A funny thing happened. The event we hosted came and went and yes, there was a little mess after, but not too bad. Then Renaissance Man and I drove a couple people home and guess what happened while I was gone - the kids cleaned up - entirely and perfectly. I walked into an awesome house after being gone about an hour and caught them red-handed. Why is this? The only thing I can attribute it to as that they worked hard for three days and they weren't about to let it all go down the drain that quickly! I'm really hoping that this not-so-new idea of maintenance will now be more put into practice. We always talked about it, but it was hard to enforce. I should hand out tickets or something if I see an infraction.....hmmm...I'll have to think about that one.
Today, believe it or not, they are dying to get back to school as they don't want to be doing school in July. I, however, still need to steam clean a few items, so I don't think I'll be able to teach the little ones for a couple hours, but we'll see how fast things go. Also, I have heard the weather is finally going to get warmer, so that is encouraging.
RM will finish up on the cars today and get two of them off our property hopefully by the end of the week as I said. He really enjoyed his car fixing venture and hopes to continue this in the future as it'll definitely help to bring in at least a little money each year.
Last night we all heard a great story from a friend who is normally a very logical type of thinker much like RM and she shared for a long time a whole host of things that had happened to her in the last couple of weeks that had made her faith grow not just leaps and bounds, but exponentially! So much so that she described herself as a completely different person, entirely changed in every way. Without going into all the details of her story, what struck us both was that even "logical" thinkers can experience freedom from their past habitual ways of thinking. Even logical people can experience healing, both physical, spiritual and emotional. Sometimes he finds himself thinking that it is only the emotional people who experience that kind of freedom. It is so foreign to him. You hear this all the time now, how church is for women, the songs are for women...it is one big emotional experience and most guys just don't get into the hand waving crying stuff. That is my husband. It was right out of Hebrews last night where a bunch of believers were sitting there listening to her share her walk with the Lord. She admitted she never usually shares like she did as she always hears the voice of the enemy telling her how worthless she is, but now that she's experienced all this freedom and peace she knows she must share and give all the glory to God. I must add that she's been regularly fasting since September. It is amazing to see how God has peeled back the layers of oppression in her life one by one. She is now being used by God in so many people's lives, sharing Christ at the drop of a hat to anyone who will listen! The Hebrews moment was how she was using the opportunity to encourage us "all the more towards love and good deeds". That is exactly what happened! We all felt encouraged towards love and good deeds in our own life. We wanted to experience the joy she was experiencing, not to mention the peace that she hadn't been experiencing, but now was! It was amazing. That is true church, isn't it? True fellowship? It felt like Paul was sharing. How I love it when there are no facades, no artificial conversations going on, but true authentic almost sermon-like conversations! It was great. Just like her, I give God all the glory. He's working in people's lives! He is alive!
The big tie-in to cleaning? She reminded me of the story in Scripture where an unclean spirit goes out of a man, then goes seeking dry places and rest, but finds none. Then he returns to the house from which he came and finds it "empty, swept and put in order" (just like our house!) But then he goes and takes with him "seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there." The "last state of that man is worse than the first." Matt. 12: 43-45 This story gives a warning that could even apply to all that we've done this week in our home as well as to my friend. If we go about cleaning our home, but do not change our ways in the future, in other words we are superficially clean, but our behaviours are not regenerated, than our home is truly going to be worse off than before we started. We must have Holy Spirit regeneration in our behaviours and our attitutudes, otherwise it was all a waste. In her case, she cannot just "will" her life to be full of peace, she must have been regenerated by Christ himself, otherwise the demons that have already been trying to lie to her about her worth will just come back to haunt her and bring even more along with them. She is a changed person, "cleaned, swept and in order". Because it is a legitimate transformation, Satan will no longer, though he might try, have any way in her life. So we have a literal picture of a clean house in an actual home and a clean person - both can stay that way with the help of the Holy Spirit. My children and I need new ways of thinking even towards the simple things of practial living. I believe God can even be seen in these purely practical life issues. I loved how she shared all of the things she'd been learning on the same day we'd finished cleaning. We must be on guard for how Satan is going to try to come back with his host of demons to get us back (and her) into our old patterns. Lord help us keep the door locked!
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