Fall Creek Christian Church

"And don't sin by letting anger gain control over you. Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil." Ephesians 4:26-27 "Dear friends, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God's sight." James 1:19-20 After 28 years of marriage, my wife and I know each other's hot buttons. If we choose to push one, anger is sure to erupt. It would be great for us to never push those buttons. It would be even better to not have any of those buttons to push. Sadly, most of us trudge along through life carrying massive amounts of anger. Even more sad is that we don't realize we don't have to be carrying it at all. Paul and James provide a powerful 1-2 punch to dealing with anger. Paul tells us to chase it out the door. If we sit with it, we invite our enemy's influence into our life. James tells us that our ears and not our mouths will pr...

“For David had done what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and had obeyed the Lord's command throughout his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite."  I Kings 15:5 I remember reading the roster for the sixth grade basketball team. I felt pretty confident going into the tryouts that I would get on the team. If memory serves me correctly, there was an "A" and a "B" team. Surely I was on one of the lists. Nope. It felt like everyone made a team except me. I learned very quickly the sharp stinging edge of the  except . The narrator/author of I Kings was compelled to publish David's  except  once again. Adultery. Conspiracy to commit murder. It was a very ugly story.   David followed God ... most of the time. In Psalm 51, he came to terms with his e xcept  ... "Have mercy on me, O God." God did.  You and I have some of those  excepts  too don't we? We can let them haunt us. We can pretend they never happened and hope they go away. We c...

"Here is another story Jesus told: 'The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night while men slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat." Matthew 13:24-25   As the fog of my little nap began to lift, I looked around the classroom in great confusion. I dialed into the fact that I was at school, but the faces were unfamiliar. The giggling gave away the nuts and bolts of the situation ... During my little siesta, there was a passing period that left me in the wrong class at the wrong time. In this parable, Jesus spoke about some sleepers too. In his explanation later on in the chapter, he doesn't identify just exactly who they are. His only comment was that while they were asleep, the enemy had opportunity to wreak havoc. I don't believe Jesus was inferring that we ought to live in a perpetual state of insomnia. I do, however, believe it's quite consistent with other Biblical teaching that the failure to rem...

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."   I Corinthians 13:1-3 After reading these verses as a family, one family member said, "It's kind of like the number 0.  No matter what you multiply it with, it's still zero."  Hmm...  What a wonderful insight.  A life, no matter how impressive, that is void of love is a nothing life, a big zero. I don't know if Paul was a math guy, but he certainly presented this truth about love in a way that resembles the zero times anything is zero math axiom.  He chose some impressive multipliers to be sure -- special tongues, prophetic wisdom, mountain moving faith, and even gi...

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: The Israelites are to camp around the Tent of Meeting some distance from it, each man under his standard with the banners of his family." Numbers 2:1-2 On many occasions, I have enjoyed the wonder of a canoe ride down a beautiful river. The sights, the smells and the sounds of God's creation provide a soul refreshing moment of connection and contemplation. To maximize the moments in a canoe, one must remember one simple rule: Keep your weight in the center. A sudden shift to the side can quickly turn a canoe trip into a scuba dive. It's very telling to me that God would have Moses organize the people around the Tent of Meeting. The place where God revealed himself was the bulls-eye for the nation. If the peoples' hearts were in keeping with their campsite, all was good. They were centered. They would enjoy a great adventure of exploration and discovery. However, if they moved off center, shipwreck awaited. As a hus...

"The man who finds a wife finds a treasure and receives favor from the Lord." Proverbs 18:22 Like many young boys growing up, I absolutely loved collecting sports cards. Baseball, football, basketball, it didn't matter. I would spend hours sorting them, counting them, and looking up their values in the sports card value books. I remember very vividly the anticipation of opening up the packs, hoping to get that big name player or the special limited edition cards. I put my favorites in plastic pages or cases in order to protect them and to show the other kids. My friends and I would negotiate trades that at times would take days to complete. I still have some of my cardboard treasures in a box in a closet. I don't think about them very often these days, much less get them out and sort through them. I might get around to re-engaging with my collection someday, but for now, it simply collects dust. In our verse for the day, the author directs our attention t...

"O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below -- you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it -- as it is today." I Kings 8:23-24 I hesitated as I reached for the phone thinking that I had too much happening for phone calls. The kind voice on the other line said, "Sorry to bother you, but I was just calling to see what your plan was in regards to picking up your daughter from school today." "O no!! ... I'll be right there.", I said. I arrived to a little red-eyed, tear-stained face looking at me with the most profound sense of disappointment and hurt that I have ever seen. "Daddy", she said, "You told me that you would be here to pick me up." Ouch. No one needs to tell us that promises are a big deal. We...

"...that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,..."  Colossians 1:10   I will always remember the first time that I saw my wife walking through the dorm courtyard.  I thought, "Wow, she is someone I definitely need to get to know."  From then on, I looked for every opportunity to "run" into her.  The guys on my dorm floor had noticed her as well, so I had plenty of help keeping track of her even though they didn't know that they were a part of my wishful thinking at the time.  Thankfully, the moment finally arrived, where I was able to engage her in conversation and she became even more attractive to me.  I used every excuse that I could come up with to spend time with her in order to grow in the knowledge of and the love for her.  These 25 plus years of being in relationship with her, including dating and marriage, have ev...