Chris MacKinnon's Blog, page 2

Our Free Will Choices and God’s Response

Have you ever heard God described as a “gentleman”? When painting this picture pastors and teachers generally refer to how God is unwilling to force Himself on anyone. He will always allow the individual to choose whether or not to accept Him.

The same is true of God’s hopes for our daily lives. There are ideals He wants us to live by and goals to fulfill. Yet if we choose a different path than what He would have us choose, He allows us to go as far as we dare.

In a previous post I wrote a...

The Uncanny Partnership of Free Will and Predestination

Predestination is a theological term full of meaning. Unfortunately, it is often misunderstood, leading to a false representation, which ends up with most people choosing to ignore it or write it off.

Free will is considered the hero fighting against the evil of Predestination. We consider how we are thinking beings, making decisions all of the time. We are not preprogrammed or piloted by someone else, not even God.

But these two ideas are not enemies. Rather than battle or work against ea...

Salvation Means a Changed Way of Thinking and Living

This is the last of three posts centered around how we depend on autopilot settings in heart and mind to help us get through the decisions required by everyday life.

The first post opened the possibility to these underlying settings. We rarely recognize them but without them we could paralyzed by the multitude of options we face daily.

The second post showed how we were made in God’s image but sin has warped the way He created us. Scripture tells us “the wages of sin is death”. Our hearts ...

How Our Decision Making Processes Were Rewritten

It is a scary thing to realize you have driven on autopilot for an unknown length of time. I’m talking about starting at Point A, and you know you have to pass Points B, C, and D, before arriving at Point E. Autopilot is realizing you left Point A, saw Point B, but suddenly find yourself somewhere between Points D and E.

Yes, that has really happened to me. No, I wasn’t drinking or high. Sometimes I was tired. Other times my mind was occupied on other things and never noticed what was happeni...

Decision Making (2) ~ Broken Autopilot

It is a scary thing to realize you have driven on autopilot for an unknown length of time. I’m talking about starting at Point A, and you know you have to pass Points B, C, and D, before arriving at Point E. Autopilot is realizing you left Point A, saw Point B, but suddenly find yourself somewhere between Points D and E.

Yes, that has really happened to me. No, I wasn’t drinking or high. Sometimes I was tired. Other times my mind was occupied on other things and never noticed what was happeni...

The Advent Promise of Life-Changing Peace

This past Sunday I shared the Advent-themed call to worship. I thought it would be fun to share it here. This post is also a little longer, as some of the material was cut for the sake of time. Enjoy!

This is the second Sunday of Advent, the season leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth: Christmas. Last week we heard about Hope and Faith. This week focuses on the theme of Peace.

In the prophet Isaiah’s description of the Son to be born, we are told He will be the “Prince of Peace” a...

Decision Making & Our Default Settings

What were the last five decisions you made today? Maybe it was what to have for a meal or how you would satisfy a thirsty feeling. Did you turn music on or off in the past hour? What about the television? Are you taking a break right now, choosing to think about anything other than work? Did you have to prioritize some projects for the weekend?

All day long we make decisions. Some of them we agonize over. There may be a hundred different ways the outcome can change my life or those around me....

Decision Making and Our Default Settings (part 1)

What were the last five decisions you made today? Maybe it was what to have for a meal or how you would satisfy a thirsty feeling. Did you turn music on or off in the past hour? What about the television? Are you taking a break right now, choosing to think about anything other than work? Did you have to prioritize some projects for the weekend?

All day long we make decisions. Some of them we agonize over. There may be a hundred different ways the outcome can change my life or those around me....

Decision-Making and Our Default Settings (1)

What were the last five decisions you made today? Maybe it was what to have for a meal or how you would satisfy a thirsty feeling. Did you turn music on or off in the past hour? What about the television? Are you taking a break right now, choosing to think about anything other than work? Did you have to prioritize some projects for the weekend?

All day long we make decisions. Some of them we agonize over. There may be a hundred different ways the outcome can change my life or those around me....

Finding Fulfillment in Personal Worship

I have very strong feelings about worship. Worship has opened many doors for me in ministry and gives life to my personal relationship with Jesus. It has been a continual study of mine, and I think it about it so much i even wrote a book about it.

According to one personality profile, music is so important to who I am that not having it in my life for an extended time can actually be harmful to my mental health, and the vast majority of the music in my life is worship related.

Worship is ...