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Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 4, 2024

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday August 04TH 2024, 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.

I’ve begun writing my next sermon on King Solomon. As with all sermons – the Holy Spirit is guiding me as to which direction to go with preaching about the wise King. This may end up becoming a multiple-sermon message series.

Since the start of April – I’ve been presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Links are provided for Parts 1 to 8 of “Jude & Judgment” over on my SERMONS page. (It’s Sermon 56.) Here’s the penultimate edition – Part 8 of “Jude & Jury”:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

These people are as useless as dried-up springs, or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires – they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again – they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.” (2 Peter 2:17-22)

Strong words there. Strong words from both Peter and Jude. You know false teachers – then and now – they love to target baby Christians – those who have just recently committed themselves to our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Peter refers to these baby Christians as those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. You see – when you know the Truth, and then you reject the Truth by believing and following and idolizing a false teacher – or by being a false teacher yourself – then that’s a far worse situation than when you ignorantly lived in sin – before you were saved and discovered the Truth. That’s like a dog that returns to its vomit.

These false teachers and their followers are doomed forever.

2ND Peter ends kind of like how Jude ends:

You already know these things – dear friends. So be on guard. Then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather – you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to Him – both now and forever ! Amen. (2 Peter 3:17-18)

Beware of false teachers. If you’re ever in doubt – then check with the Truth – the Bible. It’s the only Truth.

And that’s my message for you today.

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

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.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

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St. Johns River Cruise

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 1, 2024

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Thursday me and 42 of my Sebring Historical Society friends met at our Charles Frederick Weigle House Museum early in the morning, and we boarded a chartered bus – courtesy of Small World. We departed for historic downtown Sanford Florida – 108 miles north of Sebring.

We arrived 2½ hours later, and we immediately boarded the 105-foot Rivership Barbara-Lee – courtesy of the St. Johns Rivership Co. We were treated to an interactive comedy wedding complete with singalongs and dancing on the dancefloor. The show essentially started as soon as we got off the bus, and it kept on going intermittently until the ship returned to its dock 3½ hours later.

Our multi-course lunch was pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but better than a typical lunch for me. I had the Prime Rib (cooked perfectly medium-well) served with mashed potatoes and green beans. A side salad and rolls were served beforehand, and delicious dessert (red velvet cake) was served afterward.

Our trek along the St. Johns River actually started dockside on the south shore of 9,406-acre Lake Monroe. We continued WNW – past the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens – off the lake and onto the river proper – underneath both I-4 and U.S. 17 / U.S. 92.

Crossing-over from Seminole County into Volusia County – we went about 7 miles up the river, and then we went around an island and came back southward. It was a nice slow cruise up and down the lazy river on a mostly sunny and hot afternoon; although, it felt cooler (with a nice refreshing breeze) outside – especially on the upper decks of the rivership.

On our way to and from the dock – we caught a glimpse of the vibrant historic downtown district of Sanford. I’d like to walk around and check it out on my own on a future daytrip to (or through) the area. I definitely want to visit the Zoo. I think this field trip was my very first visit ever to the area northeast of Orlando. There’s a lot to see and visit up there !

Fun Facts: We avoided I-4 between Kissimmee and Sanford by taking the “Eastern Beltway” (Florida State Road 417) northward and the “Western Beltway” (Florida State Road 429) southward. Both routes combined form a 108-mile ring around Orlando. On this field trip we traversed 7 counties – Highlands, Polk, Osceola, Orange, Seminole, Volusia, and Lake.

As we returned to our museum in Sebring – our Director announced our next field trip in a little over 3 months to Clewiston to visit an Indian Museum and to Okeechobee for a big Lunch. I’m looking forward to it !

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll tell you all about Frostproof Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Avon Park, Florida, Highlands, Lake Placid, Museum, Orlando, Osceola, Polk, Sebring

Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 389

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 29, 2024

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 over 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday July 28TH 2024 – the 389TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	1	14	Somebody Like Me [4TH week @ # 1]	Caleb & John Ft. Cain
2	2	12	Beautiful Life	Pat Barrett
3	4	4	Nothin’ Sweeter	TobyMac
4	5	6	Miracle Child	Brandon Lake
5	3	8	Take You At Your Word	Cody Carnes
6	6	5	Good Day	Forrest Frank
7	7	14	The Prodigal	Josiah Queen
8	8	3	Take It All Back	Tauren Wells
9	–	1	Creed	Shane & Shane
10	9	2	My God Can	Katy Nichole Ft. Naomi Raine

# 1 This Week In:
2023 – “Big God” – Terrian
2022 – “Getting Started” – Jeremy Camp
2021 – “Be Alright” – Evan Craft Ft. Danny Gokey
2020 – “No Impossible With You” – I AM THEY
2019 – “Raise A Hallelujah” – Bethel Music
2018 – “Dream Small” – Josh Wilson
2017 – “Wonder” – Hillsong United

TOP 40 OF 400 – Barnard & Everett – OK – you know them better as Shane & Shane. They are back on my chart this week with “Creed” – their follow-up to their long-running (19-week) hit “You’ve Already Won”. This October I’ll present my Top 40 songs of the first 400 weeks of this chart, but “You’ve Already Won” won’t be on it. But will it be on my Summer Of 2024 chart in September ?

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime simply by accessing my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

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. God used loud music on the radio to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

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.

Tags Blog, Chart, Christian, God, Jesus, KLOVE, Music, Radio, Spotify, TheJoyFM, WayFM, WGTS, Z883

Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 28, 2024

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday July 28TH 2024, 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.

I’m back home in Sebring Florida this morning. (Actually – I’ve been here since last Sunday evening.) At my home church here – Highlands Community Church – God has blessed us with fairly modern technology. We broadcast our Sunday morning services LIVE at 10:30 AM on our YouTube page. On those Sunday mornings when I’m out-of-town – I look forward to watching our service on YouTube after I return home. It’s not the same as being there in person, but it’s a good alternative.

Since the start of April and for the next 2 weeks – I’m presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Links are provided for Parts 1 to 8 of “Jude & Judgment” over on my SERMONS page. (It’s Sermon 56.) Here’s Part 7 of “Jude & Jury”:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

Now all glory to God – who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to Him who alone is God – our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time ! Amen. (Jude 24-25)

That’s a good doxology right there. It’s a final praise to God – similar to what you would sing at the end of a hymn or a Psalm. It’s an often-quoted Scripture that you’ve probably heard before, and maybe you didn’t know that it was at the end of Jude’s letter.

It fits well with our Communion in that it’s a reminder of how glorious our God is. He is able to keep us from falling away to the false teachers of the world around us. All glory and majesty and power and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time !

Back in 2021 and 2022 I preached 5 sermons through Peter’s first letter. Peter has a second letter – right after his first letter near the end of the New Testament. His second letter was likely written a few years before Jude wrote his letter. And both letters focus on the false teachers of the time – which was definitely a problem back then, as it is still a problem today. Both letters were written in a similar style with similar content and some of the same words and phrases. They complemented each other.

Check this out – from 2ND Peter:

These false teachers are like unthinking animals – creatures of instinct – born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals – they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor – who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. (12-16)

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

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.