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.

Categories
Driving God Music Radio Travel

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

Last Saturday night up in Lehigh Acres Florida I went to a rock concert featuring Jubilee, Horizons Fall, and Manic Drive. All 3 bands rocked the joint hard and heavy. Jubilee screamed to the Lord Almighty, and they sounded pretty good too. Central Florida’s own Horizons Fall belted out a bunch of cool purpose-driven tracks including their emerging radio smash hit “Broken Man”. Manic Drive headlined the night. They also headlined a very special night for me nearly 33 months ago on the 20TH of January of 2007. It was the night of my very first Christian rock concert – and the very next morning I went to church for the first time in over 30 years !

Manic Drive put on a fantastic set – although it was shortened just a bit due to the fact that the lead singer was a day or two removed from being sick in bed with the flu. You could tell that he was slowly recovering and struggling just a little bit, but he was still a class act about it all. He performed admirably through the adverse conditions, and he and his bandmates made up for the lack of song performances by talking with us in-between the songs that they did perform. Good Stuff !

Here’s one of their great hits that they did NOT perform that night because it was admittingly too ‘hardcore’ for a dude that was on NyQuil. It is perhaps my all-time favourite Manic Drive song EVER !  It’s “Memories”:

I saw piercings galore, tattoos everywhere, spraypainted hair, and some other interesting creatures of the night, but through it all I saw The Holy Spirit shining through His creations as bright as can be. When it came time to speak directly to God through prayer you could hear a pin drop in that place. It was truly miraculous – like only Jesus Christ can deliver to the masses here on Earth !

Categories
Blogging Career Driving Holidays Life Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  THIS is the momentous 100TH edition of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. That’s 96 editions here on WordPress over the past 23 months – and 4 editions before that on the MySpace incarnation of this here blog. This week also marks the end of the 2ND full year of ‘Grab Bag’ editions. Next week we begin Year 3. Thank You so very much for checking out this blog on a regular basis – and for helping to make the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ the flagship weekly series of this blog. It’s the blog of my Life.

MEMORIES –> Check out the very first edition of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ from Tuesday October 16TH 2007.

2.  Well I ‘tweased‘ about this late yesterday afternoon, but now I’m not so sure about it. I’m referring to some cooler and dryer air that should be approaching us late this week into this upcoming weekend. Or will it ?  My amateur weather forecast now differs slightly from that of the National Weather Service. My ‘spaghetti models’ now struggle to pull the powerful cold front all the way through the southeast coast of Florida. If my forecast is correct then it won’t get nearly as cool and dry as it could otherwise. I do believe that Saturday and Sunday will be our coolest two days in a row since last May with Sunday morning being noticeably cooler. Expect Sunday morning temperatures in the upper-40s near Tallahassee, upper-50s near Orlando, mid-60s near Naples, and close to 70° here in Homestead.

3.  You know what was really cool about the very start of my recent holiday weekend road trip ?  On Saturday morning as I walked down to my car to kick it all off I glanced up at the sky and I saw a really nice hot air balloon up there looking down at my neighbourhood. When I saw that I just knew that the time was right to declare the start of my short little vacation. As I began driving northbound the hot air balloon drifted westbound over Redland.

4.  My 415.5-mile road trip was a smash hit – a successful dry run to a much longer road trip that I shall embark on in less than 38 days. I’ll be driving about 7 times that distance round-trip over the course of 10 days when I drive to and from the Dallas Texas area to visit my family for the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be the longest road trip of my entire Life – but not by a whole lot actually. I drove up to the Washington D.C. area a bunch of times when my family still lived up there (prior to about 13 years ago).

FACTOID –> My 415.5-mile road trip was completely toll-free courtesy of Krome Avenue, Tamiami Trail, and I-75.

5.  Please don’t misinterpret one of my comments from one of my blog posts from yesterday. While I have fallen in love with the greater Naples area, and I do plan to eventually move there sometime in the future that will not happen anytime soon. I’m thinking long-range here. I have a wonderful job over at the air base in Homestead. I’m a 25-year Federal Government employee, and although that’s a lot of years with the system I can’t retire anytime soon. Now that does not necessarily mean that I plan to wait until I can retire before I move to Naples – or even buy a home over there. I’m still many years away from such a concept, but I do believe that I will eventually become a resident of Naples or the surrounding area. I will also become a more frequent visitor of the area.

Categories
God Money

Life Pointe Church Plantation Key Lime Pie

Since I missed the Sunday morning services at the Homestead movie theatre I decided that a visit to the Plantation Key campus of Life Pointe Church was necessary. It was my first visit there in nearly 5 months. Here are my takeaways:

– The ‘Misfortune Cookie’ message series continues.
– This week’s message topic – ‘Making Fists Full Of Cash Fried Rice’.
– Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of Life.
– How you approach your money is the difference between Life and death.
– You can’t serve two masters.
– Don’t let the money master you.
– Always remember that the money is not yours – it’s God’s.
– Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.
– The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.
– Never let the money interfere with your pursuit of Jesus.
– Wealth should be used to advance the Good News and expand His Kingdom.
– I want to be a solution to the world’s problems.

This message was based on the following Scriptures out of the Good News: 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, 1 John 3:16, Luke 6:38, Mark 8:31-37, Proverbs 1:19, 11:1, 11:4, 11:25, 11:28, 13:4, 21:20, 22:7

Categories
God People

Celebration Community Beach Church At The Park

This past Sunday morning at 9:30 AM at Cambier Park ‘in the heart of Olde Naples’ I attended a church service. Here are my takeaways:

– It was the 2ND week of their 5-week message series entitled ‘Be The Church’.
– The service started with about 30 minutes of ‘Praise & Worship’.
– The music could best be described as Tropical SW Florida Christian Contemporary.
– The prayer between the song selections was powerful and amazing.
– Jesus loves me this I know – For the Bible tells me so.
– Senior Pastor Gene Scott brought the message.
– God is God – I am not !
– Moment # 1: God creates the family.
– It’s a divinely ordained idea.
– The blame game begins, as Adam blames Eve.
– Moment # 2: The family sins.
– Each and every one of us is a sinner, as we were born into it.
– Moment # 3: God creates the new family.
– It’s a new family of believers.
– We love God, we love people, and we serve the world.
– That’s solitude, community, and ministry.
– It’s the power of connection.
– It is better to eat Twinkies with good friends than to eat broccoli alone.
– It’s not about the steeple – it’s about the people.
– Your past can’t hurt you – unless you allow it.
– Do not judge or you too will be judged.
– God forgives, The Holy Spirit convicts, and we must just love.

This message was based on the following Scriptures out of the Good News: Ephesians 3:14-15, Genesis 3, John 15:12, Mark 3:21, Mark 3:33-34, Pslam 27:10, Revelation 22:17.

Celebration Community Beach Church – official web site / active WordPress blog