Get Your House In order

King Hezekiah learns that he is about to die.  He hears, "Get your house in order".  Those are words that would make you shutter.  I don't know about you, but it definitely reminds me of the grave.  I also says that God will not move in chaos.  When God created man, he first came and ordered our world so that man could live in it.  Men seeking wives to marry must order his world before he can marry her.  No one gets married with nowhere to live and nothing to support their wives with.  A woman doesn't have a baby without nesting for the baby.  She paints the room and buys the crib and shops for clothes and buys little toys.  No baby comes into this world with nothing.  I don't go to work without getting dressed, putting on decent clothes and adorning with makeup.  Why do we expect God to move in our lives without some preparation for him to move in our lives.  Prepare yourself for a move of God.  Get your house in order.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is said to be the most unhealthiest place to live.  People there enjoy there life deep fried.  It is a way of life that they make no apologies for.  There are good places to eat, but according to the American college of Sports annual index, the folks from Oklahoma aren't making reservations.  For this one, I would like to suggest that you remove yourself from unhealthy environments.  You need to be around people who live righteously and they don't have to be pushed to do it.  Unhealthy people seem to enjoy making healthy people give up their ways and join the pack.  You may be joining the pack, but you will pay.

The place of perpetual abandonement

My mother and brother were born in Cleveland, Ohio.  The city is nicknamed, the mistake by the lake.  In this city, people are packing up and leaving by the thousands.  The only people remaining are the people who really have no other place to go.  No one likes to just take off running, but you need to note when to take off running.  I have seen ministries begin to lose members by the hundreds and no one asks the question as to why everyone is leaving.  People are leaving for a reason.  I often say that watching the traffic of life will lead you as to where to go.  If you see mass exits, then question if you should park yourself there.  Consider that you choice to go to a place may be further complicated by the inability to leave that place when it is to your advantage.  A while ago, people were pursuaded to buy homes they really could not afford and when the housing bubble burst, those same people where forclosed on and had no assets to buy housing.  Don't be caught in places of perpetual abandonment.

The land of perpetual June

Life's storms are difficult to come through, but you really can get to a point where you aren't fearing the storms anymore because they cease.  For years, I have prayed for the Bahamas.  I believe that big things can and do come from small places.  I like this chain of islands because they are called, " the isles of perpetual June".  When president Washington took a trip to see these islands, he noticed that they were in the most perfect spot on the earth.  The summers are warm with a average temperature in the eighties.  The winters are cool and dry and the temperature does not dip below sixty.  Hurricanes are few and the island also does not have a great number of tropical storms.  It is the place where the season of June does not have to ever leave.  Would'nt that be great if you could be in a place where your good days are gauranteed to outweigh your bad days.

The land of perpetual cold

Omyakon is a town in Siberia, where the temperatures don't come above -50 all year long.  In the summer, it is cold.  In the winter, it is cold.  There are no romps in the haystack or running barefoot in the tulips.  the most essential piece of equipment here, is  warm fur coat.  You need a covering.  I don't know why people enter the most unsettling time of their lives all by themselves.  They don't consult guidance from church leaders or family leaders.  Some places in life, you just won't be able to go at it alone.  You need a covering or, like in Omyakon, you will simply be found dead.

Explaining it later

The aftermath of a storm can be a calm relief if the storm has been particularly rough.  I suspect that Joplin Missouri will be cleaning up for a while.  Some of the damage is permanent.  There will be funerals.  Some of the damage will simply be swept away.  This is the most difficult part of a storm, the cleanup.  You can wake up from a storm in life and find that……

·         You have married someone you didn’t love

·         You living in a place you don’t like

·         You have spent all your money and you are broke

·         You have distanced your closest friends

·         You have shattered relationships in your family

·         You have destroyed your ministry

·         You have missed the promise

·         You have lost Canaan and must die in the wilderness

These issues take a lifetime to explain and you may not have a lifetime left when you are done so make your decisions wisely.  You go down in a blaze or go down in a blaze of glory.

T

Irrational Behavior

Storms can cause you to panic and panic makes for irrational behavior.  Irrational behavior is something that you are doing that is not ordinary for the way you think.  Sometimes, you can even turn to a different person.  During one storm, a friend of mine watched as a funnel cloud went over her home.  Normally, she is very cautious, but she got caught up in the moment and forgot her senses.  While afraid, some people urinate on themselves, babble uncontrollably, scream,  run into the danger, and some make decisions that can’t be changed like suicide.  The solution to irrationality lies in this nugget of truth.  In the midst of a storm, go to the safe place and don’t move.  Making decisions in the midst of a storm leaves you with a level of behavior that you will have to explain later and it really may be difficult to explain.