PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 432: GUARDING THE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE, Part 3

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 432: GUARDING THE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE, PART 3

God wants His Word to not only be in our hearts, but in our mouths, in our ears, before our eyes, and revealed through our hands and our feet. The Bible should not sit on the shelf, but God intends us to be WALKING BIBLES.

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 again. Thank you for praying last week. I shared some things with you that we need prayer for, for my husband. Thank you for your continuing prayers for him. He really does need them.

Thank you for praying in some helpers for me. That has been answered, praise the Lord! So, this coming weekend, I have two new lovely Above Rubies helpers arriving. That will be such a blessing. For this last month, things have been getting behind. But now we’ll get on top of everything again. That’s so wonderful.

Now, we’re carrying on with our current new series. We’re going to be talking about all the things that God wants us to guard in our lives. The one we’re up to at the moment is GAURDING GOD’S WORD. As I searched the Scriptures, I found 20 different principles that God gives to guard His Word in our lives.

We’re up to . . .

Number 10. We must NOT ALLOW GOD’S WORD TO DEPART FROM OUR MOUTHS!

Well, these are pretty strong commands, aren’t they? Yes. In Joshua 1:8, it says: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.” God not only wants it in our hearts, but in our mouths.

The first one, number one, was that we must have it in our heart. That is the very first thing. If it isn’t in our heart, and we’re just doing it out of legality, it won’t be much good for us.

Proverbs 3:2: “Let thy heart keep My commandments.” It’s our heart that needs to obey God’s commandments.

I love Psalm 119:11: “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” When we’ve got it in our hearts, we won’t want to sin against the Lord. If we’re just obeying out of legality, it won’t have the same power in our lives. I memorized Psalm 119:11 when I was a child. I think it’s a wonderful Scripture for every child to know, because it’s something they should be doing right from when they are children.

So, lovely moms, if your children don’t know this Scripture, Psalm 119:11, I think it would be great to make it a memory verse. You could write it out in big letters, put it on the wall so they can see it. You can write it up and put it in the bathroom where they have to sit a number of times a day. They can read it there. And then, you can go over it, saying it over together until they get it in their minds and hearts.

When you’re memorizing, I have found that you memorize a Scripture, and then you forget it. So, you have to memorize it again. You’ve always got to be reviving when you are memorizing. And then, once you've kept on reviving and reviving, it becomes part of you. This Scripture has been part of my life. So, children, are you listening? Don’t forget. You’ve got to memorize this Scripture.

Of course, Psalm 119:9 is a wonderful Scripture too. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto, according to Thy Word.”

But anyway, we’re getting up to number 10, which is, we must not only have it in our hearts, but now, God wants His Word in our mouths. We’ve got to get them from our hearts into our mouths so we’re speaking them out so it’s part of our lives. We’re speaking it out of our mouths, and then we’re going to have, well, we’re going to get it into our children’s hearts, and into their mouths, so they’ll be speaking it out of their mouths too. You notice that this is another one of these Scriptures where it says: “Thou shalt not.” “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.”

We go over to Isaiah 59:21 HCSB, and we read . . . I love this Scripture. It’s an amazing mandate for us, as parents. “As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord. my Spirit, who is on you, and my Words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or the mouth of your children, or the mouth of your children’s children from now and forever, says the Lord.”

Well, we couldn’t get it any clearer than that, could we, lovely mothers? But do you notice something there? God says: “By My Spirit, who is upon you, and My Words, which I have put in your mouth.” The Holy Spirit and the Word always go together. If we just have the Word, it can get dry. If we have the Spirit without the Word, well, that’s not good enough either. We’ve got to have them both, the Holy Spirit and the Word. If we have the Holy Spirit enlightening the Word and causing the Word to go deep into our hearts and into our mouths, it will become effective.

But do you notice also there, precious moms, that it’s not only to come out of our mouths, but remember? What does it say? “It shall not depart out of the mouth of your children, or from the mouth of your children’s children from now and forever.” It’s for the continuing generations. So, we have to ask the question, is it coming out of the mouths of your children? Are the Scriptures coming out of their mouths? Well, we haven’t really got it into them until it’s coming out of their mouths. It’s got to become part of them. So, that’s a very important principle.

Number 11. We must NOT ALLOW GOD’S WORDS TO DEPART FROM OUR EYES!

Proverbs 4:20-21: “My son, attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart.”

Proverbs 3:21: “My son, let not them depart from thine eyes.”

So, God wants all the parts of our whole body being involved in His Word. So far, He wants it in our hearts. He wants it in our mouths. Now He wants us to not let it depart from our eyes. That means that we’re reading it, we’re seeing it, we’re looking at it. In fact, back in Bible days, they had the Scriptures written up on their walls and their gates.

It’s good to have Scriptures written up on your wall. You can change them. You can write them up in big, bold, colorful letters for your children, especially the memory verses that you are memorizing together. Then, of course, when you've got that one memorized, well then, you can change it. Put up another one.

But here the Word says, He wants His Word before their eyes. And so, you're also encouraging them as they learn to read to have a special time every day, personally reading the Word of God, starting the day with the Word of God. Of course, we have our family devotions when we gather as a family, but we must also encourage our children to have that personal time of reading the Word. Encourage them to find their little place in the house where they can get away and read God’s Word personally, so it is before their eyes.

Number 12. We must NOT ALLOW GOD’S WORDS TO DEPART FROM OUR EARS!

Wow! Every part has to be involved. Shall we look at some Scriptures here?

Deuteronomy 4:1: “Now therefore, hearken, O Israel, unto the statues and unto the judgements which I teach for you to do them.”

What did we read there? “Now therefore, hearken.” Hearken. That word is shema. I have been telling you about the word shamar. S-H-A-M-A-R. This word means “to guard and to watch over.” Our series at the moment is about all the things that God want us to guard over in our lives. But here’s another word that sounds like it, but it’s a different word. It’s shema, S-H-E-M-A.

This is actually a famous word in the Bible because it’s this word that the Jews take. It’s what they have, right from their foundation. Here it is, Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel.” (Shema, O Israel) “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart.” There’s number one principle, HEART. “In thine heart.”

“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou lieth down, and when thou riseth up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thy eyes. And thou shalt write them on the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

 And so, we see here how they’ve got to be before our eyes, before our ears. Hear. Hearken.  “Listen, O Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord.”

So, we’ve got to hearken to His Word. What does that word mean? The word shema, that very famous word, means “to give undivided attention, to hear with attention and obedience, to listen and obey.”

We need to remind our children when we’re having family devotions, “Children, let’s hearken to God’s Word. He wants us to open our ears, so we’re opening our physical ears, and we’re opening our inner ears, the inner ears of our heart. We’re listening with our outer ears. We’re listening with our inner ears to hear what God is saying to us. And when we hear it, we’re going to obey. This is what this word means. It’s not just hearing but listening to obey.

So, let’s see what else the Bible says.

Deuteronomy 13:17-18: “When thou shall hearken to the voice of thy Lord thy God to keep all His commandments.”

Deuteronomy 15:5: “Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe” (that’s shema). So, we’ve got two words here. “Carefully hearken” (which is shema, S-H-E-M-A) “Unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe” (and that’s shamar, S-H-A-M-A-R, to guard) “to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.”

Deuteronomy 28:1: “If thou shall diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments” then it tells us all the blessings that happen when we do that.

Exodus 15:26: “And give ear to his commandments.” Give ear, we give our ears to listen, because it’s easy to listen and not hear.

Do you find that? I find myself, that even when we have our family gathering to hear the Word of God . . . my husband is reading the Word of God, and I truly want to hear every word. And yet, it’s so amazing how you can just get into a little dream, and wow! Your mind goes off. You have to really use diligence to hear, to really listen. And listening is an art. It’s something we do have to teach our children, the art of listening, because we can sort of half-listen and we’ve got our mind on other things.

Today, it’s amazing how young people want to do quite a few things at once. They’ll even do their schoolwork while they’re listening to something else! But actually, they have found out scientifically that that is not a good thing at all. True learning, you should focus on what you are hearing, especially when we’re listening to the Word of God. We need to learn to focus. So, you can actually teach your children and help them in this regard.

When you're having Bible reading, ask questions. Oh, yes, many questions. It keeps them on their toes. You’re reading a Scripture, or your husband is reading a Scripture. You can ask a question, or you, even as the mother, can pop in and ask a question. I often do that when my husband is reading and we have children around. I might pop in and ask a question because I can notice when some of them are off in dreamworld.

And you can either ask, “Now, what were that last words I said?” Just the last two or three words of the Scripture. You’ll be amazed. Most of them don’t even remember! And they just heard it! Well, did they hear it? And so, “Listen again, children.” And you have to read it again and see if they remember those last few words.

Or you can ask them all kinds of different questions. “Now, children, what do you think God was saying to you in that Scripture?” Well, if they don’t know, they didn’t hear it! So, you've got to read it again. “Now listen, children. Just open your outer ears, and your inner ears, and listen. And listen to God speak.” God will speak to them as they listen and tune their ears. Would you do that? Train their ears to have listening ears. That’s a very powerful thing you can do for your children.

Number 13. We must always KEEP GOD’S WORD NEAR US!

That’s a little different one, isn’t it? We read here in Deuteronomy 17:18, 19. We read a Scripture that was actually written to kings. But this speaks to us too, ladies, because, as we know, we are now kings and priests unto God.

When you come into His kingdom, you belong to His kingdom. He’s made you a king and a priest into God. It tells us about that in Revelation 1:6. So, when it’s giving words to kings, it’s also to us.

“And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to hear the Lord His God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to do them.”

The New Living Translation says: “He must always keep that copy with him, and read it daily as long as he lives.”

The New English Translation says: “It must be with him constantly.”

So, there we are, ladies. That’s another principle you may not have noticed before. But God wants us to have His Word near us. Well, in your homes, you've most probably got many Bibles all around, in different places. The Bible is near you. Maybe the children have got a question. You can just pick up a Bible because it’s near you. You can look up and see, what does God say?

Often, when children have a question, you may not always know the answer. But you can say, “Well, let’s see what God says.” And so, it’s good if you have a concordance too. Then you can look up the word of the subject you're wanting to learn more about. Then you can go to the concordance, and it will give you the Scriptures on that word, on that subject. Then you can look them up and see what God says about it.

I know a young man, and he has a project to get little pocket Bibles into the hands of everyone he can, especially young people. He’s a young person himself and he carries a little pocket Bible in His pocket, or a pocket New Testament, which are easy to keep in a pocket, or if we are ladies, we can keep them in our purse.

But his project is that everyone will go around with a little Bible, or a little New Testament on them. Well, I think that’s a wonderful idea. So, maybe you have a few minutes. You’re waiting for somebody, and what are you doing to do? Well, get out your pocket Bible, and you can read a few Scriptures. I think that’s rather wonderful.

But it means that we keep the Word of God near us. Of course, today I know, yes, everyone has got the Bible on their iPhone. They think, “Oh well, I can just read it on my iPhone.” But how many people do read it on their iPhone? How many young people do go to the Word and read it on their iPhone? I find that mostly they’re checking out other things on their iPhones.

I have found, in my own experience, and even in my daily quiet time, I don’t know why we call it “a quiet time.” When I grew up, we were encouraged as young people to have a daily quiet time. That was what they called it. But it doesn’t have to be quiet, because it’s also the time when you pray. When you read the Word, and when you pray, and sometimes you may be desperate, and you’ll be calling out to God, praying out loud to God. It may not be quiet.

I’m not sure why they got the words “quiet time,” but it’s really your time with the Lord. I find, in my time with the Lord, as I go down to my very special place that I have to read His Word, and study, and meditate, to talk with the Lord, I actually made it into a very beautiful place. I thought, “Oh, I want to make this place special.” So, I began to get a few, one or two little potted plants. Then I thought, “I just want to be surrounded.”

My husband put up four shelves, two on one side, and two the other. Then I have the windowsills. So now, I am on three sides surrounded by beautiful indoor plants. I got many of them from little shoots from friends. I planted them, and watered them, and now they are all flourishing.

I go down to my little place in the morning, early in the morning. And, oh, immediately I just have to praise the Lord! I say, “Thank You, Lord, for Your beautiful creation, and these glorious plants that are flourishing all around me! It’s just beautiful!”

And I have to praise the Lord, and I think, “Wow, if this is so beautiful, what will it be like in the new earth? Wow!” What we see today, which is so beautiful, will be nothing compared to what it will be one day.

But anyway, I go down there, and I get into the Word, and yes, I do have my iPhone, because many times, I’ll go to that to check a Hebrew word. But when I’m reading the Word, I read the literal printed word because I find it’s so easy to be distracted. You hear this little “ding” and you think, “Oh, should I check that?” But no! I must not, because this is not the time for checking messages or checking little dings. It’s a time to hear God speak to me.

And so, I have to use diligence, and I know that if I have to use diligence, what about young people? I do encourage all of us, especially young people to read the printed Word of God as much as you can. Because you won’t get distracted. It’s more special.

There’s something about holding the Word in your hand. I love to do that. Sometimes I just run my hands so lovingly over the Word. It’s so special, and you can’t do that on an iPhone. Goodness me! It just doesn’t really work, does it? So, we keep the Word of God near us.

That was 13. Now . . .

Number 14. We must WALK OUT God’s words in our lives!

All right, lovely ladies, where did God start? He wants us to get His Word into our hearts, and He wants to get it into our mouths. He wants us to have our ears open to hear it. He wants to have our eyes where we can look upon it. And now, He wants to get it into our hands and our feet! He wants it to be walking out of our whole body. He wants us to walk His Word.

Often my husband likes to say that we should be WALKING PRAYER MEETINGS, always in prayer with the Lord. But we should also be WALKING BIBLES, walking out God’s Word. Tell your children this one, moms. They’ve got to learn how to be walking Bibles in the home, and as they grow up and go out into the world. This is what God wants them to be, A WALKING BIBLE!

I know a lovely poem about that. It’s by Annie Johnson Flint. She wrote many poems. This is a poem I used to recite.

Oh, I must tell you about this. It’s quite interesting. Way back before I was married and still at home, my father used to be involved in evangelism. He would rope in the whole family to be involved with him. He always loved to encourage us and bring the whole family in.

Now my father, who, of course, has passed away, was a very wonderful man. He was gifted in very many areas, especially with his hands. My father had many, many gifts, and he was good at them all. He was a taxidermist, and he was a horse trainer. He was a dog trainer. He was a sawmiller, and he was a sheep shearer. He became the world champion sheep shearer.

He was the one who developed “the Bowen technique” of shearing. Bowen was my maiden name. He taught the fastest way of shearing in the world. He sheared before the Queen on a number of occasions. He was all those things, and many others.

But he was also an evangelist. He loved to preach the gospel. My father had many opportunities to preach the gospel, not just in a church, but where he could preach to people, crowds of people who did not even know the Lord, who were not even interested in God.

Because he was the world champion sheep shearer, often people would ask him, well, Christians would ask him to come and share the gospel. They would book a great big wool shed. That’s where they shear the sheep. They’d fill up this big woolshed with people because they would advertise. “Ivan Bowen is coming to give a shearing demonstration.”

Of course, he would shear a sheep faster than anybody else could. His fastest time was 37 seconds. He would shear a sheep blindfolded, and he would give this amazing demonstration. But before he did, he would get his family involved. My brother used to ride one-wheeled bikes. He could ride a 14-foot bike, and he could do all manner of tricks on that bike, 14 feet high.

I used to do the Maori poi, a poi dance, and he would get me doing that. My sister had a beautiful voice. He would get her to sing beautiful gospel songs. Then he would get me to recite so I would recite these poems. Then he would give the shearing demonstration. And then, he would preach the gospel. Well, have you ever heard of such evangelism as that? Well, it really got the people in.

But anyway, here is this poem:

We are the only Bible
This careless world will read;
We are the sinner’s Gospel,
We are the scoffer’s creed;
We are the Lord’s last message,
Given in deed and word;
What if the type is crooked?
What if the print is blurred?

What if our hands are busy
With work other than His?
What if our feet are walking
Where sin’s allurement is?
What if our tongues are speaking
Of things His lips would spurn?
How can we hope to help Him
And beg them turn?

All right, some Scriptures. Deuteronomy 5:33: “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you.” What does it say? “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you.” Yes, we listen. We hear. We get it in our hearts. We get it in our mouth. But we’ve got to walk it out.

Deuteronomy 10:12: “Walk in all His ways.”

Deuteronomy 19:9: “Walk ever in His ways.”

Nehemiah 10:29: “They entered into an oath to walk in God’s law.”

 Ezekiel 11:20: “Walk in my statutes, God says.” Notice the words “My statutes.” He doesn’t want us to walk in the ways of the world. He wants us to walk in His statutes. But once again, it’s by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Ezekiel 36:27-28, God is speaking of the New Covenant. He says: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put My Spirit within you, and cause ye to walk in My statutes. And ye shall keep My judgements and do them.”

Do you notice that, once again, it is the Holy Spirit and the Word? Do you notice that this is speaking of the New Covenant? Where God will put His Spirit within us and cause us to walk in His ways. It’s no longer the law but it’s by His Spirit that we will walk in His ways. And do you notice this New Covenant, which is the New Testament (and it’s our covenant) was first given to Israel in Ezekiel 36:27-28.

Let me give you one more poem as we close. This is about walking out the Bible.

Christ has no body now on earth.
No hands to hold, no feet to go,

But uses ours to prove His worth.

And show a weary world down low.

 

Yours are the feet that walk the street,

To find the lost, the hurt, the weak.

To bring the weary soul retreat

And speak the gentle words they seek.

 

Yours are the hands to lift the load,

To give a piece of daily bread,

To ease the pain upon the road,

And raise the fallen up instead.

 

No other eyes will look and care.

No other voice will softly plead.

We are His living Presence there,

To answer every broken need.

So, precious ladies, we are to become walking Bibles. Do you think we can do that? So that, as it says in the New Testament in James 1:22 that “We are not only hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word.” The Word of God becomes flesh in us, and we begin to walk it out. We walk it out, firstly, in our homes, and then, whenever we go out.

When we’re taking our children out to the supermarket, wherever we go, remind your children, even your little children, lovely moms, before you go out. Because often you have to give that little pep talk before you go out. “Remember, children, we’re going out today and we’re going to show people what it’s like to have Jesus in our lives. We’re going to be WALKING BIBLES today, so, children, put a smile on your face. When people look at you, smile at them, and let them see Jesus in you. And when Mommy says something, “OK, let’s go,” remember to obey Mommy, and they will see what kind of life you live, and that you are a walking Bible.”

So, we’re not only walking Bibles ourselves, but we’ll be also teaching our children how to be walking Bibles.

Well, time has come again, precious, lovely ladies. May the Lord bless you. I am excited to continue telling you about all these wonderful principles of what God wants to do about His precious Word which is so important to pass onto our children.

“Dear Father, I thank You for all these precious wives, mothers, and children, listening today, or this evening. I pray that You will bless them. I pray that You will, Lord, give them such a delight, a delight in Your Word, and a delight to pray, and a delight to be in Your Presence.

“Lord, I pray that Your Word will become so precious to them, Lord God. Lord, that You will help them to live by Your Word. Not by the ways of society, but by Your Word.

Pour out Your blessing all over them, over their homes, and over their business, and over their children. I ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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