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Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 5 Artists – 500 Weeks

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. Today it’s a special chart of my Top 5 artists of the first 500 weeks of this current era of my chart:

2025 – “Can’t Steal My Joy” – Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
2024 – “Up + Up” – Colton Dixon
2023 – “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “What If” – Matthew West
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

4 MALE SOLO ARTISTS & MERCYME – Matthew West, MercyMe, Phil Wickham, Micah Tyler, and Chris Tomlin are my Top 5 artists over the first 500 weeks of my chart (since February 2017). They account for 57 total hits, 25 # 1 hits and 93 weeks at # 1. Matthew West leads the pack with 7 # 1 hits. He also has more total weeks on my chart (197) than any other artist. But MercyMe actually leads all artists for total weeks at # 1 (29). The “HTS” column is the total number of hits for each artist, and none of them are shaded in green. That’s because TobyMac – my # 6 artist – leads that category with a total of 17 hits since 2017. There’s a good chance that TobyMac will replace Chris Tomlin at # 5 in the coming months as long as “Lord It Feels Good” continues its forward momentum.

MY TOP 10 HITS – My regular weekly chart resumes next Monday October 12TH 2026 with Week 504.

My # 19 hit during my first 3½ years of salvation in Christ from August 2006 to January 2010 is a hard-rocker from Disciple. They hit my chart with 7 different songs during my Salvation Era. Back at # 8 was their anthemic power ballad “After The World”, and at # 19 it’s their high-octane sports anthem “Game On” – a # 1 smash from December 2007. WWE actually used “Game On” in its big event marketing back then, and the NFL used team-customized versions of “Game On” at football games.

Next week it’s my # 20 hit that you can easily get addicted to once you see its music video.

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 October 04TH 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 32, Edition 432
“Benediction”

For the better part of 15 years at my first two churches in Homestead (Florida) I closed out our Sunday morning services with a few words about the Pastor’s message / sermon, some closing comments of my own, and then the Benediction where I recited specific intentional verses of Scripture.

Most churches – no matter their respective denomination – or no denomination – close their services with a Benediction. At some churches (like my first one) the Pastor or Preacher or other church leader will have everyone stand up and recite it with him or her. At other churches (like my second one) we didn’t do that. I’m not really a big fan of having everyone stand up and recite or repeat something over and over again. I’d rather you hear the Benediction rather than say it. You tend to absorb or take-in speech (or words) more so when you are listening rather than talking. You know – 2 ears – 1 mouth – twice as much listening than speaking.

My old-school Webster’s Dictionary from many years ago defines “benediction” as follows: “a blessing”; “an invocation of divine blessing – usually at the end of a church service”.

The term “benediction” can also be used in a secular (or non-Christian) manner to represent “something that promotes goodness or well-being”; “an expression of good wishes”.

I like to think of the Benediction as a short prayer for God’s blessings upon His people. (That’s us – His believers and followers.) When I delivered the Benediction at the end of the service – I gave or passed on to my church family God’s blessings from Scripture – from His Good News.

I didn’t look at the Benediction as closing out a church service. Yes – it was at the end of the service, but service for Christ – serving God and others – continued out there – on the other side of the doors and the walls of the physical church building.

We are the church. And we bring the church into the church building. So since we bring the church, and we are the church – we take it outside of the church building to share. So the Benediction is a blessing from God to share with our neighbor. When I led the Benediction – I sent my brothers and sisters out into the world – to share God’s blessings.

Every edition of #SundayScripture (and #MusicMonday) ends with a Benediction. My Boilerplate below contains the Benediction in the second paragraph.

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

Categories
Animals Blogging Geography History Military Nature Photography Travel

Village Between The Lakes

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about the other Savannah – the one on the Tennessee River known as the “Catfish Capital Of The World”.

Continuing downstream on the river on my upcoming American Cruise Lines paddlewheeler ship cruise – it’s Grand Rivers Kentucky down in the southwestern corner of the state. It’s about 167 miles downstream from Savannah, and the journey is scheduled to take about 17½ hours, for an average speed of about 9½ MPH. There is no elevation drop between Savannah and Grand Rivers, as the entire journey is actually on Kentucky Lake – created by Kentucky Dam at Grand Rivers. At 160,309 acres it is the largest artificial lake by surface area in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River.

I’ll be part of a 3-hour-plus shore excursion that afternoon in Land Between The Lakes – the federally-protected national recreation area between Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River) and Lake Barkley (Cumberland River). Our first stop will be the Woodlands Nature Station. Our next stop will be the Elk & Bison Prairie.

Paducah Kentucky (“Quilt City U.S.A.”) is another option on this day while docked in Grand Rivers. It’s about a 30-minute luxury coach ride into downtown, and then you’re on your own to do your own thing there for up to 3 hours before the coach returns back to the ship.

That night back on the cruise ship we will officially transfer over from the Tennessee River downstream to the Cumberland River upstream. (Both rivers flow into the Ohio River.) The 1.75-mile Barkley Canal essentially acts as a short-cut between the two rivers near their closest approach to allow vessels to bypass the Ohio River some 22½ (Tennessee) to 30½ (Cumberland) miles downstream. The Barkley Canal was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) from the late-1950s through the mid-1960s. It was completed and filled in 1966. The water depth runs from 11 to 15 feet depending on rainfall.

Once on Lake Barkley our 22-hour journey upstream on the Cumberland River begins. The river narrows into a traditional river and winds its way southeastward towards downtown Nashville, and that’s where I’ll be – next – #TravelThursday. 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 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