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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Happy Sunday May 24TH 2020. This is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us be the church. Let us bring the church – in everything we do – and everywhere we go.

For me (and for many of you as well) this is our 10TH Sunday in a row of no corporate church services. Many church services have been presented online – either LIVE or on Memorex. (If you get that reference then you are as old as me.)

I’ve watched many church services online. My Pastor has generally preached solo on Saturday nights from our sanctuary – recording his sermons – and then uploading them to Facebook soon after. I’ve been watching them the next morning – on Sundays right around 10 AM – the exact time when I would normally be driving to our church building. (Hopefully we’ll be able to do that again real soon – maybe as soon as next Sunday.) I miss my church family in-person.

Incidentally you can view any of my Pastor’s recent sermons on Facebook by clicking this link.

I’ve recently updated and enhanced my SERMONS page here on my blog. Check it out for my own sermon history. I’ve got future enhancements planned for this blog to include audio files of sermons. It would be a new concept for me – preaching a sermon while recording it (via my iPhone), and then uploading it as an audio file to my blog. I’ve never done it before, so I’ll experiment with it. Maybe there’s a podcast in my future ?

You know our God doesn’t want us to stay in place in neutral mode. He wants us to keep moving forward towards Him and His light. He wants us to move forward physically and spiritually. I believe that if you’re not learning something new about God on each new day of this journey then you’re not moving forward towards Him. You may not be retreating, but you may be standing still, or just barely moving along. Standing still does not get you closer to God. Barely moving along means you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities – on a lot of miracles – that God has planned for you. We must keep learning each and every day that God gives us on this Earth. Older people can learn about God from younger people. Longtime believers and followers of God can learn about God from newer and even baby Christians just learning how to walk on this journey.

Together we must:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead – fear the LORD and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8)

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
1990s Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1990

Every 2ND, 3RD, and 4TH Friday of the month 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, or 30 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday May 20TH 1990:

  1. “Room At The Top” – Adam Ant
  2. “The Price Of Love” – Bad English
  3. “Peace In Our Time” – Eddie Money
  4. “This Old Heart Of Mine” – Rod Stewart & Ronald Isley
  5. “Club At The End Of The Street” – Elton John

30 years ago – back when I had more spare time on my hands – I compiled and published a Top 40 hit music chart every week. As a special treat this week I present to you a list of the artists that appeared from chart positions 6 to 40 in alphabetical order:

Aaron Neville
Aerosmith
Alannah Myles
The B-52s
Babyface
Belinda Carlisle
Bell Biv Devoe
Billy Joel
Calloway
Deborah Harry
Don Henley
Expose
Gloria Estefan And The Miami Sound Machine
Heart
Jane Child
Linda Ronstadt
Luther Vandross
Madonna
Marcia Griffiths
M.C. Hammer
Michael Bolton
Motley Crue
Phil Collins
Poco
Richard Marx
Roxette
Sinead O’Connor
Sydney Youngblood
Taylor Dayne
Warrant
Wilson Phillips

WOW !  What a line-up. It’s a who’s who list of the biggest pop stars in the U.S.A. as the Summer of 1990 was just getting started. It’s what I was listening to in my dorm room, at the workplace, and on the road in my 1989 red Geo Spectrum.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with 3 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
1990s Career Computers Home Military Travel

My Last 2 Years On Active Duty Air Force

National Military Appreciation Month continues on this 3RD Thursday of the month with my own appreciation of my 35-year career with the United States Air Force. It’s no secret that I’m currently in the greatest 13-year era of my career. It started at the end of July of 2007, and it continues to this day. But there’s a runner-up to this great era, and that’s January 1991 to February 1993.

I was sent to war (Operation Desert Shield / Storm) as 1991 began. I didn’t volunteer for it. I’m actually quite antiwar. I was sent as punishment by my supervisors at the time. They didn’t like me, and they made life miserable for me. I threatened to report them for harassment. Before I could take action on that they sent me away to Saudi Arabia.

As it turns out my deployment overseas into the war zone turned out to be the turning point of my career back then. I was scared over there due to an uncertain future, but I also made new friends with fellow airmen from other bases, and I matured quite a bit in “Tent City” in the desert. I flopped at building fuel tanks, but I exceled at building bombs.

When I returned home to Homestead AFB after the war I was immediately sent home to my family near Washington D.C. for up to 30 days of uncharged “rest and recuperation” leave. When I returned to the base I met my brand new supervisor. You see my previous supervisor, and a few others as well – were relieved of their duties and sent away while I was away. I wasn’t informed of the specifics, but the outcome was great. There was even a reorganization of our squadron and flight structure. We even moved to a different building down towards the other end of the airfield. It continued the peak of my career at that time that started at wartime.

And then Hurricane Andrew destroyed the base. I became a “refugee” at Andrews AFB Maryland. I picked that base because it was my hometown base at the time – closest to my family. I really liked my supervisor and coworkers at my new base. They treated me nice. They respected me. I respected them. I informed them quite early on that I would not be reenlisting for a 3RD 4-year term in early-1993, so they had me for about 6 months to do what they wanted with me. They had me teach them everything I knew about the computer system and database that we managed and utilized in my career field at that time. They were so impressed that they had me teach the rest of the base as well. I was essentially a teacher for my 6 months there. They gave me a bunch of awards for my work during my short stay there – the most prominent of which hangs on my wall just above my computer workstation here.

My last duty day was the same day that the World Trade Center in New York City was bombed the first time around (Friday February 26TH 1993). We found out about the bombing via overhead TV sets at Pizza Hut where we had my farewell luncheon. I went on “terminal leave” for a month after that, and at the end of March I was officially out of the Air Force after nearly 8 years, or so I thought …

gray plane inside hangar
Photo by Kelly Lacy on Pexels.com

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Christian God Holidays Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 170

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 17TH 2020:

  1. “I Will Fear No More” – The Afters [# 2 last week / 17TH week on chart]
  2. “Alive And Breathing” – Matt Maher [3 / 10TH]
  3. “Almost Home” – MercyMe [# 1 / 22ND]
  4. “Keep Me In The Moment” – Jeremy Camp [6 / 5TH]
  5. “Love” – We Are Messengers [5 / 3RD]
  6. “Great Things” – Phil Wickham [7 / 4TH]
  7. “(I’ll) Never Let You Down” – Hawk Nelson Ft. Hunter & Tara [4 / 8TH]
  8. “Amadeo (Still My God)” – Ryan Stevenson [- / 1ST]
  9. “No Impossible With You” – I AM THEY [- / 1ST]
  10. “The Father’s House” – Cory Asbury [- / 1ST]

# 1 This Week In:
2019 – “Alive” – Big Daddy Weave
2018 – “The Way (New Horizon)” – Pat Barrett
2017 – “Oh My Soul” – Casting Crowns

I have a new # 1 smash this week, as MercyMe pull back from the top spot after 12 weeks. The Afters score with their 2ND consecutive # 1 smash in the timely “I Will Fear No More”. It’s their follow-up to “Well Done” – which was my Christmas # 1 in 2018. Going back even further The Afters scored a # 4 hit on my chart in January 2008 with “Never Going Back To OK”. While that song was tracking Hawk Nelson were spending 10 weeks in a row at # 1 with “Friend Like That”. #RETRO

Currently # 1 on Christian Top 40 radio from coast to coast is Cory Asbury’s “The Father’s House”. It finally reaches my chart after hovering just below my Top 10 for the past several weeks.

This is my final weekly chart prior to summertime. As I’ve done for many years now I’ll be tracking in greater detail every song that’s on my chart during the 16 weeks of summer starting on Memorial Day Weekend and ending on Labor Day Weekend here in the U.S. (Normally it’s 15 weeks, but Memorial Day occurs on its earliest possible date this year while Labor Day occurs on its latest possible date. That gives us an extra week of summer.) On the Tuesday after Labor Day I’ll publish a special chart featuring my Top 10 hits of the entire summer.

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 5 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday, and a special post on Tuesday. 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