It was pretty amazing. Late on January 2, and on into the weekend, we were bombarded with stories of how wonderful the Utah football team was. They had beaten Alabama, and done so in dominant fashion. However, as we draw closer to the BCS national title game, the story has swung another way. Now we are being told that Utah is a “good story,” but they could never match up with either Florida or Oklahoma. This change in story illustrates the problem with NCAA I-A (or FBS) college football. It’s all about appearances. So, for a few moments, read with an open mind the case for Utah winning the AP…

I try to mention each book I complete on this blog, and I try to point out positives in brief reviews. Unfortunately, the first book I completed in 2009 makes it difficult to start off the year with an uplifting recommendation! The book, The Gift of Forgiveness by Charles Stanley, is a book that I was excited to read, but was deeply disappointed. Stanley, of course, is writing from a purely Calvinistic viewpoint and the teaching of “once saved, always saved” permeates nearly every aspect of the book. That was enough to really upset me as I read. In all seriousness, how can one write a book on forgiveness when…

We got off to a great start to 2009 at Lebanon Road. Our attendance headed up again, and we had very uplifting services. At the beginning of our time together yesterday morning, our treasurer presented the congregation with the budget for 2009. Even with the economy in turbulent times, our elders challenged us by increasing our budget. We know that our families will meet and exceed the challenge set before us by our elders so that we can do as much good as possible through our giving. Yesterday morning, I preached a New Year’s sermon that was entitled, “A.D.” We used the phrase, “The year of our Lord” as the…

It was so nice to see Nebraska pull out a Gator Bowl victory yesterday. So far, the Big 12 is 3-1, but there are still quite a few teams left to play. I haven’t watched as many bowl games as usual. I think there are so many now that they start to run together after awhile. Anyway, we’re off to a good start to 2009, and I hope you are having a great start to your new year as well. If you haven’t yet, make sure you include God in your New Year’s resolutions. One of my resolutions is to preach through the Bible on Sunday nights. I’m following a…

As each year closes, we often take time to reflect on the events of the year. For the Faughn family, it has been quite a year. It really started on December 30, 2007, when we agreed to move to Nashville to work with Lebanon Road. On January 1, we sold our house in Haleyville (no kidding!). On January 6, we had to share the news with the wonderful people at 9th Avenue, just one day after the close of the annual youth rally (and record attendance!). It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done to announce we would be leaving, but, as we would expect, the great…

Our family was away for the weekend, but things continued to go well at Lebanon Road. J.D. and Harry preached, and did a great job. It was also great to end the year with another family placing membership with us! Steve, Mary Catherine, Katie Grace, and Cross Thompson are coming back to Lebanon Road. They moved away from Tennessee a while back, but are back in the Nashville area now, and will be working with us under the oversight of our elders. This is a great family with many talents, and we are happy to have them with us. There were 343 in worship Sunday morning, and our Bible class…

We are truly enjoying our time in Kentucky for the Christmas holiday. We have opened presents, and seen the stuff Santa left the kids. We’ve visited my grandmother and we sang at her assisted living home. Most of all, we are enjoying time with family…which is why there isn’t much “intro” to this post! On to the links….. 1. One of the Old Testament books I find most fascinating is Habakkuk. I don’t know as much about this book as I’d like, but I hope to appreciate it more in the future. David Mathis writes of the change in the prophet on Desiring God’s blog. 2. One of the difficulties…

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Lord willing, we are leaving after our midweek services tonight to drive to Paducah for a holiday. We’ll enjoy Christmas with my parents, grandmother, sister and her family, and my family. I’m grateful that we are a close family. I’m also so thankful that we are able to be together on holidays (and other times, too). There are thousands of children who will not get to see a mom or dad on Christmas this year. While it was to be expected, I was somewhat upset that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were basically turned into nothing more than a political ploy (by both parties) this past year. In all…

This is a book I have taken my time in reading. It is longer than many books I read (over 580 pages), but it is also very good. David is the lecture book from the 2008 Power Lectures, held in Southaven, Mississippi. Each of the lectures, as you can guess, is based upon a scene from David’s life, or a relationship he had with another (Bathsheba, Saul, Solomon, etc.). One of the interesting features of this book is that it is not in chronological order. Instead, the lectures are grouped together by subject (David as king, shepherd, servant, etc.). This takes a little getting used to, but makes for good…