2015 Year in Review

2015 was quite an eventful year for all of us. In January we started attending Northwest Bible Church in Oklahoma City. I love this church. It is Reformed Baptist, with expositional teaching through the scriptures. The music is traditional with hymns. We are making many friends, and we love our new church. Northwest Bible Church believes in the biblical doctrine of plurality of eldership. Alexander Strauch covers this topic thoroughly in his book, Biblical Eldership. I was included in a group of men that read and studied this book this year over the course of about six months. We worked through the accompanying workbook and met together to discuss. The eldership at Northwest Bible Church currently consists of Alan Conner, Alan Loeffler, and Dwayne Bolin. I had met Alan Conner and Dwayne before we started attending. However, over the course of this year, I have gotten to know all three of these men better and have developed a deep respect for all of them. Alan Conner is the primary teaching elder. If you visit the church, most likely you will hear him preaching. He has been working his way through the Gospel of John ever since we started attending in January. We joined several months later.

When I started 2015 I was employed as a contractor at Chesapeake Energy. I really like working there. Their environment seems to be a good match for me. There was a Toastmasters club on the campus that I became actively involved in. “Chesaspeak” Toastmasters is a great club with a great group of individuals. I had been at Chesapeake since September 2014. When I left my government contracting position at Tinker Air Force Base the assurance was given that this was a “long term contract” with an expectation of lasting about two years. There were four contractors on our team. In January they renewed all our contracts for another six months. However, when June rolled around and it was getting close to time for them to renew the contracts they informed all four of us that due to budget constraints tied closely to the low energy prices Chesapeake had to let all their contractors go.  They gave us ample notice of several weeks. I believe it was about 4 weeks if I recall. So I began another job search. I ended up at Farmers Insurance. The appeal to this new position was two-fold. 1) Seeing the clock wind down on my time at Chesapeake I needed to find something in order to support my family and 2) this was an “IVR” position. Much of my career has been in the telecom industry programming IVR systems, phone switches, call centers, etc. So I saw this as an opportunity to renew my skill set in a niche where I already had a lot of experience. The only problem, and I did know this when I took the position, was that this was much more of an advisory role as opposed to a hands on programming position. Most of my days were spent on the phone in conference calls discussing issues that were to be fixed, or the new project that was going to begin shortly. However, after the talking had been done, it was a vendor, not our team that got to do the “fun part” of actually coding the changes. I am a programmer. Since I began my career I have been a programmer. I have never liked the thought or the duties involved in project management. Give me a technical problem to solve rather than an administrative one. One additional side note, and Farmers, if you are reading this please take notice, this is the only contracting position I have ever held where contractors were included in an “on call” rotation. Sure, they paid me if I spent extra time responding to a call. But I didn’t get any extra pay for the hassle of making sure I was “ready” if I received a call. I felt like I was being treated as a full time employee. Yet I didn’t receive any of the standard full time employee benefits. During my final two weeks there, I wasn’t “on call” but there was a mix up in the schedule where some thought that I was. So I received two calls on the weekend of my birthday. This was also a Friday night in which Paton was in a Christmas recital with his violin. I had to apologize to the guy who called me and let him know that I was not on call. Then, throughout the recital my mind was on whether I should have dropped everything to handle this call. Avoiding this type of personal interference is one of the benefits of contracting. I am simply expendable “paid help” brought in to help solve a problem. I take no ownership or loyalty to the company as a whole like I would if I were a full time employee. Chesapeake understood that and operated on those principles. I didn’t get invited to the company Christmas party, because I was a contractor. I didn’t get invited to company wide “town hall” meetings, because I was a contractor. But neither did I carry an on call responsibility, because I was a contractor. I was good with that. They were good with that. But at Farmers it seemed they were as inclusive as they could be with their employees and contractors. I regularly called into remote “town hall” discussions over the phone. I even took a business trip, as a contractor, with Farmers. I was scheduled for another trip the first week of January 2016 (next week) if I hadn’t have left. I am super glad to have avoided that trip for reasons I will cover when I talk about each of the kids in a moment. Long story short, after looking for another position for several weeks I received an offer for a contracting position at Dolese doing web programming in C#, ASP .NET. I started there on December 18. I’m thoroughly enjoying it. This is good for my career as I don’t want to be too far removed from hands on programming experience. I liked the people I worked with at Farmers, but this is an altogether better match for me. Lastly, news about Sheri and I include the fact that we have discovered a new “buying club” that is currently in its pre-launch stage. It’s a sort of a mix between Sam’s Club and Amazon, with a fabulous referral bonus business model rather than advertising. That’s all I’ll say for now. I’ll have more details later this month. If you’d like, drop me an email and I’ll tell you all I know.

OK, now for the part that everyone is waiting for, what’s going on with the children? Well, in my last “Year in Review” I talked about Brittney’s marriage to Landon Hastings. Early in the year they let us know that they are expecting our first grandbaby! Brittney’s due date is actually tomorrow, January 3. They are having a girl. They’ve already picked out a beautiful name; Clara Joy Hastings. Brittney’s middle name is Joy. So it’s a great name for their little girl.

Michael also surprised us this year by proposing to Heather Poencet. He met her when he worked at Kimray. That was several jobs ago. This year has been a year of constant transition for Michael. Things are looking hopeful for Michael landing at a fire station. Stay tuned for more information as that develops.

Brianna became the third graduate from our homeschool this year. She’s kept pretty busy after that including working at a Summer kids camp in Texas, working at a local honey farm (mainly helping the owner with construction projects), and continuing to further her photography skills. She also bought her first car this year. It’s awesome. It’s a 2000 Crown Victoria police cruiser. She doesn’t have emergency lights, as that would be illegal. But she does have the big black bumper guard thing on the front, a spotlight on each front door, and the original black and white color scheme. It’s fun riding with her on the freeway. People naturally get in the right lane and let her by. The specs on the car are pretty nice as well. It’s got a beefed up suspension system, engine, and transmission. We haven’t tried this yet, but the guy that sold it to us said that you can hit a curb doing 40 mph and it will handle it fine. He also said that you can take a 90 degree turn at 55 mph. That sounds a little daring, but if it can handle that, then surely it can handle “normal” driving. We bought it from a guy in a small town that is part of their emergency team. He bought three cars from Edmond PD and “fixed them up,” providing what he thought was the best of the three to the small town police dept. Then he finished the one for Brianna and thought it cleaned up nicer than the other two. The guy was asking $2000 and Brianna got it for $1900. It’s a great deal for an older car that runs great with cold AC. As an added bonus he left the two antennas on top of the car to give it that “police” look, though he took out the emergency radio.

Justin seems to keep growing taller and taller. He’s got an interesting “hair look” going on. He’s taken an interest in entrepreneurship. He’s currently reading The Richest Man in Babylon. He has a drive to excel and I expect that he will be very successful in whatever business attempts he tries.

Paton continues to get better and better at his violin playing. He finished “book 3” out of the Suzuki series.

Sarah has continued to improve in her piano playing. Sarah and Samuel were baptized in October. This was preceded by a six week study that I did with both of them. We worked through a book provided by Alan Conner speaking to the meaning of baptism. The title escapes me now, but it is also used at Bethlehem Baptist Church (the church where John Piper formerly pastored).

Samuel’s update is pretty much combined with Sarah’s above as his baptism was the biggest news for him last year.

Melody loves looking at books. She’s moved up to “preschool” in both her coop classes and in her Sunday School class. I’m planning to at least start teaching her to read this year.

David is two, and full of life. He loves to have books read to him. I think his favorite is The Adventures of Ping. Toddlers love repetition. So I think I just about have that book memorized.

OK. Well, this post seems longer than most, and I’m already late in getting it out. So I’ll end it for now. Hopefully I’ll put another post out before my 2016 Year in Review. But we’ll wait to see if that happens. Later.

2014 Year in Review

There were many reasons to celebrate in 2014. Plus there were a few reasons to mourn. Wanting to start this blog entry off on a positive note, I’ll talk about the celebration aspect first!

Easily grabbing the top spot in the “celebration” category is the marriage of my daughter, Brittney to Landon Hastings. This time last year I had no idea that this was in store. I believe it may have been June of 2014 when Landon approached me to let me know that he had an interest in my daughter. So we began to meet weekly to talk through things, get to know each other better, and to review a few theological resources that I wanted to give him. Brittney was “in on it” at this point, as she knew that Landon had asked and that we were starting this process. Everyone involved expected that if all went well the wedding would happen sometime in 2015, probably in the Fall. Things seem to be going well. Landon seemed like he was a good match for Brittney. We discussed several things from scripture. It was a good time to dig into the Word together. Then in October Brittney informed me that they would really like to get married this year. In fact, they’d like to get married in about 5 weeks from that point. What’s strange/funny is that Landon had not really “officially” asked me to marry my daughter. Of course, we knew that was the end goal of what we were preparing for. But both of us had an understanding  that that would need to happen before we moved forward with wedding plans. Being a protective dad I honestly would have liked a few more months of preparation and study with Landon first. But also knowing that the scripture blesses marriage and passages like I Corinthians 7:36 indicate that “if his passions are strong” we should “let them marry,” I prepared myself to accept Landon’s “official” request for the hand of my daughter in marriage. I planned an evening where Brianna watched the little ones, and I took Sheri, Landon, and Brittney to Red Lobster where we could visit. Landon could ask me right then and we could all share together in the moment. We sat down and ordered the food. We reminisced about times when Brittney was younger. We shared some of our times about Jamestown and the awesome trip we took there in 2007. But I kept waiting for Landon to “ask the question.” It never came! We finished the meal. And we awkwardly left the restaurant. We had all ridden in the same car. I was totally confused and wondered what just happened. I think there was a communication breakdown between Landon and Brittney. In the course of our meeting I had given Landon some questions that I had asked him to respond to in writing. After receiving them from him, there were a few points of clarification that I had really wanted him to respond to. So I found out later that while I was waiting for Landon to “ask the question” he was waiting for me to ask him questions about the answers he had given to my initial questions. He was seeing that as a necessary step before he asked the all important question of me. It is true that I would have liked a little more time to go over those answers and draw a few more details out of him. But I had just been informed that there were only five weeks to go before they wanted to “tie the knot.” I felt comfortable enough in giving my blessing, even without thoroughly hashing out the details in his answers to my questions. Plus, I knew that if we were going to get started planning the wedding, that critical step of his asking had to take place. Riding back to the house, we stopped off at Braum's. I can’t remember if the excuse was to get milk for our family (like we always do), or if we were going to get an ice cream. But in any case, after pulling into the parking lot Brittney spoke up and tried to clarify things. Unknown to me, she and Landon were texting each other in the back seat so that I couldn't hear their discussion. Bottom line is that he finally asked the question, I gave my blessing, and we began frantically planning the wedding for five weeks later. So here we are at the start of 2015 and I have a new son-in-law! He really is a great guy. I’m glad to have him in our family. I’m confident that he will lead my daughter and any children they have well. He is a solid believer in Jesus Christ. I have no doubt that they will be married for the rest of their lives until the Lord takes one or both of them home.

Since I started with my oldest this year, I’ll go through the list of updates starting with her. Besides the wedding, Brittney also bought a Mustang GT this year. It is an 2004 model. Five speed, red with tan leather seats. It’s in great shape. I’m really fighting the temptation for coveting my own daughter’s car as I head out to work each morning in my grandfather’s 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful that I have a car that works for me. And it has a lot of room in it. But one of the mistakes I made in my lifetime was selling my 1997 Mustang when Brittney turned 16. I got antsy with insurance concerns and didn't research the financial realities the way I should have. It really wouldn't have been as bad as I had imagined. Brittney proved that by buying herself a GT, which would have been higher premiums than I would have had on my 6 cylinder. Oh well, live and learn. I’ll get another Mustang someday.

Michael turned 19 this year. He has had a full year. He graduated from high school. We had a graduation ceremony for homeschoolers in our co-op group back in May. He started working this year at Kimray. That has been a great opportunity for him. He’s really enjoying it. However, his biggest passion is firefighting. This year Michael volunteered for our local volunteer fire department: Woodcrest Vol. Fire Dept. He is loving it. He’ll get called in the middle of the night. When that happens the same son who I have a very hard time pulling out of bed in the morning when I need to wake him up, jumps out of bed, pulls on his clothes, and heads out of the door in a flash to “come to the rescue.” Michael has a heart to help people. So he’s living in his groove when he can rush out the door to help actually save someone’s life. He’s learning all about emergency medical care and firefighting. They are giving him some great training, for free, at the Fire Department. I expect that sometime in the next year or two Michael may be able to transition into a full time paid position at a fire station. When that happens he’ll be living his dream.

Brianna is in the middle of her senior year in high school. She’s doing awesome in her studies. She’s had a bit of a challenging year. Brittney has always been her best friend. So this was the year that her best friend moved out of the house when she was married. On the flip side, Brianna finally has her own room! Brianna has been a huge help with the little ones this year.

Justin turned 13 this year. So that means that we held his “rite of passage” ceremony. Very similar to what we did for Michael in 2008, Justin received a book that I wrote for him entitled “Charges for a Southerland Son.” This was an extensively revised edition based on the one I wrote for Michael.  Justin also received a Geneva Bible, Family Bible edition. Lastly he received a beautiful Claymore sword with a custom scabbard. Unfortunately Brittney somewhat “upstaged” Justin with her wedding. So out of town family, knowing that they would be in Oklahoma for a wedding in November weren't able to come twice so close together in October. But Landon and his family were in attendance. I was happy about that so that they could witness what we do with our sons. I’d love to work with Landon when the time comes to help him do the same for my grandsons. Justin is also excelling in his schoolwork. Justin is now taller than me. He has changed in looks quite a bit over the past year.

Paton is continuing to excel in his violin playing. He’s doing great in his homeschool co-op. Paton has started drawing very good pictures. He is quite talented.

Sarah Grace has started piano this year. She’s doing very well. She had a recital this year at Guthrie’s Victorian Walk in December. She has an ear for music and has caught on very fast. Just this past week Sarah got her ears pierced.

Samuel is growing. He’s becoming quite a helper around the house. He’s also very funny even when he doesn't mean to be! The biggest news with Samuel is that this is the year that he professed faith in Jesus Christ! This brings great joy to my heart.

Melody is growing too. She’s becoming quite the little mommy with her baby brother David. I’m amazed at the vocabulary she has developed. I guess when you are the 8^th child of a homeschool family you tend to pick up on a lot of words.

David has left behind any concerns we had about him with low weight. He has really grown. He’s walking all over the place now and saying several words. This year we were able to move him from our room into the office. We didn't think it was a great idea to try and squeeze him into the room with the other four boys. I think he’d wake them up, and they’d probably wake him up too.

For me, this has been an eventful year. In my job I began the year still employed with CSI at Tinker. But in September I returned to Chesapeake as a contractor. I really enjoy the private sector, and Chesapeake in particular. I can relate to the culture there. This year I closed AnswerSoft, but started a new opportunity. I bought my own business called Life Leadership. It is a leadership development business. There are a ton of high quality encouraging materials available.

This was a sad year for our good friends, Bruce and Connie Kessler. They lost one of their sons this year. Then later in the year, Connie lost her father. Bruce and Connie are some of the nicest and caring people you’ll ever meet. We love them and mourn their losses with them.

A former church member and colleague of our pastor, Brian Wilson, passed away this year. He was pretty young.

All in all, this was a great year. We look forward to what the Lord is going to do in our lives in the year to come.

Do We Think About What We Sing?

What is the reason we sing congregationally in the meeting of the church? I submit to you that first and foremost, it is to give praise, honor, and glory to God.

“Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!” (Psalm 150:1, ESV)

In many other places in scripture we read of exhortations to praise the Lord in song corporately.  A second reason to sing in a corporate environment is to exhort and build up one another.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16, ESV)

I honestly cannot think of another reason to sing corporately. If I have missed a reason, please let me know in a comment to this post. Now, given that music in the church is to either glorify God, or to exhort one another, does it not make sense that we should critically evaluate the songs that are sung during the meeting of the church?

I have evaluated songs before in this blog. One brother encouraged me that if I needed clarification on a particular song, why not write the author and ask him what he meant rather than airing my concern in a public blog? But should I really need to do that? If a song is not obvious in its meaning is it a good candidate for corporate worship? What if I needed clarification from Isaac Watts on his music? He’s dead. So I can’t ask him. Oh yeah, the subject of his music is pretty obvious. It is simply Christ and Him crucified. I mean no disrespect for modern day artists. I mean, they have to make a living somehow. A steady stream of church pop music puts food on their tables in a way that public domain hymns cannot.  Regardless of our concern for the need of worship leaders to feed their families, I do believe that it is beneficial that if a song is proposed for corporate singing (especially in the church I attend) that as a congregation we consider carefully what words will leave our lips as we worship the Lord together.

So after having given my reasoning for evaluating musical lyrics, let’s move on to this blog post’s spotlight. Today’s critique is Daniel Bashta’s “Like a Lion.” Now, I’ve been told that this is a very popular Christian radio song. That’s news to me because I’ve never heard it. But then again, it’s tough to hear it when I never listen to the radio. Some who have heard it tell me that seems strange to sing it as a corporate worship song. In any case, I have it on good authority that it is in the docket for corporate worship in a sanctuary near you.

I’m not sure what a “Misc” is in music terms, but this song has 4 of them. Those are separate from the Verses (there are two), and the choruses (there’s actually only one).

The entire “Misc 1” is  “Now I’m lost in Your freedom Oh this world I’ll overcome.”  I assume this is the first thing that is sung because it appears at the top of the lyrics. Yet the word “Now” indicates some sort of causative action. It’s similar to “Therefore” or “Because of (what was stated previously).” So already I’m confused, “Now” what? Nothing has prefaced it. Next, what does it mean to be “lost in Your freedom?” Being raised up in church I can see the capital “Y” in Your and assume that this is referring to God. Would everyone know that? Maybe. Maybe not. In any case, what does it mean to be lost in God’s freedom? We aren’t told. “Oh this world I’ll overcome.” Hmmm, how will we overcome? I John 5:4-5 tells us:

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4–5, ESV)

Is this what this song is hinting at? If so, then it left some very important details regarding *how* we are to overcome the world. This isn’t something we are going to drum up within ourselves. And if the song is going to make the claim that we’ll…sorry “I’ll”…overcome, then shouldn’t we be given doctrine to back up the claim?

Next, we fall straight into the chorus. “My God’s not dead He’s surely alive And He’s living on the inside roaring like a lion.” Hmmm….why do you say He’s not dead, but alive? Is it because He rose from the dead, conquering death, hell, and the grave? Then tell us that! Rather we are left to assume that his god is not dead with the following reasoning, “He’s living on the inside roaring like a lion.” You know, that could just be heartburn. It might be good to have it checked out. Seriously though. On the inside of what? Of me? Scripture reference? And where does “roaring like a lion” come from? Without further context my mind wanders to this scripture:

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8, ESV)

Yes, there are references to God as compared to a lion. But as we’ve seen above, a lion can also be representative of satan. To get a full sense of what is inferred here we need better scripture context, not simply “living on the inside roaring like a lion.” We don’t worship Aslan. We worship Jesus Christ.

“Verse 1”… “Let love explode and bring the dead to life A love so bold to see a revolution somehow” I’m really scratching my head on this one. Typing “love explode” into my Bible search in Logos pulls up no hits. Wasn’t there something from the 1960’s that involved a “love explosion.” Nah… And does “love” bring the dead to life or does Christ do that? And why, O why do we need to sing about “revolution?” In most cases, revolution is an act of rebellion against God ordained government. Consider the French revolution. This can hardly be called godly. Some have called the American War for Independence a “revolution.” Yet, I resist that label because of its anti-Christian aspects. I believe that a case can be made for the justification of America’s founding, but that is a subject for another blog article. But back to the issue at hand, what kind of revolution are we supposed to be singing about in a corporate worship song in the meeting of the saints? To say this is inappropriate is an understatement.

“Verse 2”…”Let hope arise and make the darkness hide My faith is dead I need a resurrection somehow” Hope in what? That’s a valid question because it hasn’t been stated in this song. I guess we can assume Christ, because, after all, this is being sung in corporate worship, right? But why do we assume? What if we assume wrong? Next there is a lament that his faith is dead and he needs a resurrection “somehow.” Well, we read in James 2:17 that:

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17, ESV)

So I assume that there is no fruit of good works in this man’s life, else his faith would not be dead. So, let’s assume for a minute that we are really singing a song written by a man who has a self professed dead faith. He says he needs a resurrection “somehow.” What can possibly resurrect his faith? Ohh, pick me! Pick me! I know! How about Christ? Christ is the answer to your “somehow” Daniel. Call out to Him! He can resurrect not only your dead faith, but your dead spirit. And if He has already done that to you, then why not share that good news with your music fans?

Falling into “Misc 2” we are simply told “He’s surely alive Oh He’s surely alive” Again, assumptions can be made as to who is alive, but since we’ve not heard the name of Christ, it remains an assumption.

“Misc 3” tells us “Let heaven roar and fire fall Come shake the ground with the sound of revival” What is it that Daniel is asking for here? When I hear of fire falling I think of God’s judgment.

“Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.” (Genesis 19:24–25, ESV)

Maybe Daniel is asking for a Charles Finney revivalism? If so, that’s not really what I’d want in our Reformed Baptist church either.

“Misc 4” trails off with five repetitions of “Oh He’s surely alive” never really telling who is alive except for “My God” as specified in Chorus 1. As the name of Christ is not named we are left once more to conjecture.

Brothers and sisters, we have so little time to spend in corporate worship over the course of our lifetimes. Will we spend these precious hours and minutes in singing ambiguous fluff that we hear on our pop music radio stations, or will we sing a solemn song of worship and praise to the Lord our God? If I’ve unfairly characterized this particular song, I’ll welcome your comments. But my guess is that most people who follow along glibly and sing this in corporate worship don’t stop even for a second to consider what they are singing. It has a good beat or a “chord progression” or it’s just fun to play on an electric guitar. But is that really the standard that we should apply in determining what we will offer as a sacrifice of praise to our one true and living God?

2013 Year in Review

The biggest news this year is the birth of David Aaron Southerland. He was born on August 20, 2013. We actually knew we were expecting when I wrote last years "Year in Review" but we had not yet let the cat out of the bag yet. David is our ninth child and fifth son. As I write this he is four months old. It is a blessing to have young children though I am in my mid 40's. I suspect that the "empty nest syndrome" that tends to affect many of my peers will be a long time coming. When David is 20, I'll be 65. In the meantime, God has entrusted Sheri and I with parenting children from 20 years old down to newborn, simultaneously! This year has certainly given us challenges to handle from children across the spectrum of age.

Since I started with David, I'll move on to Melody. Melody is talking very well now. She's quite the little ham! Definitely not a low maintenance child. But she is a joy. We have started attending a homeschool co-op this year. At first Melody wasn't happy with the idea. But she warmed up fast and now asks us about it frequently.

Samuel is growing fast. He's joined Sarah in asking good questions during family worship and Bible reading time. I love to see him learn. I hope to teach him correctly and train him to be a man of God.

Sarah continues to ask good questions. The big question that I love to hear from her that she seemed to ask me frequently this year is, "Will you read the Bible with me?" How can I refuse? Sarah has become a very big help to Sheri this year. She helps out with both David and Melody. Both of them love her too. Sarah loves to draw and read Melody books. She also has developed a love of chess and asks me to play quite a bit. One of Sarah's favorite bedtime questions is, "Would you tell me a story about when you were a kid?"

Paton has improved in his violin playing. Not only did he play a solo at his recital this year, but his instructor asked him to also play along with the younger students so that he could help to lead them in playing their songs. Paton is taking French this year in co-op.

Justin is growing like a weed. He's about to catch me. He's doing well in co-op too. He's taking anatomy. He's also been enjoying playing chess. He's become very good at it beating me and my dad from time to time. He's been playing chess online with my dad, so that keeps his skills sharp.

Brianna is 16 and is currently in the middle of the driving portion of driver's ed. She hasn't seemed quite as anxious to get her license as Brittney and Michael were. I'm thinking that's due to a couple of reasons. First, she doesn't have the money to buy herself a car yet (and I can't afford to get her one). Next, Michael and/or Brittney are always going somewhere and Brianna can tag along easily. But even still, I've spent some time in the car with her, and I expect we'll be doing it more frequently in the coming months.

Michael turned 18 this year. For the past couple of months he's been working as a driver's helper for UPS. He taught himself to play the guitar and has been playing at church. Michael signed up for a couple of 5K runs this year. He and Brittney have challenged each other to give up sugar except for "special occasions." So, even though the "special occasions" or holidays seem to be whatever days are even remotely considered a holiday (like Columbus Day), they are still doing a lot better than they were previously.

Brittney continues to excel in her bootmaking skills. Her first pair of cowboy boots were her own. She attended the boot and saddle show this year. Her instructor said that she should enter her boots in the contest there. But she didn't want to put her boots on the shelf until after the contest. So she opted not to enter. After seeing the rest of the entries, it seemed likely she could have won in her division. She also completed a pair of awesome boots for me this year! If anyone reading this would like to get on the waiting list for boots, she's ready to start taking customers now.

Things going on with me include two new jobs for this year. I started contracting at Dolese Brothers in February and wrapped it up in July. I went from there to CSI, where I am in a full time salaried position as a government contractor at Tinker Air Force base. I'm doing ASP .NET C# MVC programming. I've also got a project going with a friend I met in Tennessee while we were living there from 2001-2005. John Lovelace is a landman for the oil and gas industry. I've been working with him since March on a Windows program for landmen. This will allow users to enter information and generate reports. It's been a slow go, trying to squeeze in time during lunch breaks and some late nights after getting the kids in bed. It's tough for me to do programming during late hours, so that doesn't happen much. In spite of the challenges, I hope to have something to bring to the market within the next month or two. This is a C# ADO .NET Windows application running SQL Server.

Time is flying. It seems that every trip I make around the sun I pick up speed. I can't believe that we've been in Oklahoma for almost eight years. There's much to like about living in this state, though there's always hope that we'll eventually be back "home" in Texas. Because while my kids have identified themselves as "Okies" I'll always be a Texan at heart.

What's In It For Me?

“WIIFM” This is the sacred cow of our capitalistic culture. Do you want to sell a product or service? The simple formula is that you need to show a prospective consumer all the benefits they can derive from buying your particular product or service. If you buy my brand of hair gel, men, then the ladies will fight each other for the chance to go out with you. You will prosper in everything you do. You’ll be a money magnet. In fact, this hair gel will literally give you the appearance of being 21. So if you’re too young, this will scream “man” (even if you’re 12). If you’re too old, this amazing product will take you back to the prime of your life. However, supplies are limited, so stock up today!

So, maybe hype and benefits may be acceptable in the consumer marketplace (though I even tire of seeing it there). However, more and more we are seeing this type of philosophy invading the church. In the “Word of Faith” camp, from whence I came, the emphasis is on your own personal “power” supposedly granted to you by the Holy Spirit. You no longer pray for the Lord to heal someone. Rather you simply “command” it to be done, with the obligatory magic words, “…in the name of Jesus…” tacked on to the end. Personal prophecies abound promising children to barren women, financial gain to the down and out, and supernatural healing to those in chronic pain. What’s not to like about this message? After all, it’s all about me, isn’t it?

Unfortunately this “me driven” mentality is not isolated to the ”Health, Wealth, and Prosperity” crowd. It’s tentacles have invaded the song service of many Reformed churches. Traditional hymns, which declare the glory of God, such as A Mighty Fortress is Our God, O Sacred Head Now Wounded, or Man of Sorrows, have been replaced with “feel good,” “me affirming” modern “praise” songs.

Consider the chorus to the song, “I Am Free” by Jon Egar:

I am free to run
I am free to run
I am free to dance
I am free to dance
I am free to live for You
I am free to live for You
I am free
I am free

Who is the subject of that “praise” song? I am. Now compare that with the hymn, O Sacred Head Now Wounded:

Verse 1
O sacred Head now wounded
With grief and shame weighed down
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns Thine only crown
How pale Thou art with anguish
With sore abuse and scorn
How does that visage lanquish
Which once was bright as morn

Verse 2

What Thou my Lord has suffered
Was all for sinners' gain
Mine mine was the transgression
But Thine the deadly pain
Lo here I fall my Savior
'Tis I deserve Thy place
Look on me with Thy favor
Assist me with Thy grace

Verse 3

What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee dearest Friend
For this Thy dying sorrow
Thy pity without end
O make me Thine forever
And should I fainting be
Lord let me never never
Outlive my love to Thee

In this song we predominately hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I will admit that “I” do show up in this song as well. How so? “’Tis I deserve thy place…” That’s a far cry from “I am a free to run. I am free to dance,” don’t you think?

Some may accuse me of dissing all modern music. This is not so. Give me a song like “In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Recently that song made headlines because the PCUSA wanted to alter it for inclusion in their watered down hymn book. Thankfully the authors stood strong and refused to remove the theologically sound line of “Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied.”

So then, what makes a song appropriate for singing in a corporate worship service? Ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?” If the music makes that clear, then it’s probably not appropriate. A question that is 1000 times better is, “What’s in it for Christ?” He alone deserves all glory, praise, and honor. We deserve nothing but hell.

Why is He Knocking?

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." - Rev 3:20

Is this verse an invitation to sinners to "accept Jesus into their heart" as is preached in many modern churches? Let's look at the context of this verse in order to determine the intended audience. The first verse in this section is v. 14, "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write..." The last verse in this section and the chapter (v. 22) reads, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” So then, the intended audience is not the unconverted sinner, but rather the church. In fact the previous verse, v. 19 says, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." Jesus' offer to come in and eat with a person is a calling to His own to renew their fellowship with Him. This isn't a pathetic Jesus wishing more people would just "accept Him." This is our saviour, our beloved, knocking, as He does in Song of Solomon 5:2 desiring fellowship with the ones He loves.

Arrows to Archers

I wanted to let my readers know of something exciting that I have in the works. In January I started a new website called Arrows to Archers (http://www.arrowstoarchers.com). Right now, it's just a blog. But my plans are bigger than that. I want to start a podcast, as well as a youtube channel for it. Also, I am currently working on an ebook that I hope to make available in the next few months.

What is Arrows to Archers? I'm glad you asked. :-) You may have read on this blog some of what I've done in the past for my children when they turn 13. See http://blog.mikesoutherland.com/2008/12/rite-of-passage.html for a description of what I did for my oldest son. The purpose of Arrows to Archers is to help other parents do the same for their children. In my opinion the greatest need right now is for godly young men. So, for the time being anyway, I'm going to concentrate on what a father and mother can do in order to train their sons to be godly men, who will someday lead their own families. Thus the title of the blog/ministry/business (I'm not how to refer to it), "Arrows to Archers." Arrows to Archers comes from Psalm 127:3-5

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” (Psalm 127:3–5, ESV)

The premise is that our sons are arrows in our quiver. These same arrows will be the archers of the next generation who will have their own arrows eventually, and so on until the Lord returns.

My vision for Arrows to Archers is to offer help and resources to other parents so that they can train their sons to lead their own households. I want to make help available in a variety of ways. Most of the resources will be free, but I will honestly tell you that would love to concentrate on this full time. So if I can shape this in such a way so that it can support my family then I will be living my passion by helping others. We will see what the Lord does with this. At the same time I never want lack of resources to prevent other parents from pouring into the life of their children.

I am just getting started, and I need to spruce up the website as I get time. But I invite you to join me in the journey and stop by http://www.arrowstoarchers.com and join in the conversation.

Is Hell Simply This Life?

I was discussing the topic of hell with a friend of mine. Apparently they have been influenced by the popular opinion that hell, as has been taught by the church (and the scriptures, by the way), does not exist. They take the clear teachings of scripture and allegorize them away, offering an explanation that "hell is this life with all its woes and troubles."

Certainly this life has its share of woes and troubles. However, this is due to sin, and the fall of man in the garden of Eden. In my morning reading this morning I read in Matthew 13 about the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Thank the Lord that the disciples did not "get it" when Jesus told the parable originally. Because of their lack of understanding our Lord spells it out for us by offering the absolute true interpretation. Now, if the whole concept of hell was only contained in the parables themselves, then maybe we could walk away and disagree on the interpretation. However, when Jesus Christ Himself gives us the interpretation plainly, we can't expect that He adds allegory into His interpretation. He is, after all, unfolding the mystery to His disciples, not seeking it to cloud it over as He had done with the crowds. Let's read Matthew 13:36-43.

“Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:36–43, ESV)

When does Jesus say this is going to happen? "Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. This is not something that is happening in this life. Rather, as can be easily observed, there are many sinners who are truly living their "best life now." Wealth and luxury in this life are not reserved for God's people. In fact, commonly quite the opposite is true. But at the end of the age, when the books are opened, those who are not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the fiery furnace. The imagery of fire and burning is a consistent theme throughout scripture whenever the topic of hell is discussed. If this were an allegorical device, surely the metaphors would change. Look at such passages that try to give people the sense of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Look at Matthew 13 in its greater context.

In v. 24 it is compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. In v. 31 it is compared to a grain of mustard seed. In v. 33 it is compared to leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour. In v. 44 it is compared with a treasure hidden in a field. In v. 45 it is compared with a merchant in search of fine pearls. In v. 47 it is compared with a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. Yet, consistently throughout scripture hell is pictured as eternal burning.

I continue to post topics like these in the hope that my friend will listen to the clear teaching from scripture. I don't make this stuff up. I only herald what I read in the scripture. My deep desire is that at the end of the age I would not see my friend cast into that fiery furnace, but rather walk into the fulness of the Kingdom of Heaven along with those whom God has redeemed.

2012 Year in Review

2012 has come and gone like a whirlwind. I reviewed my “2011Year in Review” before sitting down to compose this one. One thing I noticed is that 2012 saw an all time low in the number of blog posts I wrote since beginning this blog in 2006. This post marks only the fourth post done all year. I attribute part of that to an increased use of Facebook. So that short comments are generally offered there. But I will admit that a big part of this is simply the busyness of life. I have an idea to begin going through my “Charges for a Southerland Son” and blogging each section. It’s not too early to start revising it for Justin’s 13^th birthday in just under two years. Every year I see Doug Phillips admonishment on “How to End the Year X and Begin Y” (where X is the current year and Y is the year that will be here in a few days). Doug has a grand vision with a lot of good ideas for chronically what the Lord has done over the past year. This blog entry is my feeble attempt to do something, even if I don’t take every suggestion Doug has made.

I’ll begin this year with what is happening on the job front. I ended 2011 excited about doing IVR contracting. If you review that post you’ll see that I had left TransCore and was working from home coding IVR systems. Well, unfortunately the six month contract I had came to an abrupt end during the first week of January. Though the contracting company was apologetic, a new CFO at the end client was hired and shook things up after the end of the year. Several programming jobs were offshored to India. So that left me looking for work for about a month. In February I hired on, still as a contractor, with Chesapeake Energy. I started out doing some C#, ASP .NET work with Silverlight and WPF. After knocking out several bugs over the course of the next three months, Chesapeake told me that was all the programming they had for me at the time, but that they had a real need for help in Reporting Services. I have had a lot of experience doing that at TransCore and other positions before that. Long story short, I began doing reporting for them in May, and my contract has been extended a few times since then. Currently I’m good through the end of January 2013. We’ll see what God has planned for me then, whether a contract extension with Chesapeake again, hiring on full time with them, or moving on to other opportunities. Contracting certainly causes me to look to God more frequently, and to place my trust in Him that He will provide. It can be a little unsettling to not know what the future holds more than a month or two in advance. But in reality, that’s true for all of us. None of us are even promised another day of life. God has always provided my needs. I have had a desire for quite some time to work for myself. I’m working toward that end with AnswerSoft, the company I founded in 2010. Though I began it as a reseller for IVR services through IfByPhone, I have shifted the concentration during 2012 to mobile app development. AnswerSoft still offers discounted rates on IfByPhone, and I still support customers who sign up through AnswerSoft. However, app development is something whereby I have a little more control over the decision making process. I am currently working on an iPhone app for a local non-profit ministry. My plans are to port the app over to an Android implementation when done and support both operating systems. If the Lord wills it I could perhaps start doing app programming full time. But for now I need to work another day job in order to support the family.

Much has been going on with the children over this past year. Here’s a quick update on them.

Brittney is still working to get her leather working business going. She made me a great pair of leather flip flops. Her goal right now is to try and earn enough money to take a class from Lisa Sorrell, a world famous bootmaker that has a shop right here in Guthrie. She is also stepping in to help teach the other children handwriting during their homeschooling. That’s a big help as handwriting is really a one on one type of activity. Brittney’s help on this really takes a load off of Sheri.

Michael has continued to work hard building airplane hangers. He saved his money and bought himself a Dodge pickup this year. He also finished up his drivers ed and got his regular license. So now he’s mobile! He is adding to his arsenal of tools that he can use on the job site. We got him a DeWalt cordless drill. He also received other tools as gifts this year. It’s good to see him invest his money in things that he can use to earn more. Even the truck will help him expand his territory past our little two street neighborhood. Michael is also joining Justin and I in a study of Joel Beeke’s A Puritan Theology. I’ll talk more about that in Justin’s section below.

Brianna has really made great strides in her pottery this year. She made me a coffee mug. She’s made several bowls and other dishes. Sheri’s cousin, Brandon Drew is a chef. She showed him some of her work last week in Texas. He was very impressed and thinks that many in the circles he is in would love to purchase Brianna’s work. If it makes financial sense Brianna may consider that. She still enjoys photography, though she has yet to monetize it. We tried to set her up with an istockphoto account this year, but ran into a snag when they wanted a photo ID. Brianna is scheduled to start Driver’s Ed in 2013. So maybe her learner’s permit will serve as the photo ID for istockphoto and she can start pulling in some income from that endeavor.

Justin is chomping at the bit trying to figure out how to make money. There’s one thing for sure in our household, the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. But how is an eleven year old boy going to make some cash? He’s had a few ideas, but not too many have panned out yet. Michael still does most of the yard work for the neighborhood. Maybe Justin can help out in that area this Spring and Summer. I’ve tried to drop the bug in Justin’s ear that computer programming doesn’t discriminate against age and he could do really well if he learned to program early. So far he’s shown a little interest. We’ll see if he pursues it. As I mentioned earlier, Justin, Michael, and I began a study of Joel Beeke’s new book, A Puritan Theology. Our goal is to cover a chapter each week. It will take us a little over a year to accomplish it. It looks to be very good, covering what the Puritans had to say about various theological topics. It’s like a Systematic Theology comprised of many different outstanding authors woven together though the pen of Joel Beeke.

Paton began playing the violin this year. He was inspired by our friends, the Chatham family. Their three oldest girls play beautifully. It just so happens that though they live in Blanchard, their violin teacher lives right here in Guthrie. So Paton decided he wanted to learn. It seems like it has come very naturally for him. Paton’s teacher says that he is doing great. He played in his first recital a few weeks ago. He did a great job, and even won a medal for the number of minutes he spent practicing. Also, this year Paton was baptized at GracePointe Baptist Church!

Sarah is growing up to be quite a big helper with Melody. She is so excited to have a little sister and she does a great job playing with her. Sarah has continued to improve in her reading. Earlier this year Sarah began to experience very real conviction over sin. She became very concerned that she was a sinner. We explained to her that she is right, she has sinned and that she needs to call upon Christ for the salvation of her soul. She prayed on her own and cried out for the Lord to save her. We are rejoicing in the salvation of yet another one of our children.

Samuel is just about done with the book that Sarah finished last year, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He’s doing extremely well. There are parts of the book where I’m supposed to tell him to “sound out the words.” Meanwhile he’s already figured it out in his mind and reads it “the fast way” before I’m able to tell him to sound it out. He doesn’t know it yet, but I’ve already got his Geneva Bible sitting on the shelf with his name on it waiting for him to finish the book. We did Lesson 90 last night. He’ll most likely finish up in January.

Melody learned to walk early. She walked at 10 months old, the youngest of any of the girls, and tied with Michael, who was our fastest “learn to walk” child prior to Melody. That means she’s been getting into everything. We bought new cabinet locks. She’s very inquisitive and smart. She also has quite the personality (and temper!). She is a blessing, and I thank God for trusting her into our care.

Things continue to go well at GracePointe Baptist Church. The Lord has added several new families and formed new friendships in our lives. I’m thankful for God’s blessings throughout 2012 and look forward to what he is going to do in 2013.

Anti-Racist (with exceptions...)

Let's say, hypothetically of course, there was a candidate who proclaimed loudly that he was not a racist. However, when you press him on it, he will admit that there are "exceptions" to his love for all men. After all, you can't really expect him to be totally non-racist, can you? Now, for the sake of argument, let's say he was running against a candidate who hated every single people group except his own. Who should we vote for? Well, pragmatism may say that we vote for the first candidate. But what if the one people group that he hates just so happens to be the people group of which you are a member? Could you still vote for him? If you say no, then tell me this: If your race is not the one despised in his eyes, could you vote for him then? I tell you that if that is true, then you have just as much hatred for that people group as the candidate who tries to pass himself off as "anti-racist."

Now, if that makes sense with a "politically correct" argument concerning race, does it not also apply to abortion? If you have one candidate who is pro-death all the way around and never saw an abortion he didn't like (Obama), and another candidate who announces that he is pro-life (except for despised babies who are the products of rape or incest - Romney), who do you vote for? I say that if you vote for Romney, you are declaring that you too despise the lives of those "unwanted" babies.

As much as I would like to cast my vote for a God fearing, pro-life candidate for President of the United States, I can't, because no such candidate exists this year (on the Oklahoma ballot anyway - vote Virgil Goode if your state lets you).

GOSPEL SONNETS - Chapter 5 - Section 4

GOSPEL SONNETS
by Ralph Erskine
Chapter 5


SECTION IV. - Damnable Pride and Self-righteousness, so natural to all men, has little need to be encouraged by legal preaching.

THE legal path proud nature loves so well,
(Tho' yet 'tis but the clearest road to hell,)
That lo! ev'n these that take the foulest ways,
Whose lewdness no controlling bridle stays,
If but their drowsy conscience raise its voice,
'Twill speak the law of works their native choice,
And echo to the rousing sound, "Ah! true,
I cannot hope to live, unless I DO."
No conscience breast of mortal kind can trace
The mystery deep of being sav'd by grace.
Of this nor is the natural conscience skill'd,
Nor will admit it when it is reveal'd;
But pushes at the gospel like a ram,
As proxy for the law, against the Lamb.
The proud, self-righteous, Pharisaic strain
Is "Blest be God, I'm not like other men;
I read and pray, give alms, I mourn and fast; (1)
And therefore hope I'l get to heaven at last:
For though from every sin I be not free,
Great multitudes of men are worse than me.
I'm none of those that swear, cheat, drink and whore."
Thus on the law he builds his Babel tower.
  Yea, ev'n the vilest cursed debauchee
Will make the law of works his very plea;
"Why (says the rake) what take you me to be?
A Turk or infidel? you lie! I can't
Be term'd so base, but by a sycophant;
Only I hate to act the whining saint.
I am a christian true; and therefore bode
It shall be well with me, I hope in God.
An't I an honest man? yea, I defy
The tongue that dare assert black to mine eye."
Perhaps, when the reprover turns his back,
He'll vend the viler wares o's open'd pack,
And with his fellows, in a strain more big,
Bid damn the base uncharitable whig.
"These scoundrel hypocrites (he'll proudly say)
Think none shall ever merit heav'n but they,
And yet we may compete with them; for see,
The best have blemishes as well as we.
We have as good a heart (we trust) as these,
Tho' not with vain superfluous shew and blaze.
Bigoted zealots, whose sole crimes are hid,
Would damn us all to hell; but God forbid,
Whatever such a whining sect profess,
'Tis but a nice, morose, affected dress,
And though we don't pretend so much as they,
We hope to compass heav'n a shorter way:
We seek God's mercy, and are all along
Most free of malice, and do no man wrong.
But whims fantastic shan't our heads annoy,
That would our social liberties destroy.
Sure, right religion never was designed
To mar the native mirth of human kind.
How weak are those that would be thought nonesuch!
How mad, that would be righteous overmuch!
We have sufficient, though we be not crammed:
We'll therefore hope the best: let them be damned!"
  Ah, horrid talk! yet so the legal strain
Lards even the language of the most profane.
Thus devilish pride o'erlooks a thousand faults,
And on a legal ground itself exalts.
This DO and LIVE, though doing power be lost,
In every mortal is proud nature's boast.
How does a vain conceit of goodness swell,
And feed false hope, amidst the shades of hell?
Shall we, who should by gospel-methods draw,
Send sinners to their nat-ral spouse the law;
And harp upon the doing string to such,
Who ignorantly dream they do so much?
Why, thus, instead of courting Christ a bride,
We harden rebels in their native pride.
  Much rather ought we in God's name to place
His great artill'ry straight against their face;
And throw hot Sinai thunderbolts around,
To burn their towering hopes down to the ground;
To make the pillars of their pride to shake,
And damn their doings to the burning lake;
To curse the doers unto endless thrall,
That never did continue to do all; (2)
To scorch their conscience with the flaming air,
And sink their haughty hopes in deep despair;
Denouncing Ebal's black revenging doom,
To blast their expectation in the bloom;
Till once vain hope of life by works give place
Unto a solid hope of life by grace.
The vig'rous use of means is safely urged,
When pressing calls from legal dregs are purged;
But most unsafely in a fed'ral dress,
Confounding terms of life with means of grace.
Oh! dang'rous is th' attempt proud flesh to please,
Or send a sinner to the law for ease;
Who rather needs to feel its piercing dart,
Till dreadful pangs invade his trembling heart;
And thither should be only sent for flames
Of fire to burn his rotten hopes and claims;
That thus disarmed, he gladly may embrace,
And grasp with eagerness the news of grace.

(1) Luke xviii. 11. 12.
(2) Gal. iii. 10.

Paton is Baptised!

2011 Year in Review

This year has been a year of great blessing from the Lord. After several trials in 2009 and 2010 we received the joyful news in February that we were expecting once again. As hard as it was to do, I believe that the Lord taught me through my past experiences to trust Him to bring about His will, whatever that may be. We prayed, our children prayed, our church family prayed, and our extended family prayed for this little baby. There were times when we wondered if the Lord would take this one as well. But we passed each milestone with joy and thankfulness. We had all the rest of our children with us in the ultrasound room when we learned that we were having a girl! Everyone was excited. I think Sarah was the most excited that it was a girl. There's a nine year gap between her and Brianna, the next oldest girl in our family. Sarah was going to have a baby sister!

Sheri was amazing throughout the pregnancy and before. The Lord has given me an excellent wife and a wonderful mother to our children. When our little girl was born on October 18, Sheri was glowing. It was beautiful to see her with yet another newborn baby of our own. Sheri continues to faithfully teach our children each day in our homeschool. I like to tell my sons, "Marry a woman like your mother someday."

We named our eighth child and fourth daughter Melody Hope Southerland. We had pretty much decided on Hope for her middle name early on. We tossed around several name possibilities, including Charity, Geneva, Sophia, Daisy, and a few others. I'm very happy with her name and I know that we made the right choice.

There were many other happenings this year that are noteworthy.

Brittney became our first homeschool graduate. She did a great job on her research paper that I assigned her. She took on the challenging topic of whether the environmental movement has any legitmacy or whether it is simply a tool of oppression by tyrannical government. She chose the topic. I'm not sure I would have been as creative if I had assigned her one. Brittney is still determined to pursue leather working. I'm pleased with this direction. It is a skill that will be very useful. She will be able to earn money, and it is something that she will be able to bring into a new family when she eventually marries, but will not take her out of the home. It will be a family enterprise that can be continued regardless of what her future husband does for a living.

Michael worked for a man down the street from us constructing an airplane hanger. We live in an airport community with a shared runway and taxiways. Noone in our family flies...yet. Michael has expressed an interest in learning to fly. So another one of the neighbors has offered to teach him. He is a licensed instructor. After establishing his reputation in the neighborhood as a hard, diligent worker, Michael's help was solicited to work on building this hanger. Michael has braved extreme heat and cold in working on this hanger. He has learned valuable skills, such as welding. Michael likes the outdoors and does not envy me working inside with computers. He has shown an interest in possible being a firefighter. As his father, I'm proud that he is showing such diligence in his work. Another exciting event for Michael this year is his turning 16. That means...driving. As of now, he's still doing driver's ed. Because of his busy work schedule we got a little behind in getting his permit.

Brianna seems to be following in Brittney's footsteps in many ways. She is enjoying quilting, along with Brittney. Throughout this year, Brianna has enjoyed "sewing days" with Brittney, and their good friends, the Chathams. Brianna is showing diligence in her schooling. She is usually the first child up in the mornings. When I come in to make breakfast and coffee, she's usually sitting at the kitchen table working on her math. She's being a very big help in taking care of her baby sister, Melody. Brianna's favorite hobby seems to be photography. She's always walking around with the camera around her neck snapping pictures of just about any obscure object you can find around the house.

Justin turned 10 years old this year. He's at that age where he's in a transition from being a "little kid" into one of the "big kids." Add to that, the fact that until Melody was born this year, he was right in the middle of seven children. With Melody's birth, he has joined the "oldest four" while the youngest four are Paton, Sarah, Samuel, and Melody. Justin has a very analytical mind. He is good at problem solving. He asks me intelligent questions. I'm looking forward to how the Lord will be using him in the coming years.

Paton has recently expressed his desire to "be a chef." We'll see if he pursues that into adulthood. But for now, it means helping out in the kitchen and trying to learn what he can in there. His specialty is "Wacky Cake." It seems he wants to bring that to church every week for our weekly meal there.

Sarah Grace lost her first tooth this year. We also finished the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She has been doing awesome in her reading! I credit in large part Sarah's participation in reading the scripture during family worship as a major reason why her reading is progressing so nicely. When she finished her reading book, we bought her a 1599 Geneva Bible. During our family worship time we go around the room and everyone who can read reads two scriptures. Sarah takes her turn along with all the other readers.

Samuel, at four years old, has entered the stage of asking a lot of questions. I've heard things like, "Did God make houses?" So I get to explain that God made all things, and I proceed to tell him how He made the resources needed to make a house, and He made people and gave them intelligence on how to build it. So, then a natural question..."How does God make people?" :-)

One little funny bit of news concerning Sarah and Samuel is the episode when they were trying to set up their own Google account. With Sarah's reading skills and Samuel's computer skills, they just about had it, until they were caught!

And...I've already mentioned Miss Melody. Her mere presence is such a blessing. Add to that her pretty smiles and its enough to melt a daddy's heart.

On the job front, there have been changes as well. AnswerSoft continues to grow slowly. But in November, after returning to work after being out a couple of weeks with Melody's birth, I left TransCore in order to work from home doing consulting work for IVR programming. This has been a huge blessing. I've been able to save money on gas and food. I can wear jeans (or even shorts if I want) every day if I want. I'm also doing more of what I enjoy doing, actual programming. I was a little concerned while working at TransCore that too much time was elapsing between my last IVR position and my current position there. IVR programming is somewhat of a niche. After being away from it for a time, I've realized the value in continuing to devlop my expertise in this specialized field.

This year I received a Kindle Fire for my birthday. I already had a Kindle DX. Additionally, Justin and Paton both have Kindle Keyboards Wifi. I'm enjoying the Fire. The best function that the Fire offers is that with the Logos app I am able to access my entire Logos library on my Kindle Fire. This is a great blessing, as I have many excellent resources in that library. Before the Fire if I wanted to read Logos books on my Kindle, I had to copy and paste them into a new document and convert it to a Kindle document. Now I can read them natively, with fully active scripture references while reading Logos books. All of my Kindle library that I've collected through Amazon also exists on my Kindle Fire. So I can read them there. All in all, I still prefer to read on my DX. First of all, the e-ink is easier on the eyes than a backlit screen. It's just like reading a book. Next, the screen size of the DX is larger. So more text can fit on the screen before I need to turn the page, given the same text size. Also, there's a feature I really enjoy with my DX (that's also available on the boys' Kindles). That is the ability to post my notes on various passages into my Facebook account in the middle of my reading. For some reason that functionality is not available on the Fire. So with all things considered, my determination is that if I want to read a book, I prefer my DX. If I want to do anything else (including accessing my Logos library), the Fire offers more options.

Lastly, I want to mention the blessing that GracePointe Baptist Church has been throughout 2011. The men of the church gather on Saturday mornings and do a doctrinal study of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. I've made good friends with everyone in the church. That's a great advantage of a small church. You have a chance to really get to know everyone well. My family has really gotten to know our pastor, Jeff Brown, and his family. For a couple of months during the summer we geographically divided into home groups. Jeff and his family met with us at our house. Those were some good times and we discovered many similarities between myself and Jeff. The desire that God placed within me for eldership that began back in our home fellowship is coming to fruition within the confines of GracePointe. Jason Randall and I are in eldership training. We will be meeting with Jeff over the course of 2012. I look forward to serving the congregation at GracePointe and learning how to minister to God's people.

2011 has been a really good year with a lot of really good memories. Thank you Lord.

The Lord's Blessings

Much has happened this year for which I am very thankful. The two major things are:
1) The birth of our newest daughter, Melody Hope Southerland, on October 18. She is one month old today! This was certainly an answer to prayer.
2) Changing my job. I now have a work at home position doing IVR development. AnswerSoft is still going strong, and this new position complements it nicely.

I haven't had much time for blogging, but life is moving full speed ahead. God is good.

Will Your Church Pass the Test?

This Sunday is September 11, 2011. This date marks the 10 year anniversary of the terror attacks of radical Muslims on our own soil in New York, Washington D.C., and in the air over Pennsylvania. Certainly this was a national tragedy. Our children need to be taught this significant historical event. We should talk to them about the so-called “religion of peace” and how radical Islam attacked innocent men, women, and children without provocation. However, the question is not whether these things need to be discussed or taught. The real question is where they should be taught. I submit to you that there is one place where these very important matters ought not to be discussed. That is in the context of the gathering of believers on the Lord’s Day morning. Unfortunately, however, I imagine that the United States will be getting the Lion’s share of worship this Lord’s Day in churches across our land.

Jesus Christ is not an American. Though He gave His life for others, He didn’t die as a result of an act of terrorism against the United States. Neither did He die as a valiant soldier fighting for American freedom. Should we honor heroes who have paid this ultimate sacrifice? Absolutely. Yet, when believers gather themselves together this Lord’s Day, Christ alone should be the object of our worship. I was out of town last Independence Day and visited a church. I was dismayed to witness the congregation standing to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. It didn’t end there. The majority of the hymns were patriotic anthems, including the Star Spangled Banner. Now I’m as patriotic as the next guy, probably more so having read and studied much about the founding of our country. But in the meeting of the church our allegiance should be pledged to Him alone (actually isn’t that true all of the time? …but that’s another can of worms). The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 22, paragraph 1 declares:

The light of nature shows that there is a God, who has lordship and sovereignty over all; is just, good and does good to all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart and all the soul, and with all the might.(1)  But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by himself,(2) and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.(3)

So, do we see anywhere in the scriptures patriotic allegiances to nations or flags prescribed for worship to our creator? I’ve not found such references. In fact, paragraph 2 of the same chapter goes on to declare:

Religious worship is to be given to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to him alone;(4) not to angels, saints, or any other creatures;(5) and since the fall, not without a mediator,(6) nor in the mediation of any other but Christ alone.(7)

So then, we see explicitly that the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is the only object of our worship. By the way, the Baptist confession is not an inspired text. But the points that it makes are backed up with numerous scripture references.

For just the two paragraphs quoted above, the following scripture texts are offered:

1 Jer. 10:7; Mark 12:33
2 Deut. 12:32
3 Exod. 20:4-6
4 Matt. 4:9,10; John 6:23; Matt. 28:19
5 Rom. 1:25; Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10
6 John 14:6
7 1 Tim. 2:5

So what is to be discussed or taught on the Lord’s Day? Scripture itself gives us the answer.

1 Corinthians 2:1–2 (ESV)

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Acts 20:26–27 (ESV)

26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

So then, the whole counsel of God, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what should be proclaimed from the pulpit.

Just to avoid any misunderstanding, let me state this. I do not think that a church has violated these principles simply by mentioning the events of September 11, 2001 during the service. However, if these things are mentioned, great care should be taken on how they are proclaimed. Ask yourself a few pertinent questions. Is Christ glorified in what is being said? Are the things being said distracting in any way from the message of Jesus Christ and the glorious Gospel of grace? I believe that these events can be discussed in a God honoring way in the meeting of the church. A point could be made that we live in a fallen world and that sin brought about this catastrophe.  While “innocent” people were killed, in reality none of us are innocent. We all deserve to die deaths like this and die an eternity in hell. But for the grace of God we will. Luke 13 gives us a very good picture of September 11.

Luke 13:1–5 (ESV)

1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

So then, evaluate your church this Lord’s Day. You will hear one of four things concerning September 11, 2001.

1)      You will hear a rah, rah pep rally for USA with possibly a somber remembrance for lives lost and perhaps patriotic song accompaniment.

2)      You’ll hear an appropriate mention of the events declaring the depravity of man and the greatness of our God who is able to save not only wicked Muslim terrorists, but wicked “innocent” bystanders as well.

3)      Or you will hear nothing concerning September 11, 2001. You will hear, as you do week after week, a faithful pastor declaring the whole counsel of God, delivering spiritual nourishment to the congregation with which he has been entrusted.

4)      It’s also possible that you are in one of the many modern pop culture churches where you don’t typically hear the gospel, and you don’t hear a word about September 11 either.

Only points two and three above are valid messages you should be hearing in church. Will your church pass the test? I’m concerned that far too many will fail miserably. Personally I’m looking forward to hearing my pastor faithfully proclaim the Gospel as he always does.