Month: May 2025

Categories
Career Holidays Military

Happy Armed Forces Week

It’s Wednesday May 14TH 2025, and National Military Appreciation Month continues here in the U.S.A. with Armed Forces Week (all this week), and that culminates this Saturday with Armed Forces Day. Unlike Memorial Day (this year on May 26TH) and Veterans Day (November 11TH) – this is an opportunity for us to honor everyone who currently serves within our military.

Last year I retired from a nearly 39-year career with the United States Air Force. I actually committed to 4 years of active-duty service about a month into my Senior year in high school in 1984. 6 days after graduating from high school in June 1985 – I was on my way to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas for 6½ weeks of Basic Military Training.

My 39 years in the USAF included 31 years as a civil-servant. Prior to that – I served 8 years on active-duty and 6 years as a reservist (overlapping with the first 6 years of my civil-service).

Up until about the age of 16 – I intended to go to college after high school and emerge with a degree in either Meteorology or Communications (radio and television broadcasting). That didn’t happen, but the USAF trained me well. It was determined that I was great at math, so I was made to be an analyst / statistician / number-cruncher for most of my career. I served as a Financial Manager for my final 16½ years.

In the USAF I had some great years, some good years, some bad years, and some horrible years. There’s an entire 13-year era that was the worst of my career (and life). Thankfully – I followed that up with the best 16½-year era of my career (and life). My career ended near a high last year.

To all military service members – whether you are currently on active-duty, a reservist, a civil-servant, or a contractor working alongside all of the above – I thank you for all that you do with each new duty day. Represent well.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 430

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 almost 50 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday May 11TH 2025 – the 430TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 2 7 Unashamed
[1ST week @ # 1]		 Matthew West
2 1 11 A Lil Church (Nobody’s Too Lost) TobyMac
3 3 15 Money Can’t Buy Cochren & Co.
4 4 8 You Never Gave Up On Me The Afters
5 5 7 Oh Death MercyMe
6 7 6 Jesus Loves Zach Williams
7 9 6 Your Way’s Better Forrest Frank
8 6 9 Whisper And The Wind Bodie
9 10 4 No Fear Jon Reddick
10 – 1 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “Counting My Blessings” – Seph Schlueter
2023 – “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)” – Matt Maher
2022 – “Wonder Working” – All Creatures
2021 – “Fires” – Jordan St. Cyr
2020 – “Almost Home” – MercyMe
2019 – “Alive” – Big Daddy Weave
2018 – “The Way (New Horizon)” – Pat Barrett
2017 – “Forgiven” – Crowder

CHARTBEAT – Back in the 1980s and 1990s I wrote about a lot of the chart moves of the week under the “CHARTBEAT” banner. Let’s go retro. My # 1 artist since 2017 is Matthew West. He’s spent more weeks on my chart than any other artist (176). And he’s got more # 1 smash hits than any other artist (7). “Unashamed” is his first # 1 on my chart in over 2 years – since February 2023 – when he ascended to the top with “My Story Your Glory”. TobyMac holds the record for the most number of hits on my chart since 2017. His 15TH hit – “A Lil Church” – drops from # 1 to # 2 this week. Down at # 10 it’s Mr. Phil Wickham with his 11TH hit since 2017. It’s a song that sounds like vintage Phil Wickham. It’s his trademark sound at work that praises and worships The King and acknowledges that He is in the room. This is a great song for church on Sunday mornings !

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime 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 in South Florida 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) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday May 11TH 2025, 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.

My season of increased Bible studying, praying, and sermon writing continues. I was hoping that it wouldn’t wane due to my recent trip to Dallas Texas. It took a short pause while I was having fun with family, but it started right back up again once I returned home to my desks and computers. I don’t want this to end anytime soon. I know that it will eventually end for an undetermined period of time, and when it does I’ll be ready for it. The Bible studying and the praying will continue, but the sermon writing will come to a temporary pause – lasting anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I’ve learned to not try to write sermons during these brief valleys. They are generally not my best work. God always deserves the very best.

My 3RD sermon in a row on Paul’s first letter to his most trusted assistant Timothy is complete. I’ve begun writing my 4TH sermon covering 1 Timothy 3:1-13. Paul writes about “Elders & Deacons”, and that’s the title of my sermon.

This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be a church leader – he desires an honorable position.” So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money. He must manage his own family well – having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household – how can he take care of God’s church ?

Very interesting. I’m not quite sure how I’ll preach on those first 5 verses, as I don’t have a wife or children. But I do have family in Texas. I also find it interesting that my 2008 NLT Study Bible uses the word “elder” in the first 2 verses (and in Verse 6). In 2015 the NLT received updates to 86 verses, and “elder” was replaced by “church leader” in those 3 verses of 1 Timothy 3. I prefer the word “elder”. “Overseer” or “Bishop” could be used as well. Most modern translations do in fact use “overseer” in lieu of “elder”. The King James Version uses “Bishop”.

Goodness. It seems as if I’ve started writing my sermon right here. Let me go over to my Word document to get this going..

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, 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) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Driving Food Geography History Movies Travel

Texas Theatre

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. And welcome to my 1,400TH blog post since January 2018 when I resurrected this blog here on WordPress and brought it home from Facebook.

It’s a pleasure to continue to blog about Travel, God, and Music on Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays respectively. Thank You for checking-in to my blog on any or all of those days.

A couple of Tuesday afternoons ago I drove from Sebring over to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (#SRQ). It’s a 76-mile drive via mostly rural roads. It usually takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The roads are suburban along the 20-mile trek closest to the airport. Rapidly growing Manatee County continues to rapidly develop new neighborhoods eastward.

My flight from #SRQ to #DFW was smooth and peaceful, and we got to the gate early – so early that we had to wait a few minutes before our gate was available to pull the aircraft (737) up to.

My brother was there to pick me up, and we enjoyed a late dinner at Jollibee – a popular Filipino fast-food restaurant with locations in Asia, Europe, and North America. It’s become a tradition for me and my brother to eat there on the way to his house after picking me up at the airport. I had a chicken sandwich with fries.

The next day for lunch we went to Starwood Cafe in a pouring-down rainstorm. Me and my brother had a Monte Cristo sandwich with fries.

OK – here’s the reason why I flew to Dallas Texas. It’s not to eat delicious sandwiches; although, one of the few things that I love about North Texas (other than family) is its food – especially steak.

I actually came to Dallas Texas for the world premiere of a brand-new independent motion picture at the historic Texas Theatre. My brother is the top-name star of it, and I’m an extra in it. I filmed my scenes last November during my last visit. The name of the movie is Retro Freaks II. It’s the first movie I’ve ever appeared in, and YES – I actually have a small speaking part in the movie as a protestor in a mob scene. It was also my first world premiere of a movie. (No red carpet for this movie.)

So – about the historic Texas Theatre. It’s located at 231 West Jefferson Boulevard in the Oak Cliff neighborhood southwest of downtown Dallas. Oak Cliff’s history dates back to the mid-1880s. It used to be its own incorporated town until Dallas annexed it as part of its own in 1903. The Texas Theatre was built in 1930 and opened in 1931. It was quite the modern and state-of-the-art theatre when it opened. It’s where Lee Harvey Oswald hid, was found, and was arrested on November 22ND 1963 for the suspected assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy about an hour earlier. The movie theatre was open from 1931 to 1989, and then it was mostly closed to the public for 21 years. It was added to the National Register Of Historic Places in 2003. It reopened in 2010 after several remodels, renovations, and restorations along with ownership transfers.

There’s a lot of history in that 94-year-old building, and it was fun to just look around at everything in it. I’m a fan of procuring, preserving, protecting, and promoting the history around us.

Next #TravelThursday – my Dallas Texas adventure with family continues, and there are more chicken sandwiches involved – as well as visits inside a grade school and a high school for the first time since I was a kid a long time ago. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp