LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 272: God Loves Togethering, Part 2

Today I discuss how God made plans for us to spend time with Him. God orders His kingdom and in His Word, He gives us daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly appointments to come into His presence and to assemble with one another. Check them out.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, everyone! Last podcast I told you I would tell you the story about Ten Peas in a Pod. It’s a story of the Pent family. The father was a wonderful man of God who loved to preach the Word of God. He traveled throughout the USA and Canada preaching.

He was also a man who loved the Word of God, and loved to read it to his family. Not only when they were home, but even when they traveled, he would never forsake that reading of the Word of God to his family. He didn’t only do it in the morning and evening; he did it three times a day. So, every morning, after breakfast, he would read to his family for one hour from the Word of God.

Now there were eight children in the family of varying ages. That’s why it’s called Ten Peas in a Pod, because it tells the story of their travels throughout the USA and Canada. It’s a most wonderful and exciting story. He never forsook the reading of the Word. Lunchtime came, and after lunch he would then read to his children from the Word for another hour.

Suppertime! At the end of supper, he would once again read to his children for one hour. Whoo!

Well, I do have to confess that we haven’t kept up to his standard. It’s a wonderful inspiration. I was so inspired when I read this story of this family. It goes on to tell us in the book that because they listened to the Word daily, it became part of them. Most of the children could recite the whole New Testament verbatim, plus many, many passages of the Old Testament.

Another interesting thing is that the eldest son, who wrote the book, he said that when they traveled, they often stayed in different people’s home. His father would say to the people at the end of the meal, “I love to read God’s Word to the family. Would you be happy for me to do that?” Of course, they were Christian families, and they would always say, “Yes, of course! Just go ahead.”

And then he would say to them, “Would you like to join us?” The saddest thing is, their son wrote in this book, that there was never one family who joined them. They all had their excuses. “Yes, we’re so happy for you to do that. Just go ahead. But I’ve got this to do, and that to do.” And they always had their excuses. Not one ever had time.

But I was so blessed, just a couple of years ago, to meet that son, who is now a grandfather today. He actually was sitting in the very chair I’m sitting in now talking to you. We were able to fellowship with him and share how I’d read that book many years ago and how it had so blessed our family.

But I asked him, “Is this continuing down the generations?” Yes, he was able to share beautiful testimony of that.

But that was really an inspiring story. Not only did he read after each meal for an hour a day, but once the children got to an age of where they could read well, he would encourage them to have their own quiet time, reading the Word of God before breakfast, 15 minutes when they were younger, and increasing to an hour a day so that they would actually be getting the Word four hours a day! Isn’t that amazing? Wow!

It makes me think of how I literally believed that a young person, a child, as they’re growing up in a godly Christian home where they’re hearing the Word of God read to them daily, they’re discussing it, and talking about it together, should never have to go to Bible school. It amazes me that when Christian children come out of a godly home and think, “Well, I need to go to Bible school.” Well, why? Haven’t they got their Bible school for the last eighteen or so years every day of their lives? That’s how it’s meant to be.

MORNING AND EVENING APPOINTMENTS

So, there it is. They did it three times a day. But I think that the minimum should be that morning and evening principle where we come two times a day, because God loves that daily meeting with Him. He loves to meet with us. He loves intimacy. God loves our fellowship. He wants intimate fellowship with us.

I think of that Scripture in the Song of Solomon 2:14. Let me read it to you. “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is beautiful.” This is a picture of the Bridegroom, Christ, Who is our Bridegroom, speaking to the Bride and speaking of His longing for intimacy, personally, and even as we come together, morning and evening, on a daily basis.

WEEKLY APPOINTMENT

But God then goes on to give us a weekly time when He loves us to come into His presence specifically, and to come together. That is the Sabbath day. He has a weekly appointment with us also. We’re either keeping the Sabbath day or we’re keeping Sunday as the Sabbath day. But God gave a day, a day to put aside, specifically for Him. A day for rest from our work, and a day to be with Him, a day to not do what we do every other day, but a day to fellowship with the people of God, a day that we give to God.

All these things that we see in the Old Testament are only types and shadows of truth that is to come. Let’s have a look at one or two Scriptures here.

Colossians 2:16-17: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come.” So, these things speak of truth. The Sabbath day speaks of our rest in Christ. The ultimate Sabbath is our rest that we find in Christ. But He gives us a day. God always gives us something tangible to understand. They are shadows of things to come, or types of truth that God wants us to understand.

1 Corinthians 10:11: “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Romans 15:4: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

I often think of Paul, in the last chapter of Acts, chapter 28. It talks of Paul, who was living in “his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.” He was preaching the kingdom of God.

Now, as we read the New Testament, we read much of the kingdom of God. But Paul didn’t have the New Testament! What did he have? He had the Old Testament. And he preached the kingdom of God from the Old Testament. Everything there, every story, everything about the offerings and the feasts and the tabernacle, everything we read is a shadow of the reality of truth.

I am thinking just now also of Luke, the last chapter of Luke, where Jesus was talking with those two disciples as He walked toward Emmaus. Let’s go to it here. Jesus came and began to talk with them. They were so sad because Jesus had died. They thought that was the end of everything.

Luke 24:25-27: “Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” 

Jesus didn’t have a New Testament to talk to those disciples. Jesus spoke to them from the Old Testament, from Moses, from those first five books of the Bible, the Torah. And what does it say here? “Then, in all the Scriptures, He spoke to them.” They were all from the Old Testament. We don’t discard the old because we learn so much from it, don’t we?

All right, we’re talking about this weekly Shabbat. We have our Shabbat meal every Friday night in our home. I did a podcast on that, podcast #240. If you didn’t hear it, you can hear how we do that in our home. Once again, we don’t do the Shabbat meal because we are Jewish. We don’t do it because we want to come under some law.

We do it because it is the most beautiful family meal that you could ever enjoy. It brings us into the presence of the Lord. It ties the bonds of family. It is a great unifying of family where the husband blesses his wife and blesses his children at the table. It’s so beautiful. You can read about that, or you can go to podcast #240 and learn more about it.

MONTLY APPOINTMENT

And then, God speaks about a monthly celebration. The monthly celebration was the celebration of the new moon. That’s something rather, help! Speaking about a new moon . . . wow! Whenever I read about the new moon in the Bible, I would gloss over it as quickly as I could, because I thought, “Oh, that sounds so New Age-y!”

I have come to realize that it was really so practical because God’s calendar is a lunar calendar. God’s calendar goes by the moon. The beginning of every month on God’s calendar is the beginning of the new moon. When they see that sliver of the new moon, that is the beginning of the month. The word in the Hebrew is Rosh Chodesh. It’s called “the head of the month.”

The Israelites had certain people who had to look out. They were appointed to look out for when that sliver of the moon would appear. Then they would go to the Sanhedrin, and they would confirm it. Then they would light fires to let everybody know it was the new moon. Usually, they would have a family celebration. Sometimes, it wasn’t commanded, but some would go to Jerusalem to offer offerings. They would have more of a Sabbath day when they didn’t do all their business and work.

I remember reading in 2 Chronicles 2:4. I love how Solomon talks about it. He’s building this beautiful, glorious temple to the Lord. “Behold, I build a house to the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.”

David was saying, “This is what I long to do. I want to keep these times unto the Lord God.” One of them was the new moon. Well, it’s not something that we are most probably going to keep, as gentile Christians, because we don’t even live by the Hebrew lunar calendar. We live by the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar calendar. It goes by the sun. So, really, we’re out of sync with God. But one day, I guess when the millennium comes, we’ll be back to the lunar calendar. We’ll get back to God’s way.

Well, I know we will do so, because it says in Isaiah 66:23. I only noticed this Scripture recently, and I was amazed. It says: “And it shall come to pass. . .” Well, that’s pretty certain, isn’t it? If God says “And it shall come to pass,” well, that means it’s going to happen, “And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.”

That’s obviously going to be in the millennium, but it is going to come to pass. And there will be a time when we get back to God’s calendar. The new month will be the beginning of the new moon and we will all come and worship before the Lord.

There are some Christians who already love to do this. They’re not doing it out of law. They’re doing it. “Well, one day we’re going to do it. Let’s do it now!” They’ll come together at the beginning of a new moon, which is really the new month, and they’ll have a time of fellowship, have a meal together, and a time of worship. That’s a beautiful thing. But maybe there’s something else you want to do as a family every month. But God plans the daily, the weekly, and the monthly, because He loves these set times. Yes, God loves set appointed times.

YEARLY APPOINTMENTS

Then He has the yearly feasts. I mentioned last week about these feasts of the Lord. A lot of people think, “Oh, they’re all the Jewish feasts. Passover and Tabernacles and so on.” But in the Bible, they’re not called the “Jewish feasts.” They are called the “Feasts of the Lord,”

Leviticus 23:2: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts.” That’s what God calls them. “My feasts.”

OK, they were given to the Jewish people. But they are not only for the Jewish people. If you would love to celebrate them, you are free to celebrate them. Not out of law, but out of delight, because they are God’s feasts. When we do decide that we’d love to celebrate them, they teach us so much of Christ.

I love to celebrate Passover. Many Christians celebrate Passover today, because it’s such a revelation of our salvation. It points to Christ. There is so much the whole way through the Seder. It’s speaking of Christ. In fact, the Seder that we had this year, I think it was the most beautiful Passover I have ever experienced. My husband led it, and he pointed everything to Christ. It was the most Christ-centered, honoring Passover. It was beautiful. We enjoyed it in the presence of the Lord. It was so amazing.

There are some churches who like to put on a Passover feast. Maybe your church has done that. I have to confess that, personally, I have been to big Passover celebrations, and they’re never quite the same as having one in your own home with your family and children. It’s a very, very children-orientated thing. God loves His feasts to be family-orientated. Of course, we always ask other families in too. But we don’t make it too big because then it gets not-quite so personal.

Talking about “My feasts,” I was just reading the other day in Ezekiel 44; just seeing how God sees things. I’m not going to read the whole chapter to you, but I’m going to read you the things where God calls them “My things.”

In verse 7, it starts off with “My sanctuary.” He’s talking about the sanctuary, actually Ezekiel’s temple. In the Bible, it starts off with the tabernacle in the wilderness. Then later, Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. Then sadly, that was wiped out. Then, again, they built another temple, rebuilt it when they came back from Babylon. But then, there is going to be another temple, called “Ezekiel’s Temple,” which is not yet built. But God calls it “My sanctuary” six times in that one chapter.

He calls them . . .

“My sanctuary,

My house,

My bread,

My covenant,

My holy things,

My hand,

My holy things,

My sanctuary (again),

My table,

My charge,

My purpose,

My judgments,

My laws,

My statutes,

My assembly,

My assemblies.”

MY ASSEMBLIES

‘We’re going to be looking into so many Scriptures. Our God loves us to assemble. As He calls them “My assemblies.”

They’re not just something . . .  “Oh, well, you know, we’ll come if we feel like it.” No! God says, “They’re My assemblies.” If they’re God’s, well, we’ll want to be there, won't we?

“My Sabbaths.” It goes on in another chapter in Ezekiel where He says: “And My children” (Ezekiel 20:21). He’s talking about their children, and He says: “They are My children.” Our children belong to God. Everything belongs to God. So, there it is.

“And they are My feasts.” Let’s just mention them. There’s the Passover. There are three main feasts, and four subsidiary ones that go with them, so there are actually seven yearly feasts. So, the Passover, and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is for a week immediately after the Passover feast. Each family in Israel was required to prepare before that feast. They had to go through their homes. In fact, they had to go through the whole land and check out that there was no leavened bread in their homes, or anywhere.

Even today, Jewish families will do a little type of that. Sometimes the mother will put a few crumbs somewhere on a window sill, or somewhere, so the children will learn the lesson. They come, oh, the children find some crumbs, and it’s made out of yeast bread! “Oh, we’re not allowed to have that this week! So, they have to come and brush them all into the dustpan and get rid of them! It’s quite a fun thing for the children if they see any crumbs. They’ve got to look in every part of the house, so they sweep them up.

There’s no leavened bread in the whole house, because that week speaks of Christ, who is our unleavened bread. There was no sin in Him. Leaven speaks of sin, and so, for that week, they have unleavened bread because there was no sin in Christ.

Then the Feast of First Fruits, which relates to Jesus raising from the dead. And then, 50 days after Passover comes Pentecost. That’s called the “Feast of Weeks,” or Shavuot in the Hebrew. In our language, it’s called “Pentecost,” because it means “fifty,” fifty days after the Passover.

Actually, it was 50 days after the children of Israel came out of Egypt and how God saved them out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea. It was 50 days later that He gave the law on Mount Sinai. That was 50 days.

And then, it was 50 days after Christ died and was crucified and rose again, that God came and outpoured His Holy Spirit upon the new church.

Isn’t that interesting that He brought the Word back in the Old Testament, and then on Pentecost He brought the power of the Holy Spirit. The Word and the Spirit go together. We really can’t have one without the other. We must have the Word of God. We must have it daily. That’s why we come, morning and evening, to get the Word into our hearts, to get the Word into our children’s hearts. Not only into their hearts, but into their mouths!

But we need more than just the Word. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the Word, so that it brings revelation of the truth, because we can read the Word and it can become a dead letter unless we have the Holy Spirit anointing. That’s why I love that Scripture in Isaiah 59:21: “As for me, this is My covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee,” the Holy Spirit, poured out upon them. “. . .And My words which I have put in thy mouth.” I love that! “My Spirit, which I have put upon you, and My words, which I have put in your mouth.” Did you notice? He doesn’t say “in your heart.” He says, “In your mouth.” God wants His Word to be not only in our hearts but bubbling up in our hearts and coming out of our mouths. It goes on to say: “My Word that is upon thee, and My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy children, nor out of the mouth of thy children’s children, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever.”

This is God’s mandate to parents, the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our children, as it says in Isaiah 44. Let’s look at that. Isaiah 44:3: “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy children, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” We need the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon our children and the words of the Lord in their mouths. Amen. So, that is Pentecost. The Holy Ghost and the Word.

And then, number five, the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, the blowing of trumpets leading up to the Day of Atonement. That’s the sixth feast, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. That is the only feast where they did not rejoice and dance and feast. God told them that in all the feasts that they were to enjoy one another, enjoy the food, enjoy the drink, enjoy dancing. But on Yom Kippur, they had to fast. That was the Day of Atonement for their sins.

Then, number seven, the Feast of Tabernacles, where for a week they lived in booths. So, those are the yearly feasts, although, there were two more. They weren’t the feasts of the Lord, but they are two feasts that are written in the Bible.

One is Purim. Of course, we read about that in the Book of Esther, where Esther was saved, and the whole of the Jewish people were saved through the help of Mordecai. Haman had such a hate for Mordecai and the Jews that he wanted to eradicate them from the whole of the land. Esther was used. You know the wonderful story. That’s an amazing story. Of course, now they have the feast to remember that.

It’s a fun feast for children. Have you ever enjoyed it with your family? You can do that. What we have done, we haven’t done it for a while as all the children have grown up. It was actually more fun when the children were little. We would get them to all dress up. The girls had to dress up as Esther. Oh, they all loved dressing up as the queen. The boys had to dress up. They could dress up as Mordecai, or the king, or they could dress up as Haman. They would come in all their dress-ups.

Then we would have someone to read or tell the story of Esther. We would usually get Evangeline’s husband, Howard. He could really tell a story. Everyone comes with their little noisy banging toys. Whenever the word “Haman” is mentioned, everybody has to boo and yell. Then whenever Mordecai is mentioned, they all have to cheer. It’s all so very exciting for the children. And, of course, they get to remember this wonderful story, another deliverance for the Jews, which was also very powerful, because if the Jews had been destroyed at that time, our Savior, Jesus Christ, would not have been born. It was a powerful deliverance.

The other feast that we remember, and Jesus even came to this feast, it tells us in John 10:22-23, when Jesus went up to Jerusalem, to celebrate the Festival of Lights, or the feast of Hanukkah. Many of you know about Hanukkah and the time of the Maccabees when Antiochus Epiphanes was once again trying to destroy and eradicate the Jewish people. He wanted them wiped out.

But these Maccabees rose up, and it was amazing how God used them to deliver the Jewish people. They were able to get back the temple. When they got back the temple, it was totally a mess, and grown over. Everything had to be renewed. Of course, all the furniture in the temple had to be brought back. The table of showbread and the table of incense and the beautiful golden candelabra which was made out of one piece of pure gold.

Of course, they actually did find enough oil to light the candle for one day. But, how were they going to keep it going? They couldn’t use any kind of oil. It had to be the exact recipe that God gave in His Word to use. Tradition tells us that God miraculously kept that one light burning for the eight days while they prepared the new oil for the candelabra. It’s called the Festival of Lights when they dedicated the temple again.

That was also another time when, if it hadn’t been for those brave Maccabees, a father and his sons rising up to come against this evil to wipe out the Jewish people. Once again, if they hadn’t had this great deliverance, our Savior would not have been born.

These are great feasts to also remember and remember how God came and saved them and protected His people to protect His beloved Son Who would be born from this people. So, there we go. Time is up again, isn’t it?

I told you about these appointed times that God gave to His people to keep them coming to Him and to keep them together. There’s nothing like celebrations to keep us together as families and extended families. Now, you are welcome to celebrate these feasts, even if you’re not Jewish. You don’t ever have to do it under any law because they’re blessed times of revelation of Christ.

Or you may have other things that you love to do that you celebrate to keep you together as a family, and also as an extended family, and also as a church family. God loves the gathering of His people. He is a gatherer. But most of all, lovely ladies, gather your family together, your immediate family. Always think of how you can make things happen to keep yourselves together, to do fun things together, family things together. Become a togethering family.

“Father, I pray that You will bless every family listening today. Pour out Your Spirit all over them. I pray, Lord, that they will be family who know the precious anointing of your Spirit filling their homes. Also, Lord, that they will be families who are filled richly with Your precious Word in their hearts and coming out of their mouths. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

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

TEN P’S IN A POD

A Million-Mile Journal of the Arnold Pent Family

By Arnold Pent III

I love this book. It is the story of the million-mile journey of Arnold Pent, Jr. and his wife and eight children as they travelled through US and Canada together. The father preached along the way. But no matter where they were, or whoever they stayed with, they never gave up their practice of daily Bible reading and memorization. It will inspire you like no other book to begin reading God’s Word together as a family, but it is also a great adventure.

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

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

WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?

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

~ Andrée Seu Peterson, World Magazine Columnist

“Your book is a breath of fresh air.”

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

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

—

The following book is a wonderful children’s book written by the son of Arnold Pent who wrote TEN P’S IN A POD.

A GOOD LIFE

by Jeremiah Pent

A unique and delightfully illustrated book. It is definitely a classic with 22 beautiful watercolor illustrations. The intent of the author in writing this book is to keep the attention of children but at the same time.

1) make parents think about ideas that engage their own minds and imaginations; 2) know the children are learning something valuable; and

3) display beauty, creativity, or ingenuity.

This book is about 10 different metaphors, something we should learn at an early age. The story follows a young orphan boy who leaves his hometown and difficult background to find a good life. As he journeys, he meets people of various professions, and each character gives the boy a different metaphor for thinking about life.

This beautiful story ends with a couple who hear the boy’s story and offer their home as his own, the promise of a new beginning.

This HARD-BACKED children’s book is worth gracing every home.

Go to: A GOOD LIFE - A Book for Children (and Adults) - By Jeremiah Pent (mybigcommerce.com)

 

 

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 271: God Loves Togethering, Part 1

Togethering begins with God, who is the triune God and who live in unity, harmony, and fellowship together. God also created man for the purpose of communication and fellowship. We are not created for isolation but for togetherness. That’s why God planned marriage and family life. This is the most wholesome and healthy way to live. Join us as we discover this truth from Genesis to Revelation.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, everyone! Good to be with you again—mothers, young people, and even children. Oh, I hope I have some children listening today! Now, children, any of you listening, put up your hands! Oh, I wish I could see you! I love to have the children listening, so I hope you are with us today too.

I’m going to begin a new series today. It is called “God Loves Togethering.” Each time I share with you about a subject I usually find that it begins with a series because we can never talk about it all in just one podcast. There is always so much to talk about. There’s so much in this wonderful subject of togethering.

God did not create us for isolation. God created us for connections, for community, for fellowship. He wants us to be a together people, not isolated individuals. I want to reveal this to you from the Word of God. And guess where it starts? Can you believe it? In the very first verse in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God . . .” God. The word is Elohim. It’s a plural word for God. It’s not singular. It’s speaking of God in the plural, the triune God. God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, dwell together in harmony and unity. They are One, but not an isolated one, but three in one. Communicating together.

And then, of course, we read how God created man in His image. We go down to Genesis 1:26, same chapter, first chapter in the Bible. “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” So, we see again, how God is revealing that He is not just an isolated One, but One-in-Three, in communication and harmony and unity.

All the previous accounts of the creation, creating the world, it says: “And God said.” When He spoke, it came into being. But now, when He comes to create male and female, He doesn’t only say the words, “Just let it be.” No, He says: “Let Us.” It’s a personal thing. When He comes to create man, it is very personal.

We also see again this community even in the Godhead. God created us in His image. He created us to be someone who communicates. Firstly, He created us to communicate with Him, to be able to fellowship with Him. God longs for fellowship. He desires fellowship but He also created us to fellowship with one another. He did not create us to be isolated beings.

That’s why He created marriage. Marriage is the most beautiful thing for communication. You have one special person who is closer than anyone else on this earth that you can communicate with. You can share your heart. You can share what you wouldn’t share with anyone else. God gives this beautiful privilege. It was His divine plan that we would have this wonderful fellowship and communication in marriage.

But then it extends into family. Our families are meant to be homes of communication, of fellowship, of togetherness. We must remember that. In our building of our families, the building of our homes, we create fellowship with one another. We create communication. That’s why we have the table. We’ve been talking about that in the last couple of podcasts, of how important it is to come around the table and communicate. It’s a great place for communication.

This wonderful revelation of truth that begins in the first chapter of Genesis, goes right through, winding itself throughout the whole of the Word of God, right up until the last book, the book of Revelation. We see it again. We see it in Revelation 3:20, when Jesus was writing to the church of Laodicea.

He said in verse 20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with Me.” That is the most beautiful picture of communication. When God comes into our lives, He comes in to communicate with us, to talk to us, to listen to us, to fellowship with us.

That word “sup” is the Greek word, deipneō. It literally means “the chief evening meal of the day.” Jesus is thinking of that picture, of when the family comes together at the end of the day, or even extended family added to the table, and everyone is enjoying fellowship together, and talking with one another, discussing things. It’s that kind of fellowship that He wants to have with us. We see it in the beginning, and we see it right over at the end of Revelation.

And again, Revelation 21:3. We go over to this beautiful Scripture. Here John is looking into the eternal realm in verse two: “And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them. They shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

So, it begins in the beginning, with communication. It’s not long after Adam and Eve are created that we read how they, each night, at the cool of the day, they walked and talked with God in the garden which He had created for them. The Bible says He didn’t come in the daytime, because God established work right at the very beginning.

When God created Adam, one of the first things He did to Adam was, give him a job! Yes, God believes in work, and He gave Adam the job of tending and guarding the garden, and working, guarding it. So, each day, Adam worked in that garden.

But as the end of the day came, and the beautiful cool breeze came, it was time to rest, and time to fellowship. God came, and He came . . . and He walked with them, and talked with them, and told them of His ways. What wonderful times they must have been!

In fact, I think that maybe Adam and Eve began their first day with God, because God’s first day after creating them was the day of rest. Remember that? Back in Genesis 2:2, after God had spent six days creating the world, “And on the seventh day, God ended His work, which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day, from all His work, which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” That means He made it holy, because in it He had rested from all His work, which God created and made.

I am sure that Adam and Eve would have been with Him on that day, resting and fellowshipping, because the Sabbath day, which was later given as a law, it wasn’t then, it was just a principle. It was later given again with the Ten Commandments. It’s given as a day for us to rest. On that day of rest, it’s a great day to fellowship.

There are many who keep the Sabbath day. There are many gentile Christians who don’t keep the Sabbath, but they keep Sunday as the Sabbath. Well, I say that with a grain of salt, because sadly, so many Christians today don’t even keep Sunday like a Sabbath. They go to church, and that’s the end of that! Get home from church, go to their sports, go and do what they want to do. They haven’t seen the vision that this is a day of rest, a day that is holy, a day that is set apart for God.

It’s also a day for fellowship. I love to think of that day as a day of fellowship, not only with family, but with the saints of God, as we come together as the Bible says. Each week we come together, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but so much the more as we see the day approaching.”

Actually, when we look at the context of that Scripture, the Scripture preceding it is Hebrews 10:23: “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.”

Do you notice that that is all one sentence? It continues on: “let us consider one another to provoke [one another] unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” How can we provoke and encourage one another in good works and in our faith, if we’re not meeting together? The only way we can do that, to encourage one another, bless one another, is as we come together. We see that is God’s plan. He loves our togethering.

Now God has so many words for togethering in the Word of God. We have the words “assembly, congregation, convocation, together, gathering, fellowship.” Oh! There are so many words, and they’re repeated over and over. In fact, in the Old Testament, I found 12 different Hebrew words to describe our assembling together! (I’ve now found 14!) God didn’t only use one word. It wasn’t enough. He needed 14 different words to describe the assembling of His people together. Hopefully we’ll get onto those, and I can share them with you at some time. But at the moment, I just want to mention that.

We’re talking about how this is God’s plan. Psalm 68:6: “God setteth the solitary in families.” God wants every person to live in a family. Family is God’s idea. Family is God’s heart. Family is the way He planned for us to live. It’s a togethering lifestyle.

As I mentioned before, we must watch that even in our families, we don’t become isolated. It’s easy in families for everyone to become isolated and just do their own thing. No, we are a family. Dear mothers, encourage family life, not isolation. Well, there will be times, of course, when different ones want to get away, read a book, do something on their own.

But don’t allow complete isolation. Really work on gathering time. Think of the ways that you can do things together. Encourage doing things together. Plan doing things together. Promote it in your family. Be a togethering family! Amen? I hope you can all say “amen” to that.

I discovered an amazing Scripture a while back. It’s found in Romans 1:12. Paul was writing to the new Roman believers there. He says: “that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.” Can I just go over that Scripture with you? Let’s look at it a precedinglittle more closely.

We see here, as Paul is writing, he’s explaining to these new Christians that their faith is not an isolated faith. It’s not just you and Jesus. Well, yes, we can get away in prayer and have our quiet time and our special times with the Lord. It can be me and Jesus. But is can’t be me and Jesus all the time because God wants us to be a togethering people, even in our faith.

If we are isolated, we will not grow as much as if we are with the saints, because we do grow by encouraging and being with one another. He says: “That I may be comforted together.” Notice that word, “together with you.” Yes, not just me, “together with you by the mutual faith.” Once again, that means our together faith.

The word in the Greek is allēlōn. It literally means “one another.” Every other place where that word is used, it’s the Greek word (well it’s the English word) that’s translated “one another.” So, “by the mutual faith both of you and me.” Do you notice that? Not just me and Jesus. You and me. It’s a togethering.

I love the Passion translation of that Scripture. It says: “I yearn to come and be face-to-face with you and get to know you.” We can only get to know one another as we are with one another. We have to assemble. We have to get together.

“For I long to impart to you some spiritual gift that will empower you to stand strong in your faith.” Now this means that when we come together, and are side by side, something wonderful will be released. We can expect to be co-encouraged and co-comforted by each other’s faith. Do you get that?

Face-to-face, side by side, encouraging one another!

I did a study about one-anothering in the Word of God, and I found, guess how many one-anothers? I wonder if you can guess? Any children listening? Do you think you could guess how many times God says we are to do something special to one another?

Well, let me tell you, and I’ll see if you got it right. I found 41 different times where God tells us we are one-another each other. How about that?

Well, do you want to hear some of them? Maybe I’ll read them to you. Of course, there are Scriptures to go with them all. If you would like to get the Scriptures, well, I am happy to send them to you if you email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or you can purchase 100 Days of Blessing, No. 4, because these one-anothers are mentioned in that book.

OK, number one:

Admonish one another.

Bear one another’s burdens.

Bless one another.

Take care and concern for one another.

Comfort one another.

Have compassion for one another.

Confess your faults one to another.

Consider one another.

Do good to one another.

Encourage one another.

Edify one another.

That means to build one another up.

Esteem and delight in one another.

Fellowship with one another.

Forbear with one another.

Forgive one another.

Help one another with your gifts and abilities. We’ve all got gifts and abilities, special gifts that God has given to us. We can use those for remunerative help for the family, but in that Scripture, God says that He wants us to help one another just because of one-anothering. We don’t always have to get money for everything we do. We do it because we want to love one another.

Let’s see. What’s next?

To honor and prefer one another.

Show humility to one another.

Practice hospitality to one another.

Be kind to one another.

Lay down your life for one another.

Be like-minded to one another.

Look out for one another’s interests.

Love one another.

Have peace with one another.

Pray for one another.

Realize we are members, one of another.

Receive one another as Christ received us.

Rejoice with one another.

Serve one another.

Speak and sing to one another.

Speak truth to one another.

Stir up one another to love and good works.

Suffer with one another.

Submit to one another.

Teach and instruct one another.

Be tender-hearted to one another.

Think more highly of one another than you do yourself.

Wash one another’s feet.

Be on the watch to look after one another.

And weep and mourn for one another.

Well, how about that? All those one-anothers! And for most of them, we need to be together. These are beautiful things that we can operate in our own family life. You do need that list of one-anothers. In fact, you need all the Scriptures so you can read them with your family.

You can take one of them for a week, and you can say, “OK, children, let’s make this one-another something that is so big in our family this week. Let’s all do this together and work on it.” Then you can do another one the next week. You will find it such a wonderful blessing, because there is such blessing in togethering and one-anothering. Amen!

Let’s go on here. This is something I wanted to share with you too. That is, that when God decided, well, He did this back before even the world began, because God’s plans were in His heart before even the world began. He planned to take out of the Chaldees a man named Abraham, and to make from him a people, a people who would be a special people unto Him, a people who would be a holy people unto Him, although they haven’t always been a holy people unto Him throughout the years.

But this is God’s plan, and one day they eventually will be as God fulfills all His promises for Israel. But if God began to create a people, and an example people for all of us to follow, and those of us who would become the children of Abraham by faith, He established certain things. Now God is a God of order. We see this in many Scriptures.

I’m just thinking now of Isaiah 9:6, that wonderful Scripture that we all know so well, where it says, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgement and with justice, from henceforth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.”

We see that God orders His kingdom. He made Israel to be a kingdom of priests. Now we, who have been born again into His kingdom, in Revelation it tells us that He has made us kings and priests unto God. We have become part of His kingdom. It’s a kingdom that’s not just haphazard; just anything happens at any old time. No. God orders His kingdom. Did you hear that? Yes, Isaiah 9:7: “To order it.”

God planned times and seasons for His people to come and be in His presence, and also to come together. God understands who we are. Although we, especially those of us who now live in this age, and live in this age of grace, we are so blessed to receive the Holy Spirit into our lives, and to have fellowship with the Father, with the Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit.

As it says in 1 John 1:7, let me read that Scripture to you: “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” He wants us to have fellowship with Him and also with one another. We can do that. We can do it 24-7. How wonderful, to just be able to talk to the Lord whenever you want!

But God also established times and seasons. So, I thought I would share some of these with you. Most of these, of course, are what God established for Israel. We today are the Gentile church, and we, specifically, are not commanded to come together on certain of these feasts. But did you know something?

We can. We can if we want to, because, interestingly, these feasts and celebrations, many of them are called “holy convocations,” meaning God calls His people to come together at a certain time and a certain place. They were very special to God, very special to Him. We can also enjoy them if we want to, because, if we go to Leviticus 23, where it talks about these feasts, it doesn’t call them “the feasts of the Jews,” or “the feasts of Israel.” It calls them “the feasts of the Lord.” They are the Lord’s feasts.

Every one of these feasts reveals Jesus. It reveals the truth about Christ. It reveals our salvation. It reveals so much of what He wants us to understand. To keep them can be a wonderful, beautiful thing, even for us as a Christian.

But He starts off with a daily meeting. God’s gatherings are appointments. Actually, that’s another one of the meanings of some of the Hebrew words for assembling and for togethering. Quite a number of the words mean “an appointment, an appointed time.”

Firstly, God establishes daily appointments with Him. Colin, my husband, and I have been talking to you about them in the last couple of podcasts, and how, in the tabernacle, we see the wonderful truth of the morning and evening principle and how God wanted His people to come and to do their offerings. It says, “before the Lord.” That means “in the presence of the Lord.”

And they were to come every morning and every evening to do the sacrifice of the lamb. They were to come every morning and every evening to keep the fire lit so that it would never go out. They were to come together every morning and every evening to light the candlestick to keep that light burning. They were to come into His presence every morning and evening to light the incense which speaks of the prayers of the saints.

We’ve talked to you all about that. If you didn’t hear those, go back and listen to those podcasts. You can also go to my webpage and pick up THE MORNING AND EVENING PRINCIPLE and learn more about it.

But that is the principle. It’s a daily thing, something God wants us to do daily, morning and evening. Something we do in our home every morning, every evening. We make sure that everything in our lives fits around it. We don’t fit this around what we have to do, or we’d never do it! We make sure we do this, and everything else can fit around it because it is so important.

Although you can go one step further, yes, because there were those in the Bible who not only came before the Lord two times a day, but three times. Do you remember how David came before the Lord three times a day?

We read in Psalm 55:7, where David said: “Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” David couldn’t get enough of the presence of the Lord. He came three times a day.

Do you remember Daniel? Daniel also came three times a day. We read about this when he faced going into the lion’s den. It says in Daniel 6:10: “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”

In other words, this is what Daniel’s habit was every day of his life. Even when he was faced with being thrown into the lion’s den for kneeling down and praying, he did not waver. He continued in his habit of three times a day.

You can choose; two times a day, morning and evening. I think that’s the least. Or you could even go to three times a day if you want. I love the story of the Pent family. I wonder if any of you have read that story called Ten Peas in a Pod? Well, I think I’ll tell you about it in the next podcast, because our time has gone. Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, I thank You so much for the revelation of Your truth. Lord God, You created us for fellowship, for communication, for togethering. Help us, Lord to be this kind of family. I pray that You will help us all to promote and encourage togethering times. Lord, You delight in our togethering times. We thank You. You are a God Who loves togethering. We praise You, and we bless You, and thank You. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

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

TPT translation of Romans 1:11, 12:

“I yearn to come and be face-to-face with you and get to know you. For I long to impart to you some spiritual gift that will empower you to stand strong in your faith. Now this means that when we come together and are side by side, something wonderful will be released. We can expect to be co-encouraged and co-comforted by each other’s faith.”

 

TEN P’S IN A POD

A Million-Mile Journal of the Arnold Pent Family

By Arnold Pent III

I love this book. It is the story of the million-mile journey of Arnold Pent, Jr. and his wife and eight children as they travelled through US and Canada together. The father preached along the way. But no matter where they were, or whoever they stayed with, they never gave up their practice of daily Bible reading and memorization. It will inspire you like no other book to begin reading God’s Word together as a family, but it is also a great adventure.

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

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

WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?

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

~ Andrée Seu Peterson, World Magazine Columnist

 

“Your book is a breath of fresh air.”

 

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

 

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

—

 

100 DAYS OF BLESING, 4

Devotions for Wives and Mothers

By Nancy Campbell

These devotions take you into God’s Word to give you meat for your mothering soul.

You will be refueled and strengthened each day.

You will be inspired and encouraged.

And you may be challenged too!

 

Go to: https://tinyurl.com/100DaysBlessingV4

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 270: It’s Time to Elevate the Table, Part 3

Colin and I continue talking about how to effectively feed the "inner man" of our children. This is more important than their bodies. Many children grow strong physically, but their spirits are starving. We must not let our children leave the table until we feed them body, soul, and spirit.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello! Here we are again with you. Welcome. It’s always great to be sitting here chatting with you. I do pray that you are so blessed as we encourage you. Do remember to pass these podcasts onto friends and everyone in your social media. Get the message out about strengthening families.

MORNING AND EVENING PRINCIPLE

My husband is with me again today as we continue talking about elevating the table. At the end of the last podcast, we shared how we would talk to you about how there is, in the Bible, a MORNING AND EVENING PRINCIPLE. That’s why we like to do family devotions, as we call it in our home every morning and every evening.

We go back to the Word of God. Let’s go over to Leviticus 6:8-13. God is talking to Moses how He wants him to build the brazen altar. He tells him exactly what to do and how the fire will be burning upon the altar all night until the morning: “And the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.” This fire that was burning on that altar, God told him it was a fire that was never, ever to go out.

THE FIRE MUST NEVER GO OUT

In fact, in verse 12, it says: “And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it. It shall not be put out.”

And then, it goes down to the next verse. It says: “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out.” God wanted it to be a continual fire. Although that was happening back there in the tabernacle, it was a type for us today. God wants us to keep the fire of God burning in our hearts, and in the hearts of all the children in our families. He gives us a way to do that.

It’s interesting that when they had completed this altar and they were bringing it all into the tabernacle, and they were having all the dedication for it, that God came supernaturally and burned up the sacrifice upon the altar. God lit the fire! It was amazing! It was supernatural!

But then He told them they had to keep it going. They had to do this, and it tells us in this passage how they had to, each morning and each evening, take the ashes out of the fire, get rid of all the junk in the ashes, and then to put on wood to keep the fire burning.

That’s what we need to do. As we come to the Lord in the morning and in the evening, to get rid of anything in our lives that is displeasing the Lord. And then to add wood to our fire so that we can keep it burning. This wood is like the Word of God. It’s our sustenance. It’s that which keeps our fire burning.

When we come to Jesus, we’re born again. We begin a new life. We have a new life in Christ. But we have to grow this new life. We have to keep it burning, this fire that begins in our souls. The only way we can keep it burning is by keeping the Word going into it. If they only lit it once a day, the fire would go out.

I guess many of you have got wood fires. We have a wood fire here in our basement. If we only put wood on once a day, it would never keep burning. We have to keep adding the wood. The principle here is morning and evening.

Colin: It’s not the only one that had to be doing morning and evening.

Nancy: Oh, I know.

Colin: There were others.

Nancy: They had to keep the light burning. When you went into the Holy Place, there were three pieces of furniture. On the left was the candelabra, the golden lampstand made out of one piece of pure gold. God told them that they had to keep that light burning.

You see, we keep the fire burning and we’ve got to keep the light burning in our lives. It says here in Exodus 27:20-21 that they were to keep the lamp burning always.

Verse 21: “In the tabernacle of the congregation, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord.” That means “in the presence of the Lord.”

When we read that phrase in the King James, it means, “in the presence of the Lord.” They were to order it. It didn’t just happen of itself. They had to do it. They had to not do it whenever they felt like it. They had to do it according to the order of morning and evening. “And it shall be a statute forever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.” And then . . .

Colin: The altar of incense.

Nancy: The altar of incense, yes!

Colin: Morning and evening.

Nancy: They had to keep that burning too.

Colin: That’s the prayer life. That’s the worship. The altar of incense is always going in the book of Revelation. It talks about the altar of incense again. It’s not just the Old Testament. It talks about in Heaven the altar of incense and waiting for the prayers of the saints on the earth. It says they waited for the space of thirty minutes, I think, for the prayers to come up.

Nancy: Yes, yes, we can find that in Revelation. Let’s go to it. But it actually says there, also for the altar of incense, that they had to come morning and evening, and light that incense. They would take burning coals from off the brazen altar, and they would put the incense on those burning coals and put it on the altar of incense. That beautiful, sweet aroma, because it was made of sweet spices, wasn’t it?

Colin: Yes. It speaks of praise and worship.

Nancy: It would fill the Holy Place with that sweetness, the beautiful, sweet aroma. But it tells us, even in the New Testament, what it means. We go to Revelation 5.

Colin: Also, I think when John the Baptist, even though it was New Testament, it was a carry-over of the old as far as the tabernacle was concerned in the temple. In the time of the announcement of John the Baptist coming . . . was Zacharias his name? He was ministering at the altar of incense and the people were all praying outside. He was ministering at that altar, which represented worship, prayer, intercession. We need to realize how important this is in our families and in our churches.

Nancy: Revelation 5:8 tells us about the four and twenty elders. They “fell down before the Lamb, having everyone of them harps and golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

That’s pretty plain, isn’t it? Explaining that the incense going up is the prayers of the saints. “And they sung a new song, saying Thou are worthy.” And so, we read on.

Then we go over to chapter 8. John is looking into the heavenly kingdom. We’re in the New Testament. We’re in Revelation, this last book of the New Testament. John is seeing into the eternal realm.

The amazing thing is, ladies, that what John is seeing is what we were reading about back in Exodus and Leviticus. He sees the altar of incense! You see, when God told Moses all these things to make in the tabernacle, they were a type of the heavenly tabernacle.

Some people think, “Oh, do I have to know anything about the tabernacle?” Well, if you want to know something about heaven, find out what’s in the tabernacle, because it is a type, a picture of what is in the heavenly! John looked and he saw it there! There was the altar of incense!

Colin: And the Ark of the Covenant was there too.

Nancy: Yes, so let’s read it here. Revelation 8:3: “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censor. And there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints.” Here it is again, “the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne.”

That means it was in the immediate presence of God. The altar of incense was the closest piece of furniture in the tabernacle to the Holy of Holies. But in the heavenly tabernacle it is right before the throne of God.

Colin: Even in the earthly tabernacle, it was noted that it was before the throne.

Nancy: Yes! It was right next to it.

Colin: It was apart from what was in Heaven.

Nancy: “And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire off the altar.” That means there was even a brazen altar there in heaven as well. It was just like God planned it back in the tabernacle. It’s so amazing! “And cast it into the earth. There were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake.”

Colin: You can see that from the altar of incense, prayer, worship, seeking God, loving the Lord, praising Him, seeing Him, and so on is the closest thing to the throne. It’s the closest thing. It brings us close to the throne. That’s why we were having a prayer meeting last night and as we were worshiping, the presence of God came and filled the room.

IF WE DON’T ORDER SET TIMES, WE WILL FORGET

Nancy: They had to order it. Remember, we read that. They had to order it every morning and every evening. This is the pattern for us. God wants us to (of course we can pray unceasingly, we can be in His presence any moment of the day) but God does order times. He sets times because He knows what we are like. We get busy! We get taken up with everything in life. If we don’t order our times we will forget.

In our home, and in our family, we make it a precedent to keep this altar. Now, of course, we don’t have an altar that’s built, but it is an altar. It’s a time and a place where we meet with God as a family every morning and every evening.

Really, this really does show where God is in our lives. If other things come up and we’re just too busy to do this, well, what are we saying? What are we showing? What are we showing to our children that all these other things, which really are so unimportant, and which we won’t even take into eternity with us, they are more important that God.

Nothing is more important than Him!

WIVES PAVE THE WAY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

I must tell you this little secret. I know some of you have already found the secret. But unless you, and I think especially we as the wives of the home, although it’s the husband’s responsibility to lead his family in speaking and reading the Word, and leading them, really, he can’t even do it without us. I have found that, in my experience, that really, most of the responsibility relies on me, as the wife. Because unless I pave the way, unless I make the way for this to happen in our lives, it won’t happen!

So, we love to have . . . Some families may like to have their Bible time at different times. You work out what is best for you. But we have found, in all our years of experience, that the greatest time is at the meal table, because it’s where we feed the body, the soul, and the spirit. We feed the whole man. Plus, we have the whole family together. Wow!

Colin: Yeah, we’re all together.

Nancy: They come to eat! Wow! You only have to say, “It’s time to eat!” And everybody’s running! They want food! And then you’ve got them there. But to try and get them to come from here, there, and everywhere, and no food is there, well, that’s pretty hard. So, we find it the best time to do it is at our mealtimes. We make it a priority. It doesn’t matter what happens. We do this first. Everything else can fit in around it.

Colin: In a sense, it is a discipline.

Nancy: Very much.

Colin: If we’re not disciplined, and we do not do things because we just act according to our feelings, well, this is never going to happen. It’s going to be very haphazard, and the family, as a result of that, will suffer for it.

Nancy: Amen!

Colin: And our own spiritual lives will suffer for it too.

Nancy: Yes. I have a little affirmation that I say continually.

“Things don’t just happen. You have to make them happen.”

It is true. You make happen what you want to make happen. You make happen what is foremost in your heart. Therefore, if God is truly foremost in our family, this will be the most pre-eminent thing that we will do each day.

Colin: We discipline ourselves as far as going to work. Often, a lot of work has a time slot. You have to be there at a certain time and press your little button saying, “I’m here!” Those disciplines we apply to normal living. And yet, somehow or other, it’s not applied to spiritual living, as it should be, that it should be applied. Discipline is a big thing. It’s an important thing.

Nancy: With our family devotions we have the reading of the Word. Then we have prayer. This really is the altar of incense, prayer. I was saying last podcast, and it is so true. If the devil can keep us, as a family, from praying together, he has won such a great victory. He’ll do everything in his power to do this. It seems that the whole way we live today takes us away from this.

When you think that most families are out on the sports field at this time of the day, when mothers should be preparing the meal, paving the way so that we can be at the table. To not only feed their bodies but feed their souls and their spirits. Then pray together. But we get home too late. Just grab something. There’s no time to pray. This is one of the biggest things that we can do as a family.

Praying families are nation-changing families.

Praying families are world-changing families.

Colin: In other words, the country and the world is what it is according to the way we have prayed.

Nancy: Yes. It’s according to how families pray. It’s not the church. Churches will be great praying churches if they’re filled with praying families. But sadly, they’re not.

PRAYER BOXES ARE SUCH A HELP

This is something that we do in our home, and that is, we have prayer boxes. Oh, dear ladies, I have found these the greatest blessings in our prayer times, not only with the children, but with everybody who comes into our home. It’s part of our daily devotions. I started back when I was raising the children. You start everything in a little way. You get a little idea, and it grows. Isn’t it fun? Everything grows and gets bigger, doesn’t it?

Well, I started first with a family prayer box. I thought, it’s so important for my children to be praying for one another and also to remember their aunties and uncles and grandparents. So, I wrote in the box all the members of our immediate family, and the aunties and the uncles and the grandparents and so on. So we would pass it around.

They would pray for someone in the family. Maybe it’s Auntie Connie. “Oh, goodness me! Who is she? I’ve just about forgotten who she is!” So, you have to remind them about her. “Oh, yes, she’s got a heart problem,” so they can pray for her. But they learn to pray for others. Maybe the name they take out of their box is their brother and they’ve just had a fight. Well, now they’ve got to pray for them. That was so good.

But then, I realized, “Oh, we can’t be insular and just pray for one another. There’s a world out there!” So, little by little, I added my prayer boxes. Now, currently we have nine different prayer boxes. And, of course, we don’t use them all every day. We’ll usually choose two prayer boxes and take a card out of them each.

The amazing thing is, ladies, that if we didn’t take those cards out, we would most probably never pray for those things. We would forget. They’re such reminders! And also, for the children! It teaches them how to pray, because children, how do they pray? “Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for this lovely day. Give us a good day. Help us today. Be with us.” It’s all just, “Lord, help me today.” They are not really thinking of persecuted Christians. They’re not thinking of things that are happening that even little children can pray for.

WHICH PRAYER BOXES WILL YOU CHOOSE TO MAKE?

We have, of course . . .

Number one, our family prayer box.

Number two, our world-changing prayer box with different things that are happening in the world that need prayer.

Our nation-changing prayer box, and oh my, we use this, I think, well, nearly every day, because, oh, the needs in our nation and where our nation is going.

We have so many needs, so we have all the different things that need praying for. They’re on a card. Each person can take them out. They get prayed for! We would forget to pray for them if we didn’t have them.

And another little thing too; children love to be part of something. They even love to hand the prayer box around. They always want, “My turn! I want to hand it around!” They love taking out a card. They love something tangible. You will find that it will so enlarge their prayers.

We also have our persecuted Christians prayer box. How we must teach our children to pray for the persecuted church! There are more martyrs in the world today than there ever have been in the history of this world. What is happening in North Korea? And Afghanistan? And Nigeria? So many middle eastern and African countries. As you begin to find out what is happening . . .

Colin: North Korea as well.

Nancy: Oh yes! And for our children to understand what they are going through and for them to get a heart to pray for them. The Bible tells us how to pray for them. We are to pray for them, as Hebrews 13:3 says. It says we are to pray for them, as though we were feeling their pain in our body, as though we were imprisoned with them. We’re to really feel that empathy with them and pray for them, and to teach our children how to pray for them. Of course, they will learn by hearing us pray for them. When they hear our passion to pray for them, they will imbibe that.

I remember, it was actually a couple of years ago, Serene was on a ladder, going up to the second story of their home. She was coming down the ladder. She had a long skirt on, and she tripped and fell on her back. She was in the most tremendous pain! I was always challenged by what she told me. She said, “Oh, Mum! Immediately, I just began to pray for the persecuted church!” “Because” she said, “every time I go to pray for them, I know I’ve got to feel their pain in my body, but I don’t feel pain. I feel so great! How can I pray for them? But I was feeling such pain, so I just cried out for the persecuted Christians!”

That was a real challenge for me. In fact, it was good she said that, because it was only a week later, and I fell over a bucket in one of our rooms. We were washing the floors, and I fell right on it and broke two ribs. You can get over that but they’re painful. If you’ve had broken ribs, you know they’re painful. Oh, I was in pain!

Colin: You fell backwards onto the bucket, I think.

Nancy: But anyway, OK! I can pray for the persecuted church!

We also have our Israel prayer box. That’s not a choice. We are commanded, we’re commanded to pray for the persecuted church. We’re commanded to pray for Israel. What does it say in Isaiah 62, I think it is?

Colin: Pray for Jerusalem.

Nancy: Yes, Isaiah 62:6: “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, oh Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace, day nor night. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent, and give Him no rest until He establish, until He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” We are not even meant to stop day and night. At least have a prayer box!

Colin: And to think, and “making mention” of the Lord there, it reminds me, in the margin of my Bible it says, “You who remind the Lord of His promises to Israel.”

Nancy: Yes! In our Israel prayer box, I do have a lot of promises that God has given to Israel and are yet to be fulfilled. We pray over those. I love praying for our Israel prayer box. But also, if you would like to know some of the cards that we have in some of these boxes, you are welcome to email me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I’ll be so happy to send them to you.

When you make your prayer boxes, sometimes you can find cheap boxes at dollar stores. You can get them quite cheaply. But I save little boxes. Oh, whenever I can get them, I save them, and I make them up. I will get the children to put nice new paper on them, and pretty them up, and make them into a prayer box. You can do that with your children.

Colin: Especially one for praying for the nation. It’s a very, very important one. Praying for America, the United States, and whatever nation you’re from.

Nancy: Some other ones are marriage and family restoration prayer box, our salvation and healing prayer box. You may have those who you’re praying for to be saved, to be healed.

Another one we have is our countries and capitals prayer box, all the most strategic countries and capitals of the world, we pray for. That’s a great box for our children, too. Not only are they learning to pray for other countries but they’re learning about other countries. It’s not just them, here in their little place where they live. There are these other countries, and we can talk to them about them. What is happening in those countries? And how to pray for them. That’s a great box.

And our church fellowship prayer box. We have that too. We love that, praying for all the different families in our fellowship. You could also have a neighborhood prayer box, praying for all your neighbors. And what about a thank-you prayer box for all the answers to prayer you get?

You can make up whatever prayer boxes you want. But you will find that they are so helpful. They really take your children from just praying some boring prayer to learning to pray and to see the needs of the world. What happens? We become a nation- and world-changing family! It’s so amazing!

YOU CAN IMPACT THE WORLD FROM YOUR TABLE

Colin: Amen! Yes, around your table, you can rule the world. You can be involved in the throne of God as far as ruling and asking for what His will is for the different nations of the world. We can change communist countries.

We’ve been so praying for Venezuela because we have a Venezuelan man who’s recently come to our church who was talking to us about the persecution of communism now in Venezuela. Oh, my goodness me, we have really been praying for that country to be turned around. We’re still praying for it.

Nancy: Yes, and it makes us pray for America even more too, because this man, when he first came to us, he didn’t really know the Lord truly. He was a Catholic and loved God, but, oh, he came just so despondent, because he said, “What I am seeing here in America is exactly what I saw before the nation of Venezuela was taken over by communism. It was the wealthiest nation in the whole of South America. It’s now the poorest. There are millions of people in utter, abject poverty.”

Colin: Their financial situation is worth nothing.

Nancy: He himself has been under threats from the Venezuelan government. He has been paying them money just to protect his parents down there. It is unbelievable. Unless we pray for this nation, this is where our nation is going. This is what they’re trying to do.

What I cannot understand, ladies, I’m sure you are aware and you’re praying but I can’t understand that most of the Christian church obviously have to have their heads in the sand if they are not calling their family to prayer! Not only your family . . . yes, but we’ve also got to start praying as a family.

But then, why not begin another prayer meeting in your home each week? Gather some friends around to pray for the nation. We have two prayer meetings up here a week, amongst us here on the Hilltop. Really, that’s about the least we could have.

Colin: We have another one on Sunday morning.

Nancy: Yes, but our main two are during the week. Mondays and Wednesdays. They are just for prayer. Nothing else. We just worship and then we pray! Mostly crying out to the Lord for the nation. But you know what? If every family, if every family began to do this, and cried out for this nation, and children can learn to do this too, we would see a mighty turn-around.

Colin: Oh, we would.

Nancy: It all comes back to prayer. I just read this quote this morning from E. M. Bounds. It says here:

“How we estimate, and place prayer is how we estimate and place God. To give prayer a secondary place is to make God secondary in life’s affairs.”

Where we place prayer in our homes, lovely ladies and husbands listening, it is where we place God. Where is God in your life?

I’m reading an amazing book at the moment. It’s about the revival in the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides of Scotland. Colin and I have always known about this revival. In fact, we’ve longed to go and see the places where it happened. We plan to do that shortly.

It was so amazing why these revivals happened. There in Lewis, they didn’t just have one revival. They had many, many revivals. It’s like one revival would happen, and maybe another ten years or so later, it built on the previous one because there was something to build on.

In one of the very early revivals, it had such an impact upon the island that the Word of God began to be taught in the schools. Plus, every single school student had to learn the shorter Westminster catechism. They had to learn so many passages of the Bible. That didn’t mean that they were all Christians. There were the faithful few praying for revival. But because of that foundation, that the Word was there, the Holy Spirit was able to come, and come in mighty power, because the Word was there.

DON’T FORGET TO WORSHIP

But it’s getting to the end, and we haven’t finished yet, because we not only read the Word, and we not only pray, what else do we do? We sing and worship. This is also part of our time together, because back there in the tabernacle, they worshipped as they were doing the sacrifices. Morning and evening, the people would be worshiping outside.

We love to worship. In our fellowship, we sing the more current worship songs, but in our daily devotions, we get out the hymnbooks. We love the old hymns. They are filled with such doctrine and truth. Because I believe that we should have the new and the old. I don’t believe that we should only keep to the old and never embrace the new. No, because God is always doing a new thing. There is such an anointing that has come with the worship that we have today.

But I don’t believe in discarding the old. I think it’s sad that so many young people today don’t even know the hymns. So, we like to keep them. We love them, and then those who come into our home, we introduce them to them. What do you want to say about that, Darling?

Colin: I guess there’s not much more to say about it but it’s true that those grand old hymns, we just love them. “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah.” Just wonderful hymns.

Nancy: I was going to say, we most probably couldn’t do it without you, because if I was leading the hymns, everybody would sing out of tune, and nobody would know how to sing. But Colin can sing the hymns, and he knows just about every hymn that there is. In fact, when he’s reading the Word, oh, he’ll start singing a hymn that the Word is really speaking about. Or he’ll start singing a Scripture song.

Colin: I love to do that. I love to do that. It’s just a wonderful thing. I think that God is in it. I think He’s in it. It makes things come alive. It makes the truth come alive. Worship is so important.

WORHSIP WITH HIGH PRAISES

Psalm 149: “Let the high praises of God be in your mouth, and a two-edged sword” (that’s the Word of God) “in your hand.” The two-edged sword is the Word of God coming out of the mouth of Christ in John’s revelation of Him on the Isle of Patmos.

The whole thing about that, the high praises of God. The high praises mean there are low praises. It means there are medium praises. But God wants us to come into the high praises where we really have our whole heart involved in heart-filled worship to the Lord. It’s the high praises of God. It seems like when David was bringing back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem for the first time, he danced before the Lord with all his might. He twisted, he twirled. It says he leapt, and he jumped. He was so full of praises to the Lord, worshiping God. Of course, he got criticized by his wife for it.

Nancy: That means you can sing if you don’t know the hymns. You can sing worship songs. Sing whatever you like. But end with some praise.

Colin: It also says: “In order to bind the kings with chains (the wicked kings), and their nobles with fetters of iron . . . This honor have all his saints” (Psalm 149:6-9). So praise and worship will enable us to bind the wicked kings of the earth. That’s why we can pray for other nations with confidence, because we’re praising, we’re worshiping, and it releases. So often as they were going out into battle, they took the music, the trumpets, and everything with them. They praised right before the armies of Israel. Praised the Lord.

Nancy: Amen. I would love to give you this Scripture as we close.

Leviticus 26:7-8: “And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred.” Well, maybe you only have three children. But with you and your husband, that’s five. And as you gather together to pray, because this is the greatest way we can overcome our enemies is in prayer, you can chase a hundred enemies! Isn’t that amazing?

But “A hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. And your enemies shall fall before you by the sword of the Lord.” The Word of God and prayer.

Colin: This will bring unity into your home. It will cause the arguments to cease. It will cause the battles that so many homes go through to fall down.

Nancy: Yes. Amen! And so, I’ve just a little challenge here. Many of you have got more than three children. Some of you have got six, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve! Man, you’ve got a prayer meeting in your home! Sometimes that’s bigger than some church prayer meetings! Make the most of it.

Just think of how many you can put to flight! Think of all the families. Look, a hundred families, with all these children, let alone every God-fearing family in the nation with all their children, we can save this nation as we pray 2 Chronicles 7:14. Amen!

Colin: Amen!

“So, Lord, we thank You. Thank You for this wonderful time. This is such, such an important subject. We want to elevate it. We want to lift it up. We want it exalted in our family life. We pray for all those who are listening, that they will take it, and they will practice it, and they’ll tell others about it, and get their whole Christian community around them doing this. Lord, their families are going to see tremendous victories. Great things are going to come from these families. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.”

Nancy: Amen!

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

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

Book about the Isle of Lewis Revival:

Sounds from Heaven: The Revival on the Isle of Lewis, 1949-1952

by Colin Peckham

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 269: It’s Time to Elevate the Table, Part 2

The table is more than a place to feed the hungry tummies of your children. It is where we feed the soul and the spirit. We feed the whole man. How do we do this?

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, everyone! We are back again, continuing to talk about elevating the table. My husband, Colin, is with me again. We were talking about the table last time. There are still so many things to share with you.

The Hebrew word for table is shulchan. It simply means, “a table, a mealtime, or to spread out.” I guess that means to spread out the food on the table. It can even mean to spread out the food on a leather mat on the ground. So, a table, well, the tables that we know today are sort of upright tables.

SIT AROUND THE TABLE

But sometimes, back in early Bible times, they ate on the ground. But they had a leather mat which they sat around, because that is the whole purpose of the table. Sitting around. As we remember that beautiful Scripture in Psalm 128:3, where it talks about the children all sitting around the table. That’s a picture God loves to see. It’s the picture He gives of a family that’s blessed of the Lord. If you want to be blessed of the Lord, get your children around your table. It is such a wonderful place to be.

We talked last time about nourishing and feeding the bodies of our children at the table. That’s the very beginning, but it’s only the beginning, because the table is the place to feed our children, body, soul, and spirit. We also have to come to the table with food ready to feed their souls. That’s so important. You see, we, as mothers, we are nurturing. We are nourishing. It’s who God created us to be. We can nurture and nourish our children. One of the ways we do this is with feeding them. We feed them wholesome meals for their body, but we want to feed them wholesome meals for their soul as well.

We were taught for last week’s podcast about how it’s so good to bring a question, or a subject, a topic to the table for everyone to talk about. But you can also do different things. Sometimes I have asked the children, or the folks that are living in our home, “OK, tonight I want you to bring a poem to the table.” Each one will bring a poem that they love. They will read it out.

Or, if you’ve got a big family there will be too many for one night. You may like to have each one have a turn to bring their poem and to read it out. Or to perhaps bring a Scripture verse that the Lord has been speaking to them about. They can read it and share what they believe God is saying to them. Those are other little things that you can do. But we’re seeking to nourish their souls.

Also, I think it’s important where we sit at the table. We talked about sitting last time, too. I think it’s important for the husband to sit at the head of the table. We don’t have to have a big lesson. “Now, children, we’re going to teach you about how Daddy should be the head of the home.” We don’t have to really even teach that.

If Daddy is being the head of the home, they will see it, and they will see it as he comes to the table. Every night he sits at the head of the table. Then later in the meal, he will take up his anointing as the head of the home and lead his family in reading the Word of God and leading them in prayer. So, they see that beautiful thing. What would you say about that, Darling?

Colin: Yes, I think it’s really important for the family to recognize that it doesn’t have two heads. It has one head and that is the father. His wife, of course, is involved in that leadership as a helper to it, an encourager of it. But I think the fathers need to realize the importance of being a head.

As far as the provision is concerned, you are talking about providing nourishment to the children at the table, how important that is. It’s a sowing and reaping principle, because if you want to get a good crop in your garden, you’re going to have to sow very good seeds, and plant very good plants.

The same thing applies to nourishing your body. If you’re going to be nourishing one’s body, or the children’s family’s bodies, you’re going to have to give it your best. You’re going to see improved health with your children. Spiritually speaking, the table becomes very in focus by the father taking responsibility. I think the fathers need to take their headship at the table and also their headship in the family devotions.

It’s the principle of sowing and reaping. If you sow the Word of God into your family, you are being the father that God intends you to be. You’re being the mother that God intends you to be. Particularly the father needs to take back headship of being priest in his family. Just as there is the head priest, the high priest in the children of Israel, so the father becomes the high priest under Christ, of course, Who is the High Priest of all.

But the father, as far as the family is concerned, in each family, he is like a high priest, in that he has to take responsibility and catch the vision. It’s very important, mothers, if you’re hearing this, you get your husband to realize the importance that he has to catch the vision for sowing the seed into his family. Somehow, we’ve lost this.

Sowing the Word of God! We cannot reap if we do not sow. If we sow sparingly, we’re going to reap sparingly. If we think that just by taking our children to church, that’s sufficient sowing, you’re going to reap sparingly. But if you sow liberally every day, we also believe that it’s important to do it morning and evening.

YOUR TABLE IS AN ALTAR

Nancy: It’s interesting that in one or two, I think three places actually, the Bible calls the altar a table. In the Old Testament, they had altars. They had the altar, the brazen altar. It was called a table in Malachi chapter one. Over in Ezekiel, I was just reading this this morning. It was talking about Ezekiel’s temple. That’s a temple which has not yet been built. In Ezekiel 41:22, it starts off with the altar, and talks about this altar of wood with its dimensions.

Some commentaries don’t know what this particular altar is. Some others say they think it is the altar of incense. But it starts with “altar” and ends with “table.” It says, “This is the table that stands in the Presence of the Lord.” I love that. The altar and the table combine together.

Really, I think it is so important to see our table as an altar. What did they do on the altars? They would bring sacrifices to God. Sometimes our table does become a sacrifice to us, even to prepare a meal, and to put it on the table takes time. It takes effort. It takes thought. We have to stop what we are doing, and we’ve got to put this time aside to prepare this meal. As we bring it to the table, it is an offering to our husband and to our children. But even more than that, it is an offering to God.

And, lovely ladies, I would like you to get this vision, that your table is an altar unto God. I want you to see it like that. Every meal you make is an offering to the Lord. When you see that, you’ll no longer think, “Oh, no, I’ve got to cook another meal! Oh, help!” You’re groaning and grumbling. “Oh, I hate cooking.”

No, don’t say those words! No, what you say will affect what you do, and your attitude, and everything. We are formed by our words. Be careful what you say. See your table as this altar, this place where you’re not only offering a sacrifice to your family, which is a blessing, and which God sees. But you’re doing it as unto Him. It’s an offering unto God, as you feed, as you nurture, as you nourish your children and your husband, body and soul and spirit. Yes, we were talking about this nourishing of the soul. Oh, that is very, very important.

I can remember, as we were raising our children, we would bring a subject to the table to discuss. Oh, my! I have to confess that we did not live that old adage which says, “Children should be seen and not heard.” Wow! You could hear them! They would all be trying to shout and get over their point of view.

Colin would have to be the umpire to keep them all in order, so only one person spoke at a time. “OK, Wes, now it’s Pearlie’s turn!” Because our sons had their great big loud deep voices, but little wee Pearlie, well, she was trying to get her point across in her little wee voice. Do you remember that, Darling?

Colin: I do. I do. It was funny.

Nancy: I can remember one time when Rock was up in his chair, pointing his finger, getting his thoughts across. But it was so exciting. Nobody wanted to miss family mealtimes. They were so exciting!

This is the thing, ladies. Oh, what kind of mealtime are you making happen? Is it some boring thing where nobody talks about anything? No! They can be the most exciting times of your whole day!

Oh, I remember once when Evangeline was over in Uganda doing mission work. She wrote back and said, “Oh, I just so miss the family meal table!” I thought, “Oh, I know what I’ll do.” So, one night when all the family was there, because a couple of them were married by this time, they all came home. Everyone was there and they were all talking. It was such an amazing flow of conversation. I was taping it. They didn’t know that I was. Back in the days when we just had tape recorders. I sent it over to her. Oh, she wrote back, and she said, “Oh, it was like music to my ears!” It was such a joy.

But anyway, we now move on to the most important part of feeding our children. Colin began to share a bit about that just before, about feeding their spirits, their inner man. This is the most important part of who we are, our inner man, the inner man of our children.

Now I know many mothers are beautiful, nourishing mothers. They feed their children the most wholesome food. They love them. They care for them. They nurture them. But many times, they forget that they have a spirit. There is an inner man. It’s more important than that outer man. We must feed that inner man. We must not ever let our children leave the table before we feed their inner man. Otherwise, they leave the table, and that inner man, that most important part of who they are, their spirit, is starving!

There are many children and young people who are growing up, strong and tall. Wow! They’re just growing up before our eyes. But inside, they are starving. We’ve got to grow children who are filled up, filled up on the inside. As the Bible says, we are to get the Word into them richly (Colossians 3:16). Not in a shallow way, but richly.

Colin: I one hundred percent agree. It’s very, very important. It’s true that many, many families are starving for the Word of God. They have this tremendous opportunity. We’re all feeding them, in this country anyway, at least three times a day, maybe more. Between three meals, we’re feeding the outer man.

But the inner man, the Christ nature, which is inside of us, is starving. We really have to take responsibility as parents for that. Use your meal table as a tremendous opportunity to feed the inner man. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word” (1 Peter 2:2). So, we can desire the Word of the Lord, and encourage that appetite within our children. This will hold them in very, very good standing. It will make them strong. It will build character into their life.

So many things will come. There will be a great harvest that will come. Not only will you be blessed to see your children growing tall physically, and filling out, and coming into bloom, but your “daughters like palaces. . .”

Nancy: “Pillars in the palaces” (Psalm 144:12).

Colin: And the young men “like plants growing up in their youth.” They’re the outer man. But the inner man is the most important of all. I think we have to bring that vision back. We have to recapture it if we’re going to have a nation, if we’re going to be a people that will really please the Lord.

Nancy: Yes. What we love to use in our family is this little devotional book called Daily Light on the Daily Path. It’s only the Word of God. I know, there are some families who like to read a little devotional, especially for children, with a little story. But to me, I believe the Word, the Word of God is so powerful that we’ve got to get the Word into our children. The Word is alive and active. If the Word is in their hearts, the Holy Spirit can work upon that Word and bring it to fulfillment.

Colin: Let me just say something on that point, because it’s the same power that causes the seed in the garden to germinate, and to flourish, and to come up and to be a beautiful plant, so you can get all those wonderful tomatoes. As you say, we say, “to-MAH-to” Down Under. But to get all that beautiful crop that you’re growing, all the plants and vegetables, you really want to have a great garden.

So should we realize that that can happen in the Spirit. The same power that works in the garden is the same power of God that is working on the inner man. I think so many of us don’t realize. We wonder why we’re so shy when it comes to spiritual things. Or we’re not being effective as far as the world is concerned.

In spiritual dimensions, the world needs the whole man. It doesn’t need just the physical man, or a mentally charged man. It needs a man who’s got oodles of the Spirit of God working within him. This is what the whole world really needs.

Nancy: Yes. So, I was saying about this book, it’s only the Word of God. It has a reading, just a small reading of Scriptures on a certain theme for every day of the year. But not only every day of the year, but for every morning and every evening of every day of the year, which is so wonderful.

These Scriptures were put together by the Bagster family about 150 years or so ago. At that time, it was the norm for families to read the Bible every morning and every evening. That’s why they did the morning and the evening reading. In those days too, the men worked very, very hard, as so many also work today. They didn’t have time to, “Well, where am I going to read in the Bible to my family?” These Scriptures are put together, and it makes it so easy.

Now, I know some of you, you’re already established in having family devotions, or whatever you like to call it, family worship, family Bible time. But some of you may still be struggling. I think sometimes husbands especially struggle, because as they grew up, they didn’t ever have anything like this in their own home. They don’t feel confident about it. Therefore, they don’t want to do it if they don’t feel confident. But this is the answer, because all you have to do is just pick up this book, and look for the date, and there’s the Scriptures waiting to read. It makes it so easy.

We love it and we use it every day. Now, there have been seasons in raising our children where we would read it. As they got older, we would read a whole chapter of the Bible, and go through a book. We love this book, because it also yields itself to asking many questions.

I think when we’re reading the Word to our children, it’s very easy for them to get into a dream. Daddy is reading away and they’re all in dreamland. You know what? I have found I can even get into dreamland! Because Colin will suddenly ask a question, and I have to say, “Oh, well, what was that question?”

He will be reading a Scripture, and this is another thing that he does. This is a great thing to do, especially if it is a Scripture that is pretty well known. He will stop halfway through. “Who can finish this Scripture?” That’s a great way for our children to get to know the Scriptures, because if they can’t finish it, then we’ve got to say it all together, and say it over again, and say it over again, until they know it. They gradually get to know. But it wakes me up from dreamland!

There will be great blessing in just reading the little portion of Scripture, but I have a Daily Light which I have put together here, PLUS CREATIVE WAYS TO READ GOD’S WORD TO YOUR CHILDREN. At the beginning of every month, I have a new idea of what you can do to keep your children on their toes. Some of them are different questions that you can ask.

I just mentioned how Colin will often stop in the middle of a Scripture and see if we can finish it. He does that every day, and it’s so cool! Sometimes we don’t know, and we’ll say, “OK, give us the first letter of the word!” And then that’s a clue. Then we try and get it. It makes it exciting, and your children are getting all parts of it. They’re excited, and they’re trying to work it out. They’re not away in dreamland.

Then sometimes he will even read a Scripture, and he’ll be reading a word, and he’ll read it wrongly! He’ll read a word that says the opposite. If nobody says anything, that means none of us are listening! “Hey! What did I say?” “Well, what did you say? Read it again!” We’ve all got to come back to earth again. So, he’ll read it again wrongly. “Hey! Is that right?” And we’ve got to check out what was he saying wrongly. We get the right word.

There are so many fun things you can do as you’re reading the Scriptures, and your children are on their toes. Little children, even little ones, love to answer questions. We find that when we have our grandchildren with us, it’s the little children who have got their hands up first, before Granddad has even got the question out of his mouth! Then, when you ask them, they don’t really know what to say! But, boy, they’ve got their hands up, because they want to be involved. But it’s a wonderful way to keep them on their toes.

You can buy The Daily Light on the Daily Path in so many different versions of the Bible. You can go to a Christian book shop and get any version you like. I sell through Above Rubies the New King James Version. But then, this particular one, with the ideas for you, is in The King James Version.

Now, don’t take fright. I know there are lots of people who think, “Oh, I couldn’t read the King James Version to my children! They wouldn’t even know what it’s talking about!” Well, sometimes we dumb down our children, don’t we? We get the easiest version for them. Really, we’re just dumbing down their vocabulary. Some of these very new versions are really for people with a limited vocabulary. I read that even the NIV was written for people with a limited vocabulary. I don’t want to put myself in that category. Do we want to put our children in that category?

If, when you are reading, even from the King James, and you read a word, and it’s not quite a word that is used in today’s language, well, now we have another question. “Hey, children! What do you think this word means?” They give all their ideas, and then we find out what it really means. Then you can have little pile of other versions of the Bible on hand, which is a great idea. We often do that, too. “OK, well, we don’t understand this really well in the King James. Let’s look up our other versions.” You can look up two or three different ones. Different children can look up a different version.

You can read it. Because, although I printed this in the King James Version, I’m not a King James only, by any manner of means. I am a King James lover, but not an only. I do love to read other translations of the Word. Sometimes I find that they can even be closer to the Hebrew or the Greek. That’s where I mainly go, is back to the Hebrew and to the Greek. If you’ve got older children, you can even take them back to that and teach them how to find out what the Hebrew word means or the Greek word means, too. That’s what we encourage.

Colin: Yes, I was going to say, it’s just that we can’t make it boring. Don’t make it boring. The devil would try to make family devotions boring. Finally, the children decide, as they’re growing up, “Well, we’re not going to do that when we get older.” But we have to make it exciting.

What my dear wife has just been saying is actually, really truly what happened in our own home. We still do it today. We make it as exciting as we possibly can, because it is sowing the seed in a joyful way, and getting everybody interested in it, getting their comments about it, and asking questions about it themselves, and getting them involved in one way or another. I call it “rabbit trails.” I often use that expression because we get diverted off sometimes with our conversation.

Nancy: Oh, yes! As Colin is reading the Word, he’ll think of a story that happened in our lives, or I will think of a story that happened in our lives. We get to tell that. That leads onto other things. Sometimes we are still sitting for an hour at family devotions.

Colin: We don’t necessarily encourage that with people who are just starting off. But as your children get older, and you become more used to doing it, you get into the habit of doing it. We should get into that habit.

Nancy: Yes, and it’s not always going to be perfect, as you begin, especially with little ones. In fact, if you’ve got very little ones, you don’t even have to read the whole portion that is in The Daily Light. Just take a couple of Scriptures. It’s best to take a couple, and even ask your little ones some questions. Oh, that’s the most wonderful way to teach! That’s how Jesus taught. He asked questions and that’s how we learn. That’s how we get into things. It’s really so wonderful.

When we read the Word of God, that’s not the end. We also pray. That’s a big part of it, praying. I think this is one of the reasons that the devil has sought to stop families. He does everything in his power to stop families from having this time every morning and evening together in the Word and in prayer. If he can stop prayer, wow! He’s won a great victory!

And he has won a great victory. Most homes today are prayer-less homes. That’s why we go to prayer-less churches, because the families are prayer-less. What do we do when we go to church? Mainly it’s just a prayer at the beginning, a prayer at the end. Maybe in some churches they have time for a little more prayer. But really, prayer. Jesus said: “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” That’s why we call our church fellowship “A House of Prayer.”

Colin: We didn’t say “A House of Sermons.” You know, a house for just drinking coffee and having a little church buffet. It’s a HOUSE OF PRAYER. That’s what the Lord spoke about. He said, “You’ve made it into a den of thieves. You’ve made it into a house of merchandise. You’re buying and selling.” Having those kind of church sales and yard sales at church.

No, He wants His church to be a house of prayer. We have to recapture that vision of prayer. Not only a church, and not only a family, but also the individuals within the family. We are all the temple of the Holy Spirit.

He wants us to be a praying people, having that so strongly within us. When the Scripture says: “Praying without ceasing.” Jesus spoke those words. “Praying without ceasing.” Always praying. You don’t have to be showing off. You don’t have to be doing it always as a public thing.

But a lot of people don’t even like praying publicly. I think one of the reasons is that they’ve never been taught to pray.

Nancy: Yes, and I think this is where we teach our children to pray. As we have our devotions together, we teach our children right from the beginning when they’re just learning to talk. We are teaching them to pray. God gave us vocal cords with which to communicate with one another, but ultimately to communicate with Him. We need to teach our children.

I know some parents have shared with me that their children are too shy to pray. They just don’t want to pray. Well, I think we have got to work with that and bring them to that place of prayer. Even if they maybe will repeat a prayer after you so that they can learn to get into that habit. We always have everyone pray, right around the table, every person. Then my husband will pray last.

Colin: Then we will see a tremendous amount of prayers getting answered. If we’re not going to be a praying people, well, how are we going to see God coming on the scene? How are we going to see the miraculous taking place? How are we going to see God’s blessing in our families and the joy and the love and all the problems that we may be facing . . . in order to praying because we’ll see the answers come and we’ll rejoice in the answers.

MORNING AND EVENING

Nancy: I want to leave with you one thing, and then I think we’re going to have to do another one to finish this, because there are still more things we need to share. But just to remind you, we talked about how this book has a portion of the Word for morning and evening, because that is not just something they decided to do. It is a biblical principle in the Word of God.

We go back to the tabernacle to see where this principle operates. All the things that God told them to do in the tabernacle, they were to do morning and evening. They were all to do what their worship unto the Lord. Now it applies to us today. As the Bible says, the things that happened there were for examples for us today, on whom the ends of the world have come (1 Corinthians 10:11). But I think I’m finally going, so what we’ll do. We’ll share about that in the next podcast, shall we?

Would you like to pray?

Colin:

“Lord, we thank You for the privilege of the family meal table and what it really comes to. So, it should be elevated and lifted up because it is a tremendous pointer to feasting on the things of God as well as physical things.

So, Lord, we pray, move by Your Spirit upon all the families that are hearing this truth. We do desperately want to see revival in our homes. The enemy is really destroying. Bring, Lord, restoration, Lord, because of the enemy taking over our homes through TV and videos, and all sorts of computers, games, and so on. In Jesus’s Name we pray. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

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

DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH

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CREATIVE WAYS TO READ GOD’S WORD TO YOUR CHILDREN

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