One of those weeks. . .

Where nothing really went according to my plans but I'm sure everything was just as God had intended.

Monday: I was still battling with reading through Luke and Acts. It seemed like it was taking forever.
Tuesday: Craig was sick and took the day of work. I Skyped for Greek and I didn't get any study done.
Wednesday: All was well until about 3.30pm when I found the laundry and part of the hall way flooded.
Thursday: I finshed Acts and the lesson, then I waffled through the questions till 10.30pm.
Today: Started to feel sick too.

The second batch of towels

That patch was the wettest

Craig with the water vac

The flooded laundry was rather epic. The water was about 2 inches deep and it was so cold! I get the giggles when I think what my face must have looked like when I put my slippered foot into the laundry and it made a splosh. I "sandbagged" the hallway with towels to help control the spread of the water and dry the sodden carpet. Then I called my father-in-law and he came to fix the pipe. The pipe where water drains from the washing machine had come apart at the joint. The rubber seal inside the joint was in backwards and the trough it sits in isn't fixed to anything. All it took was someone to bump the trough and the pipe ceased to be attached to the joint. It took me over 30 mins to mop up the 3+ buckets of water from the laundry. The water seeped under the walls and into the hallway. I am very grateful the bedrooms and study were spared. Craig borrowed a water vacuum from the cleaner at work and that helped get some of the water out of the carpet.

The affects are still being felt; I haven't managed to wash even half the towels I used. I didn't realise we had so
many. 24 and counting! Useful I will admit and my linen cupboard really needed sorting. God must have killed a flock of birds with one stone. My mother-in-law brought me a basket with most of her towels after I ran out. If I'd realised it wasn't going to rain today I'd have definitely got the washing done. But then I did run out of washing powder after the second wash of towels.

I got thinking about all the reasons why God might have let this happen. I'm certain He was refining us in some way. I kept thinking of funny things. For example a train of thought while I was mopping went something like this: if I just happened to be a dodgy preacher I'd get a "comparison" out of this. Just like after the flood, when the world was beautiful and clean, so too shall my laundry floor be clean - no more mopping for another month! God is good. *Cue cheesy smile with white, shiny teeth and goofy hairstyle, looking straight into the camera* He could be good for you too. He could make your whole house clean. All you need is a dodgy plumbing job, faith as big as a mountain, an IQ as small as a mustard seed, and a check for a ridiculous amount of money in the post to me (only God knows your heart and your bank account), and God will clean your house from top to bottom and make it new like Earth after the flood.

I have no trouble amusing myself.

I feel like my stress level was permanently stuck on "heart attack waiting to happen". Wednesday I felt hopeless, Thursday I felt defeated, today I feel grateful for the week that was. Even though I can't definitely say I know what God wanted me to learn I can say I learned something. If I thought today was bad, tomorrow could be worse, but so long as I am "in Christ" my world won't end. Spiritually it will only get better and better as in this life things get worse and worse. I no longer pray for things to go well or to be easy for how would I be sanctified? I simply ask for God to get me through one day at a time with His grace and mercy.

Snippets of Spurgeon - Perfect in Christ Jesus

Morning, January 28

“Perfect in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 1:28

Do you not feel in your own soul that perfection is not in you? Does not every day teach you that? Every tear which trickles from your eye, weeps “imperfection;” every harsh word which proceeds from your lip, mutters “imperfection.” You have too frequently had a view of your own heart to dream for a moment of any perfection in yourself. But amidst this sad consciousness of imperfection, here is comfort for you—you are “perfect in Christ Jesus.” In God’s sight, you are “complete in him;” even now you are “accepted in the Beloved.” But there is a second perfection, yet to be realized, which is sure to all the seed. Is it not delightful to look forward to the time when every stain of sin shall be removed from the believer, and he shall be presented faultless before the throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing? The Church of Christ then will be so pure, that not even the eye of Omniscience will see a spot or blemish in her; so holy and so glorious, that Hart did not go beyond the truth when he said—

“With my Saviour’s garments on, Holy as the Holy One.”

Then shall we know, and taste, and feel the happiness of this vast but short sentence, “Complete in Christ.” Not till then shall we fully comprehend the heights and depths of the salvation of Jesus. Doth not thy heart leap for joy at the thought of it? Black as thou art, thou shalt be white one day; filthy as thou art, thou shalt be clean. Oh, it is a marvellous salvation this! Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel; Christ takes a black and deformed thing and makes it clean and matchless in his glory, peerless in his beauty, and fit to be the companion of seraphs. O my soul, stand and admire this blessed truth of perfection in Christ.

C.H. Spurgeon