A Sunday Morning Poem For a Monday to Saturday Life...

 

 

Oh Lord, God of the universe

Thou Artist of earth, sky and sea

Thou Author of mercy and love

Thou, Father of humanity

Oh Lord, Thou everlasting God

Supreme before Time’s charted span

From Genesis to Present This

Thou sees the heart of every man

…and like a Mother Hen with chicks

How oft You long to gather in

This bobbing brood of ‘would-and-should’

Beneath The Safeguard of Thy wing

Oh Lord, God of unfailing grace

Through all that was and yet will be

Your love exceeds man’s greatest needs

Is anything too hard for thee?

Oh Lord, Creator of the world

And all therein, beneath, above

Birds of the air, each creature care

Are at the mercy of Thy love

Oh Lord, Divine Omnipotence

Ah, who of man can know Thy ways?

Where faith alone can reach thy throne

To move the heart of stone to praise

© Janet Martin

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Matt.23:37

Of Dew And Dust...

We are not quite as carefree as we were in days gone by

And Something makes us linger longer where the petals lie

Where hour upon hour that we pour our lives into

Like flower-gardens, bloom then fade; a fugitive ado

Morality, legality, frugality, oh my

Are quite enough, my love, both heart and hand to occupy

We sense a Requisition, dense with dew and harvest dust

And realize Submission is an Elemental Must

Time’s law of live-laugh-love is rife with life’s vexatious Durst

Its surrender-grief-death, unequivocal as the first

Summer slips through our learning reach with granted gifts galore

While yearning fingertips and lips beseech, acquiesce, implore

Ah, we have not lived long enough to know what lies ahead

But oh, we know enough to know our tears are not all shed

Yet love, oh, splendid love still fills the flagging frame with hope

Where Summer weans dew-dusty sheen from sun and shadow slope

The air is sweet with the depleting ways of bloom and bud

The green-grass chair where we put up our feet will soon be mud

And all the things we planned to do in summer’s shining day

Will, like the ilk of dust and dew, shimmer then fade away

Ah darling, oh, my darling we are not as carefree now

As when we stood on spring’s threshold and Zephyrs kissed our brow

And dreams, like starry streams flowed slow beneath the willow limb  

Where summer seemed quite long enough to condone wish and whim

© Janet Martin

What a week...
phone calls in the middle of the night
most serious conversation in the middle of the night(please pray?)
(there is such a fine line between betraying confidence and 'bearing one another's burdens')
waiting for jars to be done steaming in the middle of the night
I begin, in spite of the love of it, to feel 'Summer' weary

Of Favoured 'Let'

The Author and the Finisher

Of bloom that buds and breaks

From womb of earth

To tomb of dirt

That fills the seed with weight

Of harvest-hymn,

And laden limb

Of fruit and lisping lay

Of winds that sweep

From deep to deep

To blow summer away

Of vines that twist

Where pines mist-kissed

Cast shadow-citadels

Of tides that roll

Through heart and soul

In hellos and farewells

Of cups that drip

With fellowship

Of mercies ever new

Of brooks that gush

And pinkly blush

Neath skies of twilight hue

The Author and the Finisher

Of season song and thus

Though we forget

His favoured ‘Let’

He never forgets us

© Janet Martin

 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Psalm 103:2

Heart Smith

He works with hearts as hard as steel

And hearts as cold as stone

And hearts that don’t think He is real

And feel sad and alone

He works with hands nail-scarred and kind

With love that will not cease

He turns the heart of rebel pride

Into a Master Peace

© Janet Martin

To We Of Numbered Days

Where doubt releases demons

And despair is like a noose

Where unbelief is chief of sin

And faith seems but a ruse

Where knowledge leaves a gaping void

In quests of greater good

And life feels like a lonesome road

Of love misunderstood

When all the answers in the world

Breed questions undeterred

Then we need to get on our knees

And trust God’s faithful Word

When in our search for gladness, oh,

When in our search for peace

In this world rife with madness’ woe

(…the price of Unbelief)

When seeking, but not finding, or

When hoping without hope

When looking but not seeing more

Than dark through which we grope

When confusion strips passion

For life’s purpose pure and sure

The God of all salvation waits

To save, comfort, secure

When what we find is futile

Like vain chasing of the wind

When what binds us bleeds laughter dry

In corridors of skin

When worth of word and labor seems

To waste upon the street

And everywhere we turn our dreams

Are undone in defeat

When we have lost our appetite

For Truth that none can prove

We need to lay aside our pride

And trust God’s faithful love

…and as we let go of our will

His pow’r will intercede

For nothing in this world can fill

The soul’s undying need

Nothing will grant relief from grief

Or bring peace, hope or joy

Until Surrender stirs Belief

In what none can destroy

The Lord’s myriad mercies pour

Without number or law

And as we glimpse His gift of grace

He fills the heart with awe

God, full of pity loves us

Patient, kind and without blame

Though heathen mock His promises

They abide, all the same

His grace bids judgment tarry

For a world confused and lost

Born with a curse we carry

Until broken at the cross

Then, when the blood of Jesus

Washes clean the heart of sin

Redemption’s hope releases us

To precious peace within

© Janet Martin

 Immediately the boy's father cried out, "I do believe; help my unbelief!"

Mark 9:24

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matt 19:26

 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

John 1:12