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Praise Thursday

The Purpose of Prayer

thursday

Today we continued our series on prayer, inspired by the book The Battle Plan for Prayer, from Stephen and Alex Kendrick.  Find out more about the book here.

Our focus this afternoon was the PURPOSE of prayer.  Here are some of the notes we shared:

Ultimately, all prayer is for the glory of God (John 14:13). Truly, the best answer He can give to any prayer is whatever answer brings Him the most glory.

What does glory mean?  The Hebrew word for glory, kabad (ka-VAHD) carries the idea of weight and importance, majesty and honor.

The ‘glory of the Lord’ is when God reveals a majestic or important glimpse of who he is. As the Kendrick brothers write, “He is unwrapping a measure of His identity.”  This happens several times in scripture:

  • One who has all authority in heaven and on earth doesn’t need us (Romans 9:20-24), so the mere fact that we’re here is a testimony to His glory.  His awesome glory as CREATOR – the galaxies and stars reveal his attributes as being the work of an awesome creator.  That’s their job!  (Psalm 19:1)
  • In Genesis 22, Abraham is tested when God asks him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  To us as we read the story, we might be thinking, what is God doing?  But as Abraham is ready to sacrifice his son, he hears a rustling in the nearby brush – a ram, taking Isaac’s place.  God here is revealing His glory as our PROVIDER.
  • John 11 tells us the story of Lazarus, and Jesus saying that the man’s illness would be “for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”  And when Jesus revives Lazarus from the dead, he reveals His glory as the resurrection and the life.  This was a defining moment for Jesus.

Every prayer is a chance for us to witness His glory first-hand.  When He answers, He is letting us see what he is like.  Creator, Savior, Lord, Provider, Protector, Friend and Counselor.

…and what should be our response when He does reveal His glory? We worship him and glorify His name forever (Psalm 86:12).

Our second response is to tell others what He has done. Paul said (2 Corinthians 4:15) that the revelation of God’s grace should cause us to give abundant thanks to God, so that others may see and celebrate how God is glorified through His work through His people.

Of all the things prayer is and does, its greatest accomplishment and its greatest joy, is that it allows us, his beloved children, to be part of bringing him glory!

Our Word of the Day is a tribute to the Knox County Chapter of the American Red Cross and their 100th birthday tomorrow!

Centenarian, a noun meaning a person who has reached the age of 100, or pertaining to or having lived 100 years.

Marcy and Lilly called in from Kenyon’s Pierce Hall and the celebration…here are some photos:

IMG950987IMG950986

Thanks for listening!
– Joe

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Praise Thursday: Priority of Prayer

Good afternoon! It was a drizzle-filled one here in Mt. Vernon, but we continued our series on prayer today, and we talked about the priority of prayer!

Here’s some of the things we were talking about on the show today!
Prayer is:

  • The key to intimacy between Christ and us
  • Our interaction with our heavenly father like we would interact with an earthly father (Matthew 7: 9-11)
  • Human frailty, joined in communion with divine perfection
  • Too wonderful and important no to do it
  • A big deal to God so it should be a big deal to us

Praying isn’t easy because it requires us to pause and focus our thoughts; it requires us to rely less on self-sufficiency; it requires humility…but…

We need God, so we need to make it a priority!

Prayer should be first in the order of things (I Timothy 2: 1-8)

Jesus prioritized prayer above everything else; his disciples saw this consistently, so that may be why they asked him in Luke 11:1, “teach us how to pray.”

Jesus said in Mark 11:17 that “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations…”

Everything else that occupies the church’s time and energy will be lacking in power and blessing and the fragrance of God’s presence if prayer is not kept first.

We can’t make prayer an add-on or an afterthought…

We were never intended to live out the Christian life or accomplish his work on the earth in our own wisdom or strength.  The plan has ALWAYS been to rely on the Holy Spirit and live a life of obedience in prayer.

Acts 1:14 – a deep devotion to prayer was always connected to the success of the New Testament church.

Devoting yourself to something carries the idea of insisting and clinging to something. We see it again in Acts 2:42 and Acts 6:4.

Everywhere we turn, prayer should be there to meet us. When it does, scripture reminds us that we can expect these things to happen:

  • Evangelism of the lost (Colossians 4:3)
  • Cultivation of discipleship (John 17)
  • True Christian fellowship (Acts 2:42)
  • Wise decisions (James 1:5)
  • The overcoming of obstacles (Mark 11:22-24)
  • Needs met (Matthew 6:11)
  • Ignition of true worship (Matthew 6:13)
  • The sparking of revival (2 Chronicles 7:14)

“Father forgive us for relying on our wisdom, strength, energy and ideas rather than abiding in You and seeking You first. Help us lay aside anything that hinders us from pursuing Your best. Help us to prioritize prayer and devote ourselves to it in our personal lives, our families, and our churches. Make our churches truly houses of prayer for all nations. Revive us again, O Lord. Help us walk by Your strength  and bring You great glory in our generation.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Our word of the day today: inanition

noun || in-uh-NISH-un

the exhausted condition that results from lack of food and water
the absence or loss of social, moral, or intellectual vitality or vigor
Inanition describes a state of suffering from either a literal emptiness (of sustenance) or a metaphorical emptiness (of interest or energy), so it should come as no surprise that the word ultimately derives from the same idea in Latin. Inanition, which first appeared in Middle English in the 14th century as in-anisioun, can be traced back to the Latin verb inanire, meaning “to make empty,” which in turn comes from inanis (meaning “empty”). Another far more common descendant of inanis is inane. The family resemblance is clear: inane is used describe things lacking significance or substance.

Thanks for listening!
-Lilly

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Praise Thursday: Pattern for Prayer

Today I started the first week in our series on prayer! This week, I talked about the pattern for prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, and how that prayer contains the six basic elements that we should be including in our prayers.
Check it out below!

1. Pray boldly. We have no need that God can’t meet.
His resources are unlimited and His power is infinite.
2. Pray that God’s name will be revered and esteemed.
Give Him thanks, obey Him, and constantly be aware of His presence.
3. Pray that God’s kingdom will come in us and on Earth.
4. Ask God to meet our daily needs and the needs of those around us.
All that we are, have, and do comes from God.
5. Seek God’s forgiveness every single day.
6. Request that God protect us from temptation.
“Lord keep me from the inclination to sin when I have the opportunity, and the opportunity to sin when I have the inclination.”

Our word of the day today was slacktivism.
It’s a noun that means: actions taken to bring about political or social change but requiring only minimal commitment, effort, or risk. 
Slacktivism is a portmanteau formed from the terms slacker and activism. It is first recorded between 1995 and 2000.

Thanks for listening!
See you tomorrow for the NZ Top 10!
– Lilly

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Praise God for Moms!

cultivate-it-1

We are praising God for Moms today!

The book of Proverbs provides some excellent reflections for us as we consider the importance of our mothers:

Proverbs 31:10-12 –
 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

Proverbs 31:30-31 –
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 6:20-22 –
My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck.
When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

Proverbs 23:22-25 –
Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Buy the truth and do not sell it— wisdom, instruction and insight as well.
The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him. May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!

Ephesians 6:1-3 –
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—“so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

Luke 1:46-49 –
And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.

This is Mary’s praise to God, despite the difficult circumstances, of being chosen to carry the Christ child.

Our Word of the Day: saudade (soh-DAH-duh), a Portuguese word meaning  a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent: the theme of saudade in literature and music.

Thanks for listening!
-Joe

 

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Praise Thursday – Prayer!

Thanks for joining us today for a very special Afternoon Drive! Today is the National Day of prayer, and today on the show we talked about just how powerful and important prayer really is!

We read from Ephesians 6:10-20, which reminds us that through prayer, we are fearlessly making known the mystery of the gospel! Check it out here!

“Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
-Ephesians 6:19-20

 

We then read from James 5:16-20, which reminds us that prayer is to be used in all circumstances, and that God does truly answer prayer. Read it all here!

“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
James 5:15-16

In Psalm 23, we are reminded that God is walking side by side with us through our hardest times. God is listening to your prayers. God knows the plans He has for you. If He is walking with you through your darkest valleys, He hears your prayers.

Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4

Our word of the day today was dendrochronology
And this is the science dealing with the study of the annualrings of trees in determining the dates andchronological order of past events!

Dendrochronology entered English in the 1920s. It is derived from the Greek terms déndron meaning “tree” and chrónos meaning “time.” The combining form -logy is used in the names of sciences.

Thanks for listening!
Have a great evening!
-Lilly

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Easter Praise Thursday!

Today on the show, we talked about the resurrection of Jesus, what that means for us as Christians, and why this gives us hope! We started by looking at Luke 24:1-12,
Check out the scripture we read on the show today here!

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!”

We then picked up in verse 13, and read through 27, where the men ran into Jesus on the road of Emmaus.

“Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

We then read from verse 28 to 43, where we find that the disciples recognize Jesus, but only after He breaks bread in front of them again.

“Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

We finished it off reading from verse 43 to the end of the chapter, taking us all the way to the ascension of Jesus.

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.

Our word of the day today was ‘diphthong’ [ˈdif-ˌthȯŋ]
This is a  gliding monosyllabic speech sound (as the vowel combination at the end of toy) that starts at or near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves to or toward the position of another.
In plain English, that’s two vowel sounds joined in one syllable to form one speech sound The sounds of “ou” in “out” and of “oy” in “boy” are diphthongs.

Thanks so much for listening!
Have a great day!
– Lilly

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Praise Thursday – Easter Edition

Good afternoon! We are in the home stretch of classes here at MVNU, and we’re all very excited! Today on the show, we read the story of Easter and then played songs that went along with the verses, telling the story of Easter not only through the bible, but through music as well. Check out the verses and songs below!

First, we read Mark 14:12-42, and this section deals with the Last Supper, Peter’s betrayal of Jesus and the Garden of Gethsemene.

“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

After that passage, we played ‘Don’t Deserve You’ by Plumb, which reminds us that we are Peter. We are the disciples. We are not faithful, we are not loyal, and we do not deserve the love of Christ, but He gives it to us anyway.

Listen to “Don’t Deserve You’ here!

Next, we read Mark 14:43-72 which talked about Jesus’ arrest, Jesus going before the Sanhedrin, and Peter denying Jesus.

“You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.
(Mark 14:64-65)

We played the Sidewalk Prophets song “You Love me Anyway” which reminds us that we are the thorn in His crown, the sweat from His brow, Judas’ kiss, but Jesus loves us anyway. Nothing can take away the grace and love that Jesus has for us.

Listen to “You Love me Anyway’ here!

We then read Mark 15:1-41 which covered Jesus going before Pilate, Jesus being mocked by the soldiers, and the crucifixion and death of Jesus.

“It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the jews.” (Mark 15:25-26)

After this passage of scripture, we played “At the Cross (Love Ran Red)” from Chris Tomlin, which reminds us that all of our sins are washed white in the love of Christ and His blood shed for us.

Listen to “At the Cross” here!

To finish off, we read Mark 15:42-47, which deals with the burial of Jesus, and then we read Mark 16:1-8, which brings the good news that Jesus had risen!

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” (Mark 16:6-7)

There are so many songs to play that talk about Jesus’ resurrection, and the hope that we have because He lives. So, we played a lot of those songs! Check them out below!

Remember – Passion
God’s Not Dead – Newsboys
Victor’s Crown – Darlene Zschech
Because He Lives – Matt Maher
Forever – Kari Jobe
Glorious Day – Casting Crowns

Have a great evening! God Bless!
-Lilly

 

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Praise Thursday – Let it be Love

Good afternoon! Most things are back to normal here after Lifeline, and I took the show today to rehash some of the topics we hit during Lifeline, and also to thank you for your incredible support of our ministry!
If you would like to hear our staff testimonies, why we love working at WNZR and what ‘Let it be Love’ means to us, all you have to do is click here and then click on the hyperlink of the name of the DJ who’s testimony you want to listen to!

I rehashed a little bit of our Lifeline theme today, so I talked about Romans 5:8, and how God still sent His son to die for us even we didn’t deserve it. We are sinful, and while on earth, we will always be sinful. Jesus died knowing that we aren’t perfect, but He died in hopes that one day, because of Him, we will be.

I talked today about Jordan Feliz and his song ‘Beloved’. That song holds such a great encouragement because you ARE beloved. This world is going to tell you so many lies, but in this song, Jordan Feliz says to forget the lies you’ve heard, and to rise above the hurt because we are children of God. That is the truth and that is the truth that we need to focus on.
Also, today, I talked about MercyMe’s new song ‘Even If’. There are days where we feel awful. We feel defeated. We feel broken. It’s easy to sing when nothing is wrong, but when we feel destroyed, it’s not so easy anymore. God is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine, and the song talks about how we know that God is able and how we know that God can do all things, but sometimes our plans don’t line up. The hardest part of going through a trial is saying “Even if You don’t, God, You are still my hope. You are still good, and I will continue to put my hope in you alone.” This is my challenge to you this week, whatever trial you are going through, walking through fire, feeling like David up against Goliath, when you pray to God, say “I know you can do this, but even if you don’t, Lord, you are still my hope.”

The word of the day today was: PROGNOSTICATE /präɡˈnästəˌkāt/
This word is a verb that means to foretell or prophesy (an event in the future).
To read more on the history of this word, click here!

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Praise Thursday: What is our Response?

We opened the show today with a powerful section of scripture from Romans 8:31-35…
 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

That was the perfect way to open our show today, being that we are talking about our response to the various situations that life throws at us.

God is for us, and NOTHING can ever stop us. God is fighting our every battle and we can stay confident because trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword have no power in the face of our all-powerful God.

We talked about how we should respond to victories in our lives, and that is with a spirit of thankfulness and love because we know that God is walking side by side with us through whatever we’re going through and that He has already won the war.
And we are also thankful that God not only gives us salvation, but He equips us with everything that we need to fight any battle that we may face in our lives.
Check out Ephesians 6:11-17…
“11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

We also talked about how to respond to the defeats in our lives.
It’s disheartening to think that the enemy wins some battles, but it does happen. We can take heart because Jesus is fighting for us. He is fighting every battle along side us and He has already won the war.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

 So whatever you’re going through right now, whatever mountain you’re facing, whatever Goliath is in front of you, whatever defeat you are experiencing, whatever challenges are plaguing you right now, let your response be love. Love toward God because He is fighting fervently for you! God is going before us and making our paths straight! He is walking along side us through the valley of the shadow of death, so our response simply should be love for Him, because that is God’s response toward us, even in the midst of our sin.

Thanks for listening!
Have a great night, and enjoy this nice weather!
-Lilly

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