Thursday, January 19, 2023

Earth's Beginning of Heaven's Eternity


Every so often I love to crank up this song...
it brings a sense of Heaven to earth!

Worship: Earth's beginning to Heaven's Eternity

I Love You Lord



I want to want not anything, save that which teaches me
To sing devotion’s worship hymn with true humility
Lest selfishness and pride take root and vanity applauds
I want to guard against choice fruit offered to lesser gods

How easily a thought can stray from where it ought to be
Fixed on faith’s Confidante and Stay secured at Calvary
To jars of clay, refined through care, hope’s priceless treasure spills
Nothing in this world can compare to what God’s light instills

For what have I of worth to bring save what is given me
To tune devotion’s offering with awed sincerity
To lift a gift of sober joy like a most valued gem
To He who alone doth destroy the shackles that condemn

Oh, help me when I falter Lord, to walk by faith not sight
To lean upon your faultless word to guide my thought aright
For what we have in common ought to gentle fellowmen
Thy sure and sacred summons to Soul’s everlasting Then

Lord, you know all the secrets of each thoughts and heart in full
Help us not to forget to who we are accountable
And live, not for the praise of man but with humility
Begin, in every way we can, worship’s eternity

© Janet Martin

Create in me a clean heart, O God; 
and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10







Keeping 'Good Old Days' Alive...

It's another buses-cancelled day so no kiddos for childcare...
Leaving some extra opportunity to practice what I poem 😅💕


Pour a second cup, dark umber




Because I start and finish with the same stanza
 this poem can be read from the top down 
or bottom up!

Put a kettle on to simmer
Watch flame-dancers twist and jive
Let the simple joys of winter
Keep the good, old days alive

Ease the angst of hurried lunch-breaks
Like a sabbath middle-day
Count the stars that fall in snowflakes
Wake the child that lost its way

Watch the birds without vain fretting
About what we cannot know
He who feeds sparrows is setting
Tomorrow’s ducks in a row

Let prudence and leisure mingle
Home-sweet-domesticity
While chores, books and gales rekindle
Good old days waiting to be

Pour a second cup, dark umber
It is winter. Sit and nod
Sweat and toil of summer slumber
Aching feet rest, slipper-shod

Taste a bit ‘o Brit tradition
Have a biscuit with your tea
Sometimes happiness is hidden
In plain-sight-simplicity

Let nature nourish and gladden
Gather barren branch bouquets
Plant a bowl-sized indoor garden
Let winter thrill and amaze

Make music with moment measure
Shake a fist at sparrow-hawk
Practice culinary pleasure
Do not haste the hungry clock

Crosswords, puzzles, scrabble, kittens
Paint a pic with poem-ink
Don a parka, hat and mittens
Let frost kisses turn cheeks pink

Savor winter’s favors slowly
Let its flavors steep each sense
With thanksgiving, meek and holy
Drink in argent ambience

Put a kettle on to simmer
Watch flame-dancers twist and jive
Let the simple joys of winter
Keep the good, old days alive


© Janet Martin





Rekindled Delight

 


Across a landscape ethereal
And not yet tamed by time
To journeymen of syllable
Unfurls a world of rhyme
And stars that poets climb

Sometimes knowledge alone is cursed
And deaf to the wild sound
That plagues the lowly bard with thirst
For wisdom not yet found
And lyrics still unbound

How ephemeral is the gate
That swings softly ajar
To usher through glimmers that bait
Poems that not yet are
Save in one fallen star

…snared on a shimmer of surprise
To thwart the stinging bite
Of words cut down to arrow size
To spur the songsters flight
In rekindled delight

The bull's eye of a poet's heart
Weathers many-a-test
Long suffering is worth the art 
And hunger worth the quest
Of sorrow at its best

© Janet Martin

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Of Unrelenting Mystery


I'm SO excited to share the link to my friend's
 (and long ago next-door neighbor's) latest venture;
one she has been in training for in a sense, almost her whole life!
Check it out!

As I read about her journey to this point
it reminded me to remember no matter what season we are in,
when dreams seem stagnant in streams
 of Commonplace Commitments
or mundane musts 
or dire detours teaching trust,
God is always prepping the soil or
pruning the plant,
for the dream/hope to flourish and flower in
His perfect Timing.
Does it not make us all take heart exactly where we are,
 if but to simply pray,
'God, help me shine and grow for You today?'!
(where the Unrelenting Mystery of tomorrow waits...)


Wherever we are called to be
Whatever we are called to do
We have one charge, ultimately
To be a vessel God shines through

The highs and lows of day-to-day
Serve purposes we cannot guess
While we are learning to obey
And trust God’s faithful promises

Experience is not in vain
How often we are blindly blessed
While wisdom we have yet to gain
Is veiled in the pain of the test

The Here-and-Now that we are in
Is but a steppingstone whereby
We advance, always to begin
So much more than yet meets the eye

Petal by petal, buds unfold
Where masterpieces wait to spill
Like we, cradled in the kind hold
Of God’s perfect timing and will

What sacred common ground we share
Of Unrelenting Mystery
For who knows what waits to prepare
Us for what is waiting to be 

© Janet Martin


1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
 do it all to the glory of God.








Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Let's Take a Winter Stroll

 The photos present a condensed version of today's poem😊






(most of the brook is frozen but
here and there its song bursts through! Delightful.)










Let’s stroll beneath the blue-sky wraith that draws us to applaud
And scale hope’s slopes not veiled by faith to touch the hand of God
Let’s consider the lilies clad in winter-white array
And sing as glorious throbs of gladness carry cares away

Let’s linger in a theater of hill and dell and tree
To watch the brook meander on its journey to the sea
Let’s keep a careful distance from the clock’s determined mien
That steals with plum persistence into shadows long and lean

Let’s pay closer attention to masterpiece-laden trays
Where inept comprehension staggers beneath breathless gaze
Let’s weigh the weightless treasure of Now’s equilibrium
Stunned by the mighty measure of Moment’s momentous sum

Let’s wonder at suggestions of what eye has never seen
And ramble through reflections of summer’s unraveled green
Let’s trace gracious caresses that evoke a hymn so pure
From frosted fronds and tresses etched on bottomless azure

Let’s find a sabbath feeling stealing through want’s workaday
Holy, holy, the healing where nature’s orchestras play
Let’s listen to the rise and fall of fallow wind-strummed span
Until we grow so very small and utter ‘what is man’

Let’s look beyond the obstacles that mar our every days
And marvel at the miracles that preach, teach and amaze
Let’s bear love’s yoke of broken hurt with footsteps worship-shod
And scale hope’s frozen slopes of dirt to glimpse the face of God

© Janet Martin

Psalm 8

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have [b]ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit[c] him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than [d]the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.

9 O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!



Monday, January 16, 2023

What Do I/We Know But This...


'Being a follower of Jesus is so sweet and wonderful and easy!' I said to myself yesterday,
...while sitting quietly in the comfort of a church pew
...being fed from God's Word!
Then BOOM!! As soon as I get up reality hits!
 I stick my foot in my mouth,
 I blunder,
 I err in judgement and desire,
I let Satan mock me, 
unnerve me, 
discourage me, 
oh!! the battle is real 
and relentless 
and hard!
Prayers often reduced to nothing more than 
 a flood of tears and groans...help me, God, help me 
to know how to honor and glorify You and only You.
this morning His answer seemed to flow distinctly through the
Bible in a YearGenesis 39 - 40; Matthew 11 passages 
summarized in two words 'trust' and 'obey'!


(I originally wrote this in first person but then changed it to 'we'
because together we weather the wants and woes and taunts and blows 
of faith's highs and lows...)

What do I/we know but this; when I/we trust and obey
The blessing of God’s presence is sufficient for the day

When God’s Words contradict what logic deems as right
Obedience and trust commit to walk by faith, not sight

God’s higher thoughts and ways hone hope’s humility
Blessed is the one who obeys unconditionally

Satisfied to believe what is not understood
Knowing God’s promises achieve His purpose for our good

Oh God, forgive me/us when I/we err in what I/we seek
The spirit is willing, amen. But oh, the flesh is weak

Lord, rebuke stubborn pride and teach me/us how to pray
Because wisdom is justified when I/we trust and obey

© Janet Martin

(sharing another good old hymn by David Wesley)


I think I started over 5 times with today's poem...
resorting at last to what we were repeatedly advised to do
when I was part of a writer's group years ago
'write what you know'...inspiring the first line instantly
'what do I know?? but this...

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Oh, Let Love's Incense Rise



Wake up, wake up, break out in song!
Judges 5:12

There is only one way to keep the believer's worship hymn alive!
And that is revisiting the place where by faith we were made whole
at the foot of the cross of Calvary
and to marvel again and again at our Saviour's 
love that suffered so on our behalf





Oh, let love’s incense rise poured out in prayerful throng
Let worship fill the earth and skies with hope’s unflinching song
To He who paid sin’s debt we owe a debt of love
To be as wise as serpents yet as harmless as a dove
To lay aside sin’s weight that easily ensnares
To believe rather than debate what God alone declares

To trust Him and obey; A conscientious thing
To pour on altars of Today Worship’s drink offering
For we are reconciled through grace no one can earn
Through Jesus Christ, who when reviled did not evil return
But yielded unto death to conquer Satan’s strife
So that faith with its dying breath would step from death to life

Because God is not slack concerning promises
Mercy holds heaven’s armies back in prolonged faithfulness
For He so loved the world He gave Himself to win
Deliverance from hell unfurled in punishment for sin
His precepts do not shift while He waits patiently
For all who do not have the gift purchased at Calvary

Oh, let love’s incense rise; poured out with joy and awe
As worship fills the earth and skies with praise for mercy's law
May love's song never cease but ever brim and brim
As more and more receive the peace that only comes from Him
Who is able always to do His perfect will
Then let worship with prayerful praise His glory spill and spill

(...for we have been set free from the death that did wait;
Divorced for all eternity from love, to Satan's hate)
The glory of the cross transforms love's agony
How little is the servant's cost compared to Calvary
 Then sing with heart and soul, the hymn of conquered dread
Because the faith that makes us whole will raise us from the dead

© Janet Martin

And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: 
thy faith hath made thee whole.
Luke 17:19




Saturday, January 14, 2023

Ode to a Sunrise


It must be memorialized;
the first sunrise of 2023!!





gold floods the waking world
welkin wealth spills and swells
like a glimpse of heaven unfurled
to crown earth’s hills and dells

a fervent friendliness
kindles ageless romance
hope dons the humble happiness
that bids the heart to dance

as morning laughs and sings
and makes us feel so fine
creating castles fit for kings
with glorious sunshine

...the fog-sullen rampart
dissolves; earth held at bay
Is unveiled like a work of art
Entitled Sunny Day

...a vaulted coffer tips
a dazzling surf of stars
across dawn's common ground that drips
from the Artist's paint jars

© Janet Martin


Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: 
talk ye of all his wondrous works.


Psalm 96:1
Sing to the LORD a new song; 
sing to the LORD, all the earth.


Psalm 143:5
I remember the days of old; 
I meditate on all Your works; 
I consider the work of Your hands.

The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.

One of my favorite hymns by one of my favorite artists!!
Thankyou David Wesley!