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Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 502

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday September 27TH 2026 – the 502ND week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 2 13 Gonna Be Alright
[1ST week @ # 1]		 Matt Maher
2 1 8 It Really Is Amazing Grace Phil Wickham Ft. Crowder
3 3 6 Living Water Cain
4 6 5 Lord It Feels Good TobyMac
5 8 6 If It Was Up To Me Ben Fuller Ft. Carrie Underwood
6 4 12 Breathe On It Tauren Wells
7 5 8 God I’m Just Grateful Chandler Moore
8 – 1 Hard Place Jaye King
9 10 2 Holding On (Praise God) Jon Reddick
10 9 4 OKAY ! Forrest Frank

2025 – “Breakdown” – Andrew Ripp
2024 – “Up + Up” – Colton Dixon
2023 – “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “Into The Wild” – Josh Baldwin
2020 – “God So Loved” – We The Kingdom
2019 – “Nobody (But Jesus)” – Casting Crowns Ft. Matthew West
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “Broken Things” – Matthew West

SPECIAL CHART NEXT WEEK – “My Top 10 Hits – Week 503” will not be presented next week. Instead – I’ll be presenting a special chart featuring “My Top 5 Artists – 500 Weeks”. It’ll be a look back at the 5 most successful artists on my chart during the first 500 weeks of this current era. All of the other regular features (above and below this section) will also be presented in next week’s special edition.

My # 18 hit during my first 3½ years of salvation in Christ from August 2006 to January 2010 is from a Dallas Texas area based band that was originally known as Screaming Mimes – and then Blisse. They formed in 1999 out of a Starbucks in Mesquite Texas. They changed their name to The Afters in 2001. If you’re a regular here on #MusicMonday then you’ll know that The Afters have been somewhat active here on my chart during this current era since 2017 with 3 out of 4 # 1 smash hits. And they were also on my chart a decade earlier in late-2007 and deep into 2008 with their big radio hit “Never Going Back To OK”. They are the rare artist who has appeared during both Christian music eras of my chart.

Next week it’s my # 19 hit, and it’s a hard rockin’ track that maybe you heard inside of a stadium at an NFL game.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio in South Florida to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends !  May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 27TH 2026, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Volume 9, Number 31, Edition 431
“Military Service”

I follow a few Facebook pages for Pastors. I generally don’t get involved in the discussions, as they occasionally get heated. In fact – at times – some of those discussions are good examples of how not to act as a Pastor. Yes – even Pastors can become keyboard warriors online where they type things out on their computer, tablet, or smart phone that they would never say to another person in public or from the pulpit.

A post on military service recently caught my eye on one of those Pastor Facebook pages. A guy asked if a military Veteran should not be a Pastor. He was wondering because his service was used against him. He was told that he could not be a Pastor because he was a Veteran and that disqualified him. I did comment on that post. I wrote – “I would not belong to a church body that believed such utter nonsense. I’ve actually never heard of anything like that before in my nearly 20 years serving inside 3 different churches. It’s never been used against me either.”

Virtually all of the comments were similar to mine. I actually didn’t read any of them until after I had posted my own comment.

I have no idea why military service would prevent someone from being a Pastor. It’s certainly not supported in Scripture. I think that most churches of most denominations believe that prior military experience is good leadership preparation whether you led personnel, equipment, finances, or any combination. Serving your country is treated as an honorable civic duty. That’s been my experience at my 3 main home churches that I’ve served in over the past nearly 20 years.

To my fellow Veterans who are currently serving as a leader in your local home church – I Thank You for your service. Let’s pray:

Thank You Lord for blessing my fellow Veterans who now serve as leaders, elders, teachers, and servants within their local home churches. Thank You for guiding and directing their steps through seasons of military service. Thank You for molding their character, discipline, and commitment to something greater than themselves. Thank You for Your wisdom, strength, and protection as they lead Your flock closer to You. Just as they served their nation with honor – help them to shepherd Your people with Christlike compassion, patience, and love – leading by example in all things. May their past service yield fruit in their current service within Your spiritual kingdom – bringing glory to Your name and building up the body of Christ. And it is in your powerful name that we pray. AMEN and AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Food Geography History Military Nature Photography Travel

Catfish Capital Of The World

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia Alabama – collectively known as “The Shoals” locally.

Downstream the Tennessee River from The Shoals by about 66 miles is Savannah Tennessee – “Catfish Capital Of The World”. It’s the next port-of-call on my upcoming American Cruise Lines paddlewheeler ship cruise. It’s about 55 to 60 feet lower in elevation than Florence Harbor, so less than a foot every mile on average. But nearly the entire drop actually occurs at the lock at Pickwick Dam – 17 miles before (upstream from) Savannah. That will be an early-morning 45-minute drop in the “elevator”, as we are scheduled to arrive in Savannah by 7:30 AM – about 40 minutes after sunrise.

I’m booked on a couple of shore excursions that day in Savannah. In the morning I’ll be touring the historic Shiloh National Military Park about 10 miles southwest of Savannah. It was the site of the American Civil War Battle Of Shiloh (AKA Battle Of Pittsburg Landing) on April 06TH and 07TH of 1862. It was established as a National Military Park 32½ years later on December 27TH 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed it into law. It was transferred from the Department Of War to the National Park Service effective August 10TH 1933 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

So you’re wondering about the catfish. The stretch of Tennessee River adjacent to Savannah is known for its abundance of various types of catfish of all sizes – including some really big ones in the 60 to 80 pound or more range. Catfishing anglers come to Savannah each Fall (September and October) to participate in various tournaments. The locals welcome the visitors, as the city celebrates with pageants, parades, and fish fry gatherings along the river.

As for Savannah itself – it was settled 200 years ago during the 1820s. It was originally named Rudd’s Ferry – named after – well – James Rudd (an early settler) – and his ferry across the Tennessee. His wife was Elizabeth, and she was originally from Savannah Georgia. In 1830 – Rudd’s Ferry was renamed to Savannah Tennessee so that Elizabeth could still live in a town named Savannah. Nowadays over 7,000 residents call Savannah home, and over 28,000 residents live in surrounding Hardin County (including Savannah).

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about Grand Rivers Kentucky – where two rivers almost but not quite converge. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 501

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday September 20TH 2026 – the 501ST week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 7 It Really Is Amazing Grace
[2ND week @ # 1]		 Phil Wickham Ft. Crowder
2 2 12 Gonna Be Alright Matt Maher
3 5 5 Living Water Cain
4 3 11 Breathe On It Tauren Wells
5 4 7 God I’m Just Grateful Chandler Moore
6 8 4 Lord It Feels Good TobyMac
7 7 17 Washed Elevation Rhythm
8 6 5 If It Was Up To Me Ben Fuller Ft. Carrie Underwood
9 9 3 OKAY ! Forrest Frank
10 – 1 Holding On (Praise God) Jon Reddick

2025 – “Breakdown” – Andrew Ripp
2024 – “Up + Up” – Colton Dixon
2023 – “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “Into The Wild” – Josh Baldwin
2020 – “God So Loved” – We The Kingdom
2019 – “Nobody (But Jesus)” – Casting Crowns Ft. Matthew West
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “Broken Things” – Matthew West

MATT MAHER – He’s holding on at # 2 for the 2ND week in a row, and I’m thinking that it’s “Gonna Be Alright” for him. If he makes it to # 1 then it would be his 3RD # 1 smash (out of 4 songs). His only other non-# 1 smash was in 2020 when “Alive & Breathing” spent 5 weeks at # 2 and spent 25 weeks on my chart. That was such a great uplifting song for such a dark uncertain period of time (during the COVID pandemic).

My # 17 hit during my first 3½ years of salvation in Christ from August 2006 to January 2010 is the first of 5 hits from the guys from upstate South Carolina known as Eleventyseven. “Love In Your Arms” was their 3RD radio single overall, and it was their debut single from their August 2007 album “Galactic Conquest”. This is what happens when you combine pop, punk, and synth to sing about God:

Next week it’s my # 18 hit, and it’s from a band that hit # 4 in 2008 with a long-running hit – and they also spent 3 weeks at # 1 last year !

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio in South Florida to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends !  May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2026 Christopher M. Day, CountUp