For Your Name's Sake...

Unlike Queen Esther's husband, the Persian King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), 

who, if any came into his inner court without being summoned, 

would be put to death, unless the king held out his golden scepter,

 The Kings of kings beckons all to 'come' 

because He came to break death's curse and bring us life 

and more abundantly!

His blood-wrought/bought scepter is stretched out to one and all!

What a high call and glorious purpose

is our freedom from slaves to sin/Satan, to servants of Christ!

Nearer, Still Nearer

  

More Love to Thee

For Your Name’s sake, help us take up our cross and follow You

And make love’s price of sacrifice an honor, meek and true

Kindle in us, Lord Jesus, faith’s vision, profound and keen

Of ‘substance of things hoped for, evidence of things unseen’

For Your Name’s Sake, Lord Jesus, wake in us the awesome sense

Of beckoning and reckoning; of Choice and Recompense

….and immense Aftermath; of grace or wrath’s eternal sum

(With blood-wrought streams, love’s scepter gleams and beckons all to ‘come’)

For Thy Name’s sake, Lord Jesus, make us more and more like Thee

Not vain, loud, proud, crowd-pleasers but full of humility

Thy pain and loss upon death’s cross our gain; You bore our shame

Forbid we boast save in love’s uttermost; Salvation’s Name

For Your Name’s Sake Lord Jesus, break the will that still resists

Open our eyes to want The Prize that some deny exists

Unclench the fist that clings to mist; with holy hunger wake

The sacred call to give our all for Your precious Name’s sake

© Janet Martin

Music To God's Ears

 

James 1:22

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

On Sunday mornings our recent messages

have been from the Book of James.

What a wonderful book full of wise counsel!

(And much to prick every conscience if we care about being more than hearers)

We all have in common the mercy that metes each new day...

and though our callings and circumstances vary...

(some days sweeter, cuter and tastier than others)

...we all are loved and will all give accountant to One God and Father of all.

Ephesians 4:6
One God and Father of all, who is above all, 

and through all, and in you all.

Not hearers only, Lord

Let the law of Thy Word

Be more than grace and truth outpoured

But leaves the heart unstirred

As we hear, Lord, I pray

We heed Thy Spirit’s woo

So everything we do and say

Will bring glory to You

Where love abounds until

Our Self is crucified

Content to trust Thy Word and will

With nothing else beside

If we ask, you will give

If we seek, we will find

If we knock You will come to live

In faith’s heart, soul and mind

Then hope and joy and peace

Become reality

As word and deed yield love’s increase

‘Not I, but Christ in Me’

What music to God's ears

When His children obey

Then He, Who Is The Word appears

In what we do and say 

© Janet Martin

What music to a parents 'ears'/eyes, when we see our children take

loving counsel to heart...

 how ever much more our Heavenly Father!

All God's Creatures Have A Place in the Choir

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

2 Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his[a];

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Thus...Joy

Luke 18:1

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times 

and not lose heart:

Rock of Ages-Chris Rice

What weight of woe could crush my heart

The cross of creature care

(Where oft love groans beneath the smart

Of faith’s ongoing prayer)

Would be too heavy to endure

Without the joy of He

Who died my pardon to secure

And set my doomed soul free

Thus, I will keep on singing through my tears of joy and grief

While I cry ‘Jesus, I believe, Help thou mine unbelief

…Or else discouragement’s despair

Would hopelessly succeed

And I would find no solace where

Both joy and sorrow bleed

But for the One who calms the storm

According to His will

And tunes me to love’s cruciform

And whispers ‘peace, be still’

Thus, I will keep on praying through my tears of want and need

While I cry, Jesus, hold me closer, while You intercede

…or else the dark of fear and dread

Could never be subdued

No eagle wings of hope to spread

As faith’s strength is renewed

But, because I believe, you pull

Doubt’s blinders from faith’s eyes

With joy unspeakable and full

Of glory’s tear-stained prize

Thus, I will keep on trusting, even though heart-cries increase

While I cry, Jesus, help me, you reply with perfect peace

© Janet Martin

Isa.40:31

But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; 

They shall mount up with wings like eagles, 

They shall run and not be weary, 

They shall walk and not faint.

We Pray For Traveling Mercies, Lord

1 John 5:14

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: 

that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Last week we received a prayer-request from a family,

for traveling mercies as they departed to answer God's call to a far-off land.

They have now posted a picture of their safe arrival!

We rejoice and continue to pray for them as they adjust to a new country,

and for all of us, who are striving to heed God's calling, 

we pray for 'traveling mercies' 

until we reach our destiny, to be forever with the Lord!

We pray for traveling mercies Lord, where cares and heartaches press

For hope and confidence restored through Thy Word’s promises

For salvation to be our song no matter what we face

Lord, make us weak to make us strong through Thy sufficient grace

We plead for traveling mercies Lord, for eyes we fix on Thee

To run with endurance toward The Reward none can see

For the joy set before us be our strength and joy and crown

Until with the victorious we lay this body down

We pant for traveling mercies Lord; that you would quench our thirst

With Living Water of Thy Word where boundless well-springs burst

From Truth’s eternal Rock, through ages never overthrown

Though storm and battle wages naught can shift Thy Cornerstone

We need Thy traveling mercies Lord, to lead us through each mile

We need thy Holy Spirit’s Sword where smiling snares beguile

Where our feet would slip without angel-armies unfurled

To vanquish dread and fear and doubt with peace, not of this world

We pray for traveling mercies Lord; and trust in Thy reply

For all we ask according to Thy will, you satisfy

Then, though we do not know or see all that time may betide

We press toward Faith’s destiny by mercies You provide

…all we like sheep have gone astray, but Thou, by Thy Son’s blood

Have borne our grief and washed away sin’s curse in mercy’s flood

Thou, The Good Shepherd, kind and true hears Thy sheep’s humble prayer

As traveling mercies lead us through the pastures of Thy care

In Thy Name we pray,

Amen

© Janet Martin

Blessed Jesus, Hold My Hand

Let Us Run

Sharing this song again because it uses a favorite scripture of mine

I need to repeat over and over! 🙏💗👑

Memory-Book (in the Making)

A sticky, sweaty, cacophony of canning, sweet kiddoes,

 broken fridges and toilets, chubby baby,

bee-stings, muddy feet, larkspur-loveliness, 

lilts of laughter and oh-no-groans 

new and renewed resolves,

among this week's memories!

Gramma, do you have any freethies (freezies) left?

Gramma, what stinks?!! (bread and butter-pickle-canning)

Baby-snuggles and squishes...

Thunder/rain/wind storms...

Bee sting...

 snakes and ladders...

No complex paradigm

No exorbitant fee

Only a moment’s worth of time

To make a memory

The sparkle of spent day

Wafts on the eventide

The mist of moments borne away

In memories to reside

A surreal picture-show

Filling frame after frame

A collection of high and low

Life’s snakes and ladders game

…where noise of girls and boys

Of choice and consequence

Unravels amidst childhood’s joys

Youth’s garb of Innocence

Ah, sweet and sacred surge

Of emerging daybreak

Today is poised upon the verge

Of memories to make

...as dawn sets new day free

Before Have turns to Had

Let’s make the kind of memory

That makes each other glad

And never overlook

Fresh opportunity

Soon turned to pictures in a book

That only thought can see

...and never to forget

From whence love's blessings come

And to keep close the Sacred Yet

Of life's eternal Sum

© Janet Martin

Dusk-bean picking and flower-delighting!

Love, or the Lack Thereof...

Jesus, Strong and Kind

Clash of wills when expectations don’t see eye to eye

Word that kills, when untamed tongue wounds with spite’s quick reply

Cup that overflows with sorrow when love is not kind

When love does not ‘suffer long’, with Other first in mind

Hunger is a heart-shaped hollow; want unsatisfied

When we cannot seem to swallow self-important pride

When we find no creature comfort in love’s common test

…of so much to learn about love’s good, better and best

Gentle joy and sweet contentment are love’s fruits, my dear

When forgiveness, not resentment keeps the conscience clear

When the welfare of another sets thought’s tender tone

Aware we leave either stumbling block or stepping stone

To love as we ought to, is impossible to do

Without the example of Love’s Author, kind and true

He is slow to anger, rich in mercy, gracious, good

What a way to live; to love each other as we should

God, who gave the Best He had because He loves us so

Does not leave as helpless, hopeless; by His grace we go

As His love pours through us it transforms wrong attitude

Until all that remains is love's law of gratitude 

© Janet Martin

There Is One Gospel

Psalm 145:8-9

The LORD is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.

9The LORD is good to all;

His compassion rests on all He has made.

(Bygone's) Building Blocks

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

Phil.3:13

..like empty jars

 

today's blush bars gleam with forms not yet filled

(below; yesterday's 'blush bars' because today's 'blush' was gray)

Victoria and I are hoping for a rainy day! It's been s-o-o-o-o long since we've had one!

Bygone; the sphere where yesteryear’s younger endearments waft

A metronome of steppingstones moss covered and mist-soft

Its stomping ground forever bound in volumes undeterred

Where brushstrokes of live, learn and love become a little blurred

Bygone; the age that preserves pages that are moment-laid

Where Now and Here will disappear to panoramas stayed

But, not quite yet; lest we forget to cherish what we hold

Before the sash of dust and ash snuffs today's splash of gold

Bygone; a world that is unfurled before our very eyes

A sea that slips through fingertips as moment-ships capsize

And drift into the silver-blue that seems to have no shore

But gathers in the groan and grin turned into days of yore

Bygone; futile to trace the isle of garnered live and learn

Better to take today and make it worth its no return

To trust the Hand that pours time’s sand-sparkles that soon will be

Fresh footfalls spilled to blocks that build Bygone’s Eternity

....like empty jars today's blush bars gleam with forms not yet filled

Where God allots life's varied jots and joys with which to build 

Then pray that we, with kind humility of servanthood

When day is done have made Bygone as lovely as we could 

© Janet Martin

Here's hoping today's footfalls spill into filled canning jars by tonight!

Before The Blue Tableau (of that which is no more)

"Rest is not idleness,

and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day,

 listening to the murmur of water,

or watching the clouds float across the sky,

is hardly a waste of time."

- John Lubbock

For some reason this summer

 it is taking serious discipline to press 'pause' for a bit!

As August arrived I panicked suddenly realizing I have hardly

stopped to soak in Sweet Idleness

if only for 15 minutes!

Rest is not idleness

Then pause the cause of Task

and linger where the sparkle of

summer

pours from a flask

through flower-bower-flues

where soon petal flares fall

and children that were half past two

have grown so very tall

 

Rest is not idleness

 Beneath the sprawling sky

earth showcases momentous

blips of 

seasons slipping by

through laughter and lament

Oh, may it never be

that we were always too care-bent

to rest beneath a tree

Rest is not idleness

Then, though toil's demands press

How sweet it is 

to sit a bit in

idle happiness

to feel the ebb and flow

of Here and Now before

it adheres to the blue tableau

of that which is no more

Janet Martin

Be still,

and know that I am God

Ps.46:10