PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 398: WELCOME TO THE LAND OF MORE AND MORE, Part 7

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 398: WELCOME TO THE LAND OF MORE AND MORE, Part 7

This is not just about money, but every aspect of our lives. In what other ways does God want us to be generous? Let's find out. 

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! We are continuing our series of “Welcome to the Land of More and More.” We are up to point . . .

No. 15. MORE GENEROSITY

Everything we read about in the Word, it seems that we are encouraged to have MORE AND MORE of it.

Generous with our finance!

Don’t you love this story of Jesus watching the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box? There came this poor widow who dropped in two small coins. And what did Jesus say? “Of a truth, I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God, but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had” (Luke 21:3, 4).

Well, to most people it seems so insignificant. But Jesus knew that she had given more than all those who put loads of money in the collection box. “More than.” Oh, that’s a great challenge, isn’t it? I wonder, have you ever been tempted like me, or perhaps you haven’t. But often, I hear of a wonderful, great organization doing great things for God, and there are so many of them.

When I open my mail (my mail piles up), I’ll open it up and it’s all these great organizations. They’re all doing wonderful things for the kingdom of God. But there are so many of them! And I think, “Oh, how can I help them all?” I read about this one and I think, “Oh, goodness me, one day, when I’ve got more money, ‘when the ship comes in’”! Well, that’s a little fun phrase that we have in our family. My husband’s always saying, “When the ship comes in.” Well, he’s been saying it for so many years, and the ship hasn’t come in yet! But he still is such a . . . what would I call him . . . such a positive person. I like to call him “Mr. Micawber.” He was one of Charles Dickens’ characters, who was always believing that something good was going to turn up!

But anyway, I think, “Well, when this ship comes in, I can give so much money to these people to help them. They’re doing such a great work for God.” Then I get challenged when I think, “Wow! Do I have to wait until the money comes in?” I read this passage in 2 Corinthians 8. It’s talking there about the believers in Macedonia.

I’m reading now from the New Living Translation: “That in a great trial of affliction and deep poverty, for I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. They did it of their own free will.”

The Passion Translation says: “For even during a season of severe difficulty, tremendous suffering, and extreme poverty, their superabundant joy overflowed into an act of extravagant generosity. For I can verify that they spontaneously gave, not only according to their means, but far beyond what they could afford.”

Wow! That’s very challenging, isn’t it? Often, when I challenge you, lovely moms, I’m also challenging myself.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7: “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

I’ve always had this premise with Above Rubies which I have now been doing for over 48 years, that we must sow BOUNTIFULLY. If we sow sparingly, well, we’ll reap a little harvest. If we sow bountifully, the Bible says we will reap a bountiful harvest. So, many people say, “Why don’t you make Above Rubies a subscription magazine so people will pay for it? Then you’ll get your money.” Because I’m always waiting and trusting the Lord for the finances.

And God has been so faithful. Here I am, 48 years down the track and still printing, although I do have to confess that this time, this printing has been a greater challenge. When I went to print, I had money in the bank, but when the magazine was printed, and I had to send it out, shipping had gone up so much that I ended up paying out $61,000 just to ship the magazine out! Can you believe it?

So then, I was without money for the printing. Here, the printers are waiting. The Lord is good, and now I’ve been able to pay half the printing. But I’m still waiting on paying the last $26,000 for the printing. So, pray with me about that, won’t you? If the Lord touches your heart, and maybe you've been receiving Above Rubies freely for years, if you haven’t yet given, you may like to give so we can get this printing paid.* Then I’ll be believing God for the money for the next magazine.

But this is my vision, to give it freely, because if I do make a subscription, all the people who believe in it will get it. But that’s not my vision. I want to give it out to the people who don’t believe it, who don’t yet know God’s heart for them as a mother and a wife. They don’t know God’s heart for family. I want to share the truth with them. So, I give it freely.

Now, some people say the magazine is free. Well, it’s given freely, although it’s not actually free because I do have to pay for it! And I’m still seeking for the finance to pay this huge bill. Some people say, “Oh, it’s just arrived. Praise the Lord. It’s such a blessing!” And I pray if you feel like that, that it arrived from Heaven, with the Lord’s heart and word to you to encourage you. And I give it freely. I will never stop giving it freely.

You are welcome to ask for as many magazines as you want and I will give them to you, so you can give them out to people. I have some people who get up to 200 magazines at a time, when the magazine comes out lots of people get 100 magazines. Many of those people have never paid a cent. I give them freely. And then I trust the Lord that He will touch those who have a vision to encourage and to strengthen families in the nation. And they will give out of whatever they have.

I know most of us, most of you, as families, you're just kind of surviving from week to week, hand to mouth. That’s how we’ve aways lived. But God is faithful, isn’t He? We don’t starve. Here we are. It’s just amazing. We’re still eating and God is so good.

But then, there are some out there who do have money. Well, I think at this time, I need to pray for some of them for some big donations. I love the little ones, because they’re such a blessing. But sometimes we need big ones too.

Anyway, that’s always been my vision for Above Rubies, to give it freely, because I want a bountiful harvest of the strengthening of families and families coming to see the blessing of children and opening their hearts to children. And mothers coming home from their careers, which they’re not going to take into Heaven with them. They’re going to be left behind! The career of motherhood we’ll take into eternity with us! And our children who we bring into His kingdom. What a harvest that will be! Amen?

Well, let’s look at some more Scriptures.

Exodus 36:5. This tells us how the Israelites were bringing finance into the temple for the service of the Lord. It says here that they brought “much more than enough for the service of the work.” Isn’t that incredible? Yes. And it was so much so that the people had to be restrained from bringing it in! Wow! Isn’t that a great problem?

I pray, oh, it would be so wonderful that I didn’t have to keep asking the Lord for this money to come to pay for this magazine. And then I’ve got to wait to get in money for the next magazine. And for the last couple of years I have been putting out one a year when my vision is four a year. I can get out four a year immediately if the money comes pouring in. As soon as the money comes in for a magazine, I’m ready to go to print. I can go to print the moment that money comes in and get another magazine out into the nation, into the world, to bring God’s truth.

Oh, will you help me with this? Because I believe it is so close to the heart of God. It’s God who ordains marriage and family. This is the way He wants us to live in this world, as families. Family is the heart of God. It’s His plan. But the devil hates it, and he seeks to destroy marriages and destroy families, and pull them apart. That’s the devil’s work.

But God’s work is to strengthen families, to bring His presence and His heavenly atmosphere into families. I want to give this magazine out to every family in the nation, and the nations of the world! Oh, I pray that somehow this will be my testimony, that somehow more than is needed will come in, so we can put out more magazines instead of just the few that we’re getting out now. Amen and amen! Oh, our God is such a great giver, isn’t He?

I think of these beautiful words:

He might have doled His blossoms out quite grudgingly,

He might have used His sunset gold so sparingly,

He might have put but one wee star in all the sky,

But since He gave so lavishly, why should not I?

I love that. Don’t you? Yes, it makes me think of that Scripture in Matthew 5:45, where Jesus says: “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Our God is such a lavish, giving God. We like to think, “Oh, well, I could give to this person, but, oh, I don’t think that person needs it. They’re not worthy of it.” No, God just pours out His love and pours out His generosity on everyone, on the good and the evil, and the just and the unjust. He is such a giving God.

Proverbs 11:24-25: “There is one that scatters, yet increases more. And there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.” 

Acts 20:35: “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.” So, we need to cultivate this giving attitude. This is not only generous but more generous.

Generous with our lives!

But our giving is not confined just to finance. Giving is far more than that. Giving is giving our lives. In that passage in 2 Corinthians where it was talking about the believers in Macedonia, I just want to go back to that passage and read something here. 2 Corinthians 8:5. It talks about them giving out of their poverty. But they did something else before that.

“And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.” Even before they gave, even out of their poverty, they first gave their own lives to the Lord. Totally, abundantly. “Here it is, God. Here I am. Take all of me.” And so, because they had so abandoned their lives to God, they were able to give, because things didn’t matter to them. Their lives belonged to God.

They gave their lives first to God, and then unto Paul and the others who were working with them, to encourage and bless and minister to them. Yes. So, we first give our own lives to the Lord. I wish I had with me the words to that beautiful hymn, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to thee.”

Generous with our time!

But in the meantime, let’s think of some other ways that we can show our generosity. We first give our lives to the Lord, of course, and then it’s a giving of our time. Sometimes people give money, but they’re stingy with their time. All their time is for everything for themselves.

What about for others? To minister to others as Jesus did. What does it say about Jesus? It says: “I did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life” (Mark 10:45). That’s what Jesus did. So, He gave of His life. In doing that, we have to give of our time. It’s so easy, isn’t it, ladies? Very easy just to be taken up with our own life, and our own little family, and our own little home, and our own little visions. That’s everything. We don’t have any time to give to others.

I remember way back in the early days of my mothering. We were living in New Zealand at this time. I was just walking over the doorstep of my home, carrying a box of groceries. I’d just come back from the city. And God spoke to me. I’ll never forget it. I heard His words so clearly in my mind. “Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if you are always thinking about yourself?”

I’ve never forgotten those words. You see, we have to give room in our minds, and in our hearts for others. If it’s all taken up with ourselves, God can’t even get in and say, “Hey! This person has a need. I want you to pray for this person. I want you to do this and that for this person. I want you to help that person.” We’ve got to give room in our hearts. We’ve got to give room in our minds, and room in our ears, I would say, to even hear God speaking to us, to tell us about the needs of others. And then we need to give time.

I would like to share a little testimony that I just noticed in the last two days. We had in our midst a precious family, a beautiful mother of seven children living without her husband. Her seventh child is suffering. This little darling baby was born eight years ago. She’s eight years now. She was born with a very, very rare disease where one side of her body grows these big tumors. The other side is normal. A very rare disease. The medical profession didn’t give much hope for her for very many years to live.

But this darling girl, her name is Gracie, has faced even more than that. At four years of age, she was diagnosed with a terrible cancer as well. It was stage four when they found it. For these last four years, she has been mostly in hospital. In and out, mostly in.

The medical profession says there is now absolutely nothing left for them to do. They have tried everything. She is now totally at the mercy of God. I’d love you to pray with us for her. We are believing. We believe God. Will you come in faith with us to believe for a miracle for darling Gracie? A miracle. **

But I’ve noticed, as we’ve been visiting her in the last week or so, I’ve observed how others have come along too. I noticed one family. This beautiful mother, Nicola, is from the Carolinas. When she heard this diagnosis, she dropped everything. With her family, she came all the way to Tennessee. She’s been staying with Nadia, helping her.

Then, I think of another family, beautiful Shavonna Shaw, and her whole family. She lives quite a long way away. Goodness me, I think for her to get to Nadia’s place would be two hours or more. But in the last few days, Shavonna, with 11 or 12 children of her own, and two little wee ones, has come every day, to bring the food for them. She’s put aside even the needs of her own family to pour out her heart to Nadia.

It’s so beautiful to see. That’s generosity. That’s beyond finance. But that’s real giving, giving your life, giving your time, giving your food. Just giving your support, giving your comfort. Oh, it’s so beautiful to see. How God must love that.

Generous with our prayers!

So, we also give generously of our prayers. Do you know, ladies, it’s very easy to be stingy in prayer isn’t it? I find that, really, the majority of Christians today are actually stingy in prayer. How much time do they give of their lives to pray for those in need? How much time of every day do they give? Some give nothing. Some may give five minutes. Are we generous in prayer? Yes, it takes a generosity of your life, because you've got to once again give time of your life when you could be doing something for yourself but instead to give, to pray for others.

What did Jesus say when He was there in the Garden of Gethsemane? He said to His disciples, “Can you not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). Only one hour? That’s a challenge Jesus gives: “Can you not watch with Me one hour?” To pray for the needy? Can we be generous in prayer rather than stingy? When you think of, oh, the needs that are around you? Not only around us but across the world? And the suffering, persecuted church? All across the world. My, how we need to be generous in prayer.

Generous with encouragement to our husbands!

What about generously giving words of love and encouragement so that it becomes part of our lives to be generous with encouragement. Saying good things to bless people. Of course, it starts with your husband, doesn’t it? How generous are you in the way you speak to your husband? Do you generously say beautiful and loving and wonderful things to him? Not just “I love you.” I know. How about more than that? How generous are you with your words to him? Ladies, let’s become generous people. We can become so blasé in a marriage, and think, “Oh yes, we love one another. We get on great.” But is that all? No. We have to be generous, extravagant!

Generous with Intimacy!

What about generosity even in our intimacy with our husbands? What does the Bible say?

1 Corinthians 7:3-4: “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence.” A very archaic King James way of saying it, isn’t it? “And likewise, also the wife . . . hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise, also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other.”

But I think it’s far more, far more than just “defraud not one the other.” Oh, a wife can be, “Oh yes, I am always available to my husband.” She’s not defrauding. But is that just the norm? Does she go beyond the norm? Is she generous? HOW generous? Let’s get into a whole new way of thinking, a way of living, a generous way.

Generous with encouragement to our children!

So, what about our children? Do you lavishly pour out encouragement upon them? Always affirming the good things in their lives? For the little things they do. Even when they do a chore, do you just expect them to do it, or do you thank them for doing it? Did you know that “A word of encouragement does wonders?”

One of my favorite Scriptures is Proverbs 12:25 in The Living Bible. Hear it again: “A word of encouragement does wonders.” It does miracles! It changes people’s lives. But wow! Actually, you see that in this beautiful story of Theo of Golden, which I have just read, about this old man, and how he affected the lives of the people in this little town of Golden. It was all through the things he spoke into their lives. We can be life-changers to our children and to the people around us.

So, lovely ladies, we’re talking about this “more and more” lifestyle. Are you just on the boring, status quo, just minimum lifestyle? Or are you moving into the kingdom of God lifestyle which is a more and more? It’s a GIVING MORE AND MORE, even in the basic things of life.

Generous with smiling!

What about giving smiles? How often do you smile at your husband? Do you just look at him and smile at him sometimes? Doing nothing else but just smiling at him. Not with your mouth, but with your eyes, with your whole face, letting him know that you are totally and absolutely and adoringly in love with him?

What about your children? Do you smile at them or are you mostly frowning at them? Well, that’s not hard to do when they’re always doing crazy things and driving you crazy. But dear mothers, if you can get into the habit of smiling when you look at them, it’s going to change their behavior!

Yes, because just as the Word of God says: “As we behold the Lord, we’re changed into His image” (2 Corinthians 3:8). Who do your children look at all day? Mostly you. You’re the one who’s there in the home. They’re looking at you. They’re going to be changed into your image. If you're a frowning mother, well, expect frowning, grizzling children! If you're a smiling mother, expect smiling, happy children!

Generous in thanking people!

Be generous in your smiles. Be generous in thanking people. As I said before, even thanking your children. They did their chores? “Oh, thank you, Bobby! You did that so well! My, you're a great worker. I’m just so proud of you!” You just speak these things into your children. You thank them.

What about when people do things for you? Even open the door to go through. “Oh, thank you.” Or “Thank you so much!” We can say “thank you.” Most people say, “thank you.” They’re being trained to say, “thank you.” But you can say “thank you,” and it doesn’t really mean a lot, because it just sounds, well, it’s just like a cliché.

Or you can let people know you really are thankful. “Oh, thank you so much! It’s so wonderful of you! Thank you!” Do you ever thank them like that? Does the person you're thanking really know how thankful you are?

I love this story. I was telling you before about Nadia and her children and about her precious little Gracie who we are praying for a miracle for at this time. But I met Nadia, well, I met her at an Above Rubies retreat when she was just starting her family many, many years ago. Jeremiah, goodness, how old is he now? 19 or something.

But then again, I remember the first time they came to our home. The children were still young. I was meeting her children as children for the first time because she lived away up in Canada. But now she was here visiting in Tennessee. And her eldest son, he was just a young boy. He came in the door, and he put out his hand to me, and he said, “I am Jeremiah Mutana, and I am so pleased to meet you!” He took my hand with a good, great handshake. Wow, was I impressed! He had been trained well.

But while they were staying with us, they got to know the Johnsons and their children. There’s something about the Johnson children. As they were growing up, I don’t know, I think it’s because Evangeline, their mother, is the most bubbly, outgoing, effervescent, over-the-top personality that you could ever meet.

I just learned a new word the other day. It’s the word “ebullient.” E-B-U-L-L-I-E-N-T. Look it up in the dictionary because when I looked it up in the dictionary, I just said, “Evangeline.” It was exactly her personality. So, of course, when she says, “thank you,” she doesn’t say, “oh, thank you.” She says, “THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!”

And all the children got into this habit. At Christmas time, birthday time, any time anybody would do anything for them, or give anything to them, they would say, “THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!” Well, Nadia and her family just couldn’t get over it. They thought it was such fun, so they started to say it too, “THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!” We will still say it together to this day. But I remember when they were going. As they were driving out our driveway, they all had their hands out the windows waving and they all yelled out together, “THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!”

Well, of course, I was really blessed. I knew they were thankful. But there’s something about being over the top, being generous! Generous with our words, generous with our “thank you’s,” generous with serving, generous with going the second mile. Oooh, not many of us like to do that do we? We just like to stay in our little, lovely environment. But I’m always challenged.

Generous with going the second mile!

Now, ladies, when I read this Scripture to you, help! I’m reading it more to myself, because I’m challenged too. I’m always challenged by the Scriptures. I get challenged every day when I read the Scriptures. That’s why we need to read them, isn’t it? We keep getting challenged. The Word of God keeps us on our toes. Or we’re just getting below, and below, and below.

Anyway, here Jesus is speaking, and He says: “And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat. let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him two miles. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” It’s that second mile. “OK, I’ll do more than you asked.”

Oh, wow. That is a challenge, isn’t it? But may God help us, even little by little, to come into a more generous lifestyle. Yes, in giving financially, but that’s only one little, tiny part. There are so many areas of our life where we can be a generously giving person. And we will change the world.

“Dear Father, how we thank You for Your Word, that opens up whole new vistas of how You want us to live. We live so much below what You have for us. What is the atmosphere of Your kingdom, Lord? Yes, we think of that Scripture in Romans 14:23 where it says that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

 

“And Lord, we pray, as we talked about generosity today, we pray that You will work in our hearts and take away our stingy spirits and our selfish motives. Make us people who are so generous in every way. We ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

* Praise the Lord, this bill has now been paid. God is so good, and so faithful. I am now trusting God for the finance to come in so I can print the next magazine. I only need $100,000.00 to print and send it out across the world!!!!

** Since this podcast, little Gracie has gone to be with the Lord. You can listen to her story in the podcast or read the transcript:

Podcast 401, THE OVERCOMING LIFE OF GRACIE MUTANA.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.

“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”

DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.