LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 313: Altar Building, Part 6

What are the New Testament spiritual sacrifices God wants us to offer to Him?

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Here we are again, back to our series on “Altar Building.” I do hope you are being blessed. Please tell others about this series because it is a very important series. There is so much in God’s Word about it. Even though, as I’ve mentioned, my husband and I, with our family, have been doing this for so many years, I have found so much that I didn’t even know myself as I have revisited this subject in the Word of God.

We are currently up to point . . .

No. 13. WE BUILD THE ALTAR AS A PLACE OF SACRIFICE

Back in the Old Testament, when they built altars, it was so they could sacrifice to the Lord our God. Now, we’re not making sacrifices of animals today of course. But it’s so interesting, how that everything in the Old Testament has its counterpart in the New Testament. A lot of people don’t realize this. They just think, “Oh, yes, that’s the Old Testament way back there. But now we have the New Testament.”

But no, it’s not like that, ladies. Everything in the Old Testament was a foundation, was a type for that which is in the New Testament. Here in the New Testament, we find where God talks about spiritual sacrifices. Back there in the Old Testament they made animal sacrifices. But now we make spiritual sacrifices. In the New Testament I have found twelve different places where it talks about spiritual sacrifices that God wants us to offer up to Him.

However, before we continue, I’d like to take you to a couple of Scriptures to confirm what I was saying before. Let’s go over to Acts, the very last chapter actually. Here Paul is in Rome. It says here in Acts 28:23: “And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.”

Isn’t that interesting, ladies? From morning to evening, he expounded and testified about Jesus. Yes, and from where did he testify? It says from Moses. That means from the five books of Moses, from the Torah, and also from the Prophets, from the prophetical books in the Old Testament. So, Jesus is in the Old Testament. Paul, when he was expounding, didn’t have the New Testament. He expounded from the Old Testament.

Then let’s go over to the last chapter of Luke. This is where, after Jesus had died, two of the disciples were so depressed. They were walking back to their village of Emmaus. As they walked along, Jesus, who had now risen from the dead, although they didn’t know it, He came and walked beside them. He began to talk to them.

It says in Luke 24:27: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” I love that Scripture further down, where it says, “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures?”

And what were the Scriptures He opened to them? From the five books of Moses and from the Prophets. He expounded all the Scriptures concerning Himself. I think we’re a little bit shallow in our understanding of the Old Testament, aren’t we? If we would only get in and search, we would find that there is so much of Jesus in the Old Testament.

OK, now I started on this point last podcast. Now we’re up to point No. 5 of point No. 13 about spiritual sacrifices. This one is . . .

               5) Payer is a spiritual sacrifice

We see that, of course, in the altar of incense in the tabernacle. I know I’ve spoken to you about this before, how the altar of incense always speaks of prayer and intercession.

We see it confirmed in the New Testament, when we go over to Revelation 5 and in Revelation 8, and in other places as well. It confirms and states absolutely clearly that the altar of incense is a place of prayer.

I’ll just read you the passage from Revelation 8:3: “And another angel came and stood at the altar,” the golden altar of incense, “having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” The altar of incense was right before the throne in the tabernacle. Later in the temple it was right before the curtain where you went into the shekinah glory of God where God dwelt amongst His people.

But now here is John, looking into the heavenly realm and seeing the golden altar of incense because the one in the tabernacle was a type of the heavenly one which is right there now in the heavenly realm. He does not see a curtain now, of course. This altar of incense is right before the throne.

So, precious moms, when we come to the Lord, and we’re crying out to Him in our time of need, and we’re talking to Him, and we’re praying to Him, we’re coming to that altar which is right before His throne room. Isn’t that so wonderful? It continues in verse 4: “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.”

Then we go over to 1 Timothy 2:1-3. We see here again how prayer is an acceptable sacrifice, because we’re talking about acceptable sacrifices. We can make sacrifices that are of our own doing. They may not be acceptable before God.

Remember when Cain and Abel came before the Lord, to bring their offering? Cain’s sacrifice was not received but Abel’s sacrifice was an acceptable sacrifice because he offered the lambs, the best of his flock, and the blood was shed. This Scripture talks about an acceptable sacrifice.

In fact, if we go back, just to remind you, can I take you back to Malachi? There are some amazing Scriptures here in the last book of the Old Testament. Here in chapter one, God is speaking to His people. Malachi 1:8: “And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?”

This was what they were doing back there. Because God had told them that when they sacrifice an animal, it had to be a pure sacrifice. When they sacrificed a lamb, they had to leave it for four days to see if there would be any blemish. If there was no blemish, if no sickness had come in those four days, then they could sacrifice the animal.

In Leviticus 22:20, it says absolutely explicitly: “But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer.” Every sacrifice had to be a pure sacrifice. So now, when we come to do spiritual sacrifices, they also have to be acceptable sacrifices.

Let me continue in Malachi 1:8: “Offer it now,” sick, blind, or lame, “unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.” No, of course not! Not even a governor is going to accept a sacrifice with a blemish. What about the Lord God of Hosts?

We go down now to verse 11: God says: “For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My Name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto My Name.” What does the incense speak of? Prayers unto the Lord.

“And a pure offering: for My Name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even His meat, is contemptible. Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.”

He’s really challenging them there about how they were making light of the altar, just offering upon any old animal. They were saying, “Oh, what a weariness it is!” And they just snuffed at it.

Dear ladies, I think we have to be careful the way we talk about our altar, because, yes, God wants us to have an altar, as we’re talking about in this series, where we come into His presence, where we come to meet with Him. We can’t snuff at it.

I grieve when I say this, but I do have women, mothers who come to me. They do snuff at it. They’ll say to me, “Oh, Nancy, I don’t know. I just can’t make it happen in my home. I can’t get it together. I can’t get my children together. It’s just boring.” And they have all these excuses. They’re snuffing at it. “Oh, it’s such a weary thing! I’ve got other things to do.”

WE AS PARENTS MAKE IT HAPPEN

We dare not do this. God is challenging us here. All these excuses are excuses, because I believe we can make happen what we know we’re meant to happen in our homes. In fact, who runs the home? Is it the children or the parents? No, God has given to us parents, to us as mothers, and to our husband as the father—He has given to us the authority in the home. The children don’t rule us. Often parents complain that the children are making all these negatives. Well, we don’t listen to those negatives. We are the ones who make happen what is meant to happen in our home.

And when people will say, “Oh, it’s boring,” well, they must be making it boring because it shouldn’t ever be boring. I find that when we come in our time of family altar to meet with the Lord that it is the best part of every day, because we can’t wait to be in His presence. We can’t wait to hear what He is going to say to us through His Word. We can’t wait to cry out to Him because we need Him. How can we say that’s boring? Meeting with the Lord God of Hosts, meeting with the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords?

So, precious ladies, I believe we have to come. If we bring our spiritual sacrifices, we bring them with the right attitude so that they are an acceptable sacrifice. We’re not thinking, “Oh, well, here we are. Here we come again. This is what we’re meant to do.” Oh, yes! God wants us to do it! But it should be our delight, because we’re coming in His presence. Amen? Can you say amen with me? I do trust so.

Anyway, back to 1 Timothy 2:1-3: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”

This is one of the acceptable sacrifices we offer to the Lord when we come to Him in prayer. It’s the first thing we do. It should be the first thing we do at the beginning of the day, in our homes. It should be the first thing we do when we come as the people of God to meet together as a church. First of all, we pray for those who are in authority. That’s an acceptable offering unto the Lord.

The next one . . .

               6) Doing good to one another and fellowshipping

This one is in Hebrews 13:16: “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” What does that actually mean? “To do good and to communicate.” Well, that word “communicate” in the Greek is the word koinonia. I’m sure you’re familiar with that word. It means “fellowship, becoming part of one another.”

The Scripture is saying here that another spiritual sacrifice that we can do is to have fellowship with one another, and to do kind acts of mercy and kindness and goodness to one another. That’s the meaning of koinonia. Isn’t that interesting? So practical. The Word of God is very practical isn’t it?

Often we don’t think much about fellowship, or much about doing good or kind things for one another. But this is part of our spiritual sacrifices. In Acts 2:42, it’s speaking about what happened in the early church. It says: “And they continued steadfastly.” Then it tells us four things.

One, “in the apostles' doctrine,”

two, “fellowship,”

three, “breaking of bread,”

and four, “prayers,” with an “s” on the end, meaning plural. So, prayer was a very big part of the early church. I like to call this the “foursquare gospel” or the “foursquare early church.”

When Colin and I were first married, we went to the Philippine Islands where we were doing missionary work. We were very involved there with a church called The Foursquare Church. They were doing a mighty work in the Philippines. They had this big church in Mindanao Island where we were stationed. But they had begun hundreds and hundreds of churches across that island, and other parts of the Philippines.

The doctrine of the Foursquare Church, as they called themselves, was Jesus as Savior, baptizer with the Holy Spirit, healer, and soon-coming King. But I myself like to think of our lifestyle in the church as Acts 2:42—the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers, because those were the four things that the Bible says the early church did.

Of course, when they came together to hear the apostles’ doctrine, they were walking in the truth.

And they fellowshipped. Wow! We often forget about this in our busy lifestyles today, but it’s a very important part of our walk with the Lord.

Breaking of bread—that’s not just talking about communion. That is talking about hospitality. They met together and broke bread together as they fellowshipped in the Lord together. They prayed with one another. So, there are more spiritual sacrifices—fellowshipping, praying with one another, doing good deeds and kindnesses to one another. Koinonia.

               (7) Presenting souls to the Father

Let me read Romans 15:16 (New English Translation). As a minister to the gentiles, Paul said these words: “I serve the gospel of God like a priest, so that the gentiles may become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Ghost.”

Can I explain it a little more? The priests, of course, did the sacrifices upon the altar. We are now priests unto God. That’s why we must all do spiritual sacrifices because in Revelation it tells us, we’re now kings and priests unto God. Here, Paul is now leading the Gentiles into the gospel, and to the good news of the gospel, that Jesus is able to save not only the Jews, but the Gentiles. That was an acceptable offering unto the Lord. We also, as we lead people to Jesus, that’s an acceptable offering unto the Lord.

I love 1 Thessalonians 2:19. Now Paul is talking to the Thessalonian new believers here. He says: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For you are our glory and joy.” Paul was talking about these new believers that he led to Jesus.

But I think, what about our own children, dear mothers? They are our first responsibility. They are the ones who we first lead to Jesus, right from the time they’re very little. We’re leading them to Jesus. We’re reading the Word daily at our altar. As our little ones, even the little ones hear the Word of the Lord, their hearts are prepared to come to know Jesus. We’re leading our children into His kingdom. When we stand before the Lord one day, they will be our hope, and our joy, and our crown of rejoicing. They will also be our acceptable offering unto the Lord. Amen?

               8) Loving others like Christ loved the church

Ephesians 5:2: “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering, and a sacrifice to God as a sweet smelling savor.” Here it’s talking about Jesus that when He offered His life upon the altar of sacrifice, when He laid down His life and shed His blood for our sins, it was a sacrifice to God. It was a sweet-smelling savor unto the Lord.

But then, the Bible tells us to walk in love and love others just like Christ did it, just like He laid down His life. He said that if we lay down our lives for one another, it’s also a spiritual sacrifice, and it’s a sweet-smelling savor unto the Lord. Wow! That’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s a challenge to us too.

Is that the kind of walk that we have, that we’re laying down our lives for others? Wow, I don’t think any of us are doing like Christ laid down His life for us, but may we learn to do it, even just in some greater measure. Learning to sacrifice our own lives, to lay down our lives for others. That’s a beautiful spiritual sacrifice unto the Lord and a sweet-smelling savor unto Him.

               9) Suffering wrongfully with patience

1 Peter 2:19-20: “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.”

So lovely ladies, maybe you’ve been accused wrongly for something. Maybe people have spoken about you behind your back and said things that are not true. You don’t feel very happy about it.

Well, you can get all mad and uptight and bitter, but that’s not going to help things. No, the Bible says here, when you do it, and you’re still right, you’re in the right, but you take it patiently, and God sees your heart, it says it’s a spiritual sacrifice unto Him. And it’s acceptable unto Him. So, be encouraged.

I don’t think there’s one of us who has ever missed out on someone saying something nasty about us, or something that’s hurt us. We can feel so bad about it. Some people can get into bitterness and self-pity, but it only destroys them. Instead of doing that, we must bless them. That’s what Jesus said. When people curse you, say things wrongly against you, bless them. Bless them. We don’t ever feel like blessing them, but we do it out of obedience. We bless them. As we do, God sees it as an acceptable sacrifice unto Him.

               10) Faithful and sacrificial giving to those ministering the gospel

In Philippians 4:14-18, it talks about how Epaphroditus brought an offering from the Philippian believers to Paul. How did he talk about it? He said, “Oh, your offering was an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God,”

It was like they would do in the Old Testament, give an animal sacrifice unto God, but now in the New Testament, when we give abundantly, freely, we give to those who are spreading the gospel, who are out sacrificing and ministering full-time the Word of God in different ways. There are so many different ministries across the world. You all have different ones that are a burden to you, and you give to them. God sees it as a spiritual sacrifice. So, be encouraged about that.

               11) Being ready to pour out our lives, even in death, for the brethren

Woo, this gets really challenging, doesn’t it? In Philippians 2:17, New Living Translation, Paul is writing to the Philippian believers. He says: “But I will rejoice, even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God.”

Over in 2 Timothy 4:6, he also talks about pouring out his life as an offering to God. So, when we are doing that, and pouring out our lives as an offering to the Lord, these Scriptures that mean even unto death, it is a beautiful spiritual sacrifice unto the Lord.

And the last one that I found in the New Testament is . . .

               12) Children caring for their parents in old age

In 1 Timothy 5:4, it says that widows, and those who do not have a husband or family to look after them, or even grandchildren to look after them, the Bible says that the church should then look after them, “for this is good and acceptable before God.”

But the Word of God is very, very clear that before the church can take on an older woman to look after her, and that means she must be 60 years of age and over, she must have lived a certain lifestyle, which you can read about in 1 Timothy 5:10. First of all, the responsibility is that of the children or the grandchildren. That is a spiritual sacrifice.

You know, as we drive around the city, just the other night we were in the city, and I was driving around. I noticed these beautiful buildings. I said to my husband, “What are they?” He said, “They’re for the elderly.” Then there was another place we went and there was another lot of glorious buildings. Yes, that was another place. All over the city, and everywhere, there are these places for older people.

But you know what? They’re not really meant to be there. They’re really meant to be cared for by their children or grandchildren. That is the Word of God. Well, back in Bible days, they didn’t have these homes for them. But really, these homes are so second-best. They may even look beautiful. There are some families who can afford luxurious homes to put their elderly parents in their homes. It may be a nice place, but they’re devoid of family and children.

Then there are many who don’t have very much money, and can hardly afford even a very poor place, and it’s not a very nice place for people to live. But really, God wants our older generation in families. He calls this a spiritual sacrifice, acceptable unto Him. Amen?

OK, lovely ladies, we may not be making animal sacrifices any longer, of course. That is gone. But today we do make these spiritual sacrifices. It’s good to be reminded about them, isn’t it?

Did I take our whole session on that one point? What’s our time, girls? How much time do we have? Oh, wow! I can’t believe it! Perhaps I’d better stop. We’ll get onto No. 14 next time. I won’t take so long on the next one, OK? Let’s pray, shall we?

“Dear Father, we thank You again for Your Word, and all these beautiful things that You show us in Your Word. You show us how to live in our families. Thank You for showing us these spiritual sacrifices.

“Help us to be people who are willing to sacrifice, who are willing to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are well-pleasing to You, Lord, and are also a sweet-smelling savor unto You.

“I pray that You’ll bless every mother, every child, every person listening, Lord. Just bless them today, encourage them. I pray in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 312: Altar Building, Part 5

We don't wear the same clothes on every occasion. When is it important to change our clothes? Check it out.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Here we are again, and we are in the middle of . . .

No. 11: WE BUILD A FAMILY ALTAR FOR CLEANSING AND SANCTIFICATION

I want to read the Scripture I ended with last week, just to put us in context. It is talking about the clothing of the priests. It talks about their clothing in Exodus 28, the whole chapter actually.

Then the last verse says: “And they shall put upon Aaron and upon his sons,” that’s the clothing that they had been talking about. “When they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the Holy Place, that they bear not iniquity or die.” Wow! That’s pretty scary, isn’t it? “It shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him.”

That was talking about the priests who were functioning in the tabernacle. Now we go over to Ezekiel 44. This is a vision of Ezekiel’s temple, which we do not yet have. It’s an amazing chapter, this chapter of Ezekiel. I’ll just point out that in this one chapter, God is talking about things that are in the temple. He uses the word “my.” “Everything is mine.” It belongs to God.

In fact, He uses the word “my” 21 times. Can I t read you some of these “My’s”?

“My sanctuary.” Six times He says that.

“My house,”

““My bread,”

My covenant,”

“My holy things, “ Two times.

“My land,”

“My table,”

“My charge,” Two times.

“My people,”

“My judgments,”

“My laws,”

“My statutes,

“My assemblies, “

“My Sabbaths.”

21 times. Sometimes we seem to think that things revolve around us, don’t we? But really, they revolve around the Lord. It all belongs to Him.

Here again they’re talking about the clothing of the priests. First of all, let me read Ezekiel 44:5: “And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.”

That’s a verse, lovely ladies, that you could read over again later in your own time. Just read it over and relate it to your own home, because God will show you the order, and the ordinances, and the things that He wants you to have in your home, even to the entering in of your home, the going out of your home. Just let the Lord speak to you. I know that He will show you beautiful things.

OK, now we are going down to verse 16. It’s talking about the priests: “They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table, to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge. And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments.” We talked about that last time. God wanted them to wear linen because it was a type of the righteousness of the saints.

“And no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.” Although wool is a very healthy material, as it gives off 5,000 megahertz of energy, actually wool and linen counteract one another. If you wear them both together, they counteract the goodness which each one gives off.

Eze 44:18-19: “They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat. And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.”

We go to verse 23: “And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.” It’s interesting, because we started off this point where God said to Jacob, “OK, before you come up to build this altar in Bethel, you’ve got to clean yourselves up, and you’ve got to change your garments.” We see here that in this passage, where the priests had to change their garments, they had to have different garments when they came near to the Lord’s altar. When they went out again, well, they changed into other garments.

Once again, this is just a type, but to me, it speaks of even a practical thing. You see, we talk about having a personal altar when we have a time with the Lord on our own each day. Mothers with lots of little children, that’s hard to do! How do you do that?

Well, I can remember when I first started in my motherhood. Oh my, I had our first baby, and then 17 months later, I had two babies. I had three in 17 months. Then I had four under four back in those days. How could I have time to spend in the Word? It was a whole new experience to me, because as a teenager, I had set my heart to seek God with all my heart. I used to spend three hours. I’d wake up very early in the morning and put aside three hours to wait upon the Lord each day.

Now, with all these babies, I didn’t even have time! I had to put my Bible on my windowsill. I put it at Psalms or Proverbs so I could look up, and just get a little Scripture here and there to feed my soul. We do go through these seasons, but when we can, we love to have that personal altar with the Lord.

Then we have our family altar, where we meet together as a family.

Then we have our church altar, where we meet with a bigger crowd of saints. We gather together, either Sundays or Saturdays, according to when you worship. That’s also a time, it’s an altar where we meet with the Lord. I do believe that it is important, especially as we come together with other saints.

WEAR WHAT IS APPROPRIATE

We’re coming to meet the Lord, yes, to meet the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord of the armies of heaven, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, so we will change our clothes, I do believe. What is this Scripture saying in Exodus 28? Do you know, when you come near My altar, you wear clothes that are appropriate? I think there is such a thing as appropriateness. Today it seems that many people wear what they like wherever they like. They don’t have any discernment about the appropriateness of things.

So, today we have people who arrive to church with holey jeans! I beg your pardon? This most probably will trample on so many toes, especially all you darling, beautiful young people, who just love to be in fashion. Why do people wear holey jeans? Only because they are in fashion. Just because that’s what everybody is doing. They don’t have any beauty or glory about them. Remember the three basic foundations of clothing that God gives us are for holiness, for glory, and for beauty.

Well, back in New Zealand where I come from, it’s a farming country, a sheep country, and a dairy farming country. We had family in the dairy industry. We’d go out there, to their dairy farms, and out to the cowshed. Do you know that back then, they wouldn’t even wear holey jeans to the cowshed! Goodness, what would the cows think? [laughter] Really, because when they’re all holey, that’s when you throw them out.

OK, you want to wear them around. But we have to know the difference. We have to discern when we’re coming into the presence of the Lord. Yes, we’re in the presence of the Lord all the time, but there is something about coming to that altar, when all the saints are gathering together. I think it is something that we should take into consideration. We should be aware of the types, and change our clothes when we come into the presence of the Lord  together with the saints.

Wear something appropriate. I’ve seen people come to church in shorts! Wow! Wear your shorts playing tennis or volleyball or basketball and going to the beach. But church is not at the beach. Church is not out on the basketball court. No, it is coming into the presence of our holy God where we are worshipping Him in holiness.

And dear mothers, I do believe we have a responsibility. I know our beautiful teens want to be in fashion. They want to look like everybody else but we can’t allow them to dress in an inappropriate way when they come into the presence of the Lord. We have to teach our children honor. Giving honor to God.

I love that Scripture; well, I’m not sure whether I should say I’m more challenged by this Scripture. It’s in Isaiah 66. It says in verse 2: “But to this man will I look, even to him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, and trembleth at my word.” What kind of a spirit do we have when we come to read the Word? How do you come? Do you come just to read, and “Oh, no! I don’t agree with that. Oh, no! That doesn’t fit me. No, just pass on.”

No, every word we read is from God Himself. And so, we come with this humble and contrite spirit, trembling at His Word. Do you tremble? I do. I tremble at the Word of God. When I read these things, I know they are not just something that happened back then. They are written for my learning. They are a principle for us today. I can’t gloss over that. So, I do believe that we have to understand it.

I remember back when I was growing up, it was the normal thing. Today it’s amazing how far we have fallen away. What was the norm back then? This was the norm for every believing family. Back then we didn’t even have showers. I’m going back a long way, ladies! I guess most of you can’t even believe a time when you didn’t have showers. Wow! We just had a bath.

So, every Saturday night, everybody in the family bathed, and you got out your clothes ready for Sunday. They were your special clothes for Sunday. You went clean, and you went with a change of clothes, especially your clothes to wear to the house of God, because they put in you that sense of honor and awe of what was happening. You can’t take God for granted. We can’t treat Him lightly. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I think of that Scripture in Revelation 16:15: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” It’s amazing how people can even walk into church today. There is no shame. They come with bare shoulders, bare backs, cleavage, short skirts. This is in the house of God??

Dear ladies, just let’s tremble at the Word of God. Let’s honor Him in our own lives, and teach our children how to honor Him, right from a young age. We don’t start when they’re older. We start when they’re younger, giving them a sense of awe of Who our God is. When we’re going to the House of God, we change our garments. We’re going near His altar. We don’t have the same clothes for outside as we do for when we’re going into His house.

OK, so that was number 11. Let’s move on, shall we? We’re going to . . .

No. 12: WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO REMEMBER THE BLOOD SACRIFICE OF JESUS, ONCE FOR ALL

I love that Scripture in 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” Five times in the New Testament, it tells us that Jesus died once and for all.

Back in the Old Testament, they had to sacrifice morning and evening, but when Jesus came as the Lamb of God, He only had to sacrifice once, because He was the true Lamb of God. If you want those references, I’ll give them to you in the transcript. Maybe you’re walking around, doing dishes, and you haven’t even got a pen in your hand at the moment.

LOOKING BACK

This is something I love to do, ladies. You know, every lamb, every animal that was sacrificed on the altars back in the Old Testament, every single one looked to the Lamb of God, Jesus, who would take away the sins of the world. Every sacrifice looked to that great sacrifice. Now, Jesus is sacrificed once and for all. But now do we forget about it all? No. I believe whereas the sacrifices looked towards Jesus, who was the Lamb of God, now we can look back.

And every time we have our family devotions, and it’s time for prayer, I always love to thank our Lord Jesus Christ once again for His sacrifice, for His great redemption, for shedding His precious blood. I don’t think we’ll ever understand the enormity of His sacrifice and salvation for us, even in all of eternity. But I think it's the least we can do.

I often think of those ten lepers whom Jesus healed, and how many came back to thank Him? Only one. Oh, may we not be like those other nine, who just forget about it. How can we? Let’s come, every morning and evening and thank Him again. Teach our children to thank Him for His sacrifice.

No. 13: WE BUILD THE ALTAR AS A PLACE OF SACRIFICE

Yes, there were sacrifices. The altar in our home is also a sacrifice to make happen. Well, I don’t really like saying that. I know that many of you would say, “Well, yes, it’s a sacrifice. I’ve got to give up this, give up that, change this, change that.” Yes, you will have to do that. To establish a family altar, you will have to change your whole lifestyle.

But is it really a sacrifice? No, it’s not a sacrifice. It is the least we can do. I think of when many mothers will say, “Oh, I sacrificed my career to come back and look after my children.” Oh, goodness me, that is a false statement too! No, they weren’t sacrificing their career! They’d been sacrificing their highest career of motherhood for this lesser career that they had.

Many times we get things wrong, and yes, although it will take turning everything around maybe, in your whole lifestyle, it’s not really a sacrifice, because, as I said, it’s the least thing that we can do. And remember one of our points? That when we make an altar, what does God say He will do? “I will come to you, and I will bless you.” How wonderful!

And of course, what does Mark 8:34 say? “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

That’s what our walk is like. It’s a denying of ourselves, isn’t it? I think of that Scripture in Titus 2:11-14 onwards: “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; 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 people, zealous of good works.” Amen. 

When an animal was sacrificed, back on the altar, it had to be a pure sacrifice. It had to be without blemish, a male without blemish.

Leviticus 22:20: “But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.”

Malachi 1:8: “And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.”

And down to verse 14: “But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and My name is dreadful among the heathen.” 

We read back in Exodus 12:3-7. This was when it was Passover time and they were coming out of Egypt. Moses told the people that God had commanded them that they were to take a lamb, a male without blemish. They would take it on the 10th day. Then on the 14th day, if this male was still without blemish, and it didn’t show any signs of sickness or blemish in its skin, they could then sacrifice it. That was four days, from the 10th to the 14th.

That was the principle. That lamb had to be checked out for four days to make sure that it was absolutely pure, because every sacrifice was a type of Christ, who was the pure and spotless lamb of God, with no blemish at all.

1 Peter 1:19 says we are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Do you remember, ladies, how Jesus fulfilled this type to the very T? He came into Jerusalem on the tenth day. Remember, riding on a donkey, and they laid the palms at His feet, and said, “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”

And then, on the 14th day, four days later, He became the Lamb sacrificed for us. Before He was sacrificed, as He stood before Pilate, Pilate said, “I find no fault in this man.” So, the prophetic word, right back in the Old Testament, the type, was fulfilled exactly with Jesus, who came in four days before, and on the 14th day He was crucified. Isn’t it amazing? The Word of God is so perfect, isn’t it?

Back in those days, they sacrificed upon the altar. But today we’re not doing that. Today we have to offer spiritual sacrifices. We see this in the New Testament. In fact, I found 12 different sacrifices that we are to do, because they are to be acceptable, with the word “acceptable.” Because, did I read this? Yes, I must read it to you again. Leviticus 22:20: “But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.”

Of course, ultimately, to God, the sacrifice had to be acceptable to God, which means, without spot or without blemish. Now we go over to the New Testament, because everything from the Old carries on into the New.

We read in 1 Peter 2:5: “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” There it is. We have it now in the New. We’re not doing animal sacrifices but we’re offering up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God.

Let’s look at the first one.

1. 1)    Offering ourselves, our bodies as a living sacrifice

Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,” that means without spot of blemish, “which is your reasonable service.” Here we have it. Back in the Old Testament, they offered up animals. Now we offer up our bodies, not to be slain on the altar, but to be a living sacrifice unto Him each day.

So, as we come to the altar, which represents offering up an animal to God, now instead we offer up our own bodies to the Lord. “Here I am again today, Lord Jesus. I offer my body a living sacrifice unto You.” We’re yielding our lives, our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our hands, our feet, our mouths, every part of us, we’re yielding them unto the Lord as a spiritual sacrifice. We’re not doing our own thing, We’re doing that which will please Him. Amen?

1. 2)    The surrender of our will

What did Jesus say as He went to the cross? As He was there in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood as he anticipated taking upon Him our sins and our sicknesses, the most horrific sins and sicknesses of the whole world, He took them upon Him on the cross. He sweat drops of blood. What did He say? “Not My will, but Thine be done.”

This is also our spiritual sacrifice. As we face things in our lives, “Not my will, Father, but Thine be done.” That’s not just for the big things in life, but for the little things, the little things that happen in the day. The little things, the things where we want to stand on our own rights. “I should have this,” and “This shouldn’t happen to me,” and da-da-da-da-da. No, the Spirit of Jesus is not my will, but Thine be done. This is our spiritual sacrifice.

1. 3)     We must not be conformed to this world

That’s Romans 12:2: “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Here is another acceptable sacrifice unto God, by allowing Him to transform our minds from our old way of thinking to His way of thinking.

When we come into Christ, when we come out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light. We come into a new kingdom. We are meant to leave our old life behind. We leave Egypt behind which was also the type. We’re meant to leave it behind. There’s a Scripture in the Old Testament which says: “You are never to back to Egypt again.” That’s going back to the world, going back to that fleshly spirit. We don’t go back to that. We leave it behind.

We don’t even sit on the fence. Oh, just close to the old way of thinking and the old life. Oh, no, if we’re on the fence, we can easily topple back in again. No, we have got to make a three-day gap. Remember, when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, Pharoah tried every excuse to keep them there in Egypt. One of them was, “Hey, I’ll let you go, but don’t go far. Just go over the border. That’s it. Just over the border.”

But he knew, if he had them just over the border, he’d easily be able to get them back again and herd them back into Egypt to be his slaves again. But no, Moses would never ever give in. Each time, he said, “No, God has told us to go a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice unto Him.” That was a type (Read Exodus 3:18; 5: 3; and 8:27).

We have to have to have a three-day gap between Egypt and going into our new kingdom. We don’t stay close to the old ways. Those who say they’re Christians today want to be like the world. They want to look like the world. Even churches want to look like the world to bring people in. No! We are a different kingdom altogether. We are severed from the old kingdom. We are never to go back to Egypt again. We’re to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are a totally new creature.

2 Corinthians 5:17: “Behold, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Of course, that happens as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our thinking. That means we’ve got to let the Word of God do that. That happens at our altar, morning and evening. The Word is going into our hearts, into our minds, transforming us, changing our thinking. This is an acceptable sacrifice.

1. 4)     Praise, worship, and thanksgiving are spiritual sacrifices

Hebrews 13:15: “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” One of our sacrifices is to be praising the Lord when things are going great? No, it doesn’t say that. To praise the Lord when we’re feeling so happy? No. Praise the Lord when everything’s going just the way we want it? No. It says: “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” Continually. Whatever is happening in our lives.

I remember a little instance when Colin and I were first married. Colin had gone out full-time for the Lord when we were engaged. We were involved in what was called “Tell New Zealand Crusade,” taking the gospel of John personally to every home in the nation.

Then from there, we went, well, I didn’t but, we were planning to go to the Philippine Islands as an outreach, to continue that vision of taking the gospel of John, this time, to a people who did not have the Word. We were thinking of going and we’d just got married. I had just conceived and was pregnant.

The leader of our team, Campbell McAlpine, a very wonderful man of God, came to Colin. He said, “I do not believe that Nancy should come. We’re going out. We don’t know when we will be coming back. We don’t know where we will be living. Nothing is set in stone. We’re just going by faith. I don’t think it’s going to be in any way a situation for Nancy to come.”

So, my beautiful new husband was going out and I didn’t even know when he was coming back. I didn’t know if it would be a year, two years, three years. When would I see him again? I didn’t know. I don’t know whether we would do things like that in this hour in which we’re living, but that’s the sacrifices we made back then.

I remember waving him good-bye. I came back to the home where I was staying and I was devastated. I wasn’t just crying. I was heaving sobs. I wondered, “Will this baby ever see its father?”

The Lord brought to my mind 1 Thessalonians 5:23. I knew this Scripture by heart. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, concerning you.”

I heard God speak to me. “Nancy, do you want to do My will?” Sobbing, I said, “Yes, Lord.” He said, “Well, thank Me. This concerns you. Thank Me.” I didn’t want to thank Him, but I just did it by faith. I began to thank Him and I continued to thank Him until I got the victory in my soul, and the joy of the Lord in my soul. God was so good. I was able to get that victory. It comes through thanking the Lord, even in the circumstances that you don’t like. Amen?

Well, time is gone again, so we’ll continue next week.

“Dear Father, we thank You again for the principles that You have been showing us. Each one is so amazing.

I pray for all the families who are listening today; the mothers, the wives, the children, the teens, and their husbands, and everyone in their households. I pray that You will bless them. I pray that You will teach them Your ways. I pray that You’ll give them such a heart to seek after Your truth, Lord God.

Oh, Father, that they will not be tainted by the things of this world, but they would be filled, Lord, with the knowledge of Your truth in Your Word. I ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

P. S. Eight more spiritual sacrifices next week.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.

“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell”

DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.

IT IS ENCOURAGING FOR ALL WIVES AND MOTHERS.

 

No. 12 ONCE AND FOR ALL

Five times the Scriptures tells us that Jesus “ONE SUFFERED FOR SINS.”

(Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 26:28; 10:10; and 1 Peer 3:18).

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 311: Altar Building, Part 4

How do you worship at your family altar? This time of meeting with God is also for the cleansing of our hearts. It's such an important part of every day.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! We are continuing our series of “Altar Building.” Do you remember that we have got 25 points to look at about altar building? There is so much in the Word of God.

We’re up to No. 9 today.

No. 9. WE BUILD A FAMILY ALTAR TO WORSHIP THE LORD

We have been discovering that we do three things when we come to meet the Lord as a family. We read the Word, and we pray and cry out to the Lord. Thirdly, we worship the Lord. That’s what they used to do when they were doing the sacrifices back in the Old Testament. The people, Levites usually, and others joining with them, would worship the Lord as they, the priests, were doing the sacrifices.

In 2 Chronicles 7, we see another beautiful example. This was when Solomon was dedicating the temple. It says in verse one: “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.”

That same thing happened back when they dedicated the tabernacle in the wilderness. And God came and lit that sacrifice with a supernatural fire. The same thing happened here. This was a fire that God lit. But He wanted, of course, His priests to continue to keep it going.

It goes on in verse 3, “And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.”

Verse 4, and they continued to offer sacrifices. Verse 5 tells us how many sacrifices that Solomon made. I don’t know whether you can hardly believe it! It says “And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen.” How long did that take? Goodness me. And then, “an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth forever.” They even blew the trumpets.

I think it is a wonderful thing to worship the Lord as a family when we come together. Some of you may be more musical families than others. If your children play musical instruments, well, this may be a time when they would love to get them out. Get out their guitars and whatever, and play along.

Maybe you don’t have musical instruments. You can get one of these, what do you call them? Those amplifying things. You can find the song you want to sing on your iPhone. Then you can amplify it and sing along with it. You can do whatever is the easiest in your family.

We just do a Capello in our home, but that’s easy, because Colin leads us. My husband loves to sing and he sings in perfect pitch. He leads us, so it’s wonderful. But if Colin is not here, and I’m having to take it in his place, I will usually say, “OK folks, I think we’ll forget the singing.” Because if I lead everybody, I’ll lead them all in the wrong tune and out of tune. It will be impossible! But we can do great a Capello with Colin.

We usually sing the hymns at our family devotions. In our worship services, we sing the beautiful current worship songs. They’re really such a beautiful anointing of worship. But I’m one of those who is a great believer in that which is not only new but that which is old. I believe that we should have them both.

I love that Scripture in Matthew 13:52. It’s a parable Jesus gave. “Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” I love that principle of having the new and the old.

There are some people who only know the new. I notice many young people today don’t even know any hymns. They are familiar with all the current worship songs. They have the new but they don’t have the old. Then there are some folks who keep to the old. They never embrace the new. They sing the hymns. Or there are some who only sing the Psalms.

I remember one time Colin and I were ministering in Ireland. We were speaking at this meeting. There were a few families who came who only believed in singing the Psalms. At this gathering, they were singing hymns. These people would not even open their mouths because they wouldn’t sing the hymns. They were still back on the old Psalms.

Well, the Psalms are wonderful to sing, of course. So are the hymns. I love the grand hymns of the faith. They are filled with such doctrine. I think our children and our teens miss out when they don’t learn the hymns. So, I think it’s a great thing to embrace both the new and the old. Don’t you? Maybe you’d like to sing the hymns at your family devotions, or whatever you like, of course.

I have a little table beside our big dining room table. There I have all our prayers boxes, and also our hymn books, so that they are ready for us to choose a hymn when we sing. We do enjoy that with all our hearts.

There are so many wonderful hymns that sing about the blood of Jesus. I find that, although the worship songs, many of them are so anointed, there are not so many that sing about the blood which is a central theme of the Word of God. It’s great for our children to know some of these great hymns of the faith, and that they sing and honor the blood of Jesus. Anyone out there saying “Amen”? I hope so. Well, do sing something, however you like to do it, OK?

No. 10. WE MAKE AN ALTAR MORNING AND EVENING

This point is, we are to come before the Lord morning and evening. This is the principle that God gave, right back there in the tabernacle, which was an incredible . . . The whole way God planned the tabernacle is such a revelation of our salvation and our walk with God. It is so wonderful to understand it. Sadly, many don’t today. In fact, I have written here in the front of my Bible, my current Bible . . . No, I didn’t. I wrote it in my journal, and I haven’t got my journal with me, so I’ll have to tell you about that next time (I’ll write it at the end of this transcript).

I shared this with you before, so I won’t go into it too deeply, but I want to just give you again the references so that you’ll know I’m not making up something. No, every point I’m giving you lovely ladies is written in the Word. It’s here for our learning.

As the Scripture says in Romans 15:4: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” When we come into the tabernacle, the first thing we see is the brass altar where they did the sacrifices. We read in Leviticus 6 that God specified very clearly that He wanted them to keep this fire upon the altar going. The only way they could do it was to keep it going every morning and every evening.

Leviticus 6:9: “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.”

Verse 12: “It shall not be put out.”

Verse 13: “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out.”

God wanted this to be a continual burning, never ever to go out, so He tells them the way to do it. He says, “I want you to go in every morning and take out the ashes. Then I want you to put on the wood to keep that fire burning. You’ve got to fuel it, to keep it burning. But it’s not enough, once a day. You’ve got to come back in the evening to you keep it going.”

So, God knows that we also, we also need morning and evening. You know, we can start the day, and we feel so great. We’re starting the day with God. We’re fresh. We’re coming into His presence and hearing the Word, praying, worshipping.

Oh goodness me. But then the day starts rolling and sadly we don’t have perfect children, do we? Darling mothers, sometimes they’re driving us crazy. They’re bouncing off the walls and they’re getting upset with one another. They’re fighting, and this is happening. Oh goodness me! And you are just starting to shout and yell and everything is going awry. You no longer feel very holy.

Oh, isn’t it amazing? It’s so easy to feel so holy and have such a beautiful time with the Lord, especially in your own personal altar, in your time with the Lord. It’s all so wonderful! But then, when you come to face the day, and you’ve got to face people, and you’ve got to face your husband, and all your children, and work out all these relationships, oh my, sometimes you don’t feel so holy afterwards.

We all experience this, don’t we? But God knows that we need short accounts with Him. He knows we need to come into His presence every morning, but by the time the evening comes, we’re desperate to come into His presence again, because He want to keep this fire, the fire of God burning in our hearts. It’s so easy for it to go out. We’ve got to keep that fire going.

But God continues the principle. That’s Leviticus 6.

In Exodus 29:38-39, He says: “I want you to sacrifice twice a day on this altar.” The Word says: “Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even.” So, that’s very plain, isn’t it? They had to sacrifice every morning and every evening. This was the principle.

Then we go to Exodus 27:20-21. This is talking about the golden lampstand, speaking of Jesus who is the Light of the World. And also how He says: “I am the Light of the World, but you also are the light of the world.” He wants us to be the light. Here He also says: “And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn,” (sometimes? No!) “to burn always. In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute forever unto their generations.”

So, God also wanted this light to be a perpetual light that would never ever go out. The only way they could keep it going was to come and attend to it. Every morning they had to take out all the burnt stuff from the wicks and clean the wicks. Then they had to pour in the oil, speaking of the anointing of the Holy Spirit to keep the light burning in our lives. They had to do it morning and evening. Are you getting the picture?

We’re not finished yet, because then we go over to Exodus 30. Now we come to the last piece of furniture in the Holy Place, which is the altar of incense. The priests were to light that incense. Once again, how often? Well, you’ve got it by now, haven’t you? Every morning and every evening.

It was the sweet incense. In fact, the Bible gives the recipe of the incense. Exodus 30:34-35 talks of all the sweet spices. It was to be made of these sweet spices so it filled that Holy Place with sweetness, a beautiful sweet aroma. Of course, we know that the altar of incense speaks of prayer, the prayers of the saints.

This is not only Old Testament. We go over to Revelation—Revelation 5, Revelation 8, on two occasions, no, there’s a third occasion too, when John saw into the heavenly realm. He actually saw the altar of incense right there in the heavenly realm. Because, ladies, this tabernacle was made according to the pattern of the heavenly, which is now in the heavenly realm.

John saw the prayers of the saints going up as incense before the Throne of the Lord. The only difference in the heavenly tabernacle is that in the old tabernacle, there was a big, thick curtain that separated the altar of incense from the Holy of Holies, the throne room of the Lord where God dwells. Of course, now, after Jesus died, that curtain was torn apart! There is nothing that curtains it now. It is open, and prayers are going right into His throne room.

He wants us to come in twice a day, morning and evening. Let’s see it here. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got the Scripture. I did give it to you. So yes, it was Exodus 30:7-8: “And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon [the altar of incense], a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.”

Did you notice that all these things, it has the word either “forever” or “perpetual”? In fact, the word “statute” in the Word of God is the Hebrew word for “ordinance, law, statute, custom.” But the main meaning is that it’s a perpetual thing. It’s often connected with the word “perpetual,” or “forever,” because that’s the meaning. It’s meant to be something that we keep forever. It wasn’t just for back then. It’s forever. It’s for us now.

Of course, we are not doing the literal things of sacrificing. We are not literally burning lamps on a seven-branched candlestick. We are not burning incense on the altar of incense. No, those were the types—but the type of what we are to be today. The Word of God brings us the type. He makes them so clear! He says “This altar of incense is the prayers of the saints.”

Now He’s wanting us to come in morning and evening, into His throne room. It’s an invitation into His throne room, lovely ladies, which we have personally, but which we also bring our families into. What a privilege for parents, husbands and wives, to bring their children into the throne room of the Lord! Because that’s what we’re doing each morning and evening when we light the incense. We’re bringing our prayers into the throne room of the Lord. Oh, what a privilege!

It is too sad that parents do not do this. They’re denying their children this daily, two-times daily experience of coming into the throne room of the Lord. God didn’t only give us one example. He gave us one, two, three, four, five examples of morning and evening, so we get it into our heads. Are you getting it, lovely ladies?

Now we go to number 11.

No. 11. WE BUILD A FAMILY ALTAR FOR CLEANSING AND SANCTIFICATION

We see this in the examples I’ve just been talking to you about. In Leviticus 6, where God says: “You must keep the fire on the altar burning continually. It must never go out.”

The way they had to do it; the first thing was to take out the ashes. That speaks of getting rid of all the old junk in our lives, the ashes, the stuff that is not pleasing to the Lord. All the dead stuff. When we come into His presence, and we’re open to the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts, He will speak to us about things that displease Him. We can get rid of them. They had to take the ashes out. We cast them out of our lives as we repent of them and embrace the forgiveness of the blood of Jesus.

Then also, the other example of the lighting of the lampstand. When you see a lantern, and the wick gets all burnt and black, it blackens the whole glass. Have you noticed that? People don’t light lamps very much today. I have some old lamps that I love to light at Christmas and times like that. But if you don’t keep the wick clean, it blackens the whole glass. You’ve got to get rid of all that horrible burnt stuff and junk stuff. That also is speaking of cleansing and sanctification which happens when we come into the presence of the Lord, and we meet with Him, and we have His Word.

But let’s go now, shall we, to Genesis 35. I have brought this passage to you already, quite a number of times. I think we will even go to it again, because in this one passage, there are so many principles for us to learn. Let’s see again here what God said to Jacob.

Genesis 35:1: “And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there.”

Verse 2: “Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments.” This is what they all did. All his family, not one exception, They all had to get rid of everything that had accumulated by living amongst the heathen around them.

Of course, there were many servants in his household, and some of them could be those who worshipped false gods. But Jacob said, “Before we move one step, everyone must get rid of every strange god. You must all wash yourselves. You must wash your clothes. And you must change your garments.” That’s what they had to do as they went up to Bethel to sacrifice at the altar.

Now, I noticed a couple of other passages in the Word of God about changing our garments. To me, they are quite challenging. Let’s go to Exodus 28:40-43. This whole chapter, chapter 28 of Exodus, is all about the clothing of the high priest and the clothing of the priests. God told them specifically what they were to wear.

As we read these things, I want you to know, of course, that we are not going to have to dress like the priests back there. But what I do want to bring out, precious ladies, is that everything that is written is for a type. The things that they did back there in the Old Testament we don’t do today. God doesn’t expect us to do them today.

But the principle comes along with it, right up into the New Testament, right up into this 21st century. It is still there. There is not one word wasted in this Old Testament. In everything that is written, there is a principle that we carry through into the spiritual realm, or even the practical realm as well, although we’re not doing quite like they did it.

Can I just remind you again that I’ve already shared in this podcast? But we need to hear it again. Roman 15:4: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” 

We go to 1 Corinthians 10:6 and 11. I’ll just read verse 11: “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Does it say here, “Now some of these things happened to them for examples”? No, it says, “And all these things happened unto them for examples.”

They were examples and they were written for our admonition. This is now New Testament, “Upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Right up to the end of the world, these examples are still current. Are we getting this? OK. So let’s read.

First of all, I must read you verse two, because this was God’s overall plan for the clothing of the priests. Now, remember ladies, you say, “Oh, that’s just for the priests of the Old Testament.” No, we are now kings and priests unto God. Yes, Revelation tells us in two passages there. We are kings and we are priests unto God. We are now a kingdom of priests (1 Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6; 5:19; and 20:6).

The clothing the high priest was to wear was to be holy.

“Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for glory and for beauty.” Oh, don’t you love that, ladies? I love that. We see God’s heart there. He loves glory. He is glory. All glory comes from God. He wants us to be glorious too. He loves beauty. There are some translations that say “For honor and for dignity.”

We go over in this passage in this chapter. Now it’s talking more particularly. I haven’t talked about the high priest’s clothing. Oh, there are some wonderful points about that but we won’t go into them today. This is now just the priests. Exodus 28:40: “And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty.”

Once again, God reiterates it again. “I want them to be clothed for glory and for beauty.” In this passage here, which are types, we see there are many, many other points, if we were speaking about clothing. But we’ll just speak about these three today. We see the three foundational things for our clothing.

Number one: holy. Yes, you notice we’ll see, or we’ll see that in a minute how they were all dressed in linen. Of course, the main materials they had back in the Old Testament were linen and wool. They didn’t have all the synthetic materials that we have today. In fact, they were very blessed because both linen and wool are the most healthy materials.

I’m sure you are aware of that, and that linen and also wool, give off 5,000 megahertz of energy. When you are wearing linen, or you are wearing wool, you are getting this energy. Whereas, if you are wearing synthetics, well, it’s like you’re being a little bit sick even.

You can wear cotton. That’s healthy, but it doesn’t have much. It only has, I think organic cotton has a very small amount of the megahertz of energy, whereas normal cotton has nothing. It’s just nothing. But synthetic is below zero. But they always wore linen.

In the Bible, linen always speaks of the righteousness of the saints (Revelation 19:8). You don’t have to go round wearing linen. Of course, if you did, you’d be healthier, but you don’t have to. It’s not going to change your salvation at all. But it does represent spiritually the righteousness of the saints.

When we go to Revelation, we read a lot about clothing in Revelation. And they are all clothed (every time John saw into the heavenly realm) they were clothed in linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. So, here we see them.

He makes coats and girdles and bonnets. They are just types, too. Coats represented a garment, which completely covered the body, which is very interesting. Bonnets, well, we’re not going to go around wearing bonnets. We wear hats sometimes for certain things. We wear them when we’re cold.

I love to wear hats to weddings. I think when you get this podcast, we will already have been to Vision and Eden’s wedding. This is another one of our grandsons getting married. I’m actually, while I’m doing this podcast, I hope my hat arrives today, so I’ll have one for the wedding. But really, their bonnets, they also speak to us spiritually. It’s speaking of having purity of mind, and holiness of mind. God wanted their minds clothed with holiness too.

It goes on to say: “And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach: And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or,” listen, ladies, “when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him.”

Do you notice something here? That they, yes, they were to wear these clothes when they came near to the altar of the Lord. They had to be, of course, in their linen, which speaks of the righteousness of the saints. And they had to be covered.

It says: “covered their nakedness,” but here, because they were speaking of the men, it specifically referred to their covering their loins, that part of their body from the waist to (they believe) from the waist to just above the knee. They were covered. But it was all a type of realizing that they were coming into the presence of the Lord, near to God’s altar. And they had to make sure that this was how they were clothed, lest they die, the Scripture says.

I’ve got more Scriptures about it, but we’re already running out of time. Can I carry on next week? OK? We’ll just look at one or two more Scriptures next week. We’ll have to leave it for today.

“Dear Father, I thank You for Your precious Word, which is so filled with revelation for us and understanding for us. I pray that You will give these wonderful mothers and wives and young people revelation, Lord, as they’re listening. Not just revelation from me, but revelation from Your Holy Spirit. Revelation that comes, Lord, as we open our ears and our hearts and our eyes to the whole wondrous things that are in Your law. We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.

“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell”

DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.

IT IS ENCOURAGING FOR ALL WIVES AND MOTHERS.

Quotes I wrote in my journal about the tabernacle:

“The tabernacle is God’s heavenly pattern for our spiritual walk on earth.”

“Because the pattern of the tabernacle points the way to Christ no error was allowed in the construction of the tabernacle.”

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 310: Altar Building, Part 3

Satan hates the family altar. He will use “good” things to stop you doing it in your home. But if you press through, you will become a nation-changing and world-changing family.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! We are continuing to talk about altar building. There is so much more to share with you. Here is a quote before we start.

This is from James Alexander:

“The daily regular and solemn reading of God’s holy Word by a parent before his children is one of the most powerful agencies of a Christian life. We are prone to undervalue this cause. It is a constant dropping, but it wears its mark into the rock.

“The family thus trained cannot be ignorant of the Word. The whole Scriptures come repeatedly before the mind. The most heedless child must observe and retain some portion of the sacred oracles. The most forgetful must treasure up some passages for life. No one part of juvenile education is more important. To deny such a source of influence to the youthful mind is an injustice, at the thought of which, a professor of Christianity may well tremble.”

All right, ladies. We are up to point number four.

No. 4. WE DON’T BUILD AN ALTAR UNTO OURSELVES BUT UNTO THE LORD

Genesis 8:20: “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD.”

Genesis 12:7-8, 13, 18: “Abram builded he an altar unto the LORD.” So, we continue, ladies, with nearly every Scripture talking about altars. It says” “And they builded an altar unto the Lord.”

I think this is a most amazing point. We’re not building this altar. We’re not making this time and place each day to gather for ourselves. Ultimately, we are the ones who get blessed, but our aim is that it’s for the Lord. It’s unto the Lord. That’s what the patriarchs did. They didn’t do it for themselves. They did it unto the Lord.

Then we read in Deuteronomy 27:6: “Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God.” Did you get that? It’s not our altar. It’s God’s altar. I think that makes such a difference. Don’t you? When we’re building this altar in our family, when we’re establishing this habit of coming together each day to read God’s Word, and when we realize that we’re doing it unto the Lord, well, not a moment, not a moment is wasted. It’s unto the Lord. It’s in His presence. I trust that blesses you.

No. 5. WHEN WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO THE LORD, HE WILL COME TO US

Oh, I love this passage. Let’s go to Exodus 20:24: God is speaking: “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.”

Oh, isn’t that wonderful? You couldn’t get anything better than that, could you? God says, “When you make an altar unto Me, I will come unto thee.” That’s not all. “And I will bless thee.” What a wonderful promise! Who wouldn’t want to make a family altar? This is so amazing!

We need to give this vision to our children. When we’re drawing them together, it’s not, “OK, children, we’re having Bible reading now.” Oh no! “Children! Let’s come together! We’re going to meet with the Lord! And guess what, children? God has promised that when we come, He’s going to come to us. He’s going to bless us! Isn’t that wonderful?”

Oh, that carries onto the next point, number six.

No. 6. WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO MEET WITH GOD

Yes. That was why the early patriarchs built altars. Let’s read these Scriptures.

Genesis 12:7: “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.”

Genesis 35:7: Talking of Jacob, “And he built there an altar, and called the place El Bethel: because there God appeared unto him.” That word “appeared” means “to be visited, to be seen, to show.”

As we come each day, each morning and evening, when we come to hear God’s Word, we can believe that He will reveal Himself to us. He reveals Himself through His Word. He shows Himself to us through His Word. This is how we get to know Him, through His Word. We will never understand and know everything about God, but He has chosen to reveal something of who He is, so we can know something of Him. Because He is God, we can never comprehend all of Him, but we can know Him. He will reveal Himself to us.

Let’s look at some more Scriptures. We see that God promised to reveal Himself at the brass altar. Exodus 29:42: “This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.” Whenever you read that phrase, “before the Lord,” in the King James Bible, it means literally, “In the presence of the Lord.”

“Where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory.” That was in the outer court, where they came to do the sacrifices. God said, “When you come to this altar, I will meet with you.” Oh, I love that! And God’s Word, we can take every word. It’s not in vain.

We can claim that promise. When we come together, we can come to the Lord, and say, “Thank You, Lord. We have come here to meet with You. You have promised to meet with us. Show Yourself to us today.” You can encourage your children. “Dear children, when Daddy reads the Word of God this morning, or this evening, listen with all your heart. Because it’s not just Daddy reading. These are the Words of God. And God wants to speak to you. Listen! Listen to God speaking.”

At the end of your reading, you can ask your children, “Children, what did God say to you?” Because God speaks to children and you will be amazed at what they will say, at what God spoke to them in their hearts. This is how you’re teaching your children how to hear God. This is something we must do, mothers. We must teach our children how to hear from God.

There are many Christians who are adults. Maybe they are in middle age. Maybe they’re even older, and they still do not know how to hear from God personally. They come to church on Sunday. They listen to the sermon and that’s what they hear. They haven’t learned to hear personally.

We must all get into the habit, every time the Word of God is read, every time it is spoken in our family devotions, we open our inner ears. We say, “God, I’m listening. I’m here to meet with you. Please meet with me. Show Yourself to me. Speak to me.” So, as we come in faith, and listen, we will hear God speaking to our hearts. And our children will too. Teach them. Remind them to keep listening, and to keep hearing what God will say to them.

Then we go to Exodus 30:6, 36: two times. This is at the altar of incense, where they had to burn the incense which speaks of prayer and praise and worship. Two times it says: “where I will meet with thee.” It’s in our times of prayer and worship that God wants to meet with us. He’s promised to meet with us as we spend time in prayer.

Of course, we pray on our own, in our personal times with the Lord, but there’s something about family prayer and corporate prayer. There is such power in corporate prayer when more people are praying together. I am amazed at how often I hear God speak to me during corporate prayer, because the more who are praying, it seems that more of the presence of God is in our midst. God’s promised to meet with us.

Do you remember the time when God came to Zacharias to tell him that he would have a child? In Luke 1:8-13, you can read it there. It says: “And the whole multitude of the people were praying without,” that means outside in the courtyard, the outer court. “At the time of incense.” Zacharias was a priest, and it was his season of duty to light the incense. So, he was there, at the altar of incense.

“And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.” And then the angel spoke to him, these words that God was going to give them a child, even though Elizabeth was in her old age. That happened. God does speak.

Even in the most mundane times, we can hear God speaking to us. You can hear Him speaking to you as you’re doing the dishes and vacuuming the floor, just in your daily duties in the household. I remember one time when I was a young mother in New Zealand. I had just come home from getting the groceries. I was walking over the threshold of the door. There I was. I’d just arrived home. And I wasn’t even thinking about anything. And God spoke to me!

It just came other of the blue! I heard these words: “Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if all your thoughts are about yourself?” Wow! God arrested me. I have never forgotten those words. I learned that I have to give room in my mind and in my heart for others. We cannot think of ourselves all the time. If you’re thinking of yourself, and you’re filled with self-pity, you have no room for God to speak to you about others, of people who He wants you to speak to, to minister to, to bless.

So, God gave me that word in the most mundane place. But God specifically comes in the places where He has said He will come, in the place of prayer and worship, that is, the altar of incense. We read how He came to Zacharias there too.

In Exodus 25:20-22, it also speaks of how He will meet. He was speaking to Moses, and how “I will meet with you between the cherubim in the holy of holies.” Now I have to confess, I don’t quite understand that Scripture in its context because God was speaking to Moses. Only Aaron the High Priest was allowed in the Holy of Holies. Whether God spoke to him from there because that was where God was dwelling, between the cherubim, in the holy of holies. Maybe He spoke to him from there, wherever Moses was.

But the wonderful thing is, of course, that now we have access through the death of Jesus and His blood that was shed. When Jesus died upon the cross, that curtain that separated the holy of holies was torn from the top to the bottom. Now we are blessed to have access into the throne room of God, where God says, that in this place, in the holy of holies, in the throne room of God, He will meet with us. Isn’t that so amazing?

Yes. So, that’s what happens when we make an altar. He has promised to meet with us. Don’t forget to share these beautiful truths with your children so they also know and understand.

No. 7. WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD

That’s what the patriarchs did. We see that in Genesis 12:8, and again in Genesis 13:4: “There, Abraham called on the Name of the Lord.”

Genesis 26:25: “Isaac, and he builded an altar there and called upon the Name of the Lord.” The patriarchs called upon the Lord.

What does that word “call” mean? The Hebrew is qara, and it means “to call out, to cry out, to cry for help, to utter a loud sound.” So, the patriarchs did not only pray at their altars, but they called upon the Lord. There are many types of praying. We can pray, we can intercede, we can supplicate, we can give thanks, we can pray in many, many different ways, and in many, many different positions. But there is also calling upon the Lord. That is different from just praying.

Sometimes we pray. Yes, we’re talking to the Lord, and we’re praying. But there are times when we’re desperate. We’re desperate because of something that is happening in our own life, or in the lives of our children. We have to call upon the Lord. We cry out to Him. There are times when things are happening in our nation, even as they are at the moment. If we’re burdened enough, we won’t be just praying. We’ll be calling upon the Lord, crying out, even using a loud voice. That is part of calling upon the Lord.

Now, maybe you’ve never done that. Oh, you’ve prayed lots of times, of course. But have you ever really cried out to the Lord? That’s what the patriarchs did at their altars. Yes, at our altars, we will pray. What we do every day, at our altar, we will read the Word, and then we pray. We get everyone to pray. Everyone has a turn. I believe that is important, because this is where our children learn to pray. They learn to pray by praying.

Often, we have families come our table. It’s devotion time, and it’s time to pray. Because they are a Christian family, we just expect their children will be able to pray. So, we’re going around the table. It comes to their turn. They’re silent. Often we just have to move on, because they’re not used to praying. They’re not praying in their own homes. This is where children really learn to pray. So, I encourage you to do that with your children.

PRAYER BOXES

I think I have mentioned many times about our prayer boxes. I wonder, how many of you actually have prayer boxes? Or have you listened to me talk about them, and never done it? Well, ladies, perhaps I can remind you again. Because I have to confess, I find one of the greatest blessings in our prayer times is our prayer boxes, because especially for little children, they often don’t know what to pray about. Their prayers are very generic. “Lord God, please give us a good day. Help me.” And so on.

But we’ve got to expand their prayer life, and give them a vision of the needs to pray for. So we have our FAMILY BOX of everybody in our family. We have our PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS PRAYER BOX. Do you remember when we did the podcast about praying for Eritrea? Anybody praying for Eritrea? Who’s remembering?

Have you done something to help you to remember to pray for this poor downcast country which is governed by a total dictatorship? There is no freedom of speech. There is nothing. There is much persecution. Oh, we must keep praying for them and for so many countries where Christians are being very, very persecuted, and martyred for their faith.

We have our ISRAEL PRYAER BOX, and our NATION CHANGING PRAYER BOX, and our WORLD CHANGING PRAYER BOX, and our SALVATION AND HEALING PRAYER BOX, and our ABOVE RUBIES PRAYER BOX. So it goes, on and on. Well, you can have the prayer boxes you want, and the subjects you want in your family. You will find it’s such a blessing.

We usually only use box each time. You can change the boxes for each time, but they will help you. If you need any help, if you need any, “What do I write on my prayer card?” or for Israel, or for the persecuted church, just email me, and I’ll send you some ideas to help you get going, because we do need encouraging in praying for all these issues. Not only just our own little needs, but the needs of this nation, and the needs of the world!

Oh, lovely ladies, are you praying for our nation? Are you burdened? Are you burdened? I have to tell you, I’m burdened. This nation is going down the tubes. Now you see what’s happening at all these universities. All these young people rising up, standing for Hamas, and becoming Hamas themselves, and chanting, “We are Hamas!” They don’t even know what they’re talking about.

Hamas is one of the most violent terrorist groups in the world. The actions, what they did on October 7 to the Israelis can hardly be spoken or written. It was so horrific, so horrific. If you’re not devastated by it, you don’t know what happened. It was horrific. In fact, I was reading even this morning in Genesis. Let me go to it here. When God saw that evil in the land, Genesis 6, yes, here it is. Genesis 6:11: “The earth also was corrupt before God. And the earth was filled with violence.”

Ladies, do you know what that word “violence” is in the Hebrew? Do you want to know? It’s the word hamas. The exact word hamas. It means “violence.” When God saw such violence, that’s when He brought the flood upon the earth, to destroy it. Now we have our own young people in this nation rising up, not only standing for Hamas and their violence, but becoming violent themselves, speaking, “We are Hamas!” Now they’re becoming more and more violent.

Are you praying? No, not just praying. Are you crying out to the Lord? Every Christian family should be crying out to God. Oh, that the evil and the deception in this land will be exposed, and that God will, in His sovereignty bring us back to righteousness and bring a mighty revival! Ladies, we can see this happen if God’s people, and every God-fearing home in the country would begin to cry out to God. Oh, please be one of those families, and encourage others to be those families, because praying families are nation-changing families. Praying families are world-changing families.

Norman Williams, who wrote a book called The Family Altar, says in this book:

“God didn’t make the course and destiny of nations and of individuals dependent on the decisions of Congresses and Parliaments. Not did He lay this power in the hands of rulers and kings. But God placed it in the praying family. That is why the devil cannot ruin nations of men until he has destroyed the homes of prayer. That is why satan hates the family altar.”

And truly, ladies, that’s why satan does everything in his power to stop us having our family altar, because he doesn’t want us praying. I tell you, when every God-fearing family in this nation begins to pray, we will see mighty things happening. But there are very few families praying. Even though they go to church on Sunday, even though they say they’re Christian. And Satan’s very, very happy, because he knows he can have his way. But my, when families get praying, look out!

Let’s go over to Leviticus 26:6. We see a powerful Scripture here: “And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.”

What a powerful promise! You see, our greatest weapon against our enemies, and the works of satan, is prayer. That is our greatest weapon! We’re not fighting against flesh and blood; we’re fighting against these evil principalities and powers. And what does it say here? “That five of you can chase a hundred.” Just a little family, with three children, that’s five, can chase a hundred enemies as they begin to pray together.

And what else does it say? “A hundred of you.” Wow! Just 25 families with only three each can put 10,000 to flight. How many does it say? I’ll bet it’s 1,000. No, 10,000 to flight! Wow! That’s amazing! What about families with six, seven, eight, nine, ten children? Some have got 12, 14 children. You’ve got a prayer meeting right there! Wow! As you gather your children to pray and to cry out to God for this nation, and against the evil that is happening in this nation, we can put 10,000 enemies to flight! Oh, my.

How true are these words from this writing. No wonder Satan hates the family altar. And no wonder he will try to stop you. So, don’t let him. Oh, yes, it’s amazing. Even just legitimate things. You see, the enemy knows that some evil thing will never stop you from having the family altar. Oh, my! You’ll have nothing to do with that.

But he’s so subtle. He will use good things. Did you know that? Yes, he can get you doing very good things, but they can take the time at that family altar. So, Satan’s just as happy because you’re not praying. We have to watch out for his ways, don’t we?

No. 8. WE ESTABLISH A FAMLY ALTAR TO READ GOD’S WORD

Because at the altar, we pray, we read the Word, and we worship. Of course, we’ve got Scriptures for everything. We read this in Exodus 24:4: “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Verse 7: “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.” They were all saying, “Amen.” “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” And so, Moses builded an altar and read the words of the Lord to the people.

We go over to the New Testament. It reiterates it in Hebrews 9:19-20: “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book,” that was the Book of the Law, the Word of the Lord, “and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.”

Of course, we are going to read the Word at our family altar. Deuteronomy 27:1-10, you can read the whole passage later. It says there: “Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God.” There they read the Word of the Lord. We just read Joshua 8, where he read all that Moses commanded. That might have taken them a few days. It might have taken them a whole week actually. Reading every day for a week, you can read the whole of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.

Let’s value the Word, and let’s make the Word of God BIG in the eyes of our children, that it’s never a bore. Never something, “Oh, we have to do this.” No! This is the most exciting time of the day! We are coming to hear God speak to us! Oh, that should be our personal attitude. When they see our excitement, and our longing to hear what God is going to say, our children will catch that. They will have the attitude that we have. It should always be an attitude of expectancy, believing that God is going to speak to us.

Now, you may be saying, “Well, where do I read in the Bible? I don’t know where to read.” Of course, that can be the most difficult thing for husbands who have never been brought up with the family altar or family devotions. There have been decades who have lost this in Christian homes. It’s time to get it back.

But it’s not easy when a husband doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He thinks, “Help!” A man doesn’t want to do something unless he feels confident and knows what he’s doing. He thinks, “Where will I read?” Well, let me tell you. In our home, we have done different things, and we have different seasons. Sometimes we will read through a book, and read through a chapter each time.

When our children were teens, for a while we would read a chapter of Proverbs every day because it was so practical for their lives. If it was the fifth day of the month, we would read Proverbs 5. If it was the 25th day, it was Proverbs 25. Because there are 31 days in the month, and 31 days in Proverbs. That’s a great thing to do.

But mostly now we read The Daily Light on the Daily Path. It is only the Word of God, but it is Scriptures put together on a certain theme for the morning and for the evening. It’s not many Scriptures, because you’ve got the morning and evening on one page! So, it’s not going to be too much, is it? But there it is. This becomes such a blessing for maybe a husband who thinks, “What will I do? I don’t know what I’m doing!”

If you get this book, all you have to do is go to the date. Every day my husband says, “OK, everybody! What’s the date?” We tell him the day, and he looks up the day. There it is! There’s the reading.

When he reads, of course, he doesn’t just read in a boring voice. He reads the Word, and he asks questions all the way through to keep everyone on their toes, because even in a short reading, it’s so easy to get into a dream. I’m trying to listen to every word, and I can still get into a little dream! You begin thinking about something, and away you are, off in fairyland. It is important for the husband, or whoever’s doing the reading, to ask questions.

Sometimes my husband will stop in the middle of a Scripture and say, “Who can finish it?” Or maybe he will read the wrong word, or read the opposite word from what it says. If none of us say anything, why, he knows we’re not listening. He will have to say, “Hey! What did I read?” He will have to read it again, and we’re listening this time. We’ll say, “Oh no! No! No! Not that word!”

It’s quite fun, because then you learn what is the real word. You say the Scripture over together out loud, and you get to know it. This particular Daily Light on the Daily Path has been around for 150 years. You can get them in different versions, any way you like. But in this particular one I put together, because at the beginning of every month, I give an idea for families of how they can keep it exciting, keep their children on their toes, keep them listening. It gives you that.

It’s available through www.aboverubies.org if you want to order that. Some have their own ways of doing it, but this is a great help if you don’t really know what to do. We’ve been doing it for years and we use it all the time. We love it!

I think our time has gone again, so we will continue next week.

“Dear Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that Your Word is true from the beginning, and from the beginning Your Word is true. It is true for all generations. We thank You that Your Word is up to date, right up to this moment. We thank You, Lord God, that every Word you speak is life to us. Lord God,

“I pray that Your Word will become life to every precious family who is listening today, and who establish their gathering of their children together. Lord, I pray that You’ll give them that excitement, Lord, as they come together to hear what You are going to say to them. I ask this in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell”

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IT IS ENCOURAGING FOR ALL WIVES AND MOTHERS.

 

To purchase THE DAILY LIGHT ON THE DIALY PATH go to:

http://tinyurl.com/CreativeIdeasToReadBible