Category: Bible

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 15, 2020

On this Sunday in March in Homestead Florida several churches in town announced cancellations of some or all of their regularly-scheduled services, but as our Lead Pastor stated today – “We’re a family”. Our weekly celebration together must continue on.

And so we did with 4 songs of Praise & Worship to Christ. In-between the 1ST and 2ND songs I greeted our church family, and I proclaimed these 3 verses from the 91ST Psalm (Verses 9 to 11):

If you make the LORD your refuge – if you make the Most High your shelter – no evil will conquer you – no plague will come near your home. For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go.

Our Lead Pastor preached a very relevant and timely sermon titled, “The Horses Are Coming … What Are We Going To Do ?”

It was based on Revelation 6 – Verses 1 to 8. He told us about the Four Horsemen – and the significance of the white horse, the red horse, the black horse, and the pale green horse. They represent war, violence, economic imbalance, and death.

Revelation-6-1-8

It kind of sounds like the times that we’re in today. We’re in a very uncertain era.

The end is near, but have no fear, for our Lord will be here.

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Weekends Begin On Thursdays

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 12, 2020

Greetings my friends. It’s Thursday March 12TH 2020, and it’s the start of a fresh new weekend of blogging here at #CountUp.

This blog is currently experiencing great growth worldwide, so it’s time again to explain what I do here and when I do it. I blog on Thursday and Friday mornings, Sunday afternoons, and Monday mornings. My blog posts go LIVE at 3 AM U.S. East Coast Time on Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays, and by 3 PM on Sundays – following my time spent with church family. I don’t blog on Saturdays at all. That’s my day of rest with Christ and His Word. I generally do Bible Study and Sermon Writing on Saturdays. I occasionally blog on select Tuesdays during the year – generally when Monday is a U.S. Federal holiday.

My Thursday blogs can be about anything that comes to my mind at the time. They are my most spontaneous blog posts of the weekend. My Friday blogs go RETRO, as I look back at my life and the music that shaped it. My Sunday blogs reveal the God I know – the 3-in-1 God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. My Monday blogs highlight God’s music on the radio – my Top 10 hits of the week. It’s the continuation of a weekly music chart hobby that goes back 45 years.

This blog is currently nearing the end of its 13TH year online. It started on Myspace in May 2007, and then it moved over to WordPress (right here) in November 2007. It began fading away during the early 2010s, and that’s because I was tweeting on Twitter way too much before most of my friends even knew what a tweet was. All of my friends kept urging me to join them over on Facebook, and I finally (and hesitantly) did so on Easter Sunday of 2013. My blog was eventually resurrected on Facebook, but not too many of my friends were actually reading it. I ended my blog on Facebook on the final day of 2017, and just a couple of weeks later I brought it back here to its original home.

This is a political-free blog. I’ll never discuss politics on here. I don’t discuss anything that may be controversial on here. (I’m the same way in public.) This blog is essentially about my life of almost 53 years – then and now – 39 years before Christ and 14 years in Christ. I know that it’s not for everyone, but if you like what you see then I thank you for coming, and reading, and liking, and coming back again. As long as you keep coming back – I’ll keep blogging more.

I try to keep my blog posts short. Most of them can be read in 3 minutes or less. Your time online and offline is valuable. I thank you for spending a few minutes with me.

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Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 8, 2020

I have returned from out-of-town. My 628.8-mile road-trip came to a close yesterday (Saturday) morning. I’ll share details of my combined business and leisure trip today, tomorrow, and Thursday here on my blog. This is the Spring Season Premiere here on #CountUp !

Today was my 5TH Anniversary with my current church body. After 8 years and a month with my previous (much larger) church body I left for a much smaller church body a mile down the street – knowing only one person at the new place. I began a season of much-needed rest at the new place. 17 months later I was asked to take over and lead our monthly Communion. Today I led our 45TH Communion together. Here’s how it went:

Let us now transition into our monthly observance and celebration of Communion. It’s an observance. It’s an opportunity – that allows us to slow down, and reflect, and honor, and remember what our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ did for us on that cross on that day. It’s a continuation of this celebration that we enjoy together as a church body every Sunday morning when we bring the church from out there to in here. For we know that the church is not this physical building. The church is us.

This past week I spent 4 days – Monday to Thursday – up in Orlando – celebrating Christ – with 5,000+ Pastors, Preachers, Ministers, and other Church Leaders. We were in Communion with one another. We were a Community of fellow believers in one place at one time discussing the many ways forward to go forth and advance the Kingdom of God in this world. We met together. We prayed together. We sang together. We learned together. We listened together. We got closer to God together. And then – we were sent out into the world together.

The overall theme of this conference was the entirety of the Gospel According To John – Chapter 17. In Christ’s final prayer to the Father – before His suffering and death – He said this in Verses 20 and 21:

I am praying – not only for these disciples – but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message. I pray that they will all be one – just as You and I are One – as You are in Me – Father – and I am in You. And may they be in Us – so that the world will believe You sent Me.

See the Son – was – and is – praying for all of those of the world who do not yet believe in Him. He wanted believers from anywhere and everywhere to become one flock with one shepherd.

2,000 years later we believe that when we are one with one another – it’s an extension of the union that we have with Christ Himself. It’s a union that’s modeled on the Oneness of the Father and the Son. And through the power of the Holy Spirit we are intimate with the Father and the Son. We are transformed by this renewing.

This is our believer’s Communion. We believe that we have one living and true God – in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 3 Persons – 1 God. Each is God individually; yet, they are one God together. One God who is almighty. One God who never changes with the times. One God who is eternal.

And so this believer’s Communion is open for everyone who hears me – everyone who believes that we are better – together. We must be in unity – as a community, so that when we go out there – the world will see the love of Christ in each of us.

(I’ve asked Larry and Shirley to serve us these elements today, so as they make their way up here to retrieve the elements) I invite you to join me in honoring our 3-in-1 God – who reigns – now and forever.

At this time come forth to accept this bread and this juice. Take them back to your seat – and remain standing (if you can). After everyone is back at their seats – we’ll accept these elements together as a church body. Come forth.

Communion

Let us take this bread, and know that it represents the sacred body of Christ that was given up for us on that cross. We take this bread in remembrance of Him.

Let us take this juice, and know that it represents the precious blood of Christ that was shed for us on that cross. We take this juice in honor of Him.

Let us bow our heads. Let us pray:

Thank You God for this Glorious moment – in this place – at this time. Thank You Lord for being the loving God that You are – Creator, Christ, and Spirit as One.

Thank You Lord for Your awesome presence in our lives – and Your intentional purpose for our lives. May all of Your blessings and miracles constantly strengthen our faith in You, increase our love towards others, and unify our hearts and our souls. We honor You Lord. We praise You Lord. We worship You Lord. We celebrate You Lord. We love You Lord – on this day – and with each new day. And we confirm this by saying – AMEN.

(Please be seated.)

As the Bible says in red letters – Son to Father:

I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are One. I am in them, and You are in Me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that You sent Me, and that You love them as much as You love Me.
(John 17:22-23)

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Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date February 23, 2020

5 weeks ago I announced here on Sunday Scripture that I had recently completed writing a future sermon titled “Church & State”, and that I had begun writing my next sermon titled “Malachi & Messages”. That’s still a tentative title, but as I wrap-up the writing of it I think (so far) it makes sense to leave that as the title. I’m into Page 8 of “Malachi & Messages”, so I’m essentially at the 30-minute mark of what will likely be a 40-minute sermon. (I don’t use some fancy sermon-writing software. I simply use Microsoft Word, and each page generally represents 4 minutes of preaching.)

“Malachi & Messages” covers Malachi’s first 2 of 6 messages on God’s love for Israel (1:2-5) and the calling-out of corrupt priests and their worthless sacrifices (1:6-2:9). Once I complete this one I’ll immediately begin working on my follow-up sermon of Malachi’s 3RD message on faithfulness.

This could end-up being a 4-part message series later this year. There’s a lot of great material within those 6 messages, 4 chapters, and 55 verses.

Here’s an excerpt from “Malachi & Messages”:

… You know that out of the 55 verses in the Book of Malachi – that 47 of them are spoken by God ? 47 out of 55 verses. Over 85% of Malachi – is our God speaking. You wanna learn more about our God and gain wisdom from Him ? Read Malachi, but don’t read the book in 6 minutes. Read it slowly. Read it – one verse at a time.

Chapter 1 Verse 1 sets the tone for the next 54 verses, and it’s 1 of the 8 verses in which God is not speaking:

This is the message that the LORD gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi. (1:1)

So it’s the prophet Malachi – giving a message – to the homeland. It’s the LORD speaking through Malachi, and it’s actually a series of messages – a series of 6 messages on topics such as God’s love for Israel, faithfulness, repentance, and the impending Judgment Day.

Oh ! – and Malachi – means “My messenger” in Hebrew. Malachi was God’s Messenger – just as you and I – we – are God’s Messengers.

What does a messenger do – according the Bible ? A messenger – carries and sends and spreads a message. A messenger evangelizes. What do you do when you evangelize ? You spread and preach the Gospel. What’s “preach” ? How about “proclaim” and “teach” – “preach”. I am going to teach you what I believe to be true, and I will proclaim it to be the Truth. What’s the Gospel ? The Gospel is the Good News of God. So a messenger – you and I – we – preach God’s Good News – His Message – to the masses. We are God’s messengers. He chose us to do that.

Malachi was God’s messenger. He was a writer, and he wrote letters, and messages, and sermons to the people. He was a Proclaimer. He was a Teacher. He was a Preacher …

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