Love in Living Color

Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
(Psalm 36:5, NASB)

Our beautiful earthly home paints our Father’s love
in living color.
Open your eyes! Look around!
With youthful enthusiasm our timeless God
carefully planned all the universe,
from immense panoramas
to the tiniest, most stunning detail.

He took pleasure in displaying His magnificence for all to see.
He eagerly provided for our every need.
There in the very beginning,
the same sovereign Word that spoke the world into existence
blessed us.
He blessed us even more richly in Jesus Christ.
He continues to bless us day by day with everything
good,
noble,
pure, and
lovely.

Rejoice in Him!
Worship our Father for all He has done!

To the trusting heart,
all reality is a forest,
dense with the life and
mysterious beauty of God.

Hymn: Psalm 104

Our Hope Is All in You

Based on Psalm 33,
this hymn expresses
a confident hope and trust
firmly founded on Almighty God.
The tune is familiar.

Recording
Printed Music

You speak, and it is so
Above, beyond, below.
Our hope is all in You!
Creator, Breath of all,
May we, so brief and small,
Put all our trust in You!

Our human plans are vain.
This world is Your domain.
Our hope is all in You!
You give and You control.
You fill and rule the whole.
Our trust is all in You!

You love and understand
Those resting in Your hand.
Our hope is all in You!
We look in reverent fear.
You smile and draw us near.
Our trust is all in You!

Our strength, our help, our shield,
Transcendent love revealed,
Our hope is all in You!
O joy of all our songs,
To You our breath belongs.
Our trust is all in You!

by Ken Bible, © 2018 by LNWhymns.com.

ThinkSingPray

ThinkSingPray 

about 

Trinity 

 

Monday –      The Christ of Trinity Sunday
         Hymn: Trinity Hymn (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     Prepare for Trinity Sunday
         Hymn: Give God What Is God’s (recording) (printed)

Wednesday – Knowing the Unknowable
         Hymn: One with God (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    Our All-encompassing God
         Hymn: Father and Son (recording) (printed)

Friday –          Glorify Jesus Christ
         Hymn: Not I, but Christ (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     The Enthronement
         Hymn: Enthronement Hymn (recording) (printed)

 

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

In His Presence

O Lord my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
(Psalm 104:1, NASB)

Some of the most profound and moving moments of my life have been spent under the clear night sky. Looking up from my backyard, I feel I am in a great hall of eternity. I see the stars and think of the unfathomable distances of time and space there before me.

I am awestruck by the vastness of God. He is there, filling all space, all eternity, and beyond. I sense that I’ve walked into His holy temple, and the only proper response is to stand in total silence.

I am one of billions of life forms on this planet, which is little more than a pebble orbiting the sun. And each of those tiny stars there in the sky is roughly the size of our sun. There are a billion trillion of them scattered like grains of sand through the vastness of space.

The total life span of one of those stars, millions or billions of years, is only an episode in the life of the universe, to say nothing of His unimaginable eternity. And my life…my life is the tiniest fraction of a heartbeat. One breath.

Lord God, why do I matter to You? Why do You even notice me? God, why should You care about me?

I stand here wrapped up in my own little world, so anxious and dark. But I am in Your world, in Your domain, in all its vastness and serenity. Your skies are singing, “He is good, and His mercy endures forever.” Your trees, so stately against the sky, are silently chanting, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic You are in all the earth.” The whole world is a symphony to Your name. I listen, and I can hear it.

God, my Father, I don’t know why, but I know that You love me. I see Your love in my life. I hear You whisper it in my heart.  And I don’t want to ignore Your love. I don’t want to ignore You, my God.

There is so much I don’t understand about You. But I know that when I admit that You are God–that You are my God–I am embracing the truth.

I know that when I believe You love me and start to trust Your love, it pleases You. It pleases You very much.

And I sense that when I open myself to You, I am opening myself to Your goodness and wisdom and to a wonderful future with You.

Lord God, I am nothing in myself. I am significant for only one reason: You, Great Creator, love me. Teach me to love You in return.

O Father,
if only everyone recognized You for
who You are,
the sovereign Creator,
the Source and Goal of all that is!
How different our world would be, and
will be!
How blessed we are to know You,
serve You, and
live every moment in Your care!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Lord, You Are My Home
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Father, Help Me Worship You

Do you want to worship your Father
in a way that is fully pleasing to Him?
Worship Him as did His perfect Son:
with a life of trust,
obedience, and
prayer.

Recording
Printed Music 

Father, help me worship You
With a pure devotion,
Not alone with lofty words
Stirring sweet emotion.
Plant in me the heart of Christ
Clinging to His Father,
Trusting You for every breath,
Drinking every word.

Help me walk His daily path,
Living as You lead me,
Empty, Lord, of all but You,
Joyful as You feed me,
Giving every breath to You,
Ever simply praying.
Then when life is sacrifice,
I will follow on.

Father, help me worship You
With a pure devotion.
Let my song be living praise
Deeper than emotion.
Help me live the life of Christ,
Loving as He loved You
Till our love is face to face,
There forever one!

 

by Ken Bible, © 2007 LNWhymns.com

ThinkSingPray

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about 

Pentecost 

 

Monday –      The Christ of Pentecost
         Hymn: Pentecost Hymn (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     Prepare for Pentecost
         Hymn: Life of God (recording) (printed)

Wednesday – The Father’s Gift
         Hymn: Holy, Boundless Breath of God (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    The Holy Spirit: Power to Serve
         Hymn: Lord Jesus, Living Presence (recording) (printed)

Friday –          Hearing the Spirit’s Voice
         Hymn: When I Speak (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     Fill My Thoughts
         Hymn: The Mind of Christ (recording) (printed)

 

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

The Power to Choose

God said, “Let Us make man in Our Image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth.” (Genesis 1:26, NASB)

God is sovereign over all reality. All matter was created by Him and responds to His Word. He speaks, and all that is obeys. He says, “Let there be…”, and worlds spring into being.

But to us human beings, made in His image, He delegates the power to choose, within set boundaries. As Sovereign God, He gives us the privilege and responsibility of making decisions – real decisions, with real consequences.

Put yourself in our Heavenly Father’s position. As parents, we deeply desire a close, loving relationship with each of our children in all their individuality. But we cannot compel such a relationship, and we wouldn’t want to. We want our children to love and trust us freely, by their own choice. We want them to want to be with us. We do everything we can to nurture and encourage such a choice, but in the end we honor what the child chooses. It’s not the kind of decision we can ignore or override, no matter how much we want to.

Our Heavenly Father is the same. He does all He can to bring us to Himself. Even in our sinful weakness and blindness, He gives us the grace to choose Him. But He does not compel it, and in the end, He honors our choice. If we respond to His grace with even the feeblest desire to love and trust Him, He will move heaven and earth to lead us into full union with Himself.

But if we choose separation from Him, He will at last honor our decision, completely and eternally.

He is forever the only source of life, light, goodness, peace, and love. Imagine the results of final and complete separation from Him. Choose wisely!

Heaven and hell,
now and forever
are determined by our relationship with
God, the Source of all good.
We choose to be near Him or
to keep our distance.
Choose Him.
Talk to Him.
Trust Him.
Walk in His presence.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Free to Choose
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Eternal Light

In Jesus Christ
we are welcomed in the
very presence of
holy, transcendent God!

Recording
Printed Music 

Eternal Light! Eternal Light!
What soul can bear Your searching sight?
What heart, so open, pure, and true,
Can live and calmly gaze on You?

The glowing spirits round Your throne
All serve where sin is never known.
Their eyes can bear the burning bliss
Beyond a darkened world like this.

But how can I, a native here,
Before Your blazing eyes appear?
Can I, a creature of the night,
Endure Your uncreated light?

Praise God, You come to us in Christ!
In Him our darkness all is light!
O Fire of all-consuming grace,
In Christ we stand here face to face!

 

by Thomas Binney and Ken Bible, © 2007 LNWhymns.com

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about 

Growing in Christ 2 

 

Monday –      Hold Steady While He Works
         Hymn: Keep Us Strong in Faith (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     How Can We Describe It?
         Hymn: Beyond Imagination (recording) (printed)

Wednesday – Growing Me to You
         Hymn: Walking with You (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    Knowing Jesus Better
         Hymn: I Want to Know You (recording) (printed)

Friday –          One with Christ
         Hymn: In Your Spirit (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     More and More
         Hymn: Only You (recording) (printed)

 

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

The Gift of Life

With You is the fountain of life. (Psalm 36:9, NASB)

Do you believe the whole universe simply came to be, with no cause or creator? Do you believe that all the matter in all the stars in all the vastness of space had no source? Do you believe that the well-ordered laws of nature somehow just happened on their own?

What about life? Your body is a miracle. It is made up of billions of microscopic cells, each alive, each intricately constructed, each carrying on complex functions that no factory or laboratory can match. And somehow they all perform together in a magnificent dance that keeps your body working around the clock, without you even being conscious of it.

You didn’t ask to be born. You didn’t create yourself. You do little to keep yourself alive. Most of your essential physical functions operate automatically, requiring no conscious effort on your part. Virtually all you have to do is feed and water yourself, and for that you’ve been given powerful, built-in drives.

Quite literally, life is a gift. Your life is a gift. Each human life is a precious gift.

How should we respond to this gift of life? We should receive it with awe…with reverence…with joyful gratitude…with sober thought for how we treat this life in ourselves and in others.

We should receive this gift with love. Life was given with love, and we should receive it with love – love for our Creator and love for His life in each human creation around us. Love preserves life, enriches life, and treats it with the care and respect that it deserves.

Father, help me to see other people,
not as physical creatures,
not as crumbling shells, shallow and temporary,
but as You see them,
as living, eternal beings.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Praise to You, Giver of Life!
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics