My Little Elf

Kristen thinks he looks like an elf in this picture. Merry Christmas to all.

The Gospel in our Churches

One of my uncles recently asked me how my studies were going at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a former Baptist who now is part of an independent Bible church in Arkansas. I told him things were going well and that I really liked where the seminary was at. He asked what I meant, and I told him that the institution as a whole had become more conservative. He further asked what I meant by that and I don't feel like I gave him a good answer. I said something along the lines of it being more committed to the testimony of the Scriptures, meaning it was more theologically conservative on some important issues.

This week I heard of a friend of mine who has been in church for years and just became a Christian late in life. She is a wonderful, fun, loving, caring wife, mother, grandmother, and even great-grandmother. The times I have been around her she has truly been a joy. He concern has been that she has simply not been good enough. One of my other friends has been teaching Paul's book of Galatians to her. Through his teaching and their wrestling through the good news of the Gospel of Grace she was converted. It has been a great source of joy for me and her evangelist seeing God work in her life.

I have also recently read of the story of John Wesley. This summer Kristen and I got to see where Rev. Wesley is buried and where he studied at Oxford. Wesley was a true Christian hero and had a great impact on not only American Christianity, but on America itself. I read how Wesley had started "Holy Societies" in Oxford and around England, was an ordained Anglican minister, was raised in a church going household where his father was a minister, and had been a missionary to the colony of Georgia AND YET WAS NOT TRULY CONVERTED! It was not until Wesley came in contact with the German Moravians that he was truly converted!

How could Wesley go through all that church and not have a correct understanding of the Gospel? How can my friend have been in a Presbyterian church her whole life and then at the end be worried that she has not been good enough? What was wrong in the church in Wesley's day and still in our day?

The most glaring problem of the American church continues to be that it is not clear enough and doctrinally sound enough with the Gospel.

This problem is directly connected to the battle of conservative evangelical Christianity with moderate and liberal Christianity. At its core it is a Gospel issue.

Churches that are more conservative in their Bibliogy and Theology will have a better understanding of the Gospel. The battle over the authority of the Bible and for conservative evangelical theology is essentially a fight for the Gospel of Grace through Faith in Christ. It is the battle for the historical Reformed calls for Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Christ Alone.

If you are in a church were people have sat there for years and think they have to be good enough to enter into heaven, then run your pastor off. If you are in a denomination that is filled with people who are trying to be good enough and the grace of Galatians is not taught then reform it. If you are a minister and do not understand the importance of what I am talking about or are not weekly preaching a gospel of grace then quit and go sell cars.

Last night I was holding Mason and thinking about this reality. I promised him that as his father and his pastor he would grow up in churches that clearly teach the gospel. The churches I pastor will be churches where the gospel of grace is clearly and constantly taught.

P.S. Since I reference Mason at the end I thought it gave me license to post another picture of him. This is a proud Poppa with his son watching his first Dallas Cowboy game.

Magnify

Mary’s Song
Luke 1:46-55

"And Mary said:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave;
For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things for me;

And holy is His name.

'And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.'

He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.
'He has filled the hungry with good things';
And sent away the rich empty-handed.
He has given help to Israel His servant,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and his descendants forever."


Intro

I love the symbol of Desiring God Ministries. Desiring God Ministries and Dr. John Piper have had an enormous impact on me. The book Desiring God is what God used to really change my life while I was in college. Their symbol or logo is four simple red arrows. If you simply see the four red arrows then you probably don’t get what they are trying to say, but if you purchase a DVD and see the arrows in motion then you get it. The meaning is found in bringing these four arrows from the four corners of the screen into the center and thus forming a cross in between the arrows. They are attempting to be Cross and Christ centered in all that they do.

That has been my heart this Christmas season. I have wanted to point believers to the person and work of Christ. I have felt called to focus not only on your blessings this year, but to focus more on the Blesser.

There is a portion of the Christmas story that you seldom see. I have never heard Linus from Charlie Brown quote this potion of the Luke Christmas story. It is Mary's Song found in Luke 1.

In it we see WHAT Mary did at the major crossroads of her life, during a significant season of her life. We then see WHY she did what she did. Basically we see Mary’s heart and where her joy and priorities rest. We see how we are to react to the Significant Season of Christmas.

Following Mary’s example we see that During Significant Seasons, we are to Magnify God.

Body

Luke is written by a Gentile believer to Gentile believers. It is a gospel not necessarily written to a Jewish audience like Matthew was, but more towards a Gentile audience. It announces that Christ has come to take away the sins of the world and reign on His throne forever.

In Luke 1 we see a very common and relatively poor Jewish girl (around the age of 13 or 14) who is chosen by God to bear the Christ child even though she is a virgin. God does this in is sovereign grace, but he chooses a pious young lady in Mary. Mel Gibson wonderfully captures the character of Mary in his movie The Passion of the Christ. She was probably my favorite part of the movie. She added such a powerful dimension to the film, a real emotional angle that I now understand better as a new father.

In Luke 1, she goes to see her pregnant cousin in the Judean countryside. This young woman travels to the countryside by her self, by all accounts! She is a strong, obedient, pious woman. She does what the Lord desires with such a positive, obedient, faithful spirit even though she does not fully understand what is going on.

Mary is at a major cross roads in her life. She is pregnant for the first time even though she has never been with a man. She is in a significant season of her life. In Luke 1:46-55, Mary writes a song of declarative praise to God in this significant season of her life. We never see Mary complain, doubt, or become self-centered in any way. We see exactly the opposite, we see Mary praise God in her significant season.

What do you do at your cross roads? We are in the Christmas season, a significant season, what do you do and why do you do it during Christmas? Let’s see what Mary did.

I. WHAT Mary does in her Significant Season (1:46-47)

Mary writes God a song of praise in her significant season. She is so filled with emotion that this illiterate Jewish peasant girl sings a song the source of her powerful emotion.

Her Soul --> Magnifies the Lord
Her Spirit --> Rejoices in God her Savior

Mary is filled with joy and happiness. Her soul and spirit are filled with powerful emotions and the source of this joy is God Himself. As a result Mary does the natural and appropriate thing, she praised him. The ancient Latin Christians simply called this psalm “Magnificant” because Mary was magnifying the Lord.

Magnification is trying to view something larger, not smaller. It is taking an image and making it as large as possible in order to see it better. Mary is declaring how great God is. She is trying to magnify God. She is declaring to the world the glory of God.

This is a very natural and appropriate thing for Mary to do. It is natural because her soul and spirit are filled with these rejoicing emotions. It is appropriate because it is true. God is to be magnified and we are to rejoice in God because He is our Savior. There is nothing greater than God, and thus there is nothing that we should magnify more, and rejoice in more than God Himself.

Like Mary, our ultimate joy is to be in God Himself, the Blesser not simply the blessings. Mary was very God centered in her crossroads of life, her significant season. Are you focused upon magnifying God in this Christmas season? Does you soul and spirit well up with joy and rejoicing for God this Christmas? How can you rejoice in the Blesser this Christmas?

II. WHY Mary does what she does in her Significant Season (1:48-55)

In the following verses (1:48-55) we see not what Mary does (she magnifies and rejoices God in 1:46-47), but now we see WHY she magnifies and rejoices God. We see the “because” of her singing.

1. Because

In verses 1:48-50 we see three reasons why she rejoices God, three “becauses”.

a. God has blessed me (1:48-49a)

First, she magnifies Him and rejoices in Him because he has blessed her. Mary could not have understood everything about this child, but she knew that he was the Savior the ultimate Savior; not a Savior but THE Savior. He was not simply a picture of what was to come (like Abraham, Moses, or David), He was THE promised one. This was it and she knew it.

Because of who Christ was and what He was going to do she knew she was blessed. Her happiness and joy were all wrapped up in the person and work of Christ. Because of Christ she knew that all generations would call her blessed. The Mighty One had done a great thing for her.

b. God is HOLY (1:49b)

Second, she praises him simply because he is holy. The simple statement in 1:49b is so theologically accurate and so simple yet so wonderfully great. Yeah, “wonderfully great”, that is the best a simply guy from Texas can do. God is holy. He is perfect in all that he does. He is perfectly righteous. Everything he says and does can be trusted because he is holy. Nothing else is holy.

c. God has Mercy on all generations that fear Him (1:50)

Third, she praises him because through Christ the covenant has been fulfilled and all generations from that day forward will be shown mercy. Like the Old Testament covenant, it was for those who feared the Lord, who keep their end of the covenant. Psalm 103:17-18 says that God will show loving kindness for eternity to those who keep His covenant. For us in the dispensation of grace, our end of the deal is to simply place our faith in the person and work of Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we are saved by the Savior by His grace through faith in Him not ourselves or our own works. God will show mercy upon those who fear him and place their faith in him.

If you were to write a song or poem to God, why would you magnify him? What “becauses” would you include? I want to challenge you this Christmas season to sit down and write a poem or song to God this year. Even if you have never done something like that I want to challenge you to get out of your box and attempt to magnify God as Mary did.

2. And He Has

Mary concludes her song with a list of things he has done that are mighty and great. Before she is very personal in her praises, now she gets out of the box of her own life and praises him for all the mighty things he has done throughout the ages.

a. Done Mighty Deeds (1:51a)

From verses 1:51, Mary compiles a list of praise for her mighty Savior God. He has:

- Scattered the proud (1:51b)
- Brought down rulers (1:52a)
- Exalted the humble (1:52b)
- Filled the hungry (1:53a)
- Sent away the rich (1:53b)
- Shown Mercy to Israel (1:54a-55)

Conclusion

As you work on your poem or song this week, I want you to not only praise Him for what He has done for you personally. I want you to also praise Him for what He has done throughout the ages for all peoples. I want you to think through your knowledge of the Bible and praise Him for His works. I also want you to think through History and praise Him for his mighty deeds. I want you to think through your understanding of Science and the Natural Order and then praise Him for His marvelous plan and creations.

What are some things that we can praise Him for this morning? What are some things in the Bible that are worthy of praise? What are some things from history that are worthy of praise? What are some things from the natural world that are worthy of His praise?

This Christmas season do as Mary and During Significant Seasons, Magnify God.

Courageously Preach Against Injustice

Courageously Preach Against Injustice

Proverbs 22:22-23
“Do not rob the poor because he is poor,
Or crush the afflicted at the gate;
For the Lord will plead their case
And take the life of those who rob them.”
(NASB)


Introduction:

In the Spring of 1963 a Baptist minister sat in a jail because he courageously preached against the injustice of his day. He received a lot of criticism from many different people. He learned that he didn’t have to answer all the criticism, because most was unfounded and it wouldn’t do any good to respond. He learned to simply stay the course in his efforts. As he sat in jail this day he was moved to respond to a loud criticism leveled at him. The man was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the criticism was from eight ministers who called him out for coming to Birmingham to march against segregation. Eight ministers criticized Dr. King’s courageous efforts to preach against injustice!

We still have injustices today. Every generation has injustices that are common to all generations and then some that are unique to them. Are you going to be like Dr. King and courageously preach against injustice? Or are you going to be like the eight critical ministers?

Proverbs 23:22-23 gives us an important teaching on justice. This proverb deals with the problem of injustice, then gives us God’s solution for injustice, and I will then apply this teaching to a specific unique injustice that we face today.

Body

I. Through the Israelite Sage, God Preached Against Injustice

A. God gave us a command concerning injustice (22:22)

These verses show us that “Through the Israelite Sage, God Preached Against Injustice”. In this first verse we see a command concerning injustice. God spoke through the writer of this proverb about his view of injustice. This passage sits within a group of scriptures that some commentaries call the “Thirty Sayings” which are thirty sayings concerning different moral issues. This saying deals with how to treat the poor or oppressed in society.

1. Justice was denied by the powerful, simply because they can (22:22a)

The first of four statements in this proverb deals with the powerful who oppress or rob the weak or poor simply because they can. They have no compassion for the less fortunate, but simply seek their own greedy and sinful desires.

After pondering on why he got into a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, President Clinton said that he did simply because he could. For some reason I really liked his authenticity about his sin. He didn’t lie and say that he was in love with her or something like that, but simply took advantage of the situation because he could.

The first line of this verse is a command to not take advantage of the weak simply because you can. There will always be poor and we are not take advantage of them simply because they are poor.

2. Justice was denied by a wicked godless government (22:22b)

The first part of the verse told us to not take advantage of the poor, weak, or afflicted in a general sense. This part of verse gets more specific. It tells us not to take advantage of the poor, weak, or afflicted through the legal system. It commands the reader to not crush or bruise, or apply pressure that kills those who are less fortunate that you. In ancient Israel, the city elders sitting at the city gates heard trials. This was the common means of justice and is seen in numerous passages like Proverbs 31 and the story of Ruth and Boaz.

I want to address an important point at this stage. We live in a democratic country. If you live in a democratic republic then you are a ruler. You and your morality establish the foundations for your legal system. You have a responsibility to make decisions for your country. You are responsible for who is the President and the Senators from your states. They reflect you and your morality. If there is a corrupt law in your country then you are responsible for it. Because we live under the blessing of democracy we all, in a sense, sit as rulers at the city gate of our society.

With that said, those in your government should affirm justice as found in your ultimate authority, the Bible. This means that your government should affirm a Christian God. This does not mean we have to be a theocracy, which will come in the end times, but it does mean that you cannot separate your faith in Jesus from your politics. Your God dictates your morality, and your morality dictates your politics.

In the legal system, we should have laws that do not crush, kill, or take advantage of the poor, weak, or afflicted. Your Christianity is connected to your morality, your morality to your politics, and we all establish the laws of the land through our politics. Vote your values and don’t let justice be denied at the city gate.

B. God gave us a threat concerning injustice (22:23)

The Sage has given us a command concerning justice, now he tags unto this command a threat to those who don’t heed his warning.

1. God promised to plead the case of the innocent (22:23a)

Sticking with this theme of justice we see that God promises to serve as a defense attorney for the innocent who were oppressed by you.

Picture this scene. You are charged with a crime that you know that you are guilty of and you look over to see who the prosecutor is going to be, knowing that he will shred you on the stand. You look over and it is God Himself! This is the same God that says that he knows every hair on your head. Then you look over and see who the judge is going to be, the judge who will hand down your sentence and it is also God, the perfectly righteous judge! If you think Johnny Cochran was tough, try to go up against God in the courtroom.

Those who are denied justice because they are weak, poor, or afflicted will have their case plead by God himself. That brings me great hope.

2. God promised justice for the innocent (22:23b)

We next see a little poetic justice in that those who took the lives of the weak will have their lives taken by God Himself. You rob their lives; He will rob your life. This verse sends chills up my spine, but it also gives me a great feeling of hope. God will and has thrown into hell those Nazi and Communist leaders and murders who slaughtered millions in the last century. Hitler, Pol Pot, and Stalin have faced justice in the form of God Himself. Those who enabled the wicked Jim Crow laws of the American South will answer to the Judge.

Like Bob Dylan sang:

You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

The Israelite Sage was saying that ultimately God will judge those who abuse the weak.


II. Through His People, God has Always Preached Against Injustice

Biblical religion has always had a great tradition of preaching against injustice. “Through His People, God has Always Preached Against Injustice”. The Israelite sage did it in his day. The Minor Prophets like Amos and Micah cried for justice in their day. History has forgotten that Roman baby girls were saved from death by the early Christians who established the first orphanages, the opium trade was combated by the Christians, drunkenness was battled by the Christians, slavery was abolished in the British Empire by the Christians, and the American abolitionist movement was a distinctively Christian movement.

The Bible is filled with verses like Micah 6:8:
“He has told you, O man, what is good:
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?”

“Through His People, God has Always Preached Against Injustice”.


III. Today, Will YOU Courageously Preach Against Injustice

As I have studied, prayed, and thought through these verses I have tried to narrow down the most important thing that we need to apply from this. Concerning application we are to Courageously Preach for Justice.

But the question I had through this whole study is what injustice does our generation face? In the 1940’s it was clearly Nazi Fascism and Japanese Imperialism that cruelly murdered millions. In the 1950’s it was clearly Soviet Communism, which before it was done had killed over 100 million in the previous century. In the 1960’s I think America was rightly dealing with racial injustice and the Civil Right’s Movement. But sadly I think that many don’t realize that we are now in the first decade of the 21st century. Many are still focused upon battles of the past. There are skirmishes to be fought on these issues but the war is won on all of these injustices.

We are in the 21st Century, but we either live in the past or have not learned from the past. We refuse to preach justice on an issue that is staring us in the face. An issue of injustice by the powerful over the weak. An issue of the wicked laws established by the people that you and I elect. An injustice that is killing people by the millions like the Nazis and Communists did. An injustice that is killing more and is enacted upon a more innocent and weaker victim than the African-Americans in the Civil Rights movement.

The injustice that I am talking about is the injustice of abortion upon the unborn. Since the 1973 verdict by OUR United States Supreme Court in the Roe v.s. Wade case more than 40 million abortions have been performed. Our elders at the gate have established a legal law that is both unjust and forced upon us without a vote of the people. Our courts decided this in one instance without my vote or your vote. They said that the right of a pregnant woman to murder her child was in the constitution and since then we have seen a case of genocide in this country that is worse than the Jewish Holocaust. The victims of this genocide are truly innocent and cannot fight back.

I was born in 1978 and a quarter of my generation was has been murdered due to abortion and many of us arrogantly sit in our ivory tower and place racism and feminist issues on the same plane as abortion!

Even at Dallas Theological Seminary I have heard two Systematic Theology professors raise racism and feminist issues to the same level of imporatance as abortion! I have also heard one of them act like it was not wrong to support an American political party that is mainly responsible for this injustice! DTS needs to do more about this injustice and needs a better message to their students.

Many in our own generation have not done enough because we down play the reality of this injustice or buy the lie that Francis Schaeffer destroyed which said that “Jesus would not part of the political process.”

I recently heard the lawyer who is now representing “Roe” in her fight to over turn the law. She is an evangelical Christian now and understands that abortion is murder. He said that the Roe v.s. Wade is built upon two false pillars. One, that the unborn child is not alive and second, that abortion does not harm the mother. I could hear my son’s heart beat around 22 days after conception, before most even know that they are pregnant. We also saw him moving around throughout the pregnancy. Even before Mason was born, he was clearly alive. Second, the psychological trauma is so severe upon women how have abortions that they have their own syndrome, Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS) which is marked by “drug and alcohol abuse, personal relationship disorders, sexual dysfunction, repeated abortions, communications difficulties, damaged self-esteem, and even attempt suicide” (National Right to Life website). Abortion is clearly the greatest injustice of our day performed against the most innocent, the poorest, the weakest, and the most defenseless victims.

The second half of the last century found some new voices that helped frame the evangelical movement. Carl F. Henry and Francis Schaffer both were strong on this issue because they understood it in a larger theological context. The Henry Institute at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is headed by Russell Moore. Moore has written a book dealing with the new evangelical perspective of the Kingdom of God. I attend DTS so I understand the issues of Dispensationalism versus Covenant Theology. Moore basically affirms a sort of Progressive Dispensationalism that does not see our immediate future in completely negative terms. The traditional Dispensational movement typically gives up and quits trying to change our society for the good. The traditional Covenant camp sees the future in probably a too positive light. Look, the end times will be horrible but that does not mean that we are to not continue being salt and light, changing our culture for the glory of God.

Sadly the most dangerous place for a child in America is in his or her mother’s womb and we can help change that injustice. If we see injustice we must Courageously Preach against it. Courageously Preach for Justice

Conclusion

In conclusion I want to share an excerpt of a letter written to eight Alabama ministers (Bishop C. C. J. Carpenter, Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Rabbi Hilton L. Grafman, Bishop Paul Hardin, Bishop Holan B. Harmon, the Reverend George M. Murray, the Reverend Edward V. Ramage, and the Reverend Earl Stallings) on April 16, 1963.

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”:

“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dart of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”

The unborn can’t write letters, they can’t march in protests, they can’t vote, they can’t Courageously Preach for Justice. The unborn are more poor and weak than the African-Americans in the South. The most dangerous place for an American child to be is in the womb.

Are you too cool or too spiritual to get involved with this injustice? What are you going to do with your voice as a Christian and a Christian leader? Are you going to tickle ears or are you going to change society?

Give to the Pro-Life movement, vote for people who will help change the injustice of abortion in America, and lend your voice and support to this injustice. Courageously Preach for Justice.

Christ Church and the Awe of God

My wife and I had a wonderful experience this summer. We traveled England with a seminary group and experienced the wonderful churches of old England. When you walk into these ancient structures the architect/artist draws your eyes to the beautiful stained glass windows which pulls your eyes up to the heavens, as your head is pulled up gravity drops your jaw, and you stand there with a look of "awe". This is one of the most important reactions to God, AWE.

These buildings were all so beautiful and many of the little villages were very proud of their church structures. If the architect was pious he would not want us to be in awe of the building, but the God that the building is trying to worship.

As I have held my new son and watched my wife be a great mother to Mason I have taken great joy in God's blessing of a wonderful healthy son and beautiful loving wife. I am blessed beyond words. It has been important for me to remember my first love however. My first and greatest love, joy, and happiness are not my wonderful wife nor my perfect little boy but the giver of these blessings.

Matthew 13:44 says, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field."

Do you love God's blessings over God Himself? Do you find so much joy in God and you would sell everything to be in His presence?

Christmas provides many blessings and joys for us. This Christmas season, worship the creator over the created. Find you joy and happiness more in the Blesser than the blessings.

In His Grace

Advertising Note

Crew, sorry about the seedy advertisements at the top of the blog. I felt weird putting them up and did it mostly out of blog curiosity. After making a note about Mason's blood sugar being low and then reading a bunch of blood sugar advertisements I am officially in the process of figuring out how to take the advertisements down. I promise we are not hurting for money that bad, I am however working on a pyramid marketing scheme that will cause all your friends to hate you, give me a call.

I am not sorry about randomly throwing another pic of Mason. For the record I am proudly and very contently sitting in a dark office, listening to lullaby music, wearing the dorkiest hat that says "good dads: Presbyterian Hospital of Denton", and listening to Mason sleep and toot at the same time. If I had a "#1 Dad" shirt I would wear it. Life is good. Does anyone out there know how to put in a car seat correctly?