Prayer Changes Things

Though for some prayers, we are still waiting 

with exceeding earnestness for 'answers',

others prayers are answered 

and hearts overflow with joy!

With my friend's permission I am sharing her personal thank-you 

for prayers from our church family...

" I want to thank all of you for prayers, meals, encouragement, 

gifts and any way you supported us through the last few weeks.

 Our outbreak at work was declared over by public health 

and I am no longer in isolation! 

 God is so good and He had been our strength, 

thanks again for all your prayers" ❤️

 Keep praying

because

Prayer Changes Things!

Prayer changes things

Like eagle’s wings

Hope soars above depths of despair

Though trust is tried

Through wants denied

We learn to lean on God

Through prayer

Prayer changes things

From broken strings

It orchestrates faith’s melodies

As music of

Earth’s truest love

Ascends from minstrels on

Their knees

Prayer changes things

The cares man brings

To lay before God’s mercy-seat

Gently imparts

Through yielded hearts

The love that makes our

Joy complete

© Janet Martin

 Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 

that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

So It Begins...

 Planting season has begun...

So it begins

The fallow grins

And lures the farmer to commence

Amidst the dust

He puts his trust

Of seed-sized faith in Providence

So it begins

The woodland spins

A diadem of emerald lace

Nature is stirred

With bud and bird

And anthems of amazing grace

So it begins

The barrier thins

Between the dreamer and the dream

As winter yields

To wakened fields

And babble from the meadow-stream

© Janet Martin

and why is this so exciting?!

Because a few days ago this!

 of course, 

an hour later this,

because winter's wild bluster is no match 

for spring's sweet kiss😎

Sight Blind, My God Forbid...

Sight-blind; a blight that handicaps faith like nothing else can

It robs us of peace as we face storms beyond our control

The Evidence of things unseen tests the mettle of man

What we behold with eyes is but the surface of The Whole

Sight-blind; gaze can deceive us if we let down our guard

Instant gratification does not yield humility

The substance of things hoped for can seem dubious and hard

But produces through testing, patience and maturity

Sight-blind; a deadly malady that robs us of love’s joy

Unstable as the wave upon the sea, tossed and wind-blown

For what we see can sometimes be the enemy’s decoy

And what seems like an obstacle might be a stepping stone

Sight-blind, My God, forbid that we rely on what is seen

But fix our eyes of faith upon the Your everlasting ‘yea’

You are I AM  in what remains, what is and what has been

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob’s God for Moses’ of today

© Janet Martin

Ex.3:5-7 Acts 7:20- Heb.11:23-

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.…

 Faith, my Lord, to follow Thee

Faith to face the foe

Faith to trust implicitly

The grace whereby we go 

Lyric for By Faith

by Keith Getty

Keith and Kirsten's version here

By faith we see the hand of God
In the light of creation's grand design
In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness
Who walk by faith and not by sight

By faith our fathers roamed the earth
With the power of His promise in their hearts
Of a holy city built by God's own hand
A place where peace and justice reign

We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul's reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We'll walk by faith and not by sight

By faith the prophets saw a day
When the longed-for Messiah would appear
With the power to break the chains of sin and death
And rise triumphant from the grave

By faith the church was called to go
In the power of the Spirit to the lost
To deliver captives and to preach good news
In every corner of the earth

We will stand...

By faith this mountain shall be moved
And the power of the gospel shall prevail
For we know in Christ all things are possible
For all who call upon His name

We will stand...

One April Afternoon

'It's certainly nothing to write home about',

some would say of One Gray April Afternoon

Still, the sense of Something sparks a sacredness in tasks

like defrosting the freezer and counting what is left  

of last year's garden as we plan for planting and preserving...

...and baby herbs are transplanted to give them toddling-space

...and from old belongings new life by simple rearranging

(nothing like a photo to reveal balance/purge flaws😀)

It certainly would seem like nothing much to write about

but...

It falls before my wondering eyes as soft as stars of snow

Then melts before its touch is dry to days of long ago

And all that stays after it plays One April Afternoon

Are echoes of a melody that somehow lost its tune

It wades through worlds of still-furled gardens filled with will-be-flow’rs

A sparkle, nondescript in a quick scale of heady hours

And I have nothing left to show for its fine happiness

But a heart-cup that overflows with home-sweet thankfulness

It breeds a sense of Something no words can encapsulate

Like fires that leave nothing but cold ash on darkened grate

Yet in a corner of the grand scheme of time’s ardent stride

It snares a bit-‘o-ballad to keep somewhere deep inside

It plays a masterpiece like Fur Elise on keys of thought

It steals my breath, the way life's day-to-day can slip to naught

And all that stays after it plays One April Afternoon

Is the sense of promenade in an empty ballroom

© Janet Martin

p.s. I have not forgotten about what's-for-supper-Thursday posts

but sometimes I do forget in the moment, to take photos!
last night we had leftover beef-stew, dill pickles, crackers
and the last of a precious brick of cheese!
One ' hungry customer' remarked that they wonder if anyone else in the world
has beef-stew as often as we do!
Not that I'm complaining. It's really good!
 this person quickly added to save himself from
an invitation to cook! 😆

Interknit Duos...

 

Dawn sweeps the sands of Time

Beneath the starry deep

where duo of hope-love sublime

Extends God's faithful keep 

God is love and love is God, thus He instills in us His law

Birthing conflict; human-nature struggles because of sin’s flaw

Hope is love and love is hope; heaven's draw-bridge to sands of Time

Hope without God's love is hollow, like a bell without a chime

Joy and grief’s intrinsic marriage groans; love’s tears and laughter pour

While farewell, like a dark carriage parks its hearse outside each door

And we could not bear to suffer the appointments of this world

Without Hope and Love to buffer us against hurt’s shards unfurled

Without love and hope we wallow like a helpless, drowning man

Futile, all the fears we swallow without Faith’s faithful I AM

Hope secures love’s groaning lifeline while the storm with Sailor spars

Nay, God's love secures hope’s lifeline with a hand that bears love’s scars

© Janet Martin

Lyrics for
Jesus, Saviour, Pilot Me

Jesus, Saviour, pilot me
Over life's tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treach'rous shoal.
Chart and compass come from Thee.
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me.

 

 

As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
Boist'rous waves obey Thy will
When Thou sayest to them, "Be still!"
Wondrous Sovereign of the sea,
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me.

 

 

When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
'Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
May I hear Thee say to me,
"Fear not, I will pilot thee."