“Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets”.  Amos 3:7.

Indeed our Lord has revealed clearly to Ruthie and me that we must “put our house in order”.

We have been negotiating with our Lord for 15 more years of life together to put our house and His House in order.

Adam and Eve and Methuselah and others had more than 900 years to put their houses in order.

A house is a building for human habitation. It's easy to buy a house, but to build a home is hard work and to put it in order makes of wisdom a dwarf.

Yet it is God's will for every man to put his house in order. We belong to a God of order and perfection.

God the Father himself is putting his kingdom in order. God the Son brought the Kingdom near and within us.

God the Holy Spirit is gently but powerfully enforcing effectively and irresistibly peace and order in His House.

By grace, through faith alone God orders his house.

Love is the means that God uses to bring about order.

For God so loved the world that He gave us the gift of eternal life through his beloved Son our Lord Jesús.

We were slaves of sin, but God paid the price of our freedom by letting Jesús die in our place. We are his property and as such we are expected to do his will. His will is that we carry his name to our neighbors.

“Neighbor” is to be understood as a person living near or next door to the speaker or person referred to.

After God, who except for one’s spouse is the 1st of kin, and who but our children are the next of kin, then who are next but the elect whom are among the pagans, the authorities, and the Church. This is the revealed order of God.

Please do not think that we will put our house in order and the next day we will DO something extra-extra-ordinary. No. It is like “the pursuit of happiness”, it is not at the end of the road, but along the way.

A house in order is a process - not an end result. Blessedly for us the believers, the process and the end result are one and the same thing. That is why Paul Kooistra repeats again and again “There is nothing you can do today that can cause God to love you more or less than what he already does.”

But the priority established by God must not be altered, if so we have no testimony at all; in fact we are hypocrites and this is witnessed by our neighbors.

You may be asking, why the emphasis on behavior if God will love us the same anyway? That is right, salvation is of the Lord alone. There is nothing we contribute to salvation.

The problem is that “We can have a saved soul and a squandered life”. For it is written that memory does not die when we die. After Lazarus and the rich man died, the rich man asks Father Abraham from hell for water: 'And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

'But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

Paul Kooistra has challenged me to be the best possible lover to my Ruthie in her hour of need.

What a sweet and noble and adorable task is mine. The Lord, my friends and supporters expect the same from me. I expect nothing less from myself.

So as Tim Tinsley said. ” I am being paid to be good, while others are good for nothing”. (Humor)

Beware my friends I have been reminded also to keep my sense of humor by my mentor and beloved friend Doug Coe, but I intend to be bold as well.

I think Doug has a sense that in my Eschatological urgency (the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind) to put my house in order, I will be over- stepping my boundaries and be a little clumsy in pressing others to put their house in order as well.

Bear with me my beloved friends; aren’t we dying people talking to dying people about death and dying and true life yet to come? For us “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” We are on the way Home. Hallelujah!

May the Lord protect me from being merciless as I press the claims of Jesus on my family and friends.

May the Lord protect me from fear of those whom I love and respect. “You cannot love him whom you fear” (Aristotle).

May the Lord give me an ever-increasing humility till the adjective of “humble” becomes a “noun” in me. For our Lord Jesus said be humbled for I am meek and humble.

It is not what we do that counts, but what we are.

May the Testimony to my wife who is the eyewitness of what I am by God’s grace make it easy for my children to believe in, trust and love God.

“The Spirit gives testimony to the Spirit”. The life of God within me gives testimony to the life of God within my wife and she becomes my witness before my children.

In the same way, the life of God in my wife gives testimony to the life of God in me and I become a witness of that reality in her to my children.
One can’t be the witness of his or her own testimony.
One close to another certifies the other person.
Fire burns only the false witness.
Can you put your hand in the fire for your spouse?
If so, then you are a witness to a testimony.

May the side effect of our house in order be our testimony to those around us, who are eyewitnesses.

Unconsciously I have described the unity for which Jesús prays in John 17. If one cannot be united with his or her spouse; how can he or she be one with anyone? Unity has to start somewhere.

If a child joins a couple in oneness in the mind of Christ; isn’t that the display of the oneness of the omnipotent God in whose image we are created?

That unity and order is the “Power House” that God intended for the family. But the devil has assiduously opposed throughout the generations family order.

The unity of love among three people would certainly attract irresistibly a fourth person. That is the secret of the Revolution of Jesús. “By your love for one another they will know that you are my disciples.” Our business is not to win social wars or organize endless events, but to be known as disciples of the Son of the Most High God.

Our testimony is “A house in order that reflects God.”

I will be consciously focusing every day on my testimony to Ruthie by carrying the name of Jesus and making him visible to her in every way possible.

Ruthie in turn will testify to me the increasing reality of God's grace in her life and I will be the witness of that to everyone in the land of the living.

May the Lord find us confessed and repented when he calls us home or when he returns.

“Put your house in order”

“The lion has roared. Who will not fear. The sovereign Lord has spoken. Who can but prophesy?” Amos 3:8

Gerry Gutierrez

PS. The Last seven weeks have been so extraordinarily delightful that we cannot trace on earth its origins. But we can sense your prayers like a cord going from us to an outlet in heaven that you so faithfully keep plugged in.

Prayer without hindrance is ours. Love divine is ours. Blessings galore are ours. Peace beyond understanding is ours. Oneness unknown till now is ours. Comfort and joy is ours to the praise of our Lord.