Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Morning Mantra



 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, 
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90:14

Rushing from rose-ravished fathoms
From a far-off faithful fount
Rolls a rich and rousing anthem
Of blessing too rife to count

Waning dark dons celebration
Unveiled deeps and sweeps applaud
Through hope’s renewed invitation  
Streams the mercy of our God

Far above faulty perception
Compassion and love ally
Gushing from heaven’s perfection
To the likes of you and I

Shed the dread that breeds derision
Look instead into God’s face
Wooing us from worry’s prison
To the glory of His grace

© Janet Martin

"Thanks is faith turned inside out"
Pastor Jeff Schreve

and how did I find the above post?
From this blog...Journeys with God;
another worth-your-while 'pause-place'



Monday, December 2, 2019

Masterpiece of Master Peace


 Last night the wheels fell off the peace-and-goodwill bus for a little...
in a blur of lost tempers and misunderstood personalities that
might never be fully understood this side of Heaven😐 
(aren't you humbly thankful if we confess our sins 
He is faithful and just to forgive our sin
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness?!(1 John 1:9)
As we let those words sink and sink in 
meek gratitude renders
hope renewed


"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. 
In this world you will have trouble.
 But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33




In this world where fear and sorrow
Molds a masterpiece of care
What is our hope for tomorrow
To defend us from despair

In this world where toil and trouble
Unfurls hobbles of dismay
What buoys and cups time’s bubble
Bobbing toward Judgement Day

In this world where want and waiting
Tries the fealty of us all
What crushes the taunting, hating
Head of evil’s dreadful gall

In this masterpiece of mayhem
In this world of sin and strife
What in the midst of confusion
Is the bulwark in our life

What keeps our eyes fixed on heaven
In this world of blame and shame
Ah this! Knowing we are forgiven
Is the Master Peace we claim

Knowing that nothing can ever
Overthrow Salvation’s Name
Yesterday today forever
Jesus Christ abides the same

Knowing, glorious, victorious
Waves the banner of release
In the cleansing blood of Jesus
All will find love’s Master Peace


© Janet Martin

 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 NKJV

Gifts Beyond My Reach to Give...


There are some gifts beyond our power to give...
No matter how much we wish we could
our part is but to pray we would all seek and find!



My dear, this Christmas if I could my gift to you would be
The assurance that comes from trust in more than we can see
The peace that passes understanding in this world of woe
Or joy unspeakable grounded in grace whereby we go

I’d like if you could unwrap hope to carry in your heart
To help you cope no matter what, its priceless work of art
Would draw you like a brilliant star when life is dark and cold
To seek and follow from afar like the wise men of old

My dear, I’d find the Perfect Gift and we would call it Love
And then no matter what life brings this gift would be enough
When disappointment dashes dreams or scars you in the fight
This love would minister to you like an angel of light

My dear, this Christmas if I could I’d bring these gifts to you
And pray that they would cheer life's way with courage kind and true
But these are gifts that you must seek and never can receive
Until your faith has made you whole with two words, I believe

© Janet Martin


 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--
and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
Ephesians 2:8

Sunday, December 1, 2019

A Something-to-Remember Sonnet on A Stormy Church-cancelled Sunday Morn...



 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Gal.6:7
We reap what we sow, but we never see the full impact of the harvest!
Many who follow reap what we sow as well...


We leave behind, with grit of daily grind
Strewed on time’s path, the aftermath of choice
In ebb and flow of yes and no entwined
Where death may steal our breath, but not our voice

As consequence and recompense reply
Though you and I lie stilled in Bygone's glade
They grapple with the apple of hope’s eye
And wrestle on a trestle that we laid

This thus should stir in us a sacred quest
To consider more than the score of Now
For what seems small soon falls prey to the test
That tries the ties that bind us to time’s plow

Where what we sow will grow, then while we sleep
Beneath earth’s sash of dust and ash, they reap

© Janet Martin



Saturday, November 30, 2019

Well We Know...or Are Learning To Know




Want without Jesus,will never be filled
Its tempest of longing will never be stilled



Acts. 4:12
 Salvation is found in no one else, 
for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind 
by which we must be saved."

Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, 
because He will save His people from their sins."
Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about Him 
that everyone who believes in Him 
receives forgiveness of sins through His name."

A song to satisfy Want...

 

This is how God showed his love among us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
1 John 4:9

Well we know want wars with gladness
Haunts the hope that shores the heart
Daunts desire with deep sadness
And dejection’s stinging smart

Well the struggle for survival
Without God hones hard defeat
Joy, a sympathetic rival
Or a laughing hypocrite

Well we know we know so little
Save what we learn from the past
While the frond of youth grows brittle
As the bond of Truth holds fast

Well the trouble we encounter
Taunts the apple of Want's gain
Faith subjects us to a future
Where sight-blind we peer in vain

Well we know Want’s wage is worry
If we forge forth without God
His great timing none can hurry
Beneath Mercy’s bitter rod

Well we know Want is oft smitten
With the shallow scope of gaze
While the prize of hope is hidden
In God’s higher, perfect ways

Well we know heads full of knowledge
Fill rooms with noise-metered mist
If the heart is but a college
For the want-worn narcissist

© Janet Martin