FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 39: How Can We Change the World? Part 5

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, it's so good to be with you again today or this evening, whenever you are listening, and you are listening. You wouldn't be here if you weren't listening. I'm so glad you are listening. I think listening is a very important thing, but then again, we've got to listen to the right things, don't we?

I was reading the other day, in John 10, the beautiful words of Jesus. Of course, this is the shepherd chapter. Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, is speaking and says: “The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but they will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”

I was thinking again about this Scripture; if we are His sheep, we will hear His voice. I do trust, as you listen to these podcasts, you will listen for God's voice, that you'll listen for the voice of Jesus. Yes, you'll be hearing my voice, but I pray that you'll hear His voice and that you'll listen for His voice. If there's anything that you don't feel is quite right, check it out. I love to do that. I'm one of those people who is called a Berean. Do you remember Bereans in the Word of God? In the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17:11), it tells us how Paul spoke and preached, but the Bereans didn't just listen to them, they checked out what Paul said. They got into the Scriptures to see “whether those things were so.”

Of course, when you hear truth, it burns in your spirit, doesn't it? I love that Scripture when Jesus met the two disciples after He had died and after He had risen from the dead. They were walking down to their little village of Emmaus, and they were so forlorn, and unhappy because they thought Jesus was dead. He came alongside them, and He began to open up the Scriptures and then eventually, they got to their little town and invited him in.

The Bible tells us, as Jesus broke the bread and gave thanks, that their eyes were opened. They realized it was Him, and He vanished out of their sight. Then they said in Luke 24: 32: “They said unto one another, 'Did not our heart burn within us as he talked with us by the way and while he opened unto us the Scriptures?'”

When we hear truth, it burns in our spirit. It witnesses in our spirit, doesn't it? We have to get used to listening to His voice and discerning the voice of the stranger because Jesus said in John 10 that His sheep will not listen to a stranger. That word in the Greek is allotrios, and it means “someone who isn't one's own. they are not your kin, they are foreign, alien, hostile” and they are voices that are hostile to God's words. They are alien to God's Word.

The sad part about it is that I hear many people who say they are Christian who actually listen to the voices of the strangers more than they do to God Himself. I find most Christian young people today know more about the current movies and more about movie stars, and they talk more about them than they know of God's Word. I'm amazed so many times of how little they know of God's Word. If you start a Scripture, a very familiar Scripture, they can't even finish it.

Really, if we are listening, if we are listeners, if we are His sheep who listen to His voice, we'll know the Scriptures, and even us adults.

It's the same with adults. Often, their talk is no different than young people. Most families today are more familiar with the voices of feminism and humanism than they are of the Scriptures. Most people in the church today have the mindset of limiting their families to one or two children, and this is in the church I'm talking about. Where does that come from? That's the voice of feminism. That's the voice of humanism. That's the voice of the stranger to the Word of God. That's strange, that's alien to the Word of God because the Word of God is opposite.

The Word of God reveals God's heart. Over and over again, we read of how God wants to bless and then it tells us how he wants to bless us. “I will bless the fruit of your womb. I will do you good, and I will multiply you.” Over and over again, we read these words that reveal the heart of our Father and His plan for us. This is the voice of God, the voice of the Word of God, opposite to the voice of the stranger.

What does it say? When they hear the voice of the stranger, they won't listen to him, “they will flee from him.” They will run from him. Do we really run from the voice of the stranger, from the voice of the world, from the voice of feminism and humanism and socialism that's all around us? It becomes so part of us, we get so use to it. That is the voice of the stranger.

Let's truly be His sheep who hear His voice, and we are prepared to obey His voice. Everything else is alien, hostile to us; it doesn't belong to us. Amen?

Well, before we get on with our points today, I thought I'd love to read you a poem. It's an old poem. I used to recite this poem when I was a young girl. I think some of you may know it. It's called: If Jesus Came to your House.

“If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two,
If he came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do.
Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room to such an honored Guest,
And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the very best,
And you would keep assuring Him you’re glad to have Him there
That serving Him in your own home is joy beyond compare.

But when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door
With arms outstretched in welcome to your heavenly Visitor?
Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in?
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they’d been?
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard?
And wish you hadn’t uttered that last, loud, hasty word?

Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?
And I wonder if the Savior spent a day or two with you,
Would you go right on doing the things you always do?
Would you go right on saying the things you always say?
Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?

Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace?
And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?
Would you sing the songs you always sing, and read the books you read,
And let him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed?
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go?
Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends?
Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on?
Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do?
If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you.”

Wow, would we really love to have Him in person all day, every day, with us because He wants to be with us every day. He's in us if we have invited Him in, and He wants to be in our homes and be a part of everything we do.

Remember, we are doing Podcast 39, although we will be doing 59 next week. This is a recap of a podcast that disappeared. You never got it unfortunately, but we want you to have it because it is part of the series: HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WORLD? I did 24 podcasts on this series, and I want to make sure you have them all. The points on this one are eleven and twelve.

No. 11. PASSIONATELY LOVING

God not only wants us to love but to love passionately or love fervently. You'll remember that this is what we are finding out in this series of HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WORLD?. We are finding that God has all these adjectives. We don't do things normally when Jesus lives within us. We do them ultra-normally, extraordinarily; we do them abundantly and exceedingly.

We read these Scriptures:

1 Thessalonians 3:12: “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men.”

2 Thessalonians 1:3: “The love of every one of you all abounds toward each other”

1 Peter 1:22: “Love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

1 Peter 4:8: “And above all things, have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins.”

We see that God wants our love to be hot, fervent, not just loving but fervently loving. Isn't it wonderful, ladies, to have the Scriptures? I need the Scriptures because if we didn't have the Word of God encouraging us and telling us how it's meant to be, we would live sub-zero level. I know I would. I'm encouraged, and I'm stirred on; I'm spurred along by the Scriptures to love more fervently because I can just get along with my life and love the people I love, but there is more than that.

You see, Romans 5:5 says: “But the love of God is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who has given it unto us.”

When Christ dwells in us by His Holy Spirit, we have the love of God being shared abroad and poured out in our hearts. We need to be reminded of this because we can live so normally, but God wants us to live above the normal, so we are encouraged and reminded to do this.

Where does our love start? It's very easy to love people we barely know because you haven't really had to find out what they are really like and all their idiosyncrasies and the things that get on your nerves. You can say, “How lovely to meet you. Oh, I love you.”

Where does it really start? It starts in your home, of course. Everything starts in our home, with our husband. How do you love your husband? Do you just love him, or do you love him fervently? You see, my lovely ladies, we've got to get past the normal, the mediocre, and go beyond that to love fervently.

Maybe your love is in a bit of a rut. I know what that's like. I've got into that in my own marriage. You know you love one another, and life goes on, I mean, you don't have any problems with your husband, and yes, you love one another, but it’s just pretty normal. No, God wants us to go beyond that. He wants us to love fervently, to be thinking of extra ways to show our love beyond the normal.

Of course, love is not just a feeling, lovely ladies. No, love takes work, hard work. Love is serving. Love is often doing the duty, but it's love. We can get into the grind. Instead, we realize sometimes the grind can be part of our loving. We do the grind, but we do it with love because it's for our husband, it's for our family, it's for our home, and we are building a strong and godly family.

There may be some of you where you feel your love has gone out the door. You don't feel love anymore. Once again, can I encourage you? Love can be a great feeling. There are times when you do really feel love, but you can't base your love on feeling. No, because sometimes you don't feel, and you have to love anyway. That's where you know the Scripture: “The love of God is spread abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost that is in me.”

If my love has gone out the door, it doesn't matter, because God's love is pouring into my heart. I can still love even if mine is gone. I love with God's love. You have to do that with faith. You haven't got a feeling about it, but you do it anyway. You love even when you don't feel like loving. That's true love, that's powerful love, that's real love, when you love when you don't even feel like loving. I want to encourage you in this: love your husband fervently. If you haven't done anything fervent or passionate for a while, think of something you can do that is passionate, that is fervent, that is over the top, that's more than necessary, that's above the normal. C'mon lovely ladies, don't stay in the rut. Don't stay in the boring normality. Get out of that. Amen?

What about your children? Of course, you love your children but sometimes you know, you don't show it. You may be frowning more than smiling at them. You may be in that self-pity, “Poor me.”

Poor children. Oh goodness, they've got to put up with that? That's not love. Love has to go beyond ourselves. The trouble is, many times, we love ourselves the most. It's all “poor me “and looking after me and how everything affects me. No, God's love goes beyond us. It pours out for others. Even when you are feeling lousy, you don't give into that self-pity, poor me, lousy, down in the dumps depressed feeling. No, you rise above that and once again, you claim the promise: “The love of God is spread abroad in my heart.” You think of the other Scripture where it says when we lay down our life for ourselves, we hold it for ourselves, we are going to lose our life. When we lose our life for others, we find it (Mark 8:35).

True love is in pouring out our lives for others, serving others, giving to others. This is what true love is, and this is what brings joy. Then, as we have the love of God filling our homes, we are going to take that out to others, and we are going to love the brethren and love the people around us. It’s spreading love abroad wherever we go, isn't it?

Now, I love this Scripture in Psalm 16:2, 3 where David says how he showed his love for God by loving the saints. Here's what it says: “O my soul, thou hath 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 understood and David realized that when he was filled with love and praise to God, the greatest way he could show his love to God was to show it to His people around him because God is in His people. When we love His people, we are loving Him; we are loving His body. He said, this is how I'm going to show my goodness unto the Lord. I'm going to show it in delighting in the saints, the excellent in the earth who are all around me. This is another beautiful way to show our love, to show it to God's people.

How can we show it to God's people? We show His love to His people by praying for them as God puts them up in our hearts. We show it by doing something good for them as God puts it upon our hearts. When we know someone is sick or hurting or in the hospital or whatever, we'll go and visit them because we want to show God's love for them.

HOSPITALITY

I think a very practical way that we can show the love of God to His people is by hospitality, having them into our home. Some people love to hear that, some people don't. Some people think, “Oh goodness me, hospitality isn't really my gift.”

Well, lovely ladies, I know that there are some families who have that gift of hospitality, and it is something special in their lives, but I can't let you off the hook. I'm sorry, but the Bible speaks about hospitality for everyone, not just the people who think it's their gift or love doing it. No, it's to the whole body of Christ. You see, our God is a hospitable God. He loves to say, “Come.”

Come is one of God's favorite words. He says, “Come, come unto me, come all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come and take of the water of life freely. Come, Come, Come. Go out onto the highways and byways and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.” God wants a full house, and He's saying, “Come onto me, I want to bring you into My kingdom. I sent My Son to die for you so that you could come and be part of My family and inherit all that I have given to My Son. You are not only my heirs, but you are joint heirs with Christ.” He’s invited us in.

This hospitable God lives in you and me. If He is in your heart, if He abides in you, this One who lives in you is hospitable, and He wants to say ”Come” through you. He wants you to invite people into your home.

As we invite people into our homes, we are inviting them in to get them into God's home. Often, that's how God gets them into His home. It's not just taking people to church and hoping they'll get saved. No, it's inviting them into our homes, sitting them down at our tables where it is the most wonderful opportunity to speak about Jesus to the unsaved and of course, to fellowship in the Word and with kindred spirits amongst the saints of God.

Let me see if I can give you a few Scriptures.

Romans 12:13. In this Scripture, Paul is writing, and he exhorts to all the saints, not just to a specific few. It says we are to be “given to hospitality.” Now, that word “given” in the Greek is dioko, and it means “to pursue, to follow after, to seek after eagerly, to press toward, to earnestly endeavor.” Now we see this same word, “given,” where we are to be given to hospitality, we see it in Philippians 3:6 where it talks about being persecuted. Wow, we've got to persecute people to hospitality. We don't even give up until they come. We invite them for a meal, and they have excuses, but we don't give up. We persecute them with love and kindness until they come.

“Follow after.” That Scripture is in Philippians 3:12-14  where it says we are to “Press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” “Press toward.”  Well that's the same word, dioko. When it says we are to be “given toward hospitality,” we are to press toward making it happen in our homes. We are to go after it, pursue it.

Here's some other translations.

The Living Bible says: “Get into that habit of inviting guests home for building or if they need lodging for the night.” Get into the habit. It actually should be a habit of our lives. Now, it used to be more in the church than it is today. Somehow, hospitality is kind of fading away, yet it is meant to be part of our lives. In fact, in the early church, do you remember? It was part of their everyday lives.

Let me go to Acts 2 and we read about what they did in the early church, the early believers. Acts 2:46: “And they, continuing daily, with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat (that means their food), did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart.” Now, that's a beautiful picture. What were they doing? Were they going around and having communion from house to house? No, this was talking about their daily meals because breaking bread is the way they used to speak about having a meal. They broke bread together. Especially in the Middle East where they break the pita bread and dip it in the dish, they dip it in the hummus, they dip it in the baba ganoush, and they dip it in the foods they have made. They call it the breaking of bread. It was their eating of their meals together.

All of the sudden, when the Holy Spirit fell, thousands were saved and came into the kingdom, and they were filled with God and the revelation of their newfound faith. Because they were Jews and they had been daily used to the sacrifices in the temple and all the ritual of the temple, which all speak of Christ, then for the first time in their lives they began to see what it was all about. These sacrifices of the lamb morning and evening, they all pointed to the Lamb that was slain once and for all because He was the purest, sinless Lamb who was able to take our punishment and die once and for all for our sins.

They began to see all the different meanings of everything that happened in the temple. Can you imagine when they met together? They couldn't wait to get together. They worked during the day, so they would have to get together at suppertime. They would bring their food and they would eat together, and they would talk and fellowship. “Did you realize this? Did you understand this? Oh, I understand this now, this revelation. Isn't this incredible? Everything we've done for years and generations past has all pointed to Jesus.”

Their fellowship was rich, and they gathered daily in one another's homes and breaking bread and eating their evening meal together and praising God and having favor with all the people. I'm always challenged by these words: “And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved.” Do you notice the correlation there? They continued daily breaking bread from house to house and then daily, the Lord added to the church such as should be saved. I believe there is a great correlation there. As the people around saw their lifestyle, saw their love for one another, and it was said of them, “Look how they love one another,” and the richness of their fellowship, they looked on and wanted it.

As they daily showed hospitality, daily the Lord added souls to the church. How often do we have souls being added to the church today? Not so often these days which is so sad. I wonder if it comes back to our hospitality. How often do we have hospitality?

Now, during the course of our lives and our marriage, we've been married, I keep forgetting, I think I said in the other podcast 55 but I think it's 56 years (yes, it’s 56 years). Anyway, we've either done two things when we've been in a church.

We have a fellowship meal which we currently do with our church fellowship here. We have a fellowship meal after the service. Everyone brings a dish, so we eat together, we fellowship together which is so wonderful. I believe, my precious ladies, that church is far more than going to a church, listening to a message, and going home. Church is fellowship. It's the meeting of the saints together. It's encouraging one another and having that fellowship of kindred spirits, even those who are not so kindred, encouraging and inspiring them. You can't do that by driving up to a church, walking in, having some worship, listening to a message and going home. That's not real fellowship. It’s not koinonia.

I do believe that we need this because this is how we show our love to one another. In fact, even the fact of coming to church shows our love for the brethren. What does it say in 1 John 3:14? “We know that we have passed from death onto life because we love the brethren.” We love them. If you love them, you want to be with them. If you love them, you're going to be there, Saturday or Sunday, whenever you worship, you're going to be there because you love them.

You stay away, what does it say? You don't really love the brethren. You want to do your own thing. You've got other things to do. No, we show our love by being there and then we show our love by going further and showing hospitality. At the moment, we have our fellowship meal and that sometimes carries on into the afternoon, and it's so wonderful.

In times when we didn't have that, we would always invite people back to our home after Sunday service and have people around our table. I can remember when our children were still home with us, we would often end up with 30 or more people around our table or around the deck or around somewhere, all eating, because not only would Colin and I be inviting folks home, but our teenage children would be inviting their friends home, and it was wonderful.

It was a continuation. It wasn't just we go; we listen to a service. No, we come home, we continue that dialogue. We talk about that revelation that we got from the Word, and people can ask questions. Oftentimes, people would even come to Jesus around our table, or we'd be praying for them or praying for someone to be healed, praying for those who need encouraging. It is wonderful. Why do we do this? Because not only does the Word say so, but because we love the brethren and we want to love them fervently.

Some other translations of Romans 12:13:

New Living Translation (NLT):  When God's people are in need, be ready to help them, always eager to practice hospitality.”

The Passion Translation (TPT): “Eagerly welcome people as guests into your home.”

The Holman Translation (HCSB): “Pursue hospitality.”

Do you remember about the house of Stephanas in 1 Corinthians 16:15? It says of them: “You know the house of Stephanas, they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.” Addicted! They were addicted to blessing and serving and showing hospitality to the saints.

Hospitality shouldn't be a haphazard occurrence of our lives but the habit of our lives!

1 Peter 4:7-9 says: “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore, be serious, watchful in your prayers and above all, have fervent love to one another and be hospitable to one another.” Here, the Word is showing us how to do it. How do we have fervent love? Inviting people to our home, without grumbling.

I'd love to talk to you so much more about hospitality because I know you have lots of ifs and buts and questions. Maybe you could go back and have a look at the TEATIME AND TALK SHOW that I do with Erin Harrison. We ended up doing twelve live talk shows, where you can see us, on the subject of hospitality. We didn't exhaust it, but we answered lots of questions there and all the excuses we have about hospitality, we answered those. You can find those if you go to my Above Rubies Facebook and look for the videos, or you can go to Erin's Facebook, Keeper of the Homestead blog, and you can find them there. There's twelve of them you could look at about hospitality.

Time is running out for this podcast and I've got to do number 12 because we have to fit it in number 39 podcast. I'll tell you what it is.

No. 12 EXCEEDINGLY GROWING IN THE FAITH

God not only wants us to have faith in Him but to exceedingly grow in the faith. We've got to grow, ladies. Never stay the same. Grow, grow, grow. One Scriptures says that “all may see your growth in the Lord.” The RSV says: “That all my see your progress.”

Colossians 1:22, 23 says: “To present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight: If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”

2 Thessalonians 1:3: “We are bound to thank God for you always, brethren, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of everyone of you toward each other abounds.” Did you notice those words? Your faith grows exceedingly. How are you growing in the Lord? A little wee bit or exceedingly? Come on now, if we are going to change the world, we've got to grow exceedingly.

Now remember, that word exceedingly is huperauxano in the Greek, and this is what it means: “to increase above the ordinary degree.” Isn't that amazing? God is always looking for more, above the normal, above the ordinary degree.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Dear lovely ladies, our Christian walk is a more and more walk. It's always more and more. When you wake up in the morning, say, “Thank You, Jesus. I belong to You. Thank You that I'm walking on the journey of a more and more walk. I want to know more of You today. I want to learn more and more. I want to show more and more of You to my husband and to my children.”

Always be seeking for more and more. As you read the Scriptures, be looking for more and more, listening. As we started this podcast, listening for His voice, never to the voice of the stranger. I think I said on one of my other podcasts that line from a song, “I don't want to miss one word you speak.”

I actually looked up the song because I love those words so much. It's from the song, “I'm Listening” by Chris McClarney. The chorus says:

“I don't want to miss one word You speak

'Cause everything You say is life to me.

I don't wanna miss one word You speak,

Quiet my heart, I'm listening.”

Keep listening to the Lord, and as you do, you will grow more and more.

“Dear Father, I pray that You will bless each one listening personally in their lives. Give them such a passion to seek after You more and more. Give them a longing for prayer more and more. Give them a heart to read Your Word more and more and more. Lord God, fill them more and more with Your love and with Your Spirit. Lord, fill their homes more and more with Your love and Your joy and the manifestation of Your presence and the atmosphere of heaven. I ask this in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 38: How Can We Change the World? Part 4

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. Well, Arden has just come in to do the podcast, so I’ve had to stop everything else I was doing. I was actually doing tomatoes. We were out in the garden to harvest our tomatoes. Oh, it’s such a wonderful time of the year! I love harvesting from my garden. Although, I have to admit, my garden isn’t quite as good this year as usual. I’m not sure why.

But at least we’re getting lots of tomatoes. I had my Above Rubies girls helping me. We were cutting them up and then I put them in the big pot and simmer them a little.

When they’re cool I puree them in the blender, put them in plastic bags and put them in the freezer. It’s so quick and easy. Then throughout the year I’m able to get out a bag of tomatoes, pureed and ready to go, and put them in my soups, casseroles, or whatever I’m making. ( I have also canned or “bottled” loads of bottles of tomatoes too).

So I’m using lovely tomatoes out of the garden all through the year. But when I have come to the end of my harvest, I actually don’t eat another raw tomato until next year’s harvest. After eating such lovely tomatoes out of the garden I can’t bear to buy them from the shop. They just don’t taste anything like homegrown, do they?

So we were doing that, but now Arden has come in with a new mic, so I hope this sounds really good! The other mic we were using belonged to THM. Arden now needs that down at the factory where the girls will be doing their YouTube cooking videos. Arden does all their filming for them.

We have now had to buy one here for ourselves, and Arden says it will be better than the THM Poddy! What do you think about that? I hope it sounds really good.

Any way, it’s so good to be with you again today. It’s hard to believe that we have now finished our series on “How Do We Change the World?”

Did you know that I had talked about this for 24 weeks? Can you believe it? That’s how long we talked about how we can change the world as wives and mothers. I had 20 points.

By the way, one of our lovely listeners emailed me and asked if I would make a list of the points that I could send to her. I have now completed that.

But, lovely lady who wrote to me, if you’re listening, I have a big confession to make— now I can’t find your email. So if you’re listening, would you email again, and I will send them to you?

If any others are listening would like to get a list of all the points, just email meat This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and I will send them to you.

Now, what happened along the way was that we lost two of our podcasts. You may have realized that as we were going along. We thought they were all recorded, but somehow they could not be found on Arden’s computer. So they were gone— forever.

I am now going to do them again. There were four points, numbers 9, 10, 11 and 12. They were podcasts 38 and 39, which I am going to do again, although I can’t remember what I told you when I first did them.

But we’ll do those points again because sometimes people like to go back and listen to the podcasts again. Some are just hearing about the podcast. Or if you have missed some from this series on “How do we Change the World?” you can go and listen to the whole series— that’s 24 podcasts! Any way, if you want to do that marathon, you’re so welcome to.

So now we’ll catch up. Today we’re going to do what was podcast 38.

The point in this podcast, which was No. 9 in our series, was about salt.

No. 9. TASTY SALT, NOT BLAND

God not only wants us to be the salt of the earth, but to be tasty salt.

I’m sure you know the passage in Matthew 5:13 where it says: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

We have to watch, dear ladies, that we don’t lose our salty flavor. If salt is insipid or bland it is good for nothing. What is the point of even using it? It may as well be cast out.

The word for “if it has lost its flavor” is actually the word “foolish.” It just means “how foolish for salt to lose its flavor.”

If we, who are meant to be the salt of the earth, lose our flavor or lose our saltiness, we’re really good for nothing.

The Passion Translation (TPT) translates it as “bland.” If the salt becomes bland, it’s no good for anything. I picked up on that word bland. Bland— it’s such a boring word, isn’t it?

I don’t like bland food, do you? Well, there was a time when that’s all I was used to was bland food. I come from New Zealand. They have got more flavorful food there now, but back in my day it was just the same thing, meat and vegetables.

We’d cook up a roast of lamb and there would be vegetables with it. But there was no actual spiciness or spices added to the food. I loved it!

But then I started to go to other countries where they had hot food that was quite hard to get used to. And then we adopted our Liberian children, and my, they loved hot food. They loved to have not jalapeño peppers, but habanero peppers.

I used to grow habanero peppers for them and even hotter ones if I could get them. They loved them in their food. Every dish they wanted their habanero peppers.

I’d make it pretty spicy and we got used to spicy food when they were living with us (they’ve all left home now, of course, they are in their late twenties). That is when we really got used to the spicy food and we still love it spicy!

I remember my son, John—he would not only have the peppers in his food. After harvesting the peppers, I would dehydrate them and then I would put them in the blender and whiz them up into powder. Then he would add a tablespoon of habanero peppers to his food and not even blink an eyeball.

But any way, we do like spicy food. We love Indian food. If Colin and I go out for a meal for a special occasion, we usually choose to go to Indian because of the curry flavors— we love that.

My son, Rocklyn, and his family they are Indian freaks! If he doesn’t go to Indian every week he goes through withdrawal! Sometimes he goes more than once because he loves the flavor of it.

I remember when my oldest son, Wes, was married, years and years ago, he decided to have Indian food for his wedding reception. Well, that was in New Zealand and it was a failure because most of the people were not used to it and they couldn’t handle the hot flavor. They were all drinking Coke and water and whatever they could find to try and get down this hot food!

But we’re all used to it now and we love hot food. I usually don’t like just bland food.

I think, too, in our daily lives we should be salty. Flavorful. Bringing flavor to everyone we meet. Of course it starts in our home. Everything starts in our home. This podcast is From My Home to Yours, so I talk about my home and we go into your home.

This is where we live and so this is where our saltiness has to work. It has to work in our marriage.

Now, what kind of marriage do you have, precious wife and mother? Is your marriage bland? You know, that horrible, boring word BLAND.

It’s easy to get into a rut in your marriage. I have to confess, there have been times when I’ve got into a rut.

My husband and I have always loved one another, but there’s sometimes when we’ve got so used to each other, have taken each other for granted, and we’ve just become a bit boring and bland.

But our marriages are not meant to be like that. They’re meant to be spicy! That’s the opposite to bland. We have to try and keep them spicy.

They don’t just become spicy without us doing something. We have to make them spicy, make them salty, and make them flavorful.

When we’re making a dish it can be bland or if we add some spices, we add some cayenne pepper, curry, or some other flavors, we spice up the dish. We make it more enticing to eat and more exciting.

That’s what we have to do with our marriage. If you’re getting a little bit boring or you’re getting into a rut, think of some ways to spice it up. Just think of some ways you could show love to your husband or some creative ways you could make your life a little bit more interesting together.

Do something different! You don’t have to pay a lot of money to go out to some exotic place to spice up your marriage. You could even do it at home! It’s amazing if you just get your brain thinking of the creative things you could do in your home or around your home or not too far away from your home. It’s amazing!

I’m just going to let you think. But ask the Lord for some imagination and some creative ideas to make your marriage spicy.

I love the Scripture in Proverbs 5:15-19. It’s here talking to the husband, actually, but of course it includes the wife because this can’t happen to him without his wife: “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well . . ..”

Most commentators say that this is an allegory about private property or common property. Now in a marriage, our marriage is private property. It is for our own. We drink waters out of our own marriage, our own well. We confine satisfaction and excitement in our own marriage. We don’t have to go out and find it in other places. It’s amazing how you can find it in your own marriage!

“Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own . . ..” Do you get that? That denotes possession, personal possession “.And not strangers' with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth . . ..” That’s an interesting phrase, too. We often read this phrase in the Bible. We often read “the children of your youth” and “the husband of your youth.”

The Bible talks a lot about that. Back in Bible days they married young. They didn’t wait till they were older. They got married when they were young.

In fact, in Jesus’ day, most young men were married by the time they were 18. Now that’s different than today when the average age for men is 29 years and 28 for women. I think they’re getting a little bit on the shelf there.

Sometimes I think that some people don’t meet that person that God has for them until their late twenties, or maybe their thirties. But on the whole I think that most couples meet when they’re young.

I don’t think they have to wait around to get married and go to college first, get their home first, or do this first and that first. No! They’re meant to get married young and do it all together.

We’re not meant to waste those beautiful, youthful years in our young twenties when we’re full of energy and the joy of life. These are the most wonderful years to have children.

Often as we get older it is harder to conceive. Sometimes this can be a ploy of the enemy who wants couples to be kept from having children and bringing forth the godly seed.

But here we see again, the wife of thy YOUTH and if we look up the word “youth”, we see that it just means “to be adolescent, in your adolescence.”

It carries on: “Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.”

And how can the husband be ravished unless his wife ravishes him?

So in our marriages we have to watch that we don’t get into that boring, bland rut, but we keep that spice and we make times to ravish our husbands.

Some of the other translations say to “intoxicate him,” “for him to be transported with delight. “Another translation says: “the ecstatic joy of a captivated lover.”

So, not only do we keep our marriages salty and spicy, but what about our mothering? Oh my, that can get pretty bland and boring, too, can’t it?

We just get up in the morning, we do our duty for the day, we do the household mundane tasks, watch over our children making sure they don’t die and don’t kind of kill themselves with all the things they can do!

No, there’s far more to it than that, isn’t there? I believe that we are meant to be spicy, exciting mothers!

Our children shouldn’t have to look at a boring, downcast face. They should look at a happy mother full of excitement—“Children! Hey! Why don’t we do this? I’ve got this neat idea—come on! This is what we’re going to do today!”

When you go to bed at night, sometimes as you’re going off to sleep, or if you’re having trouble getting to sleep, start thinking about “What are some exciting things I could do with my children?”

Maybe it’s your little ones. Or maybe you have middling ones or even bigger ones. But think of some different, new and exciting things that you can do. Become a spicy mother.

Even at our mealtimes I think it’s a good idea, at least once a week (you can do it more than that), to think of something special we can do at our mealtime when we all come together to sit around the meal table.

I could just start you off with one or two ideas.

When our children were little, or not just little, but younger or middling, I would say, “Okay children! We are going to have Red Night. I want you all to go to your bedrooms and find red things. When I say supper is ready, you’ve got to come out all dressed in red. Nothing else!”

They would think that was so exciting and they would have fun finding all their red clothes! I would set the table with a red tablecloth, red plates, red knives and forks. I would make all the food red. I would color the potatoes or the rice with coloring to make them red. I would cook beats and all the things that are red. Then we would have red jelly for dessert or other things that were red. Anything I could find that was red.

In fact, from time to time we would do different colors. I think we went through every color of the rainbow! It was just fun! Children love doing things like that.

You would have to prepare for this a bit before, but maybe another night you could say, “Okay children, today we’re going to think of something special you can write to Daddy.” They can make cards and write something special to him, how they love him and what they love about him.

They could make these beautiful cards with a picture and what they want to say. The little ones who can’t write yet, well, they can dictate to you what they want to say to Daddy, and you can write it down.

Then when he comes home and comes to the meal table, they can all have their cards, letters and pictures waiting for him and he can read them out. They love things like that. You could even do this for homeschooling. Forget all your paces and curriculums today.

Another night you may want to do special name places for all your children. I often used to do this. I would do different ones. Sometimes I would write their name, then another word underneath it that would say something special about them.

Perhaps, for example, your son’s name is Blake. You could put underneath it “Bold for God.” You could think of some little phrase starting with the same name as your child.

Or you could write a little rhyming couplet. I would often do that. I’d have to work on those a week or so ahead, thinking about each child and what I would write for them. But you can have those things ready for another special night.

Oh! There are so many ideas! I know you will think of wonderful ideas yourself.

Keep it spicy! Once a week have a spicy mealtime. I’m not saying you have to spice up your food if you like not-so-spicy food. But you can spice it up with doing fun things!

You could get your children to come dressed up as someone from a different country.

Or you can say, “Tonight I want you to find a poem that you can come with to bring to the table and read.” You could have some other idea you can ask them when you’re at the table. There are so many things you can think about.

But let’s keep our marriages and our mothering spicy, flavorful, and filled with salt! Amen?

Let’s be salty when we go out from our homes, out into the neighborhood, out to the supermarket. Let’s go with a smile on our face with the joy of the Lord upon us, ready to just speak a word for Jesus wherever we go. To speak a word for motherhood when people ask us about our children. Yes, we’ve always got a little seed of truth ready to share with someone. We’re impacting the world wherever we go. Amen?

The next point is . . .

No. 10. FERVENTLY PRAYING

We all know that God wants us to pray. The Bible exhorts us to pray. But how often do we pray?

My sister called a few days ago and said, “I’ve got a joke for you. I heard it on a podcast I was listening to.” She told it to me. Actually, I didn’t think it was a joke— I thought it was very profound and challenging.

But anyway, this couple invited another couple to their place for a meal and they had a lovely meal together. After they had gone the wife said to her husband, “You know. I’ve got a spoon missing. I wonder if that guy stole my spoon.”

I was thinking when she told me that story, “Goodness me! I wouldn’t even notice a spoon missing!” We have a lot of spoons because we have so many people living here and coming and going.

“Anyway, this wife, she noticed the spoon that was missing.

Well a year went by and they invited this couple over again. They were good friends and they invited them over again for a meal.

She thought to herself, “You know what? I think I am going to ask him about this spoon.” So she said to him, “By the way, did you by mistake take a spoon when you were last here?”

“Oh no,” he said, “I put it in your Bible!”

Oh my, was it a year since she had opened her Bible?”

I thought that was a little bit more than a joke. That was pretty profound, wasn’t it?

That was talking about our Bibles, but I think the same applies to prayer. How often are we praying?

Our church fellowship that we have here is called a “House of Prayer.” We love that because we believe in prayer. But I think all of our homes should be called a house of prayer—don’t you?

Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Now I’m sure that you have dedicated your home to the Lord.

If we have dedicated our homes to the Lord, if we have dedicated our homes to Him, it should be a home of prayer, a place where prayer is part of the place. It’s quite normal to pray throughout the day. We also have special times that we pray.

In our home, we put aside every morning and every evening to pray as a family. We do that after breakfast and after supper.

You may have different times in your family. But I love those times because I believe the table is a place where we feed the whole man. We feed the body, the soul and the spirit. We like to eat and feed the body, but we love to open the Word of God to feed the soul and spirit. Then we love to pray because that’s all a part of our spirit just communicating with God.

So we love to do that every morning and every evening, which is also a Biblical thing. It’s a Biblical pattern, the Morning and Evening Principal. You can go to my webpage, aboverubies.org and do a search for the Morning and Evening Principle. There you can read up all the Scriptures that tell you about this wonderful principle.

God not only wants us to pray, He wants us to pray FERVENTLY. Do you go to prayer meetings where sometimes everyone is praying, but no one is really praying fervently?

I love to be in a prayer meeting where people are praying fervently, don’t you? In James 5:16 it says: “ . . . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

It doesn’t just say “prayer avails much,” but the FERVENT prayer of a righteous man avails much.

The Amplified Version says: “ . . . The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”

The Passion Translation says: “ . . . tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a godly believer!”

God not only wants us to pray fervently. He wants us to pray CONTINUALLY.

I have got lots of references for that, but we won’t have time to go through them all. Although I will read Colossians 4:2 which says: “Continue in prayer . . ..”

God wants us to pray PERSEVERINGLY.

He wants us to pray EARNESTLY.

He wants us to pray BELIVEINGLY.

He wants us to pray EXCEEDIGNLY.

These are all Scriptures. First Thessalonians 3:8-0 says: “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. 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?”

Night and day, praying exceedingly. And who was Paul praying for? He was praying for the believers in Thessalonica. He also says here “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.” He was praying for that end. I often think of Paul praying for his new believers who had just come to Christ. They weren’t his flesh and blood, but they were so precious to him.

What about our children? Isn’t that how you feel? That’s just how I feel. That’s my longing for my children and my grandchildren. I can live if they stand fast in the Lord. 

My greatest prayers and longings for them are that they will stand fast in the Lord. I pray that they will be passionate for God and never be mediocre or ordinary, but totally sold out to God, to prayer, and to His Kingdom. That is what we long for and so that is what we pray for.

I go back a chapter in 1 Thessalonians, chapter two, and here Paul uses “night and day” again. My! He just poured out his life, didn’t he? Poured out his life “night and day.”

We read from 1 Thessalonians 2:7 where Paul is speaking as a man, but he is speaking as a mother: “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children.” He longed for them like a mother longs after her children.

We continue in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, 9: “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day [here he has this night and day again.], because we would not be chargeable unto any of you . . ..”

This is how he poured out his life for these young believers. Night and day praying for them. Night and day laboring for them, just as a mother pours out her life for her child.

Yet sometimes we can complain when we have to get up in the night to our babies and to our children. And they’re our flesh and blood.

I was always challenged by this Scripture as a young mother. If Paul could do this for his believers, how much more can we do it for our very own children that God has given to us, to nurture and to train and prepare for His purposes?

So, here we go, praying EXCEEDINGLY. The Greek word “exceedingly” is perissos. It means “exceeding some number or measure, over and above, more than is necessary, much more than all, surpassing the ordinary.”

We’ve talked about this meaning quite a few times in our series, “How do We Change the World?” because it comes up so much and this is the meaning. So much of our walk with God is never meant to be ordinary. It’s meant to be more than the ordinary, surpassing the ordinary, over and above.

This comes to our prayer life. It’s the same word here, the word that is used for our prayer life.

What is our prayer life like, dear ladies . . . dear mothers . . . dear wives . . . dear grandmothers? Are we praying?  I know I long to pray more. I don’t pray as much as I long to pray.

We do have our time of prayer every morning and every evening. I just thank the Lord that we set aside this time. There may be days we pray more than this, but at least we have those two times.

If I didn’t put those two times aside and establish those two times morning and evening as a habit in our home I wonder, how much would we pray? Because life is busy— it just takes hold of us. It takes over us sometimes. If we don’t establish those times, we don’t take time to pray, let alone pray exceedingly. Praying night and day.

It’s so good, too, to have a prayer meeting in your home. Have you ever had a prayer meeting in your home? You can gather people to pray.

We’ve been married for 56 years, and most of our lives we’ve had a prayer meeting in our home. We’ve lived in different countries—New Zealand, Australia, and now here in the USA. 

We’ve had prayer meetings for different needs. For years I had a prayer meeting for Above Rubies in my home. I had a prayer meeting for praying for Israel in my home.

Currently we have a prayer meeting praying for whatever need we need to pray for. We do pray for Israel, we pray for the persecuted saints, we pray for our nation, we pray for the nations of the world.

We came out to the land here in Primm Springs about 19 years ago now, and we started our prayer meeting here in 2001, so that’s 18 years ago now. We’ve never ever, ever, ever stopped this prayer meeting. For 18 years we’ve been gathering together.

And it’s been different over the years. When we first started we gathered in neighbors around us who were Christians. They all came from different denominations. Some were Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Pentecostals, and it’s amazing because we all came together, and we all prayed in unity.

Our hearts were concerned for our area that we lived, for the nation, and for all the other needs that God would put on our hearts. Some of those neighbors have passed away now, some have moved on and our prayer meeting is different now.

I think now our prayer meeting is mostly filled with young people! It’s just so wonderful. Often our whole lounge can be filled with young teens praying. I think this is one of the most exciting times of our prayer meeting.

You will find that you have different seasons in your life. But it’s a wonderful thing to gather people into your home to pray.

When you have a prayer meeting in your home, you don’t have to put all the children to bed because you’re having a prayer meeting. You can let them stay up. You can let your baby stay up if you want.

You can hold your baby and nurse your baby with a nursing cover and no one really knows what you’re doing. Your little toddlers can be there till they just go to sleep or you can pick them up and take them to their beds.

Your older children can stay and pray. The most wonderful thing for children is to be in a prayer meeting and learn to pray.

Because we have little ones come, often Colin will say to them at our prayer meetings, “Okay, all you young ones pray first before you go to sleep,” because lots of them throughout the prayer meeting gradually go to sleep. But they pray first and they all know how to pray.

It’s the most wonderful thing for children to be part of prayer meetings. Why would we go and put them to bed when this is the most powerful thing that they could ever do?

Let’s be motivated to pray, amen? We don’t change the world, dear ladies, by praying a few little prayers here and there. We will become world changers by being committed to prayer, wrestling in prayer, persevering in prayer, pouring out our hearts in prayer. Praying continually, perseveringly, exceedingly, which, do you remember means, “surpassing the ordinary, much more than all, more than is necessary.” You’re not going to just pray some little wee prayer; you’re going to pour out your heart.

These are the prayers that are going to change the nation and the world. Just imagine if every believing family would begin to pray for this nation, every morning and every evening at their family worship time at their family devotions.

My, the Bible says that five of you can put one hundred enemies to flight! That’s in Leviticus 26:7, 8.

Now, have you got three children? Mommy, Daddy, and three children are five of you. The Bible says five of you can put one hundred enemies to flight.

We have enemies in this nation. We need to be praying, pushing back the devil, pushing back the enemy, pushing back the evil, taking authority in the name of Jesus over the deceptions, over the evil and over all the wicked things in our nation.

As we do this, we can be nation changers.

We have prayer boxes and one of our prayer boxes is Countries and Capitals of the World.  We will just pick out a card and it will have the name of the capital city and the nation. We will pray over that city and nation.

And here we are, just on the hilltop, in little Primm Springs, surrounded by trees and nobody knows what we’re doing. But I’m telling you, really, prayer is mainly hidden. But—we are affecting nations of the world. Nations that we could not even go to if we tried and if we wanted to preach the Gospel our heads would be cut off.

But we can pray and see God move because prayer has power! Let’s be those who move into world changing prayer, praying exceedingly so that we will see great and mighty things happen.

Oh, I think my greatest longing in this hour is to see revival come to our nation. I just see so many broken marriages. I see so many who have named the name of Christ walking away in rebellion. It grieves my heart. I see worldliness in the church. I see luke-warmness and my heart cries out for a revival of turning back to God. My heart cries out for the turning back of fathers and mothers to the home (Malachi 4:5, 6).

Do you have this burden on your heart? Oh, if only we would all begin to pray and pour out our hearts to God, we would see this revival come because it comes through prayer. Amen?

“Dear Father,

“We thank You that You have given us the privilege and the responsibility to pray. So many things You talk about in Your Word You tell us to then pray about them. You tell us to cry out to You.

“We ask that You would make us those who are pray-ers who pray exceedingly, who pray continually, who have such a love and a heart to pour out our hearts to You, oh God.

“I pray that You would pour out the spirit of prayer upon every precious wife and mother listening. That You would pour out the spirit of prayer upon their husbands and their children.

“Pour out the spirit of prayer upon Your people today, that we would become a praying people. For we know, O God, that it’s only as a praying people that we will be a powerful people to impact this world for You.

“We ask it in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”

 

Episode 37: How Can We Change the World – Part 3

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello again, ladies. I hope you have received your Above Rubies by now. The new magazine has been sent out across the nation. It's Above Rubies # 96, and I know you have already been blessed if you have got it. If you haven't got it and you're on the mailing list, it may have gone astray so don't hesitate to call, and if you are not on the mailing list, do contact us. You can email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and send your name and address, and we'll be so happy to send it to you. I know you're going to be very blessed by this new issue that we have now sent out across the nation and are continuing to send out across the world. Some of you are listening in other countries, and you have to wait a little bit longer for your magazine but don't worry, it is on the way.

We started last week talking about how can we change the world. Dear mother, you, in your home, hidden away with your children, you can change the world. We are looking at different areas of how we, even as wives and mothers in our homes, can change the world.

Last week, we found out that God wants us to not only be courageous but to be VERY courageous.

He not only wants us to be righteous but UNCOMPROMISINGLY righteous.

He not only wants us to avoid evil but to ABHOR AND HATE evil.

He not only wants us to shine our light but to GREATLY shine in this dark world.

He not only wants us to be fruitful but to be EXCEEDINGLY fruitful.

This is how we change the world. Not by being normal, not by being average, but by being above the average, over the top, more than as usual.  So we are going to continue to find out more things in the Word of God that are more than the ordinary.

 

No. 6. WHOLEHEARTEDLY OBEDIENT

This one is, we are to not only be obedient, but the Bible tells us we are to be WHOLEHEARTEDLY obedient. You see, nothing in the Word of God is normal. It's all more than normal.

Let's have a look at some Scriptures, shall we? I'll read a couple from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 11:3 says: “If you shall hearken diligently,” Notice that, not just hearken but hearken DILIGENTLY, “unto my commandments, then I will give you the rain of your land in its due season, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil, and I will send grass in thy fields of thy cattle that thou mayest eat and be full.”

We go over to Exodus 15:26 and God speaks again: “If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God and do that which is right in His sight and will give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, as I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” That phrase is the wonderful phrase Jehovah Rapha, I am the Lord that healeth thee.

These wonderful promises come when we diligently hearken to the Lord. Now, the DILIGENTLY HEARKEN in those Scriptures is a very famous word. I'm sure you know it. I'm sure you've heard of the shamar. That is perhaps the most important Scripture to the Jewish people in the whole Bible, and they call it the shamar. It's Deuteronomy 6:4. It says: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.”

This is what they call the shamar. Why do they call it the shamar? The very first word “Hear . . . Hear O Israel” is the word shamar. Now what does shamar mean? It means “to hear intelligently, to hear attentively and with obedience, to give undivided listening attention.”

The shamar is not a casual hearing. It is a very intense listening. We are listening with all our ears open and what we hear we are going to embrace and obey.

In Exodus 15:26, there were two words there about hearing and obeying. Firstly, shamar and then secondly, “if though wilt give ear.” That's another Hebrew word, azan, and it means “to pay attention with obedience.” Very similar, but both of those Hebrew words include hearing and obeying. We truly can't experience true obedience until we learn to really listen. Now, this applies to our own lives. It's only as we truly listen to the Lord, not listen just to hear some words, but listen to embrace and obey, that the Word will become effective in our lives or that we will really receive the promises that the Lord gives. This is what we really need to understand, lovely ladies, that obeying is combined with hearing.

At the moment, I am reading a wonderful book, maybe some of you have already read it. It's the life story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I've had it by my bedside for so long, and at last, I'm getting to read it. I have so many wonderful books by my bedside. In fact, I have about three huge piles all waiting to read. Sometimes they wait for about a year before I get to them. I have so many books, but I am loving this book about the life history of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

He was a great theologian; he was a gifted theologian. This is how he started out. He learned to dissect the Word, and he was a very intelligent theologian. As he grew in God, he found that that wasn't the greatest way to really hear from God. He learned that the greatest way to hear from God was to RECEIVE. I love that. I've really been embracing that myself since I read it. He said it changed his life.

He has passed on now. Of course, he was assassinated by Hitler, but when he read the Word, he didn't read it to dissect it, to work it out, to see what does this really mean? No, he learned to read it and receive it, just receive the words into his very being. He said, when somebody talks to you who you love, you don't dissect their words. No, you just receive them because you love them.

It's the same way with God. When we read His Word because we love Him, we receive His words; we let them come into us. As we receive them into our being, we can obey them. This is how we have to have our shamar. “Hear,” that's the word. Hear with undivided listening attention, ready to obey.

Ladies, not only do we have to get into the habit of making this our own lifestyle, we have to teach this to our children. In fact, I believe that one of the very first things that we ever teach our children is teaching them how to hear. Most people think that the first thing you have to teach your children once they have understanding is to teach them how to obey. Yes, that's a very important lesson and one we start pretty soon in their lives, but it's not the first lesson.

The first lesson is how to hear. If we don't teach them how to hear, they are not going to learn how to obey. Even with our little toddlers, we have to first teach them this lesson. Let me give you an example. Perhaps you're going to teach your little child to put his toys away, so you say to him, “Peter, I want you to put your toys away. Now what did Mommy say?” You're going to get your child to repeat the words so you know he has listened to you. When you speak to him, you speak to him face to face.

This is important even with our older children. We don't yell some command from another room and tell them to do it, because they may not have heard. We must always make sure our child hears what we say because if they hear, then we must expect obedience because that's what we teach them from the beginning.

We talk to our little one, “What did Mommy say? Put toys away.” Ok, so now we do it, so you teach them that the moment they have heard you speak those words, they've got to jump into action. You may have to help them do it at the beginning. You show them, “This is what you do the moment you hear Mommy speak, you do what she says.” You gradually teach them this, and you make sure it happens. It will take a little bit of practice, but every time, you make sure they hear, you look into their eyes, you speak to them face to face. You can get right down on your knees to your little ones to talk to them, and they get it, and you get them listening with all their ears. They hear and then they obey.

That is what true hearing is all about and what true obedience is all about.

TRUE HEARING RESULTS IN ACTION!

That's what we've got to get into our children. We teach them, of course, that they have to do it right away because . . .

DELAYED OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE!  

Now, when God gave the shamar, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God,” then immediately, it goes on to give a mandate because God is getting their attention. He tells them this is what He wants them to do: “Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thy liest down and when thou risest up.”

There's also another word. There's another Hebrew word that is very important in regard to hearing. That word is in 1 Samuel 15: 20-23. This is in the story of Saul when God told him to destroy all the spoil, but Saul didn't listen to the words of the Lord. He did half of it or maybe 90% but he kept some back. That wasn't good enough because God demands whole-hearted obedience, complete obedience, not half-hearted or half-way.

The prophet came to Saul and said: “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord.” Because you'll remember that Saul's excuse was, “Well God, I didn't destroy all the animals because I kept some back for sacrifices.” That wasn't what God said. God said, “I want you to destroy all.” He went on to say: “Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” That word “hearken” is the Hebrew word qashab, and it means “to prick up the ears.” Do you notice again this intensive listening? “To prick up the ears, sharpening them like an alert animal.” That's what happens out in the wild when an animal hears a sound. His ears prick up. He’s listening. You'll notice that even with your own dog, if you have a watchdog, they'll hear a sound before you ever hear it, and their ears go up. They are listening. This is the kind of hearing that God wants us to have, and it's all in the context of hearing and obeying.

This is such an important lesson to teach our children. Young mothers, you're in the throws of teaching your little ones and bigger ones to obey, but hopefully, you're doing a good job while they're little so when they get older, it will be a part of their lives. It will become their habit to obey. This is why it's so important to get it right while they're little. To make sure you do it right by teaching them to listen and then teaching them that when they hear you speak, they immediately obey.

WHEN YOUR CHILDREN LEARN TO LISTEN, THEY LEARN TO OBEY!

WHEN THEY LEARN TO OBEY YOU, THEY LEARN TO OBEY GOD!

WE ARE NOT ONLY TEACHING THEM HOW TO OBEY US. WE ARE PREPARING THEM AND TEACHING THEM HOW TO OBEY GOD!

Now, in the Bible, it talks about two different kinds of ears. In the New Testament, it talks about swift ears. In James 1:19: “Let every man be swift to hear.” That's that same kind of hearing, having the ears alert and ready and awake and listening. It also talks about dull ears where Paul had to challenge the Hebrews: “You are dull of hearing.”

Now, darling ladies, what kind of ears are you training your children to have? Are you training them to have lazy ears, dull ears, defiant ears, resistant ears, gullible ears? Or are you training them to have obedient ears? This is what we have to do, to give them this kind of training which is so important. It's amazing, isn't it, how today, even in the church, there must be thousands and thousands and thousands of believers who go to church every Sunday, and I guess I have to put myself in this place too. It's easy for all of us to do this . . . we can hear a great message; it's powerful; it's challenging and yes, we are listening, and we can even get convicted about it, but we go out of church and nothing changes. Our lives don't turn around. We are still the same as when we come into church next Sunday.

I wonder why that is. Is it because we have dull ears, resistant ears, or our ears have got into the habit of listening but not obeying? That's a dangerous thing. It’s a dangerous thing in our walk with God. It's amazing how we can hear so many wonderful sermons, they're all so powerful, they're all so good, they should revolution our lives, and we hear them, but we don't really obey them. Is that a result of our training that we've got used to hearing but not obeying?

That's why we have to train our children. That they will grow up with ears that are trained to obey, not only to obey us. So that when they read the Word and when they hear the Word at church, they will be responsive; they will immediately obey because that is the habit. It goes along together with listening.

That's what we've got to get, lovely ladies, and that's the kind of hearing God wants us to have, not just hearing but wholehearted hearing. Not just obeying when it suits us but obeying wholeheartedly. It's easy to obey when it's easy to obey. We all do that, when it fits in with our lifestyle, when it's easy. When it's hard, when it cuts across our lifestyle, when it causes us to turn around, are we still willing to obey? That's the challenge, but may God help us to be those who wholeheartedly obey.

 

No. 7. RICHLY FILLED WITH GOD’S WORD

God does not only want us to read His Word but to be RICHLY filled with His Word. Here again, there's another adjective. Are you getting the picture, dear ladies? It's not just ordinary, it's always above the ordinary.

We are not only to be reading the Word of God but to be filled with it. Not only filled with it, but RICHLY filled with it. Now, the word richly in the Greek is the Greek word, plousios, and it means “copiously, abundantly.” Now, that's the opposite to scarcely, barely, isn't it?

Where are we ladies? We will start with our own lives first. How much does God's Word fill our lives, and our hearts, and our minds? Are we filled richly? Some of you may have little ones all around you and you say, “How on earth do you expect me to be filling myself richly with the Word of God? I've hardly got time to pick up the Bible. Don't you know that I've got four little children under four.”

Don't worry, I had four under four. I had three under three at one time. I know what I'm talking about. I remember starting off in my young years. I came to the Lord as a child, but when I was 18 years of age, I completely and wholeheartedly dedicated my life to God and began to seek Him with all my heart. I began to set aside three hours a day to spend in the Word and with the Lord and in prayer. Those were glorious times in my life, but then I fell in love and got married and then children came along.

My first baby came along and then 17 months later, two babies came along. Surprisingly, I had twins. I didn't know until the very moment I had them. Now that seems hard to understand today, doesn't it? Way back in my day, they didn't have ultrasound, and my story was rather different. My husband and I were out on the mission field, and I conceived the twins while we were in the Philippine islands. I came back just before it was time to give birth to these babies. I was still thinking it was one baby, although I have to admit I wondered what I had inside me because whatever was inside me was hardly moving. I don't think there was much room for them to move. I realized I had something big inside me, and I wondered, how am I going to get his baby out?

Anyway, we got back from the Philippines to New Zealand, and I was 8 months, and I went to the doctor, and he said to me, “Well, everything looks fine,” never detected twins. He said to me, “I'm off to England, so when you're ready, just go into the hospital.” Back in those days, I didn't know anything about home-birthing. I went into the hospital on a false alarm; they still didn't detect twins. Can you believe it? I went back home again, and on my due date, I went in, started labor, and while I'm in labor the nurse is listening to the heartbeat with the old doppler and said, “That's strange, I can hear  two heartbeats, well, maybe it's just an echo, so we will wait and see.”

Here I am, in labor. I gave birth to my daughter Evangeline, and they felt my tummy, “Yes there's another one” and that was the first news that I had that I was going to have twins! About five minutes later, I gave birth to Stephen, her twin brother. That was all a great surprise, so here I was now with three little babies in 17 months. My eldest was only 17 months. We had just got home from the Philippine islands. We were living out of suitcases, and it was pretty raw living, and I had no help.

Oh my, I certainly wondered what was happening to me in those days. I was overwhelmed. I was so tired it was like a pain, but I got through, and they were still wonderful days. Because things are difficult, challenging, painful, doesn't mean to say that they are terrible. They were glorious days, wonderful days; I would go through them all again.

I didn't have time now. I was used to having three hours a day just in the presence of the Lord and in His Word. Now, all I had was three babies needing my attention from morning till night and through the night. I hardly had time to get into the Word, so I had to learn to get what I could. I would put the Bible up on my window sill above the kitchen sink at Psalms or Proverbs where I could look up and get a Scripture. I'd have a Bible in the toilet (you do have to go there frequently), and there I could read another Scripture, just getting something  to fortify my soul and to strengthen me.

I could read maybe a little bit perhaps while I was nursing the babies. It was more difficult as I was nursing twins and watching a little 17-month-old. I would just get the little bit as I could. Life was not all that season. That season passed. Then I did have four under four, and then others later, but still, as your children grow and then another one comes along, then you have older children who are able to help, so you don't stay in that same overwhelming season. Then, as time goes by, you can find more time, and you try to grab those little times that you can.

Some of you, your children are older. You've got more time to spend where you can get into the Word.  I find a wonderful thing is having Family Devotions with your whole family. We have it morning and evening in our family, right up to this day. We still do this every morning and evening. Now, of course, my children are grown. Often, I'll get up early, five or so, and spend time in the Word, but perhaps, even if I haven't done that, I'm not going to miss out because every morning and every evening we are going to be sitting around the table listening and receiving the Word.

When my husband reads the Word, I open my ears and my heart to receive, just receive it into my soul so that its dwelling in me richly. It's important to make this happen in your family. Because not only is it important for you to get it, you have the responsibility to get the Word of God richly into your children's minds and hearts and mouths. We have the responsibility. It's not the Sunday school's responsibility or the church's responsibility. No, it's the responsibility of the parents. Perhaps you're already doing this, but if you're not, seek to make this happen in your home and establish this.

We have used different things over the years. When our children were teens, we would take a chapter of a book and read through a chapter every evening. Now, we use the Daily Light. It is wonderful. I really recommend the DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH. It's a devotional book that is only the Word of God, and it has Scriptures for every morning and every evening. It's so easy. If your husband is not familiar with taking Family Devotions or reading the Word, he never grew up doing this or it's foreign to him, well, this is the answer. All you have to do is go the date, open the book and there's the Scriptures. There's not many, just a few, so it's not too many for the family.

You can get this book from my webpage, aboverubies.org. Look up the Daily Light on the Daily Path, and you can order it. We love it; we use it every morning and every night. My husband doesn't only read the Scriptures. He asks questions. He keeps it exciting and alive, and this is very important to do.

The latest copy of the Daily Light on the Daily Path is one that I put together about a year or so ago. At the beginning of every month, it gives you ideas on how to make it exciting, how to keep your children on their toes, how to keep them alert as you read the Scriptures. It's so easy to get into a dream. Even I can do this. In fact, even this morning, I got up pretty early this morning and came to devotion time and closed my eyes and was meditating on something my husband read, and I think I nearly went off to sleep. My husband asked me a question and oh dear me, “Sorry darling, what was that? Can you please read it again?” I guess I would have stayed in my dreamlike stupor if he hadn't asked me a question. I was pulled back into it again. But all of us can do that, and our children do it so easily. It's good to ask questions and have ideas of things to do to keep your children on their toes.

Sometimes my husband will read the wrong word, and if we don't notice it, he's saying, “Hey, were you listening? Did I read it correctly?” He might have to read it again, then we have to check what was the word he read wrongly. That's just one little idea. We have so many different ideas that you can pick up to make it exciting in your family. This is a wonderful way for you, as a mother, to receive the Word, and you're getting it into your children's lives.

 I'd love to ask you a question. Does God's Word dwell richly in your children's lives? Or do they just have a little bit of it? I'm so amazed that when I meet so many young people today who are growing up in the church, they truly know little of the Word of God. They don't know much at all. It's scarce in their lives, instead of it filling them richly.

 This is our responsibility, both personally and then our responsibility as a parent to our children. Let's do it, shall we? Let's be families who fill our children richly with the Word of God. This is the same thought that comes out in the shamar. Remember in Deuteronomy chapter 6, that's the next thing after loving God with all our hearts, we are to teach His word diligently to our children. Not only to teach the Word to them but to teach it diligently to them. The Amplified version of Deuteronomy 6 says: “You shall wet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate and teach and impress them diligently upon the minds of your children.” Now that's not ordinary teaching, that's intense teaching. That’s diligent teaching, to get it into them, so it's penetrating into their lives. It's getting right into the very depths and making it a part of them. What did Jesus say? He said: “If you continue in my Word, then you are my disciples indeed.” It's not some of the Word, it's continuing in the Word.

No. 7. BOLDLY PROCLAIMING GOD’S TRUTH

God doesn't want us to only speak out His truth, but to BOLDLY speak out His truth. If we read through the Acts of the apostles, I have listed here a load of Scriptures of examples of the early church and how they boldly spoke the Word of God, and they did that in the face of persecution.

Paul prayed in Ephesians 6:19: “That utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth BOLDLY to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Again, when he was writing to the Philippian believers, in Philippians 1:20. Paul's speaking: “According to my earnest expectation, and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all BOLDNESS, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Paul is not only speaking boldly here, but he's saying that even in my body, that I will boldly proclaim Jesus and Him crucified. He was saying those words, and in the Acts, these early believers, they were all speaking out boldly, not in good times like we have here in America, where we have freedom to speak the truth and speak the gospel, but they are doing it in the face of persecution. They could lose their lives. They were willing to lay down their lives to speak the truth, yet we are scared and afraid to speak out truth, to stand up for truth in a land where we have freedom of speech.

Oh yes, we can receive ridicule, negativity, and perhaps even quite a bit of rejection, but what's that? We are not losing our lives; we are not suffering in torment; we are not in prison; we are not being tormented; we are not being tortured for our faith like so many millions of Christians are across the world. We think of North Korea, where there are up to 50 or even more million Christians who are in prison suffering or even being tortured for their faith. We know nothing of that, yet we stay silent.

We are trying to change the world. I beg your pardon, we are not going to change the world while we be silent. We are not going to change the world while we only speak among ourselves. No, we are only going to change the world as we speak out boldly, when we are unafraid to speak out against that which is evil.

Why are we being overpowered today? Why has abortion, right up until the third trimester, become legal? Why is homosexuality legal today? When you think about it, how can it even be?  It has happened in our society today, yet these people are a minority in our society, and they have changed the laws of our land. Why? Because they speak out boldly.

Now they are changing completely our education system. This whole homosexual agenda is now in our schools, even in our early grades. They have it in the system. Dear ladies, you've got to get your head out of the sand. Yes, it's in our education system today. At the end of last year, my husband and I were speaking at an Above Rubies' Family Camp. We had two high school teachers there with their families. These were homeschooling families, but both these men were teachers at highs schools. One brother got up and he said, “Please pray for me. I am at a high school where I am the only Christian, and the agenda of the school is completely to the left, and extreme socialism.”

He said the transgender agenda is to be motivated; in fact, he has two students in his class who are changing from one gender to another, and he is expected to applaud them and have the class applaud them and encourage them in what they are doing. He said they are not allowed to, in their school, use the personal pronouns of he and she. This is happening all over the nation. How is this happening? Because these people are speaking out boldly, even though they are a minority.

Why did the early church turn the then known world upside down? The Bible says, because they were not afraid to speak, even though they did it knowing they could be killed. They were laying down their lives. What does it say in Revelation 12:11: “That they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Well, it's easy to say that Scripture, isn't it? We are not facing that at this time. We do not know what's ahead in the future, but may God help us to be strong. May God help us to be bold now while we have time, while we have a season when we can speak freely, even if we are ridiculed, even if people say things against us. That's not losing our lives. Goodness me. Really, let's be ready to speak out.

I am amazed at our Above Rubies' retreats. We always have a special session, it's the last session of the retreat, and we open it up for testimonies. It's one of my favorite times, and it's so amazing to hear the glorious testimonies of so many women and what God is doing in their lives and changing them. I am amazed sometimes as women who have been extreme feminists and now share how God has changed them, and they are back in the home and embracing children.

Nothing is impossible to God; He does such wondrous things. That's why, lovely ladies, when you take out Above Rubies, and I hope you take out the Above Rubies magazine. Maybe you only get one copy just for yourself. Oh my! Do you think you could stretch your vision a little more, and get a few more magazines to share them with others? Put some in a plastic back in your handbag and take them wherever you go.

Put them in the waiting rooms if you're going to a doctor or dentist or hairdresser or hospital room and take them out at restaurants and supermarkets. There they have a restroom and a little baby changing table, and you can pull it down and pop in an Above Rubies, waiting for the next mother who comes. Let's take out the message. Let's be bold to take it out. Don't differentiate who you give it to. Sometimes you think, I could give it to some like-minded friends. I know this homeschooling mother, she would love it. Of course, she'll love it, but don't differentiate. Give it to whoever you come across. Let the work of differentiating be the Holy Spirit's work. You don't know who God will change. You will be amazed. God does things beyond what we could ever think and often the most unlikely person God can turn around and change their lives. I've heard so many testimonies of the most unlikely people, many times at our Above Rubies' retreats. I look at these beautiful mothers, and I see this beautiful mother with all her children, and she looks as though she's just lived this heavenly life. She gets up to give her testimony, and I'm nearly fainting on the floor because she's lived this most terrible life and what she has been through you can hardly believe, yet God has saved her and redeemed her and restored her and brought her back to His glorious ways. Let the Holy Spirit do the work, and you just sow the seed.

 Another way you can get the message out, ladies, is to do it through your social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Now, I believe that social media can be such a waste of time, and I am amazed how many young mothers with little children around them still have time to do social media. They don't have time to get into the Word, but they still have time to do social media. A lot of it is a waste of time and junk, but you can use it for good. If you are on Facebook or you're on Instagram, or you're on Twitter, use it for the glory of God. Be bold to proclaim His truth, His ways. Be bold to expose evil when you come across it. Be a voice. You, as a mother in your home, can be a voice to hundreds as you send it out on your social media. Use it wisely. You can go to my Above Rubies Facebook and my Above Rubies Instagram, and you can take those words, and you can share them. Send them out to others. Don't just leave them there.

Keep spreading the Word. We've got to get this word out to mothers, to encourage women to come back to God's plan, back to building their marriages, and back to embracing their families and their home and building godly, strong homes. Use my posts and pictures to send out to your friends. Write your own and send them out. Don't waste time on social media but use it for the glory of God.

Last year, we had some pretty amazing movies. Did you go to see Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer? That was the most powerful and amazing movie to expose abortion. It was done so incredibly. It doesn't show you graphic pictures of aborted babies, but it is done through the court trial in such a way that the message comes across. This movie, you may have missed it, but it's now out on DVD. I would please encourage you to get it. You can go to the Internet and order it. Put in Gosnell: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer. Get it. Not only watch it yourself, invite friends in to watch it with you. Invite neighbors in to watch it with you. Share it with others. Use it as a tool to get this message out.

It was very sad that, although the weekend this movie came out it was in the top ten in the nation, movie theaters would not continue playing it. It was too powerful. Now that the DVD is out, we have a responsibility to get this message out. Be bold. Come on now, precious ladies, I want you to order that movie and use it to really speak into people's lives all around your circle of friends and enemies and whoever you want to get it out to.

 Another one is Death of a Nation. That was directed by Dinesh D'Souza, and it's out on DVD now too. It's so powerful. This exposes what's really happening in our nation, and you really need to get it. It's a documentary but a very powerful, fast-paced, action documentary. Your young people must see it. Your young people, if you have teens, must see Gosnell. They must see the Death of a Nation. They are important movies for them to see and I'd encourage you to get them and watch them. Show them to your young people. Get your young people to invite their friends in to watch to get the message out.

There's another couple of DVD's, too. They have been around for some time now, but they are still good if you have never seen them. One is Indoctrination. Maybe you need to be writing these down. Don't forget, first one is Gosnell, The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer. The other one was Death of a Nation, directed by Dinesh D'Souza, then there's Indoctrination. That's an expose of the public education system, which is very powerful and worth seeing if you never got to see it. The other one is Agenda: Grinding America Down. That's a very good DVD too. Get these tools and use them.

We are going to carry on next week.

“Dear Father, I thank You for this opportunity to open up Your precious Word. Thank You for showing us that You don't want us to be normal but above the normal. Help us, O God, to shine brightly, to speak boldly, to, O God, be the people You want us to be in this hour, proclaiming Your truth and revealing You, not only to our children, our families, but to all those we come in contact with. We ask it in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.”

 

Episode 36: How Can We Change the World – Part 2

God not only wants us to be courageous, but VERY courageous.

God not only wants us to be righteous, but UNCOMPROMISINGLY righteous.

God not only wants us to avoid evil, but to ABHOR evil.

God not only wants us to shine, but to SHINE greatly.

God not only wants us to be fruitful, but EXCEEDINGLY fruitful.

More next week.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Today we are going to continue talking about how we can change the world. Have you been doing that this last week? Even in your home, with your precious children? Every moment that you nurture them, love them, pour God's Word into them, pour His Truth into them, you are changing the world. You're getting ready world changes.

Isn't that exciting? Oh, you don't have an ordinary role in life. You have a most powerful and significant role that has been given to you by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Oh, you have a heavenly commission, a divine commission, a high calling. Oh, rise up, and pour everything into it!

Now today, let's get into our second point. If you missed last week, we talked about how God wants us to be strong and courageous, but no, more than that, He wants us to be very courageous. That word, “very,” in fact I didn't even get a chance to tell you what that word meant in our last session.

The word, “very,” means, it's meod, and it means “vehemently, wholly, diligently, exceedingly, mightily.” So it's not just being a little courageous, or perhaps a little extra courageous, but no! Vehemently courageous, wholly, diligently, exceedingly, mightily! Oh, these are the words that are used in the Word of God. This is the full Hebrew meaning of that word, that little word, “very.”

So we see that we're coming out of living this ordinary, normal, boring, mediocre lifestyle. We, as a people of God, have got to come up to a new level, a new realm, if we are going to change the world.

No. 2: UNCOMPROMISINGLY RIGHTEOUS

In Proverbs 14:19, let me get it here to read it to you...OK, here it is. It says: “The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.” The Amplified Version, which explains the full meaning, says: “And the wicked will bow at the gates of the uncompromisingly righteous.”

It's not enough to just be righteous. We have to be, as God's people, uncompromisingly righteous. There's too much compromise today, too much compromise with the devil's ways, too much compromise with the spirit of the world.

In fact, the spirit of the world seems to have crept into the church today. It's crept in in so many ways. It's crept in in the way the people dress. In fact, you go to church today, and you'd think perhaps you were down on the beach.

I can't believe, I cannot get my brain around the fact that I can go into a church, and I can see women with cleavage. I beg your pardon? It's bad enough anywhere, but church? Bare shoulders, bare backs, half clothed. And they're in church.

These are not people who have come off the street. Oh well, if they were coming in, we'll just be gathering them, and loving them, and embracing them. No, these are the church people. And they're dressing like the world.

The spirit of the world has come in, even in the lifestyle. The lifestyle, apart from the fact that they believe in God, and they come to church every Sunday, they seem to live pretty good lives, but their ultimate lifestyle is not much different than the lifestyle of the world.

Most of the mothers in the church are limiting their families. Oh, they don't want more than two or three children. Oh, no! Most of them are out for their careers. I mean, it's no different to the world. There's such compromise with the spirit of the world.

Today, so many of God's people do not want to say anything against evil, against abortion, against homosexuality. “Oh no, no, I don't agree with it, but, but, but, you know, I can't really say anything to them. I mean, they can choose.”

I beg your pardon? It's time we stood up with truth! Why is evil increasing? Because the righteous have gone into a corner! The righteous are silent! The righteous have become so mediocre and normal that they will never rock the boat!

We will never change the world if we don't rock the boat. Anyone who changes the world will face ridicule and persecution and everything coming against them. Maybe we're not ready for that.

And yet we have so many thousands and thousands of our precious believers who are part of our body who are suffering persecution, who are being thrown into jail, who are being beaten, who are going through incredible torture because they will not deny the Name of Jesus.

Yet here in this land, we can speak the Name of Jesus, and we don't have to face that. Yet we can't even open our mouths against evil. I speak to myself. May God help us, change us, oh, pour out His Holy Spirit upon us! Oh, the church of God, we need to rise up, and be who He wants us to be. To become like the early church, a people who were not afraid of man, a people who feared God rather than man. The people who would not compromise with evil.

So let's begin to be uncompromisingly righteous. It starts in our homes. That Scripture, I love that Scripture in Proverbs where it says how that, let's read it again: “The evil bow before the good.” That's an amazing thing. We don't actually see that happening. I so want to see that happening.

I see evil all around, and somehow many of the good are bowing to that evil. That is wrong! That's the opposite of how it should be. “And the wicked bow at the gates of the uncompromisingly righteous.” I believe that when there's uncompromising righteousness, when we're not compromising, and it's not just, you know, gray, but when it's truly black and white, we're standing totally with God. There are no gray areas, but that's when the wicked will come, Whoa! They’ll come to a halt, a skidding halt at the gates of the righteous! Because they cannot enter where there is uncompromising righteousness. So, let's move into that realm, shall we?

No. 3. ABHORRING EVIL

It's not enough to avoid evil. We have to fight, expose, abhor, and reprove all evil. Well, we've really been talking about that already, haven't we? Ephesians 5:11 says . . . I should remember it. Let me just go to it here. Ephesians 5:11 says: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather, reprove them.”

Some translations say: “expose them.” So, OK, I'm sure none of us are wanting to have fellowship with the works of darkness. No, we don't want to get involved with that. But it's not enough just not to be involved in that evil. The Bible says that we are to reprove it! We're to expose it! We are to open our mouths and say something. Let's get into this new year, into this new realm where God wants us to be.

Over in Romans 12:9 it says that we are to “abhor evil.” Not just, “Oh, no, we won't get involved with that,” No, we should abhor it. That word, “abhor,” in the Greek, literally means to “shudder at evil”. When we hear about evil, it makes us shudder. Oh, we grieve, it just hurts us to even hear about it.

Is that our attitude? Or do we get used to it? We're living in a society where abortion is legal. We're living in a society where homosexuality is legal. I mean . . . (sigh) this is evil! Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God. Of course, we don't despise the person. No, never! But we despise the act, and we do have to speak out.

We've got to teach our children what is evil, and to put in them a fear of God, and a shuddering at evil. We dare not let them get used to it. In fact, as children go into the school system, and into high school, and even more as they get into college, these things are so rampant now that they can think that this is just, this is how, this is what life is all about.

No, no, it's not. We have got to, in the middle of this deceived society, we have to stand up and abhor evil and shudder at it. Amen?  I hope you are with me in this.

No. 4. GREATLY SHINING

We are to be a light. But once again, the Bible doesn't only tell us to be a light, but to be a great light. Now it tells us in, now let's see, did I write that down? It's Matthew, chapter four, let me take you to Matthew four. It's talking about when Jesus came and when He began His ministry.

Matthew 4:13: “And leaving Nazareth, Jesus came, and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness, saw great light. And to them which sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up.”

So it was talking about how Jesus came into that region, and how that He didn't only come as a light, He came as a great light. Now that word comes from Isaiah, and it was prophesied by Isaiah. Now the word in Matthew four is telling us this prophecy has come. It has come to fulfillment! Jesus has come! And He's not a little flickering light. He is a great light.

That's what He wants to be, in me, and in you, dear wife and mother. In your home, when you go out, when you go to the supermarket, when you go to this meeting or that, wherever you go, you're not to be a little flickering light, but a great light.

You see, here we see another adjective. God always has adjectives with the words that He wants us to be! Are you getting it? We cannot be ordinary, mediocre. No, we have got to be above the norm, beyond the average. He wants us to be great lights.

We go over the next page, to chapter five, and Jesus speaking in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, verse 16, Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.” Our light will be so great that it will be seen by everybody! Oh, may God help me, and you, and our children, wherever we go, that our light, the Light of Jesus within us, will be seen, that everybody who sees us, and who we talk to, will see this Light. Amen?

Let's go over to Philippians, chapter two. (flipping pages) Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, chapter two. Yes, verse 14: “Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as light in the world.”

“Among whom ye shine in this crooked and perverse nation.” This is exactly where we're living today. It's a crooked and perverse nation. All around us there is perverseness, there is crookedness, people are deceived. They're not living the life that God intends for us.

But we have to embrace the lifestyle that God intends for us. As we do that, we shine. We are a light. Dear precious mother, even as you embrace motherhood, you are shining. You are revealing who God created you to be, and therefore you are bringing glory to God.

When you function as who He created you to be, and His purpose for you, you glorify Him. If you decide to not live that lifestyle, to turn away from it, you are no longer bringing glory to God. So let's glorify God. That's how we shine.

But I just want to look at this word, “shine.” In my Bible, I talked about this in one of my podcasts. How I love the Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible. It gives me a number that I can look up. I can look it up in the Strong's Concordance, or I can look it up in my Lexicon at the back of my Bible. This Lexicon will give me a full understanding of what this word says.

The number is 5316. So let me look it up. I'm not sure what it's going to say! So you come with me, and we'll both find out together. OK, 5316. OK, and the word is phaino, and it means, “to shine, to appear, to be conspicuous, to be seen.”

That's really what that Scripture said, isn't it? Shine, let your light shine so that everyone can see. They can see, they actually see your good works. And then they can glorify God. That's the meaning of this word—to be conspicuous.

So we're not going to hide our light. When we go out into this world, dear mother, be conspicuous! OK? Conspicuous! Have you got it?

So, you've got all your little children around you. You do not have to feel ashamed, as though you're some freak, because you've got maybe three, four, five, six, or even more children. By getting out of your van, and people look at you, and they say, “Oh, are all these children yours?”

Don't feel in any way condemned. No! You're shining! You're being conspicuous! Yes, lift up your head, and put a smile on your face, and say, “Yes! These are mine! These are the children God has given me. We're so blessed!” Yes! Make it an opportunity to speak forth the Glory of God! Because this is what it is. You are doing what God wants you to do. You're bringing glory to Him.

Or you could say, perhaps, “Oh, yes, we love children! Don't you?” And then what are they going to say? They see these beautiful children, and they're not going to say, “No, I don't!” They're going to feel a little bit ridiculous asking you such a question, because how can they help but love children?

Even people today who have been turned off having children, who limit their families, they still love children. It's in us to love children.

So we're being a voice. We're being conspicuous. Do it with a smile. Tell your children before you go out, “Children, we're a testimony to Jesus.” Pray with them before you go out. Gather all your children around you, and pray, and ask God to fill you all with His Spirit, with His Shining Light. Encourage the children to be good, and obedient, and smiling to everyone they meet. So you're all going to be a testimony. Amen?

You're going to shine. Let's go back to Isaiah 60. Let's see, Isaiah 60:1, 2: “Arise, shine, for thy light is come. And the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”

Do you notice that again, His Glory is to be seen? It is to be conspicuous. So shine, dear lovely ladies, with the glory of the Lord. Let your children be a testimony if you go out into your neighborhood, into the city, or wherever you go, because every time people see you with your children, it is a testimony to God's plan! Amen!

All right, what's our next one?

No. 5. EXCEEDINGLY FRUITFUL

God wants us to be fruitful. But once again, He doesn't want us to be fruitful, but to be exceedingly fruitful! Isn't that amazing? God is always wanting more. Let's go, shall we, to John, chapter 15. Here Jesus is speaking, and here it is the chapter about Jesus being the Vine. “I am the True Vine.” Verse 2: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit is taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth, so that it may bring forth more fruit.”

Do you notice? We started with fruit, and then it talks about more fruit. Now herein this passage, it is speaking about spiritual fruit. God is not satisfied with our having some fruit in our lives. He wants our life tree to be filled with fruit.

Sometimes He allows things in our lives, difficulties and challenges, to purge us, and to cut away all these unnecessary branches, and all these extra things—things, things, things, things—that we get involved with. Oh, we can get involved with so many things. We’ve got so many branches, but we don't have so much fruit.

Oh ladies, it is so true that trees have to be pruned if they're going to bear a lot of fruit. Now I know this from experience, because I am the worst pruner in the world. I planted all these fruit trees, and some of them, I just had to cut down. They just got so bad. But I really didn't know how to prune them. I really must learn how to prune properly.

But these trees, they had so many branches, and they grew so big. They never had any fruit because I didn't prune them. Then you look at these trees that are pruned way down. Oh, yes, you can't even believe it! Help, they cut all these branches and they prune it right down. But then the next season, wow, they're just laden with fruit!

And especially vines. Do you notice that after the season of the harvest, they then go back in the spring, and they prune the vines? They prune them right down. They look so ugly, because they've been pruned right down! But then they grow, and then the harvest time comes. And they're just absolutely laden with these beautiful, big bunches of luscious grapes! But they don't get them without being pruned.

Often we have to be pruned. Sometimes we can just prune ourselves and cut back on a lot of junk that we’re involved in. Well, maybe it's not junk, because a lot of good things, a lot of good things we have to prune away too, because there's nothing wrong with them. There's nothing wrong with all those branches on the tree. Nothing wrong with them at all.

But they're just stopping the fruit. They've got to be cut away if there's to be more fruit. We can have a beautiful tree of leaves and leaves and leaves, but we want fruit. We have to prune.

Now if we won't prune ourselves, sometimes God has to do the pruning for us. Because God is not even satisfied with the much fruit. We keep reading, we go down to verse five, and Jesus says: “I am the Vine. You are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without Me, you can do nothing.”

Do you notice the progression? Fruit, more fruit, much fruit. And then we go to verse eight: “Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” This is repeated two times, the much fruit. And then it says: “So shall you be my disciples.” If we're really one of Jesus' disciples, we will be bringing forth much fruit.

And we will be allowing Jesus to prune us, to prune off the unnecessary branches, the unnecessary things we get involved with, things that are not necessarily wrong, but they're not going to help us bring much fruit for the kingdom of God and to bring glory to Him.

This is how we glorify Him. We don't really glorify God by, you know, getting involved in so many things. We've got our hand in this, and our hand in that, and our hand in this, and we're doing that, and we're doing that, but we're not really bringing forth much fruit. We've got lots of branches and leaves, and that's all.

I have found, in my own life, that I have to continually do this. I have to continually say No to a lot of things, because they're going to hinder what I know I am meant to be doing in God's Kingdom. I have to say No to that. It's not that it's anything wrong, because, you know, it could be something good, something everybody else is doing, but I haven't got time for that, because I have greater things to do.

Dear precious mother, you have the greatest thing, the greatest purpose, the greatest mission that anybody could ever have, of embracing children that God wants to bring into this world. To train them, and prepare them for Him, what He has for them, His destiny for them in this world, and for the eternal kingdom. Because motherhood is eternal.

And also, what God has for us, and His purpose for us in His kingdom, is for eternity. Yes, so this speaks to us, both spiritually and naturally, because we are meant to be fruitful in every area. Fruitful in the spiritual realm, yes, but fruitful in the natural realm.

I have had people come to me, and say, “Well, you know, God's not interested now in how many children we have. You know, that's not the point. We have to have spiritual children now, so I'm interested in getting spiritual children.”

Well, I'm so glad that they want to have spiritual children. But the Word of God does say, “First that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.” And, can I ask you this question? How can we have spiritual babies if we don't have natural babies?

If God's people stop having natural babies, or even the people in the world stop having natural babies, there would be no people to then evangelize and bring into His Kingdom to have spiritual babies! Even spiritual babies start as a natural baby! You can't get a spiritual baby from out of the air. A spiritual baby starts with a person, a person you lead into God's kingdom.

So, the more people we bring into this world, the more people there are to evangelize, and to draw into the kingdom of God. It's first that which is natural, and then that which is spiritual. So God's picture for the spiritual is to bring forth much fruit.

But it's the same picture in the natural. That's how it actually, originally, started. In Genesis 1:28, where the very first words that God ever spoke into the ears of man were: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” The very first word! Fruitful. Be fruitful. That's on God's heart.

You see, God is not Someone who is normal. No! God doesn't want a little fruit. He wants more. God wants much fruitfulness. He said: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth.”

As we close this session, let me give you just one little example. We'll go to Exodus, and I'm always amazed at this passage. Exodus chapter one, and this is talking about the children of Israel who are in Egypt, and at this time, they're under the servitude of the Pharaoh. They're living a terrible life with hard taskmasters who are whipping them and beating them and making them serve with hard bondage.

They're going through an incredible, terrible time of their lives. It says here, in verse seven: “And the children of Israel were fruitful.” More than that, they “increased abundantly.” More than that, they “multiplied.” More than that, “they waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them.” Verse 9 says that they became “more and mightier” than the people of Egypt.

You see, dear precious saints, dear lovely mothers, this is God's intention for His people right now, in the USA, in every nation where His people live. He wants His people to be “more and mightier” than the heathen around them.

Today, we are in a neck and neck race. It's a fight between the righteous and between those who are unrighteous. It's not how it's meant to be. There should be an absolutely, overwhelming filling of the land with God's people. If His people will embrace His very first commandment, that's what will happen.

Now of course, the Egyptians, they got scared. They got mad. They didn't know what to do. They thought, “Wow, these people are going to overtake us. So we're going to afflict them. We're going to make it harder for them.” Verse 12 says: “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.”

My, we don't even have persecution today. We still can't even multiply. What is wrong with us?! But that's what the children of Israel did. And they were more and mightier than the Egyptians.

That's what God wants us to be. Come on, ladies, let's get to understand God's heart. Let's get off the fence. Let's get off being mediocre, boring, and mundane, and just the normal. Let's be the people who God want us to be. Amen?

“Dear Father, I do thank You so much for every precious one listening today. Young persons, mothers, grandmothers, bless them, Father. I pray that You will pour out Your Spirit all over them and make them fruitful. Not only fruitful, but very fruitful, exceedingly fruitful. Much fruit.

Lord God, help us to be those who shine with Your Light, and who bring glory to You, and who bring forth much fruit. Help us to bring forth fruit in the natural and in the spiritual, so that we may glorify Your Name. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”