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)
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday May 31ST 2020:
# 1 This Week In: 2019 – “Born Again” – Austin French 2018 – “The Way (New Horizon)” – Pat Barrett 2017 – “Live Like You’re Loved” – Hawk Nelson
Welcome to June. It’s one of my favorite months of the year – mostly because it’s my birthday month. I turn 53 this Friday, and I’ll celebrate with a special edition of my Friday blog series RETRO.
This past week marked 13 years of this blog. It started on Myspace during the final week of May of 2007. After 6 months and 310+ blog posts I moved it here to WordPress. It was also on Facebook from 2013 to 2017. As I enter my 14TH year of blogging my commitment remains the same – to maintain a positive Bible-based and Christ-centered blog with a music theme – and new material posted 4 times per weekend on Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays. Occasionally I’ll post a 5TH entry during a week on a Tuesday.
This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.
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. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.
Be blessed my friends ! May the 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) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
On this 31ST and final day of May of 2020 my church family – the children of the lady – met corporately in our sanctuary for the first time in 77 days – since 11 Sundays ago.
Our Lead Pastor Bob welcomed us and addressed us, and then the Praise, Worship, and Celebration began – led by our Worship Pastor Ben and our sister Shirley. After the first song I greeted my church body with help from the start of the 122ND Psalm:
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” And now here we are …
We continued to sing to our LORD, and then Pastor Bob preached his timely sermon on “The Church Under Attack”.
Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. Yes – truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. The LORD looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So He Himself stepped in to save them with His strong arm, and His justice sustained him.(Isaiah 59:14-16 NLT)
That Scripture sounds a lot like Sunday May 31ST 2020.
Following service I went to my other family at the workplace. We became an instant church family this afternoon, as we mourned and then celebrated the life of our beloved coworker who suddenly lost his life early this past Saturday morning while driving himself to the local hospital. I preached to my brothers and sisters – my coworkers – on this afternoon – barely keeping it together with sweat and tears covering my face.
God has our brother now. He will take great care of him. And our brother will root us on from up above, as we continue to fix the base and clean it up.
MORRIS ‘THE CAT’ MAXWELL – 29 February 1956 – 30 May 2020
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
Well this is a blog post that I never thought I would have to write. News broke earlier this week that Jonathan Steingard of Hawk Nelson revealed in an Instagram post that he “no longer believes in God”. Naturally the mainstream media ran wild with this story in adoration for Jon. Nowadays it seems that they are for anything against God and His believers and followers. I don’t state that lightly or flippantly. I believe it to be true, as the media proves it to me with each new day.
As you may know I avoid controversial topics like the plague (pun intended) here on social media. I thought about completely avoiding this news item of the week, but I run a blog with a mission statement of “sharing God’s Good News through His music”. It’s my online ministry, so I thought about it, I prayed about it, and here’s what I’ve come up with.
Jon is currently going through a crisis that didn’t start earlier this week. It started awhile ago – several years ago. Only Jon and God know. Jon is not giving up on God. This is just a season for him. He’s leaving the door open for God. And God will wait for Jon to return to Him. Hopefully that happens before it’s too late. As long as Jon is still alive and breathing – it’s not too late. His bandmate brothers are praying for him, and I am praying for him. I know that many of you are praying for him too.
Jon is 36. He’s known God all of his life. I didn’t know who God was until I was 39. Salvation started for me 14 summers ago. Some thought it was a passing fad, and even I thought so as well for a season. I’m still on fire for Jesus Christ, and nowadays I don’t hide it from anyone. I want to be closer to God tomorrow than I am today.
As one who didn’t believe and follow God for the first 39 years of my life I can’t imagine what it’s like the other way around – believing and following God – and then not. I don’t know how that works. I don’t really want to know how that works.
Sadly the 20-year career of Hawk Nelson as a band is probably over – unless one of the other bandmates steps up to become the lead singer (like Jon did in 2012 when Jason Dunn left the band to go solo).
We may never hear Hawk Nelson on the radio again. K-LOVE abruptly stopped playing their music. Up until earlier this week they were playing them frequently day and night. I have 10 Hawk Nelson songs on my iTunes from 2004 to 2018, and 2 of them are currently in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles. There’s a few additional recent songs that I plan to purchase and download. I will not abandon their music. As one of my favorite bands since salvation started for me – they didn’t stop being one of my favorites just because the lead singer left God behind.
From Hawk Nelson’s recent single “He Still Does (Miracles)”:
♫ When you’re at the end of the road And it’s not the one that you would’ve chosen When you’re at the end of your road And you’re holding on, but feel like you’re fallin’
With every option exhausted You’ve tried everything you know You saw a light – then you lost it But there is still hope
Like the fire in the night Like the ocean parted wide Like the grave – empty inside You will see – He still does miracles ♫
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
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