blast from the past

Last night I couldn't sleep so I went out to the living room and was surfing the internet (thanks to the wireless router that my wonderful wife gave me for Christmas). I was doing some searches for e-sword modules and stumbled across a blog that had a review of the software. But that wasn't what caught my eye. On this blog the author mentioned the 80's Christian metal band Stryper with a link to their website.

Huh? Their website?!?!?

I thought Stryper died long ago. But I have to admit that in the 80's I loved this band. The tape player in my car had a different opinion. It ate one copy of Yellow and Black Attack and two copies of Soldiers Under Command. It never ate anything else. I guess it just didn't appreciate good Christian metal. Anyway, I had to check out this website and when I got there I discovered that Stryper is not only back together, but they have released a new CD titled Reborn. How could this news not have been splashed all over the internet?

Stryper lives! The world seems right again. You may now go about your lives.

The price of freedom

I have a nephew who is serving in the Navy as a construction engineer and this year he spent 7 months in Iraq helping to rebuild the infrastructure there. We see more and more from the MSM about how this war is wrong and how it is like Vietnam in that our troops don't know what they are fighting for and don't want to be there. Well I thought I would present a little different perspective. This is a letter that he wrote while he was serving in Iraq. I think this shows more of what our troops feel.

I learned a lot this July 4th. I spent my 4th of July defending freedom for I proudly answered my nation's call for help and volunteered to go into harm's way. I hope that the sacrifices that I've made over here will help to ensure that our nation is free of terrorists for years to come. I also hope that one day the children of Iraq and other nations will grow up in a world of peace - a world free of terrorists. I think the hardest part of this war is seeing the children endure this hell hole. During my time over here, I've seen thngs that I hope to never see again in my lifetime, but I'm a better man for having seen them because I now know firsthand the true price of freedom.

Happy birthday America!

Derek Cherry
Navy Seabee

Enough said.

One semester down...

Well my first semester of seminary is officially over. I took 2 finals on Tuesday and 2 finals today. I'm glad to have a chance to sit back and catch my breath for a few weeks before I have to dive back in again. Well, actually I won't be able to sit back just yet. If you read my last post you saw that I was having questions about God's plans for my future with the Air Force. I received some great encouragement from some incredible friends and then on Tuesday, out of the blue (pun definitely intended), I got a call from Chaplain Dave Markwalder with the Chaplain Candidate Program asking if I was still interested in the program. After I hung up with him I just had to look up to heaven and say "Yes Lord, I get the point." To make a long story at least a little bit shorter he faxed my information to the recruiter for this area and I will be meeting with him on Monday to finalize my application and schedule my physical. So this weekend will be filled filled with completing a stack of forms for the Air Force and ordering transcripts and whatever else the application process entails. Hopefully now that the semester is over I'll have a little more time to keep this blog updated so those of you that actually check it periodically will know what's going on in our lives. Well, it's late and I have to get up for work tomorrow so I'd better sign off.

Return of the Long Lost Blogger

For all my faithful readers out there (all 2 of you) I must apologize for the long and protracted silence. I have simply been overcome by the daily facts of life, school, work, family, and reading far too many theological books. This past month has been an incredibly busy one as I started my new job as Director of Computer Services for Highview Baptist Church here in Louisville while trying to keep my head above water in school. Dee Dee and I have had many long discussions concerning God's will for our future, especially with some of the things going on in the Air Force these days. It seems that evangelical chaplains are being silenced. The Chief of Chaplains has said that there is nothing to worry about and that everything will be fine, but I can't help but think that he has been in the Air Force for a long time and will be retiring soon. Things can change under new administrations. Needless to say, we have been praying alot about God's will in that area of our lives.

I have also been having lots of trouble staying focused in school, not because of the difficulty of the course work (though it is plenty difficult), but because I hate having to tell my children that I can't play with them or read to them because I am constantly either running out the door to go to class or closing myself off in my bedroom to read something for class. I was talking with David Price, a friend from church and a graduate of Southern, about this today and we seemed to have pretty much the same view. My first responsibility is to my family, and to bring my children to a knowledge and love of the Lord, and if I spend all my time getting a theological education and neglect my children then I have failed.

So, keep us in your prayers as we continue to grow and study and try to discern God's will for our family. Our future seemed set when we moved up here, but now it seems that God is revealing more of His plan to us. He is not changing the plan since He is unchangeable, but He doesn't reveal all of His plans to us at once for various reasons. Sometimes it's to lead us to a stronger faith, and sometimes it's just because of the fact that if He revealed too much of the plan to us at once it would scare us out of our wits and we would turn and run the other direction as fast as we possibly could. Somehow I think the latter might be the reason in my case.

past the halfway mark

Well we've passed through the halfway point of this semester. Last week was midterms. I think I did OK on them, but the results remain to be seen. They were a bit more stressful and quite a bit more detailed than I was used to in undergrad or my previous Master's program. These last two weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster for me personally. Going through the stress of preparing for midterms and getting all the reading done for two papers that are due this week just got me sort of depressed. I ran through a time of wondering why I'm here and if this is really what I'm supposed to be doing. Then I got some good news about a job prospect that really raised my spirits. I'm still waiting to hear back but I'm pretty confident that it will come through. I also completed my application to the North American Mission Board for endorsement in the Air Force Chaplain Candidate Program. I know that I have been called at this point in my life to pursue the chaplaincy. I don't know if that is the ultimate plan that God has for me. I might end up doing something totally different, but for now at least, I'm supposed to be going through this process. That knowledge helps during the difficult times of studying for midterms and wondering where the money for next month's rent is going to come from. I am in the middle of God's will for my life right now, and that is exactly where I need to be. Well, that's about it for tonight. I've just felt a need to put some of my feelings down on paper (ok, so it's cyber-paper) but now I need to get back to reading Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship". Gotta finish it and get that paper knocked out.

Cell Phone Etiquette

OK, I know there has been MUCH debate of this subject over the years, but I'm putting in my two cents now. I'm sitting at Panera Bread studying for a midterm exam that is coming up tomorrow. I watched this woman drive up about half an hour ago. She was already on her cell phone when she got here. She came in, still on the phone, ordered her food, still on the phone, got it and sat down two tables over from me to eat. She's still on the phone. Now I realize that I am in a public place, and I don't expect complete quiet, my problem is with the fact that she is speaking loud enough for people to hear her on the other side of the restaurant. And she's speaking in Spanish no less. Why do people insist on yelling into their cell phones? And if the reception is that bad, why do they continue sitting somewhere they are not getting good reception? Get up and move somewhere that you might be able to hear.

OK, she just got up to leave, and started whispering by the way. Guess I'll end this particular rant and attempt to get a little more studying done.

From the "You've got to be kidding me" department

CNN.com - 'Planet Xena' has a sidekick: Gabrielle - Oct 1, 2005

I was reading some reports on CNN.com tonight and ran across this one. Has our culture degenerated to such a point that we are now naming scientific discoveries after cheesy characters from even cheesier TV shows? I will admit I have watched an episode of "Xena: Warrior Princess" here and there. But in my opinion there is a huge difference in watching something cheesy on TV and memorializing it by naming a planet after it.

politics test

OK, some of my friends from Baton Rouge were taking this test and I was surprised by their results so I had to go take it too. It seems that alot of the people I knew back there were Democrats which really surprises me. Anyway, here are my results.

You are a Social Conservative (16% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (80% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Republican Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

time flies

Wow! It's amazing how quickly time can pass by. I blinked and realized that 10 days had passed since I last posted anything to this blog. The last couple of weeks at school seemed to get much more intense. The pace really picked up in Greek and I had even more reading to do so I just haven't had much time to spend posting.

Looking back over my posts since we moved I realized that I haven't posted anything about our new church. We joined Highview Baptist Church here in Louisville. This church is doing some amazing things here in the city. It is a well established church that has been on the south side of town for a number of years. About five years ago they decided to start a second campus on the east side of the city. They started it with 80 people. In February of this year when they moved into a brand new facility on their East Campus that original 80 had grown to about 650. Bro. Kevin (the pastor) told me this evening that we had over 1380 in attendance this past Sunday. He also just announced that we are making plans to possibly start a third, fourth and fifth campus at different areas around the metro area. And we are also partnering with other churches to help plant a church in Manhattan. The Lord is truly working at Highview to spread the kingdom.

Also, for those of you that aren't in Baton Rouge, and don't know about this, the pastor at my former church resigned not long after we left. As you may remember, there was a power struggle going on in the church between two different factions, one that didn't like the path of change that the pastor was following and one that supported him no matter what. There were things done wrong on both sides and there is a huge need for church discipline to be applied to some of the ring leaders. Anyway, Bill realized that the church was becoming too polarized around him and he resigned and started a new church plant in Ascension Parish. Things seem to be going very well. People are coming and really getting involved. He tells them from the outset that if they want to come and just sit in a service and then go home and not get involved they are in the wrong place. That's what he was trying to get people to realize at Parkview. God bless you Bill! I pray that God would use you and everyone else at Graceworks in a mighty way to reach people in Baton Rouge and the surrounding area with His love.

One final note. If you've visited here in the past you may have noticed that the Google search box is gone and the Google ads have been replaced. I simply wasn't happy with the control that Google gave me over the advertisers so I'm trying out a different company. Bidvertiser lets me view every ad before it is placed on the site and accept or decline it. With Google I just had to check the site and if there was something I didn't want (which turned out to be most of it) I could block those ads, but it would take a while for them to drop out of the rotation.

Well that's it for tonight. Hopefully it won't be quite as long before I get another post up here.

Officials clash on people returning to New Orleans - Yahoo! News

It seems that Ray Nagin, who so publicly whined and complained about what he saw as a lack of response on the part of the federal government after Hurricane Katrina, is now ignoring the advice of the federal officials he so desperately wanted. Mayor Nagin is encouraging residents to return to the areas of the city that were not severely damaged by the disaster. However, the head of the federal recovery effort, Vice Admiral Thad Allen, says, that after consulting with the EPA and CDC, the timeline given by the mayor is at best ambitious. This is especially true in light of the fact that there is another hurricane readying itself to enter the Gulf of Mexico. (See story here) Ray Nagin wants it both ways. He wants the federal government's help to get him out of a crisis, but now that the immediate danger of the hurricane is gone and the flood waters are receding he wants to do things his own way.

Some great observations about the blame game

Many in the Main Stream Media (MSM) are villifying President Bush in their reports on Hurricane Katrina and coming just short of actually claiming that he caused the storm itself and sent it to wipe out the city of New Orleans. A friend of mine sent me this great article that points out some very basic truths that the MSM and liberals in general need to realize.

it's been awhile

OK, so I've let my posting frequency slip quite a bit (not that it really matters since there's no one reading this blog besides me anyway). Things have been hectic this past week or so. LOTS of reading, a quiz in Greek (every Friday), my first paper due, trying to get together with my accountability partner so my Spiritual Disciplines class, plus the kids have been getting sick, and I'm still looking for a job. Actually, hopefully the job situation will be taken care of soon. I'll post more about that when I get more details.

There are so many things I want to say about the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath but if I put everything down, I'd be typing all night long. To begin with, I'm sick and tired of hearing the liberal media say that the federal government and the military did not show up on the Gulf Coast until 4 or 5 days after the hurricane hit. FEMA is a federal agency and they were there from day one. The Coast Guard is a branch of our military and they were there from day one. That's it. End of story. You CANNOT continue to say that the military and the government were not there. They were. Move on.

Then there's this whole racial thing. Why is it that anytime something happens in this country that warrants extensive media coverage Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, or someone has to stick their nose into it and claim racial discrimination? We've actually had some idiotic people trying to claim that the government broke the levees in New Orleans on purpose to oppress the poor blacks that live there. Come on! How can any sane person truly believe that our government would intentionally endanger the lives of so many, and intentionally destroy one of our major cities? Yes, it is true that the majority of the people affected by the flooding were poor and black. But let's look at the demographics of New Orleans. According to the 2000 Census nearly 70% of the population of the city of New Orleans is black and almost 30 percent of the population was below the poverty level (one of the highest of any major city). With statistics like that, yes, the majority of the people affected are going to be poor and black. Complaining about it is like complaining about a tornado hitting somewhere in Mexico primarily affecting Hispanics. Duh! That's who lives there, so that's who is going to be affected. Let's stop pulling out the race card whenever anything happens. We can't change the way the statistics read now. We can however change things and make them better in the future.

OK, I guess I'm done ranting for now. There's much more I'd like to say about the left-wing media but I need to get to bed.

Surreal

That's the only way I can describe what is happening on the Gulf Coast. Seeing places that I know and love in New Orleans and Biloxi either under water or totally gone is nothing short of surreal. Even after growing up in south Louisiana and living through hurricanes and the aftermath that goes with them, I cannot even imagine what it is like to be living through this. Honestly many of the pictures I've seen remind me of Sarajevo, Bosnia. There was an area in Sarajevo that had been nicknamed "City of the Dead" because the houses there were so mangled from the house to house fighting. It nearly brought me to tears when we were driving through there and I saw children playing soccer in front of an apartment building that was riddled with holes from bullets and mortar shells. But that pales in comparison to what I have seen going on in New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. It looks like a war zone.

We've spoken with friends in Baton Rouge who said that the population of the city has doubled with all the refugees. There are reports there of violence at gas stations. One of our friends told his wife that he didn't want her going to the gas station because people were waiting for women to swipe their credit cards, then attacking them and stealing the gas.

This is all evidence of the fact that this world is stained by the taint of sin. No matter how much secular humanists try to tell us that people are naturally good at heart, times like this show that our natural state is one of selfishness and sin. We need to pray not only for the physical and temporal safety of those on the Gulf Coast, but for their spiritual and eternal safety that can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Pat Robertson's Comments

Last night we had the 700 Club on as we were getting ready for bed and heard Pat Robertson's call for the assasination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. I was utterly shocked to hear this statement come from a man who is a leading conservative Christian. Many Christian leaders have called for him to retract his comments and I add my small voice to that call. I agree with Mr. Robertson in that President Chavez presents a serious security risk to this nation if he is allowed to continue along the course he is currently on. However, assasination is not the answer to this problem. There are numerous other courses of action that are open to the United States besides killing the head of state of another sovereign nation. We as Christians need to be especially careful of our words particularly when in the public sphere. We need to be sure to speak the truth in love if we ever expect the lost people of this world to listen to the message of the gospel.

what have i gotten myself into?

I just got done with my homework for my Greek class and I'm wondering what in the world I have done. Today was the second day of class and for homework we had to translate 20 sentences from Greek into English and 4 from English into Greek. This is the 4th language that I have studied formally (other than English) and I'm amazed at how quickly the class is moving. Day 1 - here's the alphabet, Day 2 - translation. Yikes! I knew seminary was going to be a big jump from what I was used to and so far I have not been disappointed. Actually, it's not too bad. It's going to be A LOT of reading, but luckily I love to read, and so far everything I've had to read has been really interesting to me. Again, luckily I'm a history geek and that's alot of what we've had to read so far for my classes.

books, books everywhere

I have a stack of books that is about a foot and a half high sitting here on my computer desk. These are the books that I will have to read for my classes this semester. Here's my schedule of classes for the fall. Anyone reading this who has been to seminary please feel free to tell me how absolutely insane you think I am.

9:00-9:50 AM Tuesday - Friday - Elementary Greek
11:30-12:20 PM Tuesday - Thursday - Intro to New Testament
12:30-1:20 PM Tuesdy - Thursday - Personal Spiritual Disciplines
1:30-2:45 PM Tuesday & Thursday - Intro to Church History
5:45-7:00 PM Tuesday & Thursday - Biblical Hermeneutics

I put all the reading assignments into a single calendar so they would be easier to keep up with. I'm not sure how smart of an idea that was. It's a little overwhelming when you look at the calendar and see assignments for 50 pages in one class, a chapter in another, 2 chapters in another and an entire book in another. Luckily on that particular day I only have to read about 10 pages in the fifth class so it's an off day :)

Classes start next Monday, or in my case next Tuesday and my first quiz is scheduled for next Friday in Greek. Part of me keeps asking "What have I gotten myself into?" But then I remember how clearly God told us that this is where He wanted us to come, and this is what He wants me to do. As long as I keep my focus on Christ and doing what He has called me to do I can do anything.

On a different note, I posted a new book on the recommended reading list, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. While I don't agree with everything Miller has to say (he is very much a part of the emergent church movement which I don't fully agree with) I would still recommend this book. He focuses alot on the biblical commandments to feed the poor and clothe the naked and how we should build relationships in order to share Christ with the lost. Plus the book is incredibly funny in places. There's one section in particular in his chapter on Money where he ends up having a shouting match with his conscience. You gotta lova a book that has the author shouting "Shut your gaping piehole!" to the voices in his head

back online

We're back online after what seemed like an eternity. It's amazing how dependent we have become on the internet. I didn't have easy access to the web for over a week and felt like I was cut off from civilization. No news, no stock quotes, no email. Thankfully the cable man came this afternoon and got us connected back to the world again. At least to the cyber-world. Well, that's about it for this installment. I know it's short, but it's late and I need to get to bed.

We're here!

We made it to Louisville after a very, very long couple of days. We picked up the U-Haul on Friday and started loading that afternoon. We finished loading and cleaning up the old apartment by about 2:00 on Saturday. Sunday we drove to Dee Dee parent's house in Tennessee and unloaded and then reloaded part of the truck with furniture that we were trading with them. On Monday we drove up to Louisville. We got here at about 3:00, picked up the keys to our new apartment and went with the lady from the office to do a walk thru only to find out that they had that particular apartment entered incorrectly in their computer files. It was a two bedroom with a den instead of the three bedroom we need. She quickly switched us into another apartment that is a three bedroom, but when we walked in the hall carpet was soaking wet. The drain pipe for the air conditioner had become clogged and condensation overflowed. They got someone in to rip out the padding and extract the water. We finally started unloading the truck at about 5:00. Since we were all already exhausted, and since we couldn't put anything in one room until the carpet dries it took forever to unload. We finally finished at about midnight.

Alright, that's enough rambling for one night. I'm off to crash in my own bed (for the first time in two weeks) in my new apartment. Good night all.

we won't be homeless

Yay! We just signed a lease for an apartment here in Louisville. We can move in here the day after we have to move out of the apartment in Baton Rouge. We've spent the last 3 days driving all over Louisville looking at different apartments, or pulling into the complexes and pulling back out again before we even went to the leasing office.

Anyway, I'm just glad the search is over. And we have plenty of room for people to come and visit (just not everyone at once OK. let's space things out a bit). I'll send out an email later letting everyone know what our new address is.

PS. Sorry if this sounds disjointed, it's been a long few days driving up here and then driving all over the city so I'm kind of out of it.

I am now jobless

As of today I am currently unemployed. This was my last day of work. Now the pressure really sets in on this move. We head north to Louisville on Saturday to begin the process of looking for a place to live and a job. If anyone knows of any computer/technology jobs or any church jobs that are opening up in Louisville please let me know.

Today was a bittersweet day for me. I have made many close friends here that I hate saying goodbye to. But I am also glad to be leaving a church that is in turmoil. It seems that every time things seem to settle down just a little bit someone has to stir things up. Some of the people remind me of a child poking a stick in an ant bed. They don't seem to care what they are doing to other's personal lives or reputations as long as they can get them riled up and make them scurry around. I pray that people would focus on God and His will for Parkview and stop worrying about rumors and whispers of rumors before God removes His spirit from the church.