PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 339: DWELLING AND PLANTING

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 339: DWELLING AND PLANTING

God wants us to dwell in our homes and to be planted in our homes. Are you a planted mother, or a plucked-up mother?

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Here we are again, and we are talking about the seven things that God told His people to do while they were in Babylon. He didn’t want them to stop because they were no longer living in Israel. He wanted them to continue God’s Words and His plan that He has given us. They last for all generations. They don’t belong to just one generation. They are for all generations, from the beginning of time, right up to where we are living right now.

Last week we finished talking about building. But I would like to read you this little poem about building. It’s called “Tearing Down or Building Up?”

I saw them tearing a building down.

A team of men in my hometown.

With a heave, and a ho, and a yes, yes, yell,

They swung a beam, and a sidewall fell.

 

I said to the foreman, “Are these men skilled,

Like the ones you use if you had to build?”

He laughed and said, “Oh, no!”

These, the most common labor is all I need,

For I can destroy in a day or two

What it takes a builder ten years to do.

 

I thought to myself, as I went my way,

“Which one of these roles am I willing to play?

Am I one who is tearing down

As I carelessly make my way around?

Or am I one who builds with care,

To make the world better because I was there?”

 

That really applies to us, as mothers in our homes, doesn’t it, ladies?

I should talk to you about this, because we were talking in last session about how, when God was talking about our daughters, that He uses the word “construction,” and “to build.” In that Scripture in Psalm 144:12, I have found six different “P’s” that I think we should remember when raising our daughters. I will give them to you quickly.

No. 1: OUR DAUGHTERS SHOULD BE PIVOT OF THE HOME

Our daughters should be the pivot of the home. That “P” is not in the Scripture. It’s actually “cornerstones.” “Our daughters are like cornerstones.” The cornerstone is the most important part of the building. When a builder builds, he puts the cornerstone there, and everything takes its cue from that cornerstone. If he doesn’t have the cornerstone correct, well, everything will be askew. It’s the pivot. That’s the word I’m using for “P.” God wants our daughters trained to one day manage their own homes. They will be the pivot, the cornerstone of the home.

No. 2: OUR DAUGHTES ARE THE PATTERN FOR THE BUILDING

The word “pattern” is the word in the King James: “They are like the similitude.” It’s the Hebrew word which means “pattern, structure, construction.” We are now training our daughters so that when they build their own homes, they will build them according to the pattern that God has given. We’re training them to build according to the pattern, God’s pattern, the pattern that is in the Word of God, not what society does. No, but what God says.

I believe, mothers, I hope you're with me, that we’ve got to be get back to the Word. It’s so easy to just live our lives according to how everybody is doing it around us. But many times, if we really search the Word, we find that that’s not according to the Word at all.

I believe, and I seek to live my life, and I yet have so much to learn, but I want to live my life in every area, according to the pattern, according to what God says. I love that Scripture in Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” It’s how I want to live, according to what God says, according to the pattern.

No. 3: OUR DAUGHTERS ARE FASHIONED FOR A PALACE

It’s interesting that God puts them in the context of royalty, in the context of a palace. You may not live in a palace. I don’t live in a palace, but you know, even in the humblest home, we can make it into a palace, a place for the Presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. A palace is for a king. If we make our homes where the King of Kings is the most paramount One in our home, then we’re making it a palace.

Our children, yes, our children, our sons and our daughters, God wants our daughters to be in the context of royalty. We should encourage them to live like royalty, because they are daughters of the King of Kings. They’re not just to be common. They are royalty. And our sons, too.

 I love Psalm 45:16: “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.” Don’t you love that for your sons? Making them princes in all the earth.

Some other translations say that our daughters are:

“Carved to beautify a palace.”

“Our daughters, like corner pillars, carved to adorn a palace.”

The New English Translation: “Carved in the pattern of a palace.”

The Passion Translation: “Our daughters, with graceful beauty, royally fashioned as for a palace.”

We get the picture there, that God truly wants our daughters to live like royalty. That means we teach them to dress like royalty, and act like royalty, and speak like royalty, and sit like royalty, as they truly are daughters of the King of Kings.

No. 4: OUR DAUGHTERS ARE TO BE POLISHED

The pillars of the palace wall were always polished to brilliantly shine. We are polishing and readying our daughters for their wonderful task of one day managing their own homes and raising their own children.

No. 5: OUR DAUGHTERS ARE TO BE LIKE THE PILLARS OF A PALACE

 Our daughters are to be like the pillars of the palace. Pillars have to be strong, to hold up a palace. We’re training our daughters to be strong, not only physically, but spiritually and mentally and emotionally in every way.

I think training them to be emotionally strong is very important. Sometimes our children, as they get into their teen years, can become very emotional. Unless they’re grounded in truth and grounded in the Word of God. There’s something about the Word of God and truth that grounds a person.

If they have a foundation on which to live their lives, they’re not taken up with every emotion. Their thought life is getting way out somewhere and getting out of reality. There are times when we have to teach them how to keep their emotions and their minds in check and not get out of control. That’s a very important part of training our daughters.

Here are some other translations.

“Daughters of graceful beauty, like the pillars of a palace wall.”

“Our daughters, like upright pillars, fine wrought for a palace.”

“May our daughters be like stately pillars which adorn the corners of a palace.” We’re training them to be strong in every area of their lives, ready to be able to run a home, manage a home, raise children, build a strong and godly home in the nation.

The last one . . .

No. .6: OUR DAUGHTERS ARE TO LIVE LIKE PRINCESSES

Our daughters are to live like princesses because they are adorned for royalty. Therefore, they’re princesses. Isn’t it amazing? I’m sure, if you’ve got little daughters, that they love to dress up like princesses.

I’ve always had a dress-up box for my children and now my grandchildren. Whenever they come to dress up, they always dress up like princesses. There’s nothing else they want to be. Either a queen or a princess, or something like that. I don’t always have a lot of beautiful princess dresses. Many times, I just have old lace curtains, and beautiful material that I find. I put it there, and they become so creative in making themselves look like princesses.

That’s inherent within them. It’s amazing, isn’t it? As they grow older, and they begin to clothe themselves like society clothes them, they look the opposite to a princess. But they still, even when they get older, like to resort to being princesses.

We’ve just had, a couple of weeks ago, what we call “Breezy’s Ball.” Breeze is Serene’s daughter. When Breezy was only four years old, she loved to dance around like a princess. She was always dressed as a princess. Every day she would wear a princess dress, and she dreamed of marrying her prince, even when she was four years old.

Serene thought, “OK, for her fourth birthday, let’s have a ball! We’ll all come dressed as though we’re going to a ball.” It was just a family thing, but everyone in the family really rallied to it. They all came dressed so beautifully. The men dressed up like knights or princes. My, it was so amazing! It was the most amazing night. So, we decided to keep it going. Nobody else in the family has a ball, but we still have Breezy’s Ball.

Just the other week, we had Breezy’s fifteenth birthday, and we had Breezy’s Ball again. It was so interesting to note that all the girls, all the teenage girls, oh, they were dreaming of what they were going to wear and getting ready. They all came in their most beautiful, lovely long dresses that they could get hold of. The beautiful girls and ladies all dressed like princesses.

It was much bigger than when we started when she was four years old. We had it at the wedding barn, and it was packed out. It was an amazing night again. But it just showed me how, when we resort to our instinct, it’s the delight of a daughter, little or middling or big, to dress like a princess, like royalty. There we go.

No. 2: TO DWELL

We’re up to the second point. God says: “I want you to build houses, and two, I want you to dwell in them.” Now, isn’t that interesting that He has to say that? He could have just said, “Go and build houses,” and expect us to know what to do. But He actually said, “And dwell in them.”

Many people live in houses today. They come home and they sleep the night. But in many, many homes today, the homes are empty during the day. No one is home. Mom’s not home, children are all out in school. It’s an empty home. But a home is meant to be where everything is happening! A home is where a mother is meant to be, in the heart of her home, raising her children.

When God gives a picture of a family that is blessed, in Psalm 128:3, it talks about the wife being “a fruitful vine” in the heart of her home. The Hebrew word is yerekah, which literally means “in the recesses of the home.” Not out on the periphery, but in the recesses, in the heart of the home.

It’s interesting in the Geneva Bible, the way it is written for Titus 2, where it says that the young women are to be keepers at home. In the Geneva Bible, it says: “No gadding up and down.” We don’t use the word “gadding” very much in our society today. I’m wondering if you've even heard of that word. But “to gad about” means to go here, go there, go everywhere. You’re not at home. You’re running here, there, and everywhere. That’s how they translate it. “No gadding up and down.”

I think you know we have to get a vision for our home. It’s so sad. There are many mothers who love their children, but they’re not content in their home. They can’t wait to get out there in the career world, or just out. They want out of their home. But I believe the home should be where everything happens.

In fact, I made a little post recently. I’m going to read it. It says:

“Your home is not confining. Its vastness is as wide as the ocean, and as high as the heavens. The home is a birthing center, a mothering nurturing center, a training and education center, a praise and worship center, a prayer center, an eating center, a cultural development center, a social center, a hospitality center, a counseling center, a health center, an industry center, a garden center, and a convalescent center. There should be more joy, excitement, and productivity in the home than anywhere else in the whole of the world.”

Home is not a place that should be vacant. It should be filled with life, filled with children, filled with the aroma of food cooking, filled with productivity, filled with things happening. It can be the most exciting place on earth.

No. 3: PLANT GARDENS

Let’s move on, shall we? The third thing that God told them to do was to plant gardens. So practical, isn’t it? Amazing, and yet, ladies, did you hear that? This is a word from the Lord God of hosts. He’s not just saying it for nothing. No, this is God’s heart. He said: “I want you to plant gardens, and eat the fruit thereof.”

Did you know that God was the first gardener? God was the first at so many things, but He was also the first gardener.

Genesis 1:29: “And God said,” (after He had created the earth, He said) “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”

God intends us to have food that has the seeds in it so that we can continue to grow them. I believe the seed is so important. That’s why I don’t like to actually purchase watermelons without the seeds. A lot of people hate having those little black seeds. You’ve got to spit them out. They’ll buy seedless watermelons. But I never buy them. I believe that we need to have them how God creates them, with the seeds in them. Amen?

But then, after God created the man, back in Genesis 2:7, the next Scripture, verse eight, what do we read? The next thing that happened? “The Lord God planted a garden, eastward in Eden. There He put the man, whom He had formed.” We often just read over that Scripture and don’t really take much notice. But do you really hear what it says? “And God planted . . .”

How do you plant? You have to put your hands into the earth, to get the earth ready to put the seed in, and then put it in. Then you close up the earth over it. You’ve got to get your hands down there in it. That’s what God did. He planted. He got His hands into the earth that He had created.

A lot of ladies say to me, “Oh, I don’t have time to plant a garden.” Others say, “Well, really, I’ve got nowhere to plant a garden.” But dear ladies, a garden is part of a home. In fact, the first home, which was a type of all homes to come, was a garden home. If we have a home, and we don’t have a garden, especially a vegetable garden to eat from, we only have half a home. A whole home is a building to live in and a garden to eat from.

The first home was called the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Eden. The word “garden” came first, and the word “Eden” after that. The word Eden means “delight” in the Hebrew. It was a garden of delight. If we’re really going to get with it, and get with what the Bible says, we will plant a garden!

Yes, it takes effort to plant a garden. Oh, there have been some spring times when it’s the time to plant a garden. I don’t know, sometimes in the spring, the change of seasons, and you get the flu. I can remember a number of times getting the flu at the time when I should be planting the garden. I thought “Oh, I simply can’t do it this time.”

Then I thought, “Oh, no! I will miss out. I can’t bear not being able to go out and pick from my garden!” So, I’ve gone out, even feeling lousy, and planted the garden. Sometimes we just have to do things, even when we don’t feel like them.

Then others say, “Well, where can I plant? I just live in an apartment! I haven’t even got soil!” Just buy some tubs, and plant some herbs, or plant a tomato plant, or plant something in a tub! Put it on your veranda, or something. Just have even something of a garden, so you're doing what the Bible says. You’ve got a garden home, no matter what!

Even when we came here, of course, we’ve got a number of acres here. But there was nowhere to plant a garden. Up here on the Hilltop it’s just chert. Stones and chert. Wow! You couldn’t plant a thing! Help! You can’t even dig into it! So, we had to buy our dirt. Back there in 2000, when we came out here, we had to get a truckload of earth in for our garden. We put it all in different beds.

Since then, for the last 24 years, I kept that earth going, with adding compost, adding manure, adding everything I can to keep that soil going. I have been able to do it, but we had to start off buying our earth. There will always be lots of challenges with a garden, but you break through the challenges, so you can do it, and so you can eat from it, because God wants us to eat from our gardens.

Well, why do we have to do that today, when we’ve supermarkets where you can buy anything you want, from anywhere in the world, in any season? But it’s never the same. Even when you buy those plastic tubs of lettuce, mixed lettuce, and whatever, and you’re trying to find a nice fresh one. You bring it home. Often, in a couple of days, it’s already going mushy.

Do you notice that? You think, “I wonder, how long has it been sitting there?” All the time it’s losing its value and its goodness. Whereas when you have a garden, you go out, and you just pick it straightaway, and you bring it into your kitchen. It’s so fresh, and so wonderful. So, we should plant, I believe.

I noticed these Scriptures the other day. Numbers 24:6: “As the trees of the lign aloes, which the Lord hath planted.” it’s likening Israel to this beautiful tree. But it says: “which the Lord planted.” I don’t know where the Lord planted them, but it says that.

Psalm 104:16: “The cedars of Lebanon, which God hath planted.” Once again, I don’t know how that happened, but it says it here, that God planted them. He obviously loves to plant.

Then in Proverbs 31:16, the Proverbs 31 chapter, it says: “She considereth a field and buyeth it, and with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.” It talks about this woman planting. That’s so interesting, because that same Scripture, I’ve often had women say to me, “But Nancy, the Proverbs 31 woman was a career woman! She was out in real estate!” That’s what they get from that Scripture, but that is not the picture of the Scripture.

This was a growing family. Obviously, more children were coming, and the family was growing. They needed more land. They needed to plant another vineyard, so this woman goes out, looking around to where she can buy another vineyard.

That’s not much different to many of us who have gone around with our husband, or even on our own, to look at houses. Wow, it’s time to buy another house, or we’ve been renting, and we’re hoping to buy. We’re looking for a house. That doesn’t mean we’re in full-time real estate! We’re doing this for our family. This is personal. This is what she was doing there. She needed more land for her family.

In the Middle East, which is the context, they have a vineyard, because that’s where you grow vineyards. In fact, Colin and I have stayed with any families in Europe when we’ve been speaking over there. Most of them have their own vineyard, and of course, their own cellar where they have all their wine. That’s normal over there.

So, the Proverbs 31 woman was looking for this land where she could plant some more vines. Then it says: “And she planted them.” Well, she may have been helping there. I’m sure she got her children involved. And, of course, her helpers, or her land laborers, because Proverbs 31 is speaking about a wealthy woman who would have had a big household, and children, and servants, and so on. So, that’s really the context. How do you get a woman out in real estate when it talks about her planting her vineyard? That is what she is doing!

God loves us to plant a garden. Of course, now, over here, it’s wintertime, and gardens are all fading out, although this year, I am blessed to have a winter garden. I’ve got loads of cabbages, and Brussel sprouts, and lots of things coming on. It’s so wonderful! When it gets really cold, I’m not sure what’s going to happen.

But God not only wants us to plant a garden, but God is into planting. He loves to plant His people. There are many Scriptures about God’s planting His people, Israel. I want to give you some of them, because you get an idea of how God loves us to be planted. Not only does He want us to plant vegetables and beautiful flowers, and trees, but He wants to plant us.

He wants to plant us deep. He wants to plant us so we’re not going to be plucked up. What is the opposite to planting? It’s plucking up. What does God like? He loves planting. He doesn’t like plucking up.

Exodus 15:17: “Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountains of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, that Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in.”

2 Samuel 7:10: “Moreover, I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more. Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as before time.”

What a wonderful promise! And, although these words were written for literal Israel, they are also God’s heart for us. He wants us to be planted in a home. He wants us to be planted in His truth. He wants us to be planted in Him. He wants us to be planted solidly, so we’re not just gadding here, there, and everywhere. There is something so wonderful about being planted.

Psalm 80:8-11 is another description of Israel. “You have brought a vine out of Egypt. You have cast out the nations and planted it. You prepared room for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs to the sea, and her branches to the river.”

Jeremiah 24:6: “For I will set My eyes upon them for good. I will bring them again to this land, and I will build them, and I will not pull them down. I will plant them, and not pluck them up.” Another beautiful promise.

We were talking in the last session about how God had to send His people out of the land. This word is to His people that are in Babylon, about planting and dwelling and building. This Scripture I just read, this is a promise for bringing them back to the land, because although God sent them out of the land, He said in seventy years, I will bring them back.

God also says that all His people who have been scattered to the four corners of the earth, that He would bring them back. Jeremiah 32:41. Oh, just listen to this Scripture! I love it! It’s one of my favorite Scriptures, because I feel the heart of God in it: “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land, assuredly, with My whole heart, and with My whole soul.”

Have you read God talking like that? That’s God’s heart. His heart. God does things with His whole heart and His whole soul.

And what does He want to do with His whole heart and soul? He wants to plant His people. Amos 9:15: “I will plant them, and they shall no more be pulled out of their land, which I have given them.” There are so many more Scriptures, which I will put in the transcript for you.

But I just wanted to get you to feel God’s heart, how He wants to plant His people. He wants to plant you. He wants to plant you in your home. He created you for the home. When God created the first home, the Garden of Eden, the woman was not yet there. He created the home, and then He put the man in the garden. But there was still no woman. We don’t read about her until later in the chapter.

But when God built her, and brought her forth into life, where was she? She came forth and awoke to life in her home. God created the man before He created the home, but not the woman. He had the home ready for her, because this is His heart for the woman, to be planted in the home.

God plants. The devil plucks up!

Remember that ladies. It’s God’s heart to plant; it’s the devil’s heart to pluck up. He loves to pluck women out of the home. In fact, ladies, we are either a planted mother, or a plucked-up mother. Which are we?

Well, how do we become planted? I believe it’s knowing who God created us to be, knowing where He wants us to be, knowing the truth of God’s Word, knowing that motherhood is synonymous with home, childbearing, birthing babies, cooking, and preparing meals. It’s embracing our biblical role. It’s making our home a nest. It’s refusing all temptation to leave our highest calling, and it’s being committed to our purpose. I have a little acrostic here for the word “purpose.” Would you like to hear it?

P - Passionately loving my husband and ministering to his needs

U - Unflinchingly keeping my eyes upon the goal of raising godly children for God’s kingdom

R - Resisting all temptation to come down from my high calling

P - Persevering in building my home in the face of all obstacles

O - Ordering my home with diligence

S - Shaping the character of my children towards godliness and the destiny God has for them

E -Embracing with all my heart my life-giving role of mothering and nurturing.

Know, precious ladies, that God wants you to be planted. That’s His heart. That’s what His heart is for us. He wants to plant you with His whole soul and His whole heart.

Next session, next week, I want to tell you about the blessings of being planted. We find them all in the Word of God. They’re all there for us to see. So, let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You for all Your goodness to us. Thank You for our marriages. Thank You for our families. Thank You for our homes. Thank You Lord, that this is Your plan and Your mandate. This is the way You plan for us to live, as families, in homes, and being knitted together and cemented together as families.

“Lord, I pray Your blessing on each family listening today, that You will pour out Your blessing upon them. Lord, lead them into all the truth that You have for them, Lord, that they will live in the fullness and the glory of all that You have planned and mandated for them. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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P.S. FURTHER PROMISES OF GOD PLANTING ISRAEL

2 Kings 19:30; 1 Chronicles 17:8; Psalm 44:2; Isaiah 5:7; 37:31; Jeremiah 17:23; 31:28; 32:41; Ezekiel 17:23; 36:36; and Amos 9:15.