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Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday February 25TH 2024, 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.

Well – it’s the final Sunday of my 39-year career with the USAF. Tomorrow (Monday) I return back to Homestead Florida for the final time as a Federal Government employee. I’ll be on-base on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to “out-process”. That’s a fancy military term for “depart”. I’ll be driving and walking around the airbase with a checklist of buildings and offices that I need to report to in order to get signed-off for clearance / departure from the base. Each office will essentially confirm that I don’t have any obligations with them or possess any Government equipment. My final stop is the office where I’ll turn-in my I.D. card. After that – I’ll drive off the base and into the sunset.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
(2 Timothy 4:7 NIV)

On Friday March 01ST I’ll awake the brand-new day as a 100% Retiree. No need to prepare for that life-changing event. I’ve been living the life of a semi-retiree for the past year (ever since I moved away from Homestead).

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture whether it’s part of a sermon, 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) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Retirement Road-Trip

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. During the first 3 weeks of April – I’ll be on a retirement road-trip – so-called because I’ll be enjoying the open road as a newly minted American retiree with lots of free time on my hands. It’s a road-trip that I’ve been imagining in my mind for many years now. It’s a road-trip that I’ve been practicing for the past 35 years.

I was originally going to embark on this road-trip not knowing what I would see, who I would see, and where I would go with each new day. But the more I thought about it – the more I worried that it would be a bit chaotic. I did not want chaos to be a part of this adventure, so recently I determined a departure date from home, an arrival date in North Texas (where family lives), a departure date from North Texas, and an approximate end date of my road-trip. I’ve also created pitstops along the way, so I know about how many hours and miles I plan to drive each day on the road, and which towns I plan to spend the night in.

Night 1 will be spent in Gadsden County Florida near Quincy – a western suburb of Tallahassee. Night 2 will be spent in Mobile Alabama. I’ll be leaving Quincy fairly early in the morning so that I can pull-in to Mobile later that same morning and maximize my time sightseeing around town. My first stop will likely be the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. I’ve driven by it so many times, and I’ve always wanted to check it out. I also hope to visit the historic (built in 1855) Bragg-Mitchell Mansion. Finally – time and weather-permitting – I hope to check out the Mobile Botanical Gardens. If I don’t make it to the Gardens on this day – then it’ll be on my list of places to visit the next time I’m in town. I really like the Mobile area. There’s so much history to see all around, and I have friends who live in the area who are part of my personal history in Homestead Florida.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write all about the Tampa Bay History Center. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 366

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 February 18TH 2024 – the 366TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 15 I Believe
[4TH week @ # 1]
Phil Wickham
2 2 11 Strong Anne Wilson
3 3 11 Lead On Good Shepherd Patrick Mayberry
4 7 3 These Days Jeremy Camp
5 6 8 Hallelujah Anyway Rend Collective
6 4 27 Hallelujah Feeling Caleb & John
7 5 18 I Thank God Housefires Ft. JWLKRS Worship
8 10 2 Don’t Stop Praying Matthew West
9 8 2 Never Tasha Layton
10 1 Honestly, We Just Need Jesus Terrian

# 1 This Week In:
2023 – “My Story Your Glory” – Matthew West
2022 – “Weary Traveler” – Jordan St. Cyr
2021 – “Every Step Of The Way” – Cade Thompson
2020 – “The God Who Stays” – Matthew West
2019 – “Maybe It’s OK” – We Are Messengers
2018 – “Gracefully Broken” – Matt Redman Ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard
2017 – “Love Broke Thru ” – TobyMac

HAPPY 7TH ANNIVERSARY – This week marks the 7TH anniversary of the resurrection of my personal music chart after a 7-year hiatus from 2010 to 2017. This 7-year era has now surpassed the initial 1985-1992 run of my chart – back then a mainstream Top 40 music chart. It’s been a glorious 7 years with 337 songs introduced to you as they enter, ascend, and descend my chart. I’m looking forward to continuing my promotion of positive and encouraging music on the radio and online. It’s how I fulfill my vision of “Sharing God’s Good News through His music.”

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime simply by heading over to 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.

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again with the new weekend – and 3 new entries – known as #TravelThursday, #SundayScripture, and #MusicMonday.

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 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) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church Driving Geography God Ministry Scripture Travel

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday February 18TH 2024, 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.

I enjoy looking back at my old blog posts – whether they are on Facebook (2013-2017), or right here on WordPress before and after those 4 years. It seems that I’m often on vacation during the Presidents’ Day Weekend here in the U.S.A. That’s when I discovered my new home here in the Heartland of Florida. I also bought my new home last year during this long holiday weekend.

On a previous Presidents’ Day Weekend – 16 years ago in 2008 – I wrote about a road-trip vacation over to Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast (Fort Myers, Estero, and Naples. That was actually where I thought I wanted to retire back then. In fact – here’s what I wrote back then:

“I think it’s official now. The Orlando area is not where I wish to live when I retire in about 15 to 20 years. I think you’ll find me living peacefully and happily ever after over in the Fort Myers / Estero / Naples area sometime in the future.”

(My mind changed about the area about 7 years later.)

Before I drove over there – I attended a Sunday morning church service up in Weston that was actually a church plant of my home church at the time. Here’s how I described that experience exactly 16 years ago:

“After a short intermission Pastor Nathan got up on stage and began his teaching. It was all about ‘The Power Of Light & Love’. All of the lights went out. Darkness. A flashlight came on. Light at the end of the tunnel. Let there be light. All of the lights came back on. There is no more darkness, for we have been saved. We are chasing daylight. The secrets and the sins that we committed in the dark are in our past. This is a new Life for us. A life of light. Ephesians 5:8 (NLT, 2ND Ed.) illustrates the contrast between our past problems and our present privileges: ‘For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light !’ Ephesians 5:13 identifies the need to bring light to darkness: ‘But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them.’”

“From start to finish it was about an hour and 45-minute service. Pastor Nathan’s message was powerful. He inspired and encouraged us to continue moving further away from the darkness and forward into the light.”

    That was a good message for this young Christian in his 2ND year of salvation in Christ.

    My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture whether it’s part of a sermon, 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) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp