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Sunday Scripture

WELCOME to the “Winter Season Premiere” of my blog. Today – December 01ST 2019 – is the 12TH anniversary of this blog here on WordPress. It officially began on this date in 2007, but it was actually a continuation of my blog that started on Myspace a little more than 6 months earlier.

I’ve been on hiatus since my last post was published almost 2 weeks ago, but now I’m back. I got to spend quality time with immediate family over in North Texas, and we celebrated our annual tradition known as #ThanksChristmasGiving – 8 fun-filled days and nights of Thanksgiving and Christmas combined leading-up to the traditional Thanksgiving Day Dinner.

Over the next 3½ weeks I’ll celebrate Christmas here in South Florida with church family and work family. I’ll also be here online resuming blog posts every Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday – starting today – with a special end-of-year post on New Year’s Eve.

Today I preached my sermon on the prophet Habakkuk to my church family.

Here’s how I started today’s sermon – before preaching on Habakkuk:

Well Good Morning (again) Church Family !  It is so great to be here – in the house of the Lord. You know this is a nice sanctuary that we have here – with this nice pulpit – on this nice big stage – and we have nice new chairs on our nice new carpet. We have an A.C. that works great. We have a roof that doesn’t leak.

This is the Lord’s house – but only because – we are here right now, and the Lord is with us. You know our bodies are the Lord’s house. That means that everywhere we go – is the Lord’s house. God’s presence – is there – right where we are. God lives within us – in our hearts. The Bible says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit – who lives in you – and was given to you by God. You do not belong to yourself. (1 Corinthians 6:19)

I like Psalm 27 & 4:

The one thing I ask of the LORD – the thing I seek most – is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life – delighting in the LORD’s perfections and meditating in His Temple.

That’s why we praise and worship Him. That’s why we have faith in Him.

Here’s how I closed today’s sermon:

As today’s prophets – with the temple of the Holy Spirit living within us – we must continue to go forth – together – as a church body – towards His bright light. We must remember what He has done for us in the past. We must accept what He is doing for us right now. We must trust what He will do for us in the future. We must believe in Him, for He is the only way. And we must invite our loved ones to join us for this journey. We want our loved ones to know the God that we know. That’s how we bring the church in everything we do – and in everywhere we go.

(And that Conclusion was actually a hidden “sneak-preview” of my next sermon to preach.)

All rights reserved (c) 2019 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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1980s Blogging Holidays Home Music Radio Television Travel Weather

Weekend Kickoff Mini-Thoughts

Let’s try this again – a rapid-fire session of thoughts on my mind right this minute:

  • It’s been awhile since I last did this.
  • In fact it’s been 5 weeks.
  • I enjoy writing these spontaneous off-the-top-of-my-head “Mini-Thoughts”.
  • Let’s get started, as I look at my wall calendar.
  • Can you believe that November is nearly half-over ?
  • Thanksgiving Day (here in the U.S.A.) is 2 weeks from today !
  • This will be my final Thursday blog post of November.
  • I’m going offline again next week, so no new blog posts.
  • I’m going on a 12-day hiatus from blogging and social media.
  • After this weekend’s full slate of posts I won’t post again until December.
  • That’s December 01ST when I return with “Sunday Scripture”.
  • This has been a big year for attending shows and concerts.
  • My 9TH concert of 2019 was this past Sunday night.
  • I enjoyed Casting Crowns, Hillsong Worship, and Elevation Worship.
  • I wrote a nice review of it this past Monday here on the blog.
  • My 10TH concert is coming up on December 22ND.
  • I’m seeing comedian Jim Gaffigan LIVE in concert in West Palm Beach.
  • 10 shows and concerts in a single year makes it one of my biggest years ever.
  • 33 years ago tonight I was at the Oxford (England) Apollo at a concert.
  • I saw Ultravox back when they were big in England.
  • I still have my original tee-shirt that I bought at the concert !

IMG_4197

  • That tee-shirt doesn’t fit me anymore.
  • I weigh over 40 pounds more now than I did back then when I was 19.
  • Ultravox scored with a minor Top 40 hit at the time – “Same Old Story”.
  • I always thought that the song underperformed.
  • It didn’t get much airplay on national radio, and that stunted its growth.
  • I think it’s one of the greatest songs of my life.
  • I still love it 33 years later.
  • Its style of music wasn’t particularly popular in the U.K. in 1986.
  • Check out lead singer Midge Ure practically inventing the “selfie stick”:

  • I don’t think I’ve ever featured a music video as a “Mini-Thought” before.
  • That was Midge Ure at 33 – half his age than he is now.
  • I had a wonderful 2-year stay in the U.K.
  • This weekend marks 32 years since I left and moved back home stateside.
  • I haven’t been back since, but sometime I’ll make it back.
  • Well the Arctic Blast has avoided South Florida so far.
  • Our lowest temperature recorded so far is a mere 67°F.
  • But much cooler air should invade us this weekend.
  • We could actually drop into the upper-50s by Sunday morning !
  • The natives will be breaking out their flannels, coats, and hats.
  • We may not reach 80°F all weekend !
  • Incidentally I live in Homestead Florida.
  • This is the home of the NASCAR Championship !
  • The Homestead-Miami Speedway is just 3 miles from my home.
  • I’ll actually be able to hear the echo of the cars racing this weekend.
  • You can watch all of the action LIVE on NBC-TV this Sunday at 2 PM.
  • Well that’s gonna do it for this edition of my “Mini-Thoughts”.
  • I’ll be back again tomorrow for my regular Friday feature. #RETRO

All rights reserved (c) 2019 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Blogging

250,000 Hits

Well it took a little over 12 years to do so, but I’ve finally done it – or I will do it later today or possibly tomorrow. What did I do ?  Well it’s not really what I did, but it’s what you helped to do, and that is – record a quarter of a million hits to this blog !

250,000

The first 200,000 hits were easy. I did that within the first 2 years of this blog – back when it was far more popular than it is today (especially with busy web robots). It’s since taken over 10 years to get the next 50,000 hits. So I went from averaging 100,000 hits per year to a mere 5,000 hits per year.

That’s one big difference. Another difference is the fact that I’m having more fun with this current era of my blog than I ever did previously on both WordPress and Facebook. Thank You my friends for continuing to support this blog by checking it out and reading it. It’s my pleasure to share this blog with you each week.

I’ve got some fresh new ideas for 2020, so you’ll see those soon. I plan to continue posting 4 blogs per weekend indefinitely, but this weekend (and other select weekends) I’m adding an extra one on Tuesday !

Your time is precious on the web, and my blog posts are designed to be read in about 3 minutes or less. I don’t like reading long blog posts, and I think that most of you feel the same as I do.

Tomorrow on the blog it’s my normal Friday feature, as I go RETRO back to November 07TH 2004. New posts go online at 3 AM EST (U.S. East Coast Time) on Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays. My “Sunday Scripture” posts go online at around 3 PM EST (after I return home from my church family).

All rights reserved (c) 2019 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Food Health Music

Weekends Begin On Thursdays …

… and they end on Mondays. Every weekend is a 4-day weekend here at #CountUp – at least when it comes to my blogging. I blog on Thursdays and Fridays. New posts are published at 3 AM EDT (U.S. East Coast Time). On Saturdays I generally go offline, and I stay off social media (for the most part). I may post a tweet or two of Scripture that leads-in to my Sunday.

On Sundays I blog post church service, so usually at or around 3 PM EDT. Finally on Mondays (back at 3 AM) I publish my brand new weekly hit music chart. It’s the continuation of a hobby of mine for the past 40+ years. (Casey Kasem was my idol as a preteen during the late-1970s. I wanted to be just like him when I grew up.)

So this is my Thursday blog that’s unlike my Friday, Sunday, and Monday blogs. My Friday and Monday blogs are music-based. My Sunday blog is Bible-based. My Thursday blog can be about anything that I can think of at the time.

So the big thing this week is something that I’ve been thinking about doing for the better part of the past 6 months. I finally did it this past Tuesday night. I began a weekly subscription with Freshly. Maybe you’ve heard of it ?  Maybe you know how it works ?  It’s basically a service that ships to your front door (via FedEx or a similar company) a certain number of chilled microwavable meals on the same day every week for a set price. I’ve set up my account to receive 6 meals per week every Friday. The meals are cooked by real chefs with high-quality ingredients. I’m not going to say much more about it in advance (prior to receiving and eating a single meal), but I’ve watched a few videos online, and they were mostly favorable towards the service. It’s got its pros and cons. I’ll give it a chance. I can cancel at anytime if I decide that it’s not worth it.

Basically at age 52 I need to take much better care of myself. That starts with eating better. I eat (for the most part) terribly. I don’t cook, so I either eat out (way too much food at one time), or I eat in (prepackaged frozen foods). The Freshly meal service is designed to be refrigerated, microwaved, and then eaten within 4-6 days. Hello Lunch and Dinner !

I’ll have to get used to eating smaller portions than I’m used to, and that’s another goal of mine. I’m actually overweight. My ideal weight (for my height) is right around 165. I’d love to weigh 165. I’d love to be back in the 170s. I’m about 20 pounds overweight. I’m thinking that these Freshly meals will help me lose weight. Oh yeah – that – and far more exercise.

My main form of exercise is walking. How’s that working out for me ?  I’ll let you know on a future Thursday blog.

All rights reserved (c) 2019 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries