Sunrise Reveille For Soul-diers

Arise and shine. God’s love divine beams brighter than the sun

No feckless race is yours and mine that we are called to run

Through hope that maketh not ashamed, because the love of God

By His Holy Spirit acclaimed, in hearts is shed abroad

Do not despair. God’s tender care is faithful to the end

Nothing in this world can compare to Jesus as our Friend

He heals the broken-hearted and instills in us His worth

Faith's every step is guarded by the God of heav’n and earth

Behold the Lamb. The Great I AM who takes away our sins

His Word is not an errant sham; He IS where hope begins

He is the Way, the Truth, the Life; by His grace we are saved

Redemption’s cleansing stream runs rife where Calvary was braved

Trust in the Lord. Who can afford to forfeit deathless soul?

Or doubt the infallible Word undeterred by time’s toll

The Bread of Life none can destroy. The truth that sets us free

Is but the foretaste of the joy that fills eternity

Oh taste and see. This is no fleeting pleasure or delight

The goodness of God will appease heart and soul's appetite 

Hunger and thirst for righteousness rather than worldly laud

Then He who loved us first will bless us with the peace of God

 

© Janet Martin

Rom.5:1-5

Therefore being justified by faith, 

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,

 and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: 

knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 

4And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

 5And hope maketh not ashamed; 

because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 

by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

 

A Wedding Prayer

No matter how solid and secure love feels on the day of the wedding

that wicked old deceiver and destroyer , the devil,

will soon start to find subtle, or not so subtle ways to try to

wedge his way in to weaken and fray the tie that binds two into one

Matt. 19:6

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

If any thing is needful of constant attention and prayer

it is surely each and every one of our marriages!

Or, over and above that, our faith in Jesus 

and devotion to His counsel to guide and instruct.

Strong faith makes strong marriages/ families.

Strong marriages/families make strong nations.

Don't you feel like an honored wedding-guest as you enjoy the fruit

of carefully thought out and arranged details?!!

Dessert!

...and of course a lot of people-pictures that are not mine to share💖

This is the poem I put in the cards for the bride and groom 

of the two recent weddings I/we had the honor of attending

A Wedding Prayer

I pray the Lord to bless this new life that your vows begin

A little like a bud still unfolding the bloom within

And as the years go by, I pray by God’s grace, love bestows

Beauty we cannot see until the bud unfolds the rose

I pray God’s mercy crowns the ups and down that wait to be

As love withstands dues and demands because love’s strands are Three

And someday, looking back I pray that joy will awe your heart

Today, but the beginning of love’s sacred, sweetest part

I pray the honor that you feel for each other today

Will deepen and strengthen into a cord that cannot fray

I pray that God will help you keep love faithful, kind and true

As what God joins this happy day only death can undo

Janet Martin

Eccles.4:12

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

The Onus of a (Permanent Ink) Fount

The Best Laid Plan of me and you

can always only guess at the details

Thus, each of us should entrust Today into

The Divine Hand that leads with love that never fails

Below a few framed prints of yesterday...

Thanks to a huge fresh basil plant from our local grocery store

pizza was on the menu for yesterday's lunch!

Garden-fresh onions added some extra delish as well! (on one side😅)

...and later, peanut butter cookies!

This morning as I peer into its ethereal frame I see hopes of

a happy wedding day for my oldest sister's only daughter

💓🙏💖🙏💗🙏💝🙏

Each day lowers a frame to fill

The picture it will hold

Is always an Original

Spilled as moments unfold

From Goodness and Mercy, with love

Dawn’s fresh frame challenges

As we ponder time's palette of

Heartache and happiness

Colors of choice and circumstance

Mingle upon the tray

Where soon the frame that morning grants

Nightfall will draw way

The handiwork of Day Gone By

Sets in permanent ink

Before its paint is barely dry

Dusk claims More Than We Think

How swift the gifted frame bears Fact

As prayer, care, work and play

Fills galleries of Looking Back

That steal our breath away

Because what seems so commonplace

As day to day runs rife

Collects frames of grace-upon-grace

Into One Little Life

…where Far More than We Think becomes

The Onus of a Fount

That flows into The Sacred Sums

For which we give account

This morning as we peer into

A brand-new, empty frame

Pray, that at dusk the art we view

Honors the Giver’s Name

For oh, how very terrible

Would be a lifetime spent

Missing The Very Miracle

For which each frame was lent

…Love

© Janet Martin

Let's pray for the glorious miracle of love (like Jesus exemplified)

to fill today's frame with a masterpiece!

1 John 3:16-18

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

 And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 

17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need 

but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech 

but with actions and in truth.

Happiness of Rain

 Last week's little rainfall was lapped up by the sun in no time flat

so once again we are singing praises for a much needed rain!

Earth laughs; from laden heavens spills the happiness of rain

It splashes into flower cups and dances on the lane

It kisses thirsty gardens, and douses the dusty street

And draws a puddle world of bliss for children in bare feet

As thirsty hills and fields are drenched and quenched; the robin sings

With the contagious happiness of rain-drop dazzled things

© Janet Martin

Love Lyric

Looking forward to another wedding this week (my niece)!

Maybe that's what is drawing me to contemplate the

many-splendored thing;

Love

💝

From the bud of love’s increase

Emerges a glorious flower...

Love scatters the seeds that grow into flowers in the garden of life...

Warren Wiersbe — 'Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.'

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. 

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:16

God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

In most of the lines in this poem the word 'love' 

could be replaced with the word 'God'

💗🙏

Love rises to the occasion

Fits us for life’s best and worst

Love's resounding adoration

Honors He who loved us first

Love elicits awestruck wonder

Love compels us to proceed

No matter what we encounter

Love will supply our need

Love equips us for each hour

From the bud of love’s increase

Emerges a glorious flower

Faith and hope and joy and peace

Love defies mind's comprehension

Love is oft misunderstood

Because Divine Intervention

Is love working greater good

Love conquers hate’s bitter rancor

In the eye of conflict’s gale

Love is like a steadfast anchor

That will never shift nor fail

Love is gentle, kind and humble

Love is thankful, patient, true

Love does not covet or grumble

Love is God in me and you

Love is a foretaste of Heaven

True love is always enough

By Love's grace we are forgiven

Love is God and God is love

Lord, if all else fails, love never

Let this be faith's comfort sweet

Nothing in this world can sever

Us from love and joy complete

© Janet Martin

It is impossible to truly love

yet disregard God.

To live a loving life is to live an obedient life.

To live in obedience to His commands is true love.

Sometimes love is falsely accused of hate 

because it does not approve or praise 

the disregard to God's Commandments.

Jesus reminds us in the passage below how to love...

John 15:9-17

Love and Joy Perfected

 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 

 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, 

just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, 

and that your joy may be full.  

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 

 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 

 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing;

 but I have called you friends, 

for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  

You did not choose Me, but I chose you 

and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, 

and that your fruit should remain, 

that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 

 These things I command you, that you love one another.

Next door the big tent is coming down.

The Big Event (wedding) is over 

...and though there may be an emotional letdown

after so much excitement and planning 

Love transcends the temporary!

So joy abides because

Love bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

Love never fails

1 Cor.13:7-8

Summer Sunday

 

Bored breeze tousles walnut tresses

Fancy takes a flying leap

Through blue welkin wildernesses

Dotted with fluffy cloud-sheep

Wonder wanders like a poet

Looking for Lyric to snare

Wafting winsomely as though it

Winks at ink-besotted stare

Workweek weariness forgiven

Summer-Sunday, sweet reward

Grants a glimm’ring glimpse of heaven

As lust for life is restored

Woodland cast composes music

Masterpiece of lisps and sighs

Blue backdrop for green mosaics

…Mosquitoes mar paradise

Queen Ann’s lace trims dusty collars

On earth’s summer-Sunday best

Over wheat field skims the swallow (never could quite capture the swallow)

Fledglings wrestle in the nest

Zephyr strums loose-strife and daisy

Book and reader become one

Bumbling bee hums, hazy, lazy

Melodies in monotone

Summer Sunday, sweet siesta

From six days of toil’s staid toll

Summer Sunday, fine fiesta

Rests the body, feeds the soul

Bored breeze tousles treetop tresses

Plays a soft and sleepy tune

Loveliest of happiness-es

Summer Sunday afternoon

© Janet Martin

Poem without photo-interruptions...

Bored breeze tousles walnut tresses

Fancy takes a flying leap

Through blue welkin wildernesses

Dotted with fluffy cloud-sheep

Wonder wanders like a poet

Looking for Lyric to snare

Wafting winsomely as though it

Winks at ink-besotted stare

Workweek weariness forgiven

Summer-Sunday, sweet reward

Grants a glimm’ring glimpse of heaven

As lust for life is restored

Woodland cast composes music

Masterpiece of lisps and sighs

Blue backdrop for green mosaics

…Mosquitoes mar paradise

Queen Ann’s lace trims dusty collars

On earth’s summer-Sunday best

Over wheat field skims the swallow

Fledglings wrestle in their nest

Zephyr strums loose-strife and daisy

Book and reader become one

Bumbling bee hums, hazy, lazy

Melodies in monotone

Summer Sunday, sweet siesta

From six days of toil’s staid toll

Summer Sunday, fine fiesta

Rests the body, feeds the soul

Bored breeze tousles treetop tresses

Plays a soft and sleepy tune

Loveliest of happiness-es

Summer Sunday afternoon

© Janet Martin

Believer's Mandate

Sunday sermons aren't just for Sundays, are they?!!

Love is so much easier said than done, isn't it?!

Just a few thoughts after attending a beautiful wedding yesterday

and listening to a few inspired messages this morning!

This poem, by inserting the words 'ought to' between the words

 'we' and 'live'

may make it more relevant😅🙏

Love is a lifetime commitment on so many levels

in so many ways, to so many people

and above all to/through He who IS love

More Love to Thee-Fernando Ortega 

We live, not just to earn our daily bread and meat to eat

We live to learn better how to wash one another’s feet

We live to give because of what we have freely received

God’s gift of grace from the first moment we truly believed

We live to love God first then fellowman; all else is sin

We live to prove the righteousness and love of God within

We live to mirror Christ’s example of humility

Where pray, nothing is dearer than the truth that sets us free

We live to serve, not to be served, stirred by meek reverence

For He who loved us first and died for death’s deliverance

Then pray when temptation torments and cunning ploys compete

That love’s willing obedience will make our joy complete

For God so loved the world He gave His Son to pay sin’s debt

Once, and for all He overthrew the grave and conquered death

God is not mocked; if we confessed our sin and have believed

We ought to live to give because we have freely received

© Janet Martin

Due to laryngitis and a cough I decided it would be better

to worship from home this Sunday morning,

Links to a few sermons which

  partly inspired this poem!

Do Not Give The Devil a Foothold- Alistair Begg 

July 3rd Message at WBC

It Is July

 Happy, happy July!

Our first day of July was a perfect blend of busyness and beauty...

(I have been asked more than once if, for all the pictures I take

'don't I want to invest in a nicer, bigger camera?'

Part of me would like to but I need something that fits into a pocket

so work and captured moments like yesterday's, won't conflict😅💗)

oops! spills will happen!

It is July

The month of sapphire sky and flaxen wheat

A pleasant place to slow the pace of labor and bare feet

The garden grins as it begins to burst with bounty where

Not long ago a world of snow and dreams teased our stare

It is July

The month when lazy breezes loll and sigh

And lure us 'neath the lofty wreath of leafy lullaby

Sweet summer days, thy love song plays in every flower bell

As thankfulness and happiness in perfect kinship dwell/swell

It is July

Time’s ode to butterfly and hummingbird

The heady woo as scent of dust and dew thrill senses stirred

Where sprinklers lilt with sparkles spilt and lobbed against the sky

Where children run and everyone is younger in July

It is July

Work and play vie for front and center stage

So much to touch and taste before time’s tried haste turns the page

No joy is common in July; each heat-sweet summons, pure

Each day a gift soon set adrift where morning casts its lure

It is July

Shadow quilts lie in wait for picnics, books

Impetuous hiatuses from duty’s rigid looks

Ah, we are summer glad. So glad. Sun sizzles in the sky

Zinnia buds pop. Fat rain drops plop. We laugh. It is July

© Janet Martin

...and a picture perfect wedding day!

(happening this afternoon!)

The 'little girl next door' is no more!

Today she is a beautiful bride!