Tag: Reverend

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

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 07TH 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 use the word “fellowship” often – and not just in a church setting. I use it at the museum where I serve. I use it here in my own neighborhood. Fellowship is now a way of life for me, but it hasn’t always been this way.

As I was planning for my relocation and retirement a few years ago – I decided that once I do relocate – I wanted to “flip the script” – and be a completely different type of person. I wanted to invest in fellowship.

Back in Homestead – particularly during the last 8 years (2015-2023) – I was close to being a recluse – aside from Sundays (church days). I went to work in the morning, I returned home in the afternoon, and I spoke to nobody before and after work. I knew none of my neighbors. They did not know me. Quite frankly I believe that they were suspicious of me, as I was not like them, and I did not speak their language. I think they thought that maybe I worked as a Secret Agent for the FBI, or the CIA, or the U.S. Marshals. Maybe they thought I was doing surveillance every time I was outside taking out the trash or checking my mail or walking to and from my car.

I decided that I no longer wanted to be that type of person that nobody knew outside of church and outside of the workplace.

When I moved away to Sebring – I trusted God and his gift of fellowship.

I immediately became an actively involved member of the Sebring Historical Society (a local non-profit organization). I even became a docent at our historical museum every Tuesday for about 9 months. Every Wednesday I spend up to 5 hours with my museum friends in fellowship. For almost a year I’ve served on our Board Of Directors, and I serve as our Social Media Director. (You can see my work on Facebook at our Sebring Historical Society page.) The former Chris in Homestead would’ve never imagined doing any of this in the local community.

I became active here in my own neighborhood. I’m part of the one-third to one-fourth of my 55+ community that participates in regularly scheduled activities and meetings. I started with BINGO every Monday night soon after I moved in. Nowadays I unlock the doors and cabinets and setup before anyone else arrives at our clubhouse, and then I handle all of the money coming in and determine all of the jackpot amounts. I’m the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. God’s fellowship has led to a feeling of importance – a purpose here at home. And then there are all of the wonderful meals that we’ve shared together in fellowship. And we even have a small Bible Study group that meets weekly throughout most of the year here in my neighborhood !

And then there’s my church family of the past 2 years. Sunday Morning Service is crucial, and so is Men’s Fellowship on the first Tuesday of every month, and so is Friday Night Bible Study each week. It’s fellowship with my brothers and sisters of my church family. It’s sharing our stories and our lives and our fantastic journeys with each other as we walk together towards God’s Glorious light.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light – as God is in the light – then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus – his Son – cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7 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 August 31ST 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.

For the past 8 Sundays here on #Sunday Scripture I’ve been presenting a transcription of my original sermon that I preached to my previous church family in Homestead Florida on Sunday October 16TH 2022. The title of the sermon is “Blessings & Benedictions”, and it’s my 50TH sermon as identified on my SERMONS page. It’s been interesting bringing the sermon back to life on here nearly 3 years later and presenting it to a different and wider audience this time around.

The sermon has been presented exactly as it was written, but of course it does not include extra dialogue such as ad-libs and other spontaneous thoughts that were verbalized at the time of preaching.

Previous parts of the sermon can be accessed by clicking below:
PART 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Here’s Part 9 (the conclusion):

Check out this video, and on the other side of it – I’ll have some final words for you.

Great song. Great Benediction to take out into the world out there.

So I want to close this message and send you out there in a special way. The way that I did this a decade ago with my previous church family just down the road from here. It went something like this, and a younger me said:

Let us prepare for our Benediction. I hope that you enjoyed your experience today here at Living Waters – the music – the message. I hope that you join us as we do it again next Sunday at 11. We’ll kick it off with Praise & Worship.

And so let us never go to and leave from church, but let us be God’s church and let us bring God’s church – in everything we do and everywhere we go. And let us boldly introduce and represent Our Father who art in Heaven to the world around us – with what we say – and with what we do, for some of the most powerful preaching comes from walking rather than talking. And let us close out this service and go out into the world the way we always do. It’s our Benediction. It’s straight out of His Good News – His Truth. It’s from Psalm 19 and Verse 14. And as the Bible says:

Let the words of my mouth – and the meditation of my heart – be acceptable in thy sight – O Lord – my Strength – and my Redeemer. AMEN !

May God bless each and every one of us ! Go forth. Go in peace. Go with love in your heart.

(End of sermon)

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