But sometimes events happen so quickly that it takes our breath away. When things do not go as we planned, tempers flare up, moods become dampened, and we so quickly become irritated - especially if it was caused by last minute permission changes, which could so easily be overruled if only person in authority would take a softer stand.

Yes, it happened to me recently.

My fellow facilitators and I had been conducting a 32-week "Becoming Disciples through Bible Study" program for past year and now we had organized a year-end retreat as a climax of study for participants. It was so very important that we do it right. The retreat schedule was very carefully planned.

The culmination of retreat will end with a mass, where priest will give his blessing for those who wanted to become facilitators for next year and so send forth to do work.

However, this time, it was different from previous years. In our first year, we had retreat at Stella Maris, an old 3-storey building where tables, chairs, sound system, and many other essential items for holding retreat were not in place. I could remember how older participants would have to struggle up staircase while facilitators had to carry tables and chairs up and down stairs. Setting up sound system and OHP was also a struggle for facilitators.

In subsequent years, we had it in one of beach hotels. It was excellent for first time, but cost went up following year and it was not so affordable for many of participants. However, everything went according to plan and hotel staffs were able to accommodate any urgent requests that cropped up.

But other hotel patrons and general public were doing their own thing, organizing their own functions and making noises in and around hotel area! This year, somebody suggested to use a new building that was build on one of church ground. This church is very well-known, large and grand. The church ground is spacious, contains lush greenery, hill slopes, and is so beautiful. For many of us, it was an ideal place for retreats. And it was relatively cheap.

All facilities for retreat were there - single-storey comfortable rooms, spacious function room, sound systems, short distances from our homes, plenty of open spaces for reflection and Taize, and low cost - it seem a perfect place.

But we found out that there were some difficulties too. Some of older participants wanted to attend mass during retreat. This would never have happen if retreat were held away from church grounds. Anyway, this was not a big problem.

Our greatest blow came when we were told by parish priest that we could not have a separate mass at end of retreat and that mass must be held together with parish congregation. The reason - chapel that we had intended to hold mass was not blessed yet.

“Appointed Time: Passover”

This is a continuation of study on “Appointed Time(s).” This series concludes after studying seven festivals of Messiah. Why do I detail these seven feasts? I do so because they illustrate life and reign of Jesus better than spoken word of Prophets of old or written word of Apostles of New Testament, in my opinion. You will have opportunity to judge this for yourself after concluding this series. I pray that Father God Almighty will open your eyes to see Jesus more clearly today than yesterday. This I ask in Jesus’ name!

Introduction: And ye shall observe this thing [Passover] for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. …And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is sacrifice of Lord’s Passover, who passed over houses of children of Israel in Egypt… (Exodus 12:24,26-27).

God declared Passover to be a permanent celebration for all eternity. Historically, Passover celebrates God’s deliverance of children of Israel from bondage in Egypt, where they were slaves to Egyptians. The spiritual application that God wants us to understand is this: Egypt is a type of world and world’s system. Its ruler, Pharaoh, was a type of Satan. The bondage people are in when they live according to ways of world’s system is sin. Historically, children of Israel were delivered from bondage in Egypt by putting blood of a lamb upon doorposts of their houses. Spiritually, this is a picture of Messiah and how those who believe in Him are delivered from bondages of sin and rule of Satan in their lives. Yeshua (Jesus) is Lamb of God (John 1:29). He is also our Passover (I Corinthians 5:7). Those who follow Yeshua are house of God (Hebrews 3:6). The doorposts are our hearts. It is only through trusting by faith in shed blood of Yeshua, our Passover, that we are free from bondage of sin (Galatians 4:3-5,9).

During Passover, head of each household was to take a lamb of first year on 10th day of first month known as Nisan and set it aside until 14th day. In evening of 14th day, at exactly 3:00 PM, lamb was to be killed. The blood of lamb was to be sprinkled on lintel and two side posts of household door. The lamb was to be roasted with fire, with bitter herbs, and with unleavened bread, and entire household was to feast upon body of lamb. The people were instructed by God to eat lamb with haste and to be dressed and ready to leave Egypt at midnight hour. This would be 15th day of Nisan. At midnight on that fateful evening in Egypt, death passed through land. Every house that did not have token of blood on doorposts and lintel suffered judgment of God. The Hebrew word for Passover is Pesach, which means “to pass or hover over.” This word speaks to us about two things. First, it shows passing over in judgment from death and sin to life in Yeshua. Second, it tells us about allowing, by faith, blood of Yeshua to hover over our lives and give us divine protection from evil one.