Tag: Christianity

Podcast

God Takes Many Individuals and Builds One Whole

Chris

Part 2. God desires to take us from nothing to something and give us everything. But His plan is not only to accomplish it on an individual level. He is bringing together a nation, a people. This is what makes the transformation from nothing to something possible. There is only one builder of God’s Church, and we must learning to trust in the builder. Only then we will recognize and live in the powerful truths of unity as The People of God.

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Podcast

God Takes Us from Nothing to Everything

Chris

2015-08 The People of God (s)Part 1. The hymn “Amazing Grace” has a wonderful phrase we sometimes forget the power of: “I once lost, but now am found.” What does it mean to be lost? If we are found, what should change? Is God the center of who we are, or just an add-on? These question set us looking at what it means to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We are “The People of God.”

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Christian Living

Stop Loading Others with Baggage You Don’t Understand

Chris

My favorite people are those who really want to know all there is to know about God and His Word. They aren’t trying to better than anyone else. It isn’t a Bible Quiz competition or a “good Pharisee tactic.” Their heart just wants to get closer to God and serve Him the best they can.

One of my best friends is like that. He’s so hungry for more of God. He posts his daily reading completions on Facebook, more to keep on eye on himself than to impress anyone. Because he continues to learn and wants to understand better, we have some really interesting discussions.

Recently we sat together and he brought up one of my sermons he was listening to online. Since it was one of those rare occasions where we get our families together for a couple of days, we had one of those long talks. These are my favorite opportunities to find out if people really know what kind of baggage they are burdening people with.

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Podcast

The Importance of Remembering Where You Started

Chris

I like driving. My wife would love to have a chauffeur. Together we make a perfect pair. I drive and she tells me where to go. Every once in a while we’ll be driving down the road and I’ll forget where we were headed. “Where are we going?” I’ll ask.

It doesn’t always hit me right away. I suddenly  realize my autopilot has kicked because my brain has drifted elsewhere. If I’m lucky I will figure it out in time to get there without any trouble. Other times I have to pull into a parking lot or driveway to turn around so I can get back to the place I was supposed to go.

A dangerous road to forget where you’re going is the Narrow Road of the Christian life. This special road with fewer travelers on it leads to the eternal life promised to us as we believe in Jesus. But it isn’t enough to keep our eyes on the destination ahead of us. There is another point in the journey that Scripture encourages us to remember and hold on to until we reach the end.

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Faith

Don’t be Afraid of the Fear of the Lord

Chris

Most of us woke up this morning in a place of safety. Whether your doors were locked or your windows left open, you felt safe enough to close your eyes and go to sleep without wondering if something or someone was going to harm you. We are truly blessed to have this safety.

Others live in constant fear. There are places of unrest around the world where people don’t know what they will wake to. Will there be food for them to eat? Will strangers be holding a gun or a knife to them? Will there be peace or war? Will they wake up at all?

We equate fear with a horrible existence. “How can people live like that?” we ask. When it appears in our “safe” part of the world we call it paranoia or chalk it up to a psychological disorder. The Disabled World website lists and defines 87 known phobias. Yet Scripture tells us the importance of a unique type of fear.

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Podcast

Running from Love

Chris

Part 2. The prophet’s love story doesn’t jump to “happily ever after”. As children were born to them, God used their names to proclaim difficult messages to Israel. But these messages also affected his bride, who eventually gave up and run away from true love. Both Gomer and Israel fell into the traps of Satan, traps we can avoid and protect ourselves from running from the love of God.

http://www.audiomack.com/embed4/chrismackinnon/running-from-love