GOD'S PRACTICAL PLAN

Part 1

"Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce"
Jeremiah 29; 5 NASB.

I am always amazed as I read God's Word to find how practical it is for our daily lives. God comes down to our "nitty gritty" and leaves us in no doubt as to how He wants us to live.

In Jeremiah 29:5-11 God gives a message through the prophet to the Jews who were taken captive to Babylon. It is a practical message reminding them of His original plan. Remember, this is a message to people living in captivity! They are no longer living in the freedom of their own country, but God doesn't change His plan according to circumstances. God's eternal principles work in every situation.

God gives seven commands...

1. Build  houses

"Build houses and live in them" Verse 5. It is God's blessing for us to be settled in a home. God made sure He had the home ready and waiting before He created His female creation. The home is our sanctuary-a solace from the outside world where we make a haven of peace for our husband to return each evening and a place where we can nurture and train our children. God's plan is for children to be raised in the home.

2. Plant gardens

"Plant gardens and eat their produce" Verse 5. You may be thinking that it's nice to hear about gardens but you don't have any room to make a garden where you live. I would encourage you to prepare a small garden, or even grow a few lettuces, herbs or tomatoes in pots on your deck. A little garden is better than no garden at all. Many have forgotten in this modern society in which we live that gardening is part of home-making. The first home was called the GARDEN of Eden and God established the first home as the prototype for all future homes.

God intends us to grow produce to help feed our families. In years gone by this was necessary for survival. If you didn't have a garden, you didn't eat! But I don't think it is much different today. If we want to eat healthy produce, we need to grow it ourselves! Most commercial produce is heavily sprayed with chemicals and a high percentage is genetically modified. Of course, you can purchase organically grown produce from co-ops or a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) but very few can afford to do this.

This is so much part of God's plan that He commanded the Jews to plant gardens even in captivity!  Gardens don't just appear! You have to work at them. That's what God told Adam to do in the very beginning. Genesis 2:15 says, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it." The Hebrew word "cultivate" is avad and means "to toil, to serve, to make weary, to be fatigued." I've had people say that it's all very well for us to have gardens here in the country as we have plenty of room. Actually, where we live on our hill, there is no suitable soil. We had to purchase our soil to fill our 13 long raised beds.

Evangeline, our daughter, has the most magnificent vegetable garden to feed their large family of 10 children. I have to concede that her garden is now better and much bigger than mine!  Her garden didn't suddenly appear either. I am amazed every time I look at this huge garden space knowing that it was hewed out of trees and bramble-a jungle that looked impossible. But Evangeline had a dream which she made happen. It reminds me of my favorite saying, "Things don't just happen: you have to MAKE THEM HAPPEN." They got "stuck in," cut down the trees, dug out the roots and with back-breaking effort broke it up into soil.

It was just this morning that I read to my granddaughter one of Edgar Guest's poems, Results and Roses. Here's an excerpt...

The man who wants a garden fair,

Or small or very big,

With flowers growing here and there,

Must bend his back and dig.

The things are mighty few on earth

That wishes can attain

Whate'er we want of any worth

We've got to work to gain.

Read these Scriptures too: Genesis 1:29; Proverbs 6:6-11; 12:11; 24:27; 27:18; 28:19; 31:16 and 2 Corinthians 9:6.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL, ABOVE RUBIES

PRAYER:

"Dear Father, I thank you so much that you show me the way you want me to live. Help me to walk in your ways. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I'm following the path God has laid out for me.

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY!
Part 2

"I am come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey" Exodus 3:8.

We continue to learn about the land God wants us to live in.

IT IS A LARGE LAND (Exodus 3:8)

It is not a small career to be a mother and home-maker. It is huge. It becomes bigger and more far-reaching as your family grows.

You start off as a married couple and gradually God blesses you with children from His bountiful hand. One day you have the blessing of grandchildren which exceed the number of your children. And then great-grandchildren, which usually surpasses the number of your grandchildren! The influence of motherhood not only affects the nation, but future generations.

Our land of motherhood should always be enlarging. God told the children of Israel, "I will enlarge your borders" Exodus 24:23 and Deuteronomy 12:20.

Isaiah 54:2-3 says, "Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations."

I have always loved G.K. Chesterton's words, "To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labours, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can imagine how this can exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it.

How can it be a large career to tell other people about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe?

How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone?

No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute."

IT IS A FLOWING LAND (Exodus 3:8)

It is a land that flows. * The Hebrew word "flowing" is zoob which means "to flow freely, to overflow, to gush out." It also has the idea of not only gushing, but oozing and dripping.

Are you flowing in your land of motherhood? Are you flowing and dripping with love, compassion, forgiveness, joy, wisdom and all the good things of God?

This is the opposite to the land of sighing, stinginess, misery, legality, depression and boredom.

It is a picture of productiveness and large-heartedness. It is a land of smiles, laughter and joy where you say Yes more than No. It is a land where you not only fulfill your duty to what has to be done each day, but you face every task exuberantly.

You love your husband profusely. You love your children exceedingly. You don't hold back, but overflow from the life of the Spirit of God who lives in you.

There is no stinginess in this land. It is a land of flowing and flourishing, gushing and giving. It's a picture of God's generous heart revealed in these lines...

He might have doled His blossoms out quite grudgingly,

He might have used His sunset gold so sparingly,

He might have put but one wee star in all the sky,

But since He gave so lavishly, why should not I?"

I have to admit that I don't always have this attitude. I can be miserly and restrictive, but I pray that that God will work His attitudes in me so that I will always flow with blessings to others and have a heart that freely gives.

IT FLOWS WITH MILK (Exodus 3:8)

God's land specifically flows with "milk and honey." Some commentators say that this is literal, others figurative. I believe it is both.

A Talmud description says, "Milk flows from the goats' (udders), and honey flows from the dates and the figs (Ketubot 111b)." Other translators say that it was actually wild honey.

But what does it mean in the "land" in which we live each day?

Flowing with milk speaks of nourishing and nurturing.

Milk gives sustenance to build healthy bodies. The mother flows with milk from her breast to nourish her babe. She continues to nourish and sustain her children with wholesome foods. She nourishes them as she educates them in wisdom and the ways of God.

The land of motherhood is a nourishing land. It is what we were born to do. It is our anointing. Let's not be stingy with this gift, but overflow in it!

Next week we will talk about flowing with honey.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

"Dear Father, I have been guilty of being stingy in my love and nurturing. Please anoint me to flow with the anointing of your nurturing gift that you have given to me. Help me to be constantly nourishing my children. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I am a nourishing mother!

*Twenty times the Bible speaks of the land which "flows with milk and honey."

Exodus 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Leviticus 20:24; Numbers 13:27; 14:8; 16:13-14; Deuteronomy 6:3; 11:9; 26:9, 15; 2 7:3; 31:20; Joshua 5:6; Jeremiah 11:5; 32:22; Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:5.

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

OFF COURSE!

"For My people have forgotten Me... they have stumbled from their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, not on a highway" Jeremiah 18:15.

To be less than half a degree off course can take you down a path of deception. When a surveyor surveys land, he must have his calculations correct. If he is one degree, or even less than a degree off course from the starting point, the line will veer further and further away from course.

Many today are walking down a bypath that is taking them in a wrong direction and they have no idea they are on the wrong course. Many people are traveling the same path with them so they think it is the right one. How did they get there? Not because they were straying off at the beginning at 30 degrees angle, but maybe only less than one degree. They imbibed just a tiny humanistic lie. That was enough. Just a little degree off and it gradually takes them further and further away from the truth.

We read in Amos 7:8, "The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?' And I said, ‘A plumb line.' The Lord said, ‘Behold I am about to put a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel.'" A plumb line is a string with a piece of pointed lead or weight on the end to provide an exact measure for a vertical line. It is used by masons and bricklayers to keep their walls straight and without it they could easily make a crooked building. The plumb line is accurate, providing a consistent standard for the walls being constructed.

The Word of God is our plumb line for life. It measures our thoughts, actions and beliefs. It is only from the Word of God that we gain a true world view. God will not judge us according to our opinions, or our circumstances, but only by the plumb line of His Holy Word which abides eternally.  One writer says, "The Bible is the only tangible, visible, readable, understandable and applicable measure for spiritual issues that we have." If a bricklayer finds his wall crooked, will he try and adjust the plumb line to his crooked wall? Impossible. He must rebuild the wall according to the plumb line.

God says in Isaiah 28:17 NIV, "I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line." The plumb line of God's Word judges everything by an exact standard, not our standard. We must keep our minds stayed upon the Lord (Isaiah 26:3-4) and feed our souls constantly on the Word of God.

The more the Word of God fills us,

the easier we will keep on course.

The less the Word of God fills us,

the easier we will stray off course.

If we want our children to stay on the right course, we must daily feed them with God's Word.

I am reminded of Christian and Faithful in Pilgrim's Progress when they turned aside into Bypath Meadow.They would never have dreamed of straying from the King's Highway, but Bypath Meadow was going in the same direction, only it was a much easier path. They decided to have a rest and take the bypath, ready to jump back to the King's Highway if they noticed it veering away. But a storm came and flooded the path. They were enveloped in darkness and could not find the way back to the King's Way.

None of us ever intend to steer from God's path. That's why we must watch diligently, for only one degree, or even half a degree, will take us more and more away from the truth. I wonder why many who say they believe in God laugh at families who open their hearts to having the children God wants them to have? Where did they get this attitude which is totally foreign to the Word of God? They are now 100 degrees opposite to the Word of God and don't even know it! They have joined the unbelievers who have formed their own opinions and laugh at God's absolute truths.

If we can stray so far from the plumb line in this life, what about future generations? We can be guilty of taking our children on a deviant path as they imbibe our values and beliefs. And often they take on more deception as they continue walking away from the plumb line. Someone has said, "One generation is only one generation away from degeneration." I think of a Christian family I know. Their lives were so busy following the material pursuits of this world that they rarely sat down as a family to eat their meals together at home and instead ended up grabbing fast-food or eating in a restaurant. I remember saying to the wife, "If you don't establish the habit of sitting together as a family around the meal table, what will your children do when they are married?"

As this couple gradually moved further away from God's measurement and lived by their own desires, they ended up much farther from the path than they realized. They are now divorced. Their children struggle with drugs and are not walking with the Lord. Just a little straying eventually resulted in destruction.

The Moffat's translation of Jeremiah 18:15 says that they "take to bypaths of their own." Are you going down a bypath of your own reasoning, or sticking to the plumb line? Where are your children heading? Are they building their lives on the plumb line of God's absolute truths or walking down a bypath?

Let's come daily to the plumb line of God's Word to check if we are on the right track.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL, ABOVE RUBIES

PRAYER:

"I thank you, Father, that you have given me a plumb line. I don't have to guess my way. You have shown it clearly. Please help me to keep a straight course and give me wisdom to keep my children on this course. Please keep us from detouring on bypaths. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I'm building my marriage and family according to the plumb line!

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week. If you are printing this devotion and need it to be smaller, highlight and change to a smaller font.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

HIS COMING CONTINUES TODAY!

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same" (Hebrews 2:14).

Joy to the world, the Lord has come. He came! This is the greatest news in all of history! What joy to celebrate His coming. We know this may not have been the time He was born (more likely the time He was divinely conceived), but the actual day is insignificant compared to the opportunity to celebrate His coming.

HOW DID HE COME?

He didn't come with pomp and ceremony. He came has a babe. Luke 2:12 tells us, "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." Yes, a baby! God chose the One who will rule over all kings and nations to come as a baby. No wonder the devil hates babies, for this is the way Jesus came. I love the words of Mark Lowry's Christmas song...

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?

This sleeping child you're holding is the great I AM.

I love the words of this Christmas song too...

It's still a mystery to me that the hands of God could be so small,
How tiny fingers reaching in the night were the very hands that measured the sky!
It's still a mystery to me how His infant eyes had seen the dawn of time!
How his ears had heard an angel's symphony. but still Mary had to rock her

Savior to sleep!

He didn't come with riches, but in poverty. Instead of bringing a lamb to the temple when they dedicated Jesus, Joseph and Mary could only afford pigeons. Read Luke 2:22-24 and Matthew 8:20.

Although He was divine, He came to take on our humanity and feel our infirmities. Read John 1:14; Romans 1:3 8:3; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:7; Hebrews 2:14, 17 and 4:15.

He didn't hold on to His glory but made himself of no reputation. He became a servant. He humbled himself and submitted himself to the death of the cross. Philippians 2:7-8.

In coming in this way, He showed us the way to live. The birth of Jesus shows how to live in humility and lay down our lives for one another. This is the Christmas message.

WHAT DID HIS COMING BRING?

SALVATION!

Matthew 1:21 says,"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."He is still bringing salvation to all who will receive Him today.

JOY!

He came to bring joy! The angel's message to the Bethlehem shepherds was, "Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOY, which shall be to all people For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).Not only did Jesus bring joy at His birth, but He now dwells in us to give us continuous joy! Because He came we have joy! Our joy is not dependent on our circumstances or how we feel, but Christ's joy in us. No matter what is going on in our lives we can still rejoice!

LIGHT!

He came to bring light. Luke 1:78-79 says, "The dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death." Jesus came to bring light to our darkness of despair, deception and depravity. But the wonderful thing is that He still brings light. When Jesus Christ dwells in you by His Holy Spirit, you have light in your soul, no matter how dark your situation, because He is Light. Jesus was not a little light, but "a great light" (Matthew 4:16). Now that He lives in us, He also wants us to shine and expose the darkness around us. We are not to be a  flickering light but a great light!

PEACE!

He came to bring Peace. Luke 1:78-79 also tells us that the dayspring from on high visited us "to guide our feet into the way of peace." To herald Jesus' birth the multitude of the heavenly host praised God saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men" (Luke 2:13-14). Jesus came to not only bring peace at His birth, but to bring peace to your heart! He came to dwell in your heart by His Holy Spirit to give you peace even in the midst of storms!  He wants you to be a peace-maker. Oh thank you, Lord Jesus that you came!

LOVE!

We are reminded again of John 3:16, the most well-loved Scriptures in all the Bible of how God "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son..." This was love beyond comprehension! God introduced a new kind of love into the world, agape love-love that goes beyond what people deserve, love that goes beyond how we feel about a person, love that loves even the unlovely. Jesus not only came to show us this love but to live in our hearts so that we could also experience this love and reveal it to others.

TRUTH!

Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me." He came to bring truth and still continues to bring truth to us by the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Read John 14:26.

LIFE!

He came to bring life. Abundant life! Read John 14:6 and 10:10.

FULFILLMENT OF ALL MESSIANC PROPHECIES *

In the gospels we constantly read Scriptures similar to Matthew 4:14, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying..." Next time you read the Gospels notice how many times it says, "that it might be fulfilled." There are too many to list in this devotion. Some theologians say that Jesus fulfilled 365 prophecies; others say over 400. I haven't counted them myself but there are certainly more than we need to prove that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Messiah of the world.

Aren't you glad He came as a little baby? God chose that a babe would bring salvation and one day rule the world. Don't forget at this Christmas time that we are not only remembering that Jesus came, but that He came to dwell in your heart by faith. He is still here! He is in your heart! Can you burst forth with a Hallelujah?

Love and blessed Christmas greetings to you and your precious family,

NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

"Thank you, dear heavenly Father for sending your only begotten son to this world. Thank you, Jesus that you came. You came at the perfect moment in history, even though you were the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Thank you that you did not leave me stranded but you sent your Holy Spirit to continually live in my heart. Your coming continues today. I am blessed forever. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I confess with Mary, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord." (Luke 1:46)

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

· To check out some Messianic prophecies refer to the Scriptures below: