Fall Creek Christian Church

"He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy.  He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit.  He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.  He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness.  And now we know that we will inherit eternal life."      Titus 3:5-7 As I leaned over to grab my ankles, a wide variety of thoughts raced through my 13 year old mind ... "Is this going to hurt?  I'd rather not be here.  Is this really happening?  What will my parents think when they find out?"  Whack!! Ouch!  My inquiry as to the painfulness of getting a swat from my burly history teacher was rather convincingly answered.  While reflecting on this particularly vivid memory, I notice that at no time then or since then did I ever think or say, "I'm innocent!  This punishment is an injustice!"  Nope.  Never.  I was guilty and I knew it. Guilt is a them

"King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, 'I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.'  'They will not hand you over,' Jeremiah replied.  'Obey the Lord by doing what I tell you.  Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared.'"   Jeremiah 38:19-20 All I had time to do was to shout, "Stop!"  My son had pedaled his bike off the sidewalk near a busy intersection without noticing that he was just about to end up in oncoming traffic.  Fortunately, he stopped.  The raw emotion of my response left him indelibly marked with a healthy fear of traffic while biking near busy roads, but not an unhealthy fear of biking itself.  Fascinating isn't it?  Fear is neither always bad nor always good.  It really depends upon its object. King Zedekiah's circumstances placed him in a crisis of faith.  Would he fear God more than men?  God's prophet told him

"Develop your business before building your house."  Proverbs 24:27 On more occasions than I care to remember, I've made the mistake of "after". You know this mistake don't you? We speak to our spouse after we commit to an activity. We determine an item is beyond our budget after we purchase it. We're told the position is actually not a sure thing after we quit our job. We discover a course of action is unwise after we are unable to turn back. Yikes!  It upsets our stomach just thinking about it.   The writer of this proverb was no stranger to this same gut-wrenching error.  His counsel?  In a word - "before".  The principle of "before" will save us countless headaches and sleepless nights.  Before we act, wait.  Before we speak, think.  Before we commit, count the cost.  Before anything and everything, pray. There are at least two action steps that flow from this conversation.  First, it's time to quit trying to justify and