One Year Later

April 20, 2014

Having just celebrated Easter with my new church family, I am overflowing with praise to God for the gift of other Christians. I don't doubt that many of you share my gratefulness for solid brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of you know the struggle that comes with yearning for and asking God to grant you a church home. It is a familiarity with that longing that convinced me of the NEED for regular communion with other Christians.

You see, aside from a short stint when I lived in Massachusetts, I've never been a part of a solid local body of believers. It got to the point where I went over four years without even going to church. The story of that period is a long one, but it boils down to a period in my life where the only option was a church that was not true to or enamored with the Word of God. During that time, I stayed as close as I could to God and I never stopped asking Him to grant me people who LOVE Him. I spent a lot of time at the Ranch and with Jay and Alice and Al and those in person times of Christian fellowship were beyond sweet. For several years, I missed having a church and felt really silly when people asked me about what church I was a part of and having to tell them that I wasn't. If I'm honest, it mostly felt really good not to have that area of battling with people who should have known better in my life any more.

Eventually, the whole not having a church thing started to really bother me. I missed what I had in Massachusetts and I craved a body of local believers the way that many people crave marriage or a baby. I cannot express to you just how overcome I was with this longing. Last Easter that longing came to a head. On Palm Sunday, I wrote this post and then I visited my parents' church for Holy Week services only to be reminded of the gut wrenching words that came from the pulpit there. On Easter Sunday, I sat out on the back patio at our house listening to the church bells ring. It was a beautiful spring day and I was just coming to the end of a journal. I poured myself out to God in prayer. By the time I gathered my things and went back into the house, my soul was refreshed. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I had submitted this area of concern to Him. I was honest with myself, with Him, and full of confidence in whatever it was that He had in store. 

One year later, Easter rolled around and everything was so different. On Sunday I stood surrounded by this new body that I've been a part of since the end of August. The voices cascading over me as we sang "Christ The Lord Is Risen Today" were enough to make me sing this familiar song with all that I had in me. As we joined together to read Psalm 2 and hear the preaching about being glad in God, I was sitting in my seat overflowing with gladness. When the bread and the wine were passed around, I feasted on my Lord and His faithfulness. Though God didn't have to grant me a church or make it possible for me to have a place in it, He has. Those years of living where I grew up have given me so very much to be grateful for, the main ones being the walk with God that I have, dependence on Him, and a strong conviction for the absolute necessity of regular communion with other Christians. 

Wherever you are, please do not take God's charge to meet with other Christians lightly. As with all of His commands, this one is for your good. Seek out people who love God and whose delight is found in His Word. Praise God and pray for churches full of these kinds of people. I still have to finish the "Strategies for Beholding" series, but until then, it is my hope that this testimony of God's grace will remind you of the gift that we Christians are to one another. 

How has God's grace shown up in your life recently?

The Scenic Route: Easter 2014

This weekend ended with the celebration of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus!!!! I love knowing that people all over were traveling to be with the ones they love to celebrate on that day. For those of us who have died and now live with Christ, the day is EXTRA special. :)

Our Easter looked a lot different this year since Julie's dad just passed away. Normally, we would eat outside at her house, but since she wasn't there, we went through the holiday without her and her husband...

The day began with some time in my room putting the finishing touches on the Easter surprises I've been planning for my brother and sister.

My Mom and I put together a few small gifts for them. I put some of the gifts in eggs that I hid in places where they would be sure to find them as they went through their morning routines. Some of the eggs had two part clues that they had to match up and figure out in order to find their gift. Four of the eggs had things to trade for the real gift.
 
I loved this...We haven't put baskets together for them in a few years and I don't think they were expecting an egg hunt. I did not give any indication that anything was out of the ordinary. My sister told me that when she came out she noticed one egg and then another and then another but didn't touch them "just in case".

I heard some whispering in the living room. My brother told me that they were talking about the eggs and decided they'd better just leave them alone!

 
The egg that got my sister's attention and led her to hint around with "Are we supposed to be doing something with these eggs!??!" was in the dishwasher.

My brother came across three eggs but was doing his oil pulling so he didn't say anything. I went to the garage and asked him if anything was getting in his way...He then went back and gathered the three eggs and I told him to start collecting any teal eggs he came across.

They got down to having one egg each left to find. One of the eggs had the second part of the last clue...That egg was in my brother's shoe so I "had" to make a run to the grocery store to help that part of the hunt continue!

After all of that excitement, we put the finishing touches on lunch and sat down. The menu:

ham
mashed potatoes
gravy and mustard sauce
green beans
deviled eggs
olives
pineapples au gratin
Jay's fruit salad
60 minute rolls
Jay Juice

and Lemon Spice Cake

We took our time eating lunch and then during clean up my brother and sister shared the first half of the play they performed in with Jay. Eventually we moved on to the "mysterious" eggs in the backyard. They had been driving my brother nuts since noticed the first one while he was taking care of the dog that morning.

The eggs in the backyard had John's account hidden in them waiting to be unscrambled. After the eggs were collected they set about the task of sorting out the account. Once they were satisfied the adults put in their two cents and then I read through John 18-21 pausing for the bonus questions that I wrote on the back of some of the papers. Since John didn't include the details of Jesus' ascension, I turned to Luke 24:50-53.

The rest of the day was very restful...I took some time to read while everyone else watched "Call the Midwife" and then we ended the day with this week's session of Behold Your God.

I'll recap Friday and Saturday's activities tomorrow because they were pretty exciting! :)