Okay, let me set the scene for you. It’s Easter Sunday. My son and I taught Kids Church at our church at 9 am. We’re very Pentecostal! My husband is Catholic. So on Christmas Eve and on Easter Sunday, my son and I become “C and E” Catholics, so we can go as a family to Dad’s church with him.
Perhaps not ideal. Or, even what I pray for. But it is what it is!!
Anyway, I know Easter Service is going to be super packed at the Catholic church, so I want to get there as soon as we can, when my son and I get home from our church. We wore regular church clothes, instead of our Kids Church t-shirts and jeans, as we usually would, just to save time. But, I let my son wear his black and white Converse sneakers with his black pants, because, well, who cares, right???
Anyway, my husband insists our kid come inside, and change his sneakers, and so, we got to his church right before 11 am, instead of at 10:30 am, like I planned. There might have been a shot at getting a seat at 10:30 am, but “No Way” at 11 am!! It’s a huge, beautiful church, just rebuilt after the hurricane!
But, folks, this is Easter Sunday…Resurrection Day! Amen! And Hallelujah!!
We walk in through crowds, upon crowds, of people. I see a friend and she says, “No seats!!!” Since the usher just gave her husband the last seat, because he had just had surgery, and wouldn’t be able to stand for an hour and a half.
I can’t either!
So we head back outside…
Walk around to the other door…
Into the overflow room!!
The overflow room has overflowed!
People have overflowed out into the vestibule…
And onto the outside walkway…
And well into the parking lot!
So we decided to stay in the vestibule, ’cause I saw a little 2″ window sill, that I mistakenly thought I could rest on. But, at second glance, I saw that it was way too small for my behind!
What was I thinking?
Also, I had worn my really cute, little, tiny heels, since I figured,
“Hey, I’m not working and standing all day, right?
I’ll be sitting, won’t I?”
Ouch!
My mind is racing.
How to find a way to sit down…
ANYWHERE!!!
I ask the usher if there are any folding chairs? “No!” My husband goes to the Annex Building to look. “No!”
Then I spy a door to a kitchen, and just inside, is a little mahogany step stool!
I sneak in when the usher isn’t looking, and grab it!
Nice Christian move, huh?!?!?
I sat rather uncomfortably on this stool for the entire service, I couldn’t even see the priest. I peeked around the blob of people in front of me. He was miles away, but I saw that he had white hair. We had settled right next to the bathrooms, where people were coming and going, and flushing! Not really conducive to worshiping!
But, with their great sound system, and I could hear every word the priest said!
All the hassle was worth it, because of the sermon I heard preached to the Catholics!!
After awhile everyone calmed down to stand in their chosen spots, and the ceremony began. They even sang “Celebrate, Jesus, Celebrate”
Which I loved! Real hand clapping music! Amen!
The priest was talking about what Jesus did for us on the Cross…
“It’s Finished, Nothing Else Needs To Be Done!”
Amen!
He helps them recite their profession of faith and belief in Jesus Christ, etc.
While I’m not Catholic, my Mom’s older sister was a nun, I was raised in a Catholic town in NJ, and basically there were a hand-full of us non-Catholic Italians in our town-most of whom were related to us!!
So, if you have any questions, please go to Rebecca Hamilton’s blog called Public Catholic, at:
That’s bad for you if you’re trying to hide from Him,
But good, because you can be assured that He’s always there!
He’s already found you…
Now stop, turn around, look up, and there He is!
He loves you!
It’s like “Lost and Found” to Him!
His love embraces you…
Wraps around your hurts, your pain, your despair, your scars, your mistakes…
It wraps around everything!
“…because love covers over a multitude of sins.” I Peter 4:8 NLT
Come out of hiding…
If He loves even me…
He can love even you, too!
What are you hiding behind???
Your job? Your family? Your health? Your money?
Your wants and desires? Your reputation?
I assure you, He knows who you are and where you are!
Look up!
Or, if you knew Him in the past…
Look inside!
To that place in your heart that can only be filled with God’s Holy Spirit…
Where it can be refilled…
And ready to overflow again with His Joy…
Even in life’s difficult situations with your job, family etc.!
Adam and Eve tried to hide, too!
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God…
As He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day…
And they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’
He answered,
‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked;
So I hid.’”
Genesis 8-10 NIV
In Bible study, while watching the DVD series called Frequency by Robert Morris…
Pastor Morris talked about God feeling sad when Adam said…
“I heard your voice and I was afraid.”
God created Adam and Eve to have a relationship with Him in Paradise…
He did things with them…
He walked with them in the garden…
He was always anxious to spend the day with them…
But, one morning, He finds them hiding…
They’re afraid of Him…
How it saddened God…
To lose that close intimate relationship…
Their sin had separated them from their God!
Jesus can restore the relationship…
Between you and God!
Don’t hide from God…
Even when going through a difficulty…
Come back…
Ask for forgiveness…
Do what it takes to be in a right place to hear His voice…
Don’t fear God’s voice…
Draw near to God!
You’re perfect together!
Psalm 139:1-18 NIV
“You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.”
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