Thy-Way or My-Way Highway

It's All About Him-Alan Jackson

How easy it is fall from Sunday morning's pew-secure 'Thy-Way, Lord

to Monday morning's My-way Highway😐

Yesterday's message 

and the past few devotions

...are part of the inspiration for this poem

Holy and wholly Thine 

Lord, teach us how to pray 

Thy kingdom come 

Thy will be done 

Thou Potter, I, the clay 

Except the kernel falls 

Into the ground and dies 

It cannot yield 

The goodly field 

That broken seed supplies 

The hardest death we die 

Is veiled in life's façade

As we resign 

The will of ‘mine’ 

To ‘Thine alone, Oh God’ 

Aha, tis not the gift 

That anchors and assures 

But mortal lives 

Through He who gives 

And only death/faith secures 

How easily we fall 

Not to the ground to die 

But to the taunts 

Of selfish wants 

And mistrust’s crafty lie 

Holy and wholly Thine 

No lesser pleas avail 

Thy kingdom come 

Thy will be done 

All else is but to fail 

© Janet Martin 

Thy kingdom come, 

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Matt 6:10

Noteworthy Reminders...

 

Faithful One

He Will Hold Me Fast

The sorrows of this broken world will never disappear 

The trouble man is born to pours out heartache, pain and fear 

The battle against odds that seem stacked against sweet success 

Would cause us to despair and be robbed of all happiness 

Be of good cheer; we who believe know One that does not fail 

Take heart; if God is for us then none greater can prevail 

Cast all your cares upon the Lord because He cares for you 

Think on these things; whatever is pure, righteous, noble, true 

Greater is He within us than he who is in the world 

Nothing can separate us from God’s love freely unfurled 

Do not despair though tribulation multiplies it sum 

These are the things He told to us that He has overcome 

And He will keep in perfect peace those who will trust in God 

His thoughts and ways are higher than ways we tend to applaud 

For if the Son has set us free then we are free indeed 

According to God’s riches He will satisfy our need 

And when we start to see the signs that fill our hearts with fear 

Take courage; for the day of His return is drawing near 

Our God cannot lie; what he says He will do

So be content; for God will never forsake me or you

© Janet Martin 

1 Cor.1:18

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 

but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Comforted With Leaves

The dirt road winds its luring form

...through summers in our sighs

The dirt road winds its luring form through summers in our sighs 

Where autumn rain has calmed its storm of dust and butterflies 

The hazy, lazy melodies that ruffled leafy arc 

Surrenders summer’s symphonies like teardrops in the dark 

As purple aster stars are snuffed like sparks that climb the air 

And harvest is hope’s homage plucked and shucked with grateful prayer 

The lark has fled to kinder climes; the lily of the field 

No longer tolls with fragrant chimes to souls learning to yield 

To time’s insistent metronome of tick by tock tirade 

Where winds rip like a steel-tooth comb through woodland’s serenade 

And milkweed pods like plump professors dressed in proper best 

Are primed for the potation that will pop their velvet vests

 

...to empty out its lining in silk parachutes, seed-sized 

To waft above the shining countryside, frost-fossilized 

And we are not so sorry now to see the summer fade 

Seduced by nature’s know-how in October’s yellow glade 

Where autumn’s climax is a-flutter with color’s collage 

Before it gilds gardens and gutters in leaf-decoupage

 

And so, we let our summer hearts be comforted with leaves 

And hills bedecked with stellar art no earth-artist achieves 

And so, we let October-awe heal wounds left by a blade 

Wielded by the orthodox law of tick-tock promenade 

That marches through our inmost parts, where if one loves one grieves

And so we let our summer hearts be comforted with leaves

© Janet Martin 

...the purple aster-stars are snuffed

Poem-Contemplations/Compilations From My Little Corner of Countryside

I love the way the seasons play upon the harps of countryside 

Their melody of majesty spills from plucked earth-strings far and wide 

I love how no one gets enough of what One greater than us grants 

Ah, don’t it make us wanna sing and don’t it make our heart-feet dance 

And don’t it wake a mystic ache as we partake of Beauty’s let

To trust the Hand that fills the land with such a gorgeous pirouette 

© Janet Martin 

I Want to Want… 

I want, not green-eyed envy when someone seems to collect 

With ease my dreams and fantasies I have not tasted yet 

I want to want unjealous joy 

And not let green-eyed mon destroy 

The happiness that waits for me in love’s kind-mind humility 

© Janet Martin 

In Plain Sight 

Be not deceived; God sees the heart 

Where our true passion lies 

He is not taken by the art 

Of winking, batted eyes 

But ever He seeketh to find 

In both aged and youth 

Worship that is humble and kind 

In spirit and in truth 

© Janet Martin 

Whether-challenge 

Whether our corner is noisy or quiet 

A color-riot or somber and plain 

Whether we borrow or whether we buy it 

Whether the weather is sunshine or rain 

Whether we ramble or rush with intention 

Push through the bramble or sail the high sea 

Whether we worry or wait without hurry 

Whatever else our whether may be 

God is the Giver of all that we savour 

Whether we consider Him, or not 

So thus, it behooves us if pray, He so moves us 

To give to the Giver the best we have got 

© Janet Martin 

Subtle Shuttle 

My, my, the metronome of moments 

Moves with smoothest ease 

It gathers both highlights and low blows 

Into memories 

My, my, time’s loom in us is subtle 

Where a shuttle whirs 

Weaving breath by breath a luminous 

Heath of lost summers 

© Janet Martin 

From the premonition of perhaps 

A sharp-edged awareness is born 

As we honestly admit our utter dependence 

On He who orchestrates the morn 

From the premonition of perhaps 

A world of fear or faith unfolds 

It all depends upon the vantage-point 

And the hand to which one holds 

© Janet Martin 

The Poet/Poem's Charge

An unexpected day off means unexpected extra-poem time! 

Between more mundane mandates, of course 😀

But writing poetry is far more than easy, breezy rhyme time!!

The poet’s task 

Pours from a flask 

That holds a large 

Charter of Trust 

Thus, if we drink 

This sacred ink 

We bear a charge 

Most serious 

For poetry 

It seems to me 

Is more than mere 

Rhythm and rhyme 

It is the ilk 

Of malt and milk 

Poured through the sphere 

Of thought and time 

…for beck and call 

Of madrigal 

is more than paint 

With verbal laud 

A poem is 

A kind of kiss 

To reacquaint 

The heart with God 

© Janet Martin 

Colossians 3:17 - 

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [do] 

all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 

giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

1 Corinthians 10:31 - 

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, 

do all to the glory of God.

Titus 2:7 - 

In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: 

in doctrine [shewing] uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,

What The Lord Has Done In Me

love this song and this version!

Then Ships Ahoy And On We Sail...

This sea upon which we set sail 

Where thick of night is a black veil 

Until white, fading stars exhale 

To fill the mast of morn with day... 

Rescue The Perishing

The Stranger of Galilee 

Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy

This sea upon which we set sail 

Where thick of night is a black veil 

Until white, fading stars exhale 

To fill the mast of morn with day 

Is glossed with frost in autumn-tide 

Is tossed with waves of want-fear-pride 

Where drops of moment-measure hide 

What waits to test the vessel’s sway 

This surge of highways, hills and trees 

Composes a landscape of seas 

-ons juxtaposed with jeopardies 

Of treachery, hunger and woe 

But we of the household of faith 

Are not doomed to death's dreaded fate

Christ anchors hope beneath the spate 

Of deadly current’s undertow 

Then ships ahoy and on we sail 

Buoyed by joy that will not fail 

Mercy deploys both calm and gale 

With loving kindness, full and free 

Then to the drifting dory call 

Caution the careless, reckless yawl 

Lest by some sudden 'weather-brawl'

They fall into eternity 

© Janet Martin 

God's Infallible Purpose in Christ

Hebrews 6:13-20

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the [f]immutability of His counsel, [g]confirmed it by an oath, 18that by two [h]immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we [i]might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

How Indeed or How? In Deed

How faithfully his hand bestows

Inside each little bud, a rose...

(early morning childcare means late day poem-post😊)

In spite of the gloomy rain outdoors there was still  lots of sunshine indoors

Sometimes the days that I secretly worry might be a little long and indoor-dullish

turn out to fly by in a flurry of happiness!

And I humbled-ly whisper, 'thank-you God'

How kindly He our need supplies 

He thrills us with constant surprise 

How faithfully his hand bestows 

Inside each little bud, a rose 

How manifold his majesty 

As we behold a fringe of He 

Whose ways and wonderments extend 

Beyond what man can comprehend 

How often He protects and keeps 

While we proceed with flying leaps 

Into a heap of wish and whim 

Without a single thought of Him 

How patient is the One who hears

The tender tenure of our tears

How wise and loving the design

That tests the branches of the Vine

How trustworthy and absolute 

Is He who no one can refute

How holy is the ordinance

That requires obedience

 How never mistaken or late

How ever loving, ever great 

How dare we live and never laud 

Our everlasting Father, God 

How kindly He supplies our need

How we should worship Him indeed

How faithfully his hand bestows

The grace whereby each mortal goes

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 100:5
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; 

and his truth endureth to all generations.

A Servant's Song/Prayer

NKJV

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, 

let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Matt.16:24

Watching the morning-mist evaporate before my eyes

was a vivid image of this verse

 What is your life? 

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4:14  

Makes us reevaluate our goals and motives,

doesn't it?!

Lord let my life, whatever be 

Lift up a hymn of praise to Thee 

And let my love, through deed and tongue 

Be poured out in a servant’s song 

Lord, let life’s labour be more sweet 

In worship poured through hands and feet 

Lord, let my soul-hunger be fed 

Through sustenance of Living Bread 

Lord, Thou the Potter, I, the clay 

Oh, let me not despise Thy way 

But in whatever doth betide 

Let Thy peace the storm override 

Dear Lord, this is my humble plea 

Let Your Divine Light flow through me 

Let Your love my flawed love refine 

To make my 'light-house' shine, shine, shine

© Janet Martin 

'Do you want to die and face the Lord 

Knowing you didn’t give Him your best?'

from this message below

The Second step: Growth-Dr. Charles Stanley