Flying and Dancing Lessons

 A year ago hubby and I were enjoying a 30-year wedding-anniversary get-away.

We find ourselves reliving some of the past a bit...'a year ago today we were'...

but for the most part the present takes all our focus/faith to 'fly and dance'.

...for as Present spills it fills the past!

I love the way the friendly day beams over land and sea

And sets the wheels in motion that turns time to history

What lies before us who can know but He who grants the chance

To try our wings of faith to fly and feet of clay to dance

I love the way the season-reel keeps stealing our breath

And teaches us to revere now and here’s prelude to death

What lies behind us who can change; but now, ah, see yon Door

Unfurling a new highway that no one has tread before

I love the way Today is always new; hip-hip-hooray

To rejoice and be glad in He who gives and takes away

Because God works for our good; His timing is not ours

But Loving Kindness tends His brood and strews the world with flow’rs

I love the way He does not leave us or forsake us, no

Though sometimes He reminds us of the grace whereby we go

Still, each new day that He has made is like a gift God grants

To try our wings of faith to fly and feet of clay to dance

© Janet Martin

The Conclusion of the Matter is Love

 And by these, my son, be further warned: 

There is no end to the making of many books, 

and much study wearies the body.

 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this:  

Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment, 

along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.…

Eccles.12:12-14 

The rivalry twixt heart and head wars where the score is hid

And often none but God bears witness to the victory

Where what we want oft seem at odds with God’s less-tempting bid

For love does not persuade us with promise of luxury

Mankind’s covetous nature led Eve to believe a lie

And since The Fall in Eden evil wars with what is good

The heart, ah, who can know it; it is wicked. You and I

Without the love of God can never choose the things we should

The altar where we sacrifice what would entice the flesh

Is not a public show; only God knows the full amount

But He, when we are finished with want’s little skirmishes

Will be the One to Whom we all will bow and give account

Surrendering of Self is not easy; no, not a bit

Aha, love’s hard-wrought battles are fought with our thought, not hands

Where what the world disdains is but true love’s prerequisite

The whole duty of man; to fear God and keep his commands

© Janet Martin

By this we know that we love the children of God:

 when we love God and keep His commandments. 

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.

 And His commandments are not burdensome/grievous, 

because everyone born of God overcomes the world. 

And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.…

 

1 John 5:2-4

 Mark 7:21-22
For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

Prayer For a Heart of True Worship

I've come to this conclusion as I contemplate my heart of worship...

The Depth of my devotion in worship is a reflection of the depth of my love and devotion to God.

My prayer then is for more love for Him because He first loved me!

(written before the worship service as a plea for a heart of true worship)

Why does a mind wander so easily?!

 Yet a time is coming and has now come 

when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, 

for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

John 4:23

Lord, pray that we would worship thee

With unadulterated love

For thou wilt keep in perfect peace

The mind firm-fixed on things above

Lord, still our hearts as Truth imparts

Thy wisdom filling dark with light

Renew in us a steadfast love

Until hope turns from faith to sight

© Janet Martin

Signs of the Times...

We are halfway through September...already!

It is Sunday night.

When/if we awake we will be one week away from the first day of fall! 

When I dropped hubby off at work tonight it was dark before 8:00!

The air is drenched with musky scent; the rain-cloud snuffs the sun

And nighttime drops its dusky tent before the day is done

The orchard lane is dappled where the ripened apple plops

And suddenly we miss the robin’s warble in treetops

The harvest moon is like a loonie set on velvet deep

The cricket-tune is waning its incessant cheep-cheep-cheep

Soybean sweeps flutter like a butterfly kaleidoscope

And suddenly we read between the lines on wild-bloomed slope

Orange pumpkins wink from tangled fretwork that was green before

The spider spins its spangled network of silk gossamer

Now russet hints begin to tint the coppice by the fence

And suddenly we feel the tug of farewell’s imminence

…where golden candle-halos warm the nooks of heart and home

Where mellow yellow afternoon dangles from azure dome

And everywhere we look the earth and its fullness thereof

Brims, beams and bursts from seams of field and garden’s treasure trove

The brook is flecked with leaf-shaped rafts that drift, eddy and surge

A blue baton strums woodlands in A Prelude to the Dirge

Where signs of time beckon and call ‘the end is near, dear friend’

For suddenly we sense that fall is just around the bend

© Janet Martin

There is another End nearing according to the somber signs of the times

 foretold by Jesus on the Mount of Olives... 

 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, 

the disciples came to him privately. 

"Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, 

and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

 Matt.24:3

(click link for refreshed awareness!)

The Devil is a Sportsman...

The devil loves a challenge; yes, and decorates the sin

Where with his lariat of lust might draw his victims in

Or with the boast of busyness or with the idle mind

For lust of eye and flesh, or pride of life can deftly bind

The best of good intentions to the worst outcome of all

Too wrapped in Self-attention to surrender to God’s call

The devil sets a snare where weakness eyes temptation’s tray

And all who dare to live without God’s armor will fall prey

There is no halfway in between; no one can serve two Gods

And evidence is always seen where Choice outweighs facades

Then pray that the confession of our faith will shed the old

As the new man seeks treasure greater than silver and gold

The devil knows that pleasure for the moment will appease

The guilt, and gloats as longing yields to evil’s expertise

Where what seemed good at first did not supply true happiness

Hunger and thirst is cursed until it craves God's Righteousness

Then as we trust Him and obey His power is unfurled

Greater is He within us than He that is in the world

© Janet Martin