PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 279: God Loves Togethering, Part 7
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 279: God Loves Togethering, Part 7
What’s been happening on the Hilltop?
God assembles His people at appointed times. Are we on time?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! I trust that you’ve been blessed in your homes today. Well, let’s just catch up on a little bit of the news on the Hilltop here.
This last weekend, we had a father-son camp for fathers and their sons, older sons right down to little sons! There were about 200 fathers and sons who came. They held it over on Sam and Serene’s property. The meetings were at their big barn that they have, the wonderful barn we have over there which Sam originally built for all our weddings and all the weddings that are yet to come. But it has so many other uses.
All the guys were camped all around about in their little tents and so on. They had the most amazing time, teaching them how to shoot with pistols and rifles. They had tomahawk and knife throwing, and rappelling, and goodness knows what! Everything a boy could learn. It was really amazing. Many of them had never done many of the things that they had for them.
They had wonderful meetings in the barn. It was just a beautiful time of father-son relationships. It’s going to be the first of many. It’s just so amazing. So now, they’ve already got the date for next year! My, I think it will be worth giving your husband this date, getting them to put it on their calendar:
October 10-13, 2024.
I think it’s one of the greatest things that I have ever seen. It was so wonderful to see the beautiful atmosphere, and all the things that were happening.
But we did have some challenges as they prepared for this camp. Just a week before, Sam, that’s Serene’s husband, was up on a 20-foot ladder, doing something. The ladder slipped out from underneath him. He fell crashing to the ground. He was pouring blood everywhere. His sons, who were there, were in terrible shock. I think they thought they had lost their dad.
They took him to hospital, but we were all praying. God did such a wonderful, wonderful miracle. It was so unbelievable. He even came home that night. It was like he was raised from the dead. He still has something very wrong with his arm and his hand, but at least, as Sam says, he thinks the hand actually saved his life.
Then two days later, Sam’s right-hand man, who’s been building with him for years, fell also on the building site as they were preparing. He ended up in hospital with eight broken ribs and a pierced lung. They had challenges but they kept going. They ended up with this most wonderful, triumphant, great weekend. It was so great.
But not to be outgunned, we also have a ladies’ retreat coming up, here in Tennessee. Some of the men came to me and said, “Oh, my wife is so jealous! She wishes she could be here.” I said, “Well, don’t worry. We have a ladies’ retreat coming up!”
Actually, we have two. We have one in Missouri the first weekend of November. And then, we have the one here in Tennessee, in Dickson, the second weekend of November. That’s coming up very quickly, so whichever one you are nearest to, do try and come. You can go to the website, AboveRubies.org, and go to “Retreat.” Click on that, and you’ll be able to go and find the information and to register.
Don’t come on your own! You can come with your daughters, and of course, if you have a nursing baby, you can bring your baby. We never say no to nursing babies at Above Rubies retreats! In fact, I think it’s so wonderful when you can come as three generations—grandmothers, mothers, and children, daughters, and babies.
Yes! Don’t come on your own. Bring a carload! Fill your car with your family. Or fill it with other ladies. Tell other ladies about these retreats. We haven’t had a ladies’ retreat for a while, because we’ve mostly been having family retreats. They have been so amazing. But it’s always lovely to have a ladies’ retreat. There’s something special about them. A weekend of being so encouraged in your role as a woman.
I will be speaking on “God’s Glorious Design.” But apart from the meetings is the wonderful fellowship that you can have with one another. I think that is so important. I remember as I was raising our children, one of the greatest blessings was getting with other mothers. I used to do that in those days. We would arrange picnics together. We would have luncheons together.
Of course, I had a ladies’ Bible study in my home every week. Mothers and babies came. We often had more babies and little ones than mothers. They would take over my home. But what wonderful times! It was the fellowship together that got us through. So, do check out those ladies’ retreats. I do hope you can come. That would just be so great.
Now, we have interrupted our series on “God Loves Togethering,” because the last two weeks I interviewed Bethany Vaughn. Her husband was kidnapped by the FBI at their home, at gunpoint, and no warrant. I’m sure you’ve already listened but if you haven’t yet listened to those podcasts, do listen.
The transcripts are already out. We’re right up to date with transcripts. We do a transcript for each podcast. I have such a dear, wonderful lady, Darlene Norris, who, out of the love of her heart to minister to ladies, she does these transcripts, so they are available. Sometimes I can share Scriptures that I may not even get time in the podcast. There are often little extra things there too, for you. So, go to them as well.
Now we’re back to “God Loves Togethering.” Ladies, this is a very important subject. I hope you just won’t turn it aside, because the Word of God is filled with it. It’s amazing. I have already given six sessions on this, and there’s still so much more. I’m not going to ever, ever give you all the Scriptures on it. We’d be going all year! There are so many!
I’m just going to give you a few more little tidbits today. But it’s just the surface of what is there. If you could only understand how much togethering means to God! I think we don’t understand, because often we’re not in the Word. We’re not reading it. We’re not reading and getting God’s heart.
These words come over and over, of the assembling of His people, the togethering of His people; the congregation, a convocation, the getting together. God loves it! And He fills His Word with it. The word “assembly” occurs frequently in the Old and the New Testaments. God doesn’t just say the “assembly of His people.” He calls the assembling of His people, “My assembly. My assembly.”
Did you get that, ladies? Yes, they’re very personal to God. They’re “My assemblies.” The gathering of God’s people together. It belongs to Him. You see, everything belongs to God. I think of Romans 11:36: “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things.” Everything is for Him, and is through Him, and is of Him. Even the assembling of ourselves together.
Some people don’t think much of it, but they don’t realize that it’s for God. It’s from Him, because He’s the One who advocated it. It’s so much in His heart. He loves it, so it’s from Him. It’s for Him, and we’ve got to see it like God sees it, don’t we?
Talking about how He says, “My assemblies,” I must share this with you because I’ve been noticing just recently, reading Ezekiel 44, how God calls everything “My.” Yes, it belongs to Him. In Ezekiel 44, He uses the word “My” 21 times. He says:
“My sanctuary.” He says that six times in that chapter!
My house,
My bread,
My covenant,
My holy things,
My charge,
My hand,
My table,
My people,
My judgement,
My laws,
My statutes,
My assemblies, and
My Sabbaths.” We’re not to gloss over all these things. They belong to God. They’re precious to Him, and they should be very precious to us.
In Ezekiel 34, He says the word “My” 18 times! He calls His people:
“My flock” 12 times in one chapter!
My flock,
My sheep,
My pasture,
My people,
My shepherds, and
My hill.” That’s talking about His holy mountain, Jerusalem.
And then in Ezekiel 16, it talks about “My children.” I’m always challenged by that. We talk about “my children, these children are my children.” Or “our children.” They belong to both my husband and me, your husband and you. But God says, “No, they are My children.” That’s a challenge, isn’t it? We can’t train them how we like. We’ve got to train them for God because they ultimately belong to Him.
Joel chapter 1. Here it says, “My land.” God uses that often throughout the Scriptures. “My land.” Well, we’re facing this on the world stage at the moment, aren’t we as Hamas has just come in and invaded Israel with such atrocities, coming into God’s land, yes, God says: “It’s My land.”
Even the area from which they came, from Gaza, is God’s land. Yes. The Israelites, the Jews there, they had that land. Years ago, they gave it back. They gave it! Just handed it over to these Palestiniansfor peace! Did they get peace? No. They’ve never had peace since they handed it over. They were not meant to hand it over. They handed over God’s land to people to whom it did not belong.
God said, “That is My land, and I have given it to you for an everlasting possession.” That’s the word of the Lord. Read Genesis 17:8.
Jeremiah 23:8: “The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” Because although it’s ultimately God’s land, He gave it to them. Nations better be pretty careful when they come against God’s land.
That same chapter, Joel 1:
“My vine,
My fig tree (These are some of the names He calls Israel).
My people,
My heritage,
My silver,
My gold,
My precious treasures,
My holy mountain.”
Go to Jeremiah 23. 18 times in this chapter, God says “My” again.
“My pasture,
My people,
My flock,
My house,
My counsel,
My words. (Five times He says “My words.”)
My Name.”
In Leviticus 23, it talks about the feasts that God has ordained for His people. We usually think of them as the Jewish feasts of Passover, and Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, and so on. But that’s not what the Bible calls them. Do you know what He calls them? He calls them “My feasts.” They belong to Him. He ordained them, and they’re God’s.
So, when we begin to see all these things, that they are God’s, they belong to Him, they become even more precious to us. They also become a greater challenge to us, that we will be part of what belongs to Him. Because if we belong to Him, we will want to be part of what belongs to Him! Can you say amen to that? I hope so.
OK, a new Hebrew word for today, regarding the assembling of God’s people. Now, ladies, when I first started this series, I told you that I found 12 different Hebrew words to describe the assembling of God’s people. God doesn’t limit it to one word. He has so many words for it. But then, I had to tell you a few sessions on, that, no, there are more than 12. I found 14!
17 HEBREW WORDS TO DESCRIBE ASSEMBLY
Well, ladies, forgive me. I was wrong, because now, up to date, and I hope I’ve got them all now, I have found 17! Can you believe it? I just keep discovering them all the time! This is the amazing thing about the Word of God. Oh, it’s so rich. It’s so endless. The more we delve into it, the more we find! I think I’ve found them all now, but maybe not. But so far, there are 17!
I’m not going to go through all these words. We’d be here forever. But just a few more of them. Isn’t it so amazing? This is how God feels about this. And thinking of that, and thinking of how, OK, I was wrong. I was always discovering. I have changed my understanding on so many issues as the years have gone by. I think we have to be open to doing that, don’t you? We can’t be stuck, OK? I believe this.
Many times, we believe things because of how we were brought up. That’s what we were taught, so that’s what we believe. But when we actually begin to delve more into the Word of God, we find, wow! No, that’s not actually true, and we’ve got to expand our understanding. We’ve got to sometimes repent, then we’ve got to say, “Lord God, yes, I understand that now, and I will walk in Your ways.”
I didn’t always understand the full revelation of God’s truth about having children. Oh, if only! That is perhaps the greatest regret of my whole life. Many times, Colin and I look at one another, and we say, “Oh, if only we could have had 12 children!” We were blessed with six amazing children, and then we adopted four more. But we didn’t understand fully. We were never a couple who were closed to children.
Even before I had the revelation of God’s heart, to totally yield my womb to the Lord completely, I could never have, even “with a 40-foot pole,” touched the Pill, or any of those kind of contraceptions or anything like that. Even when I didn’t understand, I heard people choosing tubal ligation. It just revolted me from within to think that someone would want to cut off or stop some part of their body that God had given to them from His divine creation!
I didn’t understand it all. But God knew my heart was open, and He began to reveal to me His ways. So, I began to walk in the understanding of the fullness of God’s truth. That’s how He created us. Our womanly creation is for the blessing of bringing forth children. The greatest blessing, and the greatest, most powerful thing we can do on this earth, and even for eternity, is to bring forth an eternal soul.
Of course, in many, many areas. I remember a few months ago, I was writing my daily Facebook that I write to encourage you. I hope you get to check them out and be encouraged. I do a devotion every week which you can get by email. I do that to encourage you as mothers and wives. I also like to send out Facebook messages every day (on most days) to encourage you.
One day, I was writing about clothing. Sometimes I’ll write about clothing, just saying how I believe that especially in this hour of this transgenderism, and this total mix-up of the sexes, how we should embrace who we are as women, and dress femininely. And especially when we go out, to wear a dress and look like a woman! For goodness’ sake! I think it’s time we did look like women!
Anyway, on the thread, someone answered, and they were very upset with me. In fact, they said “I am cancelling right now! I’m not coming back to this Facebook, because, Nancy Campbell, I remember, I was at a retreat. And I remember in a Q and A, the question was asked, should women wear pants? And you said, well, as long as you dress femininely, and you may wear very feminine pants, well, OK. That would be OK.”
I was just, perhaps, compromising. But I didn’t really have the full conviction that I have now. I have changed, yes. There were times when I would wear pants. But I do not now. OK, I’ll go out to the garden on a muddy day and get my old pants on to get down on my knees and dig in the garden.
But when I go out the door to go out where people are, I’m going to be a testimony to who God created me to be as a woman. I’m going to wear a dress, because that is what personifies a woman. Let’s face it. Every single restroom you go to in the world, we know which one to go to, because for the men it has the stick figure of the pants. For the women, it has the stick figure of the skirt. How much longer will they be doing that? Because all these women, with their pants, go into the skirt one.
Now, isn’t that amazing? You see, that’s really what shows we are a woman. I don’t believe we’re going to turn back the tide of this evil that we’re facing in our society today, of people turning away from male and female, no longer revealing who they truly are. I am going to be a testimony of who God created me to be. So, yes, I’ve changed my convictions. I think we can change. I was sad that that woman felt like that, that I had to stick to my old convictions, which really were not right! We’ve got to be open to change all the time, don’t we? That’s a little bypass as we’re going along.
The word I’m giving you today is . . .
YA’AD.
It means “to assemble by appointment, to gather together, to summon, to meet at a certain time and place, to meet by agreement. It speaks of the congregation assembling to worship God or hear from Him at designated times and places.” In the Word, God did give specific times. I did a podcast on that regarding the times. You can go back to that one.
The times are the daily times. He gave them for morning and the evening. I go into that more, how everything in the tabernacle, God commanded them to do in the morning and in the evening. Those were the meeting times with God. They were a type for us today. In our home, we like to keep to those. In the morning, we come together as a family to hear the Word of God, and to worship the Lord, and to pray.
Of course, the altar of incense, which speaks of prayer and worship was every morning and every evening they had to light that incense. Then He gave the daily and the weekly and the yearly appointments. We talked about that in another podcast. But I’d like to remind you of the places where God said He wanted them to meet. There were three specific places.
GOD LOVES TO MEET WITH US
The first one was at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. That was where you first came into the tabernacle, and where they were sacrificing the lamb or the bullock, or whatever. And then later, in the temple.
In Exodus 29:42-46, it says: “This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.” Whenever you read “before the LORD” in the King James version, it literally means “in the presence of the Lord.” God was there, and they were coming to meet Him.
“. . . where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel.” Isn’t that a beautiful thing? God loves His people. He loves to meet with His people. He loves to meet with us personally. Everything starts personally, then in the family. He wants to meet with us as a family. Every morning, every evening. We’ve got to start in the home, ladies. This is where it starts. We’ve talked about this one. It’s the place where they did the morning and the evening sacrifice.
And then, secondly, it says “at the altar of incense.” Exodus 30:6-8: “. . . where I will meet with thee.” We’ve been talking in that whole chapter about the altar of incense. “And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning . . . and at evening.” Once again, every morning and every evening they came to burn the sweet incense which filled the tabernacle with a beautiful, sweet incense. That spoke of prayer and worship, so that is a type.
Coming every morning, every evening, that’s the least. You can come more. You can come all day! But we need to make at least those times, because you listen to what He said: “There I will meet with thee.” Do you want to meet with God? Yes, we all long to meet with God. We long for His presence. And we can know His presence moment by moment in our lives. But God also wants His special meeting times.
Thirdly, in the holy of holies, where back there in Old Testament times, only the high priest could go into the holy of holies.
Exodus 25:22: “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony.”
But now, wonderful ladies, we can all go into the holy of holies. That curtain that blocked every other man from going in, that only allowed the high priest in once every year, and taking the blood, otherwise, he would die. But now, because Jesus shed His blood, and when that happened, that curtain tore from the top to the bottom!
Now we can go in and we can have that intimate fellowship with Him. And where He says: “I will meet with you, and commune with you” We can do it personally, but we must begin to do it as family. And then, of course, there is the corporate meeting with one another, the assembling. Oh, and God loves this assembling of all His people.
Let’s look at some more Scriptures.
CALLING OF THE ASSEMBLY
Numbers 10:1-10. In this passage, it says here: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them.” They were made out of one piece of silver! “. . . That thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly.” Did you hear it?
“The calling of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps. And when they shall blow with them, ALL the assembly shall assemble themselves.” Notice that again? Some of the assembly? No, all of the assembly. We notice this so often as we’re reading about the assembling. You’ll read that “all of them assemble,” “the whole house of Israel.” “All the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Keep reading down to verse 10 and it tells you all the different things that they would blow the trumpets for. The first one, of course, was when God wanted to speak to His people and to commune with them. They had to blow the trumpet. They blew it, and when they heard the trumpet, what did they do? It says: “all the assembly assembled themselves.”
It wasn’t, “oh, the trumpet! Oh, goodness me, well, I’m in the midst of this big project. Help! Goodness me, I’ll just have to finish this first!” Or, “We’re doing this,” or “We’re doing that.” No, when that trumpet blew, they stopped what they were doing, and they assembled themselves because God had ways of letting His people know when they were to meet. He had a trumpet.
Well, we don’t have trumpets today, do we? But, OK, we do have the weekly assembling of ourselves together. Of course, all the different churches have their different ways, but they’ve all got church notices.
Today, of course, they have the internet, and a lot of churches let everybody know what they’re doing by internet. I guess that’s like a trumpet. In fact, in our church fellowship here, we have a signal group. We call it “The Hilltop News and Alerts.” It’s what’s happening at the church, and also what’s happening on the Hilltop. Everybody knows the time when church starts.
Now, you know the time when your church starts. Everybody has different times, but you have a time! You have to have a time! If you didn’t have time, you could not assemble, because some people would come at 9 o’clock. Some would think, “Oh, I think I’ll come in the afternoon.” Some think, “Oh, I think I might come at evening.” Nobody would be together! No, there has to be a time.
That’s why not only this word, ya’ad, but there’s another Hebrew word, mo’ed, and there’s another one as well, they all have that meaning within them of appointment by time. Yes, assembling by time. We have to take notice of that too. I think we really need to.
It’s amazing how today many people will think, “Oh, well, what does it matter if I’m a bit late? I’ll come when I’m ready.” Somebody arrives late for work. If they did that two of three times, that’s it. They’re fired. But isn’t it more important to come to the assembling of God’s people? Remember, “My assembly.”
Oh, we’re coming to God. It belongs to Him. How does it make you feel? Are you really seeing how God sees it? It’s His assembly. He wants you there at the right time with all His people. Look, when you all come together at the right time, there is something so exciting about it.
When people just drag in at different times, five minutes late, ten minutes late, 20 minutes late, half an hour late . . . the people who are sitting, waiting, they’re just waiting. When’s everybody coming? God is waiting and He sees. God sees what importance you put on the assembling of His people. We show the importance we put upon what God says by our actions.
I can remember back in New Zealand. There was a time when we were really in revival times. We didn’t know it. We thought it was normal. But they were incredible times. I can remember when we would meet each Sunday. You didn’t just kind of get there when you could. In those days, I had all my little children. They were all little ones.
In fact, Colin was pastoring. Sunday mornings he would go to the six o’clock prayer meeting. He would come back to get me and take me when it was time for church. I had to be ready, because we only had one car in those days. I had to be ready, with the six children, all ready. Often a new little baby, a big roast of meat and vegetables in the oven, waiting to bring people home after church.
But I would be ready because I could not wait to get there. I can remember going. We’d go up the stairs . . . we had our church in this big old theater. I would be running up the stairs! People would be running up the stairs! We’re running to get there! That’s the kind of attitude we are meant to have.
Oh, we certainly need a revival, don’t we? In our hearts, and then in God’s people, and then in this nation. But when it starts, what is a revival? It’s coming back to God’s ways. And here, this is one of His biggest ways for his people to meet together. He even organized trumpets to blow and let them know. But now we have all kinds of things to let us know. We have no excuses!
Can I encourage you to try to get there on time? Oh, I know it’s hard when you’ve got little babies and children, but you could do all kinds of tricks. You can turn your watch on for an extra hour or half an hour or something. It will make you hurry. You’ll get there on time, even though most probably you would have been late on your watch. But anyway, time has gone so quickly. Let’s pray.
“Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. Lord God, Your Word shows us Your heart. It shows us Your ways. Help us to walk in Your ways. Oh God, we take them so lightly! Help us, Father, Lord, to reverence Your ways, to walk in Your ways, to be obedient to Your ways. We ask it 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.
The Missouri Retreat is canceled. Here is the information for the Tennessee Retreat. Hope you can come.
ABOVE RUBIES LADIES’ RETREAT
TENNESSEE
Don’t miss this last one for this year!
For wives, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and of course, nursing babies!
NOVEMBER 10 – 12
Camp Garner Creek, 700 Sam Hollow Rd, Dickson TN
Speaker: Nancy Campbell * “God’s Glorious Design”
Charity Jenkins * 503-871-9535 * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sonia Ramsay *503-428-7345 * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Go to: https://bit.ly/ar-ladies-retreat
See you there!