Living Above the Sun Ministries

The Christian story begins with creation in harmony, unity, and peace; and it ends with a restored creation. Between these two bookends is the drama of redemption. The covenants are major acts of this drama. Christ’s work is intimately related to and fulfills each of the five covenants that God initiated in the Old Testament. Covenants are about God’s activity and intention to redeem us , and the covenants tell us about ourselves—our condition, our brokenness, our dignity, our role as images of God, our suffering, and our calling. A covenant is a life and death relationship with God on His terms. The Greek word, "diatheke" refers to a person's last will and testament or to other solemn agreements involving benefits and responsibilities to all involved parties. In the New Testament, the word is often used as an equivalent to the Hebrew word "berith", especially in theological contexts. It is a binding agreement, a contract between at least two parties. It ...

"Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." -John 4:35-38 Fall is the harvest season for crops. Jesus used agricultural illustrations a lot to illustrate the Kingdom and what it meant to be a Christian. Recently, a friend of mine was telling me how he and his son harvested their sweet potatoes this week. They got huge ones, medium sized ones, and small ones all from the same vine, and boy were they dirty! Potatoes are not ready to harvest until the vine dies. Until Christ, who is the vine died we were ill prepared for harvest. There are differ...

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.”...

"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 ...

"And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it." -1 Peter 3:15 According to Charles Malik says we as Christians face two tasks in our evangelism, and that is, "saving the soul and saving the mind." In other words converting people not only spiritually but intellectually. The church is lagging dangerously behind in the part of being intellectual. In 1980 Mr. Malik rose to the podium to deliver the inaugural address at the dedication of the new Billy Graham Center on the campus of Wheaton College. In his speech he stated the following: I must be frank with you: the greatest danger confronting American evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti-intellectualism. The mind in its greatest and deepest reaches is not cared for enough. But intellectual nurture cannot take place apart from profound immersion for a period of years in the history of thought and the spirit. People who are in a hurry to get out of the university and start...

This whole weekend I have been in Columbia, SC on the mission field in prisons. Satan wants you to think that it's going to be scary and something bad might happen, but can I tell you, the only thing bad happening when Satan is telling you that, is Satan! Satan will kill you quicker than the mafia. At first I was excited, but I was also apprehensive because I was kind of by myself. My adopted dad was going to be there, but he wasn't in any of my groups, and I just wasn't sure. He (adopted dad) has been on me about this for at least a year now, and praise God I finally was able to go, and I'm addicted to it. I must also add and tell you what a special person my adopted dad is, especially in the basis of this ministry. He and his wife adopted me into their family last summer, and I was cool with that, and I do love them both. Pretty soon he had me plugged into our churches Addiction Ministry which he also serves in. As I have been going to these meetings I have l...

The world stands on the brink of disaster. Its need for the church is more evident than in more optimistic times. Christians know the Lord has called them out from the world to send them on an urgent mission. But many are confused as to the precise nature of their task. Is it social work or evangelism, or both? I read in the Charlotte Disturber this morning. Apart from the murders, rapes, missing persons, and Britney Spears coming to town, I was disturbed yet again by a church news article. Right smack on the front headlines "Churches putting out the diversity worship mat. Their mission: Comeback of the neighborhood church." So why did this disturb me? Well, you should read the article. There were a few things in the article that bothered me. It's been my prayer that would not allow me to get stuck in my ways at church. To not get upset when I don't get to sit where I want, to bear with music, and other such things. One thing that we MUST learn as Chris...

Last Friday as I was visiting my Grandmama in Kingsport, TN, I got up and got the paper from the porch. I did not know that the Kingsport Times News would contain such an article that would leave me sleepless as tonight, and somewhat of a haunting thought that the future of our churches are diminishing. What a shame! Here are some quick facts I'd like to share with you that I read in this article which by the way this is from a Methodist standpoint, an article based on Methodist church interview: -In the next five to ten years, 1/3 of all churches across all denominations will close. -In the last 10 years in the United Methodist Kingsport district, membership, and numbers of professions of faith and attendance all have declined and 8 United Methodist churches have closed. -Statistics say that 74% of people in Sullivan Co. don't attend church on Sunday morning. The population of Kingsport according to a 2010 census was 156,823. Stunning. Heartbreaking. The article...

Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters a poem by Portia Nelson, published in her book There's a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self-Discovery Chapter I I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk I fall in. I am lost ... I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. Chapter II I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place. But, it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. Chapter III I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in ... it's a habit ... but, my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. Chapter IV I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it. Chapter V I walk down another street. The guest pastor at my church, Elevation, used this poem as a sermon illustration. ...

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...

"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...

"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...