A prayer for the church from Charles Spurgeon:
Your home is God’s gift to you, whether it is a little home or a large home. God created the home for the woman before he brought her into the world. He had the home waiting for her. Eve woke up to life in the place God created for her. The Garden of Eden means “delight.”
Make sure that everything you believe and teach your children lines up with God’s word.
Are you giving your children daily doses of God’s word?
Ccontinue lifting up the powerful name of Jesus, the name that has power over all the works of the enemy.
A mother has the one job in the world where an adequate replacement cannot be found!
We talked yesterday about the joyful mother. Sadly, this seems to be the opposite testimony of many mothers today. They look downcast. They are overwhelmed. They are full of self-pity. They moan and groan. Where has the joy gone?
“Hope is the most powerful force in the universe. With hope you can inspire nations to greatness. With hope you can raise up the downtrodden. With hope you can ease the pain of unbearable loss. Sometimes all it takes is one person to make a difference.”
From “MAKE YOUR BED – LITTLE THINGS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE . . AND MAYBE THE WORLD!” by
~ Admiral William H. McRaven.
Did you read the post I wrote on January 9 called DUTY’S PATH? There are certain things in life that we have a duty to perform. But because they are duty, it does not mean they need to be drudgery. Duty is either a delight or a drudgery, depending on our attitude! Our aim should be to make every duty in life a delight!
The Greek word for duty in the New Testament is “opheilo” and means “to owe, to be morally obligated, pay the debt, express human and ethical responsibility, to fall in duty, it’s a must.”
It’s good to remind ourselves of duty in a general way, but the Bible mentions some things specifically, therefore we should take note of them. Let’s take a look:
1. SEXUAL INTERCOURSE FOR MARRIED COUPLES
Is this a duty? When God brought the first couple together, the first thing He told them was to be “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). That’s it! God’s ultimate plan. His first description of marriage. Therefore we owe it to one another.
1 Corinthians 7:3 calls it “due benevolence.” Now that doesn’t sound very romantic, does it? The Syriac version says “due love.” But let’s read it from a modern version: “The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. Do not deprive each other of sexual relations . . . “ (NLT).
The wonderful thing about this moral obligation in marriage is that although it’s considered a duty, God has created it to be a DELIGHT. God is amazing. Proverbs 5:19 describes it as “ravishing.” The full meaning of the Hebrew word is to be “enraptured, intoxicated, transported with delight, captivated, entranced, stealing away the senses.” How often should this happen? This Scripture tell us “at all times” and “always.”
There may be times in your marriage when you do not experience it as a delight. That’s when you move into “duty” mode. As you are faithful to do your duty, delight will come rolling back to you. It’s a divine law. It’s like the ebb and flow of the tide. Sometimes the tide goes out, but it is a universal law that tide always comes flowing in again.
Old Testament Scriptures Genesis 38:8; Exodus 21;10; and Deuteronomy 25:5, 7.
2. LOVE ONE ANOTHER
1 John 4:11 says: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought (opheilo, meaning duty) to love one another.” That means beginning in the home with our husband and family. That means those we don’t really like or who are not our type. That even means those who have spoken against us and treated us badly.
This word is used again in Romans 13:8 “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”
More points tomorrow.
Have a blessed day,
Nancy Campbell
Have you started off smiling this year? Smiling at your husband? Smiling at your children? Maybe things are not going according to your plans and you don’t feel like smiling! Smile anyway. Did you know that smiles don’t depend on circumstances? Your circumstances may not change but as you smile your attitude will! It will change the atmosphere of your home. The more you smile at your family, the more they will smile back at you! #smile #smileanyway #praisegodinallthings #smilingfamily #aboverubies #nancycampbell
Each new baby is born with the stamp of God upon them.
John 1:9 describes Jesus, who was God, being the true Light, “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Each person has an awareness of God for they are created in the “image and likeness” of God. They have a conscience. They have a knowingness of God.
Gerhard Eberling writes of “a spark of the Eternal implanted in the first human person and in all subsequent human progeny.”
This is the great blessing of children being born into a godly home. Godly parents will fan this flame. As you teach your children the ways of God and His Word the light increases. More understanding and revelation of God fills their lives.
That’s why children who are daily fed God’s Word can come to know Christ at an early age. They can be born again into God’s family while they are young. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15: “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.” Young children can receive Christ into their lives at three and four years of age.
Most of our children came to Christ at four years of age. They are in their fifties today and have never deviated from walking with God.
In an ungodly home where Jesus is never mentioned and His Word is never opened, this light can be dimmed and squelched. If it is an atheistic home, it may have a lot of water thrown on it. But the spark is always there. No human is exempt. Therefore, no matter how degraded the person, we can continue to witness to them of the truth of the gospel. The spark of light is waiting to be lit.
As parents, we keep fueling the light that God has put in our children. We want them to shine brightly. And we keep brining the gospel to children and adults who have no one to fan their flame.
When our children were small, we lived near a school. I used to have a Joy Time Club once a week and gather in children after school. I was able to share the gospel and teach God’s Word to up to 40 children each week.
Let’s keep lighting the flame.
Love from Nancy Campbell
What kind of aromas fill your home? Sweet or bad smells? The flesh gives off sour, bitter, grumpy, and horrible smells, doesn't it? They make everyone in the home feel bad and want to run! But Christ in us is a sweet-smelling savor, and He wants us to exude His sweet aroma throughout the home. Most husbands love fragrant perfumes (well, my husband does), but more than perfumes, we should constantly wear the perfume of Christ in our lives.
II Corinthians 2:14 (J. B. Phillip's translation) always challenges me: "We should have about us the unmistakable scent of Christ." What’s the fragrance in your home? Are your husband and children avoiding you or running to you?
(II Corinthians 2:14 (HCSB) says: “But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of Him in EVERY PLACE.” God wants us to be a “sweet” aroma in “EVERY PLACE.”
Every place includes our home! It means in the midst of what we are doing--when children are making us crazy, when our husband is rubbing us the wrong way, and when we are doing the mundane chores like changing dirty diapers!
Keep sweet.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Painting: The Swing Art by Morgan Frederick
Isn’t this so true? We all want these beautiful things in our homes. But they don’t just appear. We must work at them to make them happen. May your home be filled with order, beauty, contentment, and godliness. #homeblessings #orderinthehome #contentment #godliness #agodlyhome #ilovehome #aboverubies
The next question we need to ask is: “what are you teaching your children? It's easy to get into the mode of packing information into your children's brains, the more the better! But "information" is not education. "Right thinking" is education. Unless your children know how to think correctly, information won't do them a lot of good.
Right thinking comes from God's Word—even though it is often contrary to how society thinks and what is taught in the public education system. Isaiah 55:8, 9 says: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
To truly educate your children, you must give them the right foundation, which is GOD-THINKING, not humanistic thinking!
Are your children more accustomed to the thinking of our humanist, socialist society, or are they more familiar with God’s living and eternal words? Sadly, I find that most children and teens, even from homeschooling families, know very little of God’s Word. They don’t even know familiar Scriptures.
Your greatest teaching is what God thinks. Therefore, dear mother, what are you doing about it?
Love from NANCY CAMPBELL
P.S. Read these Scriptures again: Deuteronomy 6:5-9; 11:18-23; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-4; 119:97-99, 148; Isaiah 59:21; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 3:15; and 2 Peter 1:4.
d) CEDARS RESIST DECAY AND REPEL PESTS
This is another wonderful feature of the cedar. Perhaps you are having a self-pity trip and dreaming that you deserve someone better than your husband. Resist this evil thought in the name of Jesus! Perhaps you think you could do better on your own. Repel this deceiving thought in Jesus name! Resist all resentment and negative thoughts about your marriage. Because the devil hates marriage, he roams about seeking to devour your unon. Don’t be deceived by his seducing temptations.
A true marriage resists all evil. Hebrews 13:4 (NET) says: “Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled.” Refuse all flirtations with other men. Refuse all kinky sex. Keep the marriage bed pure and holy.
e) CEDARS ARE FRAGRANT
The cedar exudes a gum which gives off fragrance. Does your marriage exude fragrance like the cedar? I love the quote of John Piper: “There has never been a generation whose view of marriage is high enough.” Our marriages are sacred. Their purpose is to reveal the relationship of Christ and the church—of Christ who laid down His life for the church and the bride who submits to His Lordship. This is a “glorious” thing (Ephesians 5:27).
Can we allow God to work in us to make our marriages a glorious testimony to our families and to all around us?
Be blessed,
Nancy Campbell
Picture: From matrimonio.com.pe
How often do you practice hospitality? Our God is an hospitable God and He longs to reveal His hospitable and generous heart through us, His people. #hospitality #practicehospitality #loveinaction #aboverubies #nancycampbell
AboveRubies
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PO Box 681687
Franklin, TN 37068-1687
Phone : 931-729-9861
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True Christianity is a one-anothering lifestyle.
God's Word is the antidote to deception.