splendor where pink tremors on the east

Expand until the land is like a panoramic feast

The wild grass waves its banner over graves of yester-year

Hollows, heavy with slumber yawn as shadows disappear

Where the plush hush before the rush of toil draws us to kneel

Where summer morning is as close to God as man can steal

© Janet Martin

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;  
they are new every morning;
 great is your faithfulness.
Lam.3:22-23