Praise Thursday

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

March 23, 2017 0

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. ³⁵By 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

March 16, 2017 0

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

²⁸One 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. ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹The 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

February 16, 2017 0

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!

January 26, 2017 0

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

January 19, 2017 0

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.

January 12, 2017 0

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

January 5, 2017 0

Praise Thursday – 12/8

Today was Praise Thursday on the Afternoon Drive!

I gave you lots of information on various Food For The Hungry benefits, which you can find here and here.

I talked about Addison Road’s song What Do I Know Of Holy. You can find the verses that inspired the song, as well as an accompanying devotional over here.

The Word of the Day was vulpine (VUL-pine), an adjective meaning crafty. You can read more on that here.

Head over here to check out Team WNZR getting ready for the 14th Annual Media Shopping Cart Derby and Food For The Hungry Games that will be happening this Saturday!

Have a great evening!

-Jess

December 8, 2016 0

Drops in the Ocean…or Stars in the night

skillet-stars
Today we shared more stories behind the songs we play on WNZR. Our featured song for the 4pm hour was ‘Drops in the Ocean’ by Hawk Nelson. Lead singer Jon Steingard told New Release Today that Romans 8 influenced the song, especially verses 31, 38 and 39:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Driving Notes

The Official Blog of WNZR's Afternoon Drive

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