Author: Chris M. Day

I'm almost 59 years old. I've been online for 33 years - starting with my own dial-up bulletin board system in 1993 - and continuing with AOL, my own dot.com web site, Myspace, WordPress, Twitter / X, Flickr, and Facebook.

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 28TH 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.

I’m coming up on the 9TH anniversary of the preaching of my first sermon at my second church. My Pastor called me while I was on the road returning home from Wichita Falls Texas. I had driven 655 miles from there to Hattiesburg Mississippi on that Thursday September 29TH 2016. I didn’t answer my cell phone. I waited until I got to my hotel for the night and checked-in to my room before I called him back – fearing some bad news back home. I actually got good news. My Pastor asked me if I would preach that upcoming Sunday October 02ND 2016. Without hesitation I said “YES”. I told him that I would have plenty of time in my car on the road to pray about my sermon from Hattiesburg to Homestead.

I preached on “Vine & Branches” from John 15 on that Sunday, and it was the first of my 60+ sermons at my second church.

My Pastor actually asked me if I would preach the year before (in 2015 – a few months after arriving that year), and I politely turned him down and told him that I wasn’t ready yet. (I finally learned how to say “NO” at my second church.)

I actually preached twice at my first church – on New Year’s Day 2012, and then over 2½ years later on a Wednesday night at the end of July 2014. I don’t like talking about that first sermon because of the confusion and controversy behind it. The second sermon was intentional, and it went much better. Frankly – it probably led to my 60+ sermons at my second church. A longtime friend of mine who attended my eventual second church came to my first church to watch me preach, and then she went back and told her Pastor all about my sermon.

Going back to my first church (from 2007 to 2015) – I pretty much did everything that you could possibly do at a Sunday Morning service except for sing and preach. After several years of opening services, leading the announcements, leading Communion, and closing services – some members of the church body began referring to me as “Pastor Chris” (which I found out late during my 8-year stay – irritated the Pastor). I never told anyone to call me Pastor. It actually made me uncomfortable, and perhaps – in hindsight – maybe I should have told them to simply call me “Chris”.

It happened again at my much smaller second church, but eventually even the Pastor interchanged “Brother Chris” and “Pastor Chris”, so I didn’t take issue with it.

Back at my first church though – I kept getting asked when I was going to finally preach (since I “did everything else”). My reply was essentially “when the Pastor asks me to”. I think some members of the church body went to the Pastor and asked him when he would allow me to preach. I’m sure that irritated him as well. He was probably wondering why they wanted someone else to preach instead of him. Maybe he was thinking that I was telling them to ask him if I could preach. (I never did that.) I actually don’t blame him for wondering and thinking those scenarios.

As I continue further into my 20TH year of salvation – I’ll continue to look back at where I came from during my early and later years. I never wish to make the same mistakes in ministry as I’ve made in the past.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 NLT)

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 Home Sports Travel Weather

The Long Trek Back Home

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. We’ve made it to Part 7 of my 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).

So my family’s Southwest flight back to Dallas Texas (#DAL) was cancelled due to weather. And my American Airlines (#AA) flight back to Tampa Florida (#TPA) was also cancelled. My family was on their way to northwestern Ohio in the very same Avis rental SUV that we drove in all around Northern Virginia. I took the Avis shuttle to the airport to determine my next move.

I soon received a text notification from #AA stating that I was rebooked on the very same flight 24 hours later (on Monday night). So my next move was to book a night at the very same Hampton near Reagan National Airport (U.S. 1 in Crystal City) that I pointed out to my family as we drove by it on our way to Avis. The hotel shuttle picked me up from the airport, and I checked in for the night.

Hotel Room View Of U.S. 1 In Crystal City Virginia

Fun Fact: I paid for 2 Hampton rooms for the same night (including the one outside #TPA that was non-refundable within 5 nights prior). I’ve never done that before. At least I got the Hilton Honors points for both rooms. I think next time I have a flight scheduled to arrive late in Tampa I won’t book that hotel room in advance in the event that the flight back is cancelled. I’ll just hope that a hotel room is available, or if not – then I’ll just drive 2½ hours home.

After I checked-in to my cozy hotel room I decided to get smart with the #AA app. I really did not want to hang around the hotel until checkout time the next day (12 Noon) and then hang out at the airport for 7 to 8 hours after that waiting to board my early-evening flight back to Tampa that has a long history of departing late (or not at all). I soon rebooked a flight back to Tampa for earlier in the day (mid-afternoon), and then a little while later I discovered even earlier flights available – so I rebooked yet again for a late-morning flight. As it turns out – at least with #AA – if your flight is cancelled – then you can rebook as many times as you wish using their app as long as seats are available on the flight of your choice. There is no charge to do so. (I don’t know if other airlines have the same policy, but I’m glad that #AA does since I fly them almost exclusively.)

My packed flight back to #TPA departed and arrived early. I called the hotel (where my car was parked at) to have them send their shuttle my way to pick me up, and there was a bit of confusion on the telephone. After a bit of waiting for the receptionist and hotel manager to get their act together – they finally requested an Uber to be sent to pick me up, as their shuttle was either out of commission, on another assignment, or the driver was out to lunch. The Uber arrived in a white Kia SUV, and the driver was courteous and friendly. He couldn’t figure out why his GPS kept saying that he should go to the hotel when he was requested to go to the airport at a specific location to pick up a customer (me). I explained what happened – that the hotel contacted Uber on my behalf. We talked about Ubers and Kias all the way to the hotel.

I got in my car (a Kia), and I drove home on that Monday afternoon. My 122-hour adventure was complete !

What a wonderful trip this was with my family – brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces. Me and my brother enjoyed our trip down memory lane in Langley, McLean, Tysons, Falls Church, Vienna, and into Annandale. It was fun to take the Metro into D.C., take a 2-hour tour, and then visit a Smithsonian museum. And then there’s all of the good food that we enjoyed together. And finally – the main reason for this trip – to place our Mom’s urn next to our Dad’s urn inside the niche at the columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery.

As I hinted in a previous installment of this blog series – me and my brother have already discussed a future trip back to the Washington D.C. area (both Maryland and Virginia) to do a “deep-dive” into our roots there from the late-’60s (me) to the mid-’90s (my brother). Maybe we’ll get back there as early as later next year in conjunction with a Washington Capitals or Washington Commanders game. Maybe we’ll just talk about it for years to come. (We still haven’t returned to Las Vegas, and we’ve been talking about that off-and-on since our last visit over 20 years ago !)

Later this morning I’ll be at #TPA on my way to my next destination, and so next #TravelThursday – I’ll begin a brand-new multi-part blog series to and from and all about that next destination out west. 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 449

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 September 21ST 2025 – the 449TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 15 Breakdown
[4TH week @ # 1]		 Andrew Ripp
2 2 14 What An Awesome God Phil Wickham
3 4 3 I’ve Just Seen Too Much Big Daddy Weave
4 3 7 Preach Ryan Stevenson Ft. Matt Hammitt
5 5 18 God Did It Micah Tyler
6 6 20 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham
7 9 8 Can’t Steal My Joy Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
8 8 3 Still Crowder
9 10 6 Let The Church Sing Tauren Wells
10 – 1 Get Behind Me Emerson Day

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “Up + Up” – Colton Dixon
2023 – “Praise You Anywhere” – Brandon Lake
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “Into The Wild” – Josh Baldwin
2020 – “God So Loved” – We The Kingdom
2019 – “Nobody (But Jesus)” – Casting Crowns Ft. Matthew West
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “Broken Things” – Matthew West

ANDREW RIPP – His “Breakdown” becomes the first song to spend more than 3 weeks at # 1 since Steven Curtis Chapman did it with “Do It Again” in December and January. (That song spent 7 weeks at # 1.)

ONE-HIT WONDER – Time for a correction. Tiffany Arbuckle Lee – AKA Plumb – is not a one-hit wonder. Last week I claimed that her late-2017 hit “God Help Me” was the first and only time she appeared on my chart. Wrong. It was exactly 19 years ago next weekend that Plumb entered my chart at # 25 with an EDM version of her original Christian pop song “Cut”. The Bronleewe & Bose Radio Edit was actually a smash hit on the secular dance charts as well as in dance clubs nationwide. So Plumb secured two hits on my chart 11 years apart in 2006 and 2017.

NEXT WEEK – My 450TH chart (since the reboot of February 2017) will be published next Monday, but slightly later than normal. It should appear online by 3 PM U.S. East Coast time (7 PM UTC).

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 September 21ST 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.

A couple of Sundays ago I shared a short version of my salvation story with my church family of the past 2 years. It fit in well with our current message series “This Is My Story”. Here’s what I said:

Well Good Morning church family. As we prepare for Communion – I want to share a short version of my story in Christ. My story began 19 years and 2½ weeks ago during the week of August 20TH 2006 in Homestead Florida. My salvation had a unique start to it.

I once was – lost, miserable, angry, and depressed. And then I met Jesus. You see – God used loud rock music on the radio to rescue me and save me from further descent into the darkness of the demons. But this was not your run-of-the-mill rock music on the radio. This was rock music from artists like Skillet, Disciple, Pillar, Jonah33, Relient K, Stellar Kart, Spoken, and even Family Force 5. These are bands that I had never heard of before, but once I listened to their music and paid attention to their lyrics that praised and worshipped God – I began to learn more about God. And the local Miami radio station that was playing all of that unusual music – they also stopped the music several times an hour to read Bible verses. That led me to Yahoo and Google – to look up those very same Bible verses – and to read and study the lyrics of the songs that I was listening to on the radio.

I did that for 5 months – before I ever stepped foot into my first church. It took at least a couple of those 5 months to discover what God had done for me. I learned the word “salvation” at the age of 39. I was a baby Christian into my early-40s.

The start of the 40TH Psalm is my salvation song:

Verse 1 – I waited for the LORD to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry. (Yes He did.)
Verse 2 – He lifted me out of the pit of despair – out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. (Yes He did.)
Verse 3 – He has given me a new song to sing – a hymn of praise to our God. (Yes He did.) Many will see what He has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.

YEP – He did all of that for me, and my salvation continues into its 20TH year.

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