PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 246: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 4

Epi246pic LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 246: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 4

Are we passing on mothering to the next generation as God intends it? Are we passing on to our children family togetherness as God intends it? Do your children know how to set a table?

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Good to be with you. Back a couple of weeks ago, podcast #243, I was encouraging you to buy up old dictionaries because I don’t think we really want our children to be learning from these new editions that are coming out with all the changing of the meaning of very important words. So, Darlene Norris, she’s the one who transcribes all the podcasts, which is so wonderful of her. If ever you need to check anything, or check any references to Scriptures, well, you can go to the transcripts. They’re right there on the home page of aboverubies.org.

Anyway, of course, Darlene was listening as she was transcribing. She said, “We went to town today. Had to go to the thrift stores! At the first one, we found a stack of old dictionaries, and a bunch of Bibles. They were only $1 for the hardcovers and 50 cents for the paperbacks. So, we’ve started our trove of Bibles and dictionaries that we can hand out to people in the future. We were talking to the cashier in the thrift store about how they’re changing the dictionaries, too. So, we’re trying to get the word out!” Well, I thought that was so great! I think that’s a good idea to do, ladies, don’t you?

Last week we were talking about the animals and how God has created them. So many of the mammals that God created have such a wonderful maternal instinct. They’re wonderful mothers. I’d like to mention just a few more. Of course, I won’t be mentioning all of them.

But dolphins are wonderful mammals, aren’t they? They nurse their babies for two or three years. The polar bears never ever leave their baby cubs until they are at least two-and-a-half years of age. They have such a beautiful maternal instinct also. Whales are pregnant between ten and 18 months, depending on which type of whale they are. They also nurse their babies for up to three years.

Then there is the orangutan. Oh, yes, they are such an interesting animal, aren’t they? Apparently, they have the closest DNA to humans than any other animals. They are 97% similar to human beings, although, goodness, we wouldn’t like to look like one of them! They are kind of strange-looking creatures, but pretty amazing.

They only give birth to a baby once every eight years, but they also are wonderful mothers. They nurse their babies for at least six years, sometimes even up to eight years. And yet, they live a much shorter lifespan than human beings. So, that’s a challenge, isn’t it, when you think of how much time they spend in bonding and being close to their babies, and nursing their babies, even though they don’t have such a long lifespan as we do.

It’s amazing, isn’t it, how animals can be so close and willing to nurse and nurture and nourish their little babies, when often human mothers can leave their babies! I find that so hard to take in. I wonder what it is, because we, being the most intelligent beings that God has created, we should have even greater understanding of the importance of that nurturing with our little ones.

I thought I’d tell you about some of these mammals, just to encourage you. What does the Bible say? “Doth not even nature itself teach you?” Yes, we can learn even from nature, by their example. Our example should be greater.

Oh, some other interesting things about the orangutan. They have to do a lot of teaching to their young. That’s another reason they stay close together. They’re teaching them all the ways of the forest, and all the different seasons of the fruit trees, and when they’re at harvesting. They’ve got to know it all, because they’ve got to stay alive. They do eat mostly fruit, although when that is scarce, they have to feed on tree barks and insects and birds’ eggs.

But their favorite fruit is durian. Have you even heard of durian? Well, I first came across it many, many years ago when Colin and I were first married. We went to the Philippine Islands as missionaries. When Colin and I were engaged, my future husband went out full time in work for the Lord in New Zealand. We were with an organization called “Tell New Zealand Crusade.” He was involved in taking a copy of the gospel of John personally to every home in New Zealand, along with others.

Then from there, we took that same vision to the Philippine Islands. We were taking out the gospel of John into this nation. It was called “Tell the Nations Crusade.” We went to the Philippines and there we discovered durian.

But I’m so sorry. I have to confess that I never, ever ate it when I was there because there’s a little phrase about durian. This is what people say: “It tastes like heaven, but it smells like hell!” And it did! Oh, goodness me! It was the most terrible smell! I simply could not get past the smell. So, I never ate durian in the Philippines.

Eventually we went back to New Zealand. Later on in the years, we did ministry over in Singapore and Malaysia. It was there that I actually got to love durian. Now back in the Philippines where we were living in Davao City in Mindanao Island, down in the south, Davao was the durian capital of the world! And to think I didn’t even eat it when I was there.

But I can remember gathering up courage to get past the smell, and to eat it when I was in Malaysia. Oh, goodness me! The taste is truly gorgeous! It is so very rich. I could never ever eat it with any other food because it was just too rich. You could have it on its own, and oh! It was so beautiful! I got to really, really love it.

Maybe if I went back to the Philippines again now, I’d love to eat durian. But there was something else when we lived in the Philippines that I never ever ate. It was called balut. We were living down this dirt road in a compound with other Filipinos. Every time I walked out the door and crossed the road, there would be all these Filipinos making balut. And soon as they saw me, they’d call out, “Balut! Balut!” This is what they would do to every passerby because it was a street food. They sold it on the street.

And what was balut? Well, it’s either a chicken egg, or a duck egg, which they boil or steam. But ladies, there is a little bit more to it because it’s not just an egg. They wait for about 21 days before they cook it, so you’re not actually eating an egg. You are eating an embryo!

I could never ever get up courage to eat that half-chicken in the egg, so I actually didn’t taste balut while I was there. I think if I went back now, as I said before, I would try it now. But that was a long time ago. It was when we were first married. Actually, in ten days’ time, my husband and I will celebrate being married for 60 years! That’s right! Six-zero.

Talking about fruit, though, last night I was over at Serene’s. We were having supper with them. I was asking her about her new book that she is writing. She’s currently writing “Trim Healthy Grow.” It’s all for mothers who are in their childbearing years, their fertility years, and for when they’re pregnant and nursing. It’s going to be such an amazing book with all the information you’ll ever, ever need to know.

She was mentioning just a little thing, how that if a pregnant mother eats four or more apples a week, it will be so beneficial for her. It will prevent anemia, prevent gestational diabetes, prevent respiratory problems, and asthma. It also has lot of antioxidants and will strengthen the lungs and especially will strengthen the lungs of your baby that you’re carrying in the womb and lower the chances of them developing asthma later on. It also lowers the chances of birth defects.

I thought that was amazing because it wasn’t some great big thing you had to do. Just eat an apple! Isn’t that amazing? I thought, “Well, that’s a great little hint to pass on to pregnant moms. Eat four or more apples every week. It will be such a blessing to you and your baby. Of course, I think it would be best to eat organic apples, or if you can’t afford them, to at least peel the skins, because I know they do spray the apples a lot. That was most interesting.

Here we are, talking about elevating motherhood to the place where God has put it. We even see through these animals that God has created, the way they mother. Now, getting on to some other things, I think another thing that we should elevate in our homes is our table.

ELEVATE THE VALUE OF YOUR TABLE

The table just looks like an ordinary thing in our home, but I find that many times, families don’t realize the power of their table. I believe that our children will respond according to how much we elevate the table in our home. I’m not talking about making your table higher physically. No, I’m talking about the value that you put upon your table.

Often we’re so busy, and time for another meal. We just put some food together, throw it out on the table. “Come and get it, everybody!” We even put it out on the table, just as it is. We don’t do anything special. It’s just a naked table. So, everybody comes running. They’re hungry. They gobble up some food and they leave. There’s nothing special about the table.

But I believe that if we will just elevate the value that we put on the table, our children will rise to a higher level of behavior at the table. I have seen this happen. Children’s behavior will be according to how you value your table.

Just to put the tablecloth on the table. It’s a very simple thing, although maybe you could be saying, “Well, that is extra work for me.” When you have little ones, you don’t want to be having too much extra washing. So, you may not want to put on a new tablecloth. But you can buy plastic tablecloths that look like real tablecloths. You can get them at JoAnn, probably at Hobby Lobby. You can go and cut it off to how long you want it. Beautiful, beautiful patterns. Just put something pretty on your table.

Maybe all day it’s had books, and you’ve been homeschooling there, and it’s got junk and stuff on it. You’ve got to get all that off. But don’t just bring your family to a naked table. No, put that tablecloth on. And set the table.

Even the Bible talks about setting that table. In Proverbs 9:1-3 it says: “Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wines. She hath furnished her table.” She has set her table. She’s made it look beautiful. Now she has all the food on it.

Who is the one who does that? The woman of wisdom. She is the one who prepares and furnishes and sets her table. I think it’s a beautiful thing to do. Even setting the table. It’s a little different here in America. Back in New Zealand, with our English tradition, we always set the table properly, with knives, forks and spoons if we’re having dessert, too.

Here in America, most people just throw down a fork on the table. That’s fine, even if you want to set the table with just a fork. But I think that most Americans don’t even know how to set a table. You can go onto the internet and it will give you a picture of exactly how you are to set your knife, fork, spoon and where to place them.

I do think that is a very important thing for children to learn, even if once a week you set a table properly, as a table is meant to be set. The other nights, you may just want to put the forks, perhaps, even though you’re still going to put a tablecloth. Even if it’s not a real one, just the plastic which you just wipe down. You have to wipe down your table anyway.

But it would be a good idea, I think, to set a table properly so your children grow up knowing how to do this. I find that most young people who come into our home have no idea of how a table is properly set. I was interested when we were on this cruise. Every night (coming to the dining table on an American ship) but the table was set exactly how it’s meant to be.

So, they actually do do it in America! It does something. You can always add something special to the table. Maybe a candle. Maybe some flowers. They can even be wildflowers. Maybe springtime is coming, and soon different little flowers will appear. You can bring them to the table. Or you can bring something of interest, just to make a centerpiece of something interesting to talk about.

You don’t have to be doing all this yourself. You’re teaching young children. You’re teaching them how to do it. Now, ladies, dear mothers, if we’re not teaching our children these very basic things, how will they pass on to the next generation? Already we have a generation of most children and young people who don’t actually know how to set a table properly. That’s the most basic thing in life. We need to be teaching these basic little things.

I think I’ve told you before. It’s worth telling you again. The little phrase that I love to use about the table, I got this from a movie I watched years ago, Babette’s Feast, where this gentleman in this movie said these words. He talked about a woman who was a great chef. He said, “There is a woman who knows how to make every meal into a love affair.”

I was really arrested by those words. I think that’s an amazing vision to have. So, you’re not just putting down some food on the table. No, you’re thinking of how you can make it special! It’s a good idea, ladies, if once a week you do something special. In our home, we do Shabbat every week. But you can do other things.

When our children were growing, I would always think of something different to do, maybe at least once a week. Sometimes I would write name places. We often write name places for guests when they’re coming, don’t we? But it’s something beautiful you can do for your children too. I would get a bit of cardboard folded over so it could stand up, and write their name, but not just their name. Sometimes I would put their name, and then some special phrase or word beside their name that started with the same letter. Like “Billy—Bold for God.”

Just a little thing like that. Sometimes I would spend some time, maybe a couple of weeks before I would do it. I would be writing a little couplet, or sometimes a little four-line rhyme for the children about their character. I would write that for them. Sometimes I would write a limerick for them.

So, they will get this, and it will be on their plate when they come to the table. It is so special for them. It’s amazing. When you do these little things, children spark up. They want to be good at the table because it’s something special. Even when little children see a candle lit, oh, it really does something special for them. You can think of all these different ideas.

Of course, another thing; not only remembering to prepare your food, but preparing what you will talk about. Think about it beforehand. Think of some questions you can bring to your children to ask them at the table, maybe a subject you’d like to discuss with them. Get each one to take a turn at sharing what they think about it.

FACE TO FACE TABLE FELLOWSHIP

Anything new that you are learning, because we should all be seeking to learn something new all the time. Well, share it with the children at the table! Ask them, “Have you learned anything new today?” Get them to share that so that when you’re there, you’re all interacting together. That’s what the table is. It’s interaction. It’s face-to-face, table fellowship. That’s why we’re sitting around because we can communicate with one another. That’s very important.

If the children come to the table, and you all just sit there and you don’t have anything prepared for what you’re going to talk about, no questions to ask, well, you will find that the conversation is pretty boring. Goes nowhere and nothing happens.

You see, you have to make things happen. The affirmation I use constantly is,

“Things don’t just happen. You have to make them happen.”

You can make your table as wonderful or amazing as you want it. You just have to make it happen! And then it becomes such a glorious, wonderful place! Yes!

But there are a few other things that I think are important to remember about a table. These are all things that we’re teaching our children, not only for the blessing in our own home, but when they go to other homes. And that is, firstly that when they come to the table, of course, when they come, they’re going to come on time.

Well, usually we have about the time we’re going to eat. So, we need to remind our children to come at that time so that they’re around you as you’re finishing off preparing the meal. They can be helping you, doing last-minute things, and then you’ll have the helpers around you anyway, chopping and cutting up, and helping with the preparation of the meal. Because the mother should never do it on her own.

Even from when children are little, she is teaching them how to help her prepare, cut, and chop. It’s amazing how even young children can do this so amazingly! I’ve seen young children who are better than some adults! Some of those adults never had much training. Then there are other children who hardly even know how to cut a piece of celery! They’ve never done it! Start with your children when they are young. They are part of preparing the meal.

SIT AT THE TABLE

Then you’re all going to sit down together, and guess what? You’re going to sit! Yes, we do sit at the table. Isn’t that a strange thing to say, that we have to sit at the table? But so many today don’t even sit for their meals! They don’t even sit around the table. Oh, goodness me! It is so important to sit, because the Bible talks so much about sitting at the table!

I’ve been reading through the gospels, and I read, “And Jesus sat at the table.” In another place, “He was at the table.” So much of where Jesus taught, and even where miracles happened, was at the table, where they were sitting.

I think of the example of the feeding of the 5,000. This particular miracle, ladies, is mentioned in every one of the four gospels. It’s very interesting. When Jesus fed the 5,000, plus women and children, do you remember reading how Jesus would not feed this multitude until every single person was sitting down?

Another interesting thing, let’s start off with Matthew, of course. Matthew 14, verses 13 and onwards. In Matthew 14:19, it says something very interesting: “And Jesus commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.” Isn’t that interesting? It didn’t say, “And He said, ‘Oh, well, I think it would be great if you all sat down.’” No, He commanded.

In fact, if we go over to the Mark passage, that’s in Mark 6:39. Here it says: “And He commanded them,” that’s the disciples, “He commanded,” the same word again, “He commanded the disciples to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down by ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.” And then it goes on to say how He blessed the bread and gave it to them. But once again, we see the word “commanded.” He commanded the disciples, and He said to His disciples, “Now you make them sit down.” Isn’t that interesting?

Go over to Luke’s gospel. Here we read the same story again in Luke 9. What does it say here? Luke 9:14: “And there were about 5,000 men. And He said to His disciples, ‘Make them sit down by fifties, in a company.’ And they did so, and made them all sit down.” Now, do you notice those words again? They “made them all sit down.” And then verse 16: “And then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fishes and gave it to them all.” Isn’t that interesting? Jesus did not give them the food until everyone was sitting down. And He had to make them.

Now, it’s interesting that we have those words “commanded,” and “make,” because oh, dear lovely mothers, I know that you face this all the time, because when you’re teaching your children, when you’re training them, you’re teaching them to sit down. You find, oops, they pop up! One will run to the toilet, and they want to do this, and they want to do that. But you’re teaching them to sit down.

YOU’RE NOT MEANT TO EAT “ON THE RUN”

I want you to be reminded that it is a biblical thing. It’s not just for the sake of sitting down. It is because, when you sit down to eat, you will receive far more nutrients from your food by just sitting, relaxing, and eating than just eating standing up, or eating on the run. We’re not meant to eat on the run.

Today, in our busy lives, people do this all the time. They’ll just grab something, eat on the run. No, you might as well not eat. Jesus gave the example. He wants us to sit down. There’s another passage, where there were so many crowds around, and Jesus was healing everyone. It was lunch time, and they were hungry. He said to His disciples, “Come, look, we’re going to find a quiet place where we can sit and where we have leisure” (Mark 6:31).

Interesting. He uses the word “leisure,” because it would have been so easy for them. Jesus could have said, “Oh, OK, just go and get some food, and we’ll eat this as we’re continuing to heal the people and everything.” No, Jesus stopped, and He took time to take a leisurely time to eat. All this is in the Bible.

And then, the last gospel, John, it says it again. John 6:10: “And Jesus said, ‘Make the men sit down.’ Now, there was much grass in the place. So, the men sat down, in the number about 5,000. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were sat down.” Those are the ones who got the food. Isn’t that interesting? Yes, I love having a Scriptural basis for everything we do. Don’t you?

Now, when your children come to the table, where do they sit? Do they just run and sit anywhere? Oh, I guess they can if they want. It depends on what you like to do in your family. Everybody likes to do things differently.

I do think it’s so important for the husband to sit at the head of the table, because he is the head of the home. I think it’s a beautiful way for the wife to honor her husband as the head as she places his plate at the head of the table. It’s wonderful for the children without having to be lectured about it. They just see that Daddy is the head of the home. And he takes his place there. It establishes his headship and his authority without having to say anything.

We see a little placing of people way back in another story in the Old Testament. Actually, one mother came to me, and she said, “Oh, Nancy, I don’t know what to do. My children sit down, and they all squabble, because one wants to sit here, and one wants to sit there, and they’re all fighting over where they’re going to sit.” I said, “Well, look. Why don’t you make assigned seating? And tell them exactly where they will sit?”

I think this is a very good idea, because it takes away a lot of children from wanting to do their own thing. And, of course, you can change that from time to time. Maybe in a month or two, and they can then have different places. But they should know where they’re going to sit.

We see this, actually, in the story of where David was beginning to see that King Saul was against him. It was getting a bit scary, because he was starting to throw javelins at him and everything. He and Jonathan went out into the field to decide what they would do. They made up a plan.

1 Samuel 20:5: “And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat.” That means at the table for supper. “But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day.” So, he’s saying here, “OK, I should never fail to be at the table.” If he wasn’t in his place, well, something would have happened. But anyway, they’re going to see if they can make this work and find out what will happen.

Down in verse 18, “Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.” Isn’t that interesting? There was a seat for each person at the table. They knew his seat would be empty and what would King Saul say?

The story goes on, and it comes to the evening meal. The king sat at his table, in his usual place. Yes, against the wall, with Jonathan sitting opposite him, and Abner beside him. You see how everyone had a different place? And isn’t that amazing, ladies? Why does the Bible take time to explain even little things like this? Just the place at the table. Because all these things are important.

Then it goes on to say, “But David’s place was empty.” And, of course, the story goes on then, of how eventually David did have to leave, knowing that King Saul was so angry with him. There we see how all these little things are so important.

NO IPHONES AT THE TABLE

Of course, at your table, you will never have any iPhones, will you? Oh, can you believe it? I’ve had people at my table, and I have seen them looking down, sort of down past the table. I know that they’re looking at their iPhone which is on their knees, hidden away. I’ve had to say, “Sorry. We don’t have iPhones at our table.” You see, that is the rudest thing you can ever do!

It’s amazing. People today are so addicted to their iPhones. They can’t even leave them to come to the table! They’ve got to have them. You go to a restaurant, and you see families and they’re all just looking at their iPhones. They’re not even communicating with one another. But the table is for communication. We put iPhones away. You might like a basket, where they can all put them, as they come to the table, or whatever you want to do. But we don’t do that.

DO NOT WHISPER PRIVATELY AT THE TABLE

No whispering with one another at the table. To whisper to someone else at the table is, once again, so rude. You don’t do that in front of people. At the table, if what you’re going to say can’t be said to everybody, well, don’t say it at all.

I have never allowed whispering at the table to someone, or even having private conversations. No, we don’t have private conversations. We are a “togetherness.” We are together as a family so we all communicate together. You have to learn how to encourage that, and teach your children that.

Time has gone, but I know you know all these things. But I want to just encourage you in them and remind you of them, because we’re transmitting these things to the next generation. If we’re not doing them in our homes, if we’re not training in our homes, it will be lost!

In fact, I had some friends. They were forever going out for meals all the time. They went out. I said to them, “Help! How are your children going to know how to even have a meal at home if you just go out all the time?” This is the thing. We’ve got to think about the following generation. What are WE passing on to them?

“Lord, we thank You for another time together. We thank You for family. We thank You that this is the plan, Your eternal plan, for the way You want us to live as families in our homes. Lord God, help us to establish strong, healthy, godly homes, and a beautiful family life.

“I pray that You will bless every mother, father, children, and families who are listening. In Jesus’ Name, 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.

P.S. More information from Darlene:

“Haha, now there's going to be a run on thrift stores, with people looking to buy old Bibles and dictionaries! 😉 But you know, I was reading today how the censors have "updated" Roald Dahl's books. The article said that Amazon had already "updated" books that people had downloaded onto their Kindles! The author said this is why you should have hard copies of books.

Andrew (her husband) has been saying the same thing. He says we should always have hard copies of the Bible, not just electronic ones. It's very handy to have them on your phone, or your Kindle, but he said that if the powers that be decided to change them, most people would never know the difference! And he's right. We'll keep adding to our collection as we go along!”

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 245: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 3

Epi245pic LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 245: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 3

The greatest arrival into this world was the entrance of the Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Adoration of Eternity. But He came as a baby. All the great things that happen in the world continue to happen through babies. Without babies coming into the world through the wombs of mothers, nothing would happen in this world! It would come to a halt.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Wonderful to be with you, to talk to you about motherhood and home, this wonderful place where God has planned for us to live our lives. Of course, we’re going to go out and do many things, but the home is our root. It is where we’re meant to be.

But before I get talking about some of these things today, I want to take you to a passage in Luke. I’m reading through Luke at the moment. As I read this passage this last week, I was dumbfounded! I realized that I was believing a lie! Because what I read what different to what I thought. It’s amazing how we can be deluded by the images, the pictures we see, the words we hear.

Let me read you this passage. You most probably were not deluded like me. Here we go. Luke 2:8-15: “There were some shepherds in that neighborhood keeping watch through the night over their flock in the open fields. And an angel of the Lord stood by them.” Wow! I was arrested just reading those words, because I had always imagined in my mind that the angels came to the shepherds, and they were there in the sky, praising and glorifying God.

Well, why wouldn’t I think that? All the pictures I see, and all the Christmas cards all have the angels there, praising the Lord in the sky. But then I read, “an angel,” only one angel. “An angel of the Lord stood right by them.” He came, right next to them! Wow! That was different to what I imagined. How could I have not noticed that all my life? Wow!

Then it says: “And the glory of the Lord shone around them.” Right around them! It wasn’t up in the sky. Now, if it was up in the sky, they would have looked and, wow! They would have been amazed. But the Bible doesn’t say that. It says that they were terribly frightened. They were scared out of their wits! One translation says: “They were awe-stricken,” because imagine! The angel came, and then the glory of the Lord was shining all around them. It must have been unbelievably amazing!

Then the angel, only one angel at the moment. Do you notice? He said: “Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of great joy that is to be felt by all the people. For today, in the town of David, a Savior for you has been born, who is your Messiah and Lord.” Oh, I love those words! “A Savior for you.”

When I read that, I usually read the King James. But I’m reading a different translation at the moment. Every now and then I like to read something different. This is the Goodspeed translation. But when I read those words, “A Savior for you,” it was so personal.

I thought, “I’d better check it out.” I found that so many other translations say that very same phrase. “A Savior for you.” Oh, this was such a personal message to the shepherds. And the angel continued: “You will find the Baby wrapped up and lying in a manger.” And then, “Suddenly there appeared with the angel, a throng of heavenly army, praising God and saying ‘Glory to God in the highest! Peace, goodwill to all men.’”

And once again, it doesn’t say that the angels were all up there in the sky, praising the Lord. It says, what does it say here? That “suddenly there appeared with that one angel, a throng of the heavenly army.” Yes, with the angel. They came with the angel who was standing right next to them. All this happened right there where the shepherds were with their sheep.

You most probably all knew that, but I had always just imagined it was all up in the sky until I read the Word. It made me realize how careful we have to be, because we can be so easily deceived, just by pictures, by images. We see the pictures of the Three Wise Men, but nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three. There could have been . . . there could have been a lot more. We don’t know. We have to get back to the actual truth, don’t we?

YOU WILL FIND A BABY

But I love this other phrase in this passage. Oh, it is so beautiful. What did the angel say? “You will find a baby.” Isn’t that amazing? “You will find a baby.” Wow! I’m sure God was smiling. Oh, no, I’m sure He was laughing! Oh, can you imagine it? The Jews were waiting for their Messiah to come. They were waiting for their Redeemer, someone who would come as a great deliverer, someone who would come as the mighty warrior who was going to deliver them from the Romans! They were longing for their deliverance.

And who does God send? A baby? A baby. Isn’t it amazing? Our Savior, our Deliverer came as a baby. God came and sent this message to these very, very humble shepherds. They were nobody in Israel. These shepherds were most probably the shepherds that looked after the Temple flocks because the priests had to have all their flocks for the sheep that came in every day, because every day, every morning, every evening, they had to sacrifice the lamb upon the altar.

Of course, there were many, many other sacrifices besides that. But these were the basic ones. This was happening every day. Every lamb upon the altar was a type of Jesus, the Lamb of God, Who would come to be our Savior. Isn’t it amazing that Jesus came to these shepherds, the ones who cared for the Temple flocks? The ones who would be sacrificed to point to Jesus.

Now, God comes to them through the angel and says, “You’re going to find a baby. The Savior. The Messiah. This is the one! You are every day preparing for these sacrifices, but here comes the ultimate sacrifice.” It was to them He gave the message. But he sent a baby.

IT BABIES WHO CHANGE THE WORLD

God loves babies. God loves sending babies into the world. It’s babies, listen for it, dear mothers. It’s babies who change the world. They grow up to do amazing things, to better the world, to change the world, to bring God’s love and salvation and truth and justice to the world. They’re God’s messengers to earth.

I think of those amazing words of Mary, when the angel came to Mary. Mary’s response was a beautiful praise to the Lord. One of the things she said was: “He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His Name.” Well, we know it was a great thing that was done to Mary, the most amazing miracle that she conceived of the Holy Ghost and was to have the privilege of bearing the Son of God, the Messiah, in her womb. What an amazing, amazing thing!

But you know, in not such a great way, but still a great way, yes, still a great way. God comes to every mother. When she has a baby in her womb, yes, God does great things through every baby that comes into the world. Every baby has that possibility, especially as that baby grows up in a home where it can grow in the ways of the Lord. It’s as if every new baby is created and born in the image of God. Each one is a fresh revelation of God to the world.

Let’s think about this for a moment, ladies. All the amazing things that have happened in the world, that are happening, or are yet to happen, and will happen—the remarkable inventions, the amazing feats, both intellectually and physically, the astounding advancements and the brilliant discoveries! Wow! How do all these things happen? They happen through a person! And how did this person come into the world? Through a mother’s womb, as a baby. Every single great thing that happens in the world happens because of a mother’s womb.

This is the power of our womb, that from a womb comes a baby. Yes, without a baby, nothing would happen! Not a thing would happen in the world. Isn’t that amazing? And yet, so often, we don’t see the awesomeness of a baby in the womb. Today our society wants to eliminate the womb. So many mothers want to stop the function of their womb. But the womb is from where all the miracles in the world take place. Isn’t that amazing? Yes.

I love that quote of Frank Boreham. He said, “We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad. When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it. That is why long, long ago, a Babe was born in Bethlehem.” Yes, everything comes through the womb.

I’d love to read you, which you know, just one or two Scriptures. Matthew, yes, let’s read, shall we? No, let’s go to Mark.

Mark 10:13-16: “And they brought young children to Him,” to Jesus, “that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such,” get it, ladies, “for of such is the kingdom of God.”

The kingdom of God is what Jesus came to bring. The kingdom of God is the life that we are meant to live. Recently I began a study about the kingdom of God. I went into the Word and wrote down every Scripture where it mentions “the kingdom of God,” or “the kingdom of heaven,” and what it was saying about the kingdom in that Scripture.

I’ve got them all written down, but I haven’t completed the study yet, because what I want to do, when I get time, is to go to every one of those Scriptures, and to meditate on each one, and to really get into my whole being what it’s saying, because I really want to know what the kingdom is, don’t you? The Word is filled with it, and we have to know every part of what the kingdom is.

Jesus used so many illustrations to describe His kingdom. But here He is saying very specifically that children, children are part of the kingdom. “For as such are the kingdom of God.” So, precious mothers, precious ladies, if you want to be part of the kingdom of God, if you want to be serving in the kingdom, well, right in your home, as you are mothering your little baby, mothering your children, teaching your children, you are in the kingdom. You are right there, where you are meant to be.

In fact, one translation of this passage says: “The people brought children to Jesus, hoping He might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate, and let them know it. ‘Do not push these children away! Do not ever get between them and Me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this. Unless you shall accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you will never get in.' Then gathering the children up in His arms, He laid His hands of blessing on them.”

YOU ARE IN THE VERY CENTER OF LIFE IN GOD’S KINGDOM

Precious mothers, I want to remind you today that you, in your home, mothering your children, embracing each new precious baby, you are in the very center of life in the kingdom of God. You couldn’t be in a more amazing place. You are in the very perfect will of God. How amazing!

Those words (that was in Mark 10:13-15 Msg). Jesus also spoke those words; they are reiterated again in Matthew 19:14 and in Luke 18.

Then on another occasion, we read a similar thing, but this was a different occasion. Matthew 18:3-5. Here Jesus is speaking: “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.”

Yes, Jesus is speaking. He says, “When you receive a little babe in My Name, you are literally receiving Me.” Isn’t that powerful? Yes. That passage is also repeated again in Mark and in Luke. I trust you are encouraged, dear mother.

We’ve been talking . . . in fact, last podcast we were talking about elevating motherhood and homemaking to a new level. Well, today I’m sharing with you the level where God sees it . . . the level where God sees it. You are right in the very center of life in the kingdom. You couldn’t get it better than that.

YOU DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF THE NATION

So, stop grumbling! Forget all your self-pity and “Poor me!” “Oh, I could be out doing some great thing.” No! You are in the greatest place where you are! You are serving God in the most powerful place, because as you are pouring your heart, and your prayers, and your life, and God’s ways into your children, you are preparing them to go out into this world and impact this world. You are impacting this whole nation. You determine the destiny of the nation. It’s we, as mothers, who determine what the nation will be like because it’s our children who are the next generation. You are in such a powerful place, the best place you could ever be in your life.

Another thing about this little passage I read, I was reading a commentary from Barclay. He shared how that back in those days, when a baby boy was born, minstrels would come around, singers. They would sing songs to welcome the baby into that family. Of course, Jesus did not have a band of singers around Him when He was born in the stable.

But God sent His own minstrels. Well, actually, I learned a new word. Barclay mentioned the word “minstrelsy.” I had never actually heard that word. But, of course, it is just a whole choir of minstrels. That was the choir of the angels, the minstrelsy of the angels as they sang and praised to God.

I have a few more thoughts about motherhood. Recently, well, just last week, Colin and I went on a cruise. Pearl and Charley paid for us to have this cruise which was so beautiful of them. We so enjoyed it. It was an interesting cruise.

We had three days where we went off the ship. One was to Mazatlán in Mexico, one to Cabo San Lucas, and then, can you believe it? One to San Diego, right in our own country! While we were there in San Diego. we thought, “We will go and check out the Safari Zoo.” So, we did that, and it was so amazing to see these animals, not just in a zoo, but in more of their natural habitat. So lovely. All the beautiful zebras and giraffes and gorillas and elephants and so on.

I just love, I have this great love for giraffes. They’re such a beautiful, beautiful, creature. I was thinking so much about these animals and also began to discover a little more about their pregnancies and their births. I was thinking about that and relating it to us, as humans, because these animals are all mammals.

Do you know how long a giraffe is pregnant? Well, they’re actually pregnant for 15 months! Can you believe it? 15 months. Sometimes you think it’s getting so long as you’re pregnant for nine months. Well, think about the giraffe! The giraffe mother is pregnant for 15 months!

And have you heard how a giraffe is born? Wow! Its pretty amazing. When the little baby giraffe, or the calf, is ready to come out, the giraffe is standing up. Did you know that the giraffe rarely ever, ever lies down? No, they stand up. They sleep standing up. They do everything standing up. They even give birth standing up.

And so, the little baby comes out with its feet first, with the head and neck over the feet. Then the head is coming down, and it just flies out! And bang! Lands on its head! Wow! Can you imagine that? Just landing on your head. But that’s how the giraffe is born. It’s a pretty big shock to the head, but do you know what? It’s also how God planned it.

When that baby’s head hits the ground, it kickstarts the giraffe’s internal systems, and it starts the respiratory system. Without that fall, the little giraffe would never breathe! Isn’t that amazing? Within 30 minutes, that little baby can stand up. Within 24 hours, it’s running around. That’s the giraffe.

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR CHILDREN

And they’re wonderful mothers. They develop a very strong maternal bond with their babies. Even years later, when they leave to go on, these daughters, especially the daughters, will always come back and spend time with their mothers, because they have that incredible bond.

Oh, by the way, do you know what a group of giraffes is called? Interesting. They are called a “tower” of giraffes. Well, you can imagine that, can’t you, with their big, long necks, towering above everything else. So, that’s what they are called.

And do you know what a group of polar bears together are called? They are called a “celebration.” That’s a lovely name, isn’t it? Now, there are some good questions for you to take to your family tonight. When you’re sitting around the table and sharing together. It’s so great to have questions for your family and things that you can share with them that they can learn. Try them out on those ones tonight.

What about elephants? Giraffes are pregnant for 15 months. Do you know how long elephants are pregnant for? Well, they are pregnant for 22 months, nearly two years! Can you imagine that? So, lovely ladies, maybe you’re pregnant, maybe you’re wondering when you’re going to get to the end, and this baby’s coming. Well, when you’re getting a little bit impatient, just think of the elephant. She is pregnant for 22 months. When the baby’s born, it’s only about 200 pounds, sometimes 250 pounds! But their labor lasts about two days, at least. They have a long labor to get that little elephant out.

Then they nurse their baby for a year, totally. They’ll be nursing their baby. They’re beautiful mothers, these animals. About a year, they’ll begin to supplement by adding plants, but guess how long the mother keeps nursing her baby? I wonder if you can guess. The elephant mother will nurse her baby for up to ten years! Can you believe it? Ten years!

Now, just think about it, ladies. Elephants are mammals. All these animals are mammals, as we are. Of course, we, as humans, are the highest creation that God created. But think about it. The human person will live anything from 70 to maybe these days, up to 100 years! The elephant can live for about 60 to 70 years. And yet, they nurse their babies for ten years.

Now, think of the lifespan of a human, 70-plus years, maybe 80 or 90 or so. And yet, how long do they nurse their babies? Well, some will nurse them longer, but some only token nurse their babies for about six months. Some don’t even do that. Some will just put their baby on the bottle, for convenience.

Now, please don’t be offended if you haven’t been able to nurse. I know some mothers, and I actually had a very dear friend who, well, she had nursed previous babies. But she got to this baby. She had this baby on her breast night and day, but she just could not get any milk. Something had happened. We don’t live in a perfect world, so there are sometimes when a mother is not able to nurse.

But what I’m talking about is our heart attitude and our willingness to nurse our baby, because it is how God created us. And dear, precious mothers, as you put your baby to the breast, just enjoy this time. Know that you are doing what you were created to do.

And don’t try to wean your baby too quickly. Oh, it’s amazing how mothers will wean their baby for all manner of excuses. Six months, nine months, a year. Do you know that a baby will often want to nurse for up to three and four years? Some even more? Now, we don’t see that often, but let’s begin to understand what is normal. It is amazing that what we think is normal is really abnormal.

When Jesus was talking to the people, it was in Matthew 19, and the Pharisees came to Him. They were always trying to trip Him up. They said to Him, “Well, what do you do about divorce?” On that subject, and Jesus answered them. This is all He said. “Don’t you know that He which created them in the beginning, created them male and female?” We read that Scripture, and we think, “Oh, yes, I know that. That’s Genesis 1, “God created male and female.”

Yes, and we all believe that, even in this deluded age of transgenderism, which is totally ridiculous nonsense. We believe in male and female. But we don’t always understand what Jesus was actually saying, because the Greek word that Jesus used there was not the normal word for “woman.” The normal word in the New Testament is gune, which means “woman, wife.”

But in this passage, Jesus used the word thelus, from the root word thelazo, which literally means the nipple of a woman’s breast. The word means “to suckle a baby at the breast.” Or the noun, “a suckling mother.” When Jesus said those words, he was saying, “In the beginning God created the male and suckling mother.” This is who we were created to be, a suckling mother, to be able to nurse, to give life to the babe that God creates in the womb. It’s the most powerful, glorious thing.

And it is such a glorious thing to embrace, because not only do we bless our baby, because the baby is blessed with the perfect milk that God intends for the baby, but God blesses the mother! We are blessed with hormones, with oxytocin, with prolactin, which a nursing mother has. She really has these hormones in a great way when she’s nursing a baby.

And they’re the most glorious hormones! Oh! Oxytocin. We all want oxytocin. It’s the bliss hormone, the love hormone, the relaxing hormone. God gives this glorious hormone to the mother who’s nursing her baby. Every time she puts the baby to the breast, this oxytocin is released. These beautiful feelings of bliss, and calm, and relaxation just flood over her. Many times, you know what it’s like. Many times, you just want to drop off to sleep, because you feel so relaxed.

And God gives this to the mother who’s often frustrated and overwhelmed. All the children are crying at once, and the baby’s crying, and hardly she doesn’t know what to do! She puts the baby to the breast, and oooh, wow! She can get up again and face things. And she has prolactin which makes her more motherly. They’re great hormones.

The great thing to do, ladies, is don’t think, “Oh, when will I wean my baby?” No! You just feed your baby until your baby is ready to wean. There are some babies who may wean at one year. There are some babies like that. Most babies will want to nurse until at least two years. If they are given the freedom, they will most probably nurse much longer.

I found with my babies that I nursed each baby longer, I guess because I became more embracing of it. I think when you first begin, you are learning. You don’t understand everything. But the more you nurse a baby, the more natural it is, and the more you realize the blessings of it, not only for your baby, but for yourself, and for everybody around you. You embrace it. And then, because you are freer in your thinking about it all, you just nurse longer.

By the time I got to Serene, I nursed her for four years. That is actually quite normal, although to many mothers, it’s not because they don’t see it around. We’re so affected and influenced by what we see, what we see other mothers doing.

Well, there we go, precious ladies. Just think of the elephant mom, nursing her baby for ten years. They have such a strong bond. Once the male baby is about ten, he will move off and become more solitary. But the daughters, the elephant daughters, will always stay around in the herd, close to the mothers. A herd of elephants will often consist of the grandmothers, and the mothers, and the aunts, and the cousins. They are all so bonded one to another. It’s a very beautiful picture of family life.

But I can’t believe how time has gone again. I trust you’ve been encouraged with this podcast. Let’s pray together.

“Dear Father, we thank You so much for the way You teach us through Your Word, and even through what we see in nature. Lord, You created these mammals in nature with such a beautiful nurturing ability. Yet, Lord, we are Your greatest creation. And You have put this nurturing anointing within us.

“Yet sometimes we fall so far short, even of these animals! Lord, wake us up to be who You want us to be! Show us, Lord, Your wonderful ways. We ask it in the Name of Jesus, amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 244: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 2

Epi244pic LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 244: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 2

Erin Harrison joins me today as we speak together about elevating motherhood to a higher level. It has been degraded to a low state, but God wants us to come up higher, to come up to His marvelous ways.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Always great to be with you! And I am so excited today, because I have my dear friend and neighbor, Erin Harrison, with me again. We’ll be talking together today. Erin has done a number of podcasts with me. In fact, you’ll most probably remember that she did the “We Love Our Kitchens” series. We did that together, three podcasts and they were the most popular podcasts of 2022.

As I started last week, we are on this new series of transmitting God’s ways to the next generation. We’re going to talk more about that today. Before we get on to a new subject under this heading, I do want to give you one more testimony. I ended last week with sharing with you how Evangeline came to know the Lord at only four years of age, but how all these years later, that moment is still as real with her today as when it happened.

I’ll just read you what my son Rocklyn, what he said when I asked him, “Do you remember when you came to know Jesus?” He was also only four years of age. Rocklyn is 55 years today, so this is something that is still lasting all these years.

He said, “After my mother read the story of Nicodemus to us in our kitchen, I asked her if I could also be born again. I look back at this experience as the start of my conscious relationship with Jesus Christ. This experience burned into my life. Many Christians who are saved when they are adults see part of their life from a worldly aspect. Now they have a Christian aspect. I found that growing and learning with Christ in my life affected my understanding of everything in life from a God point of view. I saw and learned everything from a biblical perspective. This shaped my life.”

Remember, lovely ladies, we were talking about how it’s such an important thing to seek to bring our children to Jesus at an early age. The devil wants them. He’s out to get our children. The sooner that Jesus can get hold of them, the better. When Jesus comes into their lives, even at a young age, they have living within them, as the Scripture says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

That changes how we can train them in the ways of the Lord. How can we really change of our own volition? It’s only the work of Christ in us. When they’re being disobedient and rebellious, we can talk to them and say, “Jesus is living in you now. You’ve got to choose whether you’re going to say ‘Yes!’ to the devil who’s still wanting to get at you, and your old nature that still wants to rise up. But Jesus is in you. He wants to live His life in you. You can say, ‘Yes!’ to Jesus.” As we teach our children this way, they learn to walk in victory from a young age instead of starting it when they’re an adult. It’s a wonderful thing.

Now, OK, I will introduce Erin to you again, although you already know her. Did you read Above Rubies #99? Because Erin shared her testimony. Well, she’s written a number of times in Above Rubies. But she shared the testimony of her adopting Alex and Kathryn, both very special needs children. Oh, I can hardly even explain to you the miracles! It’s unbelievable! When Erin got little Alex, he was a vegetable, and was going to be a vegetable for his life. Tell us.

Erin: First of all, I will give a virtual curtsy with my little dress on. Curtsy?

Nancy: Oh, yes! I should have told you! Sitting beside me I have this princess. She’s in the most beautiful gold dress. It looks so gorgeous! I wish we were on, what would you say?

Erin: TV.

Nancy: No! A Talk Show. But then, I’m glad you can’t see me! [laughter]

Erin: When we first got him, the first thing that came to my mind when I saw his little body coming forth out of the vehicle in the parking lot, I thought, “This is not what they told me.” They told me he was just a normal little four-year-old boy. Here he was, he had this huge head. His head was almost the size of his entire body. He was grunting and throwing things across, and he couldn’t walk. He couldn’t really do much of anything.

Nancy: Well, they said he would never walk.

Erin: He was tube fed.

Nancy: He would never eat.

Erin: Never talk. Never do anything! They didn’t give him very much hope for his future at all. In fact, I didn’t even know how many years that he would even live in that kind of condition. He had so many different medications and so many different . . . I had to have a room made just for him in our house. My husband made it, just to store all of his medical equipment, because he had all these different machines that he had to be hooked up to, just to help him to live.

Nancy: When he first came, you had 24-hour nurses coming in and out to keep him alive.

Erin: Right. That was a big deal because most of us in this homeschool, homechurch-type realm, in our communities, we often shy away from things that kind of put us into a precarious situation where we’ve got somebody monitoring everything we say and do, like you’re in a court of law. Right off the bat, I was on the edge of my seat, thinking that they could call CPS at any moment for any sort of reason because you hear about this stuff all the time. It wasn’t a real desirable situation.

The doctor even asked me if I wanted to change my mind, because he was like, “This is a lot! This is a lot to bite off. This child isn’t getting any better. We don’t blame you one single bit if you turn around and walk the other way, because this is a lot. You didn’t know what you were bargaining for when they called you. They were not very honest with you.”

That night, I told Nancy Campbell here, and I told my parents, and I told Evangeline, and they tried to give some wise counsel. Everybody told me to go the other way because it just seemed like such an impossible situation. Everybody thought it was scary and I won’t be able to have a life anymore. I would be chained up to this medical suite that I would have to be nursing over this child and dealing with all these nurses.

I had a dream that night, and the Lord brought me into. . . It was a very prophetic dream. I saw myself walking through a biblical-time type of scenario where there were people dressed in robes. They were all over the ground, crying and crawling around. They were scared. They were in pain, and they were reaching to me with their hands for help.

I reached towards one of them, without thought, because that’s the kind of person I am. I try to jump right in and help people when I see a need. The Lord Jesus’s nail-pierced hand went right though my hand and picked the person up. Then I knew that I was called to take one of the least of these. Because what you do to the least of these, you’ve done unto Him. It was a real calling. My husband and I knew that God had specifically called us to take care of this little boy.

It wasn’t love at first sight. When you have your own baby, you can’t stop looking at him. This little guy didn’t look normal, of course. You can imagine, when we first saw him . . . He doesn’t look anything like us, of course. That’s one thing. He wasn’t very friendly.

It wasn’t a warm cozy feeling at all, because there was this thing coming out of his throat. There was mucus and all this. It was a very, like you really had to get your hands dirty when you’re taking care of this child, with the diapering, and the changing of the trach, and all this stuff. It’s a whole new territory.

Basically, we CHOSE to love him. It didn’t come right off the bat, but we chose to love him. Now it’s as if he’s been grafted into our hearts as if I carried him in my womb. I feel like when I got him, he was like a newborn. I feel like I’ve nursed him at my breast, even though I never actually nursed him at my breast.

But I felt like all the nurturing that I’ve had to put into this child because of all his special needs, it caused us to have this eternal bond that is so divine. It's like we are one. This child is as if he was born from my own womb. That’s how God had knit him in and grafted him into my heart.

Nancy: It’s so amazing. Erin would not take sitting down the fact that he was just this little vegetable. She fought and fought and fought for him. Now, through operations, he is walking! Running! It’s unbelievable. I never could dream the day that I would see him running everywhere.

Erin: All the specialists, I had to fight against them, actually. I was like their worst nightmare. You can remember, Nancy, the times I’d come and tell you the other fight I had the other day. You guys would get so excited! “Whoo! I don’t want to go against that lady! Boy! She’ll get you gone!” [laughter]

I had to fight tooth and nail against some of the specialists and the therapists and everything. I had to fire doctor after doctor after therapist. You don’t have any idea how many people I have fired! I went to get different doctors because I wasn’t messing around. I needed a doctor that was willing to listen to me, and to help me help this child.

I’ve had doctors tell me that I was the worst pain in the neck, the thorn in their side, because they said they couldn’t believe that I actually thought this kid was going to walk. They were like, “He has cerebral palsy! He’s never going to walk! You can fix his leg until the sun goes down, and it’s not going to ever come right.”

I said, “But God can work a miracle on this child. I see it in his eyes. I see that he wants to do stuff and be normal. He was crippled because of all the drugs, and how they didn’t believe in him. He was completely left a vegetable in a cage, like an animal in a cage! It was absolutely detestable what they did to this child!

Nancy: And they were quite prepared to pour out this money from the government, all over him for the rest of his life.

Erin: Half a million a year!

Nancy: Yes, for the rest of his life.

Erin: Oh, yeah. He was like, what you call it, a cash cow. I believed, with all of my heart, that the neglect that was for this child was unbelievable and unacceptable. I couldn’t accept that any human being should be made money off of like that. I said, “I don’t care what I have to do. I’m going to get them all broke. They’re not making any more money off of this child. I’m done!”

I fought hard. This child, within about, I think it was about nine months, I was able to fire all the nurses, and I was able to fire all the therapists, and I was able to fire all of them and get him out of DCS clutches. I had adopted him, and he was starting to take off and thrive. He didn’t need a whole entourage of caretakers. He just needed a mother. He didn’t need . . .

Many hands make light work. But sometimes, there are too many cooks in the kitchen, and it gets really confusing. Too many handlers and too many people’s pocketbooks getting filled up because of this child. It was absolute nonsense. Now this child has . . . You have to work really hard to find something wrong with him now.

Nancy: Yes. It’s unbelievable. I wanted you to know about this absolute miracle. Read the story again in Above Rubies #99, but the miracle is just far beyond when she wrote that article. It’s so amazing.

And then, Above Rubies #100, that latest one, Erin has two of her daughters on the front cover. Both Megan and Molly with their beautiful little babies. Little Isla, Megan’s baby, is my great-granddaughter, and Erin’s granddaughter, and Pearl’s granddaughter. That’s so wonderful.

Erin: We’ve been grafted into the Campbell family! We’re all family now, for sure, for sure!

Nancy: Yes, so great! Yesterday Erin and I actually did another Talk Show together, which we hadn’t done for about three-and-a-half years.

Erin: Right. Because I had my hands full, really.

Nancy: Because she adopted Alex, and in the midst of fighting for Alex, and doing all that she had to do, full time, absolute. Goodness! Three hundred percent mothering! She also adopted little Kathryn, a little Down’s syndrome girl. She has both of them.

Erin: I must say, Kathryn gives you a run for your money! That one there, she’s about ten Alexes! But we love her. She's amazing.

Nancy: We got back together and we did this Talk Show yesterday. Oh, it’s a real radical one. You’ll have to watch it. How do they watch it?

Erin: They go to my Facebook page, which is called “Keeper of the Homestead Blog.” You go on there, and it’s a regular Facebook page. It’s not a profile. It’s a business-type page. It’s my “Keeper of the Homestead” blog page. They can see this right there. It’s the first post right now. There might be added things by the time this is posted.

I’m going to try to repost it on YouTube. I’ll try to repost it also on my www.KeeperoftheHomestead.com blog page also, which is not to do with Facebook. But they’re all kind of connected. That’s how it works.

Nancy: So, you can get to listen and watch that. I’m sure you will be mightily blessed. Now, we’re here together. We’re going to do this together and then Erin has to pop over to Pearlie, because she’s got to do a podcast with her. So, you’ve really been poddied out today!

Actually, I think you and Pearl are going to be Pearl and Erin instead of Serene and Pearl, because Serene is in Mexico. Meant to get home last night, but planes have cancelled, and they’re stuck and won’t be home until tomorrow night!

Erin: So then, Erin comes to save the day! [laughter]

Nancy: Now, I want to move on to the very beginning. If we’re going to be the transmitters of God’s ways to the next generation, we’ve got to start at the very beginning. We did start last week, about bringing our children to Jesus at a young age.

But we’ve also go to talk about fathering, mothering, marriage, homemaking, because they are the foundation of a nation, the foundation of our lives. They are the very first thing that God ever talked about. I was just noticing this morning, in Genesis 2:24, where it says, and you all know this Scripture: “Therefore, shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”

Do you notice that, in that one little Scripture, we get the whole picture of God’s plan for society? It’s all there in one little Scripture. OK, we start off with “one flesh.” That’s marriage where God brings a couple together. They become one flesh. Marriage. And then from that one-flesh union comes forth babies which God loves! That’s how He planned it. Babies come forth.

And, of course, who’s going to look after the babies? The father and the mother! And the mother is the one who’s going to be in the home looking after those babies. Then it mentions also his wife. Well, that’s marriage, too. She becomes the wife.

Isn’t that interesting that when God created Eve that she wasn’t just appearing. “Oh, well, now I’ve got to discover life! I’ve got to take on this adventure of discovering this beautiful Eden. I’ll need a few years just finding who I am and finding myself, just having this great life on my own.”

But no, she didn’t ever hardly have one minute on her own. God brought her immediately to the man and she became a wife. That was it. And that’s how God intends it. This is God’s plan. In fact, we read there about the father and mother. Do you know where the father and mother were?

Erin: Are you asking me?

Nancy: Well, I am.

Erin: I imagine they were at their home!

Nancy: Well, actually, they weren’t there. No. They weren’t even there, ladies. God says: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother.”

Erin: Now I get it! Wow! There it is! How profound! He left them. So they’re not there anymore! He went to cleave to his wife!

Nancy: No, no, no, but close. [laughter] There were still no father and mother!

Erin: What??

Nancy: Because there was only Adam and Eve. But let me tell you, ladies, they weren’t there.

Erin: I thought you were talking about Adam and Eve! [laughter]

Nancy: No. But this is the amazing thing! The amazing thing, ladies, is that God is speaking forth the roles of father and mother before we have ever, ever seen them. Nobody had seen a father or mother. Nobody knew what He was talking about.

But God is establishing the role, even before we have ever seen an actual father and a mother. Isn’t that incredible? God is revealing His plan, how that all of society comes from father and mother. God establishes it there even before we see them in reality.

Erin: Wow!

Nancy: It is so amazing, so amazing. We see this again, over in Genesis 3:20. Here, this is where Adam is naming his wife. It says: “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” Well, Eve was not a mother when Adam called her “Eve.” She didn’t know anything about motherhood. She’d never had a baby, never nursed a baby at her breast.

Adam had never seen a mother. Yet Adam is speaking under the unction of God. He was speaking prophetically. And once again, this prophetic word comes forth. God is establishing motherhood before we’ve ever seen a mother. Isn’t that amazing?

Erin: It’s so amazing! I’m so embarrassed! [laughter]

Nancy: Oh, no! You don’t have to be embarrassed.

Erin: Adam and Eve! We were talking about . . .

Nancy: I explained fathers and mothers, didn’t I?

Erin: Yeah, but you really tricked me! That was tricky.

Nancy: Trick! Trick question! A trick question but I think most people never even really think about it. But it makes us think about it, doesn’t it? You see, this shows the value that God puts upon father and mother. It’s His plan. He established it. It’s His way. God does not have another plan.

Erin: Amen!

Nancy: He doesn’t.

Erin: It’s a good plan!

Nancy: Erin and I have been talking at different times and just saying how we believe that it’s the hour to elevate fatherhood and motherhood, marriage, homemaking. This is what God established in the beginning.

Because God established it, the devil hates it! And he has, from the beginning, tried to pull it apart. He tries to destroy. He tries to destroy marriages. He tries to destroy fatherhood. He tries to woo mother’s out of the home. But I believe we’ve got to get the truth, and we’ve got to embrace it. We’ve got to do it in a way that we’ve never done it before.

Erin: Amen! And then the enemy also wants to get women to stop having children because then they don’t have enough to occupy their time. As they have too much time on their hands, guess what happens? Devil’s playground when they have too much time on their hands. Then they become busybodies.

That’s another reason why I adopted two more children because I didn’t have a womb anymore. That’s a whole other story. Sorry. Don’t have time for that story, but I don’t have time to be a busybody because I’m too busy being a mother again.

Nancy: Yes, yes. Well, actually sometime you’ll have to tell that story, because it’s a pretty powerful story, isn’t it?

Erin: Oh yes.

Nancy: That’s another thing. The womb of the woman is such a powerful thing. The devil likes to get rid of wombs, doesn’t he?

Erin: It’s in my memoir. It’s advertised in your magazine. “The Memoirs of the Keeper.” Because the keeper of the home? The Memoirs of the Keeper was the first book. I do tell the story in there as well.

Nancy: Yes, yes. That was such a sad story. But you outwitted the devil!

Erin: We did! We sure did! And we’re busy as ever. I’m loving my busy season.

Nancy: I think it’s when we don’t have that vision that God wants us to have of the home, it’s drifting into the thinking of society. Of course, the education system, women grow up being told and educated and . . .

Erin: Indoctrinated!

Nancy: Indoctrinated.

Erin: Indoctrinated! Into all these perverse ideologies.

IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO LOVE OUT CHILDREN; WE MUST LOVE MOTHERHOOD

Nancy: Yes, and against motherhood! They are actually indoctrinated against it. When you come into motherhood, I know many of you have, you come into motherhood, and you have this baby. You love this baby! But you’re not loving motherhood because you’ve had so much indoctrination against it. Oh, yes, you love this baby, but, but, “What am I doing in my home? I should be out in my career. I’m not doing anything here!”

We have this whole confusion. We love our children, but we don’t love motherhood. I believe this is where we have to change, because it’s not enough to just love our children. We’ve got to come to that place of actually loving motherhood, because this is God’s perfect will. It’s His plan.

Erin: And it’s all in the perception that you have. If your perspective is, “Oh! It’s a drudgery! Oh, I’m such a slave to my home! Oh, woe is me, woe is me, woe is me!”

Or you can take, “Wow!! I get to be the most creative mother of the century! I get to get up every morning and I get to think of all new strategies and challenges for every day. I like to conquer and figure out. I get to be the queen of my home and I get to be the top chef, the best baker! I get to be the nurse, and the doctor, and the interior designer!”

Scratch all those careers aside, that junk! When you get to call all the shots, you get to do it all your way. You don’t have to have a boss telling you what to do. And then the drudgery of going to a job every day, and then coming home, and you’ve still got a panful of dishes, and you’ve still got to cook a meal. You might as well just give up those things and take on your whole career of motherhood with gusto.

Nancy: Yes! Absolutely! And I love the Scripture in 1Timothy 5:14, where it says: “I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”

Erin: What does “speak reproachfully” mean?

YOU ARE THE QUEEN OF YOUR HOME

Nancy: I think that means that they can say adverse things. It’s a woman, and this is the thing. There is so much reproach against motherhood because I don’t think women have actually gloried in their motherhood. Therefore, there’s all this negativity about it.

But what does it say there? That women are to marry and bear children and guide the house. “Guide the house”? That doesn’t really portray it because the phrase in the Greek is oikodespoteo.

Oikos meaning “home,”

Despotes meaning “to be the ruler, to be the manager, to be the queen.”

Erin: Yes!! The queen!

Nancy: The queen! [laughter]

Erin: Yes! We love being the queen of our home!

Nancy: Yes!

Erin: There’s nothing more honorable than being the queen of your home.

Nancy: Yes. So, this is who we are meant to be, the queen. We are the boss. It doesn’t mean to say that we rule over our husbands. The Word of God is not saying that. But it’s saying that we rule our homes. We manage our homes. It is our domain. God has given both to men and women something within them that wants to take dominion.

God says in the very beginning, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and take dominion.” This thing is in us but God has given us the sphere of our dominion. It is our home. It is our garden. It is our whole sphere of what God has given us to make, to raise our families. And it can be as boring and as drudgery and as pitiful as we want. Or it can be as wonderful and glorious and amazing as we want to make it!

Erin: Amen, Sister!!

Nancy: It all depends on our thinking, our understanding of the truth, and making it what we want to be.

Erin: Joy and contentment is a choice.

Nancy: Yes, that is true. Well, we’ve got to close this session, but just as we close, just when you’ve already said it a little bit, Erin, just share again. OK, you wake up in the morning. How do you feel as you get up in your home?

Erin: I feel like life is a gift. I feel like, “Wow! I have another day that I can go out to my kitchen! Am I going to bake bread today? Am I going to make some yogurt today? What kind of meals am I going to plan? And, oh, am I going to organize a cabinet or something?” It’s just so exciting!

Nancy: Yes. It’s amazing how God created us. He created male, He created female, but all of us, to be created beings. Because He is the Creator. He has created us with this ability and this something within us that wants to create. When we are queen of our home, we have that freedom and that opportunity to create so much that is lovely and wonderful and precious and amazing as we make our home the sanctuary for God, and to raise our children. But we’d better stop, because we just keep going.

Erin: I have to come back and discuss more, because there’s so much more fun things to discuss about this!

Nancy: Yes, we’ll do that.

“Lord, we do thank You so much again. We’re always full of thanks to You for Your goodness, and all Your blessings. Lord, I want to thank You for Your wonderful plan, Your plan which You established in the very, very beginning. Lord God, it’s all there for us.

“Save us from drifting away from Your plan, from letting it go. Oh, God, help us to hold onto that which You have given us and never let it go. We ask it in Jesus’ Name. 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.

Links for you to enjoy:

TALK SHOW WITH NANCY AND ERIN

You’ll want to watch this, or maybe you won’t!!!!!

https://fb.watch/iMHraDwHw6/?mibextid=qC1gEa

To listen or watch tell the whole story of Alex on the TRIM HEALTHY MAMA PODDY:

PODCAST Ep. 316:
Erin's Story - A Child Nobody Wanted

Go to KEEPER OF THE HOMESTEAD BLOG

To see all the videos of Alex and his progress, Part 1 to Part 9. You will be amazed to watch this miracle.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 243: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 1

Epi243pic LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 243: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 1

Are we drifting with our current liberal society or are we holding fast to God's truth? Are we effectively getting it to the next generation? Have all our children come to know Jesus personally, even our little ones?

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Today we are starting a new series. We, as mothers, are the transmitters of God’s truths, His ways, and godly traditions to the next generation. I believe this is something we really have to wake up about, precious ladies, because I am noticing that there is such a big drifting away from God’s truths and even from godly traditions.

We live in such a liberal and deceived society. It’s so easy to drift into what everyone else is doing all around us. We are truly, like God says we are, we are sheep. Sheep are beautiful creatures, and God loves to call us His sheep because sheep need a shepherd. That’s why we are His sheep. We need a Shepherd.

Nearly every other animal in the whole of the world can fend for themselves. But a sheep can’t fend for itself. It needs a shepherd. My father was a great sheep man. Of course, we came originally from New Zealand which is a sheep country. My father was a sheep shearer. He was the world champion sheep shearer. He was, in his day, the fastest shearer in the world.

Many times, I have walked over the fields with my father. I remember one time we were walking, and there was a sheep . . . it had got caught in a thicket.

My father said to me, “Come on, Nance! We’ve got to get this sheep out of here. If we don’t, it will die.” If any other animal gets caught in some briars or something, it can get itself out. But not a sheep. This sheep was totally stuck! It was upside down! We had to pull it out. We got it out, and then, it just went away. It was happy to go along with the other sheep. But if the shepherd had not come around to care for his sheep, that sheep would have died in that thicket.

My husband also grew up on a sheep farm. They had many, many sheep. He often tells of how he noticed a whole flock of sheep can be out on the hillside. If you have ever driven through New Zealand, you’ll drive through these beautiful green fields, covered with these little white sheep. They’re all there, munching away on the grass.

Sheep love to stay together. That’s another thing about sheep. They are a flock. Yes, and God calls us His flock, too. “You are My flock, and the sheep of My pasture.” Sheep are not individualistic. They love to be a flock. That’s how God wants us to be as His people, too. Because they’re a flock, they follow one another.

It can happen how one sheep can see a little hole in a hedge, and it wriggles through, and goes through into the next field. And, of course, there are other sheep nearby. So, they begin to follow. They go through into the next field. Now the sheep are way, way out on the hillside, because in New Zealand we don’t have little flocks of sheep like they do in the Middle East. A Bedouin shepherd will have his little flock of maybe 15 or 20 sheep, sometimes smaller even.

But in New Zealand, we have thousands of sheep in our flocks. There are these sheep away over there on the hillside. They have no idea what these sheep are doing . . . just little by little, going through the hole in the fence. It may take a few days, or more, but eventually that whole flock of sheep are in the next paddock. Well, that’s actually what we call our fields down in New Zealand, a paddock. And there they are. They don’t know they are in a new paddock. They have no idea! But there they are! Because they followed that one sheep.

That’s like us. Many times, we follow what is happening around us and what everybody else is doing. Even what everybody else is doing in the church. We don’t even know that we have come into a new field! We have no clue! We’re just there! And we’ve just drifted there. That’s what happens to sheep. We do have to watch carefully.

I’m thinking of Hebrews 2:1: “Therefore, we ought to give more earnest heed.” Do you notice some adjectives there again? I’m always reminding you of adjectives, aren’t I? The Word of God is filled with adjectives. Here it doesn’t say we ought to give more heed. No, it says, “we ought to give more earnest heed.” Two adjectives! “We've got to give more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time,” at any time, “we should let them slip.”

The Amplified Translation says: “We do not, in any way, drift away from the truth.” Most other translations use the word “drift.” It’s a good word. It’s a picture of, maybe we’re out, perhaps just floating, swimming, or even boating on a river. If we just let ourselves go, or let the boat go, it will drift according to the currents. It will always drift wherever the current is going.

Now, lovely ladies, we have got to guard that we don’t drift with the current, the current tide of our culture. We’ve got to make sure we stay in biblical culture, and that we don’t begin to drift out there in our liberal culture of our society today. It’s so easy to drift.

The Amplified Classic Version says: “Lest any way we drift past them.” That means past the things we’ve been taught, past the truth, and we slip away from it. Oh, my.

I think of how when we go to the beach. I love to go to the beach in New Zealand because it’s a, well, three islands. North Island, South Island, and Stewart Island. We are really just islands. We’re always near the coast, surrounded by the pounding Pacific Ocean. How I love to go to the ocean and swim in the pounding waves. It’s my favorite thing.

Of course, when, after being in New Zealand, we moved to Australia, we were there for ten years. In Australia we lived on the Gold Coast, right in Surfer’s Paradise. Of course, we were right on the beautiful Pacific Ocean. But when we came to America, well, now, we are in Tennessee, miles and miles away from the sea. First time in my life I never lived by the sea.

Now, we love to go down to the Gulf because we have a yearly Above Rubies Family Retreat there. We go down for that. If we do manage to have a family holiday together, we’ll go down to the Gulf again. It’s not the pounding breakers of the ocean, but it is wonderful water. We do love it.

If I’m out there swimming with the children, I will notice that we will always drift. Sometimes it’s just a very soft current. Sometimes it’s a stronger current. But we will always be drifting, either up or either down, whichever way the current is going. I will have to say to the children, “Come on, come on! Let’s get back! See our marker back there? We’ve drifted all the way down here! Come on, let’s all walk back, or swim back!” We’ve got to keep coming back to our marker where we went into the water. If we don’t keep coming back, we’re just going to drift further and further and further away.

It’s the same in our lives. I remember one day I was swimming with a friend. We were there together, and that day, we were at Laguna Beach in Panama City, Florida. There was a strong, strong riptide. My, I think it’s the strongest one that I’ve ever felt down there. Because I’m not challenged with the pounding waves like I’m used to, back in New Zealand and Australia, and it’s more quiet here. “So, I’ll just float on the gentle waves.”

But this time, when I began to float, wow! I was being carried away! It was unbelievable! I said to my friend Katie, “Hey! Why don’t we just go for a ride?” We lay out and floated and let this riptide take us! It took us right down, down, down, down, down. It was so glorious! We’re taken down like a sailing boat although we were only floating with this incredible, strong riptide.

Eventually, we thought, “Help! How far are we getting away? We’d better get out!” We got out, and it took us about half an hour to walk back to where we got in the water. It certainly didn’t take us that long to get down! We just ripped down there on this riptide. It was so fantastic, but we had to have a big walk back.

The further we let the tide take us, the harder, and often the more difficult it is to get back. The best idea is to not let ourselves drift! But that we keep coming back, keep watching to see where we are, that we are not just floating further and further away.

Well, there’s always that tide taking us away. But at this time, at this time in our society, I think we are facing a really strong riptide. It’s taking people down the current of destruction, and down the current of deception very, very quickly. Things are happening quickly. They are even changing our language quickly. It is amazing.

Most of you are aware, I am sure, that they have now changed already the dictionary meaning of the word “woman.” Most dictionaries all had a similar meaning for the word “woman.” The Johnson’s Dictionary said, “the female of the human race.”

The Cambridge Dictionary, a very popular dictionary, called, past tense, a woman “an adult female human being.” But last year, on the 27^th of October, 2022, they have now added a new meaning of the word “woman”: “An adult who lives and identifies as female, though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth.”

BUY UP OLD DICTIONARIES

Now they are including a transgender meaning of the word “woman.” This is now printed in the dictionary. I would encourage you, dear ladies, to make sure you buy up a few old dictionaries. When you’re homeschooling your children, it’s good for them all to have their own dictionaries. Dictionaries are wonderful things. We constantly need to be looking up and learning new words. Each child needs their own dictionary.

But I would caution you now about buying any updated dictionary. I haven’t checked them all, but we know especially, the Cambridge has already changed, and others will be following suit, we know for sure. I think it would be a good idea, when you’re looking in a Goodwill store, second-hand store, a place where they have second-hand books, just look for some older dictionaries. Buy them up for your children so that you make sure you’re not going to have these deceptive dictionaries in your home. Amen?

They’re changing so many words. You’ve heard, of course, that they now want to call “mothers” “birthing people.”

What do they call the mutilating of our precious young people and children, who only have to mention that they don’t know whether they’re a boy or a girl, and they’re confused? Immediately they’re taken into counseling, and then appointments with doctors to change them physically into the opposite sex. And what do they call that? “Gender affirming care.”

Such a beautiful euphemism. Such a lovely phrase. Sounds so beautiful, to describe something so horrific, of the mutilating of these young people and children’s bodies.

Now, what do they call “abortion”? “Reproductive health care.” They are changing the language to make it sound so nice, so lovely, when it is actually horrific. The word for “abortion” is “murder.” It is the outright killing of a precious child being formed in the image of God. An eternal soul that is growing in the womb, for this life, and for eternity.

So, dear ladies, we have got to watch, even in our language, that we don’t drift to this language they are bringing in. We must not give in! In fact, recently, my husband and I were listening to a preacher, Pastor Ray McCullum, speaking into what is happening in our nation today. It was so powerful.

THE SAME LANGUAGE

He was speaking about the building of the Tower of Babel, and how we all know that, at that time, they all spake the same language. You see, language has such power. For anything to happen, to change a nation, to change culture, they’ve got to get everybody speaking the same. So, they’re bringing all these new words, these deceiving phrases, into our vocabulary. They’re becoming more and more part of the vocab of this current culture. They want people speaking the same language.

Of course, we know what God did. He came in, and He confused the languages, and sent them all out into the world. That is not God’s plan. In fact, how did they build the Tower of Babel? They built it with bricks. Yes, did you get that? Bricks. Bricks have to be all made the same. They have to be uniform. They have to fit together.

That was the first incidence we read of a new world order of bringing in total tyranny. They had to make it with bricks. That’s what they are trying to do today, they want to make bricks. They want to make us all think the same, speak the same language, conform us to their way of thinking.

I REFUSE TO BE A BRICK

But listen, ladies. The only way that they can actually influence you is if you become a brick! You don’t have to become a brick, you know. I refuse to become a brick! Because God builds with living stones. That’s what He tells us in 1 Peter 2:5, “As living stones,” and that’s what God builds with.

Even back in Exodus 20:25, God is talking to His people there about building altars. He said, “You can build Me an altar of earth, where you could worship Me and listen to what I have to say to you, but if you want to build an altar of stones, you must never get these stones and cut them into uniform things. No. You’ve got to take them as they are.”

“If you use stones to build My altar, use only natural uncut stones. Do not shape the stones with a tool, for that would make the altar unfit for holy use.”

As God build us as living stones, He is the One Who shapes us into His image. But He does not start with something that’s already been cut and made uniform. He starts with the original, with the uniqueness, and that’s the wonderful thing about the Body of Christ. Every member is unique and different and special. Yet we’re all fitted into this beautiful building. But we’re not bricks! We are living stones.

HOLD ON FAST TO TRUTH

So, ladies, we have got to hold on, hold on to the truth.

I love Revelation 3:11: “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Hold it fast.

Job 27:6: “My righteousness I hold fast, and I will not let it go.” Don’t you love that?

We’ve got to get our convictions strong, get our affirmations strong. I love affirmations, don’t you? Get some good affirmations and speak them out and hold onto them. Hold onto God’s Word. Memorize His Word so you can speak that out.

God’s testimony of Job, what did God say about Job? “Job holdeth fast his integrity.” He was speaking to Satan at the time. “Although thou movest me against him, to destroy him without cause.” And yet God said to Satan: “He holds fast his integrity” (Job 2:3).

Proverbs 4:13: “Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her for she is thy life.”

So, ladies, I want to talk to you about this. About holding on, holding fast, not letting the truth go, not letting it slip away, not allowing ourselves to drift with the current of this society! Oh, no, let’s be those who hold fast.

Well, there are going to be many things that we will talk about as we hold fast and transmit them to the next generation, because if we don’t hold them fast, how will we pass them on to the next generation? They’ve got to be, not just something, “Oh, well, yeah, I believe that.” No, we’ve got to strongly believe it. It has to be a strong conviction, so much so that we are so desperate to get it into the HEARTS and MINDS and LIVES and MOUTHS of our children and the generations to come.

Yes, and this is what God wants us to do. I often quote this Scripture to you and I want to give it to you again, because it is so powerful. It’s God’s mandate to parents.

And He says, in Isaiah 59:21: “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the Lord; 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.”

Do you get it? We’re not mothering just for today. We’re mothering for tomorrow. We’re mothering for, not only our children, but our children’s children, and their children, “Henceforth and forever, says the Lord.” And it’s more than getting it into their hearts, which we must do. We have to get it into their mouths so they are speaking it out. Amen?

LEAD YOUR CHILDREN TO JESUS WHEN THEY ARE YOUNG

We’d better start, of course, at the beginning. We always start with first things first. I do believe that the first thing that we should be concerned about as we’re passing on God’s truths to the next generation is to lead each of our children to Jesus at a young age. Yes, I said “a young age.”

I find that it is amazing, even in Christian homes, that many children are not born again until maybe later in their age group. But I believe that God wants our children to come to know Him at an early age. Now, this can happen in a Christian home.

It won’t happen in a non-Christian home. I believe that every child is born with something of the light of God in them (John 1:9). In a Christian home, that light is going to be fueled and fed. It’s going to grow more and more. In a non-Christian home, that light can be stamped out. It will always be there, but it can be stamped out so that, oh, goodness me, nobody would know it was there.

But in a Christian home, a godly home, where the Word of God is being read daily in the home, and dear ladies, dear precious mothers, the Word of God shall be read daily in our homes. Well, I know you know that and I’m sure that that’s what is happening in your home.

But let’s look again at 2 Timothy 3:14, 15: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Now, we know that Timothy learned from his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice, as they taught him the ways of God. We read that in 1 Timothy 1:5: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”

Do you notice what it says there? “From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.” When did he begin to learn the Scriptures? When he was getting at an age of learning? Oh, no. Even before that. From a little babe. Now, that word “child” there in that Scripture is the Greek word brephos. That word can mean a baby in the womb.

Actually, that’s a word that was used when Jesus was in the womb. That is the same word that was used.

It’s used of a little baby. That word was actually used again, of Jesus, when he was a little babe, and they found him as a babe in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. “The babe,” it was brephos. It can mean a baby in the womb, a baby that is just born, or a little toddler, or a child.

I believe that Timothy was hearing the Word of God, maybe even while he was in the womb of his mother Eunice. Right from the womb! Dear lovely ladies, we can begin to put the Word into our children right from the womb! The last three months of pregnancy, the baby can hear, even in the womb. As you are sitting close to your husband and he’s reading the Word to you, and to the family, your little babe in the womb can hear this Word.

When the little baby is born, and you’re nursing your baby, you’re having your family devotions, and your husband is reading the Word, and you’re sitting there by him, you’re nursing your baby. Your baby is hearing. Now, your baby doesn’t understand, but it’s hearing the Word. The Word of God is not a normal book. It is alive. It is powerful. It is active. And that Word is going into the very being of your little babe. Even as your little one gets a little older, that Word, that Word is going in. Understanding can come at a very early age, yes, quite an early age.

I have a little book here. It’s called How to Have a Family Altar by Norman Williams. It’s out of print but it’s an amazing little book. You can actually find it on the internet and download it for free. Look out for it.

But he says in this book, “A child of three months is too young to understand Galatians 5:22-23, but he’s not too young to enjoy it. The greatest secret of shaping the life of the child from day one to six years of age is to make Galatians 5:23-23,” (that’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit), “the very spirit and life of your home. Then your child will literally feed on the love of God, both emotionally and spiritually. He will absorb that out of his environment, which will make him emotionally and spiritually healthy and strong.”

He goes on to say, “Our aim is to lead our children to Christ as soon as possible. Many parents object that a four-month-old baby is too young to understand the Word of God. Therefore, they reason he should not hear it. But God’s Word says: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Your duty, dear parent, is to let your baby hear the Word of God. Somehow, by the action of the Holy Spirit through the Word, that child will receive faith. Babies have ears to hear with. They have hearts to believe with.”

Again, in another part, he says, “The parent’s great privilege during the first six years is to make his child acquainted with Christ as his Maker, and his loving Friend. Before the child is three-and-a-half, he should be saved, and know that Christ made him and loves him. The child should learn to lovingly speak the Name of Jesus right along with the name of Daddy and Mommy.”

That’s pretty interesting. Do you mean to say that at three-and-a-half, a child could be born again? And come to know Jesus? Well, not every child is going to do that at that age, but there are some who will. And I believe the more that little babe, that little toddler, that little child hears the Word of God, the more they become ready to receive, because faith is built up in their heart as they hear.

What does it say in our Scripture, 2 Timothy 3:15? That the Holy Scriptures are able to make them “wise unto salvation.” I remember when my beautiful granddaughter Breezy, yes, Breezy is 13 now. You would think that she was maybe 18 or 25. She’s grown so tall. She looks so much older. She is so mature for such a beautiful young lady.

But I remember when she was three, and I remember, we were having family devotions. She was staying with us at the time. It was just amazing; the anointing and the presence of God came. My husband could see it all over Breezy. The presence of God was all over her.

He said to her, “Breezy, would you like to ask Jesus to come into your life?” And she said, “Yes!” She prayed this prayer after my husband. It was amazing. She went around singing. Oh, the next few days, she’d be making up songs and singing about Jesus in her life. It was so real and amazing! And she is still walking with Jesus today. Oh, I just love it when Breezy’s in the prayer meeting! Because in our prayer meetings, we don’t just have adults. We have the children. She’s only 13, but my, prays a long, powerful prayer just like any adult.

Just as I close, and at this point maybe I should share about some of our own children, just some of their testimonies. Let me see. Because I have these written down. The reason I have them written down is because when I was writing, it was quite a number of years ago, the book Gatekeepers of the Home, How to Guard Your Home, which you can get off the Above Rubies store. Go to aboverubies.org, and you can pick it up there.

This is a wonderful manual on how to guard your home. I take it from Nehemiah 3, where Nehemiah was building up the 12 gates of Jerusalem. Each one has a name. Every one has a powerful meaning. I relate them to the gates of our homes. But nothing in the Word of God is haphazard. Everything is perfect. Everything has meaning.

Nehemiah started at the Sheep Gate. That’s powerful. He started there. God orchestrated that he would start there, because what does the Sheep Gate speak of? The Sheep Gate is where they brought the sheep in through that gate, ready to be sacrificed. Every day there was the morning sacrifice, and the evening sacrifice of the lamb, all pointing to the Lamb of Calvary, who would one day die for our sins. The Sheep Gate speaks of the beautiful picture of salvation, and Christ, Who became the Lamb of God.

This is where we start in our homes, dear lovely ladies. We start at the Sheep Gate. We start bringing our children to Jesus, to the Lamb of God, who is able to save them.

When I was talking and writing about the Sheep Gate, I thought, “Wow! I’d better check out on my own children!”

So, I called each one of them and said, “Tell me, can you remember when you actually came to know Jesus?” It was so great to hear from them.

Pearl was five years old.

Let’s see, Evangeline was four years old. Evangeline is 57 years of age today. I’m going to read you her testimony that she shared with me. This was at four years of age. She’s 57 today, and still walking closely with the Lord from that moment of this happening at four years of age. So, I’ll share her little testimony. Maybe a couple of the others in our next session next week.

She said, “God saved me at four years of age. Even today, it is still the most vivid and powerful experience of my life. I was lying in bed. I still remember the orange bedspread cover. My mother came into my room and said, “Stephen has just asked Jesus to come into his life! Would you like to, also?”

At that moment, the world stopped, and the fight between the powers of darkness and heaven began. My whole body was shaking. With all my heart, I wanted to ask Jesus into my life. But the pull from Satan was so strong! “No, no, no!” The voice of Satan pulled at my heart. The struggle was powerful! Eventually I said, “Yes. Yes!” With all my heart!

I followed my mother in prayer, asking Jesus to come into my life. At that moment I knew God. I experienced the reality of God. He came into my life and filled me. He opened my mind to Him. I was saved for life. No turning back. I have known His powerful presence in my life ever since. Instantly I felt peace. Instantly I was not afraid of the big owl outside my room, or of anything. I’ve never been afraid of anything from that day.”

And so, there it was, four years of age! But now today, she is still walking with the Lord as closely as ever. Oh, I believe God wants to get the hearts of our children at a young age. Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You with all our hearts for the way You teach us, the way You show us the way. Lord God, we pray that You will save us from drifting, drifting, Lord God, into the ways of this current culture. Oh, God, help us to be those who stand strong and hold fast that which we have, that no man takes our crown. We ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 242: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 14B

Epi242pic LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 242: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 14B

Our last session in this series, and we continue last week’s subject. What are your plans for Saturday or Sunday? How much time do you give to God on your set-apart day? One hour? Two hours? Or the whole 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 discussion of last podcast, about what do we do on the day we set apart for God? Some lovely ladies listening are those who keep the Sabbath and then there are others who keep Sunday. We’re not talking about which day, but what do we do on the day that we set apart for the Lord?

I had just a few more thoughts that I thought I would share with you. Last week we talked about it being a day of rest, and refreshing, and reviving of our spirits. Also, that it was not only a day of rest, but a day of rest. It’s not an hour when we go to church for an hour, or couple of hours, but a day. I think that we have gotten away from that concept of this day being a day set apart for God.

I’m thinking back to that famous old movie. I wonder if you saw it? It came out in 1981, so that’s about 42 years ago, Chariots of Fire. Did any of you see it? It’s a marvelous movie showing this guy, Eric Liddell, who went to the Olympic Games. He was a believer and did not believe in doing sports on Sunday.

But his final race was going to be on Sunday. He refused to run it, and although he was set to be the winner of, I think it was 100 yards, he did not go ahead. He stood his ground because he was committed to keep this as a day unto the Lord. Instead, he had to run in another race; I think it was the 400, which he won, although it wasn’t even his race. God honored him. But it’s an amazing movie and worth watching. Something to show your children.

We were mentioning about how some people are not actually committed to a church fellowship. I do believe that is so important, whether we are keeping the Sabbath, or keeping Sunday. We should be committed to the people of God.

Did you know that in the New Testament, the word “church” is mentioned 118 times? The word “synagogue,” where the Jewish people worshipped, is mentioned 57 times. We see how they were committed to a church. The word “church” is ekklesia. It means, “a Christian community of members on earth; an assembly; a congregation.”

We know that church is not a building. The church is the people. Yes, it’s an assembly of people. But the only way it can be an assembly of people is if we assemble! Yes, we have to assemble. Of course, that takes an effort.

That comes back to us as mothers, doesn’t it? We are the ones who really make it happen. We’ve got to even start thinking about it the night before. Preparing clothes to get everyone ready for going to meet with the people of God. Especially with children, we need to make sure that we’ve got all their special clothes ready for Sunday.

I think we should wear special clothes for Sunday, don’t you? That was always traditional. If we go back to the Word of God we read of how the priests had to change their clothes when they went into the Holy Place and before they came out. They didn’t wear the clothes they wore around in the Holy Place. They had to change into their priestly clothes.

I think when we’re coming to meet with God, we show respect. We show reverence when we dress nicely. Back in my day, we used to have what was called “our Sunday best.” Have you ever heard that little phrase, “Sunday best”? We didn’t have so many clothes in those days, so you had one set of clothes that was for Sunday. That was special for Sunday.

Today, we have so many clothes. I just went up to Goodwill the other day, and I couldn’t believe it. Everything was so cheap and then you could have half-price day. You can buy clothes for a couple of dollars, three dollars, maybe four at the most. Lovely clothes. You could actually have quite a big wardrobe these days and you’re not really spending much at all. It is different.

But I don’t, oh, please, lovely mothers, we have to watch our girls as they’re growing up. We live in this world where the fashion is not founded on godly principles. It’s founded on the spirit of the world. I don’t believe that it’s right for our daughters to wear jeans to church.

Jeans aren’t church clothes. They don’t belong to church, nor do any kind of pants belong to church. And yet there are some who will even wear, I don’t know what you call them, these totally knit skin-tight pants, which are so revealing. You might as well be naked. Clothed but naked, because you can still see every little nook and cranny and line. These are not church clothes.

Then we come to summertime. You want to go to church to worship God, and you’d think you were going to the beach! And here’s not only girls, but even older women, with shoulders bare. No, we don’t wear bare shoulders to church. We don’t wear clothes that show cleavage to church. We don’t wear short dresses to church. I believe they should be at least, minimum, to the knee when going to church.

You see, we are a holy people. God says: “I am holy; be ye therefore holy.” Well, it’s bad enough wearing those kinds of clothes around, let alone to church! It’s time we lifted the standard for church. Mothers, it starts with us. What are we wearing to church? Do we have a lovely dress for church? That is modest, feminine, lovely? We’re going to the house of God. We’re going amongst His holy people. We should be making it a holy place.

That’s another thing that it is called in Leviticus 23:2. God says: “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath rest, a holy convocation.” The word “convocation” in the Old Testament (I was talking to you about the New Testament. The word ekklesia is used 118 times, and that is “an assembly, a gathering together of God’s people.”

We go back to the Old Testament, and guess what, ladies? Sometime back I was doing a study on the word “assembly.” I found 12 different Hebrew words that mean “the assembling of God’s people.” Here’s one of them: “convocation.” It’s the word miqra. It means “a public meeting, something which has been called out, an assembly.” It’s a holy convocation, a holy assembly.

On the day that we set apart for God, we are to meet in a holy assembly. Therefore, we’d better be wearing clothes that are holy. Yes, they don’t have to be drab and boring, because as God told them when He was talking about the priests’ clothing, He said they were to be holy clothes, but also for glory and for beauty (Exodus 28:2).. We wear holy clothes, but beautiful clothes.

Talking about these different words for “assembly,” I’m not going to give you all the words, but we just looked at one there in the context of the Sabbath day, the holy “convocation.” That word is used, let me see how many times? Yes, 23 times that particular word is used for the assembling of God’s people in the Old Testament.

AN APPOINTED TIME

Here’s another one: Exodus 30:36. God is talking about how “in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee.” The word “congregation” is moed. It also means, “an assembly, a place of meeting, a congregation,” and it also means, ladies, actually this is the first meaning, “an appointment, a fixed time.” This word for “assembly” is used 223 times in the Old Testament.

If you go to the Strong’s Concordance, the first part of the meaning is “an appointed time.” Isn’t that interesting? Yes. I believe that we have an appointed time to meet with the saints. They had appointed times when God wanted them to meet back in the Old Testament. But now, we’re living in our day, and we also have appointed times. Different churches start at different times. Some start at ten in the morning, some at eleven. Some have it in the afternoon; some at different times.

So, whatever your church has, that’s the “appointed time.” And once again, I do believe we should try to get there by the appointed time, because this is biblical. This is biblical, precious ladies. These are little practical things we’re talking about on this day that we set aside for God.

We, as mothers, we were talking about the clothing. We have to get the clothing ready for our little ones. Yes, because, “OK, go and get ready, Johnny.” And poor little Johnny can’t find his socks and he can’t find his shirt. Then “Susie, are you getting ready?” But she can’t find whatever she has to wear. Then maybe they all come out in the wrong clothes. You have to organize the clothes.

Of course, even from your little ones, dear ladies. I was noticing, just been noticing lately, how most children today, most children are clothed in pants and jeans and so on. That’s the clothing of today. Somewhere along the way, mothers have just fitted into the clothing of our worldly society. Now they come to church, yes, even our fellowship. Children! They’re in pants, they’re in jeans, coming to church.

But that’s not their fault. It’s mothers. The mothers are dressing little ones. The mothers are dressing them in these clothes. They are dressing them like this, even to come to church. We’ve lost this along the way, ladies. It’s time we brought a greater reverence and respect into the house of God, which is the assembling of His people. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a house church, or a great big church, or a cathedral. Whatever it is, it’s not the building, it is the assembling. But in the assembling, we come dressed appropriately.

So, the night before, we are checking out for our little ones, their clothes. We have them ready for them to get up and get dressed into so that we’re not screaming around, trying to find things. We are preparing to be ready for the appointed time.

I know some mothers who have found that on Saturday night, they will put their clock, their watch, their whatever, they will put it an hour ahead, or a half an hour ahead, so that when they’re looking at the time, they think, “Oh, wow, OK.” And then, “Wow,” they can get to church early, or on time, because usually it’s so easy to be late. But they can eventually, actually, get there on time if they set their watch ahead, although a lot don’t even wear watches today. But whatever you use for your timing.

It is an appointed time. In that same Scripture, it says: “In the tabernacle of the congregation.” That’s the word for the “appointed time,” the assembling of His people. “Where I will meet with thee.” There is another word. “Meet” is another Hebrew word for “assembly.” It means, once again, “an appointed time, to meet at a stated time, to summon an assembly together.” It has both meanings, once again, of assembling together, but at an appointed time, at a stated time. Wow!

Now, I’m not making all this up, ladies. It’s just the Word. I think we have to be reminded of the Word, don’t we? We have to come back to His Word. We get away from it. I can see how much I have got away from things; how we lived in the early days.

Even in my lifetime, which is like a blink of my eye, as I said before, was it last session? I lived in the days when not only every Christian family set aside their day unto the Lord, but even the secular. They may not have been doing it unto the Lord, but they had to have that day, because no shops were open. They couldn’t do much on that day. No sports, no shops, no nothing. Well, now, of course, there’s everything. Just a reminder about it’s not just a day of rest, it’s a day of rest.

OK. We’re not only getting ready to go and meet with the people of God. We’re getting the clothes ready. We’re encouraging our teen daughters, that they will wear something lovely and beautiful to church. We’re showing them that church is a special thing, and such a wonderful privilege, and the greatest day of the week, where we say, “Oh, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1). That should be our attitude.

A DAY FOR GOD AND A DAY FOR HIS PEOPLE

Then what are we going to do? Come home, and “OK, we’re home! Throw off all our church clothes and let’s get out! We’ll go to this sport, or we’ll do this, or go to this entertainment! Or we’ll just turn on the TV and watch sports!” That’s what happens in many homes. Dear ladies, it’s not just church. It’s a day. A day. A day. A day for God, and a day for His people.

A WONDERFUL DAY FOR HOSPITALITY

I think it’s the most wonderful day for hospitality. All throughout our lives, we have done one thing or the other. If the church that we have been involved in does not have a fellowship meal after the service, well, we will come home and bring guests with us. For many years, pastoring in New Zealand, and then Australia, this was actually what we did. We showed hospitality.

We would invite families, and young people, and whoever, home to have a meal with us. Oh, it is such a beautiful thing, ladies. It’s sort of a let-down to come home from being in the presence of God and with the people of God, and just come home, and you’re on your own. It’s boring!

Oh, I can remember one time. Oh, we had families every Sunday. Some Sundays we’d end up with about 30 people around. They couldn’t fit around our table, so we’d have people around our big table. Then our children would have friends sitting around somewhere else, and so on. I can remember one time thinking, “Oh, goodness me! I just think I need a rest!” So, I said to my husband, “Darling, let’s just not ask anybody next Sunday. Let’s just have the day to ourselves.”

So, we did. We didn’t ask anybody. We came home to, you know what? It was the most boring Sunday of our lives. We came home. We looked at each other. There’s no one else to talk to. The children were bored out of their brains, so we never did it again! Ever. We’ve always invited people.

Well, the logistics of this have been different also in different countries. Back in New Zealand, where it’s a sheep country, a typical New Zealand meal is roast lamb. Well, it’s not really roast lamb. It’s roast hogget or roast mutton, because we export our lamb. We would eat either the hogget, which is a year-old lamb, or we’d eat one that is older and bigger, which can feed more people.

So, I would put on a big roast of mutton, that’s an older sheep, in the oven, and put potatoes, pumpkin, kumara (that’s our New Zealand sweet potato) around the meat. It would be slowly cooking while we were at church. Yes, I did have the element on, but it was on pretty low. We’d cook it low and slow, long and slow. It would be cooking, and I would have frozen peas ready. I would have a salad made, and maybe something else. That was all prepared the day before.

Then, when we came home, we would often get hot bread from the shop on the way home, because that’s what you could do. I’ve always made our homemade bread, but we allowed our children to have hot white bread on Sundays. Oh, they thought it was amazing! Of course, now, we’ve got shops open on Sundays. So, we would buy hot bread and bring it home.

Some people would come and not bring anything. Others would also bring something. And somehow, we would feed everybody. Then we moved to Australia. Well, now I just couldn’t get my big legs or shoulders of roast lamb, or hogget, over there. It was too expensive.

I would, usually the night before, or early that morning, I would cook up a great big pot of chili, or something like that, that would feed a multitude. And once again, have a salad ready. Once again, we’re bringing loaves of hot bread home from the shop, loads of it. Everybody loved hot bread. So, we would do that and feed all the people that came. Oh, it was so glorious and wonderful! Fellowship with God’s people is so amazing!

I remember in our church in New Zealand, we encouraged everyone to show hospitality, because the Bible says, “Show hospitality to one another” (1 Peter 4:9). It’s biblical. It’s part of the lifestyle of the kingdom of God. It was the lifestyle of the early church. They not only did it once a week, they did it daily. They met daily in their homes the Bible tells us in Acts 2. We would encourage everyone to show hospitality. They learned as they came into our homes, and “Wow! This is so great!”

So, they began asking people into their homes. And then, it became a problem, because unless you called somebody during the week, if you were just asking someone there on Sunday, you wouldn’t be able to find anybody to ask home, because everybody had already been asked home! Oh, what a glorious church where everybody was showing hospitality to one another!

Well, now, we are doing it differently. And here, currently, we have church in our home out here on the Hilltop. It’s called The House of Prayer. But it’s not really a little lounge church, because we have our big Above Rubies packaging room. We can fit up to 100 people in this room, which such a glorious blessing.

CHURCH IS TOGETHERING

After our service here on the Hilltop, we have fellowship meal. And this is also such a blessing! Oh, it’s such a blessing because we can fellowship with one another. Church is not just coming to sit and listen to a message and go home. No, it is one-anothering! It’s togethering with God’s people.

So much of the blessings of being together is when we’re sitting talking over the meal. You begin to find out, oh, where the people really are. What are their needs? And what are their visions? What are their passions? What is happening in their lives? What are things we can do together? Oh, goodness me, every Sunday is so amazing! Even in just doing that, I still don’t get time to talk to everyone! But at least everyone can be talking with different people.

And the children can go out to play. They have fellowship. The young people have fellowship, and then they can play volleyball together and hang out. Play soccer together. Many families hang out right until the late afternoon. So, it is a togethering, an assembling with the people of God. That is just how He intends it to be. I think we’ve got to get into our heart that it’s not just going to church. It is a day unto the Lord. Also, a day for His people.

And then when you’re not with His people, you will find the things that you want to do as unto the Lord and to delight yourself in Him. For we are to delight in that Sabbath Day, or the day that we keep unto the Lord.

And another thing about it, it is a holy day. Yes, I did mention that when we were talking about, what are we wearing to church? What are our children wearing to church? Make sure the clothes are appropriate for a holy day.

Isaiah 58:13-14: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,” like, “Oh, OK, let’s go to the zoo today!” Or “Such a beautiful day! Why don’t we have a picnic?” No. “Nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

Do you notice there, God calls it “My holy day”? Yes. Then, He also calls it “the holy of the Lord.”

The Knox translation says, “Walk warily. Keep My Sabbath unprofaned. It is a day I have sanctified, not for thy self-pleasing. A precious thing the Lord has made, holy and honorable.”

Now the word “holy day” is the word kadash. That’s the Hebrew word for “holy” in the Old Testament. It means “apartness, holiness, sacredness, uncommonness, withheld from ordinary use.” We see that it is a day that’s set apart, a day that is unto the Lord, because the word “holy,” kadash, actually means “set apart.” It’s not the sort of thing, “Oh, yes, that’s a holy person.”

No, “holiness” means a set-apart person, so a “holy day” is a set-apart day. It’s a day when we don’t do things we do on other days. And then we will do things that we don’t do on those other days, like meeting with the people of God, and assembling for our church service. Also, fellowshipping and showing hospitality to the people of God. Also, maybe having more time to spend in His Word, or read and meditate on wonderful, wholesome books and commentaries, and learning more of His Word.

Actually, there are two words for “holy” in that Scripture. The “holy day” is kadash, and then, the “holy of the Lord” is kadosh, just slightly similar, meaning “sacred, ceremonially and morally selected, pure, holy, consecrated, separated to God’s service.” It’s a separation.

Exodus 19:6: “And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” That’s who we are. We are a holy nation, set apart unto God, and we keep a holy day, whether we keep it Saturday or Sunday. And we keep it holy unto the Lord, a day that we keep holy unto the Lord. Amen?

Oh, wow! I just hope you’ve got that. Actually, I’ve got another couple of verses here that really speak to me. Oh, goodness me, I can’t believe where we’ve come to! I notice here in Exodus 16:29. Here it’s talking about the seventh day. On the sixth day, they had to go out, and they had to pick up the double portion. But on the seventh day they were not allowed to.

“Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:29). In other words, don’t go out to find the food because there won’t be any there! Wow! I have to, oooh, repent, because I have got, wow, I have gone out and purchased on Sunday, because now all the shops are open!

And then I read in Nehemiah 10:31: “And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath day.” My, I should have read that verse before, because when was it? Sunday night! We went out to get some groceries. Wow! But then, of course, the Sabbath is actually from sundown to sundown. So, we did go out in the evening. But I could have gone in the afternoon, not even thinking! Wow!

Really, I’m not keeping up with really what God’s heart is for the day that we set apart unto Him. Because it’s just so easy to fall into the secular world, isn’t it? But we don’t belong to the secular world. We’re set apart unto God. My! Am I really going to do this? I am challenged. Yes.

No. 15. YOU MUST PASS THIS GOOD LAND ON TO YOUR CHILDREN

Oh, I might get a little bit late, but I just want to finish up, because if I tell you number 15, we have finished this series! Can you believe it? Number 15, of WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO IN THE LAND. You must pass this good land to your children.

Deuteronomy 1:8: “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed [children] after them.”

This land of motherhood that we are embracing, that we are living in, is not just for us and our children now. It’s for our children’s children, and our children’s children’s children, and the generations to follow. We have got to pass on this truth, and His ways, to the next generation.

Deuteronomy 12:28: “Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee forever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.”

We read in 1 Chronicles 28:8: “Seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you forever.”

Jeremiah 7:6-7: “If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.”

Dear precious ladies, we have already lost so much that God wants us, as mothers, to pass on to our children and the next generation. We are responsible to pass it on to our children so they will pass it on to their children. Can we do that? Oh, may God save us from dropping the baton to the next generation.

I’m now going to start a new series next week, calling it “We Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation.” We’re going to talk about some of the things we need to be passing on—God’s truth, many practical ways, even things in regards to etiquette and protocol which are being lost to this generation. So many things we’ve got to keep passing on. We’re going to talk about some of them.

So, let’s pray.

“Lord God, dear Father, help us to be lovers of Your precious Word, always seeking Your truths, seeking Your ways, that we will walk in Your ways, not to walk in the ways of the world, but, Lord God, You have chosen us to be a set-apart people unto You.

“You have even chosen us to have a day that’s set apart unto You, a day, Lord God. Oh, help us, Lord, to not just give an hour or two, but to give this whole day to You, a day that we choose to set apart unto You. And that You will be first in our lives, and in the lives of our children, and in the lives of our succeeding generations. We ask it in the precious 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.

"A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman,
who is he who can find her?
She is far more precious than jewels and her
value is far ABOVE RUBIES or pearls ."
Proverbs 31:10

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 246: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 4

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 245: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 3

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 244: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 2

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 243: Mothers Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation, Part 1

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 242: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 14B

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