Month: June 2024

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 30, 2024

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday June 30TH 2024, 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.

What a fun church week it was. This past week (Monday to Friday night) I had the honor and privilege of participating in my very first Vacation Bible School (#VBS). It’s like a week-long church summer camp for elementary school kids.

A few months ago I was asked (at Bible Study) by the lady who always sits next to me if I’d be willing to play a character at the upcoming #VBS. I immediately said “yes”, and I got the script for my character a week or two later. I portrayed (all 5 nights in a series of comedic skits) the slightly dimwitted but always learning “Jim NoLand”, and I made him my own with various ad-libs and other crazy personas from myself and other people I know. I played the role alongside my Pastor – who naturally played himself – “Shipwrecked” on a remote island full of monkeys and coconuts. It was a lot of fun. I didn’t know what to expect before it all got started, but I’m glad that I was asked to be a part of it. I think I was a “fan-favorite” with the kids. I also got to enjoy great fellowship with the adults each night.

It was perhaps my most complete and fulfilling church week in my 17+ years as part of various church families. I’m really enjoying and thriving in this current season with my church family here in Sebring. I’m coming up on 10 months with Highlands Community Church. Our Pastor is wonderful. His preaching and teaching style and his personality and sense of humor is very similar to my own, and his theology is the closest of any Pastor I’ve studied under or served with.

You know the church is the living and breathing body of believers and followers of our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ, and I believe that our church body is strong and bold and moving closer to and for our 3 in 1 God – Creator, Christ, and Spirit.

God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is His body. It is made full and complete by Christ – who fills all things everywhere with Himself. (Ephesians 1:22-23 NLT)

Since the start of April and for the next couple of months – I’m presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Links are provided for Parts 1 to 8 of “Jude & Judgment” over on my SERMONS page. (It’s Sermon 56.) I’ll continue with Part 4 of “Jude & Jury” – next #SundayScripture.

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past 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 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.

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

Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography Home Travel

Florida

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 27, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my misadventures on Albany Georgia‘s Liberty Expressway (U.S. 82). I also wrote about Tifton and Waycross in South Georgia.

Back on the morning of Day 2 of my April retirement road-trip – I drove out of Florida and into Alabama via I-10 on one of the two portions of Interstate highway that was part of my road-trip. 15 days later – I’ve returned home to Florida. I missed Florida. I love it so much. I’ve lived here for over 36 years, and I’ll be here until the end.

I visited a friend / former coworker of mine from Homestead who now lives happily ever after – retired – in the Yulee area. Yulee is actually not an incorporated village, town, or city. It’s a broad census area northeast of Jacksonville, and it serves as a suburb of the big city. It’s the population center of Nassau County – located in the northeast corner of Florida. It’s a mostly young military region – with U.S. Navy bases to the north and south. It’s a rapidly growing area, and there are an abundance of new homes, stores, and restaurants under construction. Traffic was very busy in both directions (east and west) along the main thoroughfare – Florida State Road 200. They even have a “diverging diamond interchange” over I-95.

Fernandina Beach and the adjacent beachside communities were originally on my itinerary for Day 17 of my road-trip, but I opted to stay and hang out and reminisce with my friend at his house instead. I’ve actually been to Fernandina Beach before on a daytrip with my Mom and Dad when they actually lived in Jacksonville in the late-1990s and most of the 2000s. I want to visit again on a future road-trip. On an early rendition of my road-trip itinerary – Day 18 would’ve taken me from Yulee – over to Fernandina Beach – down A1A / U.S. 1 for 250+ miles to Vero Beach or Fort Pierce – and then finally inland from there to return home. (There was even a Day 19 considered as well.)

But I really love my dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida, and by this time I was homesick and exhausted. I wanted to get back home and relax and recuperate and return to my daily life.

So – I did just that on Day 18. I drove away from the Yulee area – westward and southward along Florida State Road 200, and onto U.S. 301, U.S. 441, Florida State Road 33, a series of old narrow backroads in northern Polk County (following Google Maps), and back to U.S. 27. I stopped for Lunch at a very busy Sizzling Grill in Lake Wales, and then 29 miles down the road – I was back home again.

Next #TravelThursday on the Fourth Of July – I’ll summarize and wrap-up my April retirement road-trip with lots of fun numbers on America’s 248TH Birthday. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Albany, Florida, Georgia, Jacksonville, Nassau, Tifton, Waycross, Yulee

Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 384

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 24, 2024

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 over 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday June 23RD 2024 – the 384TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	1	7	Beautiful Life [3RD week @ # 1]	Pat Barrett
2	2	9	Somebody Like Me	Caleb & John Ft. Cain
3	3	4	Strongholds	Chris Tomlin
4	7	5	God Is With Us	The Afters
5	4	14	Counting My Blessings	Seph Schlueter
6	5	29	Lead On Good Shepherd	Patrick Mayberry
7	6	18	You’ve Already Won	Shane & Shane
8	9	3	Take You At Your Word	Cody Carnes
9	–	9	The Prodigal	Josiah Queen
10	–	1	Miracle Child	Brandon Lake

# 1 This Week In:
2023 – “Cornerstone” – TobyMac Ft. Zach Williams
2022 – “Me On My Mind” – Matthew West
2021 – “Yes He Can” – Cain
2020 – “I Will Fear No More” – The Afters
2019 – “Church (Take Me Back)” – Cochren & Co.
2018 – “Do It Again” – Elevation Worship
2017 – “Home” – Chris Tomlin

JOSIAH QUEEN – It’s a rare re-entry this week. It’s so rare that I should explain what a re-entry is. It’s a song that was previously on my chart – that fell off – and now it’s back on again. After 3 weeks off – “The Prodigal” is back on. It returns to the # 9 position that it held during its last 4 weeks on my chart through the entire month of May.

TOP 40 OF 400 – This October I’ll present my Top 40 songs of the first 400 weeks of this chart. Right now – The Afters’ “I Will Fear No More” is in the Top 10 on the chart. It was # 1 on this weekend exactly 4 years ago.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime simply 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 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, God, Jesus, KLOVE, Music, Radio, Spotify, TheJoyFM, WayFM, WGTS, Z883

Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 23, 2024

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday June 23RD 2024, 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 awoke in Homestead Florida for the 2ND Sunday this month. I was previously here 3 Sundays ago. I return home to Sebring Florida right after church service and lunch today. Starting tomorrow night I’ll be involved in #VBS – Vacation Bible School – at my church. I’ll be in skits and other fun stuff for 5 nights. Our audience will be 4-to-11-year-olds. Our theme will be “Shipwrecked – Rescued By Jesus”. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never been involved in VBS in my 17½ years as part of a church family.

[CONTINUE SERMON]

2ND Corinthians (4:4):
Satan – who is the god of this world – has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ – who is the exact likeness of God.

Beware of false teachers all around you. Always check and confirm with God’s Word. If it doesn’t sound right to you – then it’s probably not right. That applies to the secular world around us. There are a lot of con artists out there that are waiting to scam you out of money and personal belongings and even your entire home. And YES – a lot of these con artists lurk online from foreign countries. But you know – we have homegrown con artists walking amongst us right here in Homestead and Miami-Dade County. Beware of them. They are up to no good.

And we have con artists who have – as Jude writes – wormed their way into your churches. Beware of them. They are up to no good. As I preached last week – the enemy – he even works on Sunday mornings. Sunday is the devil’s busiest day.

Jude writes about these false teachers. As I read this – close your eyes and picture the vivid imagery in your mind:

When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love – they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots. They are like wild waves of the sea – churning up the foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars – doomed forever to blackest darkness. (Jude 12-13)

You know one of my favorite times of the week – aside from here in God’s house on Sunday mornings – is our fellowship meal after the service at one of our local restaurants. YES – the food is usually great. And I usually eat all of it. (No leftovers for me.) And the service from the wait staff is usually – good to OK. (Sometimes it can be better.) But it’s the fellowship that is most important to me. And we usually end up talking (for a few minutes anyway) about the sermon that was just preached to us. And we also pray. And talk. And laugh. That’s fellowship.

Jude writes about fellowship meals. Those early Christians of the late-First Century – they commemorated the Lord’s love by celebrating the Lord’s Supper – or Holy Communion – as we refer to it today. We will observe and celebrate Communion this morning to remind ourselves of how great our God is.

But Jude is warning his readers that false teachers are amongst us. Beware, and be aware. Don’t fall for them. They are useless. They are dangerous. They wander aimlessly. God condemns them. They are doomed forever.

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

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.