Tag: Reverend

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday January 29TH 2023, 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 upcoming #TravelThursday I’ll be blogging about my fun day along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. I took a nearly 5-hour shore excursion (land tour) of the region surrounding Puerto Plata – the country’s 3RD-largest city. Overlooking Puerto Plata from nearly 800 meters / 2,600 feet above sea level esta Loma Isabel de Torres. And atop the mountain esta El Cristo Redentor (Christ The Redeemer). It was installed in 1970. What a beautiful sight it is !

I now continue presenting my New Year’s Day sermon in its original written form. It’s based on the Matthew West song of late-2019 / early-2020 – “The God Who Stays”. Here’s Part 3:

Oh – but somehow You don’t see me like I do
Somehow You’re still here
You’re the God who stays
You’re the God who stays
You’re the One who runs in my direction
When the whole world walks away

You’re the God who stands
With wide open arms
And You tell me nothing I have ever done
Can separate my heart
From the God who stays

That’s my God. That’s your God. That’s our God. He doesn’t see us like we see us. We are not God. He is God. He is the Father. He is the Son. He is the Holy Spirit. He is here. He is not going anywhere. He is the God who stays. The Holy Spirit is within each and every one of us who believes, and follows, and trusts, and loves our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ.

I used to hide
Every time I thought I let You down
I always thought I had to earn my way
But I’m learning – You don’t work that way

You know we can’t hide from our God. He sees it all. He hears it all. He knows what we are thinking. If you do something that’s not Godly, and you instantly realize what you’ve done, and you regret it, and you feel bad about it, and you’re sincerely sorry for it – then let me tell you something about that. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit convicting you, and that’s a gift from our God.

Here’s a prayer that you can say. (I pulled this from the Internet a few nights ago.):

Help me Lord to see conviction as a gift – a gift of grace and mercy. Please continue to stir in my heart the places that I’ve fallen complacent, and lead me as I turn from them. Help me to live out the Truth from Galatians 5:25 – that if I say I live by the Spirit – then let me stay in step with the Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

That’s a good prayer right there. Let me know after the service if you want me to text that prayer to you, and I’ll do that. Today is a great day to start a new prayer regimen. Find time every day in this new year to pray to our God. He wants to hear from you more often in 2023 than in 2022.

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) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday January 22ND 2023, 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 morning begins my 17TH year of being part of a church family. Yesterday morning was actually the 16TH anniversary of the first time that I ever walked into a church (occupying our local movie theatre) to attend a Sunday morning church service. That was about 15 minutes before 10 AM on Sunday January 21ST 2007. That was a bold move on my part. It was a God-led move. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how it would go. I was nervous. I was a bit scared. My life had changed forever just 5 months prior when I was rescued and saved by my Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. I was now taking that next big step forward to get closer to God and invite other likeminded people onto my fantastic journey.

I decided during those first 15 minutes that the church family that I chose was the right church family for me going forth. They were my church family for the next 8 years.

Ever since that first Sunday morning 16 years ago I haven’t missed many Sunday morning services. This morning I look forward to the start of Year 17.

I now continue presenting my New Year’s Day sermon in its original written form. It’s based on the Matthew West song of late-2019 / early-2020 – “The God Who Stays”. Here’s Part 2:

But – we had – and we have – and we will always have – the God who stays.

As the lyrics of the song start:

If I were You – I would’ve given up on me by now
I would’ve labeled me a lost cause
‘Cause I feel just like a lost cause

You see our God – our God – He accepts everyone. He rejects no one. He gives up on no one. None of His creations are lost causes.

You know there’s a lot of people out there – people we know and people we don’t know – colleagues and acquaintances – friends and coworkers – even family members – who truly believe and are convinced that they are a lost cause – as far as being accepted by our God – as far as eternity with Him. But Chris you don’t understand what I’ve done. I’ve done horrible things. I’ve hurt and destroyed people. I’ve committed crimes against humanity. Your God doesn’t want me. Your God can’t use me. Your God hates me !

You know whose job it is to try to convince them otherwise ?  It’s our job. That’s right – you and me. We’re God’s priests. All of us. We’re God’s preachers. All of us. It’s our job to show those people out there a better way. It’s a great way – to show them the love of God.

If I were you – I would’ve turned around and walked away
I would’ve labeled me beyond repair
‘Cause I feel like I’m beyond repair

You know who turns around and walks away ?  The people out there. Hey even Christians turn around and walk away at times. We are flawed – just like them. But not our God. Our God walks to us. He never walks from us. Even before we were rescued and saved – our God was walking to us. Our problem was that – we kept walking away from Him – over and over again. And then He rescued and saved us when we couldn’t go any further. And we repented. We turned around. We turned from sin, and we walked to Him.

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) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday January 15TH 2023, 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.

Starting with this #SundayScripture and continuing for the rest of the month and into February I’ll present my New Year’s Day sermon in its original written form. It’s based on the Matthew West song of late-2019 / early-2020 – “The God Who Stays”. Here’s Part 1:

Well Good Morning again – church family. Happy New Year’s Day !  You all look wonderful in this brand-new year – 2023. 2022 was a good year for many of us, but I just know that our God will lead us to a greater 2023.

It’s good to be able to stand up here at the pulpit, and serve our Lord, and preach our very first sermon of the new year. You know the very first time I ever stood on a stage – to preach a full sermon – was also on New Year’s Day – 11 years ago today – as 2012 began. That was over at the former Flagship Cinemas movie theatre – where my previous church family met at that time. I preached on “Jesus & Abraham” from the Gospel of John – Chapter 8.

You know I used to have stage fright. I used to be afraid of dealing with a crowd of people – even a small group of people. This went all the way back to my childhood in the 1970s. I did not like it when the focus was on me. I used to be very shy and reserved. I’m still a little bit shy and reserved, but our God – our God – He has made me bold and outspoken – when it’s appropriate to be such. Our God wants us to listen twice as much as we speak. That’s why we have two ears and one mouth. You know I’ve always been good at listening, and God has taught me to speak. Speak – when you have something important to say. Speak – to brighten someone’s day. Speak – to glorify our God.

The Bible says that we must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. (James 1:19)

Proverbs 18:13 says – Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish. (That’s from the New Living Translation.)

I kinda like the Good News Translation of that verse – Listen before you answer. If you don’t – you are being stupid and insulting.

So today I want to talk to you about the God who stays. “The God Who Stays” – sounds like the title of a song. That’s because it is. It’s the title of a song that’s sung by Mr. Matthew West – one of my favorite Christian pop singers. (He also co-wrote the song.) It’s a former # 1 hit on the Christian pop charts from 3 years ago – late-2019 into mid-2020. K-LOVE played it a lot during the onset of COVID in March and April of 2020 – when we were all told to stay home, and not go outside, and not associate with people. We all became introverts during the COVID lockdowns.

This is just my own personal opinion on this, but hopefully we learned our lesson from 2020, and no matter what global pandemic may be our next one – there will be no lockdown for everyone. Those lockdowns did permanent damage to humanity that will last at least a generation.

That was a truly a bleak time in our life. We had never seen anything like it before. A pandemic basically shut-down the entire world. As believers and followers of Jesus Christ – our Lord + Savior – we got closer to Him – a lot closer. We got closer to Him via His Word (the Bible), via His lyrics (music – whether contemporary or traditional), and via our conversations with Him (prayer). You know the onset and peak of COVID certainly felt like the definitive beginning of the end-of-days.

When Jesus spoke about the future – He said “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from Heaven.” (Luke 21:10-11)

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) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday January 08TH 2023, 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 preached a full sermon to my church family last Sunday – New Year’s Day. That was a surprise. I found out on the prior Thursday afternoon after I got home from work that I was being asked to preach on that Sunday. I accepted, and I immediately went to work with a brand-new sermon.

(Another already-completed sermon all about Paul’s disciple Titus was supposed to be my next sermon to preach, but I opted to save that one for a later date.)

So I wrote a sermon that’s based on the Matthew West song of late-2019 / early-2020 – “The God Who Stays”. Starting next #SundayScripture I’ll present that sermon in its original written form.

Also last Sunday after my sermon and Communion I formally announced to my church family that I was leaving later in the year. My plans starting next month (by mid-February) are to be here in my current hometown for only 3½ days each week – from Sunday mornings to Wednesday afternoons. My commute to join my church family each Sunday morning will soon be 183 miles instead of 3 miles.

I have not yet found a new church family that I can call home on Sunday mornings in Sebring, but I am looking online. Eventually I’ll start to visit physically some of the churches that I’m visiting virtually. That means missing an occasional Sunday morning service with my current church family.

2023 is a year of radical change for me, and this blog continues on to document the adventures of my fantastic journey.

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) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp