The Faughn Family of Four

If You Like Free Stuff…

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Adam Faughn • 0 Comments

Since relaunching the blog a couple of weeks ago, we have been blessed by some very nice comments, both online and off. Many of you have kindly spoken of some aspect of the redesign that you like, and for that we are very grateful. We want the site to be informative, but also have a good design.

One of the lessons we have learned from the relaunch is this: people like free stuff!

At the top of our blog, there are some buttons that lead to free resources pages. Though our numbers are small by most blog standards, those pages get “hits” every single day, whether we post a new article or not. People want to see what is free.

Additionally, since adding a free incentive for signing up for our blog via email, we have seen that number go nowhere but up. When we relaunched at the beginning of this month, we had less than 100 email subscribers. Now, with a free eBook for signing up, we have over 130. (If you haven’t signed up and gotten your free eBook on Revelation, do so here.)

People just like free stuff. In fact, I would venture to say that, over time, we will have people stumble onto this post simply because the title contains the phrase “free stuff.” (Most of us have googled a phrase like that before!)

Knowing that people like free stuff, I have a question: Why aren’t more people saved?

“What?” you may ask. “How do those things go together?”

They go together perfectly. Just listen to the words of Paul the Apostle:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, ESV)

“Free gift.”

That’s what salvation is!

If you want to pay, you can certainly do that, because God has given you choice in this life. He did not create us to be automatons that cannot operate apart from a series of predetermined commands. He gave you choice and will and the ability to think and discern.

But your all-wise Father also made it clear what lies at the end, ultimately, of each choice.

If we desire to sin, we may certainly do so. That is our choice, but God has made it clear that sin is the way that actually costs. It has “wages” associated with it. We must pay.

In total contrast, when it comes to salvation, God has already paid. It is a free gift, because Christ has paid the price in your place and mine. All we must do is accept the gift at the waters of baptism. Come to that location in gratitude and humility and accept the gift. God will give it to you.

So, we have a choice. Do we pay the wages of sin, or do we accept and receive the free gift of God. Consider that contrast.

You may brag about a great freebie you got at some point in your life. Maybe someone gave you a trip, a car…maybe even a house. Over time, though, that gift will end, wear out, or break down.

If you like free stuff, you simply cannot compare any earthly freebie with what the Lord offers. He offers a way out of your biggest problem; that of sin. He offers that freely to you at baptism, and He promises that the gift will last forever.

It’s the greatest free gift anyone can imagine, but so few have accepted it.

Have you?

QUESTION: What comes to your mind when you consider the “free gift” of salvation?

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Photo credit: Alan O’Rourke on Creative Commons

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Filed Under: Church Life

Acts by the Numbers : Acts 17

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Adam Faughn • 0 Comments

I won’t be preaching on Sunday nights for a couple of weeks after tonight (VBS, 5th Sunday, Church Camp), so it will be a few weeks before our next handout. Enjoy this one on Acts 17. We hope you are finding these to be helpful to you!

Acts by the Numbers Chapter 17

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Filed Under: Acts By the Numbers

Hymn Reflection : I Love to Tell the Story

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Adam Faughn • 2 Comments

So far as I know, the author of our hymn for this week, Arabella Katherine Hankey (sometimes published as “Catherine”), only wrote two hymns, but they are remarkable songs.

Hankey was born and raised in London and was strongly influenced by a group called the “Clapham Sect” of the Anglican Church. This sect, clearly under the influence of William Wilberforce, was opposed to slavery, and also wished to reform prisons, education, and make other social changes through the work of the church. Though the Clapham Sect was basically gone by the time she reached her formative years, people like Katherine Hankey carried on the ideals for decades.

To show more of Hankey’s passionate heart, Robert Morgan writes,

Early in life, Kate became involved in religious work. As a young girl, she taught Sunday school; and when she was eighteen she organized a Bible study for factory girls in London. (This Bible study was never large, but the girls became close and fifty years later, five of them met together at Kate’s funeral.) When her brother fell ill in Africa, Kate traveled there to bring him home. That trip sparked a passion for foreign missions, and in later life Kate devoted all proceeds from her writing to missionary work. (Then Sings My Soul: Book 2, page 109)

As she entered her 30′s, Katherine became very ill. She had been so involved in efforts through the Church that doctors ordered her to stop and stay in bed for an entire year. She complied, in part. Though she didn’t travel as she had before, she remained a missionary via writing.

The most famous writing from that year was done in two parts. It was a poem that, when completed, was 100 stanzas in length. The first part is called “The Story Wanted,” while the second part is “The Story Told.” She completed the entire poem in 1866, though it took her most of the year to write it.

In 1867, the Young Men’s Christian Association held its international convention, and one of the leaders ended a sermon by quoting from the poem. William Doane, who heard the sermon, put part of the song to music, and gave us “Tell Me the Old, Old Story.”

It wasn’t until two years later, though, that another hymn-writer, William Fischer, created a unique melody (which he called “Hankey”) for another part of the hymn. In 1869, “I Love the Tell the Story” was first published in an American songbook, and has been a favorite hymn of many ever since.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, you can read an 1875 publication of Hankey’s entire poem right here:

Old Old Story by 5ptsalt

This hymn is obviously a missionary song. Singing it should cause us to swell with motivation to tell all we know about Jesus Christ, because He has done so much for us. Knowing where this song came from, though, only adds to that appeal. When we consider that a lady who was bedridden for a year wrote it so that others might know about the Lord, we have no excuse to avoid using our talents to tell that “old, old story of unseen things above.” After all, that story is one “that I have loved so long.” How can I help but share it?

Picture from My Hymnal Collection

From “Hosannas to the King” (1908)

Lyrics

I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.

I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

(complete lyrics here)

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Photo credit: alvanman on Creative Commons

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Filed Under: Hymn Reflections

How Christians Can Destroy Traditional Marriage Without Supporting Gay Marriage

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Adam Faughn • 1 Comment

Yesterday, we looked at how some of the language used by those in favor of gay marriage betrays at least part of their agenda. However, gay marriage is not the only issue we need to consider.

And those who support homosexual marriage are not the only people we need to think about, either. It is possible that Christians can (and, in part, have) led us to this point in our nation.

Now, before you get too angry, take a look at the title of this post again. I am not saying that you support gay marriage. I would venture to say that 90% of our regular readers (if not nearly 100%) do not support homosexual unions. Many of you are, as I am, staunchly opposed not only to homosexual marriage, but to the homosexual lifestyle in general.

However, what we are seeing in our society is not just the push for gay marriage. What we are seeing is a total redefinition of the idea of traditional, God-directed marriage.

And even Christians have contributed to that.

How?

For too long, we have said that God’s view of marriage is “one man and one woman for life.” What’s wrong with that? It is an incomplete description of God’s ideal. Of course, we know that the New Testament teaches that a man is to marry a woman and that they are to remain married for life, but that’s not the totality of God’s design nor His desire.

Instead of oversimplifying things to “one man and one woman for life,” we need to say what the Bible actually says. God’s view of marriage is “one Christ-like, loving, and servant-leader man, and one church-like, respecting, and submissive godly woman who have left father and mother, are cleaving to one another, and committed to the one flesh picture for an ever-maturing lifetime, to the glory of God.”

Now, that may not roll off the tongue as easily as the shortened version, but it also does not provide us an open door to destroy marriage.

What do I mean? Far too many, even in the Church, see marriage just as a lifelong “thing.” It’s not all that special, other than it just lasts a long time. If we do not present the full picture to the world, we are helping to pull away at the very fabric of God’s traditional view of marriage.

Any time I make fun of my wife and act like wives are just all overbearing, I am not loving my wife, so I am not not giving a godly picture of marriage.

Any time I participate in a gossip-fest where husbands are the subject of all the jokes, I am not respecting him, so I am not supporting God’s view of marriage.

When I leave divorce out there as an option, just in case we can’t make things work, I am not truly committed to the union, so I am not supporting traditional marriage.

When I let my mind wander to other people (whether in real life or online or a move star), to whom I am not married, and begin to fantasize about them, I am not honoring the “one flesh” relationship that is part of God’s view of marriage.

When I am not sure I would sacrifice even my own life of my wife, I am not loving her as Christ loved the Church, so I am not upholding God’s standard.

When a wife says (or thinks), “I’ll respect him, but only when he deserves it,” she is not doing as God said in Ephesians 5:33 (there are not qualifiers on either the husband’s love for his wife or a wife’s respect for her husband!), so she is not upholding God’s view of marriage.

When my marriage becomes secondary–either in action or in attitude–to my pursuit of money, leisure, or time with other friends, I am not placing the value on marriage that God does.

…and we could go on.

You see, with each of these things that we might consider “small” in comparison to gay marriage, we have make a small pull or tear in the fabric of what marriage really is in God’s sight. We may think we are just kidding around with the gals, or just looking at a little pornography like every guy does, or just enjoying something else in life right now. In reality, we are chipping away at the pillars of a God-instituted and God-directed institution, and our nation is reaping the whirlwind of our “small” decisions. We can shout from the hilltops that those who desire homosexual marriage are only striving to have society sanction their fleshly and selfish desires. That may be true, but any time (any time) I deviate from God’s standard for my own marriage, I am also displaying my own selfishness.

Let’s not just oppose the sin and threat of gay marriage. Let’s be sure we devote ourselves fully to the strong and perfect standard that God has for marriage. Only when we do that to the best of our ability can we say that we are really upholding traditional marriage. And only then is God truly glorified in our home.

QUESTION: What are some suggestions to remain fully committed to God’s true standard for marriage?

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Photo credit: Jiaren Lau on Creative Commons

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Filed Under: Church Life, Family

It’s Not (Only) About Loving Homosexual Unions

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Adam Faughn • 0 Comments

There can be no doubt that one of the issues of our time is homosexuality, and the twin issue of gay marriage. As our Supreme Court is preparing to give a ruling any day now on this issue, our nation stands at a precipice many of us never thought we would see. In fact, historically, our nation would be the first to sanction homosexual marriage. After defining “conjugal” marriage as that between a man and a woman, Girgis, Anderson, and George write,

But history also shows that hostility to homosexually inclined people could not possibly have given rise to the conjugal view. The philosophical and legal principle that only coitus could consummate a marriage arose centuries before the concept of a gay identity, when the only other acts being considered were ones between a married man and woman. And even in cultures very favorable to homoerotic relationships (as in ancient Greece), something akin to the conjugal view has prevailed–and nothing like same-sex marriage was even imagined. (What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense)

As the rhetoric grows and the tidal wave of influence continues to grow, we continue to see the emphasis on how all gays and lesbians desire is a strong, long-lasting, committed, and loving relationship. I am certain that, in some cases, that might be true. While homosexuality is clearly a sin (and we dare not back down from that truth, no matter the tide of culture), I have no doubt that some who wish to marry really do desire a life-long partnership, sinful though that union might be.

However, there are at least two reasons why we need to see through this rhetoric of this being about loving, committed unions.

First, statistics show that it just isn’t true. In fact, some studies show that a vast majority of gay men who wish to marry only want to do so for the “rights” and “benefits” that society offers, such as tax breaks. Among lesbians, there is more of a leaning toward life-long unions, but it is not exactly 100% (it’s more like 50-60%). A doctor named Bryce Christiansen wrote an article several years ago that states it well in the title: “Why Homosexuals Want What Marriage Has Now Become.”

But more than stats, the language being used betrays the homosexual agenda. Has anyone else noticed that, as homosexual marriage seems to be drawing more and more popularity, those who want this change have started changing their wording? While they often use “gay marriage” or “homosexual union,” they also have begun to talk about “GLBT rights.” Of course, those four letters stand for “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender.”

Here is my question: If all this is about loving, committed relationships, how does bisexuality fit into that equation? How can one even know (or, better said, “think”) he or she is bisexual without having avoided true, lifelong, committed relationships?

Friends, I’m not one who always believes in the “slippery slope” argument. It is too often overused or overstated. But in this case, we are already seeing it before the issue of gay marriage even is decided upon by our nation. How long will it be before multi-partner marriages are also allowed, so that bisexuals can have these same “loving and committed” relationships?

I pray for our nation, and I fear that we are destroying ourselves by our own ravenous and selfish ways.

QUESTION: How can we lovingly but clearly make it plain that this is not only about “loving” and “committed” relationships?

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Photo credit: Les Chatfield on Creative Commons

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Filed Under: Church Life, Family