Author: Chris M. Day

I'm 58 years old. I've been online for 32 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.

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 425

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 April 06TH 2025 – the 425TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 10 Money Can’t Buy
[2ND week @ # 1]		 Cochren & Co.
2 2 12 Let It Begin Big Daddy Weave
3 4 6 A Lil Church (Nobody’s Too Lost) TobyMac
4 3 5 My Promised Land Josiah Queen
5 5 4 Whisper And The Wind Bodie
6 8 2 Unashamed Matthew West
7 7 2 Oh Death MercyMe
8 9 3 You Never Gave Up On Me The Afters
9 – 1 You Way’s Better Forrest Frank
10 – 1 Jesus Loves Zach Williams

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “He Does” – Brandon Heath
2023 – “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)” – Matt Maher
2022 – “Brighter Days” – Blessing Offor
2021 – “Say I Won’t” – MercyMe
2020 – “Almost Home” – MercyMe
2019 – “Confidence” – Sanctus Real
2018 – “Freedom Hymn” – Austin French
2017 – “I Have This Hope” – Tenth Avenue North

ZACH WILLIAMS – This #TravelThursday I’ll post my review of the MercyMe, Zach Williams, and Sam Wesley concert over in Estero Florida. Zach Williams was awesome. He performed 9 songs – including his new radio hit “Jesus Loves”. He stated that it was one of his favorite songs to date, and I agree with him. It is now his 10TH hit on my chart over the past 8 years. It’s his follow-up to “Cornerstone” – his 2023 duet with TobyMac – which was his 3RD # 1 smash.

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 April 06TH 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 waking up near Fort Myers in Southwest Florida this morning. But in just a little while I’ll be 100 miles north northeast at Highlands Community Church near Sebring greeting at one of our main doors, and then leading Communion on this first Sunday of the month.

18 years ago on the first Sunday of April of 2007 – I joined the Hospitality team of my first church. I had been interested in joining for the past couple of months in some capacity, and I was waiting for an invitation to do so. I accepted the invitation – no fooling. And so on April Fools’ Day – I was made an usher, and I helped my brothers and sisters to their seats inside our theatre. (My first church initially held its Sunday morning services inside the local movie theatre.)

I actually didn’t like being an Usher and asking (telling) people where to sit in the theatre – sometimes against their will. At that point I was still very shy and uneasy about being a center of attention with lots of people watching me. I felt like I was a distraction during the active church service. I think I subtly expressed my displeasure after a couple of weeks.

3 weeks later I was placed at the front doors of the movie theatre as a greeter – opening the doors and welcoming my brothers and sisters of my church family – just as they did for me 3 months earlier when I attended my first church service in over 30 years. I owned that area of service.

Through all of the other areas of church service from ushering to hosting to leading to teaching to preaching – I’ve never given up my first love of service – greeting. I greeted at the front doors of both locations of my first church. When I moved down the road to my much smaller second church – I frequently found myself at the front door greeting – not because anyone asked me to do so, but because I always felt that it was the right thing for me to do to serve God.

I’m still greeting after 18 years, and I’m truly honored to do so. And now I’m also greeting in my own neighborhood, and at the museum where I serve.

Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. (Philippians 4:21 NIV)

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
1970s Blogging Music Radio Television Travel

Three Dog Night

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Over the past 39 years I’ve attended over 150 concerts and LIVE events at various venues. It all started in England in 1986 when I attended 17 LIVE music concerts in the span of about 16 months. The pace slowed down quite a bit once I returned home stateside, and the last 100 concerts and events have occurred since 2004.

Last Friday night was a bucket list act. I’ve always wanted to see Three Dog Night LIVE in concert, and so I finally did. They were my first favorite band on the radio when I was a little kid in Prince Georges County Maryland during the early-1970s. I liked all of their songs – especially “Mama Told Me Not To Come”, “Joy To The World”, “An Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Black And White”, and “Shambala”. (I still love those songs today. They are all on my Spotify.)

The concert was awesome. They performed 18 songs – 17 of their 21 consecutive Billboard Top 40 hits from 1969 to 1975 – as well as a newer song for an upcoming new album. Danny Hutton (the only original) and David Morgan also told short stories in-between many of the songs. Their final song had nearly the entire arena singing in unison (and some dancing too) – “Joy To The World” – the # 1 song in America and Canada for the entire year of 1971.

Interesting story on David Morgan. I thought he joined the band in 1981 when they reformed after disbanding 5 years earlier, but upon further research after the concert – I learned that he’s only been a member since 2015. He replaced original founding member Cory Wells after he passed away. That’s how good David Morgan is. I thought he was on the band for the past 44 years, but he’s only been with them for 9. He sang lead on many of the songs, and he was impressive – and energetic. I think he’s been a fan of the band for as long as me. He’s also been a musician for the past 65 years – touring and recording with such greats as Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Dolly Parton, and Rick Nelson. If you watched “Hardcastle & McCormick” on ABC-TV back in the mid-1980s – then you heard David Morgan every week. He sang the theme song for the show – “Drive”.

This was a rare sold-out concert at the Alan Jay Wildstein Center For The Performing Arts at South Florida State College in Avon Park Florida, so that’s 1,460 seats sold. If I had to guess – then I’d say that about 90% of the attendance was between the ages of 65 and 75. I was part of the 10% under 65 or over 75. So – most of the attendees were born from 1950 to 1960, so they were in their teens and 20s when Three Dog Night were one of the hottest bands in America. (I of course was a bit younger – age 2 to 8.)

Fun Facts: Three Dog Night hosted the cocktail party on the November 29TH 1971 episode of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”, as they sang “Joy To The World” (with pauses for jokes). They also hosted the inaugural edition of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on December 31ST 1972.

I can only imagine what a Three Dog Night concert was like during the early-1970s, and I’m guessing that some of my fellow attendees may have experienced such a wild night of music (and more) back then. Now I can say that I’ve also been to a Three Dog Night concert – 2025-style.

It’s on to Fort Myers and Estero Florida for another music concert – 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 424

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 March 30TH 2025 – the 424TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 2 9 Money Can’t Buy
[1ST week @ # 1]		 Cochren & Co.
2 3 11 Let It Begin Big Daddy Weave
3 4 4 My Promised Land Josiah Queen
4 6 5 A Lil Church (Nobody’s Too Lost) TobyMac
5 5 3 Whisper And The Wind Bodie
6 1 11 Never Get Used To This Forrest Frank Ft. JVKE
7 – 1 Oh Death MercyMe
8 – 1 Unashamed Matthew West
9 10 2 You Never Gave Up On Me The Afters
10 9 26 Love’s Got A Way Andrew Ripp

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “Lead On Good Shepherd” – Patrick Mayberry
2023 – “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)” – Matt Maher
2022 – “Brighter Days” – Blessing Offor
2021 – “Say I Won’t” – MercyMe
2020 – “Almost Home” – MercyMe
2019 – “Confidence” – Sanctus Real
2018 – “No One Like Our God” – Lincoln Brewster
2017 – “I Have This Hope” – Tenth Avenue North

MERCYME, ZACH WILLIAMS, SAM WESLEY – This upcoming weekend I’ll be seeing them LIVE in concert. It’ll be my 5TH MercyMe concert. I previously saw them in 2015, 2019, 2020, and 2021. I actually saw MercyMe in March 2020 just a few days before the world shut down due to the COVID pandemic. It’ll be my 3RD Zach Williams concert. I previously saw him in 2017 and 2018. And Sam Wesley – he’s Bart Millard’s son. He was one of the opening acts of the 2021 MercyMe concert.

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