PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 181: FIVE NECESSARY QUALITIES FOR END TIME LIVING - PT 3
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 181: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 3
We continue talking about FAITHFULNESS today. Faithful to our word, faithful to church attendance, faithful to be on time, faithful in the daily etiquette and courtesies of life, and faithful to the end. "Continued acts of faithfulness add up to strength of character, to resiliency and preparation for end times."
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We’re up to number three in our series on five things we need to prepare in our lives as we prepare for the end times. We are talking on faithfulness. Last week we talked about being faithful in our marriage, and in our mothering, and in the very mundane, little things of being a wife and a mother.
I do hope that this last week you began to enjoy doing even the mundane things with joy and delight, and with faithfulness. Oh, ladies, faithfulness is such a great thing. It’s not something to be despised. It’s a great thing, and the more you are faithful, the more faithfulness will become part of your life. Remember, it means “trustworthiness.”
All right. Well, I ended last session with the Scripture, Luke 16:10-12. Let me read it again. “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large things. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with the things of your own?”
Now that’s quite a good challenge, isn’t it? Something I do think we need to think about. Many times, we will be using, well, I hope it’s not many times, but we could be using somebody else’s property, something they own. We’ve borrowed it, and we break it!
Well, what do we do? Well, of course, we reimburse it, don’t we? If we break something that doesn’t belong to us, well, we’re going to reimburse it. If we borrowed something from someone, and we break it, we’d better reimburse it. Maybe we lose it. Well, we’d better buy another one. That is faithfulness. That’s etiquette. So, let’s go on to our next one.
No. 3. KEEP FAITHFUL TO YOUR WORD
I said we’d talk about seven different little practical things in our lives. Number three: keep faithful to your word. That’s part of the Greek word pistos, “to be faithful and trustworthy, to keep to your word, to keep to your promises.” It’s so easy to say things, isn’t it, and not to keep them. We have to really watch what comes out of our mouths. “Let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay” (Matthew 5:37).
If we are not sure that we are going to be able to do something, well, let’s not say we’ll do it. Because when it comes out of our mouths, we should keep to it. That’s etiquette. That’s faithfulness. I think it’s something we need to get into the habit of.
Like even for functions. Weddings, parties, birthdays, invitations. Many times, we can say, “Oh, yes, I’ll be coming!” And then, something may happen, and it just works out that we can’t come. But we should always call the people. If something happens, and we can’t fulfill our obligation, at least call and say, “Oh, look, I said I was coming, but so sorry this has happened. And we’re not able to. We’re so sorry about this.” But always communicate.
Because we are a hospitable home, I’ve had so many functions and parties and things, dinners in my home over the years. I couldn’t even count them, there’s so many. And it’s amazing, different parties that we’ve had here, people say, “Yes, I’ll be coming.” And then, they don’t come!
Well, if people call me, that’s fine. That’s understandable. You know that something has happened. But when they don’t call, you think, “Wow! What’s happened? They didn’t turn up. And they didn’t even have the decency, the faithfulness, to call and say they couldn’t come.”
These are very important things. When we say something, we must keep to it. Or if it’s impossible to keep to it, we must let the people know. Train our children this way. I believe it’s so important to train our children in faithfulness.
No. 4. FAITHFULNESS AND ETIQUETTE
Many young people today don’t really even know the normal courtesies and etiquette of life, which takes me on to point number four: faithfulness and etiquette. I believe we should teach our young people, when they go to visit friends at another home, because young people love to get together, they will ask one another to each other’s homes.
Now, tell your young people, if they’re asked to another home, they’re not only going just to hang out with the young people. Remind them to go and speak to the parents. They’re going into their home. Therefore, they need to say, “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so. Thank you so much for allowing me to come into your home and enjoy friendship with your children.”
Teach them that when they leave, that they don’t just leave. They go and say goodbye, not only to the young people, but they also go to the parents, and they say, “Thank you for allowing me to be here. It’s been wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.”
Now, that is normal courtesy. That is faithfulness. But who does that today? Oh, I’ve had so many parties, as I have said, in our home. I have young people coming in. Many times, those young people don’t even say hello. I might as well not be in the house! Nor do they say goodbye. I’m sure it really isn’t their fault. They haven’t been taught.
Now, we must teach our children these things. It’s part of teaching them how to be faithful. Colin and I have always made it a precedent in our lives that whenever we go somewhere to someone’s home, or we’re invited to a party, or even a wedding, we would never even think of leaving the wedding or whatever it is that we’ve got to without going to the host and hostess and thanking them for inviting us. And telling them how we enjoyed it.
Many times, it comes times to go, and my husband says, “Look, darling, we’ve got to go now. I’m getting tired.” I’ll say, “OK, well, we’d better go find the host and hostess.” We’ll both go around to find both the husband and the wife, to let them know we are leaving, and to thank them for the lovely time.
Now, they have done a big job! They have put on this dinner, this wedding, this party, whatever it was. It is only right that we would let them know.
Once again, why am I saying this? Because of all the hundreds of parties and things that I’ve had in our home, rarely do people ever come and say goodbye! I can’t even believe it. It comes to the end of the night, and gradually everyone’s gone out the door. Nobody comes and says, “Well, thank you for inviting me. It was a great time. Great to be here.”
That’s etiquette! There was a time when nobody would ever think of leaving the house without doing that. They wouldn’t think of it! What has happened? Somehow, we’ve dropped the baton, and parents have not passed on this act of courtesy and faithfulness to the next generation. Can I encourage you to train your children this way? We’ve trained our children. And even now I say, “Don’t forget to do that.”
Recently we had one of our family weddings. Addie and Isaiah were married, Serene’s son. He was married to Addie. Actually, you’ll see their picture on the front cover of the new Above Rubies Magazine that is coming out.
Serene and Sam put on the most beautiful wedding. Sam has got this vision to build this wonderful big barn. We’re already calling it “The Wedding Barn.” It’s going to be such a great place. Well, we had Isaiah and Addie’s wedding there. It wasn’t finished. All we had was the concrete, and the roof, and all rough. The wood that holds up the roof, but nothing was filled in.
But it didn’t matter because it was summer, and it was a glorious, glorious day to have the wedding. But now, their daughter Cherish is getting married to Ben on the 5th of February. So, Sam says he’s going to have The Wedding Barn ready. It will have to be closed in, because it’s going to be winter.
But anyway, I was talking to Serene afterwards, and I said to Serene, “Serene, just for interest’s sake, how many people came and thanked you before they left? Who came up and said goodbye?” Well, she said, “Not many.”
Actually, I had watched people who had been invited, not family, but other friends. I watched couples; young couples walk out. I knew that they hadn’t gone to Serene and Sam, and I thought, “How sad! They haven’t been taught. They could come to a wedding, enjoy, feast on all the wonderful food, then just leave! Without telling anybody! Without going to the ones who invited them.”
So, let’s change things, shall we? And get back to these little acts of faithfulness. They are so important. These little things add up. These little things add up to great things.
Now, we have a family in our fellowship. Nadia, and they have seven children. I remember talking to Nadia about this one day. There’s something about Nadia. She receives instruction. So, she received this, and she obviously decided she was going to tell her children about this. It’s amazing. Every Sunday when they come to church, and we have fellowship meal, and we hang out. It’s such a glorious time.
But every Sunday, before they leave, in the afternoon sometime, these children will come individually, and they will come up to me. They will say, “Thank you, Nana. Thank you for having us here. We really appreciate it.” It’s so wonderful! I mean, I don’t need that, but I’m so glad that they are doing it. Because they are getting into a habit now, as children, that this what you do! It’s so beautiful, and it’s such a wonderful character trait that’s being added to their lives. It’s really beautiful.
All right. Another meaning of faithfulness is “loyal and loyalty.” I like that. In 3 John 1:5, John is writing to Gaius. He says, “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to the strangers.” John was talking to him about the ways he showed hospitality to the preachers who were traveling through, and to whoever came to his home. He said, “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest.” What a wonderful testimony to have over our lives.
No. 4. FAITHFUL TO CHURCH ATTENDANCE
Here’s another one. Number four. I believe that we should be faithful in church attendance. In preparing, this is actually, this Scripture, you know this Scripture, Hebrews 10:25. Let’s read it this time from the Amplified Classic Translation: “Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people, but admonishing, warning, urging, and encouraging one another, all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.”
This Scripture is encouraging us to get into the habit of faithfully attending church fellowship, whether you go to church on Saturday, or you go to church on Sunday, or whatever church you go to. It doesn’t matter, but we should be faithful, because this Word here, the writers of the Hebrews is saying: “Be faithful now, especially as you see that day coming.”
Well, we’re closer to that day now. And the closer we get, the more faithful we should be to the assembling of ourselves together. Because we’re going to need one another more and more. And it is important to establish that fellowship amongst the brethren now, because church is more than going to a building, and hearing a sermon, and going home.
No, church is the body of believers. Church is the assembling of the saints. It’s the assembling together. It’s the togetherness. God wants us to be a togethering people, because we encourage one another. Our faith is not just a personal faith. It’s a together faith. It’s a you-and-me faith.
This is what the Word of God says in Romans 1:12. It’s a togethering, one-anothering faith. And so, God wants us to establish that. As we do, we will have an assembly. We’ll have people around us who will be there for us when times get more difficult. That’s a lot of what church is about. It’s not only going to hear a sermon.
I was absolutely astounded. I still haven’t got over it, that when this whole thing started last year, and this so-called covid thing began, churches actually stopped meeting. I could not believe it. We were never commanded in the Word to stop meeting, no matter what was happening, no matter what persecution.
What about faith? All around the world, there are Christians who are in countries that have for years had to meet underground. They didn’t stop meeting! And here, people stopped meeting! I can’t believe it! Of course, they had Zoom. “Oh, we’re having Zoom! Oh yes! We’re still getting our messages.”
Well, that’s true. It’s good. You can get a good . . . nothing wrong with Zoom. Get a good message. That’s great. In fact, I’m giving you a message now. I’m not with you, unfortunately. I’d love to be sitting down with you. But that’s not church. Yeah, it’s a Zoom meeting, but it’s not church.
Church is the assembling of yourselves together. And we are commanded not to give it up, that it is to become a habit. To do it more faithfully, even as we approach the end. So, make that a habit in your lives, precious wives and mothers.
You know, there’s always things that happen. Excuses can come. “Oh, this happened. Oh, we won’t make it this morning.” I beg your pardon! No. You decide. We are people, we are a family who go to church! We meet with the believers at least once a week. These other things that are coming . . . “Oh, this is happening. This is. . .”
No. We don’t take notice of them. We do the priority. We do what we have to do. I just cannot believe. . . I mean, they’re not hardly valid excuses! They’re just, “Oh, someone came to visit. Oh, I’ve got to go here. Oh, I’ve got to get this done.” People, they don’t come to church, because “Oh, I’ve got to get this done around the house.”
I beg your pardon?? Are we believers, or are we not believers? Do we believe the Word of God, or do we not? The Word says that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together! And yet, so many believers, “Oh, well, a beautiful day. I think I’ll just get out in the garden today or get this done around the back. We need to get this finished.”
Oh, I understand. Life is busy. My, often you don’t get time, but let me tell you, the Word of God says: “Them that honor me, I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30). You honor the Lord. He will honor you. You’ll get those things done some way. God will enable you when you do what is right.
We show to our families, when we just allow things to come into our lives, “Oh, we won’t be able to go today.” What do our children see? You can say it all you like, “Oh, Lord God, You are the pre-eminent One in our lives. Oh, we love You! Lord God, we worship You!” And your children see, well, you’re not even going to church because, just some excuse, or something you want to do that’s more important.
We show to our children the real priorities in our lives by our actions. So, let’s be faithful. Faithful. Faithful now, ladies. Let’s get into the habit of being faithful, faithful now, and we will be much more ready for the end time. I believe it with all my heart.
No. 5. BE FAITHFUL TO BE ON TIME
Number five: be faithful to be on time. On time for church. On time for functions. On time for appointments. That’s being trustworthy. The meaning of “faithfulness.” Are we trustworthy? Can people trust our word? Can they trust us to be on time? Oh, I know that’s not always easy. And there’s often things that cause us to be late. And I’m not perfect either.
But I believe we should seek to be on time. I grew up with a father who believed in being on time. He didn’t only believe in being on time, he believed in being early. He was never late. He was always early for an appointment. He was always early for church. He would be making sure we got ready in time to be there early for church.
That wasn’t easy, because my mother was always late. We used to have this saying, “She was late for her wedding, and she was late ever since.” But he would always be hurrying her along. She was always finishing dishes and trying on this hat to make sure it matched that dress, and so on.
But anyway, he made sure she got there on time, even though he would rather get there early, because he had things that were holding him back. But that was his premise in life: be early. It is a good thing.
I know some mums who will set their watches for half an hour ahead for Sunday. They do it the night before. They’re just half an hour ahead. If they were going to be half an hour late, well, actually they will get there on time. That’s a good idea. You might like to try that one.
But being late is actually selfish, isn’t it? Except, I’m not talking about mothers with little children. Oh, my, I know it’s not easy. That’s why it’s quite a good idea to set your watch ahead, so that you will make it.
Back in our day, can I tell you? I’m really back in the old, old days. So, I can give you a bit of history. But when we were growing up, this was normal. Not just in our home. It was normal in the homes of all the believers. What we would do, going to church, didn’t start on Sunday. It started the night before.
Always the night before. So, Saturday evening everybody would have a bath. Oh, we didn’t have showers in those days. So, we’d all have our bath, all washed our hair. We were all beautifully clean for Sunday. And before we went to bed, we had to lay out all our clothes for Sunday.
Back then, that meant not only your dress, but your hat, and your handbag, and your shoes. Of course, we would wear shoes. But everything to go with it. So, you had it. You didn’t go round Sunday morning, looking round, “Whoo, where is everything? Can’t find it!” All the little children, you can’t find any socks, and you can’t even find shoes! Help!
But no, you do it the night before. So, everything is done. And then, of course, we would even cook on the day before, ready for Sunday, so we didn’t even have to cook on Sunday. We started the day before.
I think that was because it was a priority. They didn’t suddenly think, “Oh, goodness me, it’s Sunday! Here, church, help!” OK. But no, they were gearing up to it, looking forward to it, and preparing for it. I think that would be a good habit to get back into. Don’t you?
Then, of course, we would put our Sunday best. Have you ever heard of that phrase in your life? “Sunday best”? Well, that’s what we used to call it. Because we would always have clothes that were specifically for Sunday. The best clothes in our wardrobe, usually just one special dress that was our Sunday dress. Or maybe we just might have a couple of others too.
But many times, people only had a Sunday dress, because we were not quite as affluent as we are today where nobody would understand “Sunday best,” because help, you go to your wardrobe, and you think, “Oh, what will I wear?” You’ve got about twenty dresses, and you don’t know which one to wear!
We’re living in a totally different era. Also, people don’t even usually wear their Sunday best today. They wear whatever they feel like. Sometimes you think they were getting ready to go to the beach! Or just so casually.
I do believe, I do believe that we should dress up for Sunday, because it’s that reverence. We are going to worship God. We read in the Old Testament how the priests were not to come into the Holy Place with the clothes they wore outside. They had to change their garments before they came in. They changed their garments to minister unto the Lord.
Then we read about how when Jehosophat was coming against that great army. He sent out the worshippers to go ahead. They got dressed in “holy attire,” in their beautiful worship robes, when they were worshipping the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:21). They didn’t use the same clothes they wore to hang out in. No, they changed them. I think there is something about dressing nicely for church.
No. 6. FAITHFUL IN COMMUNICATION
OK, time is going, so let me carry on here. Number six: faithful in communication. Oh, that’s so important, isn’t it, too? It’s another etiquette thing, really. Communicating with your husband. That’s so important. Families communicating together.
We raised our children to always, especially as they got older. Of course, when they’re young you know where they are every moment. But as they get older, and they’re going out to do their own things, we always told our children they must not ever leave the home until they tell us where they are going and what time they will be home. That is etiquette, and it’s also learning to be faithful to one another.
In a home, we’re a family, and we communicate together. That is something also very important we must train our children in so that becomes part of their lives. When they get married, they will also still be communicating. They don’t just go and do their own thing.
OK, so many people do that today. Just, oh, do their own thing, whatever they’re thinking of doing. Off they go! But no, we don’t live unto ourselves. We are to live for one another. In a marriage, we communicate to one another where we’re going, what we’re doing. In a family, we teach our children the same, so they will always tell us.
It becomes a habit. See, these things become habit. Habits of our lives. These beautiful faithful habits.
No. 7. FAITHFUL TO FINISH WHAT WE START
That’s an important thing, too, isn’t it? So easy to start some project with a hiss and a roar and then to peter out. It’s a good thing in faithfulness to seek to finish. Keep plodding on.
I read once that to get a vision for something is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. I guess that would be my testimony of doing Above Rubies which I started well over 44 years ago, with this great vision that God put upon my heart. It was so strong. It was such a burden. So, I just started it. Wow!
I didn’t think of the future. But as I kept going, because I’ve always felt and thought to have this attribute of faithfulness in my life. Because I started that, I just kept faithful to it. It has taken much self-sacrifice and pouring out of my life. But it’s been my joy also.
I just kept going. I’ve just kept plodding on, and here I am, over 44 years later, still doing it. I’ve known so many other Christian magazines that have started and have finished. So many of them! I guess it’s just by God’s grace I have kept going.
But I know it’s only because I have kept plodding on. I could have stopped a thousand times, but I just kept plodding on. It’s not for any ability of mine. I don’t really have any great abilities at all. Really, all I have, is I keep plodding on. I think this is a very important part of life, to just keep plodding on.
Paul, what was his testimony? 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” He was faithful to the end.
Revelation 2:10: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
In Revelation 2:13, it talks about Antipas. Jesus said of Antipas, “Antipas was my faithful martyr." Faithful, pistos. Martyr. Once again, it’s amazing how many Scriptures there are about when John looked into the heavenly realm. And he saw those who were there. So many of them were there because they were martyred.
I’ll give you these references. We haven’t got time to read them: Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 17:6; and Revelation 20:4. They all talk about those who were there. But they were martyred to get there. But they were faithful unto the end. I think of that Scripture in Hebrews. It’s talking about all those witnesses who are looking on. Those witnesses, that is “martyr” again. It’s the word martus, martyr.
The Bible talks about those witnesses in heaven who are looking on. It’s the word “martyr.” They all got there by being martyred. *
Matthew 10:22: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”
Matthew 24:13: “He that shall endure to the end shall be saved.”
Hebrews 3:14 (New Living Translation): “For if we are faithful to the end, trust in God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”
I just wrote down this quote:
“Continued acts of faithfulness add up to strength of character, to resiliency, and preparation for the end times.”
Let me say it again. “Continued acts of faithfulness add up to strength of character, to resiliency, and preparation for the end times.”
My prayer for you lovely ladies is Jesus’ prayer for Peter when He said, “I have prayed for you, that thy faith fail not.” (Luke 22:32).
Keep being faithful, dear mother, in your home, in the little things of life. As you are faithful in them, they will add up to great things.
“Dear Father, we pray that You will help each one of us to be faithful, to be faithful in the few things, to be faithful in the things that we face each day. We ask that we will become strong in faithfulness. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.