Song of Songs 2:2, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters."

What a beautiful description of the bride of Christ. In the previous verse Christ is described as the Lily of the Valleys and now she is described as the lily. What Christ is, we are to be in this world as the Scripture tells us in 1 John 4:17.

What do you think of when you think of a lily? I think of...

1. PURE AND SPOTLESS. I am sure your mind immediately thinks of the white Madonna lily with which we are so familiar and yet which also grew in Israel. This beautiful flower has been an emblem of purity for thousands of years. This is the picture of the bride of Christ in this sinful world.
2. HUMBLE. Our Bridegroom is called the Lily of the valleys. Where He is we will be too. The lily does not grow on the heights but in the fertile valleys. The true believer is not high-minded and proud, but has a humble spirit.
3. BEAUTILFUL. Jesus said that even King Solomon, the richest king in all his glory, could not compete with the beautiful lily.
4. TRUSTING GOD. Jesus exhorted us not to worry about what we will eat or wear and used the illustration of the lilies that do not toil or worry and yet God watches over them to protect and provide for them. (Matthew 5: 28-33)
5. NOT PRICKLY. This is the rub. All around us there are thorny people - those who pierce us with their sharp and nasty words and who prick us with their actions. Maybe there are thorny people in your own home or family relationships. Their pricks can really hurt! How do you react? Can you continue to be a lily in these circumstances?

It is easy to be a lily among other lilies. The real test is to be a lily among the thorns!

How can you do this? Only by the power of the living Christ within you. It is the grace of God. It is His life in you. Jesus died and shed His blood to enable you to live as a lily among the thorns. When Jesus was pricked, He did not retaliate. When he was blasphemed and ridiculed he did not answer a word. Jesus who lives within you does not get prickly and upset. He does not get mad and shoot out thorns. Stress and the pressures of life can also make you feel irritable and prickly. But Christ within you does not get stressed out, no matter how huge the problem. Trust Him.

Song of Songs 5:13 describes Christ, "His lips like lilies, dropping sweet swelling myrrh." Prickly words don’t fall from his lips. His lips drop sweetness. What drops from your lips? Unkind words or sweet? How do you react to the pressures or hurtful words in your home? Does everyone feel your prickles? It’s not very nice being close to a prickly person, is it?

Can you allow the sweetness and purity of Christ to shine forth even when you are being pricked? Even if your husband is thorny?

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Prayer:

"Oh Father, please take away the prickliness in my life. I often feel hurt and wounded, but please help me to react like the lily, to trust you instead of retaliating with sharp and unkind words. Amen."

 

Affirmation:

Philippians 2:6-8, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedience unto death, even the death of the cross."

Much of what we see and experience of Christmas today is total antipathy to the birth of Jesus that we are supposed to be remembering. We have Christmas trees, decorations, lights, tinsel, Santa Claus, and an over abundance of food. The first Christmas was one of poverty, but Christmas today is commercialized and money is splashed around.

The first Christmas was a very humble one. It was not glamorous. Today, if a couple were so poor that they had to have their baby in a dirty animal stable, the Social Services would take their baby away from them. But 2000 years down the line, it seems that the humility of Christmas has been forgotten.

I think it would be good to remind ourselves of the true reality of Christmas, don’t you?

1. The humility of Mary.

   Mary was a humble maiden with a humble lineage. She was not a royal princess. She was not a High Priest's daughter. She was not rich. Mary herself confesses in her song, "He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.... He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree..." (Luke 1:48-49) But God chose this unknown virgin to bring forth His precious Son. He chose her because she was a willing vessel. Often those who have everything materially, are not willing vessels.

   God is not looking for riches and material possessions. He is looking for women with obedient hearts - mothers who will welcome to their hearts the children whom God has planned to send them. He is looking for those who have the same spirit Mary had when she said, "Be it unto me according to thy Word." (Luke 1:38) She was totally surrendered to the will of the Lord. In the face of poverty, ridicule, rejection and estrangement, she embraced this child who would be the Savior of the world.

   I will never forget going to the famous art gallery in London and seeing a painting of Mary. It was such an anointed picture. The artist had captured the look of total submission and abandonment to the will of God upon her face. It was amazing. I looked and looked at it for hours. The caption was the very words, "Be it unto me according to thy Word."

2. The humility of Joseph.

   Joseph was a humble carpenter from a humble village. Do you remember that Nathanael said of Jesus, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46) His own residents of Nazareth spurned him and asked, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55)

3. The humility of His birthplace.

   Jesus was born in a manger in a barn with the smells and messes of the animals all around. Jesus was born to be King, but God didn't provide a palace for His Son in which to be born. He didn't provide a doctor, nurses and hospital. There was no cradle, beautifully draped with lace and frills. Only straw! Was there even that? No Christmas card paints the true reality of the scene.

   If this was the beginning of the Son of God, why do we, the sons and daughters of God, expect that we should have all the niceties of life? Of course, if God blesses us with them, we will receive them with joy, but should we expect them? Everything surrounding the birth of Jesus was humble. It is interesting that in the body of Christ we have the "Faith movement" and the "Discipleship movement" and so on. But has anyone ever heard of the "Humility movement"? We don't take to this aspect so well, do we? And yet this is how God planned for His beloved Son to be born. And this is how he lived all through His life. Shouldn't humility also be the hallmark of our Christian experience?

   Isn't it so amazing that God chose to bring forth His beloved Son through the process of birth? He could have sent him down from Heaven on a chariot of fire! He could have sent a legion of angels to escort Him from the majesty of heaven. But no! He chose for Jesus to be conceived and nurtured in a womb, to be born of a woman, the way that God planned for all human life to come into this world.

   Surely this raises birth to a high estate. What a privilege to give birth and give life to children, the very same way that Jesus came into the world? How blessed we are as women.

4. The humility of Jesus' dedication.

   After the days of a mother's purification, the parents took the baby to the temple to be dedicated. They had to bring a lamb to be sacrificed for the dedication. However, if they could not afford a lamb, they brought two turtle doves or young pigeons. (Leviticus 12:6-8) The account in Luke 2:23-24 tells us that Joseph and Mary brought doves or pigeons. They belonged to the poor class. They couldn't afford to bring a lamb. And yet God chose from the poorer class to bring forth the King of kings and Lord of lords.

   We don't have to own our own home and have all the modern conveniences before we are ready to have a baby. All we have to have is willing and welcome hearts. God will always provide for the children He sends. The poor who have children are richer than the wealthy who reject children.

May you have a wonderful Christmas together with your family. May God keep all our hearts focused on the humility of His birth, rather than tinsel and toys.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Prayer:

"Dear Lord Jesus, Thank you for leaving the glory of heaven to come to this earth. Thank you for humbling yourself to become a little baby. Thank you for being humiliated for me. Thank you that you came to die, and to die for my sin. How can I ever thank you adequately? But with all my being I worship and love you. Amen."

Quote:

Zechariah 9:9 NAS, "Behold your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey..."

Revelation 2:1, "These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks."

The seven golden candlesticks referred to in the above Scripture are the seven churches of Asia who were to be a shining light to the darkness around. God also wants to walk in the midst of our churches today. He wants to walk in the midst of our homes. He wants to fill our homes with His presence so we can be a light in our neighborhoods.

Would you like Jesus Christ, the Son of God to walk in the midst of your home? If He was walking around in the midst of your home, do you think it would make a difference to what is going on? Do you think it would make a difference to what you say? How would it affect the arguing, the complaining and the bickering? Would it change what you watch and listen to?

Jesus wants to be in your midst. Matthew 18:20 says, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Start the day by honoring His name and inviting Him to come into every room of your home. Honor His name throughout the day. Call upon His name. Do everything and say everything in the name of the Lord Jesus as it commands us in Colossians 3:17. And He will fill your home with His presence.

I love the beautiful Scripture in Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

Look what happens when Jesus is in the midst of your home...

1. He will deliver you. He will give you the victory. The NIV says that "He is mighty to save." The Moffat's translation says that He will be "a Warrior to the rescue." Oh how wonderful that He is always available to come to our rescue.
2. He will rejoice over you with joy. He takes great delight in you. When Jesus is in the midst, there will be rejoicing instead of gloom and despair.
3. He will quieten you. The word for 'rest' in this Scripture is 'charash' which means 'to hold one's peace.' The NIV translates it correctly, "He will quiet you with his love." How wonderful. When Jesus is in the midst, He will help you to hold your tongue and be silent. He will help you to be quiet instead of lashing out or throwing a wobbly.
4. He will sing over you. Isn't it wonderful to know that when Jesus is in our midst that He sings over you with joy? God joys over His people. He rejoices over them to do them good. (Deuteronomy 30:9; Isaiah 65:19; Jeremiah 32:41) He wants you to sing over your children with joy too.

What a joyful home when Jesus is in the midst!

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Affirmation:

Prayer:

"Lord, I thank you that you want to walk in the midst of my home. I invite you to come into every room. I invite you to be the Head of our home. Amen."

 

Song of Songs 8:5; “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?

We have been discovering all the wonderful things that God did for the children of Israel in the desert. “But that was just for them,” you say. “Can God do these things personally for me?”

Let’s look at some personal testimonies.

The desert is where God prepares us for His purposes for our lives.

It was in the desert, the deepest part of the desert, that Moses had an encounter with the mighty God. He stood on holy ground in the desert. God kept him in that desert for forty long years, but he came out ready to deliver a nation from the tyranny of Egypt. (Acts 7:30-38)

David was forced into the desert to hide from the wrath of King Saul, but while in that desert he raised an army of men. The wilderness is a training ground for the battle. (1 Samuel 22:2; 23:14-15, 24:1; 26:3; 1 Chronicles 12:1-15)  

John the Baptist prepared the way for the coming of the Lord in the wilderness. (Mark 1:1-7; Luke 1:15-17, 80)

After Paul’s conversion, he went into seclusion -- into the desert of Arabia, where he heard “unspeakable words” from God.  I wonder if he went to Horeb, the Mountain of God, where Moses met God. (2 Corinthians 12:1-7; Galatians 1:17)

The desert is where we learn to overcome.

Jesus won the victory over Satan in the wilderness and came forth to minister in the power of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 4:1-11) Notice that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. He was not out of God’s will but in the very center of His will while in the desert.

The desert is where we lose the lure for the things of the world.

After being in the desert for 40 years, Moses went right back into the pride and wealth of Egypt, but it had no hold upon him. (Hebrews 11:24-26)

The desert is where we learn to walk by faith.

Psalm 78:16-18 says, “And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’”

They did not believe God could provide for them. But God did not let them out of the desert until they had learned the walk of faith.

The desert is where we learn dependence upon God.

Oh what a beautiful picture we see of the bride of Christ in Song of Solomon 8:5, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”

During the wilderness experience, God’s people found that it didn’t work to rely on their own strength. They learned in the desert to rely totally on God’s strength. There was no other way. Moses tried to help his people in his own strength when he killed the Egyptian, but it failed. God had to work on him for 40 years in the desert before he was ready to deliver his people from the power of Egypt.

It’s your attitude!

Are you going through a difficult wilderness experience right now? Don’t despair. You are going through your wilderness. Yes, you are going through! There is an end! But according to your attitude to your problems you will either die (spiritually) in your wilderness or come out victorious. Or you will either come out hurt and bitter, or with the sweet anointing of the presence of God upon you.

Because the children of Israel were full of unbelief, and grumbled and complained about their hardships the challenges they had to face, they all died in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caleb came through!

Joshua came forth to lead God’s people into battle and to take the Promised Land. (Joshua 1:6-7)

Caleb came forth ready to take mountains and tackle giants. (Joshua 14:6-15)

David came forth ready to reign over God’s people, Israel. (2 Samuel 5:3)

Paul came forth to be a mighty apostle.

How will you come through?

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“I thank you, Lord that you are bringing me through the wilderness. Please help me to have the right attitude. Help me to see that this is all part of your plan and that you are preparing me for your purposes. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION: