Today on the show I shared two devotionals from Our Daily Bread. We also had our weekly family feud trivia where one lucky person has a chance to win a prize for answering the top two answers on the board.
Here are the two devotionals that I picked from Our Daily Bread:
One was titled, “Loving God”. You can find the link here.
The other was titled, “Never Say Can’t”. You can find the link here.
Name a reason you might not leave your house all day?
1- Bad Weather (40)
2- Sick (28)
3- Watch TV (7)
4- Day Off (4)
5- Wait Repairman (3)
6- Too Tired (3)
Congratulations to Karen of Mount Vernon for correctly guessing the top two answers! She wins a 50 day devotional book by Bob Weaver titled “A word from the Weaver”.
Dylan shared today’s Our Daily Bread devotional, ‘The Power of Love.’ Click here to read it.
Our second devotional comes from what Joe shared at the 2020 Valentine’s Banquet:
Late last year (2019), I had the chance to read a fantastic book called Hidden Christmas by Pastor Timothy Keller.
Chapter 2 of this book dives in to the importance of the genealogy of Jesus. Keller spends some time focused on the fact that Matthew doesn’t start his Gospel with “once upon a time.” As he writes, “that is the way of fairy tales or legendary fantasy stories.” He starts with what? The genealogy of Jesus. Keller writes that this is critical because Matthew is grounding who Jesus Christ is…and what he does…in history, with a genealogy. In Matthew 1 we learn that Jesus is not a metaphor. He is real. This all happened.
Just before Peter Jackson released the first of his Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies in 2001, there were a number of articles by literary critics and other cultural elites lamenting the popular appeal of fantasies, myths, and legends. They were saying that so many of them promoted regressive views. In other words, modern people are supposed to be more realistic. We should realize that things are not black and white but grey, and happy endings are cruel because life is not like that.
One critic in the New Yorker magazine even wrote that to give into stories like Lord of the Rings “betrays a reluctance to face the finer shades of life that verges on the cowardly.”
So why does Hollywood keep recycling fairy tales, fantasy and super heroes? You might answer, well, it’s because people hunger for them. Okay then, again, why? I mean, the great fairy tales and legendary stories like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Excalibur”…none of those things really happened and they’re not factually true.
But…they seem to fulfill a set of longings in the human heart.
I would also add that some of the more realistic fiction and love stories that we watch in these days also reflect those longings in the human heart. Keller writes that deep in the human heart there are these realistic desires to experience the supernatural, go on great adventures, to escape death, to know love that we can never lose, to not age but live long enough to realize our creative dreams and maybe even to fly, and communicate with non-human beings and obviously, triumph over evil.
If the stories are well told, we find them incredibly moving and satisfying. Why is that? Keller argues it’s because even though we know that factually those stories didn’t happen, our hearts long for those things; and quite honestly, they scratch that itch.
Beauty and the Beast tells us that there’s a love that can break out of the beastliness that we have created for ourselves. Sleeping Beauty tells us we are in a kind of sleeping enchantment in there is a noble prince who can come and destroy it. We hear the stories, we see the stories, and they stir us because deep inside our hearts we believe or want to believe, that these things are true. Death should not be the end. We should not lose our loved ones. Evil should not triumph. Our heart senses that even though the stories themselves aren’t true, the underlying reality behind the stories somehow ought to be. But our minds say no and the critics say no…when you give yourself to fairy tales and you really believe in moral absolutes and the supernatural and the idea that we could live forever that’s not reality, and it’s cowardly to give yourself to it.
But then we come to the Christmas story. And at first glance The book of Matthew looks like the other legends. A story about someone from a different world who breaks into our world and has miraculous powers and can calm the storm and heal people and raise people from the dead. Then his enemies turn on him and he is put to death and it seems like all hope is over but finally he rises from the dead and saves everyone! We read that and we think: another great fairy tale. It looks like the Christmas story is just one more of those stories…
But Matthew does not start his Gospel with “Once upon a Time.” He says this is no fairytale. Jesus Christ is NOT just one more lovely story pointing to these underlying realities. Jesus IS the underlying reality to which all the stories point. Jesus has come from that eternal supernatural world that we sense is there; that our hearts know is there; even though our heads may say no. Keller writes, “at Christmas, Jesus punched a hole between the ideal and the real; the eternal and the temporal; and came into our world. That means if Matthew was right, there IS an evil sorcerer in this world and we ARE under enchantment; there IS a noble prince who has broken the enchantment, and there IS love from which we can never be parted and we WILL indeed fly someday and will defeat death; and in this world even as Psalms says, “the trees will dance and sing.”
1st John 4: 9-11puts it this way: “this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
So Keller writes, even though we know that these fairy tales aren’t factually true, the truth of Jesus means all the stories we love are not escapism at all. In a sense, they will come true in Him.
The gospel means all the best stories will be proved in the ultimate sense, true!
During an indoor game of hide and seek, name a specific place where kids hide: 1- closet (63 votes) 2- under a bed (17) 3- behind a couch (9) 4- under a table (4)
Congratulations to Ron from Mount Vernon, who guessed correctly and wins a WNZR drawstring backpack!
WNZR’s Spread the Love contest is underway – listen for chances to win some great Valentine’s prizes all week.
Our winners today included Kim from Mount Vernon, who won a $10 gift certificate to Gospel Christian Life Shop.
Her question: Valentine’s Day in the United States is symbolized with hearts, cupids and flowers, but in Germany, the most popular symbol is what barnyard animal? The answer? A pig.
Our second winner was Jenn from Danville, who won a $10 gift certificate to Happy Bean Coffee Shop.
Question: Which state produces the most red roses? The answer? California.
Today for Monday Motivation, Joe shared some musical inspiration from Matt Redman’s “Your Grace Finds Me.”
Here’s what Matt had to say about the song in a conversation with CBN in 2013:
“I wrote this song with my friend Jonas Myrin in a little chapel in England where we often song write. The song is an attempt to sing about the wide spectrum of God’s grace. The grace of God found us at the cross – and that is the centerpiece of all we believe, but that is not the end of the story of grace. For His grace keeps on finding us – the undeserved goodness of God showing up in our lives. You can find it in the newborn cry and find it in the light of every sunrise. You’ll find it in the mundane and on the mountaintop. And more to the point, it finds you.”
Jonathon shared a devotional about our perception of perfection from Monica LaRose, called “Perfect Like Christ.” Read more by clicking here!
Tell me the first TWO questions you might ask about someone’s newborn. 1- Boy or Girl? (42 votes) 2- What’s their name? (22) 3- Weighs how much? (19) 4- How old? (5) 5- Healthy? (2) 6- Where’s his dad? (2) 7- What color of eyes? (2)
Congratulations to Peter from Howard, who got the top two and wins the WNZR drawstring backpack!
Today we shared Monday Motivation from Our Daily Bread’s Katara Patton based on Jeremiah 18 – read “The Potter’s Wheel” by clicking here.
We also shared Mart DeHaan’s devotional about “Heroes, Tyrants and Jesus.,” Find out how Paul’s letters influenced how people looked at Jesus by reading here.
Name something that can be lumpy: – mashed potatoes (29 votes) – oatmeal/hot cereal (24) – mattress or bed (13) – grits (7) – soup (7) – pillow (6)
Congratulations to Lilly from Mount Vernon, who guessed the top two answers and wins the $5 gift card to Everlasting Cup!
Today we honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by sharing a devotional from Pastor Victoria Curtiss, written as a tribute to him.
Matthew 5:43–48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (NRSV)
Jesus said that anyone can love those who love them in return. What distinguishes people of God is the way we treat those who oppose us—our enemies. Just as God shows love to everyone, so are we to show love to everyone. This inclusivity is the meaning of “be perfect” as God is perfect.
What a fitting scripture for the day we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The key to the life of Dr. King is found in his Christian faith. He responded to violence with nonviolence, to hate with love. Dr. King was always looking toward reconciliation after the battle, because his approach was grounded in the gospel. He wrote, “It was the Sermon on the Mount, not a doctrine of passive resistance, that inspired the Negroes of Montgomery to social action. It was Jesus of Nazareth that stirred [them] with the creative weapon of love.”
Martin Luther King recognized that the heart of the gospel proclaims that love can really change a situation of conflict and enmity: love reaching out toward the oppressor, love pushing negotiation, love offering forgiveness and newness. It wasn’t that he lacked an appreciation for the persistence and power of evil. It was rather his evangelist’s faith. He really believed that the intolerant and prejudiced sheriffs and politicians were sheep who had strayed from the fold, who had the potential to be converted. However powerful evil is, love is more powerful still. “Remember him,” said Coretta Scott King, “as a man who refused to lose faith in the ultimate redemption of [humanity].”
Prayer
Thank you, God, for the witness of Martin Luther King Jr. Guide me as Christ’s follower to love as you love—everyone without exception. I lift up my enemies to you and pray for their well-being. Amen.
Jonathon also shared the MLK-themed devotional ‘Brave Your Storm,’ from Patricia Raybon. You can read it from Our Daily Bread by clicking here.
Name something you’d find on a tropical island: – palm or other trees (58 votes) – sand or beaches (13) – fruit (12) – flowers (7) – water or the ocean (6)
Congratulations to Doug from Mount Vernon, who guessed correctly and wins the WNZR Voice of the Cougars drawstring backpack.
Today we’re sharing Monday Motivation from Pastor Tim Keller…
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!
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.”
So what is the purpose of “God with us?” What does “with him” mean? Pastor Timothy Keller, in his book Hidden Christmas, 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!
Congratulations to: Lyle from Howard and Paul from Mount Vernon!Name two gifts that are difficult to wrap:
1- Basketball (34 votes) 2- Football (19) 3- Stuffed animals (14) 4- a pet (7) 5- a bike (4)
Congratulations to Brenda from Fredericktown, who guessed correctly and wins a $5 gift card to Everlasting Cup!
Today’s Monday Motivation reflections about Christmas remind us that Christmas is an invitation for everyone.
Lisa Samra shares ‘Joy to the World’ here:
Every Christmas we decorate our home with nativity scenes from around the world. We have a German nativity pyramid, a manger scene fashioned out of olive wood from Bethlehem, and a brightly colored Mexican folk version. Our family favorite is a whimsical entry from Africa. Instead of the more traditional sheep and camels, a hippopotamus gazes contently at the baby Jesus.
The unique cultural perspective brought to life in these nativity scenes warms my heart as I ponder each beautiful reminder that Jesus’ birth was not just for one nation or culture. It’s good news for the whole earth, a reason for people from every country and ethnicity to rejoice.
The little baby depicted in each of our nativity scenes revealed this truth of God’s heart for the entire world. As John wrote in relation to Christ’s conversation with an inquisitive Pharisee named Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The gift of Jesus is good news for everyone. No matter where on earth you call home, Jesus’ birth is God’s offer of love and peace to you. And all who find new life in Christ, “from every tribe and language and people and nation” will one day celebrate God’s glory forever and ever (Revelation 5:9).
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Amy Boucher Pye shares ‘Welcomed Into God’s Family’
We were singles and couples and a family with children, together celebrating Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve. The conversation flowed, the food tasted scrumptious, and we even had fun washing up the dishes. Between courses we read through the Christmas story from Luke’s gospel, marveling over the greatest gift of the season, Jesus. Because of Christ, we who previously had been a ragtag bunch of strangers were now sisters and brothers.
Jesus always welcomed the stranger. Even as at His birth God beckoned the shepherds to come and worship the newborn baby: “The Savior-yes, the Messiah, the Lord-has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (LUKE 2:11). Curious, the humble shepherds hurried Bethlehem. And after they saw the baby, they went and spread the good news about Jesus the Savior, and “all who to heard the shepherds’ story were astonished” (v.18).
As Messiah, Jesus the baby grew up to be the Man who died on the cross, the perfect sacrifice who wipes away the sins of those who follow Him. Jesus, the Son who is God, humbled Himself to be born in a stable and then willingly sacrificed His life for us.
When we bow before Him in worship, even as the shepherds did as they glorified and praised God for all they had seen and heard (v. 20), He makes us part of His family. Jesus welcomes us into His worldwide community of those God uses to spread His love and light.
Name the top two desserts people eat a lot of at Christmastime: 1- cookies (54 votes) 2- pie (12) 3- pudding (7) 4- fruitcake (6) 5- fudge (5) 6- candy/candy canes (4) 7- gingerbread (2)
Congratulations to Danelle of Fredericktown, who guessed correctly and wins the $5 gift card to Everlasting Cup!
Driving Notes 