Today’s Family Feud-style question surveyed 100 people answering this:
Name something a wife asks a husband to pick up on his way home from work.
The top answers:
1. Milk
2. Bread
3. Dinner (pizza)
4. Feminine products
5. Drinks
6. Dry cleaning
Congratulations to Judy from Howard, who guessed correctly and wins the $5 gift certificate to Troyer’s of Apple Valley.
Thanks for listening!
– Joe
Here are the top 10 songs of 2019, based on WNZR airplay and music charts from January to December…
10. I Am They – Scars
9. Big Daddy Weave – Alive (spent 3 weeks at #1 in 2019)
8. Casting Crowns f/Matthew West – Nobody (10 weeks at #1 in 2019)
7. Tauren Wells – God’s Not Done With You
6. Unspoken – Reason (2 weeks at #1)
5. MercyMe – Best News Ever (3 weeks at #1)
4. Lauren Daigle – Rescue
3. Bethel Music – Raise a Hallelujah (3 weeks at #1)
2. Danny Gokey – Haven’t Seen It Yet (3 weeks at #1)
1. For King and Country – God Only Knows (9 weeks at #1 in 2019)
Thanks for listening!
– Joe
Today we get back to our leadership devotionals from the book, Time With God For Fathers, by Jack Countryman. We have some good reminders for leaders as we start the New Year!
#1 The Golden Rule for Leaders
Luke 6:31
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Sometimes people twist the Golden Rule this way: “Do unto others before they do it unto you.” Our selfish desires to have our own way in life can create a wall between us and God.
The Lord encourages us to love our enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return and our reward will be great. That’s Jesus speaking in Luke 6:35.
The attitude with which we embrace life will determine the leader that we become! God knows us from the inside out. Let the chief desire of our hearts be to please Him; and by doing so, the way that we walk and talk will help others see the love of Christ through us. Living to please God changes everything.
#2 Money Isn’t Everything
Proverbs 16:16
“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!”
The love of money touches everyone in life. We often spend most of our working hours trying to get more. The more we get…well…maybe the more we want.
We can sometimes gain an appetite for material possessions we do not necessarily need. 1st Timothy 6: 9 says, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”
The Bible cautions and even condemns the desire to get rich; not because money is a sin, but because money makes a terrible master. People whose primary goal is to get rich end up serving money; and therefore, cannot serve God.
Your leadership perspective about money with your family, friends and co-workers will make a difference!
Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Todd
Today we shared artist stories from:
The remake of Silver Bells by Marc Martel, Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith – read more from JesusFreakHideout.com
A new addition to the Austin French family – read the story here from NewReleaseToday.com
We also shared a few tips of how to grow closer to God as the new year approaches:
Thanks for listening!
– Joe
Today we asked this Family Feud-style question: Name two of the first famous people, real or fictional, that kids learn about.
The top answers in the survey of 100 people:
1. George Washington
2. Santa Claus
3. Martin Luther King, Jr.
4. Jesus
5. Dr. Seuss
6. God
Jackie from Mount Vernon was our winner and takes home the $5 gift certificate to Troyer’s of Apple Valley.
We also shared a teaser for tomorrow morning’s Morning Thing Top 30 songs of 2019 – listen as Marcy and Rachel count them down from 6 to 9! Lauren Daigle and Tauren Wells both have 3 songs on the list…
We’ll count down the Top 10 of 2019 this coming Friday.
Thanks for listening!
– Joe
Here’s this week’s NZ Top 10:
10. Unspoken – Reason
9. Rhett Walker – Believer
8. Riley Clemmons – Fighting for Me
7. Mark Martel and Amy Grant – Silver Bells
6. Lauren Daigle – Rescue
5. Jeremy Camp – Dead Man Walking
4. Vertical Worship -Yes I Will
3. for King and Country – Burn the Ships
2. Zach Williams – Rescue Story
1. Casting Crowns f/Matthew West – Nobody
New Music Friday featured songs – click the album images for video links!
MercyMe – Almost Home
Jonathan Cain f/Michael Tait – Wonder of Wonders (yes, the Jonathan Cain from Journey)
see Jonathan share the story about the song here
Thanks for listening!
– Joe
Matthew 1:18-25 (NIV)
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[a]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[b] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Matthew 2:13-15 (NIV)
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
In both of these passages, we learn about Joseph’s character, specifically his obedience. Upon receiving a command from God concerning taking Mary as his wife… and then later taking the child out of danger…he obeyed.
These short passages communicate a lot about Joseph. He receives a command and he obeys. No debating. No delaying. Just immediate and complete obedience. Would Joseph’s obedience bring hardship? Probably. And danger? No doubt. But still, he obeyed. And so must we when we commit to listening to God and following his commands.
Joseph was obedient, but he was also a loyal man. When he made his decision to wed Mary, he knew he would face public ridicule. After all, how could he explain the situation? And who would believe the story anyway? But Joseph was willing to face the critics. If people condemned Mary, they would have to condemn him as well.
Think about this, too: Joseph was also careful to take Mary with him when he went to Bethlehem to register and pay his taxes. He could have gone alone. Her presence wasn’t required. But, Joseph knew that if he left her behind, he would not be able to protect her from further ridicule.
Obedience and loyalty was a way of life for Joseph. So, what can we learn from these passages? We can start by asking ourselves some questions:
Am I caring and sensitive? Do I only look out for myself, or do I have concern about the needs of others?
Am I obedient? Do I seek after the things of God?
Am I loyal? Do I stick by my family and friends during the tough times? Even maybe to suffer ridicule for their sake?
Do I look out for those who are weaker than I am? Do I have a positive moral code?
Learning to do these things will take work. But Joseph gives us a great example. We can only do this through asking God every day for wisdom and for strength.
Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Todd
The word Immanuel means, as we learn in Matthew 1:23, “God with us.” The coming of the Christ child fulfilled what Isaiah wrote in chapter 7, verse 14: “the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
In his book Hidden Christmas, Pastor Timothy Keller shares that for centuries, the Jewish religious leaders and scholars had known that prophecy, but did not think that it should be taken literally. They thought it was simply predicting the coming or arrival of some great leader through whose work, God would be present with his people.
However, Matthew writes that this promise is greater than anyone imagined! It did not come true figuratively, but literally. Jesus Christ is “God with us” because the human life in Mary’s womb was a miracle performed by God himself. Then Jesus, with his life, his claims and his resurrection, convinced his closest followers that he was not just a prophet telling them how to find God, but God himself coming to find us.
Keller writes that this claim, that Jesus is God, gives us the greatest possible hope. Why? Because it means this world is not all that there is…it means that there is life and love after death and it means that evil and suffering will one day end.
And it is not just hope for the world, but hope for you and me personally. A God who was only holy would have not come to us in Jesus. He would have just demanded that we pull ourselves together and be moral and holy enough to be worthy of relationship with him. But our God is fully holy and fully human – so he doesn’t send someone else – he comes himself! Jesus is one of us – and that should give us all hope!
So what is the purpose of “God with us?” What does “with him” mean? Pastor Keller writes that the purpose of the incarnation is that we would have relationship with him. In Jesus, the unapproachable God of the Old Testament becomes a human being who can be known and loved. Through faith, we can know this love.
This is a complete shift from the Old Testament. Think about this: anytime anyone drew near to God in the Old Testament, it was terrifying! God appears to Abraham as a smoking furnace; to Israel as a pillar of fire; to Job, as a hurricane or tornado. When Moses asks to see the face of God in Exodus 33, he was told what? That it would kill him…that he could only get close to God’s back. When Moses came down off the mountain in Exodus 34, his face was SO BRIGHT with radiance that the people could not look at him!
So Pastor Keller asks this: can you imagine if Moses were alive today and heard the message of Christmas? What would he say? How would he react? What if Moses heard John 1:14 “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us – we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son?”
Keller thinks Moses would say, “Do you know what this means? This is the very thing I was denied! Through Jesus, you can meet God. You can know him personally and without terror. Do you realize what’s going on? Where’s your joy? Where’s your amazement? This should be the driving force of your life!”
And why did God show up this time in the form of a baby instead of fire? Because this time He has come not to bring judgment but to bear it; to take away the barrier between humanity and God. Jesus is God with us!
Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Todd
Driving Notes 