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Praise Thursday

Praise Thursday!

Hello, good afternoon, and a happy Praise Thursday to you!
Today we transitioned from the topic of ‘Fingerprints of God’ to our Lifeline theme, ‘Let it be Love’. We talked about the lyrics of the songs “Let it be Love’ from Family Force 5, which you can listen to here, and ‘Evidence’ by Citizen Way, which you can listen to here!

“I’ve never seen a soul set free
Through an argument
I’ve never seen a hurt get healed
In a protest
But I’ve seen sinners turned to saints
Because of grace
It’s love, love that lights the way,
Love that lights the way”

These lyrics really echo our theme verse for Lifeline this year, which is John 13:34-35
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

We are called to be reflections of God and His love. Life is 10% what happens, but 90% how we react to it. So when we talk about ‘Letting it be Love’, the ‘it’ is our response. We need to be responding to every situation in our lives with God’s love.

Ben Calhoun got to sit down with Newreleasetoday about their song ‘Evidence’. He said…
“Christianity isn’t something I can argue to bring someone to Christ. It’s not a flag on a field, it’s not a sign in my yard. It’s the real, tangible evidence of Jesus. He’s way better at drawing people to Himself than I am. All I can do is be His messenger. I’ll be the mailman, not the message.”
If you’d like to check out the rest of the interview, click here!

Our word of the day today was: decry (verb || dih-KRY)
This word means to depreciate (as a coin) officially or publicly, or…
to express strong disapproval of.
To read more about the origin of this word, click here!

 Have a great night!
-Lilly
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Fingerprints of God: Animals

Good afternoon! Today we wrapped up our five-week series on the Fingerprints of God, and today we talked about how we see the fingerprints of God in the creation and existence of animals!

We started in Genesis, with chapter 1, verses 26 through 28…
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

We dove into the Psalms a little bit today too, and there is just some incredible encouragement to be found in Psalm 36:5-7. It reads…
“5 Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
7 How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”

Here’s an excerpt from Job 12, where Job is being made a laughing stock, but he tells us that the animals are still pointing to the existance of God, and Job stood firm and praised God through all the trials and tribulations that he experienced. 

4 “I have become a laughingstock to my friends,
    though I called on God and he answered—
    a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!
5 Those who are at ease have contempt for misfortune
    as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
6 The tents of marauders are undisturbed,
    and those who provoke God are secure—
    those God has in his hand.[a]

7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
    or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
    or let the fish in the sea inform you.
9 Which of all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every creature
    and the breath of all mankind.
11 Does not the ear test words
    as the tongue tastes food?
12 Is not wisdom found among the aged?
    Does not long life bring understanding?

Our word of the day today was animal related, and it was ‘diurnal‘! (Adj, [dahy-ur-nl]
In the animal world, this word means ‘active by day, as certain birds and insects’
To see the rest of the definitions, check out Dictionary.com’s definition here!

I left you today with the encouragement of Matthew 10:29-31…
“29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.[a] 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

As always, thanks for listening, and have a great day!
-Lilly

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Fingerprints of God: Our relationships with others

Hebrews 13:1 set the tone for today: “Keep on loving each other.”
Simple, or so you would think.

Writer Martha Orlando says: “Wouldn’t this world be a better place if we recognized and honored the fingerprints of God in every person we meet?”

We had 3 full pages of scripture today that talked about how we should treat one another, and a couple of great verses on this topic actually happen to be our theme verses for Lifeline! It’s John 13:34-35, and it says:
“A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

We also read some verses from Romans 12 today, and the whole book of Romans is just a great book with lots of great wisdom.
Check out the entirety of Romans 12 here!

John 16:33 says: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
We listened to Victors Crown today, and it really gives encouragement that no matter what we’re going through that God has overcome the world and He wears the Victor’s Crown!
IMG_4862.jpgThat picture up there is a picture of my little beastie, Tula.
Our word of the day was beastie! This is a noun, and this word describes a small animal, especially one toward which affection is felt. So Tula is my beastie, and Belle is Joe’s beastie! Drop a picture of your little beastie in the comments! We’d love to see them!

Thank you so much for listening! Enjoy this beautiful weather!
-Lilly 

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Fingerprints of God: Our Relationships with God

What are the obvious outward signs to others that we’re part of, and maturing into God’s family?

Mark 12:28-31 – The Greatest Commandment

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

These verses really set the tone for our discussion on the Fingerprints of God when it comes to relationships. It is made pretty clear in these verses that loving God then loving one another is of great importance. God gave us the definition of love when He sent His son to die for us.

1st John 3:16
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Martin Luther said that “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” We also talked today about how our relationships with God are strengthened by spending time in prayer and in scripture! Once we have a strong relationship with God, then we can really begin cultivating relationships with others.

Our Word of the Day today was ‘transpontine’! adjective trans-PAHN-tyne
This means situated on the farther side of a bridge, or, in Britain, situated on the south side of the Thames. 

Check out David Crowder and his band singing ‘How He Loves’here! They really enforce God’s powerful and unceasing love for His children, and that’s how we know how to love others.

Thanks for listening and have a great night!
– Lilly

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Fingerprints of God: Creation

Good afternoon! Today, we continued our series on the Fingerprints of God!
We’d like you to leave us a comment on what part of creation you love most! Let us know what part of creation just leaves you speechless!
For me, it’s a beautiful sunset, and for Joe, it’s snowflakes!

We read Genesis chapter 1, and it really lays the baseline for creation.
“And God saw that it was good.”
Read the story of creation here! 

We read from Job 12 today, and this chapter is just an incredible reminder that God holds the world in His hands. He is powerful and He is faithful even in the midst of trial.
Job 12:10 says:
“In his hand is the life of every creature
    and the breath of all mankind.”
If you’d like to read the whole chapter, which I strongly encourage, check it out here!

We focused on two songs today that went along with the theme of creation, and those songs were Indescribable from Chris Tomlin and Overwhelmed from Big Daddy Weave.

When we played Indescribable, I read some of the program notes I wrote when my elementary choir performed this my senior year of High School. Here’s a bit of it…
“Indescribable – adjective – too unusual, extreme, or indefinite to be adequately described. That is a perfect word to describe our perfect God. Indescribable, uncontainable, amazing, all powerful, and all the other adjectives that Chris Tomlin uses in this song make the point that our God is truly amazing.”
Check out the song here!

We also looked at the song Overwhelmed, and the opening lyrics of this song point straight at the glory and majesty of God.
“I see the work of Your Hands
Galaxies spin in a Heavenly dance oh God
All that You are is so overwhelming”
Take a listen to the whole song here! 

In animals, we see patterns and we see the work of Gods hand. In a ram, we see the spirals of the horn that grow with age, like the rings in trees that you can count to see how old they are. Check out this article from FaithHub that goes into further detail on this here!

Also, the universe is proclaiming the name of God through its’ vastness and incomprehensibility. Did you know that the Andromeda galaxy is our closest galactic neighbor? It’s roughly 2.5 million light-years away. It’s 140,000 light-years across, but it isn’t bright enough to be seen in the night sky by our eyes. If it were brighter, it would appear six times larger than the full moon!
There was a video I saw a while ago at the Creation Museum, and it talked about how complex and incredible our universe actually is.
I highly encourage you to check this out. It’s a 22-minute video, but it’s well worth your time. Check it out here!

Our word of the day today was very relevant! It was ‘overwhelm‘. [oh-ver-hwelm]
This is a verb and it means: to overcome completely in mind or feeling.

I’m so thankful for an overwhelming and indescribable God today!
Thanks so much for listening!
-Lilly 

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Even When I’m Not

Have you ever been thankful that Gods’ love, goodness, and faithfulness are not dependent on our human actions? Because I sure have been! I was reading Paul David Tripp’s devotional ‘New Morning Mercies’ a while ago and that days’ devotional was about how God is faithful even we aren’t. My High School Choir director, Heidi Zentz always talked about how awesome this devotional was, and she was my secret prayer partner my Senior year, so she bought me ‘New Morning Mercies’ and it’s full of really quality devotionals that get you thinking. If you’d like to read more about Paul David Tripp and his devotionals, click here!

Paul David Tripp begins his devotionals with ‘tweetable tidbits’ that are 140 characters or less. The ‘tweetable tidbit’ for this devotional was this…
“Yes, it is true, God will remain faithful even when you’re not because His faithfulness rests on who He is. Not on what you’re doing.”

Right when I read this, it struck me, because I don’t think about that particular quality of God very often. (Though I should).

One of my favorite parts of this devotional was when Tripp said: “Security isn’t found in your faithfulness but in His. He can be trusted even when you cannot. He will be faithful and good even when you are not. He’s going to do what is right and best even when you don’t, and He is faithful to forgive you when convicting grace reveals how unfaithful you’ve been.”

No matter what we do, God is faithful. We will often stray away from God, we will not always be good and faithful, we won’t always do what is right or best, and we won’t always be faithful to forgive. When I really think about it, I think that God’s faithfulness regardless of our actions is my favorite quality about God. God will not abandon us or stop being faithful to us when we are not faithful to Him, or when we don’t do what is good, right, or best. HE IS FAITHFUL NO MATTER WHAT.

One of my favorite verses that go along with this concept is Lamentations 3:22-23. That says: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;  His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” 
Another verse that is relevant is 2 Thessalonians 3:3. It says: “But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.” 

Our word of the day today was ‘fulminate’! – Verb – [fuhl-muh-neyt]
Fulminate means: to explode with a loud noise; detonate.
To read more about this word, check it out on dictonary.com! Link here!

Also, if you would like information about the WNZR Valentines Banquet, click here! And if you would like to be a part of our Big Blue Music Crew, send us an email at wnzr@mvnu.edu and we will send you back the survey! In thanking you for participating in our survey, we will also send you an exclusive Big Blue Music Crew shirt!!

Remember that God loves you and will continue to be faithful to you no matter what.
Thanks for listening and God Bless!

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Imagining Heaven

cultivate-it-1

Have you ever thought about your ultimate vision?  In other words – what’s the point of all of this?  What’s the destination?  Where do I want to be when it’s all said and done?

This summer, by random chance, I heard an early 1980’s sermon from R.C. Sproul where he asked that very question to his audience. He talked about what some call the ‘beatific vision’ – a vision inspired by the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. He offered a compelling vision of getting to heaven; of seeing Jesus face-to-face. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

For me, that is an energizing vision.  It’s motivating.  Seriously, when we put all of the distractions aside, isn’t that the goal?  To see Jesus face-to-face?  And encourage as many others as we can to do the same thing?

When we think about that moment, can we even remotely imagine what it will be like? 1st Corinthians 2:9 tells us that heaven has things “which the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard and have not entered the heart of man.” That’s a fantastic and mysterious promise all rolled into one!

Congratulations to Deva of Fredericktown who won our Winter Jam Artist Trivia. She correctly answered that David Crowder attended Baylor University.

Our Word of the Day is whimsical, an adjective that means unusual in a playful or amusing way.

Thanks for listening!
-Joe

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Pursue Excellence

Good afternoon! It was a rainy one here in Mt. Vernon, but we kept dry here in the studio and talked a lot today about pursuing excellence. In the world today, you can settle for being just okay and mediocre. We as Christians are called to be extraordinary!

Act 4:23-31 was a key set of verses that we talked about today. The main point that all these verses make is the power of prayer. When in stressful and hard situations, the first thing that we need to do is pray. God is listening and He cares.
Prayer is an important first step in any difficult situation.

“23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“‘Why do the nations rage
    and the people plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
against the Lord
    and against his anointed one.
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

Our WinterJam trivia question today was: In what church did the band Newsong get started? The answer was Morningside Baptist Church!
Our winner was Casandra of Gambier! Congratulations! She won two passes to WinterJam Tour Spectacular 2017!

Our word of the day was willowwacks!
Willowwacks are a wooded, uninhabited areas.
This word is slang which originated in New England.

My last encouragement for you today came from 2nd Timothy.
2nd Timothy 1:7 says: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

We are called to be extraordinary and we are given power and love! We are called to be bold in our lives. Be like Peter and John when they prayed for boldness in their proclamation of Christ and His power. Pursue excellence.  Don’t be ordinary.

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Praise for the Good Shepherd

lost-sheep

Today I shared thoughts about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  I’m thankful for a God who continues to pursue us, despite our tendency to run away, get lost, or try to do things on our own.

Luke 15 shares the three parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.  They remind us of four very important points:

  • God loves lost people and seeks them out; EVERY person is important to God
  • God celebrates when a lost person is found
  • We may turn our backs on God, but He never turns his back on us
  • God has compassion for the lost – he understands how sometimes how hard it is for us to come home – but still welcomes us with open arms!

John 10 reminds us that Jesus has the authority to be our Shepherd because He and the father are one!

Today’s Word of the Day is maelstrom, which we shared right after the song ‘Eye of the Storm,’ – it means a powerful often violent whirlpool. In the eye of the storm, he remains in control!

Thanks for listening!
-Joe

 

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