Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 217

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 40+ years. Here’s this week’s chart:

COUNTUP MINISTRIES FOR THE WEEK ENDING SUNDAY APRIL 11TH 2021 WEEK 217
TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 2 8 Good God Almighty
[1ST week @ # 1]		 Crowder
2 3 3 Child Of Love We The Kingdom Ft. Bear Rinehart
3 4 12 Fires Jordan St. Cyr
4 1 13 Say I Won’t MercyMe
5 5 20 Every Step Of The Way Cade Thompson
6 6 5 Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight) TobyMac
7 7 4 God Who Listens Chris Tomlin Ft. Thomas Rhett
8 – 1 God Of Revival Brian & Jenn Johnson
9 – 1 Gospel Song Rhett Walker
10 – 1 No Hopeless Soul Stephen Stanley

# 1 This Week In:
2020 – “Almost Home” – MercyMe
2019 – “Confidence” – Sanctus Real
2018 – “Freedom Hymn” – Austin French
2017 – “I Have This Hope” – Tenth Avenue North

David Crowder and his band score my new # 1 smash this week with their simple yet catchy track “Good God Almighty”. It’s Crowder’s 3RD # 1 smash on my chart following “Forgiven” in May 2017 and “Red Letters” in March 2019. A couple of years ago I saw Crowder LIVE in concert for the first time. He and his band opened for my favorite band MercyMe in Tampa. Crowder put on a rockin’ set that had his longtime fans enjoying the experience – and newer fans like myself singing along and moving to the music.

3 new entries this week are led by newcomers Brian & Jenn Johnson of Bethel Music. Their “God Of Revival” is emerging at U.S. Christian Radio where it’s currently BUBBLING UNDER just outside the Top 30. Here’s an extended version of the song featuring Phil Wickham who cowrote it with Brian Johnson. It was recorded LIVE at a church conference in 2019:

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Holidays Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 11TH 2021, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us be joyful on this glorious new day !

Last Sunday was Easter Sunday, or for those of us who are born again we may call it Resurrection Sunday. It was my 15TH Resurrection Sunday of my fantastic journey. My first was in 2007 (April 08TH). I was saved only 7½ months on that first Resurrection Sunday. I had been part of my first church family for only 2½ months. In fact it was only my 12TH Sunday morning celebrating Christ. Back then our church family was small with just one service, but we were on the verge of growing rapidly. We took over the local movie theatre early every Sunday morning at dawn, and we transformed it into our church experience. We built it up, and then we tore it down after the service.

I celebrated 8 Resurrection Sundays with my first church family from 2007 to 2014. Last Resurrection Sunday was my 7TH with my current church family, but that’s with an asterisk. Last year Resurrection Sunday was at home in seclusion during the peak of the global pandemic. It was our 4TH of 10 Sundays in a row in which our church building was closed, and we watched our Pastor preach a short sermon online via video (prerecorded). On May 31ST 2020 we were one of the first (if not the first) church building in my city (Homestead Florida) to reopen and have services LIVE and in-person again. That was a glorious day indeed. We’ve been meeting every Sunday morning since then !

For 10 Sundays (and 1 Good Friday) leading-up to Resurrection Sunday last week I presented an 11-part sermon series here in this space (“Sunday Scripture”). I covered the events of late-Thursday into Friday some 1,988 years ago – the last 2 days of Christ’s life before His brutal death on the cross on Skull Hill. But the story didn’t end there, for then He conquered the tomb, and He rose again. He is risen. He is risen indeed !

My original intention was to convert the 11-part sermon series into a single 35 to 40 minute sermon to preach to my church family on a future Sunday. As I was nearing the climax of the series I realized that God wanted me to do something different with my next sermon.

Titled “Denials & Restoration” I’ll be preaching on Simon Peter’s 3 denials (John 18:10-18,25-27) as well as his restoration from those denials (John 21:15-23). I’ll also be summarizing the Gospel of John – starting with the last 2 verses (John 21:24-25), and then returning to the beginning with the first 18 verses of John 1. Jesus Christ is introduced by John in the beginning.

This effectively ends my studying and preaching from the Gospel of John and his 3 letters that extends back about 6 months.

Next-up I plan to study verse-by-verse and write sermons from 1 Peter and 2 Peter.

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

Categories
1990s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1996

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, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 25 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday April 14TH 1996:

  1. “One Of Us” – Joan Osborne
  2. “I Want To Come Over” – Melissa Etheridge
  3. “Insensitive” – Jann Arden
  4. “Rock And Roll All Nite” – KISS
  5. “The World I Know” – Collective Soul

kiss

KISS is arguably one of the greatest rock and roll bands in the history of the rock era, and “Rock And Roll All Nite” is arguably their greatest song ever. Some consider it to be one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever made. It was originally a minor hit on the radio in 1975 before it exploded in popularity early in 1976. It kicked-off a string of hits for KISS from 1976 to 1979. They were an alternate to the disco era of the time; although, they too would succumb to the discotheque sound with their often-maligned disco smash “I Was Made For Lovin’ You”.

But back to “Rock And Roll All Nite” – it was actually reissued as a single (both at retail and to radio) 20 years later early in 1996, and it became a Rock 40 smash all over again. You may remember the Rock 40 radio format. It was very popular during the early-to-mid-1990s away from both coasts – particularly in smaller radio markets – and it blended pop music (deemphasizing hip hop and rap) with hard rock music.

“Rock And Roll All Nite” has been in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles that play at my desk at my workplace for many years. It’s garnered 1,007 plays over the past 9 years.

I’ve been to a lot of music concerts over the past 35 years, but KISS was regrettably not one of them. Some will say that you haven’t truly lived the concert experience unless you’ve been to a KISS concert. (I wouldn’t know.)

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 30 years ago to April 1991.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Christian Church God Holidays Humor Ministry Movies

Church People

Last Saturday afternoon (between Good Friday and Easter Sunday) I watched the movie “Church People” online. Here’s the trailer:

The movie is only available for streaming online via their official web site, and it costs a hefty $19.95 to watch it during a specific 4-hour viewing window. If it were not for the pandemic then this would have probably been at the movie theatres nationwide during this past season of Lent. (There always seems to be at least one faith-based movie showing at the multiplex during the weeks leading-up to Easter.)

I believe the original title of this movie was “Youth Group” based on the “behind-the-scenes” segment after the movie and before the closing credits rolled. It could have very well been titled “Megachurch”. I won’t give away much and spoil it, but it’s about a megachurch that has drifted far away from preaching the Gospel, and now they rely heavily on gimmicks and stunts. (I’ve been to a few megachurches like that.)

The crazy “rock star” Senior Pastor has come up with the most outrageous idea of them all for Good Friday. It takes the Youth Pastor to set him straight. You’ll see what happens if you purchase and stream this movie.

YES – There are several quirky characters in this movie that resemble the “Church People” that may or may not populate your church – if it’s big enough and youthful enough. I did laugh throughout the movie; although, some of the jokes fell flat on me. There were definitely some missed opportunities. The storyline was a bit rough at times and hard to follow. Nevertheless it was an entertaining 1-hour and 45-minute experience.

I recommend it. As I stated earlier $19.95 is hefty, but if you had gone to a movie theatre to see it you would have spent far more than that if you went with someone else or with your family or friends. Gather a group with you to see this online !

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