Tag: Scripture

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Sunday Scripture

Shortly after 1:30 AM EDT on Thursday June 24TH 2021 disaster struck my South Florida community when about half of a fully-occupied 12-story residential beachfront condominium complex collapsed and pancaked onto itself along the Atlantic coast in the small town of Surfside (about 40 miles / 65 kilometers from my home).

It will very likely be the largest instant loss of life in Florida in nearly a century.

I realized the horror unfolding on the local TV news about 4 hours later as I was preparing to drive to work. At one point I got overly emotional, and I started crying. I haven’t stop grieving ever since. I weep with those who weep.

Search-and-rescue operations continue this weekend as our first-responder heroes continue to be hopeful that there are survivors underneath the rubble. We pray to our Lord for the safety and security of those heroes in the elements day and night atop the rubble. We pray for the comfort and peace of the family and friends who lost loved ones on that morning. We pray for the healing and restoration of the survivors who made it out alive. We lift up the town of Surfside to our God Almighty. #SurfsideStrong

I don’t personally know anyone who was in those towers, but I know that men and women, parents and children, and entire families went to bed on Wednesday night just like any other normal night with an ambitious schedule for Thursday, and in an instant they were physically gone along with the building they slept in. I didn’t know any of them, but they were my neighbors. They were God’s creations.

God is our refuge and strength – always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come, and the mountains crumble into the sea.
Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge !
(Psalm 46:1-3)

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday June 20TH 2021, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate our fathers on this Father’s Day – as well as our almighty Father in Heaven.

This past Friday I finished writing my sermon on “Salvation & Hope”. It actually plays out as a tribute to the Reverend Billy Graham and the work that he did for God at his many crusades around the world. My Pastor preached an hour-long-plus sermon last Sunday on his personal experiences with Oral Roberts.

I also wrote about the start of my salvation 15 years ago this August. This sermon serves as my first of many from my new message series on the Apostle Peter’s two letters to Christians scattered throughout the Roman Empire from Rome in the west to Jerusalem in the east. It covers 1 Peter 1:3-12.

All praise to God – the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by His great mercy that we have been born again – because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance – an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you – pure and undefiled – beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith – God is protecting you by His power until you receive this salvation – which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

I now have two full sermons to pray about and select from when I’m asked to preach again to my church family. (The other is my sermon on the good Kings Uzziah and Jotham of Judah.) Only one thing to do now: Start writing a new sermon based on 1 Peter 1:13-21.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday June 13TH 2021, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate another new day in His presence – on this journey that He set forth for us.

On this exact morning 36 years ago in 1985 (a Thursday) I arrived with others on a bus from San Antonio International Airport to Lackland Air Force Base. We arrived at around 0100 (after traveling all day the previous day), and we were instantly yelled and screamed at by our Training Instructor (T.I.). He put us to bed about an hour later, and he woke us up 4 hours after that for our first full day of military indoctrination.

I still work for the USAF today, so this is officially my 36TH anniversary. I’ve been serving as a Department Of Defense Civilian for the past 28 years. (I was Active Duty for 8 years.)

The first 22 years of my Air Force career (1985-2007) were mostly forgettable. A majority of those years were “bad years”. There were some highlights along the way, and I worked with some good people, but overall it was not a positive time professionally (or even personally). 1991 to 1993 stands out as the best 2 years of that early part of my career. Ironically I went to war in Saudi Arabia (Operation Desert Storm), and I watched Hurricane Andrew destroy my military base and surrounding region during that time. But it was the peak of the military portion of my career.

It went downhill fast after that. If there’s a “rock bottom” of my career (and life) then it was 2006. It was really spiraling downward for about a dozen years prior to that. I don’t think that it could have gone much further downward by the Summer of 2006.

By then my God had seen enough. He stepped in and intervened. He saved my life.

I’m approaching the 15TH anniversary of the start of my salvation, and it’s actually the inspiration behind the current sermon that I’m writing titled “Salvation & Hope” (based on 1 Peter 1:3-12).

This salvation began a little more than 11 months before my career did a complete 360. (I did a lot of newfound praying to my God during those 11 months.) I was placed in a new building – with a new job – and with all-new people (most of whom I had never met before). I’m currently enjoying the best 14 years (and counting) of my Air Force career.

I often wonder if I would know God today if it weren’t for those first 22 years, and particularly those dozen years leading-up to 2006, and especially 2006 itself. I was far from God during that time, but somehow God reached me as I was dying. Nobody led me to God. Nobody invited me to church. Nobody asked me to attend a concert with them. Yet God intervened. He rescued me. He saved me. He entered my heart. A new life had begun.

My salvation continues today, and it will lead to my inheritance in heaven – my final and eternal salvation – when Jesus Christ returns.

And through your faith – God is protecting you by His power until you receive this salvation – which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. (1 Peter 1:5)

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday June 06TH 2021, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us look upon our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ for guidance and direction – for safety and security.

I have returned from a 77-hour / 472-mile summer vacation road-trip to and from Florida’s Treasure Coast. I spent some quality time, I learned a lot, I had a lot of fun, and I met some great people along the way from Stuart to Sebastian Inlet State Park.

I have at least a month’s worth of new material to write about, and I’ll be sharing that for the next 4 or 5 Thursdays starting this Thursday June 10TH 2021.

One of my many fun visits was to the McKee Botanical Garden just south of the city limits of Vero Beach off U.S. 1. It’s on the U.S. National Register Of Historic Places. From 1932 to 1976 it was known as McKee Jungle Gardens, and it was a popular roadside tourist attraction right alongside the main highway for the U.S. East Coast.

That’s the King James Version from the Book Of Genesis – Chapter 2 – Verses 8 & 9a.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries