PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 402: Welcome to the Land of More and More, Part 10
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 402: Welcome to the Land of More and More, Part 10
What's MORE today? MORE growing in the ways of God, MORE intentional hearing, and MORE justice and judgment. Did you know that you are a court judge in your home? Do your children understand the DIFFERENCE between good and evil, the clean and the unclean, the holy and the unholy?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Here we are, back together again, continuing the series of “Welcome to the Land of More and More.” I interrupted it last session to tell you the story of little Gracie Mutana. I know you will have been so blessed by this story.
But we’re starting again now on . . .
No. 19. MORE GROWING IN THE WAYS AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
When John was writing to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:19, he said to them that “they kept on growing in their intensity in the graces of Jesus.” He said to them that their love-based service and patient endurance were “more than the first.”
Wow! That’s a great testimony, isn’t it? For the church at Thyatira, their graces in the Lord were growing and they were more than at the first. That should be our testimony, that we are continuing to grow. We’re never meant to stay stagnant. We are to be growing in grace, growing in knowledge of the Lord, and growing in His ways, so that we are more than we were at the beginning. We should be more and more all the time.
Let’s have a look at few more Scriptures, shall we?
2 Peter 3:17, 18: “You therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
I’m always challenged by that Scripture. It says there: “Beware lest ye fall from your own steadfastness.” Isn’t that amazing? We can think, “Well, I’m steadfast in Christ. Nothing will shake me. I’m good.” But the Bible says that we can even “fall from our own steadfastness” if we don’t keep growing in the Lord. Because the next words say: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” We’re to be continually growing in His ways, in His knowledge.
Now, this would be a good question to bring to your meal table, wouldn’t it? “Now, children, can you tell me anything more that you have learned today about Jesus? Is there anything more you've learned from the Word of God today?” Well, that’s a good question for us all, isn’t it? Because we are all meant to be growing.
Colossians 1:10 says: “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Always increasing. Are you increasing, dear ones? Let’s look at John 8:31, where Jesus said: “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye my disciples indeed.”
Let’s look at 1 Timothy 4:13-15: “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee . . . Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them.” Why? “That thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”
I love those words: “That thy profiting may appear to all.” Well, that’s King James language.
The New Living Translation says: “So that everyone will see your progress.” And that’s what Paul was writing about. Don’t stay stagnant. Keep growing, so that everyone will be able to see that you are progressing in the things of the Lord, so that you are “more than at the first.” Amen? That’s a good one, isn’t it?
No. 20. MORE INTENTIONAL HEARING
Jesus said in Mark 4: 24-25: “Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.”
That is a very challenging Scripture, isn’t it? “Unto you that hear shall more be given.” Hearing is a very important thing. Hearing is a very important thing, even in training our children. I believe that we need to teach our children how to hear, because they can hear in a different way. It’s amazing how children can have lazy ears, dull ears. Sometimes they have defiant ears. Sometimes they have resistant ears, gullible ears.
But what kind of ears does the Bible want us to have? It says in James 1:19 that He wants us to have swift ears, ears that are quick to hear. He wants us to have ears of faith, not unbelieving ears, but the hearing of faith. And so, even in training our children, we must be concerned about making sure we train obedient children. But I think that before children can learn to be obedient, they first have to learn to hear. They’ve got to learn how to hear.
They have to learn that true hearing means obedience, because if they hear, and they don’t obey, they have got resistant hearing. That’s not the kind of hearing we want to train them to have. So, even when you're training your little ones, dear mothers, and you're telling your little ones to do something, first of all, make sure that they have heard.
Say, “Now, what did Mommy say?” And get them to repeat it. When they repeat it, you say, “OK, now you go and do that right away.” And they learn that when Mommy says something, they must do it right away. They need to learn the habit of swift hearing, and also obedience on what they hear. That is very important training. Hearing goes along with obeying. Make sure you're doing that, dear ladies, when you're training your children to obedience.
Many times, children are not hearing. Sometimes you can yell out, “Hey, James! Can you do this?” And they actually may not even hear, because they’ve got their mind somewhere else. Then, if they don’t hear you, they can’t disobey someone for what they don’t hear. Always make sure your children hear. Speak to them face to face, so you know they hear you and then expect obedience. And train them in that.
Also, we must train them to listen, not only with their outer ears, but with their inner ears. We have to train ourselves to do this. I find I must train myself to do this, even when I’m listening to the Word of God, even when we have devotions. Morning and evening, my husband reads the Word. It’s very easy, I think it’s easy for all of us. I can even do this. The father is reading the Word, and you can get into a little dream, you don’t actually hear.
Oh, it’s a habit to train your ears to hear. Even when we’re reading the Word, we can read it and still think about something else! It’s learning to have trained ears to hear and listen to what God is saying.
This is what it’s talking about in this Scripture. “Unto you that hear shall more be given.” We can hear and not really hear. That’s why Jesus said continually: “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” Oh yes, we’ve all got ears, and we can all hear words being spoken, but are we actually hearing what they are saying, and taking note? This here is the Word that Jesus is speaking. Jesus said these words: “Unto you that hear shall more be given.”
Now, today, in our world of entitlement, the world today, our society today, doesn’t think like this. It thinks that those who don’t have anything, well, you should give them everything. That’s actually not how God sees things. Even in this particular Scripture about hearing, God says it’s the ones who hear, who take note of what they’re hearing . . . they’re not just hearing words, but they’re not really touching you.
When you take His words into you, you hear them, and you want to obey them. You want to apply them to your life. Jesus said, “You’ll get more.” Sometimes people say to me, “I read the Word, and I don’t get anything.” But how do you read the Word of God? Oh yes, we can think, “Oh, I’d better have my Bible reading.” So, we read a few Scriptures, maybe even a whole chapter, but thinking of other things and our mind is on other things. We haven’t really heard.
I have found the greatest secret in my life which I began as a young person. I was about 18 years of age when I started. I wish I’d started earlier. But at that age I began, and as I spent time with God, I said, “Lord, I want to hear what You are saying. I want to remember what You are saying.” I read these words in Jeremiah, which says: “Write these, all the words that I have spoken unto you, in a book.” Oh, OK, Lord. So, I obeyed those words.
I began to purchase journals each year. When I read the Word of God, and as I do, even to this day, this is how I read the Bible. I read, looking. Oh, I am LOOKING. I’m looking to hear what God is going to say to me. I have got my ears open, my eyes open, my heart open. “Lord, what are you going to say to me? What can I learn today from Your eternal Word?” And I have my hard-covered book right there. I have my pen in my hand. And I’m ready to write.
When God begins to speak to me, sometimes I don’t understand everything He’s saying, but I begin to write. And as I write, things become clear. There’s a little saying which says, “Thoughts tend to disentangle themselves when they flow through lips, or pass pencil tips,” or pens. And so, things become clear. As you write, you get more revelation. So, I love to do that.
I have often just read through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, but I haven’t done that for a number of years. I want to. In fact, recently I thought, “I’ve got to start again.” So, I started in Genesis.
I got halfway through chapter one, and I got this incredible revelation. Wow! And I began to write about it. And from there, I had just kept getting these new revelations, or new things I want to study, or new things I just have to know more about. So, I’ve got to search the whole Word. I’m somehow doing that every day. I haven’t even got back to reading through the Bible!
But I am hearing so much. Everybody does it a different way, of course. I think those who are reading through and studying, well, that’s great! But I have found now that I can’t even do that, because I just stop because, wow! There’s so much more to learn, just in this Scripture, just in this little passage. Wow! It is so true. The more you hear, the more you will be given! And you get more and more. It is so amazing.
You see, you can’t really just get something from the Word of God on the run. It’s like eating our food. We know that, scientifically, if you eat your food on the run, you're not really getting the same nutrition from that food. You have to sit to eat to really get the most out of your food. That’s why we read in the Word of God where God talks about sitting to eat at the table, sitting to eat our food. Again, we receive that nutrition from it.
It’s the same with the Word of God. We read it on the run. “Whoo! Got to have my Bible reading! Quick! Get it done! I’ve got so much to do!” Help! You don’t really get anything. What did Mary do? It tells us in Luke 10:39, Mary “sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word.” You have to sit to hear His word.
Oh, sometimes you hear it on the run. Yes, God is so good, and He speaks to us in all different situations. He speaks to us while we’re walking, and while we’re doing the dishes, and while we’re doing the most mundane things. We’ll just hear a word from God. Oh, it’s so wonderful!
But to really get into the depths, you have to sit at His feet. It’s like that beautiful Scripture in Isaiah 50:4: “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of discipleship, to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.” Yes, one who learns, and one who is taught.
OK, lovely ladies. Be one who learns how to hear, and you’ll get more. Teach your children this. Sometimes, when you're having Bible reading, you can say to the children, “Now, when we’re finished, children, we want you to tell us; what did God say to you as we were reading? Because this Book, not like any other book, this is God speaking. If you open your ears, you’ll hear God speak to you.” Teach them to listen. If they do, God with speak to them. You’ll be amazed at what God says to your children.
All right, the next one is . . .
No. 21. MORE JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT
Proverbs 21:3: “To do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” Now, justice is a huge thing. Justice surrounds God’s throne. God is a God of justice.
Psalm 89:14: “Justice and judgement are the habitation of His throne.” I believe God wants us to establish justice and judgement in our homes too, because He wants our homes to be like His heavenly home.
Justice and judgement are quite a disputable subject in these days because many people today belong to what you would call the “tolerant church.” They don’t believe that you are ever meant to judge anyone or anything. We constantly hear people saying: “Judge not that ye be not judged!” So, they do not believe in judging anything
YOU ARE A COURT JUDGE
Well, that is absolutely ridiculous, because precious ladies, judgment and justice are very much part of our lives. We actually have to judge nearly every moment of the day! We’ve got to decide one way or the other about so many things throughout the day,
Really, especially as a mother, you have to judge. You’ve got to judge between right and wrong, and what your children are doing. You’ve got to make decisions, and you’ve got to judge between the right decision and the wrong decision. You’re doing that naturally all day. In fact, as a mother, you are a court judge, because you are judging situations continually. Many times, you've got to find out who really was the culprit. Nobody wants to own up, but you are the judge. You’ve got to find out these things and then you have to give the proper, godly justice.
I’ve got lots of Scriptures to give you. I actually wrote an article on the subject of justice. You can go to my website, https://aboverubies.org, and put in the search “DO WE HAVE PERMISSION TO JUDGE?” I have a 17-page document on that subject, answering the question, “Do we have permission to judge?” I know you will find it a great blessing. There are so many Scriptures there to look up. Well, I’m not going to give them all to you here in this session. We’ll just take a few. In fact, we’ll just take a few examples, perhaps.
Genesis 18:19. Here we have the example of Abraham, who was the pattern Father. It says here about him: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” Yes. This was the example of Abraham. He didn’t suggest that it would be a good idea to operate justice in his home. No, he commanded his children and his household after him in the ways of justice and judgment.
So, this is what we are doing every day, dear mothers. As I mentioned before, we have to judge between right and wrong, the clean and the unclean, between righteousness and evil, truth and lies.
We see in Leviticus 10:10 where it’s talking about the office of the priest. It says that: “They may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them.”
Again, in Ezekiel 44:23: “And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.”
You think, “Well, I’m not a priest.” Oh yes, you are. You remember? In Revelation 1:6 and Revelation 5:10, it tells us that we are now priests unto God.
1 Peter 2:5 says that we are “a holy priesthood.” Verse 8 says that we are “a royal priesthood.”
And so, as we are priests, we have the function of the priest. That is to teach, to teach our children the difference. Do you notice the word there? “The difference between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean.” That is a responsibility we have as mothers who raise our children, knowing the difference. Because if we don’t do that, our children will never know true justice.
They have to know the difference between what is wrong and what is right. That is why we have to give discipline, or justice. They do have to be disciplined for that which is wrong. Otherwise, they’ll never know what really is wrong.
Some parents today, we’re living in this day of “gentle parenting” where you're not allowed to discipline your children. You just let them be. But no, how are they going to learn the difference between right and wrong? Between that which is evil, and that which is good? In Amos 5:15, it says that we are to “Hate the evil and love the good.”
We have to raise our children with a hate for evil. There must be such a marked difference between good and evil. When we come up against evil, we must show our hatred for it, that we hate evil, that we shudder at it. That’s what it tells us in Romans 12. Once again, that’s New Testament now, and it says: “to hate the evil.” I can read it straight to you from the Word, so you know I’m not making it up.
Romans 12:9: “Abhor (that’s the word it uses here) abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good.” Now, that word “abhor” in the Greek literally means “to shudder,” to shudder at evil. There is a lot of evil going on in our nation today. Do we shudder at it?
How is it, my precious ladies, that we now have as a law in our country, same-sex marriage? That is abhorrent to God, the opposite way that He created us. And yet, somehow, we just live with it. Our children are growing up with that as though that’s the norm. We can’t ever let them think that that’s the norm. When we talk about these things, and we should talk about them in our families, that this is abhorrent to God, therefore, we should abhor it. We should shudder at such a thing.
We even get used to abortion. There are so many, even in the church today, who are having abortions, who are not shuddering at it. They’ve got so used to it that they’re kind of accepting it. And yet, it’s abhorrent. It is murder. We should shudder at even the thought of every little child who is murdered in the womb.
Oh, our children, if they’re going to grow up truly knowing the difference between good and evil, they must learn to hate evil, to abhor evil, and to shudder at it. Even in the little things, we think, in our homes, when children lie, when they tell a lie, what does the Bible say? That no liar will enter into the kingdom of heaven (Revelation 21:8)!
When you catch them in a lie, you’d better get a few Scriptures out and pin them up on the wall, in big letters. Make them memory verses, so your children know how God feels about lies. And they need to be disciplined for this. “Oh, it was just a little thing.” Oh no, Jesus came. He left the glory of heaven to become a man, and humbled Himself, even to death, to the cruel death upon the cross, to save us from our sins, and our lies, and our wickedness, and our defiance, and all our sins. Sins caused Jesus to die, to shed His blood.
If sin is not really anything, we don’t have to be disciplined for it. How will they even know the importance of Jesus’ death? He had to die to save us from our sins, because no sinner will ever enter into Heaven. The only way we will enter in is because of the blood of Jesus cleansing us from our sins. So, lovely ladies, we’ve got to teach the difference between good and evil, clean and unclean.
I’ve just been doing a study on all the things that God says in His Word about fornication. I can’t believe it. I will complete the study, and I will somehow let you know about it, because, although every sin is a sin against God, I don’t think there’s any other sin in the Bible that has so many descriptions about how God feels about it. You won’t believe it until you see them all put together. It is amazing. And what God says is scary!
And yet today, fornication takes place even in the church, and sometimes even in Christian families. But I think they haven’t really known what God says about it, and how He feels about it. We have to have the fear of God in our hearts about sin. We have to raise our children with the fear of God toward sin, and how He feels about evil.
Yes, even the difference. That word, difference, difference, difference, they have to know the difference between how society thinks, and how God thinks, and what His Word says, because our society today is so opposite to God’s ways.
The difference between male and female . . . we have to raise our children these days knowing, knowing, knowing, knowing, the difference, because if they don’t know the difference, they’re going to just imbibe this worldly attitude.
I believe that we should raise our sons to be young men, and to grow up to be real men, to be masculine, to know what it means to be a man, to be strong and courageous, to be a protector of women, and to one day be a provider, and to know who they are as a man. And we raise our daughters to be beautiful, feminine daughters, preparing for motherhood. Yes, that does not seem the thing that everybody does in this society today, but this is the Word of God.
In fact, do you remember when Jesus was talking to these Pharisees in Matthew 19:4? They came to, once again, to trip Him up. They loved to trip Him up, and they asked this question about divorce. Jesus answered, and He said: “Don’t you know that He which made them in the beginning, made them male and female?” Yes, He repeated again the Scripture from Genesis, repeating that He made male and female.
But when we look into the Greek and see what Jesus actually said, the word that He used, it’s rather amazing. The word that He used for “female” was the Greek word thelus, which comes from the root word thelazo, which means . . . wait for it . . . “a suckling mother.” So, when Jesus used the word “female,” He was describing a true female as a suckling mother.
When He used the word male, He used the Greek word arsen, which means . . . wait for it . . . it means “stronger for lifting.” Now, isn’t that amazing? It shows us again the difference between male and female. Yes, males have 50% more brute strength than women. They can carry heavier loads. Yes.
So, let’s raise our sons to be sons, our daughters to be daughters. We need to remind them that male and female, they differ in every cell of their bodies, because they carry different chromosomal patterns. There are 6,500 different genes between male and female. Did you get that? Scientists have discovered approximately 100 differences, even in the brain!
And even after people are dead, they can still determine the sex of male or female by analyzing the bones. Even those who want to transgender, oh, it’s all a big fake. It’s all a hoax, because their bones carry their genes, and they reveal whether they’re male or female. Even when they die, they’ll be proved to be male or female, no matter what they do. We must train our children about the difference.
PLAY THE MAN
Now, I want to bring up, just as I close, it’s time to close. But one time, when I was reading through the Bible, I decided I would read a different translation, and I chose the Knox Translation. It’s an old translation, and I do love old translations. Each time, in this translation, where it talks about “be strong and of good courage,” this translator uses the words “play the man.”
Now, that phrase, back in Bible days, was a word that they understood. In fact, it does occur once in the King James Bible. That was in 1 Samuel 10:12. It’s when they were going out to fight a war. It says, this is King James: “Be of good courage, and let us play the men, for our people, and for the cities of our God.” In other words, “Come on guys! We’re going out to be real men!”
The words “play the man” mean “to act with courage, strength, and integrity, even in the face of adversity.” It’s a description of what a man is. A man is meant to show courage, and bravery. Let me give you some of these from the Knox Translation.
Deuteronomy 31:6: King James says: “Be strong and of a good courage.” Knox says: “Play the man, and keep your courage high. There must be no cowardice, no flinching before them. Play the man, and keep thy courage high.”
Joshua 1:6, 9, and 18: There it says: “Be strong and of a good courage.” But Knox says: “Courage then. Play the man. Play the man thou must, and keep thy courage high. Courage, and a man’s part, that is what I ask of thee. No room for fear and flinching back, when the Lord thy God is at thy side, wherever thou goest. Courage then! Play the man.”
Joshua 10:25: “Keep your courage high, and play the man.”
We go over to 1 Chronicles 22:11-16. It’s David talking to his son Solomon and encouraging him in the way of building the sanctuary, the temple, the house of God. He says to Solomon, “Courage then, my son. The Lord be with thee. Play the man, and keep thy courage high, never doubting, never daunted. To the task then! The Lord will ever be at thy side.”
Again, in 1 Chronicles 28:20: “Play a man’s part, said David to Solomon. Courage! To the task, never doubting, never daunted.”
Then we go over to the New Testament, I’m finishing now, ladies! Just this verse. They’ve even got it in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14. Paul is writing, and he says: “Watch ye. Stand fast in the day. Quit you like men. Be strong!” Well, that phrase “quit you like men” is really “play the man.”
In some other translations, they translate it “play the man.” You see, men are meant to act like men. Raise your sons to be men who play the man, who are courageous, brave, strong, and undaunted in the face of calamity and adversity. Yes, and then raise your daughters to be who God intends them to be. Amen?
“Oh, dear Father, we thank You so much for Your Word, and for Your reminder of how You want us to have more justice in our lives. Lord God, we need to understand so much more of what this means. We pray that You will teach us. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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