Of Common and Sacred Sureness

Update: When I wrote today's poem I didn't dream that this would mark the day of

the death of  our Beloved Queen Elizabeth II 

No matter how we get there,

we sacredly and surely all will!

(and so nice to have helping hands along the way!)

One thing we have in common

No matter who we are

A sure and sacred summons

Will fling a Door ajar

That leads into a portal

Where Time will cease to be

From mortal to immortal

For all eternity

Farewell to all comparing

Where we dwell side by side

The tent of our bearing

The means of our ride

However high or lowly

Of sky and land and sea

All are bound for the holy

Gate of eternity

Ferrari, Lamborghini,

Bike, airplane, mule and cart

The wheels to infinity

Is not the crucial part

The mode of transportation

In death, disintegrates

When the God of salvation

Parts eternity’s gates

This world’s clutter and clatter

Is the fleeting façade

Of a most sacred matter

‘Prepare to meet Thy God’

For He alone is waiting

Where time no more will be

No more doubt or debating

For all eternity

…where what we have in common

Is Time’s sure curtain- close

Who next will hear death’s summons

Only life’s Giver knows

As Last Breath dooms or frees us 

Pray, which one will it be

Either Satan or Jesus

For all eternity

© Janet Martin

Mark 16:16
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, 

but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Revelation 14:7
And he said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give Him glory,

 because the hour of His judgment has come.

 Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth 

and the sea and the springs of waters."

Revelation 15:4
Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? 

For You alone are holy. 

All nations will come and worship before You, 

for Your righteous acts have been revealed."

Heb.2:1-4

Therefore we must give [a]the more earnest heed

 to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

 2For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, 

and every transgression and disobedience received a just [b]reward, 

3how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, 

which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, 

and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,

 4God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders,

 with various miracles, and gifts[c] of the Holy Spirit, 

according to His own will?

(Re)-Commitment-Creed

This is no average Cause we are called to

and accountable for!

This is our reply to the Creator of Heaven

 and earth

To the Saviour of the Soul!

Hallelujah! what a Saviour!

Not as some rigid to-do list

Nor with reluctant ‘yes’

Or because ‘Duty doth insist’

Nor for self-righteousness

Not for the sake of pious rites

That loveless deeds employ

But because heart and soul delights

In serving You with joy

With gratitude, humble and kind

With love, to find my place

With all of heart, soul, strength and mind

Devoted to Your grace

Lord, because of the awful price

You undertook to pay

Make me a living sacrifice

On altars of Today

© Janet Martin

Rom.12:1

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, 

by the mercies of God, 

to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, 

acceptable to God, 

which is your spiritual service of worship.

Agile Acrobat

Today begins a new school year in Canada, 

and though the calendar says its still summer

for a few more weeks, 

summer always feels officially over when school begins!

My prayers are for lots of tots and parents this morning 

as many weather tides of

fears and tears 

of letting go etc...

Sometimes I pinch myself

at how once upon a time 

The Summer of Life seemed to stretch

endlessly ahead!

Now I turn to see its 'eternity'

 as nothing more than a splash of sun-sparkles

on a sea-swept shore...

Time winks and whisks another summer into memory books

As sentimental mothers gaze with fond and lingering looks

At days that sweetly, swiftly swept through outstretched hearts and hands

To join their predecessors kept in bygone’s far-flung lands

Time winks and weeps where wonder thunders beneath our skin

No wish or want can keep at bay the future closing in

Where all the while new day beguiles with new moments released

Like quilt patches in Bygone’s counterpane, each one is pieced

Time winks and weeps and flies and tries to fit us with new shoes

That life insists upon and no one is ready to choose

(How in the whirl of little boys and girls did I become

A strange, yet splitting image of a version of ‘me mum’) (my mom)

Time winks and weeps and flies and leaps, an agile acrobat

That balances on heartstrings and bows as he tips his hat

While we gather our bearings with a trembling chin held high

Bracing Ourselves for love’s next round of hello and good-bye

…while oceanic tempests surge and crash on shores unseen

While we gaze in amazement at where summer’s isle had been

While time winks, weeps, and flies and leaps across echo-glossed bars

While we brush summer from our cheeks in a blur of salt-stars

© Janet Martin

Grand-sonny- 1st day of SK!💖

Life; a Rollercoaster Poster

Happy Labour Day!

(Here's hoping mine will soon taste like tomato soup, salsa etc.! )

For this Labour Day I chose these two passages below to remind us to

serve with gladness while letting patience have its perfect work!

SO much easier said than done!!

Psalm 100:2

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, [a]all you lands!

2Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

3Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and [b]not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations.

James1:4

... let patience have its perfect work,

that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Oh! The labor pains of patience

before we are perfectly complete and lacking nothing🙏😥💔🙏

Jim's patience is being tested right out of the gates this week!

His high hopes for Happy Labour Day 

 have already taken a plunge; truck troubles

changing 'early start' to 'turn back' !! 😓

If life had to be portrayed with one image 

it would have to be a roller-coaster, right?!

(an image used in yesterday morning's message at WBC)

We can go from being on top of the world to a spiraling plunge in an instant!

and SO many unexpected twists, turns and tunnels!

Aren't you thankful God is steadfast, changeless and faithful no matter what?!

Rollercoaster...

The ups and downs and smiles and frowns of love and life persist

The ebb and flow of boon and blow and high and low repeat

The perfect work of patience lurks at every turn and twist

To teach us how to reach and bow and ‘wash each other’s feet’

Where faith and fear, laughter and tears, dismay and cheers conflict

Where serving God with humble laud makes every task esteemed

Where thick and thin of loss and win and groan and grin’s edict

In due time earns wisdom’s returns in ways we never dreamed

The fruit of toil and root of spoil in close proximity

Tests vim and verve and who we serve; The Apple of our eye

With age-old art reveals the heart with startling clarity

No trick or fence thwarts consequence; no truth can ever lie

Hope and defeat clash and compete; bittersweet battleground

Love’s push and pull not beautiful when felled in broken dreams

Where faith refined appears unkind, where bold doubters abound

Where ‘to serve God with gladness’ is madness to most, it seems

Where ups and downs and smiles and frowns of love and life repeat

Where ebb and flow of boon and blow and highs and lows persist

To teach us how to reach and bow and ‘wash each other’s feet’

The perfect work of patience holds refined gold in its fist

Do not despair; the work of prayer is oft invisible

While we who see in part and He who sees the heart entreat  

Until the awesome consummation of Love's Miracle 

So brutally refined, bows heart, soul and mind at God's feet 

© Janet Martin

What God Hath Promised...

Happy Labor Day Rest

Harvest season; the most wonderful, wearying time of the year!

Aren't you so thankful for God's design/example/command?!

Six days labor, 7th day rest!

Ex.20:8

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Isa.58:13-14

Observance of the Lord’s Sabbath quickly becomes obsolete

if it does not spring from the sense of sanctity

generated and nourished by the fact 

that God set apart this day for our good.

It’s not irksome.

It is not a punishment.

It’s a phenomenal liberating privilege.

(one quote from messages below)

Holy Day or Holiday! (Part 1 of 4)

Holy Day or Holiday (part 2 of 4)

Holy Day or Holiday (part 3 of 4)

Holy Day or Holiday (part 4 of 4)

I began to save profound thoughts from the above messages;

below are a few more but there are too many to keep up with so

I just re-listen to the messages

 to be reminded, rebuked, re-challenged and recommitted!

The recognition of the distinction of the day

is indispensable to its observance.

The rest which God has ordained is a rest from labor and a rest to Him.

The Day of Rest is a day which has a positive dimension and focus

towards the Lord, our God.

It is not simply kept from our every day routine

but it is kept for the Lord.

It is a rest of another kind of activity.

We rest from the ordinary activity of the other six days.

Why?!

Because we might be released into the worship and contemplation 

of the glory of God!! That's why!!!

...so, the principle stated is such that we might enjoy

the privilege of God's presence,

the study of God's Word,

the fellowship of God's people

uninterrupted by both employment and leisure,

which draws from us a devotion to Christ

in a singular way...

Thy delight Lord, who can measure

What kind goodness for man’s best

Is the wise and wondrous treasure

Of Thy ordained Sabbath rest

Reprieve from workaday stresses

Rest from toil to honor Thee

To worship the One who blesses

All who seek You truthfully

Six days for mankind to labor

Six days for mortal employ

One day set apart with favor

To laud the believer’s joy

..with attentions undivided

With hearts wholly fixed on Thee

To reflect and be reminded

Of Thy love at Calvary

What a gladdest invitation

To go to Thy house, oh Lord

To celebrate the salvation

That no labor could afford

Thou, oh God of all creation

Didst found the fourth command first

One day for rest’s consecration

Even before man was cursed

What a sweet and sacred priv’lege

After six work days are through

One day to pay humble homage

To One God, faithful and true

What relief Sabbath releases

As we worship and applaud

Thy name above all names, Jesus

With the family of God

What unparalleled refreshment

As we listen to Thy Voice

As Devotion's fond commitment

Rests from labor to rejoice

© Janet Martin

Heb.10:19-25

Therefore, brethren, having boldness[a] to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 

20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,

 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 

22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, 

having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience 

and our bodies washed with pure water. 

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, 

for He who promised is faithful. 

24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 

25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, 

but exhorting one another,

 and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Where Faith's Unfinished Business Groans...

Waiting is the sacrament of the tender surrender,

the art of a soul growing large.

Ann Voskamp (from this post)

Most of us are waiting on something aren't we!

 Lifting up love's herculean cry of

'how long, oh Lord?!'

Till 'they' truly see only You reflected in me?

Till I truly live 'I love You most, Lord!

Till we are the parent with outstretched arms welcoming Prodigal home!

Till thanksgiving becomes thanks living!

Till we surrender the why to 'Thy will be done'

Till we see you face to face!

I have been waiting, and waiting and waiting for the dahlia blooms!!

The bud seems reluctant to unfold...

What parables are preached in a garden's waiting rooms...

The Creator's perfect timing will unfold the full flower!

(maybe the flower shows a bit of this world's wear and tear but it's blooming!!)

So take heart, keep praying and waiting

not in idle restlessness but in humble, loving labor for our Lord!

(what sweet promises we find in His Word as we 'wait')

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, 

and he shall strengthen thine heart: 

wait, I say, on the Lord.

Psalm 27:14

Man looks upon the outward but the Lord looks on the heart

What sacred consolation to know He sees, not in part

But witnesses the whole where faith's unfinished business groans

Where 'not my will but Thine' tests motives dressed in skin and bones

...where human nature is a creature not given to wait

How swift and suave the atheist of worry wars with faith

God, grant to we, still waiting, surrender's humble reply

Rather than vexed debating of its wherefore or its why

Lord, You alone maintain the law that unfolds full bloom's art

Lord, pray the gain of 'wait' is awe; not closed buds torn apart

Where half-petals are strewn because impatience seized control

Rather than trusting as You try the faith that makes us whole

Janet Martin🙏💔 

Matt.8:26

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” 

Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, 

and there was a great calm.

I haven't shared this song in a while!

I love it.

The words with the melody

bring such sweet consolation, don't they?💗

Peace, Be Still

Once More Daybreak...

Daybreak; what a gift!

Let your light so shine before men, 

that they may see your good works,

 and glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

Matt.5:16

Once more daybreak’s blush-gold glory draws our eyes to prize hope’s feast

Mercy’s Magnum Opus unfolds like a flower on the east

Beckoning the humble pilgrim pressing toward Heaven’s goal

To reckon redemption’s risen, reigning Savior of the soul

To give thanks and awestruck honor, proving praise as we obey

He who sets His law and order in the bedrock of Today

As dawn’s light flows through the darkness and yon boundless fathoms brim

Pray, the Light of loving kindness will draw all glory to Him

Pray for rekindled awareness of faith’s living sacrifice

Pray for a conscious preparedness for worship’s ultimate price

Pray however meek and lowly our service seems to be

That we offer it with holy, sincere generosity

Once more daybreak hoists the emblem of God’s merciful regard

Sets upon the earth and heavens a semblance of love’s postcard

As compassion stays the legions that wait all around His Throne

As He looks upon the millions He is waiting to atone

Once more daybreak peals with promise; God is gracious to forgive

Death, oh, death is not victorious if we look on Him and live

Come, oh sinner, poor and needy, will you still refuse to pray

Daring to meet God unready in Death’s ‘no more break of day’

© Janet Martin

Come, Ye Sinner, Poor and Needy

Once Upon Many a Wistful Morrow (have been here and gone)

Happy September!!!

And to Adam He said:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten from the tree

of which I commanded you not to eat,

cursed is the ground because of you;

through toil you will eat of it

all the days of your life.

18Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

19By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your bread,

until you return to the ground—

because out of it were you taken.

For dust you are,

and to dust you shall return.”

Gen.3:17-19 (BSB)

We have toiled 'by the sweat of our brow', haven't we?!!

And Lord willing we are not done yet!

And we have eaten, haven't we?!

Thank-you, gracious Heavenly Father!

While not everything may have bloomed, obedient to expectation's hope, 

as we planted seeds, seedlings, and bulbs,

we are thankful for what often exceeds hope and expectation! 

From Fancy's Dream of a plethora of colorful dahlias....

to bushy reluctant bloomers 

that buried the planters until I moved them

From barren field with dust flying to a sweep of golden butterfly-like flutters...

From blank canvas....

...to our Creator's Masterpieces!!

A reflection and reply to this poem from May...

Once Upon a Wistful Morrow (demands full attention now)

Spring's Wistful Morrow-World, my dear, has now been nearly spent..

Its planted plot and furrow unfurled in fruit-testament

Hope, giddy with spring's fantasy of flowers, bears the yoke

Of disappointment and delight; for blooms are not bespoke

And so we choose to cherish what was granted, midst withheld

Before the present perishes as past and future meld

Where we, all struggling students 'neath the tutelage of God

Are learning patient prudence, for no hand can force a bud

Or undo, what in Eden, routed man's eternal rest

As Eve and Adam doubted and put God's Word to the test

Where the infested ground we till still yields to human race

The bread we eat, the flower frill, like emblems of God's grace

Where, though spring's Wistful Morrow may not unfold as we planned

We know both joy and sorrow's plume are cradled in God's Hand

© Janet Martin

And the sunrise was no slouch either!!!

The last pic in my spring post made me a bit teary...

These tots seem so much bigger already!