Christian Living

The Number 1 Way to Impress God

Were you ever introduced to someone who expected you to be far more interested in them than you were? Maybe you bumped into them at a special function or a mutual friend introduced you. Surely you’d heard of them, or from know on you would be glad that you did.

I remember working on campus the summer after my first year in Bible College. It was a weekend afternoon and I had been practicing the piano in a common room. A young man I’d never seen before walked into the room and sat down nearby. After I finished playing he introduced himself and handed me his business card, where he was kind enough to point out the title under his name: “Prophet”. Apparently I was supposed to be impressed.

Many of us don’t really care who is impressed with us. We dress the way we want to, speak the way we want to, and do the things we want to. If some random person we’ve never met before doesn’t like it, “it’s their problem, not mine.” But there is one Person we should want to impress. And though some folks think they’re already doing it, they are actually failing miserably at impressing Him. There is only one way to impress God, and it isn’t what you think.

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Podcast

The Spirit of Truth

Part 2. After the Spirit brings the fullness of God’s presence, He brings and teaches Truth. Not everyone readily accepts Truth, though we desperately need it. If we aren’t careful, we will reject it, and in doing so, offer ourselves to disaster.

http://www.audiomack.com/embed4/chrismackinnon/the-spirit-of-truth

Faith

Four powerful lessons for life’s difficult days

In a previous post, I shared about mountains and valleys in our lives. The ups and downs, the good days and bad days, can be likened to the rise of mountaintops and fall of valleys. God doesn’t disappear from day to day, bringing us a good day and then leaving us on our own. When we believe in Jesus Christ, God is with us and in us, through the good and the bad.

Because we think of the mountains as good days in life and with God, and the valleys are our bad days, we have a natural desire to stay on the mountaintops. When we struggle or face pain and troubles, we talk about how we are “low” and want to get back to the good spot, back to the top where everything is better.

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Faith

Take Comfort in God’s Continued Presence

Life has its good days and its bad days. Sometimes everything feels like it falls right into place, and we feel good and free. Other days we feel as if the troubles and struggles of life won’t leave us alone.  Good days, and bad days. Another way to look at it is like mountains and valleys, with their highs and lows.

We like the good days, so we call them the highlights or the high points of our days and lives. These are our mountaintop experiences and moments. Towering over everything, sitting in the clear, the world seems so simple. Troubles are forgotten in the midst of peace.

If the good days are mountaintops, then bad days are the valleys. Down there it’s harder to see what is going on around us. The sun can be hidden by trees and other obstacles. Dangerous animals, holes and traps lie unseen. In these “valley” days we face the troubles of life, the schemes of people around us, and the pain and darkness of not knowing.

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Christian Living

Are You Adding Too Much Sugar?

This morning I drank coffee that could have tasted better. A lot better. Though I drink this brand a lot and make it the exact same way each time, today I left a little something out: a spoonful of sugar. You might not think a spoonful sugar is a lot to leave out. To put it into perspective for you, I once posted to Facebook a picture of a pallet of giant sugar bags at a warehouse store with the caption, “Now I can drink my coffee.” Friends who have seen me make a cup of coffee couldn’t help but laugh.

Why cut back on the sugar? Like many people, I’m trying to eat better. I gained some winter weight that I could really do without. So one step is to gradually cut back the spoonfuls of sugar I put in my coffee. When I tasted my coffee this morning and it begged me to put in another scoop of sugar, I resisted.

Sugar

While some folks can take a cup of coffee black and strong, most of us doctor it up a little. I make fun of my wife because of the amount of flavored cream she puts in hers. A ministry friend of mine once joked that people who use more than two teaspoons of sugar don’t like coffee, only the idea of coffee. I didn’t tell him what my regular sugar amount was.

Just like Mary Poppins told us, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” It helps with coffee, too. But when it comes to God and His Word, we have to be careful. We might be adding some of our own stuff to it to make it palatable. A lot of trouble can result from that.

Continue reading “Are You Adding Too Much Sugar?”