Recipe for Home Rebuilding

Recipe for Building/ Restoring/ Edifying a House/ Family according to Proverbs 24:3

1. WISDOM (Fear of the Lord/ personal relationship with Jesus Christ/ Applying God’s Word)

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Prov 9:10

2. UNDERSTANDING (Oneself and Family Members thru the lens of the bible) – Our struggle is not against human beings but against evil (Eph 6:12-18)

3. KNOWLEDGE (How to Apply God’s Word to the different situations, circumstances, seasons of a family’s life)

 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matt 7:24

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 NIV

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 NIV

“For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:9 NIV

¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:13-15)

In 2004 after I joined a regular bible study, I started realizing that obedience to God was to be taken seriously. There have been many times along the way when I developed acute learning disabilities; it sometimes took me years to learn even just basic principles such as “Love,” “Forgive” or Put a godly filter for the words that come out of my mouth. Even the realisation that I was the foolish woman tearing her house down by my disobedience to the Lord.

I’m still learning but praise God for giving me the desire to be the wise woman according to His wisdom, not mine, to make it my ambition to be pleasing to Him (2 Cor 5:9) so that even in my imperfection and failures, I am moving in the direction towards aligning myself to His ways.

In 2013, I struggled (understatement) in releasing the control of the mess that was my life into God’s hands. This is what I wrote as I tried to convince myself to surrender as He was renewing my mind but my heart and body were stuck from transforming along.

In 2015, the Lord gave me a visual on how He can make new what was broken and rotten but I had to surrender everything to His Master Design. My stewardship of that season was a business that belonged to Him but was named after me. It was during the renovation of a worn-out house (that looked like the company logo to which He gave me Jer 29:5NIV as confirmation to endeavor in) when I saw in the physical realm what He was trying to do in the spiritual realm.

The process necessarily involved understanding God’s Plan of The New and cooperating with Him (therefore knowing His Word more). My rebellion and stubbornness— those are just some examples of the trash that had to be hauled out for they didn’t belong with the new plan. Making me my own god and my hurt, my altar… those had to go, too. How could rotten, termite-infested wood belong in the new God-designed house? OUT you guys go! Bitterness, unwholesome words, anger, rage, the list goes on and on.

As the Lord continued to reveal those many ugly things I had been holding on to that should be thrown away, I realized that the more I obeyed, the more beautiful the physical house and the spiritual house were becoming.

There was also need to deep-clean

replace

refresh

reinforce

beautify…

things that were old (sewing machine bases that outlasted its useability), broken (chandeliers lying in a warehouse for years),

alone (Royal Albert cups that didn’t belong to its set anymore),

weary (the hundred year old Detroit Jewel oven from the Colman Family) and so forth …

Some rejected, abandoned, rendered-useless objects were given a new purpose, with their scars the witness that they withstood the weathering of years and remained.

During its run, the kitchen business got some praises and all credit, honor, glory, honor belongs to God alone.

By God’s grace, I yielded to His will. Even the breakthrough Tita Thelma led me to: To give thanks FOR the very things I was complaining about— which was a declaration of faith in God even through suffering/ struggle/ trial.

The Lord brought me out from the pit and into a season of joy and all credit, honor, glory, and praise belong to Him alone.

Lord, please help me to not be the foolish woman who tears her house down but to be the wise woman who builds her house. Help me to know Your Word more so that I know what it is I have to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing to be aligned with Your design.

Please help me to not be complacent nor settle for Your gifts when what You want for my good is that I fix my eyes on The Giver, YOU.