Fall Creek Christian Church

"Dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you.  And now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reference and fear.  For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him." Philippians 2:12-13 Several years ago, I had an old 4-wheel drive SUV.  I used to think that since I had 4-wheel drive that I was obligated to drive through snowdrifts in the winter.  That is until one early evening winter drive with my wife.  She didn't think it was fun or funny when I swerved into the snowbanks on the side of the road.  She had no sooner finished telling me to be more careful when I swerved one more time only to feel the car slide and get absolutely stuck in a ditch.  I felt two eyes boring holes in the side of my head followed quickly by this question, "How do you feel now Mr. Big Bad 4X4?!" B...

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.  And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep his love really is."  Ephesians 3:16-18 I love going home.  It is easily my favorite place to be.  There is peace, love and joy.  I know this reality is not the experience for many, so I thank God all the time for mine.  Home is comfortable and safe.  It fits.  This positive perception is true to its fullest degree only when someone else is home.  An empty home is well ... empty. Paul spoke of a home in our verses for today as well.  Interestingly, he identified our heart as a home.  He was praying for these people that their hearts would ...

"What's more, the scriptures looked forward to this time when God would accept the Gentiles, too, on the basis of their faith.  God promised this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, 'All nations will be blessed through you.'  And so it is: All who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith."  Galatians 3:8-9 After dousing the fire out with cups of water, we all stood there looking at the van with the same question racing through our minds, "So ... now what?"  The options didn't feel like good ones as we stood on the side of the road with ten hours of driving ahead of us and our fully loaded vehicle still smoking.  After two phone calls, we found ourselves towed to a wonderfully kind family's garage with a highly trained mechanic friend of my family giving us the green light to head on home.  What an amazing blessing they all were to us! In our scripture today, Paul is extremely excited abou...

"We are human, but we don't wage war with human plans and methods. We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the devil's strongholds. With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ."  II Corinthians 10:3-5 As the last few seconds ticked off the clock, the ball rolled to a stop and the teams gathered to shake hands in the spirit of sportsmanship. With an ear to ear beaming grin on their face, my child made their way across the field to share their excitement with us. We were genuinely proud of and excited for them.  For most people, victory is fun and losing is hard. We don't put in the time for practice and preparation to lose. The goal is victory. In our verses for the day, Paul talks about one particular battle that we simply must win and that's the battle against the devil.  Unfortunately, many ...

"Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have.  Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless; it is like chasing the wind."  Ecclesiastes 6:9 There is a conversation that is often repeated in our house.  It begins at some store or web-site with this comment, "That's perfect!"  It continues later on at home where the once perfect item has now become well ... let's just say, not-so-perfect anymore.  The reasons given for this transformation from perfect to less than perfect are many.  However, it ultimately boils down to one word - contentment. Here, in our verse for the day, Solomon weighs in with one of the cleanest definitions of contentment that you're ever going to find:  "Enjoy what you have."  He then follows up with an equally powerful definition of discontentment: "Desiring what you don't have."  He adds this commentary to discontentment ... It is an absolute and total waste of time, energy and res...

"Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."  Hebrews 10:23-25 After a few dozen unsuccessful attempts to access our WiFi internet at home, I finally conceded defeat. Prior to launching the computer out the window, I used my phone-a-friend lifeline which paid off.  He let me know that the signal boxes have a reset button on the back that need to be pushed from time to time ensure connectivity. Sure enough, I pushed the little button and connection was reestablished and I, once again, had the world at my fingertips. Our verses for the day speak of connections far more significant in the overall construct of life.  The truth is life is hard. It pushes us towards i...

"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...