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
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday February 02ND 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.

Today I’ll be leading Communion after Praise & Worship and before our Senior Pastor’s sermon. My Communion will be based on Romans 3:22-26 (NLT) – which we read and discussed this past Friday Night Bible Study.

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes – no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God – with undeserved kindness – declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life – shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

My Communion was already written earlier in the week, so being able to read it in a different translation (NASB) and also discuss it with about 25 of my brothers and sisters was awesome. (We actually read and discussed the entirety of Romans 3:1-31.)

Today our Senior Pastor’s sermon will be based on Revelation 2:12-17 – God’s Message to Pergamum – a compromising church full of sinners who engaged in immoral activities and worshiped false gods. This Scripture complements our Friday Night Bible Study Scripture nicely.

At home – I’ve been writing my next sermon titled “63 & 34”. It’s about two-thirds complete. I’ll be preaching it down south at my former home church in Homestead Florida 3 weeks from today. I’ll explain the significance of the title on that Sunday morning both here and there.

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 Travel

Travel & Weather Together

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s a fun post today – probably more fun than educational or informative. I hope to get out around the region and explore some of our museums and historical attractions in the coming weeks and months so that I can write about them here.

For this post I’ll write about the local traffic and weather here in Sebring over the past few months. Let’s start with traffic. Firstly – I lived in Miami-Dade County in South Florida for 36+ years, and before that – I lived in the Washington D.C. area for 16+ years. Aside from 2 years of living in Southern England (rural Gloucestershire) in the mid-1980s – traffic here is the most reasonable (and lightest) of my entire life. Sure – we have issues. With no Interstates, Expressways, Turnpikes, etc. anywhere near here – U.S. 27 is our main thoroughfare. My neighborhood’s front entrance is directly off U.S. 27. It’s a local commercial road. It’s a regional road. It’s a major continental highway that runs over 1,350 miles from northeastern Indiana (historically Michigan) to Miami Florida.

On the local Facebook pages the “accident of the day” is posted – complete with scary photos from different angles. All of the usual keyboard warriors immediately fire up their fingers and post the same diatribes about how growth is out-of-control in Sebring, there are no police in sight until after-the-fact, people are texting on their cell phones instead of paying attention to driving so they are running stop signs, red lights, swerving, and speeding, and of course the old standby – the snowbirds visiting from up north are driving too slow and causing all of the accidents. Apparently – everyone is causing the accidents except for the ones on Facebook. (I always head straight for the comments.)

Google defines snowbird as – “a northerner who moves to a warmer southern state in the winter.”

The fact of the matter is that some of those things are true, and others are just plain nonsense. Locals (year-rounders) cause most of the accidents here – not snowbirds. Even in the summertime when the snowbird population is near zero and traffic volume is half (or less) of what it is during the wintertime – we still have the “accident of the day” posted on Facebook.

So YES – traffic on U.S. 27 can be tricky and trying at times, but it is no U.S. 1 in South Florida.

Fun Facts: The southern terminus of U.S. 27 is at U.S. 1 in Midtown Miami Florida. If there were mile marker posts along U.S. 27 – then Mile Marker 168 would appear very near the front entrance of my neighborhood.

As far as weather is concerned – we definitely participated in winter this season (again). Last season (strong El Niño) was mostly cloudy, rainy, and chilly, and this season (weak La Niña) was mostly clear, sunny, and chilly. Historical record-breaking snow fell across most of the Florida Panhandle – up to 10 inches in spots – during a rare January 20TH-21ST Gulf Coast snowstorm from Texas to Florida. Here in Sebring – we experienced an extended cold light rain in the low-to-mid-40s during the event. We were actually stuck in the 40s for 46 continuous hours ! (Tampa was stuck in the 40s for 70 hours in a row !)

Our lowest average high temperature of the entire year is slightly above 70°F (21°C), and our lowest average low temperature of the entire year is slightly above 50°F (10°C). So – a below-average (cool) day is a high below 70° and / or a low below 50°. We’ve experienced 41 cool days so far this winter (since the latter part of November). That’s 19 days when we didn’t reach 70°F, and 39 nights when we dropped below 50°F. (Last winter season we experienced 38 nights below 50°F, so we’ve already surpassed that number.)

Weather statistics are courtesy of the National Weather Service for Sebring Regional Airport (adjacent to Sebring International Raceway) – which sits at an unusual location and elevation in that it is off of the Lake Wales Ridge. It is anywhere from 60 to 120 feet below the elevation of where most of the people live here in the local area. As a result – the airport is occasionally warmer than most of the area, or cooler than most of the area depending on local weather conditions at the time.

Later today – I’m headed a couple of miles up the road to the Avon Park campus of South Florida State College to enjoy a music concert. I also plan to check out the adjacent Museum of Florida Art And Culture. I’ll write 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 415

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 over 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday January 26TH 2025 – the 415TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 6 Running Back To You
[2ND week @ # 1]		 Seph Schlueter
2 3 9 In The Name Of Jesus JWLKRS Worship Ft. Maverick City Music
3 2 24 Do It Again Steven Curtis Chapman
4 4 20 That’s Who I Praise Brandon Lake
5 6 17 Love’s Got A Way Andrew Ripp
6 5 10 Praise God For That Jordan Feliz
7 9 4 Goodbye Yesterday Elevation Rhythm
8 8 3 A Thousand Times We Are Messengers
9 10 2 Never Get Used To This Forrest Frank Ft. JVKE
10 7 7 Still Waters (Psalm 23) Leanna Crawford

# 1 This Week In:
2024 – “I Believe” – Phil Wickham
2023 – “Who I Am” – Ben Fuller
2022 – “Weary Traveler” – Jordan St. Cyr
2021 – “Every Step Of The Way” – Cade Thompson
2020 – “Rescue Story” – Zach Williams
2019 – “Nobody Loves Me Like You” – Chris Tomlin
2018 – “Gracefully Broken” – Matt Redman Ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard

ELEVATION RHYTHM – Hailing from Elevation Church – it’s Elevation Rhythm, and they know how to worship just like their brothers and sisters at Elevation Worship. Their debut hit – “Goodbye Yesterday” – rebounds to # 7 this week after slipping to # 9 last week. It’s Top 30 nationally at U.S. Christian Radio. It’s a wonderful celebration song of salvation:

Goodbye yesterday
I’m living in the light of a new day
I won’t waste another minute in my old ways
Praise the Lord I’ve been born again

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 January 26TH 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.

This past Tuesday morning – the 21ST of January – was my 18TH anniversary of attending a Sunday morning church service for the first time as a born-again Christian. It was almost exactly 5 months after salvation started for me. I’ve been part of a church body ever since then.

I’m quite the anomaly. I didn’t attend a church service, learn about God, and call on the name of the Lord as a result of an altar call. I learned about God, called on His name, repented, and was rescued and saved by Him many months before I ever attended a church service. I soon learned that without a church family – my forward momentum on this fantastic journey would be impeded.

I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, so that if I am delayed – you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God – which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:14-15 NLT)

I spent 8 years with my first church family in Homestead, 9 years with my second church family in Homestead, 4 months with my first church family in Sebring, and almost 17 months (and counting) with my current church family in Sebring – Highlands Community Church. I like where I am now. I love my church family. I love the Pastor. He’s a verse-by-verse Bible-based Preacher. His preaching style is very similar to my own.

And I love my longtime second church family in Homestead. It’ll be 10 years this March since I first became a part of them, and I’ll continue to visit and guest preach there a few times a year – including 4 weeks from now.

I’ve been saying this publicly since the early years of my first church family in Homestead: We must not go to church or come from church, but rather – we must be God’s church, and we must bring God’s church in everything we do and everywhere we go. Never leave His church behind. Be His church out in the world. Be His church at home. Show the world and those who do not yet believe in Him the God that lives in you. Show them God’s love.

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