Praise the Lord it’s Friday! Here are our top ten songs this week:
10. Elevation Worship – Trust in God 9. TobyMac – Faithfully 8. MercyMe – To Not Worship You 7. Tasha Layton – Never 6.Caleb & John – Hallelujah Feeling 5. for King & Country – What Are We Waiting For? 4. Brandon Lake – Praise You Anywhere 3. Micah Tyler – Praise the Lord 2. Cody Carnes – Firm Foundation 1. Housefires & JWLKRS Worship – I Thank God
For today’s Praise Thursday, Mike and Dylan shared encouragement to help you finish out the week strong! They shared the new Food for the Hungry total, which is now at $319,158.17 and 12 truckloads of food!
Dylan shared a recent devotional from Our Daily Bread, which covers being a new creation for this new year. You can read it HERE!
Mike shared Psalm 98:1 which says, “Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.” It’s a great reminder that God is doing new things in this New Year!
Congratulations to Robin for winning two tickets to The Woodward Opera’s Houses performance of the Cleveland Keys!
This NTT was a stumper! Tune in next week to win two $5 gift cards to Watts’ restaurant in Utica!
This Afternoon, Mike shared some exciting news about some of our WNZR Artists!
In 2023. Lauren Daigle raised over 1 million dollars in non-profits with her “Price Fund”, which she uses to help at-risk youth, children, and the elderly. You can read more about her “Price Fund” HERE!
In other news, NEEDTOBREATHE released a single on New Years Eve called, “I Don’t Wanna Worry” as well as a heartfelt thank you to their fans. You can read it HERE!
Mike also shared Isaiah 43:18-19, which says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” It’s a great reminder that God is doing new things during this new year!
Lyrics: “Red letters coming off the page. Flooding my heart with amazing grace. I knew then I believed, and those roots run deep”
Today’s Song Poetry was a stumper! Tune in next week for a chance to win two $5 gift cards to Watts’ restaurant in Utica!
Praise the Lord it’s Friday! Here are our top ten songs of 2023, based on WNZR airplay and number of weeks in the NZ Top 10.
10. Lauren Daigle – Thank God I Do 9. Katy Nichole – Hold On 8. Big Daddy Weave – Heaven Changes Everything 7. for King & Country f/Jordin Sparks – Love Me Like I Am 6.Chris Tomlin – Holy Forever 5. MercyMe – To Not Worship You 4. Brandon Lake – Gratitude 3. Matt Maher – The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours) 2. TobyMac f/ Zach Williams – Cornerstone 1. Phil Wickham – This Is Our God
New Music Friday adds this week:
Naomi Raine – Generous God (Gloria)
Thanks for listening and Happy New Year! Here’s to 2024! – Joe and Dylan
Today on the show I talked about how you can still give to Food For The Hungry until 12/31/23. I also talked about people who won our Grand Prizes for Christmas Gift Exchange. Congratulations to all who won! I shared a devotional from Our Daily Bread. And of course we did our Name That Tune feature where one person had a chance to win a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant.
Here is the devotional that I read today from Our Daily Bread: “Troubled Souls, Honest Prayers.” You can find the link here.
I Thank God by Housefires/ JWLKRS Worship.
Congratulations to Rebecca of Lima who guessed the correct answer! She wins a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant.
We’re excited to share a record-breaking story of giving this year! Artist and Grammy-winner Lauren Daigle, whose “The Price Fund” has provided over $3.5 million to charitable organizations since its inception in 2018, announces a record year with over $1 million in donations.
The contributions, 45 in all, include its partnerships with the Music Health Alliance and KultureCity, multiple music schools, and organizations such as and the Caring for Covenant Fund. These partnerships have served to establish a first of its kind combined senior healthcare program and fund designed specifically for music industry veterans and legacy music makers, make event venues across the US accessible through the installation and renovation of sensory rooms, and provide funds to schools which allow children the opportunity to learn through music and arts.
Daigle has provided a way for fans to also participate and join her in The Price Fund’s efforts by donating a portion of every concert ticket sold to the organization. In 2023, over 255,000 people have attended Daigle’s Kaleidoscope Tour.
The mood is right The spirit’s up We’re here tonight And that’s enough
The song? ‘Wonderful Christmastime,‘ recently covered by Blessing Offor! Congratulations to Karen of Mount Vernon who guessed correctly and wins the $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica.
Today’s winners: – Jessie from Mount Vernon wins a WNZR Mystery T-shirt 3-pack - Joy from Bellville wins a Mary Kay gift bag – congratulations!
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!
Today’s winners! – Pam from Fredericktown won the book ‘Healing Out Loud’ by Sandi Brown – Rob from St. Louisville won the Veggie Tales ‘Star of Christmas’ DVD
Name something people associate with Santa Claus: 1. Presents (25 votes) 2. Elves (18) 3. Mrs. Claus (15) 4. Sleigh (13) 5. Reindeer (12) 6. Beard (10) Congratulations to Brandon from Mount Vernon, who guessed the top two answers and wins the $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica.
Today we’re highlighting video links to some of the new 2023 Christmas additions to the Holly Jolly 25 playlist. We’ve included a few of the artists, songs and video links!
Blanca – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Joy)
Blessing Offor – Wonderful Christmastime
Crowder – The Elf Song
Evan Craft – Someone Like Me
Hannah Kerr – I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Congratulations to today’s winners: Peggy from Mount Vernon – wins a $25 gift card to Sixty-one 3 in Butler Laura from Pataskala – wins a Starting Point goodie bag!
Today Abby and I shared praises about one of the greatest themes of Christmas, Immanuel, “God with Us.”
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!
Today’s winners:
Brad from Bellville – Hillsong United Limited Edition White Album (yes, it’s vinyl) David from Mount Vernon – Who Knew? book bundle pack
We played “One More Sleep ‘Til Christmas” from the Muppets. Congratulations to Asher from Fredericktown, who guessed correctly and wins the $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!
More Christmas Fun Facts, too!
‘Jingle Bells’ was originally a Thanksgiving song.
“Jingle Bells” was written by James Lord Piermont in 1857 for his church’s Thanksgiving concert. However, over the years, it became more closely associated with Christmas and is now one of the most popular holiday songs!
‘The Grinch’ is the highest-grossing Christmas film of all time.
The 2018 computer-animated film brought in $512,858,819 worldwide. The runner-up? Home Alone, the Christmas classic from 1990.
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was a box-office flop.
Believe it or not, the enduring Christmas classic initially bombed at the box office. It wasn’t until 1974, when its copyright expired and television networks could air it for free, that it cemented its place as one of the most beloved Christmas movies of all time.
Driving Notes 