John 18:4, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?”

Jesus knew what He had to face. He had just come from the Garden of Gethsemane where he sweat drops of blood in agony of facing the cruel cross and taking upon himself the sins of the world. He prayed that his Father would take “this cup” away from him. But knowing all he would face, he went forth. He went forth to face the agony. He didn’t hold back.

This is a challenge to me. We will never have to face what Jesus faced. But what do we do about the problems we have to face each day? Do we cringe from them? Do we turn a blind eye so we don’t even have to face them? Or do we go into depression and self-pity?

Perhaps you find it hard to get up out of bed and even face going out to the kitchen each morning. Do you have a hard time facing dishes, the big pile of laundry, or that room that is in such a mess? Can I encourage you to get up and “go forth”, even as Jesus did.

Tackle your task little by little. Don’t think you have to do the whole overwhelming task all at once. Make a start, and keep going until you finish

Perhaps you are facing a huge challenge in your life—a mountain that looks impossible in front of you. Mountains look impossible to us, but they are nothing to God. Go forth in His name and His power. I think of a chorus that we used to sing as young people.

Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible;
And He can do what no other can do.

It wasn’t until recently that I found out that the source of this chorus came from the Panama Canal builders who faced a nearly impossible task and where well over 25,000 people died in the building of it.

You may be facing a raging battle in your life. It seems too much for you. It is bigger than what you can handle. Don’t look at the bigness. God is with you. He will handle it for you.

Read the instructions God give to the Israelites when they faced battles and armies who were far bigger than them. In Deuteronomy 20:1-9 He tells them not to be afraid because He will be with them. “There must be no faint hearts among you, no flinching, no yielding, no trembling …”

Of course you can’t win this battle on your own, but God will fight for you. Trust Him. Go into the battle, not in your own strength, but trusting totally in God.

The name of God is a noun, but God is also a verb. Jesus said in John 5:17, “My Father worketh, and I work.” God, who lives in you by His Holy Spirit, wants to work in you to do His will. Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Will you allow Him to work in you? Will you allow Him to “go forth” in you? He will face your problems with you. He will go with you. He will help you.

Perhaps you are facing a cross. Can I encourage you to embrace your cross and go forth! Go forth by faith! Go forth, knowing that Jesus lives in you. He has faced more than you will ever face and He lives in you. He wants to live His in life in you. He is in you to help you. You can go forth in His name.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Father, I thank you that you are with me. I pray that you will work in me and help me to go forth to do the tasks that you have given me to do. Help me to trust in you as I face my problems. Amen.

AFFIRMATION: 

We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.

P.S. The above words are an excerpt from the hymn which the five mis­sion­ar­ies sang be­fore en­ter­ing the Ecua­dor­i­an jun­gle to bring the Gos­pel to the Au­ca In­di­ans over 50 years ago. Their names were Nate Saint, Ed Mc­Cul­ly, Jim El­li­ott, Ro­ger Yo­der­i­an, and Pe­ter Flem­ing. Af­ter reaching the Au­cas, the In­di­ans mur­dered them on the Cur­a­ray Riv­er. (January 1956) The hymn comes from the Scripture in 2 Chronicles 14:11 where Asa faced an Ethiopian army of one miillion men. He cried out to God, “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power; help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let no man prevail against thee.”

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Isaiah 40:3-5, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed …”

We read in Luke 3:3-6 that John the Baptist came as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” to prepare the way of the Lord. Each one of the Gospel writers confirms this—Matthew 3:1-4; Mark 1:1-2 and John 1:23. The last verses of the Old Testament also prophesy it and  Luke 1:16-17 and 76 fulfill the prophecy.

These Scriptures explain in more detail exactly what it means to prepare the way for the Lord—“And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

To prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, John had to make the way straight. He was anointed to “turn the hearts of the fathers (which includes the mothers too) to the children …” But the prophetic word of Malachi 4:5-6 says that it must happen again “before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.” We are getting close to this time. It is time to prepare. It is time to straighten the paths.

When the hearts of fathers and mothers are not turned to their children, they are on a crooked path. There are many deviant paths in this humanistic world. There are luring detours off the straight road. They may look enticing. They may even seem the right way, but they are often subtle “windings” to steer us away from God’s perfect plan. Yes, this is what the Knox version calls them, “the windings are to be cut straight.”

Are you on a winding path? Sometimes you don’t even realize it until you get lost; until you wake up to find that the devil’s tempting ways are not what they seem; until your family life is out of order and you wonder why. Perhaps, without realizing it, you have landed up on a winding path of independence from your husband. You are too busy to serve him and your family.

Perhaps you have got on a crooked path of busyness—running here and there, attending this meeting and that, getting involved with this organization and that. You are in a whirlwind of activity. It seems great, but where is this winding path taking you? What will be the end result?

It’s a long way off the path God planned for you as a mother—to be nestled in the heart of your home. And what are your children learning? That life consists in going to this and that, being involved in this sport and that organization and not having time to sit around the dinner table together? Will they ever learn the power of the home?

That in the home great things can happen. It is here they learn the pattern to pass on to the next generation. They have time to create, think great thoughts and bask in the joy of home and family life.

Our children will follow the path we take. We dare not take them down winding paths of deception. The decisions we make and the paths we choose will determine the course of not only our children, but generations to come.

Keep alert for these crooked roads and remember that we only prove the salvation and deliverance of the Lord on the straight path. It is only on the straight path that His glory is revealed.

He wants to show His power in your life—to bridge the lonely valleys with His love and compassion; to level every mountain that looks impossible in the natural but can melt in the power and presence of His Spirit and to cut a straight path of truth through all the windings that criss-cross over and back through God’s straight road. Will you let Him lead you?

I love the Way’s translation of 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be earnest … a labourer who needs not to blush for his work, but who drives the ploughshare of truth in a straight furrow.”

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Father, I ask that you will help me to keep on your straight path, never turning to the right or the left. Please expose every winding path the beckons me away from your truth.” Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I will plough a straight furrow in my life and the life of my family.

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  Malachi 3:17, “And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.”

Every saint is a jewel of God. I am convicted by God to look at people (and also my children) in this light. Often we cannot see the jewel as it hides behind the rough exterior. All we see is unsightly hard rock, but God wants us to look beyond what we see on the surface. 

We sometimes hear the phrase, “He’s a rough diamond.” This means that the person is pretty rough on the outside but inside they have a heart of gold. We need to be reminded that there is a diamond, or perhaps a sapphire, an emerald, an opal, a ruby or an amethyst in each person.

The jewel in every person is different. Each jewel will reveal different colors and lights of God’s character. But we cannot see the beauty shining from the jewel until it has been cut and polished. And what a painful process this is. Much cutting has to be done o reveal the many-faceted hues and beauty of the gem. The cutting goes on and on. And when it is finished, the polishing starts. It hurts.

I know God has to do so much more cutting and polishing with me. May we let Him do His work and cut away all the roughness and hardness. May we also have patience with all God’s saints, even those who are still rough and uncut.

May God give us patience with our children. God has given us the task of being a lapidary (a cutter and polisher of gems). It is the lapidary’s art to reveal the gem. Sometimes we may feel it is a hopeless job. But we must never give up hope.

There is a jewel in every child of God. There is a precious jewel in every one of our children that waits to be revealed. We must see it by faith. We must pray it into being. May God give us vision, patience and understanding as we fulfill this great task. It does not happen over night. It is painstaking and time-consuming.

There will come a day when God will make all His jewels into a crown. I am thinking of the hymn we used to sing as children…

When He cometh, when He cometh
To make up His jewels,
All His jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.

Like the stars of the morning,
His brightness adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.

God promises that there will be a day when Israel will sparkle like the jewels of a crown in their land. Although this literally talks about Israel, I believe that God wants His redeemed people to also shine in this world like glittering jewels in a crown. It’s time for all the roughness, hardness, mediocrity, worldliness, selfishness and indifference to be cut away and for God’s glory to be revealed in the land. 

Isaiah 62:3, “Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.”

Zechariah 9:16, “They shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.” The New Living Translation says, “They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How wonderful and beautiful they will be!”

Philippians 2:15, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”

NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Lord, please cut away all the rough exterior that clouds your beauty from being revealed in me. I want to shine like a precious gem in this world for you. Help me to also see each one of my children as a precious jewel in your kingdom, waiting to shine with your glory. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” 

I receive responses from each email devotion I send out, but this time I received more than most. I thought I would share with you a few of the responses so you can be blessed further about this subject.

One mother shared that she was glad I mentioned that I found it hard to have special times with the Lord when my children were little and how I had to learn to do it in the midst of mothering. I answered, “I could not leave my children to go off to have a Quiet Time. I had to do it in the midst of noise and everything happening around me.

But it’s amazing what we can do with little ones all around us, isn’t it? It also trains us to be able to cope. I started Above Rubies with children all around me. I now do it with everyone coming in and out and talking at once, grandchildren coming in and out, my new adopted teenagers needing me every minute and the phone going non-stop.

Most people wouldn’t even be able to concentrate on one line but this is how I edit Above Rubies. If I didn’t do it this way, you’d never get it. If I waited to find one quiet moment, you’d never see a magazine!”

“I had been having a very rough week and had actually found my self in tears for two or three days, each of my six children asking mommy, “What is wrong?” The only explanation I had was nothing and yet everything! I am expecting my seventh little blessing and am a little over half way through my pregnancy. I am definitely adrenal fatigued, exhausted and find myself actually needing to sit down during the day. I know this is normal for many women but very unusual for me. I was on the road to a pity party.  

I felt I needed to share with my husband what was happening  As I broke down and the tears started flowing he held me in his arms and quoted, "Great peace have they that love thy law and NOTHING shall offend them.” Nothing shall offend them!" He asked me to say it every time I felt upset with the children, at wit’s end exhausted, hurt by a friend or starting a pity party. He said it may not seem soothing the first or second time but the Word of Yahweh is powerful and will bring the peace. Every time (many times this week) that I have recognized my flesh taking over I have quoted it and then found time to be with Him. It has definitely made all the difference in me and my attitude. I even woke my older girls up early one morning just to have tea time and bible study with me alone...What a difference.

When I finally got a chance to open your e-mail today I was so blessed. It was such a confirmation and testimony to me when I saw the verse from Psalm 119:165, "Great peace have they who love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." I knew it was just for me and am planning on using many of your suggestions.”

 “This was just what I needed. I’ll start my Meditation Basket tomorrow. January has been the most trying month of our lives—our house flooded, we’ve had terrible weather and some shocking news that has changed our lives… I was having a hard time finding the time to read the Word like I should, thinking I had to set down at intervals. I’ll continue that, but now I will put Scriptures over my sink at my window, on my fridge, in my bathroom and wherever I can. And I will stop grumbling over what I can’t do!”

“Your devotion reminded me of what I read this morning in Matthew 14:13-14. Just as you had little time to spend in quiet alone when your children were small, so did the Lord Jesus. After He heard the news of John the Baptist's death, he wanted to go to a place alone but then the needy crowd came. So He put aside His own desires and attended to their needs. This happens to us at all stages of our lives, doesn't it?”

“Thank you for this word today. So much of what you shared in is what the Lord has been speaking to me in the last year. My children are five, three and 18 months and my husband and I are on staff with Youth With A Mission. We lead busy lives and I miss the time alone with the Lord that I experienced before I became a mother. The Lord has been showing me exactly what you wrote--that I don't have to be condemned but to take my "quiet time" throughout the day.”

“One way I found to get our children to eat spiritual food for themselves is to have them copy entire books from the Bible (a little bit every day) in their best handwriting, for their handwriting practice. The amount depends on their maturity. It may take all school year to finish a book but they are proud to show off an entire handwritten copy of a certain book! And it is a precious keepsake! And, hopefully, they think about what they are writing. 
 
It is our goal for Japheth, our last one who is 15, to read through the whole Bible together before he graduates from high school. I want to do it chronologically so he gets the BIG PICTURE. For Christmas I got us copies of The Daily Bible: 365 readings in chronological order. A HUGE blessing! I was having a hard time figuring out which books to read when. Now it's easy as pie and we have great discussions as we do it together first thing every morning. If he's in the chair by 8.00 am ready to read, he gets a dollar. It works!”

Hope you were blessed by these writings from other readers.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Lord, please help me to be creative in finding ways to spend time with you and in your precious Word. I thank you that I can make a sanctuary even in the midst of noise and happenings.  Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

To do the will of Jesus—this is rest!

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.