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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for March 4, 2010
“The First Thing You Hear in the Morning”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
What is the first thing you hear when you wake up in the morning?
For a lot of us, it’s the alarm clock.
If you’re like me, your alarm clock is actually your cell phone, and let me tell you what I do. I make sure that the first thing I hear in the morning is something that is sure to get my day started right.
Now back when I was in college I just wanted an alarm clock that was sure to get me up. Did you ever have one of those wind-up alarm clocks with the two bells on top? That’s what I had. It was lime green, and boy was it ever loud. It was like a jackhammer to the spine, jolting you from the dead each day. It had no snooze, but it didn’t matter. After an alarm like that, you weren’t going back to sleep anyway.
Then I got married, and the lime green alarm clock didn’t make the cut.
But anyway, I’m glad that now I can choose exactly what I hear first thing in the morning. And you can too, if your cell phone let’s you choose which audio file to use as a ringer.
And let me ask, have you ever seen an actual alarm clock that would let you import your own audio files? I looked, but didn’t find any.
But my cell phone lets me do that, so I always have something that gets my day started right.
For example, right now it’s a song by Ricardo Sanchez called “Moving Forward.” So here are the lyrics I hear each day, first thing in the morning.
“I’m not going back. I’m moving ahead. I’m here to declare to you my past is over. In You, all things are made new. I surrender my life to Christ. I’m moving, moving forward!”
Now that is a great way to start your day!
And I love the declaration, “I surrender my life to Christ.” That is something I do each day.
Before I was married I would literally roll off my bed each morning, right onto my knees. I would take time immediately to submit myself to God, to surrender to His will.
I also love the line, “my past is over.” Lamentations 3 says the Lord’s mercy and compassion are “new every morning.” Whatever dust gathered on me yesterday, whatever decay, whatever garbage, whatever ignorance – it’s gone. My past is over. I resurrender my life to Christ today, and I’m moving forward!
The song says, “In You, all things are made new.” So when I start each new day, I’m starting fresh. In the Lord, every day really is a new day.
Psalm 30 verse 5 says “…joy comes in the morning.”
“But Doug, I’m just not a morning person.”
Maybe not, but it may have something to do with the way you choose to start each day. David wrote is Psalm 59, “But I…”
See, it didn’t matter what else was going on, it didn’t matter what everyone else was doing, it didn’t even matter what David was doing before. This phrase signals the turning point, the hinge on the door, the complete change in direction. “But I,” he said. Everyone else, do what you want, but I…
“I will sing of Your strength, in the morning I will sing of Your love; for You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. O my strength, I sing praise to You; You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.”
Now that is a great way to start your day! David didn’t have a cell phone, so he did the singing himself. “In the morning I will sing of Your love,” he said.
So everyday I get to hear that fantastic message as my alarm. Then I get up and turn it off and I immediately begin praying, “Lord, I surrender myself to You today. I submit myself to You. Your will be done, not mine.”
Isaiah 26:9 says “…I will seek Thee early…”
In the Old Testament, the priests burned incense every morning and made offerings to the Lord. And they added firewood to the fire, every morning.
First Chronicles 23 says the duty of the Levites, among other things, was to “stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord.”
When God sent manna, when did He send it? He could have sent it any time of day, but He sent it in the morning.
In Psalm 5 David said “…in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.”
And you know what? It doesn’t take much time. I do all that within the first couple of minutes, but it sure gets my day started off right.
I have heard so many times, “Why are you so happy in the morning?” Well I think part of it is based on those first couple of minutes. Instead of hitting snooze five times, then dragging myself out of bed like a wheezing animal, I jump out of bed to that incredible song, with those lyrics that really motivate me.
So think about it. It’s important how you start your day. And if you can, play something powerful as your morning alarm.
No, you can’t control everything that happens each day, but you can control this – the first thing you hear each morning.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
(close with chorus of Moving Ahead)
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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