DUTY’S PATH
Beyond our Normal Selfish Lives
Part 2

We continue looking at the specific duties God has given to us.

1. LOVE ONE ANOTHER

1 John 4:11: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought (opheilo, meaning duty) to love one another.” That means beginning in the home with our husbands 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.”

2. WALK AS JESUS WALKED

This is a tall order isn’t it?

1 John 2:6: “He that saith he abideth in him ought to walk, even as he walked.” The word “ought” means “duty.” Our life must match our confession. If we confess that Jesus is Lord and abides in us, we should be letting His joy-filled rest-filled, peace-filled, longsuffering, and righteous life live through us—in our homes and in our family lives.

3. LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS

1 John 3:16: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought (it is our duty) to lay down our lives for the brethren.” The NLT says it very clearly: “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” Do you think we may be a long way off the true picture of Christianity?

4. SHOW HOSPITALITY AND PROVIDE FOR TRAVELING MISSIONARIES

3 John 1:5-8: “We therefore ought (it is our duty) to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.” As we show hospitality and financially support those who are preaching and teaching the gospel of truth, we are co-workers with them and with the Holy Spirit. We will be their companions, joining with them to spread the truth.

Romans 15:27 (NLT): “Indeed they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things.” The KJV states that it is their “duty.”

God intends hospitality to the saints to be the lifestyle of the church. Today, many families are so busy rushing here and there that they don’t have time to show hospitality. They barely have time to sit around their own tables to enjoy meals together. Are we going to let the pull of this hectic world determine our lifestyle? Or are we prepared to get back to the lifestyle of the Bible? Nothing happens unless we make it happen.

Begin to regularly sit together for meals with your own family. Then begin to invite other folks and families to join you. God is a hospitable God and He dwells in you. He longs to show hospitality to His people through you.

5. HUSBANDS SHOULD LOVE THEIR WIVES AS THEIR OWN BODIES

Ephesians 5:28 (AMP): “Even so (read verses 25-27) husbands should and are morally obligated (it is their duty) to love their own wives as (being in a sense) their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.”

This is God’s vision for marriage. His ways are wondrous. But there are two sad things we face today. Firstly, feminists are foundationally against men, especially in marriage. They’d rather eliminate them. How sad that they don’t understand God’s wondrous plan that a husband is to be as concerned about his wife as he is about his own body.

Secondly, it is sad that so many husbands have not been taught their duty and moral obligation from God. When they know it and embrace it, they not only gloriously bless their wives, but their own lives also! Their duty turns into glorious delight!

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Dear Jesus, I realize as I read these Scriptures that I am a long way from Your ways. As You sacrificed Your life for me, so you want me to lay down my life for others. Please lead me in Your ways and teach me how to sacrifice my life with joy. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

To live a true Christian life, I must live opposite to the world and the flesh. God’s way is to deny myself in order to serve others.

DUTY’S PATH
Delight Instead of Drudgery
Part 1

“I choose the path of faithfulness; I am committed to your regulations”
(Psalm 119:30 (NET).

Daily commitment, faithfulness, and duty? They don’t sound like exciting words, do they? We’d rather do something more exciting! Read a book! Watch a movie!

However, duty is part of life. The Knox translation of the above Scripture says: “Duty’s path my choice.” We must choose the way of duty, even when we don’t feel like it. It reminds me of the quote, if I can remember it correctly: “It takes character to cope with life when duty rather than pleasure is the sustaining force.”

The dictionary meaning of duty is:

Something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation,

the binding or obligatory force of something that is morally or legally right,

an action or function required by a person's position or occupation,

the respectful and obedient conduct due a parent, superior, elder, etc.

an act or expression of respect.

a task or chore that a person is expected to perform.

If God has blessed us with children, our No. 1 occupation is motherhood and the management of the home. It takes a life of duty to keep a home running smoothly. Sometimes we may look upon it as duty and our thoughts spiral down to drudgery.

However, duty can be drudgery or delight depending to our attitude. We not only choose duty because it is the right thing to do, but we choose our attitude. When we choose and confess that every task in our homes—menial or creative—are a delight, they become a delight.

Make duty your delight and you will love every moment in your home. Sing while you work. Smile as you work. Praise the Lord as you work. Everything depends on what we choose to do.

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 specific things that are our duty. Therefore , I think we should look at them, don’t you?

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 translates it “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, steal away the senses.” How often should this happen? This Scripture tell us “at all times” and “always.” Look it up and read it again.

There may be times in your marriage when you may 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.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Dear Father. Please help me to be faithful to do what is right and what is required of me. Please save me from getting into the pit of drudgery but to see every task as a sacred duty. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I choose the way of duty, but I choose to do it with joy and exuberance.

P.S. Read the Old Testament Scriptures about sexual duty: Genesis 38:8; Exodus 21:10; and Deuteronomy 25:5, 7.

WALK THROUGH THE LAND
Part 2

“I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land,
and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me”
(Joshua 18:4).

Today we look at the next two instructions Joshua gave for possessing the land.

2. GO THROUGH THE LAND (Joshua 18: 4, 8, 9).

We don’t arise to hang around the edges of the land. We begin walking through. God wants us to know what He has given to us. We cannot possess and enjoy what we don’t know we have.

A New Zealand friend told me of her brother who purchased land which he trusted would help to provide for his family. However, the land wasn’t good enough and he ended up using it as a hobby farm. After many years he decided to sell, when to his astonishment, he found that he owned another 10 acres of lovely fertile land that would have been perfect to farm and provide for his family. All those years he missed out on his own land because he didn’t know he had it. He didn’t possess it because he didn’t know about it.

This is what happens with much of the land of God’s Word. Many Christians don’t even know one-tenth of what God has provided for them. Because they don’t know about it, they don’t walk in it. We all fall short, don’t we?

It is a life-time journey. There is more in God’s Word for us than we can ever fathom. Colossians 2:3 says: “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” In Christ and in His Word are hid ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But we’ve got to dig for them. Gold and great treasures don’t lie on the surface.

3. DESCRIBE THE LAND (Joshua 18:4, 6, 8, 9).

The third instruction was to write a description of the land. In these four verses Joshua uses the word  “describe” five times! It was not enough to walk through the land, they had to write about it. Not just the delightful parts, but the challenging pats too.

As you walk through the land of God’s Word each day, do you write down what you see? Do you record the revelations God gives to you? You will find that as you are faithful to write down what God gives to you; He will give you more.

Jesus said in Mark 4:24, 25 (TPT): “Be diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear, for as you do, more understanding will be given to you. And according to the depth of your longing to understand, much more will be added to you. For those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation. But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have!”

This is such an important thing to do as we forget so easily. I was 18 years old when I read the words in Jeremiah 30:2: “Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.” I took those words personally and have continued to write what God speaks to me ever since that day! It has been the greatest blessing of my life. .I believe that when God sees my pen and journal ready, He knows I mean business, and that I don’t what to forget what He tells me. And I certainly will forget if I don’t write it down!

The word “describe” in the Hebrew is kathab and means “to grave, to write, to record. “Did you know that it is the same word that is used of God writing the Ten Commandments”?

Exodus 24;12: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written (kathab); that thou mayest teach them.”

Exodus 31:18: “And he gave unto Moses, when he had  made an end of communing with hi upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony tables of stone, WRITTEN (kathab) WITH THE FINGER OF GOD.” Read also Exodus 32:15, 16; 34:1, 2, 27; Deuteronomy 4;13; 5:22; and 9:10; 10:4).

God not only wants to write the words He speaks to us in a book, but on our homes. Deuteronomy 6:9 and 11:20 state: “And thou shalt write (kathab) them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“I thank You, Father, for the land of Your Word. I don’t want to stay near the edges. I want to walk through it. I 3 want to search for your treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Please help me to be diligent. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I’m walking through the land with my pen in hand and journal ready to write everything that God shows to me and reveals to me.

WALK THROUGH THE LAND
Part 1

“Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it:
for I will give it unto thee”
(Genesis 13:17).

In the above Scripture God tells Abram to walk through the land that He promised  to him and his descendants. When we first read a Scripture, we read it literally. This is speaking to literal person about an existing land—the land of Israel which God has given to His people as an everlasting possession.

God has also given us a land—a land of His glorious and precious Word. It is a land filled with His commandments, plans, purposes, and promises for us. 2 Peter 1:3 says: “Whereby large given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

God doesn’t want us to hang around the edges of this land, only reading our favorite passages. He wants us to walk right through it, the length and the breadth of it.

After the Israelites had conquered the land of Canaan, seven tribes had still not possessed their portions of the land. Joshua said to them in Joshua 18:3: “How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?”

I like the Knox translation: “What, still hanging back, when the land promised by the LORD God of your fathers waits for you to occupy it?” Hopefully this is not our testimony! Still hanging back when there is a whole land to be possessed? We can’t walk in the fullness of what God wants to give us unless we know His plans!

Joshua told the Israelites to pick out three men from each of the seven tribes who had not yet possessed their land. He then gave them the following instructions which are also instructions for us as we seek to possess the land God has given to us.

1. ARISE (v. 4).

We can’t possess the land of God’s great purposes and promises by having good intentions. We must arise. We must make it happen—personally and as a family. Get something of God’s Word into your soul before you face the day.

When you open your iPhone in the morning, go to the Word first. Make it a habit to NEVER open anything else, not even a Notification, until you have read a portion of God’s living Word.

Think of what is waiting you.

            “wonderful and marvelous things” (Psalm 119: 18  and 129).

            “delightful things” (Psalm 2:2; 119:16, 24, 47, 70, 77, 92, 97, 143, 174; and Jeremiah 25:16).

“daily cleansing” (John 15:3 and Ephesians 5:26).

“daily counsel” (Psalm 119:24).

            “daily comfort” (Psalm 119:50, 52, 76; and Romans 15:4).

            “daily joy” (Psalm 119:14, 92, 162; and Jeremiah 15:16).

“daily peace” (Psalm 119:165).

“daily strength” (Psalm 119:28; 116, and 117).

“daily wisdom” (Psalm 19:7 and 119:98-100).

            “daily sustenance (milk, meat, and bread)” (Job 23:12; Matthew 4:4; Hebrews 5:13, 14; and 1 Peter 2:2).

            “light and understanding” (Psalm 19:8 and 119:104, 105, 130, 144, and 169).

            “treasures worth more than gold and silver” (Psalm 12:6; 19:10; 119:72 and 127).

            “words that are sweeter than honey” (Psalm 19:10 and 119:103).

            “life-giving words” (Psalm 119:25, 50, 93, 107, 156; and John 6:63).

            “truth instead of deception” (Psalm 119:43, 142, 160; John 17:17; and 2 Timothy 2:15).

            “instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

            “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:3).

            And even “reproof and correction” (2 Timothy 3:16). But we need this too, don’t we?

With all this wealth available for you each day, what are you waiting for? It’s time to ARISE and possess your land.

PRAYER:

“Thank You, dear Father, for Your living Word which You have written for me. Please open my eyes to behold wondrous things as I read it each day. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I’m arising each day to walk through more of the land God has given me.