This has been one of “those” weeks. Sunday, while we were at Leah’s parents’ house, Mary Carol and I both were sick. Fortunately for her, Mary Carol’s went away by early Monday morning. Mine, however, has not. I worked Wednesday (feeling pretty good), but, by Wednesday night, I was feeling awful. Thursday, I didn’t come to work at all. I went to the doctor, and they really don’t know what’s going on. Today, I’m at work…for now. I’m only staying long enough to get the essentials done. I’m feeling better, but I’m still not well. It’s just good to be on the “upswing” of this, and hopefully there won’t be…

Recently on iPreach, Dale Jenkins and I interviewed Gary Knuckles, who preaches for the Lord’s Church in Briensburg, Kentucky. We talked about books. No surprise this became the longest podcast in iPreach’s short history! If you have not yet heard the show, click here and enjoy. Following that podcast, I received an email from my good friend, Wes Hazel. He preaches in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. While we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, email is a constant. He is also a book-lover, and he sent me an interesting email. I have taken out some of the personal stuff, but here is the basic “bones” of the…

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Okay, so this has nothing to do with religion, but it’s funny. Today, I want to post two sports stories you probably missed (I saw both of these on Deadspin, which is a sports blog I read, but with great caution!!!). 1. The BCS stinks. You want proof? Here it is: One of the computers used in the ranking of teams has a I-AA (sorry, FCS) team ranked in the top 25. That’s right, James Madison ranks #24 in Sagarin’s ELO-Chess number which is used for the BCS formula. Need a visual? Here’s the link. JMU is #33 on the list, but #24 in the ELO-Chess number, which is the…

Tomorrow night, the Lebanon Road church of Christ will have a special Thanksgiving service. Many congregations do similar things, since so many are out-of-town and since there are so many visitors. That “flux” makes it difficult to continue a curriculum in Bible classes. Also, since our minds (hopefully) are on thankfulness, it serves as a good time to have a very focused service. I was honored that our elders asked me to coordinate the evening. Brother Harry Middleton provided me with some outlines of services from year’s past, and I was excited that several men had been involved. With that in mind, I outlined a service, and 23 men will…

We had a ton of folks traveling for the holidays yesterday, and we also had some who were leading worship in Pearlington, Mississippi, so our numbers were a bit down yesterday, but that sure didn’t dampen the spirits on “the Pike.” It was another uplifting day. We were even spared from the cold weather a bit and enjoyed a beautiful day. I preached a sermon yesterday morning entitled “The Truly Thankful Life,” based on Psalm 107. Instead of preaching a “count your blessings” sermon for Thanksgiving, I decided to preach a sermon on what a thankful life looks like. Here were the points: I. It is a Secure Life (v.1a).…

Tonight at Lebanon Road, we are having the annual “Harvest Banquet.” It is a dinner for our older members, featuring a full production of Hee-Haw, put on by some of us young-uns. (I’m just thankful I can still be in the young-un group!) One thing about Lebanon Road is that they don’t half-do anything. Don’t believe me? Just look at the set for our show tonight: I hope to have someone take some pictures of the evening, so I can post them later. Since I was sick last week, there are several links this week. It’s two weeks’ worth. Enjoy! 1. David Lemmons posts an article from Adam Cozort entitled…

Last night, we got to witness a baptism at Lebanon Road! Mandi Cofer was baptized for the remission of her sins at the conclusion of our devotional period last night. She was baptized into a denomination a few years ago, but wanted to be certain that her baptism was for the forgiveness of sins. We are so proud of her thoughtfulness and courage in making this decision. To make the night even more special, she asked her husband, Shea, to baptize her. And one more special note: this sweet young couple is expecting their first child in the near future. Now, that child (a girl named Cleo) will be raised…

When I was a kid, I used to sit around for hours setting up long lines of dominos. I had over 1000, and, at times, would set up nearly all of them. I had them all over the downstairs of our house, and got pretty good at doing tricks with them. Yes, I know, that officially qualifies me as a nerd. When I was a youth minister, we even had a couple of days where the elementary young people would have domino competitions, setting them up and knockin’ em down. They loved it. Yes, they are nerds, too. Why all this domino talk? In case you haven’t yet seen it,…

John MacArthur wrote this very basic book subtitled, A Biblical Guide to Using God’s Wealth. Simply reading the title and subtitle, the reader gets the basis of the book: what we have is not really ours. There are a few things readers will enjoy about this volume: 1. Each chapter is brief, but filled with information. Truly, there is no “fluff” in this book. It is straightforward, but helpful. 2. MacArthur does not believe in tithing as a necessity, and lays out a very logical way of thinking about this discussion. 3. The appendix is a special chapter dealing with gambling. Though short, it provides the basic arguments against gambling…