Categories
2000s Blogging Christian Church God Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 2008

Hello again retro music fans. Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 20, 25, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 1ST Friday of the month, so I go back 15 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday February 03RD 2008:

  1. “Friend Like That” – Hawk Nelson
  2. “Out Of Control” – Capital Lights
  3. “Shake It Off” – Dizmas
  4. “Ra-Random” – Transistor Radio
  5. “Never Going Back To OK” – The Afters

That was a fun chart 15 years ago. Energetic Christian Pop-Rock all the way. It was a good time of faith, family, fellowship, and fun a year-and-a-half into my fantastic journey with God.

Hawk Nelson ascended to the top of my chart for what would be the first of 10 weeks in a row at # 1. It held on the entire year (2008) to be my # 1 smash overall.

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 20 years ago to February 2003. It’s when DJ Ray Roc joined forces with Tina Arena to score my biggest smash of 2003.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Driving Geography Nature Photography Travel

My Carnival Celebration Vacation 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about the food, service, entertainment, and Cruise Director(s) aboard the Carnival Celebration from Sunday January 08TH 2023 to Sunday January 15TH 2023. If you missed it (or any other previous editions of my cruise review) then simply scroll down on this page to read past blog posts.

This week we jump to Day 3 of my 7-day cruise – and the first port-of-call in the Dominican Republic.

But First: Occurring simultaneously I’m also uploading and captioning photos of my cruise onto my Flickr site. Go to my Flickr Photostream to check them out. (The most recent photos are at the top.)

Going into this cruise I figured that I would really enjoy my day touring San Juan Puerto Rico (Day 4), and that I would really enjoy my fun day on a nearly empty ship while docked in port at Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas U.S.V.I. (Day 5). I didn’t really have high expectations of my day in the Dominican Republic (Day 3). But that’s why one shouldn’t “overthink” a cruise beforehand. I tend to do that sometimes. I figured that it would be my least favorite port-of-call of the 3 – for no particular reason other than the fact that it was the only non-U.S. port, and a first-time visit for me.

Fun Fact: This was my 2ND-ever visit to the Dominican Republic. My 1ST visit was a little over 10 years ago as part of an 8-day cruise on the Carnival Valor. That was at La Romana on the southeast coast. This 2ND visit was at Amber Cove on the north-central coast.

This port far-exceeded all expectations that I had for it. I pre-purchased a 3½-hour shore excursion (through Carnival) titled “Mountain Views & City Sights”. Sounds kind of vague – doesn’t it ? As it turns out – that was an appropriate title for the tour – that turned out to be nearly 5 hours.

Here’s how Carnival describes this tour on their web site:

“Take a scenic countryside drive in a safari truck through San Marcos Village and up to Puerto Plata’s highest mountain – Isabel De Torres. Follow the guide on a visit to the botanical gardens and see the famous Statue of Christ. Take in the amazing views of the surrounding area before heading back down the mountain. Explore the historical center of Puerta Plata including Plaza Independencia and enjoy a photo stop at the San Felipe Fortress before heading back to the pier.” (carnival.com)

That’s an excellent snapshot of my day. Our tour guide on the open-air safari truck was fantastic. He narrated nearly the entire time telling us all about this beautiful region (north-central coast) of his country. He clearly loves his job and his country. He was our tour guide on the various stops along the way as well, and he pretty much stayed with us the entire time from start to finish. There was no “handing-off” to another tour guide, or a “go check everything out and meet me back here in 45 minutes”. He led us everywhere. He told us about everything. He was one of the best tour guides I’ve encountered on any recent shore excursion. He was knowledgeable, friendly, and had a fun sense of humor. His catch phrase was “Hola ! Coca Cola !”. (It never got old. I smiled every time he said that.)

That tour – because of that tour guide – was one of the top highlights of my 7-day cruise.

4 days ago on #SundayScripture I posted a photo of El Cristo Redentor (Christ The Redeemer) – a statue that overlooks Puerto Plata – the country’s 3RD-largest city – from nearly 800 meters / 2,600 feet above sea level on Loma Isabel De Torres. Here’s what Christ is looking at – the beautiful city below:

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC OFFICIAL TOURISM WEBSITE

Next #TravelThursday we’ll head over to Old San Juan Puerto Rico to check-out some fortresses. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 311

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 nearly 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday January 29TH 2023 – the 311TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 15 Who I Am
[8TH week @ # 1]		 Ben Fuller
2 2 7 First Things First Consumed By Fire
3 3 18 Love Me Like I Am for King & Country Ft. Jordin Sparks
4 5 7 My Story Your Glory Matthew West
5 6 9 I See Grace Micah Tyler
6 4 24 New Creation Mac Powell
7 8 2 The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours) Matt Maher
8 7 4 Gratitude Brandon Lake
9 9 5 For The Love Of God Andrew Ripp
10 10 2 God Really Loves Us Crowder

# 1 This Week In:
2022 – “Weary Traveler” – Jordan St. Cyr
2021 – “Every Step Of The Way” – Cade Thompson
2020 – “Rescue Story” – Zach Williams
2019 – “Nobody Loves Me Like You” – Chris Tomlin
2018 – “Gracefully Broken” – Matt Redman Ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard

TOBYMAC – Wait. TobyMac is not on my chart this week. And neither are Crowder, Cochren & Co., Tasha Layton, Jon Reddick, nor Terrian. But I’m going to see all of them LIVE in concert later this week. It’ll be my 5TH TobyMac concert, 2ND Crowder concert, 2ND Cochren & Co. concert, 1ST Tasha Layton concert, 1ST Jon Reddick concert, and 2ND Terrian concert. I’m looking forward to what will likely be an energetic 3½-hour show, and I know that I’ll be singing and dancing along to the music for Christ. Seeing Toby and his friends LIVE in concert seems like an “every other February” tradition for me. That’s because it is – in 2017, 2019, 2021, and now 2023. It was the February 2017 show that inspired the immediate restart of this weekly hit music chart.

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again with the new weekend – and 4 new entries – known as #TravelThursday, #RetroFriday, #SundayScripture, and #Top10Monday.

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 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) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday January 29TH 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 upcoming #TravelThursday I’ll be blogging about my fun day along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. I took a nearly 5-hour shore excursion (land tour) of the region surrounding Puerto Plata – the country’s 3RD-largest city. Overlooking Puerto Plata from nearly 800 meters / 2,600 feet above sea level esta Loma Isabel de Torres. And atop the mountain esta El Cristo Redentor (Christ The Redeemer). It was installed in 1970. What a beautiful sight it is !

I now continue presenting my New Year’s Day sermon in its original written form. It’s based on the Matthew West song of late-2019 / early-2020 – “The God Who Stays”. Here’s Part 3:

Oh – but somehow You don’t see me like I do
Somehow You’re still here
You’re the God who stays
You’re the God who stays
You’re the One who runs in my direction
When the whole world walks away

You’re the God who stands
With wide open arms
And You tell me nothing I have ever done
Can separate my heart
From the God who stays

That’s my God. That’s your God. That’s our God. He doesn’t see us like we see us. We are not God. He is God. He is the Father. He is the Son. He is the Holy Spirit. He is here. He is not going anywhere. He is the God who stays. The Holy Spirit is within each and every one of us who believes, and follows, and trusts, and loves our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ.

I used to hide
Every time I thought I let You down
I always thought I had to earn my way
But I’m learning – You don’t work that way

You know we can’t hide from our God. He sees it all. He hears it all. He knows what we are thinking. If you do something that’s not Godly, and you instantly realize what you’ve done, and you regret it, and you feel bad about it, and you’re sincerely sorry for it – then let me tell you something about that. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit convicting you, and that’s a gift from our God.

Here’s a prayer that you can say. (I pulled this from the Internet a few nights ago.):

Help me Lord to see conviction as a gift – a gift of grace and mercy. Please continue to stir in my heart the places that I’ve fallen complacent, and lead me as I turn from them. Help me to live out the Truth from Galatians 5:25 – that if I say I live by the Spirit – then let me stay in step with the Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

That’s a good prayer right there. Let me know after the service if you want me to text that prayer to you, and I’ll do that. Today is a great day to start a new prayer regimen. Find time every day in this new year to pray to our God. He wants to hear from you more often in 2023 than in 2022.

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) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp