Fall Creek Christian Church

"The disciples were terrified and amazed. 'Who is this man?'...people in the region of the Garasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone for a great wave of fear swept over them. The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with him." Luke 8:22-39 Several years ago now, a friend rolled into town with a his newly acquired Dodge Viper. Basically, it's a massive engine with wheels attached to it. "Want to drive?" he asked. "Absolutely!" I said trying my best to blunt my uneasiness. As soon as I released the clutch and stepped on the gas pedal, I thought to myself, "This road trip isn't going to end well." Heart pounding, I pulled over, smiled and gave him his keys.  The disciples, the townspeople and the man liberated from demonic bondage all responded to the power of Jesus in very different ways. The disciples responded with fear and amazement. I'm scared, but I simply must follow. The townspeople were cold b...

"I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people...Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others--the armies of heaven--praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in highest heaven...'" Luke 2:8-38 At a recent baptism of a new believer in Jesus, I was reminded about rejoicing angels. Jesus said that all of heaven rejoices whenever there is a soul saved. I love the words of a preacher at such a time who said, "Glory! We made a little noise in heaven today!" The angels also praise and rejoice being in God's presence. They also praise and rejoice at the works of God. Those are such special moments when we join them. As Luke unpacks the arrival of Jesus, there is rejoicing and praising going on all over the place. Yep, the angels were right on cue and right on key with their praise. The shepherds skipped with joy back to their sheep with praise on their lips. Simeon couldn't contain his joy as prophetic praise poured out of his mo...

  "She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them." Luke 2:1-7   After watching the film "Greater" recently, I was confronted once again with the harsh reality that blessings from God do not always follow obedience to God. The family in this true story was absolutely rocked to the core. If you haven't seen this film yet, please watch it. We have such a hard time embracing God's sovereign 30,000-foot reality when we are living in a 10-foot world. Good = Blessed. Right?    I have to believe some of these thoughts had to be whirling through Joseph's mind as he brought his betrothed to Bethlehem. She's very pregnant with a child that isn't his. They're forced to travel over rough terrain for miles. He couldn't even find a proper place to stay to have the baby. Another account records he had to flee with them to Egypt to escape a homi...

"But Moses responded to the Lord, 'There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, I will give them meat for a whole month!'" Numbers 11:18-23 "The disciples replied, 'Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?'" Matthew 15:32-39 Honestly, some things are just hard to believe. While on one of my internet rabbit trails, I stumbled across an article about the guy who holds the world record for keeping your body in the plank position. It was over 8 hours! Not minutes, hours! I'm good for like 80 seconds. 8 hours is absolutely staggering. Seriously, in normal life, how many people do you know holding a plank for over 8 hours? "No way!" We hear those words all the time, don't we? And then, we read a story about a "plank master" and think, "Well, maybe there is a way."  From our scriptures today, we discover that people have been saying "No way!" to God f...

"...'we want to sit in places of honor next to you'...'I want to see!'..." Mark 10:32-52 One of the most difficult jobs of being a parent is processing what feels like a million requests a day. Multiple kids take the request numbers through the roof. "Can I have...?" "I want..." Can we go...?" fired at us like a machine gun almost always followed up with the never-ending magic word, "please, please, please, please...ple-e-e-e-e-ease." We do our best under the barrage. In our best moments, we recognize some requests are wonderful teaching opportunities and others just make us smile with joy.  Jesus modeled good request response for us over and over again as we see in the stories for today. James and John wanted honor. Bartimaeus wanted sight. The first request was made right after Jesus told them of his imminent suffering and death. The second request was made after Jesus heard Bartimaeus' confession of faith, "Son of...