Fall Creek Christian Church

“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'" - Luke 3:21-22 I've got a great dad, for whom, I am very thankful. I am reminded on a regular basis that not everyone has a great dad, but I do. My children are very gracious to me and assure me time and again that I'm a great dad too. I often times feel I fall woefully below the "great dad" threshold, but at the very least their comments give me something to live up to. In our verses today, we are privileged to hear the greatest Father of them all speaking to his child. It is so personal that we're tempted to leave to give them privacy. However, God the Father wanted us to hear and learn from him what a great dad gives their child. "You are my Son" - Belonging, Identity ...

“But in all these things we have full victory through God who showed his love for us. Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39 Oops, I did it again. No, I didn't rob a bank or run a red light. Just one more careless word, at a careless time, in a careless way. Sheepishly, I called my child to whom I spoke carelessly to ask for forgiveness. "Well dad, I forgot all about thought", she said. "I didn't. Would you forgive me?", I asked. "Yes dad. ... I love you." "I love you too sweetheart." She loves me anyway. I believe Paul, who wrote this proclamation of the insurmountable nature of God's love, on many occasions, sat in the stunned disbelief of God's love ...

And when trouble came to King Ahaz, he became even more unfaithful to the Lord. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, for he said, 'These gods helped the kings of Aram, so they will help me, too, if I sacrifice to them.' But instead, they led to his ruin and the ruin of all Israel." II Chronicles 28:22-23 After about the fourth or fifth pop rivet that tore away from the metal I was working with, I finally concluded that pop rivets just might not be the solution to my problem. I know, I know ... I'm a genius. One attempt wasn't enough. Not 2, Not 3, Not 4 ... You've been here before haven't you? The billion dollar question for the day is ... Why is it, after proving an idea to be bad, do we continue to try it thinking that the outcomes will be different the next time. If I only give it more time, more energy and more resources, it will finally work. So ... we pour more money into a sinking business. We stick with rel...