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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday May 18TH 2025, 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 recently completed a test online consisting of 45 questions regarding my personal ministry. (There’s a “full version” and an “express version”. I took the full version.)

As you can see – the test determined that I am best as a Teacher in ministry. Evangelist came in a surprising 2ND place, as that’s actually my favorite area of ministry. Pastor was an unexpected 4TH place. I wonder which questions I answered that negatively impacted that score. I’ve been a Teacher in the church (mostly at my first church), and of course I’ve been an Evangelist and a Pastor (mostly at my second church). I actually didn’t think I was a very good Teacher, but perhaps I’m being too self-critical. I do love to evangelize. I love to bring the Good News of God to the public – those in and out of the church – those online and offline. When evangelizing (and preaching) there’s a great deal of teaching involved. I’ve always said that when you proclaim and teach the Gospel – you preach.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church – the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12 NLT)

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, 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) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday May 11TH 2025, 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.

My season of increased Bible studying, praying, and sermon writing continues. I was hoping that it wouldn’t wane due to my recent trip to Dallas Texas. It took a short pause while I was having fun with family, but it started right back up again once I returned home to my desks and computers. I don’t want this to end anytime soon. I know that it will eventually end for an undetermined period of time, and when it does I’ll be ready for it. The Bible studying and the praying will continue, but the sermon writing will come to a temporary pause – lasting anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I’ve learned to not try to write sermons during these brief valleys. They are generally not my best work. God always deserves the very best.

My 3RD sermon in a row on Paul’s first letter to his most trusted assistant Timothy is complete. I’ve begun writing my 4TH sermon covering 1 Timothy 3:1-13. Paul writes about “Elders & Deacons”, and that’s the title of my sermon.

This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be a church leader – he desires an honorable position.” So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money. He must manage his own family well – having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household – how can he take care of God’s church ?

Very interesting. I’m not quite sure how I’ll preach on those first 5 verses, as I don’t have a wife or children. But I do have family in Texas. I also find it interesting that my 2008 NLT Study Bible uses the word “elder” in the first 2 verses (and in Verse 6). In 2015 the NLT received updates to 86 verses, and “elder” was replaced by “church leader” in those 3 verses of 1 Timothy 3. I prefer the word “elder”. “Overseer” or “Bishop” could be used as well. Most modern translations do in fact use “overseer” in lieu of “elder”. The King James Version uses “Bishop”.

Goodness. It seems as if I’ve started writing my sermon right here. Let me go over to my Word document to get this going..

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, 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) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday May 04TH 2025, 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 first Sunday of the month, so it’s #CommunionSunday at my church today. I’ll be leading our Communion for the 7TH time since last November. I’ve been leading Communion at 3 different churches every month since 2009.

For our observance and celebration – as our church body enters the building – they receive the Communion elements (packaged together), and they hold on to it until we partake during the service.

At my previous (small) church – the receiving of the elements was done during the middle of Communion, as the church body formed a line to the altar to pick-up the wafer and juice to take back to their seats. (Occasionally I brought the elements to our church body at their seats.) We took the elements together as part of the second half of Communion.

At my first (large) church – we had numerous Communion stations setup and manned all throughout the auditorium / sanctuary. After I spoke about the importance of Communion – our church body lined up at the closest Communion station to their seat. They took a wafer, they dipped it into a large glass of grape juice, and they consumed the wafer on their own right there at the station before turning around to return back to their seat. The Communion stations were double-manned – with one holding the elements – and one standing by for anyone who needed prayer. Communion was not over until all prayer was done, and everyone was back in their seats. Sometimes it could go on for 15 minutes or more as the Praise + Worship band played subtly from start to finish. Communion was a weekly ritual.

After 16 years and 3 church bodies I’ve pretty much led Communion the same way – a simple way – as a reminder of what our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ did for us on that cross on that day. He died a gruesome death on a Friday. There was silence on Saturday. And then came Sunday when He conquered the grave and rose again. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

I lead a believer’s Communion. It’s open for everyone who hears my voice and believes that Christ took our sins to the cross and bought our freedom by giving His life. We receive His blessings of grace and mercy. We receive His endless miracles.

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, 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) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 27TH 2025, 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 been in a great season spiritually for the past 2 months now with increased Bible studying, praying, and sermon writing. It’s been one of my best seasons yet in retirement life, and I really like it. I hope it doesn’t end anytime soon.

I’m almost done writing my 3RD sermon in a row on Paul’s first letter to his most trusted assistant Timothy. It covers 1 Timothy 2:1-8, and its title is “Godliness & Dignity”.

Here are the first 4 verses of that Scripture:

I urge you – first of all – to pray for all people. Ask God to help them. Intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

So – we should pray for some of the people – you know – our family of course (well most of them anyway), and some of our friends – you know – the ones who are nice to us … No ?  Hmm.

OK – we should pray for believers and followers of Christ Jesus – especially the ones that are at church on Sunday morning … No ?  Hmm.

The Bible says to pray for all people. Everyone. All God’s children. Pray for people you love. Pray for people you like. Pray for people you don’t like. Pray for people you don’t know. Pray for people in the vehicle in front of you – and behind you – and beside you. Pray for people shopping at the store. Pray for people eating at the restaurant. Pray for all people.

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, a testimony, 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) 2025 Christopher M. Day, CountUp