Fall Creek Christian Church

"'Why are you so angry?' the Lord asked Cain. "Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.'" Genesis 4:6-7 On more than one occasion, I've found myself spinning in circles on icy, snowy roads. I wasn't driving wildly. Just keeping up with traffic, slow traffic given the conditions. The next thing I knew I was spinning like the teacup ride at the amusement park. Thankfully, these rather unsophisticated departures from the highway never resulted in vehicular or bodily harm. By failing to take the necessary extra precautions, I lost control. It's easy to do isn't it?    Adam and Eve's son Cain was on icy roads going 100 mph and he didn't even know it. Not even divine intervention could convince him to take his foot off the accelerator. Isn't that am...

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath. ... And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you."  Psalm 39:4-5, 7 After waiting on hold for who knows how long and finally getting my question asked and answered, I said to myself, "Well, that's a part of my life I'll never get back." It's frustrating to see precious moments consumed by something not nearly as precious. I have noticed, however, that, by and large, I'm much less discerning of wasted time than I ought to be. David made it a point to ask God to remind him of life's brevity. David did not want to fall victim to the illusion of timelessness on this side of eternity. For David, the reality of a fast approaching end provided a deep motivation to tightly focus his life in one dire...

“But Moses told the people, 'Don't be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the Lord rescue you. The Egyptians that you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. You won't have to lift a finger in your defense!'" Exodus  14:13-14 "What? ... Where in the world did that come from?" False accusations are troubling to us aren't they. As we all have, I've heard some whoppers over the years. One ministry friend was arrested at a park during his prayer and Bible study time because someone accused him of being a flasher. All charges were dropped as fraudulent, but still. When I've been attacked, my knee jerk is to want to strike back and defend myself. What about you? The people of Israel were in trouble. An attack was imminent. As a recently freed nation of slaves, they were in no position to fight. So they did what came natural ... panic! God led them to this very real position of helplessness to teach them to tur...

“while Jesus was having a meal in Matthew's house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with such people?" One evening during my youth ministry days, I remember staring at this kid showing up to youth group and I said, "Uh-O." He had these clothes that were torn and oddly assembled with a dog collar and matching wrist collars. It was his hair, however, that really captured my attention. He had a mohawk made of five to six ten inch high multi-colored spikes. "Better keep an eye on him", I said to myself. In time, I came to know him as one of the most Jesus-centered teenagers that I had ever met. Our verses today reveal that prejudice and "better than you" attitudes have been around an awfully long time. Jesus didn't prescribe to that type of thinking. He welcomed anyone. He didn't put up any artificial bar...

“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are. But Jonah got up and went into the opposite direction to get away from the Lord." Jonah 1: 2-3a As soon as I made the turn, something told me that things were not quite right. I'm sure it was my sharp tactical senses that alerted me and not the fact that the oncoming traffic was in the exact same lane as I was. Thankfully, I was able to swerve off the road before the inevitable and unfortunate lead news story materialized. As our verses for the day clearly indicate, going the wrong way is not unique to me. Jonah got all turned around too. However, his wrong way moment was not caused by an unfortunate bad guess. He was on the run. Not from some dark sinister force. No, he was on the run from God! This wrong way decision led to that whole nasty belly of the fish business. Eventually, Jonah did do his job. However, we're never quite sure if his heart eve...

“Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me." Ezekiel 33:7 I was warned several times as a young man to drive slower in snowy conditions. Embarrassingly, it took more than one trip into the ditch before I began to realize the warning was legitimate. Warnings are a big deal. Heeding or ignoring them can mean the difference between life and death. Ezekiel highlights in the verses for the day that God had even established the job of "watchman" for the sole purpose of delivering warnings. As God's prophet, Ezekiel was charged to issue spiritual warnings on God's behalf to God's people. Serious stuff. He was told later that if he didn't give the warnings, he would be held responsible and presumably dealt with accordingly. Who are the "watchmen" today? Who has the job of issuing warnings? Who is responsible to tell people, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, bu...

“And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him."  Hebrew 9:27-28 Many great stories begin with the word, "Once." Yours did. Mine did. We were physically born once. My birthplace was South Dakota. You have yours. We are glad that some moments are "once" moments. We wish other "once" moments were more than once. Either way, they are significant and unavoidable as we see in our verses for the day.   The writer of Hebrews gives us a solid dose of reality in the whole "once" conversation. Each of us will die ... once. Judgment is to follow. We will stand before God. How that goes depends on how we have responded to another "once" moment - one in Jesus' life. He died for our sins once. By doing so,...

“For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we are. Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God whom we must explain all that we have done."  Hebrews  4:12-13 I immediately knew something wasn't quite right. Unfortunately, the crystal clear pool water provided me no safe harbor from the reality that my swimsuit was now around my ankles. I moved quickly to rectify the situation, but I was pretty sure some of the poolside conversation revolved around the briefly appearing full moon in the middle of a hot, sunny day. Being exposed is typically a situation that most of us look to avoid. Given that reality, verses like the ones for today can be more than a little troubling ... "innermost thoughts", "exposes", "nothing can hide", "naked and exposed"... Yikes!!! Add...

“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are defiled. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are despicable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good."  Titus  1:15-16 I'm sure there were moments in my life growing up where my parents wish they could've denied knowing me. Moments where it would have been easier to simply say, "Nope, I have no idea whose kid that is", than to deal with the reality of my actions. I'm thankful they didn't as I'm sure my kids are glad that I've never denied them. It's a real bummer to be denied, to be disowned, for someone we care about to just walk away. Here in Paul's letter to Titus, we find out that it's possible to deny God. Here, he's not speaking about the person who says, "I don't believe in God." He's talking about the pe...

“Remember that some people lead sinful lives, and everyone knows they will be judged. But there are others whose sin will not be revealed until later. In the same way, everyone knows how much good some people do, but there are others whose good deeds won't be known until later."   I Timothy 5:24-25 I was more than a little confused when I opened the letter. It was from the city of Dayton. It contained a picture of our van, a comparative analysis of our speed and the posted speed limit and finally an invitation to send them some money to make restitution for our transgression. The inability to see the driver in the photograph has led to an ongoing debate in our home as to who was actually driving at the time. Regardless, weeks after the incident we had to face justice and send them a check.  "Later" is a very common and significant theme in the Bible. The complete fulfillment of all the promises of God are reserved for later. Paul tells Timothy in this letter that ...

“'Come now, let us argue this out,' says the Lord. 'No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool...'" Isaiah  1:18 The first snowfall of the year always seems to be the most dazzling. The flakes are so clear in flight they appear to be translucent. It's only as they accumulate that the brilliant white is truly revealed. It's remarkable to me how spellbinding it is to watch those flakes drift down so effortlessly out of the sky. And then, once the clouds roll on and the brilliant sun strikes those collected flakes, it's as if a switch has been flipped to reveal a spotless and radiant carpet of light. I believe God was appealing to his people using just such a scene to powerfully communicate what it means to be forgiven by God. He alone is uniquely positioned to do the impossible -- remove any vestige of the stains of s...

 " Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love." I John  4:18 It's a great relief to have negative things expelled from our lives. After having my wisdom teeth removed, they went into dry sockets. Pain and misery were my only companions for nearly two weeks. There is no way to describe the elation when they finally healed up. I felt like jumping, dancing and doing flips for joy. The only reason I didn't is because I can't really jump, dance or do flips, but you get the point.  In our verse for the day, John tells us something truly remarkable. Fear has been expelled from the life of the one who truly embraces the love of God in Jesus. How does that happen? Fear involves punishment. If we still think we are going to be punished for our sin, we haven't fully understood what Jesus was doing on the cross. He took our punishment. Why? ...

“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...

“...Saul realized his troops were rapidly slipping away. So he demanded, "Bring me the burnt offerings and the peace offerings!" And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself. Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him and welcomed him, but Samuel said, "What is this you have done?"..."  I Samuel 13:8-11 1-2-3, spin the ball, shoot. Turn the cap inside out. One practice swing then hit. We see it all the time in sports. Rituals. Attempts by players to get in the zone or by fans to send some magical positive energy to their team through the flatscreen. In the context of sports, it's harmless fun. However, this ritual for outcomes isn't always a harmless proposition. In our verses for today, we see King Saul in trouble. He had been told to wait for Samuel the prophet and priest, but he was overwhelmed with fear. In his panic, he made the decision to make the offerings Samuel was supposed to make. His logi...

“(It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.) In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them." Deuteronomy 1:2-3 I could have had her on a leash. I could have picked her up before I crossed the street. I could have done a hundred things differently in that moment. If I would have, one of my worst childhood memories never would have happened. Life is given to us in a series of moments. Once passed, the moments cannot be rewound. There are no do-overs or reset buttons. We live. We chose. We experience the outcomes of those choices, both positive and negative.  The people of Israel were no different. God had led them out the bondage of Egypt. They were standing at the entrance of their divinely appointed land. God said, "Go!" They said, "No!" Forty years later they returned with none of the nay-sayers in tow. In one moment, they...

“David longed for water and said, ‘Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!’ So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the  Lord .’  II Samuel 23:15-16   Breakthrough. The word is irrepressively positive. Our lives are measured and treasured by our breakthrough moments ... riding the bike without training wheels, acing the impossible exam, standing true when tested, defeating the demons of addiction ... Facing down my fears of the unknown have provided some of my most treasured breakthrough moments in life. What about you? Our verses for the day provide a picture of what a breakthrough looks like and who gets to experience them. David's hometown was in trouble. The dreaded Philistines had shown up. David wa...

"They said to one another, 'Surely we are being punished because of our brother.  We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that's why this disaster has come upon us."  Genesis 42:21 I don't know why I did it.  Honestly, as a first grader, it was more simple impulse than calculated plan.  My neighbor had a silver dollar collection and I wanted one so I took it.  Like Poe's "beating heart" that coin haunted me until the day I discreetly returned it to its rightful owner.   In this one verse snapshot of a much longer story, Joseph's brothers found themselves in a world of hurt.  Their conclusion? ... We are getting what we deserve for the horrible wrong we have done.  They ignored their brother's cries when they sold him into slavery.  He begged.  He cried.  He pleaded. They didn't care ... then that is.  But now?  They were haunted.  They were steeped in regret.  A...

"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.'  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has been conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."     James 1:13-15 I really really enjoy fishing or more accurately - catching.  If I stop catching, I'm done fishing.  I know the fishing purist might find that attitude mildly offensive, but I'm just being honest.  If I find a fishing lure that works, meaning it successfully tempts fish to bite it, I'll use it all day.  I don't need to experiment.  When it comes to fishing and lures, I am an incurable pragmatist. In our verses for the day, James has some insights about temptation as well.  First, it's not from God.  Nope, it's an internal matter.  Within each of our hearts are desires that are incurably...

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'" Psalm 91:1-2 Once the snowball fight was fully engaged, we were all reminded why we had spent a great deal of time building our snow fort ahead of time. The snow balls were sailing by at an alarming rate not to mention speed. Catching one of those frosty missiles in the face would not have been good. Our forts provided some necessary cover from the barrage. In our verses for the day, the Psalmist reminds us that shelters and fortresses are not only for snowball fights. They are also needed in this crazy battlefield called life. It defies comprehension that God himself is willing to be our fortress, our shelter and our refuge. The Creator of all beckons us to himself, "Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and you will find rest for your souls." My guess is that most...

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NIV) In our traditional worship service on Sunday mornings, we like to joke about the song: Jesus Love Even Me. Jesus loves even me. Not: "Jesus loves me because I am so great, attractive and kind..." Jesus loves us in spite of failures, AND he chooses to wipe out our sin on top of that. Jesus didn't just say that he loved us in our darkest, most sinful moments. He showed his love for us, when he went to the cross and died for us. Who is it in your life that you need to stop merely talking about how much you love them, and step up and show them? If we really want to be like Jesus, this is what it will look like. All because he loves EVEN you and EVEN me.