CountUp

The Mountain State

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This post is all about the great state of West Virginia. A very short 14½-mile portion of I-70 passes through the middle of the northern panhandle of West Virginia, and when I drove that Interstate from Illinois to Maryland way back at the end of October of 1985 as an 18-year-old – that was the last time I was in wild and wonderful West Virginia.

But that was not my first visit to West Virginia. About 6 or 7 years earlier when I was an early Boy Scout (age 11 or 12) our troop would go hiking and camping during the wintertime up along the Appalachian Trail – mostly in Maryland. (We lived in Lanham Maryland at the time – just outside of Washington D.C., and the Appalachian Trail was a little over 60 miles away from our town.)

We hiked much of the 41 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland – not all at once, but in lengths of about 10 to 20 miles over a couple of days spanning several different trips in the wintertime. Most of our trips were in the snow with subfreezing temperatures. We learned to hike properly (with our backpacks) and stay warm while doing so. And we learned how to setup a campsite with tents and start fires to cook and keep warm.

Once (maybe twice) on our trips we made it across the West Virginia state line along the trail at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. It’s known as the “psychological halfway point” of the 2,192-mile Appalachian Trail. Statistically it is actually 1,167 miles to the north-end of the trail in Maine – and 1,025 miles to the south-end of the trail in Georgia. Harpers Ferry is at West Virginia’s lowest point in elevation – just under 250 feet. It’s where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet at the eastern tip of the state.

I would love to visit Harpers Ferry again for the first time in nearly 50 years. I could spend several days there exploring it all and the surrounding countryside across the river in both Maryland and Virginia. It’s about 40 miles from Washington Dulles International Airport (#IAD).

Soon I’ll be visiting West Virginia again as part of my Ohio River cruise. 277 miles of the Ohio River forms the state’s entire western border with Ohio. The river itself is entirely in West Virginia. The north shoreline (historical low-water mark) is where Ohio’s land begins (or ends). All of the islands in the river, and all of the bridges that cross the river are part of West Virginia. Nearly half of my approximate 600-mile cruise will be in West Virginia even though we will never walk on land.

Maybe I’ll sing this while sailing the Ohio and admiring the West Virginia landscape:

♬ Country roads – take me home
To the place – I belong
West Virginia – mountain mama
Take me home – country roads ♬

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at past visits to “The Keystone State” – Pennsylvania. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Harpers Ferry, Ohio, Ohio River, West Virginia

Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 491

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 13, 2026
No Comments on My Top 10 Hits – Week 491

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 July 12TH 2026 – the 491ST week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	1	7	Washed [2ND week @ # 1]	Elevation Rhythm
2	2	26	Finished	Caleb & John
3	3	16	Everything Is Better	Hopeful.
4	5	11	Somebody’s Praying	Bay Turner
5	6	13	Worthy Of It All (Worthy)	CeCe Winans
6	4	26	Where Would I Be	Peter Burton
7	8	2	The Author	Brandon Lake Ft. Nick Jonas
8	–	1	Breathe On It	Tauren Wells
9	10	2	Ain’t No Way	Jamie MacDonald
10	–	1	Meet Me In The Valley	Tasha Layton

2025 – “The King Is In The Room” – Phil Wickham
2024 – “Somebody Like Me” – Caleb & John Ft. Cain
2023 – “Holy Forever” – Chris Tomlin
2022 – “Getting Started” – Jeremy Camp
2021 – “Be Alright” – Evan Craft Ft. Danny Gokey
2020 – “Keep Me In The Moment” – Jeremy Camp
2019 – “Prize Worth Fighting For” – Jamie Kimmett
2018 – “Grace Got You” – MercyMe
2017 – “The Comeback” – Danny Gokey

WHERE WOULD I BE – There’s a new # 1 song this week, and I’m not referring to this week’s # 1 smash from Elevation Rhythm. There’s a new # 1 song of all-time – or at least this current era of the past 491 weeks. It’s Peter Burton’s debut smash “Where Would I Be”. At 14 weeks it’s the longest-running # 1 smash of the era (and second-longest-running in the entire 40-year history of my chart going back to 1985). After 26 weeks – it’s accumulated 220 chart points, and that’s tied with two other hits at 220, but “Where Would I Be” gets the top claim due to its most weeks at # 1.

SALVATION ERA – As a recap – I’m celebrating my upcoming 20TH anniversary of salvation in Christ with a look back at the soundtrack of my life as a baby Christian during those first 3½ years from August 2006 to January 2010. These are the songs about God that were playing on the radio at the time, and I was singing along and understanding the lyrics. We’re 8 weeks in, and my # 8 hit of the era is the first track from those hard rockers known as Disciple. “After The World” was their 2ND of 7 hits during the era. It was their follow-up to their debut hit (on my chart) “Regime Change” that introduced me to the Knoxville Tennessee-based band. They are now in their 34TH year together; although, Kevin Young – the lead singer – is the only original member remaining. (He formed the band as a teenager.) “After The World” was from their Dove award-winning album “Scars Remain”.

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.

Tags Blog, Chart, Christian, christianity, faith, God, Jesus, KLOVE, Music, Radio, Spotify, TheJoyFM, WayFM, WGTS, Z883

Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday July 12TH 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 20, Edition 420
“Cain & Abel – Postscript”

For 7 weeks through last Sunday I presented an update of my old sermon on Cain & Abel that I preached to my church family in Homestead Florida in 2018. Truthfully – I didn’t really update it all that much. I still liked the way that I originally preached it. I enjoyed reading it again. I enjoyed learning from it again. It was a unique sermon for me back then, as it was from the Old Testament – Genesis 4:1-17. (Most of my sermons through the years have been from the New Testament.)

I hope that you enjoyed reading my sermon – presented in 7 mostly equal parts. (All of my blog posts throughout the week are about a 3-to-4-minute read.)

Later this year I hope to bring back another old sermon and update it here.

I miss writing sermons. For many years I was regularly writing that next sermon – or that sermon after next. I also miss preaching sermons. I was recently asked if I would accept an opportunity to preach at another local church (not my home church) if I were given it. The answer is likely “YES” – if it were a Bible-believing and teaching church. (We have churches in our local area and beyond that are not Bible-based, so I personally wouldn’t go anywhere near them.)

I probably will eventually restart my sermon-writing ministry, for even if I never get the chance to preach again from the pulpit – I can still preach online – starting right here on #SundayScripture. I’ve also been asked to start a podcast featuring my messages. I’d consider doing that, but first I need to learn how podcasts work. (I know very little about them.)

BOILERPLATE

#SundayScripture is published online every Sunday at 0300 U.S. East Coast time. It was created in its current form in February 2018. I share my testimony here each week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord – and get closer to Him with each new day. If you wish to learn more about the God I know – then stay tuned, for the best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and I pray that the LORD will bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you, and may He be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you, and may He give you peace. I pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN and AMEN.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

Blogging Driving Food Football Geography Holidays Movies Sports Travel

The Buckeye State

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This post is all about the great state of Ohio. My brother lived there on two separate occasions during the early-to-mid-2000s (Columbus area) and from 2013 to 2019 (Cincinnati area). My sister-in-law was born and raised there (Upper Sandusky area). My favorite canine nephew was born there in 2017 (Amish Country).

Just as with Indiana (which I wrote about last week) – my first visit to Ohio was a drive-through way back at the end of October of 1985 as an 18-year-old. I had just graduated from Tech School at Chanute Air Force Base adjacent to Rantoul Illinois, and I was driving back to my teenage home in Fairfax County Virginia to visit my parents, brother, and cat. I drove I-70 225 miles from west to east across Ohio. (I may have taken I-270 around Columbus.)

I visited my brother often both times he lived in Ohio – flying in and out of Port Columbus International Airport (#CMH) and Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport (#CVG).

Sometime in 2003 or 2004 me and my brother went on a road-trip northeastward from Columbus. We visited the Pro Football Hall-Of-Fame in Canton; although, I don’t remember ever visiting it. My brother insists that we did, so he may be right. I do remember us driving to downtown Cleveland after that, and we saw a movie. We probably ate somewhere nice before or after the movie, but I don’t remember which movie it was or where we ate. (That was long before the arrival of the smart phone, so no pictures apparently exist of that road-trip.)

A year or two later we went to the Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati to watch the Reds get routed by the Astros 9-0. Ohio native Roger Clemens was the winning pitcher – a month shy of his 43RD birthday.

We visited Ohio Caverns up in the hills of western Ohio (about 12 miles from the highest point in the state). We went there a couple of times more than 10 years apart. That was a lot of fun. The first time I flew in to Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky in May 2014 – our very first stop was at the American Sign Museum. The next day we visited the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. 18 months later we visited nearby Dayton and the National Museum Of The United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

We visited downtown Cincinnati often and attended a few sports events (wrestling and hockey) and a music concert at the U.S. Bank Arena (now known as the Heritage Bank Center).

I loved visiting Ohio – more so in the warm summertime rather than the frigid wintertime. I was actually disappointed when my brother announced in 2019 that he and his family would move away (again) to the Dallas Texas area (again).

My last day in Ohio was the day after Thanksgiving of 2018 when my brother took me to the airport for my flight back home to Miami.

Soon I’ll be visiting Ohio again as part of my Ohio River cruise. On the third day of the cruise we’ll be docking in Cincinnati. I signed-up for a morning tour and an afternoon tour. Both are 3 hours each. The morning tour is at the Cincinnati Reds Hall-Of-Fame & Museum. The afternoon tour is mostly inside a luxury coach bus with various stops along the way. A couple of days later we’ll be docking upstream in Marietta Ohio. I’ll be visiting a historic house museum as part of a guided tour.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at past visits to “The Mountain State” – West Virginia. Let’s keep traveling together.