On Taking Fear Captive So We are Not Its Slave...

We demolish arguments and every pretension

 that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,

 and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ ...

2 Cor.10:5

Every so often I need to listen to this song 

because there are a LOT of 'what if's/fears that could hound/torment us!

Fear can be a hounding beast

Blinds us to God’s mercy-feast

Binds us to a yoke of dread

Makes hope feel heavy as lead

Keeps us from faith’s flying leap

Shackles us with doubt’s defeat

Cumbers us with load of care

Numbs us to the peace of prayer

Takes us captive lest we know

Faithful Words whereby we go

Makes us slaves, a faithless fraud

Instead of servants to God

Hold the hand that wears Love's Scars

Touch the hem that heals our hearts

When fear's hounding hellions rile

Turn the other cheek, (faith) and smile

© Janet Martin

 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 Tim.1:7

July-High

Silver breeze cobbles blue seas to the dock

Bumblebee bobbles in pink hollyhock

As the spark flies, July follows its clime

Heaven-lent glimpses to season-bent Time

Shimmer of shadow on glimmer of wheat

Summer-sweet tempo tapped out in bare feet

Wildflower wanders wherever it will

Dreamer drinks wonder while standing stalk-still

Wanderlust dangles from towering trees

Duty’s Must tangles with flowering pleas

Moments unravel like petal-primed stave

Beneath the gavel of cradle-to-grave

Look, July’s garden, a free-for-all show

Look, how the hill glistens with summer-snow

Look, mallow, yarrow, mullein and milkweed

Where swallow, sparrow and finch sowed its seed

Creek slithers, sleek like a snake through the reeds

Week withers, swift like a gift full of needs

Clock is a pocket full of heart-shaped holes

Heart is a locket full of star-draped shoals

Tug-of-Tide hobbles the soul to the sea

March of Time cobbles streets with memory

Tall grasses tickle twilight’s crimson bars

As July passes in a splash of stars

© Janet Martin

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