Showing posts with label sabbath. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sabbath. Show all posts

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Sabbath Song

 

I was glad when they said unto me, 
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Psalm 122:1



Praise God for goodness granting, nay, commanding Sabbath rest
Praise Him for the implanting and expounding of His Word
He beckons us to gather, there to be divinely blessed
And keep the hope within us anchored to truth undeterred
As we worship together, our Father, Saviour, Friend
And exhort one another to be faithful to the end

Praise God for invitations to come to His house to pray
To join the celebration that will fill eternity
To share in the communion of all who await The Day
Of glorious reunion when face to face we shall see
God who so loved the world He gave His Son to pay sin’s debt
And save us from death’s hopeless grave; oh come, lest we forget

Lest we forget God’s faithfulness, love’s favors and mercies
Lest we fall prey to hatefulness so prevalent and bold
Lest lie by lie and vice by vice we drift from his decrees
Lest we forget His sacrifice and our love grows cold
Lest we, no longer glad to go to the house of the Lord
Miss the precious implanting and expounding of His Word

© Janet Martin



Saturday, September 3, 2022

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)





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.

Sunday, July 3, 2022

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


Sunday, June 13, 2021

Balancing Hurry and Peony...oops I mean Poetry...


To peer into a peony
Grants us a glimpse of God...

Social media is full of pictures of peony delight these days
and with good reason, because peony-season is stunning and brief
and its precious joy too pretty not to share!


Hurry-hurry, and poetry do not go hand in hand
Time flies; while I must learn to slow my pace and feel the sand
That slips through fingertips, then seasons, like a starry sea
Where echo-petals fall to halls of haste’s necessity

Hurry-hurry and poetry are hard to mediate
While one hand wants to loiter the other scolds ‘don’t be late’
The gate to dreamy meadowlands oft blocked by Duty’s bars
While all the while life’s silver sands run rife with Beauty’s stars

Hurry-hurry and poetry ignite a tug of war
One winks with possibility, one wields work’s common chore
One feeds the soul, one feeds the mouth, both play a vital part
In maintaining a healthy balance of body and heart

Hurry-hurry and poetry must learn to coexist
Ecclesiastic vanity unfurls its painted mist
Where Sacred Immortality is near, as near can be
Thus, life too short to waste in haste and miss its poetry

© Janet Martin

May your day of rest be blessed with a break from 'hurry'
and whether the poetry you delight in is found on a page or in a peony,
enjoy and give God thanks!

So, so thankful for a day of Sabbath-rest!
Thank-you God, for your perfect order.
(so thankful to be able to worship
with fellow-believers in person today, 
after long lock-down restrictions
have been lifted to allow fifteen percent)

Ex.20:8-11
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: 
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
 nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
 and rested the seventh day: 
wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.




Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Not Easier But Better...




Those days were no easier but oh, they were better! 
These days gone as well;-))

Writer's Digest PAD Challenge day 27: For today’s prompt, write a take off poem.

What lovely days back then
When business-worlds shut down
One day a week and everyone
Stayed out of stores in town
To sit upon a porch
On Sunday afternoon
Or stroll with family among
Spring’s forget-me-not bloom

What lovely days they were
One day a week for prayer
To worship the Creator
For the blessing of His care
To pause from toil’s demand
To picnic with a book
To linger in the hammock
Or to dally by the brook

...and on each Sunday morn
The steeple bells would toll
And worshipers would gather
 To consider God and soul
Awed by the sacred size
Of man's few days on earth
When that which never dies
Reveals its sacred worth

No expectation wore
The work-a-day man cold
With seven-day appointments
For a boss thirsty for gold
...because one day a week
The work-world took a break
What lovely days they were
Lost for a dollar’s sake

© Janet Martin




Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Sing a Song of Sabbath


The photo is the intro-page to this week's study, also used in the sermon link below...


Do you have a minute?...before next Tues. at 10:20?;-))

Here is the sermon we heard this past Sun. a.m.

Hurry, hurry, hurry up,
Modern-day free-fall
Driving us to madness
By the madness of it all

God, in the beginning
Deigned this to be best
Six days for our labor
One day for our rest

Hurry, hurry, hurry up
Soon the bell will toll
Pray we do not gain the world
But then, lose our soul

Janet Martin

I listened to this sermon today because I teach a Sun. School Class during the teaching-time of our worship service...
it challenged and convicted my hurry-hurry excuses.






Sunday, March 30, 2014

Of Service and Sabbaths





A silent circuit of midnight to morning trolls the deep
This interview of dark to light is far above our reach
Yet in the discourse of its offering we work and sleep
Shaping within its aftermath those echoes we beseech

A pen cannot descry the whole of it; twixt sod and sky
Duty deploys its legions in a tireless regime
And we, of soul-skin service are its bumbling infantry
If would eat then we cannot sit idle by Time’s stream

Shalom, good morning, Buenos dias, howdy, how are you
We greet our fellow-comrades where the day unveils its strife
Adios, au revoir, good-bye, farewell, and see you soon
Arabesque affidavit as touch-homage shapes a life

Come now, we must be going for this semi-circle sweep
Of gold upon the grass will soon be swaddled in dark blue
As precious pitter-patter of an hour drains its deep
And all that we have left of it is what we yet must do

© Janet Martin

I cherish this one day of the week for rest from moiling toil!
May our worship be sincere and our rest sweet.

Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Exodus 20:8

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sabbath Song





 "Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. Ex. 34:21

…and now upon this little earth
The Lord bestowed for mankind’s best
A day of Sabbath from his work
A day of worship, respite, rest

In spirit and in truth, oh God
Accept our offering of praise
’Tis humble thanks; we know You know
The intent of our fumbling ways

…and yet you love us; right and wrong
In spite of our fears and faults
You yearn to hear our grateful song
As tongue Your majesty exalts

And when the morrow fills the lea
Upon Time’s troubled avenue
May our labor ever be
A worship-offering back to You

© Janet Martin