FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

PODCAST 90: YOU ARE WRITING YOUR STORY AS YOU RAISE YOUR FAMILY

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies, it is always great to be with you. Today I have sitting right next to me my dear friend, Heather Bryant. Heather has flown all the way from Washington State to be with us and to do this podcast with me.

We have talked about it for so long and at last we are doing it. I know you are going to be so blessed by Heather. She lives up, as I said, in Washington State right by Puget Sound. I think there is a big cliff right by your house and you look right over to Puget Sound.

Heather Bryant: Yes, it is so beautiful.

NC: You are just so spoiled!

HB: I am! My husband says that all the time.

NC: Yes. Heather is a beautiful mother of a few children.

HB: Just a few.

NC: Yes, just a few! She actually has fourteen children, but you wouldn’t know it if you were looking at her.

She is going to share just a few things of her mothering.

We should start about getting married first, because you get married first, don’t you?

HB: Yes, yes indeed!

NC: Any way, tell us, were you in love with your husband when you first started out.

HB: No! No, I really wasn’t. He just came into my life and he, on the whole, just really irritated me on so many levels. I didn’t find him physically attractive and he bugged me. In fact when he would leave my parent’s house, half the time I slammed the door behind him.

My mom said later on that she would just shake her head and think, “He’s the one.”

NC: So what changed your mind?

HB: Well, like I said, I really didn’t feel all the superficial things but there was that still small voice, literally, that I probably don’t listen to as often as I should.

But at that time it was loud enough, and I felt God almost physically turning me back toward Barry (my husband now) and almost saying, “That is the one I have chosen for you.”

I had a lot of admiration for him. I felt like he was completely different from any other guy I had ever met before. So with those kind of things in my head and then that feeling that God had chosen him for me I just went forward.

NC: And now, isn’t it nearly thirty years later?

HB: Yes and I adore him. He is like my best friend.

I don’t even know why I didn’t think he was good looking because he is quite handsome, and I feel bad for all the other women in the world whose husbands are not as handsome as mine.

NC: That is so wonderful and together Barry and Heather have been writing a beautiful story. I often think that this is what it is about raising a family. It’s writing a story.

I was thinking about that at Christmas time. Colin and I went over to Serene and Sam’s. I thought, “Do you know what I will do? I think I will write a limerick for everyone in the family.” So I wrote a little limerick for each of the children about their personality.

This is the simple little limerick I wrote for Serene:

“An incredible mother lives in this home

Who brings love and blessings and shalom.

She shines with glory

As she writes her story

With each precious child in her home.”

That’s, of course, a beautiful testimony of Serene but I was thinking about that with you, too, Heather. That’s what you have been doing, you have been writing this story.

Dear ladies, that’s what all of you are doing. You are writing your story. Each one of your stories is going to be different. Wouldn’t it be boring if they were all the same?

HB: Oh indeed.

NC: God is so unique! And every child that comes into the world that God orchestrates, and God just grows and creates in the womb is so different, each one is unique.

There is not one child that is born that is like any other that has ever been born or any other that ever will be born.

It’s like that with every family. Every family is unique.

Wow, it’s just as well that all of the families are not like us it would be hair-raising! We’re all different. We have our own sort of personality about our family.

I know you have that about your family, Heather.

Isn’t it great hearing about other families and their stories? Heather is going to tell us about some of her story today.

We have got to start out, of course, with your children and all of their names.

HB: Oh yes, I hope you wrote that down!

NC: I did! I wrote the names in case you forgot them!

HB: I know! I don’t remember birthdays very well at all.

NC: Well we won’t put that in.

So Rachel is their oldest and I know Rachel because Heather has been putting on and organizing Above Rubies retreats in Washington State for, I can’t even remember how many years!

HB: I think it’s been almost fourteen years because Mary was little, and she is over fourteen.

NC: Isn’t that amazing? I just love faithful women who put themselves to the task and never give up and here we are doing another one again this year!

HB: You know what I think, that’s what it is, you never give up. Things don’t always go sometimes how you plan but it’s showing up after they don’t always go as planned.

NC: That’s right. That’s what life is about, isn’t it? Faithfulness, never giving up, just the duties of life.

So ladies, we are having another ladies retreat in Washington State. We have it in Olympia.

HB: Yes, in Olympia at Black Lake Bible Camp.

NC: Do you know the date?

HB: I do but I can’t remember! It’s the last weekend in March.

NC: Yes, the last weekend in March. Ladies, that’s coming up so quickly, but you can still get in. Don’t miss it! If you’ve never been before, make an effort to come. There is nothing like an Above Rubies retreat. You will be encouraged through the ministry but also through the wonderful fellowship.

HB: It is. I have friends at that retreat and that is where I go see them. We connect but just to be able to know that I will get to go see those ladies at that time. Some of my dearest friends I have met at the Above Rubies retreat.

NC: Even the children. This is not a family camp, but mothers bring their older daughters and they make wonderful friends, too.

In fact, I love people to come to our Above Rubies Ladies’ Retreats with three generations of grandmothers, the mothers, and the children. It’s great; it is just so wonderful!

So Heather is doing that again this year.

HB: Rachel, she leads worship at the retreat.

NC: Yes, Rachel is a beautiful girl. I knew her as a teen and now she is married with three little boys.

Then Luke, he is married with three little girls.

HB: Yes, I am Grandma six times over. Actually, I’m Mae Mae. That’s what I’m called, Mae Mae.

NC: Yes, everyone has their own special names they love to be called.

HB: I know, you’re Nana, right?

NC: Yes, I’m Nana or Nanny.

Then there is Bekah who is courting. I love courting.

HB: Yes, in Florida. She is not in Washington with us at this point.

NC: Yes, I was just counting up the other day, just in our family, and counted up six courting couples.

HB: Love is in the air around here, I’m not even kidding!

NC: It’s so wonderful!

Then Ruth is 21 and Simon is 20. Then Sam, he’s your tree-topper, isn’t he?

HB: Yes, he is 18 years old. He just applied for his business license and he’s got that all lined up and he’s been doing a few tree-topping jobs.

NC: Oh and we forgot to say what Luke does!

HB: He’s a bomb diffuser in the Air Force.

NC: That’s pretty exciting!

HB: Yes, I guess! He seems to like it. As a mother I’m like, “Did we have to pick that kind of a career?” But I guess to each his own.

NC: I think he’s already been in places with President Trump where he’s had to diffuse bombs if they are there.

HB: Yeah, yeah.

NC: Then Levi and Mary and they are with us here, too.

HB: Don’t forget Peter!

NC: Oh yes, we’ve got Peter, too. Then Hannah, she is with Jesus now, but we are going to talk about her later. This is one of the most precious things that Heather will talk about with you.

Then there is Chloe, Susie, and Jael, and Elisha or Ellie. She is three, isn’t she?

HB: Yes, I had her when I was 48.

NC: Wow, isn’t that wonderful? Forty-eight— you are blessed because there are many women who are still longing for another baby. I get emails from women that say, “Oh please pray for me for I am still longing for another baby.” They are in their forties, but no babies are coming. So you were really blessed.

HB: I really was and am. I still am.

NC: Oh, I know! You’ve hardly started!

HB: That’s what my husband says anyway.

NC: What does he say to you?

HB: He always wonders who else is in there. He looks at me and he says, “I wonder who else is in there?”

He’s very unusual for a man! He told me he would never get mad if I got pregnant.

In fact, I think when I got pregnant with Hannah, I called him, and I told him that I was pregnant ,and he was very happy. But then later he called me back and he goes, “I just want to thank you for being willing to have our children. I just know that you are older and it’s not easy. I realize that every time you do have a child you are basically giving up a part of yourself to grow this child and I see that, and I am really thankful for a woman like you.”

NC: Isn’t that beautiful?

HB: That was like the best. I was like crying! It was just so sweet.

NC: And with all these children you have been writing your story and building your home.

I was just reading again today that wonderful Scripture, Proverbs 14:1: “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”

Actually three times in Proverbs it talks about the wise woman building.

In Proverbs 9:1 says: “Wisdom hath builded her house . . ..” Do you notice the three words there? Wisdom, build, house.

Then again in Proverbs 14:1: “Every wise woman buildeth her house . . ..”

Proverbs 24:3: “Through wisdom is an house builded . . ..”

The three go together. It is a wise woman who builds and if we’re building, we’re wise, and what are we building? We’re building a home and a family.

That’s what it’s all about.

Sometimes I love to go to some old translations. I have here the Knox translation and I love it. It is an old one.

It says: “It is by woman’s wisdom a home thrives; a foolish wife pulls it down about her ears.”

The Moffat translation says: “Wisdom builds the house of life; frivolity pulls it down.”

And so that’s what you’ve been doing, isn’t it? But I’m sure you had struggles.

HB: Oh for sure. Sometimes I’m listening to you and I’m just like, “I’m not all there.” On the whole I try to build my home and I ask the Lord to help me every day. You know there are struggles.

NC: That’s life.

HB: Yeah.

NC: Even having your children, did you have perfect pregnancies every time?

HB: No. I’ve been pregnant twenty times and have had fourteen live births. I’ve had a couple of really bad miscarriages that I ended up in the hospital with a DNC and a blood transfusion.

NC: And still you never gave up.

HB: No I didn’t.

NC: God was with you and kept you and He was faithful.

HB: Yeah. It was not easy. It was not easy, and it isn’t easy. Even as your children are growing, they’re making more and more decisions on their own.

You can’t just line up all the children in a row and tell them exactly what to do and they’re going to go do that thing exactly how you tell them.

NC: I know, I often thought it would have been just nice if I could have had robots!

HB: Oh I know, wouldn’t it?

NC: But they’re not robots!

HB: And just changing. When your children start growing up and becoming more independent but then you still have little children at home, it can get really confusing.

But you just plug on. Some days I just go, “I’m starting over today” and it’s all right.

NC: That’s right, that’s life—plodding on.

HB: And just giving yourself a break. Giving yourself, grace. Having your heart set on doing the right thing but we are human, we will make mistakes but just give your self grace.

NC: Yes—and plodding on. I think it is a powerful thing—plodding on. As the Bible says, when a righteous man falls, he gets up again. He can fall seven times and get up again (Psalm 37:34, 35; Proverbs 24;16; and Micah 7:8).

HB: It’s when you don’t get up that that’s the problem. Just get up!

NC: It’s like a little baby when they’re starting to walk. They walk along, they fall, but they never stay down.

They get up and that’s the secret, I believe, of life. We all face struggles and challenges in different ways and sometimes I feel like jolly well getting up and getting out of this place, but we can’t. We have to get up again and face the fray.

We don’t do it on our own, but we face it with God, and He enables us. And here you are, you’re still alive today!

HB: Yes, here I am! Who knew?

NC: What was your best and what was your worse birth?

HB: Levi was my best birth. I remember I was in labor and I knew I was. I had my husband call my midwife. I had just seen her the day before and I was barely dilated but she had stripped my membranes. The next day I felt something going on and I remember having a contraction and I said to my husband, “Call the midwife.”

He said, “Are you sure?”

I looked at him and I’m like, “CALL HER” and he said, “Okay!” because I was having a contraction that I just knew.

She came and she told me later she didn’t think anything was going on because I literally was not even dilated.

I said, “Well I just had a contraction.” I was lying in my bed and I said, “They were five minutes apart” and it had been great.

You can be in labor for quite a while when your contractions are five minutes apart, so we started talking. But about two and a half minutes into our little chat I started having a contraction and my water broke.

She goes, “Oh, something IS happening.”

So I just kind of labored for probably about an hour more. Then all of the sudden my water broke again, and I pushed once and boom— there he was.

In fact I knew my best friend was around the area and I called her and said, “Hey I just had my baby! Come on over!”

She goes, “What?”

I mean I don’t think the placenta had even come out. I was fine. I remember thinking, “Is this it? This was wonderful!”

I think Mary’s was a long birth.

NC: She was the next one after Levi?

HB: Yes, and it changed. I’ve had them all over the board!

NC: I know, this is the thing with childbirth. Sometimes, you know, maybe some of you precious mothers have been through very, very challenging childbirths and you think, “Wow, oh my, how could I ever do that again?”

But please, be encouraged, because every birth is different. Even if one birth is a difficult one, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be like that next time. It can be just so amazing!

HB: Yes, in fact I remember the first birth, with Peter, which was before Levi, that I actually prayed and asked God. I actually had three things that I had asked Him. I remember reading this book about the man who started Royal Concern and he used to pray about everything.

His wife wrote a book and she said that there were actual knee prints in front of his bed because he had prayed and never asked for anything. I remember thinking that the only reason he does that is because of his faith.

I thought, “Well I just normally go into childbirth and just beg God for mercy.” I remembered you always say, “The Lord has mercy on those who give suck.” It’s basically saying that the Lord has mercy on mothers.

Anyway, I decided that there were three things that really stressed me out about birth and one of them was laboring through the night.

Once it passed twelve o’clock, I just wanted to go to bed! I wanted to be done. So that was one of the things that prior to Peter’s birth I asked for. I said, “Lord, could my birth be done before midnight?”

The second one was I did not want to push for a long time. I was just asking. He didn’t have to answer. I can’t remember the third one because those were the two really big things.

I’ll tell you, that was my first time that I did not have to push for a long time. I would have to push for a long time, for hours. I literally pushed, I remember, three times and he was born at 11:30 in the evening.

NC: Wow, so every time the Lord answered your prayers! How wonderful!

HB: Well I wouldn’t say I prayed every single time but that one I did pray.

NC: Well, no, but those times that you did pray. Then it makes you think, you have not because you ask not. You think, “Why didn’t I ask the other times?”

HB: I even do that now. I’ve had some pretty big things happen in my life where I have literally laid it down at the feet of Jesus and I’ve just left it there. I never took it back and I’m thankful I did.

But then after that happens life goes on. There are times that later on I look back and I think, “Why didn’t I pray about this? Why didn’t I pray and ask the Lord to help me? Why did I pick it up and take it and start doing it on my own?”

NC: Yes, yes. Then you had precious little Hannah. Tell us about that. She went to be with the Lord at about 14 months, didn’t she?

HB: Yeah, she was 14 months old.

NC: Tell us what happened there.

HB: Well my oldest daughter, Rachel, she accidentally ran her over with our car and she basically died pretty quickly after that. So it was two of my daughters were affected highly at that moment.

NC: So she was just backing out, was she?

HB: Yes, yes.

NC: Yes, that’s something that happens quite often, doesn’t it?

I know the mothers around here have that fear because we have so many teens now with cars and then so many little wee ones.

They’re all saying, “Okay, you must not even drive your car before you go around the back and look around and look around again.”

HB: Oh yeah, it’s something that people just in everyday life kind of forget.

It was very devastating. Not in a permanent way but it was terrible. You just sit there and go, “If I had only walked around the car. If I had only checked.”

NC: Oh I know, but who does ever check? Unless you have that constant reminder, it’s just not something you do. That’s something we try to do around here now because of the teens driving and the little wee ones at the same time.

Didn’t that happen about three months after it had happened with Steven Curtis Chapman?

HB: It did, and I remember my daughter came to me when we had heard that and she said, “If that ever happened to me, I would die.”

And it was three weeks later it happened to her.

NC: Oh yes.

When it happened what did she do? Were you there?

HB: I was there. I was across the street. We were getting ready for Vacation Bible School and our house is a field away from our church.

My son came and he’s like, “Mom, something really bad has happened. It’s Hannah.”

I go, “Well what happened?”

He goes, “Just come.”

I go, “WHAT HAPPENED?”

He goes, “Rachel ran her over.”

I’m like, “Oh my lands.”

I arrive in our yard and all my nieces and nephews are there because we were all getting ready for Vacation Bible School and all my children were there. There were ten including Hannah.

It was chaos. It was absolutely chaos. There were children crying everywhere. I couldn’t find Rachel. She had just panicked and ran off.

My daughter Ruth had called 911 and they had told her not to touch the baby, so she was just bent over her, kneeling down on her knees over Hannah’s body, crying.

You could tell she was out of it. She would breath every now and then. It was terrible.

I remember walking and trying to find Rachel. My neighbor had come over and was doing CPR on Hannah.

I remember just walking by our kitchen window and I said, “Oh God, I won’t be mad, and I won’t even question, but You have to help me take care of my children.”

Because all of a sudden you have all these children and they all hurt different and they process different and I knew there was no way I would be able to do that on my own. I couldn’t do it and I needed His help. There was nothing I could do about Hannah.

In fact there was something inside me that I knew she would not make it. There was a little abrasion on her forehead, so she didn’t look horrible. Actually I was very thankful for that.

But I knew she wouldn’t make it. So my focus was on my children who were alive, especially my three older children, Rachel, Luke (who had brought Hannah outside), and Bekah, who was supposed to be watching Hannah, but she was inside making lunch.

I mean it was all normal things. Luke brought her out to play. She was a baby that was super laid back. She had just kind of started walking and crawling. She was a late bloomer in that.

NC: So she was barely walking?

HB: Well she was on a sled. They had been pulling her around and she crawled behind the car. It just doesn’t take that much time for things to go bad.

Anyway, I got to tell you. Do you want me to tell you the story about the police officer who was the first to arrive on the scene? It was kind of an interesting story.

NC: Yes.

HB: This happened in June and in December I was doing errands and I was in a vehicle that was not our family car. It was our commuter car. I guess the tabs had expired on it, so I got pulled over by a police officer.

They ask for your license, proof of insurance, and your registration for your car, so I give it to him. He was taking a little while because they’re going back, and I don’t know what all he was doing.

I am sitting there, and I look in the rearview mirror and he’s kind of digging around in his car and I thought, “What is he doing?”

As he was doing all this I prayed to the Lord and said, “It would be different if I was speeding; but I wasn’t speeding, I didn’t know about the tabs. Could You please make it so that the policeman couldn’t give me a ticket?”

It was Christmastime and we were trying to buy presents for our children, and we have a whole bunch of them, so I was just like, “Please!”

It probably would have been about over three hundred dollars for me to make it right. I had gotten my husband a container of candy to put in his stocking at Christmas. I got so nervous I opened it and just started eating it while I was waiting for the police officer to give me a ticket because my tabs had expired!

Anyway, he eventually comes up and I said, “Is everything okay?”

He said, “Well I lost your driver’s license.”

I said, “Well I gave it to you.”

He said, “I know you did.”

So he had me pull up into this gas station and he has every door open and his trunk open. He’s like digging around in his patrol car.

He comes up to me and he gives me back my registration and proof of insurance and he goes, “Well, I cannot find your driver’s license and so I cannot give you a ticket. I have been doing this for over 20 years and this has never happened to me.”

I go, “Well I know what happened?”

He goes, “What?”

I said, “I prayed that you can’t give me a ticket and God answered my prayer!”

He said, “Well I’m a praying man myself. It worked!”

So fast-forward to June when the accident happened. Just before that I was at our local pizza place getting cards for our junior helpers for our Vacation Bible School because we reward them at the end of the time and there was the police officer.

In the meantime I had shared with a friend of mine who was a teacher at the high school that he had worked as a police officer to watch over the young people. I had told her what had happened and so she had gone and talked to him about it.

He had vacillated between police officer and a pastor. He had come and asked if he could come to our church and preach in that time, but it never worked out.

So anyway, I went up to him at the pizza place and I said, “Hey, do you remember me?”

He looks at me for a second and he goes, “Driver’s license!”

NC: Did he ever find it?

HB: He did. He went to the mechanic at the police station and had to take out his front seat and the driver’s license had fallen into a little crack between the front seat and the consul.

NC: Well it was God answering your prayers!

HB: Yep, yep. So we were able to, at the pizza place, just chat as a Christian brother and sister and remember and laugh and stuff.

Anyway, he was the first police officer to show up on the scene. When something like that happens, you’re scared, and you don’t know what’s going to happen.

NC: So it was someone familiar to you.

HB: Yes, yes. Just before I left to the hospital, News helicopters were flying over so we had brought all the children in my house.

I remember my friend and I were about ready to leave to the hospital. They had brought all of the children in; all of my children were inside.

Officer Johnson had come up to me and he said, “My heart is just broken. Is there anything that I can do?” I mean, he had tears in his eyes.

I said, “Could you just go into my children.” I go, “As a father, as police officer, as a Christian, you can say whatever you want to them. I just want them to know that it was an accident.”

I didn’t know how Rachel’s brothers and sisters would respond to her. It was just such a blessing to have John Johnson, the police officer, just be there. I knew he was a Christian; I knew he wanted to help in that way and just to send him in before I left was so comforting.

Later on I was told by one of his colleagues who had found out that he was the one who had shown up first, he said to me, “You had the best.”

Literally when I talked to someone about the doctor who took care of Hannah, the lady I talked to said to me, “You had the best.”

I kept over and over hearing that and I believe it, and do you know what? It was the most comforting thing to know that we had the best even though the worst did happen.

In these hardest moments I just felt so cared for and loved and I knew that He loved all of us. He even loved Hannah.

In fact, I know that Hannah is more alive than you and I right now. She’s at the feet of Jesus! What could be better than that?

NC: So wonderful.

Well, our time is gone but I think we’ve got to talk again.

HB: Yes.

NC: I think we’ll come back next podcast because there are many more things that Heather will share about this. I know it’s going to be especially encouraging to those of you who have had miscarriages, those of you who have had stillbirths, those of you who have lost little ones, and even those of you who have lost bigger ones.

Let’s pray now.

“Father, We are just thinking today of so many precious mothers whose hearts, Lord God, some of which are still aching. They don’t even know how to get rid of this burden.

“But Lord, we pray that You would come to them today. Come and bring Your comfort again. Let them know that their precious loved one is with You. This is the comfort that we have. We have an eternal hope.

“We thank You, Lord, we thank You that we look forward to the eternal realm, which is the real world and where we will celebrate life with all those who have gone before.

“I pray that You will bless them and comfort them and strengthen them this day, in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.”

Come back next week because you are going to hear more from Heather, and I know you are going to be so blessed and encouraged and strengthened.

P.S. You can email Heather at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Olympia retreat was postponed because of COVID-19 SHUTDOWN. However, keep checking the webpage, www.aboverubies.org for the new date which should be posted soon.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

PODCAST 88- LIFE, DEATH, COURTING, WEDDINGS, AND A TRIP TO ISRAEL!

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies! It is so wonderful to be with you again.

This morning I have my dear friend, Alison Hartman, with us again. They have just arrived back from Israel.

Alison and Daniel and their two oldest daughters, Makenna and Eden, along with Serene, Sam and their two oldest daughters, Chalice and Cherish and little Remmy and Solly all went to Israel together, the ten of them. A great team!

How did you all survive together?

Alison Hartman: Oh my goodness, ha-ha! It started off a little rocky. We brought the stomach bug with us from Tennessee. That was interesting. Every day we had somebody sick; but even in that we had lots of laughs and it really bonded us quickly.

It really worked out great timing wise because it was right when we got there, and we had jetlag and needed a few days to relax before we hit the road running.

NC: I think you did hit the road running, didn’t you? Here you are pregnant and how many weeks are you?

AH:  Thirty-two.

NC: Thirty-two weeks and she just ripped her legs off, didn’t you?

AH: Yeah, Remmy and I earned the trophy for walking far more than we should.

NC: Yes, poor little Remmy, he’s four and he had to walk everywhere. They all arrived home and came walking into our lounge and Sam, I think it was a joke, said to Remmy, “Come on, Remmy, let’s go for a walk!”

Remmy started crying and crying. “Oh help, no!”

AH: They’ve ruined him for ever walking again! We walked miles and miles and miles. A lot of it was uphill; a lot of them were steep hills. We only called a taxi once because I just couldn’t do it.

NC: You did so amazing.

Anyway, we’re going to talk more about Israel and what they did there in this session. I think Pearl and Serene are back to doing their podcast today and I am sure Serene will be talking about it on the Trim Healthy Mama podcast.

But before we even go on to that I must share that this time we’re going through a grieving time here in our family. Life is not all just roses, is it?

Just a couple of days ago my granddaughter-in-law gave birth to a stillborn baby. She is Evangeline’s daughter-in-law. Evangeline was sharing just a few weeks ago on podcast 85. Did you listen to Evangeline? That was just so amazing. If you missed it, get back to it and listen to it. I think we mentioned there that her son Jireh and Alyvia were expecting a baby.

This beautiful baby was kicking and beautiful. Mother and baby were both healthy. Then all of a sudden, life went. They believe that the baby must have been doing such incredible acrobats in the womb that something happened to the cord and life stopped.

So many of you, I know, you have lost babies. You have lost babies in the womb. Even in the womb it is grievous as losing a little one who is born. There is something about life. I mean, you bond to life in the womb, you bond to this baby, and you name this baby. This baby is a living being.

This couple has just been going through horrendous, horrendous grief. It just makes you realize, and you can’t even believe it, how so many today can just discard life in the womb.

They are not aware of the preciousness of life.

We have governments in our nation who are prepared to make it law that a baby can be killed even after birth if it is destined for abortion. How can we even take this in when someone who knows it is life must go through such grieving?

Life here in this world is embracing life and then many times we must face the death of life, which is always the most horrific thing that we will ever have to go through.

We mourn, but we can mourn in hope. For those of you who have been through this, you know that we have to mourn in hope, don’t we? The hope of eternity! This little darling life will be celebrated into eternity forever. That’s the wonderful thing. Although we miss life here, we have the hope of eternal life. It is so incredible.

I think often we have got to live beyond the day-to-day and see that the eternal realm is the real world. I often have to remind myself that this is not the real world, but this is the temporary world, preparing for eternity. Do you have to do that?

The eternal world is the real world.

We look to that as we face what is going on.

But then again, we have other beautiful things happening. I was counting up the other night, that in our family life, we have about six courting couples. Isn’t that amazing?

Some of them are young and waiting for that time when they can be married but it is so beautiful, and it is so wonderful. I don’t think there is anything that rejoices my heart more than to see God bring a couple together. It’s miraculous. It’s incredible. There are all the people in the world and God just brings two special people together.

It’s so amazing.

Then we have the hope of weddings and babies coming after weddings! Isn’t it amazing?

God loves all this. Did you know that in the Bible God talks about the joy of weddings? God loves it. Today some people just go to a registry office and get married. They don’t celebrate it.

So many couples today are not even getting married. Oh, it breaks my heart. They don’t even get married; they just live together. They have lost the awe and the wonder of weddings and of a marriage.

I’m just thinking of Jeremiah 33:10, 11 and it says: “Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place . . . The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever . . ..”

This is God talking about the blessing of God coming again upon Israel.

He says this is what is going to happen: When I bless you again, what will happen?  There will be the voice of joy, the voice of mirth, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. There will be merriment, rejoicing, and joy. There will be weddings and out of weddings will come babies and the godly seed.

It’s God’s blessing. It is God’s blessing on the land when godly virgins are coming together and then they marry and then they embrace children and then raise godly families.

This is God’s plan.

Then conversely, there are Scriptures similar that say that when God is bringing His curse upon the nation because they have turned away from Him, they have habitually sinned and sinned and sinned and He says: “Now this is what will happen.”

It says here in Jeremiah 7:34; 16:9; and 25:10. Three times God says: “For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.”

When we no longer have lots of weddings, that is God’s curse.

We need to see God’s blessing is on marriage and the beautiful celebration of weddings and God bringing a couple together and establishing a family. It is the most beautiful thing.

Anyway, we are here today to find out more of what happened in Israel!

So, you first stayed in Jerusalem, didn’t you?

AH: Yes.

NC: Tell me the view you had of Jerusalem.

AH: Oh my goodness, we never dreamed we’d have such a neat accommodation. We had met a missionary in Pensacola where we live. They were visiting, from Israel, one of their sons. I had just met her a couple of years ago. She said, “If you’re ever in Israel, look us up” so we did. They have a ministry called Road to Emmaus.

They are a family with seven children. They’ve actually made Aliyah because he has Jewish heritage. They are just the neatest family. They let us rent their top apartment. We had the whole place to ourselves.

The back view was the Mount of Olives. It was just like the cherry on the top. We never dreamed that we would have such an amazing view in an apartment in a city, but you overlook the most amazing background.

This family didn’t just give us a key and say, “Have a good time.” They really were there. Their ministry is to bring in fellow believers and share the experience of Israel with them. They really walked it out with us. We even shared the stomach bug with them, and they still loved us!

They do a Shabbat meal and their church service up in the apartment we were staying at, so we had to let them come in. But it was great because they included us, and we made food together. It wasn’t like they treated us like a visitor, they treated us like family.

It was so neat because we got to see their perspective. As the podcast goes on, I’ll tell you about all the others we met. It was so neat to see a little snapshot of their place in Israel and what they are doing to serve the Jewish people.

NC: Yes, so that was right in Jerusalem. I think you walked the streets of Jerusalem, didn’t you?

AH: We did. We did rent a car, which was a little scary because Sam, I think purposefully, left his driver’s license here in America so my husband, Daniel, drove.

It was a stick-shift nine-passenger van. When you’re driving a stick and you haven’t done it since you were a teenager, it can be a little scary. Everything is a hill. We live in Florida and everything is flat. So he would get stuck on the top of a hill. The car would die, and we would start rolling back.

Serene would start singing, “JESUS!”

It was pretty funny!

Anyway, we had funny laughs, but some scary moments.

The funniest thing was when Serene said, “For some reason I feel like we’re in a foreign country, we really can’t die.” I kind of thought the same thing but I didn’t want to say it. But I said, “Yeah I kind of felt the same way but our chances of dying keep increasing the more we drive.”

These Israeli drivers are crazy. They love to honk. They love to cut in and you don’t expect it because you’re not used to that. Turn signals are never used.

We had quite the adventure! We rode the bus a couple times.

Sam accidentally hit this lady with his backpack, and he didn’t realize he did it. Then he turned to say he was sorry, and he hit her again. I think he hit her a third time! Nobody spoke English and he was trying to say he was sorry, but he couldn’t speak Hebrew.

Another funny story was we couldn’t figure out how the bus system worked. We looked at the sign and finally found somebody and said, “Can you speak English? Can you tell us when the bus is coming?”

He looked at us and then looked at the sign, then looked at us and looked back at the sign and the sign was in English and we didn’t know it!

He said, “Right there it says it will be here in seven minutes.”

We were all just kind of like, “Oh!”

We had the big sign “Dumb Tourist” written all over us.

NC: Of course you went on your own and explored without a tour guide.

AH: Yes, no tour guide, no tour bus, and honestly no plans. That was the coolest part.

We had many people, including my family, say, “What? You can’t go to Israel without a plan! You’re going to waste two weeks.”

Well, I just can’t wait to tell you how untrue that was. It really maybe wasn’t wise. we didn’t plan anything because we have just been so busy.

We got there and man, the doors got opened. We couldn’t have even planned such a wonderful trip.

NC: I know, it’s just so amazing. I was just looking through this morning and I must show you some of my albums of Israel. When we lived in Australia, Colin and I took tours to Israel. I was reading this beautiful poem, which I have in my album:

Words fail me when I think about the Holy Land;

I only know that where my Saviour stood, I stand.

And thus the hills He did behold, mine eyes have seen,

And where hath trod the Son of God, I too have been.

That’s the thing, isn’t it, when you go to Israel you’re not going just as a tourist to visit another country.  You go, and you experience, and you feel. That’s the wonderful thing.

Now, on the way there, just as you’re getting on the plane to Israel you met the Waller’s, didn’t you?

AH: Yes, well you had told us . . .

NC: Yes, I said, “You have got to get out to the West Bank!”

AH: We thought, “Well, we’ll get there if we can. It would be great, but who knows?”

We were in line getting on the plane from New York to Israel and I think I had gone potty (because I went to every potty in Israel because I’m pregnant.).

When I came back Serene was hugging somebody and I thought, “Who in the world does she know in New York?”

It was the Waller’s. They had just visited their daughter in America, and they were heading back. They were in first class because they had a buddy pass and God blessed him with first class.

NC: Yes, she said that was the first time that ever happened.

AH: It was such a sweet blessing because they were in America to grieve the loss of one of their grandchildren that their daughter had just lost and so what a neat little kiss from God.

I went up to them and I said, “Hey, you don’t know me but I’m friends with the Campbell’s, friends with Sam and Serene, but we have no plans for the next two weeks. Do you think you could help us?”

Mr. Tommy Waller just looked at me and he goes, “We gotcha. We gotcha covered.”

We ended up not seeing them after the flight because they were first class and they were out of there. But then we contacted him a few days into our trip. Daniel, Sam and he all talked, and they had a plan. They invited us and we spent three nights with them and boy, did they roll out the red carpet. I mean they treated us so wonderfully.

NC: Yes, I am so glad you got out there to the West Bank because I think that is one of the most incredible things you can do if you go to Israel. That is the heartland of Israel. It is the very place where Joshua brought the children of Israel into the new land that they had to begin to conquer.

Of course you stayed right up on the Mount of Blessing, didn’t you? How amazing!

AH: Yes, that was so neat!

NC: Now ladies, I wonder if you know what the Mount of Blessing is.

When Joshua brought the children of Israel into the land, he brought them right into a little valley between two mountains—the Mount of Blessing (which in the Bible is called Mount Gerizim) and Mount Ebal.

Mount Gerizim is the Mount of Blessing. I think today they call it Har Brakha, don’t they?

AH: I think so.

NC: Yes, that’s what they call it. I’m sure some of you who are listening know this precious family, the Waller’s. Some of you have most probably been out to even work with them.

Their ministry is HaYovel, which means “Jubilee.”

When they first went out to the Land, God was leading them and they didn’t know what they were going to do but God was saying, “Go to Israel.” That was fifteen years ago and their youngest was just a little boy.

One of my Above Rubies covers had their little boy praying at the Wailing Wall. Now all these years later they are still there. Their children have grown. They took their eleven children out there to the West Bank where most people often fear to go because it is overrun with Arabs there who are not friendly to Israel.

God just so sovereignly, miraculously, and amazingly began to show them His plan of how He wanted to enable them to help the farmers of Israel who were planting the hillsides with vineyards.

Because they had had experience in farming, God had been preparing them. God put on their hearts to give their lives to befriend the Jewish people and to help them. For these last fifteen years or so they have gone to Israel, poured out their lives, stood beside these farmers and helped them prune, plant, and harvest their vineyards.

They have gathered young people and families in from all over the world to come and help them, especially in the harvest season. It is amazing.

Their children, of course, have gradually gotten married and now I think there are only three of their children left who are not married and they’ve gotten on to almost thirty grandchildren!

AH: Yes, twenty-nine under ten.

NC: Isn’t that amazing?

Wow, what a privilege to go out there!

AH:  Yes, and they are fulfilling prophecy. They are literally fulfilling prophecy.

They shared with us a story about when they had first got there. It’s not easy for believers to come into Israel, which I didn’t realize.

I was taken back by that because I just assumed it was like any other country but no. They said the Jewish people look at Christians and they lump them all in one category and relate to them as Catholic or Hitler-lovers because Hitler claimed Jesus, which is ridiculous because there was no love in his heart.

Anyway, when they first got there, they had a hater, someone who really just didn’t want them up there. They took a photo of Mr. Waller and printed it and put it on bus stops all over their city and the country saying. “Get rid of him.”

They thankfully have a rabbi who just loves them. He really loves them. He knows they are Christians; he knows that they are believers.

The Waller’s have not held that back, but they respect their culture and they embrace the Jewish life and culture, not out of law and duty but out of respect and because they love the traditions.

It’s just so neat. We got to hear so many stories and they took us around. Whenever they would stop and tell us something about a view, they would take their Bibles out, and it was literally like you were in Bible school again when you were a little child.

He would say, “Do you remember the story of when Abraham and how he went to sacrifice his son Isaac? Well guess what, it’s right there!”

I can’t remember if it was Mrs. Waller or one of the other families we stayed with, but one of them said to me, “Israel is like going and having the Bible going from black and white to color.”

It’s so true. It just came off the pages. The stuff that we’ve read but didn’t understand, you could literally see these locations.

The Waller’s are amazing. They are really living it, but they are so humble, even though they are doing amazing things. They are planting, harvesting, and pruning hundreds of vineyards for these Jewish people, just volunteering their time, but showing them love.

NC: They have had people come to help them in the harvest from thirty different countries of the world. It’s just something you can do to serve the Lord.

AH: They have a discipleship program, too. You can send your daughters, or your sons and they will basically house and feed them and put them to work.

In fact, Cherish, Sam and Serene’s daughter, came back home and she has decided that in the summer she’s going back. She’s on fire and she’s excited.

NC: That is so cool. Yes, it is called “Daughters of Zion” and then they have one called, “Sons of Zion.” I would encourage you to go to their website. It is just www.hayovel.com and you will see it all there.

You will see what they are doing. You will see the opportunities for families to go and help. You will see the opportunities to send your young people. Some of you have older young people that are looking for something to do to serve the Lord. There are many areas where we can serve the Lord, but this is one way.

AH: A lot of people say, “Don’t go to the West Bank.” It is safe. I felt just as safe there as I do in my own town.

Of course there is stuff that goes on, but they know the areas not to go to. The area they are at you will feel so safe. I would send my daughter any day.

They have a lot of rules to where they keep the young people safe because they are taking care of someone’s eighteen-year-old for three months.

You don’t even have to go for three months. They have a day program.

Sam and Daniel got up at 5:30 in the morning one day and they went to men’s prayer and then they put them to work. They went out on the field and they pruned to where their hands were falling off at night.

Even if you want to come as a family, they have accommodations where they will put you up.

That’s what they want. We were leaving and we said to them, “How can we support you?”

We were thinking more financially but he said to Sam, “Oh, I don’t want your money.”

I mean of course they could use the money, but he said, “I want your time. I want you. I want you to send your children.”

That’s what they want because they have more work than they have helpers.

NC: The more people they get, the more they can help those farmers and they have to possess the land.

You see, usually, ladies, we’re talking about marriage or we’re talking about motherhood but here today we are talking about Israel.

But this also affects us as families because I believe that we must be FAMILIES THAT LOVE ISRAEL. We need to be families that have Israel upon our hearts and therefore we’re praying for Israel.

I know a lot of young people, young people who even come into this home. They don’t know one thing about Israel and yet they have been brought up in Christian homes. We shouldn’t allow our children to grow up in our Christian homes without understanding about Israel; without knowing God’s purposes for Israel; without having a heart for Israel.

Therefore if we know about it, and we know God’s heart, and then we get His heart in our heart we’ll be praying for Israel.

I think that’s a big thing. That’s somewhere where we can start and where we can pray for Israel.

I’ve often talked to you about how we have prayer boxes in our home. At our Family Devotions we have our Family Prayer Box but then we have nine different prayer boxes. One of them is our Praying for Israel Prayer Box.

Just last night we were praying out of that box and I have cards in it all about different areas and needs to pray for Israel. Actually I picked out just a few of them this morning. I’m not going to pick out the ones which have the needs for Israel, which are so many.

But I also have some of the cards that just have a Scripture out of the Word of God, which we can pray or be reminded to pray.

I’m just picking up this one here, Isaiah 62:6-7: “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord [which means we are reminders to the Lord], keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

That is the Word of the Lord and that’s a Scripture to all of us and to us as families. When we gather each day to read the Word and pray together that we remember to pray for Israel. We’re to be watchmen on the walls and we’re not to give God rest. We’ve just got to, as it says, give Him no rest and keep not silent.

Oh goodness me, I think some families have never opened their mouths to pray for Israel in their lives and here the Scripture says, “KEEP NOT SILENT.”

We are commanded to pray for Israel.

I was just thinking of when they came into the land. We talked about how you stayed on the top of Mount Blessing.

Let me give you the reference to Mount Blessing. It is Deuteronomy 11:29: “And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.”

Again it tells us about that in Deuteronomy 27:11-13. It is amazing!

Now, Allison, we’ve got your husband, Daniel, here, too, and we’re going to get him to speak but we’re running out of time and we’ll do it next session.

But Daniel was telling me how he couldn’t believe that right there where Joshua brought the children of Israel in and they all had to stand in that valley between those two mountains, the Mount of Blessing and the Mount of Cursing. Half the tribes of Israel had to stand on the Mount of Blessing (Mount Gerizim) and half on the Mount of Cursing (Mount Ebal) and Joshua read all the blessings and all the curses.

They had to all stand there with their children, with their little ones, with their toddlers, and holding their babies.  Every person had to hear the blessings and the curses before they went in to conquer the land because all the blessings came if they kept His commandments.

He said, “If you keep My commandments I will . . .” and He gave all the blessings. You can read them in Deuteronomy 28.

But Daniel was telling me how, it’s unbelievable! The acoustics are so incredible.

You think, “How can you read them, and anybody hear?”

But apparently Daniel was saying you could be up the mountain somewhere and you could hear people talking in Shechem, which is where it is. The acoustics are just so amazing.

So way back there, God prophesied and told them that this is where you will do it because God knew this was the best place for the acoustics. Isn’t that incredible?

AH: He had all the details taken care of.

NC: But I wonder, out there on the West Bank you saw a lot of amazing things. Maybe we do just have time for Daniel.

Daniel, Alison’s husband, was telling me how out there in the West Bank you see things that tourists don’t see. He was telling me about the UN and all the camps round about it. Tell us about it.

Daniel Hartman: As we were standing there looking down on the Mount of Blessing to the city of Shechem it looked like a nice town. Then you see right by the UN they have a refugee camp that looks like it’s a third world country.

We were talking about it and asking Joshua Waller and he said, basically it is just a photo-op. They only have a person or two living in there as best you could tell. There is no movement or cars.

They pull all of the Palestinians or Muslims or whatever they are called to basically make it look like it’s squalor, and basically show the nations and have this heavy deception as is expected for the media.

Of course I personally don’t know of anything good that comes out the UN.

It is personally sad to see how the whole world is being manipulated with this propaganda over lies about how they are in squalor. Then right next to this third world make-shift city they have beautiful buildings that the nations have poured in billions and billions of dollars that no one is even living in.

They build them so fast. They were telling me about a city where they built it so fast that they didn’t even plan to put sewage in it. No one could live in it because they didn’t have any facilities for sewage.

Basically Israel has sections A, B, and C. It is all state property. What they have happening is whoever comes to possess the land first are the ones that get it. So the countries of the world that hate Israel, that hate Hebrews, are paying all these cities that are built and no one is living in them. It is just the most bizarre thing.

As you’re standing on these mountains looking down you see across the valley where Abraham came into the land first and was promised the land by God.

Then you see the place where Joshua addressed the whole nation of Israel, six tribes on the Mount of Blessing and six tribes on the Mount of Cursing. You see where Joshua built the altar to sacrifice to God right there.

You see the place where Joseph was thrown into the cave and given and sold into slavery to Egypt.

You see Joseph’s tomb sitting right there.

Then you see Jacob’s field as you’re looking down.

Then you see Jacob’s well and right next to it is this UN debauchery. I don’t know how else to say it, just with the lies and the propaganda, and how everything is being manipulated.

Nancy, if you don’t mind, I am going to read this really quick and then I’ll be done.

It is Zechariah 8 and of all verses I was actually listening to this on the way on the flight in.

Me going to the land, I knew I needed to go there, but I didn’t really understand how to connect and how powerful it would be.

This is what I read as I came in, Zechariah 8:1-7 in the International Standard Version: “This is this message from the Lord of the Heavenly Armies: “This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘I’m greatly jealous about Zion [which is Jerusalem], and that makes me furious about her.’”

He is just jealous about Jerusalem with a great love.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Zion and I will live in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem will be called, “The City of Truth” and the mountain of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies will be called, “The Holy Mountain”.’”

This is where Christ is going to reign. This is where we’re grafted in as Christians, is Jerusalem.

Verse 4 says: “This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘There will yet be old men and old women sitting in the parks of Jerusalem . . ..”

This is talking about peace. There is not peace there right now.

Literally, we were talking to the missionary guy that we were staying with. His son is in the IDF and three Muslims walked by and just spit on his feet.

If you are a tourist they don’t mess with you because that is money coming in, but if you’re a Hebrew that’s what is going on, especially if you’re in the IDF because they don’t allow any Muslims in their army.

So: “In the parks of Jerusalem, each one of them holding canes in their hands due to their old age [meaning they lived a long life]! The city parks will be filled with boys and girls. They will play in the city’s open parks.’ “This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says [these are the armies, the Leader of God’s army and the role that He’s putting on in place]: ‘It may seem impossible to the survivors of this people, but is it impossible for me?’ declares the Lord of the Heavenly Armies. “This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘Look! After having saved my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west, I will also bring them back to live in the midst of Jerusalem. They will be my people and I will truly be their righteous God.’”

NC: Yes, amen.

Well time has gone. I think we’re going to have to talk in another session because there’s more to talk about Israel.

Daniel, I love to pray at the end of each of our podcasts. I wonder if you could pray today and ask the Lord to open all of our hearts more and more to truly understand all of God’s purposes for Israel?

DH: “Dear Lord, Thank You for this time that we were able to go to this land, Your land, to walk in Your city that You will reign from, God. Thank You for continually opening my eyes to how precious Israel is to You, God.

“Lord God, we just pray that the people there would turn to You, God; that they would turn from their works-based religion and see You, the true Messiah, as You will stand and come down that Mount of Olives, God, and rule and reign forever

“I know they will see You and You’ll be revealing Yourself to them and they will turn to You then, God, but I pray for these people.

“I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, God, that all these people of these lands, God, and the world, would just see peace in Jerusalem; that they would see peace and not the division and that the division would stop in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 87 - EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS (PART 2)

Are you praying for Christ to come? We need Him in homes—and in the BEDROOM! We need him to come and bring REVIVAL—in our homes, in our churches, and in the land. Are you praying for Him to come? 2020 is a year for prayer!

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Well, I'm hoping that it won't be very long . . . Well, I hope that it's very soon that you will be receiving your new issue of Above Rubies.

I'm so sorry you've had to wait so long for this issue. This last year it seemed that it took longer than usual for the finances to come in, because we rely completely on just the love offerings of God's people, and those who have a heart for families, who want to see marriage, motherhood, and family encouraged and strengthened, and the families of this nation and around the world...

We just rely on them to give, so we can get this magazine printed. It does cost well over $60,000 to print, and to send it out across the world. God is faithful, and at last, we're just about to get another magazine out into the nation. I pray that you will be blessed.

If you are listening, and you are not on the mailing list for Above Rubies, just send your name and address to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We'll be happy to send it to you. It doesn't matter what country of the world you live in. We'll send Above Rubies out to you. It goes to well over 100 countries of the world. You can get it, no matter where you live.

And by the way, ladies, don't keep Above Rubies hidden away to yourself. I know that it's a great blessing to you when it comes to you in the mail. You're encouraged and inspired and blessed. In fact, there are so many thousands of women over the years whose lives have been completely changed and revolutionized through this little magazine.

It happens through sharing it, giving out to others, sharing it with your friends. Put Above Rubies in the waiting rooms of doctors and dentists and hairdressers. I love to put an Above Rubies magazine in the little baby changing tables in restaurants and supermarkets, wherever we go. And when we meet people, always have one in your handbag so you can give it to them.

Do you remember listening to Evangeline a couple of weeks ago, about being unapologetically unashamed, and what was the other one? Unoffendable! For your faith, and the Kingdom of God, and for motherhood. Let's never be ashamed of our great salvation, and who we are as mothers, for this is God's plan for us.

Let's tell the world!

Well,  I want to continue a little more today from last week. I was sharing with you about the word “come,” this beautiful word, “come.” Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly.” And so, we are to be looking for His coming. We're to be hastening His coming and trying to hurry it along. But I was saying last week how we also need to pray that God will come, EVEN NOW. That we're just not waiting for His coming, but He'll come now into our lives.

ASK GOD TO COME INTO EVERY ROOM OF YOUR HOME

And we were talking about His coming to our table. I believe we should ask Him to come into every room in our house. We need Him in every room, don't we? We need him in the kitchen, where we're rushing around, trying to cook the meals, and our little toddlers are wanting us, and everybody is wanting us at once.

Don't you find that, as a mother, everybody needs you at once? My, mothers are so wanted, aren't they? You can't say that you're rejected as a mother, because everyone needs you and wants you at once! So you can rejoice in that.

But we need God. Oh, how we need Him! How we need His Presence! But of course, He loves to come. He loves to dwell in your heart, and He loves to dwell in your home. He loves to fill your home with His Presence. So keep praying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come, fill this room.” You can go through every room in your house.

ASK GOD TO COME INTO YOUR CHILDREN’S BEDROOMS

What a lovely thing for you and your husband to do. Go, take a moment, take some time, when you go into every room in your house, and you ask God to come into that room, where each child sleeps, each bedroom. And pray over their rooms. My, what a good thing to do! Over your children's, or getting into their teenage years, go and pray in their rooms.

And also, we need to watch what they have in their rooms. I am not one of those mothers who believes, “Oh, because it's their room, they can just have what they like in their room, and they can pin up any pictures they like in their room.”

Oh no, it's YOUR house, not their house. YOUR house. You are responsible for everything that's in your home, and in your teenagers' rooms too. Not that I like to use the word “teenagers” because it's not in the Bible, and I don't believe . . . well, it wasn't even in the 1828 Webster's Dictionary.

It is now, today, of course, because we've come into these teenage years, which really are not meant to be. God intended our children to move into maturity, and to move into adulthood, from that time of 12 and 13 years of age. We know even today, in Israel, when a young boy becomes 12 years old, he has his Bar Mitzvah, and he is then moving into maturity.

We don't want our children to be those who just hang out in teenage years. We must watch over their rooms, and watch over what is there, and what books they're reading, and what they're watching on social media. In going and praying, “Come, Lord Jesus, into this room!” Oh pray and cry it out!

ASK GOD TO COME INTO YOUR BEDROOM

You can pray it over your own bedroom. “Come, Lord Jesus, into our bedroom!” Because the Scripture says that the bed is honorable and undefiled. The bed, the marriage bed, is a holy place, a place of holiness, where there is nothing that is defiling. Don't allow anything that is defiling to come into your bedroom.

God has provided a very holy sexual act for husbands and wives in their bedroom, and it is to be holy. It is to be glorious. You do not need to be trying any other things. Today, there are many other things that people want to try, and they're not godly. Keep your marriage bed holy, and ask God to come in. Ask Him to come. Yes, this is what we're meant to be doing, precious ladies. Asking God to come.

Let's go over to Proverbs. Proverbs 5 is a beautiful passage about marriage. It's actually in the context of talking about the husband here, talking to him. And it says, “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.” This is talking about the marriage, and really, what it's saying is that marriage is a private possession. It's not something to be shared with all. It's private. It belongs to the husband and wife only. We must watch that.

I am so upset, and I've seen it more than once, when I've seen people write on Facebook, “Well, is it just ok for me to go out and have a cup of coffee, you know, with another guy friend. I've known him for years. I knew him at school.”

And then you see people answer, “Oh yes, there's nothing wrong that! What's wrong with your husband if he's going to get jealous of that?”

That is the pits. No! Marriage is a private possession. It's for the husband and wife only, and I do not believe that we can ever, ever again, when we're married, have a personal one-on-one friendship with another person of the opposite sex. No.

Of course, you can have wonderful friends. My husband and I have such wonderful friends that we enjoy together as couples, and as families. But I would never ever dream of going out and even having a cup of coffee with another man on my own. Goodness me! Help! That would be sacrilege to my marriage!

You see, marriage is a private possession. “Let thy fountain be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed; and rejoice with the wife of thine youth.”

Your bedroom, your bed, is meant to be a place of rejoicing, a beautiful place ordained and condoned and anointed by God—od, Who is the One Who so intricately and amazingly created us, and created the man and the wife to become one flesh. That's how He created us! It's amazing. And out of this one flesh union comes forth the godly seed. That's how God intended it.

But God made that one flesh union such a glorious and beautiful thing. I think He did that because, if it was just some very mundane thing, that it wouldn't be something that a couple would be that interested in doing. And yet God so looks for the godly seed that He made it something so glorious.

What does it say in Malachi, chapter 2? Talking about marriage, and it says: “And what does God want from your marriage?” And then we listen for the answer. We read the next phrase. And it says, “I want a godly seed.” Some translations say: “I look for godly offspring.” God looks for the godly offspring to come forth from that godly union of the one flesh marriage.

So it goes on to say: “Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times.” Now this is talking to the husband, but it says that his wife is to satisfy him. That word, in the Hebrew, means “to slake the thirst, to make drunk, to satiate abundantly, to soak.” Wow, that's pretty amazing.

It's amazing when you go into the Hebrew to understand what a word means. That sounds so incredible, but that's God's glorious design. It is a very beautiful saying. God wants to come in, because this is God's design, and God's plan. And then, what does it say next? Oh yes! “Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times.” Well, not just on the odd occasion, but at all times.

And it goes on to say: “And be thou ravished . . . ” Ravished? Ravished, that's a pretty powerful word. What does it say in the Hebrew? The Hebrew word means “enraptured, intoxicated, lost in her love forever.” The Holman translation says: “Transported with delight, captivated.”

And so, God has made this beautiful thing something that is to not be some boring thing. No, God created the man and God created the woman in such a way that they would intoxicate one another. Yes, did you hear it? Intoxicate. Enrapture. Captivate. And they don't need to do any other kinky things. The way God has created is all that is needed.

You see, and if you are, if perhaps in your marriage relationship, things are not what they ought to be . . . you’re not enjoying this part of your life, of your marriage, which is marriage, because when God puts a man and woman together, He says that he will leave his father and mother, and they would be joined together, and they would be ONE FLESH. That is marriage. That is exactly the description.

So if you are not experiencing what this Scripture is talking about, cry out to God. “Come, Lord Jesus! Come. You created us for this glorious divine union. This is Your plan. Come, come into our bedroom.”

I remember, at an Above Rubies retreat years ago, in question time, a woman brought up some issue on this subject, and a dear older woman got up. She said, “There were times in my life that, you know, we didn't fully experience this. As we came closer and closer to God, He brought us into such a wonderful experience together.”

And she said, “I have always, as I began to cry out to God, I began to see a picture of the Lord standing at the end of our bed with His arms outstretched in blessing. And as I began to see this, I could come into knowing that yes, this was God's blessing. I could receive it. I could open my heart, and open every part of myself to my husband, because it was God's blessing, God's plan.” And this is what it is.

Sometimes, some couples have been through horrific things in their past days and it brings in a spoiling of what is meant to happen in a marriage bed. But God is bigger. He is able to cleanse you and heal you and forgive you. And He wants you to know that this is His blessing over your marriage bed.

And so it goes on to say, we haven't even finished yet. “And be thou ravished always with her love.” Once again, we have this at all times, and always. This word is tamiyd in the Hebrew. The word means, “continually.” It's not a word that means haphazard, every now and then. It is a continual, that's continually, and in other Scriptures, it's translated “continually.”

It's the same word that's used for the continual bread upon the table of the showbread, which was always to be there. It was never to be off the table. It's the same word that is used for the daily sacrifice, which was a morning and evening sacrifice.

Well, I'm not saying that, you know, you have to, OK, morning and evening, no, but I'm giving you the picture of what the word is, as it is a pretty continual word, because this is God's plan. So, dear precious ones, don't ever settle for less than what God has for you. Ask Him to come, to come.  You see, God wants to come into every part of your life.

ASK GOD TO COME IN REVIVAL POWER

Oh now, the prayers that I'm praying, I'm constantly praying, and I'm praying it in this hour, “God, please come in revival! Come, and bring revival! I need revival in my life. I need revival in my home. Continually. I need revival. We need revival in the church.”

Oh, goodness me, the church at this present time in our nation, it needs revival! We are, and of course, there are pockets of God moving by His Spirit, and yes, we see that. But I’m talking over all. We are a pathetic church! There is so much world in there. Look, most Christians who love the Lord today, they love the Lord. Oh, I have so many wonderful friends who love the Lord! I know so many young people who love the Lord!

But really, when it gets down to tin tacks, they're more involved with the world than they are with the Lord. They go to more movies, or they watch more movies, or they go to more sports than they spend time with God. Oh, they'd rather just go out and be entertained than come to pray.

ASK GOD TO COME TO YOUR CHURCH

I mean, prayer meetings, just look at the church today. There are hardly any prayer meetings. And if you have a prayer meeting, it's so poorly attended. I mean, you only get the little wee few, the faithful few who come to the prayer meeting. What is it? We're not living in revival days.

Actually, I have lived in revival days. Back in the early days of our marriage and raising our children, we were living in revival days in the church that we were part of. It was just incredible. Oh, God was doing mighty things.

Oh, I mean, when we came to church, we didn't kind of, you know, get along to church. No! We just couldn't wait to get to church, and when you got there (one part, we had our church upstairs, it was a picture theater we had renovated) and you ran up the stairs! You ran! You could not wait to get in there because you did not want to miss one minute of God moving by His Spirit. And every service people were coming to the Lord. Every Sunday, we had baptisms. Oh goodness, me, it was just amazing!

And then of course, sometimes we'd have baptisms out in the river. The power of God would just come on people as they were baptized, and they would, oh, they couldn't even stand! If we didn't hold them, they would just be floating down the river! It was just amazing!

And then, those times passed. And it becomes more normal, and we can get used to normality. Oh, may God save us from getting used to normality, and getting used to apathy, and getting used to a normal church, where we just go along to church, but oh, how we long for God to come! Come, come, Lord, move by the power of Your Holy Spirit.

Once again, “It's not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6). I long for the moving of the Holy Spirit. Oh, do you long for that? Are you so passionate for it? I know it will only come by prayer. And so, as we pray for revival, in our lives, in our church today, and of course, in our government, in the swamp, oh, are you praying for that? Are you praying for mighty things to happen there?

And across the land, do you want righteousness to come to this land? Oh, that's what I long for. I just can't bear the evil. Can you bear it? I mean, to think that we now live in a nation where homosexuality is law. We can't get used to that, ladies! We can't get used to it. We've got to watch that we don't get used to things as an abomination to God.

Where we're seeing abortion still on such a massive scale. When we have leaders of our state who are prepared to kill babies after they are born! I mean, we couldn't even fathom this, even a few years ago, and now we're living in it. Does that make you want to cry out for revival?

Come, Lord Jesus!

If He is coming for a bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, are we ready? Are we holding back His second coming? Or are we hastening it, and hurrying it along, as we pray and cry out for revival, and God exposing sin in our midst, and bringing a revival of purifying, and bringing righteousness back into the church.

And, oh, where worldliness will be gone, and sin, where there's so much sin and worldliness and apathy in the church today. We must look much different to the world. Oh, that we would pray. And of course, if we're going to cry out to God, we're going to love prayer. Do you love prayer, ladies?

This is 2020. This is the year of 2020. This is a strategic year. I know, for wherever you live in the world, many of you living in different countries, and I know you're crying out for your country.

ASK GOD TO COME TO OUR NATION

But here in the USA, this is election year for America. And it's a very strategic year. We have senators, we have people who are pouring, we have very wealthy people who are pouring billions and billions of dollars into candidates, Democratic candidates, who stand against everything of God, who promote homosexuality, who promote abortion, even after the baby is born. They're willing to kill the baby.

They want to make this a socialist state, and they're pouring billions into making this happen. It is a spiritual battle. We must pray. We have a president that God has given us. Now he may not be perfect, as not one of us are perfect, and yet amazingly, sovereignly, God is raising him up to stand for everything that is righteous.

He stands against homosexuality. He stands against abortion. He stands with that which God stands for. He stands for Israel. He stands for God's people and the evangelical church. He stands for Christians. He's seeking to stand for that which is right. He's seeking to protect our nation.

And I believe we need to pray for him. We have responsibility to pray for those who are in leadership, whether we like them or not. We must pray. Do you pray as a family each day? For our President? For those who are in leadership?

Do you even know some of the folks who are in leadership? I had recently some young couples around our table, and I don't know how we got onto the subject, but I asked at the table, “Who is the Vice President of the United States?” I nearly fainted and fell off my chair because not one of them knew who the Vice President was! All these American couples! Help! If you don't know who the Vice President is, how you can pray for him!?

OK, who is the Secretary of State? A very important person. Do you know? The Secretary of State is Mike Pompeo, and he is working so closely with President Trump, with all the strategic things that are happening in our world, with Iran, and with North Korea, and so on. And he needs our prayers. And he is a godly Christian man. And we need to pray for him.

President Trump, Mike Pompeo, Vice President Pence, and so many of the others, they need our prayers. We need to know who they are.

Do you know who the Attorney General is? William Barr. And who is the man who he has appointed to investigate the investigators, to investigate the CIA and so on, and all these people who have been, you know, been on about this Russian  hoax, which we all know is a hoax. But it must be exposed, and so William Barr appointed a man named John Durham, who is a prosecutor, and he is also a Christian man. He is investigating. We need to pray that God will show him the truth, because truth needs to be revealed. There's so much that is hidden, there's so much that is fake, there's so much that is corruption, and all the corruption and hidden things need to be revealed. Truth needs to be exposed.

ARE YOU PRAYING AS A FAMILY?

We need to be praying! Are you praying? Are you teaching your children how to pray? We're not only told in Timothy 2:1-4 that we're to pray for our leaders. But there’s another principle God gave, way back in Jeremiah 29, when His people were sent to Babylon. There they were, they were now in a foreign country, they were captives there, and God came to them through the prophet Jeremiah, and he told them, told them to do seven things.

It was amazing, He told them, “OK, live life just how I've told you to always live it. Build houses, plant gardens, have children, have grandchildren, and don't diminish. Even though you are now in a captive land, and in a foreign place, don't stop what I told you to do. Don't diminish, I want you to increase in that land! And I want you to pray for this city in which you live, and don't be deceived.”

And so God is concerned about praying for where we live. For the area in which we live, and the country in which we live. We must pray for the nation in which we live. And so, gather your children. Pray every day. Pray for our nation. Pray for our leaders. Pray for revival.

Will you please pray, “Come, Lord Jesus! Come to our nation. Come in revival, power. Come and bring the anointing of Your Spirit to expose all sin. Oh God, please make us a holy people without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” Teach your children to pray for revival.

I think the most important thing is to be praying in our homes morning and evening as we gather together as family. But also, you know it's a good thing to have a prayer meeting in your home. Have you ever had a prayer meeting in your home?

We've had a prayer meeting all our lives in our home, and we have a prayer meeting here once a week, every week of the year. Actually we haven't had it the last two weeks because people have all been away, but we'll be back to it next week. Every single week, we get together to pray.

Now, even if you only just get a wee, few people, just get a prayer meeting, where you're praying for the nation, praying for these coming elections. They're the most strategic elections, I believe, that will ever be held in this nation. These elections determine whether our nation will become a socialist nation or whether it will stand for righteous principles and for the Constitution. It's not going to happen without our prayers.

When President Trump first became President, God put it upon my heart that when I pray for him, to lift up my hands, just as an act of holding him up before the Lord. I remember how when the Israelites were fighting against the Amalekites, and when Moses stood on the mount, and held up his rod, the Israelites, they would win over the Amalekites. But when his arms got tired, and he let them down, the Amalekites, they would begin to take over. So Aaron and Hur, his two brothers, held up his hands, and as they held them up, they won the victory over the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-14)

Trump today is fighting the Amalekites. It's a powerful battle, and they hate him because of this. They're seeking to assassinate him, to poison him. He's also already had two poisonings against him. In fact, one of his taste testers has already died. We need to pray. We don't hear all these things, but this is what has happened. We need to pray for his safety from assassins and his safety from poison.

We need to cry out to God to keep him in wisdom and righteousness, and sovereignly help him to be what God wants him to be, to bring righteousness to this nation. Hold your hands up as you pray, and you're holding him up before the Lord. Oh, and whether you're a little family, or a big family, pray!

I give you, as we close this session, a Scripture. Let's go back to Leviticus, chapter 26. And here, it's talking about the enemies that come into our land. And we've got many enemies that have come into this land of USA. I think our founding fathers would turn over in their graves if they could see what was happening today.

But in verse seven, it says: “And ye shall chase your enemies and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred. And an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.”

Five of you. Just five. Three children and mom and dad are five. Just a little family can put 100 enemies to flight as they pray. Because prayer is our biggest weapon in the battle. There's no greater weapon.

Why is it, darling ladies, that we're so reticent to pray? When it's our biggest weapon? It's because the devil is keeping us from prayer. He'll do everything in his power to keep us from praying. He’ll kind of help us to feel tired, or lethargic, or we can't be bothered. Or we'd rather relax. Or we'd rather watch a movie. Or we'd rather do anything else but pray!

Yes, prayer takes a lot of gumption. You've just got to do it! But you see, if you're in war, or if you're in a battle, you can't just sit down on the sofa and put your knees up. In a battle, you've got to go to war. That's what prayer is all about.

But five can put 100 enemies to flight. What about 20 families of just five? They can put 10,000 to flight. What about families who've got six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven children around their tables? You've got a prayer meeting!

Wow, you can go to war! You can go to battle! You can be used to save this nation! Because it's prayer that will save this nation. Oh, dear ladies, will we make 2020 a year of prayer? To cry out to God, to ask Him to come.

Jeremiah 10:25 says: “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families . . . ” Wow, what families? “The families that do not call on Thy Name.” What a powerful Scripture!

That word is saying: if families, Christian families, godly families, don't bother to call upon the Name of the Lord, they might as well be heathen families. Because that's the difference between the heathen families and the godly families.

The godly families are those who call upon the Name of the Lord. They're calling upon the Name of the Lord for themselves, for their children, for their families, for their homes, and for the homes and families of the nation. They're crying out to God to save their nation.

We as families should gather around our tables, praying together. We can save our nation! Oh, precious lovely ladies, let's do it! 2020, the year of prayer, the year of crying out to God, the year of saying, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Amen.

Let's pray.

“Dear Father, I pray that the words that are said today will not just be words. Oh God, that You will help us to truly get up, get into the battle, to take action. Oh Lord, we are in a spiritual battle. This is not yet our time of rest. Our time of rest is coming in the eternal realm. That is our time of rest.

“And Lord, although we can live in rest in our spirits, we are in a battle and we've got to go to war in the realm of prayer. Help us to be faithful pray-ers, praying with our families, praying with others, Lord, making things happen, making gatherings happen, even if it's once a week, or once a month. (Will we make a gathering happen, to pray with others for the nation?)

“Oh God, help us, Lord, to show us how You want us to do, and what You want us to do. We pray Lord, that You would take us from where we are now, no matter how much we've been praying up to this moment, You'll take us into a greater realm than we've ever known before. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 86 - EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS (PART 1)

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. Today I’m going to start at the end. I love to go to the beginning of the Bible because the beginning lays the foundation for all the truths that God wants us to know about. But today I’m going to the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22.

Jesus says in verses 12, 13: ”And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

We go over to verse 20: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Actually, I want to also give you verse 17: “ And the Spirit and the bride say, COME. And let him that heareth say, COME. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

The Word “come” is a beautiful word. It’s one of God’s favorite words. He loves to say, “Come.”

“Come unto Me. Come to Me. I’m always available.” “Come to me you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

His Word is COME.

He also talks about how He is coming to us. He will be coming again. He came the first time as a little baby. It’s not long since we have celebrated Christmas time when we remember how Jesus came to this earth.

Most people don’t believe that He was actually born at Christmastime. It may have been at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall; but He was most probably conceived at that time.

This is how He came. Isn’t it unbelievable? He came as a seed conceived by the Holy Ghost and He grew as a little baby in His mother’s womb. It is so amazing and so incredible.

He came to bring salvation and He came to die upon the cross for our sins. What a coming! Oh we will never fathom it all! My mind cannot fathom the greatness, the awesomeness of our salvation. It is beyond what we can ever understand with our finite minds. I don’t know whether we will understand the fullness of it even in eternity.

Jesus did not only come the first time when He died and was buried and rose again and now lives ascended at the right hand of the Father, but He is coming again.

He is coming a second time. Are we ready?

Well I’m sure you are ready. You have invited Him to come into your life and to cleanse you of your sin. You’re seeking to walk day by day in His presence being ready for His coming.

But the Bible also talks about how we are to be LOOKING for His coming. That is always rather a challenge to me. I find in this very affluent world in which we live we have everything we need.

Often, we think we don’t (have everything we need). We think we need this or we think we need that but really we have more than we need.

Because we’re comfortable, we’re not desperately saying, “Lord Jesus, come!”

I remember reading a novel by Randy Alcorn. Have you read any of his books? He is a great writer. He wrote a wonderful book about Heaven, which I haven’t read yet. I’ve just had it on my heart that I must get that book and read it; so I’m going to be reading that very soon.

But I have read a couple of his Christian novels and they are very powerful. This one was called Safely Home. A lot of it was about the persecution of the Christians in China.

He talked a lot about prayer meetings and how in these prayer meetings in the underground church where they had to hide to meet with one another. He said they would be down on their knees with their hands raised to Heaven and crying out, “Lord Jesus, come! Please come, Lord Jesus!” Because their lives were in peril and they were suffering persecution they were desperate. They so longed for the coming of the Lord.

I’m so often challenged that I don’t have that desperation for the coming of Jesus.

Yes, I want Him to come. I am looking for His coming. I confess it. I am looking for His coming and longing for His coming. I am longing for that day when we will meet Him face to face.

I love to dream about eternity and what it will be like.

But then again, I get taken up with life. I’m not saying on a day-to-day basis, “Oh Lord Jesus, please come!”

Oh my, I could tell you one or two stories. In fact, I feel so guilty about this, but I can remember away back when I first fell in love with my wonderful husband and I just couldn’t wait to get married.

I remember saying, “Oh Lord Jesus, I love You but would You mind just waiting until I get married before You come because I so want to get married to this man that I love.”

I’m not sure whether or not I held back the Lord’s coming!

Then I said another prayer: “Lord, would You mind just waiting until I have my first baby?” because I couldn’t wait to have my first baby.

I remember after being married and I had my second period. I just cried and cried, “Oh goodness, am I going to be able to have a baby?”

I don’t know, I think of so many couples today who get married and get on the pill and wait two or three years. I can’t even understand their brains! I mean, do they not want to know and be sure that they can get pregnant ? And yet they just hang out and do their other things and not wanting another baby? I don’t know. I can’t get around that. I was just crying after I had a second period.

But then God blessed us with our first baby and then blessed us with more babies. I was so blessed.

But then, oh! Our children grow up and they began to get married and our oldest son got married. He was the first one.

Then I prayed again: “Oh, dear Jesus, would You mind if You just waited until I have my first grandbaby?”

Oh my! Can you believe how bad I was? But these were the longings of my heart and I think God understood.

I remember when we all came to the States. We were New Zealanders and then we moved to Australia. We lived in Australia for ten years where we pioneered and pastured a church.

My husband always knew that at some stage we would come to the United States. Eventually God opened up the right time. We came to the States and in sovereign ways God brought all our children here. Some were already married, and some were already here when we came.

Our oldest sons were here. In those early days they were just getting the Newsboys, a big Christian band, off the ground. So they were here and eventually we were all here together except one of our sons. Our son, Rocklyn and his wife, Monique, were still in Australia.

We actually waited fifteen years before they came to join us. Those were long, long years.

We were so blessed to have most of our family around us, which was still amazing when we have lived in three different countries.

Then the day came when we heard, yes, they had decided to leave Australia and they were going to come and live with us all. But they were going to make it a surprise. We knew they were on their way, but we didn’t know their plans. It turned out they went to New Zealand first. They were going through New Zealand.

We didn’t know the day they were going to arrive. It was like the coming of Jesus. We know He is coming. We know He is coming soon but we don’t know the day or the hour and so we must be ready.

We were ready and looking and waiting for the coming of our son and his wife and child. Yes, it was only one child then. Every day we would call each other and say, “Do you think this will be the day that they will come?”

We were all waiting, and we could hardly wait, and we were just filled with anticipation and excitement.

Every day we would say, “They haven’t come today! Where are they? What are they doing?”

Finally the day came. We didn’t know till they were here in Nashville. We couldn’t believe it. It was just so exciting. They were here. Our family was complete.

Although so many have been added since that day! I can’t count how many!

It was an amazing experience but at the same time I felt guilty. I thought, “Wow, am I looking for Jesus like I was waiting and looking and just so aspiring for our son to come and be with us?”

May God put that desire within us, that longing and waiting and looking for His coming.

Let’s look at some other Scriptures, shall we?

We will start with Titus chapter 2. I love these Scriptures here.

Titus 2:11, 12 says: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”

That’s interesting, isn’t it? The grace of God which brings salvation teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Sometimes people think the grace of God gives us license to live however we would like.

No, it’s the grace of God that teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, “LOOKING  for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar [or set-apart] people, zealous of good works.”

Here it talks about looking for His coming. Another Scripture says He is coming for those who look for Him. That is the challenge, isn’t it? That we are looking for Him.

We go over to 2 Timothy chapter 4:8. Paul is speaking and he says: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that LOVE his appearing.”

Yes. Are we those who LOVE His appearing?

Let’s go over to 2 Peter chapter 3:11, 12: “ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, LOOKING for [there it is again! Looking for!] and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”

There we read it again: we are to be looking for and hasting. We don’t use that word “hasting” very much in our vocabulary today, do we?

Let’s look at the New Living Translation of that verse. It says: “Looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.”

We’re meant to be hurrying it along.

The Holman Translation says: “Waiting for and earnestly desiring the coming of the Lord.”

The Complete Jewish Bible says: “As you wait for the day of God and work to hasten His coming.”

This Scripture even says how we must do something to help hasten the day of the Lord to come.

I think of Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5 is a beautiful passage, the latter part being about husbands and wives and how they are to act together.

Starting at verse 25 going straight through verse 27: “ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

This Scripture tells us that Jesus is coming for a bride that is holy and without blemish. No spots, no wrinkles, or any such thing.

Wow, I don’t think we are there yet, do you? We are not the bride of Christ that is pure, holy, and without spot, or without wrinkle.

We’ve got so many spots and wrinkles and sins. There is such a spirit of the world and materialism. There is such apathy in the church today and yet is this the bride that He is coming for?

I believe that if we are going to hurry it along, we have got to start purifying our lives, don’t we? I am sure this is part of hasting the day of the Lord.

As we look at these last verses of the Bible in Revelation 22 where we started, Jesus says: “Surely I come quickly.”

Then the response of the Bride: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Then as we read in verse 17: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come . . ..”

The Holy Spirit in us is saying, “Come! Come, Lord Jesus!”

It says the bride (the bride, that’s us), we who are part of His family, we who are part of the church, we who are called His bride should also be saying, “Come! Come, Lord Jesus!”

Yet I also believe that although that is the literal prayer we should be praying, “Come, Lord Jesus,” I believe that sometimes we have to pray preparatory prayers before He can even come because we need Jesus to come to us in so many ways before we are ready for His coming.

We first of all need to pray, “Come. Come into my life, Lord Jesus.”

Do you remember that little song? When I was a child, we used to sing it and I won’t sing it to you because I’m not a very good singer! I can’t even believe how I could raise daughters who could sing in perfect pitch and who were signed by a record label and I can’t even sing in tune!

We used to sing these words:

“Into my heart, into my heart,

Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.

Come in today. come in to stay.

Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.”

We pray a prayer like that when we first ask Him to come into our hearts and we’re born again by His Spirit. But I believe we can still pray that. I love to sing that little song, “Oh come! Come, come!”

Do you want God to come to your life continually? Come into my life, Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay. Come, come, come, I want you! I want Your presence every moment of the day.

Dear mother, in your home, pray these prayers of  “Come.”

“Come, Lord Jesus. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” He’s coming a second time, but we need Him to come today. “Come today into my heart.”

We need Him to come today into the hearts of our children. Do you pray this prayer for your children?  Come, Lord Jesus, even so, come, Lord Jesus, into the lives of my children!” Oh how we need to cry that prayer. I pray it so much. I need God for my children.

Yes, you need Him for your little ones and your middling ones and your big ones because as you know, your children aren’t perfect.

The enemy wants your children and you see that as things come into their lives and we must pray that God will come into their lives. Pray it. That’s one of the greatest prayers that you can pray: “Lord Jesus, come. Please come into the lives of my children that they will be born again by Your Holy Spirit. That they will know Your presence in their lives. That they will know that You are real and that You are their Savior and their Lord. That they will know Your presence in their lives.”

We pray it but then of course we also must do that which will help that to happen.

I love that Scripture in 2 Timothy 3:15. Paul is writing to Timothy and saying: “ And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

How do our children get this faith? They get it by the Scriptures! That is what the Bible says. It is the Scriptures that prepare them for salvation, the Scriptures that make them wise to salvation.

So a child in a godly home, in your home where you are opening up the Scriptures to your children morning and evening and they’re hearing the Scriptures, that living Word of God goes into their hearts and prepares them for salvation so that they can come to know Jesus at a very early age.

Maybe at three, four, or five years they can be ready to open their hearts to Jesus because the Scriptures, the living Word of God, opens their hearts. That is such a good thing.

The earlier your children come to know Jesus, the earlier that they invite Him into their hearts, the better it is because when Jesus comes into their lives, He comes in to stay. He comes in to live and dwell in their hearts.

When that happens you are able then to teach your children how they can live in victory when they get into these states of defiance, and when they become rebellious, and when they lie, and are being very naughty.

Because that’s what children do, it’s just their flesh nature and we’ve got that flesh nature, too, but we have to learn to say no to that fleshly nature and yes to Jesus and His life, the life of Jesus Who dwells in us.

We can teach our children that. We can say, “Children, you don’t have to give in to that temper. You don’t have to get mad at your brother and sister. That’s just the devil. That’s just your old flesh and you can say No to that.

You can say, “’Jesus, help me!’” because Jesus is living in you and Jesus is filled with love and grace and patience and He will help you.”

You are teaching your children at a very young age to live in victory.

But we must pray for them because the enemy is out to get the souls of our children.

We can pray, “Oh Lord Jesus, Come! Come to my children.”

Maybe you have an older child who is straying away from the faith. Oh, they can’t get away from your prayers.

Cry out, “Oh come, Lord Jesus! Come . . . come . . . come! Come to my child! Come by the power of Your Holy Spirit!” because it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Zechariah 4:6: “ . . .  Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”  

What could I do without that promise? Who is speaking in that Scripture? It is the Lord of hosts! Who is the Lord of hosts? He is the Lord of the armies of heaven.

That’s what the word “hosts” means. It is speaking of an army, an army organized for war. God Himself is the great Warrior. He is the One Who is the Leader of all the armies of Heaven.

He is the One Who will work as we cry out to Him and say, “Lord Jesus, come! Come by Your Spirit. I can’t do it. I can’t change them.”

We can’t change our children. We can’t make it happen. It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit. So cry out to Him.

Dear mothers, let’s become those who are constantly crying out, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come into my home. Come to my table.”

As we start every meal, we usually say grace, don’t we? Don’t just make it a parrot-thing that you say when you have grace. Truly ask the Lord to COME!

“Lord Jesus, come to our table tonight! Come to our table this morning. We need You.”

You do need Him at your table, don’t you?

When your children are little or middling and you’re still training them how to sit at the table, because they are still little children they can sometimes get into fights or squabbles, groaning and complaining about this or that, when we just want our table to be filled with the presence of the Lord. So pray it: “Come, Lord Jesus.”

You could maybe give thanks all together and all say, with all the children, “Come, Lord Jesus to our table.”

As the children are praying that, too, it is going to change them.

God wants to come at all moments and at all times in our lives. He is “always there” to come. He wants to be dwelling continually in our hearts.

But there are specific times that God does love to come. One of these we find out at the very, very beginning.

We know that after Adam and Eve had taken of the fruit and sinned, it tells of how God came to the garden. He came into the garden in the cool of the day. That was His habit. Each day He came to talk with Adam and Eve at the cool of the day.

That was at the end of the day. It wasn’t in the middle of the day when they were working because God established work in the very beginning. Did you know that God established work when He created the man and the woman? It says that God put him in the garden to work in it and to guard it.

The word “work” is a real word that means “ work, to work by the sweat of your brow, to work hard.” God established work. It came in before the fall.

When I was a young child I used to think, “Oh, work came in after the fall because of sin.” That’s how I used to think of work! But I don’t think of work like that now. I LOVE work because work is therapeutic. When you do a good day of hard work you sleep so much better.

When you work you learn to do things better. Out of work comes great inventions and wonderful creativity. Work is good for the soul and good for the body.

They had to work in the garden, so God didn’t come in the day when they had to work in the garden. He came when it was time to relax. He came to talk to them at that time. It was the time when they would eat at the end of the day and they would sit together. What glorious, glorious times they must have had as they walked and talked with God Himself in the garden.

God still wants to come at this time of the day. He loves to come at this special time of the day. Did you know that, ladies?

Make it wonderful for God to come. The sad part about it is, is that many families are missing at this time of the day. They’re out on the sport’s field. They’re out somewhere doing this or doing that. They’re out in the traffic.

It seems that the enemy loves to get the family out of the home at this very special time of the day.

Oh goodness me, the enemy is subtle, and he knows what he is doing, and we need to be up to what he is doing.

Dear precious mothers, this evening time is a special time of the day. God established it in the beginning. It is when He came to Adam and Eve. He wants to come to your home, to your table, to your family around your table at this time of the day.

Now what happened after they had sinned? Oh yes, they were there every day but after they sinned, they weren’t there.

What does the Bible say? That Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord (Genesis 3:8-10). Yes, they were hiding because now it wasn’t the same. Sin had come in.

We must watch, lovely ladies, that we don’t hide ourselves from the presence of the Lord just like Adam and Eve did.

Let’s be in our homes ready for God to come. He wants to come to your table so be there to prepare that meal, to get a lovely meal ready for your family, to draw your family around the table to eat and fellowship.

Then you can hear from God as you open the Word of God. Never leave the table until you have fed the spirit as well as the body. So you listen to God speak to you because He comes to speak to us. Then of course, we pray together, and we speak to Him.

We meet with Him at the end of the day, this special time of the day when He wants to come to us.

Amen?

Let’s pray:

“Dear Father, Oh, we just want to confess today how we love You and how we want You to come. We look for Your coming.

“Oh God we see all this sin in this sin-sick world and we long for You to come. But, Lord, we also long for You to come to us now and to bring Your powerful presence into our lives and into our homes and come and meet us at our tables.

“Oh, God, let us be people who just constantly cry out for Your coming in the name of Jesus. Amen.”