PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 238: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 13
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 238: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 13
God wants us to SERVE Him in our land of motherhood. When you mother, you are actually serving and worshipping the Lord. Are you HEART AND SOUL MOTHERING?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Here we are, already into the new year! Even already it seems to be going so quickly! Oh, I’m sure you’ve had a lovely Christmas, Hanukah time, and yes, a little break, hopefully, before you’ve had to get into this new year.
Colin and I had a lovely Christmas time, which was mainly family gatherings. Our Christmas is mainly family getting together to have a meal. Then we have toasts. Well, actually that’s speeches. But anyone can get up and toast to someone or to something that has meant something to them during the year, or they’re thinking about. They can speak about that.
That’s my favorite part. I love fellowship, love conversation, but I think there’s something about when you can have speeches. People can get up and really talk about someone or something that’s really worthwhile. That was a beautiful thing on Christmas day.
Then we had other little family gatherings with different ones of the family. I always have my traditional book party with our children and their spouses, which is such a wonderful night of the year. Now I do one for the young couples as well where we all come, have a lovely meal together and then we bring books.
Each one brings a book and we put them in the middle and take a number, of course. Then we choose. Or we kind of hopefully fight over them, because that’s what we want to do to have some fun together. We usually let our hair down and do that. It’s so great. We don’t do it with stuff. We do it with books, because we can’t be bothered with adding more junk into our homes, but we all love books, love reading. So, it makes it worthwhile.
Since last week, Colin and I went away for a couple of days which was so lovely. Came back to, once again, functions all weekend. Friday night was Shabbat. I invited my granddaughters. I wanted to do a special meal with them. That was such a lovely night.
Then Saturday night was the New Year’s Eve. We had a New Year’s Eve party here with food, fellowship, games then worshipping the Lord until midnight. But I have to confess, sorry, Colin and I didn’t last until midnight. We actually missed out on the best part of the evening which was worshipping the Lord until midnight. But we couldn’t last and went to bed. But everybody else had a great time.
Then last night, we had a birthday party here at our home for a precious little girl. A dear friend of ours, Nadia, has seven children. Her youngest was born with a very rare disease, where one side of her body is perfect. The other grows these big tumors. It’s very rare and not very good.
Not only did she face this, but nearing a couple of years ago now, she was also diagnosed with stage four cancer. So, Nadia has been in and out of hospital with treatments and so forth for her, for 18 months. She was so praying that she would have a perfect scan after all that. But no, there were still things growing. So, she’s back doing the same old thing this year.
But in the midst of it all, little Gracie is still a miracle. Here she was last night, five years old, and so bright, cheerful, wonderful, walking around. They didn’t think she’d ever be able to walk. But walking around, just a delight to all. It was the most beautiful thing to be able to celebrate her birthday. Now, she goes into hospital again this week. But that was a beautiful evening last night.
Let’s get on to our series of “What Do We Have to Do in the Land of Motherhood?” Well, these are the things that God told His people to do in the land. We’re talking about our land of motherhood. We’re up to . . .
No. 11. TO SERVE THE LORD
We’re reading from Deuteronomy because, ladies, Deuteronomy is the whole message that Moses gave to the people of Israel to prepare them to go into the land. It’s a wonderful book for us to read, even as we look at it in the light of motherhood. We read it to encourage us, inspire us, strengthen us, as we live in our land of motherhood.
One of the things that Moses encouraged them to do when they went into the land was to serve the Lord. Deuteronomy 10:12 & 20: “What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God?” I wonder how? It tells us. God tells us everything.
WE SERVE THE LORD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS AND ALL OUR SOULS
“To serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Now, we’re talking about serving the Lord, but in that Scripture, it tells us we’re to fear Him, and walk in all His ways, and love Him, and to serve Him. That word “serve” is an interesting word, ladies, because the first time this word is mentioned is regarding the home, the first home, called the Garden of Eden.
The Bible says, in Genesis 2:15: “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.” The word “dress” in the Hebrew is the word abad, the same word that’s used here, “to serve.” That’s what it means, “to serve, to labor, to work, to work so hard that you get weary, even be fatigued.” It also means, “to worship.” That’s the first time the word is used. Whenever a word is used the first time, we take notice of it, so we realize that the first time is regarding the home.
Let’s move on. It’s interesting. We see here in Exodus; I’m just popping back to Exodus for a minute.
Exodus 4:22-23. And God is telling Moses to speak to Pharoah. This is while the children of Israel are still captives and slaves in Egypt: “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.” Which we know eventually happened. That was the last plague.
But God is telling Pharaoh here, “Israel is My son, My firstborn, and you’ve got to let him go!” And what was the reason? So that they could serve Him. This is the reason that we are saved from the bondage of sin, and slavery to sin, the bondage to the enemy. Jesus died and shed His blood to save us, and to redeem us, and to set us free, so that we could be set free from the kingdom of darkness and put into the kingdom of His dear Son, to serve Him.
We are saved to serve. Now, we’re not saved by our works or anything we can do. We’re saved through all that Jesus did, through shedding His precious blood. But then, when we are saved, we’re saved unto good works, and unto serving Him. As it says in Ephesians 2:10, that “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” We are saved to serve.
Sometimes we don’t like the word “serve.” But it is a beautiful word. It means “to work, to labor.” Sometimes we don’t like those words “to work,” and “to labor.” But they are also wonderful words because God created us to work. He never created us to be lazy and sit around. That doesn’t help us at all! There’s nothing in that.
We’re created to serve. We were created to labor. We were created to work, because when we do that, we find fulfillment. Work releases us to creativity, to find better ways of doing things. After a good day’s work, we have a good night’s sleep. It’s all part of how God created us and for our blessing.
Let’s go on to Deuteronomy 11:13-15: “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.” We see the blessings of serving.
But ladies, did you notice how God wants us to serve? He wants us to serve Him with all our hearts and with all our souls. Yes! That’s how we are to serve, not out of obligation, not out of legality, not out of “this is what I have to do.” No, it’s out of our hearts. The heart. What is the heart? The heart speaks of our deepest emotions. Also, the will to action.
So it begins with desire and our emotions, which inspire us to actually take action. It begins with the heart, either to positivity, or to negativity. It begins with the heart toward God, to serve Him, or to serve ourselves. But it’s a heart thing. I believe God wants us to be heart-people.
I love this Scripture in Jeremiah 32:41. I’ve shared this Scripture with you before, ladies, and it’s God speaking. He says: “Yea, I will rejoice over them, to do them good, and will plant them in this land assuredly, with My whole heart, and with My whole soul.” I love this Scripture because it gives us a picture of our God. He’s a God who is . . . He’s part of our lives. He's not just distantly part of our lives. He’s passionately part of our lives, passionately wanting to do us good.
Here He’s giving a promise to His people, that yes, even though He had to cast them out of the land because of their sin, that He would never violate His promise, that He had given them this land for an everlasting possession. He said, “I’m going to bring you back, and I’m going to plant you, assuredly. Yes, with all My heart and with all My soul.” I love to hear God speaking like that. Don’t you? That’s the heart of God, the passionate heart of God.
Dear lovely ladies, oh, sometimes you may feel that God is distant. Oh no, He is always there. His heart is passionately for you. His heart pants for you, to do His will and to walk with Him. This is in the heart of God. This is how He wants us to serve Him.
This is the attitude. I believe that this should be the heart of us as mothers. We are talking about the children of Israel serving God in the land, so that’s what we’re doing in our land of motherhood. We’re serving Him. We’re serving Him in our motherhood. When we come into this land, when God gives us a baby, and another baby comes along, and our little family grows, we are in the very perfect will of God as we are serving Him in the role of motherhood.
Now, we can do it many ways. We can do it with drudgery, because “Here, I’m stuck in this home. Of course, I love my children. Of course, I’m going to cook for them, feed them, look after them.” But we still don’t have the fullness of the passion God wants us to have. What does He want us to have? To do it . . . to do it with our whole heart, and our whole soul.
Dear lovely ladies, this makes the whole difference to your living in your land of motherhood. It comes back to your attitude. It comes back to your heart-attitude. Yes, not just your mind-attitude, but your heart-attitude. Sometimes you have to get a mind-attitude first, because you’ve got to know the truth.
Many mothers don’t have the right mind-attitude because they’ve been brainwashed. They’re being cajoled and wooed and brainwashed to get out of the home, that motherhood is insignificant. They have been told the wrong story. They have been told lies. No, this is who God created us to be.
As I have shared with you before, we have three witnesses giving us all we need to know what we are meant to do.
BIBLICALLY, PHYSIALLY, AND INNATELY
First of all, we have it biblically. It’s right through the Word of God. But even if we didn’t have the Bible, we would still know, because secondly, we were created physically for this task. We were created as a female, with a womb and with breasts, for the very purpose of motherhood!
It’s so amazing that there are so many women, I shouldn’t say the word “educated.” I would say “brainwashed beyond their intelligence.” They don’t even know who they are. They seem to not understand that they were created with a womb and with breasts for a purpose.
If that was not enough, we have it innately. The third witness; we are born with this nurturing instinct, this compassion that we have as women. It is put in us innately. God prepared us for this great task. He wants us to embrace it with all our heart and with all our soul.
I wonder, precious mothers, young mothers listening today, middling mothers, maybe there’s some older mothers, maybe you’ve never really embraced it. Oh yes, you can be a mother, and not really embrace who you are.
I can remember when I first went into motherhood. I didn’t embrace it. I, of course, loved my children. Oh goodness me! I had never known such love but I still was kind of rejecting this role of motherhood, because, my, I had so many other things I wanted to do in life! Goodness me! I wanted to change the world! This mothering business was just holding me down in four walls!
Until God came, and little by little, began to show me His truth, that yes, I was in His perfect will. Yes, I had been created for this purpose. And little by little, I came to it, and came to that place of saying, “Yes!” and embracing it. Not just in my mind, but with my whole heart, and with my whole soul. And then began the change. Then began the enjoyment. Then began the fulfillment. That doesn’t happen until we come to this place of embracing it wholly.
Now, I noticed as I read through Deuteronomy, and I would encourage you to pick up that book and read it through. Read it, and let God speak to you, even speak to you as a mother, thinking about the land, your land of motherhood. But I noticed, as I read through, that He’s continually talking about the heart.
GOD WANTS YOU TO BE HEART MOTHERS
When He was getting the people ready to go into the land, He was not just commanding them, “You shall do this, and you shall do that.” He was talking about the heart. He wanted them to be a heart-people as they went into the land to possess the land. God wants you, dear mothers, to be heart-mothers.
Let’s look at some of the other things that He wants us to do with all our hearts and souls.
Number one: Of course, we’re talking about serving Him, and we’ve read those Scriptures. Yes, to serve Him. That means to work, to labor, even to being totally weary and fatigued. Yes, I will confess, you can feel like that many times as a mother.
I remember when my little ones were so little. I had three in 17 months, and then four under four. In the early days, I remember that I was so tired I could hardly bear the pain of the tiredness. And yet, even in that, oh, there was still that great fulfillment of purpose, because, you see, to be in something that is so powerful and purposeful doesn’t meant that you’re not going to get tired. Of course, you’ll get tired with doing something that is so mighty and so powerful.
Number two: He wants us to seek Him with all our hearts.
Deuteronomy 4:29: “Seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”
Number three: He wants us to fear Him with all our hearts.
Deuteronomy 5:29: “Oh that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments.” I wonder, is it because it hasn’t got to our heart that we really don’t walk in the fear of the Lord?
I think there is such lack today of walking in the fear of the Lord. We talked about that last session, so we don’t need to go into it more, but this Scripture tells us how it takes the heart. Oh, if only there was such a heart in them! Because when our heart is for Him, well, then it’s going to change things.
Number four: He wants us to love Him with all our hearts.
Deuteronomy 6:6: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
Number five: He wants His Word to be in our hearts.
Deuteronomy 6:6 and 11:18: “Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and ye shall teach them to your children.” You know the passage in Deuteronomy chapter 6 where it says we are to teach our children diligently. It’s repeated over in chapter 11.
And God tells it to them again, but before, He said, “Before you do that, before you can even teach your children, you’ve got to have My Words in your heart and in your soul.” It’s a great responsibility, isn’t it, mothers?
I know, often it’s hard to get time to spend that time in the Word, When your time is so taken up with all your little ones, and middling, and big ones, motherhood is very all-encompassing. That’s why I believe it’s so important, mothers, if you did not have that privilege of filling your heart and soul with the Word of God before you became a mother, do it for your children.
Get the Word into them so that they’re going to go into their marriages, and your daughters into their motherhood, with the Word in their hearts, and in their souls, because we need it. How do we mother without it?
Because mothering, there are so many aspects to mothering. We are, perhaps, firstly nurturing. That’s the number one thing of mothering, it’s nurturing. We’re also feeding, we’re cooking meals, and feeding. We’re clothing and providing. We’re teaching. Oh, there is so much to motherhood. But one of the greatest things, I believe, is the transmitting of God’s truth and His ways to this next generation.
Colin and I leave on Wednesday, tomorrow, to go down to Laguna Beach, Florida, for our first Above Rubies Family Retreat for the year. We usually have our Florida one in April but there are so many people coming that we can’t fit them in. So, we’re doing a second retreat, and this is the winter one. We’re going this week.
I’m planning to speak on this subject of transmitting God’s ways to the next generation, because I look around and I see such a lack. In so many ways, this generation now doesn’t know God’s ways. They’re living in a society that is full of deception. They must know. They don’t even know normal ways of living and etiquette. Even that has been lost. There is so much that is lost!
How was it lost, ladies? It was lost through the mothers. We are the ones who pass it on to the next generation. This is such a powerful part of motherhood. We can’t mother part-time. No, it’s full-time. It takes every bit of our heart and soul to be able to impart everything that we need to into our children’s lives. Not just a bit of head knowledge, no. Getting it into their heart and soul because it's in our heart and soul.
But we’re not going to get through anything to their hearts unless it’s in our hearts. We can say things but if they don’t see it in our lives, if they don’t see it pulsating in our very hearts, they’re not going to get it. No. We’ve got to have His Word in our hearts and in our souls.
Number six: He wants us to cut off the foreskin of our hearts. Well, that’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Talking about circumcision.
Deuteronomy 10:16: “Circumcise therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.”
Now, in the Bible, there is the physical circumcision of cutting off the foreskin, but it is always a type of the spiritual of cutting off that which is of the flesh—all that displeases God, all that hinders our walk with Him. Everything that’s unnecessary. It starts in the heart, because our heart is either panting after God, desiring God, wanting to please Him. Or it’s hankering after fleshly things, entertainment, and the things of this world. We’ve got to cut off everything that displeases Him.
And then the last one, number seven: He does not want our hearts to be deceived.
Deuteronomy 11:16: “Take heed to yourselves that your hearts be not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.” You would think He would say, “I don’t want your minds to be deceived.” Well, that’s true, because we can be deceived in our minds.
But He’s more concerned about our hearts, ladies! That our hearts are not deceived. Yes, where is your heart, Mother? Is your heart in your home? Is your heart panting and desiring all that God has for you? Have you embraced the role that God has given you, this glorious powerful role of motherhood with all your heart, and with all your soul?
Or have you, perhaps, been turning aside? Yes, isn’t it interesting? He said, “Don’t let your heart be deceived and turn aside.” There are so many distractions today, aren’t there? The devil is constantly bringing distractions . . . distractions. They’re all around in our society. There are deceiving distractions. Yes, they are deceiving. They’re not the truth. They are lies.
They can look good. Oh, yes, especially to those who love the Lord. The devil will never make things look bad. Oh, he will make them look so good! So that he can deceive us. We’re not going to get deceived by anything blatantly bad. Goodness no! We get deceived by that which looks good, which is really a distraction to our highest calling and what God wants us to do. Things that take us away from our role in the home and from giving ourselves passionately to this calling which God has given us of motherhood can be distractions. We can easily turn aside. Be careful. Be watchful that you don’t turn aside to other gods, to serve other gods, because God is a jealous God.
Today we don’t serve gods of wood and stone as they did back then, but it’s amazing. In Deuteronomy, there are 16 passages, with quite a number of Scriptures in each one about the warning of going after other gods. But today, we don’t go after gods of wood and stone, but we have so many gods; distractions, things that take us away from God, and the calling He has given to us. Watch those distractions. Watch those other gods.
I wonder what our children see in us. Do they see that we worship God only, and serve Him only with all our heart and soul? I think there are so many Christian homes today . . . I think the majority of Christian homes don’t even sit with their families, morning and evening, to hear the Word of God, to pray together. They’re too busy!
Oh, there’s so much going on! Gotta go here, there, doing this, involved in this and that! They are little gods. Those are things we are turning aside to. If we do not have time in our day for our time of gathering our family to read God’s Word, to pray together, to worship together, we have other gods that have taken the place of God who is to be worshipped, who is paramount. Dear ladies, let our family see that God is the One who is worshipped, and who is paramount in our homes. I will put the Scriptures for those in the transcript. I won’t give them to you now.
Now Joshua 24:15-25. Do you remember this passage when Joshua challenged the people of Israel, and he said: “‘Choose you this day whom ye will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ And the people answered and said, ‘God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Therefore, will we also serve the Lord, for He is our God.’”
AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL ERVE THE LORD
I love that Scripture. Is that your confession? “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” And all the people of Israel confirmed it, “Yes, we’re going to do it too!” But sadly, they didn’t last very long. Gradually they turned to other gods.
We can make a statement, but we’ve got to daily keep in God’s Word, daily gather our children, our family around His Word, praying together, and singing together. This is really the foundation of the family that is serving the Lord, because that word “serve” also means “to worship.” When you are mothering, when you are pouring your heart and soul into raising godly children, transmitting God’s ways into their lives, you’re actually worshipping Him.
Oh, may the Lord bless you today, lovely ladies! I pray that you will live in the joy of serving Him. Don’t ever see all the things you have to do, even the mundane things, as drudgery. No! Look at them as a delight. Oh, it’s all in our attitude. It’s either we look at them as drudgery, or we look at them as delight. When we do, we live in the joy. Love you!
LET US BECOME HEART-MOTHERS!
“Lord, bless each mother today. Pour out Your Holy Spirit all over them. Draw them into Your ways. Speak into their hearts. Let them hear Your heart speaking to their heart. I pray that they will become heart-mothers. And, Lord, that they will be heart-and-soul mothering. Oh, Father, let us all become heart-and-soul mothers. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Scriptures that warn about turning aside to other gods:
Deuteronomy 4:15-19; 5:6-10; 6:14,15; 7:25, 26; 8:19, 20; 11:16, 17; 12:2, 3, 30, 31; 13:6-18; 17:2-7; 28:14; 29:18, 25-28; 30:17, 18; 31: 16-21; 32:15-21.