Living Above the Sun Ministries

A few weeks ago I was able to participate in The Stations of the Cross service where my Aunt is the Organist and music director of an Anglican Parish in South Carolina. It is basically the Via Dolorosa, the way Jesus walked up to Calvary. In each step we are taught, and reminded, and walk the way of suffering with our Lord and our Savior. I wanted to share with you the words straight from the booklet and hope you will reflect, and consider these words this Good Friday. INTRODUCTION: Christ Speaks- These 14 steps that you are now about to walk you do not take alone. I walk with you. Though you are you, and I am I, yet we are truly one- one Christ. And therefore, My way of the cross 2000 years ago, and your way now are also one. But note this difference. My life was incomplete until I crowned it by My death. Your 14 steps will only be complete when you have crowned them by your life. STATION 1- JESUS IS CONDEMNED Christ Speaks- In Pilate's hand, my other self, I ...

Majesty, Lord of all. Let every throne before Him fall. The King of kings, O come adore. Our God who reigns forever more. All hail, Redeemer, hail. For He has died for me His praise and glory shall not fail, throughout eternity. As the Supreme Court is in session to determine what marriage really is, Social Media has been in an uproar, it has exploded with hurtful words, inundated with pictures, completely overtaken by hate. I'm just as guilty in jumping in on the conversations, and arguing the same points I have all these years. It sucks you in, and leaves you disgusted, empty, and feeling beat up. As I sit pondering on the day quietly with all distractions turned off thoughts started to flood my head, and it became very apparent that all that is going on in the supreme court, or in Washington DC, it's all a distraction. Satan's plan worked! Not only are we distracted, but I believe we abuse God's Word. Though we might be trying to prove a point, throwing i...

Valley of Dry Bones from finidev on Vimeo . When you feel hopeless is there a particular passage of scripture the Lord gives you to remind you that He is still in control over every circumstance in your life? For me it's the story in Ezekiel about the Dry Bones found in chapter 37, that's page 787 in my Bible. For years He has been taking me to this particular story over and over. Last night I was feeling kinda hopeless, there are times I feel like a useless blob that shouldn't even exist. I'm no better than dead. I was talking to my friend about it last night, she's a good listener...it helps. Though we trust the Lord, we still can get depressed, and discouraged about a situation, and just struggle. This afternoon this is exactly where God took me. It's like He is meeting me in the valleys of life and showing me what he can do with hopelessness: "The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled wi...

Beginning at sunset today, the Jewish celebration of Passover takes place for the next eight days. "The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt" —Exodus 12:13 Perhaps you have wondered why the holiday is called Passover. Sure, we know that the name comes from the plague of the firstborn when the angel of death "passed over" the houses of the Israelites marked with the blood of a sacrificed lamb and only took the Egyptians' firstborns. But that's just one of the many acts of God in the story of the Exodus. Why not call the holiday after the more glamorous miracle of the sea parting? Or maybe we could have called it "Exodus," which captures just about the entire story. Why Passover? The Sages explain that every holiday on the Jewish calendar is not just about events that happened in the past; they are about events happeni...

“Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left. So you, too, must keep watch! [Be prepared]. For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming." -Matthew 24 Spring is my all time favorite season of the year. Though my allergies suffer terribly, and my asthma will probably kick back into high gear, there is a special kind of promise I see in Spring. All seasons hold promise, and point to highest and greatest Creator of all time. Martin Luther said it best, "Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time." The seasons are all about life and death. I walked around my h...

"This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah." -Acts 2 I believe the truest mark of a believer is knowing that Jesus is alive! Believing in the resurrection. Can you really be a true believer if you don't? What a phenomenal event! One that has never happened befo...

I think this video can include all Christ Followers, and can be applied to more than the Bible. This is can happen in our prayer life, in our worship, in every aspect of following Christ. Wrong things motivate us constantly, when in fact it's all about Jesus. I was talking to a friend of mine, he is a great teacher and I've been blessed to sit under his teaching. In a conversation he mentioned to me how we tend to look at the Bible as we do a horoscope. Before I go any further, please know right now reading your horoscope is pretty lame, and you shouldn't do it. It is not of the Lord, the horoscope does not determine your steps, God does! Now with that in mind, do you really believe that 1,000,000,000 people will encounter the same thing as you in reading a horoscope? It's the same thing with the Bible. John 3:16 may not be just for you today, or Isaiah 61:1. That is why we must read the scripture, and pray, then read some more, allowing the Holy Spirit to g...

I've been on my computer for like 30 minutes maybe, was doing research on the whole Satan being portrayed in The Bible miniseries, people are saying it's Obama. Everywhere I turned my heart sank deeper and deeper. There is so much deception out there. It's sad...like people we once thought were good, and could be trusted in the Christian realm of things, and in bringing the truth are turning their backs on God, and are just as deceived. It's hard to understand how that happens. It would seem as if, once you know the truth for real and its in you, that's it. What an awful light that shines on the term Christian when "pastors" are doing their own thing, and following their own belief. It's like what Dr. Lynch preached Sunday night at my church, they name Jesus, but it's not our Jesus, he was preaching from 1 Peter. We are in a sin fallen world, it proves itself over and over, and it needs so bad, Jesus...who millions tuned in to watch Sunday N...

"I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence!" -Psalm 139:7 St. Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish christians. St. Patrick described himself as a "most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God." St. Patrick prayed a prayer called "St. Patrick's Breastplate." The title of the prayer itself has a lot of meaning, when we think especially back to Ephesians and what the breastplate of righteousness is. I have been studying a portion of this prayer as well, and have found that it offers a range of reflection on s...

For the past 2 and 1/2 days I have heard 13 sermons, sang countless songs to my God. Lifted holy hands to my Holy, Awesome God. I've been in the presence of not only some of the worlds best preachers but in the presence of my God, to enter His courts with praise. I've sat at His feet and have learned, I've healed, I've been corrected, I've been admonished. I've gotten a glimpse of Heaven. The more I am with His people and in His presence the less and less I want to be in this world. But we are here for a reason. The purpose to win souls for Jesus. To proclaim the name of the Savior to everyone whether saved or not. What I have experienced these past 3 days have filled me to overflowing. I've gained a God perspective, an above the sun approach to life. I was telling my friend that it's interesting how when we sit under such solid preaching for a few days and experience mission trips like we have, we see how meaningless everything is under the sun like So...

"Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -2 Corinthians 8-10 When the song writer penned the gospel arrangement of "Amazing Grace will always be my song of praise" he opens this hymn with a positive purpose. Then he goes on and expounds why Grace is his song of praise, "...for it was Grace, that bought my Liberty." Now sit back and allow the details of this complex statement to be pondered in your mind. That grace allowed him a sense of freedom. Grace fr...

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." -Hebrews 1:3 One afternoon, a month or so ago, I was sitting in Panera writing the beginnings of a new book. As I sat there reflecting on my past and the project before me I was suddenly aware of what a dim view I had of Jesus, not just in the past, but even as I sat there. Who is He really? Oh yes, I know Him as Savior, and Lord of my life. But who is He? What is His personality? Is my view of Him correct? Am I getting to really KNOW Him, or do I spend more time reading ABOUT Him? Jesus has a desire to have a very close intimate relationship with those that the Father gave Him to die for. He knows everything about us, but many of us as believers have failed in getting to know Jesus, we've thought that knowing Him would just kind of happen, like waking up. But like every relationship it takes work, it takes time, you have to fight for it. So from that afternoon on I commi...

"Only one thing is needed, and Mary has found it, do not take it away from her." A sweet lady from my church reminded me of this story this morning as I received an encouraging message from her. I think this story gets interpreted wrong often, Mary is glorified and Martha is shunned and made to look so bad. But this story in essence parallels with what God revealed to me in yesterday's post about being still. I believe both of these woman had hearts devoted to God, this is what makes life counts, and how we live above the sun. (Just had to throw that in there.) I think the reason we dis Martha is because we read that Jesus praised Mary, and had to bring Martha back to earth. She had exploded into a frenzy of anxiety, and worry. But consider the story. All we women would be! You've got Jesus and His disciples (all men) at your house, and some of us feel like we have to cook and host like Southern Living Magazine, we have naturally nurture and do for people ...