Loving My Lord Through Poetry

By Barbara Speicher

Never enough thoughts, Lord, never enough praise

Never enough moments, never enough days

Never enough thanks, nor gratitude

To convey just how much I love you

This verse in Barbara Speichers poem Never Enough says it allshe can never say or write enough to express her great reverence and adoration for God. Loving her Lord through poetry is part of Barbaras daily devotion as she attempts to personalize scripture for better understanding and worship him with pen in hand, elevating his glorious name.

The poems in Loving My Lord Through Poetry are arranged topically under fifteen headings, and some of them are Gods Grace, Gods Faithfulness, Gods Love, Gods Protection and Peace, A Changed Life Through Christ, Living for God, and Praising and Thanking God.

Accompanying scripture is noted with each poem, so this could be used as a daily devotional for anyone looking for a unique approach to learning and enjoying the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512774696

Barbara Speicher

Barbara Speicher earned a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in education, and taught for twenty-three years. Under her company name, Learning by Song, she created and produced four education CDs with companion workbooks in various subjects. Recently, she completed a musical about Jesus. Her passion is honoring her Savior through her writing, poetry, and songs. Barbara lives in Tustin, California. She has three married children and two grandchildren. This is her third book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Barbara Speicher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7470-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7469-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017901831

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/19/2017

These poems are dedicated to

my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I can’t thank and praise Him enough!

"He has called me out of darkness into His marvelous light,

so that I may proclaim the excellencies of Him."

1 Peter 2:9 (NASB)

CONTENTS

Introduction

Jesus

God’s Gift

In Jesus

My Father Sent Me

Jesus…

King Of Kings

Salvation Through Christ

A Simple Plan

Salvation, A Free Gift

Your Washing Day

God’s Grace

Grace Found Me First

God’s Well Of Grace

Wrapped In A Robe

God’s Mercy

The Lord’s Mercy

Unfailing Mercy

Protected By Your Mercy

God’s Forgiveness

Seek Me Always

Ruler Of My Heart

Forever Forgiven

The Holy Spirit

How Can We Know

Christ In You, Christ In Me

Flooding Of The Holy Spirit

Just You In Me, Lord

Your Son In Me

The Cross

Not Just A Cross

The Cross

The Crossroad

God’s Faithfulness

Truths About God

God’s Glory

God Marches On

I’m Filled With God

God’s Unchanging Promises

God’s Love

The Greatest Gift

It’s All About Love

I’ll Put On Love

God’s Word

Your Word, Lord

Use God’s Word

Your Word, A Treasure

God’s Protection And Peace

God Is With Me

God Is Alive

The Nearness Of God

Whether

God’s Perfect Peace

Valuable To God

You Are…

I Love You, My Child

In Me You Are Complete

A Changed Life Through Christ

Wretchedness To Righteousness

My Life, Lord, Did Change

With God I’m A New Person

A Clean Vessel

Lord, It’s You

Living For God

God Will Guide

Give

Stronger Than The Enemy

Take Your Thoughts Captive

Lord, Thank You For Loving Me

Lord, Let Me Be

Like You, Lord

Praising And Thanking God

You Are So Beautiful

Praise Takes Flight

Morning Songs

A New Day

I Must Sing

All My Springs Of Joy

I Want Your Praise

Giving Thanks

Make My Life An Alleluia

Never Enough

When You Look At Me, Lord

Bible Translations

INTRODUCTION

How did all this poetry writing get started? I’m really not sure. I do know that after I accepted Christ as my personal Savior when I was thirty-five, I couldn’t seem to read enough of His Word. I can remember waking up early every morning when I was teaching, 5:20 a.m. to be exact, grabbing a cup of tea, and heading to my office. It was my quiet time before the noise and activities of the day began, when I could work on my Bible study and pray. There was so much in the Bible that I wanted to remember. How could I make it more personal and also embed it in my mind and heart?

I found myself jotting down important phrases and creating word pictures that would help me capture the essence of the verses. I had no preconceived idea of what these thoughts would become, but they always seemed to eventuate into a poem.

I’m not sure why, but in this process of personalizing scripture through poetry, it became automatic for me to make them rhyme, for the most part. It got to the point that sometimes I would go to bed or wake up thinking of how to arrange words to create just the right verse endings. I can even remember driving in the car with a piece of paper and pen beside me to write down something that came to mind when I stopped at a traffic light. Since most of my poems rhyme, they can easily be turned into songs, and I’ve done that with a number of them.

Over the years, these poems and songs have filled notebooks. I guess you could say my writing is almost an obsession! Taking God’s Word, digesting it, and then reformulating it into something that is meaningful to me—not only do I find that compelling,