LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 272: God Loves Togethering, Part 2

Today I discuss how God made plans for us to spend time with Him. God orders His kingdom and in His Word, He gives us daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly appointments to come into His presence and to assemble with one another. Check them out.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, everyone! Last podcast I told you I would tell you the story about Ten Peas in a Pod. It’s a story of the Pent family. The father was a wonderful man of God who loved to preach the Word of God. He traveled throughout the USA and Canada preaching.

He was also a man who loved the Word of God, and loved to read it to his family. Not only when they were home, but even when they traveled, he would never forsake that reading of the Word of God to his family. He didn’t only do it in the morning and evening; he did it three times a day. So, every morning, after breakfast, he would read to his family for one hour from the Word of God.

Now there were eight children in the family of varying ages. That’s why it’s called Ten Peas in a Pod, because it tells the story of their travels throughout the USA and Canada. It’s a most wonderful and exciting story. He never forsook the reading of the Word. Lunchtime came, and after lunch he would then read to his children from the Word for another hour.

Suppertime! At the end of supper, he would once again read to his children for one hour. Whoo!

Well, I do have to confess that we haven’t kept up to his standard. It’s a wonderful inspiration. I was so inspired when I read this story of this family. It goes on to tell us in the book that because they listened to the Word daily, it became part of them. Most of the children could recite the whole New Testament verbatim, plus many, many passages of the Old Testament.

Another interesting thing is that the eldest son, who wrote the book, he said that when they traveled, they often stayed in different people’s home. His father would say to the people at the end of the meal, “I love to read God’s Word to the family. Would you be happy for me to do that?” Of course, they were Christian families, and they would always say, “Yes, of course! Just go ahead.”

And then he would say to them, “Would you like to join us?” The saddest thing is, their son wrote in this book, that there was never one family who joined them. They all had their excuses. “Yes, we’re so happy for you to do that. Just go ahead. But I’ve got this to do, and that to do.” And they always had their excuses. Not one ever had time.

But I was so blessed, just a couple of years ago, to meet that son, who is now a grandfather today. He actually was sitting in the very chair I’m sitting in now talking to you. We were able to fellowship with him and share how I’d read that book many years ago and how it had so blessed our family.

But I asked him, “Is this continuing down the generations?” Yes, he was able to share beautiful testimony of that.

But that was really an inspiring story. Not only did he read after each meal for an hour a day, but once the children got to an age of where they could read well, he would encourage them to have their own quiet time, reading the Word of God before breakfast, 15 minutes when they were younger, and increasing to an hour a day so that they would actually be getting the Word four hours a day! Isn’t that amazing? Wow!

It makes me think of how I literally believed that a young person, a child, as they’re growing up in a godly Christian home where they’re hearing the Word of God read to them daily, they’re discussing it, and talking about it together, should never have to go to Bible school. It amazes me that when Christian children come out of a godly home and think, “Well, I need to go to Bible school.” Well, why? Haven’t they got their Bible school for the last eighteen or so years every day of their lives? That’s how it’s meant to be.

MORNING AND EVENING APPOINTMENTS

So, there it is. They did it three times a day. But I think that the minimum should be that morning and evening principle where we come two times a day, because God loves that daily meeting with Him. He loves to meet with us. He loves intimacy. God loves our fellowship. He wants intimate fellowship with us.

I think of that Scripture in the Song of Solomon 2:14. Let me read it to you. “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is beautiful.” This is a picture of the Bridegroom, Christ, Who is our Bridegroom, speaking to the Bride and speaking of His longing for intimacy, personally, and even as we come together, morning and evening, on a daily basis.

WEEKLY APPOINTMENT

But God then goes on to give us a weekly time when He loves us to come into His presence specifically, and to come together. That is the Sabbath day. He has a weekly appointment with us also. We’re either keeping the Sabbath day or we’re keeping Sunday as the Sabbath day. But God gave a day, a day to put aside, specifically for Him. A day for rest from our work, and a day to be with Him, a day to not do what we do every other day, but a day to fellowship with the people of God, a day that we give to God.

All these things that we see in the Old Testament are only types and shadows of truth that is to come. Let’s have a look at one or two Scriptures here.

Colossians 2:16-17: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come.” So, these things speak of truth. The Sabbath day speaks of our rest in Christ. The ultimate Sabbath is our rest that we find in Christ. But He gives us a day. God always gives us something tangible to understand. They are shadows of things to come, or types of truth that God wants us to understand.

1 Corinthians 10:11: “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.”

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.”

I often think of Paul, in the last chapter of Acts, chapter 28. It talks of Paul, who was living in “his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.” He was preaching the kingdom of God.

Now, as we read the New Testament, we read much of the kingdom of God. But Paul didn’t have the New Testament! What did he have? He had the Old Testament. And he preached the kingdom of God from the Old Testament. Everything there, every story, everything about the offerings and the feasts and the tabernacle, everything we read is a shadow of the reality of truth.

I am thinking just now also of Luke, the last chapter of Luke, where Jesus was talking with those two disciples as He walked toward Emmaus. Let’s go to it here. Jesus came and began to talk with them. They were so sad because Jesus had died. They thought that was the end of everything.

Luke 24:25-27: “Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” 

Jesus didn’t have a New Testament to talk to those disciples. Jesus spoke to them from the Old Testament, from Moses, from those first five books of the Bible, the Torah. And what does it say here? “Then, in all the Scriptures, He spoke to them.” They were all from the Old Testament. We don’t discard the old because we learn so much from it, don’t we?

All right, we’re talking about this weekly Shabbat. We have our Shabbat meal every Friday night in our home. I did a podcast on that, podcast #240. If you didn’t hear it, you can hear how we do that in our home. Once again, we don’t do the Shabbat meal because we are Jewish. We don’t do it because we want to come under some law.

We do it because it is the most beautiful family meal that you could ever enjoy. It brings us into the presence of the Lord. It ties the bonds of family. It is a great unifying of family where the husband blesses his wife and blesses his children at the table. It’s so beautiful. You can read about that, or you can go to podcast #240 and learn more about it.

MONTLY APPOINTMENT

And then, God speaks about a monthly celebration. The monthly celebration was the celebration of the new moon. That’s something rather, help! Speaking about a new moon . . . wow! Whenever I read about the new moon in the Bible, I would gloss over it as quickly as I could, because I thought, “Oh, that sounds so New Age-y!”

I have come to realize that it was really so practical because God’s calendar is a lunar calendar. God’s calendar goes by the moon. The beginning of every month on God’s calendar is the beginning of the new moon. When they see that sliver of the new moon, that is the beginning of the month. The word in the Hebrew is Rosh Chodesh. It’s called “the head of the month.”

The Israelites had certain people who had to look out. They were appointed to look out for when that sliver of the moon would appear. Then they would go to the Sanhedrin, and they would confirm it. Then they would light fires to let everybody know it was the new moon. Usually, they would have a family celebration. Sometimes, it wasn’t commanded, but some would go to Jerusalem to offer offerings. They would have more of a Sabbath day when they didn’t do all their business and work.

I remember reading in 2 Chronicles 2:4. I love how Solomon talks about it. He’s building this beautiful, glorious temple to the Lord. “Behold, I build a house to the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.”

David was saying, “This is what I long to do. I want to keep these times unto the Lord God.” One of them was the new moon. Well, it’s not something that we are most probably going to keep, as gentile Christians, because we don’t even live by the Hebrew lunar calendar. We live by the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar calendar. It goes by the sun. So, really, we’re out of sync with God. But one day, I guess when the millennium comes, we’ll be back to the lunar calendar. We’ll get back to God’s way.

Well, I know we will do so, because it says in Isaiah 66:23. I only noticed this Scripture recently, and I was amazed. It says: “And it shall come to pass. . .” Well, that’s pretty certain, isn’t it? If God says “And it shall come to pass,” well, that means it’s going to happen, “And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.”

That’s obviously going to be in the millennium, but it is going to come to pass. And there will be a time when we get back to God’s calendar. The new month will be the beginning of the new moon and we will all come and worship before the Lord.

There are some Christians who already love to do this. They’re not doing it out of law. They’re doing it. “Well, one day we’re going to do it. Let’s do it now!” They’ll come together at the beginning of a new moon, which is really the new month, and they’ll have a time of fellowship, have a meal together, and a time of worship. That’s a beautiful thing. But maybe there’s something else you want to do as a family every month. But God plans the daily, the weekly, and the monthly, because He loves these set times. Yes, God loves set appointed times.

YEARLY APPOINTMENTS

Then He has the yearly feasts. I mentioned last week about these feasts of the Lord. A lot of people think, “Oh, they’re all the Jewish feasts. Passover and Tabernacles and so on.” But in the Bible, they’re not called the “Jewish feasts.” They are called the “Feasts of the Lord,”

Leviticus 23:2: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts.” That’s what God calls them. “My feasts.”

OK, they were given to the Jewish people. But they are not only for the Jewish people. If you would love to celebrate them, you are free to celebrate them. Not out of law, but out of delight, because they are God’s feasts. When we do decide that we’d love to celebrate them, they teach us so much of Christ.

I love to celebrate Passover. Many Christians celebrate Passover today, because it’s such a revelation of our salvation. It points to Christ. There is so much the whole way through the Seder. It’s speaking of Christ. In fact, the Seder that we had this year, I think it was the most beautiful Passover I have ever experienced. My husband led it, and he pointed everything to Christ. It was the most Christ-centered, honoring Passover. It was beautiful. We enjoyed it in the presence of the Lord. It was so amazing.

There are some churches who like to put on a Passover feast. Maybe your church has done that. I have to confess that, personally, I have been to big Passover celebrations, and they’re never quite the same as having one in your own home with your family and children. It’s a very, very children-orientated thing. God loves His feasts to be family-orientated. Of course, we always ask other families in too. But we don’t make it too big because then it gets not-quite so personal.

Talking about “My feasts,” I was just reading the other day in Ezekiel 44; just seeing how God sees things. I’m not going to read the whole chapter to you, but I’m going to read you the things where God calls them “My things.”

In verse 7, it starts off with “My sanctuary.” He’s talking about the sanctuary, actually Ezekiel’s temple. In the Bible, it starts off with the tabernacle in the wilderness. Then later, Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. Then sadly, that was wiped out. Then, again, they built another temple, rebuilt it when they came back from Babylon. But then, there is going to be another temple, called “Ezekiel’s Temple,” which is not yet built. But God calls it “My sanctuary” six times in that one chapter.

He calls them . . .

“My sanctuary,

My house,

My bread,

My covenant,

My holy things,

My hand,

My holy things,

My sanctuary (again),

My table,

My charge,

My purpose,

My judgments,

My laws,

My statutes,

My assembly,

My assemblies.”

MY ASSEMBLIES

‘We’re going to be looking into so many Scriptures. Our God loves us to assemble. As He calls them “My assemblies.”

They’re not just something . . .  “Oh, well, you know, we’ll come if we feel like it.” No! God says, “They’re My assemblies.” If they’re God’s, well, we’ll want to be there, won't we?

“My Sabbaths.” It goes on in another chapter in Ezekiel where He says: “And My children” (Ezekiel 20:21). He’s talking about their children, and He says: “They are My children.” Our children belong to God. Everything belongs to God. So, there it is.

“And they are My feasts.” Let’s just mention them. There’s the Passover. There are three main feasts, and four subsidiary ones that go with them, so there are actually seven yearly feasts. So, the Passover, and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is for a week immediately after the Passover feast. Each family in Israel was required to prepare before that feast. They had to go through their homes. In fact, they had to go through the whole land and check out that there was no leavened bread in their homes, or anywhere.

Even today, Jewish families will do a little type of that. Sometimes the mother will put a few crumbs somewhere on a window sill, or somewhere, so the children will learn the lesson. They come, oh, the children find some crumbs, and it’s made out of yeast bread! “Oh, we’re not allowed to have that this week! So, they have to come and brush them all into the dustpan and get rid of them! It’s quite a fun thing for the children if they see any crumbs. They’ve got to look in every part of the house, so they sweep them up.

There’s no leavened bread in the whole house, because that week speaks of Christ, who is our unleavened bread. There was no sin in Him. Leaven speaks of sin, and so, for that week, they have unleavened bread because there was no sin in Christ.

Then the Feast of First Fruits, which relates to Jesus raising from the dead. And then, 50 days after Passover comes Pentecost. That’s called the “Feast of Weeks,” or Shavuot in the Hebrew. In our language, it’s called “Pentecost,” because it means “fifty,” fifty days after the Passover.

Actually, it was 50 days after the children of Israel came out of Egypt and how God saved them out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea. It was 50 days later that He gave the law on Mount Sinai. That was 50 days.

And then, it was 50 days after Christ died and was crucified and rose again, that God came and outpoured His Holy Spirit upon the new church.

Isn’t that interesting that He brought the Word back in the Old Testament, and then on Pentecost He brought the power of the Holy Spirit. The Word and the Spirit go together. We really can’t have one without the other. We must have the Word of God. We must have it daily. That’s why we come, morning and evening, to get the Word into our hearts, to get the Word into our children’s hearts. Not only into their hearts, but into their mouths!

But we need more than just the Word. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the Word, so that it brings revelation of the truth, because we can read the Word and it can become a dead letter unless we have the Holy Spirit anointing. That’s why I love that Scripture in Isaiah 59:21: “As for me, this is My covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee,” the Holy Spirit, poured out upon them. “. . .And My words which I have put in thy mouth.” I love that! “My Spirit, which I have put upon you, and My words, which I have put in your mouth.” Did you notice? He doesn’t say “in your heart.” He says, “In your mouth.” God wants His Word to be not only in our hearts but bubbling up in our hearts and coming out of our mouths. It goes on to say: “My Word that is upon thee, and My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy children, nor out of the mouth of thy children’s children, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever.”

This is God’s mandate to parents, the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our children, as it says in Isaiah 44. Let’s look at that. Isaiah 44:3: “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon thy children, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” We need the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon our children and the words of the Lord in their mouths. Amen. So, that is Pentecost. The Holy Ghost and the Word.

And then, number five, the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, the blowing of trumpets leading up to the Day of Atonement. That’s the sixth feast, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. That is the only feast where they did not rejoice and dance and feast. God told them that in all the feasts that they were to enjoy one another, enjoy the food, enjoy the drink, enjoy dancing. But on Yom Kippur, they had to fast. That was the Day of Atonement for their sins.

Then, number seven, the Feast of Tabernacles, where for a week they lived in booths. So, those are the yearly feasts, although, there were two more. They weren’t the feasts of the Lord, but they are two feasts that are written in the Bible.

One is Purim. Of course, we read about that in the Book of Esther, where Esther was saved, and the whole of the Jewish people were saved through the help of Mordecai. Haman had such a hate for Mordecai and the Jews that he wanted to eradicate them from the whole of the land. Esther was used. You know the wonderful story. That’s an amazing story. Of course, now they have the feast to remember that.

It’s a fun feast for children. Have you ever enjoyed it with your family? You can do that. What we have done, we haven’t done it for a while as all the children have grown up. It was actually more fun when the children were little. We would get them to all dress up. The girls had to dress up as Esther. Oh, they all loved dressing up as the queen. The boys had to dress up. They could dress up as Mordecai, or the king, or they could dress up as Haman. They would come in all their dress-ups.

Then we would have someone to read or tell the story of Esther. We would usually get Evangeline’s husband, Howard. He could really tell a story. Everyone comes with their little noisy banging toys. Whenever the word “Haman” is mentioned, everybody has to boo and yell. Then whenever Mordecai is mentioned, they all have to cheer. It’s all so very exciting for the children. And, of course, they get to remember this wonderful story, another deliverance for the Jews, which was also very powerful, because if the Jews had been destroyed at that time, our Savior, Jesus Christ, would not have been born. It was a powerful deliverance.

The other feast that we remember, and Jesus even came to this feast, it tells us in John 10:22-23, when Jesus went up to Jerusalem, to celebrate the Festival of Lights, or the feast of Hanukkah. Many of you know about Hanukkah and the time of the Maccabees when Antiochus Epiphanes was once again trying to destroy and eradicate the Jewish people. He wanted them wiped out.

But these Maccabees rose up, and it was amazing how God used them to deliver the Jewish people. They were able to get back the temple. When they got back the temple, it was totally a mess, and grown over. Everything had to be renewed. Of course, all the furniture in the temple had to be brought back. The table of showbread and the table of incense and the beautiful golden candelabra which was made out of one piece of pure gold.

Of course, they actually did find enough oil to light the candle for one day. But, how were they going to keep it going? They couldn’t use any kind of oil. It had to be the exact recipe that God gave in His Word to use. Tradition tells us that God miraculously kept that one light burning for the eight days while they prepared the new oil for the candelabra. It’s called the Festival of Lights when they dedicated the temple again.

That was also another time when, if it hadn’t been for those brave Maccabees, a father and his sons rising up to come against this evil to wipe out the Jewish people. Once again, if they hadn’t had this great deliverance, our Savior would not have been born.

These are great feasts to also remember and remember how God came and saved them and protected His people to protect His beloved Son Who would be born from this people. So, there we go. Time is up again, isn’t it?

I told you about these appointed times that God gave to His people to keep them coming to Him and to keep them together. There’s nothing like celebrations to keep us together as families and extended families. Now, you are welcome to celebrate these feasts, even if you’re not Jewish. You don’t ever have to do it under any law because they’re blessed times of revelation of Christ.

Or you may have other things that you love to do that you celebrate to keep you together as a family, and also as an extended family, and also as a church family. God loves the gathering of His people. He is a gatherer. But most of all, lovely ladies, gather your family together, your immediate family. Always think of how you can make things happen to keep yourselves together, to do fun things together, family things together. Become a togethering family.

“Father, I pray that You will bless every family listening today. Pour out Your Spirit all over them. I pray, Lord, that they will be family who know the precious anointing of your Spirit filling their homes. Also, Lord, that they will be families who are filled richly with Your precious Word in their hearts and coming out of their mouths. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

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

TEN P’S IN A POD

A Million-Mile Journal of the Arnold Pent Family

By Arnold Pent III

I love this book. It is the story of the million-mile journey of Arnold Pent, Jr. and his wife and eight children as they travelled through US and Canada together. The father preached along the way. But no matter where they were, or whoever they stayed with, they never gave up their practice of daily Bible reading and memorization. It will inspire you like no other book to begin reading God’s Word together as a family, but it is also a great adventure.

The author of this book wrote it when he was 21 years old, and it is still popular today Recently my husband I enjoyed meeting this wonderful couple in our home and he testified of not only the impact of the Word in his own life as a child but in the following generations. This habit is now continuing with his grandchildren.

Go to: https://tinyurl.com/10PsBook

WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?

“TEN P’S IN A POD should be required reading. I still count it among one of the handful of most important books I have ever read.” 

~ Andrée Seu Peterson, World Magazine Columnist

“Your book is a breath of fresh air.”

“In a society where the Bible is rarely read, even in Christian homes, this book should be necessary (but enjoyable) reading for EVERY Christian family.”

 “How this husband and wife were able to take a family of eight children across both the United States and Canada throughout the 1950s and early 1960s in various old cars is a story worth reading.” 

—

The following book is a wonderful children’s book written by the son of Arnold Pent who wrote TEN P’S IN A POD.

A GOOD LIFE

by Jeremiah Pent

A unique and delightfully illustrated book. It is definitely a classic with 22 beautiful watercolor illustrations. The intent of the author in writing this book is to keep the attention of children but at the same time.

1) make parents think about ideas that engage their own minds and imaginations; 2) know the children are learning something valuable; and

3) display beauty, creativity, or ingenuity.

This book is about 10 different metaphors, something we should learn at an early age. The story follows a young orphan boy who leaves his hometown and difficult background to find a good life. As he journeys, he meets people of various professions, and each character gives the boy a different metaphor for thinking about life.

This beautiful story ends with a couple who hear the boy’s story and offer their home as his own, the promise of a new beginning.

This HARD-BACKED children’s book is worth gracing every home.

Go to: A GOOD LIFE - A Book for Children (and Adults) - By Jeremiah Pent (mybigcommerce.com)