Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

In Exodus chapter 30:22-33 God tells Moses how to make the anointing oil and what to do with it. They had to use a gallon of olive and oil and four different spices—pure myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet calamus, and cassia. It was well-balanced—two sweet spices along with myrrh which is bitter tasting. Myrrh and Cassia speaking of the fragrance of Christ through His suffering.

But most importantly, this oil was to be holy! It was called the HOLY ANOINTING OIL. Verse 32 states: “It is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.” And God commanded him to anoint every piece of furniture and every vessel in the whole place—and the high priest and his sons.

One of the pieces of furniture in the tabernacle was the table of shewbread. This table had to be anointed with this holy anointing oil too.

Everything in the tabernacle was a type for us today. God has now made us “priests and kings unto God” (Revelation 1:6 and 5:10) and therefore He wants us to be anointed with this sweet and holy anointing oil which is presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He also wants every material thing in our homes to be anointed with His presence. He wants our tables to be anointed with His sweet and holy anointing.

You most probably feel that your dinner table is the opposite to sweet and holy! You are in throes of raising and training children who are not robots. They don’t like their food. They complain. Some may argue. They cry. Sometimes its bedlam!

Please don’t despair dear mother. Keep training. Keep praying and asking God to pour out His sweet anointing on your family meal times. Pray for His holy anointing to come to you. You will reap what you sow. As you little by little train your children and they grow older, you will move into such blessed and holy times together.

Without a vision nothing happens. But when we have a vision and we understand that God wants to come to our tables and manifest His sweet and holy anointing, we will press toward this vision in our family lives.

Be blessed in Jesus’ name.

Love from Nancy Campbell

We either experience the dealings of God one way or the other. We can live in the “gentle flowing stream” anointing as we respond to God speaking to our hearts. But if we let our hearts become cold and resistance to His voice, He may have to send a “raging river” upon us to get our attention.

Which would you prefer?

Let’s keep soft and tender hearts towards the Lord.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Contentment is an anti-stress attribute. When we stop worrying about what we can’t have and accept what we have, we no longer stress.

I read this morning in Jeremiah 31;14: ”My people shall be SATISFIED with my goodness, saith the LORD.” Oh we are so blessed. We are overwhelmed with the goodness of the Lord. So much of the world lives in poverty and we live so well in America. Millions are being persecuted and we live in peace. We have a roof over our heads, food on our tables, and more clothing than we need to wear. What are we worrying about? Instead, we should be basking in God’s goodness.

I think of the children of Israel who lived in the wilderness in tents. They had no supermarkets to buy food, no entertainment centers, no mod-cons such as washing machines and dishwashers and so on. But God said in Nehemiah 9:21: “Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that THEY LACKED NOTHING.”

Can we learn to be truly satisfied with God’s goodness to us? It’s a beautiful way to live.

Love and blessings,

Nancy Campbell

It makes all the meal preparation of the meal worthwhile. It crowns the day with God's blessing. I am always aware of the power and impact it has, not only on our lives, but on the people and nations for whom we pray!

Try not to let the interruptions of this day keep you from this crowning moment in your home.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Young man of might, will you guard your heart?
Don’t give your feelings to any up-start,
Keep your heart disciplined and wait for the time
When God gives you His choice; it will be sublime!
A daughter of virtue who has kept herself pure,
Who follows after truth and trusts God for sure,
One who loves children and keeping the home,
And who delights to serve without a moan.

Young man of valor, will you keep your body pure
For your wedding day when it’s bliss for sure?
Will you start your marriage on a holy foundation?
For this is the way to strengthen the nation
And establish a family that will endure any test!
For God will be with you and you will be blessed,
Even in the storms, the wind, and the battles of life
If you keep the covenant with your lovely wife.

~ Nancy Campbell

Here’s an example from 2 Chronicles 20:13: "And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children."

Include your children in your walk with God. Don't send them off to be influenced by the peers of their age group. Grow in God together as a family. Read God’s Word together. Pray together. Work together and play together.

Proverbs 22:15 says, "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child." When you put a lot of children of the same age together, you have multiplied foolishness!

God intends us to follow Him as “families,” not in separated age groups. This makes strong families for God; and when we have multiplied strong families, the nation will be strong.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Check out this post: http://bit.ly/ShouldChildrenBeInChurch

Each morning you choose what you will wear—the drab “fleshly” clothes of your old life or the new clothes of the Spirit which Jesus Christ has given to you at the great cost of His life and His precious blood.

Ephesians 4: 24 says: “PUT ON the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

The NLT says: “THROW OFF your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. PUT ON your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

Oh . . . do you need to go and change your clothes? Won’t you look lovely in your “patience” outfit, or perhaps your new “joyful dress”? It will change the whole vibe of your home.

Enjoy your new wardrobe.

Love from Nancy Campbell

And to top it all off, God is with you all the way through. He does not give up on you half way through your commission. He is with you to the end. David reminded his son, Solomon that “God will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD” (1 Chronicles 28:20).

God is also with you as you build your “house of the LORD” and daily serve Him as you mother and train your children. And did you get the message? He will be with you UNTIL YOU FINISH THE WORK! Yes, in all the serving in your home. Not half way through, but all the way through. You may feel exhausted along the way, but because God is with you. You will make it to the finishing line!

God’s promise to you in Hebrews 13:5, 6 says: “Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament reveal the full meaning of this Scripture: “I WILL NOT, I WILL NOT, I WILL NOT let thee down, leave thee in the lurch, leave thee destitute, leave thee in straits and helpless, abandon thee.”

Lift up your head today. You are not doing this on your own. GOD IS WITH YOU UNTIL THE FINISHING LINE!

Be encouraged.

Nancy Campbell

The sad thing is that thousands of people are missing from the earth. Men and women who God wanted on this earth to bring His deliverance and salvation. But they are not here because for the last eight decades or so God’s people have thrown away God’s plan and decided they had a better plan.

Instead of receiving the children God planned from them, they limited their families to the average two-child family in the nation today. Millions are missing. We have not populated the nation with the godly seed. We don’t even have a majority to vote for righteousness, let alone the army of God’s people who should be bringing salvation and deliverance the lost and hurting.

I pray for the eyes of God’s people to be opened to God’s ultimate plan. The more children God chooses for us to bring into this world, the more impact we have for the kingdom of God. God wants His salvation and glory to fill the earth. He wants His people to be “more and mightier” than the heathen (Exodus 1:7-12).

Psalm 105:24 tells us that God “increased his people greatly: and made them stronger than their enemies.” We become weaker when we diminish. We become stronger when we multiply. These are plain facts. Plus they are Bible language.

I love the quote from Frank Boreham: "We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies at home. When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, GOD SENDS A BABY INTO THE WORLD TO DO IT. That is why long, long ago, a Babe was born in Bethlehem."

Spread the good news,

Nancy Campbell

You are doing a priestly work. Because Christ lives in you everything you do is sacred. You can experience God’s blessing and anointing upon you in everything practical thing you do in our home. God sees you doing it unto Him and it’s written in His book. Nothing goes unnoticed.

Have a blessed day,

Nancy Campbell

Our purpose should not just be to make them happy (although of course we want them to be happy) but to train them to be responsible, hard-working, honorable, trustworthy, reliable, unselfish, evil-hating, and God-loving people.

Some parents think that easy parenting is loving parenting. I don’t think this is rue love. True love longs for our children to become all that God wants them to be. True love deals with the negative and selfish ways of our children. True love does not want our children to grow up taking these habits into their adult life. When we allow our children to get into the habits of disobedience, rebellion, and moods, it shows we don’t care about them at all. We are not thinking of what it will be like when they get married one day.

The Bible tells us that God corrects those He loves. Actually, it’s stronger than that. Hebrews 12:6 says: “For whom the Lord LOVETH he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” That’s because He loves us and longs and yearns over us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).

Of course there is balance. We ultimately want our children to live in a home of happiness, joy, fun, and laughter! But in reality, this doesn’t work if we constantly face rebellion and moods and disobedience. That’s miserable parenting. No wonder some parents don’t want any more children.

When we train our children, we can then relax, and enjoy the atmosphere of a home of peace. Proverbs 29:17 states: “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.”

How much do you love your children?

Love from Nancy Campbell

Other English words are used in other passages and each word helps us to understand more of the oneness God desires in the marriage relationship.

I love the passage where it is used to describe the leviathan in Job 41:15-17 (HCSB). Let’s read the description:

“His pride is in his rows of scales, CLOSELY SEALED TOGETHER (dabaq). One scale is SO CLOSE TO ANOTHER THAT NO AIR CAN PASS BETWEEN THEM.” They are joined so closely that they cannot be separated.

What do you think of that ladies? God wants us to be joined so closely that no air can pass between us! Impossible to separate. What a great description of cleaving!

When Jesus was on earth, He confirmed Genesis 2:24. When answering the Pharisees about marriage, He said in Matthew 19:4, 5 (HCSB): “’Haven’t you read,’ He replied, ‘that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female . . . For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh.’”

Jesus not only confirmed God’s original words but elevated them to a greater level: “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not sperate.’”

This means we are to be glued together, never to come apart. We are so stuck together that’s it’s well-nigh impossible for anything or anyone to pull us apart.

My grandson said to me recently, “Nana, they call a husband and wife a couple. But doesn’t God say they are one?

“Yes, you are absolutely correct,” I replied.

Maybe, rather than saying, “Look at that lovely couple walking along,” we should say, “What a lovely “oneness” walking together.”

How close are you making your marriage?

Love from Nancy Campbell

This is the goal of parenting. Little by little we train our children toward maturity. We deal with their foolish and childish habits. We will not allow them to stamp their feet or get into moods. Why? We don’t want them to grow up acting like children.

And yet this is how many couples live in their marriages. They continue to act like children, demanding their own way, and look out if they don’t get it! It’s my way or the highway! If they don’t throw a fit, they’ll withdraw into the silent treatment. Or stay in a mood that permeates the atmosphere of the whole house. Help.

What does the Bible say about this? First Corinthians 13:11, the chapter that teaches us about agape love says: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I PUT AWAY childish things.”

Did you notice these words? “I PUT AWAY childish things.”

The AMPC says: “I AM DONE which childish ways and have put them aside.”

The CJB says: “I HAVE FINISHED with childish ways.”

Knox: “I have OUTGROWN childish ways.”

The other day I was offended at the attitude of my husband towards me. I conjured up in my head how his attitude was selfish—and poor me! Then of course, God convicted me. What a lot of junk! I was acting like a child! Ridiculous. It was all a big self-pity trip! And lies from the enemy!

And so I finished with it. I was DONE WITH IT! And now I can hardly remember what it was all about. And I don’t intend to recall it.

You see, dear ladies we either choose to behave like an immature child or behave like an adult. None of us are perfect. Why do we get upset over some little thing (that we may think is a big thing) but usually because we are making it bigger in our minds!

Maturity overlooks idiosyncrancies. It puts aside words and actions and hurts from others and forgives and loves! This challenge comes in the love chapter! Agape love does not love according to circumstances and feelings. God’s love continues to love in spite of anything and everything.

Let’s choose to be adults instead of children.

Love from Nancy Campbell

We learn this from the time of Passover. God told His people that during that time (Passover is a picture of our being redeemed by the blood of Jesus) that there was to be no leaven (which speaks of sin) in their homes, and in their whole territory. In fact, God told them that there was to be no “yeast at all found within the borders of your land.”

Jesus didn’t suffer and die upon the cross to leave us in our sin, but to come and dwell within our hearts to give us victory over it. The Christian walk is a holy walk.

I believe that we should seek to keep “leaven” (sin) not only out of lives, but out of our homes, and out of the whole section or piece of land on which we live. God wants the whole environment around us to be holy

I love the description of God’s house which should be the prototype for our homes. Ezekiel 43:12 (NASB) says: “This is the law of the house: its entire area on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.”

This is a wonderful vision to have for our homes and land. To be holy. But not only holy. It is to be “MOST HOLY.” As mothers who watch over our homes and our children’s lives, we observe not only what goes on in the home, but outside the home. We’ve got to keep it all holy.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell