How to Make The Most Of Each Day We Live

 Don't you just love the feeling of accomplishment?! 

even if it's something as common as cucumbers pickled...

...imagine, on the flipside, the horror of realizing how little we accomplished of eternal value

after it is too late to undo, redo or just do...

The one thing none can keep we ought to learn to give away

Life’s little splash of wake and sleep is not a holiday

So in this glove where push and shove leaves chaos in its wake

Let’s live as if life was more than a grand buffet of Take …

A smile, a hug, a gentle word, the slower company

Of very old or young, a listening ear, a cup of tea

The heart to make an altar of each new day’s mercy-tide

(Imagine if we caught a glimpse of this life’s Other Side)

…to share with wild abandon what the hand of grace has lent

To bear each other’s burdens, and with less be more content

To fling wide doors of heart and home in hospitality

And live as if today is love’s last opportunity

To take the hand of God and walk with kind humility

To bear in mind time’s daily grind impacts eternity

So if we want to make the most of each day that we live

Let’s make the grace of God our boast and give and give and give

© Janet Martin

 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; 

and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully…

 
Proverbs 19:17
Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.

Hebrews 6:10
For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.

Mark 9:41
Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.

 
Matthew 25:40
And the King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me

Sweeps of Something...

Bent to the task of Becoming

Tending to Time’s bag of tricks

Leaving behind sweeps of Something

Stippled with kisses and kicks

Nature plays havoc with heartstrings

Taskmaster and dreamer spar

Turning prudence and the art-thing

Into a sweet tug of war

We sense a suave circumvention

While we snare summer in jars

Cricket-song rouses reflection

Seasoned with sequins and stars

Who can afford to stand too long

Staring where earth meets the sky

Time tunes the bars of its love song

With echoes of days gone by

© Janet Martin

Of Sacred Things...

Where summer’s flash of flowers brims

Where tasseled sash of harvest skims

Then dims like daylight on the west

And strews death’s silence with its jest

Where pedestals and pitfalls vie

Beneath the circle of the sky

Some make a sport of sacred things

Not knowing what the morrow brings

Where everlasting soul of man

Is set in skins of choice and plan

Where supple splash of hours spills

Into a cup of valves and wills

Before the last gasp fills the rift

Between the Giver and the gift

© Janet Martin

 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, 

but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

 For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; 

the grass withers and the flowers fall, 

but the word of the Lord stands forever.” 

And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.

1 Pet.1:23-25

Jesus, Forever Friend

He wore a crown of thorns

He bore the cross of shame

So when the heart for comfort mourns

We call upon his Name

Jesus, the crown of hope

Jesus, the mourner’s cheer

Jesus, the name whereby we cope

And confide ev’ry  tear

Jesus, Forever friend

He cares for me and you

And always, if we ask He’ll lend

His grace to see us through

He wore a gory flood

He bore the sinner’s rod

He paid our debt with His own blood

Jesus, the Son of God

© Janet Martin

 Salvation is found in no one else, 

for there is no other name under heaven 

given to mankind by which we must be saved."

Acts 4:12

Someday Around the Throne of God

At yesterday's worship-service 

as we sang I was struck with an awesome rush of joy

as I thought of Someday, when from the four corners of the earth

God's family will worship without being hounded/distracted
by darts and daggers of the enemy!

Someday around the Throne of God, what a day that will be

As from each tribe and nation salvation’s worshipers kneel

Unhindered then, by mortal need or darts of enemy

Someday around the throne of God what flawless praise will peal

The Over-comer of the world with proof unfurled, will reign

No fears, no tears, sickness or pain can ever enter where

We’ll be with He who saved us from the wrath to come, through Him

Someday around the throne of God, what fellowship we’ll share

Someday faith will be sight, and hope will cease and so will prayer

From the four corners of the earth His followers will rise

Those who were dead will shed the grave and meet Him in the air

Someday, around the throne of God, worship will laud the Prize

His hallelujah hymn will thunder like a rushing tide

Someday a celebration unlike any earth has known

Will fill eternity when the Groom comes to claim His bride

And She will never cease His praise someday around God’s throne

© Janet Martin

 Rev.19:6-9

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude,

 like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 

 Let us rejoice and be glad
    and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready. 

 Fine linen, bright and clean,
    was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

  Then the angel said to me, “Write this: 

Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” 

And he added, “These are the true words of God.”