Blessed Christmas and Prosperous New Year From Altared Lives Radio!   Enjoy some hip hop holidays on ALR with selections from the following new and classic Christmas CDs in our "Christmas Blitz Blizzard" segments! Listen for 4 consecutive Christmas selections in a row! Too cold! That's the Christmas Blitz Blizzard to keep you in the true Spirit of Christmas.   A.H.M.A.D.D. & Friends "Keep tha C in the Center"       Illect Recordings "An Illect Recordings Christmas Recording"         The Cross Movement & Friends "Gift Rap"     This is a CLASSIC! Various Artists: DC Talk, E.T.W., M.C. Ge Gee, D-Boy Rodriguez "Yo! Ho Ho"   ALR is featuring music from these CDs throughout the day for Christmas! Merry Christmas, fam!

Featured Writing By J. A. Jamison   Jamison is an author/writer residing in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He believes that it's OK to dance to a different beat, as long as you dance to the same Drummer (Christ).     HOW THY BLESSINGS COME         “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.” (Romans 11:33) Care not about how or whom He uses to bless you, but that He blesses you.        Should we care that King James was possibly a sexually immoral man before he came to know Christ? (Of this I’m not completely sure, but it has been researched and said.) Or that he was used to translate the Bible? Or that Paul (as Saul) was a great persecutor of the church before knowing the Lord? Or should we be more interested that he wrote most of the New Testament and became a mighty man of God?  The earlier lives of both men being true lets us know the Lord can work any way He chooses to, and that we should never give up on anyone.        His ways are unfathomable, beyond our understanding.  And often that means He chooses to bless us in a way we wouldn’t prefer. Would you refuse court-ordered child support because a man left you when you were eight months pregnant? Would you refuse the inheritance of biological parents because they placed you up for adoption?  Lie on a hospital bed in dire need of a lung transplant, but refuse the only lung at hand because it will come from a man who was a racist while living?  Not I, but someone else might understand if you rejected his hands because of the things he did; his tongue, because of the things he said; his heart, because of the way he felt; or, even his brain, because of the things he thought.  But why his lungs?        I recall becoming enraged once about Christmas as a young child around the age of six or seven. Why?  Because I received toys from a church. Not because I didn't get what I wanted, but because my mother couldn't afford them. This was nothing less than pride and outright foolishness. I was naive then, but thank God I know better now. Some blessings come from a man's pity, and others from a man's love. But everything that's good and perfect comes from the Lord. (James 1:17)   Editor's Note: I thought these thoughts from J. A. Jamison were especially poignant during this season of joy in celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Just think of how many reject the Savior because they refuse to receive the true Blessing of God because He's not what they expected.

New Music Since Last Newsletter           JP Records "When Christ Died" COG "Ice Cream Jelly" "Muscle Up" Apple Jaxx "iLive" A.H.M.A.D.D. "Can't Stop My Flow" A.H.M.A.D.D. & Friends "The Reason" "That's What He Came 4" "Thank You" Various Artists - Yo Ho Ho! "Reason for the Season" - DC Talk "Drummer Boy" - E.T.W. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" - M.C. Ge Gee "Yo! Ho Ho!" - DC Talk "Can't Spell Christmas Without Christ" - E.T.W. "Winter Wonderland" - D-Boy Rodriguez Illect Recordings - "An Illect Recordings Christmas Recorcing" "It's Christmas" - LA Symphony "Christmas Song" - LA Symphony "Jingle Bell Knock" - Scribbling Idiots "Celebrate the Son" - Sivion "We Three Kings" - Page One, Theory Hazit, MG! the Visionary, DJ Because "Lament of the Diamond Star" - Sintax the Terrific Listener Stats for November 2009   November was another stellar month for the Altar. The station logged the following listening statistics:   11,277 aggregated tuning hours     209,041 total performances     November Top 10 Requests on ALR   I apologize for not having the Top 10 Requests for November 2009. I reset the tallies before copying the results.   However, I recall that Dolo Pacino was in the top spot with one of his tracks on ALR.   Congrats to Dolo and I promise to do better for December! Thanks for your prayers & forgiveness. :)

DV's Word 2 Tha Wize   For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.   For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:16-17 (NIV)     When I learned that Oral Roberts went home to be with the Lord recently, I couldn't help but feel part of the loss that the entire evangelistic communicty must be feeling.   Although there will be (and have been, in the church, even) some detractors, there is no doubt one salient fact: the Lord used Dr. Roberts to impact the spreading of the Good News in a mighty way. That Good News, of course, being not only that Jesus saves, but that Jesus heals and that Jesus blesses our lives.   I think that too many saints sometimes forget the simplicity yet profoundness of John 3:16-17.   I hear some of you: "Everybody knows John 3:16." Not really. Many have "heard" John 3:16, but many don't "know" it -- not in its comprehensive truth.   Of those who actually "do" know it in a sense (by memorization), how many of those people take verse 16 in totality of what it says? God loved so much that He gave His most precious Gift, His Son, so that we could experience His very essence -- life eternal, by His Spirit:   But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. John 14:17   And then, to complicate matters, how many understand verse 16 in context by absorbing its totality of truth in conjuction with verse 17?   God's consuming desire is to save us, not condemn us. When we're sinners or when we're saints -- the Lord sets His heart and purpose on saving, not condemning. That is key.   So why are saints so quick to condemn people? Why so quick to tell people they're going to to hell? I believe the reasons are three-fold:   Such condemning saints have a self-righteousness that makes them feel like they're walking this thing out better than everybody else; Such saints really do not comprehend even a sprinkling of the purposes of God; Such saints actually are driven by fear and not love. They do not understand love and are not driven by it. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18   This month's Word 2 Tha Wize was inspired by some comments I saw on Facebook that condemned Oral Roberts to hell, basically, as a false prophet. That kind of caustic Christianity has no place in the body. I find it distastefully amusing how some saints try to sit in a seat of judgment about someone else's repentance. I think a major point of difference between God and us is, we try to remember the wrong people have done (in our eyes, of course). God's heart is forever desring to FORGET the wrong we've done, in His eyes, and has provided a way to do that -- forgiveness through Jesus Christ every time we sin but confess it & repent of it.   Too many saints like to sit in the place of the Holy Spirit by bringing condemnation on people. But the Holy Spirit brings conviction, not condemnation.   If a person is a saint of God, let the Holy Ghost do His work! We need to pray and ask God to do His work. Chances are, if the person loves the Lord, they will have repented for what people are condemning them for LONG before those people ever thought about condemning the person. That saint they're condemning could be just as mature and probably even more mature than that the saints condemning them, in Christ -- especially if the person served the Lord's purposes for longer than the condemning saints have probably even been alive, you feel me? Ever thought about that?   That's why I like to continually say, "Thank God for Jesus." Because saints will put people in hell long before God will. And those people don't have the first key to heaven or hell, but they'll surely put you in it and slam the door behind you. Let's get God in our hearts, saints. (Yes, I wrote that correctly. It isn't a typo.)   Have a very Blessed Christmas & Prosperous New Year! :)

Merry Christmas to All, and To All a Good Vibe   In retrospection of this year, it's been a record-breaking year for the ministry! We have already exceeded 2 million music performances for the year. And we are excited about what next year will bring. I ask for your prayers as we seek the Lord for the next dimension of ministry for Altared Lives.   I thank everyone who has contributed to the ministry this year, in prayers, in finances, in encouragement -- in all ways. I thank the Lord for you! Thank you!   I would like to take this final time to remind my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ not to get so entwined in the spirit of the world's Christmas celebration that the true meaning of the season gets pushed to a lesser significance.   We say we would never do that, because we of all people have taken advantage of the true Gift of Christmas. But many of us have not and continually do not escape the trappings of materialism, covetousness (ours or relatives' covetousness), and credit stressing during this season.   Be careful to walk in those things which you have learned.   And, as I end my prayers & blessings every year, on behalf of Altared Lives Radio, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good vibe."

Your Giving Helps Keep Us Online ALMs is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 tax-exempt ministry. Your gifts are tax-deductible.   Do you listen to ALR? Have you been blessed by DV's podcasts? Have the interviews on ALR ministered to you, or encouraged you?   Have you thought about giving -- sowing a seed -- into Altared Lives Ministries? If the ministry has blessed you, you're encouraged to bless the ministry back!   ALR does not solicit or accept advertising like "regular" radio. The ministry is supported by the good will offerings of those who believe in the vision. The web space, radio station hosting and music licensing for running Altared Lives is not free!   Won't you consider donating today? Your $5, $10, $20 or $50+ can go a long way to helping us spread the Good News via Gospel hip hop and to encourage young adults to fulfill their destiny in God.     You may donate to ALR and ALMs by going to http://altaredlives.org and clicking on the PAYPAL DONATE button at the bottom of our Home page or on our Radio page at Loudcity.com.   If the button doesn't work for you for some reason, you can donate directly via the PayPal web site. Just go to www.paypal.com. The recipient email for ALMs that you'll need to enter is ministry (the at sign) altaredlives.org. You will only need that particular email address to donate at the Paypal.com web site.   Paypal conveniently accepts credit card donations.   Thank you!   Walk in your blessings and share them! DV   When you bless ALR, you bless a generation.   THANKS FOR ALL THOSE WHO PURCHASED MY BOOK AND DONATED TO THE MINISTRY IN 2008.   GOD'S MIGHTY BLESSINGS ARE UPON THE CHEERFUL GIVERS, AND I ALSO THANK YOU!