Month: October 2022

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 296

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 nearly 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday October 16TH 2022 – the 296TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 10 Good Morning Mercy
[5TH week @ # 1]		 Jason Crabb
2 3 17 Thank God For Sunday Morning Cochren & Co.
3 2 9 New Creation Mac Powell
4 5 6 Miracle Power We The Kingdom
5 6 3 Ain’t Nobody Cody Carnes
6 4 8 Build A Boat Colton Dixon
7 8 3 Love Me Like I Am for King & Country Ft. Jordin Sparks
8 7 18 Hold You Tight Dan Bremnes
9 9 6 God Is In This Story Katy Nichole Ft. Big Daddy Weave
10 10 6 Perfectly Loved Rachael Lampa Ft. TobyMac

# 1 This Week In:
2021 – “What If” – Matthew West
2020 – “Rise Up (Lazarus)” – Cain
2019 – “Fear No More” – Building 429
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “The Gospel” – Ryan Stevenson

COCHREN & CO. – I featured “Thank God For Sunday Morning” as the 3RD and final song of “Praise & Worship” with my church family yesterday morning. It’s a great song to read the lyrics to on the big screens, and take those words in. It’s back up a notch this week to # 2 on my chart, and it could rise to the top next week. I took a look back at the debut smash from Cochren & Co. “Church (Take Me Back)” enjoyed a long chart run in 2019. It actually spent 8 non-consecutive weeks at # 2 before it spent 4 weeks at # 1. This is the 5TH non-consecutive week at # 2 for “Thank God For Sunday Morning”. We’ll see if it can end that streak for the better next week.

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again with the new weekend – and 4 new entries – known as #TravelThursday, #RetroFriday, #SundayScripture, and #Top10Monday.

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. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

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) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 16TH 2022, 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.

This morning I’m getting ready to preach my sermon – “Blessings & Benedictions” – to my brothers and sisters of my church family. It looks to be about a 40-minute sermon – which is my goal. If I hit 35 to 45 minutes when I preach – then I’m on par. Next Sunday morning I’m preaching again. It’s a sermon titled “Give & Take”, and it’s actually a built-up sermon from a partial sermon that I wrote and abandoned over 5 years ago. I’ve always wanted to go back and bring back to life that unfinished sermon, and God finally led me on a path to do just that. I’m looking forward to sharing it next Sunday morning.

And so now on #SundayScripture I continue presenting the last sermon that I preached – “Good & Evil” – in its original written form. It’s based on 1 Peter 3:8-4:8, and it effectively wraps-up my First Peter message series which I began 13 months ago. Here’s Part 2:

You know those people who know that you know God ? Well if any one of them asks you about your relationship with God – then you can start with this:

God The Father – Creator – He showed mercy on me – He showed mercy on us – when He sacrificed His Son – God The Son – Christ – on the cross – to pay for all of our sins – past, present, and future. We are redeemed through His blood.

And so – we are commanded to bless everyone – no matter what. I know it’s a hard thing to do, but we can do that. And our God will help us to do that. We just need to seek His guidance. He will show us the way.

Be happy with those who are happy. Well that’s easy to do. If I’m near a happy person then I’m happy too. Happiness is contagious. That’s a good thing. That’s a God thing.

Weep with those who weep. That’s easy to do too. Sort of ? I think it’s easier said than done. You know it’s hard to understand what someone is going through when they are visibly weeping. How can you weep alongside someone if you don’t know all of the specifics. And weeping can be easy to do – while not showing it. Some of us in here may be weeping today, but we’re putting up a brave front about it – because we don’t want anyone to know that we’re weeping – because then we’ll have to share specifics as to why we’re weeping, and it’ll cause us to weep more. That’s just human nature. But we gotta take care of each other – and get to know our brothers and sisters – and our friends and neighbors – so that we can be there for them when they weep – so that maybe they will share why they are weeping.

You know I love Romans. It’s the Apostle Paul – explaining God’s Good News – to the Romans of the Roman Empire at the time. He wrote his letter to the Romans – right around 57 A.D. That’s almost 25 years after Christ died and rose again and ascended to Heaven. And it’s about 7 or 8 years before Paul was imprisoned and martyred in Rome.

Paul’s letter to the Romans applies today in 2022. It’s a great document from start to finish. It should be read by all believers and followers of Christ on a regular basis. It’s 16 chapters. It’s 433 verses. You can read it – in less than an hour.

Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. (Romans 12:17-18)

There’s not enough peace in the world. There’s never been enough peace in the world. This is not a new thing. We have persecution. We have hate. We have crime. We have violence. We have wars. We can do our part though. God commands us to do our part. Live in peace with everyone. Love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t let evil conquer you. Conquer evil by doing good. (12:21)

(End of Part 2)

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
2000s Blogging Internet Military Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 2002

Hello again retro music fans. Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 20, 25, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 20 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday October 13TH 2002:

And here’s an actual snapshot of my Top 5 exactly the way it appeared on my web site at the time:

That’s from the 370TH online edition of my “Weekly Top 40” at the time. That was right in the middle of the 2ND era of my chart that lasted a little over 14 years from October 1995 to January 2010. For a little over 2 years from 2002 to 2004 I was immersed in the #EDM culture, and my weekly hit music chart was a pure dance chart. It was quite the experience !

DJ Sammy’s cover of Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” was an International mainstream pop smash, and of course a dance smash in the clubs. DJ Sammy is Sam Bouriah from Spain. His take on “Heaven” spent its first 20 (out of 42) weeks on my chart at either # 1 (13 weeks) or # 2 (7 weeks). At the time “Heaven” was the 7TH song to spend at least 10 weeks at # 1 on my chart.

It should be noted that the original “Heaven” from Bryan Adams spent 2 weeks at # 1 in June 1985 while I was in #USAF “boot camp” at Lackland AFB in San Antonio Texas. That was certainly not “Heaven” for me !

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 25 years ago to October 1997. It’s when a # 1 country song became a 134 BPM # 1 pop-dance smash on my chart.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography Nature Photography Shopping Travel Weather

Fort Myers Beach Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. On Wednesday September 28TH 2022 Fort Myers Beach Florida changed forever as Category-4 Hurricane Ian made landfall just a few miles north of the area. The Southwest Florida Gulf coast from Flamingo northward to the Tampa Bay area experienced widespread damage. The area from Marco Island to Venice was especially hard hit, and Fort Myers Beach – “Ground Zero” – was virtually destroyed. The photos online have been heartbreaking. They have brought tears to my eyes.

The Southwest Florida coast is my favorite part of the state. Over the past 35 years I’ve enjoyed numerous short visits over there (about 2 to 3 hours away from home). My last visit was a daytrip to and from Naples 3 months ago. I wrote about it on a 2-part #TravelThursday this past July.

From 2011 to 2020 I visited Fort Myers Beach on 9 separate occasions. I spent a combined 17 nights on (or just off) the island at several different hotels on 7 of those 9 visits – both on the north-end and the south-end. I walked in the surf, drove on the streets, rode on the trolleys, shopped at the stores, and ate at the restaurants. I took 366 photos of the island. 122 of them are featured within my Fort Myers Beach album on my Flickr site. They are presented in chronological order from oldest to newest starting with April 28TH 2011. That was my very first day / night ever on the island, and I instantly fell in love with it. I soon decided that not only had I found my brand-new weekend vacation paradise getaway, but I had also found my eventual retirement landing spot.

After the first 6 visits – all between 2011 and 2013 – the idea of eventually moving to the island upon retirement had waned. But I would still visit on a regular basis. I became concerned during those early visits that if (when) a major hurricane makes landfall on the island or very near it – there would be catastrophic destruction similar to what I experienced here in Homestead after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. I thought that it would be the Gulf Of Mexico destroying the vulnerable island via storm surge rather than wind. That was one of the main reasons to change my mind about retiring there.

I’ve captured some of the most beautiful sunsets of my life on that island. One of my favorite things to do during those 17 nights was to exit my hotel room, walk directly onto the beach with my bare feet, head for the surf, and join the dozens of others just like me who had the same idea to prepare their smart phones and cameras to be aimed up the beach at the setting sun on the WNW horizon.

I was originally scheduled to drive to Fort Myers tomorrow (Friday) morning – and spend 2 nights there – and attend a concert at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall. The hotel was damaged, the concert hall was damaged, and the show was moved to next March. The entire area is a disaster zone, so the last thing they need right now is tourists. I canceled my trip to Fort Myers. (It would not have included a beach visit.)

It will take many years to rebuild Fort Myers Beach. It will never be the way that I knew it during those 9 visits and 17 nights on the island. I have my fond memories and 366 photos to look back on my former paradise on the Gulf Of Mexico.

Next #TravelThursday I’ll visit Fort Lauderdale Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp