Tag: Life

Podcast

Hope When the World is Falling Apart (Podcast)

Chris

When you woke this morning, was hope on your mind? Maybe your mental checklist of everything you expected was already written when you slid out of bed. But was it hopeful? We expect a bunch of predictable things for our day. Hope is believing in the possibility to actually receive something good.

We need hope. Without it, life is feels less worth living. There is power in hope, yet we have come to believe it is dangerous to hope. Our lives are under attack, and if our hope is short-circuited we will stop dreaming.

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Faith

Which Freedom Are You Living In?

Chris

Today is Canada Day. For those of you living south of “The Great White North,” it is the day Canadians set off fireworks and celebrate their birth as a nation. Clothes sporting red and white or a maple leaf are the norm. With the day off from work and barbeques flaring up, you’d think it was the Fourth of July.

Of course, that’s just a few days away. July 4 will see a similar celebration as Canada’s cousin, the United States, enjoys its own celebration. Fireworks, barbeques, and red, white and blue. As an American abroad, it’s fun to enjoy both days. I even have both flags flying on my porch.

Though few tend to mention it, these two days are very different. The holiday I grew up with is “Independence Day” while my current home but not native land celebrates “Dominion Day.” Independence and Dominion are not the same. In fact, if you mix them up, you’ll find yourself in a big mess.

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Faith

Making God’s Strength Your Only Strength

Chris

Without God’s strength, we are all weak. Maybe you don’t agree with that statement, but it is true. If you are only depending upon your own physical, emotional and mental prowess, you will eventually fall under one of the weights the world will throw at you. And there are many.

Previously, I wrote about finding the strength of Jesus. In Christ’s victory over death and the grave there is no weakness, only strength. It is greater than any power or strength you can build on your own. Actually, it requires our weakness to be present. It seems we only invite the strength of God into our lives when we come to grips with the truth of our personal weakness.

In Psalm 18, David wrote an incredible description of the strength of God at work in his life. But before that, he started with one incredibly loaded sentence. Learning the power of this sentence helps us receive and recognize God’s strength as our only strength.

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Faith

Finding the Strength of Jesus

Chris

In high school I was a distance runner. I would run on the cross-country team in the Fall and for the track and field team in the Spring. Our training involved running every day. Another part of training was hitting the gym a couple times each week. Every time I entered the gym I dream of what it would be like to have muscles and be strong.

Many of us wish we could be strong. It takes a lot of discipline, dedicating yourself to continued time and effort. You can’t quit training once you start. If you aren’t purposeful in continuing your strength will waste away.

Though our television shows, movies, magazines and the internet are full of well-toned bodies, the majority of us are not. We gave up on the routine, or never started it all. As a result we are weak. Strength and muscles remain a dream. But there’s more to strength and weakness than we realize.

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Podcast

The Spirit of Life

Chris

Conclusion. As Christians, our lives should be marked by the Holy Spirit. Like Paul, we have to give up all that we were and find our life in Christ. This means choosing between two ways of life which are opposite and contrary. But only one is right for the follower of Jesus.

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

Christian Living

The Number 1 Way to Impress God

Chris

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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