October 6, 2024 – CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 06TH 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 recently appeared on one of my Facebook feeds. It caught my attention. It made me stop scrolling for a while. I thought that it was interesting and intriguing. I don’t know how factual it is, or how such data could be compiled, but I spent a little bit of time reviewing it and thinking about it. And now I’m blogging about it.

Firstly – I was surprised that the map was overwhelmingly red – representing Evangelical Protestant. (That’s what I am – if you’re going to label me.)

I grew up in Maryland, and I expected it to be in blue – representing Catholic – just like Pennsylvania, Delaware, D.C., and nearly every state to the north of it. In fact – I expected the map to be overwhelmingly blue. For some reason I thought that Catholic was the dominant religion here in the U.S. I think that most Catholics believe that too. I also think that most Catholics think that all other religious denominations are bogus, or at the very least – weird. (But that’s for another blog post.)

According to the map – Mainline Protestants outnumber Evangelical Protestants up in the Dakotas and adjacent Minnesota and Iowa. And there’s a statistical tie in Maryland.

Mainline Protestant is a new term for me. I’ve never heard of it before in my 18 years of salvation. So – I did a little bit of research. As far as I can tell – Mainline Protestants don’t always take the Bible literally, and they don’t always believe that it is God’s Word. They believe that there are other ways to salvation forever other than through Jesus. They believe that good deeds will get them into Heaven. They have incorporated some of the modern ways of the world into their churches and their daily living. To me – Mainline Protestant seems closer to Catholic than it does to Evangelical Protestant.

Jesus replied – “I tell you the truth – unless you are born again – you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 NLT)

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.