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 07TH 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 use the word “fellowship” often – and not just in a church setting. I use it at the museum where I serve. I use it here in my own neighborhood. Fellowship is now a way of life for me, but it hasn’t always been this way.

As I was planning for my relocation and retirement a few years ago – I decided that once I do relocate – I wanted to “flip the script” – and be a completely different type of person. I wanted to invest in fellowship.

Back in Homestead – particularly during the last 8 years (2015-2023) – I was close to being a recluse – aside from Sundays (church days). I went to work in the morning, I returned home in the afternoon, and I spoke to nobody before and after work. I knew none of my neighbors. They did not know me. Quite frankly I believe that they were suspicious of me, as I was not like them, and I did not speak their language. I think they thought that maybe I worked as a Secret Agent for the FBI, or the CIA, or the U.S. Marshals. Maybe they thought I was doing surveillance every time I was outside taking out the trash or checking my mail or walking to and from my car.

I decided that I no longer wanted to be that type of person that nobody knew outside of church and outside of the workplace.

When I moved away to Sebring – I trusted God and his gift of fellowship.

I immediately became an actively involved member of the Sebring Historical Society (a local non-profit organization). I even became a docent at our historical museum every Tuesday for about 9 months. Every Wednesday I spend up to 5 hours with my museum friends in fellowship. For almost a year I’ve served on our Board Of Directors, and I serve as our Social Media Director. (You can see my work on Facebook at our Sebring Historical Society page.) The former Chris in Homestead would’ve never imagined doing any of this in the local community.

I became active here in my own neighborhood. I’m part of the one-third to one-fourth of my 55+ community that participates in regularly scheduled activities and meetings. I started with BINGO every Monday night soon after I moved in. Nowadays I unlock the doors and cabinets and setup before anyone else arrives at our clubhouse, and then I handle all of the money coming in and determine all of the jackpot amounts. I’m the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. God’s fellowship has led to a feeling of importance – a purpose here at home. And then there are all of the wonderful meals that we’ve shared together in fellowship. And we even have a small Bible Study group that meets weekly throughout most of the year here in my neighborhood !

And then there’s my church family of the past 2 years. Sunday Morning Service is crucial, and so is Men’s Fellowship on the first Tuesday of every month, and so is Friday Night Bible Study each week. It’s fellowship with my brothers and sisters of my church family. It’s sharing our stories and our lives and our fantastic journeys with each other as we walk together towards God’s Glorious light.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light – as God is in the light – then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus – his Son – cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7 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

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Blogging Commerce Driving Food Geography Home Life Nature Shopping Travel

Cornhole & Mini-Golf

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s Part 4 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).

Last week I wrote about our 3+ hours at Arlington National Cemetery. After that we headed back to McLean (our family hometown of 16 years in the ’80s and ’90s), and we ate at a local deli for late-lunch. We continued our trip down memory lane through McLean and into Falls Church. My brother knew where he was going because he used to drive those streets from 1991 to 1996, and before that he was our Mom’s passenger in her car, and he told her how to get to different places around the region (even into Maryland). Aside from downtown McLean I was pretty much lost, as I only drove around the local area for a little over a year 40+ years ago.

We drove over or under I-66 dozens of times. We lost count of the number of times that we did so. It became a running gag as we drove around the local area. “Oh look – it’s I-66 again !”

I remarked that they don’t build new roads in Fairfax County. They were the same roads that we drove on in the ’80s and ’90s, and those were the same roads that our predecessors drove on in the ’60s and ’70s. They simply repair, repave, and restripe the existing roads. And now more vehicles than ever before drive on those same roads. They also don’t cut down forests in Fairfax County to build new neighborhoods. They cut down old houses in existing neighborhoods to replace them with new houses.

Me and my brother took a side-trip to nearby Annandale to visit a store that he used to visit 30+ years ago. (It’s still in the same shopping center but at a different location.) A few hours later we (as a family) took a trip to nearby Vienna, and we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant that my brother used to enjoy eating at back in the early-’90s. (It’s been there for 50+ years.)

After dinner we headed north up to Tysons for some Friday family fun. We went to a place called The Perch. None of us knew what to expect there, but at least me and my brother were mesmerized by it all. Think of a 2½-acre public park with plenty of green space (including a dog park), gardens, trees, benches, picnic tables, food trucks, drink kiosks, a biergarten, LIVE concerts, cornhole, and an 18-round mini-golf course. Now picture all of that 11 stories up high atop the roof of a 1,600-seat performing arts center and attached to a large 300-room hotel – surrounded by much taller high-rises. It was cooler, breezier, and refreshing up at the park in the sky, and the views were spectacular (where not obstructed by the surrounding office buildings).

I haven’t played much cornhole in my life, but I think I did pretty good at The Perch. And then our 18 rounds of mini-golf after that ? It was perhaps one of my best performances of my lifetime. I was doing so good that my sister-in-law – the scorekeeper – gave up about halfway through on recording the scores. Mini-Golf is a 30+ year vacation tradition for me and my brother. This particular course was a bit on the bland side, but you can only do so much with limited space high atop the roof of a building. (No caves or waterfalls.)

Me and my brother have already discussed staying at that 300-room Watermark Hotel when we possibly revisit Northern Virginia next year. It’s steps away from the McLean Metro station on the Silver Line !

And speaking of the Metro – we take it into Washington D.C. – next #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

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

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Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Summer Of 2025

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. Today it’s a special chart of my Top 10 hits of this past Summer. Here’s this Summer’s chart:

RK PK WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 15 God Did It Micah Tyler
2 1 15 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham
3 1 15 Oh Death MercyMe
4 2 15 Jesus Loves Zach Williams
5 1 11 What An Awesome God Phil Wickham
6 1 12 Breakdown Andrew Ripp
7 4 15 No Fear Jon Reddick
8 1 7 You Never Gave Up On Me The Afters
9 1 7 Unashamed Matthew West
10 3 4 Money Can’t Buy Cochren & Co.

# 1 Summer Of:
2024 – “Somebody Like Me” – Caleb & John Ft. Cain
2023 – “Big God” – Terrian
2022 – “Love Is Everything We Need” – Unspoken
2021 – “Yes He Can” – Cain
2020 – “No Impossible With You” – I AM THEY
2019 – “Raise A Hallelujah” – Bethel Music
2018 – “Do It Again” – Elevation Worship
2017 – “Wonder” – Hillsong UNITED

WHAT A SUMMER ! – 15 weekly hit music charts and 19 positive and encouraging hits (2 less than last Summer) have created this cumulative hit music chart of my Top 10 hits of the Summer Of 2025 based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay. This past Summer season is defined as U.S. Memorial Day Weekend (last Sunday of May) to U.S. Labor Day Weekend (first Sunday of September). This chart is an End-Of-Summer tradition for me.

CHART-TOPPERS – There were 7 # 1 hits on my chart this summer – compared with 4 in 2024. No song spent more than 3 weeks at # 1. Phil Wickham spent 5 weeks at the top, or exactly one-third of the summer.

MALE SOLO AT THE TOP – For the first time in this current era of the past 9 summers – a male solo artist has my # 1 smash of an entire summer. Micah Tyler does it with “God Did It”. It was 1 of 5 songs to spend all 15 weeks of summer on my chart, and 11 of those 15 weeks were in my Top 3.

PHIL WICKHAM – This was the “Summer Of Phil Wickham”. In a rare situation he had two big hits on the radio simultaneously. “The King Is In The Room” (released in February) was already gaining airplay and climbing the charts (mine and nationally) when “What An Awesome God” was revealed by radio deejays to their listeners. What was intended to be a big radio single later this year became an unexpected # 1 smash this summer. And while the latter perhaps hurt the chart performance of the former (at least nationally) – both songs deserved and received generous airplay this summer. It’ll be a tough act to follow, but Phil’s got a new album dropping on Friday September 12TH. It’s called “Song Of The Saints”, and it’s got 16 tracks on it. I have a feeling that a few of them will be big on the radio into 2026.

2025 – Get ready for the final 17 weeks of 2025, and after it’s all over – I’ll #CountUp my Top 25 Of 2025.

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

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 446

Every Monday (this week on a Tuesday) 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 31ST 2025 – the 446TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 2 12 Breakdown
[1ST week @ # 1]		 Andrew Ripp
2 1 11 What An Awesome God Phil Wickham
3 3 15 God Did It Micah Tyler
4 4 4 Preach Ryan Stevenson Ft. Matt Hammitt
5 5 22 Jesus Loves Zach Williams
6 6 17 The King Is In The Room Phil Wickham
7 7 23 Oh Death MercyMe
8 8 20 No Fear Jon Reddick
9 9 5 Can’t Steal My Joy Josiah Queen X Brandon Lake
10 10 3 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 – “Into The Wild” – Josh Baldwin
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

CHARTBEAT – Summer ends quietly here on my chart with 8 non-movers and (strangely) a new # 1, as Andrew Ripp hits the top for the 2ND time with his 6TH hit. He previously spent a single week at # 1 near the end of 2020 with his debut hit “Jericho”. He hit # 2 with “Fill My Cup” and “Love’s Got A Way”. Overall – my chart is aging with an average of over 13 weeks onboard for the 10 songs. There’s been a dearth of new releases, and new music on the radio, and hence new entries on my chart. Activity should pick-up a bit into the new Fall season. I’m starting to like “Mighty Name Of Jesus” from Hope Darst and Josh Baldwin. Maybe next week ?

SUMMER OF 2025 – Tomorrow is the big day when I reveal my Top 10 hits of the 15 weeks of summer from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend here in the U.S.A. Publication time is set for the usual 3 AM U.S. east coast time (0700 UTC) when all of my blog posts are published.

ONE-HIT WONDER – Citizen Way hit # 4 for 3 weeks during the Summer of 2017 with their catchy and danceable radio favorite “Bulletproof”. It’s all about being bulletproof – because of You Lord. I was hoping for more music from Citizen Way after that, but it turned out to be their first and only hit on my chart. Their biggest radio hit occurred in 2014 with “How Sweet The Sound” which still receives good recurrent airplay on the radio.

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