Month: October 2024

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

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.

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

Categories
Blogging Driving Food Geography History Military Travel Weather

Fort Meade Florida

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote all about Fort Meade – briefly mentioning the military post and town in Anne Arundel County Maryland that I grew up near in the 1970s. It’s named after U.S. Civil War Union Major General George Gordon Meade (1815-1872). And then I wrote about the other place that’s named after him – 30 miles away from my current home here in the Heartland of Florida.

Fort Meade Florida is a small historic city in rural southwestern Polk County. It’s the oldest city in the county – with origins dating back to 1849. I was planning to visit the city last Thursday, but that’s the day that Hurricane Helene passed us by a couple hundred miles out in the Gulf Of Mexico. (We enjoyed a partly sunny and windy day on that day – with maximum sustained winds of about 25 to 35 MPH and occasional wind gusts over 50 MPH. Very little rain (about a half-inch). Minimum barometric pressure – 998 MB.)

So guess what ? Fort Meade is on my schedule again for today. I hope to visit the Historical Society Of Fort Meade Florida Museum and talk with the docents of their historic house there as a fellow docent of a historic house. After that I hope to enjoy a nice big lunch at Kiki’s Egg House along Charleston Avenue (U.S. 17 through the city).

Fun Fact: Fort Meade is near the north-end of a series of historic cities, towns, and areas along rural U.S. 17 in the Heartland of Florida. The community of Homeland (once known as Bethel) is to the north of Fort Meade (and to the south of Bartow). Further south along U.S. 17 are Bowling Green, Wauchula, and Zolfo Springs in Hardee County, and Arcadia in DeSoto County. Both counties border Highlands County (my home) to the east.

Heading back eastward (and homeward) to the U.S. 27 corridor I may even make a stop at The Depot Museum in Avon Park before heading home. So – if all of that happens today – then this will become a 3-part series, and I’ll write all about it next – #TravelThursday.

#CountUp & #TravelThursday is on Facebook. I also run the Sebring Historical Society Facebook page.

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

Categories
Blogging Internet

Welcome To My Blog

Greetings my friends. It is Tuesday October 01ST 2024, and this is a special edition of my blog. It’s my 1,300TH blog post since the reboot of January 2018. Normally I publish new posts 3 days a week – on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays at 0300 U.S. east coast time (0700 UTC).

Each day has its own unique theme. My Thursday posts center on travel. My Sunday posts center on Scripture and the Gospel. My Monday posts center on current Christian pop music. So – my hashtags are #TravelThursday, #SundayScripture, and #MusicMonday.

Occasionally during the year I’ll publish a special post on a Tuesday (like today), a Wednesday, or a Friday. That’s over 150 posts per year. Each post is about a 2-to-4 minute read.

If you’re new here – then welcome to my blog. Thank You for checking it out. You may have clicked on my link on my Facebook, X, Flickr, or Spotify profile. Perhaps Google or Feedspot sent you here awhile back, and you’ve been returning on a regular basis. Maybe you only read my posts on #TravelThursday, or you’re only interested in my Gospel messages on Sundays. Either way I’m glad you’re here. This is a no-judgement zone. This is also a political-free space online. There’s plenty of judgement and politics elsewhere. There’s lots of hate in this world. I try to shine light and bring encouragement and love into this world.

Feel free to comment with relevance on any post. Some of you have your own blogs that I check out on a regular basis. Keep doing what you do. Keep blogging alive !

I’ve been blogging here on WordPress and on Facebook since 2007, and really – I was blogging for 14 years before that via my own dial-up bulletin board system (BBS) and its spinoffs on the early World Wide Web of the late-1990s into the early-2000s. It’s my favorite hobby online.

My Facebook presence has substantially increased and expanded over the past few months. The travel component of #CountUp has its own Facebook page now – where I post twice weekly on #FlickrMonday and #TravelThursday.

I also run the Facebook page for the Sebring Historical Society – an organization that I’ve written about often here on my blog.

A new #TravelThursday is up next in less than 48 hours. I hope that you’ll check it out.

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