When Tech Says 'NO' But God Says 'YES'

“We have a tech problem with the video”

These are not the words I want to hear 15 minutes before a worship service. I went into the control room and some very knowledgeable and experienced tech people couldn’t figure it out. The computer was working. The DVD player was working. The switch box that controlled what appeared on the screens (computer or DVD) was working. Even the audio was working. But we could not get the DVD picture to show on the screen.

For a pastor, there are few frustrations greater then something going wrong with a worship service just before it starts. This was a big “NO” life was throwing at us… was throwing at “me,” so I thought in my self-centeredness.

So… at 9:28 am (service starts at 9:30 am), I went up to our substitute music director (our regular director was on vacation in Hawaii) and as he was playing for the prelude I told him that he would lead the worship service and that I hoped to be back very soon.

I drove to my house, not knowing if I had a sermon there (we rent space for our worship service and my office is split between my home and the Clayton campus of our church, 20 minutes away). I had some sermons on the home computer but our printer had broken just the week before. I had hard copies of sermons but I had recently moved them all to the Clayton campus… or so I thought.

There was a folder of sermons from James on a near empty bookshelf. I grabbed it and headed back to my car. I leafed through the sermons as I drove (yes… a bad call, I know). “No, not that one… that one doesn’t fit… maybe this one.” I hurriedly walked to the front of the YMCA theater and sat down to look over these very unfamiliar notes. And just then, one of my daughters moved over to my lap and began to cry, distraught that she had left her baby doll in one of the back rooms of the YMCA. I decided compassion from my daughter took precedence (though I wasn't sure this was the right call).

I walked up on stage with the most tenuous grasp on my notes, hoping that this would not be an unmitigated disaster. These are the kinds of moments that God orchestrates that He might show Himself more important than our preparation (though preparation is part of being faithful)… more important than our abilities (though He gives and uses them). Life might have been saying ‘no’… but God ended up saying ‘YES’ and it trumped all other things. God used our weakness to bring about a wonderful encouraging service of worship… because we were looking to Him. We had to!

The sermon series has been called, “How God Turns ‘NO’ into ‘YES,’” and we experienced some of that this past week at WCF. And it was sweet.

Let us know about your stories of God pulling the trump card and turning your ‘no’s into ‘yes’s.

What Do We Say When We Talk about Japan?

You're watching the news... how do you respond to what you are seeing? Of course, our hearts go out to all those who are suffering and we should respond in some practical compassionate way to help them (Central Presbyterian is currently putting together a plan to get our folks involved with relief efforts... more on that later), but how do we make sense of these events?

Many people will say in the heartbreak of seeing the devestation, 'how could a loving God allow this?' This is a very good question... not simply because it's to the point, but it's honest.

The most rudimentary form of this question takes this shape: why do bad things happen to good people? Who has an answer to this question? Do Christians have an answer? Does the Bible? Does the pastor have an answer? When I am asked this question, I let people in to my own struggles with it. I don't hope to have some "objective" justification for suffering but I do present what I think is a personally satisfying resolution to suffering.

So, to ask the question again: "why do bad things happen to good people?"... well, I am not sure what qualifies as 'bad' and I am certain 'I' don't qualify as good (I don't mean to speak for anybody else). Oh, I am not a man guilty of capital offenses, but I am guilty of pride that has broken the hearts of my wife and children. I am guilty of brutal selfishness, offering less than my best efforts at work and therefore less than what I am paid for, thinking other people are not as important of me and at time wishing other people would simply disappear... certainly the root of murder. I am not a good person. Therefore, whatever joys I have in this life are more than I deserve.

And defining 'bad' is also more difficult than at first glance. Our personal definitions of 'bad' and 'good' matter a great deal. They depend on what we think are worthy goals... right goals in our life. Is happiness our pursuit? Pleasure? Knowledge? What? 'Bad' is usually defined as something that hinders us from these pursuits, death being the ultimate 'bad'. Yet, we all face death.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a man with a bright future in Soviet Russia. He had education, a keen mind and an ability to write. He served faithfully in the Red Army but his criticism of Stalin in a personal letter to a friend led to his imprisonment in a labor camp. Was this 'bad'? Solzhenitsyn wrote about his imprisonment and how it changed him... in his mind for the better:

"It has granted me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of my youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer, and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. And it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first strivings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and then all human hearts”
(from Cancer Ward)

He later wrote:

“And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.”

Perhaps we call some things bad because we simply don't have eyes to see the good.

Japan, however, falls into the category of horrific. I don't have a great answer for it except to say that I believe God will redeem all pain and death in the resurrection - that restoration of our bodies and reuniting of body and soul... that God himself, who is good, suffered the most horrific evil (death on the cross and the suffering of divine wrath) to accomplish this. We either chose to take refuge in this or face a bleak "unyielding despair" (Bertrand Russell, "A Free Man's Worship"... see below for the full quote) without him. And this is no answer at all.


Bertrand Russell, from A Free Man's Worship
That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end of they were achieving; that his origin… his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism… can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all labors of the ages, all the devotion.. all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system… are so nearly certain that no philosophy that rejects them can hope to stand…. [O]nly on the firm foundation of the unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.

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"In Their Own Words..." No. 2: What Is Being a Parent All About?

Here is another entry in our "In Their Own Words..." series. This time, we ask about parenting.

So... what is being a parent all about?



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What do you think? Add your thoughts in the comments section.

"In Their Own Words..." No. 1: What Is Marriage About?

At West County Fellowship, we try to look at issues that matter both to God and to everyday life. We want to know what God has to say about things that may be mundane but are none-the-less persistent and hard to ignore realities... realities like the glory and pain of marriage.

One of the things we incorporate into our "discussion" are the thoughts of our own people. What do they think about these everyday but important matters? We often interview people at West County or the Clayton campus of Central Presbyterian to hear them "in their own words." We thought we would share some of those interviews with you.

So... what is marriage all about?



What do you think? Add your thoughts in the comments section.

Benefit Concert for Promise Academy, St. Louis

There are some exceptionally talented musicians and singers at Central Presbyterian Church and West County Fellowship and we most often use their gifts in worship of God, the Creator. But this Friday night we will see them put their abilities to use to help some very special children… children made in the image of their Creator.

Promise Christian Academy (http://promisestl.org) is a special place where children who need alternative instructional approaches can be educated, loved and cherished as a life with incalculable dignity. It’s a place where children are seen as more than simply someone with autism or downs syndrome. And the folks who work their not only do amazing work, but display the sweet character of Christ. I know. I’ve seen it!

This Friday night, there will be a benefit concert for Promise Academy to help support their mission. Randy Mayfield along with Gina Tuck (Clayton campus pianist), Justin Heimburger (West County campus percussionist), Tim Mauldin (West County campus music director and guitarist), Eric Stiller (Trio pastor and jazz bassist) along with many others will perform at Chesterfield Presbyterian Church at 7:00 PM.

I had the chance to attend part of the rehearsal tonight and I thought I would share some of it with you to whet your appetite for Friday night.



For more of the same, I would encourage anyone in the St. Louis area to attend for a great night of music and an opportunity to support a fantastic school.

Posting the Audio for the Series, The Spirit Filled Life

I am currently leading a study and discussion with the Women's Ministry at the Clayton campus of Central Presbyterian Church and some folks asked if it was being recorded. Well, the answer is 'yes' and I have posted the three sessions that have already happened. We will get the the rest of the series up as it happens over the next two or three months. I am recording on my own portable digital recorder so the quality is not fantastic but still pretty good. A Q&A session follows each presentation. I hope you find the study helpful and encouraging as you hear about God's work through His Spirit in the world, in the church and in you.

Click here to get to the audio links.

Marriage Is Like a Crucifixion? A Strange Valentine Message

If you were at West County Fellowship yesterday (2/13/11) you have already heard this thought but it bears repeating. I came across a quote from C.S. Lewis on marriage as I prepared for a message on what it means to be a husband:

“Christian writers have sometimes spoken of the husband’s headship with a complacency to make the blood run cold. We must go back to our Bibles. The husband is the head of the wife just in so far as he is to her what Christ is to the Church. He is to love her as Christ loved the Church-read on-and give his life for her. This headship, then, is most fully embodied not in the husband we should all wish to be but in him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least….”

At first this may seem like a strange Valentine's Day sentiment: that our marriages should should be more like crucifixions. This seems at complete odds with the romantic pictures of lovers lost in passion for one another. And yet the idea of a man giving himself... to die to himself... to love and protect his lover is perhaps the most profoundly romantic idea imaginable. It is a challenging and inspiring idea to us husbands that in our marriages, our wives should "receive most and give least." This is the way of Christ with his bride. What is your way with your bride?

To hear the full message from yesterday's worship service, Husbands: Leadership in Service of Another, click here.