Forging Forward..'Monday Morning Rouse for Soldiers of the Cross"

 Thanks to a little boy who always picked this song in grade school the words are etched in my mind,

 but I sure didn't appreciate the depth of the writer's heart then as I do now!

 

Exodus 14:14

 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Deuteronomy 1:30

The LORD your God, who goes before you,

will fight for you, just as you saw Him do for you in Egypt

Forging forward through unknown

Feeling for faith’s stepping stone

Thankful we are not alone

As we face each day

God is greater than man’s fears

Mediates and commandeers

Hoist Hope’s banner with three-cheers

Trust His Word and pray

Grace makes triumph possible

Spans a chasm filled with hell

Live each day and live it well

Though we suffer loss

Still with honest footsteps forge

Through the rock of Unknown’s gorge

Heart filled with hope’s sacred words

Eyes fixed on the cross

Some day in a better land

We will touch Love’s nail-scarred hand

Awed as we witness firsthand

The Author of True Light  

Until then, forge through the hour

With the strength of higher pow’r

This the stem, but then the Flow’r

As faith turns to sight

© Janet Martin

Rouse...

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...