PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 317: Altar Building, Part 10
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 317
: Altar Building, Part 10
Allison Hartman from Pensacola joins me to today and we talk about our great July 4th Celebration. We also continue to discuss the things in God's word that He tells us are a duty to do.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies! Great to be with you. This is July 4th weekend. Well, we’ve already had July 4th. Because of that, we have the Hartman family staying with us again. They’ve come up to stay with us for every July 4th, which, of course, makes July 4th even more wonderful.
Once again, we had the most wonderful, wonderful day, celebrating our liberty from the tyranny of the English, even though we are actually English descent. But now we are American citizens. Oh, we had such a wonderful day!
So, Allison is with me. Say hi!
Allison Hartman: So happy to be here! Every year it’s such a great day too.
Nancy: What did you love best about July 4th this year?
Allison: You know what? I had a great time at the creek after lunch.
Nancy: We actually have two celebrations. We all meet together for a party-like lunch. We come together over at the wedding barn. We used to, previously, before we had the barn, we used to all be out by the creek, but in the sun, sweltering. So now, we actually love it where we don’t have to swelter in the sun while we eat.
We begin by saying the Pledge of Allegiance. We get very patriotic, and we say the Pledge of Allegiance together. We have two or three guys who share something about this nation. In fact, your husband Daniel spoke out, how many declarations was it? It was quite a number.
Allison: About ten or fifteen declarations.
Nancy: Declarations that we could actually . . . affirm each declaration. We all said, “Yes,” and “Amen” after it. Then we sang, of course, the national anthem. Then “America the Beautiful.” We’ve always had that tradition. Then we eat together. Then you went to the creek. Did you have a good time there?
Allison: We had a great time at the creek. Just really good fellowship. I got to visit with Courtney Kelly. Such a precious lady. Instead of just talking about nothing, we really got to talk about some good stuff. It’s really iron sharpening iron. It was good. It was great. I love learning from other mothers on how they’re doing things.
Nancy: Yes, there’s nothing like iron sharpening iron, is there?
Allison: Then there were great fireworks afterwards.
Nancy: Oh, yes. Then in the evening we come here to our home, and we have a barbeque. Then we have fireworks. How many would we have had at the luncheon? Over a hundred people or more. And then, even more at the barbeque.
Allison: I think the evening was bigger.
Nancy: Oh, it was huge! People, people, people, people! Filling our lawn, and young people playing volleyball; little ones lighting off their little sparklers. And then, oh, every year we have a huge fireworks.
Allison: Every year it’s getting bigger.
Nancy: It’s getting bigger because these young people, you know, our young marrieds get a bigger vision every year. This year they actually went round with the hat. [laughter]. A few days before, they were getting everybody to give towards this. They said it’s got to be even bigger. It was huge! We don’t have little fireworks! It is huge. It was incredible this year.
Allison: It was as big as a city, what a city does with their fireworks.
Nancy: Anyway, it started to rain, just as they were going to do it! But praise the Lord, we all came inside for fellowship. Then it cleared, and it was so amazing! It was like a real victory celebration of liberty, wasn’t it?
Allison: Yes, it was. Definitely.
Nancy: It was such a great day!
Allison: We get to see all the folks up here again every year. It’s wonderful.
ETIQUETTE LUNCHEON
Nancy: That was such a big day! Then yesterday, the next day, wow! We got pulled into another thing, didn’t we? Nadia, who’s one of the folks in our fellowship with her children had this vision to put on an etiquette luncheon. We thought, “Help! Do we have to do that? We just want to hang out and relax!” But we all got pulled into it and we all loved it! [laughter]
Allison: We loved it! In fact, we loved it so much, I got in the car, and I talked with Eden, our daughter. I said, “We need to make this part of our big Family Camp.” She was getting so excited about it! She said, “Yes, we could do this, and we could do this!”
We decided that we should, at the Camp, we’re going to teach on etiquette. Then we’re going to practice it by letting all the young people dress up in really, really, really fancy outfits and have a big dinner together, and practice the etiquette.
It's interesting. I was talking to Samuel Mutana (Nadia’s son) and my Levi. I asked them, “Of all the etiquette things that we talked about, which ones would you want to try to put into your life?” Samuel Mutana said he would love to start doing what I talked about; when a lady enters a room, all the gentlemen would stand up, and then sit back down. He said he’s never even heard of that, which is just amazing.
Nancy: That is so funny, because it was his mother, who . . .
Allison: It was his mother! He admitted he doesn’t know or follow a lot of this etiquette which is why she was doing it. I was like, “Wow! That’s so amazing!”
Nancy: Yes, and it’s so biblical, you know. When a gray-haired man comes into the room, you are to stand. That was just normal etiquette. So much of etiquette has been lost. But we won’t get onto that subject now.
Allison: We could talk all day!
Nancy: I’ve done an etiquette series, which you can go back and look for. But there’s always so much, isn’t there? It was so great. The boys, some of them came in their suits and ties. Of course, they were learning how to escort a lady to the table, even down to the darling little ones, with little Selah and Ezra (Allison’s youngest). Wasn’t that so beautiful? I think they thought they were so neat, being escorted to the table, didn’t they?
Allison: Everything is so much fun.
Nancy: Well, ladies, we are at the tail end of our series on “Altar Building.” Actually, Allison and I have quite a lot of things in our hearts. We love to talk with you, but I said, “Well, we’ve got to finish this series first.” So, I think we’re going to sit here for a bit today and do podcasts for you. I said to Allison, “Well, you’ve got to come with me, and we’ll talk together about these last points of our altar building.”
We’re up to point No. .23. IT IS OUR DUTY TO ESTABLISH THE FAMILY ALTAR. We read back in the Old Testament that it was the duty that was required every day, for the priests to attend to the altars. We talked about that last time.
But then I wanted to carry it on further, because when I’m talking about something, I can never just say, “OK, the Word of God says this.” I have to find out everything the Word of God says! It not only talks about it being a duty to attend to the altar and to establish an altar (that means our gathering ourselves together to meet with the Lord as a family).
But there are many things in the Word that God calls our duty. I think it’s good to know what they are. So, we’re looking into them. I spoke about two last time, and now we’re up to number three.
The third one is WALKING AS JESUS WALKED. That’s a tall order, isn’t it?
1 John 2:6 “He that saith he abideth in Him ought . . .” That word “ought” in the Greek is opheilo, which means, “it is our duty.” So, when we read the word “ought,” that’s in the King James (I’m not sure what it is in your translation) but “He that saith he abideth in Him ought (that means it’s our duty to walk) “even as He walked.”
Wow! I wonder. How can we walk as Jesus walked? Well, I think that’s talking about abiding. “He that saith he abideth in Him;” we can only do it as we abide in Him and He abides in us, and His Word abides in us. I think a lot of it is about His Word abiding in us, because we really can’t even walk as He walked if we don’t know His Word.
And that’s the most wonderful thing about having our family devotions. That’s where we get to know His Word. Even this morning, as we all gathered around the Word this morning, the theme in The Daily Light on the Daily Path, which we read every day (it’s just Scriptures but Scriptures on a certain theme). The theme was all about our tongues and watching the words that come out of our mouths, and how if we have a soft and listening heart, we will be willing to receive reproof even.
So, we are encouraged in the way we’re meant to walk. We’re challenged again about what is coming out of our mouths. Are we only allowing to come out of our mouths the words that Jesus would want to come out of our mouths? Every day, as we’re reading the Word personally, and as a family, we’re knowing and learning more of how Jesus walks. And so, we’re learning to walk as He walked, which the Bible says is our duty. Isn’t that amazing? Any comments, Allison?
Allison: No, it’s good. You’re right. You said this morning how we typically think of that word “duty” as a negative. But you think of our military. They even say it’s their duty, their duty to serve their country. You can look at it as not honor. It’s something we get to do. It’s not something we have to do. We get to do it.
Nancy: If it’s a duty to serve a country, wow! That’s so little, compared to our duty to serve God!
No. 4. Wow, listen to this one! LAYING DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS
1 John 3:16: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought (it’s our duty) “to lay down our lives for the brethren,” for the people of God. Wow! When we read the Scriptures, we have to know how to take them in, do we?
Help! This Scripture is saying that we’re to love our fellow brethren like Christ loved us and laid His life down. Oh, I know I feel, and we all, and I do, fall so short of this, don’t we? But may the Lord help us. This is not something we might do just for those who are close to us. But Jesus even laid down His life for His enemies, didn’t he? So, once again, it’s a duty. Wow! You can look at these Scriptures again and meditate of them. Share them with your children.
No. 5: SHOWING HOSPITALITY AND PROVIDING FOR TRAVELING MISSIONARIES
3 John 1:5-8: “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers . . .We therefore ought (there’s the word again, it’s our duty) “to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers to the truth.”
That Scripture is saying that when we show hospitality to those who are serving the Lord, and we help them financially, and in the preaching and the teaching of the gospel, that we’re co-workers with them. We’re companions with them in spreading the truth. The Bible says we ought, we ought to be doing this.
Romans 15:27 in the New Living Translation says: “Since the gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.” In the King James Version, it says it is their duty to help them financially.
No. 6. HUSBANDS ARE TO LOVE THEIR WIES AS THEIR OWN BODIES
Ephesians 5:28: “Even so, husbands should and are morally obligated,” I’m reading from the Amplified. That word “morally obligated” there is the same word in the Greek. “It’s their duty to love their own wives as being in a sense their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.”
So, we did talk last time about how God also speaks to both husbands and wives, that it is the duty of each one to yield themselves to the other in intimacy. That’s a duty but also a delight. But here it’s speaking specifically to the husbands.
I’m not speaking to husbands. I speak to wives and mothers. But I’m bringing this Scripture in because it’s there in the Word. Wouldn’t it be wonderful though, if husbands knew that this was their duty? Not only because they love their wives, but it’s their duty to love them like Christ loves the church.
It’s so sad, isn’t it, how feminists have this hate for men. It’s so sad. Of course, we know that, yes, many of them maybe have suffered from the hands of men who don’t know God’s ways. Men who don’t know God can be so ruthless with women, but we have to realize that that’s not God. That’s not God’s way at all.
It’s so sad that the world has this absolute antipathy against the word “patriarchy.” Oh, they don’t like that word “patriarchy” because that means that the man is the head of the home and how dare he rule his home? But patriarchy in the Bible, patriarchy from God’s heart is the most beautiful thing, because this man, yes, he’s leading his home. But a true man of God’s patriarchy is loving his wife like Christ loves the church. It’s his duty to do it according to the Bible. So the Bible lays out the way for the most blessed marriages on earth! Amen?
Allison: Amen.
Nancy:
No. 7. WASHING ONE ANOTHERH’S FEET
You all know the story of how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. After He had done that, it tells us in John 13:13: “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought (do you notice? There is the word “duty” again. Duty. It’s your duty) “to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”
It was a common thing back there to wash the feet of people as they came into the home. Usually it was the job of the servant. As people came in with their sandals off the dusty road, their feet were full of sand and dust. The servant would wash their feet before they came into the home, and brought all the sand in with them.
I’m just thinking even here, over this time, because we have a volleyball court out there. All the guys are playing volleyball. I think it was just the other morning, there was so much sand! We swept the floor, and then they all came in. We’re having devotions together, and help! The whole floor was full of sand again! So we swept the floor again. Sand and dirt comes in so easily from outside.
But not so much really in our day like it did back there, walking those dusty roads. They needed to wash their feet before they could come in and bring all that dirt with them. But this time, it wasn’t the servant who washed their feet. It was Jesus Himself.
We may not be washing one another’s feet as we come in. We don’t do that today. But it’s the spirit of serving even the lowliest thing. It was the lowliest job to wash the feet. It was a servant’s job but Jesus took the place of the servant. He says, “I want you to do that, too. Take the servant’s role. Take the servant’s attitude. That’s your duty to do it because that’s what I did, and I’ve shown you what to do.” So, once again, we read these things, but we have to be reminded they’re actually a duty. My, I’m challenged. I’ve got a lot of work to do myself.
Allison: Right.
Nancy: Oh, I’ve got lots of Scriptures here about how Jesus wants us to be a servant. I’ll put them in the transcript for you.
No. 8. BEARING WITH THE FAILINGS OF THE WEAK
In Romans 15:1, it says: “We then that are strong ought (there it is again - “ought” it’s our duty) “to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”
It’s so easy, isn’t it, to please ourselves, to do what we want to do. We can be strong in the Lord, and oh goodness, we don’t have much patience for those who are so weak. They really don’t know how to walk in victory, and they’re always failing, and this and that. But what does God want us to do? He wants to bear their infirmities, come alongside, help them, lift them up, encourage them. He wants it to be our duty.
When we read these Scriptures, we see the heart of God, don’t we? We see the heart of Jesus. It’s all about serving, isn’t it? It’s all about serving. And all these Scriptures about serving, He brings in that it’s your duty, because we are walking the Jesus’ walk, “That’s the way that I walk,” Jesus said.
1 Thessalonians 5:14: “Comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.” I think of my husband. He really fulfills this Scripture, right throughout the years of our pastoring in New Zealand, then Australia, and now here in the States. We’ve had so many interesting people come into our lives. Wow! I could keep you all day sharing about some of them.
They were often people, outcasts, people who nobody else would have anything to do with. But somehow they’ve become Colin’s friends. He encourages them and lifts them up. It was amazing to see what God did with those people’s lives, just because someone was willing to believe in them.
No. 9. THANKING GOD FOR ONE ANOTHER
Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 and in 2:13: “We are bound . . .(Now, that’s the same word, we have a duty) “to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” We are encouraged and told that it’s our duty to give thanks for one another, to think about others.
Butt in! Say anything you want!
Allison: It’s all good.
Nancy: I’m talking a lot. I remember, years ago, this was back in New Zealand. I was just a young mother. Isn’t it amazing where God can speak to you? Yes, He speaks to you when you’ve got the Bible in front of you and you’re listening to Him speak. But sometimes He speaks in the middle of you doing something so ordinary.
I remember, I was walking over the threshold of my doorstep, carrying a big carton of groceries. I’d just come in from doing the shopping. And I heard the voice of God so clearly in my heart. He said these words:
“Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if you’re always thinking about yourself?”
Wow! I was struck dead! I stopped in my tracks. I actually heard God say it. And how true. You see, we only have a certain amount of emotional capacity. If we are using all that up on ourselves, thinking about ourselves, about me. Usually, when we think about ourselves, it’s “Poor me.”
I can remember way back in the days, in my early days of mothering, I didn’t know how to walk in victory the way I do now. I can remember many times, just crying. And who was I crying for? I wasn’t in intercession crying for some person who was in need. I was crying for myself! “Poor me! I have to go through this! Why do I have to put up with this?”
I beg your pardon! How ridiculous! I think self-pity is one of the most debilitating things in the whole of the world. It brings a person down to the very pits. I believe it’s from the pit of hell. If we have self-pity, we need to cast it out in the Name of Jesus. I learned, as I went along in my walk with the Lord how to cast it out, and not listen to it, because it’s just debilitating, and it does not help.
What happens when you are thinking of yourself? You don’t have room for others. You don’t have room in your mind. You must give God room in your heart and in your emotional capacity to be aware of the needs of others. I’ve never forgotten that word. We have to give God room, room in our minds and our hearts to think of others and think of how we can encourage them. Then God began to show me there were others.
I remember back in the church we were in there, in Palmerston North, New Zealand. At that time, I had started Above Rubies. I was gung-ho in doing this great ministry. But then, I had to think, “Oh, but there are others doing other ministries. They’re important. Am I taking time to encourage them?”
I thought of one of the lovely young mother in our church. She was fostering children. I thought, “Wow! She’s doing a great job. Out of her heart she’s blessing needy children.” I felt the Lord wanted me to go and visit her, encourage her, and bless her, and just tell her what a great work she was doing.
In our thinking of others, and thanking God for others, we’ve got to give God room. There’s another Scripture that says: “Let not every man think on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:4). How much do we think on our own things? And we’re not thinking of the things of others.
I love it when I wake up sometimes, and I wake up thinking of someone I haven’t even thought of for so many years. I know they need prayer. I’m burdened for them and I’m praying for them. God wants to do this because He has us all on His heart. But He wants each one of us to be praying for one another, and thanking God for one another. And guess what? Because it’s our duty.
Allison: I have to share with you. The person that comes to my mind when I think of this is probably the Schrums.
Nancy: Oh! Oh! Yes!
Allison: I’m so encouraged to watch their life. Everything they do in their lives is other-focused.
Nancy: Oh yes! Now, who are the Schrums? They are actually a family who are living right next to us in their RV. They have been, is it two or three years now?
Allison: Probably three years now.
Nancy: Yes, the time has gone. God led them here and they have bought land up on the Hilltop. We live on the Hilltop, but they live on the real Hilltop, because they go up even further than us! They came with this vision to build here.
But we have watched them. They have even put aside their vision to help others. I’ve watched them help others build up on the Hilltop, others who are struggling financially and they’ve helped them establish their houses even before doing their own. They should have been doing their own! But no. I’ve never seen people who think of others like them. They have helped others and they’re always helping others. Now, they’re actually starting, a few months ago.
Allison: They started with their own house. Their house is being built with intentions of wanting to serve people in their house.
Nancy: Yes! Everything is, “How can we serve others? Yes, now we’re building this house at the same time where we can have people staying. We’re doing this. Everything is how we can bless others!”
Allison: It’s so inspiring.
Nancy: It’s so amazing. Every single day, Michele is out somewhere serving, helping someone. I’ve never met such servants in my life.
Allison: What a neat thing to do.
Nancy: Oh, by the way, Michelle did do some podcasts. Go back and look up “Michele Schrum.” She did some podcasts. You’d love to hear from her.
Allison: “Michele” is just one “l,” right?
Nancy: I can’t remember. [laughter]
Allison: But what I was going to say is, they’re such happy people. They live such a wonderful like. Just to watch, they’re purposeful, they’re intentional on helping others. It’s just so inspiring. Daniel and I were talking in the car yesterday about them. He said, “I just don’t think I’ve ever seen a family like them.” She would be, “Oh goodness! Don’t talk about me!” But I think it’s good for us to see an example in our current lives, and then strive. Because, like you said, it’s our duty, but that isn’t a negative. They look at it as a positive.
Nancy: Oh! Their lives are filled with serving, but filled with joy!
Allison: Sure!
Nancy: Oh, yes! They would testify they have the most wonderful life.
Allison: Absolutely.
Nancy: Amen! Oh goodness me! We always go to the next one. We’d better finish. We’ll do this in the next session, OK?
“Lord, we thank You again for Your Word. Lord, Your Word continually speaks to us. I ask, Lord, I don’t want to just read it, and pass on, Lord, just pass on, and not take it in. Lord God, these precious words we’ve read today, I pray that You’ll help us all to make them part of our lifestyle, that we would truly walk, Lord Jesus, as You walked.
“Oh, Father, help us to be truly servants, as You came to serve. You did not come to be served and waited on. But You came to serve, and to give Your life a ransom for many.
“Lord God, I pray for every precious mother and daughter and whoever else is listening today, that You will bless them. Also, Lord, come into all our lives, and help us to live the way You want us to. We ask in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.
“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”
DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.
IT IS ENCOURAGING FOR ALL WIVES AND MOTHERS.
P.S. Scriptures to look up about being a servant: (Matthew 20:26-28; 23:11; Mark 10:43-45; Luke 7:28; 22:24-27; Philippians 2:5-8; and 1 Peter 2:21).