Tag: Minister

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 05TH 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.

This is the 380TH edition of #SundayScripture since its debut on the final Sunday of February of 2018. Once I start something online, and it’s fun to do, and it’s successful – I keep it going. I always look forward to writing each new edition, and usually (when I’m not presenting a portion of a sermon) I have no idea what I plan to write until I actually write it. I allow The Holy Spirit to guide and direct me.

This weekly blog post is an integral part of my fantastic journey in my Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. It’s my way of evangelizing to the masses worldwide – to anyone who cares to read. I pray that it changes lives for the better.

It was a rare Sunday last week, as I missed church in-person. But I got to watch our Sunday morning service LIVE on YouTube from Wichita Falls Texas. Our Pastor concluded his “This Is My Story” message series. It was a great series all about sharing our story with our church family, so that we can go and tell our story outside of the church – to our family and friends who do not yet know the God that we believe, follow, trust, and love.

This morning I’m back with my church family in-person. Our Senior Pastor begins a new message series on the letter of James. I’m definitely looking forward to that, as it was my longest-running message series. I preached 10 sermons from James scattered over a 13-month period from February 2018 to March 2019. It was also the very first book of the Bible that I studied with a weekly small group during my first year as part of a church family in 2007.

Next Sunday morning we’ll celebrate Pastor Appreciation Day with a special potluck breakfast. I’ll also be leading Communion with a theme of worship. I’m looking forward to sharing it !

So that’s what’s going on here locally. I appreciate each and every one of you who read this blog globally.

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

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 28TH 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’m coming up on the 9TH anniversary of the preaching of my first sermon at my second church. My Pastor called me while I was on the road returning home from Wichita Falls Texas. I had driven 655 miles from there to Hattiesburg Mississippi on that Thursday September 29TH 2016. I didn’t answer my cell phone. I waited until I got to my hotel for the night and checked-in to my room before I called him back – fearing some bad news back home. I actually got good news. My Pastor asked me if I would preach that upcoming Sunday October 02ND 2016. Without hesitation I said “YES”. I told him that I would have plenty of time in my car on the road to pray about my sermon from Hattiesburg to Homestead.

I preached on “Vine & Branches” from John 15 on that Sunday, and it was the first of my 60+ sermons at my second church.

My Pastor actually asked me if I would preach the year before (in 2015 – a few months after arriving that year), and I politely turned him down and told him that I wasn’t ready yet. (I finally learned how to say “NO” at my second church.)

I actually preached twice at my first church – on New Year’s Day 2012, and then over 2½ years later on a Wednesday night at the end of July 2014. I don’t like talking about that first sermon because of the confusion and controversy behind it. The second sermon was intentional, and it went much better. Frankly – it probably led to my 60+ sermons at my second church. A longtime friend of mine who attended my eventual second church came to my first church to watch me preach, and then she went back and told her Pastor all about my sermon.

Going back to my first church (from 2007 to 2015) – I pretty much did everything that you could possibly do at a Sunday Morning service except for sing and preach. After several years of opening services, leading the announcements, leading Communion, and closing services – some members of the church body began referring to me as “Pastor Chris” (which I found out late during my 8-year stay – irritated the Pastor). I never told anyone to call me Pastor. It actually made me uncomfortable, and perhaps – in hindsight – maybe I should have told them to simply call me “Chris”.

It happened again at my much smaller second church, but eventually even the Pastor interchanged “Brother Chris” and “Pastor Chris”, so I didn’t take issue with it.

Back at my first church though – I kept getting asked when I was going to finally preach (since I “did everything else”). My reply was essentially “when the Pastor asks me to”. I think some members of the church body went to the Pastor and asked him when he would allow me to preach. I’m sure that irritated him as well. He was probably wondering why they wanted someone else to preach instead of him. Maybe he was thinking that I was telling them to ask him if I could preach. (I never did that.) I actually don’t blame him for wondering and thinking those scenarios.

As I continue further into my 20TH year of salvation – I’ll continue to look back at where I came from during my early and later years. I never wish to make the same mistakes in ministry as I’ve made in the past.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 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

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 21ST 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.

A couple of Sundays ago I shared a short version of my salvation story with my church family of the past 2 years. It fit in well with our current message series “This Is My Story”. Here’s what I said:

Well Good Morning church family. As we prepare for Communion – I want to share a short version of my story in Christ. My story began 19 years and 2½ weeks ago during the week of August 20TH 2006 in Homestead Florida. My salvation had a unique start to it.

I once was – lost, miserable, angry, and depressed. And then I met Jesus. You see – God used loud rock music on the radio to rescue me and save me from further descent into the darkness of the demons. But this was not your run-of-the-mill rock music on the radio. This was rock music from artists like Skillet, Disciple, Pillar, Jonah33, Relient K, Stellar Kart, Spoken, and even Family Force 5. These are bands that I had never heard of before, but once I listened to their music and paid attention to their lyrics that praised and worshipped God – I began to learn more about God. And the local Miami radio station that was playing all of that unusual music – they also stopped the music several times an hour to read Bible verses. That led me to Yahoo and Google – to look up those very same Bible verses – and to read and study the lyrics of the songs that I was listening to on the radio.

I did that for 5 months – before I ever stepped foot into my first church. It took at least a couple of those 5 months to discover what God had done for me. I learned the word “salvation” at the age of 39. I was a baby Christian into my early-40s.

The start of the 40TH Psalm is my salvation song:

Verse 1 – I waited for the LORD to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry. (Yes He did.)
Verse 2 – He lifted me out of the pit of despair – out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. (Yes He did.)
Verse 3 – He has given me a new song to sing – a hymn of praise to our God. (Yes He did.) Many will see what He has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.

YEP – He did all of that for me, and my salvation continues into its 20TH year.

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

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 14TH 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.

A couple of weeks ago I observed and celebrated my 2ND anniversary at my 4TH church over the past 18½ years. I entered Highlands Community Church here in Sebring Florida for the very first time on Sunday September 03RD 2023. Within the first 15 minutes I already had two new friends – from Homestead Florida – who knew some of my friends and my Pastor and his wife – in Homestead Florida.

I had recently been watching YouTube videos of services of my new church, so I knew what to expect with the music and the message. The only formality was to meet my new Pastor in person before the service started, and so I did on that first Sunday. It’s been a great two years, and the best is yet to come !

Officially I spent a little over 8 years at my first church in Homestead, and 9 years at my second church in Homestead. I enjoyed great experiences at both churches. They each had advantages and disadvantages. I experienced mountain highs and valley lows at both churches. But I look back fondly at both eras with a lot of lessons learned to move forth with. Perhaps I should’ve left my first church after 6½ years so that I could’ve gotten an 18-month head start at my second church. Perhaps I could’ve had the courage to say “no” a few more times at my first church. Perhaps I could’ve preached a few more sermons out of the Old Testament at my second church. Perhaps I could’ve reached out and ministered to a few more of our brothers and sisters at my second church.

My 3RD church here in Sebring entirely overlapped my 2ND church in Homestead, so I was only there once or twice a month. It only lasted about 5½ months. It started strong on my first Sunday there (Palm Sunday 2023), and it slowly diminished from there. I realized that there wasn’t much for me to do there to actively engage in ministry to improve and enhance the experience. It was a gathering of all ages (mostly a bit younger than me), but it really wasn’t alive. There was very little fellowship, and there were obvious cliques that weren’t particularly accepting of new faces. There wasn’t much leadership either, and each service was particularly unorganized and borderline chaotic. The Pastor (half my age) had no personality.

I needed to find a church where I could thrive now and for the rest of my life. When I select a new church – I select one where I expect to stay and thrive indefinitely – not just for a few months or a few years. Had I not moved away from Homestead – my second church would’ve probably been my forever church. But now I’m in Sebring, and I believe that my fourth church is really my forever church. I’m looking forward to what the future holds at Highlands Community Church.

For where two or three gather together as My followers – I am there among them. (Matthew 18:20 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