Category: Scripture

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30 Years Of Cruisin’

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit the Western Caribbean via cruise ship. Exactly 30 years ago this morning – August 19TH 1991 – I awoke on a cruise ship at sea for the first time ever.

My Mom and Dad asked me if I wanted to go on a cruise with them and my little brother earlier in 1991, and (not knowing much about cruise ships at the time) – I said “YES !”.

They all flew down to Miami from the Washington D.C. area, and I drove up from 30 miles away. (I live in South Florida.) We embarked on the Norwegian Seaward – a fairly-new 3-year-old ship at the time. I believe there were 4 ports-of-call on the itinerary in the Bahamas, Grand Cayman Island, Ocho Rios Jamaica, and Cozumel Mexico (don’t remember the exact order). It was a 7-day cruise, and I pretty much fell in love with cruising during that week.

Ocho Rios stands out the most from that cruise. I remember doing a shore excursion with my family on a boat or a raft from the top of a hill, and we sailed slowly down a lazy river back to sea level as our host / guide sang to us. I always thought that it was Dunn’s River Falls, but you can only walk up and down those steeper falls – you can’t be on a boat or a raft on it. That trip down a river was likely part of a larger full-day coach tour of the island. Of course this was 30 years ago, so I don’t remember everything about it.

Ocho Rios also stands out in that I haven’t been back since on any other cruise or otherwise. I’ve been to the Bahamas, Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel Mexico many times since that first cruise. I’ve been to Cozumel more than any other cruise ship port (by far).

My first 3 cruises were on Norwegian Cruise Line from 1991 to 1995. I then went on my first of 14 Carnival cruises in 1999. I’ve also been on Royal Caribbean and Disney.

I wrote about my 10TH Anniversary Carnival Imagination cruise in September 2009. Read it here.

I’ve got my 15TH Carnival cruise booked, and it’ll be my 23RD cruise overall. I’ll be visiting the “ABC Islands” – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao.

I had two back-to-back poor cruising experiences on Norwegian in January 2013 and Carnival in May 2014. After those two cruises – I kind of decided that it would be the end of the cruising era of my life. They were my 19TH and 20TH cruises, and I thought that perhaps I’d “retire” after 20 and rediscover Florida and America rather than the Caribbean.

I actually lost my desire to cruise for a few years after that. But that didn’t last long. My brother and sister-in-law invited me to be a part of a short 4-day family cruise on Disney out of Miami, and I said “YES !”.

It was my first cruise in nearly 4 years, and my 21ST cruise overall. It was also a fantastic cruise that greatly exceeded my expectations for a Disney cruise. The food was outstanding, and the entertainment was a lot of fun. I also relived my youth (OK – 30s) out on the dancefloor on that cruise !

9 months later – I was on my 22ND cruise – back on Carnival. I booked it 2½ weeks after I returned home from that Disney cruise. Unlike my previous Carnival cruise nearly 5 years earlier this one was a fantastic one.

So now I have my 23RD cruise booked – also on Carnival. I actually booked it 11 months in advance about a month before COVID swept the world, and it was ultimately canceled, so I rebooked it. I’m so looking forward to visiting the “ABC Islands”. I’ve been to Aruba and Curaçao before (on a Carnival cruise in October 2012), but I’ve never been to Bonaire.

I still plan to continue to rediscover Florida and America in the years to come – particularly post-retirement, but I won’t rule-out cruising. I’d like to take another TransAtlantic cruise in the future. My cruise from Rome Italy to Miami Florida in 2007 (on Carnival) remains as the greatest of all of the cruises I’ve experienced.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Internet Ministry News Scripture Television

Sunday Scripture

There’s an abundance of disinformation, misinformation, and fake news available to us at every minute of every day. You can find it on most of the broadcast and cable TV networks. You can read it in the newspapers (if you still read those). You’re definitely exposed to it here on social media – especially on Facebook and Twitter. Many otherwise intelligent people have been duped and brainwashed by propaganda and conspiracy theories, and they have spread them unknowingly or intentionally online and offline.

This blog existed on Facebook for over 4½ years from 2013 to 2017. I moved it off of there and returned it to its original home on here at the start of 2018. I haven’t posted original material on Facebook since I did that. WordPress seems like an oasis from the clutter and noise of social media. Sure it’s one of the lesser-popular sites, and it’s one of the older sites (almost 16-years-old). But you found my blog, so it’s in a good place.

Any born again Christian who spends any amount of time watching mainstream TV news and talk shows or reading social media knows that we are portrayed as radical extremists. We are those crazy lunatic nutcases on the far-right who believe in a God that nobody has ever seen or heard. We are members of a cult who keep drinking the Kool-Aid. We are hypocrites and bigots who believe that we are better than everyone else.

Radical extremist ? OK I’ll take that one.
Crazy lunatic nutcase ? #Accurate
Far-right ? Hardly. My political views are all over the spectrum on both sides.
A God that nobody has ever seen or heard ? That’s fake news.
Member of a cult ? Not at all. I didn’t discover true freedom until salvation began.
Drinking the Kool-Aid ? No. That’s those who believe everything they see on TV.
Hypocrite ? Sure. All humans are hypocrites.
Bigot ? No. You know what a bigot does ? They accuse others of being bigots.
Better than everyone else ? No. I’m better than nobody.

Jesus replied – “I assure you – no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say – ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
(John 3:5-8 NLT)

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Blogging Driving Nature Photography Scripture Travel

Skyline Drive + Blue Ridge Parkway

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit 574 miles of scenic roadway up in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina.

Several years ago I planned (via Excel spreadsheet) a road-trip that encompassed both Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a very ambitious itinerary that – looking back upon it – is almost undoable. It had me flying-in to Washington Dulles International Airport and renting a car there. I’d get on the I-66 westbound, and I’d take that to Front Royal where I’d spend the night.

On the morning of Day 2 I’d begin my mountain adventure and embark on Skyline Drive – the 105½-mile slow and curvy road that runs near the top of the entire length of Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I’d visit Luray Caverns on this day. It’s 11 miles off Skyline Drive. I remember a long time ago – sometime in the mid-1970s – visiting this place as a little kid with my parents. I need to visit it again to enjoy it as an older adult. The area has grown-up a lot since then, and the caverns are surrounded by other museums and attractions.

I’d spend my 2ND night of this road-trip in Fishersville Virginia – located in-between the south-end of Skyline Drive and the north-end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Days 3, 4, and 5 were quite ambitious in that I would drive the entire length of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway from Virginia into North Carolina (with various attraction and hotel stops along the way). At the end of the 5TH day I’d end-up in Gatlinburg Tennessee on the other side of the Great Smoky Mountains. I suppose I would’ve spent several days and nights in Gatlinburg exploring the area. After that I would’ve turned-in my rental car, and flown back home to sea level in Miami.

So while I extensively planned that road-trip – I never took it. I’ve not lost interest in taking that trip, and I probably will take it in the next several years – early-on in the next chapter of my life – post-retirement. I think I’d eliminate the Gatlinburg Tennessee portion of the future trip, as that’s worthy of its own trip by itself. Me and my little brother visited Gatlinburg for several hours back in August of 1992 – a few weeks after a horrible fire consumed a portion of the downtown attractions district. I remember that it still reeked of smoke some 3 weeks after the fire. I’d really like to spend about 4 days and 3 nights in and around Gatlinburg enjoying all that the area has to offer. I’d really like to visit Gatlinburg with my family (who live in North Texas), but I don’t think that it’s a destination that my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces would find as much fun as me. They are not “mountain people”. They are “beach people”.

Now the Skyline Drive + Blue Ridge Parkway road-trip – that’s definitely a solo trip. Perhaps I’ll do it in reverse – from south to north – over the course of maybe 10 days instead of 5 – adding more stops for sightseeing, photography, attractions, and good mountain dining and lodging. Of course I’d drive my own car for the road-trip. It’s about 830 miles to drive from my current home in South Florida to the south-end of the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina. Once I hit Front Royal Virginia (at the north-end of the 574-mile parkway adventure) I’d take more traditional roads back southward, and the Andy Griffith Museum and the Billy Graham Library would be key stops along the way through the foothills of North Carolina.

I think it’s time to start redoing that itinerary (via Excel spreadsheet) so that it’s ready to implement in about 3 to 5 years. I’ll have over 2,500 miles to cover !

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Earlier this year I added “Singer” to my vast church résumé. It was another one of those situations within my 14½-year church experience where I was invited (asked) to do something by the Lead Pastor, and I said “YES !” without even thinking about it. So I joined our Praise & Worship team. (I affectionately refer to us as “the band”.)

Our Lead Pastor actually invited two of us to sing with him while our Praise & Worship Pastor was incapacitated. (He broke his leg skiing). Once he recovered enough to resume his duties a few months later he asked us to stay, so now it’s him and his wife, and the two of us recruited earlier this year to belt-out 3 or 4 contemporary worship songs. We’re a 4-piece band. I’m a back-up singer. I just try to blend-in with the others.

Aside from Karaoke on cruise ships, singing loudly and boldly at home, at work, and in my car, and singing a few times during some of my earlier sermons that I’ve preached – I have no real singing experience. I’m not that good of a singer. I barely have 1 octave. I’m actually a much better dancer than singer (if you can believe that). I have far more experience dancing than singing, but I left most of that behind almost 20 years ago in the trance and techno clubs. I’m 54 now. I can no longer dance like a 20-year-old in his mid-30s.

One of the songs that we’ve been singing often on Sunday mornings (almost every week) is “Way Maker”. Michael W. Smith scored his biggest radio hit since the late-1990s with his cover version of the song. (It peaked at # 3 on my own chart.)

“Way Maker” is a crowd favorite on Sunday mornings. From the stage I see the eyes of my brothers and sisters light-up, and I see smiles during the opening chords. I see and hear joy as we all sing together the words of “Way Maker” to our Way Maker.

Sometimes we need a reminder that when we sing – we don’t do so for our own entertainment. We’re not singing to each other. We’re singing to our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. He is our Way Maker. He is our Miracle Worker. He is our Promise Keeper. He is our Light in the darkness. He is our God. That is who He is.

I am the LORD – your Holy One – Israel’s Creator and King. I am the LORD – who opened a way through the waters – making a dry path through the sea. (Isaiah 43:15-16)

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries