FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 146: GOD LOVES FOOD

Rashida (The new Trim Healthy Mama author) joins me again today, and we talk about marriage, mothering little ones, and the joy of food. We discover how much God is all about food. Did you know there are 22 food twins in the Bible? God links 22 different things in life to food! Check them out.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies! I have with me again today Rashida. Rashida Simpson, that is Evangeline and Howard's daughter, my granddaughter, and the author of the latest Trim Healthy Mama, which is called Trim Healthy Future. So it's the next generation.

Some of you will have this book. If you don't have it, go to TrimHealthyMama.com, or go to Amazon, and get this book. You will love it! I mean, I don't know what recipes to talk about, because every recipe is so wonderful! You're just going to have to find out for yourself.

Rashida was with us last week. Here she is again! We're going to find out a little bit more about Rashida, and then we'll perhaps go on, and talk more about food, because we didn't exhaust talking about food in our last podcast. We could do ten podcasts about food because, did you know, there’s so much in the Bible, about food!

You know, the Bible is not all doctrines. It's, well, it's all doctrine, yes, but it's not all just something that's out there. No, it's right down to where we're living, and how we live, and eating every day in our normal lives. God wants to be involved in it.

So anyway, Rashida, just want to find a bit more out about you. Now Rashida is this young wife. They have three young children. How long have you been married now, Rashida?

Rashida: Almost six years.

Nancy: What

Rashida: Yeah...

Nancy: When did that? I cannot believe it. It was like yesterday, your wedding.

Rashida: I know.

Nancy: I still just see it out there in that beautiful field, with a beautiful wedding day. Wow! So after six years of marriage, which you know, that's pretty good. I mean, just a little way to catch up to Granddad and me. We've been married 58 years! Hey, and you know what, when you brought me my Christmas present the other day . . . (laughter)

Rashida: I know, such a rotten granddaughter! (laughter)

Nancy: Oh goodness me, we're like that. We rarely give presents on the right day!

Rashida: Yeah...

Nancy: Somehow, the Christmas, I don't know, we just didn't even get to it. Oh, I have to say to you, Rashida is the most amazing, amazing gift giver! Oh, I can't tell you how I am blessed by Rashida's gifts. Oh, birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas. Oh, Rashida just comes, and pours all over me these beautiful gifts, and clothes. And Rashida, I was just so blessed out of my brain!

But do you know, you didn't realize you came and gave it to me on our exact day, on 2nd March. It was our 58^th wedding anniversary!

Rashida: I know. I didn't know that until I saw Facebook later on that day!

Nancy: I know! So, it was the perfect day. It was so wonderful! But Rashida doesn't only do that to me, she does it to everybody! She's just a gift giver! Oh, it's amazing! And always just wrapped so gloriously, and so thoughtfully!

I mean, I am not a shopper. I never go shopping. I go get my groceries and that's about all I do. I just don't have time to shop for clothes. But God is so good. Somehow my clothes arrive! Often through Rashida! So beautiful! Thank you so much!

But anyway, after yours ix years, is there something you've found that's so great in your marriage that you could pass on to others?

Rashida: Well, last night, this is kind of funny, I'll just say . . .

Nancy: Yes, yes!

Rashida: I was just telling my husband, I was asking him, “Well, what should I talk about? Nana wants me to talk about something I'm passionate about.” And he says, “Sex!” And so, I would say, actually, I would say that, (Roland yelling) “Roland, honey.” I would say just being excited to make love with your husband has been a big thing. Yeah, I just . . .

Nancy: Yes, well I think that's an amazing testimony, Rashida, because you're not a couple just living life on your own. You have three little children around you. You have . . . Ezzie's how old?

Rashida: She's four and a half.

Nancy: Emory?

Rashida: Three.

Nancy: And little Roland?

Rashida: Eight months.

Nancy: Yes, eight months. So she has got three little children four and under. Sometimes people just say, 'Oh, I'm so tired with these children, and I don't feel like it.” And I think that's a beautiful testimony, because I believe this is such an important thing in our marriage.

Once again, it's God-given and God-intended. Perhaps the most glorious gift that we could ever receive from God, apart from our great salvation, that God should give this glorious blessing and gift to marriage. It's not something to be forgotten about, because I always say, this is how I think, Genesis 2:24, how that, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”

God is just giving the description of marriage, the very first description, and what is it? One flesh. That's it. OK. There's no kind of, “All right, well, this would be just a certain time.” No, one flesh, that's it. That's marriage. If you haven't got that in your marriage, and it isn't a huge part of your marriage, what kind of a marriage have you got?

So I think that's a great testimony, especially these years when little ones are around you. Yes, that's very important. In fact, oh, a while back, and you can go down the list of all our podcasts if you go to the website, AboveRubies.org. You can look for the podcast . . . I did one last year with Serene. It was about, how do you keep intimacy with your husband when you've got all these little children around you? So it's a good one to go back and find that, if you didn't ever listen to it. You will be so blessed. So thank you, Rashida. I think that was good advice.

Now, you're also just a young mother. You've got three little ones. Tell us, there's something you've found that you've had to work out, you know, with mothering these little ones.

Rashida: Um, I mean, my girls, they're pretty wild. They have so much energy. They're like my mom. They have tons of energy.

Nancy: It's amazing, because I always used to feel really put out because I had to raise this Evangeline. She was wild, adventurous, non-conformist! Could never be put into a box. I mean, goodness me, it was, it was a huge challenge to raise her!

And then she had.. . . I thought, “Well, just wait till her children come along. She'll just find out what it's like.” And instead, she had nine, no ten, sorry. She had ten perfect children. Goodness me! Well, they did things wrong, but they were really perfect!

None of them were like her. Oh, goodness me! Oh, goodness me! I mean, why didn't she get one like her? (laughter) But no, they were all just these wonderful, amazing children. But so now she's got two little granddaughters, but they're gorgeous and wonderful too.

Rashida: Yeah, they are. So's my mom.

Nancy: They're so amazing!

Rashida: They're super energetic, and always into things, and always into new things. Yeah.

Nancy: Well, when I go round there, oh goodness me! Oooh! They are changing their clothes into their beautiful princess dresses, and then into this, and then into that! About every five minutes they're coming out with a new one, and they're twirling around and dancing for us! And they're doing this . . . Oh!

Rashida: Yes, they are super high energy. That's why I do two cups of coffee a day! (laughter) They're so fun. They are so fun.

Nancy: They are amazing girls.

Rashida: Yeah, I guess I just let them make a mess and I let them get into things and stuff. Then we all clean it up together. Sometimes it's a few days before I clean their room with them. Because, yeah, I would rather that, than . . .

Nancy: Well, every time I go to your house, it's like, perfect. Spotless, not a thing out of place! And just glorious, because Rashida loves everything glorious and does everything glorious. But I love the way that, even though you are someone who just loves that perfect house, you give the children freedom to play.

Rashida: Yeah, and I let them mess up their room. Literally, it's like a tornado in their room right now.

Nancy: Yes, and I mean I've been into their room. OK, that's a tornado, but you just close the door.

Rashida: Yeah, I'll literally lock the door when we have company, to their room, so nobody can look in there! (laughter)

Nancy: I know! I love that!

Rashida: We do some cleaning up and make it nice, and then 20 minutes later, it's a big mess again!

Nancy: Yes, that's right! But that's the thing. You know, I believe, I'm a great believer in children having opportunity and freedom to play. I believe play is very powerful. Play is preparing children for life. Because you have found, Rashida, that when you allow them to play creatively, not giving them all these little toys and things, but you just let them play creatively, wow, they do real stuff!

I mean, I can remember when my little ones, they would rearrange my house. I'd have all the chairs around the table, but they would get all the chairs and they would become a train. And then they'd get the blankets, and they would become a house. And they would do this. The whole place was rearranged!

And they were so into it, and so concentrating and busy playing and creating this thing that they were doing. In fact, by the time they created it, help! They were so tired and worn out, that they could never actually play the thing! They would eat and go to bed for a rest!

Then, well, we'd have a time, OK, just put it all away. It's not hard to do that. But they had that creativity.

Rashida: Yes, and speaking about that, I wouldn't be able to be creative if I didn't let them have their creative time. If they weren't distracted and playing whatever, I couldn't take the time...

Nancy: So while you're creating recipes, they're just doing their thing! (laughter)

Rashida: I mean, you have to be tough if you want to accomplish stuff while being a mom, like other things. You have to let your children make a mess. Let them play and stuff and think outside the box.

Nancy: Exactly.

Rashida: To be able to do things like that.

Nancy: They learn to be creative. And actually, it doesn't always happen, because sometimes mothers have to wait for their next baby. But I think it's a wonderful blessing when babies come quickly, because they grow up friends and can play together.

I mean, soon as you're . . . when you have your first baby, you are 24/7 entertaining that child. Because there's no one else to entertain it, just you. But when you have another baby, it's not long before that one grows up and they're both toddling around. They can both play with one another. Wow! It's amazing! Suddenly you can do something!

Rashida: Oh yeah, Ezzie and Emory are best friends. They're inseparable.

Nancy: Exactly. And because they're so close together and play together all the time, you're not always having to entertain them every minute. It's amazing, isn't it? You can do other things.

Rashida: Yeah. They are so . . . yeah, they're best, best  friends. Even sometimes we have to separate them for nap time because they'll just want to continue to play, and talk, and sleep together and stuff, so . . .

Nancy: Isn't that beautiful?

Rashida: Yeah, it's so sweet.

Nancy: So wonderful. It's so great when children, siblings are best friends. I think that's so wonderful. I find that with our children today, most of my children now are in their 50's. They're still best friends. I mean, they'd rather hang out with each other than anyone else in the world. It's so great.

Yes, so anyway, you'll get to know Rashida more as you read her book. It's all about food. We should talk a little bit more about food because food is just so much on God's heart.

Did you know, ladies, that I actually found, just looking up the Scriptures about food in the Bible, I found 22 different twins about food. Yes, there're lots of twins in the Bible. I love looking for twins, and even for triplets.

You know, we have twins like “love and grace,” and “truth and love,” and “mercy and righteousness”. All these things that go together, they're twins. The Bible couples them together. But then I found, as I said, 22 that relate to food. I don't know whether I'll even have time to tell you them all today. But let's start.

The first one: FOOD AND THE TABLE

God links food and the table. Now it seems so mundane. That's just a statement you would understand. But really, it's a doctrine, because it's in the Word, and it's something we do need to take notice of.

I find that there are people today who actually don't eat food around the table. They eat food just walking around. They eat food in front of the TV. They eat food in the car, just getting some fast food, and coming home from somewhere around. But God associates food with the table.

Like everything, I have many Scriptures about this. Perhaps when we do the transcript, I'll put the Scriptures in. I won't give them to you all here. But there are loads of Scriptures where food is linked with the table. Let me just give you one that we all know: Psalm 128:3, describing the woman in the home. “She is like a fruitful vine in the heart of her home, her children all around the table.”

There is a picture of the family eating together around the table. God wants us, so ladies, that's Biblical. Therefore, try and make it an effort in your home to start the habit of the children sitting at the table. Now it's hard when they're little, I know. But you see, it is possible. And, just gradually, you get that habit, so they know they don't eat food running around the house. They don't eat food in front of the TV. No. Food we eat at the table. Yes.

It's interesting. Oh, so many things about the table. God wants us to sit at, it even talks about sitting at the table. I've got quite a few Scriptures of examples of Jesus sitting at the table. Even about putting a tablecloth on the table and eating our food at certain times. And oh, there's so many things.

Number two twin: FOOD AND ABUNDANCE

God doesn't want us to be skimpy about food, but to prepare it abundantly. I think that's good. That's God's heart, isn't it? God is a God who just loves to give.

Number three: FOOD AND FULLNESS. Yes, it says, eat TILL you're full. Isn't that great? We're allowed to do that.

Number four: FOOD AND COOKING. Of course, we've been talking about that, especially in the last session.

Number five: FOOD AND HEALING

Yes, food, God created food to bring healing. Healing to our bodies, healing to our spirits, healing to our emotions. You know, food is not only healing to the body. When we sit down at a table, a table that's been set and prepared, and we sit, and we talk, and we fellowship, we can have healing. It brings healing to us.

And so God associates food with healing. And, of course, it says that He gives the trees there in Revelation, they were for the healing of the nations. God has got so many healing foods. If we can only just find out what they are for things that we have wrong with us, usually that's a better way to go than even drugs.

Rashida: If you look up the simple things that were used every day, like peppers and stuff, if you look up the benefits of them, they are healing. So many vitamins, minerals, all these different things. We don't even know...

Nancy: Every food, every vegetable, every fruit, has so many things in it...

Rashida: That we don't even know. And it makes you more inspired to eat them once you know what's in them, at least for me.

Nancy: So the more vegetables and fruits we can include in our diet, the better, because that's what God provided for us. He didn't actually provide these packaged foods. I mean, you know, on occasion you'll get something packaged or something.

On the whole, I never even go near that part in the supermarket. I go mainly to the produce side. That's where I buy most of my stuff. And you know, there's other things that you get. You get your dried beans, and you get your this, and you get your that, but packaged foods, I just don't go near the packaged foods. Because, really, when you can eat these healing foods, why eat them?

So what's our next one? Number Six: FOOD AND COMFORT

Seven: FOOD AND CELEBRATION. You can't celebrate without food!

Rashida: No!

Nancy: If you try to have a celebration without food, well, it's not a celebration. I've got three lines of Scriptures about that from the Word.

Number eight: FOOD AND FELLOWSHIP

Nine: FOOD AND GLADNESS

Ten: FOOD AND GOOD CHEER

Eleven: FOOD AND GOOD THINGS. These are all Scriptures that link food and these other things together.

Twelve: FOOD AND JOY

Number thirteen: FOOD AND LAUGHTER. You see, ladies, if we want to bring joy and laughter into our homes, well, let's prepare some good food.

Rashida: Yeah, people get angry.

Nancy: Yes, of course! They get hungry, and we have to prepare food.

Rashida: No, but angry! It's like, when you haven't eaten in a while.

Nancy: When you're feeling hungry, you're agitated, aren't you?

Rashida: Yeah!

Nancy: Until you eat, yes. I must look up here, this Scripture on food and laughter, because, yes, it's food. You may not have realized that the Bible associates food with laughter. It's in Ecclesiastes. Let's see if I can find it. Ecclesiastes 10:19: “A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry.” So, when we're having a feast, or a celebration, or I believe, just even a meal, it's made for laughter.

It's so great, isn't it, when you can sit around the table and laugh together as a family. Or invite friends in and have a good old laugh. There's nothing like it! It's healing, because food, good food, is healing, and laughter is healing, isn't it? Yes. That is so great.

Number fourteen: FOOD AND LEISURE

This is an interesting one. We'd better look it up. Mark 6:31. Let's look this up here: “And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. And He said unto them, 'Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while;' for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure, so much as to eat.”

Now isn't that interesting? You see, it was time to eat. Obviously, it was lunch time. And Jesus said, “Well, look, we can't just eat here. There's too many people coming and going. We've got to find a leisure place, a secluded place where we can sit down and where we can eat leisurely.” Now isn't that amazing? I am totally amazed of how there's not one thing left out in the Bible.

And even here, Jesus saw the necessity that, when you eat, you don't just eat on the run. Because Jesus was busy. I mean, there were crowds around Him, wanting His attention the whole time, just pulling on Him, needing Him to heal them. But no, it was lunchtime, so He says, “No, we've got to get away, find a little place where it's quiet. We'll sit down, we'll just take a little bit of time and leisure to eat. And then we'll be refreshed to go out and minister again.”

I think it has become the habit of so many, in our day in which we live, to eat on the run. OK, we're so busy, we're just going to grab something. We eat on the run. We eat walking around. We don't take time. Because I see it as Biblical, I have made it a habit now, whenever I eat, when it's time for breakfast, or lunch, or supper, to sit down. I mean, for our main meals we sit together as a family, or whoever is in the home.

But maybe lunchtime, I could be eating on my own. Now, I could just get on the run, keep doing what I'm doing, or I can sit down, enjoy God's food. When you do that, science has already revealed to us that you get so much more out of your food. You don't hardly get anything out of it when you just eat it on the run. So, all biblical. Isn't it amazing?

Food and leisure. That's how food is meant to be eaten. We're not meant to “OK, just eat all the time.” We take time for those leisure times.

Fifteen: FOOD AND MERRIMENT

Sixteen: FOOD AND STRENGTH. We get strength from our food, of course.

And number seventeen: FOOD AND RAISING CHILDREN

That's all part of food. Dear lovely wives and mothers, if you have children, well, that's it. You've got to prepare food! You know that, of course. But let me take you to 1 Timothy 5:10, and we'll just see it here. Just but in Rashida, I'm talking too much!

It says here, of this woman, it's actually the women who were widows. Their husbands had passed away. They needed looking after. Some of them had no way to provide for themselves. And back in those days, it was a real issue. They just had no provision.

And so Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says, “OK families, children, or grandchildren, if you have got widows, older women that belong to your family, grandparents or whatever, you are to look after them. You take them in, and you provide for them.”

Now, if they don't have any family to look after them, then it says: “lived a certain lifestyle.” You can then embrace them into the church fold and the church can provide for them. But they had to have lived a certain lifestyle. Here it is: “Well reported of, for good works.” And then the next thing.

OK. Four things here. The first one is: “if she has brought up children.” First thing. Now, what's the word? Teknotropheo, from two Greek words, teknon, “child,” trepho, meaning “to feed, to nourish with food, to pamper with food.” So it's saying here, has she brought up children? It's saying, has she nourished children? Has she fed children? And it's embracing the fact that mothering is feeding. It's just feeding with food! So, dear ladies, OK, that's it. Don't think, “Oh, I've got to get another meal! Help, I could be doing this, I've got this to do, I don't know!” No, embrace it! This is part of who you are as a mother.

It goes on to say, “if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted,” and so on, all those things, which actually all contain food too. You can't minister to others, and bless them, and reach out to them, unless you are feeding them. So it's all to do with food, ladies! Food!

Rashida: I know a lot of those Scriptures.

Nancy: We haven't even gone into them. I'll put them in the transcript, all the Scriptures. Wow, it's so amazing!

Eighteen: FOOD AND TEACHING

Jesus, most times, where did Jesus teach? At people's tables. He would go to their homes and they'd sit around the table. And He taught. This is the most beautiful place to teach our children. To share the Word with them and others who come to our table. It's a glorious place to teach.

Nineteen: FOOD AND HOSPITALITY

. Oh wow, all these Scriptures! Help, I've got four lines of Scriptures about hospitality! And you can't show hospitality without food. I mean, when you invite people, you've got to feed them! Now I know that takes work. It takes extra work, but God is a hospitable God. He loves hospitality.

I mean, oh, in fact, the Bible says that a man cannot even be an elder, or a pastor of a church, unless he is a lover of hospitality. That is one of the criteria written in 1 Timothy, and in Titus. And yet, there are so many pastors today, wow . . . you know, they don't really, they wouldn't even allow anyone in their homes.

And yet God says, if they're going to be a pastor who shepherds the flock, they have got to be given to hospitality. That's got to be their heart. That is the heart of a shepherd. It's not just someone who can run a big church. No, they have to be reaching out in hospitality.

Number twenty: FOOD AND PROVISION

Yes, God loves to come to our table with His presence. Food is associated with the presence of God. The presence of God is not just for church or someplace where God is really moving, and we feel His presence. No, He wants to come to our tables. He associates His presence with food. Maybe these are some Scriptures we should look at.

Exodus 18:12. Yes: “And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and: Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread (so they were going to eat food) with Moses' father-in-law, before God.” Now, that's King James. If you go to other translations, it was translated as it literally means, the word “before” in the Hebrew, means “in the presence of God.”

So they all came together, and they ate their meal in the presence of God. Isn't that amazing? I just love that. I love it! And they weren't all down on their knees worshipping or being all very religious. No, they were eating! Eating! Fellowshipping! Eating! And God was there with them.

We go over to Exodus 24:11  and see what this says. Yes: “And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.” Wooo. That's unbelievable.

Now, of course, we have other Scriptures in the Bible that say if anyone sees the face of God, they cannot live. But I think if we read back, and you can read back in that chapter, they didn't see the face of God. They saw something of God, and I haven't just got the reference here at the moment. But you can read that. They were in His presence.*

Rashida: Isn't there a Bible verse where it says the Son of God came eating and drinking? It was in Luke.

Nancy: Yes! The Son of Man came eating and drinking (Matthew 11:19). He was into food. He was into coming to people. In fact, there's a book written about Luke's gospel and the writer says that, mostly Jesus in Luke's gospel, we read about Jesus either “going to a meal, sitting at a meal, or leaving a meal.” Yes, it was just all part of eating and drinking. You're so right on!

And the last one Twenty-two: FOOD AND PRAYER AND PRAISE. So many times when they got together to eat, they also had prayer and praise and so on.

So, lovely ladies, I gave you those twenty-two twins! When we do the transcript, I'll give you all the Scriptures. Wow!

Let me leave you with this quote that I wrote but I think it's powerful.

“Cooking and preparing meals for your family is not an insignificant task. It is a powerful part of your divine mothering career.

It holds your family together.

It keeps generations alive.”

Amen?

Well, anything you want to say because we're closing out this session.

Rashida: I don't think so.

Nancy: Oh, it's been so good to have you with us, dear Rashida. You’re just going to love her book. If you've got it, you'll be enjoying it even more after hearing from her. If you haven't got it, make sure you get it from TrimHealthyMama.com, or Amazon.

Dear Father, we thank You again that we can talk about Your Word, to discover that, Lord, You're so involved in life, and in our living lives, in our eating, in our enjoying. We thank You that You have given us richly all things to enjoy.

And, Lord, some of these things are the glorious, beautiful, delectable foods that You created for us to eat. And You want us to enjoy them, and eat them, and not only eat them, but enjoy fellowshipping together.

(Roland talking) And little Roland is saying “Amen!” Now he wants to high-five me! Isn't he the cutest little darling in the world?  Yes, so Roland said “Amen,” and we all say “Amen!”

Transcribed by Darlene Norris. If you would like to thank her, her email is: momcat617

I promised I would give all the Scriptures for those who like to dig into the Word or to check out what I am saying. It’s great to be a Berean and search the Word to make sure what I am saying is correct. Here are the headings with the Scriptures. I know you will be amazed as you read them to read how much God speaks about food.

FOOD TWINS

Twenty-two different things God associates with food in the Bible!

We find many things associated with food in the Bible. Food is more than feeding hungry stomachs. Food ministers to the whole person—body, soul, and spirit.

Enjoy looking up these Scriptures and sharing them with your family.

1.     FOOD AND THE TABLE

1. Tables originate in Heaven: Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:29; 14:15; 22:29, 30; and Revelation 19:9. God told Moses to make The Table of Shewbread after the pattern of God’s table in Heaven (Exodus 25:23, 40; 26:30; Acts 7:44; Hebrews 8:1-5; and 9:8).
   
   
2. God wants us to eat at the table, not on the run, or anywhere around the house: 2 Samuel 9:7-13 (19:28 and 1 Kings 2:7); 2 Kings 25:29 (Jeremiah 52:32, 33) and Psalm 128:3.
   
   
3. God wants us to SIT at the table to eat: 1 Samuel 20, especially verses 5, 18, 24-29; 1 Kings 10:4, 5 (2 Chronicles 9:3, 4); Matthew 8:11; Luke 12:37; 14:15; 22:27; and 24:30.

When feeding the five thousand plus Jesus “COMMANDED them to MAKE ALL SIT DOWN by companies upon the green grass” (Mark 6:39). Have you found that you also need to MAKE your children sit down? The word “commanded” is in every gospel (Matthew 14:19; Luke 9:14; and John 6:10 11).

1. Examples of Jesus siting at the table: When Jesus came to the table, they not only ate, but he taught, shared stories, and did miracles. The table is a great place for mighty things to happen, but it all starts with food: Matthew 26:6, 7 (Mark 14:3); 6:20, 21 (Mark 14:18); Luke 7:36, 37; 11:37;14;1-4;  and John 12:2.
   
   
2. We should set the table and even spread a tablecloth: 1 Kings 10:4, 5 (2 Chronicles 9:3, 4); Isaiah 21:5; Psalm 23:5; and Proverbs 9:2.
   
   
3. We should eat food at set times: Luke 12:42 tells us that the steward of the healing household served food “at the proper time.”
   
   
4. God loves a full table: Psalm 128:3 and Luke 14:23.

2.     FOOD AND ABUNDANCE

God delights to give food in abundance: Genesis 1:29; 9:3; Deuteronomy 6:11; 8:9, 10; 10:18; Job 28:5; 36:31; Psalm 103:5; 104;14, 15; 111:5; 136:25; 145:15 16; 146:7; Isaiah 25:56; and Acts 14:17.

3.     FOOD AND FULLNESS

Leviticus 26:3-5.

4.     FOOD AND COOKING

You cannot enjoy food without cooking. We read of Jesus cooking a meal for His disciples, even after He rose from the dead! A resurrected Christ and yet cooking? It was not too lowly a task for Him. Read the story in John 21:4-17 (v. 9). Genesis 19:3; 1 Chronicles 9:31; and Proverbs 31:14, 15.

5.     FOOD AND HEALING

Luke 12:2 (Matthew 24:45); and Revelation 22:1, 2.

6.     FOOD AND COMFORT

Genesis 18:5 and Judges 19:5.

7. FOOD AND CELEBRATIONS

Genesis 21:8; 40:20; Exodus 5:1; 10:9; 12:14; Deuteronomy 14:23-26; 16:14, 15; Job 1:4; 1 Kings 3:15; 19:21; 1 Chronicles 12:39, 40; 29:22; Ezra 9:19, 2; Esther 9:20-22; Isaiah 25:6; Daniel 5;1; Matthew 22:2; Mark 6:21; and Revelation 19:9.

            Wedding feasts: Leah’s wedding (Genesis 29:21, 22); Samson’s wedding (Judges 14;10); Esther’s wedding (Esther 2:17, 18); Cana wedding (John 2:1-11); and Matthew 22:2.

Reconciliations feasts: Genesis 26:26-31; 31:53, 54; 2 Samuel 3:12-30; Job 42:10-12; and Luke 15:21-24.

8.     FOOD AND FELLOWSHIP

Eating at the table should be “face to face table fellowship.” We sit around the table so we can see one another, look at one another’s faces, and dialogue and discuss things together: Acts 2:42 and 20:11. Read also 2 John  1:12 and 3 John 1:14).

9.     FOOD AND GLADNESS

Acts 2:46 and 17:17.

10.  FOOD AND GOOD CHEER

Acts 27:25, 36.

11.  FOOD AND GOOD THINGS

Psalm 103:5; Ecclesiastes 3;13; 5:18;  and Ezekiel 24:15.

12.  FOOD AND JOY

Ezra 6:22; 9:19, 22; Nehemiah 8:9-12; 12:27, 43; Ecclesiastes 5:15; 9:7; 1 Chronicles 12:39, 40; and 1 Timothy 6:17.

13.  FOOD AND LAUGHTER

Ecclesiastes 10:19.

14.  FOOD AND LEISURE

Jesus showed us the example of how food should be eaten with leisure, not in a hurry: Mark 6:31.

15.  FOOD AND MERRIMENT

Genesis 43:23; Ruth 3:7 and Luke 15:23.

16.  FOOD AND STRENGTH (to the heart and body).

1 Kings 19:4-8 and Psalm 104:15.

17.  FOOD AND RAISING CHILDREN

1 Timothy 5:10 talks about the women who “brought up children.” The word in the Greek is teknotropheo meaning “to nurture with food.” One of the biggest jobs of raising our children is feeding them!

18.  FOOD AND TEACHING

Jesus used the mealtime at the table or teaching time: Mark 16:14, 15 and Luke 24:41-49.

19.  FOOD AND HOSPITALITY

It is impossible to show hospitality without feeding your guests: Genesis 18:5-8; Deuteronomy 10:17-19; 14:27-29; Judges 6:18, 19; 13:15-21; 2 Samuel 9:10; 2 Kings 2: 7; Nehemiah 5:17, 18; Job 31:32; Matthew 25:35; Acts 2:44-47; Romans 12;13; 1 Corinthians 16:15; 1 Timothy 5;10; Hebrews 13;2; 1 Peter 4:9; and 3 John 5:8.

20.  FOOD AND PROVISION

Deuteronomy 28:4-6; Nehemiah 5:17, 18; 1 Kings 4:17; Psalm 37:18, 19; 78:19-22.

21. FOOD AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD

Exodus 18:12 and 24:11

22.  FOOD AND PRAYER AND PRAISE

When the disciples met together to eat, they also prayed and praised God: Acts 2:42, 46, 47; Deuteronomy 8:10; and Joel 2:26.

Love and blessings from Nancy Campbell

www.aboverubies.org

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 145: A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES WITH RASHIDA

At last, I have been able to kidnap Rashida to come and talk with me on the podcast! Rashida Simpson is my granddaughter, and the latest recipe creator of the new Trim Healthy Cookbook, Trim Healthy Future! You'll find out the secrets of Rashida's creativity with food and the unfolding of her life.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello! Here I am today, with another guest. This beautiful young lady I have been waiting to do a podcast with since the time I started doing podcasts! I can't believe, Rashida, that it's been all this time. This is podcast 145, and here you are at last! Oh goodness me!

She's just always been too busy doing what she's meant to do—having babies, and of course, doing other things we'll tell you about. Anyway, some of you will know, some of you won't, Rashida, my granddaughter, is Evangeline's daughter. Rashida and her husband, Jack, have three precious children so far. Ezzie, Emory, and now there's this little gorgeous boy, Roland.

He's just a little fat, chunky, gorgeous little boy and he's right here sitting with us, so I'm not sure whether he'll say hello. We might hear him. He's eight months now. (So anyway, he's OK there, Ellie (my Above Rubies helper) I think, except for Sargy. Yes, that's right. Just talking about my little poodle here. He likes to be here where I am, but I think he might not be too good with Roland and him together)!

Anyway, so not only has Rashida been busy mothering, but Rashida is just, well, I think she was born to cook. Some of you may already have Rashida's cookbook, which is the fourth Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook. I'm sure most of you are all familiar with Trim Healthy Mama. You most probably have all the books. Rashida's is the fourth one. Actually you do need them all because everyone has particular recipes that you'll just love.

I wonder who has got the first one, Trim Healthy Mama? That was what it was called. No More Fads! And that was the first book the girls, Serene and Pearl, put out. They wrote about their way of eating the most delectable foods and yet keeping wonderfully slim.

And then they did Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook, the second one. Then they did Trim Healthy Mama Table, and everyone was just so great. And then a fourth, the latest one. And they called it Trim Healthy Future.

Rashida's on the front cover of this one. She did the majority of the recipes, all her own creations. She also did all the photography for the meals in the book. She did all of this while she was pregnant with little Roland and had her other two little girls all around her.

Evangeline the grandmother, who's called Pippi, now don't you like that for a name? Evangeline could never be called Grandma or Nana. I'm called Nana, but it's all just too boring to her. She had to think of a different name. So she came up with Pippi, after Pippi Longstocking, because Pippi, of course, had lots of adventures. (Baby crying in background . . . Oh, here's little darling Roland).

Anyway, Pippi Longstocking, she had lots of adventures, and Evangeline has adventures every single day. In fact, at the moment, she's writing a little book for her grandchildren about Pippi's adventures. So how did I get onto Pippi?

Yes, well Pippi calls Rashida's little girls, whom she adores, she calls them, I think she calls them the “Wild Tornadoes,” doesn't she? Yes, because they are not little girls who just sit on purpose, reading books. They just take on the world! But Rashida is so amazing with them. Now if you have, oh Rashida, I'm going to let you talk in a minute, but I'm just talking all about you!

So, oh goodness, I could spend this whole podcast just talking about Rashida. We all live on the Hilltop, and of course, Rashida's been taken away because now she's married. Well, she doesn't live too far away. But all her life she just lived on the Hilltop. Her home was only a couple of minutes from ours, so every day I would see her at some stage. So we certainly got to know Rashida.

Now there's something special about Rashida. And if you have the new cookbook, Trim Healthy Future, which you can get by going to TrimHealthyMama.com, or you can get it off Amazon. Make sure you get it. You'll love every recipe.

You'll love reading the introduction by Serene and Pearl because it tells you all about Rashida. They tell how she started to cook when she was so young. I think Serene mentions about this amazing meal she cooked for her grandfather. That was my father. She actually talks about it from memory, and she didn't get it quite right.

But you see, I'm actually, although my daughters write these books (they've written all these amazing books, which I know you love). They're coming out soon with a book that's going to change the world, called I'm That Girl. But although they are prolific writers, I'm really the scribe in the family who keeps records of everything.

Way back when you were only seven years old, Rashida, my father came to stay. He would come from New Zealand once a year. Then from about five years of old (and this was when she was seven), it was her biggest thing in life to cook a meal specially for her grandfather.

Well, of course, the whole family, their family, and Colin and I, and great granddad, would come for this meal. And it was always the highlight of my father's life to enjoy this meal by Rashida. He was so proud that his little great-granddaughter, only seven years old, could cook this amazing meal!

So now I'm going to tell you the truth, because I was so amazed. I simply couldn't believe it. I went home after that meal and I wrote down the whole meal. I've kept it all these years. Did you know that? So I'm the scribe, and it's all being recorded accurately, so this is the accurate version.

OK, so she was seven years old, and she prepared this feast all by her little selfie. This is what she cooked. OK?

Roast turkey with couscous stuffing, including sun-dried tomatoes, cashews, pine nuts, figs, and raisins. Oh, goodness me, I'd like to try some of that again today, Rashida! Wow!

Marinated grape leaves, stuffed with lebani, placed in a bowl with figs, dates, and black and green olives (we were all into Middle Eastern food back in those days).

Mashed potatoes and gravy (And little Roland is looking up at me, and he can hardly believe it)! (Laughter.)

Salad, with homemade dressings (Almondaise and Green Greek dressing.

And tamarind-date chutney.

Oh yes, she made dessert too, a ginger steamed pudding, and raw nut balls. Wow!

Can you even imagine doing that dinner yourself?? Well, Rashida was seven years old. Yes, she did it all! I came home and wrote it down.

I wonder if you even know what a steamed pudding is? Well that's very New Zealand. We even have steamed pudding basins where you make this pudding. It's made of flour and other things. This particular one is ginger-flavored with ginger powder. Then you put it in this steamed pudding bowl, which has a lid. Then you put it in a big pot with water. The water cooks around it and it steams the pudding.

When our children were growing up in New Zealand, I would make a steamed pudding nearly every week at least! In fact, back in those days, we always had dessert with every evening meal. I wouldn't even think of doing that now! Goodness me, I'd be as huge as an elephant if I kept doing that! But that was tradition back then.

That's what we used to do. Although every Thanksgiving, and every Christmas, I still make a steamed pudding. But for our Christmas pudding, which in the English way, they call it a “plum duff,” I actually cook it in a big sort of calico material. I put everything in, the flour, and the raisins, and the nuts. It all goes in and I tie it up this calico. I tie it up and put it in the pot of boiling water. It boils for two or three hours. It's all steamed. It's very traditionally English, but we love that.

So Rashida has always loved to cook. She cooked for her family from a young age. She did all the cooking. Evangeline just vacated the kitchen. Wow, isn't that exciting? Of course, when Rashida left to get married, oh help! Goodness me! Tiveria, well, she had to take her place, but it was a while, I think. Messed up for a while.

Anyway, but Rashida, oh, this book is amazing! Oh, you're just going to love her book! You'll love her recipes! Well look, I can just keep talking about Rashida, but Rashida, you've got to talk! Oh, goodness me! Tell me about your love for food and cooking.

Rashida: Mmm. Well yeah, as Nana says, I've always been passionate about cooking. I started off making mud pies and mud cakes in the woods because that's where we roamed. My mom, I do write about it in the book, but my mom saw that I had a passion and love for it. I'd always go watch my aunts, and watch my mom, and Nana cook. So it's always been a part . . .

Nancy: Yes, I think it's really, not everybody has the same . . . well, you've got genes that have passed down. My father, he was a great cook and he loved to cook. I love to cook, and of course, we all love to eat! So if you love to eat, you've got to cook!

Oh, it is so sad that many people, they cook today, but they, well, half the time they don't cook. There’re so many young mums who have grown up and they haven't really learned to cook. Really, I think it’s because they've had such boring meals.

If you really love food, and love taste, you love to cook, because you love making tastes. I think most probably that's what you love, Rashida. It's really, to me, it's not just that I'm cooking food for the sake of cooking. I want to create a lovely taste. Don't you?

Rashida: Uh huh.

Nancy: That's the thing. You're trying to create something that tastes so palatable. And that's exciting, because we all love taste, don't we?

Rashida: Yeah.

WE ARE FOOD PROVIDERS

Nancy: And if something's so delectable to eat, well, you just love cooking! Oh, I wrote something down here. I wonder if I printed it off. Oh yes. Proverbs 31:15. It says: “She rises also while it is still night, and gives food to her household.”

You know, we read that over and we hardly take notice of it. But I was reading it again this morning, and I love to notice every word when I'm reading the Bible. Do you like to look at every word? Oh, it gets so exciting! When you see the words, every word is powerful. Every word is given by divine inspiration. Every word means something  and it's powerful.

It says that she, notice, she, she, yes, we're still allowed to say “she,” and I will be saying “she,” even if they change it! She, that is the mother of the home, she's the one who gives food to her household. It's her responsibility. It's part of what she does. What does she do?  Gives food, provides food.

Yes, dear mothers, part of our mothering is providing food for our husband, for our family, and for many, many others. We are food providers. The Passion Translation, (Rollo cooing), “Yes, you like that, Rollo! We call him “Rollo.”

Meadow has Raymond, and they're similar ages. He's called “Ray-Ray.” So we've got to remember which is Ray-Ray, and which is Rollo! (Laughter)

The Passion Translation says, “She arises, and sets food on the table for her hungry ones in her house, and for others.” Yes, (Rollo laughing) I wrote here, “She is the one who sees beyond the work of cooking food to the great things that will happen as the family, and others, come to the table around her food that she cooks.”

Yes, therefore, Rashida, she just kept on making all these wonderful recipes. This is the thing about Rashida. I'm still talking about you, Rashida! (Laughter) Oh, goodness me...

Rashida: I might have a big head by the time you're done!

Nancy: Yes! Well, when Rashida, I remember when she had, well, her first baby, Ezzie, and second baby, Emory. I think this was when Emory was born. Now she had two little babies close together. They were only how much apart?

Rashida: Sixteen months.

Nancy: Sixteen months apart, yes. Rashida was tandem nursing. She nursed both of them because Ezzie wasn't prepared to give up at that time, was she?

Rashida: No.

Nancy: So everywhere Rashida went, these were two babies hanging on her! One was a toddler hanging on her, and one was a little baby. But Rashida just  hardly noticed. How long did you tandem nurse, Rashida?

Rashida: Well, until Ezzie was like three. So Emory was almost two. So, two years.

Nancy: Yes, wonderful! Did you know, ladies, that you can tandem nurse? You can nurse two babies. So if the baby you have is not ready to wean because every baby weans at a different time. They each have their different inner needs. Some will wean earlier. Others want to linger on, they just have that greater, greater need.

I've known of moms, too, where the older tandem nurser actually kept on nursing longer than the younger one! Just because they're different personalities. So tell us, how did you find . . .

Rashida: I do have to say I did stop nursing while I was pregnant, because it was too painful. Then I started again.

Nancy: Oh, yes, and you  . . . you had enough milk, of course, because you were nursing. And she was just ready to go.

Rashida: Mm huh. She still knew exactly how. I would nurse her maybe once when I was first pregnant, like a few times a day. I couldn't just cut cold turkey when she was a baby. She was still six months old. But then, like towards the end, she didn't really nurse that much. And then she just started again.

Nancy: Yes, and got into it full time!

Rashida: Yeah, and it helped me so much because I had so much milk. That was a blessing actually.

Nancy: Yes, that's right. Now with little Roland, you've been just nursing him alone. The girls, you were nursing them together. Did you find any difference? It wasn't any more overwhelming, actually?

Rashida: No, actually, I had to pump so much, because my body was so used to making milk, I think? I had to pump so much this time, and I got mastitis really badly.

Nancy: You really needed another baby to nurse!

Rashida: Yeah, I just pumped like all the time and I got super sick. I had to have IV's and stuff and go on antibiotics and stuff because it was recurring mastitis. I guess my body likes making a lot of milk!

Nancy: So tandem nursing was perfect for you!

Rashida: Yeah.

Nancy: Yes, yes. So I remember going around to Rashida after Emory was born, taking gifts and bringing something, some food to her. But you simply can't win with Rashida! Because even though I took food for her, we arrived—and there's a glorious meal waiting for us!

She just had a baby, and she's tandem nursing, and it's not just something plopped on the table! It's a beautiful meal, and not just a meal. There's a lovely dessert too. And then maybe some special little treats made! Oh, you just can't get over it!

In fact, Pearl was telling me that when they were doing the book, you were doing it right through being pregnant with Roland, weren't you? And then afterwards, after he was born.

Rashida: Yeah, I tried to get everything done when I was pregnant. But, of course, literally I finished two days before he was born. Then, of course, afterwards we did the book cover too, and there were always things, days of editing and stuff. But yeah, mostly when I was pregnant, I was still working really hard with him.

Nancy: Well, Pearlie was sharing with me how one day, it was just after Roland was born. Rashida came round to her place and she had the two little wild tornadoes, and it was so gorgeous. Two little blond gorgeous darlings, and Roland. Pearl said, “Oh, it was just impossible!”

They had all this editing to do, to make sure that each picture was with the right recipe, and so on. She said they just couldn't get a thing done because Rashida's nursing the baby and these little children playing around. Pearl couldn't think. Oh, goodness me! So she said, “Look, Rashida, go home. Just rest a bit, and I'll come over to your place, and it'll be much easier.”

So Pearl goes over a little bit later to Rashida's place, and instead of Rashida just resting for a little bit, she's right there, and she prepared this beautiful lunch for Pearlie, made this glorious lunch, and some special little new recipe. She just can't help herself!

Pearl said, they actually worked on that all morning, till late at night that night. But she couldn't get over it, how in the midst of all the pressure, and she was feeling the pressure, that Rashida was still calm. Children around her, but still getting a special lunch for Pearlie. Because we can't ever go over to Rashida's without a beautiful meal just ready on the table, and always just something, oh! So delectably delicious! Goodness me!

Now, OK, ladies, you're most probably feeling, “Oh, help! That's not me. I can't be like that. I just hate to cook, and I don't even know how to cook!”

Well, sadly, I think a lot of young mums don't know how to cook, or haven't even grown up to like to cook, because it wasn't a passion with their mothers. And maybe they just ate boring food, and maybe it was just cooked, and you came and got it. It wasn't a great emphasis put on gathering around food and the table which is very much part of God's heart.

But, dear ladies, because that wasn't . . . Maybe you didn't have that blessing of growing up in a family where people loved to cook, and they loved to eat and to eat together. And you never quite got into it.

Don't keep passing that on down the generations. You can start to become a lover of cooking and preparing food yourself, because everything is attitude. It is not how good you are, it's your attitude and what you want to do about it. Anyone can become a good cook if you have a passion to bless others. Really, you know, everything in life is about blessing others, don't you think, Rashida?

Rashida: Yeah.

Nancy: It is! If you're doing it just because, well, “I like to do this,” it's not the same as doing it because . . . Why does a wife cook for her husband? Because she loves him, and she wants to bless him. Why do we prepare food for our children? Because we love them, and we want to cook healthy food because we want to see them growing healthy and strong.

We just couldn't bear to put all this junk food in them like so many mothers. They don't seem to care what their children eat! I can't even understand it! When you absolutely love your children and care about them, you want to give them the best! Because you love them, you want to do something that blesses them.

When you love your husband, you just want to make the most delectable food for him. And so out of that love and passion, you'll begin to create more creatively! Don't you think?

Rashida: Yeah, definitely. I think too, starting off small, not giving yourself . . . Like right now, I don't make all those fancy things my Nana was talking about every single night.

Nancy: No! Not that feast, like that feast you made for your grandfather, that was like a once-a-year-thing for her grandfather. You don't do that every day!

Rashida: Yes, definitely! My recipe book, I tried to do simple. But healthy and fast, but also fun. You know what I'm saying?

Nancy: Yes, this book is filled with simple recipes.

Rashida: Yeah, so if you're just learning to cook, or if you're just starting off, it's not like you give yourself this big, long list of things to make. Go small and give yourself some grace.

Nancy: Yes, that's true. You'll find these recipes are easy. They're simple, they're easy. Rashida has created them all in the midst of three little babies, two toddlers and a little one. You know, doing lots of other things as well.

Rashida: Oh yeah. Can I say something? Yeah, if it was up to me, I would make bigger dinners every night if I had the time. But I don't, so some things just have to be fast. They can still be healthy and fast. You know what I'm saying? They don't have to be this gourmet whole meal that takes hours and hours. You can cook at home, and still be very efficient and fast in the kitchen.

Nancy: Yes, and you still make . . .

Rashida: And it doesn't taste like cardboard!

IT’S OUR PURPOSE

Nancy: No, that's right. And also, when I'll come over to you for a meal, and I'll say, “Oh, you're so busy with babies, Rashida! You don't have to cook anything!” And I go, and there's still this glorious meal! I know that you haven't actually spent hours, but somehow you, because of your creativity, you just made it wonderful! And I think it's how we think about things.

The thing that I would like to encourage you with, is whether you think that it's your gift, or it's not, it's still your purpose as a mother. You cannot be a wife or a mother without embracing the anointing to prepare food. And remember that Scripture in Proverbs 31 that describes the woman? It says she provides; she gives food to her household.

It's part of what we do. And everything we do, we should do wholeheartedly, to the best of our ability. So embrace it, lovely mothers! Even if we have to embrace motherhood, we can mother, because we adore our children. But there is a greater realm of not only loving our children but loving and embracing motherhood. That just makes all the difference.

EMBRACE THE ANOINTING

It's the same with cooking. We cook because we have to cook and they're all hungry. If we don't cook, well, help! There's bedlam because everybody's screaming for food! So we have to do it! We can do it out of having to, or we can embrace the anointing. Embrace the anointing.

And to know, “OK, Father, You've given me this responsibility. I'm responsible to minister. Yes, ‘minister’ is the word. To serve, and minister, and impart blessing and love to my husband through my food, and to each one of my children. So I'm going to embrace it, and I'm going to delight to do it! And, Lord, just give me creative ideas. Show me how. Just bring new ideas to me.”

And you will find that it will begin to happen, little by little. So don't despair if you think you're not really a cook. You do it because you have to. No! Oh goodness, no, don't let's do anything in our home just because we have to! What a boring way to live!

We don't live in fullness that way. We live the full life when we embrace our role. This role of preparing food is a glorious role. Yes, it's not just mundane. It's not just boring. It's not just, “Oh, I have to do this.” It can be glorious! And fun! And amazing! And, of course, at the end, you get to eat this good food! (Laughter.) This good stuff! I love to eat food. In fact, I love eating Rashida's food!

Rashida: I love your food too! Nana is an amazing cook. I do have her Brussels sprouts in my book.  They're so good. They're my favorite.

Nancy: Oh, yes, and I noticed something else. You have “Creamy Dreamy Limas.” Did you know, Pearl got that from me?

Rashida: Oh really? That's easy. It's one of the first twelve recipes.

Nancy: Oh, was it hers? Oh, she's naughty, because it was really mine. But that's all right. We're all one together. I mean, goodness, me. (Laughter) And we all just love each other's cooking. In fact, the other night we had, oh, what did we have? We're always having a celebration.

Oh, yes, it was Auntie Pearl's 50th birthday celebration. So we all bring a wonderful dish. The table, as usual, is laden with glorious food. But I'm just searching down the table, looking for Rashida's dish. And I could tell it was yours. I knew it was yours, so that was my first choice, and it was so nice. (Laughter)

Rashida: I do have to say, sometimes I mess up. And I do. If you guys are just starting off cooking, or whatever, you're always going to have mistakes. I've ruined things countless times. Like making one dish, sometimes in the teens, how many times I've ruined it before I've perfected it.

So it's not “if you mess up, and the food tastes bad.” You can always try again. It's not like it's the end of the world. I've had that happen so many times.

Nancy: And Jack has been quite good to eat your failures too, hasn't he?

Rashida: Some of them I wouldn't even give to him! (Laughter)

Nancy: You do have to go out on a limb, don't you, to try, and if it doesn't work, well, who cares? You try something else. But yes, go out on a limb, ladies, and just try different things. It's not just the basic foods of meat and vegetables, but it's your spices, and your herbs.

You know, I grew up in New Zealand, where the food, well, maybe it's changed. Other nations have come in. Back when I grew up, we were pretty well New Zealanders. It was very bland food. Of course, we loved it.

Our basic food was roast lamb. I love roast lamb to this day. It's still my favorite. Every special occasion, we cook roast lamb. But it was roast lamb, roast potatoes, roast kumara (which is our New Zealand sweet potato), and we'd roast parsnips around the meat. Then maybe we'd have some frozen peas and a salad. Pretty basic. That was a good old New Zealand meal. We loved it.

But it was a bland flavor. Salt and pepper were about all we used. But then, as we began to travel in different countries and experience the food of the world, we found that oooh, other countries, they have hot food! And they have it hotter than we've ever known! And they have these spices, and this spice, and all the different ways. So you begin to expand and try all these different things. So I've always loved doing that. You've grown up with that too.

Rashida: Yeah, actually this was funny. I just thought of this now. My dad, growing up, my dad was always saying “I never used black pepper ‘til I was out of the house, really.” My dad always said that  black pepper was for people that don't know how to cook because they just salt and pepper things.

So I didn't even use black pepper ‘til I got out of the house. Now I love putting black pepper in my recipes, but it was funny that you say that. I do think that's probably another reason people don't like to cook. They don't like . . . it’s just bland.

Nancy: It's too bland! There is nothing to endear you about bland food except filling up your hungry tummy! But when food is spicy, and got these glorious flavors, oooh, you're not just eating because you're hungry. You're eating because of your taste buds. And that's what I love about food.

Rashida: Yeah, you can actually create instead of just cook!

Nancy: We now, our whole family, has just . . . we’ve just branched out. Colin and I, we don't ever go out very much. I think, “Goodness, I can cook better at home!” I just love my homemade food.

But if we go out for a special occasion, we always choose Indian, because it's curry, and it's very hot, and I just love that. I have to confess I haven't mastered real, genuine, glorious Indian cooking, so I keep that for my special when I go out.

The other night my son and daughter-in-law came for supper. Steve and Simone. He said, Mum, don't cook tonight. I'll bring out Thai. So he brought out some very hot Thai food. That was so lovely too.

But anyway, time has gone, but we're going to do another session. Can you wait?

Rashida: Yes!

Nancy: OK, let's pray. Lord, we just thank You that we can talk about food. And Lord, this is so biblical, and so spiritual, and so everything. Because, Lord, You created food, and You talk about it so much in the Word of God. Lord, we just pray that You'll help us to think about food like You think about it. I ask that You to bless every lady listening today. In Jesus' Name, amen.

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 144: WHO ARE WE LISTENING TO? Pt 5

God works in harmony, unity, and togetherness as the Triune God. Because we are made in His image, He also wants us to live a togetherness lifestyle. Are you living “individually,” or experiencing a “togethering” lifestyle?

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. I mentioned last time that today we would look at some of the “let us” Scriptures in Hebrews. We have been discovering that our faith is not an individual faith only. It is a  mutual faith. God wants us to walk together as His people.

The writer of Hebrews, when he is writing to them, inspiring them in what they are to do, he doesn't say, “I want you to do this.” No, he says, “Let us.” Let us. We're going to do it together. There are ten times the writer says “let us” in this book. 

Number 1:

Hebrews 4:1: “Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Now, the ultimate rest for the children of Israel was the Promised Land. God's great intention was for them all to come in and enjoy that wonderful land, flowing with milk and honey.

But how many got into the Land? Out of all those who came out of Egypt, twenty years of age and upwards, only two got in. I mean, they had seen all the miracles. They came through the Red Sea. God had provided them with heavenly manna for 40 years. They saw miracle after miracle in the wilderness.

But only two got in, because they did not believe. They did not trust God. This Scripture encourages us that we'd better fear. We'd better not just take things for granted. My, if only two got in, we'd better make sure that we're getting in!

Of course, we're not getting in by our works. It's through the precious Blood of Jesus. But we have to always be pressing on. Our Christian walk is not a stalemate. It's not stagnant. It's always more and more. Always increasing. Always moving forward.

“Increase” is such a common word in the Bible. I love that Scripture in Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Now, I've been walking with the Lord most of my life, for so many years, and yet I feel I've hardly started. There's more and more, and I keep finding out more. I keep discovering more. Everything is more, and that's how it's meant to be, every single day.

Oh, I must give you this Scripture though, before I go on. 1 Peter 1:17. It always challenges me. Peter is writing and says: “And if ye call on the Father, Who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.”

We just read, “Let us therefore fear . . . ” There needs to be a certain amount of fear otherwise we kind of can get too complacent. We're meant to walk in the fear of the Lord. I think that's something that is missing today, walking in the fear of the Lord. We can't take things for granted. We must walk in the fear of the Lord. 

Number 2:

Hebrews 4:11: “Let us labor therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” And so, it's a rest that we're going into, but we have to labor to get into that rest. We have to work at it.

Now, rest, of course we have our rest in Christ. He is our rest. He also gave the Sabbath day as a rest. “Six days shalt thou labor . . . But the seventh day you will rest.” There is a day of rest, but ultimately, Christ is our rest. You can keep a Sabbath day, and still not live in rest. So, let's learn to live in His rest, but we are also laboring to make sure we don't fall from that rest. All right. The next one.

Number 3:

Hebrews 4:14. Let's look at this here. Verse 14: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.” Now, that word, in most translations, is the word “confession.” It means, “to speak out what we believe.”

The word in the Greek is homologia, and it means, “to say the same thing that another is saying.” In other words, we are going to say the same thing that God says in His Word. We're going to line up our profession with His Word. What we say is not what we just hear from fake media, from what people think, or say, or whatever. No, we line our profession up with God's Word, and we hold fast to it.

Now we have to hold fast, dear ladies, because often God's Word is totally opposite to what everybody else is saying, or what everybody else is doing. God doesn't line up with the status quo. He doesn't line up with culture. No, He has already imparted His way to us, the best way, the ultimate way. It's the divine way, the heavenly way, the best way. So we've got to line up our profession with His ways.

We go over to chapter ten, verse 23, and it says the same thing again: “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised.)” You can count on His promises. You can stand on His Word.

Ladies, the moment you are getting weak about something, you're faltering, you're doubting, you wonder if you can really trust God in this issue, or whatever it is you're facing, dear precious mother, remember He is faithful. He is faithful. His Word is faithful, and you can stick your life on it. You can set your confession on it. So  hold fast the profession of your faith. Don't let it go. Everything around you may seem the opposite but hang on to God's Word.

We often have to do that when we're trusting God for healing. We don't see any signs. We're not healed, but we hang on. We stand fast on God's infallible Word. Hold fast. And we have to do it together.

“Let us.” Sometimes we can't do these things on our own. We just need one another. That's why it's so good to meet with one another. It's why God wants us to be a together people, a one-anothering people, a gathering-together people, so we can encourage one another in the faith.

Number four:

Hebrews 4:16. Let's go to that one. 4:16: “Let us (once again, “let us.” We're doing it together). “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” We can come boldly into the throne of grace.

We now, through the Blood of Jesus, can go behind the curtain, into the Holy of Holies, where God dwells in all His glory. And He's invited us to come in. We cannot come in on our own, but because of the blood of Jesus, we can come boldly, boldly, into this throne room! We can put out our hand and we can request of Him. Oh, He's made a way through His precious blood!

And we can do that together. We can pray on our own, but oh, there's something so powerful about coming in prayer together. Don't you find that? Oh yes, I love to pray on my own, but I love to pray with people. Corporate prayer meetings are so powerful, when we are all coming, “let us,” we're all coming boldly into His throne room, He has said: “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

I'm looking forward to tonight. We'll be having another prayer meeting tonight. How we love having prayer meetings in our home where we come together to His throne room.

Number five:

“Let us.” What's going to happen this time? Hebrews 6:1: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.”  So, here we are encouraged to go on. Yes, we started at “the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” But we are to go on! We're to go on, and on, and on, because there is always more and more!

Number six:

Hebrews 10:22: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Let us draw near. God wants us to be a people who draw near to Him. It's an invitation, “Draw near, My people.” This is what He wants.

We go back to the Old Testament to the Tabernacle. It was all a type of our salvation and our walk with God. And in the outer court, they had the brazen altar, where they did the daily sacrifices, and the blood was shed. It all pointed to Jesus, who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It speaks of our salvation through Christ, but it was in the outer court. We were still on the outside.

And then the next thing was the laver made of brass, where they had to wash. It was like a baptism. They had to wash before they could go into the Holy Place. But that was still the outer court. They were still on the outside.

Many, many believers are still in the outer court. Yes, they're saved by the blood of Jesus. They've got salvation. They have their earnest, their promise of eternal life. They've been baptized. They've been washed, but they hang around there. They don't keep moving on.

But you see, you go into the Holy Place. There was the Table of Showbread with the Bread upon it, where we can feast on Christ. Feast on Him. Feed on Him. Grow in His likeness and learn more of Him.

There was the candlestick, the golden candelabra, and it was shining down on the Bread to bring revelation. It also spoke of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. They had to put new oil, morning and evening, into that, to keep that light burning. It speaks of the continual filling of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Then we would go to the altar of incense, which speaks of praise and worship, just entering in, closer and closer to His presence, because the altar of incense was right next to the curtain. Just behind that was the Holy of Holies, where God's shekinah glory dwelt.

So God was always drawing His people closer. Today, He still wants to do the same thing. We can be people of the outer court, just staying on the outside. Yes, we're saved, we're born again, we're baptized, but we don't keep moving nearer. It's a challenge to me, too.

But God wants us to draw near. He wants us, as mothers, to be mothers who will be gathering our families to draw near into His Presence. That's why we love to gather our families, morning and evening, to hear the Word of God and to come into prayer, so we can all as a family draw nearer and nearer.

“Nearer and nearer, my God, to Thee,” the hymn says. And so, we do it together. We do it individually. We do it as a family. We do it when we come to meet with the fellow saints. We come, and we go to draw near to God, and we're going to do it together! Isn't that a wonderful thing? To draw near together? That's what God wants us to do.

Number seven.

Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting” or encouraging, “one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” And so here God is drawing us again. And the writer of the Hebrews is saying, let us, “let us consider one another, to provoke” each other, and let's not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together.”

Do you notice the word “assembling”? That means “coming together.” But “exhorting and encouraging one another.” We can't do that unless we're meeting together. It's a together thing, it's a “let us,” Let us. We're going to come together. We're going to provoke one another to love, and to good works, and to encourage one another. We'll do that as we come together.

So, no more of this social distancing and staying away from church. It's anti-Bible, and it's actually disobedient to the Word of God! And according to the Hebrews 6:5 “let us,” we can't go on, we can't move on unless we are doing what God has already told us to do.

Number eight.

Hebrews 12:1: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.“ What a wonderful Scripture! And we do that together! We run the race together. We encourage one another to hang on. Many times, one is in doubt, oh, they're going through something. The others will lift that one up. That's why it's so glorious to come together as the saints.

Once a week, at least, we gather. That's just the least, the very least, the very least! I mean, it's so good if we are meeting mid-week to pray, or even more than mid-week. We have more than one prayer meeting in our home every week. And so we meet as much as we can, but we're meeting so we can encourage one another, and lift one another up, to help one another to run with patience and endurance this race that is set before us.

At our fellowship, we always have a fellowship meal afterwards, so everyone stays on. We eat together, and we sit around the tables, and we fellowship together. It is so powerful. I mean, there's never even enough time to get to fellowship and talk with everyone!

And there's always ones who need prayer, those who need to pour out their hearts, those who just have to talk and share, and share what's going on. Others can pray with them. This all can't be done in church. There's not enough time for all that! I mean, when people come, there are so many needs. We just have the church meeting, and we have the Word, and we have prayer, and we have worship. We can have also prayer at the end. But still there needs time. We need to have that fellowship together. This is what it's all about.

Number nine.

Hebrews 13:13: “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” We have to encourage one another, to bear His reproach. We're not going to be the most popular people in the world as we follow Jesus, especially in this hour. It's getting less popular to be a God-fearer, a God-believer, a Word-believer. But together, we will encourage one another to go out to Him, without the camp. Jesus was crucified outside the city. We go out to Him, bearing His reproach.

The last one, Number ten.

Hebrews 13:15: “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name.” So, together, we encourage one another to constantly give thanks to the Lord, no matter what we're going through. Continually praising Him. So there you go, ten “Let us” things that we should do together.

Let me give you a few more Scriptures, because in this podcast, I'm mainly giving you some Scriptures about the facts of our meeting together as the people of God.

Should churches be meeting? Well, I think a good majority are now back meeting. I've heard of some that still are not doing it, and I've heard of some that are doing it, but doing it with all this junk of social distancing. No, that's not even biblical! You can't find one biblical reference for that.

We are a together people. We are a one-anothering people. We cannot do that as we're socially distancing! And God wants us to be together. I want to remind you again to go back and listen to the podcasts if you didn't before. I did four podcasts on being together, what God says about that. And two podcasts about meeting together at church, giving you the Scriptures.

But today, I'm, going to give you some more, because I didn't actually give you all of them, even in those six podcasts! And so, here's a few more. There is so much in the Word.

1 John 3:14, 16: “We KNOW that we have passed from death unto life, BECAUSE WE LOVE THE BRETHREN . . . Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Dear ladies, if we love the people of God, we will want to be with them! And this is one of the ways we know that we have eternal life. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the saints, and we want to be with them! And there's something about a fellowship of people gathering together. When one is not there, you miss that person. You feel something is missing.

Sometimes people stay away from their church gathering, from their fellowship, and they think, “Oh well, I've got things to do today. I won't go.” Or they have some other excuse. They don't realize how much they are missed! Oh, when people are not . . . when hen they don't come to our fellowship and they stay away because they're doing this or doing that, I don't think they even really know how much I miss them. I look for them.

We are a body, and you don't feel as though it's right if not everyone is there. I think you know, when we stay away, we're really saying, “Oh well, I don't really worry too much about those people. I've got other things to do.” I think we've got to get a greater love for the people of God, don't you? Because it will really show in what we do. And we'll just want to be there! Oh, goodness me! Absolutely!

I love that beautiful Scripture in Psalm 16: 2, 3. David is speaking. He says to the Lord, “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, 'Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to Thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.'” David was saying, “Lord, God, I just love You. You are such a good God! But how can I show my goodness and my praise to You? This is the way I can do it, by showing it to Your people, to Your body.”

So we show our love to the Lord, by showing it to His people. David said, he said, “Lord God, my goodness extends not to Thee, but to the saints that are in the earth.” When we show it to the saints, we're showing it to Him. Oh, I'm always so challenged that how I show God's love and how I treat even the most lowly saint, is really how I am treating God, and showing my love to Him. So that's a good challenge, isn't it?

Yes, and in Luke 4:16, we read how Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, “as was His habit.” It was His habit. He had been trained from a little baby to go on the Sabbath day. So whether you meet on Saturday, or you meet on Sunday, well, whatever day that you meet, make it a habit. So you're going to be there, rain, hail, sun, or snow!

I mean, it's amazing, amazing, what weak excuses people use to not come to the weekly service which God delights us to do. We've got to become a little bit tougher and not give into all these little excuses. I can remember one time, we were in a different place than we are now, and it was Sunday. It was a real, real snowfall. We had to drive I think, oh goodness me, it was a good . . . how long would it have been? Yes, a good half-hour drive, and it was all on a road that was so scary. I mean it was icy  snow.

But my husband, nothing would stop him. “This is the Lord's day; we're going to be there!” So we drove right though that icy snow to be there. There was hardly anyone else there, but we were there! Let's just get such a something in us, that nothing's going to stop us!

All right. 1 John 1:3, 7: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may also have fellowship with us: truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ . . . But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

So, number one: We have fellowship with the Father. Number two: We have fellowship with one another. If we have fellowship with Jesus, with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit, we’ll also be wanting to have fellowship with His people.

1 Corinthians 10:17: “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” I remember when I grew up in the church that I grew up in, they didn't have for communion all the little pieces of the wafer, or the pieces of bread that most churches have today. We always had one loaf. I think they were taking it from that Scripture.

Of course, we don't have to do that, but it is a beautiful picture. We are one bread. We are one loaf. And so it was a picture. Pictures are good. They help us to understand truth. So that loaf was passed around to everyone, and each person would take a little piece from that loaf. But they were understanding that as they took that little piece, they were part of the one loaf. I loved that.

All right. Well, let's just go . . . here are a couple more.

Psalm 55:14: “We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.” That word “company” in the Hebrew there actually means “a noisy crowd.”

I imagine all the people back then. They were most probably walking to church. We drive to church. Maybe it's pretty rowdy in your car as you drive to church with children screaming and babies crying. So maybe, you know, you're pretty scriptural! You've just got a noisy car ride.

I can remember when we were taking our children. It wasn't always perfect. Baby would be crying, and children would be fighting. Sometimes you get to church, and you don't feel very holy, do you? Goodness me, you feel the opposite, because you've been having to deal with children. And you could be getting mad. Oh, wow! Anyway, you've just got to ask the Lord for His grace, don't you?

But anyway, David loved to go the house of God in company with this noisy crowd of everybody talking, and rejoicing, and praising . . . most probably singing as they were all walking there together.

Psalm 92:13: “Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” Get planted! Don't just hop around from this church. “Oh, I think I'll go to that one. Oh, check out that one!” Get planted into a body where you can bless other people and they can bless you. And you will begin to flourish.

Now let me give you a few Scriptures here. Oh yes, I wonder, I had something I wanted to give you, but I don't think I brought it up here. It was about assembling, and the word in the Old Testament, “assemble,” it occurs many times. God loves to assemble His people together. His people. I forgot to bring up here where I'm doing this podcast all those Scriptures about how God loves to assemble His people together.

Well, that's what it says, isn't it, in Hebrews 10:25: “Don't neglect the assembling of yourselves together.” And even in the New Testament, there's so many words about assembling. I think I gave those to you in a previous podcast.

But let's look at some of the things that David confessed about being in amongst the believers.

Psalm 22:22, 25: “I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation.” The word is “assembly.” (These are apart from these other ones I wanted to bring to you.) But this also means “assembly,” in “the midst of the assembly.” That means the “gathering together of the saints.” “Will I praise Thee . . . My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation, ( or the great assembly) I will pay my vows before them that fear Him.”

Psalm 26:12: “My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations in the assembly will I bless the Lord.” The New Living Translation of that Psalm is rather lovely. “I come to your altar, O Lord, singing a song of thanksgiving, and telling of all Your wonders. I love Your sanctuary, Lord, the place where Your glorious presence dwells. Now I stand on solid ground, and I will publicly praise the Lord.”

Psalm 35: 18 “ I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise Thee among much people.”

Psalm 40:9, 10: “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation: I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth from the great congregation.”

When we come to assemble ourselves, to the gathering of the saints, dear ladies, we come ready to give. Not to hide Christ in us but to reveal Christ in us. We reveal Christ to one another when we come together. As we smile at one another. As we give one another a hand. As we show some kindness. As we give them a hug. As we talk together, and fellowship together. All this togetherness, we are revealing Christ to one another.

We don't hide. We don't come with a mask. We don't come social distancing. We're coming to be together as God intends, and when we are in the togetherness of His people, it's the most safest place we can be. Unless we're sick (and we'll stay at home). All this nonsense of all this social distancing is ridiculous! We use common sense. If anyone's sick, they stay home. But if we're well, we are there! We are being a together people, and we're not hiding.

Psalm 107:31, 32: “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt Him also in the congregation (the assembly) of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.”

Psalm 111:1: “I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.”

Psalm 149:1: “Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation of saints.”

Oh yes! It's not an individual walk.

It's a together walk.

A mutual, faith walk.

A gathering-together walk.

An assembling walk.

That's what God wants. And there is strength in God's people coming together. Satan knows that if he can dissipate, and weaken, and separate the Body of Christ, that he weakens them.

We are not meant to be separating and social distancing. We are meant to be coming together, and “so much the more as we see the day approaching.” These are the Scriptures, lovely, precious ladies. Let's walk according to the Word and not according to our humanistic culture around us. Amen?

Dear Father, we have mainly just spoken Your Word in this podcast. But we thank You for Your Word. Lord, I pray that Your Word will just, Oh, Lord, it will just sink into them, and become part of them, and overflow them, Lord. And Your truth will become flesh and blood. And they will walk in Your truth, Lord, that their hands, and their feet, and their face, and every part of their being will be revealing Your Truth. We ask it in the precious, lovely Name of Jesus. Amen.

Transcribed by Darlene Norris. If you would like to thank her, her email is: momcat617

More podcasts for you to listen to on this subject:

Podcasts 102 – 103: SHOULD CHURCHES BE MEETING TOGETHER?

Podcasts 104 – 107: FOUR PART SERIES ON TOGETHERNESS.

MORE SCRIPTURES FO YOU TO LOOK UP:

Psalm 27:4; 50:5; 65:4; 68:26; 106:47; 122:1; Isaiah 2:3; Jeremiah 50:5; Zechariah 8:21, 22; Matthew 18:18-20; Acts 2:42-47; 4:31; 14:27; 20:7, 8; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 5:4; 12:20; 14:23, 26; 16:2; Ephesians 4:15, 16, 25; 5:30; Colossians 2:2, 19; 1 John 3:14, 16; 2 John 1:12; and 3 John 1:14.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 143: WHO ARE WE LISTENING TO? Pt 4

The revelation of God's face – He wants to smile His blessing upon us, but sometimes He has to hide His face. Let's live in the lights of His countenance.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. Great to be with you again! And also, I'm so pleased to tell you that a new Above Rubies is going to be coming to you soon. It will go to the printer's this very week, so Number 98 is coming your way!

I know, you've had a long wait, and that's because we have to wait for the finance to come in. I rely on the donations of those who want to get this message of strengthening families out into the nation and into the world. Sometimes I have to wait longer than I want to wait. I love to get it out to you to encourage you and so that you can share it with others, to encourage them.

Now at this time, of course, we're preparing our database, and cleaning it up, as we do each time we send out a new magazine. So if you have a change of address, please send it in. Email it to me at ,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We'd love to get your change of address if you've moved, because if you send it out to the wrong address, well, we have to pay for it. And they send it back to, well, they don't, they just send back a little card, so the magazine is destroyed. And then they charge us for letting us know that it couldn't get to you! So do that.

Also, some of you who are listening, you may not even get the Above Rubies magazine. Well, that's the origin of Above Rubies! It's a magazine to encourage you, and uplift you, and bless you, and, oh, fortify you in your great and high calling. It's filled with testimonies of other wives and mothers, and it will bless your soul. So if you don't get the magazine, just email me, and you can send your address in, and we'll put you on the mailing list.

Some of you may want to get more to share with others. That's our vision, to share this message to everyone we can. So you're welcome to write in, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and ask for more copies.

Oh, also, my Above Rubies Instagram account, some of you may have been following that. A few weeks ago, it was hacked. I haven't yet got it back. Sadly, that is 12,300 followers. I had posted there 1,572 posts to encourage and bless mothers. They're all gone, so that is so sad.

But anyway, at last I have set up another Instagram account. It's still the same address, so you can go to it: _Above_Rubies_. So it's “Above Rubies,” with an underscore at the beginning, the middle, and the end.

So I've got to start all again. Please share with friends and let them know that it's beginning again. I'll start posting now every day to you on Instagram, just to give you something to bless you, and inspire you, as a wife and a mother.

Also, the Equality Act, have you been listening to anything about that? It's an act that's already been passed in the House. Sometime ago it was passed, but now Nancy Pelosi and all these demos, they are desperate to get it passed through the Senate.

Now, this Equality Act is not what it sounds. Like everything that they put out, they make it sound so beautiful, but it is the opposite of equality for all people, especially for those who are conservative with Bible-believing principles.

This Equality Act will cause girls who are in sports to have to compete with transgenders, those who  have changed from male to female, but still have so much more manly power. Of course, that's not even fair.

It will affect those who are in business. They cannot refrain from employing someone who is homosexual or transgender. Any business they will do for them, they can't say no, because they'd rather not do it for someone in that position. So they are bound to do it.

Also for churches, they cannot say no to even a homosexual or transgender who would want to come and work for them. They cannot even say no. This is what it's all about. That's only just the beginning. You can read up about it. Just put it in, “Equality Act.”

But what we all have to is call our senators. So I would encourage each one of us to call our senators, because if we don't do this, this thing will be passed. And we're just going down the drain, like we already are.

In only just over a month, since Biden has been the illegitimate President of our nation, he has now signed over 50 executive orders. Now, in that same time frame, Obama signed six, and Trump signed five. But Biden has signed over 50, every one of them bringing down this nation, causing people to lose jobs, and bringing us to poverty, and taking us away from our conservative and Biblical values. So this is where we are heading. We've got to stand up for everything that we can, so do call your senator about this bill, the Equality Act, and plead with them to vote against it.

Of course, let's keep praying for our nation. It's sort of hard to know what to do, isn't it? When we think, “Wow, we're just, they're just pushing in everything that's against our Biblical values!” Here they're doing this in a fraudulent way, because we all know, it has been proven without doubt that this election was won by Trump.

So where can we go? Our Supreme Court is not standing with us. No one is standing with us. We only have God. But our God is big, so let's not give in. Let's keep praying, let's keep trusting God, and let's keep standing up for truth. Amen?

Well, dear ladies, we're continuing Who Are You Listening To? The fake media, or God's Word? I'm sharing God's Word to you on a few different subjects that are challenging us at this moment.

I've talked to you on quite a few, a couple of podcasts about masking and what does God think about it in His Word? I thought I'd completely finished with that, but, ladies, I can’t believe it! Just in my daily readings, I am still seeing more Scriptures that give us an understanding of what we should do in this situation. It's so amazing, isn't it, how the Bible is filled with truth and it gives us the answer for everything that we are facing.

So I've got to share a few more verses with you. Do you mind? I'm one, who when I'm studying the Word, I want to find out everything God says on a subject. I often don't find out all about it at once. I'll think, “Oh, wow, I've got it!” And then I'll see more! So I want to share more with you.

Now, I have talked to you about how we get to understand and know God, by seeing His face. Of course, we know the Scriptures that if any man looks upon the face of God, he will die. But you see, God is Spirit. And in His Word, He reveals Himself through showing us His character.

Often He shows it by physical things, so we can understand. We can only understand the physical, even when it talks about God's face. Did you know that the Bible mentions many aspects of God's face? Even though He is a Spirit, God uses these analogies so we can understand more about Him.

I remember telling you about the Table of Showbread in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and how on the Table of Showbread, they had the Showbread. It is also called the Bread of Faces, lechem ha panim, the Bread of Faces. The bread represented Jesus Who is the Bread of Life. But it wasn't just “face,” but “faces,” because there are so many aspects to His character. And as we feed upon Him, in His Word, and wait on Him, we learn more and more of who He is.

GOD SMILES HIS BLESSINGS UPON US

Now I want to show you a few more things today. I was thinking of Numbers 6:24-26 which is the blessing. It's the blessing that God told the priests that they were to impart to His people. It's the blessing God wants on His people—on His people Israel, on His redeemed blood-bought people who are saved by His grace.

You all know this blessing. Let me read it again:

“The Lord bless thee and keep thee:

The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”

Now, do you notice, ladies, that in the blessing that God wants to put upon us, when He wants to show us His favor and His blessing, it talks about His face? You see, here it comes again, His face. Now “The Lord make His face”  (it's the Hebrew word paniym). then it says: “The Lord lift up His countenance” (the Hebrew word is paniym again. It uses two different words, but it's the same Hebrew word, “face,” the face of God.

And so, when God wants to bless you, lovely ladies, He wants to shine His face upon you. He wants you to see His face. Yes, He is Spirit, but He wants you to see who He is, and all that He is—His love, and His compassion, and His longsuffering, and His patience, and His peace, and His rest, and everything that is in Christ. It's all comes through His face. It shines through His face.

Now, in the Knox translation of the Bible, it translates the word “face,” as the “favor of God,” it's translated as “smiled.” I love that. Let me give you a few Scriptures here. Yes, in this beautiful blessing, it says, “The Lord smile on thee.”

It's giving the picture: “The Lord make His face shine upon thee.” So the Knox translation brings it out, “The Lord smile on thee.” Isn't that beautiful? You see, that's how we show our favor.

When we're looking at our children, how do we show our favor to them? We smile at them, don't we? When we lift up our countenance . . . What does it mean to life up your face, lift up your countenance?  Well, your face is lifted up. And when it's lifted up, it's smiling! It really just means “smiling.” So God loves to smile on us.

Yes, God smiles. He smiles upon you. That's His blessing upon you. And who God is, we are to reveal Him, in our small ways. So dearest, lovely mothers, in your  home, with your children around you, you are to show what God is like to them. You show to them what His blessing is like upon their lives. And so you're going to smile at them. OK? Are you doing that? Are you smiling?

Of course, that's why you have an open face. You can't smile through a mask. That's ridiculous! So we need an open face. You're smiling at your children, and as you do that, you're blessing them. Do you want to bless your children? SMILE AT THEM!

Do you want to bless your husband? SMILE AT HIM! How often do you smile at him during the day? Of course, unless he's out working, but when he comes in, when he's around, how often do you smile at him? How often are you smiling at your children? It's very easy to put on a kind of dark, frowning countenance, isn't it? But the blessing is the smiling countenance.

OK, let's look at some other Scriptures.

Psalm 21:6. “We are comforted by the smile of Thy favor.”

Psalm 44:3: “Thy smile shine upon them, in proof of Thy favor.”

Psalm 67:1: “May God be merciful to us, and bless us. May He grant us the favor of His smile.”

Psalm 80:3, 7, and 19: “Smile upon us, and we shall find deliverance.”

Psalm 90:17: “The favor of the Lord our God smile upon us.”

Psalm 89:15 “Happy is the people that lives, O Lord, in the smile of Thy protection.”

Psalm 119:135: “Restore to Thy servant the smile of Thy loving favor.”

So, we see here again that God has an open face. His blessing is to smile upon us. That is not masked. So we're getting that understanding again of how masking up people is totally antipathy to God's heart, and the way He wants us to live.

Of course, we know, I'm giving you the Word, but I can spend a whole podcast with the science of how masks are not healthy at all. They are the opposite. And when God created us, He didn't create each new human being with a mask to protect them all their life. No, He created them with a powerful immune system.

GOD CREATED US WITH A STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM

You see, God has provided us with everything. He's provided us with an immune system that fights disease, that helps us to stay healthy. Our job as mothers is not to mask up, or mask our children up. It's to strengthen and build up, daily and diligently, their immune systems. That's how we keep them healthy.

In fact, an immune system has to get used to diseases and stuff around. Now what happens with a little baby at about eight months of age? They're still a little precious baby, and they begin to crawl. Crawling is important. Crawling is important for their mental development.

But crawling is also important for them to start being able to cope with diseases, and this and that, and all the dirt and junk that's around them, and all the things that are in life that we could possibly catch. They've got to get immunity to them! So God causes them to crawl down on the dirty ground, and on the dirty floor.

Well, when we've got babies, we try to keep it all nice and clean, but it's still dirty. People walk on it. And then babies go out, and they just love to get into the dirt and pick up everything they can, and eat it! And they don't die! No, they're getting a strong immunity! Oh, goodness me. That's how God created us.

Anyway, so we see how God just wants to smile upon us. So you're going to be a smiling mother, aren't you? I love that quote of William Makepeace Thackeray. He said. “'Mother' is the name for God, in the lips and hearts of little children.” We show to our children what God is like, through our face, through loving, and through our face, smiling at them through our face. God wants you to be doing this all day long. And of course, to your husband.

GOD HIDES HIS FACE FROM SIN

And on the other hand, OK, we have these Scriptures about God's smiling on us, but when God is bringing judgment upon us, yes, God is also a God of judgment against sin. It tells us that He hides His face from us.

You see, the hiding of the face is not a blessing. The hiding of the face is a judgment. It's a curse, and we need to realize that, even with this masking business. When we hide our face, it's a curse. We hide our face from people we don't like. You know, if you don't want to be in fellowship with someone, you hide your face from them.

God hides His face when there's sin around. Deuteronomy 31:17-18. “Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them. And they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they shall say in that day, 'Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'”

It was because they had turned away to other gods. It goes on to say: “And I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.” You see, the Word of God is so expressive, isn't it? And it's all to do with the face! He shines His smiles on us with blessing, but He turns His face from us in judgment when we are sinning.

Deuteronomy 32:16-19: “They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they Him to anger . . . Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them... And He said, ‘I will hide My face from them.’”

Those words in Deuteronomy 31 and 32, where it talks about God's anger, that particular word is aph in the Hebrew. I've been doing a study on this, and I simply can't believe it, ladies. You know, it is important, isn't it, to really understand the full understanding of God's Word, and to understand truly who our God is. Because He's such a God of love and compassion, who just loves to smile upon us.

This is the blessing He so longs to pour out upon us. But because He is God, and holy and pure, He has judgment against sin. And He hates sin. He abhors sin. He cannot stand sin. He is angry at sin. Because of His longsuffering, He holds back His anger.

He is slow to anger, but we read so many times in the Old Testament of how He became very angry when the children of Israel turned away from Him and turned to other gods. Then He would turn away from them and just let their enemies take over them. They became slaves to enemies for years, and then they'd cry out to God. Of course, in His mercy, He would hear them and send them a deliverer and save them again.

We are in this day of grace. But there is coming a day when God's anger will be released against all sin. As I've been reading these Scriptures, I just can't believe how many there are. There's hundreds! I have found not only this word aph, but eight different Hebrew words about God's anger. In the “fierceness of His anger.” And the “rod of His anger,” and the “power of His anger,” and the “indignation of His anger.” And so it goes on.

I believe that we also can be indignantly angry against evil, because that's how God is. He is angry against evil. We are not meant to be, “Oh well, you know, it's OK, we're just gonna gloss over it.” No, we have to take a strong stand against evil.

Oh yes, let me t show you how God uses, even talks about, specific parts of His face to describe how He feels. Now, we know He is Spirit. The Word uses these parts of the face to describe the emotions and the heart of God. But it's amazing how He uses the face. He uses the mouth. We often read “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.”

He talks about God's lips. Isaiah 30:27, 28: “Behold, the Name of the Lord cometh from afar, burning with His anger . .  . His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire: And His breath as an overflowing stream.” All these are aspects of the face, because it's the face that reveals the character.

Nostrils. Psalm 18:8: “There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth.” When someone is really angry, it's like they're smoking through the nostrilsand that's the picture that is given here.

It talks about His nose in Isaiah 65:5: “These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.” You're getting to see how the face is so important. Every part of the face is portrayed.

His eyes and His eyelids, Psalm 11:4: “His eyes behold, and His eyelids try the children of men.”

So I just wanted to share that with you as I've been discovering how, yes, the face is so important. The open face, because it declares who we are.

God's face declares who He is; our faces declare who we are!

FACE TO FACE FELLOWSHIP

Let's go over to the end of the Bible now. Let's go to the New Testament. Right at the end, to 2 John. Second John is just a little letter of one chapter. John is writing to the elect lady. This lady was obviously someone who had a church in her home for her family and for others who came into her home.

So John is writing to her. But he hasn't got enough time to write everything he wants, so we get down to verse 12, and he says: “Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you and speak face to face.” The Greek is actually “mouth to mouth.”

Open faces, sharing together. He loves to communicate, to speak face to face. That is the ultimate. Now today, we are still facing, I hope not so much, but it seems that there are still churches who are social distancing and masking. Some are not even coming back, and some who are, are social distancing in their churches. It's all so opposite, so opposite, to what God intends. God loves the face-to-face fellowship.

We go to 3 John, and this letter is also one chapter. He's writing to Gaius. We come down to verse 13, “I had many things to write,” but he doesn't have time to write them all. But he says: “I trust I shall shortly see you, and we shall speak face to face.” Oh, how John loved face-to-face fellowship! This is what the New Testament is all about.

Right at the very beginning, in Romans 1:12, Paul was writing to the believers, and he introduces them to their faith and he tells them what it's like. In that Scripture, he says: “Your faith is a mutual faith.” In other words, it's not an individual faith. Oh yes, it is individual, but it's mostly, ultimately, predominately, a mutual faith.

And that Greek word, allelon, in every other place, it's translated “one another.” Love one another. Be kind to one another. Fellowship with one another. Gather with one another. And on and on. I think I found nearly 40 different “one anothers” in the Bible.

Actually, I did do some podcasts on them. If you didn't actually hear them, you need to go back. I did two podcasts on Should Churches Be Meeting Together? Podcasts 102 and 103. Please listen if you never heard them.

And then I did four podcasts on the whole doctrine of TOGETHERNESS, podcasts 104 to 107. And in those, I talked about all the different “one anothers.” It's just so amazing.

“LET US” DO IT TOGETHER

Then we go to Hebrews and we see how there are ten different times, ten different Scriptures, where the Word says: “Let us.” It doesn't say, “Well, I want you to do this.” No, “Let us.” The writer of the Hebrews (we think it was Paul, it may have been someone else) he didn't say, “Now, this is what I want you to do,” or “This is what I do.” No, “Let us.” This is what I'm to do, and this is what you're to do. We're to do it together. It's together we do it.

Because you see, our God, lovely ladies, is a “let us” God. Right in the very beginning, Genesis 1:26: “God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'” God is a triune Being. And within the Godhead, there is glorious, beautiful, unifying fellowship.

You see, God doesn't tell us to do anything that He is not already doing. That is not part of Him. God is plural. God fellowships—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It is an “us” God. “Let us, let us.” It's togetherness and out of these anointed God togethernesses, He encourages us to be a together people.

We're not to be a separated people. We're not to be just having our faith on our own. That's why there is so much encouragement to meeting, and assembling, and gathering together. We can't have this “one another” lifestyle on our own. We have to come together. Everything we have to do in our Christian walk, if we do it together, it will be more powerful.

As we do things together, we become stronger in the faith. We don't grow strong on our own. It's like a fire of coals and they're all together, burning so brightly. Oh, it's just so warming, and so delightful, and they're all hot. Hot, yes. God wants us to be hot for Him.

But if we take one of those coals and we put it on the hearth, it's not long before that coal goes black and all the beautiful red heat goes out of it, and it's no longer hot. It's no longer burning. It's just there, cold on the hearth. And that's what happens when we try to do it on our own.

Well, I'd like to take you through these ten “let us” things we're to do together, but I think we'd better start and do them in the next session, because time is going. .

LET’S BE GOD’S WORD PEOPLE

Well, dear ladies, forgive me. I didn't mean to get on this subject again, but it's all in the Word, and I want to give you everything that's in the Word. When you come to these podcasts, you're not coming just to hear me talk about a lot of this, that, and the other thing. No, I want to give you the Word.

And I do trust that you are built up in the Word as you come to listen to these podcasts, because, dear ladies, there's nothing better we can listen to. We can listen to stories, we can listen to ideas, we can listen to people say this and that. But it's the Word that we need, and if we get this Word right down into our beings, that's how we'll live. We'll live by the Word.

That's why I'm doing this series. We're either going to live one of two ways. One, by the Word, or two, by what we hear in society, what we hear on the fake media, what we hear other people saying. So which one is it going to be?

Let's be Word people!

Dear lovely mothers, oh, impart that Word to your children. Oh, make your children Word-children so that as they go out into this world, they will be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and against the deceptions, and against all the junk that is out there.

I know many of you are homeschooling your children, and it is so beautiful. You have them in this safe environment, and this is what we are meant to do. And then, in some ways, we're hibernating them. But we're not doing it forever.

We're doing it now, to put God's Word, and His truth, into them. But we're ultimately doing it to make them strong for one day when they leave our home and go out into this world. And then they go out to bring the revelation of God and the truth of God. So you are not educating them for hibernation, but for the revelation of God in the world.

Dear Father, we thank You so much for Your Word, and thank You for showing us again the importance You put upon the face. And how every facial feature and every facial expression is either revealing You to our children, and to those around us, or it's giving off a negative thing to them.

Lord, help us to be those who shine with Your smile of blessing. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Bless these dear mothers, Lord. Bless these dear wives, and their children, and their families. I pray that You will help them to lift up their faces, and lift up their heads, and walk in freedom and in truth, according to Your Word. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Transcribed by Darlene Norris. If you would like to thank her, her email is: momcat617

P.S. There are still so many more Scriptures about the  importance the Bible puts upon the face. I thought I better stop doing podcasts on this subject but there is more for you to checkout. For those who really want to dig into God’s Word, here are lots more Scriptures for you. Be blessed.

The importance the Bible places on the face.

We see the importance of the face at the very beginning of creation.

Genesis 1:26, 27: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

God created us in His image to reveal His likeness. The Hebrew word image is tselem and means “to shade.” We are not the perfect image of God, for we are not God. But we are to reveal His character and His likeness, and we do this through our face. People see what we are like and behold our character as they look at our face.

God wants the revelation of His image to be revealed through the face of his people. Conversely, Satan wants to hide the image of God in the world. He is the instigator of masks.

The following Scriptures in this article are the Hebrew word, paniym.

BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF MEETING FACE TO FACE

JACOB AND ESAU

Genesis 32:13-21. On Jacob’s return from Haran, he wanted to reconcile with his brother Essa. He was so concerned about it that he sent on a gift to him before he actually met. It wasn’t a little a gift but an assortment of 620 animals from his flock. He sent the present on ahead and said: “I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.”

We would normally say, “I will see him after he receives my gift,” but the Bible specifically says, “I will see his face.” To truly meet someone you must see their face. When we think of seeing them again, we think of their face. We see their face before our eyes.

When Jacob and Esau met Jacob said to him: “If now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as thought I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me” (Genesis 33:10). We would most probably have said, “After all these years I have seen you again,” but Jacob said, “I have seen your face.”

Genesis 35:1, 7: “And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother . . . And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el, because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.”

When Jacob fled from his brother to Haran because he stole his birthright. God Himself  only say, “When you fled from your brother,” but when you “fled from the face of your brother.” Check out also Genesis 36:6, 7.

JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS

There was great famine in the land of Egypt and Canaan. Jacob’s sons had already been down to Egypt to get food and now they had run out again. It’s time to go again but Judah speaks to his father in Genesis 43:3, 5: ”The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you.”

Further on in the story Judah is now speaking to Joseph (although he still does not it is long lost brother): “And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more . . . “ (Genesis 44:23, 26).

We would say, “ You will not see me unless your youngest brother is with you.” But the Bible specifically says, “you won’t see my face.”

Are you getting the importance the Bible puts on seeing the faces of one another?

JACOB AND JOSEPH

Genesis 46:30 speaks of the glorious reunion of Jacob and his son Joseph whom he thought was dead: “And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.”

Genesis 48:11: “And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face and lo, God hath showed me also thy seed.”

MOSES AND PHARAOH

Exodus 2:15: “Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses, But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian.”

Exodus 10:28, 29: “And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses said Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.”

These words were spoken before God sent the last plague on the Egyptians, that all their firstborn sons and firstborn cattle would die.

SEEING GOD FACE TO FACE

The Bible says that no man can see the face of God and live (Exodus 33:21-23). And yet the Bible speaks of different ones who saw God face to face.  Because the face speaks of God’s character and His presence, these men experienced the manifestation of God’s presence in special tangible ways. To know God is to see Him face to face.

JACOB

Genesis 32:24-30: “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

MOSES

Exodus 33:11: “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”

Deuteronomy 34:10: “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.”

CHILDREN OF ISRAEL

Deuteronomy 5:4: “The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire.”

Numbers 14;14: “And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.”

COVERED FACES ARE DISGUISES

Genesis 38:15: “When Judah saw her (Tamar, his daughter-in-law), he thought her to be a harlot; because she had covered her face.”

Job 24:15: “The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguised his face.” Masks and disguises are for those who do evil.

WE BLESS OTHERS WITH OUR FACE

Numbers 6:24-27: “The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance (face) upon thee, and give thee peace.” The face is involved in blessing.

1 Kings 8:14 and 2 Chronicles 6:3: “The king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel.” King Solomon turned his face toward the people when he blessed them.

We are commanded to bless one another, and we cannot do it with a covered face. The blessing of the Lord comes out of our mouths, through the smiles, and the favor we show upon our faces. We cannot bless others with a mask on!

WE TURN OUR FACE TO THE PERSON OR THE THING WE ARE PROPHESYING TO

We are commanded to set out faces toward whoever or whatever we are prophesying over. E.g. Ezekiel 6:2; 20:46, 47; 21:2, 3; 25:2; 28:21; 35:2; and 38:2.

WE MUST SEEK GOD’S FACE

To seek God’s face is to seek His presence. It means to get to know Him through His Word, through prayer, and waiting on Him. The Bible not only exhorts us to seek God, but to seek His FACE! The following Scriptures all speak of seeking God’s face:

Chronicles 16:11: “Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.”

2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face , and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Psalm 27:8: “When thou sadist, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee Thy face, LORD, will I seek.”

Also read 1 Kings 13:6; Job 22:26; 33:26; Psalm 17:15; 24:6; 34:5; 105:4; Daniel 9:3; Hosea 5:15; and 2 Corinthians 3:18.

REFUSING TO SEE SOMEONE’S FACE

KING DAVID AND ABSALOM

2 Samuel 14:24, 28, 32: “And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king’s face . . . So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face.”

We would most probably say, “I do not want to see you,” but the Bible says that David would not see Absalom’s face! Interacting with each other’s faces is how God intends us to live.

WE MUST NOT TURN OUR FACES AWAY FROM GOD’S HOUSE

Read 2 Chronicles 29:3-36. Verse 6 and 7: “For our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense, nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel  . . “

The habitation of the Lord was the tabernacle where they came to meet with God. The New Testament counterpart is the gathering of the saints together which we are commanded not to forsake (Hebrews 10:25). We must never turn our face from the house of God. We show our commitment to God by our commitment to His house and the gathering of His people.

God’s fierce wrath was on the people because they had turned their faces away from His tabernacle. Conversely, we cannot expect God’s blessing upon us when we do not diligently gather with God’s people. When we choose to do something else rather than gather with the saints, we are turning our face away from God Himself.

WE MUST TURN AWAY OUR FACES FROM EVIL

Ezekiel 14:6: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.”

WE DON’T KNOW SOMEONE UNTIL WE SEE THEIR FACE

Galatians 1:21-23: “And (Paul) was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ: But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.”

WE SHARPEN ONE ANOTHER’S FACES

Proverbs 27:17: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance (face = paniym) of his friend.”

We cannot have true dialogue without seeing one another’s faces and expressions. Masks spoil fellowship. In fact, they completely hinder true fellowship.

CJB: “Just as iron sharpens iron, a person sharpens the character of his friend.” The CJB uses the word “character” but it is paniym (face) in the Hebrew. But of course our character is revealed through our face. Therefore, as we sharpen one another in conversation and discussion we sharpen the character of each other.

TO ACCUSE SOMEONE, WE MUST DO IT FACE TO FACE

Acts 25:16: ”It is of the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.” We don’t accuse behind someone’s back, but face to face.

Galatians 2:11: “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I (Paul) withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”

SAD GOODBYES

Acts 20:37, 38: “And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.”

The Ephesians elders sorrowed because they did not believe they would see Paula gain. How does the Bible describe this scene? That they would see his face no more. It was his face that was dear to them. His face revealed God’s glory. From his face came the words of revelation and life. We often say, “I am so sad I won’t see them anymore.” But the Bible expressly states that it is the face they will see no more. The reason being that a person reveals himself through his face.

WHEN WE LONG TO SEE SOMEONE, WE LONG TO SEE THEIR FACE

PAUL

1 Thessalonians 2:17: “But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.”

1 Thessalonians 3:9, 10: “For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?”

JOHN to the “elect lady.”

2 John 1:12: “Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.”

JOHN to Gaius.

3 John 1:13, 14: “I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee; But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face.” The Greek in the last two Scriptures is actually “mouth to mouth.” You can’t speak or fellowship “mouth to mouth” with a mask on!

WE MUST TURN OUR FACES TO ZION

Jeremiah 50:5: “They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward.”

NET: “They will ask the way to Zion, they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.”

This is literally speaking of God’s people returning to Zion, back to their land. But it is the same attitude that we should have. Our faces should always be turned toward God, to His Word, and to that which is on His heart. Our faces should never be turned to the things of this world but only to God Himself.

Jeremiah 32:33: “They have turned unto me the back, and not the face, though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.” May our faces always be toward the Lord, and never our backs.

CHRIST LONGS TO SEE OUR FACE

Song of Solomon 2;14 (NET): “O my dove . . . let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.” God longs to see your face as He fellowships with you.

THE ULTIMATE JOY OF LIFE WILL BE TO SEE JESUS FACE TO FACE

1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

We have a faint picture of Christ now as we see Him in His living Word, as we get to know Him in the place of prayer, and as we wait on Him, but it is not yet a perfect picture. One day we will see Him face to face.

Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face—what will it be,
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me?

Refrain:
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!

Only faintly now I see Him,
With the darkened veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.

What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
Death is swallowed up in vict’ry,
And the dark things shall be plain.

Face to face—oh, blissful moment!
Face to face—to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so.

THE FACE OF GOD

Revelation 6:15-17: “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?”:

Revelation 22:4: “And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads.”

GOD LOVES TO SHINE HIS FACE UPON US

Psalm 4:6; 21:6; 31:16; 34:5; 44:3; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; 119:135; 140:13; and Hossa 6:2.

GOD’S FACE MAKES US EXCEEDINGLY JOYFUL

Psalm 16:11: “In thy presence (paniym = face)

Psalm 21:6: “Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.”

As God’s face makes us filled with exceeding joy in His presence, so our faces should make other faces to be filled with joy. Looking at a masked face, does not give us any joy. But as we go about with a happy and smiling face, we bring joy to others.

GOD WANTS TO SHINE HIS LIGHT THROUGH OUR FACES

2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with open (unveiled) face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

We come to the knowledge of God through beholding the face of Jesus Christ. As we behold His face (His character) we understand more of God.

The Passion Translation: “For God, who said, ‘Let brilliant light shine out of darkness,’ is the one who has cascaded his light into us—the brilliant dawning light of the glorious knowledge of God as we gaze into the face of Jesus Christ.”

Christ has shined His light into our hearts so we can shine His glory from our faces, which is reflected glory from His face. When we understand this we realize the deception of masks.

GOD’S FACE WATCHES OVER US

Psalm 11:7: “For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold he upright.”                                                              

Psalm 41:12: “And as for me, thou upholdeth me in my integrity, and sittest me before thy face forever.” Most translations say: “You have set me in your presence forever.” God’s face speaks of His presence.

WE CAN PROVOKE GOD’S FACE TO ANGER

Isaiah 65:3: “A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face.”

GOD SETS HIS FACE AGAINST EVIL

Jeremiah 21:10; 32:32; Ezekiel 7:22 and 15:7. We should also turn our faces from evil.

GOD HIDES HIS FACE FROM SIN AND EVIL

Isaiah 59:2: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

Deuteronomy 31:17, 18; Psalm 10:11; 27:9; 30:7; 34;16; 44:24; 51:9; 69:17; 88:14; 102:2; 104:29; 132:10; 143:7; Isaiah 8:17; 54:8; 64:7; Jeremiah 18;17; 32:31; 44;11; Ezekiel 7:22; 14:8; 15:7; 39:23, 24, 29; Micah 3;4; and 1 Peter 3;12.

GOD WANTS TO PLEAD WITH US FACE TO FACE

Ezekiel 20:35: “And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.” God wants to see us face to face. He also wants us to have open faces to one another. This is God’s way.

GOD WILL NOT TURN HIS FACE AWAY IF WE RETURN TO HIM

2 Chronicles 30:9: “For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.”

THE FOUR FACES OF THE LIVING CREATURES

The four faces of the living creatures in Ezekiel, chapter one speaks of four different aspects of the character of God. Read verses 10, 11, 15; 10:14, 21, 22.

Ezekiel 1:10: “As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion . . . the face of an ox . . . the face of an eagle.”

EXHORTATIONS

THE FEAR OF THE LORD

Exodus 20:20: “God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.”

WE MUST HONOR THE FACE OF THE ELDERLY

Leviticus 19:32: “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD,”  cf. Lamentations 5:12.

FURTHER SCRIPTURES TO CHECK OUT

2 Samuel 2:22; 2 Chronicles 25:17, 21; Proverbs 27:19; Jeremiah 1:8, 17.

And there are still more!  

Blessings from  Nancy Campbell

www.aboverubies.org