Month: July 2024

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 389

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 July 28TH 2024 – the 389TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 14 Somebody Like Me
[4TH week @ # 1]		 Caleb & John Ft. Cain
2 2 12 Beautiful Life Pat Barrett
3 4 4 Nothin’ Sweeter TobyMac
4 5 6 Miracle Child Brandon Lake
5 3 8 Take You At Your Word Cody Carnes
6 6 5 Good Day Forrest Frank
7 7 14 The Prodigal Josiah Queen
8 8 3 Take It All Back Tauren Wells
9 – 1 Creed Shane & Shane
10 9 2 My God Can Katy Nichole Ft. Naomi Raine

# 1 This Week In:
2023 – “Big God” – Terrian
2022 – “Getting Started” – Jeremy Camp
2021 – “Be Alright” – Evan Craft Ft. Danny Gokey
2020 – “No Impossible With You” – I AM THEY
2019 – “Raise A Hallelujah” – Bethel Music
2018 – “Dream Small” – Josh Wilson
2017 – “Wonder” – Hillsong United

TOP 40 OF 400 – Barnard & Everett – OK – you know them better as Shane & Shane. They are back on my chart this week with “Creed” – their follow-up to their long-running (19-week) hit “You’ve Already Won”. This October I’ll present my Top 40 songs of the first 400 weeks of this chart, but “You’ve Already Won” won’t be on it. But will it be on my Summer Of 2024 chart in September ?

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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday July 28TH 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.

I’m back home in Sebring Florida this morning. (Actually – I’ve been here since last Sunday evening.) At my home church here – Highlands Community Church – God has blessed us with fairly modern technology. We broadcast our Sunday morning services LIVE at 10:30 AM on our YouTube page. On those Sunday mornings when I’m out-of-town – I look forward to watching our service on YouTube after I return home. It’s not the same as being there in person, but it’s a good alternative.

Since the start of April and for the next 2 weeks – 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.) Here’s Part 7 of “Jude & Jury”:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

Now all glory to God – who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to Him who alone is God – our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time ! Amen. (Jude 24-25)

That’s a good doxology right there. It’s a final praise to God – similar to what you would sing at the end of a hymn or a Psalm. It’s an often-quoted Scripture that you’ve probably heard before, and maybe you didn’t know that it was at the end of Jude’s letter.

It fits well with our Communion in that it’s a reminder of how glorious our God is. He is able to keep us from falling away to the false teachers of the world around us. All glory and majesty and power and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time !

Back in 2021 and 2022 I preached 5 sermons through Peter’s first letter. Peter has a second letter – right after his first letter near the end of the New Testament. His second letter was likely written a few years before Jude wrote his letter. And both letters focus on the false teachers of the time – which was definitely a problem back then, as it is still a problem today. Both letters were written in a similar style with similar content and some of the same words and phrases. They complemented each other.

Check this out – from 2ND Peter:

These false teachers are like unthinking animals – creatures of instinct – born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals – they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor – who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. (12-16)

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Holidays Military Travel

National Aunt & Uncle Day

Greetings my friends. It is Friday July 26TH 2024, and today is a very special day. As the headline states – it is National Aunt & Uncle Day. You say you never heard of it before ? You are not alone. Most Americans have never heard of it before. In fact – I’m the only one I know who is aware of the holiday. It’s a fairly new holiday. It’s only been around since perhaps 1997. I’m not sure that even the greeting card companies know about it; otherwise, they would be selling cards in the stores for it.

Unlike Mother’s Day (2ND Sunday every May) and Father’s Day (3RD Sunday every June) – Aunt & Uncle Day is always celebrated on July 26TH – no matter what day of the week it is. Maybe it would be recognized more if it were celebrated on the 4TH Sunday every July. That way we don’t have to remember a specific date, but rather a particular Sunday in July.

I’m closest to my Aunt Ida and Uncle Mac in the Wichita Falls Texas area. They’ve been married for almost 68 years. They’ve lived in the same area for the past 55 years. My Uncle retired from the U.S. Military in Wichita Falls (Sheppard AFB), and he decided to live the rest of his life there with his wife and two children.

I’ve been visiting my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins almost annually for the past 10 years – usually right around their wedding anniversary in late-September. I’ve driven there and I’ve flown there. It’s always a fun visit with reminiscing about the past as well as creating new memories with mini-road-trips around the region.

I don’t need an annual holiday every July 26TH to remember and commemorate my Aunt and Uncle. I love them so much. I’ve gotten close to them over the past 10 years – ever since the passing of my Dad (one of my Aunt’s younger brothers). It’s what my Dad wanted me to do after he left this world. I wish I had been close to them before these past 10 years.

After a lifetime with various church families – they are no longer physically part of one – mostly due to health and mobility issues. I am essentially their Pastor now. I pray for them daily. I text them weekly early every Sunday morning.

I wrote all of the above at the start of July. My Aunt Ida sadly passed-on to Heaven early on the morning of Thursday July 11TH 2024. She was admitted to hospice care just the night before. She’s reunited now with her Creator, as well as her parents and all but one surviving brother. I love you Aunt Ida always and forever. 1936-2024.

#SundayScripture is up next in less than 48 hours. I hope that you’ll check it out sometime during the day this Sunday. Until then – tell your Aunt and Uncle how much you love them.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography History Home Shopping Travel

Welcome To Highlands County Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to introduce my little brother to my new home county – and my new dream home in my dream neighborhood in my dream part of Florida.

After spending 4 days and 4 nights at Walt Disney World with his wife and two daughters – I met them on a Tuesday afternoon at the Disney resort that they stayed at. As my sister-in-law and nieces prepared to head to Orlando International Airport to fly back to North Texas – my brother packed his bags in my car, and we headed out for a week of fun.

Our first stop was a comic book / sports card store in Kissimmee off U.S. 192. (My brother is a collector of both.) After that – we made our way southward onto U.S. 17 / U.S. 92 (South John Young Parkway / South Orange Blossom Trail) through northwestern Osceola County and into Polk County – through Davenport and over to U.S. 27. We stopped for dinner at a favorite place of mine in Lake Wales – Sizzling Grill – and then we arrived in Highlands County and my neighborhood and home.

I got to show off my home county to my brother over the next 5 days (from Wednesday to Sunday). That’s stores, restaurants, downtowns, attractions, and highways.

On Thursday I gave him a tour of downtown Sebring – the Lake Jackson shoreline and parks, the Charles Frederick Weigle House Museum (where I’m a docent), and the Circle with all of the HGTV workers wrapping-up their projects for an upcoming season of “Home Town Takeover“.

Friday was Avon Park day. We tried to visit the Depot Museum, but it was unexpectedly closed. We did enjoy lunch at the historic Hotel Jacaranda – as well as orange ice cream at Maxwell Groves. #IYKYK

Saturday was Lake Placid day. We checked out the Depot Museum on International Museum Day (every May 18TH). I got to chat with some of the docents on-duty there about – well – life as a docent. My brother found it both amusing and intriguing that museum docents visit each other to talk about being a docent at a museum. YES – it’s a thing. We tried to visit the clown museum, but they were unexpectedly closed.

During our 5 days in Highlands County – we visited our local (dead) mall twice (to see movies), we shopped at both of our Walmart stores, we went to Publix twice (my brother discovered the #PubSub), and we enjoyed meals at some of my favorite family-owned restaurants in the local area. He also got a detailed geological and geographical education of the region.

It was fun to show him my home county. He only saw a tiny portion of the local area. I’m hoping that it’s the start of a new tradition every year so that I can show him new places. I’m still exploring new places myself. I’m proud to show off my new neighborhood, Highlands County, and the Heartland of Florida to anyone who visits.

On the final day – me and my brother headed back to the Orlando area (2 hours away). We spent a few hours at the thriving / exceptionally busy Florida Mall. There’s nothing dead at that mall – well – except for one of the last remaining Sears in the U.S.

I dropped-off my brother at the airport, and I returned home – ready to return to my regularly scheduled retirement routine – like blogging !

Next #TravelThursday – Let’s take a slow cruise on the St. Johns River out of Sanford Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp