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Surprise!  I know that I have received e-mails from those of you who know me well, wondering why I have not been blogging,  The best answer I can give is that I have had the “yucks” for quite a while now.  The bronchitis bug ended, then I had the stomach bug, and now I am battling the allergy demon.  Lord, help me to keep up with this blog, no matter what my state of body or mind!

I will have two entries today.  This one, I’ll list all of the Dove Award winners from the Gospel Music Association, along with a couple of other announcements.  The next one will be a special worshippers’ devotional, one that has been on my heart, and that I hope will minister to you as you prepare for your busy Sunday!

The Dove Awards were presented this past Sunday night, and there were some wonderful, blessed people honored.  So here goes the big list…..I don’t think I missed any!

And The Dove Goes To…

The 40th Annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards were presented Sunday night at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN, honoring the year’s brightest and best during the LIVE, exclusive broadcast on Gospel Music Channel. For the first time in the GMA’s 40 year history, music fans were given the opportunity to vote in two of the 43 award categories, “Artist of the Year” and “New Artist of the Year.”

A complete list of 2009 Dove Award winners is as follows:

Artist of the Year: Steven Curtis Chapman

New Artist of the Year: Tenth Avenue North

Song of the Year: “Give Me Your Eyes” Brandon Heath, Jason Ingram

Male Vocalist of the Year: Brandon Heath

Female Vocalist of the Year: Natalie Grant

Group of the Year: Casting Crowns

Producer of the Year: Bernie Herms

Rock Recorded Song of the Year: “Lost” by Red

Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year: “Washed By The Water” by NeedToBreathe

Urban Recorded Song of the Year: “Get Up” by MaryMary

Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year: “Do Yo Thang” by KJ-52

Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year: “Give Me Your Eyes” by Brandon Heath

Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year: “A New Hallelujah” by Michael W. Smith

Southern Gospel Recorded Song of the Year: “Reason Enough” by Ernie Haase & Signature Sound

Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year: “They’re Holding Up The Ladder” by Jeff & Sheri Easter

Country Recorded Song of the Year: “I Wish” by Point of Grace

Rap / Hip Hop Album of the Year: Ordinary Dreamers, Group 1 Crew

Rock Album of the Year: Satisfied, DecembeRadio

Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year: Never Going Back to OK, The Afters

Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year: Revelation, Third Day

Inspirational Album of the Year: Great God Who Saves, Laura Story

Southern Gospel Album of the Year: Lovin’ Life; Gaither Vocal Band; Bill Gaither, Guy Penrod, Marshall Hall, Wes Hampton; Gaither Music Group

Bluegrass Album of the Year: We Are Family, Jeff & Sheri Easter

Country Album of the Year: Around the Bend, Randy Travis

Urban Album of the Year: The Fight of My Life, Kirk Franklin

Traditional Gospel Album of the Year: Down in New Orleans, The Blind Boys of Alabama

Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year: Change the World, Martha Munizzi

Instrumental Album of the Year: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Various

Children’s Music Album of the Year: Absolute Modern Worship for Kids 4, Various

Spanish Language Album of the Year: Seventh Day Slumber, Rescatame

Special Event Album of the Year: Passion: God of This City, Various

Christmas Album of the Year: Peace on Earth, Casting Crowns

Praise & Worship Album of the Year: A New Hallelujah, Michael W. Smith

Musical of the Year: God Bless the USA by Sue C. Smith, Brentwood/Benson

Youth/Children’s Musical of the Year: An Island Christmas by Wayne Haun, Shelby Haun, Joel Lindsey, Lillenas Publishing

Choral Collection of the Year: I’ll Say Yes by Carol Cymbala, Brooklyn Tabernacle Music

Recorded Music Packaging of the Year: Revelation (Third Day) by Tim Parker, Becka Blackburn, David McLister, R.W. Sims, Essential Records

Short Form Music Video of the Year: Slow Fade, Casting Crowns, Erwin Brothers Motion Pictures

Long Form Music Video of the Year: “Alive and Transported,” tobyMac, Eric Welch, Tameron Hedge

What a great list of people, and a great combination of ministries!  Gospel music is so blest, amen?

A couple of announcements for you:

For all of you who are like me, and are fans of the ministry of Kutless, you will be excited to know that the group headed back to the studio this week to work on their new worship album.  No dates available for release of the yet unnamed album.

More Bethany Dillon news (you can’t tell we’re friends on FaceBook, can you???):  Bethany’s online store, https://www.missingink.net/mishop/product.asp?AffiliateID=90&home=1 is having some amazing sales right now, and you deserve to know about them!  Everything in the store is $9.99 or less!  CD’s are $8.99.  T-shirts are around $2.00….I love sales, how about you?  Bethany is a great Christian woman, and she deserves our support!

Finally, something you might want to check out something on line that I am enjoying immensely.  It’s called gospelpundit.com.  Just try it…you’ll see what I mean!

Thanks for the comments that are coming in.  Soon I’ll have an e-mail at GodsWay, so stayed tuned.  Until then, I can be contacted personally at sharimomma3@hotmail.com!

Forever engraved on His palm, and eternally under His wings,

Shari

Sorry about missing the regular blog on Wednesday…our family is fighting what some are calling “The 100 Day Flu”…right now it is the stomach flu, and it’s hitting the boys hard!

Here are just a couple of quick notes:  Bethany Dillon has been at work in the studio this week, laying down the last vocal tracks for her newest project.  She invites you all to follow her progress on Twitter!  The first single from this new project is called “Everyone to Know”…

Mark your calendars…Dove Awards are set to be handed out April 23rd.  It will be broadcast on the Gospel Music Channel.

Now for this week’s devotional…

Since it is Good Friday, I find myself thinking quite a lot about death.  Morbid, isn’t it?  Oh, sure, there are lots of times I think about my parents’ deaths, my grandparents’ deaths, and so on, but we are not necessarily speaking of a physical death here.  Today, less than two thousand years ago, Jesus died a physical death, a drastic, disgusting death on a wooden cross.  He was not only man this ever happened to (obviously, since two men died on crosses on either side of him).  But his death was different.  It wasn’t just a physical death.

I have always been a fan of C.S. Lewis, and he epitomizes the death of Jesus so well in his descriptive tale of the death of Aslan the Lion in “The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe”.  Aslan was taking the place of small Edmund, who had done so much wrong.  Aslan was “covering the check”, if you will.  And that is what Jesus did for us.  Have you ever heard the old Southern gospel song that says, “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind”?  I take that song literally.  God the Father knew all about each one of us, even that day on the hill outside of Jerusalem, the hill of Golgotha (literally, “the skull”).  And if God knew, Jesus knew.  And he died to pay my tab, to pay your bill, to make sure that no one ever had to pay again.  No more sacrifices, as they used in the Jewish culture to pay for sins.  Jesus was the last….He was the perfect Lamb.

We are not perfect, are we?  God asks us to die, though, did you know that?  He asks us to die daily.  Our inner man, the one we were born with that knows how to sin so well has to day every single day, because of our imperfections.  It’s the least we can do.  We must die daily to self. (Galatians 2:20)

How do we die?  We simply admit what we’ve done is wrong and we ask forgiveness, and we live a life of prayer and faith in Jesus.  A strong life.  Sure, we won’t be perfect in it, but God knows that.  I like how Natalie grant put it in her 2008 release of “Relentless”.  Her song, “I Will Not Be Moved” says it this way: 

“I will stumble.  I will fall down.  But I will not be moved. 

I will make mistakes.  I will face heartache.  But I will not be moved. 

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand.  All other ground is sinking sand.  I will not be moved”.

Can I make one extra point?  Okay.  I have found that as a worship leader and gospel singer for more than 40 years now, the numerous compliments we may receive bring a certain amount of discomfort to us.  Of course, we want to bring excellence to whatever we are doing, but when people start telling you of how you blessed them, of how you moved them…I find for myself that I don’t know how to respond.  To say “Thank you” would be to take credit for the Holy Spirit and His work in people’s hearts!

But on this Good Friday, I am reminded to always say, “Well, thank the Lord.  The Holy Spirit was really at work tonight”, or something to that extent.  I find myself dying to self, and promising myself that I will NOT take credit for the work.  I’m reminding myself constantly by singing the words of Michael English:

VERSE ONE:  I heard someone the other day

They’d seen in me true love displayed

Blessed by something I had done for them.

No sooner did they speak those words

I found myself somehow disturbed

Uneasy as I took their compliment

‘Cause I know the truth inside this man

I know the truth of who I am

VERSE TWO:  If you could walk the hallways of my heart

And see things as they really are

I wonder if you might be surprised

Seeing faded walls of pride and fear

Rooms I’ve filled with faithless tears

And corners where I’ve stood in compromise

But you’d see the work this grace has done

You’d know just how far I’d come

BRIDGE:  In a thousand years

When the dust of this world clears

And I look back on my life

And see in perfect light

CHORUS:  The only thing that’s good in me is Jesus

The only thing that Good in me is Jesus

I’ve lived long enough to know

No matter what this life may show

The only thing that’s good in me is Jesus.

 

Mark this Good Friday 2009 as the day you begin your daily death to self.  Then you’ll be able to say, “All I am, All I have, All I ever will be….the only thing that’s good in me is Jesus”.

 

Blessings…..and more later…..

Shari

 

 

 

Hey all…God is good, all the time!!!

I have a mass of good news to share with you, and all of this good news is definitely pertaining to THE Good News of Jesus!

For all of my fellow Buckeyes in Ohio, and anyone else who was going to travel a distance to hear Bethany Dillon in concert later this month near Indian Lake (near my home stompin’ grounds!), there has been a serious change of venue due to great response.  The concert is April 18th and was going to be held at Indian Lake High School.  Now the location has been changed to Calvary Baptist Church in Bellefontaine (a small distance away!!!).  Tickets are going fast, so contact the church soon:  Calvary Baptist Church, 1140 Rush Avenue, Bellefontaine, Ohio, 43311, phone 937-599-4775.  Remember, tickets are moving out and seating is limited, so call soon if you want to worship with Bethany Dillon in concert!

Couple of iTunes specials for Easter that you all need to know about:  Jeremy Camp’s latest work, “Speaking Louder Than Before”, and Kutless’ newest, “To Know That You’re Alive” are only $7.99 on iTunes for a few more days….great music, great Easter gifts!

Here’s something new from Joy Williams that you can check out.   I did, and I have to tell you, it’s catchy, but I was disappointed overall.  Joy’s debut music video, “One of Those Days” is available to see at http://youtube.com/watch?v=A6qPjUpo .  It’s a good song, very indie, upbeat, and the video is fun (backwards, but fun), but I like some of Joy’s worship stuff much better.

MercyMe has a fan pack that is going to be in stores tomorrow, and I will be checking into this:  The pack includes the CD and DVD “10″, which gives you 12 of their hit songs plus three new ones, and 11 videos plus Gospel Music Network’s “Faith and Fame” show, featuring MercyME.  The rest of the fan pack (Yes, there IS more!) includes a free MercyMe “10″ t-shirt, and an autographed lithograph copy of “I Can Only Imagine”.  Again, it comes out tomorrow.  Check out some of the videos at http://www.mercyme.org//blog/category/mercyme10/ .

Now, for you music pastors, coming out soon is a terrific book by one of my FB friends, and a wonderful man — this is one you’ll want to have in your office.  Mark Elliott has written a book called “Confessions of An Insignificant Pastor”.  I love that title.  We’ve all been there, pastor or not….am I right?

On Wednesday, more news, plus a look at a brand new website and group for church worship pastors and music leaders!

Stay under His wings, and cuddled closely in the palm of His hand,

Shari