Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Even when it’s hard, keep taking the next step. What do you do when you are climbing a steep mountain? You get weary. You don’t know whether you can take another step. But you do. And another one. And eventually you get to the top! It’s the same with everything in life. You just keep going and you’ll get through. You will climb your mountain.

I was reading the book of James this morning and was arrested by James 5:10. I love the paraphrase of the Message Bible: “Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and NEVER ONCE QUIT, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those WHO STAY THE COURSE!”

Stay the course, dear lovely mother. God is with you. He will not let go of you Trust Him. His ways are higher than your ways and He is bigger than every problem you face.

Many blessings to you from Nancy Campbell

With the “demanding our rights” and “entitlement” attitudes many people have today, this parable would make them very upset! Many folks would like to eliminate the word “duty” from their calendar. Very few know the meaning of “going the second mile.” Employees clock out the moment time is up. They couldn’t give their employer one minute more of their time!

But Jesus is sharing a very important discipleship truth. If we truly are a disciple of Jesus, He will be our Master. Conversely, if He is our Master, we will truly be an obedient and submissive servant. That’s the relationship of a master and slave. And this is the relationship of a disciple. There are many who confess they are Christians but how many are disciples?

Half the parables Jesus told were about servants, which the people understood, because servants and slaves were part of the culture at that time. Paul and other disciples of Christ confessed that they were slaves of Christ. It’s the Greek word “doulos” and means “one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another, his will altogether consumed in the will of the other.”

How does this affect us in the home? Much of what we need to do in our homes each day are duties and obligations. To keep a home running smoothly and efficiently and to keep a family fed and nourished takes time, planning, and WORK. And often it is the same thing every day. Life is spiced with adventures and parties, but the foundation is duty. It’s how the world keeps going.

Can we accept our duties with joy? Let’s see them as what they really are—productive, powerful, and impacting lives and generations to come. It’s often the mundane, habitual things of life that add up to being powerful.

Can we say with Luke 17:10: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”’

Matthew 24:46: “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find SO DOING. Will the Lord find us “doing our duty” when He comes?

Love from Nancy Campbell

How long are we meant to stay spiritual babies? We would be devastated if we were still spoon feeding our little babies and toddlers when they were four or five years old! And yet many adults still need to be spoon fed when they are adults! They still don’t feed from God’s Word each day for themselves. They wait for Sunday for the pastor to spoon feed it into their mouths.

As babies in Christ we soak up the m ilk as people teach us (1 Peter 2:2). But we don’t stay on milk. We’ve got to get into the meat and learn how to get food daily for ourselves and learn how to chew on it and digest meaty things. This Scripture doesn’t say it’s a good idea. It says we ought to be doing it. It’s time we were teachers. It’s our duty!

11. THE DAILY DUTY
Both 2 Chronicles 8:14 and Ezra 3:4 talk about the daily duties of the priests. Ezra 3:4 says they “offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required.” God ordained the morning and evening daily sacrifice. They also had to attend to the fire upon the altar every morning and evening, to light the lamps every morning and evening, and to light the sweet incense every morning and evening. Among other things these were their daily duties.

God ordained the morning and evening principle back in tabernacle days which is good for us to continue each day. We keep the fire burning in our homes as we attend to our family altar morning and evening (not a literal altar, but a gathering together as a family). Any less is not enough to keep the fire burning. Any less is not enough to keep the light shining. That’s why we need to come before the Lord as a family every morning and evening to read God’s Word and to cry out to Him. This is a duty, but if God is truly No. 1 in our lives, it will be our greatest delight and the “longed for” times of each day.

When we know what’s best for our lives and family’s lives, duty is always delight.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

I think this is something we often forget to do, isn’t it? feel guilty as I think how often I forget to do this. If we thanked God more often for specific brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, we’d be reminded more of special things to do for them to encourage and spur them on in the faith. May God save us from getting so taken up with our selfish lives that we forget to thank God for other believers who are part of our lives.

Years and years ago I remember God speaking to me very powerfully. I was walking over the doorstep into my home when I heard God speak strongly to my heart, “Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if you are always thinking about yourself?” What a powerful question. We need to give God room in our hearts and minds for others. If our minds are totally taken up with thinking about ourselves, how will we have room to think of other people –to thank God for them and bless and encourage them?

Wouldn’t it be great to take on the challenge of thinking of one extra person each day? To thank God for them and to think of something special we could do to encourage them. Either give them a call, send them a card, write them a loving message, or listen closely to the Holy Spirit for some specific thing He would want us to do for them.

What do we want? To be selfish or selfless?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

More tomorrow.

This is God’s vision for marriage. His ways are wondrous. But there are two sad things about this Scripture. Firstly, the feminist movement are foundationally against men, especially in marriage. They’d rather eliminate them. How sad that they don’t understand God’s wondrous plan that a husband is to be as concerned about his wife as he is about his own body.

Secondly, it is sad that so many husbands have not been taught their duty and moral obligation from God. When they know it and embrace it, they not only gloriously bless their wives, but their own lives also! Their duty turns into glorious delight!

7. BEAR WITH THE FAILINGS OF THE WEAK
Romans 15:1: ‘We then that are strong ought ( it is our duty) to bear the infirmities of the weak, and NOT TO PLEASE OURSELVES.”

It’s easy to pass by those who are weak and struggling as we get on with our own lives with all our visions and projects But God wants us to take time for the weak and fainthearted—to invite them to our homes, to bear them up, to encourage them, and to hold them up. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 exhorts us to “comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”

8. WASH ONE ANOTHER’S FEET
You know the incident of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet which is a picture of servanthood and willingly choosing the lowly place. Although Jesus was God and had come from the glory of eternity, He was always willing to take the humble positron. He reminded His disciples that the one who serves is the greatest in the kingdom of God. Therefore, after He washed their feet, He says to them, and to you and me: “Ye call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet: ye also ought (it is your duty) to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:13-15).

These things I have been writing about in the last three posts are all so challenging, aren’t they? We know them but are we living them in our daily lives?

More tomorrow.

Be blessed, Nancy Campbell

P.S. Scriptures to look up about being a servant: (Matthew 20:26-28; 23:11; Mark 10:43-45; Luke 7:28; 22:24-27; and Philippians 2:5-8).

4. LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS
1 John 3:16 says: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought (it is our duty) to lay down our lives for the brethren.” The NLT says it very clearly: “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” Do you think we must be a long way off the true picture of Christianity?

5. SHOW HOSPITALITY AND PROVIDE FOR TRAVELING MISSIONARIES
3 John 1:5-8: “We therefore ought (it is our duty) to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.” As we show hospitality and financially support those who are preaching and teaching the gospel of truth, we will be co-workers with them and with the Holy Spirit. We will be companions with them for spreading the truth.

Romans 15:27 (NLT): “Indeed they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things.” The KJV states that it is their “duty.”

Is this enough for you to take in today? I certainly think it is enough for us to put into practice, don’t you?

More tomorrow.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

The dictionary meaning of duty is:
Something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation,
the binding or obligatory force of something that is morally or legally right,
an action or function required by a person's position or occupation,
the respectful and obedient conduct due a parent, superior, elder, etc.
an act or expression of respect.
a task or chore that a person is expected to perform.

Our occupation is motherhood and the management of the home. It takes a life of duty to keep a home running smoothly. Sometimes we may look upon it as duty and our thoughts spiral down to drudgery.

However, duty can be drudgery or delight depending to our attitude. We not only choose duty because it is the right thing to do, but we choose our attitude. When you choose and confess that every task in your home—menial or creative—is a delight, it will become your delight.

Make duty your delight and you will love every moment in your home. Sing while you work. Smile as you work. Praise the Lord as you work. Everything depends on what we choose to do.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Some change is quick like the first night's physical consummation but give it time . . . lots of time . . . and over that lifetime, He consummates the two soul's "beings" as well. Just ask anyone who has been married 50 or 60 years. Some old couples even end up somewhat looking like each other in certain features.

Make no mistake. HE does the work, we just ARE. He is quite sufficient to create the oneness upon us . . . over us . . . in us, without our own frail help or limited intentionality. AND what is even more surprising, He not only makes the marriage's oneness, but the individual's INDIVIDUATION. We become more of who we are via the relationship. We identify ourselves by what arises in the context of the relationship. I like this, I don't like that, I tend to be this, I tend not to be that, etc. Changing water into wine is only the beginning.

RENEE ELLISON
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