Tag: Message

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 20TH 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.

It’s been an interesting past 2 weeks for me – starting with the build-up and widespread panic-buying and mass hysteria leading-up to Hurricane Milton. It made landfall early in the evening of Wednesday October 09TH 2024. I live between Sebring and Avon Park in northwestern Highlands County Florida. After making landfall as a Category-3 on Siesta Key near Sarasota (about 80 miles away) – it crossed the state in a general ENE direction. It passed about 30 miles to the northwest of here in southwestern Polk County (very near Fort Meade and Homeland – which I wrote about on a recent #TravelThursday).

Here in my neighborhood – we received maximum sustained winds of Tropical Storm force (45-60 MPH) with a few wind gusts approaching but probably not quite reaching Category-1 Hurricane force. We only received about 2 inches of rain here. We had scattered leaves, twigs, and small branches on our main ring road. Little to no structural damage was noted. Our neighborhood was built tough almost 40 years ago during the mid-1980s, and it has endured much worse than Hurricane Milton (such as a freak April 04TH 2022 hailstorm).

Many other parts of Florida in all different directions did not fare as well – with dozens of tornadoes, ferocious winds, and torrential rains (up to 20 inches in many locations along the Gulf Coast). A lot of Floridians lost everything from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Thank God for the good work of Samaritan’s Purse.

The biggest issue here in the local area were power outages. Highlands County was about 97% in the dark after the storm had passed. A portion of my neighborhood had its power restored on Friday morning. A majority of my neighborhood was out until Saturday afternoon. My power was restored after 63 hours and 34 minutes in the dark. That has inspired a sermon that I’m praying about and will soon be writing titled “63 & 34”. It was a very unique and quite peaceful “63 & 34” as I used God’s daylight to guide and direct me. I grew spiritually during that time – more so than any other time recently. I’ll share how so in my upcoming sermon. I really need to experience more “63 & 34” time – without the assistance of a power outage. I’m going to work towards that.

Psalm 107:29-31 (NLT):
He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves.
What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into harbor !
Let them praise the LORD for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them.

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

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 13TH 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.

On a local Facebook site that I follow – a commenter of a blog post on the importance of attending church took exception. The commenter accused the church (overall) of being “legalistic”. (The entire post was removed by an Administrator that same day.)

I’ve written about legalism here on #SundayScripture, and I even alluded to it last week. I’ve also preached on it to my previous church family.

In a sermon from July 2018 – I preached this:

[BEGIN SERMON EXCERPT]

Beware of legalism. Paul fights legalism all throughout his letter to the Galatians as well as many of his other letters (in the New Testament). Legalism is probably the sin that we commit the most on our day-to-day journey. We commit this sin more than we ever did before we were saved. YES – legalism is a sin. “But Chris I’m confused. What do you mean by legalism ? Aren’t we supposed to be legal – and obey God’s laws – God’s Commandments ? Isn’t that legalism ? How can that be sinful ? Tell me more !”

Remember my last sermon on “Pride & Prejudice” ? Remember Proverbs 11:2 ?

Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

See when we’re being legalistic we’re being prideful. We’re full of pride:

“Hey look at me. After just 2 years of being saved by God I’ve quit drinking, I’ve quit smoking, I’ve quit eating junk food, I exercise, I see a Doctor every 3 months, I get regular labwork done, I don’t get angry anymore, and I love everyone – even the people that hate me ! Oh yeah and I also listen to Christian music all day, I read the Bible every day, I write sermons on Saturdays, and I go to church every Sunday ! You should do the same. God loves me for doing all of these things ! He’ll love you too !”

Sounds terrible – doesn’t it ? I mean those are all good things, but nobody wants to hear all that stuff. I would never say any of that stuff – aside from using it as an example in this sermon to make my point. The world out there doesn’t care what we’re doing – or what we’ve stopped doing – or what we’re against – or what we’re opposed to – or what we believe in – when they don’t even know us. None of that stuff saves the world out there. None of that stuff saved me. Christ saved me. All of that other stuff came to be as a result of Christ saving me.

The world out there needs to know that God loves them more than they can only imagine. The world out there needs proof of that love. It is not enough to tell someone that God loves them, and then walk away and tell them to have a nice day. They need to see and feel and experience that love from us. That’s what Disciples do. We are all Disciples.

So the Apostle Paul was strongly against legalism. The legalist picks and chooses the rules – the laws – the Commandments that he or she feels comfortable with obeying. You know – the easy ones. Remember The Golden Corral all-you-can-eat buffet reference from my last sermon ? (“I’ll take some of that, and a bunch of that, and a whole lotta that Good News – but none of that hard to digest stuff over there. I don’t agree with that law over there.”) The legalist – in all of us – conveniently neglects – or even ignores certain laws at times – such as loving the Lord with all your heart, or loving your neighbor as yourself.

[END SERMON EXCERPT]

That was an excerpt from my sermon titled “Faith & Works”. If I were to refresh that sermon – I would write it a bit different now. And maybe I’ll do that in the coming months.

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

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 06TH 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.

This recently appeared on one of my Facebook feeds. It caught my attention. It made me stop scrolling for a while. I thought that it was interesting and intriguing. I don’t know how factual it is, or how such data could be compiled, but I spent a little bit of time reviewing it and thinking about it. And now I’m blogging about it.

Firstly – I was surprised that the map was overwhelmingly red – representing Evangelical Protestant. (That’s what I am – if you’re going to label me.)

I grew up in Maryland, and I expected it to be in blue – representing Catholic – just like Pennsylvania, Delaware, D.C., and nearly every state to the north of it. In fact – I expected the map to be overwhelmingly blue. For some reason I thought that Catholic was the dominant religion here in the U.S. I think that most Catholics believe that too. I also think that most Catholics think that all other religious denominations are bogus, or at the very least – weird. (But that’s for another blog post.)

According to the map – Mainline Protestants outnumber Evangelical Protestants up in the Dakotas and adjacent Minnesota and Iowa. And there’s a statistical tie in Maryland.

Mainline Protestant is a new term for me. I’ve never heard of it before in my 18 years of salvation. So – I did a little bit of research. As far as I can tell – Mainline Protestants don’t always take the Bible literally, and they don’t always believe that it is God’s Word. They believe that there are other ways to salvation forever other than through Jesus. They believe that good deeds will get them into Heaven. They have incorporated some of the modern ways of the world into their churches and their daily living. To me – Mainline Protestant seems closer to Catholic than it does to Evangelical Protestant.

Jesus replied – “I tell you the truth – unless you are born again – you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 NLT)

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

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 29TH 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.

It’s the 5TH Sunday of the month, and for this edition of #SundayScripture I’m looking back on my ministry 16 years ago this Sunday – on September 28TH 2008. That was back when I was barely in my 3RD year on this fantastic journey – at the young age of 41.

You know – when I look back at my early blog posts from that era – I frequently smile, and chuckle, and even outright LOL. At times this blog was immature and juvenile, but then so were many of my readers at the time. I just didn’t know any better.

I did write this though 16 years ago after church on that Sunday:

When we drift into a crisis of faith or belief – a ‘dip’ if you will – we need to react appropriately to get ourselves out of that dip and back onto the straight and narrow again on His fantastic journey for us. We must remember what He has done for us in the past. We must accept what He is doing for us right now. We must trust what He will do for us in the future. We must believe in Him, for He is the only solution.

Habakkuk (3:17-19, NLT 2ND Ed.)
Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines. Even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren. Even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord ! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation ! The Sovereign Lord is my strength ! He makes me as surefooted as a deer – able to tread upon the heights.

(I think I knew what I was preaching about back then.)

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