LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 181: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 3

We continue talking about FAITHFULNESS today. Faithful to our word, faithful to church attendance, faithful to be on time, faithful in the daily etiquette and courtesies of life, and faithful to the end. "Continued acts of faithfulness add up to strength of character, to resiliency and preparation for end times."

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We’re up to number three in our series on five things we need to prepare in our lives as we prepare for the end times. We are talking on faithfulness. Last week we talked about being faithful in our marriage, and in our mothering, and in the very mundane, little things of being a wife and a mother.

I do hope that this last week you began to enjoy doing even the mundane things with joy and delight, and with faithfulness. Oh, ladies, faithfulness is such a great thing. It’s not something to be despised. It’s a great thing, and the more you are faithful, the more faithfulness will become part of your life. Remember, it means “trustworthiness.”

All right. Well, I ended last session with the Scripture, Luke 16:10-12. Let me read it again. “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large things. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with the things of your own?”

Now that’s quite a good challenge, isn’t it? Something I do think we need to think about. Many times, we will be using, well, I hope it’s not many times, but we could be using somebody else’s property, something they own. We’ve borrowed it, and we break it!

Well, what do we do? Well, of course, we reimburse it, don’t we? If we break something that doesn’t belong to us, well, we’re going to reimburse it. If we borrowed something from someone, and we break it, we’d better reimburse it. Maybe we lose it. Well, we’d better buy another one. That is faithfulness. That’s etiquette. So, let’s go on to our next one.

No. 3. KEEP FAITHFUL TO YOUR WORD

I said we’d talk about seven different little practical things in our lives. Number three: keep faithful to your word. That’s part of the Greek word pistos, “to be faithful and trustworthy, to keep to your word, to keep to your promises.” It’s so easy to say things, isn’t it, and not to keep them. We have to really watch what comes out of our mouths. “Let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay” (Matthew 5:37).

If we are not sure that we are going to be able to do something, well, let’s not say we’ll do it. Because when it comes out of our mouths, we should keep to it. That’s etiquette. That’s faithfulness. I think it’s something we need to get into the habit of.

Like even for functions. Weddings, parties, birthdays, invitations. Many times, we can say, “Oh, yes, I’ll be coming!” And then, something may happen, and it just works out that we can’t come. But we should always call the people. If something happens, and we can’t fulfill our obligation, at least call and say, “Oh, look, I said I was coming, but so sorry this has happened. And we’re not able to. We’re so sorry about this.” But always communicate.

Because we are a hospitable home, I’ve had so many functions and parties and things, dinners in my home over the years. I couldn’t even count them, there’s so many. And it’s amazing, different parties that we’ve had here, people say, “Yes, I’ll be coming.” And then, they don’t come!

Well, if people call me, that’s fine. That’s understandable. You know that something has happened. But when they don’t call, you think, “Wow! What’s happened? They didn’t turn up. And they didn’t even have the decency, the faithfulness, to call and say they couldn’t come.”

These are very important things. When we say something, we must keep to it. Or if it’s impossible to keep to it, we must let the people know. Train our children this way. I believe it’s so important to train our children in faithfulness.

No. 4. FAITHFULNESS AND ETIQUETTE

Many young people today don’t really even know the normal courtesies and etiquette of life, which takes me on to point number four: faithfulness and etiquette. I believe we should teach our young people, when they go to visit friends at another home, because young people love to get together, they will ask one another to each other’s homes.

Now, tell your young people, if they’re asked to another home, they’re not only going just to hang out with the young people. Remind them to go and speak to the parents. They’re going into their home. Therefore, they need to say, “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so. Thank you so much for allowing me to come into your home and enjoy friendship with your children.”

Teach them that when they leave, that they don’t just leave. They go and say goodbye, not only to the young people, but they also go to the parents, and they say, “Thank you for allowing me to be here. It’s been wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.”

Now, that is normal courtesy. That is faithfulness. But who does that today? Oh, I’ve had so many parties, as I have said, in our home. I have young people coming in. Many times, those young people don’t even say hello. I might as well not be in the house! Nor do they say goodbye. I’m sure it really isn’t their fault. They haven’t been taught.

Now, we must teach our children these things. It’s part of teaching them how to be faithful. Colin and I have always made it a precedent in our lives that whenever we go somewhere to someone’s home, or we’re invited to a party, or even a wedding, we would never even think of leaving the wedding or whatever it is that we’ve got to without going to the host and hostess and thanking them for inviting us. And telling them how we enjoyed it.

Many times, it comes times to go, and my husband says, “Look, darling, we’ve got to go now. I’m getting tired.” I’ll say, “OK, well, we’d better go find the host and hostess.” We’ll both go around to find both the husband and the wife, to let them know we are leaving, and to thank them for the lovely time.

Now, they have done a big job! They have put on this dinner, this wedding, this party, whatever it was. It is only right that we would let them know.

Once again, why am I saying this? Because of all the hundreds of parties and things that I’ve had in our home, rarely do people ever come and say goodbye! I can’t even believe it. It comes to the end of the night, and gradually everyone’s gone out the door. Nobody comes and says, “Well, thank you for inviting me. It was a great time. Great to be here.”

That’s etiquette! There was a time when nobody would ever think of leaving the house without doing that. They wouldn’t think of it! What has happened? Somehow, we’ve dropped the baton, and parents have not passed on this act of courtesy and faithfulness to the next generation. Can I encourage you to train your children this way? We’ve trained our children. And even now I say, “Don’t forget to do that.”

Recently we had one of our family weddings. Addie and Isaiah were married, Serene’s son. He was married to Addie. Actually, you’ll see their picture on the front cover of the new Above Rubies Magazine that is coming out.

Serene and Sam put on the most beautiful wedding. Sam has got this vision to build this wonderful big barn. We’re already calling it “The Wedding Barn.” It’s going to be such a great place. Well, we had Isaiah and Addie’s wedding there. It wasn’t finished. All we had was the concrete, and the roof, and all rough. The wood that holds up the roof, but nothing was filled in.

But it didn’t matter because it was summer, and it was a glorious, glorious day to have the wedding. But now, their daughter Cherish is getting married to Ben on the 5^th of February. So, Sam says he’s going to have The Wedding Barn ready. It will have to be closed in, because it’s going to be winter.

But anyway, I was talking to Serene afterwards, and I said to Serene, “Serene, just for interest’s sake, how many people came and thanked you before they left? Who came up and said goodbye?” Well, she said, “Not many.”

Actually, I had watched people who had been invited, not family, but other friends. I watched couples; young couples walk out. I knew that they hadn’t gone to Serene and Sam, and I thought, “How sad! They haven’t been taught. They could come to a wedding, enjoy, feast on all the wonderful food, then just leave! Without telling anybody! Without going to the ones who invited them.”

So, let’s change things, shall we? And get back to these little acts of faithfulness. They are so important. These little things add up. These little things add up to great things.

Now, we have a family in our fellowship. Nadia, and they have seven children. I remember talking to Nadia about this one day. There’s something about Nadia. She receives instruction. So, she received this, and she obviously decided she was going to tell her children about this. It’s amazing. Every Sunday when they come to church, and we have fellowship meal, and we hang out. It’s such a glorious time.

But every Sunday, before they leave, in the afternoon sometime, these children will come individually, and they will come up to me. They will say, “Thank you, Nana. Thank you for having us here. We really appreciate it.” It’s so wonderful! I mean, I don’t need that, but I’m so glad that they are doing it. Because they are getting into a habit now, as children, that this what you do! It’s so beautiful, and it’s such a wonderful character trait that’s being added to their lives. It’s really beautiful.

All right. Another meaning of faithfulness is “loyal and loyalty.” I like that. In 3 John 1:5, John is writing to Gaius. He says, “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to the strangers.” John was talking to him about the ways he showed hospitality to the preachers who were traveling through, and to whoever came to his home. He said, “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest.” What a wonderful testimony to have over our lives.

No. 4. FAITHFUL TO CHURCH ATTENDANCE

Here’s another one. Number four. I believe that we should be faithful in church attendance. In preparing, this is actually, this Scripture, you know this Scripture, Hebrews 10:25. Let’s read it this time from the Amplified Classic Translation: “Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people, but admonishing, warning, urging, and encouraging one another, all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.”

This Scripture is encouraging us to get into the habit of faithfully attending church fellowship, whether you go to church on Saturday, or you go to church on Sunday, or whatever church you go to. It doesn’t matter, but we should be faithful, because this Word here, the writers of the Hebrews is saying: “Be faithful now, especially as you see that day coming.”

Well, we’re closer to that day now. And the closer we get, the more faithful we should be to the assembling of ourselves together. Because we’re going to need one another more and more. And it is important to establish that fellowship amongst the brethren now, because church is more than going to a building, and hearing a sermon, and going home.

No, church is the body of believers. Church is the assembling of the saints. It’s the assembling together. It’s the togetherness. God wants us to be a togethering people, because we encourage one another. Our faith is not just a personal faith. It’s a together faith. It’s a you-and-me faith.

This is what the Word of God says in Romans 1:12. It’s a togethering, one-anothering faith. And so, God wants us to establish that. As we do, we will have an assembly. We’ll have people around us who will be there for us when times get more difficult. That’s a lot of what church is about. It’s not only going to hear a sermon.

I was absolutely astounded. I still haven’t got over it, that when this whole thing started last year, and this so-called covid thing began, churches actually stopped meeting. I could not believe it. We were never commanded in the Word to stop meeting, no matter what was happening, no matter what persecution.

What about faith? All around the world, there are Christians who are in countries that have for years had to meet underground. They didn’t stop meeting! And here, people stopped meeting! I can’t believe it! Of course, they had Zoom. “Oh, we’re having Zoom! Oh yes! We’re still getting our messages.”

Well, that’s true. It’s good. You can get a good . . . nothing wrong with Zoom. Get a good message. That’s great. In fact, I’m giving you a message now. I’m not with you, unfortunately. I’d love to be sitting down with you. But that’s not church. Yeah, it’s a Zoom meeting, but it’s not church.

Church is the assembling of yourselves together. And we are commanded not to give it up, that it is to become a habit. To do it more faithfully, even as we approach the end. So, make that a habit in your lives, precious wives and mothers.

You know, there’s always things that happen. Excuses can come. “Oh, this happened. Oh, we won’t make it this morning.” I beg your pardon! No. You decide.  We are people, we are a family who go to church! We meet with the believers at least once a week. These other things that are coming . . .  “Oh, this is happening. This is. . .”

No. We don’t take notice of them. We do the priority. We do what we have to do. I just cannot believe. . . I mean, they’re not hardly valid excuses! They’re just, “Oh, someone came to visit. Oh, I’ve got to go here. Oh, I’ve got to get this done.” People, they don’t come to church, because “Oh, I’ve got to get this done around the house.”

I beg your pardon?? Are we believers, or are we not believers? Do we believe the Word of God, or do we not? The Word says that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together! And yet, so many believers, “Oh, well, a beautiful day. I think I’ll just get out in the garden today or get this done around the back. We need to get this finished.”

Oh, I understand. Life is busy. My, often you don’t get time, but let me tell you, the Word of God says: “Them that honor me, I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30). You honor the Lord. He will honor you. You’ll get those things done some way. God will enable you when you do what is right.

We show to our families, when we just allow things to come into our lives, “Oh, we won’t be able to go today.” What do our children see? You can say it all you like, “Oh, Lord God, You are the pre-eminent One in our lives. Oh, we love You! Lord God, we worship You!” And your children see, well, you’re not even going to church because, just some excuse, or something you want to do that’s more important.

We show to our children the real priorities in our lives by our actions. So, let’s be faithful. Faithful. Faithful now, ladies. Let’s get into the habit of being faithful, faithful now, and we will be much more ready for the end time. I believe it with all my heart.

No. 5. BE FAITHFUL TO BE ON TIME

Number five: be faithful to be on time. On time for church. On time for functions. On time for appointments. That’s being trustworthy. The meaning of “faithfulness.” Are we trustworthy? Can people trust our word? Can they trust us to be on time? Oh, I know that’s not always easy. And there’s often things that cause us to be late. And I’m not perfect either.

But I believe we should seek to be on time. I grew up with a father who believed in being on time. He didn’t only believe in being on time, he believed in being early. He was never late. He was always early for an appointment. He was always early for church. He would be making sure we got ready in time to be there early for church.

That wasn’t easy, because my mother was always late. We used to have this saying, “She was late for her wedding, and she was late ever since.” But he would always be hurrying her along. She was always finishing dishes and trying on this hat to make sure it matched that dress, and so on.

But anyway, he made sure she got there on time, even though he would rather get there early, because he had things that were holding him back. But that was his premise in life: be early. It is a good thing.

I know some mums who will set their watches for half an hour ahead for Sunday. They do it the night before. They’re just half an hour ahead. If they were going to be half an hour late, well, actually they will get there on time. That’s a good idea. You might like to try that one.

But being late is actually selfish, isn’t it? Except, I’m not talking about mothers with little children. Oh, my, I know it’s not easy. That’s why it’s quite a good idea to set your watch ahead, so that you will make it.

Back in our day, can I tell you? I’m really back in the old, old days. So, I can give you a bit of history. But when we were growing up, this was normal. Not just in our home. It was normal in the homes of all the believers. What we would do, going to church, didn’t start on Sunday. It started the night before.

Always the night before. So, Saturday evening everybody would have a bath. Oh, we didn’t have showers in those days. So, we’d all have our bath, all washed our hair. We were all beautifully clean for Sunday. And before we went to bed, we had to lay out all our clothes for Sunday.

Back then, that meant not only your dress, but your hat, and your handbag, and your shoes. Of course, we would wear shoes. But everything to go with it. So, you had it. You didn’t go round Sunday morning, looking round, “Whoo, where is everything? Can’t find it!” All the little children, you can’t find any socks, and you can’t even find shoes! Help!

But no, you do it the night before. So, everything is done. And then, of course, we would even cook on the day before, ready for Sunday, so we didn’t even have to cook on Sunday. We started the day before.

I think that was because it was a priority. They didn’t suddenly think, “Oh, goodness me, it’s Sunday! Here, church, help!” OK. But no, they were gearing up to it, looking forward to it, and preparing for it. I think that would be a good habit to get back into. Don’t you?

Then, of course, we would put our Sunday best. Have you ever heard of that phrase in your life?  “Sunday best”? Well, that’s what we used to call it. Because we would always have clothes that were specifically for Sunday. The best clothes in our wardrobe, usually just one special dress that was our Sunday dress. Or maybe we just might have a couple of others too.

But many times, people only had a Sunday dress, because we were not quite as affluent as we are today where nobody would understand “Sunday best,” because help, you go to your wardrobe, and you think, “Oh, what will I wear?” You’ve got about twenty dresses, and you don’t know which one to wear!

We’re living in a totally different era. Also, people don’t even usually wear their Sunday best today. They wear whatever they feel like. Sometimes you think they were getting ready to go to the beach! Or just so casually.

I do believe, I do believe that we should dress up for Sunday, because it’s that reverence. We are going to worship God. We read in the Old Testament how the priests were not to come into the Holy Place with the clothes they wore outside. They had to change their garments before they came in. They changed their garments to minister unto the Lord.

Then we read about how when Jehosophat was coming against that great army. He sent out the worshippers to go ahead. They got dressed in “holy attire,” in their beautiful worship robes, when they were worshipping the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:21). They didn’t use the same clothes they wore to hang out in. No, they changed them. I think there is something about dressing nicely for church.

No. 6. FAITHFUL IN COMMUNICATION

OK, time is going, so let me carry on here. Number six: faithful in communication. Oh, that’s so important, isn’t it, too? It’s another etiquette thing, really. Communicating with your husband. That’s so important. Families communicating together.

We raised our children to always, especially as they got older. Of course, when they’re young you know where they are every moment. But as they get older, and they’re going out to do their own things, we always told our children they must not ever leave the home until they tell us where they are going and what time they will be home. That is etiquette, and it’s also learning to be faithful to one another.

In a home, we’re a family, and we communicate together. That is something also very important we must train our children in so that becomes part of their lives. When they get married, they will also still be communicating. They don’t just go and do their own thing.

OK, so many people do that today. Just, oh, do their own thing, whatever they’re thinking of doing. Off they go! But no, we don’t live unto ourselves. We are to live for one another. In a marriage, we communicate to one another where we’re going, what we’re doing. In a family, we teach our children the same, so they will always tell us.

It becomes a habit. See, these things become habit. Habits of our lives. These beautiful faithful habits.

No. 7. FAITHFUL TO FINISH WHAT WE START

That’s an important thing, too, isn’t it? So easy to start some project with a hiss and a roar and then to peter out. It’s a good thing in faithfulness to seek to finish. Keep plodding on.

I read once that to get a vision for something is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. I guess that would be my testimony of doing Above Rubies which I started well over 44 years ago, with this great vision that God put upon my heart. It was so strong. It was such a burden. So, I just started it. Wow!

I didn’t think of the future. But as I kept going, because I’ve always felt and thought to have this attribute of faithfulness in my life. Because I started that, I just kept faithful to it. It has taken much self-sacrifice and pouring out of my life. But it’s been my joy also.

I just kept going. I’ve just kept plodding on, and here I am, over 44 years later, still doing it. I’ve known so many other Christian magazines that have started and have finished. So many of them! I guess it’s just by God’s grace I have kept going.

But I know it’s only because I have kept plodding on. I could have stopped a thousand times, but I just kept plodding on. It’s not for any ability of mine. I don’t really have any great abilities at all. Really, all I have, is I keep plodding on. I think this is a very important part of life, to just keep plodding on.

Paul, what was his testimony? 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” He was faithful to the end.

Revelation 2:10: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

In Revelation 2:13, it talks about Antipas. Jesus said of Antipas, “Antipas was my faithful martyr." Faithful, pistos. Martyr. Once again, it’s amazing how many Scriptures there are about when John looked into the heavenly realm. And he saw those who were there. So many of them were there because they were martyred.

I’ll give you these references. We haven’t got time to read them: Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 17:6; and Revelation 20:4. They all talk about those who were there. But they were martyred to get there. But they were faithful unto the end. I think of that Scripture in Hebrews. It’s talking about all those witnesses who are looking on. Those witnesses, that is “martyr” again. It’s the word martus, martyr.

The Bible talks about those witnesses in heaven who are looking on. It’s the word “martyr.” They all got there by being martyred. *

Matthew 10:22: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

Matthew 24:13: “He that shall endure to the end shall be saved.”

Hebrews 3:14 (New Living Translation): “For if we are faithful to the end, trust in God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”

I just wrote down this quote:

“Continued acts of faithfulness add up to strength of character, to resiliency, and preparation for the end times.”

Let me say it again. “Continued acts of faithfulness add up to strength of character, to resiliency, and preparation for the end times.”

My prayer for you lovely ladies is Jesus’ prayer for Peter when He said, “I have prayed for you, that thy faith fail not.” (Luke 22:32).

Keep being faithful, dear mother, in your home, in the little things of life. As you are faithful in them, they will add up to great things.

“Dear Father, we pray that You will help each one of us to be faithful, to be faithful in the few things, to be faithful in the things that we face each day. We ask that we will become strong in faithfulness. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 180: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 2

We continue our series of F F P P and K. Today we talk about FAITHFULNESS - faithful in our marriages, faithful in our mothering, and faithful in the daily grind of life.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Today we are continuing our series about the five attributes we need to have in our lives as we prepare for end times. They are F F P P and K. Last week we talked about FEARLESSNESS. Today our next F is about FAITHFULNESS. So, we’re going to talk about that today.

I find it easy to remember when we use some letters like F F P P and K. You’ll be able to remember them. The five things that you need, and we’ll continue to find out what they are in the next session

This is something that my husband often does when we’re having our family devotions together, and he’s reading the Word of God. He’ll come across a Scripture, and he’ll ask the children or whoever’s in our home, a question. He’ll say, “OK, do you know what this is?” Let me give you an example.

For example, Philippians 4:8. You all know that Scripture where it tells us the things that we are to think upon. If he was reading this Scripture, he might do something like this.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are. . . Ok, who can tell me what the first one is?” Now, they most probably don’t remember, so he’ll give them a clue. He’ll tell them the letter. “OK, it starts with T, children. Who can guess?” And children love guessing.

Of course, you don’t let them all scream out. You get them to put up their hands. So, they put up their hands. “OK, Bobbie, what do you think it is?” And maybe he says, “Tenderness!” “No, that’s not the one. Who can think of another one?” And someone says, “Truthfulness!” “That’s right, it’s truth. That’s the first one. OK, who can remember the next one? It starts with H. OK.”

Then maybe someone says, “Humble!” “That’s a good one, but it’s not the one for this verse.” Maybe someone else says, “Happy!” “Well, that’s a good one, too, but that’s not the one.” Then someone will eventually get it. “It’s honest.”

So, then we keep going through and give the first letter of the word so they can guess to see what it will be. As they do that, it gets them to be familiar with the things that God wants them to think about. Then we can all say them over together.

Let’s take another example. OK, he’s reading in Titus. Titus 2:10-12: “For the grace of God which bringeth salvation has appeared to all men. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live. . . OK, children, do you how God wants us to live? There’s three ways, three things it says. Now the first one starts with S. OK, who knows what it is? Put your hand up if you think you know.”

So, maybe they have a try. “Does it mean sweetly?” “Oh, that’s a good answer, but no.”

“Ok, Johnny, what do you think?” “Selflessly!” “Oh, that’s another good answer, but no. OK.”

Then someone hopefully, hopefully someone will be able to guess. The word is “soberly.” Then you’ll have to tell them what it means, because it means more than just not getting drunk. “Soberly” in the Bible means “to live, having a good understanding in your mind of what is right.”

“And then the next one is R.” So, they keep guessing until they get “righteously.”

 “The next one is G.” “Godly.”

But rather than just reading them, “We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,” they most probably will never ever remember the words. But when you give them a little competition and give them the first letter of the word, and they’ve all got to have a guess and see what the word is, they will remember it.

When they get the right word, “OK, let’s all say it together! Soberly. OK.” And then they guess “righteously.” “Righteously! And then, we can all say it together. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world."

So, they’re really getting to know the Scripture. It’s getting into their hearts, all by having a little fun guessing game.

Often, my husband will do this as he’s reading the Word in our family devotions. That’s just one little trick you can play with the children to help them keep their attention and help them to get the Word into their hearts. 

In the book The Daily Light on the Daily Path, which are Scriptures for every morning and evening from different parts of the Bible. So, it’s rather lovely. You get New Testament AND Old Testament Scriptures on a certain theme for every morning and every evening. But I published one of those books and added at the beginning of each month an idea that you can do with your children to keep them listening and keep them on their toes. So, there’s other ideas in that book, too if you want to order it.

FAITHFULNESS

Anyway, let’s get back to our series. We’re on to the second F, which is Faithfulness. All right, so, we go to Revelation, because we are finding out this from the book of Revelation. Of course, Jesus Himself is called “faithful” in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 1:5: “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.” He is the chief ruler of all kings of the earth, all kings are in subjection to Him.

Well, they may not think they are, at this time, but there is coming a day when all kings and all dominions, and everything in earth and in heaven and under the earth is going to bow to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But did you notice it says: “The One who is the faithful witness.” That word “witness” in the Greek is the word martus. Do you know what it means? It means, “martyr.” It’s the same word that’s used in Acts 1:8 where Jesus told them to wait until they received power from on high. And then they would become “witnesses unto him in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the world.” That word “witnesses” in that Scripture is also martus, which means “martyr.”

Many times, it doesn’t really happen here in the USA, but in many countries of the world, even today, when they witness boldly for Jesus, they can be martyred. There are many martyrs for the faith at this current time, around the world.

Revelation 3:14: “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness.” Once again, that word is “martyr.”

Revelation 19:11: “And I saw heaven open.” Revelation is so wonderful, because John keeps saying, “And I saw. And I saw. And I saw.” And he reveals what he saw in heaven, or what he saw as it’s going to come in the end times. In this Scripture he says: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.”

It’s interesting that Jesus is called “faithful” many times in the Book of Revelation. The words of the Book of Revelation are also true and faithful.

Revelation 21:5: “And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. And he said unto me, write: for these words are true and faithful.”

Revelation 22:6: “And He said unto me again, these sayings are faithful and true.” But we also notice something else, ladies. We notice that not only does it state that Jesus is faithful, but that He also wants us to be faithful.

Revelation 17:14: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” This is the criteria of those who will be with Christ in this end time. The ones who He wants to be with Him will be those who are faithful, “called, and chosen, and faithful.” Therefore, it is important, precious ladies, that we have this attribute in our lives.

Now, we are not right yet at the end times, but we are preparing for them. And so, these characteristics, we’ve got to get them into our lives now, so they are part of us. We don’t suddenly think, “Oh, wow! The end time’s come! I’m facing all this persecution. I’m facing incredible things. How am I going to do it? I’d better be faithful.”

Well, if you haven’t had practice in being faithful, it’s not the time to start then. We have to start NOW. This is why I feel this message that I am sharing with you is so important. Share these series with others. Encourage others to listen. Share it with your children. Let them listen too. Or at least share the truth with them, because every one of these points that we’re going to talk about, we must be practicing in our lives right now. If we’re not faithful now, we’re not going to be faithful in the end. IT ALL STARTS NOW.

Now, what is this word “faithful”? It is the word pistos in the Greek. There are two aspects to this word. It is translated “believe” nine times in the New Testament. It means “to believe the gospel,” to stand fast in your belief that Jesus died for you and was buried and rose again, and that He is your Lord and Savior, and you will never deviate from that.

But it also means “to be faithful in the context of being trustworthy.” Trusty. Have you ever heard that word before? Yes, trusty is in the dictionary. Trustworthiness. Genuine, steadfast to one’s trust, to your word, and to promises that you’ve made. So, it’s being trustworthy and faithful. This word is used 54 times in the New Testament.

FAITHFULNESS IN LITTLE THINGS WILL ADD UP TO FAITHFULNESS IN BIGGER THINGS

So, I think we should look at it a little bit more, don’t you? Let’s look it and look at it in the literal things of life. because I believe, lovely ladies, that faithfulness begins in the little things. Just the very little things of life. If we begin to be faithful in the little things, this faithfulness will add up to our being faithful in bigger things.

As we’re faithful in little things, our faithfulness grows, and it becomes stronger. It becomes something that is part of our lives. Now, I thought of about seven little practical things, and my, I have not, that’s not all of them. That’s just a little peak, but I thought we’d just start with the little peek at some of the practical things we face in life. Let’s check how we’re being faithful in them, shall we?

1.     FAITHFUL TO YOUR MARRIAGE

I believe we should, firstly, if you are married and listening to this session, we are to be faithful in our marriage. OK, we always hear about this, being faithful to your marriage, yes, but even in our marriage, faithfulness begins with the little things in our marriage. Just the daily things. I think it actually starts with being faithful to the same attitude that we had when we fell in love with our husbands.

So many marriages, so many husbands and wives, fall out of love. But what happened? They were in love at one time. Did you know that there is actually a word called “in-loveness”? I love that word. It was coined by the guy named Sheldon Vanauken who wrote “A Severe Mercy,” who wrote a book about his beautiful marriage. He and his wife called it “in-loveness.” They never grew out of their being in love. They called their whole marriage “in-loveness.” Isn’t that beautiful?

I think that’s how it’s meant to be. If we were in love, well, why do we fall out of love? We have to keep doing the things and saying the things that we did when we fell in love. What did we do then? We said beautiful, lovely things, didn’t we? We said kind things and lovey-dovey things. These were the things we spoke to one another when we fell in love.

So, therefore, when we get married, we are faithful. We keep faithful to doing and saying those same lovely things to one another. If we are faithful in doing those little things, we will keep in love. That’s just how it works.

We’re faithful in the mundane things in our marriage, in caring for our husbands, making sure he has a good healthy breakfast before he goes out to work.  I know there are many wonderful wives who get up early to get their husband a good breakfast, even to make a good wholesome and healthy lunch for him to take with him. Maybe it’s very, very, early. They’ll go back to bed afterwards. But they will do that. They don’t just sleep on and let him do it all on his own, or don’t do it.

Because when you let your husband go out without feeding him, without giving him something, you know what happens, don’t you? They’ll just go out and eat junk. That’s what men love to do. In fact, every time my husband goes out and I’m not hovering over him, well, he’s going to be eating junk!

So, I have to look after him. Help! Goodness me! He doesn’t know how to look after himself.  You know, most men, well, there’s a few men who love to be healthy. But most men, they’ll just eat whatever they see. It’s usually junk. So, if we really care about our husbands, we will take time to make sure they have a healthy breakfast. We look after them, and we make sure, when they come home from a day where they’ve been working hard that we have a meal ready for them—a wholesome, nutritious, good, lovely meal that they’re going to love and just want and come and sit down to eat.

That’s just one of the basic things of the of being faithful in marriage. Now, today, there’s lots of wives who really don’t cook a good meal for their husbands. Oh, he comes home, and they’re still on their own project, or doing whatever they want, or maybe even coming home from work. Many times, the poor guy has got to get dinner himself. Or it’s just grab something out of the cupboard.

No! Being faithful is thinking about how you’re going to feed your husband and give him healthy food and look after him. These are little things of faithfulness. Faithfulness is not just some lovely word out there, floating in the clouds. It’s down-to-earth, nitty-gritty, doing the things that we need to do in the home.

We need to be faithful in intimacy with our husbands. That’s the first thing God speaks about marriage.

Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” That is the very first thing that God speaks about marriage. And this is a very important part of marriage.

1 Corinthians 7:3-5 in the New Living Translation: “The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. Do not deprive each other of sexual relations.”

And so, if we are depriving, if we are not being faithful in intimacy, well, we’re not being faithful to the marriage. This is also a very important part of being faithful. It’s practical things, ladies.

2.     BE FAITHFUL TO YOUR MOTHERING

Then, of course, we get to mothering. Oh, my. We, as mothers, have the greatest opportunity in the whole of the world to practice faithfulness, don’t we? Because as we manage our homes, so often we’re doing the same thing every day. We’re cleaning up the messes every day. We’re doing the laundry every day. We’re washing the dishes every day. We’re cooking those meals every day. Breakfast, lunch, and supper, and then they want food in between. Help!

Dear ladies, this is all part of your mothering. Yes, it’s very, very practical. It’s right in the nitty-gritty. But be faithful. Be faithful in these little things, even as you’re being faithful in your home, keeping your home, managing it so you’re keeping on top of things. You’re not letting everything get out of hand. In doing this, dear ladies, you are being faithful.

DUTY IS A BEAUTIFUL THING

Do you know what? You are preparing for end times. When you are faithful to even that which is not glamorous, that is working something in your life. I love this quote:

“It takes character to cope with life when duty,

rather than excitement, is the sustaining force.”

Duty is a very powerful thing.

Sometimes it seems, oh, such a boring thing to do that which is duty. But there’s a lot of things in life that really, we do need to do as a duty. You can actually make duty a delight. It’s all in your attitude. If you see duty as a drudgery, well, you’re not going live a very nice happy life.

But if you see duty as a delight, because it’s what needs to be done, it’s not just because you have to do it. Because duty actually makes wonderful things. Out of duty comes amazing things. When you are faithful to keep to the duties of your home, of keeping your home right, of cooking your meals, of keeping up to date with everything, and doing it with joy and delight, you’re going to build a wonderful home.

You’re going to build a beautiful home, a home where your husband loves to be, where your children will delight to be, where people will love to come. You will bless so many people. Oh, homes are the places where you can bless people. When you make your home a delight, and you invite other people into your home, you’re going to bless them and encourage them.

But if you see duty as a drudgery, your attitude will be such that you’ll never want to invite anybody into your home because you don’t even like your home. No, you’ve got to make what you’re doing in your home such a delight that you want others to come and share it. And duty becomes glorious! So never despise duty. Never despise the faithfulness of the little things.

Let’s go, shall we, ladies, to Matthew 25:14-30. We won’t read it all, but it’s the parable of the talents, and how God gave five talents to one, and he gave two talents to one, and to another He only gave one. But we go down to verse 20, and it says: “And he that received five talents came and brought the other five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you gave me five talents. Now I have gained five talents more.’ And his lord said unto him, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’”

That word “faithful” is pistos, the same word where it says that those that are going to be with Jesus are those that “are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Yes, faithful. “Good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things.” Yes, a few things. “Now, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

So, God sees faithfulness as a very precious thing. And God sees you, dear mother, being faithful in the little things, the mundane things. Yes, changing 20 diapers a day! Oh, doing dishes again, and they keep piling up. You get the dishes done, and then they start piling up even before you’ve had the next meal.

But you keep on, and you keep on doing because it needs to be done. You do it with the right attitude. You do it with delight. And as you do it, even in these little things, God sees, and He speaks over you: “Good and faithful servant.”

The same thing with the one who brought the two talents. Verse 23: “And the Lord said unto him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.’”

And the one, of course, that buried his talent in verse 26, the Lord calls him, “Thou wicked and slothful servant.” Wow, that isn’t too good, is it? And so, lovely ladies, just keep being faithful.

Let’s go to Luke 16:10: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” So, when we are faithful in our homes, in our marriages, in our mothering, we are preparing to be faithful in much, in bigger things. When it comes to the end time (many people are facing so much even now, they’re losing jobs). Oh, and as I shared last week, we have in Australia, we have so many friends and family. So, we are feeling this even personally.

They are facing incredible odds, even now. In fact, I was talking last night to Val Stares, the director of Above Rubies in Australia. Not only is she the director of Above Rubies, but Val is such a dear friend of mine. Val has been with me in Above Rubies from the very day I first got the vision, over 44 years ago. In fact, I was visiting the hospital of another dear friend. Her little boy was in hospital, so we went to visit them. Val was there too.

It was at that time, I got this vision, and I turned to Val, and I said to her, “Val, I’ve got this great vision! We’re going to get a magazine out, and we’re going to encourage wives and mothers all over the land.” She looked at me, just stared at me. Interesting thing, her name is Val Stares.

She just stared at me, didn’t say anything. I didn’t know that she had said to the Lord that very morning, “If Nancy Campbell comes up with any more of her great ideas, I’m not getting involved!” Well, she got involved. And from that very beginning she has been involved with me in New Zealand, where we started the magazine. When we moved to Australia, she and her family moved with us, like many other families.

And then when we, ten years later, moved to the USA, Val took over, and has been continuing this ministry. Talk about faithfulness! I mean, goodness me, she is the epitome of faithfulness. But anyway, I was talking to her last night and saying, “How are things in Australia?”

She said, “Nancy, we’re really facing it here. December 17 is the D Day. On that day, if we haven’t taken this poisonous vaccination, we will be isolated. We will not be able to have jobs. Our children, grandchildren, who are all working people, they will not have jobs. We will not be able to shop. We will not be able to do anything.” She said, “We’re getting prepared. We are gardening like we’ve never gardened before.”

And that is a big challenge because down in Australia, they are in the hottest time of the year, especially on the Gold Coast. Very hot there and it’s not easy to garden over there. You have to water just about all day. But they are doing what they can and preparing food and preparing for this.

They’re facing challenges, even now. But it’s not the end of the world. And we’re going to face greater challenges in that time. So, we’re preparing now to be faithful. If we do, we’ll find that that faithfulness will be in us and will enable us to be faithful in those greater challenges.

All right, the next thing. This is from the New Living Translation. It’s also Luke 16:10: “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?”

Now, that’s interesting. That’s going to take us into another point. But I think we are coming to the end. What is the time, girls? Oh, time is up! Wow! I hardly got started! Well, that means we’ve got to continue next week. We’ll look at a few more practical things. OK, don’t forget to tune in next week! Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we pray that You will help us to be faithful. This is what You’re looking for. Lord, the ones You are looking for, the ones You’ve called and chosen. You want us to be faithful. Faithful. Teach us what it means to be faithful, Lord God. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH

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LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 179: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 1

Today I begin a new series about five qualities we need to establish in our own lives and in the lives of our children as we get closer to the end times. Please don't miss one episode in this series. It is a MUST for everyone. Today we talk about FEARLESSLESS, the first of F F P P and K. You'll find out what they as we go along. Or you could start guessing.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Good morning, ladies, although it may not be good morning where you are. Perhaps you’re listening in the evening or some other time. But anyway, it’s good morning here.

I have good news for you. The new issue of Above Rubies #99 is now at the printers. I will be receiving the proof today. If everything is great, it will go on the presses this week. So, be looking out for this new issue to come. If you’re not on the mailing list, make sure you get on the mailing list. You can send your name and your address to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I’m going to start a new series today. It’s called “Five Attributes for Living in the End Times.” I discovered these as I was reading through the book of Revelation. Recently, I felt pulled toward reading Revelation again. I read it through a couple of times personally. As I was reading it through, I became aware of these very important qualities that we will need in the end time hour.

In fact, we need them now, of course. We’re going to talk about them. I have a little alliteration to remember them: S S P P & K. Each one of those letters stands for the five points. I quite like doing something like that. It helps me to remember things.

I have a little alliteration for remembering the seven churches that are mentioned in Revelation. Remember the first three chapters? It’s a message to the seven churches who were in Asia at that time. These churches were literally in Turkey.

Colin and I had the privilege one year of visiting these seven churches in Asia. Colin and I used to take tours to Israel. After going to Israel, we’d take all our people on to another country. One year after Israel, we went on to Turkey and visited the seven churches. It was a most amazing time, to just go to those churches although they are no longer there. We could go to the cities where they were. When we went to Laodicea, there was not even a city, just some ruins of where it was. That was a great time.

Anyway, I made up this little song, and I can’t even sing for nuts! But it goes like this:

ESP, TSP and L,

These are the seven churches

That I know so well!

Oh, ESP, TSP, and so it goes on.

But remembering that little ditty helps me to remember them because, OK, when I sing ESP, I know it’s Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos. Then TSP, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and L, Laodicea. So, that’s how I remember the seven churches of Asia.

Well, we are living in very challenging times. In this time of history. I don’t believe it is the end of the world. I believe there’s still much prophecy that we see written in the Word that has yet to come to pass. But I do believe we are living in practice times. We are seeing a glimpse of what we will face.

In fact, here in the States, we are not facing as much as in some other countries. As you know, Colin and I are New Zealanders, and then we lived in Australia for ten years before coming to the states many years ago. We came to the States in 1991.

But, oh, how we are praying for Australia at the moment! The state of Victoria, I think it’s the most locked-down state in the whole of the world at this present time. Today, well it was most probably yesterday now, because Australia is just about a day ahead, so I don’t know what has happened.

But, oh my, can I ask you to be praying constantly for this country, especially for Victoria? The premier, Dan Andrews, is wanting to pass legislation that will give him absolute power, ultimate accountability. If people don’t comply to what he says, well, there’s just no life for them at all. They’ll most probably end up in jail. The slogans there now are, “No jab, no job.” “No shot, no shop.”

We have friends calling us. We had a family call us last night, “Please, is there any way you can make a way for us to get to the States? Both my wife and I, we have no job, we cannot shop, our home is going to be taken from us because we have no money to keep paying.”

There was just no hope. Well, just humanly speaking if they stick it out, and will not take that poisonous jab. Of course, there are many who are standing strong and who will not give into tyranny. But their lives are in incredible danger. There is just nowhere for them to go. Even elected politicians in Victoria cannot, if they don’t take the jab, they cannot vote or even enter Parliament. They’re not even allowed to do it digitally.

So, people can’t do anything, can’t eat out, can’t get a haircut. And even those who are vaccinated, they don’t really have much more freedom either, because they have to use what is called the Victoria App, so they can be traced. They can be tracked. They have to show it everywhere they go, so they can be traced for every single thing they are doing. It is total control.

The current fines for not wearing masks for children under 15 are $181.74. I cannot understand where that amount, and even the 74 cents come from, but that’s what it is. Children 15 to 18, if they do not wear masks, they’re fined $726.96. It is so ridiculous.

And then now they have PAL, Police Assistance Line, so you can snitch and tell on those who are not keeping up with what they’re meant to do. Can you imagine living like this? I mean, we lived in Australia, this glorious, free, happy-go-lucky country. It has been a happy-go-lucky country. I think a favorite saying down under is “She’ll be right, mate.” But perhaps that has been a little to their negativity in that they have not really realized the danger where they are. All of a sudden, it catches up. So, do pray for them, won’t you, please?

We are living in times where we are facing issues, and where when we’re not prepared to give into tyranny, we are facing persecution, maybe hunger, maybe homelessness. Goodness knows what.

FEARLESSNESS

Let’s look at these five things, shall we? The first F, remember F F P P and K. Our first F is the word “Fearlessness.” When I was reading through Revelation the first time, I came across chapter 15:2-4. They really arrested me. I mean, I knew it, but I hadn’t really got hold of this Scripture before.

Revelation 15:2-4: “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had GOTTEN THE VICTORY

OVER the beast,

and OVER his image

and OVER his mark,

and OVER the number of his name,

stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying ‘Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of Saints.’”

Do you notice there that four times in verse two where it says the word “over”? Yes, I actually shared this with you a while back, when I first read it, but I do have to share it with you again today, because now it’s the first part of the first point that I am going to talk about with you. But it’s good to be reminded.

In fact, I remember saying to you, “This is a great Scripture for you and all your children to memorize together.” I wonder, did any of you memorize it with your family? I hope so. If you didn’t, will you perhaps try again? I do believe that this is a Scripture that everyone of us needs to know. When I read that Scripture, I realized, yes, I must know this Scripture by heart. I must have it in my very being. Our children must have it in their very being.

Now I don’t believe we are facing the mark of the beast at this time, although you would think so in some parts of the world. But we haven’t seen the appearance yet of the Antichrist. We do have the spirit of Antichrist so powerfully in this world. But there is going to come the Antichrist and the beast.

When that time comes, the Scripture tells that we must never take the mark of the beast, because that would be completely siding on Satan’s side. Those who take the mark of the beast will not enter into the joy of the eternal realm.

So, it is very important. It’s something that we need to prepare our children. Every generation needs to be prepared to know you must never take the mark of the beast. I grew up with this, even when I was a child. We received messages from the pulpit, “Don’t ever take the mark of the beast.” It was ingrained into me. It should be ingrained into our children so that it is there for when that time comes. It could be very, very soon, or could be a while. I don’t know. But we always must be prepared.

Let me say it again. “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory OVER the beast, and OVER his image, and OVER his mark, and OVER the number of his name.” Now that word “victory” means “to conquer, to overcome, to prevail, to subdue.” This word is used 15 times about overcoming in Revelation.

In fact, when writing to the seven churches, there are eight different promises that are given to the overcomers. That same word, those who got the victory. Now, how did they get the victory? Did they get up to that beast and knock him out? No, there was no possibility of doing that. They had to overcome by resisting, by not giving in. Many of those people, they actually overcame by being prepared to be martyred.

It’s the same word. Revelation 12:11: “And they OVERAME him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Do you notice that Scripture starts, “And I saw”? John looked into the heavenly realm, and these are the ones that he saw before the throne of God, singing praises to the Lamb, the ones who had gotten the victory. The ones who caved in weren’t there.

Now, we should see some other Scriptures about that. Revelation 6:9. Once again, John was beholding, and what did he see? So much of Revelation is what he saw. And what did he see? Revelation 6:9: “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held.”

We go to Revelation 14, and we see again, what did he see? Revelation 14:9: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.’”

That is so powerful. Help. It’s pretty tough reading those Scriptures, isn’t it? But what does Revelation say? It starts off in Revelation 1:3: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” So, even though it’s pretty tough to read that, we are blessed if we read it and hear, because we will be prepared.

It goes on, Revelation 17:6. And John saw again. He saw “the woman who was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” And so, we see that many of those who overcame the beast and got the victory over him, and over his name, and over his mark, and over his image, many of them were obviously martyred.

Now “martyrs,” that word in the Greek is martus and is the same word in Acts 1:8: “Ye shall be witnesses.” Jesus said you wait until the promise of the Holy spirit is come upon you. You will receive power from on high. And you will be witnesses.” That’s martus. The word is “witness” or “martyr,” because many who were not afraid to witness for Jesus and to stand true to the faith, they became martyrs. “Ye shall be witnesses,” or martus, martyrs, “unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Another Scripture where John saw, because everything he saw is what will be in heaven, he saw the heavenly realm. Revelation 20:4: “And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

WHO WILL BE IN HEAVEN?

I was recently preparing the Above Rubies magazine. Often, in the magazine, I love to put a little spot in the magazine where it tells people how they can receive Christ into their lives and be converted. I think that is so important. As I was thinking about it this time, I was thinking, “Wow, who really will be in heaven?”

So, as I was reading Revelation, I began to see, OK. And I found three kinds of people who will be in heaven. I think this is important to see because we know we’ll be there if these three things:

1. Those who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Read that in Revelation 5:9-10.
2. Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We read about that in Revelation 20:15, and 21:17, and other parts as well.
3. Those who did not take the mark of the beast. We just read all those Scriptures.

Those are the people who John saw in the heavenly realm. That’s a challenge, isn’t it? That’s more than just saying, “Lord Jesus, please come into my heart,” and then living how you want. That’s not the people who John saw in heaven. He saw those who were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

Yes, number two, whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and number three, those who had gotten the victory over the beast, and his mark, and his name. Yes. So, that’s pretty powerful, isn’t it?

Now, another thing that I noticed here, and we’re getting on to our talk more about our point, the first one, fearlessness. In Revelation 21:8, it talks about eight different things that will keep us out of heaven. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now, that sounds like a pretty bad lot of people, doesn’t it? But do you notice, ladies, this is the amazing thing. At the top of the list, at the top of all those baddies, it says, “But the fearful.” At the top of the list! Goodness me! You would think maybe the whoremongers, and the sorcerers, and the murderers, one of them would be at the top of the list.

But no. It’s the fearful. Nearly every other version of the Bible translates it, “the cowards,” or “the cowardly.” My, that’s an incredible challenge, isn’t it? The Amplified Classic version really challenges us. It says: “But as for the cowards, and the cravenly lacking in courage, and the cowardly submissive.”

Whoo! Wow! They will not enter the Kingdom of God. That’s so challenging, dear precious ladies. This is my first point, because this is what we see, that we must have fearlessness. We must not give into fear. We must not become cowards.

Now, as I was saying, I don’t think that we are at the final end at this time. I believe there is more to happen yet. But we are facing a time when we must show courage. There are so many people here in our nation who have been fired from their jobs. So many are losing jobs, so many are even leaving jobs, because they cannot continue unless they are vaccinated.

But there are many who understand what is in these vaccinations, that there are many, many poisonous things in these vaccinations. They are not for the purpose of our health. I mean, there are more people who are getting the so-called “Delta Variant” who have been vaccinated than those who are unvaccinated.

Really, the Delta Variant is something that has come out of those who have been vaccinated, because their immune system is weakened and depleted. Every shot they get, their immune system will be depleted more. I would encourage you. I trust that you have not been vaccinated. If you have, I would encourage you please don’t get a second shot. If you did, please don’t get the booster, because every shot will be lowering your immune system even more.

Of course, they’re not going to stop the boosters. They’re going to keep going, and every shot that’s taken will weaken you even further, until you won’t keep alive without shots. And how long will you last?

We know it’s not about health. It’s about tyranny. It’s about the one-world order. In all the countries where they are locking down most, they’re all leaders who have been trained and prepared for this one-world order. As in New Zealand, as in Australia. This is all what it’s about, a complete take-over of our lives. If you read the agenda, you will have read number one on the top of the list is, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy,” because it will be total take-over of our lives.

WE MUST STRENGTHEN OUR COURAGE MUSCLE

But to stand against this, to have courage, is not always easy, is it? Courage is something that God asks us to have. He wants us to be strong and courageous. But courage is also, it’s even more that an attribute. Courage is the muscle that we must work at, that we have to use. If we don’t use it, it will atrophy. It will become weaker.

If we use it, it will become stronger. And so, I do encourage you, that in this hour, to have courage. I know, it’s not easy, but God will help you. He doesn’t say, “Be courageous,” and not help us to be courageous. He will give us that courage.

I believe too, although I don’t believe this is the final time when we are facing the mark of the beast, I believe that we are now preparing. We are gathering courage in the face of incredible adversity, and loss of jobs, and not even, in some places, not even being able to shop.

But if we cave in now, if we give in now, what will we do in the time of the mark of the beast, when we definitely will never be able to buy or sell? And where we are commanded that we must not take the mark. We may be martyred for not taking it.

We don’t get courage suddenly. It just doesn’t suddenly come. We must build up courage. Therefore, I believe it is so important in this hour, as we prepare for the end times, that we exercise our courage muscle. We say “No!” to tyranny. We say “No!” to their total authority over our bodies, because they do not have authority our bodies. This is not God’s plan. No one is meant to have authority over our bodies. We are a free people, although they’re seeking to bring us into bondage.

For many years, I’ve read this Scripture in Nehemiah. It’s always been such a sad Scripture to me to read. And now I see it happening! And I can’t believe it. Nehemiah 9:36: “Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that Thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it.” Imagine! God gave the Land to His people. He said, “It’s yours, for an everlasting covenant, forever. An everlasting possession.”

And here they are, in Nehemiah’s time, they’re servants in it. He goes on to say: “Also, they have dominion over our bodies at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.” Isn’t that incredible? And that’s what’s happening now. Our governments are taking, taking dominion over our bodies, and commanding that we are vaccinated with something that is not proved, and is only going to cause our whole bodies to be weakened. Not helped but weakened.

But we must stand against it. We must have courage. Yes, we may lose our job. We may face all kinds of issues. But as we have courage, God will strengthen us to face the next thing, and the next thing.

I think back to that Scripture in Hebrews 11. This is the “faith chapter.” This is the great heroes of the faith. Verse 34 tells us that many of those heroes didn’t start out with great courage.

They didn’t start out strong. They were weak. But they were courageous in a little bit, and then God gave them more courage, and more courage, and they became stronger and stronger. They became heroes of faith.

The Darby Translation says they “became strong, out of weakness, became mighty in war.” Lovely ladies, you may feel weak. How can you get courage to face these things? Maybe some of you are already facing that your husband has lost his job, and you’re wondering how you can get through. Just keep having courage. God will be with you. He loves courage.

HAVE YOU MET THE TWINS, ASAH AND CHAZAQ?

Now in the Bible, there’s lots of twins. Yes, there are physical twins, Esau and Jacob and other twins. But there are spiritual twins, loads of them. Faith and love, peace and righteousness. Oh, there’s so many of them. I’ve done a wonderful study on all the twins. But there’s another set of twins that you wouldn’t pick up when you’re reading your English Bible, because they’re twins in the Hebrew. These twins are called asah and chazaq. And my, they are amazing twins. Let me tell you about them.

The word asah is an action word meaning “to do, to make, to take action.” This word is used 2630 times in the Old Testament! because the Bible is an action book. It’s a to-do book. God doesn’t just write a lovely story that kind of calms and teaches how to have a peaceful life. No! it’s a to-do book.  He commands us. He gives us things to do.

But many of the things that God gives us to do, wow, they’re kind of beyond us, and we think, “How can we do them? I don’t have strength to do them.  How can I do this?” And so, He also gives us chazaq! They go together! And chazaq, this word means “to be strong, courageous, valiant, to conquer, to hold fast.” So, we need, when God tells us to asah, to do something, we usually need chazaq to go along with it, so we'll have the courage to do it. And we see this in quite a lot of Scriptures. Let me give you just one or two as we’re coming to the end.

Joshua encouraged the Israelites. In Joshua 23:6, when they were going into the Land, he said: “Be ye therefore very courageous (chazaq) to keep and to do (asah) all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.”

David encouraged Solomon when he was building the Temple. 1 Chronicles 28:20. And he said to his young son, Solomon. He was only young. He said: “Be strong (chazaq) and of good courage and do (asah) it: fear not nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with you; He will not fail you, nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the House of the Lord.”

In Ezra’s time, a lot of the Israelites had married foreign wives. Ezra told them they had to put them away. He says to them in Ezra 4:10: “Be of good courage (chazaq) and do it.” You see those twins together?

Then Daniel 11:32, one of my great favorite Scriptures: “And the people that do know their God shall be strong (chazaq) and do (asah).” Now, there they go, together. So, you see, lovely ladies, we need the twins. We need, OK, when God says, “Do it,” when you know you’ve got to do something, when you know you’ve got to be strong and not cave in, just look to the Lord for His courage. He will give it to you. He says: “Be courageous and do it!”

Daniel 11:32, King James version: “And the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” Well, if you go back to the Hebrew, “exploits” is not actually in the original! But it’s a good word, and it means that, because it ends with “do.” It ends with the asah. “Be strong and do.” So, of course, that does mean that you’re going to take action, and you’ll most probably do exploits.

Let’s look at a few other translations.

The Good News Translation says: “They will be strong.” Remember who will be strong? The people who do know their God. Who know their God. Lovely precious ladies, seek to know God. Don’t just know about Him. Seek to know Him. Can you teach your children to know Him? Not just to know about him. Too many children grow up in Christian homes knowing about Him, but they don’t know Him.

You’ve got to know Him. If you want your children to survive in the end times, if you want them to be overcomers, if you want them to be there in that heavenly kingdom, if you want them to be those who will have the courage to say “No!” and to overcome the beast, and his name, and his mark, and his image, they’ve got to be children who know God. It’s only when we know Him that we will have courage. We’ve got to know Him.

The people who know their God shall be strong and the Good News Translation says: “will fight back.” I like that.

The Holman Translation says: “They will be strong and take action.”

The Complete Jewish Bible says: “They will stand firm and prevail.”

The New Living Translation says: “They will be strong and resist.”

The Berean Study Bible says: “With flattery he will corrupt those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.”

Yes! We are commanded to resist! When tyranny is happening, we resist. Yes. So, lovely ladies, do not fear. We’re not going to have fearlessness, are we? We’re going to be those who exercise our courage muscles, starting in weakness, but growing stronger and stronger. We’re practicing. We’re preparing now for that coming day, or whenever it will be. And preparing our children for that day.

Let me close with some encouraging Scriptures.

John 14:27, Passion Translation: “Don’t yield to fear, or be troubled in your hearts. Instead, be courageous.”

The Amplified says: “Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do not permit yourselves to be fearful, and intimidated, and cowardly, and unsettled.”

John 16:33, The Amplified: “In the world, you have tribulation and trials, and distress, and frustration. But be of good cheer. Take courage. Be confident, certain, undaunted, for I have overcome the world.”

Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You that You have overcome the world. You are in charge of this world, and everything that’s going on. We can completely trust You. We put our trust in You, Lord God.

Dear Father, we just want to know You more. We want to walk with You. We want to know You. We want to know Your Word. Lord, it is knowing You and knowing Your Word that makes us strong and courageous.

I pray for every dear mother and every family, Lord, that are represented today, listening to this podcast, that You will strengthen them, that You will make them strong in this hour, that You will make them overcomers, Lord, that they will learn to overcome now, even overcoming in the little things, Lord, that they face each day. Overcoming stress, overcoming depression and self-pity, temptation. Lord God, help us to be overcomers in every thing we face each day, that we will become stronger and stronger, ready to face, Lord, whatever happens in the final end times. I ask this in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 178 – Creative Hospitality

Wendy Shaw joins with me again today as we talk about more creative ways of showing hospitality to people in all walks of life. The Shaw family operate by The Triple A. What is it? Wendy also shares how they do family Bible reading in their home. It's great to hear the different methods families use, isn't it? We all learn from one another.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello everyone! Well, I have Wendy Shaw with me again. We still have things to talk about together. We were talking in our last podcast about hospitality. I wanted to read this Scripture to you. It’s in the passage in 1Timothy talking about widows. 1 Timothy 5:9: “Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man.”

Now, what was happening here within this church? There were apparently many widows. Young Timothy didn’t know what to do with them all, so he asked Paul. Paul writes back to him and says, “All right. The women who are 60 years of age and over, they are the older women. If they’ve lived a certain lifestyle,” (and we’re going to read the lifestyle) “I want you to look after them. They can be cared for by the church. Now that’s if they have nobody to care for them, because if they have children or grandchildren, they must look after them.”

That is the Biblical principle, that families must care for their elderly. It comes down to children, and if the children are not able to do that, then the grandchildren. Families should take that responsibility, but here there were some who did not even have families. So, he said, “If they’ve lived this kind of lifestyle, I want you to look after them.

1 Timothy 5:10: “Well reported of for good works.” So, we’re going to read about these good works. “If she has brought up children.” It’s interesting that the Bible always puts everything in order. There’s nothing out of place. everything is in order, and the very first thing is, “If she has brought up children.” She’s embraced children. She’s raised children. This was her very first thing.

Now the word “brought up” is the Greek word teknotropheo, from two Greek words, teknon, which is “child,” and trepho, which means “to feed, to pamper with food, to nurture, to suckle.” It’s all about feeding. Interesting, isn’t it, dear mothers, that that is such a big part of our mothering. We’re always feeding. There’s breakfast, there’s lunch, there’s supper. And there’s the in-betweens. And they’re always hungry, so we’re always feeding.

But, OK, that’s part of bringing up children. Don’t despise it. Embrace it. It’s part of your mothering. A feeding anointing, that’s what we have to have as mothers. It’s a beautiful thing to serve our family with food.

But this Scripture carries on. Now we see the progression and the seasons of life of this woman. Because as her family is growing, she is reaching out more to people roundabout her. It says, “If she has lodged strangers.” She’s opened her home in hospitality.

Ladies, I found that my heart was for mothering, which was my number one, because that’s who I am. I am a mother. God created me to be a mother. But out of that, my greatest ministry as I was raising our children was hospitality. I mean, it’s just so wonderful, because there you are. You’re in your home. You’ve got a home. You’re cooking meals. OK, just reach out beyond to bless others. It is such a wonderful ministry you can have. You don’t even have to go outside your door! Goodness me! And you can touch so many lives!

It’s interesting. The other day, we had a guy living with us. He comes and goes, and lives with us off and on, and has done over the years. He was working for someone. It was an older lady. She was looking after her mother who was 100 years old. He was saying, “Yes, but once a week someone comes and bathes her for her so she can get out. She only gets out once a week.”

I thought to myself, “Wow, goodness me!” It’s quite amazing if I even go out once a week, because currently I don’t have a car. I borrowed it to someone, and it never came back. Anyway, so many times I don’t go outside this place. Wow, often more than a whole week.

And yet, do you know, I thought about that. I thought, “Goodness me. I don’t even notice.” I don’t even notice it, because I have so much to do and accomplish in my home. I have so many people coming and going. There are so many people to invite. I have so many on my list that I can never get through the whole list. I can never get lonely or feel that I am not fulfilled. I feel and think I’m going everywhere because I’ve got people all the time. So that’s amazing, isn’t it?

You know, you never have to be housebound. Never in your life! People say, “I’m housebound.” Oh, what a disgusting phrase! I don’t even believe in it. I can be in my home, but I never feel housebound, because the home is the greatest place to accomplish so many things! It’s a place where you can invite so many people that you would never even notice that you’re housebound. So, she opened her doors in hospitality.

It says: “If she has washed the saints’ feet.” That was hospitality too, because back in those Bible days, they walked the dusty roads in their sandals. No woman wants to see dusty feet walking all through her house so they would wash their feet if they came in the door. Often it was the lowly servant who washed their feet. But this woman, maybe she couldn’t afford servants. But she had such a big heart. She washed their feet herself. But that was to show hospitality. Washing feet is just to bring people into your home, to show hospitality.

Of course, if you’re going to show hospitality, you’ve got to cook. You’ve got to feed people. But remember it started: “If she has brought up children.” She’s been feeding children. As you’re raising children, and you’re feeding them, and you’re cooking meals, you’re getting so good at cooking that it’s nothing to cook for a few extra.

Then it says: “If she has relieved the afflicted.” And so, she’s reaching out to those who are needy. You see the picture of a mother. Her mothering keeps extending and enlarging and showing hospitality all through her life. This is the lifestyle, because God says, “If this woman, these women 60 years of age or over, have got no family, and that is this lifestyle, I want to reward them. I want you to care for them and make sure they’re provided by the church.” Isn’t that great?

Wendy: Oh, I love all of that. One thing about washing the feet, it seems like an older tradition, but really, I’ve done it for a lot of my friends, and ones in the hospital, several in their homes. It’s something that the first time was a little bit new, but after a while, you just focus on that other person.

I’ve got a thing for oil, and I just washed her feet, and then rubbed some essential oil into them. It’s just a good way to still serve others, even though it’s an older practice. It still can be modern day.

Nancy: Yes. You know, we were talking about other ideas of hospitality. There’re so many amazing things you can think about. Just be creative, ladies. There are so many people who need encouraging. I remember back in New Zealand days; I remember I got this burden. I was thinking about all the older people in our fellowship living on their own. Oh, I just loved to reach out to them. of course, I would often have older people to my table. But I decided to do something big.

I didn’t keep it to myself. I began to talk to all the other young mothers. I said, “Hey, let’s get together. Let’s see if we can put on this amazing dinner for all the older people.” Then it got beyond our homes. We asked if we could have this big room in the church. We began to put out the invitations. Every older person we knew, we even went to older people’s homes. We invited all these older people. We ended up with about 100 older people.

We all brought this food. You’ve never seen a feast like it. Everyone, all the mothers, we all got together. Well, we cooked in our own homes, but then we brought this food. I looked at this feast, and I thought, “Wow! These older people, they’re just hardly going to dent it. You know, they don’t usually eat very big." You wouldn’t believe it! They scoffed the lot! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such glorious food. It was such an amazing day.

I can remember another day. This was on the Gold Coast. “Oh, well, let’s do something special for the widows.” I often loved to have widows at my table. I believe it’s very important to reach out to those living on their own.

But once again, I talked to some of the other mothers. I said, “OK, let’s get together and do something beautiful for all the widows that we know.” So, we all together thought of every widow that was living on their own. We had it at our home. But we put on this great big luncheon. We just made all this beautiful food and invited them all.

Of course, they were so blessed. Not only did we feed them, of course, but amongst our children there were those who could sing, or recite, or play a musical instrument. We put on this little concert for them and gave a little word to them and little gifts to each one. It was such a blessing.

You can do these things. Sometimes they get bigger. Sometimes I would think of things, and my vision gets bigger than me. So then, I just include others to come in with me and do it together. It’s even more exciting.

Include your children in hospitality. When you have a family over, or you have widows or an older person over, you can not only feed them at your table, but you can bless them. Maybe your children play a musical instrument, or they sing, or they recite, or they’ve been learning memory verses. Get them to do it for them. These people will love it!

Oh, another thing I love is having young married couples over too. That’s a beautiful thing. Oh, I remember. I often do this on Shabbat. Every Friday evening, we keep Shabbat. We are not Jewish. But we do keep the Shabbat meal, because it is the most beautiful meal I think you can ever enjoy as a family, because it is a meal where the mother of the home is blessed.

The father reads Proverbs 31, and he blesses and encourages his wife in front of the family. Then he as the father blesses and encourages each one of the children around the table. It’s just so beautiful. You can read more about it. Go to my webpage and look up the Shabbat meal and read about it.

One night I decided we’d have a couple’s night. It was just the couples on the Hilltop. There were about five couples. We had a glorious meal together. Then it was time where each husband will bless and minister to his wife and say all the beautiful things he can think about her, which is so amazing.

Then the wife can reply and speak to her husband. I’ll never forget that night. everybody was. . . It was such beautiful things that were said. But I remember Charlie. And all of us girls, we always remember this night, because we always say how great it was. All we wished that our husbands had said that to us. But he was talking to Pearl, and of course Charlie dotes on his beautiful wife, Pearl. You all know Pearl from Trim Healthy Mama. I don’t think I know a husband who so dotes on his wife like Charlie does.  He just adores her.

But he said, maybe I haven’t got it perfect, because it was a few years ago. “If I could choose, and I was blessed to live another hundred years without Pearl, but I had the choice of only one day with Pearl, only one day more of my life, I would choose that one day with Pearl.” Isn’t that beautiful?

But I think you used to do things with marrieds too, didn’t you?

Wendy: Yes, we love to encourage marriage. I love hearing all the things you’ve done. It’s so edifying. One thing that we did was to have a marriage dinner. For several years in a row, on February 14, we would invite couples over. We’d try to mix and match the newly married with couples that have been married a long time.

We’d have about five or six couples over. We would recreate our wedding day. We would have a white runner come all the way up our steps and into our house. And have rose petals on there, and have everyone sign a guest book when they walked in. We would have a table with an official wedding cake made from a baker.

We asked everyone to bring their wedding photos, either an album or framed, whatever they wanted to share from their wedding day so that we could all look at each other’s and see the differences that have occurred over the years and get to know a little bit more about each other. Then we would have a five-course dinner.

Our children served us. It was so much fun. We would put together a quiz. Previously, before they came over, we would ask them to fill out this little survey and tell us the funniest thing that happened on their wedding day, or most unexpected, or the most surprising in the end. But like a survey of different odds and ends that people wouldn’t normally know.

Then my husband would put it together in his notes. So, we would all get to find out details about each other’s special days. And then just bless each other and celebrate our marriages and what God has done through each other as we conform to His image, seeing how God uses other people, specifically our mates to shape us. To see all the different blessings that come from that.

That’s one thing that we really enjoyed. If anyone could do anything even similar to that in your own personal special way, we highly encourage it.

Nancy: Yes! As you’re listening to us share some of these things, I know that God will be putting creative ideas in your heart and mine. You don’t have to do it exactly like we’ve been sharing, but just sparks off something creative you would like to do. I think it is a beautiful thing to reach out to married couples, because I believe in this hour, marriages need strengthening.

Oh my, there’s just so many marriages falling apart. I was just thinking this morning, marriage is God’s idea. It’s God’s plan. He’s the one Who designed it. Because He designed it, He designed it to work. It’s not meant to fall apart. It’s only sin that comes in. It’s the work of the devil that causes marriages to fall apart.

Now, I know that maybe I’m talking to some, and you are part of a marriage that did fall apart. Sometimes when one of the spouses just has given into the devil, and into sin, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it, which is so sad. But when we are willing to do it God’s way, it does work, because God designed it to work! But it only works when we do it biblically.

So, we do need to encourage one another in marriage. We don’t really hear very many messages at church on family or marriage, do we? I think we need to hear a few more.

Now, Wendy, I remember you telling me that when you meet an older couple, you always ask them a question. What is it?

Wendy: We have an opportunity to travel throughout the United States and go to many different places. I will seek out the older married couples there. I always ask a question. The question is, “What advice would you give to someone else to tell us how you have been able to keep your marriage going and lasting so long?”

I’ve heard different responses, but generally the few that are the most common are:

One. Communication. Make sure that you are communicating with each other. Work on that.

Number two is forgiveness. One lady, a sweet, sweet lady. I think they were married 60 years. She had said, “Every day I forget what my husband did the day before. So, each day is brand new.” I loved that. I really, really loved that. Remember the good things he did the day before but forget the bad. That’s been really encouraging to me to hear these things, seeing over and over from the couples that have been married so long.

Nancy: I love that. Forgiveness. I think forgiveness is such a big one. People can become stubborn in their unforgiveness. It’s just going to ruin their lives. Not only does it ruin their marriage, but it will ruin their life, and it will ruin their family’s life, and everybody’s life. Because unforgiveness, oh, it’s one of the most destroying things that we can ever hold onto in our lives. We have to let go and forgive. Often that’s the hardest thing to do, but we must forgive.

Jesus said we’re not even going to be forgiven ourselves if we don’t forgive. We have to keep forgiveness in our marriage.

Now, Wendy, what about your marriage? Tell me.

Wendy: Our marriage? We’ve been married 29 years. It’s been great. We met and were married within a year. Kevin is nine years older than me. We are opposites in a lot of ways. That has been something that has been challenging, but also strengthening, because God is made strong through our weaknesses.

Also, what I can see in our marriage is how He perfectly designs couples to complement each other, where my weaknesses are Kevin’s strengths, and what little weaknesses Kevin has, sometimes I’m stronger in. That’s been really fun to see how God uses different personalities to accomplish our goals of conforming to His image.

Nancy: I think sometimes you see couples, one is more outgoing, and one is quieter. They blend together. I’m not quite sure what happened with our marriage, because Colin and I are both outgoing and both strong. But somehow, we’ve managed to keep together as one and love one another more and more as the years have gone by. Even though we’re both strong in our convictions, we don’t even always agree, but as Colin says, “We don’t have to agree with one another. We just have to love one another.”

Wendy: Kevin has a thing that we don’t have to think alike. Just think together.

Nancy: That’s good! So good, isn’t it? Now, there were some other things that we were talking about that you wanted to. . . Oh, yes, we talked on one of the podcasts with Wendy about praying for your children. Some of you have already written in and asked for those links. If some of you want to yet, I’m happy to send them. Just send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I can send you Wendy’s 20 points for praying for your children. I have a list of 23 points for praying for your children. It just gives you some encouragement there.

But you were sharing with me how you have different seasons throughout your life with your children. There’s when they’re little, and you’re praying different things when they’re little than when they’re getting older. Then they get older again, and there are different areas where you’re honing in in prayer. What’s your most honing-in prayer thing at the moment, Wendy?

Wendy: Nancy, I love your. . .  We had similar things on our list, and I love how yours were phrased and worded too. Right out of Scripture. It’s so good to see all the different ways that we’re praying for our children. It’s so encouraging to see all these ways that you can pray.

You make it more habitual. You make it to remind ourselves how essential it is. So, anything we can have in front of us. I take my list I have in my Bible to refresh and remind myself because there’re so many things to pray for.

Right now, I am concentrating on that they would love God’s Word. And they do love it, but I want them to fall in love with it more and more. God’s Word is His love letter to us. I want them to love His love letter. As I am praying for that, I remembered, we have Triple A, we call it. This is a quote from your book:

“The Attitude of your heart will determine

the Atmosphere of your home which will

Affect the actions of each member of your family.”

We have AAA roadside insurance, and this is like our Triple A culture Christ-like insurance in our home, that we are reflecting Christ in our attitude because that says each one of our attitudes affects each other. The more that we love God’s Word and love to do it, then the more that we’re going to be blessing each other, and serving each other, and living the way He wants us to.

Nancy: Amen. I think, another thing, as the children are getting older, they’re getting to go out and face the world. We have to pray so much for them to be strong and to stand. I remember when I was back in Australia, our children were in their late teens, going on to their twenties, out there facing the world. We were very close to the beach, right on the Pacific Ocean.

I used to walk down every morning. It was so great. I could walk the beach. The Pacific waves were pounding in, and nobody could hear me crying out. I could cry out aloud to the Lord to keep them in His will, and in His righteousness, and keep them from evil. Help them to stand strong and cry out for them. I would often do that for an hour, walking along the beach. That was where I prayed when I was on the Gold Coast of Australia. I think you, that’s something on your heart too, isn’t it, Wendy, is praying for courage and strength.

Wendy: Absolutely. Yes, especially, in our culture, as it gets darker, we need to be an even stronger light. I pray for our children to stand up for what’s right and have the courage, even if it means to stand alone. That is something that we have to take the first step in. God gives us the courage when He sees our willingness. It’s not something we can say, “Give us courage, and then I’ll do it.” We have to show God that is what our heart’s desire is, and then He will finish that.

There’s a quote that I read, “Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” And that’s basically been our life, that we always had to take that first step. And then God says, “OK, now I’ll show you the next step.”

We have been so centered on our following God that sometimes our convictions are different than other people’s, even in the Christian community. And that takes courage to stand alone too. If all Christians are going to see a movie, (and these are good Christians, they love God) we think, “No, this isn’t something that we think we should do.” To be able to stand firm in our hearts, knowing God is calling us this way, and we need to go a different direction.

Nancy: Amen! I am amazed that often many people know my standards of what I would go to see. Sometimes I’ve had, “Oh, well, Nancy, this is a very good movie, and I think you would like it.” I’ve actually gone, and I’ve been disgusted. I can’t believe how low the standard is in the Christian world of what we look at.

We rarely do go to a movie. But sometimes there is something that is wholesome and powerful, and there’s been some good Christian movies that have come out. Did you get to see the last “God’s Not Dead. We the People”? Wasn’t that good? Boy, they were really standing up for homeschooling and it was really very good.

But I love this Scripture. This is in the face of persecution. Daniel 11:32: “But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” That’s the King James version. But actually, when you go to the Hebrew, you find the word “exploits” is not in the original! It just says, “But the people who know their God shall be strong and do.” I like that. That’s just as powerful, really.

Of course, there are other translations that say that “They will be strong and take action.” Some other translations say: “They will be strong and resist.” You know, we’re facing evil. We’re facing wickedness. We’re facing tyranny. Do we succumb to that? No. We stand strong, and we resist!

So, we’ve got to train our children to have this attitude, don’t we? To have this strength in this hour of such deception and delusion all around us, particularly at this time. It’s just an amazing time in our whole world. But I’m amazed at how it seems to be that there are more and more who are now standing up, who are beginning to see what is actually happening, and they are beginning to stand up and to resist.

But we have, as mothers, we are the ones to show our children the way. If we haven’t got strong convictions about what is evil and what is wrong, how are they going to have them? They have to see, in fact, we are to teach our children to discern between that which is evil, and that which is righteous, between that which is clean, and that which is unclean.

It shouldn’t be blurry. We’re raising our children to have that strong . . . they see clearly the difference. And they will stand against the evil. We’re to hate evil. We’re to abhor evil. Romans tells us that word “abhor” actually means “to shudder” at evil (Romans 12:9). That’s a huge thing, because it’s so easy to get used to things, isn’t it? Just get used to things.

We dare not let ourselves ever get used to abortion. We can even forget how terrible it is and that it’s murder. We have to keep strong in our hearts of what it is, so we will never, ever take it lightly.

We must never get used to homosexuality because the Bible says it’s an abomination.

We must never get used to transgenderism and all this evil because it’s so against God. We must resist! We must stand strong, and we must do that which God wants us to do. Amen?

And so, as we have these convictions, then our children will get them. If we’re all fluffy, and we don’t really know . . .  I was reading the other day. Someone asked a Christian a question. It was on an issue, and I thought, “Well, my answer would be, this is what the Bible says, and I’m against it!” But this Christian was saying, “Well, we don’t always know everybody’s circumstances. Really, we can’t take a strong stand.”

Oh, for goodness’ sake! If we can’t take a strong stand against evil, well, where are we going? It’s either one or the either. We belong to the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of holiness, or the kingdom of Satan, which is a kingdom of death and destruction and evil! One or the other, isn’t it?

Wendy: Yes, knowing God’s Word is knowing God. And the more we know God, the more we know His will and His ways. So, it’s important to refresh ourselves with that every single day.

Nancy: Oh, yes! Which reminds me, we’ve got to stop. We’re coming to an end. We always come to an end too quickly. But you have a special way of reading the Bible in your family. Tell the ladies about it before we close.

Most of you know that we like to read The Daily Light on the Daily Path. Just Scriptures from all over the Bible on a different theme for each morning and each evening. We love that, although now, currently in the evening, we’re going through the book of Revelation, reading a chapter each night. Whoa, we are wowing ourselves every night as we read. Revelation is so powerful, isn’t it?

In fact, I have just read it through a couple of times myself. But somehow, when I’m hearing it aloud, wow! I’m just hearing things that, somehow, I didn’t hear when I was reading personally. Anyway, tell us what you do, Wendy.

Wendy: I love how everyone does the Bible differently for their family time. This is something we’ve been able to do in ours that we have so thoroughly enjoyed. We took the Moody Bible schedule for reading in a year. We’ve done it for the last 16 years. We’ve never missed a day. So, that looks different every day. It maybe not typical of what other people do, but we want to hear His spoken Word every day.

My husband being a teacher, he thought, “Oh, I’ll make quizzes for each of these Bible readings.” So, he came up with 365 quizzes. It’s over 4,000 questions. What it does is just facilitate the understanding that our children have when they’re reading it. Or discussion starters. We haven’t done the quizzes every single year, but it’s really been beneficial for us, and our children love to do it.

That’s something that gets us to read the Bible from cover to cover in a way that really seems to mean more. I’ve noticed that our children will bring up, sometimes stories that aren’t the most popular ones like Daniel in the lion’s den. It’s because they’re so familiar with the Bible. The passages in there, that it’s just part of them. Like God said, His Word never comes back void. So that is a part of them. God can use that in their life later on, whenever He needs to.

I also like, because we can do what’s called “flyover books” my husband calls them. Nahum isn’t something that people go to, to usually start their Bible time. It’s not one of the most popular books, but we get to read through all of those books. They’re all in the Bible for a reason, so we don’t want to miss anything.

Nancy: Amen! You’re giving your children the whole counsel of God. That’s about four chapters every day, isn’t it? That is so wonderful. I love it. It reminds me of a couple of things.

One time Colin and I were ministering in Europe, and we actually got on the boat. We usually fly over to Europe, but we’d been ministering in the UK, and we got a ship from UK to The Netherlands. These folks were there to meet us. We went back to their home. We'd been on the boat overnight. Then we arrived at their home for breakfast.

They had these little children around the table, and they were reading through the whole Bible. They would read through the Bible, and then they would start again. They were up to a chapter on all the begats. I was amazed. Here they were, the father was going through this chapter. “This one begat so-and-so, and this one begat so-and-so.” And he didn’t even leave one out. I was amazed. And these little children are just listening. I thought, “Wow, that’s faithfulness to the Word of God!” So, you would always include all the begats?

Wendy: We did. We probably totally butchered their names’ pronunciations, but we would say them. We were thinking to that person whose name is in the Bible, it’s probably really important to them. I’d love my name in the Bible for part of that genealogy.

Nancy: I know. I remember one preacher saying, “If your name was there, you would read it every day!” Yes. Oh, yes, that also reminds me of the book, Ten Peas in a Pod. Have you read that book?

Wendy: It’s one of our favorites.

Nancy: Yes. Oh, dear ladies, I’ve got this book in stock at here at Above Rubies. You can just go online to AboveRubies.org, and you can buy Ten Peas in a Pod. Well, it was written years ago. But it’s the most amazing story of this father who had a heart to preach. He gathered up his eight children, and they went right through USA and Canada, preaching everywhere, wherever God opened up the door.

But this man loved the Word of God. He was faithful to read it to his family. And it didn’t matter where he was, he would do it. So, wow. I have to confess, ladies, I’ve never got to what he did. But it’s worth reading about. Anyway, can you just hang on a little bit more? I’m overtime but let me tell you what happened.

He would read to his children for one hour after breakfast. Then, after lunch he would read to the children again for one hour. Then after supper, he would also read to the children for another hour. Three hours of hearing the Word of God. And as the children got older, he would encourage them to have their own quiet time, and to have their reading of the Word before they got up for breakfast. So, they were encouraged to have an hour before they got up. That’s four hours in the Word!

Well, consequently, these children grew up totally knowing the Word. Most of them could recite the whole New Testament verbatim, and many chapters of the Old Testament. But there was one thing I read in this book that really was quite amazing. It was the oldest son who actually wrote the book. He has been to our home. We sat together in this very lounge and talked. It was so beautiful to talk with him. I was able to ask, “How has this lived out in your lives?” He was able to share, how in all the family, the Word has produced such blessing. Now they’re having grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

But anyway, he said that many times, they would be staying with Christian families as they were preaching in a certain church. Each time the father would always say to the host and hostess, he would say, “Now I love to read God’s Word to my family after the meal. Would you be happy for me to do this?” And they’d say, “Yes, yes, of course! Yes!” I mean, they were a Christian home.

But then he would also ask another question. “Would you like to join us?” Did you know that the answer was no one ever joined them “Oh, you just go ahead. We’ve got things to do.” And these were Christian homes. Isn’t that amazing?

But that’s always been a great challenge to me. Oh, you’ll love the book. It’s also a great adventure, all their adventures.

But let’s pray, shall we?

“Oh, dear loving and heavenly Father, we love You. We love Your Word. We love Your ways. Lord God, please draw us closer to You, closer to Your heart, closer to Your ways and Your desires, the way You’ve planned for us to live. In our marriages, in our homes, in our families. Draw us more into Your heart and into your ways. We ask in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

NEW ABOVE RUBIES MAGAZINE

The new Above rubies magazine, #99 printing. Look out for it coming. If you are not on the mailing list, send your name and address to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will be happy to send it to you.

 

BIBLE QIZZES FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

Wendy and her husband are happy to make available to you all the quizzes he prepared for every day of the year as they read God’s Word. There are 365 quizzes with over 4,000 questions. You’ll never run out of questions to help teach your children from every chapter I the Bible.

You can download them by going to:

https://fa15989f-b43a-4c89-aae6-1d95bb78d494.usrfiles.com/archives/fa1598_0d479bc9784948f1a80870767b6daefa.zip

This will download in all browsers except Duck Duck Go. 

TEN P’S IN A POD

A Million-Mile Journal of the Arnold Pent Family

By Arnold Pent III

I mention this book in this post. I know you will love to read it if you haven’t already. I love this book. It is the story of the million-mile journey of Arnold Pent, Jr. and his wife and eight children as they travelled through US and Canada together. The father preached along the way. But no matter where they were, or whoever they stayed with, they never gave up their practice of daily Bible reading and memorization. It will inspire you like no other book to begin reading God’s Word together as a family, but it is also a great adventure

The author of this book wrote it when he was 21 years old and it is still popular today Recently my husband I enjoyed meeting this wonderful couple in our home and he testified of not only the impact of the Word in his own life as a child but in the following generations. This habit is now continuing with his grandchildren.

Go to: https://tinyurl.com/10PsBook

WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?

“TEN P’S IN A POD should be required reading. I still count it among one of the handful of most important books I have ever read.” 

~ Andrée Seu Peterson, World Magazine Columnist

 

“Your book is a breath of fresh air.”

 

“In a society where the Bible is rarely read, even in Christian homes, this book should be necessary (but enjoyable) reading for EVERY Christian family.”

 

 “How this husband and wife were able to take a family of eight children across both the United States and Canada throughout the 1950s and early 1960s in various old cars is a story worth reading.” 

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