Episode 20: Building or Destroying?

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

In this podcast we talk about caring for an elderly relative in the home. We talk about life from conception to the grave. We talk about building or destroying our homes. And I begin answering your questions. You can email questions to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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

Nancy Campbell: Hi there, ladies! May God bless you in your home today and fill you with joy as a mother. Well, of course, I'm sure you're filled with the joy of the Lord, because if Christ dwells in you, His joy dwells in you. Our joy is not really determined on our circumstances. It's determined on the truth that Christ, Who is all joy, dwells in us!

So, even if you're feeling despondent, just kind of down in the dumps, well, you don't have to listen to your feelings. I know that's easy to say, and not so easy to do, but I know, because I've been there.

I remember as a young mum, so often just listening to my feelings. Feelings are usually negative. Well, they usually go toward the negative. I had to learn that if I was going to live by my feelings, I would live a pretty miserable life!

So, I began to live, not according to how I felt, not according to what was happening in my life and my circumstances, but according to God's Truth. The Word of God is a far greater truth than our feelings. The Word of God doesn't lie. The Word of God is a fact. We can stand on it, and we can live by it.

I earned, little by little, to walk, not just by how I feel, but, as Jesus said in Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Can I encourage you to live this way? Live according to what God says.

Now today, I am rejoicing. I'm rejoicing because of good news, not just because I'm walking in faith. I have such wonderful, good news! And I only just heard this morning!

Arden and Esther, only found out last night, that he is now free of cancer. We are rejoicing that he is healed! Oh, this is the most amazing news in the history of the world for us. For we have all prayed and believed and interceded and worshipped and hung on in faith, and fought this battle with him and Esther for, well, how long is it now? Two-and-a-half, nearly getting on three years. It's been a long, long battle. But now we, well, it's just so unbelievable!

Now you may be getting this news a little bit later, because we are recording a little bit ahead. We have now sent out to you 13 different episodes of this podcast, but today we are recording Number 20! So, we are a little bit ahead. In case Arden has to go away, or Colin and I have to go away, we won't leave you in the lurch! You'll have episodes waiting.

But if you haven't heard this news yet, you can rejoice with us. You may remember my sharing in Above Rubies how it was just after Esther and Arden were married that he got the news that he had this Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Then began our great battle, his great battle. We were just so with him all the way.

Now we rejoice at God's faithfulness, how we hung onto the promises of God. There was one time, perhaps Arden's darkest time, when we all gathered as a family for three months. It was over the summertime. Every night, for three months, for about 13 weeks, we all gathered. Many times, there would be 30 plus of us, just all the hilltop family gathering together, right down to the little babies.

Serene's little one, Remmy, was just a little baby, but everyone came. The children came. The children prayed. Everyone prayed. We just hung onto God. I printed out promises from the Word of God about Him being our Healer, and the faithfulness of His Word. We pinned them all around the room. As we would walk around and pray, we would go to these promises printed out in big, bold letters. We could read them and claim them and pray them.

We were praying them in faith, because what we were seeing was the total opposite of what we were reading in those promises. We just kept hanging on in faith, and hanging on, and hanging on. God has been so good!

Arden has been looking so well and so wonderful for so long, now. But now we have the official clearance! He is healed, so we just praise the Lord! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Lord!

Now last time, when I was talking with you, I had told you that I had 15 points about making an exciting home. I actually forgot to tell you the last one, even though we've finished that subject now. But I must tell you, because I don't like leaving anything out when I told you something.

The last point, No. 15 Our home can be a convalescent home.

Sometimes we may have someone who is sick in our family. We are having to spend much time just ministering to them. Now we have spoken about the healing home, but this is a little different again.

This is when someone in the home is requiring convalescent care. Maybe you have a child who has special needs and requires so much of your time. Some of you may be looking after older members of your family.

The Word of God is very plain about this. It does say, that when we have older parents, that the children or the grandchildren are to look after them. It's what it tells us in 1 Timothy, chapter five, that it is our responsibility to care for our aged parents (1 Timothy 5:4-8).

Did you read the story in the last Above Rubies, Number 95? I have this feature, Young People Speak Out. One of these beautiful young people was Gosia and she wrote about looking after their grandmother in their home. If you haven't read it, get out that Above Rubies again, and read it.

I love that it was written from a young person's point of view, because her parents took the grandmother into the home. She was in her nineties, maybe eighties when they took her in. They cared for her right up to the very end.

It took lots of sacrifice, not only from Gosia’s mother and her father, but from the children themselves. They had to learn how to serve an older person, how to minister to their needs. She tells of how it was such a great blessing in establishing her character and teaching her about life.

This is part of life, caring for someone as they are nearing the end. This is part of life. So. if you are in this situation, I pray that God strengthens you, helps you. I just want to encourage you that you are doing the very right thing.

Some of you are wondering whether you need to do this. Well, do it, because it's what God wants us to do. Sadly, it doesn't happen in many homes today, because often, not only the father, but the mother is out working. They're just not in a position to bring in and care for an older person in their home.

They're put in these nursing homes. Oh, what a terrible thing for an older person to be in a nursing home! I mean, they don't have family around them, they don't have children around them, they don't have someone to really prepare nourishing and healing food to help them. They don't have the stimulation of family life. You just watch them die. I just think it is so sad.

I have to confess that I didn't care for my wonderful father as he was in his last months. Because we lived here in the States, he lived with my brother and my sister-in-law. They had the privilege of caring for him that year.

I remember I flew down to New Zealand four times to be with my father that year. I was very close to him. It would have been the delight of my life to have him in our home. But he wasn't able to come to America. He had to stay in New Zealand.

I must tell you a little thing about what happened at the end. I was there at the end. I had flown down. He was getting close to that time of going. My father was a very wonderful man, a very godly man. I remember, I was sitting by his bedside when his pastor came to visit him. The pastor said to my father, “Ivan,” he said, “you know, you've lived a great life. You've served the Lord, and you're ready to meet Him. We just give you that freedom to go to the Arms of your Savior.”

At that time, it sounded lovely, and I really wasn't aware of what was happening. In fact, it wasn't until I was back in the States, and my father had passed away now. We were with him as he passed away. Such a privilege to be with a loved one as they're going into the Arms of Jesus.

But I woke up one night and God just showed me that those words were not right! Because no one has the right to tell a person it's time to go, or tell them, “Oh, you've got permission to go! You can go. You don't have to be here any longer.”

People will say that to someone who knows the Lord because they know they're going to be with Jesus. But when I woke up that night, I knew those words were wrong. And I know these words are often said to people as they're getting closer to the end.

Somehow, you know auto-suggestion is very powerful. I realized we have to be those who are pro-life from the beginning of conception, or before conception (we are just for life). from the beginning of life, and even before the beginning of life, because we're open to life.

We have to, as young couples, be open to life. It's more than just when life is conceived. It’s before life is conceived. We are open to life. We are ready for life. We are waiting for life, even before it is conceived.

Then we are pro-life right to the very end. We're not saying, “Oh, you can go now,” because it's only God who knows the moment when He will take that breath away. I sense that even in my precious father's lingering days and hours, that although he wasn't able to talk he was aware that we were there.

Because he loved us, I believe he didn't want to go until Jesus took him. He just wanted that lingering with his family. He loved his family. There was never a father that so loved his family and loved his children. In fact, if you could say he had a negative in his life, his negative was that whenever people came around, he would talk about his children and talk about how amazing they were.

He must have bored so many people up, but, oh goodness me, he just couldn't stop talking about his children. Then when we got married, and then we had children, then he added all the grandchildren to his skiting list. This is what we call it down in New Zealand. If you're boasting about someone, you say you are skiting about them.

This would have been his negative in life, that, oh, everybody had to listen to him boasting about his children and boasting about his grandchildren. So, I sensed that he just wanted to linger. He wanted to just hear their voices. I'm sure he was hearing us even though he couldn't speak.

So, I believe, right up to the very end we are to be for life. We let God be in charge. He is the One who takes them at the right moment.

I want to read you something else, too. This comes just as a combination as we were talking about building an exciting home. This is something I wrote years ago about the kind of home we are building. or the kind of home we are destroying.

ARE WE BUILDING . . .

• An angry home, or an anointed home?
• A boring home, or a bountiful home?
• A cynical home, or a celebrating home?
• A depressing home, or a delightful home?
• An empty home, or an encouraging home?
• A fretful home, or a flourishing home?
• A grumbling home, or a grateful home?
• A harassed home, or a happy home?
• An impoverished home, or an interesting home?
• A jaded home, or a jubilant home?
• A kill-joy home, or a kindhearted home?
• A legalistic home, or a loving home?
• A mournful home, or a merry home?
• A negative home, or a nurturing home?
• An oppressive home, or an overcoming home?
• A prayerless home, or a prayer-filled home?
• A quarreling home, or a queenly home?
• A rebellious home, or a restful home?
• A sour home, or a sweet home?
• A troublesome home, or a tender home?
• An unstable home, or a united home?
• A vexed home, or a virtuous home?
• A worrisome home, or a wonderful home?
• An exhausting home, or an exhilarating home?
• Are you building a yielded home?
• And are you zealously guarding over your home?”

My precious mothers, I hope you're on the positive! I hope you're building all these wonderful positive things into your home.

QUESTION TIME

Well, precious ladies, at last I am answering some of your questions. Here we are, at podcast No. 20 and it's taken me all this time. I seem to have so many things I want to say to you! But anyway, some questions have been coming in, and I am saving them. You are welcome to email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have other questions you'd like me to put on the list. We will gradually answer them.

All right, now this lady says: “I have appreciated your comments on studying the Bible in the podcast. Can you tell me what study tools you use?”

Well, yes, I'd love to do that! Now the Bible that I use, ladies, and I am now onto my third Bible (this kind of Bible). It’s called The Hebrew/Greek Key Study Bible. You can Google that if you are interested: The Hebrew/Greek Key Study Bible. You can get it in different versions. I love the King James version.

I am not a King James only, where I only read the King James, but I do love the King James because I grew up with it. It's like home to me. The language is so familiar, and so beautiful, and I love it. So, I read the King James every day.

But I do refer to other versions. I'm actually a connoisseur of different translations of the Bible. I have a whole . . .  just rows of them in my library. Often, I will refer to them on a particular Scripture I am meditating on. I will just see, well, what are they saying? Sometimes I think, “Oh goodness me, how do they say that?” Other times, “Wow, that's just amazing!” 

But then, what I love to do best of all is go into the Hebrew or the Greek to see what the original really says. Now, this Bible helps me to do that. It has the Strong's Concordance at the back of the Bible. It's amazing. It’s not that big, but it has it there. I don't refer to that so much, because I refer to that more on my iPhone.

I have an app, which is called The Strong's Concordance. It is the most wonderful app, just called Strong's Concordance. I can go to any word. I just type in the word, and up it comes. It gives me the Hebrew understanding of that word, or the Greek. Then it lists every single word where that same original word is used in the Bible.

Now this is where it gets so exciting, because, Oh! I'm always amazed. It doesn't just say the same word. Say I'm looking up, goodness me, what could be a word I'd be looking up? “Overcome.” Now, you put that word in, and then . . . well, maybe for that word it does say “overcome,” but many times it will give me about three, or four, or five, or six, or seven, or eight, or nine, or even ten different words or phrases that the King James has translated for that same original word!

It's amazing! You begin to see all the words in the Bible where that word is used. It gives you so much more understanding. It is amazing. So, I love my Strong's Concordance on my iPhone. I use my iPhone more for studying the Bible than I do for anything else. In fact, if you were ever to message me, you'd most probably not get an answer because I forget to even look at my messages.

Back to this Hebrew/Greek Study Bible. It is edited by Spiros Zodhiates, if you're checking it more.

Now, as I read through the Bible. I will see the Strong's numbers. You know how in the Strong's Concordance, every word has a number. If that number is in bold, that means I'll be able to look it up at the back of this Bible in the Lexicon. When I look at it in the Lexicon, I get far more understanding than in the Strong's Concordance, because it elaborates more on that word.

Okay, let's try, for example . . . I'm just opening my Bible like a flick trick! That makes me think of my daughter, Serene. She loves the Word of God, but sometimes she says: “Oh, Mum, I'm naughty sometimes! Sometimes I'm just needing a word from God, so I'll just open my Bible randomly and look and see if God will speak to me.”

I think she must be ones of God's pets, because it seems that every time she does that, God speaks to her! She calls it the “flick trick.” But anyway, she doesn't mainly do that, because every day she reads the Word.

Anyway, here I am opening up to where ever it is, and it's Psalm 26:7. It says: “That I may publish, with the voice of thanksgiving.” And “publish,” oh, it's got a bold number here. So, let me see, 8, 0, goodness me, I've got my glasses on, and I still don't know whether it's a 6 or a 5 or an 8. Yes, it is 8085.

Okay, over the back, to my Lexicon! 8085. Let's see if I can find it here. You can hear the turning of the pages! 8085. Okay. Another grandson has just walked in here to my lounge. This is where we're recording.

“Arrow, have you ever used The Strong's Concordance? You haven't? Well, just listen in, and hear how to study the Bible! It is so exciting!”

I don't know how people cannot do this! I couldn't live without this Bible, and without my app on my iPhone. It just makes the Word of God so exciting! Every day, I am just seeing new and wonderful things as I look up these words to see what they really mean. Of course, you get the blessing, because I'm always sharing them with you, aren't I?

8085. If you haven't got time to do this, looking after your little baby, and your little toddlers, and your other children, well, don't worry. You just try and read the Word as you can. If you are a young mum, oh, I know what it's like. It's so hard to get time to set aside, but you can put an open Bible in the toilet (not in the toilet! But on a stool near the toilet!), you have to go there every now and then throughout the day. Have it open at Psalms or Proverbs. You can get a little snippet as you are there.

Put your Bible on your windowsill. Oh, I did that right through the raising of our children. There was my Bible, open at either Psalms or Proverbs where it's easy to take just one Scripture. I could look up and get something.

I don't have it on my windowsill today because this house doesn't even have a windowsill above my kitchen sink. I keep dreaming of one day if maybe I ever get another home, I've got to make sure I've got a ledge on the windowsill where I can have my Bible.

I notice, my daughter Pearl, she has her Bible on her windowsill. It's there, every day, open. Serene, I notice she has . . . with her little baby she finds the best way (when I go over to visit her). She has her laptop and it's quite a big screen. She has the Bible in large print. She just pulls it up. When she's sitting nursing Solly she can turn it on and read the large print. That's how she finds she can get the Word at this season of her life.

Okay . . .  well, I'm talking, and I'm still looking up 8085. We're getting to it. It usually doesn't take this long, just because I'm talking. 8085. Wow! I can't believe that! Is that actually? Is that truly? I'd better just check this, because this is interesting, because I know what this Hebrew word is.

8085 is shama. And that word means, “to hear, to listen with attention and obedience, to give undivided listening attention.” Wow, that's amazing, isn't it? It even means, “to eavesdrop, to overhear.”

But it always talks about when you hear that you obey! It's very interesting that that's the word that's used here, in that Scripture I just picked up. I'm just going back to it. “That I may publish, with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Thy wondrous works.”

That means, “I will hear them first.” So, we've got new understanding. “I will hear, and I'm going to listen, but not only listen and obey, but I'm going to tell everybody about them too!” Isn't that wonderful when we hear revelation from God? We don't keep it to ourselves. We publish it! Yes! Publish it! Tell it! Let everybody know!

In fact, there's another Hebrew word I've just been looking at recently. It's caphar. Sometimes it's translated “show forth or tell.” This is what you find out when you look up that app in the Strong's Concordance. I looked it up, because I was looking up what it meant, “to tell and to show forth the works of the Lord.”

And then I read all these words, “Scribe, to write. It's the same word that is used for a scribe who writes things down to publish them. So that word, caphar, and sometimes it's translated, “publish,” it's not only to tell through our mouths, but to write it down and publish it.

Do you know what, ladies? You can do that every day. When God gives you a wonderful Scripture, well, write it down! It's wonderful to have a little book. I've always kept journals right throughout my life, not to write . . . well, I wish I had time to write my life story, but I don't have time.

But I keep a journal to write what God says to me. When I see a Scripture that, oh, it speaks to me—it’s a wonderful promise, or it's a challenge, or it's revelation to my soul, I write that Scripture down. Then I begin to write what God is saying to me about it.

Now, when I had lots of little children, three in 17 months, four under four, and so on, I didn't have time to write all these wonderful things God was saying to me about the Scripture. If I could write the Scripture, that was all I could do! But I would write that.

Today, many of you are on social media, you are on Facebook. Do you know that you can use your Facebook, not just for all the mundane waste of time stuff? You can use it to publish God's Truth! When you get a good Scripture, when you get a wonderful revelation, just write it on Facebook, and send it out to all your friends.

That's what the Bible says we're to do, to publish His Truth, publish His Word, publish His wonderful works! If you haven't got time to get any yourself, go onto the Above Rubies Facebook, find some of my good posts that challenge and bless you, and post them and share them with all your friends, so we can keep getting the message out! Amen?

Okay. So, I use the Strong's app on my iPhone, and I use this wonderful Bible. I take it wherever I go. Now I'm wearing out my third Bible! They are such a blessing.

All right. So, how's our time, Arden? Well! Goodness me, I was ready to give you another really exciting question, but time has gone. So sorry! Let's pray.

“Oh, precious Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word, that we have Your Word, that we have it clearly in this country. Help us to appreciate it, and to realize it's like gold. It's treasure. It's filled with revelation. It's God's Word personally to us.

I pray, that Lord God, Your precious Word will become real to every mother and wife listening, every daughter listening. And Father, I pray for the young mums who've got their little ones around, that You will help them to be proactive in putting their Bible in places where they can get it throughout the day. Where they nurse their baby, or wherever they go, so they can get little bits of Your Word.

For those who are in a different season, and are older, and their children are grown, I pray that you'll give them such a heart to get into Your Word, rather than doing all the other vain things of this life. And Lord, that You show them Your precious Truths, that they will speak them, and write them, and publish them.

Lord, we need an army of women publishing Your Truth and Your works out today through social media. It seems that this is a way that the Word goes out today. Help us to be faithful to get Your Word out, rather than all the deception that is out there today. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

And ladies, a little final word as we close. In one of my podcasts, I shared with you how we are a mighty army. God speaks in Psalm 68:11, 12 about the mighty army . . . that's the word He uses (rab in the Hebrew) meaning “mighty, powerful, that word also means “multitudinous.” It's not a few women, it's a mighty army of women, multitudes of women, in the home!

But they are publishing and proclaiming the works of the Lord. You can do it from you home. You're most probably on Facebook or something, or Instagram. Use it to proclaim the works of the Lord, to publish His Truth! Don't waste it on other things. Amen.

 

Episode 19 – God’s Lifestyle Plan

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

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

Nancy: Many blessings to you and all your children and. of course. your husband today. We are carrying on with our passage in Jeremiah 29, and I have Nadia Pitana with me again today. I know you enjoyed her last week, and I know you’ll be enjoying her again today. In this passage, the God of the heavenly armies, even though they are in exile, wants them to keep doing the things that He originally gave them in the beginning. God’s plans never, ever change. Everything that God says is unchangeable. We have to get that into our very being. I don’t know how it is that some people think that God writes something, and maybe He changes it as maybe it doesn’t fit with our 21^st century. No, God cannot change. It is impossible, for He is God. Everything He writes, what He wrote in the beginning, is for every generation.

I might read this passage to you today. I usually read from King James, but can I read to you from the Common English Bible? It says, “The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles, I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and settle down. Cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children.”

Now we are up to the next one . . .

No. 4.

“Then, help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number; don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you in exile. Pray to the Lord for it because your future depends on its welfare. Don’t let the prophets and diviners in your midst mislead you. Don’t pay attention to their dreams. They are prophesying lies to you in My name. I didn’t send them, declares the Lord.”

We see that we are up to number 4, and God is still talking about children. This time, instead of saying “Marry and have children,” He’s saying, “Make sure you have grandchildren.” It says here: “HELP your sons find wives.” That’s very proactive isn’t it? That’s a little bit opposite to the way we think today, even in the church. Mostly, parents are not helping their sons and daughters to get married.

Some other translation says: “LET your children get married.” I think that applies to some parents. “It’s ok if they meet the one God has given to them when their maybe 26 or older. Oh yes, they are ready to get married.” What if they meet them at 17 or 18? Are you going to let them get married? Well, that’s what the Bible says.

In fact, back then in Bible days they married young. They weren’t old when they got married; they got married young. The statistics reveal that the marriage age is getting older and older so that now its 29 years for men and 28 years for women. That’s getting old. Do you notice? All those beautiful child-bearing years in your twenties have been wiped out? The devil is very good at that because he knows our fertility decreases as we get older. In those prime years, if he can keep people from marrying, especially among God’s people because this is in the Christian church, couples in the Christian church.

It saddens me when couples get together, and they keep on hanging out together, but they don’t get married. What’s the story? What about, as I asked, if they are even younger? Do we let them get married? No, not if it’s not the right one. If it is a godly young man or a godly young woman and you know that it is the right person for your daughter or son, of course you let them get married. They are not too young to get married, that is the Biblical age to get married, or even younger in Bible days. We need to get with the Word. In fact, it says here to help your sons and your daughters to find the right one. We are meant to be proactive because God wants our children to get married. He wants us to raise them for marriage.

Many parents today, even in the Christian world, are not raising their children for marriage. They are raising them for their careers. They are raising them to get everything they can materially. They aren’t really raising them with a vision for marriage and for raising a family. No young man or woman is ready for marriage if they aren’t ready to embrace children because that’s what you do when you get married, according to the Word.

Right here: “Marry and have children and then get your children to marry and have children so you can have grandchildren.” Any grandmothers listening today? How many grandchildren do you have? Are you actively encouraging grandchildren to get married? This is all God’s heart because he loves a couple coming together. It’s a beautiful thing—it’s all God.

In the very beginning, God brought the women to the man. God did it. God still does the same today. He delights in bringing the woman to the man. It’s a God thing. It’s a miraculous thing. I was talking to our Above Rubies’ helpers around the table the other night, and I was saying, “Girls, this is a miraculous thing.” When I think about how my husband and I got together, well, yes, I saw him, and yes, my heart fluttered, but really it was God. God did it. It could have been with some other guy, but no, God caused my heart to flutter for this guy. What about you?

Nadia: God.

Nancy: Yes, it’s God. When you look back, it’s God. It’s God; He does it. I’m thinking, here’s Arden here, recording for us. God brought Esther to him. She was one of our Above Rubies’ girls. She came all the way from Canada, but she had come all the way from China before that because she was adopted from there. He was only very young, but he took one look, and he knew that was the one God had for him. We all witnessed it too. They married young, and they have been so blessed. Let’s get with God.

What does the next thing say?

No. 5:

“Keep increasing in the land of your exile, and do not diminish.” Do you get God’s heart? Some other translations say: “Don’t decrease; don’t dwindle away.” We have got to increase, multiply. That’s what the Word says in the very beginning. Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. We are to multiply. I was recently watching the news and the race between the Democrat and Republican in Ohio. The caption read on the screen, “They are neck and neck.” It was such a close race. We aren’t meant to have neck and neck races because God’s people aren’t meant to be neck and neck with the spirit of the world. God’s people are meant to be mightier.

You are going to hear from Nadia soon, especially when we get onto a certain subject in one minute. Let me read this in Exodus. Back in Exodus, the children of Israel were under the domination of the Egyptians, and their lives were hard with bondage and bitterness. If you ever see the Ten Commandments, you see what they are going through, yet in the midst of it all, it says: “The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and WAXED EXCEEDING MIGHTY; AND THE LAND WAS FILLED WITH THEM” (Exodus 1:7).

Verse 9 says: “The people of the children of Israel were MORE AND MIGHTIER than the Egyptians.” That really scared them. Do we scare the people who are not with God? Do we scare them today? No, we don’t scare them much at all. We are not much of a threat to them. Yet we are meant to be a threat; God’s people are meant to be a threat. The children of Israel were a threat; they were more and mightier. So, the Egyptians afflicted them, but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.

Here we are in this cushy lifestyle. We have everything so easy here in America, and we can’t even multiply in good times. They were multiplying in persecution, bitter hard times of bondage, but they still obeyed. This is what God wants. We have to get out of being victims of the lies and propaganda of the enemy who has deceived the people of God to limit their families. This is the lie of the devil. This is the plan of the devil because the devil knows that his greatest threat is the people of God.

The more godly children born into this world, the more it is a threat against him and what he wants to do because more of God comes into the world. We fill the land, not only with people, but we fill it with God’s image, with His truth, with His salvation, with His mercy, and with His love. This is what we are meant to do, and we are giving a righteous vote.

This is one of the very important things. We are coming up to the end of this year to our midterm elections. I believe that every God-fearing believer has to get out and off their bottoms because there is such antagonism and such hate and such desperation for the left to win these elections because they want to take back everything that our president has been doing. We are in a very blessed time when so many laws have been changed and we are having many freedoms again. God is so good, and we have a window of opportunity. May God save us from being “neck to neck.” May God raise up His people that we may be “more and mightier” than the Egyptians. What do you say?

Nadia: Amen!

Nancy: Amen! We dare not diminish, dwindle away; we dare not decrease. But what happens next? This is amazing . . .

No. 6: It says: “Seek the peace of the city where I have carried you to. And pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof, you shall have peace.” Here’s another command, dear ladies. We have been talking about payer in some of our podcasts. God specifically says: “Come on now, don’t forget to pray. You are not in your beloved land now; you are exiles, but you pray for where you live.” I would like Nadia to share a bit about this because, as a family, they are prayer warriors, and I’m challenged by their life of prayer and fasting. I specifically wanted Nadia to be on this podcast. Tell us what you do in your family to pray and how you feel about prayer? How important is it in your family?

Nadia: Well, prayer is very simple. We are told, “If my people will humble themselves.” The only thing that keeps us from prayer is pride. The recognition that I need God causes me to pray. When a family is no longer calling upon God, they think they have it right. They have it all figured out, I don’t need God in my life. When we realize how we need Him, we will call upon our God. When we realize, and also recognize that our children need him and will need him, we will call upon Him.

Therefore, they must be equipped to know how to pray for the things that will come around into their lives. I think prayer is very essential, just as air is essential, just as doors are essential in our home. We lock our doors, right? Nobody just leaves their home unprotected and allows anyone to come in to their home. Prayer is that shield. It’s what we use to spiritually, physically, and emotionally cover our family.

Nancy: I know you and Pitana love to pray, but how have you taught your children to pray?

Nadia: Again, you can only give what you have, so we did it before they were ever born. I would rise up early, when my husband was going to work, before ministry. I would get up early. He would be going by five, so I would get up by four to have that time in prayer with him before we started the day. When the children came along, I couldn’t.

We do want to find time, even in our family devotions, to allow time to pray. It is not just, “Ok, we got the Word.” We have to pray that the Word will get into our hearts. The Bible says if we just hear and don’t do, we deceive ourselves, yet we can’t do it on our own.

The other major thing I was thinking about the other day was that they go around praying. Just as important as going to church is for us, prayer meetings are just as important. Since they were little, we went to church for the service, but we also went to church for the prayer meeting. When you are a part of a church that has a prayer meeting, which are very few nowadays, get your children there because that communicates that it’s important. Those prayer meetings are usually on weeknights, and it’s late, but that is an important thing for us. I had to readjust, and they went to bed late, but it communicated to them that it’s important to call on this God that we serve.

Nancy: That’s a wonderful thing. I think.about homeschooling. You can go to a prayer meeting; you can take your children, and even if it’s late, and they have to sleep in in the morning, well, who cares? They are doing something so powerful.

Nadia: Well, others who don’t homeschool take them to sports events and still show up. Which one is more important?

Nancy: I know. I’m such a great believer in having children in prayer meetings. We have a prayer meeting here every Wednesday night. We encourage all the grandchildren to come. In fact, there’s usually more children at the prayer meetings than there are adults. Often, Colin will say at the beginning” “C’mon children, all the children pray first,” because some of them will go to sleep as the meeting goes on, so we get them praying first, so they get their prayers in. You only learn to pray by praying.

Nadia: There is no other way. We travel a lot as a family, and when we are in a place where there is no prayer meeting to be found, we always open our home for a prayer meeting. We invite people, and if they can’t show up, we still have our own prayer time as a family. We make it a priority.

Nancy: Amen. Your children love to pray?

Nadia: Oh yeah, because, as you pray, you grow to love prayer because you see the results of prayer.

Nancy: That’s right. Can you tell us any special answers to prayer? I know you’ve had so many, but can you isolate one or two and think of them?

Nadia: On the way coming here, I was sharing a testimony because we were praying for specific finances. We just started a TV ministry, and we needed the finances to come because we just did a recording to pay for it. My oldest son said, “I woke up at night around 3.00 am and I heard you talking.”

I said, “Yeah.”

He said, “Wow, you stayed up that late?”

I said, “No, I went to bed, but the Lord gave me a dream, and I woke up to pray about it.”

He said, “Oh, what was it?”

So, I was sharing. I said, “Before I went to bed, the Lord had answered our prayer. Somebody sent in money to pay for the recording.” He was like, “They did?” He was excited because we had been praying about it.

They already saw that provision, from things like sickness. We had a son break a leg and had a cast on, and they said it could be five weeks before he could heal, and even then, we would have to see if it’s healed properly. Well, at that time, my belly was big, and I had a two-year-old that needed to be carried around with a cast. He was potty-trained, so he didn’t want to go back into diapers; he wanted to be carried here and there and that was heavy, and as I did it, I began to get contractions. I had about eight weeks left in the pregnancy and I didn’t want to go prematurely.

We don’t have family around, so I began to cry out to God. I called my husband at work and said, “I can’t do this, I’m having contractions. If I keep carrying this baby like this, we will have a premature baby.” He came home for lunch, and we said the Word of God is true. He doesn’t change. Let’s agree that the same Word that says, “by His stripes you are healed” God heals. We are going to agree for healing. We laid our hands on him. We got our five-year-old, Jeremiah. We all agreed. We laid hands on him. We believed, and the Bible says, when we believe, it’s done.

Let’s get him to the hospital. We went to another hospital, another emergency room. We had taken him the day before; that’s when they put a cast. We went to another hospital with different doctors, so we waited there. While I was there, I was having contractions. Actually, I was the one laying down on the bed because I was having contractions.

The doctor comes in and he says, “What’s going on?” I said, “It’s not me, it’s my baby. I need you to take the cast off.” He said, “I can’t do that; this cast just got on yesterday. You need five weeks for the leg to heal.” I said, “No please, I need you to take it off.” We prayed that God would move his heart to go past his natural understanding, his medical understanding, and get the cast off. We prayed and prayed. He finally gave in.

He said, “I am going to take it off just because I know that you will be back before this day is done begging me to put it back on. He will be in so much pain, you will come back today; I guarantee it. We will put it back on.”

We said, “No, we will not come back in the name of Jesus. You take it off, and we thank you.” Off they went, and they used this machine. Oh, my goodness, you think they are going to cut off his leg to get it off. The whole time, he is saying, “He’s going to be in pain, and it’s going to be horrible.”

My husband is saying, “No, it’s going to be fine.” He gets it off, and says, “The boy sat still, the prayer worked. When I touch it, he’s going to scream.” My husband says, “He’s going to be fine.” He touches the place, no pain. He squeezes; the boy is fine. He cannot believe it. He puts the boy down; the boy walks.

We were so in shock that we didn’t even stay to witness to him because we were thinking, let’s get out before they realize what just happened. We took off, and we kept our appointment in five weeks with the specialist. We showed up and the boy is playing outside in the hallway waiting, and the doctor comes and says, “Where is Samuel?” I said, “Right there.” She said, “No, no, no, where is Samuel with the broken leg?” I said, “Right here.” She said, “No, that can’t be the same boy.” 

She didn’t believe us. Took the same x-rays. You know when the bone is healed, it still shows where it got hurt, and the only way she could believe it was by looking at a second x-ray. She said, “I don’t know what happened. I can see that this is where it was broken, and it’s healed. I don’t know what you did.” We said, “Well, Jesus healed him.” They have testimonies like that.

Nancy: Praise the Lord. That’s so beautiful. You were saying how Jeremiah, your oldest, just turned 13 a week ago, and you told me how, as a 13-year-old, he spent his birthday praying and fasting. Was that his idea?

Nadia: Well, as mothers, you encourage. We had, as a family, been on a 21-day fast.  We were going to finish it shortly after his birthday. We were doing a Daniel fast. I said to him, “Don’t you think being 13, because biblically they thought that was a man (some people believe that Mary were that age when Jesus was born) . . . that’s a big responsibility. Don’t you think you need to seek God the Father to find out what He has for you.” He said he was actually thinking about that.

I said, “Do you think you need to do a deeper fast than us?” He said he was actually thinking about that. He picked a day, two days before his birthday, and went to be with the Lord and to just find out, “God what plan do you have for me?”

Nancy: Wow, so he just went out into the land?

Nadia: Well, I cleared his schedule, and he woke up early. He was in his room just praying and fasting throughout the day,

Nancy: How wonderful. Praise the lord!

Nadia: Out of that, came the message God gave him. He is now starting a podcast to minister the Word to young people. God gave it to him very clearly.

Nancy: That’s what he felt in his heart? That’s amazing.

Nadia: God gave him a message. While God was giving him a message, God was telling me about a podcast.  He didn’t know how he was going to go about it. Over his birthday, I said to him, “The Lord told me that it is time for you to begin, that we should let you start a podcast.” He was like, “Oh, He gave me a message, but I didn’t know how I was going to give the message.” He will be starting that soon.

Nancy: I think we should get Jeremiah in here to get him to say something. There’s nothing like hearing from a young boy whose heart is for God. Let’s go find him, shall we?

Nadia: Yes.

Nancy: Now, here is Jeremiah. He has just turned 13. I think it would be lovely for you to hear from him. Now Jeremiah, you are 13 now, and if you were a young Jewish boy, you would be becoming a man now.  What’s on your heart? What is God putting on your heart at this age of your life?

Jeremiah: To love Him and love people and talk with Him any time of the day. Like before I go to bed, I always just pray to Him and hear from Him which is really a good thing. Also, love people.

Nancy: I know you love to pray. In fact, as a family, don’t you pray and fast on Fridays?

Jeremiah: My dad prays the whole night on Friday nights.

Nancy: Really? Do you children ever join him for any part of it?

Jeremiah: Yeah, when we were younger, he wanted to motivate us, so we would get a treat if we prayed with him in the middle of the night. As we got older, the treats went away, but we still wake up, and pray with him for a little bit.

Nancy: You do? If you wake up, you go out and pray with your dad. That’s so wonderful. Your mom was telling me how, on your birthday, you put it aside to pry and fast. Tell us how that went.

Jeremiah: I was really hungry. I think it was worth it. I got to hear what God wanted to tell me and what He wanted me to do. 

Nancy: She even said you want to start a podcast to talk to young people.

Jeremiah: Yeah, well my parents, for my birthday, gave me the chance to do a podcast.

Nancy: That’s so wonderful. What would you really like to talk to them about?

Jeremiah: About being God’s child.

Nancy: Yes, but you’ll have to say more than that.

Jeremiah: Yeah, well being in the kingdom of God.

Nancy: Yeah, well you’ll have to say more than that.

Jeremiah: Well, that’s basically it for now.

Nancy: You’ll be seeking God to know what to say?

Jeremiah: Yes

Nancy: And how to encourage them.

Jeremiah: Yes.

Nancy: That’s so great. Thank you so much Jeremiah. Time is going again. Perhaps I could just mention to you the last point.

Number 7.

“Don’t be deceived.” When God said that, He didn’t say, “Don’t be deceived by the Babylonians among who you are living, but don’t be deceived by the prophets who are in the midst of you.”

We can’t be gullible and take everything that anybody says, even in the body of Christ, even in the church. We need to seek God and His Word for truth. Now, if we do these seven things, we get the most wonderful promise. Verse 11 which so many people love: “I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Many take that promise, but they don’t realize it comes at the end of those seven commandments that God gave. As we obey these seven commandments that God reminded them about, then you’ll have a future and a hope. Isn’t that good?

Ok, we are going to pray. We will both pray.

Nancy: “Oh father, I thank You for the precious ladies listening today. I ask that Your blessing will come upon them in their homes. Give them a heart for prayer. Give them a heart to seek after you. Help them to be a family with a passion for God, a passion for prayer, a passion to seek Your face, and a passion to lead other to your ways. Save us from wanting to be like everyone else. Help us to be those who are truly set apart for You and following Your ways. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”

Nadia: “Father, we thank You for the promises You have given us in Your Word and instruction. We might have a desire to pray. Peter had a desire to pray when Jesus took the disciples in the garden. They had the desire to pray, but they could not pray. He said, “Can you not even pray for one hour?” They needed something. They needed to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. We see in Acts that when they received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 2, they were empowered. They were able to become men of prayer. Those who couldn’t pray a little bit when Jesus needed them became people of prayer that influenced nations.

I pray for these ladies in their homes, Lord God, that they will have an encounter with You. That they will be filled with Your Holy Spirit, as we see in the book of Acts. That out of that, they will be empowered to pray. Because Your Word tell us that we know not how to pray, but the Holy Spirit prays for us, interceding for us, with the groanings that cannot be uttered. We need the help of Your Holy Spirit to pray for us and for our children. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Nancy: Amen. Blessings to you today.

 

 

Episode 18 – BUILDING AN EXCITING HOME, No. 6

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

The last point about the exciting home:

15. A GARDEN CENTER

The first home, which was the prototype for all homes to come, was a garden home. A home is not truly a home without a garden, especially growing food to eat. If you are not able to grow a big garden, grow a little garden. Even a tomato plant, or herbs in pots on your deck!

And introducing Nadia Mutana, mother of seven children. Nadia is originally from Rwanda where she grew up with a single father (no mother) and servants. She had no idea of how to mother, cook, or manage a home. She shares how God has been her teacher.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, dear ladies. Here I am again with you, in your home, coming to you from my home. Well, last week I still didn't get to talk with you about the last point, #15, which is OUR HOME IS A GARDEN CENTER.

I know that you often go to a garden center to buy plants and seeds. But truly, our homes should be a garden center, because if we go back to the very beginning, in Genesis, we see that the very first thing God did after He created Adam was to create this beautiful home for Adam, and for his wife, Eve, who was not yet created.

Eve had not yet come into the world, because God didn't want her to come in until He had the home ready for her. He created the man without the home, but not the woman. When Eve woke up to life, where was she? In her home, where God planned for her to be.

But it wasn't just a home with four walls. It was a garden. We all know it's the Garden of Eden. Yes, we've got to get that phrase, “the Garden of Eden,” the first home, which was the prototype of all homes to come, with a garden.

Therefore, a home is not truly a home unless it has a garden, and especially a garden of produce, because God intends us to eat from our gardens. It's the healthiest way to eat, but we can get away with it today, of course, with our supermarkets and all our refrigeration.

In fact, I remember growing up as a girl, we didn't have refrigeration, we didn't have all the deep freezes. So, we lived according to seasons. Whatever produce grew, or fruit grew in that season, that's what we ate. I remember one time, for goodness, three or four weeks at least, all we ate was pumpkin and beans. That's what we had in the garden, so that's what we ate!

But now, of course, we can go to the supermarket. We can buy any fruit from any country in the world. We can buy any vegetable we want in any season, because there it is: because of refrigeration.

Even so, it's still not the healthiest. How long has it been sitting there? Is it GMO? Is it sprayed? Most probably. In fact, even if you want to buy organic, you look at it, and oh, it doesn't look very, very fresh at all. So, it's a beautiful thing to grow a garden.

I have the most wonderful garden this year! Oh, I'm so blessed! I go out every day, and it just looks glorious! It's blooming. And now I'm in the middle of the harvest. I go out in the morning, and I just pick about three huge bucketfuls of tomatoes, and then cucumbers, golden squash, and zucchini. Now my okra is coming on. Then I go and pick basil leaves to make pesto to eat with my tomatoes. Oh, it's so wonderful!

I grew some beans this year. They're called “long beans,” I think, because I just found this old packet, and I don't even remember what the name was on the packet. But I planted them. And I couldn't believe it! They grow these long, long, long, long beans . . . they're so exciting! And I've got one still growing on my garden. I haven't picked it. I want to see how long it's going to grow. Do you know it's already two feet, nine inches long?! Can you believe it?

But I have to tell you. In the spring, when it was time to put in my garden, I didn't feel like putting my garden in. Oh, I was very busy at the time. I was going to a lot of different retreats. At the same time, I was fighting this cough and this flu, which I'm just getting over this cough. I just didn't have the energy.

But I knew, if I didn't do it, we wouldn't eat. Well, we'd get it from the supermarket, but we wouldn't eat lovely life-giving foods. So, I had to get myself by the scruff of my neck and make myself do it!

You know, sometimes ladies, it's not easy to do things. We have to just make ourselves do them. But then we get the blessings. I couldn't believe the blessing I'm getting now! Even though I sowed my garden just about in tears, now I'm just rejoicing in the reaping!

Now of course, you may think, “Well, I know, Nancy, you live out there on the land. It's easy for you.” Well, not really. When we first put in our garden many years ago when we came out here, we couldn't even grow a thing. It's just chert up here on the hilltop. Chert! You can't grow anything!

So, we had to buy our dirt, and make these raised beds. From them, I have composted, and composted, and kept them going all these years. Now, you may only have the tiniest little bit of land, or just in your pot. But, look, just grow a few tomatoes. I grew over 100 tomatoes, but you can grow, maybe one or two tomato plants? Even in a pot, on your veranda! And a few herbs. But grow something, because your home is a garden. Okay?

All right. Now, dear ladies, I want to carry on in this passage we started with. You may have to go back a few podcasts to get to where I started, because it's taken a little while to get here.

Jeremiah 29:45: We started with this letter that was written by Jeremiah, but the words were given by God, by the Lord of Hosts. He sends this letter to them, to those who were in Babylon. They were captives. They were exiles, away from their beloved land of Israel. God came to them and He said, “This is what I want you to do while you're in Babylon.”

Actually, there were seven things that God told them. We started talking about the first one, which was: “Build houses, and settle in them.” That's what we've been talking about, what it means to build an exciting home, and just live in it! To really make life in it.

The very next thing He says, number two: “Plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.” Well, we just talked about that.

What's the next thing He says? Verse six: “Take wives, and beget sons and daughters.” Another translation says, “Marry, and have children.” OK. Do you notice something? It says, “Marry, and HAVE CHILDREN.”

It doesn't say: “Marry,” and then to the wife “I think you better also get out to work, and make sure you save up enough money to get your own home, and pay off your car, and get all these things in line. And then, maybe, you could think about having children?” No, it just says, “Marry, and have children.”

Well, I've got something exciting for you today. I have someone special in our studio, which is actually my lounge. Anyway, I want to introduce you today to Nadia Mutana. Say hi, Nadia.

Nadia Mutana: Hello, ladies. I am glad to be here with you.

Nancy: Now Nadia is a mother of seven children. And Nadia, seven children? Did you plan that when you got married?

Nancy: (Laughing) No, definitely not!

Nadia: Tell me about it!

Nadia: We had a plan, just like everybody else. We were gonna wait five years, get financially stable. It's the intelligent thing to do. And have one, two, and . . . maybe we were gonna be a little radical, push for three, but definitely not go over four, and that will be it.

Nancy: So, what happened? You've got more than four now!

Nadia: Well (Laughing) Somebody showed up in my life that I was not pleased with. She brought me your magazine, which I packed in my home, and I kept it for over a year. Didn't think that was something for me.

Nancy: Do you mean to say that you had Above Rubies in your home for a year, and you never read it?

Nadia: Yes. No, she was my doula, and so I had been polite. She was helping with the birth of my baby, so I just stuck it on the side for a while, and the year went by. My first born was a year. Summer . . .  we were moving, so I was unpacking. And I looked, and it was there. I just could not comprehend the things that were being said in that magazine. It seemed to me at that time, ridiculous!

(Laughing) I could not believe! Who lives this kind of lifestyle?! That was my introduction to the magazine.

Nancy: I mean, it seemed so ridiculous to you, well, how did you actually get with it?

Nadia: I love God, so my desire was to seek God, to lead my life dedicated to Him. After having been saved, and the things He'd taken me from. So, what I found in the magazine, there were Scriptures about it, so I just wasn't gonna take it because you said it or pointed out a few Scriptures. Because anybody can point to a few Scriptures and still connect it in the wrong way.

So, I went to prayer, actually what I call wrestling with the Lord. I prayed about it, and said: “God, you cannot be asking me this. Show me proof.”

I said, “God, if I ever trusted You like they were saying, I could end up with 20, 30 children! That is NOT OK, that is not possible for my body!”

I just wrestled with God, and He said to me, He dealt with me, and began to talk to me: “Who says you'll have 20? Who says you'll have 30?”

I said: “Well, science is very clear. If I don't do anything to stop it, I obviously will get pregnant!” I was only 21, so I could only think of having a full house!

So, He took me Scripture by Scripture by Scripture to prove to me that He already knows how many children you're gonna have, that it's Him Who opens the womb, it's Him Who closes the womb. Just because I was willing to surrender, didn't mean He would give me, how many? It could be, or it might not be.

But He already had a plan, and He had to just deal with me. He said: “Really, Nadia, this is an issue of you not trusting Me. You don't think I love you enough. You don't agree when I say I have good plans for you. (We're talking about Jeremiah 29:11.) I have good plans for you, to prosper you.”

I said, “Yeah, but I don't see how.”

He said: “You're fearful because you don't think I would ask you of what is good for you. I'm not out to hurt you.” So, once we got past that, I'm like, OK, but how many could I have? And He literally took me by Scripture by Scripture and began to show me. How many did Abraham have? How many? You know? Right?

OK, how many did Jacob have? I say, well, I don't know. Jacob had two wives and a couple of concubines, so four women, and he only got 12 children. I'm like well, you divide it, that's not a lot. And he lived past 130 years. How many did Isaac have? Rebekah only had one pregnancy (that is recorded).

And on and on and on. He went on to say that “Just because you trust Me is also no guarantee that you'll have children. You just have to surrender that I have the exact amount number that is perfect for you.”

Nancy: Yes. So how do you feel now about making that decision?

Nadia: Well, so After I got over the fear and I learned that He has a good plan for me. Honestly, when people ask me, I say: “This is not what I planned, but I am so glad. It's so beyond what I could have given myself.”

I mean, which one would I trade? I love each one of them. Each child has brought incredible, incredible blessings. This doesn't mean there are no times to challenge you, like “OOOHHH!” You know, difficulties that come up. You're like, OK, we surely can't be doing another one!

But, oh, you get another one, and my husband and I were like, aren't you so glad we have another one? I am so thankful we made that decision.

Nancy: And they have seven precious children. Their names are Jeremiah, Samuel, Wonder (don't you love that name?) Eliza, Jairus, Cyrus, and precious little Grace.

Now the first, no, I don't think it was the first time, because I met you at an Above Rubies retreat.

Nadia: But it was the first time you met my family.

Nancy: The first time that Nadia came to our home and came with some of their family (they've had more since), and I think Jeremiah (their oldest has just now turned 13), yes, he would be about six or seven at this stage.

I have to tell you ladies, I was so impressed. They came up the stairs, and this young boy, only six or seven years old, saw me, and he put out his hand. He said: “I am Jeremiah Mutana. I am so pleased to meet you!” And shook my hand.

Then, along came Wonder. “My name is Wonder, and I am so pleased to meet you!” And she shook my hand. So did Samuel. I was just so blessed! Thank you, Nadia, for training your children to be young gentlemen and ladies. Oh, it was beautiful!

Oh, ladies, it's such a good thing to teach our children how to greet people, and how to greet older people. Today you find that most young people, young people in their teens, and then right down to young children, they don't even take any notice of older people. They just run in and out of houses or walk in and out.

I find you can have young people coming in and out and they don't even bother to say hello. I mean they don't hardly even notice. This happens to be YOUR home that they're entering in. Oh my. Let's teach our children, and our young people, etiquette. That when they go into a home, they don't just enter into a home, even if perhaps another young person is bringing them in.

They should always go to the parents of that home and say: “Thank you for the privilege of coming to your home. My name is, say, Steven Bryant. I am very happy to meet you, and happy to be in your home.”

Teach them to show respect. Teach them how to greet people. And Nadia's been doing that. Thank you very much. You're very much into etiquette, aren't you?

Some time ago we went down to have a meal with Nadia and Pitana and their children. It was just beautiful to see the way the children were conducting themselves. They were all learning how to really show proper etiquette, even at the table. It was wonderful!

So, Nadia, not only had you never ever heard about having more than a couple of children in your life, but you didn't really know anything about mothering or homemaking.

Let me look at this magazine here because, let me tell you, Nadia and her husband wrote, not in number 95, but the one before, 94, about the naming of your children. You can read their article in that magazine.

Nadia also wrote an article in issue number 90. That's the one with Evangeline and her spinning wheel on the front cover. It's a wonderful article. I was just reading it again today, Nadia. It's called, “A Mother Desperate for God.”

She starts off, “I have nothing in my upbringing that qualifies me to be a good and godly wife. I grew up in a broken Muslim home.” That was in Rwanda, because Nadia comes from Rwanda. “And every relative I knew had a broken home, too. I had to cleave to the Rock that is higher than I. And there are four, soon to be five (at that time), lovely children who call me Mama. They expect me to nurture and train them.

“But who am I, that I should undertake such a task? I had never known the love of a mother. From infancy, my older brother, younger twin brothers, and I were brought up by a single father. Where I was raised in Rwanda, East Africa, this was not common. Single mothers, yes, but I had never met single fathers. With the help of servants, we carried on, and my father did the best to care for us.”

So, when you got to get married, have children, and now you've got to cook for them, and you don't know how to cook, and you've got to train them, and you don't know how to mother . . . Oh, tell me what you did!

Nadia: (Laughing) Pray, pray. I still do that, because I still don't know! But I pray, “Oh, Lord, I'm so thankful Jesus said, 'I will not leave you comfortless. But I will send you the Helper.'” I believe the Holy Spirit is not there just to help us with spiritual things, reading the Word, the theology things, but in the everyday things.

I'm called to be a mother. I believe the Holy Spirit can guide us and lead us in how. The first thing He led me to was to find a mentor, somebody close that I could call. So, in my first two or three years of mothering, I called her like five times a day. “OK, I have to make this food, so this happening . . . it’s boiling! What do I do now?” (Laughing) That's before the days of Google!

I needed to feed a family, and I didn't know how, having grown up with servants who did it all. So that's what I did. A lot of praying and asking for help.

Nadia: So, with growing up with servants, you wouldn't even have known how to manage a home.

Nadia: No, I'm still learning! (Laughing) No, I wouldn't, honestly. Cleaning didn't come normally, and laundry, oh my. My mentor once said, “You know, once in a while, I take all my fridges and clean them.” I was like, “Fridges need some cleaning!?” What? It had never occurred to me! (Laughing)

Nancy: Oh, goodness, I guess when you did it, you found loads of things that were waiting away behind! I find that I must clean out my fridge at least every two weeks. Weekly is better, because if I don't, you know, things get left, they're rotting, and oh, I like all my food to keep fresh.

Nadia: By the grace of God, now I have a system where we do it weekly.

Nancy: Good, that's the way! Weekly is the thing, yes. Oh, that's good. You’ve even got your system down.

Nadia: My Samuel is my fridge cleaner. He does it once a week.

Nancy: That's wonderful. So, you have been not only learning yourself, but training your children.

Nadia: Oh yes, because it was very tough. I was raised in that culture. What I figured out in raising my children . . . I don't know where God's gonna call them. I don't know what He has in store, where in the world He's gonna call them to serve Him, to do what He's called them.

So, my goal is to train them in every area so that they can thrive. I couldn't thrive in what He had called me. I was academic, but academia was not the area He had called me. I strive to teach them all those things, so that if they don't need them, great. Anybody can get used to servants. But it's hard if you've been used to servants, to get used to going without them.

Nancy: Yes, that's good training. Because that's all part of mothering . . .  the training of our children, isn't it? It's not just having children. Oh my, that's just the very beginning. It's training these children. I do have to say you're doing a good job, Nadia.

Nadia: Oh, praise God, thank you.

Nancy: Your children are beautiful, and they are such a beautiful testimony of, not only good behavior, but children who love the Lord. That's the whole purpose of our having children. We don't have children just for the sake of having children. We have children to raise for God. That's the powerful thing about mothering.

As a mother, you have a passion for God, Nadia. But you are multiplying your passion. Yes, multiplying it. That's what we need to see, dear mothers, that as mothers, what we have, our passion for God, our love for God, our love for His Word, we multiply that in our children!

Nadia: Well, that's what Timothy's mom and grandma did. They passed it on Timothy, and Timothy, look what he accomplished for the Gospel.

Nancy: Exactly. So, we impact people in this world. But when we think of our children going out and what they will do in this world, it's just amazing. That's the wonderful thing, that the more children we have, and that God blesses us with, the more multiplication we have of the image of God, and the blessing of God in the world.

Nadia: Well you know I used to be a Muslim. In Islam they have a few wives, and lots of children. But what the very big important thing that we do is indoctrinate them in Islam. They have to have a strong foundation for Islam, and how to influence the culture with that Islam. So, they have that system handed down to them. When I became a Christian, well, I'd better do what I can to raise mine to take this God-giving life out.

Nancy: And that is a very good point, Nadia, because Muslim people are truly indoctrinated in their faith. And it's not easy to win them to Christ without the power of God coming in revelation, because they are so indoctrinated in their faith. Their parents have put it into them.

Nadia: I was devout before I was ten. I was super devout to my Islam by then. Look what we have to do. I was just thinking because we were talking about prayer. By six, seven, you're fasting as a Muslim, going all day without food. As a child in Ramadan, we all had to do it. I used to have to go through school, and there's no exception, right?

Nancy: Oh yes, we're going to talk more about that on this podcast, too, but let's get up to it, because we're going to get up to it in the Word. We’re finding here, we're just talking, lovely ladies, about these things that God, the Lord of Hosts, the God of the heavenly armies, told His people, who were in exile to do. It was not an easy place.

You know, the things God gives us to do are not just when everything is easy, and it's all just going smoothly, and it's all lovely. Yes, we can obey the Word of the Lord when it's easy. When we face issues that are not easy, that's where we still must obey. God doesn't change His plan for our circumstances. But the amazing thing is, that even when we face the difficult circumstances, we know that God comes through.

I'm thinking, if I could just take time for a few minutes, I'm just thinking now about a dear couple, and you met them, because you came to the retreat in Tennessee. Sherri Leiter and her husband, Dave, and beautiful family. They put on a retreat in Tennessee?

Nadia: Oh yeah, yeah.

Nancy: Well, Sherri and her husband started off in the way so many start off. They had their two children, and they had a boy and a girl. Whoo, perfect! I don't need any more! So, he went and had a vasectomy. That was it! Life was good, they just had it all planned down.

But, as often happens, the years went by, and Sherri begins to long for another baby, because that's what the Word of God says. In Proverbs, chapter 30, it says there are four things that never say it is enough, that are never satisfied. One is a barren womb.

Oh, you may feel satisfied for a little while, while you've got two little ones that are taking all your life to look after them, but, oh, the years go on. And your womb cries for life again. So, she talked to her husband about it. He said, “No, I've done it. I'm not having another operation.”

She was so desperate. She nagged, and she nagged. The more she nagged, the worse he got. He put his foot down. Anyway, a dear, lovely woman of God said to Sherri, “Look, you've got to change your tactics. Start praying instead of nagging.”

So, she stopped nagging. She started praying. And she prayed, and God did it. God changed his heart. They had a reversal. Then they conceived! They were so excited. But she miscarried.

They conceived again. She miscarried again. They were getting so disappointed, so discouraged. But she conceived again. This time, she kept the baby, right through to full term. But the baby was stillborn.

They couldn't take it. Here they'd given their lives over to the Lord, put themselves back where God wanted them to be, and what's happening? Miscarriages! Now their precious baby was born dead?

The husband came to Colin. He was desperate. He said, “I cannot keep doing this to my wife. I cannot do this. I've got to get another vasectomy.”

Colin encouraged him, gently, but encouraged him in the Word, and in prayer. He said, “You know, we don't live by situational ethics. We live by obedience to the Word of God.” He encouraged him, and by God's grace, they came to the place, yes, OK, we trust God, we trust Him, even if He slays us.

Time went on, and she conceived again. This baby was born alive! Oh, thank You, Lord! But you would have seen their beautiful children. They had five more children after that.

Nadia: Lovely! Good!

Nancy: Beautiful, godly children. Five beautiful children after that vasectomy. But they could have stopped, because it was hard, because it was so desperate. But you see, we keep trusting God, and He comes through.

So, dear lovely ladies, number three is, “Take wives and beget sons and daughters,” or “Marry, and have children” (Jeremiah 29:6). That's what we do when we get married. God said this to these people in exile! “Yes, you don't stop, just because you're in exile. No, you keep doing what I told you to do, in the very beginning. This is My plan for you.”

Well, ladies, once again, our time is going away. But next week, I'm going to get Nadia to be with us again! We're going to keep talking about many things. So, let's pray for you. I'm going to pray and ask Nadia to pray for you too.

“Father, we love You. We love Your ways. We love Your Word. We love Your plans. Help us to be those who are obedient to Your ways. I pray for any mother today who is struggling. Oh Father, I pray that You will come to her. Let her know that You are her Rock, that You are her God, that she can trust You. For Lord, You are always working everything out for our good. Your plan is for our good. Oh Father, I pray that You will pour out Your Spirit on each mother, and all her children in the home, and her husband. In Jesus' Name, Amen.”

And Nadia, you pray for them, too.

Nadia: “Father, I thank You for this appointed time for every woman that is listening. You know them by heart. Father, I thank You.

God, I sense a heaviness, I think that heaviness is in somebody's heart. I sense cries and tears. My God, I thank You that You are a God who knows, who sees and who can do something about everything. In Jesus' Name, we pray Your Holy Spirit to minister to that lady who is wounded. As Mrs. Campbell shared that story, I sense somebody saying, “That’s me. I have lost child after child.”  Somebody says, ‘That is me . . .  child after child’.

Spirit of the Living God Who comforts, I pray Your comfort over this family in the Name of Jesus. And Father, we also pray, Your Word also says that the thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy We rebuke the devourer, oh God, in Jesus' Name, that he will not steal any more. That this time we just speak life, that this time when they conceive, this child shall come to full duration. This child shall be alive, that they too will have the testimony that that couple had. to took back and say, ‘Look how many we had. God saw us through the other side.’ In Jesus' Name.”

Nancy: Amen. The Lord bless you richly.

 

Episode 17: Building an Exciting Home, No. 5

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

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

Nancy: Good Morning to you ladies from my home to yours. I wonder what is happening in your home today. Here, it is a rainy day, and the rain has abated for a minute, but if it comes again, you may hear the pitter-patter on our roof.  A little while ago we had to renew our roof. It was leaking, so we put on a tin roof. I love to hear the sound of the rain on the tin roof, but it's not so good for recording. If that happens, you'll know what the sound is.

Well, we are still talking about living life in our home and how to make our home an exciting home, how to make life happen in our home.  I have 15 points that I'm sharing with you, and I know that there are so many more. We are up to number 10.

10. OUR HOME IS A HOSPITALITY CENTER

Yes, our home is for our family, to enclose our family, to make it a sacred and safe place for our family, but we are not to live only for ourselves. That is never ever a part of Christianity. We are to live for others, and therefore, even in our home, we are to open our home to others, precious ladies. This makes exciting living.

Colin and I have been married now for over 55 years, and I would have to say that hospitality in our home has been one of the greatest blessings of our lives. It’s added another dimension to our lives, spice to our lives, excitement and joy and blessing and fellowship. It's such a wonderful thing to invite other into your home.

Hospitality is a biblical doctrine that starts in Genesis, right in the very first book, and weaves through the pages of the Bible to the very last book in Revelation. Hospitality is an extension of our mothering and homemaking ministry. Hospitality is not an option. Some people think, “Well, some people have that gift of hospitality, but it's not my thing.” Hospitality was the lifestyle of the early church, and it should be the lifestyle of the church today.

Of course, hospitality means serving. Hospitality means cooking. Hospitality means that you're in your home. You can't show hospitality if you're not there. I think maybe that's one of the reasons so many don't have hospitality today. They are not there in the home. If a mother is out in the workforce, it's hard enough to look after even her own family, let alone be there to cook and invite others to come into the blessing of her home, the atmosphere of the home. But it's God's idea, and as I said before, it makes for exciting living.

Our God is a hospitable God. One of God's favorite words is “come.” We often read it in the Word of God where God says: “Come, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters, come buy and eat, and come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” God loves to say come.

It was the language of Jesus. “Come unto me all thee that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

It's the language of the Holy Spirit. Revelation 22:17 says: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” Not just the Holy Spirit but the bride. We also should have the same language. Don't you think we should have the same language as God has, as Jesus has, as the Holy Spirit has? We should have it too. “Come, come to my place, come and have a meal with us. We would love you to come and spend some time with us.” Let's get that attitude. As I said, that was the attitude of the early church.

If we go to Acts 2, we read here in verse 46, talking about the believers, “And they, continuing daily,” Notice the word DAILY, not once a month or once a week but DAILY.  “They continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bed from house to house.” That's not just talking about communion.  Breaking bread was a term that was used to fellowship and eat with someone else. Back in biblical days, even in Middle Eastern times today, people break bread. They have flat bread which they break, which they dip into the hummus or the baba ghanoush (sometimes spelt baba ganouj), or whatever dish they have. They dipped it in, and they ate it, and they broke bread, not just with themselves but with others.

Back in the early church, they were so filled with Holy Spirit and with the joy of their salvation and with the revelation that Jesus was their Messiah, they couldn't help but meet daily. They wanted to get together to share and talk about Jesus, to share the new understanding and revelation that they were receiving because I'm sure that they had revelation that we wouldn't have today because they were so familiar with the sacrifices, which were still happening in the temple at that time. In those sacrifices, the morning and the evening sacrifice, it was all pointing to Calvary; it was pointing to Jesus, the Lamb of God. Now they could see it. All the rituals they had done for so many years and for centuries, now they are seeing the meaning of it. They are seeing everything in the temple with a new understanding and revelation with Jesus their Messiah, and they wanted to share, so they got together daily.

They couldn't do it in the day. I'm sure they had to get together at suppertime, when they were ready to eat, and the work of the day was finished, and they would come. Instead of being on their own, they would fellowship with one another. Now, in doing that can you imagine them having time to prepare elaborate meals and put on something so special that we think we have to do for hospitality? No, they were sharing the ordinary meal that they would eat together as a family. “Oh, come and share it with us.” They didn't have to put on something special. They weren't entertaining; they were just opening their home to fellowship.

That's what hospitality is all about. Some mothers think, “Oh, I could never show hospitality,” because they think of having to put on this very elaborate meal; they have to do all these extra things. No, that's entertaining. Yes, there are times when we do entertain, when we do something very special. There are times for that, but regular hospitality is down to earth. It's eating what we normally eat and sharing it with others. This is what the early church did.

“They broke bread from house to house and ate their food together with gladness and joy and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people,” and get this, this is something we often don't notice, “and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved” (Acts 2::46, 47). I'm always challenged by that. We don't see so many people coming to the Lord today. We don't see them coming daily into the kingdom of God. Yes, every now and then, we see someone come to the Lord, and it's so exciting. But here they were seeing people daily added. I wonder if it had something to do with their daily lifestyle. As they daily opened their home and fellowshipped, God added to them and to the church daily.

People saw their lifestyle; it wasn't religiosity. This was something real. This was something that affected your life. Wow, these people, they love one another, they've got something we've never seen before; I want that. Their lifestyle drew others into the kingdom of God. That makes me think of that Scripture in 1 John 3:14, where it says: “We know that we have passed from death unto life.” Why? “Because we love the brethren.” We love the brothers and sisters in Christ. If we love them, do we just say, “Yes, well, I love the people of God.” Or do we show it? You really don't love unless you show it. If we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we will want to get with them. We will want them to come to our home for a meal, we will want them to come to our table, we will want to be with them. That's the proof that we are passed from death unto life.

Let's go to 1 Peter 4. Peter is writing here to the people. In this book, they were really facing persecution and many trials, and Peter wrote to them a lot about that. In fact, in verses 12 and 13, he says: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.” With this Scripture and many others, he encouraged them in their persecution.

Here in verses 7-9: “But the end of all things are at hand.” Well, they are closer at hand today, aren't they? “Be ye therefore, sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover a multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” Isn't that amazing? The message: “The end of all things is at hand.” You'd think he would then say, “You better get down and fast and pray and make sure your life is ready for the coming of the Lord.” No, he just says, “Love one another fervently and show hospitality to one another.”

The Word of God is so practical, isn't it? Let's embrace it and enjoy it. Maybe if you're not use to showing hospitality, just start off with one person. Perhaps you know a single mom. She's lonely, she needs encouragement, invite her to your home for lunch. Even better, invite her for supper if your husband is willing.

Many of the exhortations of hospitality in the Word of God are to men. Many of the examples are men showing hospitality. Men are meant to have a heart for hospitality. Sometimes, wives are married to husbands who weren't brought up with it, and they aren't used to it, and they don't want hospitality.

You think, “Well, what can I do? If you can't have someone for supper, you can invite them for lunch while your husband is at work. Invite them to your home to encourage them and bless them. In summer time, you can invite them to a picnic. Take them to the park and show hospitality that way. If you have a heart for it, God will show you ideas of what to do.

I find myself, that I never have enough time to show hospitality to all the people that I want to, the people I want to invite to my table for a meal, the people I want to reach out to. I have a list, and I can hardly ever fulfill that whole list because I keep adding other names. You can never, ever get bored when you have a hospitable home. We could talk for hours on hospitality, but I want to get through my other points this session. Maybe one time we will do a whole podcast on hospitality.

11. THE HOME IS A COUNSELING CENTER

Our homes are so wonderful. Everything happens in our homes. Our home has always been that home where people have come to receive counseling. In fact, our children grew up with that. I can remember back in the days when they were teens and a little older than teens, and the people would come to our home. Colin and I would not be there; we were out perhaps doing something, and we would get home, “Oh, this person came; they needed counseling, but don't worry, mom and dad, we counseled them.” They would think, “We can do this. It's part of our lives.” I'm not quite sure what kind of counsel they gave, but this is another part of our homes. 

It makes me think of a beautiful article that Pearl, my daughter, wrote. Pearl wrote this article about my mother, her Nana, before she was married, so she wrote it a long time ago. Pearl has been married about 24 years now. Can I read to you a little bit of it, if I can get through it without crying because I always cry when I read this? You can go and read this on my webpage. It would be under Family Life or something. It's there on the webpage, www.aboverubies.org. It's called “More than Toast and Pots and Pans.” Let me start down a few paragraphs. This is Pearl writing: 

“Perched on my stool, watching her through those childhood eyes, I learned that the kitchen is more than just a room. Its significance goes beyond a feeding facility. Her kitchen had a heartbeat. Though she may not have been young, there was more life there than the local coffee house.

It was in her kitchen that she welcomed friends and those who were lonely. An herb tea made in a pottery teapot and “something nourishing to eat” were the items on her menu during visiting hours . . .  though there never seemed to be a closing time. But it wasn't just for the home-made food they came. It was the listening ear she offered and the well-chosen words of counsel. Her kitchen was not only a place to feed the hungry; it was a psychiatry office with a stool for a couch.

It was never a place or drudgery for Nana. Certainly, she often worked hard, and there would be piles of dishes, pots boiling over, steam, and a little bit of sweat. But the mundane chores could not dampen her pleasure of serving others. It's been said that the only way to true happiness is by helping others--this worked for her. Her smile told everyone so. So did the songs which she hummed and sometimes belted forth, so loud you'd wonder how such a small woman could summon such decibels. I've heard her sing Amazing Grace at phenomenal volume. Shoulders straight, hands clasped, she'd let it fly.

Looking back, I've wondered whether she ever felt less than a successful woman when the liberation movement swept the world. There she was, a housewife, and to add to the stereotype--a seamstress. That does not spell "ultimate fulfillment" in feminist language. But I only know what I saw, and I never saw anything other than a fulfilled woman.

The tasks she accomplished everyday were not demeaning to her intelligence, as far as she was concerned, and her opinion was the one that counted. She did not need liberating because she never considered herself repressed. In fact, she loved the kitchen. And so simply, that is why we did too. The announcement of an intended visit to our grandparents would ignite in us children an excitement much too wild to suppress. "Yippee!" we would yell and dance around the house. "We're going to see them, Yeah!"

"I've got the window seat," one of us would yell.

"No way, you had it last time." Inevitably a rip-roaring argument would ensue, but as it was a regular part of the hysteria no one really minded. We were off to see Nana and Granddad, and nothing could dampen our spirits, not even when the arguing sometimes turned to thumping.

We would arrive at their home after a day's long trip and leap out of the car, scattering peanuts and pillows on to the driveway. It was a race to the front door. Up the wooden steps, through the overhanging ferns, up and up, panting and running until we reached the front door, and there they were, waiting for us.

"How's my best mates?" Granddad would boom, squeezing each one of us in a hug that never failed to squash out spare breath. Then we would head straight for the kitchen, six children, a set of parents and two more in their golden age, with their arms around one another and as many of us as they could capture. Through the door, the glowing, wafting kitchen would open its arms to us, and we would crowd around the oven, guessing its contents and hinting vocally of the hunger that gnawed in our stomachs.

It was never a disappointment. Always the room gave the promise of a wonderful meal, the chance to boast to a doting grandparent. Always it lived up to the excitement.

But we weren't the only ones who were big fans of their kitchen. It attracted many other pilgrims who knocked on the front door and ended up staying for days. Granddad was very adept at pulling people in from the doorstep, dragging them into the kitchen, sitting them down at the table and stuffing them full. He was a food man. "Tucker" he called it. "What you need is some good tucker," he'd say, pulling out the contents of the refrigerator at remarkable speed and lining them up on the counter.

There was a fierce, unspoken competition between my grandparents as to who was the master chef. Granddad considered himself quite the man for the job. He'd hold up a slab of meat. "Hunted this myself; you'll never taste anything like it." He'd thrust it into the oven like he was scoring a goal, and then begin a boisterous and dramatic commentary on the items of food the guest would be served. "See this honey here?” He'd hold it up and beam proudly. "Comes from my own bees, greatest in the country."

Their kitchen was there for others--always open. They liked it full, so full it was. There are many who have its memories like I do; many who have learned the meaning of happiness through watching them give. They too must have learned that a kitchen is more than toast and pots and pans. And some days I'm sure that they, like me, cannot help longing for hot soup and a little golden-haired woman who made afternoons of staring out of a kitchen window the most cherished moments of a life time.”

That was my parents, not only a home of hospitality, a home where they counseled so many people, not formally but just casually, as they sat at their table where they fed them food, and they fed them love, and they fed them wise counsel from the Word of God.

Our home is a counseling center to our children first, of course. It’s part of our lives, daily counseling them and once again, being there to counsel them. Counseling is not just, “Ok, at 2 o'clock, I'm going to teach you something or give you some counsel.” No, it's part of life; it's when things happen; it's when something is said; we bring forth these wise words of counsel. We do it to our children, and we do it to the others who come into our home. Think of your home as a counseling center.

12. THE HOME IS A HEALING CENTER

If you have read the latest issue of Above Rubies, # 95, I'm sure you have read the article, which I wrote in this magazine, called “The Healing Home.” I hope you've read it and if you haven't, make sure you do. I shared in this article a word that I recently discovered. It's therapia. Now, as you can imagine, we get our word “therapy” from therapia, and it literally means “to give care and attention, to bring medical cure, to bring healing.”

Now, the amazing things is, is that I discovered that this exact word is used to describe a household in Luke 12:42. This amazed me. It excited me. Wow. My home is to be a healing home. This word is only used three times in the Bible—about a household, another time when Jesus was healing the sick, and thirdly, in Revelation 22 where it talks about the leaves were the healing of the nations.

Dear precious mother, God wants your home to be a healing home. Healing to the body, physically. We make sure we give our children healthy foods. We don't have junk food in our home. No, we are a healing home. Every bit of food we have in our home is for the health of our husband and children. That's just in us; that's what we want to do. We are not just doing what everybody does. We are out to make and build a healing home.

It's not only for their bodies; it's for their souls and spirits. You'll have to read more about it in the article. In fact, I only really shared a little bit in that article. Since then, I have joined with Erin Harrison on her Talk Show, and you can find Erin's talk show on Facebook. Look up “Keeper of the Homestead Blog.” Erin and I ended up doing nine over one-hour sessions, which you can not only hear, but you can see about the healing home. Erin asked if I would do it with her on the Talk Show after reading my article. She also wrote a testimony in Above Rubies about healing relationships. I said that would be great, so we set out and did one session. We thought that's all it would be. It ended up nine sessions, so if you really want to learn more about the healing home, you can find the links on her Facebook blog, or you can just email me, and I can send you each link, which might be even easier for you to find them. I'll send the links to you, and you can enjoy learning so much more about how to build a healing home, physically and spiritually and mentally and emotionally. This is a wonderful thing. Our time is going again so let’s look at number 13.

13. OUR HOME IS AN INDUSTRY CENTER

It's a place where we can do so many projects. How can anybody ever say they can get bored at home? Do you ever have enough time in your life to do all the things and dreams you have in your home? The projects you have, the visions you have. There is just so much. I've never had time to do them all and still don't have time to do them all. In your home, you can do such wonderful projects with your children.

You can even have a home business. Of course, you have to be careful with home businesses. You have to be careful when you start them. You don't start a home business when you have little ones all around you. The most overwhelming time of motherhood is when you have maybe two or three children. They're all tiny, and you have to do everything for them. It’s the most challenging time and perhaps the most physically challenging time.

Then the children grow. The sad thing is that too many people stop when they have two or three children because they think, “Wow, this is so challenging. I don't know whether I can keep doing this.” But they forget, or they don't understand that children grow. They get bigger, and as the children grow, you get helpers. When another little baby comes on, instead of just looking after these two or three little ones, suddenly, you've got a helper. Then you have another child if God blesses you, and wow, you've got bigger helpers, and then it gets to the time when you have teenagers in your home. You have daughters and sons who are 17, 18, and they know how to run the household. They know how to look after everything outside the home. They are capable. They become your great helpers.

When you get to this season, it is a better season to start a business. Maybe you're really good at creating things, and then you want to sell them through a webpage, and you can do that. Then, you can even get your children involved.

Serene and Pearl, my daughters of Trim Healthy Mama, now have a very huge and flourishing business. They didn't start this when they had little ones because that was their life. Now, it's still their life, although they wrote this book and somehow God blessed it and now they have this huge business. But they are not going out of their homes. I think of Serene. She is at home, and of course, Pearl is at home too, although her children are growing.

Serene has her ninth biological baby, little Solly; she's six months old now. She still has her little ones at home, although there are 14 in the family with the adopted children and some are married now. She has these little ones, and Pearl and Serene established at the very beginning, as the business began to grow, and their husbands then came from the jobs they were doing and took over. They have taken over.

If you were to ask Serene, “Now, Serene, how's Trim Healthy Mama going?” “Oh, I don't know, don't ask me.” She doesn't know one thing about the business at all. She just does what she has to do. They do their podcasts; they do their radio work; they do their filming, but it's all done at home. All their cooking demonstrations are done at home.

Arden, who is recording for me right now does all their filming, and it's in the home. When they first started, they had some people who were going to do their filming, but they said, “Well, we'll need you to come into our studio.” They said, “No thanks. If you can't come to our humble home, we are not doing it.” So, these people came with all their equipment and were taking it into Pearl's little trailer home. That's where they started doing their cooking demonstrations. In the end, they actually fired those people and now Arden does it all, but it's all in the home.

It's amazing what we can do in our homes. Once again, you don't actually have to make everything a business either. Yes, some of you will do that. You know, I've always been one of those who felt you don't have to everything as a business. I have never made Above Rubies a business. I've been doing Above Rubies for over 40 years, and it’s never been a business. It’s been a love ministry. I've never taken money from Above Rubies. It's just a love ministry. You can do things in your home, and of course, this has never gone out of the home. I have known of other magazines, that have fewer distribution of magazines than I do, yet they have offices and buildings. Goodness me, I've never taken it out of the home, ever in over 40 years.

We read in the Word of the Proverbs 31 woman who stretched out her hand to the poor, who reached out her hand to the needy. To do that, she had to make things in her home to take them to the poor. Yes, sometimes you will make a business out of the creative things that you can do. Other times, you'll do it as a ministry.

You think of Dorcas. Remember her from Acts 9:36-42. She passed away, and Peter was used of God to raise her form the dead. It talks about the widows who, when he came, were all weeping and showing him the coats and garments that Dorcas had made. She didn't make them for business; she made them to give to people. They were her alms deeds. Our home is a place of productivity and industry. It's so exciting and so many amazing things we can make happen. Sometimes for business but sometimes just for us to bless others.

Precious ladies, embrace your home. It's a place where so many exciting things can happen. Let's pray.

“Oh Father, we thank You for Your plan and giving us homes. Homes, homes from where we can change the world, from where we raise children to go out into this world to take Your love and salvation. Homes that can be filled with Your presence to touch so many lives. Oh God, I pray that You will give everyone listening a vision for their home. Lord, we are not all going to have the same homes. Each one of us are different. Show them what You want them to do in their homes. Give them Your ideas. What You have planned for them. I pray Your blessing and anointing and creativity upon each home and each mother. in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Link  to Pearl's article MORE THAN TOAST AND OTS AND PANS: http://aboverubies.org/index.php/2013-11-12-17-55-51/english-language/family-meal-table/846-family-meal-table-more-than-toast-and-pots-and-pans

LIVE TALK SHOWS WITH NANCY CAMPBELL AND ERIN HARRISON

THE HEALING HOME, Part 1. Sadly, the filming of this first session is very blurred, and yet you need to hear it as the foundation for everything we say in future episodes. If it drives you crazy looking at it, you may prefer to just listen to the sound.

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/968682509961222/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 2

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/972213059608167/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 3

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/976005822562224/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 4

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/980206722142134/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 5

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/986122464883893/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 6

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1008012999361506/

We thought we were finished, but then we got more inspiration and moved on to talk about HEALING WATERS. There is so much about healing waters in the Bible which relates to mothers and wives.

HEALING WATERS, No. 1

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1008012999361506/

HEALING WATERS, No. 2. Toward the end of this session we talk about sexual intimacy. Proverbs 5 tells how the wife is to be "thirst-quenching water" to her husband. You will love this revelation. But use your discretion who you have watching with you. 

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1022610917901714/

HEALING WATERS, No. 3.

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1030311223798350/

 

OTHER SUBJECTS:

CHANGING THE WORLD FROM YOUR TABLE

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/954336478062492/

THE SEASONS OF LIFE—FIRST WATCH, SECOND WATCH, AND THIRD WATCH

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/220082002185925/

And then we did a series together on BUILDING OUR HOMES. You’ll enjoy this series immensely. Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for the links to this series if you would like to watch.