Living Above the Sun Ministries

"Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy." Psalm 33:1-3 Today I had the best time praising God in recording some songs with my brother and friend Tim. We recorded some songs I wrote, and I'm so thankful for the gift of music. I'm so thankful for the lyric God continues to sing over me, and through me. I pray that my voice is always tuned to His heart, that my ear is tuned to His voice. God loves to hear His children praising His name, and we as His children should love to praise Him just as much. God is so good.

PRAYER: I think a lot of people struggle with prayer. I have talked some about prayer on this blog. Prayer is the foundation of our relationship with Jesus. It is the heart and soul of every successful relationship with God. Jesus prayed a lot as we read about Him in the gospels of the Bible. So if Jesus prayed as much as he did because he needed it, shouldn't we as Christians need prayer that much more!? Jesus cried out "Daddy" (Abba) before he was crucified in the garden. He asked his daddy to take the cup of suffering from Him, if it was God's will. Jesus wanted to be in the will of His daddy, and we need to be that way too. Three foundations to a powerful prayer life starts with the fact that you must view your daily prayer time as a relationship with God and not just something you have to do out of obligation. It should be a sincere time, and not just another thing to check off the list. We as Christians have the privilege to go to the very throne of God whenever

Psalm 100 "Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name, For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." The joyous music of Christmas is by far the best of all. From the first Christmas, when a choir of angels sang praises to God, calling for peace and good will on earth on this joyous occasion, music has been a significant part in the telling and celebration of Jesus’ birth and story. Music speaks in a way that words alone cannot. I am so blessed to be apart of First Baptist Church Indian Trail and our yearly Christmas Presentation of An Indian Trail Christmas. Our theme this year was A Baby Changes Everything. I love to sing of and to my

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." -James 5:16  Majesty - Somebody's Praying Me Through .mp3 Found at bee mp3 search engine NOTE: YOU CAN PAUSE THE CHRISTMAS MUSIC AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!! God loves to hear from His children. But I believe He loves more for us to lavish our love on Him, to praise and Him and adore Him, not just talked to Him when we need or want something. He desires to give us things, He is our provider. Before I go into all the theology, I want to share from my heart what God has taught me personally about prayer. As I talk to God, my Father, I realize there is so much to adore about Him, so much to thank Him for...and not necessarily possessional things, but just for who He is. The more I praise and adore Him for who He already is, the more I realize I don't need all the little things here on earth.

James 5:16 "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." What kind of prayer are you? I can assure you after this series your prayer life will change. There are many types of prayers, there are the those who pray when they need something, there are those who will pray when they feel like there is no where else to turn, and there are those who pray the "gimmie, gimmie" prayer. According to the Bible prayer may take the form of adoration, praise, communion, waiting upon God, hearing God speak, receiving divine guidance, fellowship with God, self examination before God, confession, repentance, meditation, and worship. Prayer, like love, us a "many-splendored thing." You might ask though, if God's purposes are eternally unchanging what good does it do to pray? In view of providentially sustained regularities of nature, prayer

1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." Every 3rd Monday of the month I go out to eat with a bunch of ladies from my church. They are much older than me, but I enjoy fellowshipping with them very much. For me it's a major highlight to be in fellowship with them in sharing a meal together. Communing with other Christians over a shared meal has a very long history. The earliest Christians did not go out to eat together after their church service. In fact they went out to eat together during the church service. They gathered around tables and ate together before the preaching and hymn singing started. They called it the "love feast," and it wasn't just a symbolic meal, it was a real meal, where they sat down hungry and got up full. For the poorer members of the church it may have been the biggest meal they had all week. It was a time

Philippians 4:4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." The hymn “Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart,” inspired by verse four, was written by Edward H. Plumptre in 1865. He was a well-known Anglican scholar, author, theologian, and preacher. He wrote this hymn in preparation for the annual choir festival in the majestic, towering cathedral of Petersburg, England. Its eleven stanzas call for us to rejoice and celebrate God’s son, Jesus Christ. We, as American Christians, have much to celebrate. We are free to worship God as we choose, where we choose, with whom we choose. We are free to celebrate Christ’s birth, His life, and His death on the cross which made possible

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 Today I was reminded of this verse. Do you realize that everyday we must choose who we will serve? While you think it might be silly to pose the question, think about your day today. Who did this day most glorify? God or Satan? Who won the many mind battles today? Or, what "gods" did you worship and serve? Serving the Lord is hard. God never said it would be easy. But it's good to know He's got my back. You choose satan when you let him trample all over you and keep you out of church, and away from fellow Christ followers. Sometimes your whole household has chosen to serve Satan by letting him have the Victory in their life and how easy it would be to fal

"I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 Hope is a precious commodity. It is not some warm and fuzzy idea about progress. Hope is not optimism. Optimism is faith in humans and human potential. Hope is rooted in someone beyond ourselves who has demonstrated that possibilities exist beyond both our abilities and our imagination. Hope is relinquishing control over life in the sense of entrusting the future to this holy one who offers us nothing more than a promise. Sometimes things look hopeless through a human perspective. But we do have hope, we believe in the birth of our Savior, we believe in His life, we believe in His resurrection and so we are prisoners of hope. What an image! We do not cling to hope, trying to manage. That is not hope at all. That is merely an attempt to control, to maintain the status quo

"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there." Galatians 5:24 The Lord laid on my heart tonight the verse above. This verse convicted me, and as I began to think of all the things I struggle with and cry out inside about I decided thought of a creative meaningful way to visually see this verse and apply it to my life. I wanted to share this with you so you too can experience the peace, and the weight lifted that I did. You can print this cross out, or you can draw one. I drew one. On this cross, write down everything you struggle with, whatever you want to give to Jesus write it on the cross. As you are writing begin to pray: Father, through your son, Jesus, I daily crucify___________and overcome these sinful things by your power that is in me. They are covered by your blood. In Jesus' name! When you are finished writing, take a red crayon or marker and color over all the things

As the hymn, “Joy to the World!” by Isaac Watts proclaims: Let every heart prepare Him room! Advent is a time of preparation. Not for one, but all...as the line implies, let every heart be prepared to welcome the One who comes. The hymn, Joy to the World, is based upon Psalm 98, and there are two passages of that Psalm contained in this book. "7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. 8 Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy 9 at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the Earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity." Theologian, Walter Brueggemann, calls this a psalm of new orientation, about “The Once and Future King.” It is peculiar that this hymn, so often associated with Christmas joy, is drawn from the wells of the Hebrew hymnal, and that the Savior we prepare for is timeless and is a lot more than the Christmas season can hold. But if the Savior is timeless