Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

We are also saved from the judgment of our sins when we acknowledge the blood of Jesus upon our lives. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” Jesus Christ is our Passover. What a glorious and wonderful redemption we have.

I love this picture which a dear friend of mine sent to me. She flies her red scarf at her doorway representing the power of the blood of Jesus as she remembers this Passover time. She also flies it to acknowledge the protection and power of God over her home as we face this “c” virus.

We do not have to fear any plague as we abide under the Shadow of the Almighty and plead our protection through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Many blessings,

Nancy Campbell

It’s good to remind ourselves of duty in a general way, but the Bible mentions some things specifically, therefore we should take note of them. Let’s take a look:

1. SEXUAL INTERCOURSE FOR MARRIED COUPLES
Is this a duty? When God brought the first couple together, the first thing He told them was to be “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). That’s it! God’s ultimate plan. His first description of marriage. Therefore we owe it to one another.

1 Corinthians 7:3 calls it “due benevolence.” Now that doesn’t sound very romantic, does it? The Syriac version says “due love.” But let’s read it from a modern version: “The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. Do not deprive each other of sexual relations . . . “ (NLT).

The wonderful thing about this moral obligation in marriage is that although it’s considered a duty, God has created it to be a DELIGHT. God is amazing. Proverbs 5:19 describes it as “ravishing.” The full meaning of the Hebrew word is to be “enraptured, intoxicated, transported with delight, captivated, entranced, stealing away the senses.” How often should this happen? This Scripture tell us “at all times” and “always.”

There may be times in your marriage when you do not experience it as a delight. That’s when you move into “duty” mode. As you are faithful to do your duty, delight will come rolling back to you. It’s a divine law. It’s like the ebb and flow of the tide. Sometimes the tide goes out, but it is a universal law that tide always comes flowing in again.

Old Testament Scriptures Genesis 38:8; Exodus 21;10; and Deuteronomy 25:5, 7.

2. LOVE ONE ANOTHER
1 John 4:11 says: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought (opheilo, meaning duty) to love one another.” That means beginning in the home with our husband and family. That means those we don’t really like or who are not our type. That even means those who have spoken against us and treated us badly.

This word is used again in Romans 13:8 “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”

More points tomorrow.

Have a blessed day,

Nancy Campbell

To permit a son or a daughter to have their homosexual partner living and sleeping together in your home is a false love and a false grace. Even to allow unmarried couples of the opposite sex to sleep together in your home is a false love and a false grace. This is happening in Christian homes across America and I am saddened by it.

Whatever the world accepts as acceptable and normal behavior when it comes to morals is now becoming the norm of the church.

I am not saying that we should not actively, as Christians, love those who are committing sin. God loved us while we were yet sinners so much that he sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die a horrible death for our sins. Romans 5:8 says: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

We must actively show our love toward sinners and yet at the same time let them understand that we actively reject their sin.

Under the guise of love and grace many so-called Christians will not judge abortion as murdering innocent lives and yet at the same time they will actively stand up against those who murder innocent people on our streets, schools, and Walmart’s. What hypocrisy. This is false love and grace and we fail to discern what is right from wrong. Murdering unborn, innocent children is just as evil as murdering people in Walmart.

Under the guise of love and grace we must not allow your children to have uncontrolled use of Internet games and programs that pervert their innocent minds and lives. This is false love for your children and false grace. Christian parents have a God-given mandate to protect their children from watching the wrong things.

God’s grace should never be treated as a band aid to cover sin so that sin doesn’t look so bad.

Many Christians allow this to happen so their children will not be bored with nothing to entertain them. They think that one day they will grow out of it. This is a false love and a false grace.

Hebrews 12:28, 29: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” This is the love and grace that is acceptable to God.

Titus 2;11, 12 explains more of what it means to walk in grace: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.”

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

God judged all our sins with the crucifixion of His sinless and only Beloved Son. God forgave us all our sins through the terrible judgment that Jesus Christ vicariously bore in our place on that rugged cross.

Jesus Christ now lives in us by His spirit to give us the victory over all sin. Every type of sin that seeks to dominate our lives must be judged for what it is. Sin is sin whether it was before we became a Christian or after we became a Christian.

If God calls all wrong-doing sin, so should we.

Even though sin was judged at the cross, it is still sin if we continue in it.

Romans 6:1, 2: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any loner therein?”

We must examine ourselves and judge our actions before we partake of the Lord’s Supper lest we eat and drink damnation to ourselves. 1 Corinthians 11:29, 30 says: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”

God’s amazing grace does not cover a lifestyle of unrepentant sin.

Much of the church is under a false grace that permits sin to be unjudged and unrepented of, both in our homes and in the churches.

To be continued.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

Here's the second half for you today:

QUINTESSENTIALLY FEMININE, Part 2

“Let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price”
(1 Peter 3:4).

"The ultimate quintessence of motherhood is the
revelation of God’s maternal heart to the world."

Nursing a baby is very much part of our femaleness. There are some mothers who deny themselves the privilege and joy of nursing their own baby, and yet this is primal and quintessential to being female. 1 The Bible tells us that “Even jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness” (Lamentations 4:3).2

Our little daughters naturally behave femininely. They haven’t yet been conditioned by society. They love to mother. That’s all they want to be when they grow up until society re-programs their brains. They love babies. They love to dress like princesses, which is another area of our femininity we have lost.

As we look around today we see most women in the uniform of the day—jeans and top. I don’t say you should not wear the “uniform,” but does it really convey who we are? Nor do I say you can’t wear pants. The men in biblical days didn’t wear pants but wore long flowing robes. The important thing is to make whatever you wear look feminine.

When my little granddaughters go to my dress-up box, what do they want to wear? Each one of them wants to be a princess. They look for the princess dresses, and if there are not enough to go around, they create them out of sheets and old curtains! I have never noticed that they want to dress up in a business suit!

One of my Above Rubies helpers shared with me that she and her sister sewed civil war time dresses with hooped skirts for a historical fair they were attending. They had to run some errands, and rather than changing into street clothes, decided to wear their dresses. They were amazed that in every store, both workers and shoppers, stopped to exclaim, “Oh you look so beautiful!” or “What beautiful dresses!”

I was thinking about this when traveling some time back. Delayed in a long line at an airport, I decided to look around for beautiful women. Every woman wore the “uniform,” but I spotted one lady who stood out from everyone else. She was dressed in a flowing apricot-colored sari with scarves flowing around her. She looked gloriously feminine and I feasted my eyes upon her as I waited. How sad that we have degenerated so far from our intrinsic femininity that we can only wear a dress that makes us feel like a princess or a queen if we “dress up in a costume!”

I believe a woman also reveals her femininity in her home. This is the domain God planned for women—to make her home a restful place where God’s presence dwells, to raise and nurture her children, to create a delightful atmosphere her children will remember into the next generation, and to be a successful home-maker and gardener. Proverbs 24:15 calls the home a “resting place.” Hosea 11:11 (KNOX) says, “In their own home, says the Lord, I will give them rest.” When we lose the anointing of rest upon our lives, we need to get back into the home.

In the home a woman can bask in the provision and leadership of her husband. She loses her femininity, her grace, and her peace when she rules her husband. A truly feminine woman trusts in her husband’s provision and authority. This does not mean she is a doormat. God has given women a sphere of leadership, not to rule over her husband, but to govern the affairs of her home (1 Timothy 5:14). It is her prerogative to efficiently administrate her home and garden. This is not an insignificant task. It is a full-time career, especially as God blesses the couple with more children.

It is not just loving our children,
but loving and embracing the role of motherhood
that releases us into the joy and glory of our divine career.

Gentleness and meekness are also the inner essence of being female. 1 Peter 3:3-4 (Williams) says, “Your adornments . . . must be of an internal nature, the character concealed in the heart, in the imperishable quality of a quiet and gentle spirit, which is of great value in the sight of God.” These qualities in a female are very precious to the heart of God, and to husbands. In fact, they are a woman’s charm. They are called an “unfading charm” in the Amplified Version.

Is it weak to have a gentle and quiet spirit? No. It is a woman of strength who keeps a gentle spirit in the face of harshness and rebuke. It is a strong woman who keeps an even temper when she feels overwhelmed and angry. Have you tried being meek for a week?

The anointing of gentleness on a mother is beautiful to behold. Motherhood is equated with gentleness. And yet it is more. Just as Jesus was revealed as both a Lamb and a Lion, so too, God has put within the woman a gentle anointing, but also a “lion-like” spirit which rises up to protect her children, or to resist the enemy that comes to attack her marriage or home (Revelation 5:2-6).

This “quiet and gentle” spirit is also revealed in our speech. Soft and gentle words exemplify femininity. Sweet words are becoming to a woman. If I start to get on my “high horse” my husband says to me, “Nancy, you’ve got to be sweet to me.” Oh my! I don’t have a chance to get harsh! Sweet words endear us to our husband. Sweet words bless our children. Sweet words personify our femaleness. Shakespeare’s famous words are apt for us:

"Her voice was ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman."

Solomon, speaking to his bride in Song of Songs 4:11 says: “Your lips, my bride, drip honey; honey and milk are under your tongue.” Could your husband testify that every time you open your mouth sweet words drip from your lips?

In Song of Songs chapter 7 (The Message), the Bridegroom is overcome as he admires every part of his bride. And then he exclaims that she is “quintessentially feminine.” He cannot think of greater praise.

We have come so far from God’s original intent for us, His female creation. Can we allow God to work in our lives to bring us back, little by little, to the original glory He planned for us? Let’s stop measuring our lives by the world around us but by God’s original design?

PRAYER:
“Dear Father, You have given so many amazing aspects to femininity. Help me to fully embrace each one of them. Help me to show to my family and to the world around me what it means to be female. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:
I’m tired of the “blur” in society today. I will seek to be truly feminine.

NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

Footnotes:
1. To read more about the blessings of embracing motherhood and femininity go to: http://tinyurl.com/FullFemale
2. See also Job 39:14-17 and Isaiah 49:15.

Dear mother, when you prepare meals for your family, clean up, wash dishes, do laundry, and clean toilets, you are doing sacred tasks. They are as meaningful to God as if you were doing some great ministry in a church. Every moment is a hallowed moment because God is with you.

When Christ lives within you the mundane is memorable, the daily grind is delightful, the boring is beautiful, and instead of griping you'll be giving glory to God.

1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do (every little or big task you have to do in your home today), do all to the glory of God."

May God's presence fill you home today as you do everything as a sacred task.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Tasha Tudor