As I sit down to write this review of 2024, I want to explain why I’m a few days late. I have been preparing a sermon for the Lord’s Day, tomorrow, January 5. Every opportunity that I have to deliver the Word of God to God’s people, I take it very seriously. It is an honor to deliver God’s word to a congregation who trusts their elders to feed them from the Bread of Life, which is Christ. And Christ is given to us in God’s infallible written Word. Tomorrow’s message will be the third in my series on Ephesians chapter 1. I will be covering verses 7-12, which concentrates on what the second person of the Holy Trinity, Christ Jesus, the Son of God has done for His people. While it would be fun to recount for you the details of this sermon that is yet to be preached, but God willing, will be forthcoming tomorrow, I’ll just give you the link to our church’s website where there should be an archive of it after the fact. You can also catch it streaming on YouTube. Just search for Northwest Bible Church in Oklahoma City. Our church’s website is http://nwbcokc.org.
2024 was an eventful year. There are at least two reasons for celebrations and two reasons for sorrow. First the good news. This year I gained two daughters-in-law! Our son, Paton, married his bride, Abigail, in January. Then our son, Justin, married his bride, Sarah, in June. The interesting part with Sarah is that we already have a daughter named Sarah. So now there are two Sarah Southerlands in our family. I like to differentiate between them as “Justin’s Sarah” and “Sarah Grace.” I’ve called our Sarah, Sarah Grace since she was a baby. I love the way that sounds, and it is a reminder of the grace of God in our lives.
Having shared the causes for celebration, I’ll now mention the challenges this year. Sheri’s dad, Larry, passed away in September. This has been tough on Sheri and the kids. He had lived with us since October 2023, but was in a skilled nursing facility in Guthrie since April, eventually transferring to long term nursing care before passing away in September. Sheri and her brother, Gavan, sold his house in Arlington, Texas. We are still trying to sort through the remainder of his things and trying to figure out what to do with everything.
The other challenge this year is that our daughter, Melody, was diagnosed with Chron’s Disease. This has been a challenge in being able to find things suitable for the new diet forced upon her. It’s tough for a 13-year-old girl to be facing such a challenging turn of events in her life. But we know that God is sovereign and this does not catch Him off guard.
My work has been going well. I have now been working from home for going on five years (since March 2020). In November, I was awarded a Service Recognition Award from my employer, Delaware Nation Industries. In December, many of my colleagues received some unwelcome news. Due to a funding cutback, over 2/3 of the contract staff, which includes everyone from my company working on this project, was given notice that their last day will be January 9. Praise the Lord that I was part of the 1/3 that was retained. Though I get calls and emails from recruiters constantly, I still do not enjoy the process of having to find another job, particularly in a rushed environment such as making sure I can still provide for my family after enduring a layoff. I’ve been there before and it’s not fun.
In April of this year, I joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans. This is something I’ve been wanting to do since 2020 when I witnessed the wanton destruction of Confederate monuments by “woke” hoodlums who vandalized these great works of art memorializing brave men who fought for freedom against a tyrannical federal administration that refused to let the southern states secede in peace. Whereas in times past this country once admired and celebrated these Confederate Veterans, that has now become politically incorrect. While at the University of Texas at Arlington, in 1988 I pledged Kappa Alpha Order. Theirs was a rich, southern heritage with Robert E. Lee as its spiritual founder. Those were great days as we attended “Old South Balls” annually, and we would sing Dixie together at the end of our parties. As the book and movie relate, those celebrations are “Gone with the Wind” as the current fraternity is only a shell of what it once was, trying their hardest to remove any vestige of “Fine Southern Tradition” that they had when they rushed me. I wouldn’t trade my memories with KA for anything. But I’ll be honest, if I were an 18-year-old student today, there’s no way I’d pledge any fraternity today. And there’s really nothing that sets KAs apart from the rest of them now. My membership in the SCV is a statement to say that I oppose the destruction of Confederate monuments and I support the respect and honor involved in erecting new ones to replace the beautiful ones that once stood. Richmond is not even worth visiting anymore, and I never got to see Monument Row in person before the tyrants in power caved to BLM pressure and removed them. We have pictures, thanks largely to people like Judy Smith. But soon the only monuments we’ll be able to see will have been constructed in the 21st century by Southern sympathizers like myself, rather than the late 19th century and early 20th century Southern ladies, primarily, that erected them to begin with.
In 2024, Northwest Bible Church hosted the international FIRE Conference where representatives from churches around the globe, but primarily within the United States came together. It was a great success and it was extremely encouraging to watch our local body work together so well to make it the successful conference that it was. I look forward to this year’s conference in Atlanta, GA, if I am able to make it.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
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