Category: Church

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 7, 2023

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday May 07TH 2023, 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.

Last #SundayScripture I began transcribing my sermon on “Paul & Titus” that I preached to my church family on March 05TH 2023. Here’s Part 2:

[CONTINUATION OF SERMON]

So the Apostle Paul briefly writes about Titus in 2ND Corinthians, and Galatians, and 2ND Timothy. And then he writes an entire letter to Titus. Paul refers to Titus as “my true son in the faith that we share”. Paul advised Titus. Paul gave instructions to Titus. Paul selected Titus to be his church leader on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean. Titus was an effective disciple of Paul. Titus was much younger than Paul. Titus was probably at least 30 years younger than Paul. Titus lived another 30 to 40 years after Paul was martyred in Rome.

Shortly before Paul died he wrote his formal letter to Titus. Paul wrote:

I left you on the island of Crete so you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town as I instructed you. (Titus 1:5)

I’ve never been to Crete – or Greece. The closest I’ve been to Crete – or Greece – is Rome Italy – 15 years ago. Crete is in the southeastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s the Mediterranean’s version of a tropical island. Summers are hot and humid – in the 80s and 90s – sometimes close to 100 degrees – even above 110 degrees during record heatwaves. Winters are chilly and snowy up in the mountains and sometimes all the way down to sea level. Crete has mountains up above 8,000 feet above sea level. It’s a tropical island, but it’s at the same latitude as Tennessee and North Carolina, so it can easily snow there in the wintertime.

Many years before Christ – over two-million people lived on ancient Crete. Far less people live on the island of Crete today – over 600,000. A lot of people lived on Crete back during the First Century – during the time of the New Testament. Just as it is today – Crete was like a melting pot of many different cultures. It was an important island – strategic in location – for travel and trade. It’s convenient to Western Europe, and the Middle East, and North Africa. It’s at the crossroads of 3 continents. A lot of people visited Crete, and they liked what they saw, and they settled there. It had a sizable Jewish population.

Just as it was across the entire region – the church was new there in the First century. Since the island is spread out from east to west by about 160 miles – there were many towns scattered around, and most of the towns had a church or two or more. Paul instructed his young disciple Titus to appoint elders in each of those towns to run their respective church. Paul then described the type of elders that Titus should be appointing in order for the church to grow. He said:

An elder must live a blameless life. He must be faithful to his wife, and his children must be believers who don’t have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. A church leader is a manager of God’s household, so he must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered. He must not be a heavy drinker, violent, or dishonest with money. (Titus 1:6-7)

I like that part that says “a church leader is a manager of God’s household.” It was relevant in the 1ST Century. It is relevant in the 21ST Century. This here is God’s household. It’s God’s home. It’s our home too. We must take care of it.

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

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.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

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Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 30, 2023

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 30TH 2023, 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.

This morning I’ll be with my new church family here in Sebring Florida – weather-permitting. We could have some severe weather moving through the region this morning, so I’ll monitor that. (My new church is a little over 4 miles away by road.) In the event of severe weather – I can watch the livestream online as it happens. But I’d rather experience service in-person. (That’s the Pastor in me.)

So it’s been about 2½ months since I wrapped-up my last sermon here on #SundayScripture. That was the one that was based on the Matthew West song – “The God Who Stays”. I’d like to write another sermon based on another contemporary worship song. I just don’t know what that song is yet.

Starting with this edition and continuing through the month of May and into June – I’ll be presenting my March 05TH 2023 sermon on “Paul & Titus” – in its original written form. I hope that it inspires you and encourages you.

[BEGIN SERMON]

You know if I asked you to – quickly – list 10 names out of the Bible – I’m thinking maybe you would mention Adam and Eve, Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul, James, and Peter. I think those are the 10 most prominent names out of the Bible – 3 from the Old Testament and 7 from the New Testament.

Today – I want to share with you the story of one of the lesser-known names of the Bible – Titus. Who ? Titus ? Who’s Titus ? You know there’s an entire book of the New Testament on Titus, and it was written by – not Titus – but Paul (as in The Apostle Paul). It’s 1 of 13 letters or epistles that Paul wrote that make-up about half of the New Testament.

They are known as Pauline epistles. They are formal letters sent by the Apostle Paul to a person or a group of people – to inspire them – to encourage them – to set them in the right direction. Paul sent his letters to friends who were church leaders, and he also sent letters to the church in general. You know these Pauline epistles as his letters to the Romans, and the Corinthians, and the Galatians, and the Ephesians, and the Philippians, and the Colossians, and the Thessalonians, and his friend Timothy, and his friend Titus, and his friend Philemon. I’ve preached a lot from the Pauline epistles, as they are my favorite part of the Bible.

That’s a lost art from the past – writing letters to someone to inspire them – to encourage them – to make them happy. That was popular back before smart phones, and social media, and the internet, and computers. We would grab a pen and a piece of paper, and write a letter to someone to show that person that we’re thinking of him or her. Some of us even had manual typewriters at home, and we would type a letter. And then we would place that letter in an envelope, and write (or type) the address on it, and then place a stamp on it, and then drop it in the mailbox. Yep. That’s what we did – way back in the ‘60s and ‘70s and ‘80s. Even into the early-‘90s.

When I was serving in the desert of Saudi Arabia – during Desert Storm – 32 years ago – each of us received a random handwritten letter sent to “Any Serviceman / Servicewoman” – usually written by a student in school. They were words of encouragement from one stranger to another – from stateside to warside. They were awesome to read. They made us feel happy – thousands of miles away from home.

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

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.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

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Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 23, 2023

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 23RD 2023, 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’ll be back with my church family in Homestead Florida this morning. I’ll be driving in from my new home 3½ hours away. You know I don’t really get excited about returning to Homestead anymore now that I’ve established a new homestead in Sebring Florida, but I do look forward to celebrating my Lord + Savior Jesus Christ with my church family in Homestead.

Last Sunday morning I was with my new church family here in Sebring where Pastor Ben preached on “Living As A Sacrifice” from Romans 12.

Back in Homestead – Pastor Bob preached 2 sermons – including 1 specifically for Facebook. On this edition of #SundayScripture I’m featuring my Pastor and his Facebook sermon.

(I tried to embed the Facebook Watch video here in this space, but I couldn’t get it to work, so here’s the link to it. It’s about 27 minutes. It’s pretty good. I hope that you’ll watch it from start to finish.)

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.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

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Home Sweet Sebring

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 20, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I’m waking-up in my new home in my new neighborhood in northwestern Highlands County Florida for the 6TH morning in a row. It’s the longest streak yet, and I’ll be waking-up here for 3 additional mornings before I head back down U.S. 27 and Krome Avenue to Homestead for a quick turnaround.

Now if you’ve been reading or watching the news lately then you may know about the gas crisis in nearly all of South Florida (from The Treasure Coast southward through The Florida Keys). There are long lines at gas stations that are actually open, and no activity at all at gas stations that are closed because they have no gas remaining. It’s all because of a freak 24-hour rain event in Fort Lauderdale last week where they received over 2 feet of rain – flooding much of the region – including the port where the gas comes in. Here in my new part of Florida there is no such crisis. No lines. No shortages. No closings.

I’m scheduled to return to Homestead this Sunday morning. I’ll celebrate Christ with my home church family, and then I’ll spend 4 nights in my longtime home before I return back north to Sebring. But I may reconsider that schedule if the gas crisis continues.

I can easily fill-up my car with gas here in this area, drive down there, and then return back here on that same tank of gas. I get up to 50 MPG on the open road with my Honda Civic, but why venture into chaos and rage ?

If I take that trip – my next trip back here to Sebring will be even longer than this one – 12 nights in a row. Going forth I’ll be spending about 70% of the rest of the year here in Sebring, and 30% in Homestead. (I have an Excel spreadsheet that tracks all of this.)

Yesterday morning I spent about 2½ hours with my new friends at the Sebring Historical Society (#SHS). We enjoyed coffee, pastries, conversation, and we had an informal meeting. This afternoon I’ll spend about 3½ hours with them as we enjoy our monthly spaghetti dinner (my first one). This Saturday afternoon we have our quarterly pot-luck luncheon and board meeting. I’ll be serving with the #SHS a lot going forth. I’ve been dreaming about this opportunity for a couple of years now, and I’ve been blogging about it since a couple of years ago. My retirement dreams are coming together !

It’s 4/20, and I’m not making this up. We have a big nearly mile-long manmade lake in my new neighborhood. Nearly all of the condos encircle the 10½-acre lake. Its name – Lake Mary Jane.