FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 161 –  LET’S GET BACK THE GLORY, Part 3

We discover today that God's plan for clothing is to cover, not uncover. Allison Hartman from Pensacola joins me as we talk about how we can teach our daughters to dress biblically without giving into legality.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: I have a guest with me today, although she's not so much a guest, but an old friend. And Allison Hartman has shared a number of times with me on this podcast. Every time they come to stay, I say, “Allison, it's time to do another podcast!”

She and her husband Daniel and family have been staying with us for the week of Fourth of July. They come up each year for this time and we have such a great time together. And we had a marvelous Fourth of July, didn't we?

Allison: We sure did. It was wonderful. Being a Sunday, we just did a little short service and prayer service. That was amazing. Then we headed down to the river and had just a really fun time with lots of food. We loved watching the children saying the Pledge of Allegiance. It was wonderful.

Nancy: Oh yes, and then, of course, we went all day. And then barbecue and fireworks at night from our front lawn. It was a pretty big fireworks. It gets bigger every year!

Allison: Oh yes! Those young men did not spare any expense! Arden and Cedar headed it up and they had all the young boys following them, learning their ways. But thankfully no one got injured and everybody had a wonderful time.

Nancy: Yes, and they were saying to me, “It's going to be even bigger next year!”

Allison: We had a couple visitors too, that came, that had come to our family camp. It was so neat to see them. A couple of the families, the Grahams, and Will and Shavona Shaw. That was fun having them.  We were like old friends, even though we just met a couple of them at the retreat.

Nancy: Some of you may not realize that Allison and Daniel are the ones who organize our Above Rubies Family Retreat in Panama, which is down in Florida on the Gulf, right on the Gulf. So it's become a very, very popular family retreat. This last retreat in April, we had about 800 folks there. It was just the most glorious time.

But really, Allison, it hasn't really finished, has it? It just kept going.

Allison: It really did. Now, I started doing ladies' retreats for you when my girls were young. I can't quite remember, but maybe 15 years ago. And then we headed into family camps. And just like most people, when they go to a summer camp, you meet friends, you become besties, and then you get each other's phone numbers or addresses, like when I was growing up. And then you might reach out to them once or twice, but then, that's it.

And then the next summer, you'll think, “Oh, I hope I'll see my friend again.” But that’s just the way it goes. So typically, with these family camps, we will have lots of great connections, a lot of friendships built. But typically, we'll notice on the group chat, which we do during the conference. . .

Nancy: Which you do on WhatsApp, right?

Allison: Right, we use WhatsApp. But after the retreat, though, people are posting: “Here's a picture of my family.” Don't forget me kind of things. “And here's pictures from the retreat.” And then maybe a few prayer requests. “Hey, pray that we get home safely.”

But then, everybody starts leaving the group chat. You can tell, because it says, “So-and-so left. So-and-so left.” But this is so interesting that almost no one has left this group chat. And we're talking 70 to 80 families involved that came to the last retreat. It's just amazing.

In fact, just today I made a post and people said, “Man, I was just so thankful that we're still coordinating, and talking, and sharing.” In fact, someone did share that over the Fourth, two families that met at the retreat got together and spent the Fourth of July together. They live in different states, and they've just become friends. I'm hearing this over and over.

One young man who has a young little girl, he's single. He's a widower, just recently. The family had him come stay with them for a couple of weeks.

Nancy: That was lovely. That was Jether.

Allison: Jether, yes.

Nancy: I did a podcast telling you about Jether, because it wasn't this last retreat, but the retreat before, where his beautiful young wife passed away. She was dying of cancer. If you can get to listen to that podcast, it is unbelievable. But how lovely that someone reached out to Jether. *

Allison: Yes, they had him come stay, and they said they were blessed by him. But how neat, a young, single guy goes and stays with a family that has 14 children and they immediately became friends. And this was all because of this conference, that all these strangers met and left as friends. And they're continuing their friendship. It almost gives me chills thinking about it.

And I honestly think it all goes back to this deep desire for fellowship that has been created by this pandemic, plandemic, covid thing that our government, as we all know, has put this thing in place. But to me, how neat, and how wonderful that something good has come out of something so terrible. And the fact that these families are just starving for fellowship.

And many of them, the churches are still not meeting that. Many of them had not been around other people. Maybe their family doesn't want to be around them. That's very common. Even if you're not concerned about covid, all your family might be concerned, to where they don't even want to fellowship with you.

So it was amazing. We do have another conference, retreat, coming up. We have two coming up in the next year. You want me to mention them now? OK.

Typically, what we have done, we have done an annual conference. Normally that's in April. We've done that for, I don't even know, ten years or so. It's grown from 50 people to a hundred to two hundred. Like Miss Nancy says, last time it was almost 800 people, from all over, from Canada to California.

So we are going to do that annual conference again. It will be April 20th through the 27^th, 2022 That's the full week, if you want to come to be on the beach and fellowship with all the families. The conference itself will just be during the weekend. To find out more information to register, and I will say, it is almost three-fourths full now, already. Just because of the families that came last year, they've already rebooked.

But the website is AboveRubiesGulfCoast.com. You'll find out all the dates, and all the details, and how to register. However, because of covid, we had to cancel April, 2020. So instead of just canceling, we went ahead and made it in August. Because of that, this conference center we're going to, this Christian camp, has allowed us to have the August dates as well.

So instead of putting on two full conferences, we've decided to do what we're going to call the Above Rubies Family Reunion. There are so many families who can't wait to get together again. Have potlucks, have cook-outs, have fellowship time, head for the beach together. So we decided to allow that to be August 18^th through the 25^th.  Again, that information can be found at  AboveRubiesGulfCoast.com. Or you're welcome to reach me on Facebook, Allison Hartman.

But that's going to be a wonderful time for fellowship. We're going to be doing some breakout sessions that will be very spontaneous. “Hey, head down to So-and-so's if you want to learn about homesteading.” Or “Come here for this dad. He has something he wants to share on raising boys.” Or whatever.  You see the possibilities will be endless. We would love to have you come and join us.

Nancy: Yes, so good! If you're interested, you have to book now to get into both those, because that's filling up so fast.

At the moment, we are in the middle of a series called “Let's Get Back the Glory.” We're talking now about getting back the glory God wants us to have, even in what we wear. So we talked about some points last week. I'm going to go on with that today. So, Allison, you can just join me and hop in, whatever you want to say, and whatever's on your heart. It will be good to have both of us talking about this.

NO 4: GOD WANTS US TO WEAR CLOTHING THAT COVERS

So we are up to, I think it's point number five, actually, now. Or maybe point number four. Yes. God wants us to cover when we clothe ourselves. We go to Isaiah 61:10: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath covered me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels.”

Now this is talking about God covering our sins, because this is what He does. When we repent of our sins, He covers our sins with His precious blood. Then He puts on us His robe of righteousness. It's His robe, not ours, because we don't have any righteousness of our own. But God gives it to us.

So this is talking spiritually, but I believe it is also talking about clothing. In fact, God uses the allegory of clothing to describe what He does spiritually. When we get rid of our sins. I also believe that, when I read this Scripture, when I see that God has covered me and clothed me, if He has done that spiritually, I think that should work out in my life physically.

How can we be covered with the blood of Jesus, clothed with His robe of righteousness, and yet still go around scantily clad, especially in public. I don't think it adds up.

What we're going to do is look at some of these words. I have so many other Scriptures. As you know, ladies, I'm going to take you into the Scriptures little by little. Even on this subject, the subject that is, goodness me, we can find Scriptures about this! But there are so many in the Word of God.

I am just amazed. I'm always amazed at the Word of God. I'm always amazed at how practical it is, and how God gets down to the nitty-gritty of life, and how He talks about clothing, and how He wants it to be. God doesn't leave anything out of His word.

All right. So let's look at some of these Hebrew words to understand what they really mean. When it says “For God has clothed thee,” the word is labash in the Hebrew. It's a verb. It an action word. It literally means, “to put on.”

So when God clothes us, He puts on clothing. Now He uses the allegory of clothing, although this is a spiritual thing that happens inwardly, but it’s “put on” as so many of the Scriptures are even translated “put on.” This is what is means. It means “to properly wrap around, to clothe oneself.”

Now there are so many different words for “clothing.” I think there are about 23 different Hebrew words for “clothing” in the Word of God. Then there's also a number of New Testament words. God doesn't use just one word. He has so many words, even for our clothing. But this particular word, labash, is used 111 times in the Bible.

Here are just a few examples.

Genesis 41:42. Pharaoh “arrayed Joseph in vesture of fine linen.” So the word is “arrayed” there. It's amazing how the Bible will translate a Hebrew word, and they will use different English words to translate it.

In Exodus 40:14, God commanded Moses about Aaron's son, and how he was to clothe him. He said: “Clothe them with coats.”

In Job 29:14, Job is speaking, and he says: “I put on (there it is, labash, to put on. You see, God's idea of clothing is that we put it on. We don't take it off. It's to put on, to cover, to wrap around). So, “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.”

Psalm 132:9: “Let thy priests be clothed” (labash) “with righteousness.”

Isaiah 59:16-17. Here this Scripture is talking about God Himself. It says: “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore His arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness sustained Him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.”

Wow! That's pretty amazing, ladies, because there, two times, God Himself says the words, “I put on righteousness.” In other words, “I clothed Myself with it. I put on the garments of vengeance. I clothed Myself with it.” In fact, if we read this over again, we will find six words about clothing in this one Scripture.

OK, “For He put on,” labash.

“He put on (again) the garment,” two, that's labash.

“Garment,” third word. That's beged. 

“Clothing,” another Hebrew word. That is four.

“Clad,” He was clad with zeal, another Hebrew word, five.

And He was clad with a “cloak.” That was six. Six words about clothing in one Scripture where God is talking about covering. It's pretty amazing, isn't it?

Psalm 93:21: “The Lord reigneth, He is clothed, (labash) with majesty.” “The Lord is clothed (same Hebrew word again) with strength wherewith He hath girded Himself.”

Psalm 104:1-2: “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou are very great; Thou art clothed (Here's God. He is clothed, labash, the same word. He is clothed) with honor and glory. Who coverest Thyself with light as a garment.”

Once again, all these words about clothing. And I could go on and on. But you're getting the idea, aren't you?

But let's go back to the very beginning, because that's where we always have to start. Because in studying the Word of God, there is a law which is called The Law of the First Principle. And it's something which all Bible students look for.

When God says something, or He states something, or there is an action about something, the first time God is establishing a precedent for that subject. He will add to it, and it will be developed throughout the Word of God but that is the foundation.

It's the Law of the First Principle. God never takes away from what He says the first time. That's a good thing to remember. That's why Genesis is so important. Even the first three chapters of Genesis give us so much of what God wants us to understand because it's His foundation.

So, we go back to the story of Adam and Eve. We know how they sinned, and then, after they'd sinned for the first time, they realized they were naked. They had never really seen their nakedness before. It was so pure and innocent.

But now, now, because they'd tasted of that fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, now they understood nakedness. And they had to do something! So what were they going to do? They did the best thing they could do. They gathered some kind of leaves, or whatever they were, and they made aprons for themselves, the Bible says. And they girded them around themselves.

What does it actually say? Yes, Genesis 3:7: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed (that's interesting. Wow! They sewed. I wonder how they were even able to do that?) But “they sewed fig leaves together (it must have been some leaf that was very big, I'm sure) and made themselves aprons.”

Now the word “apron” comes from a root word, chagor, which means “gird on every side.” So they girded their loins. That was interesting. They at least covered that. But it was not good enough. They tried to cover themselves, but it didn't really work.

When God came on the scene, what did God do? He, first of all, had to kill an animal, and blood had to be shed. Blood was shed, right there, for their sin, because sin can only be redeemed through the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus.

And through the shedding of blood, then God took those skins. Then He made them clothes. What does it say? We go to Genesis 3:21: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.”

Now there's that same word we've been talking about, labash. The Hebrew word, which means, “to put on, to wrap around, to clothe ourselves.” And so God was the one Who first clothed man. Well, they tried with aprons. Leaves didn't really work too well.

GOD WAS THE FIRST CLOTHES DESIGNER

But God actually, it's amazing, God is the first of everything! God was the first clothes designer!

Allison: That's right.

Nancy: Yeah! I mean, the devil’s taken that up and taken that away from God. God was the first clothes designer. And I am sure that those clothes that He made for Adam and Eve would have been glorious. They would have covered them, but they would have been stylish and beautiful.

Because you remember, ladies, last week we talked mostly about how God wants us to clothe ourselves with glory and beauty. And so that's in God's heart. He loves beauty. He loves glory. So those beautiful leather garments would have been absolutely glorious.

Have you seen pictures? I have, of  Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden of Eden. They've got  animal skins around their backs, and they're going out from the Lord. But that's not true. God would not have given them a skin, and said, “Put that around you.” No! He made, do you notice the word? He made, He made, God, the Creator of the universe, made their clothes.

Can you imagine what they would have been like? They would have been glorious. They would have been beautiful, stylish, comfortable, to keep them warm, or to keep them cool. They would have been incredible. They would have been perfect, because all God's works are perfect.

But, we see another thing. OK, now we see that He made them “coats.” That's what it's called here in the King James. He made them “coats of skins.” That Hebrew word is kethoneth. It means, “to cover, a coat, a garment, a robe.” It comes from the root word katheph, meaning (and this is there, wow, I had never noticed this before. Whoo! The root word means, “ the shoulder, the upper end of the arm. A place from where the garment hangs. A side piece.”) That's the full meaning of that root word of the clothes that God made.

So therefore, He made them from the shoulders down. That's how He clothed them. He didn't clothe them with bare shoulders. He didn't make Eve’s dress a strapless dress. It was clothed from the shoulders down. And I guess I haven't thought of this before. Probably you never thought of this before. But you see, when we understand what the Bible says, and this is the Law of the First Principle, we need to say, OK, is my clothing lining up?

I think of wedding dresses. Help! I mean, most brides come to the altar today in a strapless dress. Bare shoulders. That's not how we're meant to come to the sacred wedding altar.

And really, I don't know how you think about this, Allison, but I go to weddings, and really, it can be so embarrassing, because the bride is in this strapless wedding dress, and then all the bridesmaids are in their strapless dresses. Some are big-busted, and it's hardly fitting on and showing all their bust. And others, their little dresses are barely hanging on. It's really quite a joke.

And it doesn't even look very nice! And it's not how it's meant to be. I believe a bride is meant to come to the wedding altar covered. Covered. And it's her husband's privilege to uncover her. Can you believe how we just, you see, we do so many things in our society that we take for granted. We think they're normal. Normal! You know, a wedding dress. Where do you find one that's not a strapless one? It's pretty hard to find today. And yet, the bride is showing off to everybody her flesh even before she gets to her husband.

And then, you know, we went out to dinner the other night. Oh, tell us about that.

Allison: Yes, we were at a restaurant. Right next to us was a wedding dress shop. And so they had their (you usually put your most popular dress that you want to entice people to come in) so they had this white, long, very elegant wedding dress. And I pointed it out, and you noticed it separately.

And what it was, and I pointed it out to my husband, because there are pictures on Facebook I can't even show him, because they're so, I don't even know. I think they're pornographic. They really show so much. This particular wedding dress was in downtown Dickson, TN.

Nancy: Little, wee, downtown Dickson! Here we are, just out in the woods. You know, it’s not like some up-fashion sort of place.

Allison: Right. And so what they did, was this wedding dress, it started the vee, if you will, where your cleavage would be, the vee cut all the way down to the belly button, I would say. It was showing everything.

I've heard that men are even more attracted to just the idea of nudity than nudity itself. Meaning just having a little glimpse of what a breast looks like is more attractive and causes lust more than a completely naked, naked . . .

This bride is wearing white, because it was a white gown, to show . . .

Nancy: Show her purity.

Allison: Show her purity. But yet, her poor husband is having to share her body with everyone who comes to the wedding. It's just, it's embarrassing.

Nancy: Well, you see, they just go from one thing to the other. For years now, you see a strapless wedding dress. But now that the fashion, and I had noticed this on Facebook, even before I saw it in the window. I sort of thought, “Oh, well, that must be just certain people.” But then now I see that that's what they're selling, where it's just about see-through, and the vee right down to at least the waist.

Where are we going? The trouble is, we know what happens in society. People take for granted, and think it's normal. But it is not normal, or in the Bible.

Allison: Think about who the dressmakers are. Who are the fashion people? Are they people that are seeking God on a daily basis? Are they people that have a moral compass? Are they people that really desire to keep young girls' purity? Absolutely not! And it's not just the wedding gown. It's these homecoming and prom.

Nancy: You know, because you've. . .

Allison: Oh, my goodness! I try to just keep my husband off the phone!

Nancy: Allison and Daniel have probably the biggest photography business in Pensacola, and they do many proms. Well, you have just about a thousand children at schools, haven't you?

Allison: Proms and homecomings, and yes, even the home-school prom they have in our town is kind of a joke in our opinion. They pray before they sing. But other than that, the clothing's the same, the short, short dresses that show everything, the low cleavage. The thing is, I've always said to my girls, we have six girls and five boys. We have six beautiful girls. So we have raised young ladies. They're 22, 19, and 17 (and two younger ones).

I've always said to them, “Whenever you get dressed, you're selling something. What are you wanting to sell? Because there's going to be something that captures a young man's attention. What type of man are you trying to draw in? Are you trying to attract the one that wants to look down at your cleavage, or are you trying to attract the one that wants see into your heart, into your eyes, into what you're all about?”

Goodness, we literally talk about the practical. Being a mom in today's culture, being a father in today's culture. With teenage girls, you send them off to go buy clothing. What is our responsibility? Do we instruct them on . . .  Because a lot of people can get into, “Oh, well, it has to be two inches below the knee, and it has to be this and that, and it can't be spaghetti straps.”

I know a lot of ladies might be thinking, “Oh, that sound so legalistic!” So all these anti-legalistics, you know what they're doing? They're throwing it out the window, and they're saying, “Oh, let's not be legalistic. Let's let our girls wear whatever they want. We want to be their friend.”

We were talking about this the other day. These mothers, I am amazed at these Christian mothers and fathers that I know personally. They love the Lord, they're trying to raise their kids. But they literally let their girls go out of the house half-naked. And these are young, beautiful, unmarried girls.

They're sending them, with a young boy, to prom, to be alone, where I can't even show my husband their picture because it is so seductive. How do they expect that sixteen-year-old young boy to not look at her breasts all night, look up her skirt all night. You're just inviting it! I think there has to be a better answer than all legalistic and all freedom. There has to be . . .

I have some ideas. I don't know if we have time. But I think you're right. It goes back to, that God has an opinion on this. We as parents . . .

Nancy: I think it's not an opinion. God has His law of the first mention. He has His heart. He has His whole plan for how He wants us to clothe ourselves. He's showing it in the very beginning. We're either going to live by society and what has society produced? Havoc.

There is so much fornication among young people, even Christian young people. It's not meant to be like that. Clothing has a lot to do with it. It's not like we we're talking about weddings. Of course, it's not just weddings. It's the whole of life. It's even coming to church, you know? And even going out in public.

I am amazed. I cannot believe. Often I have met in town, you know, in a shop, and I'll meet a friend, well, someone I know. Surely I hardly know where to look, they have so much cleavage showing. Their husband is supposedly a Christian, and I think to myself, “How does he let his wife go out, just showing herself?” If a husband truly, truly loves his wife, he's not going to want her to go out and show to the world what is so sacred and special for him.

Allison: But it's so cultural. It's so in style. It's what everyone's doing. You understand, this is what all these young girls, they just want to keep up with what everyone else wears. Here's my challenge: we need to be raising those who are willing to be set apart. WE NEED TO RAISE LEADERS, NOT FOLLOWERS! That is so important in fashion.

I think we all would agree that modesty must be a heart issue. If you force it, my dad, growing up, he had rules that he made me do. But there was no, necessarily, I didn't actually desire to please him. So when I would get on the school bus, I would change clothes so I could wear what I wanted. It has to be a heart issue.

I know with our oldest, she really, thankfully, desired to be modest. It's funny, I did a poll down here at the Hilltop the last time I was here. I had a bunch of the young boys. We were talking about modesty. I know girls, they really think they want to dress immodestly, because they think that's what boys want.

But I asked about ten young men here, unmarried, what would you really rather see a young lady? Would you rather a young lady be dressed very beautifully and modestly, where you're not seeing any part that you shouldn't. Or would you like to see the cleavage, and the short skirts, and the tight pants?

Every single one of them, except one who's just an honest young man, he said, “Oh, I like seeing it.” Every other one said, “I would definitely prefer seeing a modestly dressed young lady. It's beautiful to me. It's what attracts me.”

If there's two girls next to each other, and one is just dressed beautifully, but yet her shirts are higher, she's either wearing a skirt, or something that's not showing everything, that's what he's attracted to.

See, these fathers need to be telling their girls this. They don't need to take a back seat when it comes to dress. And a lot of men do. They think, “Oh, that's the mom's job.” And then the mom wants to be best friends with the daughter, so she doesn't give an opinion.

And honestly, they just let them wear whatever they want. And it has to be a big deal.

Nancy: That's not parenting. But I think what you, a little phrase you said, really, is the answer. Beautifully and modestly. It's not that you go around drab, looking like you come from a hundred years ago. No. You can dress in a style that goes with society that's modest. You can make anything modest, and you keep it beautiful. That's what God wants. He wants beauty and He wants covering.

Let me end this session with some little statements:

“Clothes are to cover, not uncover.”

This is another thing I wrote down:

“The further people get away from God, the less they want to wear.

The closer people get to God, the more they want to cover.”

So let's pray, and I think we'd better do another session on this.

Allison: I think that you're really getting wound up! (laughter)

Nancy:

Lord Jesus, we thank You that You love to show us the way. We thank You for Your Word, Lord, for without Your Word, we're in the dark. But Your Word shows us, Lord, how You want us to dress. Lord, we pray that You will give us open hearts and meek spirits that hear Your Word, to be willing to obey You, and, Lord, to take notice of Your Word. We are asking in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.abovwerubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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TO LISTEN TO THE STORY OF JETHER, THIS IS THE PODCAST:

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ACCIDENTS, DEATH, LIFE, AND THE GOODNESS AND GLORY OF GOD

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ABOVE RUBIES FAMILY RETREATS COMING UP SOON!

Check out the following Above Rubies Family Retreats. Try and get to the one closest to you. You will be so blessed. Great fun. Great fellowship. Great teaching. Great uplifting for you and the whole family. Tell other friends and family.

AUGUST 13 – 15 in MISSOURI

Location: LOVE AND PURITY CAMPUS

5027 Wayne 380 Lot 10, Patterson, MO 63956​

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SEPTEMBER 3 – 6 in CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI

ENJOY LABOR DAY WEEKEND AT THIS GLORIOUS FAMILY RETREAT

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This family camp will take place on the beautiful grounds of Timber Creek Camp.  It is located in central Mississippi and is run by a cheerful, sweet, and friendly Christian couple and their employees, (Christian campground).  It is surrounded by a beautiful pine forest.  On site, there is a beautiful lake.  There are accommodations for families in cabins, (family cabins).  There is also an opportunity for sports, fun, and fellowship:  Foosball, basketball, volleyball, Ga-Ga ball, canoeing, trails through the woods, and more.  There is a chapel for sessions on campus and a dining hall with scrumptious meals made by the Timber Creek Camp staff.

This family retreat will take place on the beautiful grounds of Timber Creek Camp. Surrounded by picturesque woods and a peaceful lake, Timber Creek Camp is a perfect place for families to be refreshed and encouraged by each other, other families, and Colin and Nancy Campbell.

Bring your children, teens, adult children, and friends to enjoy the foosball, basketball, volleyball, climbing wall, Ga-Ga ball, tunnels, canoeing, and trails through the woods. You are sure to be touched by God and other godly men and women of faith.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 160 –  LET’S GET BACK THE GLORY, Part 2

God is clothed in glory. He also wants us to clothe ourselves with glory. He wants us dress in a way that represents His glorious, majestic, and royal kingdom. What does this mean? How can we make this happen in our lives?

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, again! We are talking about “Let's Get Back The Glory.” I hope you were blessed last week as we talked about that beautiful revelation of God dripping down His glory, right to the hem of our garments. And we learned how that, when God has filled the tabernacle, and filled the temple, now He wants to fill us, because we are now His house, that it was just His footstool. We are His footstool.

I'd love you to just say that with me.

“I am God's footstool.

I am God's feet on this earth.

I am God's feet in my home.

I am created to reveal His glory.”

So, whatever you're doing today in your home, once again, God wants to drip that anointing down, right down to the very edge of your garment, right down to the skirt, right down to the hem. To bring His glory, to bring His healing, to bring His comfort, to bring whatever need our children have.

We can bring it to them, because that's what God wants us to do. We are mothering on His behalf. Isn't that wonderful? We're not doing it on our own. We're mothering, we're parenting on God's behalf. He gives us our children, and so we are now caring for them, teaching them, training them, parenting them for Him.

All right. So, we do this. Of course, we reveal God's glory through our lifestyle, through our attitude, through our actions, through our speech, and through our clothing. Now, ladies, we're getting on to this point that I didn't share with you way back when I did that series on “The Glory of Motherhood.” I was a little scared. I mean, I've always been radical and bringing radical things to you. I thought, “Oh my, I wonder what they will think if I start talking about clothing.”

Because it seems to be a controversial subject today. But it's something that I have looked at in the Word of God. In fact, I was reading, going through my journals again this morning. I was looking at a study that I did on all the Hebrew words and all the Greek words about clothing.

When I did this study, it was just amazing to me. I have to admit that I had to step on my own toes. God had to show me things that I had never looked at or thought about before. I have been meaning to share these with you. I looked back and thought, “Wow, I did this over three years ago!” So it's time that I did.

But it's not all going to be bad. It's going to be great! Really great, because this point is, God wants us to dress with glory. This is all part of the glory. I think this is something that we don't, well, maybe you haven't looked at these Scriptures. So I want to take you today into these beautiful, glorious Scriptures.

First of all, let's go back to the one I started off with last week, Lamentations 1:6: “And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty (all her glory) is departed.” Now I do believe that this has happened with the clothing of God's people, because number one point (and there will be many pointers. we won't get through them all today).

NO 1: GOD WANTS US TO E CLOTHED WITH GLORY

Number one point is that God wants us to be clothed with beauty and glory. God Himself clothes Himself gloriously.

Isaiah 63:1: “Who is this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

This is speaking of God and speaking of His glorious apparel. Yes, it talks about God's clothing! God clothes Himself and His clothing is glorious. It's the word hadar. We learned about that last time, that beautiful word hadar. Remember what it means? “Glory, magnificence, splendor, beauty, excellency, honor, majesty,” and so on.

Let me give you some other translations of Isaiah 63:1.

The Common English Bible: “This splendidly dressed One, striving with great power.” Many translations use the word “splendor.”

The Complete Jewish Bible says: “So magnificently dressed, so stately in His great strength.”

The New English Translation says: “Who is this One, wearing His royal attire?”

And the New Living translation describes Him “in royal robes.”

You see, precious ladies, we belong to a royal king. We belong to a royal kingdom. And our God is dressed, clothed, with royal, glorious, magnificent, splendid clothing.

The Young's Literal translation says: “He is honorable in His clothing.” We read in other Scriptures, Psalm 104:1-2: “O Lord my God, Thou are very great. Thou art clothed with honor.” Now that's another Hebrew word, hode, which is meaning “beauty, excellency, glorious, honor, majesty.” You notice, they all have similar meanings.

“And majesty. Who covereth Thyself with light as with a garment.” So once again, we read that He's covered with beauty and majesty. But once again, ladies, what is ascribed to God is also ascribed to us.

I read that verse from Proverbs last week. Here it is again, Proverbs 31:25: “Strength and honor (or glory, the word hadar) “are her clothing.” We also are to be clothed with glory. Now, of course, that's going to mean our hidden glory, that which emanates from us, but also what we put upon our body.

The clothing on our bodies. It's also meant to be glorious, glorious. Well, this really gets to me. I mean, as I look into the Scriptures, and we'll look at many today. Maybe a few more podcasts to get through this. I've had to keep stepping on my toes all the time, because, wow, I can't really testify that I just wear glorious, majestic, beautiful clothing all the time. Especially around home. Goodness me, I don't always look very glorious as all!

I do like to, when I go out, when I go to church, when I go to a function, I do like to dress as gloriously as I can. I'm sure it's not really to the biblical standard but I do it as much as I can. Because this is not my idea, ladies. This is the Word of God. If God, Who is the Head, and we are His body on the earth, if the Head Himself is clothed gloriously and magnificently, so shouldn't we, His body, be clothed gloriously and magnificently?

Let's read Psalm 145:10-12: “All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord: and Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power; To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.”

Ladies, are we really getting it? Do I really get it? We belong to a kingdom. Not just any kingdom. It's God's kingdom, a royal kingdom. The glorious majesty of His kingdom. And God uses two glory words to describe His kingdom. One word is not enough. “Glorious” is kabad, and “majesty” is hadar. Two Hebrew words that speak of God's glory and yet which are also ascribed to us!

And so, if we truly believe that we belong to a glorious, majestic kingdom, don't you think that it will change the clothing that we wear? Truly, don't you really think that we should seek, to even in a little way, clothe ourselves gloriously and majestically? Because we belong to this glorious, majestic kingdom.

Aren't we meant to represent His kingdom on earth? I'm sure that's what we're meant to do. I know I fall short, but I want to begin to reveal more and more that I belong to a glorious, majestic kingdom.

I believe, dear mothers, that we should be training our daughters. and our sons, who we are raising to be princes in all the earth. That's what it talks about in Psalm 45, that we are raising princes in all the earth. And we are raising daughters who are princesses who belong to a royal kingdom.

And yet, we let them go out dressing like rags. Well, not quite. I mean, they're fashionable rags. But when you think about it, now I'm going to say something here that some of you may not like. I'm not going to say it in that, “Oh, well, you can't do this.” You can do what you like.

But as I think of these Scriptures, do you really, truly, do you really think that holey jeans that are all tattered at the knees, and holes everywhere, do you think they really can be equated with God's royal, majestic, and glorious kingdom? Oh, I know they're the fashion. Yeah, they're the fashion.

But isn't it amazing, how we, even as the people of God, are so taken up with fashion. We just do, and we're all prone to doing it, we all do what society is doing. I'm not saying, “OK, you can never wear those.” Young people love them. They think they look great. But they really, actually, look horrible.

I mean, they look fashionable. But truly, are they beautiful? No, they're not beautiful. They're not majestic. They're not glorious. OK, they're good for around home, but I think if, you know, we're going out, if we're going to church, we should rise to who we are, subjects of a royal kingdom. It's worth thinking about, isn't it? You go to think about it.

OK, let's go to some other Scriptures, shall we? Exodus 28:2. Now, this Scripture is in the chapter that talks about the high priest's garments. Now the garments that God planned for the high priest to wear were absolutely glorious. They were made of glorious colors of blue and purple and scarlet. And he wore on his breastplate these beautiful jewels that were shining and sparkling. There were beautiful jewels on his shoulders. The garment was just one piece of glory.

Exodus 28:2: “And thou shalt (now this was a commandment) And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother (speaking to Moses) “for glory and for beauty.” Isn't this amazing? When God wanted clothes for His high priest, and he was just going to be there in the tabernacle, later in the temple, in the Presence of God, God wanted to behold beauty. God wanted to look upon glory.

Because as the high priest, he was representing God. And, therefore, he couldn't just wear any old thing. He had to wear clothes that represented God. God Himself was clothed with majesty and glory. So He commanded that the clothes of the high priest were also to be majestic and glorious. “For glory and for beauty.”

Now ladies, here in the New Testament, the Word of God says that we have been “made unto God kings and priests” (Revelation 1:6 and 5:10). We are now priests unto God. And therefore, He wants us too, to wear clothes that are for glory and for beauty.

So, when we're choosing our clothes, the first thing, because this is our point number one, the first thing we're going to think about, “Is this beautiful? Is it glorious? Will it represent God's kingdom, which is a kingdom of majesty and glory?” So that's number one thing to think about when you're choosing clothes. Will they glorify God? Will they match His kingdom that we represent?

Then we go to Psalm 45. Oh, this is a beautiful Psalm. Here it's talking about the king's daughter. And it says: “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.” Did you know that God loves beauty? Yes. He made a beautiful world. He made so many beautiful things. His creation is beautiful. And He delights in beauty.

I mean, as we have just read, He said, when you make the high priest's clothing, it's got to be for beauty and for glory. “So the king greatly desired thy beauty. . . The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.”

The king's daughter. Are you a king's daughter? Yes. Yes, if Christ dwells within you, you belong to the King. You are the King's daughter. You belong to a royal kingdom.

Please, dear mothers, please impart to your daughters and your sons that they belong to a royal kingdom. Encourage your daughters to dress like daughters of the King. Amen? Yes.

Oh, and that word there, “The king's daughter is all glorious within.” She's glorious and beautiful  within and without. That word is not kabad, but the word that comes from that is kebuddah. It means “magnificence, carriage, the way you carry yourself, stately, interesting.”

Now, it's talking not only about the clothes we wear, but how we wear them. How we walk. Our carriage. We have to even teach our daughters how to carry themselves, how to walk stately, how to walk like a daughter of royalty. All these things are in the Bible, ladies.

Let's go to Ezekiel 16:14. This is a beautiful description of Israel, and how God found Israel, and what He did for her: “And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty (here we have another Hebrew word, yofee) for it was perfect through my comeliness (that’s hadar) which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord.” And so, here again, He's talking about clothing with beauty.

We'll go to 1 Chronicles 29:25. Now it's talking about King Solomon here, but we also learn something if we read this Scripture: “And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.” This is just a little tiny picture of God's royal majesty.

You see, God revealed little glimpses on earth of His heavenly majesty. And He did this through Solomon. Solomon revealed this. God bestowed upon him, but he also revealed it, this royal majesty. And he dressed in a way that revealed God's royal majesty. That word there is the Hebrew word hode, another word for “glory,” meaning “glory, grandeur, imposing form and appearance, beauty, excellency, glory, majesty.”

NO. 2: GOD WANTS US TO DRESS WITH DIGNITY

All right, number two. God wants us to not only clothe ourselves with glory and beauty, but to look dignified. Now this is all part of the same Scripture, Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed (the virtuous woman is clothed) with strength and honor,” or strength and glory. When I looked this Scripture up in other translations, I found nineteen different translations that used the word “dignity.” And there could even be more because I didn't exhaust every translation of the Bible.

This was the one that was used mostly to describe that word hadar. “Dignity.” Dignity goes along with royalty and majesty, doesn't it? This is the thing I think we have to come up to, ladies, in our clothing, is to get away from, perhaps, that which is not really dignified.

You know, there's a lot of clothing today that's not dignified. Can you believe it? I have even seen a lady preacher preach in holey jeans. Not h-o-l-y, but you know, h-o-l-e-y, with holes. OK, maybe go around the house in them. But to preach in them? Shouldn't someone who is holding and imparting the Word of God dress with majesty and dignity? I believe we've got to raise the standards up to a royal standard. Amen? Can you get with me, ladies?

NO. 3: GOD WANTS US TO DRESS IN A HOLY WAY

All right, number three. God wants us to wear holy clothes. We're going back to another Scripture we've read, Exodus 28:2, about the high priest's clothing. And it says: “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.” So, we see three adjectives there—holy, glory and beauty. So, they're triplets, all going together, holy, glory, and beauty.

That's another thing we need to ask ourselves when we're choosing our clothes. Is this going to be holy? Not holey, with holes, but holy unto the Lord. Is it something that will give an impression of holiness? That's a big thing, isn't it? But it's something we do have to ask ourselves, because this is what God commanded for the clothing of the high priest.

And let's remind ourselves again. We are now His priests. You see, it all changed from the Old Testament to the New. We are now His priests. Amen? So we've got to begin to dress like priests. Well, we won't use the exact clothing the high priest used, of course, but we will seek to wear clothes that will have something about them that is holy. And of course, glory and beauty.

HOLINSS AND BEAUTY ARE TWINS

and

HOLINESS, BEAUTY, AND GLORY ARE TRIPLETS!

Psalm 110:3 talks of the beauty of holiness. Some people say, “Well, how can you have holy clothes and beauty going together?” They've got this idea of holy clothes being boring old clothes. Long dress down to your feet, all drab and bland, and just looks so boring.

No. Holiness and beauty go together! You combine them, ladies! God wants both! He wants both holiness, and He wants glory and beauty! That's who our God is. He is holy. He's clothed with majesty and glory and beauty.

And so, this is what He wants us His people to do, because we are His representatives. We are manifesting Him on this earth. I believe, on this point, that we should learn to use discretion in our clothing, because we do use different kinds of clothing for different things.

USE DISCRETION

Now, you're not going to go out to the garden in your beautiful, glorious, long, gorgeous dress that you would wear out to a function. No! Goodness me, when I go out to the garden, I put on my oldest clothes because I'm kneeling down in the dirt. Many times, it's been raining and I'm kneeling down in the mud. I come in, and my old pants are caked with mud, and my gardening shoes are caked with mud, and I'm just really dirty.

And so, we have clothes for getting down in the dirt when we're out in the garden. Maybe you're out riding horses, or if you're doing some kind of sports. When you're going to do sports, you're going to put on your shorts and go out to the volleyball court. You're going to play the sport that you love to play. OK, you're not going to wear this glorious, long, beautiful dress. You're going to wear clothing that is suitable for what you are doing.

So of course, you'll wear shorts for those kind of things. But even when we're wearing shorts, well, I don't wear shorts now. I did when I was younger. But even when we wear shorts, be careful how short they are. So many shorts today, even on lovely, God-loving Christian girls, are so short they just barely cover their bottoms! Help! And all you can see is these legs! Oooh!

I mean, I think shorts are short, but you don't have to make them skimpy. Remember, even shorts, if we're going to be out there playing sports, doing things and all this kind of stuff, well, just have them reasonable. Let's have a little bit of the fear of God about it.

But of course, you won't wear those kind of clothes to church. This is the sad thing today. I am amazed, because we have to use discretion. I've seen people come to church as though they're on their way to the beach, I've seen them come in shorts to church. I beg your pardon? I don't mind shorts for sports and doing those things. You're going to the beach. But coming to church?

In Ezekiel 42:14, it's talking there of how the high priests had to change their clothes. They could not wear what they wore amongst the people when they went in to the Holy Place to minister unto the Lord. They had to change their clothes, to wear suitable clothing if they came to minister unto the Lord.

And so we also should use discretion when we come into the house of God. We're going to change from the things we wear out on the sport field, or out on the beach, and we're going to come in something more appropriate for what we're doing. I think it's just common sense, don't you, to wear clothes that are appropriate for what you are doing.

When you come into the house of God, when you come to a prayer meeting where people are crying out to God, you're not going to come in shorts. I've seen people come in shorts and I find it really takes my mind off what I'm doing, because what I'm seeing is these legs—and this is in the holy place of prayer?

OK, it doesn't matter if you're on your own in your bedroom. You can do it there. But we're amongst the people of God. We learn to use discretion. And learn to use appropriate clothing for the situation where we're going to be. I believe it's time for people to come dressed ready to minister unto the Lord, just as God wanted His priests to change their clothes when they came into the Holy Place, to minister unto Him. We now are the priests. We're coming to church to minister unto the Lord, to worship Him, and to meet with our fellow brethren in the place of the Presence of God.

So we're not going to wear what we wear to the beach! We're going to wear appropriate clothing. And for glory, and for beauty. We're not going to come with cleavage. Oh, goodness me. You see that in church today. Unbelievable! Even bare shoulders. No, that's not for church. That's not for church. It can be a hindrance to people. It can be a hindrance to young men. Yes, it really is a hindrance. We have got to guard what we wear in the house of God. Let's use discretion, and wear appropriate clothing. 

Even just going to certain things. Recently there was a function. It was a party. It was going to be where people had to get dressed up. One of my granddaughters, I saw her getting dressed and she was just in jeans. I had to say to her, “I beg your pardon? You're going to a very special function, where you should dress up. You don't just wear jeans. Go and find a lovely dress.” And so she did.

We have to think. Today, people don't think. They think, “Oh well, you can wear jeans to church and jeans to a beautiful function.” No. There's certain clothes for certain things. Let's have discretion. Amen?

Well, lovely ladies, we've got lots more things to talk about. So, I hope you're going to tune in next week and find out what more the Word of God has to say. because there is so much more. Oh, goodness me! It's unbelievable. In fact, when I come to do a study in the Word of God, I always find so much more that I can hardly believe it. So I want to take you into it so we can know what God says.

You see, I think mostly, and sometimes these things I've been saying to you, people who do these things, oh, goodness me, I know some of these people. And they're such beautiful hearts who love the Lord! Oh, goodness me! And they just don't know because they haven't read the Scriptures.

But we do have to know the Scriptures, don't we? We have to know God's heart, what He says for us to live and belong to this beautiful, royal, majestic, glorious kingdom.

Father, we thank You that You do not leave us in the dark. We thank You that You have shown the way for how we are to live. Lord, Your Word is filled with such practical things, even how we're to dress. It's all just for us. We pray, Lord, that You will teach us, that we will be teachable, and we will learn to dress, Lord, in the way that is a beautiful testimony to Your royal, majestic, and glorious kingdom to which we belong. In the precious Name of Jesus, Amen.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.abovwerubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 159 –  LET’S GET BACK THE GLORY, Part 1

God is clothed with glory and honor, but the amazing revelation is that He wants to clothe us with glory too! He brings His glory right down to the nitty-gritty of our lives. He wants us to hold on to the glory He has given us. Find out how you are God's glorious “footstool” on this earth.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, lovely ladies, young people, and even children who may be listening. Today I am starting a new series, well, no, it's not really a new series. It's the ending of a series I did quite a long time back. It was called “The Glory of Womanhood,” and I did ten podcasts on that subject. Can you imagine it? If you didn't ever listen to them, you can go back. They were numbers 68 to 77.

And now we are at 159! Anyway, this session, and coming up in the next few weeks, is going to be called “Let's Get Back the Glory.” And as I said, it's really a continuation of the glory of womanhood. There was one point that I never got to talk to you about.

I've now gathered up courage to talk to you about it. But I'm not even going to start today. Before I get on to it (you'll have to keep listening each week, I think we'll be able to start it next week), I want to share a few more points about the glory. They won't be the same as I shared before, but new Scriptures. Well, not new, the Scriptures have been there forever, but bringing out more Scriptures about the glory, and the glory of womanhood, because God is all about glory. God IS glory. And He wants us to reveal something of His glory.

Now of course we cannot reveal the full glory of God. But even if we can manifest some little bit of His glory, we are doing something wonderful in this earth.

In Lamentations 1:6, it says: “And from the daughter of Zion, all her beauty is departed.” Isn't that a sad Scripture? “From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.” Now the word “beauty” there in the Hebrew is hadar. It is a word that means “glory.” This word, this Hebrew word, is mostly translated “glory” in the Bible.

Here it's saying that all the glory is departed from women. And that's why I am entitling this series “Let's Get Back the Glory,” because God has invested glory in His creation because we are made in His image. He has invested glory in His female creation. Our glory is different from the male glory.

HADAR

God has given each one of us a different glory which is a different aspect of His character that we are to reveal to the world. Now this beautiful word hadar means . . . In fact, I think I've shared with you quite frequently that, when we look up a Hebrew word in the Bible, we find so many more adjectives to describe this word. It means “glory, glorious, magnificent, splendor, beauty, comeliness, excellency, honor, majesty, dignity.” Wow! So many different words.

I remember having one of my Above Rubies girls. She came from Jerusalem, and her name was Avigail. We loved having Avigail with us. It was quite an amazing experience, because Abigail, although she has American parents, has lived in Jerusalem all her life, and has lived amongst the Orthodox Jews. It was quite interesting. Of course, before she came, I got this email saying. “I will be sending ahead of me my kosher foods.”

I thought, “Help, what's going to happen here?” We had this great big parcel arrive and it was frozen. It was all her frozen meat to eat while she was with us. When she arrived, she brought her special pans because she couldn't cook in our pans.

She cooked kosher. She would always do her own meat in her own pans. Avigail was very, very Orthodox, but she loved Jesus with all her heart. She was so precious. When we would have our family worship, our family devotions morning and evening, we'd come to prayer time. Avigail would start out to pray in English, but she'd never survive. She'd go into Hebrew, because that was her native language.

She'd begin to pray in Hebrew. It was so amazing. Wow! You just felt the anointing when she'd get going in Hebrew.

But often when we were reading the Word, a word would come up, and we'd say, “OK, Avigail, how do you use this word?” It was a very biblical word from the Word. “But are you using this word in your language today in Hebrew?”

And one day, the word “glory” came up, and it was the Hebrew word hadar, this word we're talking about. And I remember saying to Avigail, “Tell me, Abigail, what does this word mean in modern Hebrew today?”

And she thought for a little while. And she said, “This is what is means to us today.” She said, “It's beyond honor. It's beauty from above. Glory.” And she said, “Many Hebrew mothers, many Jewish mothers, love to call their daughters Hadar because of the beauty of its meaning, meaning that it's God's glory. It's beauty from above.” It is such a beautiful word.

We go to Proverbs 31:25, where it's used: “Strength and honor are her clothing,” and this Scripture says; “And she shall rejoice in times to come.” The word “honor” there is hadar. When we are reading the Word of God, they often use different words for the same Hebrew word. So sometimes it's translated “glory.” Sometimes it's translated “honor.” Sometimes it's translated something else.

That's why it's so great, going back to the Hebrew to know what this really is. It's “glory.” That's the picture of the Proverbs 31 woman. She is clothed with strength and glory. Now ladies, the amazing thing is, that this word hadar, and it's here talking about us, talking about the woman who's clothed with glory, it's exactly the same word that's used to describe God.

In Psalm 104:1, it says: “Thou art clothed with glory and honor (hadar).”

1 Chronicles 16:27: “Glory and honor (hadar) are in His presence; strength and gladness are in His place.”

This glory, of course, is God's glory. This word describes the glory of God. But what amazes me, dear ladies, is that the same word that is ascribed to God, is given to us. Isn't it amazing? I find that so hard to take in. But you see, God created us in His image, and He wants us to reveal just some of that glory. Not that we will ever, ever even comprehend all of His glory, but something of His glory, for every part of His nature and His character are His glory. And He wants that nature, those characteristics that are in Him, to be revealed in us.

This is how we are meant to walk on this earth, revealing the glory of God.

Psalm 8:5-6 says: “For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honor (hadar). Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet.” This is talking about man that God created, although it's also a Messianic prophecy of Christ, which is repeated in Hebrews 2:7-8.

That's one of the Hebrew words for “glory.” There are so many different Hebrew words. There's about ten different Hebrew words for “glory.” I'm going to tell you about some of the main ones.

KABOD

Another word is kabod. The meaning of kabod is very similar to hadar, meaning “glorious, gloriously, glory, honor, honorable.” And it also means “to have weight and heaviness.” It's to be weighty and heavy with glory.

This word is also ascribed to God to describe who God is. It's used 202 times in the Bible. It's the most common word for “glory.” But this is also ascribed to us as women!

Proverbs 11:16: “A gracious woman retains honor.” The word is kabod. Glory. This weighty, heavy glory. Isn't that amazing?

And what does it say? “A gracious woman retains her glory.” The Douay-Rheims Bible translates it, “A gracious woman shall find her glory.” But I like the word “retains.” In the Hebrew, it's tamak. It means “to keep fast, to hold up, to maintain, and don't it let it go.”

You see, lovely ladies, we have already been given glory. When God created us as females as His feminine creation, to reveal His nurturing anointing, He put this specific glory in us. And He wants us to reveal this glory to the world. And He wants us to hang onto it. He doesn't want us to let it go, like we read in Lamentations, how “the daughter of Zion has lost all her glory.”

Have we lost our glory, or are we keeping it? Are we hanging on to it? Are we living in it? This is the challenge. We're to LIVE in it.

We are living in an hour of great deception. We have such deception today, as the liberals and the (I don't know, all these -isms, these feminisms, and these humanisms, all these -isms, are bringing in this transgender, and everything that is against how God created us.

We must stand against this, dear ladies. We cannot get used to it. There are so many evil things that are coming into our society, that are becoming the norm. We must be careful as we're raising our children, that our precious children and our young people do not accept them as the norm.

We cannot allow them to accept them as normality. Because more and more around us, in the schools, and in the colleges, and in society, it's becoming normality. But it is not normality. It is against God, and we must stand against it. We must hang on to the glory that God has given to us, given to us by creation, given to us as His female creation.

We are to reveal the glory, and the beauty, and the excellency, and the majesty of the femininity and the womanliness of the nurturing anointing that He has put within us.

We will hang onto it. In the midst of deception, can you hang on to truth? Can you hang on to the glory that God has given to you? Oh, I encourage you today, dear ones, and young people who are listening. DHANG ON TO YOUR GLORY! There is so much coming against who God created us to be. In the midst of deception, we must hang onto it. We will not let it go!

Psalm 4:2 asks the question: “How long will you turn My glory into shame?” When we, as women, turn away from our femininity, from our womanliness, from our motherliness, from our nurturing anointing, we are turning the glory that God gave us into shame.

That's why it says in Titus 2, where it encourages the older women to teach the younger women to love their husbands, and love their children, and be keepers at home, that if they do not fulfill these mandates, it will blaspheme the Word of God. It will be shameful to the Word of God.

In Jeremiah 2:11, it says: “My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” That's a testimony of so many women today. Out there in the secular world, and sometimes even in our church world, many precious women who, they love Jesus, they love God with all their hearts, their hearts have been cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, but their minds have not yet been transformed according to the Word of God.

They’re thinking like society around them. They are, without sometimes even realizing it, changing their glory into that which doesn't profit. They're wooed out of the home into a career. They're taken away from where their glory is, where God wants them to shine with their glory, and taken into that which does not profit.

They put all their lives into that. Will they take it into eternity? No. We can only take our redeemed soul into eternity. Everything else will be left behind, except the redeemed souls of our children. Oh, that's an eternal Word.

We see the opposite of kabod in that story of Phinehas, when Phinehas' wife. . .  He was one of the sons of Eli, who was the priest before Samuel came on the scene. He had two sons who were living sinful lives, even though they were supposed to be the priests of God.

At that time, the Philistines came against Israel, and so they took the Ark of God out of the Holy of Holies. They took it with them into battle, thinking, “Oh well, the Ark will protect us!” But the Ark didn't protect them because God wasn't with them. They had turned away from God and God didn't protect them. The Ark was captured.

When the news came, Phinehas' wife was in childbirth, and the shock of the Ark being captured by the Philistines, it was more than she could bear. She died in childbirth, but before she died, the son whom she'd birthed, she called Ichabod. The correct pronunciation is Eekabode, because “kabod,” meaning, “the glory of the Lord has departed from Israel.”

We are either living in the kabod, in the glory, or we are becoming Ichabod, the glory of God has departed. We're seeing the glory of God departing from womanhood in our nation. But let's be those who will stand for what God wants, for His glory, and we will maintain the glory that He has given to us because that's what God wants.

TIPHARAH

And now we're going to come to another Hebrew word, tipharah. This word is another word to describe the glory of God, and also the glory that He gives to us.

Isaiah 46:13. God calls Israel “My glory.” It means “glory, an ornament, beauty, bravery.”

Isaiah 60:7: “I will glorify, I will beautify, the house of my glory.” Tipharah. We are now His House. Once there was a House in Jerusalem. Before that, there was a Tabernacle where God dwelt. And then when Solomon built the Temple, it was a beautiful, glorious temple, covered in gold and precious jewels. God dwelt there in the Holy of Holies.

But then that was also destroyed. And now God dwells in us, if we have been born again, and we have received and invited Him to come and be Lord of our lives. He has come to dwell and live with us. We have become His House, His Temple.

Isaiah 62:3: “Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.”

Lamentations 2:1: “How hath the Lord cast down from heaven unto earth the beauty (or the tipharah) of Israel, and remembered not His footstool in the day of his anger!”

Now here's another interesting thought. The footstool. Back in the Old Testament, in the time of the Tabernacle, and then the time of the Temple, God called it His footstool. He came to dwell in the Holy of Holies on this earth, but it was really just His footstool. All of His glory was not there because, well, God's glory is so vast. I mean, how could it be contained in the Holy of Holies? It was like the footstool of His glory.

In 1 Chronicles 28:2, David said: “Hear me, my brethren and my people: I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God.” David understood too, that this glory that God would bring to fill the Tabernacle, and later fill the Temple, was just the footstool of His glory.

And just as we have now become His House, we are really His footstool. Isn't that a beautiful thought? We are His footstool on this earth.

John Gills, who is a Bible commentator who lived many years ago (but I love reading his commentary), he says of this Scripture: “This is denoting that the church is the place where the Lord grants His presence through Christ, the antitype of the mercy seat and Ark; and which is the seat of His rest and residence; where He takes His walks, and where His footsteps of rich grace are seen; where His lower parts, His feet, His works, His acts of grace are beheld; where He favors with communion with Himself; where His power and glory are observed, and His beauty is upon His people.”

That's a beautiful description of the footstool of God, which was originally the Tabernacle and the Temple. But now it's us! Yes, we are His footstool. Yes.

In Isaiah 60:13, God says: “I will make the place of my feet glorious.”

Ezekiel 43:7, speaking about the glory of the Lord filling Ezekiel's temple, that's another temple that's yet to come: “And He said unto me, 'Son of man, the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.”

We get this understanding that it's His footstool, the place of the soles of His feet. And so, lovely ladies, this is what you are. Yes, it was the glory of God. The glory filled the Tabernacle. The glory of God filled the Temple. The glory of God wants to come and fill our temples, our earthly bodies. Yes. But we are really just His footstool. We cannot contain all the glory of who God is.

But we can experience some of it. We are His footstool. We are right here on the earth, in the nitty-gritties of life. You are there in your kitchen, with your children all around you, with all that you have to do each day in your home, and caring for your children and your little ones, and all you have to accomplish. In the nitty-gritties of life, in the duties of life, this is where you are at the footstool of God.

And He comes down, down to fill you with His glory. Can I take you to Psalm 133? I love this beautiful Psalm. Only three verses, and it's the psalm of unity: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” And there's an exclamation mark there.

“It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down” (Do you notice that, ladies? “Went down, down, down, to the skirts of his garments.” This is just so amazing. It's talking about the anointing that God poured upon the high priest. He poured His anointing oil upon him.

But that oil did not just stay on his head. That oil flowed down over his face and over his garments. I often think about this, because the high priest's garments were the most glorious, beautiful garments that you could ever read about. I haven't got time to talk about them today. But they were just incredible.

And yet God got this oil pouring all over them. And they go right down, and they ran down, down, down, to the very bottom, to the skirts, to the hem of his garment!

I love the Passion translation. It says: “It's as precious as the sacred scented oil, flowing from the head of the high priest Aaron, dripping down upon the head and running all the way down to the hem of his priestly robe.”

Dear lovely ladies, oh, this is what God wants to do for you in your home. He wants to pour out His anointing oil all over you, pour out His glory all over you. And it drips down, right down to the hem of your garment. Right down to the skirts. Right down to the nitty-gritty.

Lovely ladies, when you are doing the most mundane job in your home, when you're down cleaning up a mess that's on the floor. When you're kneeling down changing diapers, when you're right down in the nitty-gritty of it all, the glorious God is there with you. He lets His glory run down to the skirts of your garment, right down to the hem.

You see, God comes down to where we are. He's right there with you, where you are now. Oh, yes. And don't little ones love to hang onto the skirts of your garment? I remember when my little ones would want to hide under my skirts. Well, not really hide if you're wearing your skirt too short, can they?

But oh, so many times, people would come, and when they're little, they're shy, and they'd hide under my skirts. And maybe when I was going somewhere, they'd be hanging onto my skirts. Even around the home, sometimes I could hardly walk because they're hanging onto my skirts! Because they just want Mummy! They always want Mummy, Mummy, Mummy!

This is the life of motherhood, our little ones hanging onto our skirts. Oh, don't despise the fact that you're down in the nitty-gritty of it all, because this is where the glory is. The glory comes right down to the hem. Amen?

Let's pray. “Oh, dear Father, we thank You with all our hearts that You are the God of glory, glory beyond what we can ever fathom, and how we'll hardly even be able to comprehend even in the eternal realm. And yet You give us something of Your glory. And You want us to reveal Your glory.

Lord God, You want us to manifest it, even in our homes, with our little ones all around us, Lord God, right down to the hem of our garments.

Oh God, we thank You, we thank You that You didn't keep the glory in heaven. Lord, You let it fall down. You've let it run down, right down to where we need it. We thank You in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Nancy Campbell * www.aboveuribes.org

I’m also on Facebook, Parler, MeWe, Gab, Twitter, Instagram, and USALife

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 158 –  FROM GOLD TO BRASS, Part 3

What is happening behind your four walls? Are you going for gold, or are you living a replacement lifestyle? Check it out.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Today we are continuing our sessions about gold for brass. Which one are we living?

I'm going to talk about another area today, where we perhaps need to see if we've got the gold, or we've got the brass. I’d love to talk about Family Devotions, because I believe this is another area where what we have today is considered normal, but it's not really the normal.

I think that most families today most probably, husbands and wives, didn't grow up having Family Devotions in their homes, or whatever you like to call it in your home—Bible Time, or Worship Time, or Family Gathering Together Time, whatever you call it. I mean, it doesn't matter what you call it, but a time when we gather as family, a gathering of the whole family every morning and every evening to meet with the Lord.

That is a very powerful thing. It is something that was just part of godly homes for so long, I think really, up until when TV came in. I think that was what stole Family Devotions out of the home.

The family devotion book that we use in our home is called The Daily Light. It's just the Bible. That's why we use it. Many families may prefer just to use the Bible, just find a chapter, find a book, and read a chapter each day. Or if you have little children, just a couple of verses.

But we love to use The Daily Light. It's actually called The Daily Light on the Daily Path. It was put together years and years ago by a family, about 150 years ago. It's just Scriptures on a certain theme for the morning and for the evening. The reason they did that was because back then it was normal.

Yes, it was the normal for families to gather morning and evening to read the Word of God together and to pray. That was normality. So I love this book, because it has the Word of God waiting for you for every morning and evening. It is a wonderful thing for families who have never been used to doing this, especially a man who is to lead his family in the ways of God and teach them the Word of God.

But if he hasn't had it in his home life growing up, he can feel very insecure about doing it with his own family. He may feel, “Well, where do I read? What do I do? How do I go about it?” I can understand that because you do things by example. This is why this book is so great, because all you have to do is go to the date. The husband sitting at the head of the table, at the end of the meal, he picks up the Bible, well, The Daily Light. All he does is go to the date. “What's the date today?” My husband usually has to ask that every day. “What's the date?”

Then there it is! If it's morning, the Scriptures for the morning are right there in front of you. The evening, the Scriptures are right there in front of you. It takes all the sweat out. You've got no more excuses. There it is.

You may have a Daily Light already. If you don't, you may like to get one. I have two available at Above Rubies. I have the New King James Version, and I also have the King James Version. We use the King James Version ourselves. We love it, I think because we grew up with it. The language is familiar to us.

But I know there are some who just find, “Oh well, we like a more modern translation.” That's fine. you can even get The Daily Light in even more modern translations, The Living Bible, and so on.

But I do have a little word to challenge you. That is, this specific Daily Light that's the King James that I have available through Above Rubies, I have added something special to it. It's just the same Scriptures in every Daily Light that you'll ever pick up anywhere around the world.

But at the beginning of each chapter, I have given some ideas of how to keep your children on their toes, how to keep them listening. Because even though there's only a few Scriptures, it's amazing how children, and I have to confess, even me, can get into a dream. My husband starts reading, and before long, I'm thinking about something else! Oh, you don't want to, but there you are. You're doing it!

So, we give ideas of what we do in our Family Devotions of how to keep people interested, asking questions. Sometimes Colin will read the wrong word. Well, if nobody notices, it shows that they're not listening. Or maybe he'll stop halfway in a verse, and say, “Who can finish it?” Lots of different ideas, just keeping the children interested all the time. So it's a great one for you to buy.

Now, you may think, “Oh, how can my children understand King James language? They just need to get nice easy translations.” But I wonder, why do we try to limit our children's vocabulary?

Some of these modern translations . . . (I should say, although I read the King James, I'm a connoisseur of translations. I love reading different translations  of the Bible, especially some of the old translations. Some of the new ones are very good. Some, well, they've been just made so easy that we are really limiting our vocabulary, and they've been written for a limited vocabulary).

But I think when training and teaching your children, I'm sure you don't want to raise them with a limited vocabulary. I'm sure you want to enlarge their vocabulary. Sometimes when you're reading the King James, you'll find a word that's not used very much today.

But it's a fun thing to say to the children, “What do you think this means, children?“ They'll give you their ideas. Then of course, if they didn't get it right, you tell them, and they have learned a new word! It's good for them. It's good for them to learn new words, even words that are not used so frequently.

Today, in our Daily Light reading, there was a passage from Luke 18 about the story Jesus told of the widow who would not give up and consequently received her request from the unjust judge. But also, the story in Luke 11:5-8 telling the story of the guy who wanted some bread. So he went to his neighbor and knocked on the door. And, oh, his friend didn't want to answer. He said, “No, I'm in bed with my children. Go away! Go away! I'm asleep.”

No, he wouldn't give up. He just kept banging, knocking on the door. In the end, the Bible says, “Because of his importunity, he gave him what he wanted.” The whole message of course, is continued, persistent prayer. We never give up. And God says, when we have that attitude, He will hear us and answer.

But nobody knew what that word “importunity” was this morning. So we had to talk about it. So they learned a new word. And we know that it means “persistent.” Most translations say, “Because of his sheer persistence, he got what he wanted.”

So, you find words like this that are not used so often, but it's good to learn new words, So, don't feel as though, “Oh, I've got to keep my children at their very limited vocabulary.” No! Why not widen their vocabulary? You'll have fun doing it. It's really great.

Back to this whole idea of Family Devotions. We get a vision of what we are to do from the teaching in the tabernacle in the wilderness. We go back there. We find a principle that God gives. It's called “the morning and the evening principle.” You can go to my web page and look it up, so you can learn more about it.

But I'll give you some little glimpses today. We remember how they sacrificed the lamb, every morning, every evening. There's something powerful about this morning and evening principle. In fact, when we come together, and it's time for us to pray, every single day I love to take a moment to thank the Lord for His great sacrifice, and for taking my place upon the cross, for being the Lamb of God who shed His blood for my sins.

You see, back there in those days, every morning and every evening, they sacrificed the lamb. But every single sacrifice pointed to Christ, the Lamb Who would take away the sin of the world. When Jesus died, there was no more need for any more sacrifices, because He did it ONCE AND FOR ALL.

But I love, I'm no longer looking to that, but I love to look back and thank Him. I want to show my thankfulness. So I love to do that, morning and evening, when we come together.

But that was not all. In the Holy Place they had the candelabra. They had the golden candlestick. Golden. Remember, we're talking about gold instead of brass. They had the golden candlestick. It was pure gold. It was beaten out of one piece of gold. The priests had to come every morning, every evening, and they had to take out all the muck and clean up the wick.

So it was kept clean. Then they would pour in the oil to keep the light burning. The message we learn is that God said the light in the Holy Place had to burn continually. It was never to stop, ever, ever, ever, ever. And the only way they could do it was to light it every morning and every evening.

You see, precious ladies, if they only lit it once a day, it wouldn't keep going. They had to do it twice a day. That applies to our lives. We start the day with the Lord, but my, as the day goes on, things have, maybe you've even lost your temper with the children. “Oh, goodness me!” Do you ever get through a day where you are perfect?

Somehow, we get contaminated throughout the day, and we need to come again at the end of the day, to receive forgiveness and cleansing, a renewing of the Holy Spirit again. Because as they poured in the oil, it speaks of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And we need the refreshing anointing of the Spirit on our lives, not just once a day, but we need it two times a day if we're going to keep the oil burning, if we're going to keep the light burning.

You see, that's the principle. If you want to keep it burning in your heart, if you want to keep the light of God burning in the hearts of your children, and your growing children, and your teens, and your adult children, you've got to do it twice a day. That's the principle God gave.

And then, you come to the Altar of Incense. Once again, it was a golden altar. It was covered with gold. It speaks of prayer and praise and worship. Every morning and every evening, once again, twice a day, the priest had to light that incense. It wasn't enough to do it once a day because it would fade out.

It was a beautiful sweet incense. It tells you all the spices that were used in the Word of God. They were sweet spices, because God wanted a sweet aroma filling His house. And He wants that sweet aroma of His presence—of worship, of praise, of prayer, filling your home. But once a day is not enough. They had to come back in the evening, and they had to relight it again so that it would continually burn, because that incense had to burn continually. Yes, it was a continual burning.

Now, prayer and praise and worship. We see, we go over to the New Testament. As I mentioned before, what is in the Old, we'll find it in the New. We go over to Revelation 5:8. Here John is looking into the heavenly realm. This is amazing, dear ladies, because, OK, we can read about the tabernacle back in Leviticus, and we think, “Oh, how does that relate to us today?”

Oh, it does, because everything that happened there was done after the pattern of the heavenly. It tells you about that in Hebrews, that it was a pattern of the heavenly. And now John is looking into the heavenly realm, and he sees it. He sees it in the present, not back in Leviticus. He's seeing it in the present.

It is now, even in our day, this is eternal. And what does he see? And we read:

“And when He” (that's the Lamb, the Lamb of God, having been slain).

“When He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors” (meaning “incense,” every other translation has “incense.”)

“Full,” (not a quarter full, not half full, but full of incense).

“Which are,” what are they? “Which are the prayers of saints.”

Dear precious ladies, our prayers are incense. That's what the Bible says. And it tells us how we have to come, morning and evening, to light this incense and keep it going.

We go over to chapter 8, and again, John is looking into the heavenly realm, and he sees:

Revelation 8:3: “And another angel came and stood at the altar” (that’s the golden altar of incense) “Having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense.” Not a little bit, “much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.”

Your prayers, as you cry out to God, as you come together and you cry out to God as a family, they are going up before the Lord as smoke and incense. The incense wafted and filled the house of the Lord. Our prayers, it fills our home, but it goes right up into God's heavenly home. And He hears us.

Revelation 8:5: “And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” Wow, great things happen when we pray, don't they?

And then, of course, there was the brazen altar in the Outer Court before you ever go into the Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies. That had to be attended to twice a day as well. Now let me go to that in the Word. Yes, Leviticus 6:8-13. And God is commanding Aaron and telling him that this is how it was to be done, that the fire on the altar was to burn all night until the morning.

In fact, we go down to Leviticus 6:12: “And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out.”

And down to Leviticus 6:13: “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”

But the only way they could keep it going, ladies, was to attend to it morning and evening. You see, it was a command. “The fire must not go out.” So He says, “You've got to come in the morning. You've got to take out all the ashes. And then you've got to put on the wood to keep that fire burning.”

But if they left it till next morning, it would be out. Instead, they had to come again in the evening. And once again, take out the ashes, and put on the wood to renew that fire and keep it burning.

And it's the same with our lives. When we're born again, God lights a fire in our hearts. It's supernatural. In fact, when this fire was started on this altar, it was supernatural. God came and lit the fire. It was supernatural! But then He told the priests they had to keep it going. It's the same in our lives. God comes and we are born again, miraculously, by the power of the Holy Spirit. But then He wants us to keep it going.

“Come on now! every morning, every evening, you've got junk in your life. Take it out, confess it before me. And then put on the wood! Get into the Word! Let My Word renew you, and fill you, and comfort you, and strengthen you, and make you strong in your faith, so the fire will burn brightly.”

But it’s not enough once a day, because it will go out. The fire requires at least a minimum of two times a day, a morning and an evening. So we get this principle.

Lovely ladies, is this normal in our society today? No. It's not even normal in the church! If you were to go round at church and ask the families, “Oh hey, do you have family Bible time in your home morning and evening?” They’d kind of look at you with a strange look on their face. “What are you talking about?” They wouldn't even know what you're talking about.

So, we're living in a replacement lifestyle, where the gold, the gold, ladies, this furniture, they were gold. It was the Golden Table of Showbread, the Golden Lampstand, the Golden Altar of Incense. They were gold. They spoke of something that was pure gold. They spoke of Christ. They spoke of His Word. They spoke of what keeps us going and keeps the fire burning and keeps the light burning.

It's the renewing of the Holy Spirit. It's the Word of God. It's prayer. It's praise. And it's coming to do it, morning and evening, twice a day, that keeps it going in our lives. That's the gold. That's the gold. And yet, so many have brass today.

They get up from their meals. They've only half-finished their meals, because when we come to the meal table, it's not only a place to eat food, not only a place to fill our body, but to fill our soul and to fill our spirits. If we send our children away from the table without having given them the Word of God, we haven't given them the full meal.

I love the way families in the Netherlands call Family Devotions. They call it “Finishing up the Meal.” Isn't that cool? They don't leave the meal table until they finish the meal with the Word of God. So there we go, ladies. Do you think you can get back to the gold? You're not going to be satisfied with it being stolen from you by the devil?

Because the devil has stolen Family Devotions from the family. He's stolen that Bible time. He's stolen that prayer time. He knows how powerful prayer time is. He knows how powerful it is for families to be praying together, impacting the nation, impacting the world from your little home around your table!

Of course, he's going to try to steal it from you. And what do we do? We fill it with brass. We get up from the table. We go and watch TV, or everyone goes here and there, on their iPhones, on their social media. And the gold is being stolen. Get back the gold, ladies.

Well, let's look at some other areas. I'm thinking even of church life. And oh, I have to confess here that wow, I don't think I'm even living in the gold either. Well, let me share. OK, I shared the other week, I'm 80 years of age now, so I go back a little while, even though I still think I'm only so young.

But when I was growing up, we had church three times a day. Well, two times, and then we had Sunday school. So we would go to church in the morning. We'd come home and we'd have a meal around the table. Then us children would walk back to the church to have our Sunday school.

We didn't have Sunday school while church was on as most churches do today. We were there as families for the whole service. We would come back to the church for Sunday school where we'd have special classes for us children. We would walk back to church, about a mile and a half or so, have our Sunday school, walk home, and then there was the evening meeting at nighttime, and we would all go back to the evening meeting. And so we would have church actually two times a day.

Well, we got to the next generation, and that's when we were raising our children. We degenerated a little bit in that we still kept to two services a day. Colin was pastoring, and we had our service in the morning.

Then we would come home and bring loads of people home for dinner to sit around our table and sit around our deck and sit around our pool. When we were living on the Gold Coast of Australia, we were renting a home which the Lord provided, but it was beautiful home and had a pool.

So Colin and I would ask folks, and our children, who were growing up to be young people by now, they would ask their friends, and our home would be filled with people. So wonderful! Colin and I have always loved hospitality and especially on Sunday. We have always invited folks home after church to fellowship, because Sunday is the Lord’s Day (unless you worship on Saturday (and that is the Lord’s Day). Well, it's the Sabbath, and some of you will be Sabbath keepers and worshipping on Sabbath. Others will be worshipping on Sunday. But whatever day you are worshipping, it is the day that is the day unto the Lord.

So as we were growing up, it was a day unto the Lord. The whole day was for God. We didn't do anything of our own desires on that day. In fact, back in those days, even society was with God's Word. Nobody opened any shops. There were no shops open. You couldn't even buy or sell on Sunday because it was the Lord’s Day. Even the heathen had to keep the Lord's day, even if they didn't go to church. They couldn't go and buy and sell.

But we're up to my generation now, raising my children, of course. By now, shops are open. Everybody starting to do things on Sunday, but we would keep to our two services. We had church in the morning and fellowship with everybody. The children didn't go back for Sunday school, because we had by then got in the groove of having Sunday school during the church service, which I, OK, maybe that's fine, but I don't believe it's the ultimate.

So then we would all go back for church in the evening. Two times a day. Well, there's nowhere in the Bible where it actually says, “Thou shalt go to church two times on Sunday.” But I do believe that it happened, and it became tradition, out of this same principle of the “Morning and Evening Principles.” We are doing it in the home, so we do it in church.

You see, the home is the first institution. God established the home first before He established church, before He established government. That's all secondary. The home is the first institution. And what happens in the home comes out into the church, and then into society.

So because back in those days, God's people would meet morning and evening in their homes, it was normal to meet morning and evening on Sundays. The only difference was, you were meeting with all the other families. It was just an extended meeting of families. And so that's what happened.

But now I have a terrible confession to make. Now we're into the third generation, and we are still pastoring. But we only have one service. I hate it. I so miss our second service, but somehow, we've just got into this groove of most of society today, which is one service in the morning.

Oh, my. And then we do have a fellowship meal. What we do now, because we have church in our home, but it's not like a little lounge meeting. We have our great big social room, which is our Above Rubies packaging room. We can pack if we want to, squash 100 people into that room.

FELLOWSHISP WITH ONE ANOTHER

So, we have church there. And then afterwards, everybody brings a meal, and we all stay on and fellowship. It's just so wonderful. Oh, I'm such a great believer in fellowship. The early church came together to fellowship, and to break bread, and to be taught the Word of God. They didn't just have a meeting and go.

I think, you know, I think it's because so many don't understand real church. Church is not just, “OK, I go to church. I listen to a message, and I go home.” No, it's fellowship. Fellowship with one another. Love one another. Pray for one another. Oh, there's so many “one-anothers” in the Bible.

You can't one-another unless you are together!

And I find every Sunday, as we have our service, which is always so wonderful. And then we sit down to eat and often the young people will go out and play volleyball. The children are running around. Adults are continuing to fellowship, to pray for one another, to talk over things they're going through, to share with one another, to share more revelation. You haven't got enough time in the service to do it all.

It goes on and on. Sometimes we're there till late. So we are having a pretty great Sunday. But I don't know what happened to our night one. Somehow I think we've got to get back to that. But it does show you, doesn't it, how we can sort of degenerate away from the gold.

Well, I see time is going again, ladies. One other thing I was thinking about too. Just a little comment on it as we close, and that is our clothing. Yes. I'm wondering, what are we experiencing today? Are we living in the gold, or are we living in the brass?

When I look around today, and even in the church, I have to think we're living in the brass. It seems as though modesty and femininity have been stolen from the people of God. Well, of course, you expect it out in the world. You know, they don't know the ways of God. But why is it that the people of God have followed the ways of the world?

I mean, help. I don't even know how to say it. People will come to church, I mean, ladies, I've seen young people come to church in shorts. I mean, OK, I'm not saying let's outlaw shorts. They're great for sports and swimming and the volleyball court, and out there.

But not for church! Don't we have any respect for God, for holiness? I mean, they often come with brief shorts, they come with cleavage. Oh help, you don't even know where to look. They come with tight jeans. You can see every tiny little thing. People say, “Oh, well, that's just the fashion of the day.”

Well, what kind of fashion? Is it gold or is it brass? Oh yes, I know it's normal today. I know it's just normal for young people to wear holey jeans. Well, that's just the norm. I'm not saying you must not wear them at all. All I'm saying is, they're not feminine. They're not beautiful. And many times they're so tight they show everything. They don't line up with beauty or femininity.

No wonder, even when the people of God can succumb to that sort of thing. I mean, I've seen preachers preaching in holey jeans! I mean, I'm talking about lady preachers. Goodness me. Yes. And I think we have actually degenerated into brass.

Anyway, goodness me, I'd better get you onto a happy note, hadn't I? Well, the Lord love you and bless you. I hope you still love me. Let us pray.

“Dear Father, I ask that You teach us Your ways. Oh God, save us from accepting the normal as though it's normal. We've not seen any other way, so we think it's normal. But it's not Your gold,  it's not Your ultimate plan. Help us to be those who go for the gold, and who are not content with brass. In Jesus' Name, Amen.”

Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.og

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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