Marvelous Light

Isa.9:2

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;

 on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned...

I am 'labouring' through the last books in the Old Testament,

 groaning through the sobering passages of God's wrath and judgment 

for everyone who turns away from Him, because they do not fear Him,

 but worship others gods, and do not keep His commandments.

But oh, wonderful grace of Jesus, always with every judgment God reminds them

of his mercy and redemption for all who repent and come/return to Him!!

Wonderful Grace of Jesus

Rom.6:12-14

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.

13Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness,

but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life;

and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.

14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Part of Zacharias's song in Luke 1:76-79

And you, child, will be called

a prophet of the Most High;

for you will go on before the Lord

to prepare the way for Him,

77to give to His people the knowledge of salvation

through the forgiveness of their sins,

78because of the tender mercy of our God,

by which the Dawnf will visit us from on high,

79to shine on those who live in darkness

and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet

into the path of peace.”

The poem below is but a pale halo of awe, for words fail as we consider

the awesome love and mercy of God...

Into the darkness of the world that groans with scorn and spite

The splendor of hope is unfurled to pierce the dark with Light

To salvage us from death’s despair, from sin’s most cunning means

To draw us to repentant prayer where mercy intervenes

The Saviour of the world has come; Jesus, the Son of God

The Cornerstone of Christendom to bear death’s meanest rod

The Great I AM, the King of kings and Lord of lords became

The Lamb who takes away the sins of all who trust His Name

‘Ho, every son and daughter’ the Heavenly Father cries

Come, drink the Living Water from the well that never dries

Come and buy without money, eat to fulness without price

A land of milk and honey waits through mercy’s sacrifice

Into the darkness of the world in need of peace and joy

Behold, a great Light is unfurled, veiled as an infant boy

Who came to bring Justice to earth and hope to sorry strife

To pierce the fierce shadow of death with everlasting Life

…to guide our feet into the path of peace, away from sin

To satisfy God’s blameless wrath by bringing souls to Him

To soften stubborn hardness of cold hearts with mercy’s might

To call us out of darkness into His marvelous light

© Janet Martin

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, 

a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, 

to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness 

into His marvelous light.

Isa.55:1-9

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money;

 come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? 

and your labour for that which satisfieth not? 

hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good,

 and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live

; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, 

and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God,

 and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:

 and let him return unto the Lord, 

and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, 

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Because a Person Could Get Lost...

 

The older we grow the swifter years fly!!

This poem began to niggle yesterday evening, on a sunset walk, alone

on a lane that over the years has seen many a youngster racing ahead of me...

A person could get lost while wandering backward through the years

While tracing moments embossed on a tide of smiles and tears

Where seasons slipped through fingers of sunrise and shadow-fall

Till, commonplace we realize, is not common at all

Duty and beauty interlace, weaving life’s aftermath

A person could get lost while grieving bygone’s joy-worn path

Where if we are not wary, we could miss the moment gold

That no miser can bury and no wishful thinking hold

Rather than ruminate about a world that is no more

This day the Lord has made is rolling west from eastward shore

And just as surely as the rest it will slip out of reach

So then, I want to try my best to learn what it would teach

…because a person could get lost in fond futility

While wand’ring backward through a world of glossed imagery

Better to focus on Today, because it is a gift

That all too surely slips away to yester-worlds adrift

© Janet Martin

a few 'wandering backward' shots...

The Best Gift (We Can Never Buy)

Because He Lives- David Crowder

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son,

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee-Carrie Underwood

We cannot buy the things that only God grants, through His love

The pelf and pleasure of this world can never satisfy

No bag or box or bank account is ever big enough

To hold or purchase happiness, no matter how we try 

We cannot buy the hope that only God grants through his Son

For Jesus Christ, who knew no sin became sin's sacrifice

His death and resurrection purchased hope for everyone

Who repents and believes and receives everlasting life  

We cannot buy the truth that only God grants, through His word

His word will fill all who hunger and thirst for righteousness 

Therefore we ought to trust more dearly the things we have heard

'He who is just and faithful, forgives the sins we confess'

We cannot buy pure joy or peace only God grants, through grace

For by grace we are saved; not of works lest any should boast

His joy in us makes joy complete; nothing can take His place

His peace, not of this world endures unto the uttermost 

How futile is the search for happiness then, without He 

Who gives us all things richly to enjoy, through salvation

Who became flesh and made His dwelling among us so we

By faith, may see His glory too, the glory of God's son

The things that truly satisfy, cannot be bought or sold

No matter how we try we cannot purchase happiness

Only God grants The Gift that transcends this world's transient hold

Silver and gold can never buy His precious promises

The best gift we can never buy and only God can grant

Is free to all who call on Him; the Saviour of the soul

Though we may gain the whole world, without God's best gift we can't

Find hope, truth, peace or joy; these come through faith that makes us whole

© Janet Martin

Ps.146:5

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 

whose hope is in the LORD his God:

Matthew 16:26
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

Juxta-precision (or Dust-to-Dust-pendulum)

In one week three friends from my church family

have bid their final, earthly farewell to a parent!

While still in the stage of going to friend's parent's visitation

it also serves as a solemn reality-check

 that our generation is surely, swiftly, subtly

 approaching the oldest-generation status; if God wills,

(Three-score-year and ten 

or by reason of strength four score years)

reminding us how fleet and short life 

is no matter how old we become!

The older we become, don't we tend to wring from today all we can

rather than looking back too long in longing, etc.

or looking anxiously ahead to what may or may never be?

Treasuring ever more dearly truths like these...??

2 Corinthians 9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, 

so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, 

you will abound in every good work.

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, 

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We are enjoying a stretch of sunny days,

always treasured more after a stretch of unsunny ones!

Dusk shots from the past few eves...

both curtain close...

 and curtain rise have been stunning...

Twilight’s taking charged with giving, 

as dawn defeats death with living...

Swift each season rearranges 

common scenes with constant changes

Moment-momentous pendulum 

measures morn-to-morn momentum

Beauty’s buffet always laden, 

for today’s trek, always maiden

Twilight’s taking charged with giving, 

as dawn defeats death with living

Certain and Uncertain freshens 

curtain-rise-and-fall successions

Reaching, the ladder to earning, 

Teaching, the scaffold to learning

Greed, the gutter of temptation, 

Need, the flutter of salvation

Love, awe’s open arms embracing 

Today, flushed with God’s kind gracing

Time, a fluorescent wing beating 

a clime of farewell and greeting

Hope, faith’s undiminished flower 

In a yes-nope garden-bower

...where each season rearranges

common scenes with constant changes

Where a moment-ous pendulum 

Measures dust-to-dust's momentum 

...ere that last breath will deliver

Deathless Soul back to the Giver

And what remains is The Reck'ning

For what sustains today's beck'ning

© Janet Martin

More than It (December Dawn) Seems...

This morning kicked off its tick-tock shaped sun-kissed socks and shoes

before I was able to complete the poem 

that burst into wanting-to-be shortly after waking...

The beauty of meditation 

and the duty of obligation

 always com/posing stiff competition!

Sometimes a poem culminates best 

not pressed/suppressed by sheer determination

but by releasing its fragments until they return

in whispers begging to be penned.

So it was today...

I began dipping chocolate bars and maybe because my

fingertips were chocolatey and my mind at ease

lines teased and flickered,  begging me to wash my hands

and capture them before they waft irretrievably away 😂🙏

On Saturday's post I forgot to flip over the recipe card 

for homemade Chocolate Bars, to show dipping instructions.

I am sharing the dipping instructions instead,  from Jim's (husbands') aunt.

(who makes perfect chocolate bars every Christmas)

Melt your preferred variety of chocolate (I used semi-sweet blocks)

over LOW heat. 

(put water in a pot and set another pot on top and let  the chocolate melt at 

around 3 or 4 temperature on the burner.)

(add a bit of shortening or Paro-wax for glossier finish.)

Dip and cool!

This morning showcased a most welcome sunrise after a stretch of unsunny dawns!

Dawn seems to wear a prayer-like solemnity where new mercies spill

As heavens pale and lift the veil that yester-dusk lowered until

We couldn’t see December’s close-cropped lea, the dark and leafless copse

Etched in stark magnificence against brilliant, westerly backdrops

That dimmed and disappeared; earth’s tiered sweeps shrouded by a sea

That drew away Today laden with ample opportunity

Dawn seems to sing! Every morning the old is reborn and made new

As mercy grants rekindled chance to learn to love as we ought to

Humbly aware of He who cares and helps us bear our shares of Must

Before we pass through that last door of Soul-to-God and dust to dust

And thus, because life is precious and Time a Very Fleeting Flow’r

Dawn seems to wake an urgent ache to make the most of every hour

….each moment rife with unlived life becoming lived; the untouched, touched

And often we forget what we beget as dawn is crudely crushed

By hands and feet; demands compete and how we meet them will become

Without disguise, the ink that dries in a Book tabling each day’s sum

While ticking clocks keep kicking off the shoes and socks at dawn reborn

And sometimes we are prone to see nothing at all but 'morn-to-morn'

…and often dawn seems here and gone without a second thought or prayer

A gift from God we barely nod at as it drifts, not to thin air

But to a page, where age to age is recording daily reply

Its telling proof spelling the truth that will be futile to deny

Then, pray that want may be subdued by gratitude as mercy streams

Renewed; where dawn is like a glimpse of Heaven bursting at its seams

© Janet Martin

And, let we forget!!!

As true now as in the days of Jeremiah's lament...

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Lam.3:22-24

O Morning Star

Status Beyond Comprehension

 Who Would Have Dreamed?!

 

Today's post was inspired in part by our message yesterday at WBC

from Gal.4:4-7

But when the set time had fully come,

 God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 

5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b]

 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,

 the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 

7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; 

and since you are his child, 

God has made you also an heir.

Yet Not I, But Through Christ In Me

What a joy to begin each week, freshly aware

of who/how we serve, not as slave-servants

 but as sons and daughters of Christ!

What sacred reason to rejoice, 

not only at Christmas but every day!

Rom.12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy,

 to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—

this is your true and proper worship. 

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, 

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—

his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Let us serve, but not in bondage as slave to a master must

Never. But in adoration with a meek and child-like trust

Knowing our Heavenly Father, who we are called to exalt

Loves His earthly sons and daughters without shortcoming or fault

What great reason for rejoicing as our lives are sacrificed

We, our Heav’nly Father’s children, (thus heirs and co-heirs of Christ!)

By God’s grace received redemption through salvation’s plan unfurled

Where by nature we were all slaves to principles of this world

Therefore, without reservation, because we are humbly awed

Let us cherish our station, as beloved children of God

Through the marvelous adoption repentant sinners receive

Status beyond comprehension from the moment we believe

For God who is rich in mercy, with his great love set us free

From the law of sin and death that once held us captivity

By His grace He has redeemed us; through His Son He paid sin’s price

Let us then offer our bodies as love’s living sacrifice

...because, beyond comprehension, we through Christ's atoning blood

Are forgiven and adopted into His royal priesthood 

Filling us with Perfect Purpose through this divine unity 

We no longer slaves or servants, are part of God's family 

© Janet Martin

1 John 1:3

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, 

that we should be called children of God! 

1 Pet.2:9

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 

a holy nation, His own special people, 

that you may proclaim the praises of Him 

who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

John 1:12
But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, 

He gave the right to become children of God--

Romans 8:14

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Romans 8:16

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Sweet Saturday-morning Skirmish (between Poet and Prudence)

This daily/weekly Saturday morning tango is blissfully

unfamiliar to some, yet, I wouldn't trade it for a world of shiny

'ballroom' floors, as much as I dearly admire and strive to acquire

  brief glossy-floor bliss once in a while!

I try to balance ballads, oops I mean battles

with a bit of both poem and prudence. 😂😅💖

This beautiful battleground is composed of longing to linger on pages 

of past poets/artists

or tackling present responsibilities like prepping for Christmas!

Today's task; homemade chocolate bars

In the above recipe to clarify amounts;

 approx. 8-9 cups rice krispies, 2 cups peanuts and 11/2 cups coconut.)

Sometimes the battle is a toss-up between

pausing without pressure to percolate in the pure pleasure

of God's poetry in every season...

Whether gray...

...or gold!

...or vacuuming and fussing over delightful details

because Victoria is having friends 

over for a Christmas party this weekend!

Sweet Saturday Skirmish💓💓💓

Coffee pot beams with Columbian brew; ready/drained with of extra refills

Coffee pot beams with Columbian brew; ready with extra refills

Duty and Dream dance, a skippety-do; Poet and Prudence clash wills

Wonder is waiting with gifts still unfurled, often where we least suppose

Dawn is deflating night’s slumbering world with a sky full of hellos

Tuning spent ages with notes rearranged in compositions brand new

Learning’s lent pages divinely exchanged by He who loves me and you

Fueling reason with thankful reply for mercy’s replenished fount

Every season chock-full of surprises, too prolific to count

…thus, in the matter of work-to-do lists versus perhaps-poetry

Always a Saturday morning untwists two worlds that cannot agree

One (but a guess) a shining specimen of domestic excellence

One, happiness, pressed like wine from a pen never drained of Imminence

….coffee-pot beams with Columbian prose; ready with refills galore

Poet and Prudence tango, nose to nose ‘cross Saturday’s ballroom-floor

Weathering whispers that spar between ink and plain practicality

Untethering silver rivers that wink into….oh, which will it be

© Janet Martin

And hopefully this is my/our daily prayer;

'So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,

do it all for the glory of God.

1 Cor.10;31

Forbid Folly To Interject

Daniel 9:4-5&8-9

4And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said,

 “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy 

with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 

5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, 

we have done wickedly and rebelled, 

even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. ...

8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, 

and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.

 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, 

though we have rebelled against Him...

2 Cor.7:10

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation,

not to be regretted;

but the sorrow of the world produces death.

***

Why, oh why does human nature so easily forget

to trust our trustworthy Heavenly Father?!

Why are we so prone to want so much less

than He is waiting to lavish us with?!

Why are we so easily blinded by circumstance

rather than enlightened by His promises?!

Oh Lord, grant us godly sorrow that leads to repentance!

again and again!

***

I am reading through the book of Daniel and am always moved by the account

of Daniel after the decree that none should pray to anyone but

King Darius and anyone who does will be put to death...

Dan.6:10

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home.

 And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, 

he knelt down on his knees three times that day, 

and prayed and gave thanks before his God,

 as was his custom since early days...

Oh, that we may dare to be a Daniel too;

to be un-swayed in our devotion to God

no matter what or who attempts some sad

folly to interject and redirect our worship !

Today's post is also influenced by yesterday's devotion

from My Utmost for His Highest...

Forbid folly to interject and redirect my gaze from He

Whose goodness grants deliverance from hell’s hopeless eternity

Whose grace (a gift) bridges the rift that gaped with sin’s unholy strife

Whose mercy gave His Son to brave the death that wrought eternal life

Whose blood redeems and washes clean each one who repents and believes

Whose joy complete, so rich and sweet, only godly sorrow achieves

Whose righteousness, when we confess turns scarlet sins to snowy white

Whose love anoints all He appoints with His divine power and might

Whose law is peace, though wars increase, whose Light no darkest dark can dim

Forbid folly to interject and redirect my gaze from Him

But, let me seek with motive meek, a heart like Daniel, bold and true

Then, humbly bring, my God and King, faithful and thankful praise to You

© Janet Martin

Dare to be a Daniel