Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

One of the powerful places in the home is the table where we eat and fellowship. It is the gathering place. The home centers around food and fellowship. If we do not smell the wonderful aromasof spices and herbs enhancing the food cooking on the stove and the aroma of homemade bread in the oven, we miss some of the joys of home.

If we do not sit around the table to communicate, discuss, and share our revelations and thoughts as we eat together, we miss the true essence of home. The table is communal. It promotes oneness, not independence.

The picture God paints of a blessed family is of children “all around the table” (Psalm 1238:3). Tables are meant to be filled. God didn’t plan the 1.7-member family of today’s society. He loves the filled table. And not only the immediate family, but often grandparents and extended family. And friends and strangers. Each one comes with expectancy, ready for new dialogue. The place hums with conversation. No one is lonely. The togetherness brings healing and joy.

To talk about the things that are on our hearts help to heal our confusions or brokenness. And when we eat, it is important to eat healthy foods. This word “healing” that is used for “household” is used in only two other places in the Bible. Both talk about healing.

Luke 9:11 where Jesus “healed them that had need of healing (therapeia).”

Revelation 22:1, 2 speaks of “A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing (therapeia) of the nations.” Healing foods, not refined junk foods.

Are we careful to prepare healing foods for our husbands and children? This is such an important part of being a homemaker.

Make your home a beautiful place of healing for the spirit, the soul, and the body.

Love from Nancy Campbell

But it rarely happens without food. Food paves the way for these life-changing and sometimes nation-changing moments to happen. And who does it come back to? The mother in the home. She is the one who prepares the atmosphere by lovingly preparing the food and graciously setting it on the table. It doesn’t have to be exotic food. It only needs to be simple food. But food is needed!
Jesus loved to sit at the table and share divine truths. What was Jesus own testimony of himself? “The Son of man is come eating and drinking” (Luke 7:34). Robert Karris, the author of “Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel” says: “In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.”

Proverbs 31:15 (NASB) says: “She (the mother in the home—notice the word is “SHE”) rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household.” SHE is the one who prepares the food. SHE is the one who prepares the way for family togetherness. SHE is the one who sees beyond the work of cooking food to the great things that will happen as the family and others come to the table around the food.

Of course, it’s not always perfect. Especially when your children are little. It can be exhausting and hair-raising! But dear mothers, keep establishing the habit of family meals around the table. You are training your children. You are establishing godly and biblical habits. Eventually your work and training will be rewarded. Your children grow, and you will eventually have amazing times of conversation and discussion together.

In the meantime, if you are desperate for more intelligent fellowship, open your home in hospitality. Invite people to your home to sit around your table with you. This is normal Christian life. It is the extension of our mothering and homemaking ministry. It is the lifestyle of the kingdom of God. Acts 2:46, 47 (NET) says: “Every day they continued to gather together . . . breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.”

Instead of grumbling that you need to prepare another meal today, rejoice and be glad. You are doing a powerful work.

Love from Nancy Campbell

And yet when it comes to the womb, the part of us that more than anything else distinguishes us as a woman, we don’t want it to work! What is wrong with that?

I think It is the deception of the devil who hates the womb and hates life! Genesis 3:15 tells us that there is enmity between the devil and the woman. One translation says: “There will be war.” Satan is at war against the womb because it is the place of life. It is the place where life is conceived, grows, and comes forth into this world. An eternal soul from conception. A life that will live forever. A life that is destined from the foundation of the world. A life that can be filled with God and bring the revelation of God into this world.

Dearest mothers, let’s not be deceived by the devil, the hater of life (John 10:10). Let’s embrace the way God created us. All His works are perfect. They are wonderful, marvelous, and amazing (Psalm 139:14).

When we embrace the function of who God created us to be, we live in His blessing. We are on His side. 1 Timothy 2:15 tells us that we are saved through childbearing and the embracing of our maternal anointing. The full meaning of the word “saved” means you will be “protected, healed, preserved, delivered and made whole.” What more could you want?

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

What is happening here? The enemy has come to attack and therefore the soldiers (the men) prepare and go out to war. They are the army in the field.

But there is another army at home—the women. They are also called an army. The word “company” means those who are part of an army, a military, a war! My KJV Bible gives the word “army” in the margin. It’s the same word that is used of God who is THE LORD OF HOSTS! The One who is the mighty, powerful Warrior, ready to intervene for His people.

Where is this army of women? They are not out fighting the enemy in the field. They are at home. Do you notice it says: “SHE who stays home”? It is not the men who stay home, but the women. Some fathers stay home to look after their children while their wives go to work. This is opposite to the Scriptures.

While the men fight to save their homes and families out on the field, the women fight to protect their families and “hold the fort” in the absence of their husbands.

And when they win the battle, they go forth as a conquering force to proclaim the good news! Back in Bible days they danced and sang. And when the men brought back the “spoil,” the gold, silver, and beautiful garments, they didn’t give a little to the women. They gave it all to them. They gave them the authority to divide it and share it among their daughters, handmaidens, the poor, and all around them.

They were all in the fight together, but each one doing the task God intended for them!

Dear mother, you are part of a mighty army of women. Your place to fight against the enemy is in the home! You keep the home fires burning. You strengthen your home, your marriage, your family. You keep pushing back the enemy who wants to subtly come into your home with his deceptions and destruction. If you are not there to watch, the enemy will take over!

You support your husband in his work. You release him to do his career and you embrace your role of motherhood with all your heart.

You seek after truth and teach it to your children. You proclaim the good news of the Gospel and of your love for family wherever you go. You are a proclaimer of truths,

Oh, for a great army of women to understand the power of their homes, to come back to their homes and raise godly sons and daughters. Oh, for a great army of women to proclaim God’s truth in society instead of being deceived by the humanistic values of today which are opposite to God’s living Word.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Painting: Heart of the Home by John Sloane

Every Word of God is powerful, authoritative, and eternal. The devil knows its power and must obey.

That’s why we must know God’s Word. That’s why we must diligently teach our children God’s Word. They must have the Word ready to use against the devil. Jesus was ready to quote the Word. Are we and our children?

Homeschooling children need God’s Word every day. His life-giving Word should be the most important thing they learn each day.

If there are Christian parents who are still sending their children into the public-school system to be subtly brain-washed by humanism, socialism, liberalism, progressivism, and now the gay agenda and alternative lifestyles, they need to give their children TRIPLE DOSES of God’s Word each day. Or how will they survive the deceptions of the enemy?

There is only way to make our children strong against temptation. 1 John 2:14 says: “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the WORD OF GOD ABIDES IN YOU, and ye have overcome the wicked one.”

Are you a Word-mother? Are your children Word-children? Does God’s Word richly abide in your children’s hearts?

Blessings to you from Nancy Campbell

Oh by the way, Pasto John MacArthur states that no one in his church of many thousands as contacted the virus.

IT PAYS TO STAND UP!

Over the weekend here in Tennessee one of County Mayors exposed the WELL BEING TASK FORCE plan which was passed by our Governor. Their plan was to check on every child in the state, from birth to age 18, to check whether they were facing stress or what was going on in the home. A Task Force were to be trained to do this, from 20 years and upwards. Can you imagine a 20-year-old coming into a home to check on children nearly their same age! Totally invasion of private property and parenting.

God did not give the authority of children to the state. He gave it to parents, right back in the beginning, in Genesis chapter one! And this was before government was ever invented. God put this authority in the hands of parents.

Well, there was on outrage from the parents of Tennessee and the Governor’s office received so much indignation with phone calls and emails against it that they scrapped the whole thing!

IT PAYS TO STAND UP!

By the way, keep your eyes and ears open that they are not trying to do this in your state.

Dear folks, we currently seem to be overpowered with tyranny. But even though it doesn’t look like it, we still live in free America. Let’s stand up for our freedoms. Let’s stand for truth. Use your voice. Use your pen.

Call your governor about whatever you are concerned about. Write to them. Did you know that it is the easiest thing in the world to write to your governor or even the president? Just Google, “Write to Governor” or “Contact the White House” and immediately a form will come up for you to fill in and write your concerns! Make the most of it. Your voice change things. We don’t have to become victims!

LET’S ALL STAND UP. LET’S FREE UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN!

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This is what church is all about. We know it’s not the building. It’s the people. It’s meeting together to share with one another, pray for one another, comfort one another, look out for one another, and bear one another’s burdens.

There were so many different ones in our fellowship who were facing obstacles, overwhelming challenges, needing guidance and so on. How can these needs be met in a zoom meeting? They can only be met as we gather around to lay hands on one another, pray for one another, bear their burdens with them, and minister our love to them. How can we discuss things and seek guidance and counsel in an on-line meeting? How can we even laugh together and have great discussions if we are not together?

No, God wants us to come together. We all know the Scriptures in Hebrews 10:24, 25: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” And how do we do this? “Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves TOGETHER, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.”

Psalm 122:3 states: “Jerusalem is builded as a city that is COMPACT TOGETHER.” Jerusalem speaks of God’s house and relates to us as we meet together. The Knox transition says: “Jerusalem, built as a city should be built that is one in fellowship. There the tribes meet, the Lord’s own tribes, to give praise.”

The HCSB says: “Jerusalem, built as a city should be, solidly joined together . . .”

It reminds me of Ephesians 4:15, 16 which speaks about the body of Christ. “Speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; From whom the whole body fitly JOINED TOGETHER and COMPACTED by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of EVERY PART, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

Wow, that Scripture is a mouth full, isn’t it? We read the word COMPACTED in the Old Testament and in the New. It’s the opposite to social distancing, isn’t it?
But the truth of this Scripture only works as we come together, every joint ministering God’s love and truth and comfort to one another.

May we as families seek to make this happen in our church life.

Be blessed and encouraged.

Nancy Campbell

Money’s tight and clothes don’t fit,
More to sew and mend and knit,
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Baby stuff is everywhere,
And I just sit here in my chair.
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Daddy declares, “We’re going out to eat!”
“Then ties my shoes, I can’t reach my feet.”
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Waiting and waiting, and pains at last,
Only false labor and due date past,
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Out in public, huge and humble,
“Is this your first?” “My sixth,” I mumble.
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Strangers’ advice, looks and sneers,
Taking comments, jokes, and jeers,
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Five children in tow, one on the way,
Out shopping my nerves begin to fray,
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Aches and pains and heavy with child,
Can’t wait to put Baby down awhile.
Oh thank You God! A baby!

The pains begin, they’re good and strong,
Pray and labor all night long.
Oh thank You God! A baby!

Labor and sweat and bear the pain,
Husband works to share the strain,
Oh thank You God! A baby!

The babe is born, oh sweet reward.
What a blessed gift from the Lord.
Oh thank You God! A Baby!

I am desperate for revival? Are you? I guess we should first ask, what is revival? It is turning back to the original, the beginning! We need revival when we get away from the first things.

In Scripture the “law of the first mention” is very important. When God says something the first time in the Scriptures, we must take note. The first mention is the foundation. It must never be discounted. When we get away from the first mention, we must be revived to come back! Back to God’s plan. Back to the first commandments He gave us. Back to His heart. Back to His first words.

We need to forever be coming back to our first love, don’t we? With all the distractions in our lives it’s so easy to get away from our first love for Jesus. There’s nothing more important than being in love with Jesus. This is the hub from which everything else in our life flows out. When we are in love with Jesus, we will love our husbands and children and everyone around us.

Jesus spoke to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4, 5: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

We must also turn back to the first statutes God gave is in His Word. We must come back to the very first words God spoke to the man and woman He created. Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth.” God has never rescinded these words. They stand forever. If we discard them because we think we know better, we disobey God’s powerful and living Word. We certainly need a revival in the church to come back to these words, don’t we?

We must come back to marriage oneness. God’s eternal plan for marriage is that we are to be one. God’s first description of marriage is in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” We are not two people living in the same house but living our separate lives. We are joined in flesh, spirit, and vision to work together to build a strong marriage and family. It’s time to come back!

It’s time to come back to God’s heart for children. Malachi 4:4-6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

This is one of the greatest revivals needed in the church today. Most of the church has no understanding of God’s plan for children. They limit the number of children in their family as much as the secular world. They have as little regard for the blessing of children as the world does. It is time for a revival of fathers and mothers embracing their hearts towards children, to have the same heart that God has toward children.

Are we coming back to the God of the Bible? Many believe in a false God. They believe in a god who is only able to provide for one or two children. Any more would be too much for their god. This is not the God of the Bible.

Are we coming back?

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

Painting: Alfredo Rodriguez * American

“If I could encourage you in your homeschooling/parenting journey in one way, it would be this: read Scripture to your children every single day. At least a verse. Maybe a passage. Eventually a whole chapter or even an entire book. Get a “morning and evening” style devotional of Scripture verses if that helps. We use the DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH (available at www.aboverubies.org). Or you may like to read a daily Proverb or Psalm together.

“Saturate your children’s minds with Scripture. Memorize verses together. Quote Scripture to them when they need a reminder to be truthful, to forgive, to share. Fill their minds and hearts with truth every single day so that as they grow, they will easily be able to recognize the many false teachings and lies they encounter on their way. Impart the truth to them so well that any deviation will be quickly evident as counterfeit.

“There is no education greater than the Word and wisdom of God. Deuteronomy 6:6, 7 (ESV): “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

“We also love singing psalms set to music (especially by David Erb in their authentic Hebraic rhythms and tunes). We gather as a family and sing together the rich, Scripture-infused verses of the great hymns of the faith.

HOLLY BENNINGTON * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sadly, this is not the picture of God’s people today. The leftist and anti-God socialists are ruling over God’s people. They control us with what we do and how we live our lives, EVEN IN OUR OWN HOMES! They mandate masks to silence us and keep us distanced and suspicious of one another.

Massachusetts rules today that if your home or backyard has more than 10 people in it, including a guest, everyone over the age of two years old MUST wear a mask! This is intrusion into private property!

They give out edicts (against the Constitution of our country) that people can only go back to church in limited numbers. They are not allowed to sing. They are curbed and put down while the pubs and liquor stores are open to as many who want to come. Rioters and protestors can freely destroy and burn down buildings while good people succumb to servitude.

This is the devil’s plan, not God’s plan. Listen to God’s promise to His people when they obey His commandments and walk in holiness: “The LORD shall establish thee a HOLY people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and THEY SHALL BE AFRAID OF THEE” (Deuteronomy 28:9, 10).

Isn’t it sad, that instead of the heathen, anti-God socialists being afraid of God’s people, it is the other way around? Many pastors are still afraid to open their churches. Many people are still afraid to go back to church. They are afraid to live in their God-given freedoms but willingly bow down to ungodly mandates. Those who are against God should be afraid of the people of God, not the other way around.

I think it comes back to holiness. It’s time for us to be a holy people. A set apart people. Repenting of sin. Turning back to God. Crying out to God to save our nation. No more half-heartedness. No more worldliness.

And then “the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be ABOVE ONLY and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God . . . to observe and to do them.”

Be blessed,

Nancy Campbell

WHAT ELSE DOES GOD SAY ABOUT YOU?
Exodus 19:5, 6; Deuteronomy 4:20; 7:5, 6; 14:2; 26: 18, 19; 28:9-14; Psalm 135:4; Malachi 3:17; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; and 5;10.

It grieves my heart that there are still people willingly listening to the mandates of extreme leftist and socialist mayors and governors who want the demise of this nation. Of course, the devil always comes as an angel of light. He doesn’t make his ways look evil. He makes them look good and wise neighborly, just as he did when he first tempted Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3:6)..

They command us to wear masks “for our protection and to look after our neighbor.” But that’s a big laugh. The pore size of cloth face coverings range from 20 – 100 microns. However, the virus is 200 – 1000 times smaller than that, only 0.1 microns. Masks do not protect you, plus they are most unhealthy as you constantly breathe in your own carbon dioxide.

But far more seriously, what is happening in our nation, and the nations of the world, is totally antipathy to how God intends us to live. Of course, Satan loves to promote everything that is opposite to God’s ways.

God created us for communication with one another, not isolation. It is a healthy society that communicates with one another. Social distancing and masking promotes loneliness and loneliness begets depression. No wonder the Director or the CDC has now announced that there are far more deaths from suicides than the COVID-19.

It is also prepares the way for people to become suspicious of one another and therefore to more freely pimp and report on one another which governors in some of our liberals states are already encouraging their constituents to do. What a sad society.

Let’s wake up people. This is not how God wants us to live. We must break free. We still live in the “land of the free and the home of the brave” although not many are now acting free or brave. But why not?

We should be able to go to the supermarket and communicate and smile at people. To have a little chat. To pray for someone who is in need.

The First Amendment still gives us the rights to “the freedom of speech . . . and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Are you writing to your governors, senators, and congressmen?

The Bible reminds us how God wants us to live. In Romans 1:12, 13 Paul told the Romans Christians of his longing to come and see them “that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the MUTUAL FAITH both of YOU AND ME.

The Christian faith is not only a “me” faith. It’s not all about me. It ‘s a “you and me” faith. Everywhere else in the New Testament, the words “mutual faith” are translated either “one another, one to another, one toward another, one with another, one of another, or one for another, etc.” It’s a “one another” faith.

I love the Passion translation: “I yearn to come and be FACE TO FACE with you and get to know you (you can’t do that unless you are face to face). For I long to impart some spiritual gift that will empower you to stand strong in your faith. Now this means that when we COME TOGETHER SIDE BY SIDE something wonderful will be released. We can expect to be encouraged and comforted by each other’s faith.”

Our faith is a FACE TO FACE and SIDE BY SIDE faith. We grow in our faith as we come together and build one another up. It’s like the coals glowing brightly in the fire. Take one of the coals out and leave it on its own and it soon goes cold. Put it back into the fire and it’s not long before it glows again along with the other coals.

The Holy Spirit is the Comfortor, the parakletos, the one who “comes along side of us to comfort and encourage us.” The Holy Spirit in us wants us to do this to one another.

Let’s live the way God wants us to live.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Picture by Inge Look * https://www.ingelook.com/ * Check out her art and products.

The devil is the accuser. He has gotten his troops deceived enough to guilt and shame anyone who isn’t a social justice warrior who’s hero cape is a mask. Who is the accuser? Who loves guilt and shaming people? The devil! Don’t be mistaken!

The devil crept in, he came with a voice that sounds similar to Gods voice, to fool the people, good people, he needed to tell them they needed to wear it because they love their neighbor. It sounds good. It feels righteous! It even looks good, like being a hero even.

But be careful lest you forget who you are. The masks already make us all look the same in a lot of ways. The virus is is real, but it’s also tiny, it’s way smaller than you think and it creeps out of most masks anyhow. Put on Jesus! God is bigger than a mask. Don’t forget that he is our protector, not a mask.

Only God has the keys to everlasting life. Only He knows the number of our days. Only he can deliver us. Be careful, in the last days, even the elect shall be deceived. Remember, the devil always packages up his agendas in pretty loving looking packages.

Doesn’t it seem strange to anyone else that all the secular media, stars and people who are not even believers, who deny him by their evil works are the very ones teaching us how to love our neighbors right now? It is strange to me. But it doesn’t surprise me either. We live in crazy times and the global take over is just that much easier when we blindly obey.

Erin Harrison

We have been sharing how in the Scriptures “fervent” love means “to extend the hand, to reach out, to be intense.” We have been discussing about reaching out our hands in love to others, but God also wants us to reach out our hands to love Him in worship and prayer.

Somehow, it is inherent that we want to reach out our hands to God when worshipping Him. It is the response of our grateful and worshipping hearts. Look at the trees. Even their branches stretch upwards in worship to God.

We inherently lift our hands when crying out to God in prayer. It’s a reaching out to the heart of God. In fact, we are commanded in 1 Timothy 2:8 to “Lift up holy hands” in prayer.”

David cried to God in Psalm 28:2 (NLT): “Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I LIFT UP MY HANDS toward your holy sanctuary.” Again he cried out in Psalm 143:6: “I STRETCH FORTH my hands unto thee” and in many other Scriptures.

I find I do this automatically, but I feel committed to specifically do it when praying for President Trump. The Holy Spirit put this on my heart when he became president. I remembered the story in Exodus 17:8-16 where the Israelites were battling against the Amalekites. Whenever Moses held up his hands to the Lord, Israel prevailed!

But it’s hard to keep your hands up for very long and when Moses let them down the Amalekites prevailed against the Israelites. So his brothers, Aaron and Hur, came and held up his hands and the children of Israel defeated their enemies.

President Trump has enemies all around him and fights a huge battle every day. There’s something about doing something tangible and as I raise by hands in prayer for him, symbolically, I feel as though I am holding him up. I think he needs all of us believers holding him up in prayer, don’t you?

There’s another great concern in our nation for which we should lift up our hands in prayer. It’s for the young children of our nation. If we are truly burdened, we’ll lift up our hands in desperation to God as we cry out against the evils of abortion and child trafficking. These two evils are destroying thousands of precious lives. How can we mumble a little prayer about these issues? We must lift up our hands to God. We need to cry out.

Lamentations 2:19 (NKJV) says: “Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him for the life of your young children.”

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

More Scriptures:
Lifting up our hands to God inn worship and prayer:
1 Kings 8:22, 23; 38, 39, 54, 55 (2 Chronicles 6:12, 13, 29, 30); Ezra 9:5, 6; Job 11:13-15; Psalm 28:2; 63:4; 88:9; 134:2; 141:2; 143:6; Lamentations 2:19; and 3:40, 41.

Lifting up our hands to honor God’s Word:
Nehemiah 8:5, 6 and Psalm 119:48.

Lifting up our hands to commit to an action:
Genesis 14:22-24.

P.S. I have discovered 50 prayers in the Bible where David prayed against his enemies. Because they are biblical prayers, I like to use them, and speak them out as I pray for President Trump. If you would like to receive a copy of these prayers, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“Love ever gives, forgives, outlives, and while it lives, it gives! For this is love’s prerogative, to give and give, and give.” We don’t belong to the “give me/entitlement society. We belong to the king of God givers.

We reach out our hands in fervent love when we pray for the sick. The word is used in Matthew 8:3 when Jesus touched the leper: “And Jesus put forth (ekteino) his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Yes, Jesus was willing to touch the leper.

We should always be ready to touch or lay our hands on those who are sick and pray for them, beginning in the home with our families of course. God loves to “stretches forth His hand to heal (Acts 4:30).

God is always stretching out His hand to us, even when we are indifferent. Proverbs 1:24 says: “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.” Read also Isaiah 9:12, 17, 21; and 10:4.

We reach forth our hands to bless our children. We don’t want to forget to do this. Jesus loved to do it. Mark 10:16 says: “And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.” There is something about putting our hands on our children or even other people when we want to bless them. That’s a little difficult if you are six feet apart though, isn’t it? Read also Genesis 48:13-16; Leviticus 9:22 and Luke 24:50.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

Scriptures about Jesus touching when He healed:
Matthew 8:2, 3 (Mark 1:40-42 and Luke 5:12, 13); Matthew 9:27-29; Mark 8:22-25; Luke 7:12-14; 15:14-17; and 22:50, 51.

Scriptures about God stretching forth His hand to redeem and deliver us:
Exodus 6:6; Deuteronomy 4:34, 37; 5:15; 7:19; 9:29; 11:2, 3; 26:8; 1 Kings 8:42 (2 Chronicles 6:32); 2 Kings 17:36; Psalm 136:11, 12; Isaiah 14:24-27; Jeremiah 32:21; and Ezekiel 20:33, 34.

Normal Rockwell painting.

Love is more than a feeling. Love is action. If we have fervent love, we’ll be stretching out our hands. Of course, we do this all day long as mothers, don’t we? We are always reaching out for babies. We nurse them, hold them to us, or wear them in a baby carrier more than we leave them lying on their own. We continually reach out our arms to touch, caress, and hug our children. We cook for them and sere them food. We clean the house. Yes, even this is love in action. Who wants to live in a grimy and unorganized home? That’s not love.

We extend hands in hospitality. Immediately after reading “fervent love,” we read the admonition to “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” Hospitality doesn’t just happen. You have to cook. You have to prepare a table. Yes, you have to extend your hand. But this is fervent love. It is biblical Christianity. It is the lifestyle of the kind of God. It is part of our “one anothering faith (Romans 1:12).

After reading my last post about contentment, an older mother asked how she could be content in her home with all her children grown. Dear older mothers, you have even more time to reach out in love to people through hospitality. It is the most beautiful way to show you care for people when you invite them to your home and to your table. Thee are so many lonely and needy people around all waiting to feel God’s love and comfort. The loveliest way you can do this is through hospitality. You’ll never be bored for a moment. Not only will you bless others, you’ll be blessed beyond measure yourself (Isaiah 58:5-12).

Our God is an hospitable God. He loves to reach forth His hands to bless people, but He must do it through His people.

The virtuous woman “STRETCHES out her hand to the poor; yea she REACHES forth her hands to the needy” (v. 20).

When God reveals the picture of the lifestyle of the godly woman, we read that she reaches out her hands to embrace children, practice hospitality, wash the saints’ feet, relieve the afflicted and help those in distress, and continually stretches out her hands to all kinds of good works (1 Timothy 5;10). Nothing happens without reaching out our hands

We’ll talk about more ways tomorrow.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Mary Cassatt 1896. “Maternal Caress”

I believe everything begins with our will. I notice in Exodus 2:21 that “Moses was CONTENT TO DWELL with the man.” This man was Reuel, the priest of Midian who lived out in the desert. Wow, this was the opposite of the life he had known--one of luxury, servants waiting upon him, and the best this world could offer.

The word “content” in this Scripture is “ya’al” and means “to be willing, to make up one’s mind, to be determined, to resolve.” Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it? His contentment was not because it was a beautiful situation, one of ease and comfort, and just what he had been looking for years!

Instead, Moses had to determine in his heart that he would be content in this situation. He had to make up his mind to do it.

I believe we must apply the same resolve in our lives. It is God’s plan to give us a home to dwell in and to raise the children He gives us in a home. It is God’s plan to make a dwelling place, firstly for God, and then for our husband and children.

Many times, mothers are not content because they think of other things they could be doing outside the home. They spent years educating themselves for a certain degree and life vocation and wonder why they are stuck at home with children.

We must come to that place in our mind where we know we are in the will of God. We know that this is God’s plan for our lives, and therefore, because it is His plan, we forget feelings. We forget imagining another life outside the home. We cast aside all self-pity, grumbling, and groaning.

We make up our mind and determine to be content. We resolve to be content. And as we do, we find contentment. Everything in life is how you think in your mind and your attitude to your situation.

May you be blessed with a contented spirit today. There’s nothing like contentment to bring peace and calm to your soul. It’s great for your health. It’s great for the atmosphere of your home. It’s great for the blessing of everyone around you.

Be blessed,

Nancy Campbell