The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told Him all they had done and taught. Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and His apostles didn’t even have time to eat. So they left by boat for a quiet place – where they could be alone. (Mark 6:30-32 NLT)
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
Greetings my extended church body – my brothers and sisters in Christ worldwide. It’s Sunday September 13TH 2020, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this day and each new day that God grants us on His fantastic journey for us.
Last Sunday morning when I arrived at my church sanctuary about 45 minutes prior to the start of the service I saw this to my surprise:
That’s our Communion table – front-and-center. I wasn’t expecting it there. You see for the past 4 years I’ve been in charge of Communion. I schedule it (usually on the first Sunday of every month). I study for it. I pray about it. I prepare the elements. I place the table. I lead my church body in Holy Communion. I did that every month from August 2016 to March 2020, and then COVID-19 hit.
We resumed regular weekly in-person services on Sunday May 31ST, but Communion was not part of the service due to COVID concerns. In June, July, and August I told my church body that eventually we would return to observing and celebrating Communion at the start of every month – once we figure out how to do it safely.
Well our Lead Pastor figured out a way to do it safely. He actually setup that Communion table, and it looked beautiful too. Once I saw that I had less than 45 minutes to study for it and pray about it. A nicety with modern technology is the fact that I had almost my entire history of Communions on a Cloud – accessible via my iPhone. I went to work to find one that was perfect for the day. Once I found it I updated it for the day. I prayed about it. I enhanced it further. I prayed about it some more. I essentially did what usually takes me much of Saturday to do at my traditional computer at home – in less than 45 minutes on my iPhone.
Our Lead Pastor delivered his message titled, “What Is The Day Of The LORD ?”, and then he called me up to lead Communion. It went rather smoothly, and it actually flowed perfectly as a nice continuation of his sermon. (That was a “God-wink” moment there.)
My Communion was based on 1 John 5:1-6:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves His children too. We know we love God’s children – if we love God and obey His commandments. Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world ? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by His baptism in water, and by shedding His blood on the cross. And the Spirit – who is truth – confirms it with His testimony.
EPILOGUE: You know I’m not big into surprises. I prefer the status quo. I prefer the way that it’s always been done. But you know – I’ve come to expect God’s surprises over the past 14 years, and I love them. Our God didn’t create this fantastic journey for us to live a routine – mundane – monotonous life. He created this journey for adventure and excitement. He died for us so that we can live – live the life that He intended us to live when He created us – a life with purpose – a life with potential to change the world. There are surprises with each new curve along the journey. Grab them, and make the most of them !
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
If you praise and worship God, and you love Him with all of your heart, and you say wonderful things about Him, and you bow down to Him, and you pray to Him, but then you don’t love all of His children out there – believers and non-believers – then your walk doesn’t line-up with your talk.
There’s a lot of great wisdom in the Book of James. Wisdom we need, so that we can use it out there. I preached a year-long sermon (once a month) during much of 2018. It was my first message series as a preacher. I learned a lot from that series. With each new sermon I got closer to God’s wisdom.
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you ? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you ? (James 4:1)
So the former non-believer James – the author of the Book of James – was a Teacher, a Preacher, a Pastor, and an Apostle. He was the head of the New Testament Church at the time. He’s writing to the Jewish Christians – scattered among all the nations. These Christians are fighting amongst themselves. They’re fighting with each other. They’re fighting with others – including non-believers. There’s not a lot of peace going on there.
That’s one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit – peace. Remember – Christ said on the mountainside, “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
So as the church’s leader at the time – James “The Just” – (one of his nicknames) – justly reprimands the children of God – the church body. He calls them out on their squabbles, and he tells them why they are at war and not at peace.
You see they are still following the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God. They don’t trust God fully. And if they don’t trust God fully – then they just don’t trust Him. They were just like the non-believers of the time. James couldn’t tell them apart.
Fast forward not quite 2,000 years into the future, and what do we have in the world today ? We have Christians inside God’s Kingdom who look and act no different than non-Christians of the world. We have churches squabbling internally about silly things – mostly non-Biblical things. We have megachurches looking down on small churches as irrelevant or insignificant. We have small churches chastising megachurches as secular or worldly. We have churches competing against each other rather than uniting with one another. We have religions and denominations – and their respective manmade rules – working against each other – and writing each other off as heretics. We have church leaders preaching on how much we sin – and how much the world sins – as they get caught in years of sin. We have Pastors and Preachers who write-off other Pastors and Preachers because of what they say, what they don’t say, or what they believe.
No wonder non-believers and non-followers of Christ walk away from us rather than towards us. The hard truth is that many of our neighbors out there love God, but they don’t care too much for His followers – because of what they hear and see from us.
I speak from personal experience here. I felt that way up until 14 years ago. I’ve always believed in God’s existence. Even when I didn’t follow Him – I’ve always believed that He was real in some form. I didn’t know much about Him, but I always knew that He was there – somewhere. But I didn’t care so much for God’s people and for God’s churches. That is – until I became His follower – and then – 5 months later – became part of His church body.
In my first year on this fantastic journey – 2006 into 2007 – I began learning about the God that I always believed in. I soon fell in love with God – first – before family – before friends – before coworkers – before my job – before everything else in my life – before everything else in the world.
I joined a church family (during the 3RD weekend of January of 2007), and I found other people – right here in my town – who were just like the new me. I immediately started learning more about God alongside my new brothers and sisters of my new church family at the time.
I learned that God commanded me to love everyone – genuinely – believers and non-believers alike. I don’t think that a lot of our neighbors out there know that we love them – and that God loves them – unconditionally – eternally. We need to do a much better job – as God’s church body – in getting that message out there to the world.
In these last days we have disorder and evil of every kind. But all is not lost. I truly believe that God’s Kingdom continues to expand. God’s Kingdom is not shrinking. Don’t believe those who say it is. God’s Kingdom is expanding. It’s expanding because of the arms, the hands, the legs, the feet, and – oh yeah – the mouths of His disciples (that’s all of us) – here on His creation.
God’s Kingdom is expanding here in the U.S. and all around the world. If you watch a lot of TV it may look like evil is winning. Don’t fall for it. I believe that the devil is retreating and losing the war. The devil is a loser. He’s a liar, a thief, a murderer, and a destroyer.
We do so much better – when we follow God’s Wisdom rather than the world’s wisdom.
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
Greetings my friends ! It’s Sunday August 30TH 2020, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us continue to praise and worship Christ our Savior !
This past Friday evening I got the call to preach to my church body on this Sunday morning. I immediately went to work to finalize my sermon. I’ll be preaching out of the Book of Malachi with a sermon that I wrote in January and February (before COVID-19). It’s the first part of hopefully a multi-part message series on the prophet Malachi. I haven’t started writing the second part yet. I was waiting until I had the opportunity to preach the first part before I began work on the next part.
In this first part I’ll be covering Malachi’s message on God’s love for Israel – as well as his message on corrupt priests.
Scripture will be mostly from the Old Testament with 4 additional verses from Romans.
My “call-to-action” to close-out my sermon will be based on Romans 10:14-15:
How can they – call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him ?
How can they – believe in Him if they have never heard about Him ?
How can they – hear about Him unless someone tells them ?
How will anyone go and tell them without being sent ?
That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring Good News !”
You know I always get excited and look forward to “Sermon Sunday” – those Sundays when I get the opportunity to share my heart with my brothers and sisters of my church body. I am blessed for these opportunities to preach God’s Word from the pulpit.
Even if these opportunities to preach were to diminish or disappear – I’d still write sermons at home. I’d continue to share them with you – my brothers and sisters in Christ – my friends and neighbors worldwide who follow this blog. My sermons are open letters to God.
If you’re a believer and follower of God then I encourage you to talk to Him, sing for Him, dance for Him, and write to Him. Do it all for Him. Share with others what God places in your heart. Be a messenger of God’s Good News.
If you’re not yet a believer and follower of God then I encourage you to keep an open mind and an open heart. I’d like to share with you the God that I know. He’s the God that loves you immensely. He’s got a fantastic journey that awaits you. It’s created and customized just for you. He’ll wait for you until you’re ready to accept Him.
All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries
CountUp