God Loves to Grow Things

2019-09-13 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit.” (John 15:5, NASB)

The truth is all around you:
God loves to grow things.
When you look at your own life, with your
faults,
struggles, and
blind spots,
remember:
God loves to grow things.

When you look at other people,
with all their insensitivities and annoying qualities,
remember:
God loves to grow things.

Think of people as growing things.
You’re seeing them in only one moment of their development.
God, the patient gardener, is working
carefully and joyfully,
moment by moment,
year by year.
He is tenderly nurturing them from
a tiny seed to
beautiful fullness in Him.

Try not to step on His flowers.
If a holy and all-knowing God can love them just as they are,
can’t we?

All our relationships are to be shaped by
the love of the Father – His love
for them, for us,
for all of us.
He loves “them” as much as “us”.
In every relationship,
only His unselfish love is worthy of Him.

Hymn: Live and Love and Grow in Christ
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Psalm 112

2019-09-11 Hymns No comments

This hymn of praise and worship
can be sung alone or
with a hymn based on its companion Psalm,
Psalm 111.
The two hymns share the same
highly-singable tune.

Recording
Printed Music

O Holy God, O Living Flame,
We know, we fear, we love Your name.
May all we say and do proclaim
Your life in us, O glorious God!

We love Your Word! O may it be
The truth that daily sets us free
To live Your love’s intensity,
O tender, kind, and gracious God!

Your blessings grace our lives each day
With simple joys in rich array,
With deep delights as we obey,
O watchful, ever-present God!

No change, no loss, no dark unknown –
We fear You, Lord, and You alone,
For You are ever on the throne,
Our Abba, loving Father God!

by Ken Bible, © 2019 LNWhymns.com.

ThinkSingPray

2019-09-09 ThinkSingPray No comments

ThinkSingPray
about
The Lord’s Prayer 6

Monday –      I Offer You My Silence
Hymn: My Mind Is Yours (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     Give Us Our Daily Bread #1

Wednesday – Give Us Our Daily Bread #2

Thursday –    Give Us Our Daily Bread #3
Hymn: Our Daily Bread (recording) (printed)

Friday –          Dependence
Hymn: I Quiet Myself in Your Love (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     Neediness
Hymn: Back to You (recording) (printed)

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

From Every Nation

2019-09-06 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

[Jesus said:] “People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places…in the kingdom of God. (Luke 13:29, NIV)

We were at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, which commemorates the place where the angel announced to Mary that Messiah would be born of her.

I was struck by the many languages, nationalities, and religious traditions that filled the church. They were like children on their first day in heaven, rushing from place to place, bubbling with excitement. Most had traveled long distances at great expense to be there.

What a vivid reminder that people come to faith in Christ through many avenues. Those avenues are as varied as the cultures and personalities of all the people of all the ages.

With each of us, our understanding of God is so partial and so marred by ignorance. But God’s goodness comes in many flavors, and His incarnation has so many beautiful faces.

Father,
You don’t rank individuals by
importance or
respectability, and
neither should we.
Each one is Your dearly-loved child, and
we should treat each one as such.

Hymn: God of All People
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Psalm 8

2019-09-04 Hymns No comments

How stunning is the magnificence of God
painted across the night sky!
This hymn draws on that magnificence
as expressed in Psalm 8.
To a familiar tune.

Recording
Printed Music

O Lord, Your splendor fills the earth
And floods all space and time.
Mere children speak the mighty truth:
Your name, supreme, sublime.

Beneath the sky so vast and deep,
I stand, so brief and small,
And wonder why a God like You
Would notice me at all.

And yet You come and share Yourself.
My Lord, my God, what grace!
We walk together side-by-side
And talk here face-to-face.

You share Your life, Your work, Your heart,
Your plans for what will be.
O may Your glory fill the earth
As waters fill the sea!

by Ken Bible, © 2018 LNWhymns.com.

ThinkSingPray

2019-09-02 ThinkSingPray No comments

ThinkSingPray
about
The Lord’s Prayer 5

Monday –      As It Is in Heaven #1

Tuesday –     As It Is in Heaven #2

Wednesday – As It Is in Heaven #3
Hymn: God Alone (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    Father, Glorify Yourself through This Need
Hymn: Father, We Come (recording) (printed)

Friday –          God Will Be Exalted
Hymn: God Will Be Exalted (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     Your Kingdom Come, Father!
Hymn: Your Kingdom, Your Power (recording) (printed)

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

Hear God’s Higher Call

2019-08-30 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. (1 Peter 2:9-10, NASB)

See your God for who He is and
all He is.
He is the Father of the entire human family.
He lovingly formed them all to be His very own.
He invested Himself in each and every individual.
Now realize that we are children of this Father,
this loving, universal Father.
He is so much greater than
our self-centered perspective and
limited minds.
He is grander than
our immature faith and
our love, still growing.

This Father is calling us beyond our
small,
fearful,
sectarian ways.
He is calling us to share
His broader mind and
larger heart.
He is urging us toward prayer that believes
He is all He says He is and
does all He says He will do.
He is leading us toward a faith that is simpler,
a vision that is higher, and
a love that is as universal as He is,
a love that is
boundless and
fearless and
free.

In this lost and needy world, He is calling us to live as
His children,
His Body,
His divine life made flesh and bone.
His compassion for His lost children is
calling us and constraining us to be
the light of the world,
the salt of the earth,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation.

His love is compelling us and empowering us to be
the People of God.

Father, as we follow Your Spirit,
we are many members
all working together as one Body.
We are the Body of Jesus Christ Himself,
living and loving in this world.
What an amazing reality!

Hymn: We Will Be Your People

Psalm 61

2019-08-28 Hymns No comments

No matter how you feel
(or don’t feel),
Almighty God is
with you as you pray!
This Psalm setting reminds us of that…
with lots of personality.

Recording
Printed Music

God, my God, listen to me pray!
Lord, You feel so far away!
Bow Your ear. Hear my little cry.
I’m so low, and You so high.
Small and weak, I drown in need.
O my God, be God indeed!
Mighty Rock, be a rock for me.
Be the strength that I can’t be.

Problems mount, fears are multiplied –
Be the place that I can hide.
Though alone, none to understand,
Mountains move at Your command.
You, O God, are present peace,
Love’s embrace and sweet release.
Trusting You, how my soul can sing
In the shadow of Your wing!

You are here – Father all above,
Jesus, brother, O what love!
Breath of God, powerful and free,
Breathing all You are in me.
Though I feel so far away,
You engulf me as I pray.
Life and joy, good in all You do,
God my Savior, praise to You!

by Ken Bible, © 2018 by LNWhymns.com.

FREE BOOK: A Deeper Christmas

2019-08-27 Uncategorized No comments

I am beginning to make my unpublished books available as free downloads in pdf format. The first one is available now:

A Deeper Christmas
Thought-provoking reflections, prayers, and new hymns
for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany

Enrich your celebration of Christ’s coming with this treasury of devotional resources. Go beyond angels, shepherds, and wise men. See Christ and worship Christ in the light of Old Testament prophecy, New Testament fulfillment, and promises of His coming again. Fill your heart, mind, and imagination with all He is. Included are hymn links that provide free recordings and printed music. The book’s sections include: Introducing Jesus Christ; Promises of Christ’s Coming; Christ Has Come!; Epiphany: The Light of the World; Promises of His Coming Again

TO GET THE FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD:
Go to the Free Book Downloads page at KenBible.com.
Click the book title to bring up the book pdf.
Click the download icon (downward arrow) in the upper right-hand corner.

ThinkSingPray

2019-08-26 ThinkSingPray No comments

ThinkSingPray
about
The Lord’s Prayer 4

Monday –      Christ Is Praying for Us
Hymn: Father, as You Love Your Son(recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     All in Christ
Hymn: All in Christ (recording) (printed)

Wednesday –Hallowed Be Your Name
Hymn: From You, Through You, To You (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    Your Kingdom Come #1

Friday –          Your Kingdom Come #2
Hymn: Hallelujah Hymn (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     Your Will Be Done
Hymn: Focus (recording) (printed)

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

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