Living Above the Sun Ministries

"A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. 25 Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. 26 Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants." -2 Timothy 2:24-26 Every Tuesday night I serve in my churches Addiction Ministry. Many people get squimmish and shocked when I mention the word addiction and ministry all in one sentence. I can only imagine what mental image they have in their mind. Some people joke, and say things like, are you going to see the addicted people tonight? Some other people question why I serve in this particular ministry, what do I have in common with these people? God has taught me a lot through this ministry, and even more He has lead me to some wonderful friends. He is growing me in this ministry. Go...

" Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. " -2 Timothy 2:3-4 In the last post we discussed how suffering is the mark of a true disciple. In this post we will look at how being a soldier is another mark. This is how the Holy Spirit describes us: "He is not his own. His time belongs to his Master, so does his body. He goes where he is told, he eats what he is given, he wears what is supplied. He has no will of his own, but is an implicit servant of the military forces. He studies the ways of the enemy, he finds means of defense from the enemy, and of offense toward the enemy. This should be true of every believer." Before we can go to war, there are a few questions we must ask ourselves. We can't go into war unprepared, we must know what is required of us. 1. Are you spiritually fit? " Do not waste tim...

"For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know." -1 Thessalonians 3:4 The true mark of a disciple of Christ is suffering, it's apart of our job description given to us in scripture. It's really not preached much anymore in the pulpits across America because the pastors of our day have fallen in the mindset of wanting everyone to like them, so they preach messages that will draw crowds and make people want to join "their" church. This is not what discipleship is, nor is it the way of the disciple. When Jesus our teacher; Rabbi, calls us, He does so with the intention of us becoming like Him. John 15:16 says, " You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. " Jesus' last moments with His disciples b...

Last night some friends and I went to the Rock and Worship concert at Bojangles Arena here in Charlotte. We were mainly there for our favorite band, "Disciple." (www.disciplerocks.com) It was totally worth $10.00 to see them perform their song,"Rise Up" they killed it! They did a few more too. The song is about Christians rising up together, and it totally rocks. There were some other bands there as well that I liked, Jars of Clay, Mercy Me, Hawk Nelson, just to name a few. Mercy Me did a good show too. It was very powerful at the end. The lead singer for Mercy Me spoke straight to our hearts and challenged us to stand out from the World, to be the change because the world isn't changing much. Just as we were singing with Disciple, "Rise Up" lets rise up as Christians and give the world Jesus, a change not even Obama can give you! I vote for that kind of change! I vote for Jesus. It was also during his talk that I was reminded that I am a...

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 ...

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...

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...