What was it that Wesley said? “I felt my heart strangely warmed.” I sense that kind of thing in very strange places at very strange times.

For example, I took this picture in Albuquerque’s National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. It’s the periodic table stretched out on the floor as you enter. When I walked in and saw it, I stood before it and worshiped. I worshiped because this is a consistent representation of created matter. As my granddaughter’s shirt says, “Never trust an atom; they make up everything.”

This table is the same everywhere: in Mr. Mester’s Advanced Chemistry room at Brookville High School, in classrooms at Pitt Bradford, in classrooms on the main campus, in the bio lab in Georgia, in the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque. And it would be the same (plus, perhaps, a few yet-to-be-discovered elements) on Mars.

This consistent representation of creation arouses something in my heart as it demonstrates the work of an intelligent, detail-focused God. I can’t explain it. It’s personal. I worship. I am stunned by its consistency and I appreciate the brilliance of the men and women who uncovered it.

Both the periodic table and the minds who put it on paper turn my heart to worship the One Who made it all.

As I have been reading the science on COVID-19 and watching academic videos of mRNA, I am finding my heart strangely warmed as well.

Though I never spent much time considering it, I used to assume that viruses were non-existent before the fall of humankind. Maybe. Viruses aside, I do think that bacteria were present in Eden. Otherwise, how would waste breakdown and return to the ecosystem? And if bacteria and viruses were present, our bodies would have to be able to protect themselves from infection. Say hello to the human immune system.

So as I’ve been researching, I’ve come to appreciate our immune system on a whole new level. Who knew that our antibodies coined what has become a sci-fi phrase, “Intruder alert”? And think of how perfectly and quickly they must have worked in the bodies of Adam and Eve – and those who lived in subsequent generations. Perfect bodies with perfect immune systems would zap viruses and bacteria without a second thought. No wonder the lifespan of those generations was ten times our own.

But the results of the fall are demonstrated all around us – even in these decaying bodies. So again, I am turned toward worship when I see the absolute brilliance of those who developed the mRNA technique. Who would have thought to have our bodies create, not the virus, but the virus’ means of attack so that our antibodies could be ready when the real thing shows up? Who would have thought to do that? Only those made in the image of God. Dogs, cats, dolphins – they may be smart, but….

The heavens declare the glory of God. And so do those things under the microscope — along with those peering into them.

Over twenty-five years ago, I read Amusing Ourselves to Death by NYU professor, Neil Postman. One of the many comments that stuck with me was this:

“…forms of media favor particular kinds of content and therefore are capable of taking command of a culture”

(You might want to read that again.)

Postman illustrates this by noting that, although we don’t know what Native Americans were communicating in smoke signals, it’s unlikely that they were conducting deep philosophical discussions. The media (smoke signals) would prohibit that kind of content.

As I observe our society, I have to wonder how Postman (who died in 2003), would react to memes on Facebook.

Little, in my personal opinion, has served to disinform and thereby form our culture in recent times than social media and the memes contained there in. You probably won’t make important decisions based on something you saw in a meme, but memes shade your thinking one small step at a time.

Indeed, Dr. Postman, “…forms of media…are capable of taking command of a culture.”

Someone asked me what software we’re using to stream at the church. That’s a good question, but I am guessing they are going to need more information, so I am putting it here.

Software

We have some good tech guys that use OBS. It’s a free application.

If you want something a little friendlier and still affordable, you might try vMix.

Camera and Cables

We use a camera with HDMI output in the front of the sanctuary. Since the building is long, we have to run that HDMI signal through Black Magic Design’s HDMI to SDI so we can send it over coax to the PC in the back of the church. Then back through another (opposite) Black Magic Design SDI to HDMI converter to get it back to a standard HDMI cable.

We run that HDMI signal into an elgato HDMI to USB3 Converter. Plug that elgato into a USB 3 port on a PC.

We take the audio from the soundboard which is right next to the PC. OBS and vMix will mix those together for you if you add them as sources.

On the PC

The PC software (OBS or vMix) readies the video for Facebook or YouTube. You’ll have to enter the sources (both audio and video). Refer to your software manual for how to do this. When the software is set up, you should see the video from the camera on the screen of your PC in the software.

Open either Facebook or YouTube in a web browser, log into your church page, and start a live stream. Somewhere on that web page, you’ll see Facebook (or YouTube) provide you with the “stream key”.

Copy that key into the settings on OBS for whichever platform (FB or YouTube) you are using.

Then you can start the stream in OBS and it will feed it to your browser (either Facebook or YouTube, depending which you chose). If it’s YouTube, it starts streaming immediately. If it’s Facebook, you have to go back to Facebook and press “start stream”.

Easy, huh?