Living Above the Sun Ministries

Often times in the Bible we are referred to as the sheep of God’s pasture, and that Jesus is our Shepherd. I was reading in the book of Ezekiel the other night. As some of you know, I’m reading through the Bible in 90 days again. Anyway, Ezekiel has become a favorite book of Bible of mine. Chapter 34 is about God being our Shepherd bringing us back to the sheepfold. Ezekiel 34:12-16 New Living Translation (NLT) 12 I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. 13 I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers and in all the places where people live. 14 Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and give them a

"Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan." -Ephesians 1:11 Does everything in the world take place according to the will of God? Questions such as these relate to, and address the providence of God, and thus you have proposed a theological question. Apparently the founders of the state of Colorado believed that everything takes place according to God's will. The state motto affirms: Nil sine Numine, "Nothing without providence." The state seal pictures the all-seeing eye of God. Can we today believe that everything in our state, nation, and world fits into the divine plan> Are God's eternal purposes actually being achieved in our perplexed world? God's purposes in the world often include judgement as well as evident progress. Whether we can or cannot see them, the Creator's plans are being realized throug

"So the last will be first, and the first will be last. I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him." -Matthew 20:16, 21:31-32 I wanted to share a thought I had the other day. Matthew has been a great book to be in this past week studying and reading. A theme that I noticed in the book of Matthew is the fact that we are equal. Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Each worker earned a denarius, the workers who came at the 11th hour and the workers who had been there all day. It's showing God's grace too. Only by the grace of God are we where we are today. Even in the worst circumstance of life, God is good to us. The book of Nehemiah has also become a favorite of m

Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.’ -Zechariah 1:3 For the past few days, God has been burning this message on my heart. I feel like so many people need to hear it. There is so much doubt in the world, so much hopelessness, hurt, bitterness...the list could go on, and the excuses as to why we do not return to the Lord. But it's time to come back! Softly and Tenderly, Jesus is calling! There are many Christians who have wandered away from the Lord. Satan wants us to believe, that once we have fallen away, there is no way back. But this simply is not true. Do not be discouraged by your mistakes, but keep coming back to Christ over and over. Jesus tells a parable in Luke 15:11-24, which illustrates how God longs for us to return to Him if we have wandered away in sin. The parable tells of a son who took his inheritance and went away from his father into a f

In his book, "The Seeking Heart," Fenelon writes "I am inspired by John the Baptist who completely forgot himself that he might think only of Christ. He pointed to Christ with his whole life. What an example he sets before you!" John the Baptist's ministry was all about preparing the way for Jesus. In almost any crowd, John the Baptist would be called unique. He wore odd clothes, ate strange food, and preached an unusual message. He would not have agreed with the habit we have of evaluating people by how the dress-or by how they act. He would have insisted that we listen to what he had to say. What John wanted to do more than anything was to obey God, and he wasn't afraid to ask others to do the same. John realized he had a special role to play in the world. His job was to tell the world that the Savior was about to arrive, and John was totally committed to this purpose. John's message still applies to us today, in that not only do we need to

Yesterday afternoon I watched an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, most of the time the show wears me out it's so dumb and annoying, but this particular interest caught my attention because it lined up so well with the way a Christian is deceived, but also how we should act. The character of Plankton was trying to teach Spongebob how to be assertive, he tries to manipulate SpongeBob into becoming aggressive and mean in order to get more out of life. SpongeBob discovers that just because people obey you they don’t necessarily respect you. Besides, it’s just more fun to be nice to people and have them like you. Watch this clip. http://spongebob.nick.com/videos/clip/walking-small-clip.html In this clip Plankton is like Satan, he tempts us with good things to get our attention and get us interested. As Plankton is trying to teach Spongebob how to be assertive and get his way and the things he wants, Spongebob takes everything Plankton says the wrong way and ends up being nice to

I remember several years ago, I was in 5th or 6th grade, I would play out in the woods till dark. One day I decided I that I would put a newly learned verse, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" to the test. I still had a childlike faith. So I picked up two sticks and started rubbing them together trying to start a fire because I was cold..and I was in the woods. I said that verse over and over and over and prayed and prayed. But no fire. It baffled me for days, weeks, and months, even years why God didn't come through, I had the faith, I was praying, I was saying scripture...then it occurred to me not long ago. I was in the woods, around houses. can you imagine the catastrophe had God allowed a fire to start? I was out there for hours rubbing those two sticks together, I even got my friends to start praying. I guess it's kind of a lesson. God sees catastrophe ahead when we don't. He knows what is best, He sees our faith, he answers our prayers.

"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." -John 8:32 'You don't realize how much you miss the truth until it is presented to you again, and it penetrates your heart." These are the words I uttered today as I left church this morning. Where do I begin? Satan has absolutely attacked me all week from all sides. I feel like I've been through a war zone. But honestly, I feel like that is one of things we should be okay with, as long as He is attacking us, we are doing something he doesn't like. So if Satan hasn't attacked you in a while start worrying. Satan was going to make sure I didn't come to church this morning. People laugh when I say it's an accomplishment that I made it to church, but they do not realize how many sleepless nights I endure fighting Satan, and how many Sunday mornings too. Of all morning this morning my hair would not do right, my callic in my hair would not lay down of all days, it would be on S

"Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead- and Christ will give you light." Ephesians 5:14 After reading a devotional that I get daily on my e-mail I read this comment from a fellow reader who was touched by the devotional. It was about finding no condemnation in ourselves because we belong to Jesus. “Can’t express what this means to me today. I haven’t spent “be still” time with God for so long now; it used to be something I did every morning after waking up. Nowadays Facebook has taken the place of my time with Him. Today I felt Him asking gently, “Don’t get on Facebook, not yet.” So I sat propped up against my pillows & talked to Him from my heart about where my life is & how I thought I’d missed His leading in my life. I’ve made choices that I’m not proud of & I have weighed myself down with guilt & shame, but through it all I know He’s never left me. I felt lighter in spirit as I got up to get ready for work. A few minutes later, I heard the Word in

I posted this last year, but this truth has rung true for me again and I felt like I needed to share it again. God is convicting me today, who is praying for me!! Oh my word. Wheew! I realize that sometimes I am very critical of people, in the devotion for My Utmost For His Highest, "Beware of Criticizing Others." It's a pride problem; hubris. Uh-oh...so guilty. We all have expectations from people, and how the church should run. Lately, I've heard a lot of criticism about the church, and I will confess that I have taken part in nit picking and saying things about my church. But it's not right, at all. It's down right shameful and a disgrace to our Father. I never saw it as being judgmental though, but that is exactly what it is. Oswald Chambers says when we get that way, "It is impossible to enter into fellowship with God when you are in a critical mood. Jesus’ instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put; He says, “Don’t.”

When we accept Jesus as our personal Savior, we are instantly called into ministry. We read in Acts 1:8 "But when the Holy Spirit (what we receive when we are saved) has come upon you, YOU will receive POWER and will tell people about me everywhere." I recently heard a pastor put it this way, "Missions is that which we are. It's not an option." So we know that we are to share Jesus at all times, but how to we determine our exact calling and our exact ministry. We will quickly learn that Jesus wasn't joking with his disciples when He said leave everything you own and follow me. We have to at times exchange our comfort to be a blessing. It is part of the humbling experience. H umble your heart before the Lord. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. ~ Psalm 25:9 Humility is an absolute necessity for a teachable, moldable heart. To discover our calling, we must be willing to set our agendas aside and surrender to God's. W

Tonight's post is simple, because God is simple and He speaks to us through things that are simple. Tonight my sister and I were watching Hoarders. We love that show because it makes up feel better about ourselves, if that makes sense. We were talking about the show, and other things that were bothering me. I told my sister, "You know, our hearts are like Hoarders." My sister and I never want to be a hoarder like we see in TV, but how many times do we not let things go in our heart? We all come to Jesus with messy hearts, and He cleans us up. Then we keep looking forward, and stop looking back trusting Jesus till the end. My adopted mom puts it this way, "We have to make up our minds to be delivered, and to have joy in our hearts." I pray today that what ever you are holding in you heart you will let Jesus take it and clean you up. We use a lot of energy when we relive offenses over and over, it leads us to bitterness. When we become grateful people f

"If Jesus was the only object of your affection you would be entirely concerned with Him alone." -Fenelon When you really think about this quote it convicts you. What is the object of your affection? Who is the object of your affection? So many times we so easily come to fault with making the wrong things the object of our affection, in church especially. We end up committing Idolatry . The Websters dictionary defines Idolatry as this: Definition of IDOLATRY 1 : the worship of a physical object as a god 2 : immoderate attachment or devotion to something Pastors can even do this. We have to be really careful who and what becomes the object of our affection at church. It's easy for pastors to make ministry the object of their affection. Church members can easily begin to worship a pastor more than they worship God. In truth, every sin is an idol problem. We don't realize that we make other things the object of our affection, that's the scary part. We

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. -Luke 12:48 Yesterday was a day of Jesus Immersion for me and few friends of mine. We traveled down to Anderson, SC for a leadership conference at NewSpring Church. Check out who was there preaching! Perry Noble, Pastor of NewSpring Church, Anderson, SC My Pastor, Steven Furtick, Elevation Church, Charlotte, NC Pastor Craig Groeschel, lifechurch.tv, Edmond, OK Pastor Andy Stanley, North Point Community Church, Atlanta, GA Pastor Jud Wilhite, Central Christian Church, Las Vegas, NV Pastor Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, Seattle, WA Pastor Judah Smith, The City Church, Seattle, WA All these men are great men of God, they are, I believe, some of the best pastors in the world. I'll speak more in this in just a minute, but first I want to point something out about the verse above, Luke 12:48. This v

"Be silent, and know that I am God!" -Psalm 46:10 Most of you know that I am a very quiet person, maybe not so much when I'm hanging with my friends, but over all I am a very quiet person. Some people may see my quietness as a weakness, or that I'm stuck up and snobbish, and at times it does bother me that I don't always know what to say, or have the ability to just strike up a conversation. However, I've come to the conclusion many times in my life that there are just no words in certain situations, and all you can really do it sit in the presence of God, silent, allowing Him to speak His ministering words to you. It is a gift to be able to be quiet, many people struggle with holding their tongue, and watching what they say. Even in the Bible we see that Peter had this exact problem. My pastors wife, Mrs. Holly Furtick, preached on Peter and this weakness of his this past weekend. He said the wrong thing at the wrong time. I know a lot of people who

"IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible." -Genesis 1:1, Hebrews 11:3 Amplified Bible Today I went to Wal-Mart of the glow in the dark stars that you can put in your room and at night when you turn the lights out, the stars will glow. Since I was a little girl, I have loved these glow in the dark stars. After finding them, they were a little more than I thought they would be. Other than that, I turned the package over to read this.... "THE BIG BAG THEORY" Millions of billions of years. There is so much wrong with that. So we'll just start with the star factor. Can I tell you something really easy to understand? The Big Bang didn't happen, just like when I open this pac

"But you are a chosen people [son, daughter], a royal priesthood, a holy nation [son, daughter], God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." -1 Peter 2:9 Last night and into this morning, I was faced with a lot of doubting thoughts. Am I denying myself things I need? Have I really been deceiving myself? Have I been burying myself so deep in my work and things I do to avoid hurts and sorrows? Is God really not enough for me? These thoughts were not easy to think, were they true? But gosh, I think about all the songs we sing about our Savior, and think of all He has brought me through. Why would I want to feel the pain? Have I not thought about it enough? There is no where I would rather be than hiding in Jesus and His work and ministry. Am I wrong for that? Is He really not the answer? What can man do for me? I'd Rather have Jesus than anything. Are things ever going to st