Living Above the Sun Ministries

"Be sure to carry out the work the Lord gave you. Remember my chains. May the grace of God be with you." -Colossians 4:17-18 Before we get too comfortable with the idea of being free, and the chains being gone, consider a different kind of bondage. Consider the life God calls us too. While, yes, it's a good thing to be free from Satan's power and hold, we are then bound to the power and are held by Christ. St. Patrick, in his prayer known as the Breastplate , prayed in every line that he "bound unto himself" the things of Christ. Maybe we should pray the same. We are not freed to do whatever we want to. As I said a few post's ago in Why Be Free? we are free to complete the mission God gave us, much like the children of Israel. Paul was urging Archippus in verse 17 to do that very thing, "carry out the work the Lord gave you." Sometimes in carrying out the Lord's work it literally means being bound in chains. Colossians was w...

My Father in Heaven- You made me. Nothing is hidden from you. Where can I go, and You not find me? What can I say, and You not know? You know everything about me. So you know that I struggle and face temptations. I am at times enticed by these things I used to do. But Father, today I acknowledge and confess to you that it is sin, and nothing else. When I go through with this sin, I commit it against you, and You alone, Father. In doing so I have grieved Your heart, and I am so sorry, I repent of my ways, and turn from them toward You. It is in You where I find strength to stand firm in what I believe. I refuse to be moved off Your promises to me. I submit to you, and commit to obey Your Word. I renounce my past, and claim Your blood, and Your forgiveness over my life, and over the things holding me. You said in Your Word that I will know the truth, and the truth will set me free. You are the way, the truth, and the life. Let me encounter Your truths, teach me to appropr...

She grabbed my hand and said, “Listen!” Grabbing her hand back, I listened to the lyrics of the song that filled the sanctuary: All my life I have been called unworthy Named by the voice of my shame and regret But when I hear You whisper, "Child lift up your head" I remember, oh God, You're not done with me yet I am redeemed, You set me free So I'll shake off these heavy chains Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be... I had heard the song hundreds of times, but this particular morning the lyrics were dumped straight into my heart. The lyrics that were all to familiar became like new and alive again. She knew I needed to tune in, and grasp the truth of these few words. God was speaking, and He was working. He’s not finished with me. All the bad things I've done, He doesn't remember. Yet, I sit chained to them some days, completely overwhelmed. David writes in Psalm 3, that the Lord is a shield against the enemy when he comes and...

Currently, at my church we are in a series called, "God Can." We kicked it off Easter, and it's been powerful! Yesterday, rocked my world, the message was God can set you free from bondage and addiction. It was so convicting, and it still is convicting me, even now. There is so much that I struggle with, and I know the scriptures. I know the truth, it's the applying part, and various other things that I haven't done to make the application easier to apply. The message started in Luke 4:18-19, where Jesus read a passage from Isaiah 61:1-2 saying that the prophecy was going to be fulfilled through Him. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, th...

Jesus gets all the glory. All praise belongs to Him. There are many times I am stunned into silence when I think about my Savior. I try to open my mouth, but nothing will come out. There is nothing I can say. In pursuit of worship after God's own heart comes a heart of praise. Like anything else in following Christ, we do not come to God on our terms, we come on HIS terms. The church has had a way of Americanizing the gospel, and worship, we shout in the name of freedom, and rights that we can worship in our own way, but friend, when you live under God's authority and rule American ways no longer are on the table. In our call to worship Him, we are called to worship on God's terms. This is the essential fact of true worship. You will never read in the Bible about your rights. We give them up when we come to Him. Psalm 95 says, "Let us come worship and bow down, kneeling before the Lord God our Maker. For He is our God, and we are His people, the sheep...

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory." -Isaiah 61:3 All day today I was in a conference learning how to teach Students. The conference was hosted by Lifeway, and we were challenged in how we do ministry, how to engage students, and better serve and lead, basically. Towards the end, one of the things that really spoke to me was a little exercise where we went outside and sought out an object that we felt best described our life in Christ right now. We had about 15 minutes to complete the task and as I walked around looking around, I was reflecting and allowing the Lord to show me myself, and what item best suited. I came across a lid, am I screwed up? Of course, but that wasn't it...on I walked. A leaf? A blade of grass? Firewood...I stood for a moment, and stared ...

"Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do." -Psalm 1 In my neighborhood we have a nice trail behind our house that runs parallel with 485, and a creek. Now that it's warmed up, I'm outside most of the day, I love nature, I love to be in the woods, or sitting on a rock thinking by a creek or river. God reminds us of Himself in His creation, and as I have said before creation preaches and sermon, we just have to listen, and be aware. On one of my walks, my mom and I noticed this tree with these awesome roots, I got off and trail and climbed down to the creek so I could get a picture of the above. Then I was reminded of how we are like trees planted along the riverbank. There a...

3 "Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers.[a] Instead, they should teach others what is good. 4 These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, 5 to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes,[b] to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. 11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. 15 You must teach these things and encourage the believer...

"You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others." -2 Timothy 2:2 Isn't my art work delicacy? I have here for you, a diagram. You can click on it to make it bigger. I can draw and design them, but don't ask me to solve them in math. In our Christian lives, we are to disciple and be discipled. In the great commission Jesus did not just instruct us to go out witnessing, but to actually make disciples. In other words don't just leave people hanging after you've lead them to the Lord. Teach them, keep leading them to the Lord through His Word, and all there is to learn. It's kind of like a chain reaction, and it's what we see in this verse from 2 Timothy, I didn't just wake up one day with tons of knowledge and wisdom. It takes the right kind of people investing in our lives teaching us, so that we can teach t...

There is one important letter in the word "sin" can you guess what it is? "I." Every problem we encounter when it comes to sin, is because of self. As a society today we are to into ourselves, and that is why God commands us to die to ourselves. Yesterday was heavy for me, as I was driving along, thinking on the Lord, just talking to Him, He stopped me. He showed me something very painful. Me. All I could do was cry out, Oh God! Have mercy on me, as sinner! My works don't mean a thing. The most eloquent prayer, the most beautiful writing, the most beautiful song pales in comparison, and will never be enough to give God the praise that He so deserves. I realized how short I fall constantly. Then there was grace. I'm not even worthy to extend my hand out to reach for it. But He drops it, so that it falls on us, like rain. It was then that I really understood grace to it's fullest. He went beyond mercy, and showed grace and gave Himself. Tha...

If you are like me, you avoid conflict at all cost. When conflict comes into our lives we are like, NO GOD! I would rather He just kill me first than have to deal with conflict. In my little devotional this morning that I've read through a few times, it was about living in the moment. It went on to explain that God has many gifts to give us during these times, and there are many lessons to be learned. We like to pick and choose the situations we must face. Thankfully we aren't in charge of that, God doesn't want wimpy people in His army. We are in training, and we are encountering exercises designed specifically for you by God. He desires that we grow. I have said before that not every bad thing we come across is Satan, but it's God growing us up. God's greatest desire for us to learn is not to let difficulties make us depressed, or long for better things, and look ahead in the future. When we look ahead we miss the lesson, and ultimately miss Jesus too. Because Jes...

One of March’s media stories has been the success of the History Channel miniseries, The Bible. The first episode, which premiered on March 3, had 13.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen, making it the highest non-sport entertainment broadcast of 2013. The interest in a cable series makes it clear the American public is certainly interested in the Bible. But what do Americans actually think about the Bible? Do they believe it to be sacred, authoritative or merely nonsense? Do they try to follow its exhortations, or do they regard the Bible as antiquated literature? Does the Bible still matter—besides television ratings—to Americans? A recent survey from the Barna Group, commissioned by the American Bible Society, provides some insight into these questions. From the results, it’s easy to see why the Bible remains a cultural force in the United States. Yet, its future role looks very different than its past. Here are some statistics: David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, poi...