Rick Lee James from First Church of the Nazarene prepares for a service on October 20, 2013 about God's presence in tragedy. The worship will feature hymns born from loss: "God Leads Us Along," "It Is Well," and "Nowhere to Be Found" by Andy Gullihorn and Nate Tasker. James says God's presence is often most deeply felt when it seems most absent.
Chapters
Hi, welcome to Preparing Our Hearts. This is the video for Sunday, October 20th. We're preparing our hearts for that day. It's gonna be a different kind of Sunday here at First Church of the Nazarene. The theme of the day is, "What in the world is God doing even in tragedy?" And we've just had a lot of people who are dealing with tragedy, a lot of people who have said to us some very honest things about, "No matter how much I pray, it seems almost like my prayers aren't getting through. I wonder if I'm actually being heard. I wonder if they're being answered." And questions about where is God. So we're actually gonna be stripping things down a little bit this week musically. I'm just gonna be leading by myself No extra vocalists or anything, no extra instruments, just gonna be me playing some guitar, playing some piano. And we're gonna be using songs that are about— that were either birthed out of tragedy or actually talking about seeking God in the midst of tragedy, whether it be the hymn that we're doing, "God Leads Us Along," which is an older hymn, you know, "Some through the water, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood." "some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long." And then there's a song that I wrote from Psalm 73 that I'm gonna be singing called "Whom Have I in Heaven but You?" And Psalm 73 is one of those lamentful cries out to God asking, you know, "Lord, why are the wicked prospering? Why does it seem like everything that they're doing is working, but things that I'm doing as a righteous person are not happening?" So That's the theme of this Sunday. And we're also singing a hymn, "It Is Well," a song that was birthed out of great tragedy, a man losing his family members and writing even in the midst of that, "Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul." And we're going to be closing the morning with one of the most haunting, honest, soul-searching songs I've ever heard. And I'm gonna be telling the story a little bit more in depth on Sunday morning, but it's a story that was put into song by Andy Gullihorn and Nate Tasker. It's actually Nate's story, and the song is called Nowhere to Be Found, and it's a song that came from Nate losing his father-in-law and within the same month losing his two children to death. And just trying to seek God in the midst of that and being honest about it seeming like God being nowhere to be found in the midst of that. But it's a song that even though it's full of lament and full of asking questions, is a song that also has hope as we hear it and as we ask, you know, God, where are you to be found? That sometimes the greatest way to experience God, and I have experienced this in my life, the greatest way to experience his presence, um, we will see is in his absence. And we will find that in his absent times, or in his seeming absent times, those are moments where we actually grow the most. Those are moments where we actually come to understand God in a new way, where we come to understand ourselves in a new way and what life is all about. So it's gonna be a good Sunday morning. It's gonna be a difficult Sunday morning too, though, in some ways. So please be in prayer for this week. We've got some soul-searching to do and some real questions to ask because God is not afraid of our questions. And so we're just gonna come right at him full barrel with all of our questions Sunday morning and say, God, some things just don't make sense, and sometimes it doesn't seem fair. Sometimes, God, you don't seem fair. He's not afraid of those things, and so we're gonna come boldly together into his presence, into the gracious God who wants us to come with those things and wants us to come and lay those before him. So that's what this week is all about. So prepare your hearts with me as we get ready to worship on Sunday, October 20th, 2013. You can follow me on Twitter @RickLeeJames. You can follow our church webpage if you go to homeroadnaz.com. And I hope to, hope to see you there. God bless you guys.
