Living Above the Sun Ministries

"I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord. And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline: Let them sit alone in silence beneath the Lord’s demands. Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last. Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies." Lamentations 3:20-30 The Lord has laid it on my heart to share my story with you of the past few years of my life. I have been in a time of fervent testing, but in that testing seeing the Faithfulness of God. This is my

Being responsible can have it's ups and downs. I've always considered myself to be responsible. Have I always made responsible decisions? No. But I have always tried to reach a level of maturity to where people can trust me to do things. Ironically, responsibility can sometimes keep you from other responsibilities you have and it can get very aggravating! Take for example: This morning I had to go back to school, my class starts at 9:00. I worked last night at my job, and worked at my house packing boxes and other things. Also this week I've been taking care of my cousins dog, and I take care of my dog too. So I let myself sleep in a little bit because I really needed it. Ended up not being a responsible decision because I still had to take care of dogs and get to class by 9. I was late for class, but the dogs are okay. haha! There are times it's hard to juggle it all, and I guess more than anything we continue to learn as we go. Like parenting. So, I wa

"‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams." Acts 2:17 Church, my brotha's and my sista's, I believe we are living in the last days. My sister and I talk about it often. We don't know the day or the hour, but God does; and Jesus is so ready to come get His children and I can't help but imagine Jesus sitting on the edge of His throne just waiting for God to tell Him, "Go get 'em! Bring them home!" What I'm about to lay out here is very true...no I won't be predicting dates...but I can tell you what the verse about tells us in Acts is very true. Prophesy will happen, visions will be seen, and dreams will be dreamed. I want to talk about the Holy Spirit in this post, as apart of our "The Power of the Church" series. I believe His Spirit is in face being poured out on all, and I particula

Watch me tie this into the power of the church! Yeah, I'm that awesome. HAHA! Over the past week my faith has really been tried and tested. A friend of mine the other day said, "Before God elevates you, He tests you." It is so true, and makes sense. How can you survive higher levels in life if you can't handel what you have now? One of the things I've been doing is asking the "What if" question. Through this time of testing, I've been thankful for the people who have taken the time to pour their word of advise and encouragement in me. Without it, I probably would have given up a long time ago. It's a bad habit of mine. As I have pondered on my friends words and advice something that has kept coming back to mind is, believing in the power of now. There is nothing I can do about my past, somedays I hate what I've been through and have done to myself, but then there are days that I am thankful for the pain, and what I've been thro

"One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way. So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to the seaport of Seleucia and then sailed for the island of Cyprus." -Acts 13:2-4 Writing on my blog makes me so happy! So, lately, I've been studying through the book of Acts. Acts, is still being written today, as the church continues to progress. It is important that every Christian know the power they possess through the Spirit. But more importantly than that, I believe every Christian has a responsibility to pray over and for each other. Remember in the last post we looked all through the book of Acts, instances where things happened as a result of prayer. In our key verse for today, because a group of men were worshiping they heard from

"They all met together continually for prayer..." Acts 1:14 Not long ago I did a series on prayer, if you look back in the December archives, the series was entitled "How Effective is Prayer?" You may find it helpful to look back and refresh your mind on what prayer really is. Sometimes it's easy to loose sight of understanding how important this is in our Christian lives and what God expects of us. We remain in a constant dependence on God. In order to accomplish God's purposes in the world, it requires us to devote ourselves to relentless prayer in the church. Prayer demonstrates our selflessness and God's self-centeredness. When we come to realize that it is impossible for us to accomplish His purposes in our own strength, we express our dependence upon God through prayer. When you read the story of the early church in the book of Acts, for some prayer was fundamental, rather than being supplemental. They were dependent on God's power. Ev

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8 There is a key word in this verse. If you guessed POWER you are correct! Notice what's cool about this context of the word 'power'; that you will receive power to change the world. A strategy for the church to change the world is laid out in Acts 1:1-14, when the church deviates from this strategy the church becomes ineffective. The book of Acts is a continuation of Jesus' ministry with Jesus' power being invested in believers who are possessed by Jesus, indwelt by Holy Spirit, manifest the life and power of God the Father. This is what we call authentic Christianity. Jesus says in the verse above that "you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere- in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth." Re

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." -James 4:10 Humbleness is the opposite of pride. God has been talking to me a lot about being humble, and he has certainly continued to humble me, and keep me humble over my short life. In reading the book, Radical written by David Platt, He challenges Christians to give up the "American Dream." The whole idea of health, wealth, and prosperity and surrender fully to a holy God with all that we really have and say "take me, and use me." He'll humble you alright. Is it worth it? Yes. I speak from experience, so hear me out. First and foremost, I've never had a lot, I'm only 22 so life is just getting started, hard to believe with all that I've gone through in life. However, I've always had a roof over my head, and enough food to eat. I got my first job at a hospital as a stock clerk, I loved my job and I made a little more than minimum wage. I was far from having my

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18 Today I hit the streets of Charlotte in a mission to "Give Love Away." In the summer of 2009, I went on a "Give Love Away" tour mission trip to Dallas, Texas. Without saying much we'll just say that trip was disappointing, but God still used us, and now today I'm still trying to give Jesus' love away. I'm thinking from now on I will do this once a week, a give love away day and I invite anyone who wants to join me to join me. I told God that if He gave me a job I would use the money I made to spread his name to my surroundings and wherever He wants me to go. So that's what I'm doi

"Through pride the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every vice, it's the complete anti-God state of mind." -C.S. Lewis One of things I love about Spring and Summer other than pollen and sneezing every 3 seconds is being able outside after being in hibernation for the winter. I enjoy getting up and going out on the deck and listen to creation wake up and "talk" to each other. I'll take my Bible with me and whatever book I'm reading and sit and meditate on things. For a while now I've known I wanted to write on pride but have been waiting for God to reveal what about pride to write. I started to really think about it in Theatre Appreciation class (what else is new right? I told you that class changed my life). We watched "Oedipus", and my professor kinda lectured that Oedipus' major character flaw was pride. Then I got to thinking, pride sneaks up on us sometimes and we don't even know it's pride that is affecting

" Jesus said, 'Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them [a]into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days (perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age.'" -Matthew 28:19-20 This is where church drops the ball in my opinion; discipleship. Oh yeah, we will lead you in a sinners prayer, but then you're kinda left hanging...am I wrong? Discipleship is so crucial to both new believers, and to those who have been believers for years. I've been a Christian for 8 years and I still need some discipling from time to time. I think back on the people who God placed in my life to disciple me, and I am so thankful for their influence on my life and how they taught me to read my Bible consistently, and how they invested the Word of God in my life. How they listened to my thought

"And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires. If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit." -Galatians 5:24-25

My English Professor taught me a lot this semester, especially in life skills and how to be successful in every area of life. Some great qualities to possess are: Consistency, Initiative, and Attendance. When she lectured on this, she was talking in the context of school, however, this can relate to anything in life. Like rain is consistent, we have to be consistent in work, in things that really matter...no matter how hard they get. It's about "constantly adhering to the same principles and course; not contradicting yourself." Many times people around us will say negative things, and it can get us down and discouraged about a class or work project. That is when we can take the INITIATIVE to step up and tell somebody what's up...right? It's all about being a leader. For me, this is the hardest thing to do because, not only do I fight voices in the world, but like many others, I fight voices in my head saying I am worthless and will never measure up.

Working at McDonald's something I have come to realize is that on both sides of the counter we each don't know the first thing about each other. The customer doesn't know anything about me, and I don't know anything about the customer; all we see is the surface. This reality hit me last night as I was working the front counter. After taking a frail looking man's order, another customer came in that knew him. Overhearing their conversation at the counter I came to learn that the frail looking man had advanced lung cancer...all the while having 2 packs of Menthol Marlboro's hanging out of his shirt. Then the customer doesn't know anything about me. All I am is a crew member at McDonald's. They don't know I write this awesome blog, or study Theology and Philosophy. They don't know I'm involved in my church, or go to school. At times it bothers me, because there are some people who look down on me, and look at me like I'm stupid, and

Professor Wilson, this one's for you. This semester I have been blessed to be in my Theatre Appreciation course. Who knew what I would learn in there would be life changing for me. I have had an awesome professor, and am so privileged and honored to sit under her teaching. I don't say that about a lot of teachers. I must say though, at Central Piedmont I have had some wonderful teachers and a good experience so far. This semester has been among the top best as I have loved all my classes and professors. I have finally set some goals for myself thanks to some instructors/professors sitting down with me and helping me plan out stuff. I have come to decide that I'll be pursuing a B.A. at UNC-W in Philosophy and Religion. In Theatre Appreciation we covered some Philosophers that influenced Theatre mainly being Aristotle. Really it all started with Oedipus where I started to get really interested in Theatre History and draw connections to things I understood mainly as a