Categories
Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Charles Weigle In Chattanooga

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I think I’ve been to Chattanooga Tennessee once in my lifetime – 32 years ago in July 1992 during a road-trip with my little brother (age 17) from Huntsville Alabama. I picked him up after Space Camp, and we drove to Nashville, Knoxville, Gatlinburg, and Chattanooga Tennessee, and then from there to Atlanta. That was a fun adventure in my 1989 Geo Spectrum that included a trek on U.S. 441 up, through, and down the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. We drove and climbed to the top of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet above sea level – the highest point on land that I’ve ever been to.

My retirement hometown of Sebring Florida has a little bit in common with one of those cities above – Chattanooga.

As you may have read previously here on my blog – I’m a docent at the Charles Frederick Weigle House Museum here in Sebring. Come visit us. We’re open 5 days a week – Tuesday to Saturday – from 10 to 3. Before I was a docent – I was a frequent visitor of the historic house, and I was (and still am) intrigued by its 102 years of history. I will never stop studying the history of the house, the man and his wife who lived in the house, and the city that they called home.

Dr. Weigle – an evangelist and songwriter – lived in the house from the time it was built brand-new in 1922 – until 1951 – when he “retired” to Chattanooga Tennessee. I put “retired” in quotes because he actually went back to work up there in his early-80s. He and his wife moved there so that he could work at Highland Park Baptist Church. He wanted to spend his remaining years of life near a Bible college campus so that he could help train and inspire young people in the Lord’s work. The church provided Dr. Weigle with a nice apartment, and he lived there until he passed on 15 years later in 1966.

He maintained his residence in Sebring during much of that time. He continued to study the Bible, and teach, and preach, and write music during his last 15 years in both Chattanooga and Sebring.

Less than 2 weeks after his 95TH birthday – he had entered Heaven’s gates to be with the Lord eternally. Today – he’s buried with his second wife Carrie in a cemetery in Sebring – just a couple of miles away from his longtime house by the lake.

Next #TravelThursday – I’m exploring Highlands, Polk, Osceola, and Orange Counties in Central Florida over 7 days with my little brother. And the Weigle House Museum makes an encore appearance. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 387

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 14TH 2024 – the 387TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 12 Somebody Like Me
[2ND week @ # 1]		 Caleb & John Ft. Cain
2 3 6 Take You At Your Word Cody Carnes
3 2 10 Beautiful Life Pat Barrett
4 5 3 Good Day Forrest Frank
5 4 12 The Prodigal Josiah Queen
6 10 2 Nothin’ Sweeter TobyMac
7 9 4 Miracle Child Brandon Lake
8 6 32 Lead On Good Shepherd Patrick Mayberry
9 7 8 God Is With Us The Afters
10 – 1 Take It All Back Tauren Wells

# 1 This Week In:
2023 – “Holy Forever” – Chris Tomlin
2022 – “Getting Started” – Jeremy Camp
2021 – “Be Alright” – Evan Craft Ft. Danny Gokey
2020 – “Keep Me In The Moment” – Jeremy Camp
2019 – “Prize Worth Fighting For” – Jamie Kimmett
2018 – “Grace Got You” – MercyMe
2017 – “Wonder” – Hillsong United

TOP 40 OF 400 – This October I’ll present my Top 40 songs of the first 400 weeks of this chart. Micah Tyler has 4 out of his 7 hits on the Top 40. He’ll likely enter my chart next week with his 8TH hit.

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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday July 14TH 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.

There’s a Facebook group that I follow and post in occasionally. It’s called “Pastors For Pastors”. Its “About” is “a community of Pastors dedicated to supporting one another”. Most of the time that’s the case, but then there’s those other times. Pastors can be really mean and downright nasty to each other. I know it happens physically, as I’ve seen it so many times before over the past 17½ years. It definitely happens electronically, as Pastors make great “keyboard warriors”. They write things that they would never say in public (much less preach).

I also think that there are trollers within the “Pastors For Pastors” group who are not actually Pastors, or Ministers, or anyone associated with a church body. They are there (just like they are in many Facebook groups) to troll and disrupt the community. They are rather effective in their dirty deeds.

Since the start of April and for the next couple of months – 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 5 of “Jude & Jury”:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

We must pray in the power of the Holy Spirit – which we all have if we believe and follow God. It’s an amazing power. We must use that power – constantly. The more we use it – the closer we get to God. The Holy Spirit is God’s power – in our heart.

We must await God’s mercy. It’s constant. Just as we have received God’s mercy – we must give mercy to those around us. But we must never condone, ignore, or excuse their sin – or our sin, for sin leads to death in hell. As the Scripture reveals – we must hate the sins that contaminate their lives. As the New King James Version puts it – we must hate even the garment defiled by the flesh.

This is a good time to observe and celebrate Communion – right here in the middle of my sermon. So don’t get up and go after Communion, or else you’re going to miss the entire second-half of my message. The best is yet to come.

It is the 1ST Sunday of a brand-new month – December. It’s our time here together to observe and celebrate Communion. It’s an observance. We observe it at or near the start of every month. It’s an opportunity. It allows us to slow down, and reflect, and honor, and remember what our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ did for us on that cross on that day. It’s a celebration. We continue this celebration that we enjoy in community as a church body every Sunday morning when we bring the church from out there to in here. And this is the altar – of this sanctuary. And we – You and I – we are the church.

Christ suffered for us. Never did He sin. Never did He deceive anyone. Never did He retaliate against anyone. Never did He seek revenge against anyone. None of us can claim that, but Christ can. Christ was innocent. We – we are guilty.

See He had no sins of His own, so He carried all of our sins – past, present, and future – to the cross. He died a horrible death to pay the penalty for our sins forever. He did that for us. As His believers and followers – that allows us to be dead to sin. That allows us to live for what is right. We didn’t deserve it, but by God’s Grace – we are saved. By His wounds – we are healed. By His suffering – we are free.

So let’s remember – what Christ did for us – and what He continues to do for us. And you know – what He’s done for us – He’ll do for anyone out there who calls on Him.

[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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

The Ringling

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of months ago I visited The Ringling estate in Sarasota Florida. It was another field trip with the Sebring Historical Society – the group that I serve with. I was with a group of about 30.

Our chartered bus departed from the parking lot of our museum at 8:43 AM. The drive to the Gulf Coast took a little less than 2 hours. Our first stop in Sarasota was Der Dutchman – a large Amish-style restaurant, bakery, and gift shop. At the restaurant you can either order off the menu or enjoy the buffet. (Our “all-inclusive” trip included the buffet.) We arrived there as Breakfast was wrapping-up and Lunch was just getting started. Some in our group enjoyed a late-Breakfast. I enjoyed a hearty Lunch. It was all good. I think my favorite dish was their slow-cooked old-fashioned Roast Beef. It was quite delicious and juicy. We spent over 2 hours there eating, browsing, and shopping.

Our next stop was the Ringling estate. We spent 3 hours there, and our group pretty much split-up to tour the museums and grounds at our own individual paces. I visited much of the estate to include both circus museums and Ca’ d’Zan (“House of John” in Venetian) – John and Mable Ringling’s personal residence (built from 1924 to 1926) overlooking Sarasota Bay.

My favorite part of the circus museum was the 38,000-square-foot / 42,000+ piece miniature circus display that was essentially a ¾-inch-to-the-foot scale (1:16) model of a typical 24-hour day in the life of the Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey Circus during the 1920s and 1930s. I think that was probably my favorite part of the entire estate. I did a walkthrough at the beginning of my visit, but there were so many other people doing the same thing that I couldn’t fully enjoy it, so I returned a couple of hours later to check it all out again in greater detail with far less people around. Circus fan Howard Charles Tibbals designed and built the model from 1956 to 1974 (age 20 to 38). It premiered at the World’s Fair in Knoxville Tennessee in 1982. He set it up at its current location at the museum in 2004 and 2005. What an amazing accomplishment to build that miniature circus !

We got back to Sebring after 6 PM. It was a fun day out with my historical society friends. It was revealed that our next field trip will be in just a couple of weeks – a 4-hour St. Johns River cruise out of Sanford Florida with a big multi-course lunch and a comedy play. I’m looking forward to it !

Next #TravelThursday – What do Sebring Florida and Chattanooga Tennessee have in common ? Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp