Tag: Bible

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday August 14TH 2022, 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.

Last Sunday I preached my sermon – “Honor & Respect” – to my church family. It’s based on 1 Peter 2:10-2:25. I estimated it to be about a 45-minute sermon beforehand. I did quite a bit of ad-libbing within the sermon. It turned out to be closer to a full hour sermon – which – in our church – is the technical definition of being “long-winded”. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I take it as a badge of honor to deliver a long-winded sermon every so often. (I won’t make it a habit.)

So as promised – now that I’ve preached the sermon – I’m presenting it in its original written form (without the ad-libs) starting with this #SundayScripture and continuing for the next 5 weeks after today.

All of my blog posts can be read in less than 5 minutes, so I’ll be breaking at convenient locations within my sermon. I hope that you’ll keep coming back to see what’s next.

Here’s Part 1:

Well Good Morning again. It’s good to be up here – standing here – on a Sunday morning – in the house of our Lord – at the altar – behind the pulpit – preaching God’s Word to you – sharing what I know about our God – Father, Son, and Spirit as One. I don’t know it all – not even close – but I’m learning more about Him and His way – with each new day. Any day that I’m not learning about our God – any day that I’m not being more like Him – that’s a wasted day. I had plenty of wasted days in my teens, 20s, and 30s. I’m not in to wasted days anymore, for tomorrow is never guaranteed. Every day should be the best day of my life.

In a couple of weeks I will observe and celebrate my 16TH anniversary of believing, and following, and trusting, and loving, and being more like our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Amen. Our God – He gets all of the glory.

My last 3 sermons in a row – 3 months ago – were all unrehearsed, and spontaneous. I stood down there – in the – orchestra section – of our theatre. I had no idea what I was going to say until I actually said it. You know that can be dangerous. I’m not that good at being spontaneous whether it’s saying or doing. I’m much better – I’m much more content – I’m much more coherent – I’m much more detailed – when I’ve practiced or rehearsed saying or doing something over and over again. (It’s that O-C-D in me.) I’m more comfortable in that way. But it was a good experience that some of you got to see during those 3 weeks in a row – back in May.

This is a more traditional sermon of mine. I’ve got my iPad in front of me. It’s got my message on it. It’s based on my own personal study of the Bible. I know what I’m going to say. And I’m ready to preach God’s Good News.

Today I want to continue to share Peter’s first letter – near the end of the New Testament. It’s the 60TH book of the Bible (out of 66). It’s the 21ST book of the New Testament (out of 27).

Peter wrote his letter from Rome near the end of his life. He lived into his late-60s. He was actually about the same age as Jesus when He was walking this Earth with His apostles during His 3-year ministry. (Peter – being 1 of the 12 apostles.)

He wrote his letter to persecuted Christians in the region – particularly Asia Minor – which is modern-day Turkey. He wrote it to persecuted Christians in the First Century Church, and his letter is still very relevant today – almost 2,000 years later – as Christians are still persecuted today. Hello – fellow persecuted Christians.

(End of Part 1)

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) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday August 07TH 2022, 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.

Last #SundayScripture I wrote about the construction of my sermons.

8 weeks ago on Twitter I revealed this –

Chris M. Day @ChrisMDay · Jun 11
Today was a phenomenal day of Bible-studying and sermon-writing. I finally finished writing my next sermon – “Honor & Respect”. It’s a traditional sermon that serves as the direct follow-up to “Stones & Stumbles” – now featured on my blog.

This past Friday afternoon on an afternoon that was full of pleasant surprises I got the call to preach this morning. So I opened that sermon on my computer in Microsoft Word, and I commenced rehearsal, update, and enhancement mode. (That continued into Saturday.)

“Honor & Respect” is based on 1 Peter 2:10-25, but I also preach on much of Isaiah 53 – which Peter quotes in his letter.

I’m looking forward to preaching this sermon this morning to my church family, and as promised I’m also looking forward to sharing it with you in multiple parts starting next #SundayScripture.

I hope that it encourages you and inspires you to move closer to our God, and to also share your journey with others.

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) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday July 31ST 2022, 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.

One of my new favorite tweeters is a fellow disciple of Jesus and Preacher of God’s Good News. This past week he tweeted – “Preachers: What kind of notes do you use on Sundays for your sermon ? I use a one-page, bullet-point outline, landscape, two-columns. Rubber band around it into my Bible at the place of the text.”

I caught the tweet the next day, and I was pleasantly surprised by all of the replies (some 130+). At a time in my ministry when I was starting to feel as if I was on my own old-school island of preaching – it seems as if there are still plenty just like me.

Most of my sermons are prepared full-manuscript style via Microsoft Word. They average about 10 to 11 pages in length (single-spaced) with Calibri (Body) font size 16. Words I wish to stress are in bold, and Scripture is in italics (including red letters). PowerPoint slides are sequentially numbered in [brackets] as a cue for me to click the clicker.

I write each sermon over a period of several weeks (sometimes months). Once it’s done I occasionally go back and update and enhance it. When I’m asked to preach on Sunday morning (sometimes with less than 24 hours notice) I do a top-to-bottom rehearsal of the sermon that God has called on me to preach while making final updates and enhancements. Once I determine that it’s final I create a PDF out of the Word document, and I save it to my iCloud Drive. I then take my iPad with me to church on Sunday morning with my sermon on it.

I used to print out my sermons (double-sided) and place each two pages in a document protector, but I stopped that practice a little over a year ago.

As I present my sermon I occasionally look down at it and read it, but if my rehearsal was effective and productive then the looking down part is minimal. I prefer to make direct eye contact with my brothers and sisters – either collectively or individually. As for Scripture I’ll intentionally read directly from my manuscript to ensure that I read it verbatim.

Most of my Scripture is presented on PowerPoint slides, but I’m not a fan of reading from the overhead monitors. I tend to lose my place in my sermon when I do that.

It was good to see that many preachers do it the way that I do it – and for the same reasons. Eventually I’d like to move to more of an outline format for my sermons, but I’m not there yet. I’m currently writing my 50TH sermon over the past 6 years. I’m given the honor and privilege of preaching God’s Good News to my church family about 8 to 10 times per year.

Someone recently asked me if I didn’t get to preach to my church family would I still write sermons. The answer is absolutely yes. I would continue to write sermons just as I do now, and I would present them here on my blog, for you are part of my church family online and worldwide.

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) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday July 24TH 2022, 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.

This week it’s a change-of-pace #SundayScripture. There’s no sermon or meme this week. Just me sharing some future plans with you. I’ve already shared some of these plans on past editions of #TravelThursday.

I’ll be partially moving away from my hometown of the past nearly 35 years early next year (2023). I’m not moving too far away – just 3½ hours up the road – 186 miles to be exact. Initially I’ll be living at my new home for half the week – from Wednesday evening to Sunday morning. I’ll be living at my current home for the other half – from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday morning.

On Sunday mornings I’ll continue with my current church family. The only difference is that instead of a 10-minute commute it’ll be closer to a 3-hour and 10-minute commute early on Sunday mornings.

I’ve been with my current church family for going on 7½ years. I selected them as my second church based on word-of-mouth alone from a longtime friend. She was quite surprised when I showed up on that first Sunday morning. It worked out well. I’ve loved this small church family since the very start.

I selected my first church of 8 years based on extensive research online – not knowing what it was like to be a part of a church family. I knew nobody at my first church before I set foot in it. It worked out well. I learned quite early on that the church is not the building. The church is the living and breathing body – the family of believers and followers of Christ. We don’t go to – or leave from – church, but rather we bring the church in everything we do and everywhere we go, for we are the church.

In both cases the church family has been my only family here in South Florida.

Once I’m retired and settled full-time at my new home near Sebring Florida I’ll select my third church. I’ve only done a little bit of research online, but going forth it’ll likely be the way that I select my next church.

My first church was a small non-denominational church with Pentecostal roots that became huge quickly, lost about half of its congregation almost as quickly, and then slowly grew back again.

My second (current) church is a small non-denominational church with Pentecostal roots that has stayed small and steady over the past 7½ years.

My third church will be a small non-denominational church. Having experienced both small and big church families I much prefer the small church family. There are advantages and disadvantages of a small church family, but I believe that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I’ve matured and prospered in both. I’ll write about it again in a future blog post.

When I greet my church family during Praise & Worship I sometimes use Psalm 122:1 – I was glad when they said to me – “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”

Selecting a church can be a difficult process. Walking into a new church for the first time can be intimidating. Walking into my very first church for the very first time as a born-again Christian – well that was one of the most courageous moments of my life. It also changed my life forever. It certainly changed my Sunday mornings for the better.

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) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp