Category: Bible

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 5, 2020

Greetings my friends ! I am back at home where I belong in Homestead Florida. I returned late this past Friday morning from a 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip. The two states were Florida (my home state of the past 32½ years) and Alabama (my birth state from 53 years ago). I met my family – my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces – in Orange Beach Alabama. They drove from east of Dallas Texas (less mileage than myself). We spent 4 full days and 5 nights at a condo directly on Romar Beach. We were on the 10TH floor of an 11-story building. The views of the Gulf Of Mexico were spectacular !

It was fun to be with my family for the first time in 7 months. I’ll see them again in less than 3 months in Texas !

I took a couple of fun side-trips on my own during this road-trip. I’ll write about some of them on my next few Thursday blog posts. But let me share where I went last Sunday. I drove 75 miles over to Semmes Alabama (northwestern suburb of Mobile) to visit Pathway Church – home of some longtime friends / brothers and sisters of my church family here in Homestead from 2007 to 2015. Most of them were actually on vacation themselves, so I didn’t get to hang out with them, but a few good friends were there.

The first person I ever met upon arriving for a church service for the first time as an adult (at age 39 in 2007) was there – Anne J. She greeted me, we talked for about an hour, and then we sat together in the front row for the 2ND service (at 10:30 AM). The Administrative Pastor – Andric – preached a great sermon from Colossians 2:6-15:

And now – just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord – you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6-7 NLT)

WHAT I BELIEVE + WHAT I KNOW = HOW I LIVE

Following the service I got a grande tour of the entire church campus – almost every building. Their campus is quite sprawling. It’s much bigger than it looks from the main road (U.S. 98). They are doing great things for God in Semmes !

Following a nice Thai Lunch with Anne J. and a tour of her farm behind her house I returned back surfside to join my family.

This is the Summer Season Premiere of #CountUp. It’s the first of perhaps 47 blog posts in a row every Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday through the middle of September. It’s going to be a fun 2½-month run. Thank You for joining me here !

Tags Blog, Christian, Church, Family, God

Bible Christian Church Driving God Ministry Scripture Travel

Sunday Scripture

Who do you pray for ? Who do you pray for ? If all of your prayers today were answered by God tomorrow – then how many people other than yourself would experience life-changing miracles ? How about this: Would any of those people be complete strangers ?

But Chris – why would I pray for complete strangers ? I want God to answer the prayers for my loved ones – my family and my friends.

Yeah – same here. But God commanded us to love your neighbor as yourself, and everyone is your neighbor. If you see or hear another person – no matter where you are – then he or she is your neighbor. Your neighbor is everyone in the world.

Pray for your neighbors. If you know what their specific needs are – then ask God to fulfill them. Be intentional when you pray. If you don’t know what their specific needs are – then pray for them anyway. Be genuine when you pray.

And pray for your loved ones. I pray for my family – by name – in Texas. I have family near Dallas and near Wichita Falls. That’s 10 family members – from age 7 to 89 – living within 3 hours of each other in North Texas. I’m going on a road-trip this upcoming week to a neutral location where I’ll visit and spend 4 days / 5 nights with 5 family members. Pray for me – and 1,700 miles on the road (round-trip – between here and there).

I pray for my church family – my current church family – my former (and still) church family – my extended church family. I count each of you reading this blog on a regular basis as part of my extended church family. We are all God’s children.

I pray for each and every one of you. You know I don’t know your specific needs, but God surely does. Pray to Him about them. Expect miracles. Never be discouraged. God sends His miracles in His time – when we least expect them.

I don’t know your specific needs, but that will never stop me from praying to God for you. I will always pray for my brothers and sisters – my friends and coworkers – my neighbors and even strangers – as the Holy Spirit calls on me to do so. That’s the God at work within us.

And church family – pray for me too. Pray for my continued forward momentum on this fantastic journey that God created and customized uniquely for me.

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. And pray for me too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. (Ephesians 6:18-19 NLT)

Tags Blog, Christian, Church, God, Pray

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Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 14, 2020

This is My command: Love each other. (John 15:17 NLT)

“The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen – O Israel ! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 NLT)

Live a life filled with love – following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us – a pleasing aroma to God. (Ephesians 5:2 NLT)

Christ loved us so much that He took away the punishment that we so deserved by dying for us on the cross. That sacrifice alone obligates us to love everyone. It’s his top two commandments, but they are not independent of each other. They are really one integrated commandment: Love Him / Love others.

There was not much love in my family growing up, and even once I grew up and was on my own there was not much love in me. I didn’t know what love was. I thought I did, but I didn’t. My heart, soul, mind, and strength was warped by the world and blinded by the enemy. It wasn’t until salvation began 14 summers ago that I began to discover love. I learned what love is by turning away from the world – and turning towards our loving God. I finally realized that I am capable of truly loving others.

“If the world hates you – remember that it hated Me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. (John 15:18-19 NLT)

It’s so easy to say and do what our family, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, complete strangers, Internet, Radio, TV, and Movie stars, politicians, and other leaders are saying and doing. Believing and following and blending in with the world around us is simple. It’s automatic. You can do that without even trying.

But obeying Christ can be difficult at times. It can even seem impossible. Personally it’s harder than anything I’ve ever experienced before Christ. But with Christ all things are possible, and the results are surely worth it ! The results are based on a life and death decision. I choose to follow God Almighty – Lord of Glory – rather than the physical world. The world has let me down over and over again. God has never ever let me down. He never will.

There are people in our world – within eyesight – within hearing range – within our immediate circle – and in this world overall – that just don’t like us anymore – because we’ve publicly accepted our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into our lives. They just don’t want to have anything to do with us anymore. They don’t want to associate with the loonies – the nutcases – the radicals – the extremists – that we’ve been labeled as believers and followers of Christ. Those are just some of the milder labels that the world has given us in its hate. You and I and my closest brothers and sisters on this journey have been called all of these words (and much worse). We’ve been placed in a box or a basket – perhaps even a basket of deplorables. That’s fine. Christ loves us always and forever, and that’s all we need. All we need to do is to just keep on loving and praying for everyone in the whole wide world.

I urge you – first of all – to pray for all people. Ask God to help them, intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. (1 Timothy 2:1 NLT)

Pray for all people – not some people – not just the believers and followers – not just our family and friends – not just the people that look like us. Pray for all people, as all people are God’s children.

Tags Blog, Christian, Love

Bible Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date June 7, 2020

Happy Sunday June 07TH 2020. This is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us praise and worship and celebrate our risen LORD on this day !

Our Lead Pastor Bob preached a sermon with a great title, “God Is Still In The Miracle-Working Business”. He is the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is a never-changing almighty God. What miracle do you want God to do for you ? Have you asked Him for it yet ? He’s waiting for you to talk to Him about it, and listen and understand.

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. (Matthew 13:9 NLT)

I saw a tweet yesterday that I shared with my church family today. I’ve seen it in various forms recently. It said that we must hate our own sins more – than we hate the sins of others – who sin differently than we do.

Everyone is a sinner – each and every one of us. We all sin in different ways. The sin that we all commit the most – is the sin of hate. We don’t love everyone in the world. We don’t even love everyone in our own neighborhood. We think we do. We say we do. But we don’t. And we all know that. And we accuse others of hate – as we hate.

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all of the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NLT)