Manifest Evidence

 

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; 

as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 

 By this all will know that you are My disciples, 

if you have love for one another.” 

John 13:34-35

With the abundant rain we've been blessed with

in southern Ontario, Canada,

fields and gardens beam 

with Nature's/Mercy's opulent pleasure!

The most beautiful bloom 

in the garden of life

is love

Love is patient and kind...

1 Cor.13:4

Not by grand pomp and show

Or flourish of fine word

But by our love, others will know

That we follow the Lord

…not by the high or low

Of status, color, creed

But by our love, others will know

That we are Christ’s, in deed

Not for glory or praise

Or Duty’s rigid bent

But by compassion’s gentle ways

Love’s grace is evident

Not to create a throne

For self-indulgent pride

But by our love, God’s love is shown

His glory magnified

© Janet Martin

The Music of the Heart

As long as God writes the melody

the heart will never weary

of trying to set it free...

So much beauty to set the heart on fire!

A song can never spill the whole

of a heart’s melody

No bard as yet can bare the soul’s

full hymn in poetry

In the depths of the commonplace

Swirled worlds of splendor span

Like stars in the eternal space

Beyond the lens of man

Then, while we grapple with the surge

Of wonder’s splurge and laud

May whisper and desire merge

In pure worship to God

Pray we may never cease to thrill

to do our humble part

As we are awed by God, to spill

the music of the heart

© Janet Martin

I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; 

I will glorify your name forever.

Psalm 86:12

Psalm 9:1
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart; 

I will recount all Your wonders.

How Lovely Flow The Hours of a Lakeside Afternoon

 

How lovely flow the hours of a lakeside afternoon

While bobbing on the tempo of an ebb and flowing tune

While bearing the awareness of a tugboat chugging where

A lovely lakeside afternoon soon dissolves to thin air

How utter run the moments that compose days into years

As smooth as butter, bittersweet each sparkle disappears

While granting an enchanting awe, because lo and behold

A day no one has ever seen breaks midnight’s darksome mold

How softly seep the seasons starred and scarred with joy and strife

While we learn who to lean on through the calm and storms of life

While wearing the un-baring, sacred-subtle, of the soul

That steals away the seasons until God reveals the whole

© Janet Martin

After-Holiday Happiness

 

I scribbled this one on the way home today as I realized our comments

breaking little stretches of silence 

were either retrospect or looking ahead...

A toss-up between retrospect

And wondering what will be

A tug twixt heart-string dialect

And half-penned poetry

A futile fight, of holding tight

And gently letting go

Reeling from the brunt of delight

In drifts of echo-snow

…and sensing Time's searing caress

No bargain can defeat

After-holiday happiness

Is always bittersweet

© Janet Martin

Summer Siesta

 

A bit of sun and sand and sea

And being lulled by lap of lake

And chilling out with family

A bit of memories to make

In the kind company of love

And laughter’s sweet and sanguine wage

And losing count of places lived

Vicariously in turn of page

And coffees sipped unhurriedly

And vines designed by scrabble-tiles

And walks without a destiny

Along the beach, through wooded isles

A bit of gently losing touch

A ‘sit’ at the end of the dock

A lot of BBQ and such

And never looking at a clock

And ever being mindful of

The changes that each year imparts

And cherishing life’s gifts of love

And thanking God with humble hearts

 

© Janet Martin

Sea you in a week or two😎😊! 

Book of Qualms/Psalms

It's been a week where I have shed tears of deep disappointment and sweet joy!

A week of weariness mingled with heart-melting meek wonder!

Do you think the reason we love the book of Psalms so much is because

it is an outpouring from highest highs and lowest lows?

A book of agony and assurance!

confession and courage!

wonder and worship!

heartache and hope!

A book so relevant to today's qualms as we

compose our own psalms of anguish and awe!

Cries of anguish, hope and awe

Tears and prayers of joy and grief

Conscriptions of grace and law

Where the Word of God is chief

Groaning on damnation’s brink

When temptation stakes its claim

Wonder too profound for ink

As creation shouts His name

Clashes where doubt’s demons war

Confession, again, again

Worship without wanting more

Than God’s promises, amen

Fear and faith at constant odds

Fight or turn the other cheek

‘Thou shalt have no others gods’

Spirit willing, flesh so weak

Highest highs and lowest lows

Composing heart’s humble cry

On my knees or tippy-toes

‘By the grace of God go I’

© Janet Martin

A few go to fav-chapters...

too many to list all!

Psalm 8

Psalm 19

Psalm 23

Psalm 24

Psalm 27

Psalm 46

Psalm 56

Psalm 61 

Psalm 89

Psalm 103

Psalm 139

Psalm 145

One Day/Step At A Time

This poem kinda progressed as the morning unfolded

stunning me afresh with the need to

Only Trust Him

We would wear ourselves weary with worry, 

but for what good?!

Oh Lord God, rich in mercy, help us trust You 

like we should

Help us to look longer at the lily's attire 

Until fear and pride turn into worship's pure fire

My little 'longer look' at lilies this morning

while pouring out my heart to their Creator/Clothier 

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 

and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory 

was not arrayed like one of these.

Luke 12:27

Life grants us one day at a time

Then leave to God tomorrow’s dread

For on this ever-present climb

We cannot leap back or ahead

Futile to fret the ‘Yet’ none sees

Where fear and faith ever compete

Better to get down on our knees

And pour our cares at Mercy’s feet

For as we yield, we learn to trust

And as we trust we learn to yield

The love of God is not unjust

He clothes the lilies of the field

God grants us one day at a time

A step-by-gifted-step ascent

He holds the ladder as we climb

Where all we have and hold is lent

Then as we soften our grip

And cling to nothing but His Word

We start to taste the fellowship

That waits in heaven, undeterred

God ministers in 'breath-by-breath'

His purposes, oft unrevealed

While he finetunes the strings of faith 

He clothes the lilies of the field

How flippant is our finest boast

And all that mortal may applaud

How foolish to propose a toast

Blind to the faithfulness of God

Grace grants us one day at a time

Oh, pray that our goal will be

To give God glory as we climb

From time into eternity

© Janet Martin

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The [b]help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 43:5

The World tells us to reach within ourselves!

The Word tells us to reach out to God and trust...

in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God 

and the Word was God.

John 1:1

Of Summer's Day

Duty's marching orders can be quite relentless,

but hopefully not so much so that we forget

to 'sail away on summer's Day', now and then

Summer serves up its splash of sheaves

On silver platters made of leaves

A bloom-extravagant buffet

On counterpanes of Summer's Day...

Let’s put on smiles and sail away

Through glorious isles of Summer’s day

On seas of green and gold beneath

The gleam of heaven’s cobalt heath

Let's kick off shoes and wade through hues

Of wild-flower and welkin blues

Or we might miss the best there is

Of this old world, with much amiss  

Let’s pause without apology

Because of nature's Majesty

So many wonders to behold

Before the wings of summer fold

Before the songs of summer fade

Like youth, marching in a parade

That steals the vigor from their form

Like winter takes the world by storm

And we cannot return to climb

The hills of Once upon a Time

So, while the world is summer-young

And dew-drop-pearled and grandly flung

Like Creation’s magnum opus

From God to every one of us

Let’s linger where the landscape gleams

With lavender and lily-streams

With golden tides of rippling grain

With blush and rush of sun and rain

Where goldfinch flits and swallow skims

And lyrics lilt from leaf-lush limbs

And gardens burgeon with delight

That kindles healthy appetite

And makes our labor worth its toil

As seed begins to spill its spoil

To we, humbled to do our part

To glean earth’s gifts with thankful heart

Awed by His grace, aware of He

Who still creates with ‘let there be’

And sweetens creature-care with hymns

Where beauty’s ballad broods and brims

From founts of hollyhock and rose

Creation’s color-cadence flows

Through glorious isles of Summer’s Day

So, let’s don smiles and sail away

On seas of green and gold before

This sweep of summer is no more

Summer serves up its splash of sheaves

On silver platters made of leaves

A bloom-extravagant buffet

On counterpanes of Summer's Day

© Janet Martin

Rev.15:3

 “Great and marvelous are Your works, 

Lord God Almighty!

 Just and true are Your ways, 

O King of the saints!