The Devil never stops telling you lies. You've got to stop listening, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
The vision for Meat for Men — UNCOMPROMISING MANHOOD blog is to encourage husbands, fathers and single men in Biblical manhood.
“In matters of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”- Thomas Jefferson
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Today we discover four more personal enemies that we must CONFRONT, CHALLENGE, and SLAY!4. STATUS QUO
Maintaining the existing condition or state of affairs. Comfortable with things as they are.
Resisting change. Accepting the current ungodly trends and character of society. Not willing to fight for a revolution. No miracles. No power. No holiness.
THE CHURCH WAS BORN AT PENTECOST TO TURN THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN!
We have been born again to ROCK THE BOAT! To eradicate the status quo.
We must resist enemy occupation. We are resistance fighters.
Question: What are you doing?
5. NEUTRALITY
Neutrality does not want to participate in war. It does not want to take either side in a matter under dispute. Neutrality will not engage the enemy.
Neutrality has no place in spiritual revolution.
If your car is in neutral, guess what? You are going nowhere. If you remain in neutral, you will get run over.
We cannot be neutral in this fight with the kingdom of darkness.
In Judges 5:15-17 (NLT) Deborah challenges the tribes who would not come to fight the battle for their people: “But in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision. Why did you sit at home among the sheepfolds—to hear the shepherds whistle for their flocks? Yes, in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision. Gilead remained east of the Jordan. And why did Dan stay home? Asher sat unmoved at the seashore, remaining in his harbors.”
BUT verse 18: “But Zebulun risked his life, as did Naphtali, on the heights of the battlefield.”
Jeremiah 48:10: “Cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”
To which company do you belong?
6. PASSIVITY
Passivity is acceptance without objection or resistance to enemy attack. It is reluctance to take action.
It has no place in spiritual revolution.
The church today is crippled and paralyzed because we have been robbed and cheated out of the true power of God. Where are the signs and wonders? Where is the fire of God in our lives?
In Luke 12:49, 50 (NLT) Jesus said: “I HAVE COME TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE, and I wish it were already burning! I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished.”
7. NORMALCY
Normalcy is the accepted standard. Conformity to average lifestyle and mindset. Normalcy can be brought about by the fear of being different to popular opinion, fear of being seen as a fanatic or unbalanced.
It also has no place in spiritual revival.
Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone,
Dare to have a purpose firm
And dare to make it known!
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
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The following are some of the personal enemies in our lives that we must CONFRONT, CHALLENGE, and SLAY!1. MEDIOCRITY
This means the state of being neither good nor bad, average, ordinary, commonplace, halfway up the mountain, fence sitting, half-heartedness.
Jesus called it LUKEWARM!
Revelation 3:15, 16 “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot . . . So then because thou art LUKE-WARM, AND NEITHER COLD NOR HOT, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”
Mediocrity does not belong to evil-slayers!
2. TOLERANCE
This is the practice of allowing or respecting the natural beliefs of behavior of others. The enemy wants us to be desensitized to sin and evil. The devil wants us to be tolerant of homosexuality, pornography, abortion, adultery, fornication, false religions, and horoscopes etc. We dare not allow it to entertain us on the movie screen.
Whatever God does not tolerate, we must not tolerate!
We must be those who stand up and speak up. We must not lie down. We must pray, intercede, and blow the alarm in God’s holy mountain!
3.COMPLACENCY
This means feeling contented, satisfied, and self-righteous. It’s the sitting around and “do-nothing” attitude.
Complacency does not rise to the need of the hour.
Complacency does not care that we are weak and needy.
Complacency does not care about how the government is ripping people off.
Complacency does not care about the staving, homeless multitudes. Matthew 14:14 tells us that “Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.” Read also Matthew 9:36; 25:31-46; Mark 1:41; and 6:34.
The most evil and dangerous thing about complacency is that it will not engage in battle.
Complacency is like cement for it hardens the heart to make us indifferent and unmoved by needs around us.
Complacency may allow us to complain and disagree with current trends but in the end, we do nothing about them. May God have us from this selfish do-nothing spirit.
Judges 5:23: ‘Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof: because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.”
Nehemiah 3:5: “Their nobles put not their necks to the work of their LORD.”
Although God is certainly capable of fighting our enemies, He always enlists the help of His people. On the other hand, we read how God blessed Phinehas and his posterity because he was prepared to stand up against evil.
Numbers 25:6-11: “. . . And when Phinehas . . . saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. . . . And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas . . . hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel, while he was ZEALOUS FOR MY SAKE among them . . . Wherefore say, Behold I give unto him my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and HIS SEED AFTER HIM, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was ZEALOUS FOR HIS GOD, and made atonement for the children of Israel.”
Which is our testimony? Complacent or zealous?
More to come in the next post.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
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"Talking to men for God is a great thing but talking to God for men is greater still."
~ E. M. Bounds
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“The father is the head of the home, with gentle dignity acting his full part as head. He is the priest and minister to his household. The simple word of thanksgiving at the meal, the gathering of the family together, morning or night or both for reading a bit out of the old Book of God, and in simplest language giving thanks, and asking a blessing upon the circle – these belong to the father.The father is a human mediator between God and those whom he has created with God’s partnership. He stands to his for God, to teach of God, to lead in the worship of God, and to act the part of God’s man to his own inner circle.
The father is the administrator of the home, with wisdom and firmness and much loving gentleness . . . He is the teacher and companion of his children . . . With the mother, he is in his home the teacher of the school, the consulting librarian of the book world, the president of the literary society, and of the social club, the chief craftsman of the workshop to the group he is fathering.”
~ S. D. Gordon
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Before we can knock out national and international enemies, WE MUST FIRST OVERCOME OUR PERSONAL ENEMIES! These personal attitudes are indeed our enemies for these are the adversaries that rob us of our character, our will, and resolve to fight in the day of battle.You are familiar with the powerful words in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 but let’s remind ourselves of them again:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but MIGHTY THROUGH GOD to the PULLING DOWN OF STRONGHOLDS;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brining into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” That’s one long sentence but lifechanging if we truly appropriate into our lives.
Can I repeat verse 6? “And having in a readiness to REVENGE ALL DISOBEDIENCE, when YOUR OBEDIENCE is fulfilled.” That means that we cannot deal with evil or disobedience in any other area until we have first dealt with it in our own lives. We must bring everything to obedience to Christ in our personal lives before we can push back disobedience and evil in the nation.
Let’s look at this powerful passage of Scripture in The Passion Translation:
3,4. “For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons . . . Instead, our spiritual weapons are energized with divine power to effectively DISMANTLE the defenses behind which people hide.
v.5. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and INSIST THAT IT BOW IN OBEDIENCE to the Anointed One.
v.6. Since we are armed with such DYNAMIC WEAPONRY, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion AS SOON AS YOU CHOOSE COMPLETE OBEDIENCE.”
Did you get that? When you choose obedience in your own life, only then you can be used in prayer and standing up for righteousness to put down evil around you! It must first begin in our personal lives.
Let’s read Revelation 2:26 (NLT):
“To everyone who is victorious and continues to do my works TO THE VERY END I will give you AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS . . .”
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
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Our country stands in a very challenging hour. The tragedy is that multitudes of our fellow countrymen do not realize how desperate the situation is. Even the general population of the so-called Christian church fail to realize the seriousness of this moment of time in our nation’s history.We stand on the verge of being taken over by a New World Oder that will obliterate and destroy our great constitutions of biblical and godly values and standards, our freedoms and liberties to own and pursue business and the career of our choice. Even the church of our voice, the home of our choice, and even the size of our family will be taken away from us.
The first premise on the list of the World Economic Forum, which they are fighting hard to bring upon us, is: ‘You will own nothing. and you will be happy.”
The big question is, how close are we to all this happening?
How easy it is to forget what we have all recently been a witness to! Entire countries have been locked down all over the world and major cities unable to go out of their houses, being forced to comply to the questionable World Health Organization mandates.
Our current administration is trying to ramrod through a bill that would permit the World Health Organization to close down any city in the world, including our great nation, just as they are now doing in Shanghai, China.
The Supreme Court will soon give their verdict on Roe V. Wade.
And what about the coming election? How could this great nation allow such a magnitude of election fraud as is irrefutably exposed in Dinesh D/Sousa’s 2000 Mules movie? Have you watched this documentary yet?
If we as a nation do not arise, stand up, resist, and deplore such corruption, what will be the point of voting at all? We have opened the door and given away one of the most important rights we have to be a voice in the righteous governing of this nation. This is tragic corruption.
The point is, do we as a people have the fortitude, the will, the grit, and the backbone to refuse to cave into such corruption on a scale that has never been witnessed in our country before? With all my heart I pray so.
If ever there was a time when we need to call upon God to save us, it must be now, or it will be too late.
In Part 2 we will look at what it takes for us to become RESISTERS OF EVIL.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
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"Adversity is not simply a tool. It is God's most effective tool for the
advancement of our spiritual lives. The circumstances and events
that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch
us into periods of intense spiritual growth. Once we begin to
understand this, and accept it as a spiritual fact of life, adversity
becomes easier to bear."
- Charles Stanley
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Do you make this a daily habit in your family life?
Communism: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and gives you part of the milk.Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes both cows and sells you the milk.
Nazism: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.
Bureaucracy: You have two cows. The government takes both of them, shoots one, milks the other, then pours the milk down the drain.
Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one of them and buy a bull who fathers many more.
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God looks for men who will stand out from the crowd--men who will not be crowd lovers, crowd blenders, crowd pleasers, or crowd followers, but men who will dare to be different (Numbers 14:24 and 2 Chronicles 16:9).
~ Colin Campbell
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Men, if we are going to be men of courage, we must speak up for what's right when the opportunity presents itself. If you have any truth in you, for goodness sake, SAY IT! Do not hide truth behind closed doors.Edmund Burke wrote, "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing."
God is calling for all Christian men to use every opportunity possible to be light shiners and salt preservers. It is high time for us men to tell it the way it is, no matter who is listening. We may get persecuted for it. We may lose our job for it. Even our friends at church may despise us when we do not toe the party line. So what! It's time for men to "play the man" and get rid of all that is gutless.
No more time for powder puffs who hold their peace when the sword should be drawn.
~ Colin Campbell
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"Marriage is not about me. It's about us. The "me first" mentality is the main reason many marriages fail."~ Colin Campbell
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“A father and mother living together with their children, tender in their love, pure in their lives, strong in their convictions, simple and orderly in their habits, do infinitely more than presidents and governors, legislators, educators, and clergymen can do in making a strong nation. And that is a “more” that can be replaced by nothing else. True strength can come to a nation only as the genius of the home pervades the whole inner life of the people. The home nations are the most enduring nations . . .”~ From Quiet Talks on Home Ideals by S.D. Gordon and Mary Kilgore Gordon.
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The nation needs men with backbone--
Men with backbone in their commitment to Christ and His course!
Men who have stickability in the battle of life!
Men who will not bend and bow in the face of opposition!
Men who will not give up on their marriage and fatherhood!
Men who will not give in to the tyranny they are trying to force on this nation!
Men who will be bold like lions instead of acting like lambs.
Men who, no matter what the enemy hurls at them, will not quit.
~ Colin Campbell
Painting by Alfredo Rodriguez
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How do you come home to your family? Like a wet blanket with a frown and a gruff voice? Or do you bring joy and happiness the moment you arrive home?Why not come home with surprises sometimes? Some interesting things for the children or flowers for your wife.
Walk in the door with an encouraging word and a smile for everyone. What a difference you can make to your wife who has been home with the children all day! Let your wife and children anticipate your homecoming with joy and excitement.
~ Colin Campbell
Painting by Roger Wilkerson
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