Father! – to God himself we cannot give a holier name. – William Wordsworth

And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:6)

In what ways are you noticing God turning the hearts of fathers toward their children and the hearts of children to their fathers?

God is doing something incredible in the culture of America. He is offering hope. During our weekly Marching Through Culpeper prayer conference call on April 8, Bob Sims talked about the Fatherhood of God. He mentioned that the very last verse of the Old Testament (Malachi 4:6) speaks of God returning the hears to the fathers to their children and vise versa.

On Sunday night April 13, CNN hosted the “Compassion Forum” with live interviews of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. Hillary and Barack were both asked very personal and specific questions about their faith.

Yesterday morning (April 14) I read an email from Virginia Morton about American Idol with a link to a YouTube video that blew me out of the water – in a good way. This stood in sharp contrast to the email I read minutes before about the thefts that took place at Gold’s Gym last week.

The victim of the theft stated, “Last night I was at gold’s gym when my purse was stolen out of my car. They busted in my window and stole it from behind the front seat.  They got all my credit cards, my ID, a nice camera and a checkbook.  My car wasn’t the only one broken into.  Another women’s purse was stolen, and she was only at the gym for 5 minutes. The police said they broke into 3 cars at Powell right after Golds.” My wife and I belong to Gold’s Gym and their parking lot is well lit with lots of people going in and out.

The encouraging email Virginia forwarded to me came from Bob Sims, one of our prayer partners on our weekly Marching Through Culpeper prayer conference calls. Bob shared “This is a sign that the American public is accepting our message in the arts. This is really moving.” Bob’s email went on to say,

“This doesn’t happen often.  American Idol opened the show last night (April 10, 2008) with an encore of Shout To the Lord. Evidently it is the number ONE download from the night before.

And here is some background on the song for you. American Idols performed Darlene Zschech’s “Shout to the Lord” on “Idol Gives Back.”

Bloggers and TV writers are buzzing about the grand finale performance of Idol Gives Back, which was predicted to be one of the most watched television programs of the year.  According to those in the audience, the show’s grand finale, which was taped on Sunday at Los Angeles’ Kodak Theatre, has the eight American Idol finalists performing “Shout to the Lord,” the contemporary classic hymn written by Hillsong/Integrity’s Darlene Zschech.”

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, I’m in awe of what You are doing. Thank You for this encouragement and hope. Thank You for the love of God manifested by the eight American Idol finalists performing “Shout to the Lord.” Thank You for the bold stand that American Idol took in opening their TV show with this song. Bless the socks off of everyone who made this possible. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Link of the Day
Top 8 finishers in American Idol sing “Shout to the Lord” – YouTube video

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Blessings to shout to the LORD and praise our King!