Fall Creek Christian Church

"Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them,'Truly, truly, I say to to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." John 5:19 Sight is a marvelous sense. Our eyes are the lamp of our body. The intricacy and complexity of the human eye has been well documented. It's ability to quickly focus, to adjust to various levels of light, and to distinguish colors and patterns is one of God's special gifts to us. Good eyesight, however, does not always equal good vision. Good vision has far more to do with our heart, mind, and will than it does with the quality of our eyesight. As many false eyewitness accounts reveal, the eye will see what the heart, mind and will want to see and/or what they have prepared the eye to see. We've all heard the expressions, they have a "trained" eye or a "real eye for that", meani...

"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...

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you -- even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets." Acts 3:19-21 With the dust so thick and the temperature so high, I was beginning to doubt that we would make it out of that barn alive. However, after hours of loading wagons and stacking hay bales, the field was cleared. The dust covered us from head to toe. Our arms stung from all the scratches earned by heaving the bales high onto the wagon and into the upper recesses of the barn rafters. We made our way out of the barn as the dust descended upon us like a light snow. The relief of the fresh air was quickly overcome by the scorching sun beating down upon us. There was only one thing on our minds. Water. To say we were sweaty and thirsty woul...

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Ps 119:105 At the first flickering of the lights, we instinctively began to round up all the candles and some matches. Sure enough, the next round of lightning with its accompanying thunder, that was close enough to shake the house, caused the power to quit flowing and the house went dark. Immediately, the matches were struck and the candles were lit. It truly is an amazing atmosphere when the only light available is candlelight. There was a warm glow, dancing shadows, and sense of uneasy yet appealing nostalgia as we 21st century technology dependent individuals were sent back to a bygone era. None of us could simply run up the stairs or into the next room. We had to take a candle with us or we couldn't see our feet or what they were about step on or trip over. The candlelight was good for one step at a time. The Psalmist who wrote this very famous line lived in a world of oil lamps. The every singl...

"After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, 'I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.'"  John 13:21 More times than I can remember, I have had conversations with individuals who prefaced the discussion with something like this, "The last time I trusted a pastor and shared confidential information with them, they turned right around and broke their word."  In short, they felt betrayed.  I once had a "friend" who decided that it was their job to judge me and then pass his judgment along in the form of gossip.  I was absolutely floored when I found out it was him.  On the other side of the coin, having betrayed others in some form or fashion myself, it is nothing short of heart-breaking, adding one more rock to the pile of regrets.  Regardless of what end of the betrayal equation we may find ourselves, "troubling" is a very appropriate description of its impact.  Betrayal is brutal. The Bible c...

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearances or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'"   I Samuel 16:7 As we turned down the road congested with warehouses and other industrial buildings, we began to wonder if the directions we had been given were accurate or if we had simply made a wrong turn.  In any event, nothing appeared to us like the quaint little local restaurant that had been described to us.  We called again to verify we were on the right road and were told to look carefully for a small obscure sign with the restaurant's name on it and an arrow directing us to its location.  We finally found the sign and followed the road between the buildings to a warmly lit and truly unique establishment.  It turned out to be our favorite restaurant of the whole trip.  With its uneven floors, tac...

"But Ruth replied, 'Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.'" Ruth 1:16-17 Just short of 24 years ago, my wife and I stood before God, friends and family, and each other and said, "I will." Little did either of us know the implications of those two little words. From my wife's perspective things like, "I will put up with your snoring, not to mention your too often junior high boy behavior." Other implications include: I will love you even when I do not like you. I will serve you. I will be kind to you. I will sacrifice myself for you. I will remain ever faithful to you. I will all of these and so much more regardless of whether you will or not. And finally, at...