Month: August 2025

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday August 31ST 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.

For the past 8 Sundays here on #Sunday Scripture I’ve been presenting a transcription of my original sermon that I preached to my previous church family in Homestead Florida on Sunday October 16TH 2022. The title of the sermon is “Blessings & Benedictions”, and it’s my 50TH sermon as identified on my SERMONS page. It’s been interesting bringing the sermon back to life on here nearly 3 years later and presenting it to a different and wider audience this time around.

The sermon has been presented exactly as it was written, but of course it does not include extra dialogue such as ad-libs and other spontaneous thoughts that were verbalized at the time of preaching.

Previous parts of the sermon can be accessed by clicking below:
PART 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Here’s Part 9 (the conclusion):

Check out this video, and on the other side of it – I’ll have some final words for you.

Great song. Great Benediction to take out into the world out there.

So I want to close this message and send you out there in a special way. The way that I did this a decade ago with my previous church family just down the road from here. It went something like this, and a younger me said:

Let us prepare for our Benediction. I hope that you enjoyed your experience today here at Living Waters – the music – the message. I hope that you join us as we do it again next Sunday at 11. We’ll kick it off with Praise & Worship.

And so let us never go to and leave from church, but let us be God’s church and let us bring God’s church – in everything we do and everywhere we go. And let us boldly introduce and represent Our Father who art in Heaven to the world around us – with what we say – and with what we do, for some of the most powerful preaching comes from walking rather than talking. And let us close out this service and go out into the world the way we always do. It’s our Benediction. It’s straight out of His Good News – His Truth. It’s from Psalm 19 and Verse 14. And as the Bible says:

Let the words of my mouth – and the meditation of my heart – be acceptable in thy sight – O Lord – my Strength – and my Redeemer. AMEN !

May God bless each and every one of us ! Go forth. Go in peace. Go with love in your heart.

(End of sermon)

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 Geography Military Travel

Arlington National Cemetery

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s Part 3 of my 6-part (possibly 7-part) blog series on my recent trip to and from Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. It was my first trip back to the area in exactly a decade (to the date).

It’s Day 2 of our family trip – Friday July 25TH 2025. We all piled in to the big SUV (Ford Explorer), and we headed to Arlington National Cemetery. Google Maps took us on a weird route there from West Falls Church Virginia. Since we were driving with the flow of the morning rush hour – we trusted Google to get us there in the fastest way possible. Google actually guided us across the historic 102-year-old Francis Scott Key Bridge (U.S. 29) into Northwest Washington D.C. We traversed along several blocks of M Street starting at 35TH Street. I remember when our Dad used to work on M Street back in the 1970s at 2020 (address). He would occasionally take me to work with him in the summertime or whenever school was out. His office building is still there today.

We soon crossed over the Potomac River back into Virginia via the historic 93-year-old Arlington Memorial Bridge straight into the Cemetery entrance. Our main reason to be there (and the main reason for this entire trip) was to place our Mom’s urn next to our Dad’s urn inside the columbarium. Our Dad – a Vietnam Veteran – served in the USAF from 1963 to 1969. He met his future wife in the Philippines at Clark Air Base. They got married in 1966, and I was born 13½ months later here stateside. Our Dad passed away in 2010. Our Mom passed away a few months ago.

We arrived about 3 hours before the urn placement time, so we parked in the parking garage, and we visited the Welcome Center which serves as a very nice museum with a small gift shop and restrooms, and you can also book guided tours around the exterior grounds. You can easily spend an hour or more there at the Welcome Center checking out all of the exhibits.

We walked outside, and we toured the grounds on our own – heading 0.7 miles uphill much of the way – to the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier. We watched the 1030 “Changing Of The Guard”. It was quite the solemn experience to see it up close. I had never seen it before – LIVE or online.

We walked downhill back to the Welcome Center to hang out for a little while longer. Of course – being a Museum Director – I was taking mental notes everywhere I looked and visualizing new ideas for my small historical museum back home in Sebring Florida.

We headed to the Administration Building inside the restricted area of the cemetery, and we were met by our assigned Counselor who explained the process to us. She eventually led us by vehicle to the columbarium and the niche containing our Dad’s urn. The niche was open when we arrived. My brother placed our Mom’s urn in the niche, and they were together again after 15 years.

This was my very first time at Arlington National Cemetery – at age 58. I never went there as a kid growing up in the Washington D.C. area from age 2 to 18. My brother and sister-in-law went there previously for the formal military funeral honors that culminated in our Dad’s urn being placed in the niche at the columbarium. My brother and I discussed visiting our parents again – maybe next year on a future visit to the area. We have a lifetime vehicle pass to visit.

After the urn placement we headed back onto the George Washington Memorial Parkway – up to Fairfax County – and into McLean – where our parents moved us in November 1980.

I played an incredible game of cornhole, and then I followed that up with one of the best games of 18 rounds of miniature golf in my lifetime. Read all about it – next #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 445

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 August 24TH 2025 – the 445TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 10 What An Awesome God
[3RD week @ # 1]		 Phil Wickham
2 3 11 Breakdown Andrew Ripp
3 2 14 God Did It Micah Tyler
4 5 3 Preach Ryan Stevenson Ft. Matt Hammitt
5 4 21 Jesus Loves Zach Williams
6 6 16 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham
7 7 22 Oh Death MercyMe
8 8 19 No Fear Jon Reddick
9 9 4 Can’t Steal My Joy Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
10 10 2 Come Jesus Come CeCe Winans

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “Take You At Your Word” – Cody Carnes
2023 – “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
2022 – “Hold You Tight” – Dan Bremnes
2021 – “When We Fall Apart” – Ryan Stevenson Ft. Vince Gill & Amy Grant
2020 – “Miracles” – Colton Dixon
2019 – “Nobody (But Jesus)” – Casting Crowns Ft. Matthew West
2018 – “Who You Say I Am” – Hillsong Worship
2017 – “Broken Things” – Matthew West

SUMMER OF 2025 – It’s almost done – with just one more week to go. The 15 weeks of summer from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend here in the U.S.A. comes to a close, and as is years of tradition – I’ll be counting up the Top 10 hits of the summer based on chart performance. Those 10 hits are already set with 7 of them on this week’s chart. The other 3 fell off in June and July. Spoiler Alert – One of those hits is “Unashamed” from Matthew West. I’ll do my special #CountUp on Wednesday September 03RD 2025.

ONE-HIT WONDER – Britt Nicole spent 3 weeks on my chart 8 summers ago with “Be The Change”. In the song Britt proclaims that there’s too much light to be livin’ in the dark. We can “Be The Change”. Let’s let our heart burn bright. Let’s make this world bright. Turn on all the lights !

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 August 24TH 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.

As I wrote about last #Sunday Scripture – I’ve celebrated 19 years of salvation in Jesus Christ, and now I’m at the start of my 20TH year since being born again. I’m looking forward to sharing some miracles – some blessings – some experiences – and yes – even some lessons learned since 2006. I’ll be sharing online – and also offline – LIVE and in-person – to anyone who cares to read or listen to my story.

Last month here on #SundayScripture I began transcribing my original sermon that I preached to my church family in Homestead Florida on Sunday October 16TH 2022. The title of the sermon is “Blessings & Benedictions”, and it’s my 50TH sermon as identified on my SERMONS page.

Here’s Part 8:

And at the end of Hebrews is this Benediction:

Now may the God of peace – who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus – the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with His blood – may He equip you with all you need for doing His will. May He produce in you – through the power of Jesus Christ – every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All glory to Him forever and ever ! Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)

That’s a good Benediction right there. Another one to take out there to the world.

I like that part about Jesus being “the great Shepherd of the sheep”. It reminds me of the 23RD Psalm (1-4):

The LORD is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths – bringing honor to His name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley – I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

That Psalm right there makes me smile. It comforts me. It brings peace to my heart. The LORD is our God of peace.

That’s a good Psalm right there to wake up to and say first thing in the morning. That’s a good Psalm right there to take out into the world to testify about Him.

And so finally – we come to our Pastor’s favorite Benediction – “The Priestly Blessing”. A portion of it is actually on our sign out front. It’s also on this picture right here – which has been sitting in our front lobby area for as long as I’ve been here. And I’m going to put it right back where it belongs right after I’m done here. It’s good to read as you walk out the door – back into the world out there.

It’s from the Old Testament. It’s from the Book of Numbers (6:24-26). You’ve heard this so many times before:

May the LORD bless you and protect you.
May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the LORD show you His favor and give you His peace.

That’s the New Living Translation, but I like the English Standard Version. This is the version that I use the most for this Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you.
The LORD make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

When I first learned that version (right there) it all made sense – except for that word “countenance”. I had never heard of that word before. They didn’t teach that word to me in school in Maryland some 45 years ago. So “countenance” or “favor” or “face” is God’s approval. It’s His attention to, for, and on us.

If you Google “What does the Bible mean by countenance” – you get “calm facial expression; composure; approval or favor; encouragement; moral support”.

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. That’s what I want.

(To be continued next week.)

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