Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Men, if our wives feel they are not appreciated in the home for the sacrifices they make, they will be tempted to go back to the work place, and nest will not be the same. If we grumble about not having enough money to pay the bills, once again they will be tempted to leave the home and join the corporate life, or even wait on tables that are not their own. The home will suffer because of her absence.

Mothers have come home in this revival of parenting. This has made home a far better place to live. Motherhood is synonymous with the home. A mother cannot be effective in her role while at the corporate office or waiting upon tables.

Men, we must do all we can to bless and encourage our wives to remain at home. Homeschooling is not possible if our wives are at work. Private Christian schools are often expensive and can put more financial pressure on a wife to vacate the home for the work place.

If you have lost your employment, seek to quickly find something else, even a lesser temporary job, in order to ease the pressure on your wife to leave the home.

Be encouraged to encourage. Colin

MOTHERS NEED ENCOURAGING, Part 1

The second area of the parenting revival is of women catching the vision of their high calling of motherhood and how they can truly influence the nation.

William Ross Wallace wrote in his poem, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”

Men, no matter what sacrifice has to be made we must, at all costs, encourage our wife and daughters to be homemakers. A home without a full time wife and mother is sterile. The degree of sterility in the atmosphere of the home is according to the amount of time the mother is in or out of the home.

It is important that the wife and mother is glad to be in her home. When a woman sees her home as bondage and hankers to be out in the corporate life and away from the home it brings a negative atmosphere to the home. Psalm 113:9 says, “He makes the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.”

Husbands, be very encouraging to your wife. Love her, bless her, and make it easy for her to be contented and happy in the home. Work hard to provide for her so she can fulfill her mandate from God.

Psalm 128:3 TLB says, “Your wife shall be contented in your home. And look at all those children! There they sit round the dinner table as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees. That is God’s reward to those who reverence and trust him.”

Do everything in your power to encourage your wife in her mothering. She needs lots of encouragement.

Be encouraged to encourage. Colin

It's high time to take our stand.

This movement has been, and continues to be part of the growing revival of parenting. Compared to most other countries, USA, with well over a million families homeschooling, is by far advanced in this aspect of parental revival.

When the Bible was removed from being openly accepted as the vital foundation of our nation's education in 1963, concerned and committed Christian parents were more than a little concerned.

As their children were exposed to evolutionism, and are now more and more being influenced by homosexuality, atheism, socialism and communism, their concern is intensified. Sex education in public schools has definitely turned committed Christians away from state education.

Their precious children's innocency must be protected. Added to the influence of some (not all teachers thankfully), is the influence of ungodly peers may seriously endanger the Christian ethic parents desire for their children.

For the sake of the next generation, all seriously minded Christian parents should seriously consider pulling their children out of state education.

Homeschooling is a vital part of the parenting revival.

Be encouraged. Colin

Malachi 45-6 says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

This passage of Scripture reveals God's heart for the revival of parenting. This revival has been manifesting itself in a number of ways. I will list, although not in order of importance, what I have observed to be the main areas so far.

1. The homeschooling movement. Thousands of parents have taken their children out of the public education to give them a godly education at home. Others are being educated in private Christians schools. More and more, the state schools are introducing a humanistic and liberal agenda which is the opposite of God's Word and they are becoming hotbeds for drugs and sex. God-fearing parents cannot assimilate.

2. Women are being challenged to leave their careers and make motherhood and homemaking their highest priority.

3. Fathers and mothers are being challenged by God's Word to stop limiting their family size and trust God for the children He wants to give them.

4. The importance of Family Devotions where God's Word is shared with the family morning and evening. Family prayers are offered up to God along with the singing of hymns and spiritual songs.

I will elaborate on each of these points in following posts.

Be encouraged. Colin

I believe one the chief areas were we need repentance is in the realm of parenting. Parenting is a foundational role in society, and as the Scripture says in Psalm 1:3, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

The raising of children is indeed the most important foundational stone in determining the destiny of any society or nation. A nation is only as strong as its foundations are strong. For many years now, God has been seeking to bring the attention of parents back to His ways for raising children. Unfortunately, the Christian church has been dragging its feet and is quite resistant to God’s call to a revival in parenting.

There is only one thing that the righteous can do in answer to the question of Psalm 11:3. That is to rebuild the destroyed foundational stones. In the next few posts on this Facebook I would like to outline some of the areas that God has been seeking to revive in the foundational roles of parenting.

Psalm 95:7-8 says, “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.” God is always seeking to revive us, but He needs willing hearts that will not only hear but gladly do His will.

Be encouraged. Colin

Men, if we do not have a revival of repentance, our nation will fall into greater decadence. There is a phenomena that can happen when men begin to truly repent. True repentance is infectious. We see this in the ministry of John the Baptist.

Matthews 3:5-6 says, "There went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins." From time to time throughout church history, there have been outbreaks of this phenomena where whole areas came under conviction of sin. In times of this type of repentance many come under such powerful conviction that they go through great agony of soul as they struggle with guilt. They also receive great joy as they come into forgiveness from Christ.

If you have not seen the documentaries, Reformation I and II, you would be blessed to watch them as they chronicle some amazing events in modern church history.

I once visited a place where such an event took place in Florence, Kentucky, called the Cain Ridge Revival which brought such a great spirit of repentance and swept thousands into the kingdom.

We desperately need this revival of repentance again. Even though much of the present day church is opposed, we must continue to pray.

Be encouraged. Colin

Men, I believe that repentance is not only a once in a lifetime experience where we look back and point to a certain time when we repented and turn from our sins and never have to repent of anything again.

It is true that there should be a time when repentance begins in our lives, but repentance from sin, accompanied by a turning of heart toward God to accomplish His will, is a positive and present continuous experience in the life of the believer. Repentance is indeed an ongoing action of turning away from any action or behavior that the Holy Spirit reveals is not in accordance with His will for us.

I am not saying that we should be in a constant state of remorse. God forbid. This would imply that we have not accepted forgiveness.

I believe the modern church has made repentance to be a negative doctrine. We should see that repentance is a very positive attitude. Accompanied with faith in God's forgiveness it enables us to joyfully experience the great blessings of His kingdom.

Acts 17:30-31 says, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he heath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained."

Men, let's be willing and quick to repent and begin a 2 Chronicles 7:14 movement in our day.

Be encouraged. Colin

"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17)

It is very sad that many of the people of God are not that interested in hearing anything about the word, repentance. Unfortunately, in an ever increasing number of churches, the word, repentance, cannot even be mentioned because it may cause an offence to some listeners.

Some churches believe that it is unloving to tell people that they are sinners and that we need to repent. They reason that because God is a God of love that He would not want to offend homosexuals, pedophiles, abortionists, pornographers, or in fact, anyone who could be called as a sinner. Therefore, all sinners are welcome and made to feel comfortable in their congregations.

John the Baptist preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2) and it cost him his life.

The man who was the most loving of all men, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preached the same word, "Repent: for the kingdom heaven is at hand."

The truth is that no matter how close at hand the kingdom of heaven is, it cannot be experienced by anyone who is not repentant. Although the kingdom of heaven "is at hand" and can be so close, yet we can completely miss out on all it has to offer.

Be encouraged. Colin

We must repent of our pride, now! If we are not calling on the Lord we are proud, because we do not think we really need God.

Men, it is up to us to keep ourselves humble, meek, and free from pride.

1 Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time."

We must exercise our own self restraint when it comes to dealing with pride. It is not that we can win in this battle against pride by our own strength, for our own strength will surely fail us. But, we must exercise our own will to call upon the Lord. We must also exercise our own will when we need to repent. We cannot expect God to act on our behalf while we remain passive.

Too many men are far too passive when it comes to prayer, praise, worship, and keeping ourselves in humility. Our nation is desperately needing repentance. Our churches desperately need repentance. If we, at this time, do not feel the urgency of repentance, then we are indeed in a backslidden state. I am a very optimistic person and I do not relish "doom and gloom." However, I believe that the spiritual state of our nation is worse than most believers realize. We must act in repentance, now!

Be encouraged to pray. Colin

Men, we must pray that God will keep us humble, meek, and faithful all the way through our lives, right to the very end.

Very few men can handle prosperity and remain humble. Even Solomon, the king to whom God gave wisdom more than all his equals, failed. He fell through pride, which was generated by prosperity.

Abraham was an exception, as was David who was a man after God's own heart. Moses was faithful right through to the end and it is recorded in Numbers 12:3, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." He remained this way until the Lord took him. Hebrews 11 lists all those who keep faithful through the good times as well as the bad.

Few nations, if any, have been able to handle prosperity and remain faithful. God challenges Israel about this in Deuteronomy 6:10-12 where He lists the blessings they would receive in the land He was bringing them into--great cities, which they did not build, houses full of all good things, which they didn't fill, wells which they didn't dig and vineyards and olive trees which they didn't plant. But then he warned them in verse 12, "Beware lest thou forget the Lord."

The big question is, where does America stand in the midst of so much material blessing? Are we forgetting the Lord?

Be encouraged to keep faithful. Colin

My attention was directed this morning to Psalm 144:1-2. David praises God for being his strength, teaching his hands to war, and giving him fingers to fight.

Men, TODAY WE MUST PRAY! We must pray that the church will receive a mindset for spiritual warfare. A real battle is raging in our country to turn this nation into a humanistic, godless society.

King David knew that he was called to the kingdom to fight for his nation in his day. Do we know this calling is upon us also? In Psalm 144:5-6 David prays, "Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them." He calls for volcanic eruptions and arrows of lightning to scatter and destroy the ideologies and false teachers that were influencing the nation away from God.

As New Testament believers, we cannot take up physical swords against our enemies, but we can pray that God will deal with our enemies and turn the listeners against them.

Psalm 144:11-15 gives us the valid reason for this spiritual warfare--that our sons will be mature in their character and spirituality in their youth, and our daughters polished like palace gem stones (v. 12).

Psalm 144: 13-15 is the final reason for spiritual warfare--that our economy may be blessed.

Men, we must pray today and always, individually, and as a family, for our nation.

Be encouraged to pray, Colin

Samuel said to Saul, the king, "When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?" (1 Samuel 15:17).

God delights in humble men. Luke 1:51-52 tell us that God "hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree."

There is a great need for men who are successful, but not proud of their success. The man who is prideful of his success has failed the test of humility and is not successful at all. He is heading for a fall.
To be little in one's own eyes, even in the midst of accomplishment and success is something to be desired for it is rare. God loves this attitude of humility.

Most men fail to understand how obnoxious pride is to God. Everything man has creation wise has been given to him by God. Even the air we breathe. It is God that gives the power to get wealth. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 says, "And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealthy. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth."

Partial obedience is disobedience. Perhaps this the greatest reason for the impotence in the church today .

King Saul's leadership of Israel came under a big test of obedience and we learn that God will only co-operate with leadership that is serious about obedience.

King Saul was given two chances to prove his complete obedience, but he failed both times. The first is where he was told to wait for the prophet to pray and offer sacrifices, but instead of waiting he did it himself. 1 Samuel 13:13 says, "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee."

The second was when God commanded Saul to "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not." However, Saul was only partially obedient because he feared his people and instead spared the king of the Amalekites and the best of their sheep and cattle to offer up sacrifices to the Lord. This sounded a very good idea, but it was disobedience.

After this, Samuel the prophet did not come to visit Saul again and the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

Men, we cannot afford for this to happen in our leadership as fathers, or in our business. As the leader of our family, it would do us good to sit up and take notice that God is with our fatherhood and will give us the wisdom we need from day to day to lead our families as we are obedient to Him.

All partial obedience takes God out of the picture. Colin

Men, even though God has given us such powerful spiritual weapons to bring down the most resistant strongholds, we must ask ourselves why so many of these strongholds still remain. I believe the answer lies in our failure to deal with our own disobedience before we attack strongholds in the lives of others.

We must not think that grudging, partial obedience is in anyway acceptable to God, for it is not acceptable. No father or employer will accept grudging obedience. Half-hearted obedience is regarded as rebellion in Scripture.

1 Samuel 15:22 says, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." This word was spoken to King Saul by Samuel the prophet after Saul had partially obeyed God. As far as God is concerned, disobedience, or even partial obedience, is rebellion which God considers as evil as witchcraft and idolatry.

Have you ever considered that one of the big strongholds to be brought down in our lives is half-hearted, partial obedience?

Be encouraged to be an example to your family in this matter of obedience. Colin

I believe II Corinthians 10:6 says that we cannot effectively war against disobedience in others while we permit any form of disobedience in our own lives.

I believe with all my heart in praying for our government and nation that all corruption of our leaders will come down and that God, by His grace, will grant us godly leaders, whether it be in Washington or our local governments. How we long to see our countries free from humanistic, progressive, New World Order government.

However, we must be honest to God and ourselves regarding any disobedience in our own lives. The Holy Spirit constantly seeks our obedience in one way or another, whether it is in our attitudes, wrong speech, morals, or worldliness. Are we responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The big question is, WHAT EXTENT IS OUR OWN DISOBEDIENCE TO THE VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AFFECTING OUR PRAYER LIFE FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF OTHERS?

I believe the answer could be much more than we think. We need to ask ourselves today what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us about. To whom are we listening and being obedient?

Be encouraged to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Colin

I have always been blessed by the words of 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, but have only meditated on verse 6 recently. I now realize the important truth of this Scripture which states, "And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."

The word "readiness" implies a ready, prepared, and determined mindset against all areas of disobedience, both in our own lives and in the lives of others where we can influence change.

The word "revenge" means "vindication, retaliation and punishment." These days, disobedience is often just frowned upon, but not considered a serious problem or something to get worked up about. However, we are told in this Scripture that all disobedience should be put right and punished as necessary.

To be continued. Colin

I think most men have a fascination with powerful weapons. It is probably built into our DNA. Of course, the degree of fascination differs from man to man.

When the reality dawns on us that we have to deal with an aggressive enemy that is out to destroy us on a daily basis, our interest in combative weaponry should be heightened substantially. However, one cannot help but wonder when it comes to spiritual warfare that far too many Christian men do not take this battle anywhere near seriously enough. Physical wars seem to bring a far greater response from men than the spiritual battles we face daily.

What we fail to realize is that when we take up arms in the spiritual realm and put up a really good fight, this enables us to have a greater corresponding victory in the natural. I firmly believe that many of the natural battles we face are very often connected to the spiritual realm.

God, in His goodness, has provided us with powerful weapons to bring every thought and imagination into obedience to Christ. Read again 2 Corinthians 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds."

To be continued. Colin

MEN OF OBEDIENCE, No. 2.

I think most men have a fascination with powerful weapons. It is probably built into our DNA. Of course, the degree of fascination differs from man to man.

When the reality dawns on us that we have to deal with an aggressive enemy that is out to destroy us on a daily basis, our interest in combative weaponry should be heightened substantially. However, one cannot help but wonder when it comes to spiritual warfare that far too many Christian men do not take this battle anywhere near seriously enough. Physical wars seem to bring a far greater response from men than the spiritual battles we face daily.

What we fail to realize is that when we take up arms in the spiritual realm and put up a really good fight, this enables us to have a greater corresponding victory in the natural. I firmly believe that many of the natural battles we face are very often connected to the spiritual realm.

God, in His goodness, has provided us with powerful weapons to bring every thought and imagination into obedience to Christ. Read again 2 Corinthians 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds."

To be continued. Colin

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."

In order for us to experience the great power of the weapons that God has given to us, we must first understand the purpose for using these spiritual weapons. We rejoice that these weapons are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" but what kind of strongholds are this Scripture referring to?

Without a doubt the primary use for these weapons is to bring down the strongholds of disobedience in our own personal lives. This includes every thought and imagination that is contrary to the direct will of God or in opposition to the kingdom of Christ. It is essential that true men of God go to war against all areas of disobedience to the mind and ways of Christ in their personal lives.

If we do not declare that we are at really at war and start attacking all areas of disobedience, we will fail to be true men of God.

To be continued.

Colin

While at the Homeschool Convention in Memphis, Tennessee this last weekend I heard of a speaker who took a workshop on TEN WAYS TO ROCK YOUR WIFE'S WORLD. I did not get to attend myself but two of the ways that were mentioned to me caught my attention.

1. Most husbands in USA could lose about 30 lbs of weight. This would keep them healthier and living longer for their wives. I have had to really battle with this ever since I was about 40 years of age. For the past several weeks I have started a new lifestyle of alternate day eating. I eat normal healthy food and whatever I want for one day. The next day (the alternate day) I eat only 20 percent of the calories I would eat normally, eating mostly salads or thin soups. It seems to be working for me and promises many health benefits.

2. Tidy up after yourself. I reckon I could do better on this and so it's up to me to be a man and step up to the plate.

Be encouraged. Colin