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OK - I confess .. I’m quite ashamed that it’s been nearly six (6) years since I released an instrumental recording … that was my “Be Glorified - Acoustic Piano Worship” instrumental. But for some time now, I know the Lord has been instructing me that it’s time to get back to work.

So - when does a guy find the time to compose, record, and be inspired when he operates two businesses (Highest Praise Productions and the internet subsidiary, HPP Christian Web Hosting & E-Commerce Solutions), leads worship in two churches, (Christian Renewal, SSI and Wesley UMC at Frederica) and tries really hard to be a good husband and father?? That’s precisely the dilemma I’ve found myself in over the last few years.

At the same time, I have full confidence that all my “activities” (well, OK - maybe not “all” of them!) have been God-ordained, and each is serving a purpose in my life. As a result, I’ve been entering into a season where I’m able to “outsource” some of my responsibilities to other folks, giving me more time to begin composing, writing, and practicing.

It’s been a real stretch … I remember it was not unusual to practice 5-8 hours in college. Now, 2 hours at the piano seems to leave me exhausted - mentally and physically. Still, I am praying for the discipline and ability to “press on”.

Good things are coming from this … several months ago, I could not sleep, and went to the studio in my home where I recorded “Restless” (listen) from beginning to end. Another theme which I’ve been developing for many years is finally finished, and is in the final stages of practice.

Recently, an evangelist/missionary friend of mine really started to encourage me about releasing a new CD. He’s used my other 3 CD’s all over the world in ministry, and God used him to really exhort me to get serious about it. Just the other day, my friend offered to take care of me for a week (lodging, food, a driver, etc) in his “mission” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil … it would be a place that was isolated, and a place where I could get away from all the distractions here in the States … so please join me in prayerfully considering this generous offer. I’d have to buy my plane ticket, which is around $1K, but God would provide that if He wills for me to go “that far” to get away. Of course, I could just go to the mountains!

Either way, I continue to press forward, and pray for Godly inspiration as I prepare to make this new recording. There are more compositions to create and an assortment of questions about how they will be recorded and orchestrated (or IF they will be orchestrated at all!). I’m grateful for your prayers in these areas.

For the Kingdom
Fred

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Rebekah Grace McKinnon - Dedication on 8/22/04

We had the privilege of dedicating our precious “Rebekah Grace” to the Lord on Sunday, August 22, 2004 at our home church, Christian Renewal Church, SSI. Pastor Dan Harris presided over the dedication, and we were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Wilbanks (joy’s parents, aka “Nana and Grandad), Mark & Zandy Wilbanks and family (Joy’s brother, sister-in-law, and kids), and Rick & Kathy Wilbanks (Joy’s brother and sister-in-law). My parents were unable to attend this dedication as my Dad was preaching in his home church (World Outreach Church, McRae, GA).

For us, a “baby dedication” has no “salvation” value … as the baby is not able to understand salvation or choose Jesus Christ as Savior … but it’s a formal declaration of our intention to honor God with the child, dedicate her back to the Father (who so dearly gave her to us in the first place) and to formally pledge to bring her up according to God’s Word.

It’s my prayer that as we (as parents) are obedient to “bring up this child in the way she should go …” that she will “not depart from the Way” … and that she will recognize Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior at an early age.

Hope you enjoy the picture - there are more photos in my photo gallery.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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Ya know, every now and then, someone uses an analogy that just really “wows” me. This happened this past weekend in our Sunday AM service at church. We had a guest speaker named “Bill Howell” who had been with us all weekend doing a leadership seminar.

Bill was speaking about “purpose” and “destiny”, and how easily we can get into the “fog of life” and get off track. Man, this is really what I needed to hear for the moment. He discussed several reasons and excuses we use that hold us back, including the infamous “as soon as I can get my ducks in a row …” statement.

Then came the analogy … have you ever watched a mother duck, and her ducklings in a pond or lake? When they are in a given location, they just kinda “hang out” … paddling around … with no real organization. But as soon as the mother duck begins to leave, or move away to proceed to a new location, all the other ducklings just “line up’ and follow her. She doesn’t wait until they have all gathered together in a line - she just moves forward, and they ‘fall into place” behind her.

His point was this … if we know God has given us a certain purpose, or a certain thing that we are supposed to do … why sit around waiting on all of our circumstances to “line up”? We should step out in faith, and move forward to the destination that God has shown us, and watch our “circumstances” line up as a result of our decision to move.

Basically, it was a simple exhortation that if we aren’t moving forward, we’re getting left behind. True - there are always time of God-ordained “waiting” (ooh, I’m not a fan of those times at all), but this applies to those of us who have already waited, and have gotten our “marching orders”, but keep making excuses as to why we can’t (or haven’t) proceeded forward.

So … if we know where we should be, it’s time to stop waiting on everything to get perfect, and move forward.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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Hey Ya’ll -

Well, as I’m still “new” to this whole “blogging” thing … I’ve been researching ways to “subscribe” or receive “auto-updates” when the Blog is posted to … I’ve found there are number of sites and programs out there which allow you to do this … you just get a “feed reader” that receives RSS feeds.

In my “links” section, I’ve listed several files and sites that you can choose to be updated on this, and other blogs. To subscribe to my blog (imagine that), just enter the blog url as:
http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/

Of course, you can always just BOOKMARK the site, too!

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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