Living Above the Sun Ministries

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns." -Psalm 46 Starting today and in the days to come SevenPDX is a movement happening in Portland and surrounding areas. A calling out to God to move like a mighty rushing river. Rivers and water is what makes up so much of Portland and the surrounding areas. What a great visual. Staring headlong into the brokenness of our culture we often feel crippled beneath the staggering weight of sin and injustice. Yet it's this very same world, beautiful yet devastated, that Jesus looked out upon and prayed, "Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Father, Your will be done in Portland. It is with this passion that we will gather for seven days of prayer and fasting for our city. Thousands of people from dozens of churches will come together to present ou

"He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth, that we might be a king of firstfruits of all He created. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you." -James 1:18, 21 When you see 'therefore' in scripture it means the author is saying everything based upon that I have just written you...do it! This will help you do the next part I tell you. In the last post we looked at the joy of abiding, I want to build on that more in this post. I was considering going toward talking about the agape love, but I became a little overwhelmed in it, and God led me this way so I could catch my breath. He's too much for this little feeble dust like human to think about. That's why I call Him my God, and my Savior. James in his epistle tells us that we should, "Consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds." That doesn't mean being happy, but simply be

"I have told you these things so that your joy will be full and overflowing." -John 15:11 When we aware of the Jesus in us, and have a right relationship with Him we experience joy to it's fullest. Abiding in the vine (Jesus), means living out the new life in Christ. What makes us alive in Christ? It is the pruning as we learned in the first post of this series. It is when God trims us so we keep producing, and when He also cuts off the things that are dead so it won't affect us and our growth. Colossians 3:3 says, "For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." Joy is absolute surrender of self, it is sacrificing self; death to self so that Christ can become alive in us. Jesus, "because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross..." (Heb.12:2). In this, Jesus found joy in doing what the Father sent Him to do. The same should be true for us. Even in the greatest of circumstances we can still have joy be

"I AM the true vine." -John 15:1 "Meno" is the Greek work for abide. Jesus used this term A LOT throughout the New Testament. I think two of the most powerful places this word is used is in Matthew 26:38 when Jesus is praying in the garden before His trial and death. He asks His disciples to stay with Him, to endure with him that night. The other verse is John 6:56, Jesus says, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me." This was controversy at the time he said this...it still is a little weird. The magnitude of this verse could not be understood until after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. The eating and the drinking has to do with shared life, mutual indwelling. In the physical realm one of the most powerful examples of shared life is eating and drinking, the laying down of life. His death is be the ultimate laying down of life; his resurrection, ascension and sending the Spirit bring onto the human scene the new p