PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 13 – Build an Exciting Home, No. 1
Episode 12: Build an Exciting Home, No. 1
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy: Well, it's such a beautiful day in Tennessee here in Primm Springs where we all live. The sun is shining and some of the young people are out on the volleyball court playing. Well, they don't seem to mind the heat. I think I would prefer it in the cool of the day. I hope it's a lovely, beautiful day where you are living too. Well, it's good to be back with you. In this episode, I want to come back to the very first word that we talked about when I started doing the podcasts. We are now up to podcast 13. My, how the time goes. In episodes one and two, I introduced to you a Hebrew word, naveh. It is spelled N-A-V-E-H, and it's one of the Hebrew words for the word dwell. It means to dwell in a home. It means to be at home, to reside at home. It can be a dwelling place.
One Hebrew commentator calls it the “inhabitress of the home.” Well, we don't use words like that very much today, do we? Although, we do! What about waiter, waitress; actor, actress; mayor, mayoress; editor, editress. Well, I don't think anybody actually uses editress. Although, I like to call myself the editress of Above Rubies because it is more grammatically correct. When this gentleman says, “not the inhabiter but the inhabitress of the home,” he is talking about the woman in the home. We actually found out about that in episodes four and five where I talked about this same Hebrew word and how we found that this word is in the context also of war and of this mighty woman. She's in the home, but she's also part of a great army. That was in Psalm 68:12.
Now, this word is also used to speak of God's home and of our home, of course, and even of a pasture for animals. It's a word that also means “lovely” because our homes are meant to be lovely places. In Jeremiah 6:2, it talks about the daughters of Jerusalem, and it calls them lovely and delicate women. Here the word is related to a woman, just as it is in many passages.
In Psalm 113:9: "He makes the barren woman to keep house (or to dwell in a home, to naveh in a home) and to be a joyful mother of children." Psalm 68:12, which we talked about, where it says: “she that dwelt in the home,” talking about the “she.” Not talking about the man, but the “she” that dwelt in the home.
It reminds me of Proverbs 31. Have you ever noticed, as you've read through that chapter, that the word “she” occurs 16 different times? She does good to her husband. She looks to the ways of her household. She does this, she does that. It's all about the “she.” Anyway, today I want to bring you back to this word again. We've been having many different podcasts, and I've been interviewing different folks, but now I've got to get you back to this word again. We haven't finished yet, and I want to take you to another Scripture where this word is used.
This time, it's in Jeremiah 29:5. Now, let's get the context before we read the scripture. The children of Israel have now been taken from their home of Israel. They've been taken to Babylon. They are now captives in a foreign land. God comes to them in Babylon and speaks to them through the Prophet Jeremiah.
Although Jeremiah is giving the word, God says that He is speaking, “Thus says the Lord of hosts . . . thus says the Lord of Israel.” Here we read this description of God as the Lord of hosts. Now this is a description that we read many times of God. I wonder, when you read it, do you think about what it means? Who is God as the Lord of hosts? Well, it literally means the God of the armies of Heaven, the God who fights for His people, Israel and for his covenant people today. He fights for us. He is our God. If God is for us, who can be against us. This is our God, and it's always in the context of war, or God standing up and fighting for us. Here He comes to the people in Babylon. He comes, “thus says the Lord of hosts.” Wow, they better listen.
This is an important word from God. Even though they are captives in a foreign land, God is speaking. What will He say to them? What does He want them to do in this foreign land? This is a very amazing passage, and we're going to read about seven different things that God said to His people in Babylon.
The very first one, let's read it in verse five. It contains the word naveh. God says to them: "Build houses and dwell in them." Many different translations say: “Build houses and live in them.” The word is naveh, meaning “to dwell in a home, to live in it, to make your life in it, to make it a lovely place, to make it a secure fold.”
In my second episode, I talked about how God wants us to make our homes a beautiful fold as we fold our flock and fold our family in our homes.
Here we go. Now ladies, isn't this amazing? I could never really quite comprehend this because this is God, the Lord of hosts, speaking this sovereign word to His people and what does He tell them? Build houses.
Our God is such a practical God. Dear precious ladies, God is interested in every aspect of your life. He is so vitally interested in your home. God loves homes because He is the designer and the author of homes. He is the first home designer. He is the first architect of homes. He is the One who created the very first home in the Garden of Eden, and it was called the Garden of Eden.
In Hebrew, the word Eden means delight. The home that God created was a delightful place. Perhaps there has never been, in fact, there never has been, a home that was as beautiful and delightful as that very first home. That first home was a prototype. Everything that God did in the beginning was the prototype for all that was to come. It was His plan for the future. He showed us the foundation and the vision of what He wanted and how He wants us to live. The first home, meaning a delightful place, is what He wants all our homes to be. He wants us to make them a delightful place.
Now, we all want our homes to be delightful, of course, but they don't just become delightful. We have to work at them becoming a delightful place. It takes thought. It takes meditation. It takes prayer. It takes vision. It takes work. It takes sweat. It takes our lives to make our home a delightful place where our husband loves to be, where our children love to be, where we love to be, because we make it a delightful place for ourselves too. God comes again, and when He comes to them in Babylon, because they're no longer in their beloved land, He says to them, I'm reminding you of the vision I gave you in the very beginning Just because you are now in a foreign land does not negate what I told you in the beginning. I want you to keep doing it because this is My plan, the way I want you to live. “Build houses and live in them.” Naveh in them.
You see, dear mothers, we are to live in our homes. Not to just be running here and there and coming in to roost or coming in to do something for awhile and out again. No, our homes are to live in. God gave us homes to live in, to make life in them. We are to make life happen in our homes. Our homes are to be a hub where everything is happening, from birth to the grave. I mean, it's all meant to happen in the homes.
Today, sadly, homes are vacated. Often during the day, many homes are completely empty. Children are off to school. Mother is off to work. Husband, of course, is out doing his provision for the family, but the whole home is vacated. That's not how God intended it to be. He wants us to live life in our homes and to make wonderful things happen in our homes. So they are places, not only of delight, but of productivity and beautiful things happening and wonderful memories taking place.
Now I'd like to share with you 15 different ways we can make life happen in our home. Of course, there are many more and maybe I'll add to it, but I've just written down 15 for the moment. Shall we look at some of these?
1. WE ARE TO MAKE OUR HOMES A PLACE FOR GOD’S PRESENCE
We are to make our homes a place for God's presence, where we live in His presence. I think that is the very ultimate. When Jesus, well no, when His disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us how to pray,” what did Jesus say? He said, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
We kind of glibly say those words. We repeat the Lord's Prayer, and we don't really think about it. But what is it saying? Your will be done, Father, on earth here, just as it is in heaven. In Luke's Gospel, in chapter 11:2 it says it very simply. It just says: “As in heaven, so in Earth,” but that is so powerful if we can just get it; I don't think I really get it. “As in heaven, so in Earth.” We could perhaps say it more personally, “As in God's home, so in my home”.
If we could get this vision—to bring a little bit of heaven to earth, because that is what God wants. That's what He told us to pray. When we pray with our family each morning, that would be a good prayer to add, wouldn't it? “Oh Father, help us to just bring a little bit of heaven to earth. Help us to establish your heavenly ways in our earthly home.” That means, of course, living in His presence.
I love the Scripture. I've written it down here. In Hosea 6:2 it says: "After two days he will revive us, and the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his presence." Don't you love that? We shall live in his presence!
Psalm 102:28 is rather similar. It says: “The children of your servants will settle down here, and their descendants." Not only us but our descendants, our children, our children's children will live securely in Your presence. That's God's plan. For us to establish that in our homes so that when our children get married, they will establish it in their homes and from generation to generation. As one translation puts it: “Our descendants will live in His presence.” The Moffatt translation says: "Though eternal, thy years shall never end, and in your presence, live your servants, children and their posterity forever."
In establishing the presence of God, how do we do it? I guess it starts with us individually because our God is a dwelling God. He wants to dwell in our hearts and if we have received Him into our lives, He has come in by His spirit and dwells with us. In fact, He says that He not only abides in us, He wants us to abide in Him. He also says in Ephesians 2 that because we are in Him, we are seated in Christ in heavenly places where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
This is where we are positionally in Christ. We're not often there practically are we? We need to see ourselves positionally. I'm in Christ; He is in me, and this is how we operate our homes, from that place of Christ living in me. I dwell in Him, and it's from this attitude, this relationship, that we operate our homes, and this brings the presence of God and the atmosphere.
Atmosphere is so powerful. Every home has an atmosphere. You know that, don't you? You go into some homes, and you feel all that warmth of atmosphere. You want to be there. You want to go there. You want to stay there. You don't want to leave there because you feel that relaxed atmosphere.
You go into other homes, and they may have beautiful decor. It may look beautiful. There may be nothing out of place, but it's cold. There's no atmosphere. It's just a house of beautiful things. You can go into another house, and you can cut the air with a knife because there have been arguments, and there's been strife. Where there is strife, it always affects the atmosphere.
I love this quotation from S. D. Gordon. He wrote a book called "Quiet talks on home ideals." In this book he says: “The influence exerted by the mother is great beyond the power of our minds to think or of our words to tell. The making of a child's character is in the mother's hands to a degree that is nothing short of startling." In another passage, he writes: “The atmosphere of the home is breathed in by the child and exerts an influence in his training more, by far, than all other things put together. The child receives more by unconscious absorption than in any other way. He is all ears and eyes and open pores. He is open at every angle and point in direction and all between. He is an absorbing surface. He takes in constantly. He takes in what is there and what he takes in makes him. The spirit of the home then is the one thing on which the keen mind and the earnest heart of the father and mother will center most for the children's sake."
Dear mothers, our children are going to imbibe far more from our godly, heavenly atmosphere, that relaxed atmosphere, that warm atmosphere, that atmosphere of love and joy, than all the things that we'll ever try to teach them. It's the atmosphere they will remember. Those will be their memories as they grow up.
First of all, above everything else, let's seek to make our homes a place where God dwells. Invite Him into every room in your home because He wants to live in every room, in every nook and cranny of your home. He wants to come to your table. He wants to be present as someone who sits at your table. He wants to be involved in every conversation. When we are aware that God is with us, it changes so much in our whole mothering.
You see, dear mother, God is with you in your kitchen, when you're cooking, when you're dealing with your little ones, and they're crying, and they're scratchy, and they're upset and this one is having, you know, a tousle or an argument with another sibling and all things are happening at once, and you're just feeling overwhelmed, and you want to tear your hair out. God is there; God is with you.
Instead of screaming and tearing your hair out, say, “Oh God, I thank You that you're here. Thank You that You are with me.” You only have to cry out those words, and you'll know His presence. He will come to you. He'll give you His calm and His rest, as you acknowledge His presence. That's one of the big things in experiencing the presence of God--acknowledging His presence. “Thank You, Lord that you are with us.”
When you start the day, you're at the breakfast table, you can say, “Oh, thank You, Lord. You are with us today, Lord Jesus.” Tell your children, “Children, God lives in our home. He is with us today, so He's going to be with us in everything we do today, in all our conversations, in all our play, in all our learning, in all our chores. He is with us. Isn't that exciting? Yes. Just rejoice with me. Say, thank You, Jesus.” Get all the children to say, “Thank You, Jesus. You are with us.” As you acknowledge Him, you are going to be so much more aware of His precious presence with you.
2. THE HOME IS A MOTHERING AND NURTURING CENTER
The home is a mothering, nurturing center. This is the place where we nurture and mother our children, and this is where God intends it to be. When God gives us a little baby to nurse at the breast and to nurture and to love, He doesn't give it to somebody else. He gives it to us, and He gives us the privilege of raising this little child in a home.
We're so blessed because God has put motherhood in our hearts. Dear ladies, motherhood is in our hearts. God has put it there by divine creation. He has put within the female a nurturing instinct, and it is there in our hearts.
Now, we know, of course, more and more today are rejecting motherhood and turning away from everything that is motherly and feminine. Even these screaming, yelling women can't get away from who God created them to be because you'll find, if you go and check it out, that they'll have a pet. They've rejected motherhood, but they've got to have something they can love, so they have a pet.
You see, God has put it in our hearts. Not only has He put nurturing in our hearts, He's put home in our hearts. It is in our hearts. It is natural to love home. Now, once again, in our educated society today that's educated in socialism and feminism and humanism, it has often been educated out of the brains of women, so they have been pulled to leave the home, and they've been brainwashed that it's an inferior place to be. When they get rid of all that junk, down deep in their hearts, there's a longing for home because God has put it within us. He wants the woman to be in the home.
We go back to the very, very beginning, and we find that when God created man. We read the account in Genesis 2. He created man and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” And that was Adam. He was created first.
Then the next very Scripture says, and then God created the home, the Garden of Eden. That was the next thing He did. He still hasn't created the woman yet. We don't even read anything about her until way down in the chapter, verse 18, and God says: “I'm going to create a helpmeet for Adam.” Even then, she doesn't come. God then creates all the animals and the beasts of the fields and the birds and so on, and that all happens before He creates the woman.
Then the day come when He puts Adam to sleep and out of the man, He brings forth a woman. When she awakes to life, she's in her home, HER HOME. Yes, God created the man before the home but not the woman. He had the home ready for her.
There she was. “This is where I want you to be,” God says. “This is the beautiful place I've created for you. You're going to make life in a home. It's from this home that you're going to affect the generations. It's from this home that you're going to nurture the world.”
Here in our homes, we embrace our home because we embrace the place of nurturing. Today, we have daycares, and yes, children can be cared for. They can be watched over from harm and so on, but they can't be truly mothered. Only a mother can truly mother her child. Only she knows intuitively the needs of her child and that can only happen in the home. Day cares are only counterfeit. Everything that God has planned is perfect and everything that God has planned, the devil hates. He has a counterfeit for everything that God has planned, and his counterfeit for the home are daycares, of course. We must embrace our home as a place of nurturing.
3. WE EMBRACE OUR HOMES AS A PLACE OF BIRTHING
Number three, we embrace our home as a place of birthing. Now, not everybody is going to birth their babies in the home, but it's a beautiful place to birth babies and such a relaxed atmosphere to birth a baby. I love that poem, I've just forgotten the author now, a great American poet, and he talks about how our home is not a home until there's been someone born in it, and there's been someone that died in it, and everything has happened in this home.
I know many of you have had beautiful home births. Some of you have had situations where you've not been able to birth at home, and you've had to go to the hospital. Those who have to go to the hospital, I think that can be an even greater challenge because you've got to be really on top of things. There are so many invasive things that they do today in birthing. Even when the baby is born, we need to make sure that they don't happen to our baby, and we become very educated and informed and know what they are really doing.
I remember when Meadow, my granddaughter, had her first baby. She had it in a birthing center at the hospital where she had a midwife, and it was like being at home, but she was there at the birthing center. She had prepared herself so well. I mean, she'd studied. There wasn't one thing she didn't study and check out about birthing at home or what happens when you birth in a hospital. She had written out everything, gone over it with her husband, and he had the list so that when they were at the hospital, he could check everything off and make sure that that happened or that didn't happen.
When you're in birth, you're so vulnerable you can't even think about these things yourself, and you need someone advocating for you. He was well-educated, and they were able to protect themselves and protect their baby. I think that is important if you're birthing in a hospital. If you're birthing at home, that is such a beautiful experience too.
Well, time has gone again, and we've hardly started. Next week, we're going to speak more about living in our homes.
Let's pray, shall we? “Dear Father, I thank You so much for Your wonderful plan; Your plan for the home. Your plan for us to naveh in our homes and make our homes a lovely place, a delightful place. Help us, Lord, to get a vision for our homes, to see it beyond just a place to live and eat and sleep but to see wonderful and great and amazing things happen. Help us to be those who make things happen, who envision things to happen in our homes. I ask Your blessing and Your protection on every wife and husband and child who is listening today in the name of Jesus, Amen.”
Here is the poem I mentioned in this podcast.
IT TAKES A HEAP O’ LIVIN’
It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home,
A heap o’ sun an’ shadder, an’ ye sometimes have t’ roam
Afore ye really ’preciate the things ye lef’ behind,
An’ hunger fer ’em somehow, with ’em allus on yer mind.
It don’t make any differunce how rich ye get t’ be,
How much yer chairs an’ tables cost, how great yer luxury;
It ain’t home t’ ye, though it be the palace of a king,
Until somehow yer soul is sort o’ wrapped round everything.
Home ain’t a place that gold can buy or get up in a minute;
Afore it’s home there’s got t’ be a heap o’ livin’ in it;
Within the walls there’s got t’ be some babies born, and then
Right there ye’ve got t’ bring ‘em up t’ women good, an’ men;
And gradjerly, as time goes on, ye find ye wouldn’t part
With anything they ever used—they’ve grown into yer heart:
The old high chairs, the playthings, too, the little shoes they wore
Ye hoard; an’ if ye could ye’d keep the thumbmarks on the door.
Ye’ve got t’ weep t’ make it home, ye’ve got t’ sit an’ sigh
An’ watch beside a loved one’s bed, an’ know that Death is nigh;
An’ in the stillness o’ the night t’ see Death’s angel come,
An’ close the eyes o’ her that smiled, an’ leave her sweet voice dumb.
Fer these are scenes that grip the heart, an’ when yer tears are dried,
Ye find the home is dearer than it was, an’ sanctified;
An’ tuggin’ at ye always are the pleasant memories
O’ her that was an’ is no more—ye can’t escape from these.
Ye’ve got t’ sing an’ dance fer years, ye’ve got t’ romp an’ play,
An’ learn t’ love the things ye have by usin’ ’em each day;
Even the roses ’round the porch must blossom year by year
Afore they ’come a part o’ ye, suggestin’ someone dear
Who used t’ love ’em long ago, an’ trained ’em jes’ t’ run
The way they do, so’s they would get the early mornin’ sun;
Ye’ve got t’ love each brick an’ stone from cellar up t’ dome:
It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home.
Edgar Albert Guest is one of my favorite poem authors. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959) (aka Eddie Guest) was a prolific American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the People's Poet.