ONE FLESH MARRIAGE
Part 1

“Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder”
(Matthew 19:6)

The above words are repeated by Jesus from God’s original plan in the beginning in Genesis 2:24: “And they shall be one flesh.” This is God’s first description of marriage. Let’s look at it a little closer, shall we? God designed marriage . . .

1. DIVINELY

The Creator of male and female divinely designed His perfect plan. It is God who joins the man and woman in marriage: “What therefore God hath joined together” (Matthew 19:6).

2. PROPHETICALLY

God revealed His plan in the beginning for all future marriages: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Where were the father and mother? They were nowhere on the scene when God spoke these words. Adam and Eve had never seen a father and mother! God prophetically revealed His plan and how it would work for all future mankind.

3. INTENTIONALLY AND FACTUALLY

God unmistakably states His plan: “They two (the man and his wife) shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh” (Matthew 19:5, 6). It does not matter what mere man thinks. It is what God states! His Word is eternal. It doesn’t change from the beginning to the end.

4. EMPHATICALLY

The Bible says: “And God said” (Genesis 1:26). There are no “if, buts, or maybes.” Not man (the created), but God (the Designer and Creator) has the first and last say!

5. PHYSICALLY

The coming together of male and female to be “one flesh” in marriage is a perfect fit. The sexual organs of male and female are opposite, (the man’s external and the woman’s internal), but they fit perfectly by God’s design. Male and male or female and female are not a perfect fit. This lifestyle is outside the Creator’s design.

When Jesus answered the questions of the Pharisees He said: “Have yet not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause. . .” (Matthew 19:5). It was “for this cause” (because He created them male and female) that the man cleaves to his wife. Please notice the words “man and wife,” not two of the same sex.

6. GENERATIONALLY

The coming together as “one flesh” results in the potential procreation of children and children’s children. From the two come one, or many, each bearing genetic genes of both the father and mother. This is impossible in a homosexual relationship which is outside of God’s blessing. These relationships end in nothingness and future destruction.

It is the male and female oneness that God blessed: “Male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:27, 28). Children only come through the blessing of God on a “one flesh” relationship.

7. DELIGHTFULLY

God must have been filled with joy and delight when He designed the “one flesh” marriage. Who but our amazing God could plan for the man and his wife to experience such ecstatic joy, fulfillment, and wonder together? Proverbs 5:18, 19 speaks of the married couple ravishing and intoxicating one another with their love.

8. EMOTIONALLY AND MENTALLY

Human beings are not animals. We are created in the image and likeness of God. We are body, soul, and spirit. Because God created us with a heart, mind, and soul, the “one flesh” statement is more than physical. It is also a oneness of soul. I am not whole without my husband. He is not whole without me for “they are no more two, but one.” We complement one another and each one brings different strengths to the marriage to make it complete.

More next week.

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, I thank you for Your amazing divine plan for marriage. You created my husband and me for each other. Please help me to live in the full understanding of your plan. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am so blessed to be married and enjoy the “one flesh” marriage that God ordained.

Don’t miss the podcast for wives and mothers each week:

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

https://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com

BIBLE LANGUAGE OR
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Part 2

“But I say unto you,
That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”
(Matthew 12:36, 37).

To speak a language fluently, it needs to be part of us. Part of our minds, our hearts, and to come freely from our mouths. God gives parents a mandate in Isaiah 59:21 (NRSV): “And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the LORD, from now on and forever.”

So, what is coming out of your mouth? What is coming out of your children’s mouths?

Let’s look at a few examples today. The Bible tells us to JUMP FOR JOY with ecstatic joy and delight, not just when everything is happy and great, but when we are going through trials. When people persecute us, revile us, and say all manner of evil against us falsely (Matthew 5:1, 12 and Luke 6:22, 23). What kind of language do we use when we go through trials? Grumbling and complaining and “poor me”? Or do we rejoice in God’s unfailing goodness no matter what we are facing.

What is our daily language? Pessimism, “down in the dumps,” negativity, and even self-pity? Or do we speak Bible language? Jesus came to not only give us life but life ABUNDANTLY. Over and over again, the Bible tells us to ABOUND in our lives – in joy, hope, love, faith, self-control, patience, thanksgiving, and so on. He wants us to “abound in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58), and of course the work that God has given us to do is our realm of motherhood.

The Greek word for abounding is “perisseuo” and means “more and more, to excel, to exceed, to go beyond that which is necessary, superabundant in quantity and superior in quality, over and above, enough and to spare.” This is Bible language, dear mothers. I know you don’t hear many people talking with this overflowing joy and cheerfulness.

I wonder how many Christians truly speak Bible language. Do the people around us hear our “kingdom” language or do we talk the same humanistic language as everyone around us?

This is how God wants us to live and the language He wants us to speak. It’s over the top! It’s beyond the normal. In fact, how can we be anything less when we are indwelt by the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Normal Christianity is abundant, abounding, and beyond the norm. It is sub-normal Christianity to be average, normal, status quo, and fitting in with the crowd. If we are not speaking an abounding language, we are not speaking Bible language.

What about the answer of most mothers of two or three children when asked if they are hoping for another baby? “Help, No. I’m done!” Christian men talk about “getting the snip” like having a cup of coffee.

Is that the language of the Bible? No, it is the opposite to God’s heart. It is opposite to the very first words God spoke into the ears of man Genesis 1:27, 28). Whenever God speaks of blessing His people He speaks of multiplication. The Bible is opposite to the language of the church today. Many Christians openly confess that they could never afford to have any more children. And yet the Bible says the opposite!

Deuteronomy 28:4: “Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.” All these blessings come AFTER the fruit of the womb.

Psalm 37:25: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

Philippians 4:19: “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” And so many more Scriptures.

Don’t you think it is time for us to line up our language with the Bible?

Love from Nancy Campbell

www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, You have brought me into Your kingdom. The least I can do is speak the language of Your kingdom. Please help me to be richly filled with Your Word. Even though I live in a humanistic society, please help me to see it as a foreign language. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I’m practicing my Bible language daily. I want to be a fluent speaker of God’s kingdom language.

Don’t miss the podcast for wives and mothers each week:

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

https://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com

BIBLE LANGUAGE OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Part 1

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you”
(Matthew 6:33).

Above everyone else, mothers primarily teach their children to talk. They not only teach them their first words, but by their example, influence their way of speaking throughout their lives.

Although I speak the English language, I still have a New Zealand accent and continue to say many words we use Down Under that are unheard of here in the States. It’s amazing that even though nearly all of our grandchildren have been born in America they often come out with New Zealand words. Sometimes you can detect a New Zealand accent which they have received from their mothers.

I noticed the power of this the other day when reading Nehemiah 13. I have always loved the book of Nehemiah because it reveals how Nehemiah did not give up but continued building the walls and the gates of Jerusalem in the face of ridicule, opposition, and persecution. His enemies did everything to stop him building the wall.

We are also in a building career of building godly marriages and families. The devil doesn’t want us to do this and constantly seeks to thwart us from our great and high calling from God. We must also have the attitude of Nehemiah who when his adversaries tried to get him to come down from his building project, he replied: “I AM DOING A GREAT WORK, so that I CANNOT COME DOWN: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it hand come down you?” (Nehemiah 6:3).

Back to Nehemiah 13 which somehow, I hadn’t noticed before with all my reading of Nehemiah. Nehemiah became aware of a huge problem. Many of the Jews had “married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab” (v. 23). And guess what? Their children “could not speak in the Jews’ language, but each according to the language of each people” (v. 24). Wow! The children were growing up speaking a foreign language. They didn’t even know the language of the land, the language of their heritage!

And who was teaching them these foreign languages? THE MOTHERS! The mothers were not only influencing the children but the whole nation!

Nehemiah soon put a stop to this. You can read what he did in verses 25-28. He certainly didn’t “beat about the bush.”

But dear mother, this incident is also a challenge to us. I know you are teaching your children the English language because you live in America but are you also teaching them the language of the kingdom of God. Ultimately, this is the most important language we must teach our children. If we belong to God’s kingdom, we should certainly teach them the language of His kingdom.

Of course, we can’t teach our children language of the kingdom if we don’t know it—if we DON’T KNOW WHAT GOD SAYS IN HIS WORD! Sadly, I hear most of the church speaking the language of the kingdom of our enemy, Satan. They spout forth more ideology of his kingdom than they do of God’s kingdom. They are more familiar with the lifestyle and language of our humanistic society than of the lifestyle of the God’s Word.

God’s kingdom language should roll off our tongues. It should be familiar to our children so that they grow up speaking it. Instead we are often guilty of Hosea 8:12: where God says: “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a STRANGE thing.” Isn’t that such an indictment to the people of God? That God’s words are strange to us and the language of humanism, liberalism, materialism, and the things of this world are more familiar than God’s ultimate truth?

What language are you speaking to your children today?

Love from Nancy Campbell

www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Dear God, in Your love and mercy, You have delivered me from the kingdom of darkness and brought me into Your kingdom of truth and light. Therefore, I want to know and speak the language of Your kingdom. Teach me Your ways. Teach me Your truths. I want the language of Your kingdom to constantly roll off my lips. In Jesus’ name, Amen.,”

AFFIRMATION:

Don’t miss the podcast for wives and mothers each week:

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

https://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com

CHEER UP!

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me”
(John 14:1).

“Please don’t give me these words,” you reply. “You don’t know what I am going through. I’m depressed, discouraged, and disappointed.”

BE OF GOOD CHEER

Listen to these words from Jesus in John 16:33: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but BE of GOOD cheer; I have overcome the world.” Some translations say, “Cheer up!” Others say, “Take heart!”

Jesus says these words to you when you are going through tribulation, not just when everything is rosy. He has the authority to say them to you because He has already overcome the world! He doesn’t only say “Cheer up,” but “be of GOOD cheer.”

BE OF GOOD COURAGE

God is an affirming God. He is always encouraging us through His Word. Psalm 27:14 says: “Wait on the LORD: be of GOOD courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” Perhaps you feel weak and inadequate. Not only physically, but emotionally, and spiritually? Look up to the Lord. Wait on Him. He will bring courage and strength to your heart. Not just courage, but GOOD courage!

BE OF GOOD COMFORT

2 Corinthians 13:11 states: “Be of GOOD comfort.” And please read 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17: “Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.”

 Are you sorrowing or grieving? Have you lost a loved one? Have you suffered a miscarriage? Who can comfort the ache in your heart except God? He will comfort your sorrowing heart if you let him. And His comfort is GOOD comfort.

BE FREE FROM CARES

Are you cheered up yet? Just in case you haven’t taken hold of God’s wonderful promises to you yet, here is another one. 1 Peter 5:7 says: “Casting ALL your cares upon him; for he careth for you.”

Why can you give Him all your anxieties and troubles? Because, dear one, He cares for you. The word “cares” means “interested in.” God is interested in everything that happens in your life. He is Omniscient. He knows your every thought. He knows your thoughts next week and next month even though you don’t know them yet. He knows what is happening in your home right now. And He cares about it.

But He can’t do much about it until you give Him your anxieties. Instead of clasping them to yourself and constantly worrying about them, give them to Him. He is a GOOD God.

You don’t have to stay in the doldrums. God waits to cheer your heart.

Love from Nancy Campbell

www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Dear Father God, please forgive me for worrying about everything. I do not have to fret over one thing knowing that You are in perfect control. Help me to trust You completely. Amen,”

AFFIRMATION:

Because Jesus Christ lives in me, I can be cheery and full of joy instead of being in the doldrums and down in the mouth.

Don’t miss the podcast for wives and mothers each week:

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

https://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com