Do you love showing hospitality?
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Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
The nurturing, cherishing, teaching, training, influencing, and the powerful prayers of a mother can never be underestimated. Your influence is powerful, dear mother.
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God created male and female. He has no other plan.
Every new baby that is born into the world reveals again the existence of God.
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...is a powerful thing. It keeps the world going. It brings security. It reaps the reward of those who are faithful in the little things. Be encouraged today, mother.
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Some time ago, my husband was at the bank and got talking to the teller (he loves to talk to people). The lady asked what he did, and he replied that he was a pastor and that we also we speak and write about strengthening families. She proceeded to tell him a little story.Her daughter was putting a ham in the oven, but before she did, she cut a piece of both ends off the ham. A friend who was watching her asked,
"Why do you do that?"
"Because my mother did it," she replied. She thought she would call her mother (the lady speaking to Colin) and ask why she did it.
"Because my mother did it!" her mother replied. The grandmother was still alive, so the daughter called her grandmother and asked her why she cut a piece of the ham off at both ends.
"So it could fit in the pan," she replied! This unnecessary tradition was passing down the generations from one mother to the next! Such is the influence of motherhood. Ezekiel 16:44: "As is the mother, so is her daughter."
Dear mother, think how powerfully we can influence our daughters and sons, practically and spiritually. They will take things into their future lives that we haven't sat down to teach them just by watching us day after day. We must be careful of every action and every word.
Be blessed today,
Nancy Campbell
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Dear ladies, you will look at these links below and think I am advertising. No, I haven’t even had time to go on to these sites myself. But the other day I was traveling in the car and had time to browse through my Instagram.I couldn’t believe it. Frequently, a site for ladies’ dresses would appear. I looked at them and was surprised by all the beautiful dresses. Yes, they were beautiful—delightful styles, feminine, mostly modest (or could be made modest)—some long, some three-quarter length, and some to the knee. And many were reasonably priced.
As I looked at them, I thought, Why do so many girls, and even women, wear jeans with holes in them when there are beautiful dresses available? You would think that there were no feminine clothes on the market! All these lovely dresses available and they prefer to wear clothes that don’t look beautiful at all.
When God designed clothes for the high priest, He said the clothes were to be for GLORY AND FOR BEAUTY (Exodus 28:2). God loves beauty. I believe He wants his female creation to dress beautifully. To dress femininely. To dress modestly. To dress gloriously.
Because God created us female, the more we reveal our femininity, the more we bring glory to God. Why not order a beautiful dress? I am sure your husband will be delighted. I am sure you will get loads of complements. You will feel very feminine. And you will look beautiful.
Blessings from Nancy
Dresses Sale, Cheap Women's Fashion Dresses Online Shop - Airydress
Modest Dresses for Women - NeeSee's Dresses (neeseesdresses.com)
Women's fashion dresses on Pinkofyouth
Dresses – Love Olive Co
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Maxi dresses – wesandy-
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Proverbs 24:16 says: “A just man falleth seven times and RISETH up again.” You may have fallen. You may have blown it. But get up again! Each time you will be stronger.
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I posted yesterday about living in the true reality, the reality of the heavenly world. How can we practically do we do this?When Christ dwells in our hearts everything is sacred. No matter how mundane the task at hand, it cannot be anything less than holy when Christ dwells in us. The real truth is: “Christ in you, the hope of glory: (Colossians 1:27). We need to acknowledge this truth and believe it!
When you clean toilets, sing for joy because Christ Jesus sings with you and over you (Zephaniah 3:17). When you wash dishes and laundry, acknowledge the presence of Jesus with you. When you prepare another meal for your family, do it with joy and excitement because Christ is with you. He doesn’t leave you when you do the commonplace duties. He is not apart from you in the humdrum of life. He is in you and with you.
He promises: “I will NEVER leave you, or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). No matter what you are doing (unless you are sinning and grieving His Holy Spirit), He is with you.
I love Zechariah 14:20, 21 (NET): “On that day the bells of the horses will bear the inscription “HOLY TO THE LORD.” The cooking pots in the LORD’S temple will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will become holy in the sight of the LORD who rules over all.”
Every saucepan you pick up is holy because you, and everything in your home, is sanctified by the power of the living Christ who abides in you. To prepare a meal for your family is as sacred as a minister who prepares a spiritual meal for the church!
Therefore, enjoy every moment and every task in your home today. Yes, you can enjoy it if you think the right way!
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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The reality of life is our day-to day responsibility to manage our homes. Feed, nurture, and train our children. Attend to all the interruptions that are sure to happen. But there is another reality, a reality that has the power to impact our daily lives. It is the reality of the heavenly.Jesus told us to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Colossians 3:1-3 (NLT) states: “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”
These words seem so far from our daily experience, don’t they? And yet this is normal Christianity. The realities of the heavenly realm are the TRUE REALITIES. The eternal realm is the REAL WORLD. This world is passing away. It is like a vapor that appears for a moment and is gone.
When we focus our ordinary, daily life on the eternal, it takes us from the doldrums to delight, from misery to the miraculous, from pre-occupation with self to praising God. Instead of being overwhelmed about all our challenges and problems, we lift our eyes to Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father. We give our difficulties to Him. Nothing is too big for Him to handle.
Did you know that God never gets in a state of confusion or tension? And He dwells in your heart by His Spirit? Therefore, you don’t have to get all tied up in knots. Allow Christ to take control. He’ll do a much better job than you!
Be encouraged today as you read 2 Corinthians 4:1-18: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a FAR MORE EXCEEDING AND ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY: While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which re not seen are eternal.”
Rise up to a new plane today,
Nancy Campbell
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This Scripture comes in the context of persecution against the people of God. The BSB translation says: “With flattery he will corrupt those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will FIRMLY RESIST HIM.”
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There’s nothing more powerful, amazing, impacting, influencing, overwhelming, and high-powered as motherhood. You are determining the destiny of the nation.
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Do you always seem to be facing some challenge? Are you forever going through a difficulty? You can't pay your bills? Can I share a little secret with you? It's actually Paul's secret. He was constantly facing hardships, beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonments, and suffering. But what was his confession? "Always 'going through it' yet never 'going under'" (2 Corinthians 6:9 JBP).He goes on to say in verse 10: “We know sorrow, yet our joy is inextinguishable. We have 'nothing to bless ourselves with' yet we bless many others with true riches. We are penniless, and yet in reality we have everything worth having."
No matter what you are going through, you don't have to go under. Well, you may, if you trust in yourself and your own resources. But when you put your trust in God, He will not fail you. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5-6). He is bigger than your difficulties. No problem is too big for Him to handle. Trust Him.
Trust Him when dark days assail thee,
Trust Him when thy faith is small,
Trust Him when to simply trust Him
Is the hardest thing of all.
When all seems dark around you, the Lord will be your light. Even in the raging torrent He says to you, "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee" (Isaiah 41:10). Even if you fall, you still can't go under. His everlasting arms are waiting to catch you and hold you.
Deuteronomy 33:27 reminds us that “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
God bless you today,
Nancy Campbell
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There’s so much to be thankful for, isn’t there? Not just thankful but OVERFLOWING with thanksgiving (Colossians 2:7). Thankful for our glorious and eternal salvation. Thankful for the little things of each day. Thankful for our husbands. Thankful for each one of our children. And this releases the joy!
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I wonder why we live so below the life God intends for us. Jesus not only died to save us from our sin but to bring us into a far more glorious way of living. He wants us to live the GLORY LIFE.2 Corinthians 3:7-8 tells us: "But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be MORE GLORIOUS?"
I am humbled and convicted. The law came with fire, smoke, earthquake, thunder, and the "louder and louder" blast of the trumpet (Exodus 19:18-19). It was glorious. And yet, God says the new covenant of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts is MORE GLORIOUS! What does this say for the way you and I live each day?
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face so shone with the glory of God that the children of Israel were afraid to come near him (Exodus 34:29-30). We are living in the greater glory of the Spirit. Do our faces shine with His glory? Do people sense the holy presence of God upon our lives when they come near us?
What about our children? What do they see on your face as they look at you each day?
The mark of God upon us is not living by laws and regulations and "thou shalt not do this" and "thou shalt do that." We have come into a more glorious way. The way of the Spirit does not just keep to the letter of the law. It goes beyond the law into an abounding life of being led and filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ paid the greatest sacrifice for us to enter into the "MORE GLORIOUS" life.
Let’s read about this truth in the Passion translation: “HOW MUCH MOIRE RADIANT is this new and GLORIOUS ministry of the Spirit that shines from us! For if the former ministry of condemnation was ushered in with a measure of glory, HOW MUCH MORE does the ministry that imparts righteousness FAR EXCEL IN GLORY. What once was glorious no longer holds any glory because of the INCREASIGLY GREATER GLORY that has replaced it . . . So then, with this AMAZING HOPE LIVING IN US we step out in freedom nd boldness to speak the truth.”
The word “EXCEED in glory” (KJV) used in v. 9 is the Greek word “perisseuo” which is a word that is frequently used in the New Testament (and which I frequently remind you about). It means “to superabound, to be in excess, to excel, to abound, enough and to spare, over and above.” God does not intend us to live a normal life! It is above the normal.
Well, how can it be normal when Christ, the LORD OF GLORY dwells within us?
But that’s not all. The word “excelleth” (KJV) used in verse v. 10 is “huperballo” and means “to throw beyond the usual mark, to surpass, to exceed.” Once again, we see that God does not intend us to live ordinary lives. We will go beyond the ordinary. If Christ dwells in us we will live extraordinary lives. And of course, that starts in our homes.
Are you living the GLORY LIFE?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
P.S. Did you know that 2 Corinthians 3 is the Glory Chapter in the Bible? It mentions the word glory or glorious 14 times, the most of any chapter in the Bible.
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God has visited you,
So true.
A mother has the one job in the world where an adequate replacement cannot be found!
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Hebrews 1:1 tells us how God spoke in times past by the prophets, but now speaks to us through His own beloved Son. The word "prophet" is not only a foretelling as many people think of a prophet, but it is an OUT-SPEAKING! Trench explains it, "The ‘prophet’ is the outspeaker; he who speaks out the counsel of God with the clearness, energy, and authority which spring from the consciousness of speaking in God's name and having received a direct message from Him to deliver."Christ, who lives in us is "prophet, priest, and king." I believe that every father should be a prophet to his family, seeking God for His ways and speaking God's counsel to His family. But we as mothers also have a daily responsibility to speak the counsel of God to our children.
What does Proverbs 6:20-22 (WSV) say? “Forsake not your mother’s teaching . . . When you walk, the will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake they will talk with you.”
Motherhood is even more than nurturing, feeding, and caring for our children’s physical bodies. It is our God-given duty to feed their inner man—their souls and spirits as well as their bodies . . . even more so.
Let's be mothers who earnestly seek God and His Word. And then with energy and authority we will daily speak God's counsel to our children. WHAT A HIGH AND LOFTY CALLING! Don't be content to only half-mother your children. You may be a wonderful nurturer of their physical bodies, but are you also nurturing their inner man? How much and how often are you feeding and strengthening their souls and spirits?
We must prepare them now to be strong and steadfast, ready for the days when they will face the battles from the kingdom of darkness.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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