PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 113: MAKING A HOME OF REST— PART 4

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 113: MAKING A HOME OF REST— PART 4

Discover the beautiful truth of exchanging our old fleshly life for the life of Jesus. All the good and beautiful things that are in Jesus are in us because He lives in us. This truth will revolutionize your life and mothering.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. This is our fourth session on making our homes a home of rest. This is what God wants for our homes. In Isaiah 32:18, it says: “And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.“

Isn't that a beautiful description? And that's God's intention for our marriages, and for our homes. The words in “quiet resting places,” that is the same Hebrew word, menuchah, that I shared with you in our  first session about how marriage is a place of rest. When Naomi was talking to Ruth about getting a husband, she used this very same Hebrew word.

It means “resting place,” so that's why we're talking about it, dear ladies. We want to make our marriages a place of rest, our homes a place of rest for ourselves, and ultimately for God, because He's looking for a place to dwell. He is a dwelling God. He loves to dwell, and He doesn't want to dwell in strife and tension. He wants to come and dwell in rest.

In Proverbs 24:15, it says: “Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place.” Now that is a warning in that Scripture. God gives a warning to those, or anything, that would come against the resting places of the righteous. So we ourselves have to guard our homes and guard our marriages, that we don't allow anything to come in that would spoil our rest, spoil our resting place.

So a good idea is to get into the habit of thinking about your home as a resting place. If you think of your home as that, you're more likely going to be making it into a resting place. You'll be thinking of ideas of how to make it more restful. You'll be guarding against things that can come into your marriage, or come into your home, amongst the children.

All these outside things, but we have to guard . . . You see, we, as mothers and wives, we are the guardians of the home. That's the truth that comes out in Titus, chapter 2, where it tells the older women to teach the younger women to be keepers of their homes.

The word in the Greek is a word that means “to be a guardian, to watch over.” It's a picture of a keeper of a castle, who keeps the keys. He does not allow any intruder into that castle. We don't allow any intruders, enemy intruders, into our homes because we want to keep them a resting place.

Now also I want to read you a beautiful hymn. I love the old hymns. This is one of my favorites, by Horatius Bonar.

It actually goes with one of our points. We're going through our ten points on how to make our homes a home of rest. It was way back in the beginning, about how we're to make our homes a home of praising, because God loves to indwell the praises of His people. This is where God delights to be, amongst the praises and worship of His people.

Now if God loves to live among praises, don't you think that we should live among praises too? So I was reminding you about how we need to be praising our husband, praising our children, making our whole home a praising home.

This is a hymn about a praising life. It's a beautiful prayer.

Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,

In ev'ry part with praise,

That my whole being may proclaim

Thy Being and Thy ways.

Not for the lip of praise alone,

Nor e'en  the praising heart,

I ask, for but for a life made up

Of praise in ev'ry part.

Praise in the common things of life,

It’s goings out and in,

Praise in each day and deed,

However small and mean.

Fill every part of me with praise,

Let all my being speak

Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,

Poor though I be and weak.

So shall no part of day or night

From sacredness be free,

But all my life, in every step,

Be fellowship with Thee.

May that be our prayer for our lives in our homes each day.

Number Eight

CEASE FROM YOUR OWN WORKS

All right, ladies, we are now up to point number eight, in seeking to make a home of rest. Each one of these points are not something that I've made up. They come from the word of God. So we're going again to Hebrews. Remember Hebrews, chapters three and four, are all about entering into rest, or not entering into rest, because of our unbelief, or our hardness of heart.

Now this time, we're going to talk about something else. So we'll read Hebrews chapter four, verse nine, “There remaineth therefore, a rest . . . ” The actual word means a Sabbath rest to the people of God. It's the picture of a Sabbath rest. It's not talking about . . . We're not going to just have a Sabbath rest once a week, but a whole life of a Sabbath rest. This is talking about the lifestyle of a Sabbath rest.

“For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

So number eight is, we have to cease from our own works. We're not going to be able to enter into rest in our own souls, in our own life experience, or in our home, if we are trying to do it by our own effort. We can't make things happen by our own effort. It's only by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So we cease from our own works, and we allow God to work in us.

I think of Zechariah 4:6, one of my favorite Scriptures. I think I pray this Scripture nearly every day. “Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.”

There's so much that we long for in our hearts. There's so much we long to see in the lives of those we love, in our children, in our husbands. But you know, we can't do the work. We can't do it of ourselves. It can only happen by the Spirit of God.

So when you are concerned, and when you are desperately praying concern for a loved one, remember you can't, you can't make this happen. You can come before God, you can cry out to Him, to move by the power of His Holy Spirit. And He will do it. It's by His Spirit. It's only by the power of His Holy Spirit.

That's why, even now, in this time in our nation, when we have these uprisings and this scourge of anarchy that's coming into many of our cities, how can this be stopped? The greatest, most powerful way is through the power of prayer, which releases the Holy Spirit to move.

Of course, He will move through people. But it has to be by the power of the Holy Spirit. Take that Scripture. Oh, make it part of your life. “Not by might, not by power, by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.”

Who is speaking? The Lord of Hosts. The Lord of the armies of heaven. The One who fights for Israel. The One Who fights for you. The One Who fights for His people.

And in our own lives, we have to stop our own striving and trying to work everything out in our own lives. We have to allow the Spirit of God to come in and live His life. I have always been blessed by that Scripture in Philemon, verse six. And it says: “That the communication of your faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”

Now what is it saying? It's talking about how to make our faith effectual. That's what we want, isn't it? We want our faith to be effectual. We want to live in rest. We don't want to have strife and tension. We don't want to be filled with unbelief and hardness of heart. We want this life of calming rest.

How do we get it? Not by striving, but by doing what this Scripture says. So let's go back. Let's look at it, little by little. “That your faith may be effectual, BY THE ACKNOWLEDGING . . . ” OK, you've got to acknowledge certain things, “acknowledging of EVERY GOOD THING which is in you in Christ Jesus.”

So what's its saying is that every good thing that is in Christ, His rest, that's what we're talking about. His rest, He's the only One Who lives in perfect rest. Nothing takes Him by surprise. He doesn't get His stomach tied up in knots. He's not fretful and in despair. No, He lives in rest. And when He comes to live in you, He comes as the One Who lives in rest. His rest comes into your spirit. Isn't that amazing?

Now we don't often experience this, dear ladies, but this is truth. There's so much in the Word of God that is so powerful, and liberating, and victorious, and overcoming. But we don't live in it because we don't take hold of the Word.

And actually, we don't even believe it. We've got to start believing it. We acknowledge it, and we believe it. And so we say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, that I live in rest ,because You live in me. And You are rest. I thank You for Your rest that fills my soul.”

Are you in turmoil about something today? Are you upset? your stomach's all wound up? Oh, just come to Jesus. “Oh, Lord Jesus, I thank You that You live in me. And You live in rest. Oh, I thank You, that Your rest fills my soul. Thank You, Lord Jesus!”

And so you're doing what the Scripture says. You're acknowledging this truth, that every good thing that's in Jesus is in you.

 Are you having trouble with having patience with the children? Oh, they're driving you crazy! You're getting mad. You fly off the handle! Oh, you've just got to change this habit. You see, what you're doing, you're relying on your own strength. But you've got to cease from your own works, and you've got to trust in His. And so you cry out to the Lord Jesus. You say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You live in me, and You are patient! And so Lord, I am patient!”

Yes, you can confess that you are patient, and you're filled with longsuffering. Because Jesus Christ dwells in you, and when he comes into your life, He doesn't come in with a little bit of Who He is. He comes as Who He is. He is patient. He is longsuffering. That's Who He is. He wants to live His life through you.

Instead of living your own life, we say no to the flesh, and yes to the Spirit. We put off the old man, and we put on the new man. Instead of wearing these old clothes of unbelief and tension and worry, and all these old clothes that we've been so used to using, we put on our new clothes, our new man, which is Christ Jesus. All the good things that are in Him...Are you getting it? If you can get this truth, it will revolutionize your life.

God revealed His truth to me as a young mother, when I was just so emotional.  Up one day, down the next. Screaming at the children. And then God began to show me, no, that's not how you live as a mother, living your old life. No, you live according to My life. My life in you is patience, rest, longsuffering, joy, yes!

You’re down in the mouth, you're depressed, you're grumbling, oh . . . No, that's the old man! But Christ Jesus in you is joy! He is JOY! That's Who He is!

So we're either going to live according to our feelings and our old man, or according to the life of Christ, who dwells in us by His Spirit. And we have to learn to choose what we're going to do.

We have to learn to acknowledge the truth. You see, we can live according to lies. We can live according to our feelings. But feelings are lies! I mean, yes, they seem pretty true, because that's how you feel. Yes, you really feel lousy, and you really feel mad. You really feel depressed.

But feelings come, and feelings go. They're just a very temporary thing, and we do not even have to give into them! We do not have to yield to them at all. Instead of yielding to them, we say, “NO! I do not yield to them! I yield to the Life of Christ, Who dwells in me. His life, His joy, He is joy! He is victory! He has overcome the enemy.  And he dwells in me!”

And so you speak the good things that are in Christ. You speak them out. and you acknowledge that they are in you! Precious ladies, you may have to listen to this podcast again, to get this truth into your very soul, so that it becomes part of you. I

I'm just thinking now of a Scripture in Ephesians, I think it is . . . let me go to it. Yes, or was it Ephesians one? Maybe I'll go to Ephesians three, or maybe I'll go to Colossians. Oh my. I would love to get it for you. Let's see, Let's see if it's here. You know what? I'm not finding it. Yes, I am, here it is! It's Colossians, OK?

Colossians 1:10: “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might.” Woo! Don't you want to be strengthened with all might and all the power of God?

Yes, it goes on to say: “. . . according to His glorious power . . .” Wow! “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power”! Then it says: “Unto.”  Wow, what is this “strengthening with all might,” with this “glorious power?”

What is it for? For “PATIENCE AND LONGSUFFERING. “Isn't that amazing? You see, when we have the power of Christ operating in our lives, it will release patience and longsuffering, because that's Who Christ is. Yes, the power of God in us, is to help us to be patient and longsuffering, with thankfulness and joyfulness!

Yes. And so, the power of God comes into your life to give you that enabling, to live the life of Jesus in you. The life of patience, and longsuffering, and joy, and thankfulness, and victory, and rest. Amen?

Have you got it? Well, if you haven't, go back and listen to it again. Let the truth of God's Word fill your life. Amen?

All right . . .

Number Nine

SEEK TO KNOW GOD AND HIS WAYS

We're still in our Hebrews chapter. I'll have to find it again myself. Hebrews 3:9, 10: Yes, “When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.” For forty years they saw the miracles of God. Yes, they were going through the wilderness, but in the wilderness, they saw such mighty miracles.

“Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in in their heart; and they have not known My ways.” Yes, verses 11- 13, we'll read those too: ”So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Here we see another one of those Scriptures, those “one anothers.” Remember I talked to you for four sessions about TOGETHERNESS? And how that God has given us all these “one anothers.” Here's another one.

But some translations say: “encourage one another.” The King James says: “But exhort one another.” Some say: “Warn one another.” The actual Greek word is, let’s see, what is it? I've got it written down here . . . yes! Parakaleo. Now kaleo means “by the side.” So this word means, “to call to one's side.”

Do you remember, if you listened to those podcasts, how that we found that our faith is a mutual faith? It's FACE TO FACE, and SIDE BY SIDE. Oh, I love those phrases, “face to face,” “side by side.” And here it comes again.  This word is literally, “to come alongside.”

We are meant to come alongside one another, to encourage one another, to build one another up, to warn one another, to keep one another in the faith. And so this is quite a strong verse. “Take heed, brethren, and exhort and warn one another daily”! Not once a week, but every day, “while it is called TODAY.”

So we're coming alongside. It's not enough to stay in our home and just listen to some Zoom meeting, which is great! But we have got to get tangible, and real, and get alongside one another.

This whole social distancing thing, I don't believe is from God. OK, I will acknowledge, of course, people who are sick and vulnerable. They don't go out and mix amongst others. They protect themselves. They can even wear masks if they have to go out.

But those who are well and healthy, I don't believe that we have to be hidden away, or social distancing from one another. From the very beginning of the first acknowledgment of this COVID-19, we have never social distanced, never worn masks, and never stopped meeting together.

And I still don't know anyone in my community, my state, in this nation. I did have a friend in England who did get the virus, but apart from that dear friend in England, I still don't know anybody in America. And I know loads and loads and loads of people. Of course, we know that many people have got it, but I still don't know any personally. You'd think if it truly was this incredible pandemic, that I'd know somebody! But here, this whole thing has stopped God's people from getting together, and side by side to really encourage one another. . (I’ve since heard of two or three, but they are all fine and well).

Anyway, we're talking here about knowing the ways of God. They saw the miracles, but they didn't know His ways. There's another Scripture, in Psalm 103:7 where it talks about how God shows His acts and His miracles to the children of Israel, but Moses knew His way.

Dear ladies, let's be those who not only just see or hear about God doing great things, but let's be those who know His ways. We seek Him, we seek His Word. We're not just listening to everything all around about. We go to the Word. We're Word-wise. We're Word-mothers. And I believe we have to be that. I believe, as mothers in the home, we have to be Word-mothers.

In fact, if there are young people listening to me today, and I hope there are, you don't start to be a Word-person when you become a mother. You become a Word-person when you are young, because that is your preparation for motherhood. You go into motherhood with the Word in your heart! So you know how to live as a mother. You know how to overcome as a mother, because you know the principles of the Word of God. And you also have that Word in your mouth, not just in your heart, and not just in the Bible, on the bookshelf.

But it's in your MOUTH, ready to impart to the children that God gives you. What does it say in Isaiah 59:21? “As for Me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My Spirit which I have given unto to you, My Words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth . . . ” Notice it says, “mouth,” every time. “Nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children's children, and henceforth and forever, saith the Lord.”

And so we become Word-people when we're young. And we go into motherhood as Word-people. But then again, if you haven't had that growing up, and here you are, you're mothering. Perhaps you didn't have the blessing of the Word as you were growing up. But seek to get it now.

I know, young mothers, you don't have much time to get away in the Word of God. But put the Word of God up on your windowsill, in the Psalms, where you can look up, and get a little sustenance. Put it in the toilet where you have to go.

Have another Bible where you sit to nurse your baby. Have Bibles around the place, open. Open. Not to Ecclesiastes, but no, open it to Psalms or Proverbs, where it's easy to get a little Word.

When you wake in the morning, try to grab a little Word. Just get little bits if you don't have time for big lots. You can get little bits to sustain you. But let's be those who know God, know His ways. Because when we know Him, lovely ladies, you know what? We can trust Him. We can trust Him. We know that He is faithful.

As you get to know Him, you know that you can trust Him. This brings rest into your soul. Yes, you're not fretting, you're not worrying, you're not in a state of panic, because we only get into those states when we don't realize God is in control.

But when we know who He is, we can say, “Oh God, I don't know how to get through this, but I thank You, You are with me. I thank You, that You are bigger than this, this thing I'm facing, this mountain. You are bigger and I trust You, and I thank You, and I give it over to You.” And as you do this, rest comes into your soul. Because you know Him, and you know you can trust Him.

Number Ten

KEEP A HOME OF ORDER AND CLEANLINESS

OK. I've got to finish. I want to finish this session, so let's do our last point, number ten. And this is practical. Seek to keep your home a home of order and cleanliness and discipline, because you can't have rest without these things. When you live in chaos, you can't have rest. It's impossible. And of course, let's just start with a little bit of discipline.

Something has happened in our society today. You see, what is happening in society filters through into the Christian world as well. It seems that so many people today don't believe in discipline. And now, even many Christian parents don't believe in disciplining their children. The children run the home.

I have been amazed to watch children really order their parents around. They're the ones who are in control. This is not right! Parents are in control. Parents have the authority. Children are to obey and submit to their parents. That's what the Word of God says. Children are to honor their parents. They are to obey their parents. The Word of God even says they are to fear their parents. “Fear thou thy mother and thy father” (Leviticus 19:3).

And this is meant to be the attitude of children. I love the Scripture, I wrote it down . . . Let me see, I'll go to it in the Word. Proverbs 29:17. Let me get my glasses on here: “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest.” Oh, this is one of my favorite Scriptures. Well, I have so many favorites.

But oh, this is so true, Ladies, hear it again. “Correct thy son, and HE SHALL GIVE THEE REST; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.” Now every mother loves her children. But many mothers are just haggard and overwhelmed, because their children are out of control. Their children rule them. They go to town, and they're whining and complaining, and they want this, and they want that.

“Can I have this?” and “Can I have that?” And if they don't get it, they keep whining. So the mother buys it for them, just to keep the peace. Now that is not true peace! That's giving in to your child, and training them to have an entitlement mentality, and that anything they want, they can get it, anytime.

That is not training your child! Sometimes you've got to sit down with your children before you go to the shop. You say, “OK children, we're going out to the shops. We're going to have a lovely time together, but we're just buying the groceries. That's all we can afford. We're not buying everything we see. OK, if you see something, just because you see it, doesn't mean to say you're going to get it. So today, when we go out, we're not getting anything extra. If you ask for something that you know we're not planning to get . . . we’re just getting the groceries, OK, well, we're going to have deal with that.”

Maybe you'll say, “OK, we'll just go straight home” even if you have to forget your groceries. You keep your word. You're going to train your children. So that they know. Look, we've got to train them. Yes, we correct them, we discipline them. We also have to train them. Because how we train them, that's how they're going to grow up.

Children whine. Do you really allow your children to whine? I've never allowed our children to whine. Nor has my husband. Our children were never allowed to whine. We soon put a stop to that. They weren't allowed to get in moods. We broke those habits from little children. They have grown up, and not one of them has a whining spirit.

Never in my life do I ever hear them complaining about anything. Not one of them ever has a mood. In fact, they hardly know how to really get into being down about things.

I remember one time, Evangeline was, oh, she got, I don't know what was wrong with her. She was terribly ill. She came upstairs to our place, and she could hardly walk. She was bent right over, and oh, I said, “Vange, what's wrong? How are you?” And she said, “I'm incredible!' She didn't even know how to say, “I'm lousy!”

Because they have, well, maybe that's a bit over the top, but that's really how they are. And yet, if we allow whining and all these things, that's how they're going to grow up, and that's what they're going to be taking into their marriage. That will even spoil a marriage.

So we discipline our children for disobedience, and for those things that are totally wrong. We keep them in check. We train them! We correct them, we chasten them, we train them. We train them into the right habits instead of these selfish and negative habits.

And what happens? We get rest. Oh, do you know that raising children can be such a beautiful thing of rest? If we train our children in obedience? And they are not ruling the house instead of the parents? So this is an important thing, too.

Make sure that you know who you are, and who God's created you to be. You are the mother. Your husband is the father. And your children are to obey you, and to honor you, and to fear you. That is biblical. OK?

And you will also seek to live your lives so that you keep your home in order. Now that doesn't mean to say, well, you've got little ones, and oh, you know, things can get messy, and everything can get everywhere.

But at least before your husband comes home . . . I used to have a one-two-three. OK, and toys can be strewn all over the floor, and everything's around and I would say to the children, “OK, let's have a one-two-three! Daddy's coming home soon. Let's go for it!” And so we'd go one-two-three, and we'd go! And everyone would run to put everything away.

Now of course, everything should have a place where it belongs and goes to. Sometimes you don't even have time for that, because Daddy's coming home soon, and the little ones have just made a big mess. At least you can have one cupboard where you throw it all in, and it's out of the way. And Daddy walks in, and he doesn't even trip over. He can walk in the door. Isn't that wonderful?

Oh, but time has gone, lovely ladies. We could talk so much more. Let me pray for you.

“We thank You, Father, again, for Your wonderful goodness, how You love us, and how You just want to draw us into Your way. We ask that You will teach us Your way. I pray for these darling ladies who are listening today, that You will teach them Your ways, and lead them more and more into Your truth. I ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.”

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.