Exodus 25:23-24, “You shall also make a table of acacia wood… and you shall overlay it with pure gold.”

The first mention of the table in the Bible is in the above passage where God tells Moses to make a table from acacia wood and then to overlay it with pure gold. In the Bible wood always speaks of humanity. The pure gold speaks of the divinity of Christ. It is interesting that this table was to be made of both wood and gold, speaking of Christ’s humanity and His divinity. However, I believe it also relates to the tables we have in our homes.

We come to our table, loaded with humanity. We come with our weaknesses and failings. Our children come to the table in their humanity. They are certainly not perfect. Sometimes they are fussy. Sometimes they don’t want to eat. They may grumble and complain. There may even be arguments. Without God’s intervention, it can be a total shambles! But God, represented by the table overlaid with pure gold, wants to come to your table.

He wants to bring His presence to your table. He wants to cover your humanity with His divinity. He wants to fellowship with you at your table. This is what He did at the beginning of creation with Adam and Eve, and He wants to continue this practice throughout all generations. (Genesis 3:8-9) Every day He came to talk with Adam and Eve. He did not come to them in the heat of the day or during their hours of work (for God established the principle of work before sin entered the Garden of Eden). He came to them in the cool of the day, in the evening time—the time of the day when we gather around the meal table to eat together, fellowship and relax.

God wants to join you at this time of each day too. Invite Him to come. Don’t hide from His presence as Adam and Eve did after they had sinned. Make sure that you are gathered together as a family to meet Him. I think that many times God comes to homes, waiting to join them as they sit at table together—but the table is empty! No meal is prepared, mother is preoccupied with other things or is still out in the car with the children, or the family is snacking in front of the TV! 

The table of wood and pure gold that God told Moses to make was for the Holy Place in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Each week the priests would bake 12 loaves of bread which they would place on the table. These loaves were called the Bread of His Presence. At the end of the week the priests would eat the loaves together in the presence of the Lord. This also speaks of God delighting to fellowship with us at our table.       

When you give thanks at the beginning of each meal, invite God to come with all His divinity to your table. Acknowledge His presence. His presence will bring the atmosphere of Heaven. It will cover your earthy humanity. I don’t think you can do without Him at your table. I can’t.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

AFFIRMATION: 

Psalm 5:3, “I will look up.”

It is an amazing fact, yet hard to comprehend, that we are created in the image and likeness of God. We were created to reveal what God is like through our nature, but also through our physical body. God designed our body to function in the way He functions without a body. Although God does not have a body, He can see, hear, smell, touch and speak, just as He created us to do. Whenever God appeared visibly to mankind, he did in the form of a human body. And wondrously, God prepared a human body for His own precious son, “made in the likeness of men” just as man was made “in the likeness of God.” (Philippians 2:7 and Genesis 1:26)

Another interesting factor is the way God created our physical body. He did not create us to walk on all fours like the animals, but created us with an upright posture. We were born to look up, to have an upward gazing countenance. God did not intend his highest creation to grovel in the dust and to be bowed down with depression and defeat. He created us with an erect carriage, a posture that enables us to look up to Him, a posture that gives expression to freedom and positivity.

God wants you to walk with your head held high. He wants you to turn your thoughts to Him, your heart to Him and your face to Him.

Leviticus 26:13 says, “I am the Lord your God, ,which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye shall not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright”

The RSV says, “Made you walk erect.”

The NLT says, “So you can walk free with your heads held high.”

The children of Israel walked erect with their heads held high because they were free men, no longer slaves to Egypt. Not only did God create us free, with the command to rule and reign, but when sin came in and we became enslaved to its power, God sent a Redeemer to deliver us. Once again, through the power of the cross, we are set free to walk with our heads held high.

The psalmist says in Psalm 34:5, “They looked unto him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.” The Knox translation says, “Ever look to Him… no room for downcast looks.” When your head sags, He is waiting to lift it up. He is the lifter of your head. (Psalm 3:3) You will never be ashamed when you look up to the Lord. Your face will brighten. Make it the habit of your life. It is what you were created to do.

We are often encouraged in the Psalms to wait upon the Lord. Did you know that this word also means to look to the Lord? Some scholars believe that the word ‘wait’ (quvah) has two roots:

1) To bind together by twisting, to be joined

2) To expect, to look for patiently, hope, be confident. This Hebrew word quvah is translated ‘wait’ over 30 times, but the same word is translated ‘look’ over 14 times.

Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait (quvah) on the Lord, be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart, wait, I say on the Lord.” If you want your heart strengthened, you must look up the Lord in expectancy. This is what gives courage to your heart, physically and spiritually.

Check your posture today. Are you walking erect? Is your head held high? Is your face upturned to the Lord?

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Prayer:

“Lord, I thank you that you created me to look up to you. You are my strength and motivation for living. Hallelujah.”

 

Affirmation:

I look to you and worries cease

And now my heart is filled with peace!

Exodus 28:28, “Thus the two will be joined in a workmanlike fashion and will never come apart.”

I am always amazed at how practical the Bible is. God is interested in the practical details of our every day lives. God gave explicit instructions how to make everything for the tabernacle in the wilderness. He told Moses exactly how He wanted each piece of furniture and each piece of clothing to be made. God is even a clothes designer. He planned the glorious garments for the High Priest to wear.

The High Priest also wore a breastplate and God gave precise instructions how the rings of the breastplate were to be tied to the rings of the ephod with blue cord, “thus the two will be joined in a workmanlike fashion and will never come apart.” (Exodus 28:28 Knox) I was arrested when I read this Scripture. God is concerned about good workmanship. He showed Moses how to do it so it would never come apart. God wants things done properly. He does not want shoddy work.

I was brought up with the maxim, “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” I am sure you did too. And now you are training your children the same way. We continue this training from generation to generation. And it is important that we keep passing on this baton, because it is a biblical one.

Not only should we do each job we tackle to the very best of our ability, but if we start something, we should finish it. Sometimes we face obstacles in the things we start and we want to give up. My 90 year old father is staying with us at present. Whenever he faces a problem he says, “A good man’s never stuck!” He will always find a way to fix the problem and finish the job. His father passed on these words to him and they became part of his life. He passed them on to his children and grandchildren! All my children and grandchildren know this statement by heart and I continually hear them quoting it.

God Himself shows us the example when He created the world. “And God saw every thing that he had made and, behold, it was very good… thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” (Genesis 1:31; 2:1)

Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34; 17:4)

Paul had the same spirit when he confessed in Acts 230:24, “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

We also read about Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:9, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it.”

How about one more example? 2 Chronicles 3:1 says, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah.” We then read in chapter 5:1, “Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of the Lord was finished.”

To see a job through to the end is a godly trait.

Let’s carry on God’s example of good workmanship in our own lives and impart this godly character trait into the lives of our children and grandchildren.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Prayer:

Affirmation

Matthew 28:30, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

When God told the Israelites about the new home He was taking them to, He said, “The land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.” (Deuteronomy 11:10-11 NAS)

They could not rely on the rain from heaven in the land of Egypt. They had to do all their irrigation by hand, or I should say, by foot, for this is how it was done. They dug man-made channels for the water which they forced along by wheels operated by their feet. It was hard laborious work. It was a daily grind. They didn’t have to do this in the Promised Land. They relied totally upon God to send the rain to water the crops.

Egypt is a type of the world. It is a type of walking in the flesh and doing things by our own energy. This contrasts to our new life in the kingdom of God where we walk in the Spirit and trust God instead of our own resources.

How are you living each day? Are you still living back in Egypt, or are you basking in the rest of the Lord? Often mothers feel that their life is a daily grind, with no joy or hope. They are living like the Israelites were when they were slaves in Egypt. But we are no longer slaves. We are free people, saved by the suffering and shed blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross. He died to deliver us from relying upon the flesh.

“But don’t you realize the financial difficulties that we are going through. I have to work this extra job to help my husband pay all our bills.” Has God asked you to take on your husband’s responsibility? Or are you taking on this yourself?

 “But don’t you realize how many things I have to do? I’m pregnant! I’m homeschooling my children. Plus I am involved in this Ladies’ group at church and I’m also helping with the Sunday school.” Who told you to get involved with these extra activities? Was it God, or was it pressure from people? Many times our life becomes a daily grind because we take on things that God hasn’t told us to do. We cannot live our lives by what everyone else wants us to do. We must be led by the Holy Spirit.

God promises in Isaiah 40:11 that “He gently leads those who are with young.” If you are pregnant or have little children, God does not expect you to be involved in anything else, apart from your mighty and divine calling of nurturing and raising your children for Him! He doesn’t expect you to be involved in extra church and other activities (except for your commitment to meeting with the saints each week.)

 “But don’t you realize that I have to take Susie to ballet lessons, Grace to violin lessons, Johnny to soccer and Brian to baseball, as well as keep up with the home and everything else.” Who told you that you have to take your children to all these lessons? Did God? Or are you trying to keep up with the Joneses who think that their children should be involved in everything that is going? We often think that our children will not make it in life unless we take them to all extra lessons and sports. That is not true. God is able to make a way for your children without putting extra pressure on your life and gadding about in the car everywhere.

“But don’t you realize? I have to make my children finish the lessons I have given them for the day. I have to get this done and that done.” Who said you have to do this? Is it what God has planned for the day or what you are setting? Are you teaching your children what God wants them to be taught, or what you think others expect of you?

Life is hard work, but it does not have to be a grind. It will seem drudgery when we do it in the energy of the flesh. God wants us to live according to the Spirit. The Israelites worked in the Promised Land, but they enjoyed their work, because they were cast upon God’s resources, not their own energy. They no longer irrigated they way they did in Egypt. They had to rely on God to send their rain.

Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Prayer:

“Father, I thank you that you have brought me into a new kingdom, a kingdom where I cannot rely on my own strength, a kingdom where I must trust you wholly. Please show me where I am doing things in my own energy for I want to be led by your Holy Spirit. Thank you that you are watching over my life and your eye is upon me from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. I can trust you to lead me. Amen.”

Affirmation: