Dear Lord of Loving Kindness

 Have you yielded your heart/life to Him?

Dear Lord of loving kindness

He knows our tendency

And how human-inclined-ness

Is prone to misery

Dear Lord, so rich in mercy

Because of His great love

Rather than leave us cursed, He

Died, love’s fullness to prove

Dear Lord, so slow to anger

Though we deserve His wrath

He forgives sinful languor

If we confess and ask

Dear Lord, He longs to gather

His brood beneath his wing

Yet sadly some would rather

Disdain His offering

Dear Lord, so kind and tender

Because of His great love

His mercy curbs the anger

That we justly deserve

Dear Lord, of loving kindness

No one escapes His gaze

He knows the dust that binds us

And cups our numbered days

© Janet Martin

Psalm 117:2

For His lovingkindness is great toward us,

 And the truth of the LORD is everlasting. Praise the LORD!

Psalm 63:3

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You.

Psalm 36:7

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! 

And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

Psalm 103:8-14

 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.

He will not always accuse us,

nor harbor His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins

or repaid us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west,

so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

For He knows our frame;

He is mindful that we are dust.

The Sower and the Seed

In Ontario harvest-season is in full swing.
It often makes me think of another plant and harvest scenario and
  reminds me of  one of my farmer-dad's favourite hymns...

 

The commission of word and deed

Which each of us employs

Is like a sower panting seed

In fields of need and noise

How sure the kernels strew the field

Where grace extends its lease

How certain, what seems yet concealed

Will render its increase

How hard the grind of honest toil

And earnest diligence/vigilance

How easy seems the striking spoil

Of pleasing indulgence

But Lord, whatever be our lot

Ere death our breath will bind

Help us to tend time’s tender plot

With Harvest Day in mind

Dear Lord, with conscience keen and pure

Let love for Thee implore

…to plant a crop that will endure

Upon the threshing floor

Where, when we meet Thee face to face

Should there be sheaves of grain

These but by merit of Your grace

Thy mercy didst sustain

 

Then, let us labour undeterred

By those who scorn and laugh

Lest, when sifted through by Thy word

All that remains is chaff

Lord, let our seeds of say-and-do

Be worthy of our days

Where purpose is our love for You

And labour is our praise

© Janet Martin

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, 

gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Matt.3:12

His Ways...

Futile to try with script of men

To pry God’s language from His pen

But let the wonder of His ways

Anoint our blund’ring prose with praise

His ways, so much higher than we

Who are transfixed by what we see

Can, like no other mastermind

Waken the worship of mankind

Then, woe to we who dare to rave

While disregarding He who gave

For what is man of lowly limb

That God is yet mindful of him

And who are we to question He

Who IS, WAS and always WILL BE

The earth and its fullness thereof

Belongs to He who authored love

Behold, the beauty of the Lord

His ways too wonder-full for word

Where the author of Awesome art

Looks to the language of the heart

© Janet Martin

Psalm 19:1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

Without speech or language,

without a sound to be heard,

their voice has gone out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

Ah, Rush of Day...

Just imagine if there would be as much focus

on salvation for the immortal soul

as there is on climate-change...

 and the environment!

How can one fully and honourably teach on the subject 

after rejecting The Cornerstone?!

Small wonder the world is in a state of mass confusion/ignorance!

Oh! poor, poor world, scientifically smart and spiritually ignorant!

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Matt.24:42

Ah, rush of day you brush away

The hours, one by one

You ope the books of slopes and brooks

With rise and set of sun

Where what we earn by what we learn

From season’s turning page

Does not unveil its total scale

But simply sets the stage

Ah, subtle sweep where sow and reap

Replenishes its charge

Where circuits surge and mutely merge

With Bygone’s bolted barge

While time sustains what time soft-drains

Future to history

Till last exhale dissolves the veil

Twixt Time and ‘ternity

Ah, tender tug where hold and hug

Turns into letting go

Where time goes by as you and I

Learn how little we know

Ah, rush of day you brush away

Tick-tock-shaped steppingstones

Until the soul reveals the whole

Undressed of skin and bones

© Janet Martin

Rekindled Comradery...with Fall

It was a fall-ish sun-cloud windy work/play in/near the garden all day...

A chill instills itself it seems

Beneath the surface of our dreams

It rekindles comradery

With knitted things and cups of tea

Fall sparks a storm, wild with desire

For welcome warmth of home-sweet-fires

For supper hour’s muffled blues

For late-day shower’s brooding hues

Fall fills earth’s quills with adjectives

And wakes an ache for what yet lives

While death stalks ev’ry frond and flow’r

With that against which none have pow’r

Fall charms us with its flashy flair

Transforms each hill into a stair

Where if we care to take the time

It will be very worth the climb

Where He from whom all wonders flow

Amazes us with nature’s show

And we feel like an honoured guest

Brag-worthy poor and richly blessed

For fall finds ways to win our hearts

With art only autumn imparts

Ah, gold, magenta, garnet, mauve

Ah, garden’s tangled treasure trove

Ah, harvest spilt in answered prayer

Ah, Beauty lilting everywhere

Ah, glory days of sky and sod

As ah/awe tunes humble praise to God

© Janet Martin