LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 187: We Love Our Kitchens – Part 2

Erin Harrison and I continue sharing the wonderful joys of preparing meals for our families and how to turn every meal into a love affair. You'll receive practical tips and a new vision for your kitchen. I know you'll be blessed and encouraged.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Today, Erin and I are here together again to talk about WE LOVE OUR KITCHENS! You want to say amen?

Erin: Amen!

Nancy: Yes! Last week we talked about breakfast-time. Today we’re going to talk about lunch and supper if we can get to that. But what about lunch? What do you do for lunch, Erin?

Erin: Well, we do eat leftovers!

Nancy: That’s what we do, too. I love leftovers! Do you ladies love leftovers? They somehow taste nicer the next day. It’s worth cooking a bit extra, so you’ve got leftovers for the next day, isn’t it?

Erin: Oh, it is. It really is. It’s been something that other cultures have done throughout the ages as well. There’s something in Europe called “Bubble and Squeak.” I made it for your special party. Everybody thought, “That was so savory and wonderful!”

You just take your leftovers and make balls with them. If you’ve got mashed potatoes, just kind of mash it all together in little patties, and then you fry them with a little oil. They’re just delightful, really.

Nancy: I love to have soup for lunch too. I love making soups. Beautiful, nutritious soups! Because, with a soup, you can fill it with so many goodies. I’ll usually use some meat, often just some ground venison, or ground beef that’s organic, of course. The venison is always organic.

I love it when our grandsons will shoot a deer. They shoot lots of deer, but they’ve got to feed their own families. Every now and then, they’ll give one to Nana and Granddad. So, I just love having some venison.

Then I will fill it with so many vegetables. I can hardly count the number of vegetables I put in our soups. Now, when you have a meal, you’ll have some meat and some vegetables, but never as many as you’d put in a soup! My, sometimes I’ll count up to ten vegetables! I always have onions, of course. Onions, and garlic, and peppers. But then, maybe sweet potato and zucchini, and all the things, at the moment, in my fridge. I’m enjoying each lunchtime.

I made a red soup. I made the base, usually I’ll make the base of lentils or split peas or beans. This is a base of adzuki beans which are little red beans. So, I thought, “Oh, I think I’ll make a red soup!” So, I added red onions and also red cabbage. I actually prefer red cabbage to green cabbage. It’s so wonderful. So, it had all these red things in it. And then I added red beets, which really made it red! It’s real red soup, but it’s so delectable. Of course, I added other veggies, too, and put spices in.

Erin: Do you ever use the red palm oil then for your oil to sauté some of your vegetables?

Nancy: Oh, yes!

Erin: I’ve done that, too. I’ve made red soup before.

Nancy: Yes! Oh, red palm oil. I’m out of it at the moment. That last two times we’ve gone into the city, I’ve meant to get red palm oil, but we just didn’t have time. I have to go to an African shop to get that. I love red palm oil. When I’m making okra, I make it with red palm oil.

Yes, a snack I enjoy too, is cutting raw beets into rectangles and having it with baba ghanoush. Have you ever made that? It’s like hummus. It’s an Israeli dish. But instead of making it with the garbanzos, what’s the other word for them?

Erin: Chickpeas.

Nancy: Chickpeas, yes. You make it with eggplant. I do love eggplant. You just roast the eggplant. When you put it in the bowl, you put it with tahini and lemon juice, and salt and pepper, and cumin. I think I’ve remembered everything. It’s rather lovely.

So, lunchtime! Oh, but while we’re talking about food, I just wanted to share with you ladies that the Bible is so practical. It’s not all about these great spiritual doctrines, which it is, but it has so much practicality in it, too.

THE BIBLE MENTIONS ALL OUR KITCHEN UTENSILS

Did you know that, in the Bible, it mentions all these things that we have in our kitchens? Bottles, bowls, cups, dishes, forks, frying pans, goblets, kettles, kneading troughs, knives, pans, pots, plates, pitchers, spoons, vessels, utensils. The word “utensils” is used 100 times in the Bible! The Bible talks about all these things.

In fact, in 1 Chronicles 9:29-32, it talks about some of the jobs of the Levite priests. Some were in charge of the flour, and the wine, and the olive oil, and the incense, and the spices. Imagine that, ladies! You think, “Oh, the priests! They are just there worshipping God, being so spiritual.”

No! Many of the priests were doing practical things. They had to look after the food. Mattathias was in charge of baking the bread for the offerings. Some of the Kohathites were in charge of preparing the bread for the Sabbath. So, it talks about all these practical things.

The Bible talks even about the way we cook. It talks about baking, boiling, broiling, grinding, kneading, and roasting. It’s all there in the Bible. Isn’t that amazing?

ALL OUR KITCHEN UTENSILS ARE SACRED

Do you know, ladies, I believe that we should begin to see all the things in our kitchen, all our plates and bowls, and our pots and pans and frying pans, to see them all as sacred. Because when Christ dwells in us, everything becomes sacred. When we pick up a pot out of the cupboard to cook something, it’s a sacred task, because Christ dwells in us. Sacred things are not just for church. They’re for practical living. It just depends on who we are. If we have Christ dwelling in us, everything becomes sacred.

I love that Scripture in Zechariah 14:20-21. It says: “On that day the bells of the horses will bear the inscription, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ The cooking pots in the Lord’s temple will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will become holy in the sight of the Lord, who rules overall.”

So, let’s look upon all our cooking utensils, and everything we have in our kitchen, as holy, as sacred. It makes such a difference to your attitude.

All right, lovely ladies, let’s get on, shall we, to suppertime. Because I think this is actually the main meal of the day. It is in our home, although I may have it all back to front, because most probably you’ve heard of the saying that . . .  

“We should eat breakfast like a king,

lunch like a queen,

and supper like a pauper.”

They say that is better for your health, because you shouldn’t eat such a big meal in the evening. Then you go to sleep on it. But, somehow, it doesn’t seem to work out in practicality in our daily lives, because after breakfast, we don’t have the same time that we do in the evening, where everybody’s rushing off, especially as your children grow.

When they’re little, you may be able to do this. But as they get older, the children are going out to their jobs, your husband is going out to his job. Often, we can’t spend so much time at that breakfast meal. Then, of course, the children are getting older. Not everybody is home for the lunch meal. That can be different when your children are all around you. You may be able to work that then.

But, then in the evening-time, Father comes home from work. Your young people who have got jobs, and they’re out working, they’re coming home from work. The whole family is coming back to together. So, they’re coming back to all be together. The greatest way to gather them together is to gather them for the meal.

So, I’ve always made it a precedent in my life, and in over, goodness, I forget how many years we’ve been married. Let’s work it out again. Yes, over 58 years, I’ve always made it of the most important thing in my day to have the family meal ready for when my husband comes home. I want him to come home and sit down to a good, wholesome, nourishing meal, that’s also filled with spices and aroma that draws everyone to the meal. What do you think about that, Erin?

Erin: Well, I think it’s really important to have your. . . In the afternoon, with your family, to make preparations for this, for the dinner meal. Don’t have your husband coming home after a long, hard day at work. Some of them work outside, like my husband does, all day, on a roof, and it’s cold, and it’s windy.

He comes home, and I don’t want him coming home to zero aroma of cooking food. Just a cold home that’s littered with toys everywhere and junk. Then I’m overwhelmed, and I’m sitting around complaining about the children being crabby all day, and I need help. It’s not the type of welcoming, the warm welcome that a husband wants to come to. It makes it terrible.

Instead, to contrast that, you like him to be gone all day, and he looks forward to coming home to his family. He walks in the door, there’s candles burning, maybe. He smells the aroma of beautiful, savory food, and he sees the warm, welcoming wife that’s running toward him, saying, “Welcome home! So happy to see you!” And she’s got a smile on her face. All the children come up, and they’re hugging their father after he’s been gone all day.

What a way to come home to that! He works all day. He sacrifices. And women do, too, of course, in their own way. But without our husbands working and toiling in the elements of the weather, or at their job places, we wouldn’t be able to have food on the table. They’re doing that sacrifice to provide the income in order to have, to bring the bacon home, so to speak.

So, we show our appreciation by these little things that make it more enjoyable for him to come home. He actually looks forward to coming home instead of dreading coming back to a mess, and a crabby family, and nothing to eat. Then you wonder why some marriages are failing, because it’s just so simple and beautiful to have those few little boxes checked off every day.

I always thought, I would get my children after we’re done with school and everything. We’d always say, “Oh, we’re going to make a meal for Daddy. He’s coming home.” One of them would be helping to peel the potatoes, and one would be helping chop the vegetables. We would make something.

We’d come up with creative ideas together. It was always so fun. Maybe one of the little girls would be like, “Oh, I want to make a cake for Daddy,” or make a little special treat. One of the boys chopping up a salad. We were making it so fun. We made an activity that we could engage in.

Then it was always like right before Daddy would come home, “Let’s make sure the house is swept clean.” We’d run around the house, just kind of pick up the last little bits of junk that were laying around. When you come home, it’s like, “Oh, this beautiful music. There are some candles. Smiling faces, and a beautiful meal to grace the table.” There’s no man in this world that wouldn’t be completely head-over-heels for his wife if she did that for him. And it’s not even that hard.

Nancy: Yes, I know! And there was a time when that was just normal protocol. Every wife knew that was what she was meant to do. We live in a society now where so many wives don’t have that understanding. No wonder their husbands get a bit sick of everything. In fact, I think there are a few important things that we should remember for our husband coming home. What do you think, Erin?

Erin: Oh, yeah. The first thing is, what did we talk about? Our one, two, three?

Nancy: Oh, yes! Welcome!

Erin: Oh, welcome! Yes! Welcome. Welcoming home, a warm welcome is number one, first and foremost, because even if you’re not a very attractive woman, which I’m sure all of you are, but it’s been proven by science that men are attracted to women that smile. Like even an ugly, ugly lady with a beautiful smile on her face, a man is generally attracted to somebody who’s warm and welcoming.

So, it doesn’t matter. You might have a lot of reasons why you think you’re not attractive. Some women have a low self-image. But just think of it this way. A beautiful smile goes a long way. Your husband comes home to a warm welcome like that, he’s going to be so happy to see you. You’re going to have such an amazing marriage.

Number two, a warm meal. Three warm things: warm welcome, warm meal, number two. So, he comes home to a warm meal on the table, ready to go, so he can wash his hands, take his cap off, and sit at the table. He can fill his belly.

Nancy: Yes. We’ll, talk about the warm meal for a little while before we get onto the next thing. I think that is so important. There is something about having the meal ready. In fact, ladies, you’ll find that if your husband comes home, and you’re busy doing other things, and there’s no beautiful meal, the aroma wafting through the home, what’s he going to do?

They’re just going to go and plonk themselves down in front of TV. Or he’s going to go off to the car shed and just tinkle around and do something. Then, when you eventually get something ready, how are you going to get him to the table again? If he’s plonked in front of that TV, he’s plonked.

Erin: Then you have to bring the meal to him.

Nancy: That is not right, no. So, you see, this secret is, ladies, that you get him, before he does anything else! When he comes in, you say, “Darling, the meal is ready. We’re just putting it on the table. Wash your hands, get ready.” And he comes, and he sits at the head of the table, because that’s where the husband is meant to sit, at the head of the table. Not just anywhere, but the head of the table.

You don’t have to say that to your children, saying, “Now, children, I want you to know that your father is the head of this home.” You don’t even have to tell them, because when he takes his place at the head of the table at each meal, they see it. Truth is imbibed far more by seeing, than by being told. They see Daddy there.

The other thing that happens, is that the father sits, oh, he’s so happy to sit down to a good, hearty meal. He's enjoying the meal. Of course, when we eat together, not isolated, but when we eat together, and there is conversation and sharing, oxytocin is released.

We know that oxytocin is the calming hormone, the bliss hormone. It’s a glorious hormone that takes away stress. Your husband can come home, stressed out. But just eating that meal together calms him down. It’s a beautiful thing to do that.

Now, we could, perhaps, talk for a little moment about what we do eat for an evening meal. What do you do? What are some ideas?

Erin: Well, my husband likes meat and potatoes. He likes the old-fashioned meal that’s proven for centuries. I don’t do a lot of gourmet cooking at my home. It’s very simple ideas. I have some sort of meat, and I sometimes make a casserole, or I make a boiled dinner. Or a roast with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions, and celery, and carrots, and some things like that.

Or a meatloaf and baked potatoes. I do, sometimes I do pastas. Chicken dinners, and gravies, and mashed potatoes. I don’t cook . . . Some people have dietary restrictions and things, and I understand that. You have to watch calories and all this sort of stuff for health concerns. But we want the tried-and-true way of old. Just kind of make the food our grandparents made, and it’s been working well for us, for very sick people, and in good health. We eat a really well-rounded diet.

Nancy: Yes, sometimes I’ll make a big pot of soup, and that will be available for lunches for a few days. But usually, I’ll make a meal with meat, as you said. And then vegetables. I love to have lots of vegetables.

Erin: Oh, and salads. We do a lot of salads with our meals. Or some kind of vegetable. I love steamed broccoli and cauliflower, that sort of thing. Yeah, different food groups. We have our meats, and our starches. Not as heavy on the starches, but lots of vegetables.

Nancy: Lots of vegetables. Oh, God has created the most glorious vegetables for us. And I love to cook them nutritiously, not boil them up in a pot and lose all their goodness. But to just short-cook them or do it in different ways. A lot of people only know, OK, potatoes, peas, and carrots, or something like that.

In fact, when I go to the supermarket, and I’m buying different kinds of vegetables, it’s so amazing, so many of the young people at the check-out counter will say, “Well, what’s this?” And you have to tell them what it is. They’ve got to look it up, and find out, because they’re not familiar with it. Often, I’ll say to them, “Have you ever eaten this?” No, they’ve never eaten it in their life!

I love to introduce the people at my meal table to some of the different vegetables. Of course, we love potatoes, sweet potatoes, we love peas, and carrots, and cabbage. We love all those. But I also love to cook rutabaga. In New Zealand, we call those “Swedes,” because they did originally come from Sweden.

I love rutabaga! Oh, it’s so beautiful! Many of the young girls who live in our home, our Above Rubies helpers, many of them have never ever tried it. But what I do is, I grate it, and then I short-cook it in a little bit of butter or coconut oil. It’s so delicious, and full of vitamin C.

I love eggplant, and I love to do that in all different kinds of ways. Was it last night, I did eggplant pizzas?  I just cut the eggplant in slices, the round slices. Then I put some salsa on them, and some grated cheese, and baked them in the oven. They are so delicious!

I love parsnips. Oh, do you love parsnips? Oh, I love them. I love to roast them, but I also use them raw. I’ll grate them into the salad. I think many times, nobody knows that they’ve got parsnips grated into the salad! But they are so beautiful.

I love to use red cabbage instead of green. Sometimes I’ll use the red onions instead of the brown onions. I love to try the different things. But I also love a meal to look beautiful, don’t you, Erin?

Erin: Oh, I sure do! And I was going to say that it sounded probably like I’m more into starchy foods, but really, I do love to use the vegetables, too. And a lot of salads. But I will say that there is something to man-food, like there’s man-food, and then there’s woman-food. Women tend to love to make exotic, weird creations, and things like that.

I used to do that sort of thing. But then my husband brought me full circle back. We might have differing views out there, but he likes a good, hearty, man-meal. So, to please my husband, I’ve learned to cook what men like.

Sometimes it wouldn’t be as gourmet, it’s still healthy, all beautiful ingredients that the Lord created. But it’s not, maybe, a specialty thing. It’s going to be more like your bare-bones type meal. I learned that, to keep a man happy, you’ve got to feed him the kind of food he likes. Not unhealthy, but man-food. I don’t know, what’s your take on it?

Nancy: I think, well, Colin always said he doesn’t really mind what I cook for him, although he loves to have his meat every night. Men love their meat, don’t they? As long as it tastes nice. If it tastes nice. . .

We, in our home, we do not like bland food. It is very boring. So, I love to really spice our food up, and make it tasty, because if food tastes nice, well, it makes such a difference. You’re not just eating, “OK, here’s some food.” But you’re eating for the taste. God gave us taste, didn’t he?

Erin: And men, they should feel like they’re eating like a king!

Nancy: Yes. I guess some of you young mums, you’re still learning. Do you know that everything, everything we do in our homes, is an art? Breastfeeding is an art. You don’t, when you first have a little baby, we’ve got these young mums at the moment. They’re learning, and it takes a while to learn.

With your first baby, you’re still learning all these things. By the time you get to two or three, you’ve learned the art. You’re such a pro. Even birthing is an art. Goodness, you don’t know what techniques to use with your first baby. But you learn.

And cooking is an art. You learn. Of course, you learn by trial and error. Keep honing your art. You may not feel as though you’re a very good cook at this moment, but you will be. Because you hone your art. You never stay where you are.

You can come into your marriage, and you’re not very well-domesticated, which is sad. Girls should be taught how to run a home, and how to cook. It is a very sad thing, that mothers will allow their daughters to get married, and they are not already good cooks, and good home managers.

Erin: Well, that’s a really interesting point, because when I was growing up, I didn’t take a lot of interest in the fine arts of cooking and baking. I took interest in fine arts. I was painting pictures all the time. My mother is one of the best cooks there is. She made the most beautiful meals. Every day we always came home to a meal after school, because I was public schooled. But she said I never took much of an interest.

So, after I got married, I only knew how to make macaroni and cheese out of a box. Breakfast cereal, frozen pizzas, and spaghetti-o’s out of a can. Or ravioli. Terrible! [laughter] And I didn’t know what to do, but I wanted to be a good wife, so I aspired. If there’s a will, there’s a way.

If you want to make your calling and election sure, you want it to be your calling. Your calling, by the will of God, God called you, as a woman, to be a keeper of the home. You want to be that. You can seek people out.

I used to go door-to-door to try to find a grandmother who would take me under her wing when my grandmother passed away. But I was going, when I had a little bitty baby, I was going to my grandmother’s house, to learn how to knead bread, how to make roast dinners, and different things. She taught me everything she knew.

I was like, I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to learn how to sew. I wanted to learn how to make all these other meals and things. So, I introduced myself to the Amish eventually. I was up there, learning all their tricks and tips and techniques, and how to make all of our clothes. If you want to learn, you can learn. I had zero skills. I believe that anybody who wants to do something, they will make a way to do it.

Nancy: We’ve got to close off now. Could you believe, Erin actually, she actually became part of the Amish? Your husband drove the buggy, and you were all dressed in your Amish clothes, with your little children.

Erin: Oh, yeah. And I learned how to cut chicken’s heads off! Some of the stories you will not even be able to believe them. But they’re true stories. It’s in my memoir. You’ll have to check it out.

Nancy: Yes. But she went into it because she wanted to really learn the best way to homestead and do everything, didn’t you? But she’s not there now, of course.

Let’s close, and we didn’t quite finish, so would you like us to share one more session? I think we will. OK, let’s pray.

“Lord God, thank You so much, that You are so interested in every part of our lives. Lord, You love food. You love cooking. You love being part of our family tables. Oh, we thank You, Father, and I pray for each precious mother listening, that You will draw them more and more into this beautiful realm, Lord God, and that they will see how important it is. I ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You may have read and been blessed by 100 DAYS OF BLESSING, Volumes 1 and 2. At last, Volumes 3 and 4 are now printed. You will love them for yourself and as gifts for other mothers.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 187: We Love Our Kitchens – Part 1

Erin Harrison joins me today. Erin is one of our Hilltop families, and now they are married into the family! Erin's daughter is married to Pearl's son, so we share the same new baby (Isla Rose). Erin is the grandmother, and I am the great-grandmother. Today Erin and I talk about our kitchens. Starting with breakfast, what do we eat, what do we do, and how do we do it? And what do we not eat? Come on in to be blessed and encouraged. Next week we will talk about what we do for lunch and supper.

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 together again. And today, I have a dear friend with me. In fact, Erin, Erin Harrison, has done a podcast with me, I think a couple you’ve done with me before. Erin and her wonderful husband and family are part of our Hilltop. In fact, when they moved into the Hilltop, they became part of our family. Now they’re married into the family!

Erin Harrison: Yeah.

Nancy: Yes, just recently, Erin’s daughter, Megan, who is married to Pearl’s son Noble, they had a precious little baby, Isla Rose. You’d better say something about that, Erin!

Erin: Oh, she is so precious! It’s really quite a neat thing to have a granddaughter that we share. I think that’s fun.

Nancy: So, it’s your granddaughter, and my great-granddaughter!

Erin: That’s pretty special, I would say.

Nancy: I know. Yes. And she is the most beautiful baby, and, of course, the most amazing mother. Erin has trained her daughters. She has sons as well. But Megan and Molly, and Molly is soon to have her baby. So, the two sisters will be enjoying babies together.

Erin trained her daughters how to run a home, how to cook. I mean, they just entered into marriage knowing how to manage a home and do everything, just ready to have their beautiful babies. It’s so wonderful!

Erin: Yeah, and it’s already hard enough to adjust to being married and having children. It was really a blessing that I was able to instill some good techniques, good steps, good practices that they have been able to carry into their marriages and into their new homes.

It’s a delight for my heart to see it, because when they were little girls, ever since they were just walking, they were up on chairs helping me. They were helping me sweep floors, and they were helping me wash dishes, and dry dishes, and put them away. We’ve been working together all these years, so it’s such a delight to see how that equipped them for their calling in life, which is for motherhood, to be a wife and a homemaker.

Nancy: Erin has always included her girls in everything, all the housework, so it’s part of their lives. Today, Erin and I are going to speak on the subject of, wait for it, WE LOVE OUR KITCHENS! It is true! I love my kitchen! And . . .  

Erin: I love my kitchen! It’s the heart of the home.

Nancy: Yes! The absolute heart of the home! And God created us, dear ladies, for the home. We were created for the home. Society doesn’t tell us that, but the Bible does. When God created Adam, He created him first before he created Eve. And what was the next thing he did, after He created Adam?

He created the Garden home. He didn’t create the woman until He had the home ready for her. And when God made this beautiful woman, she woke up to life in her home! Because that’s where God wanted her to be. So, ladies, today, we want to give to you just a little love of kitchens.

Now, Erin, maybe you could start telling us. Perhaps we’ll go through a day in our lives. Well, you know, a typical day. So, let’s start with the morning, getting up, getting breakfast. Tell me, Erin, how does your day start in your home, and in your kitchen?

Erin: I guess I wake up, and wake up to shine for the Lord, for Jesus. Just wake up with a glad and thankful heart, first of all and foremost. And then the kitchen is the first place I go after making my bed. I go out there, and I start preparing. . .

Nancy: Erin, stop there. I love something you said then. First thing you do is make your bed. I love that. You don’t even come out to the kitchen until you’ve made your bed. I believe that is so important too.

Today, so many beds are left unmade in homes. I don’t think that is right. I do believe we are, should ourselves, and we should train our children, as soon as they are able, that that’s the first thing they do when they wake up. THEY MAKE THEIR BEDS.

Erin: Oh, yeah. I think it’s critical. I think it sets you up for success for the day.

Nancy: Not only that, it sets up you up for success in life. Did you read that book, Make Your Bed? * It’s about this great general in the army. He became very successful. But he said his success started with getting into the habit of making his bed.

Erin: Well, a little backstory. I was disabled for about six years. For the first nine months after I had a terrible accident through getting a bladder lift operation. That was one of the only things I could do was to make my bed. So, it sometimes took me twenty, thirty minutes. I’d have to hobble around the bed ever so lightly and gingerly because my legs were still throbbing in pain. I could barely stand on my feet.

But if I could make my bed, I felt like I’d accomplished something. I felt like it was a huge thing to be able to do that. It gave me some sort of value for my life, just to be able to do that one thing. I wasn’t in bed all day. I could make my way to the living room and prop my legs up in the other room. Just making my bed was a part of my recovery process.

Also getting ready in the morning is really critical, too. I don’t think women should just, I mean, I know lots do, and it’s not like it’s a sin or anything, but it just doesn’t set you up for a good attitude, a good success for your day as a homemaker to just come straight out of the bed. Don’t make the bed, come out to the kitchen with your scrubby pajamas on, and your hair all in a mess, and everything.

I like to take a little time in the morning. Get up a little earlier. I like to take a shower or sponge bathe or something and do my hair pretty. Put a little make-up on. Just look nice for the day. Put a pretty dress on, or whatever, and some shoes. So, when I come to the kitchen, I don’t look like I’m half-asleep. I’m ready for the day. I’m ready to get started and get something on the table for everybody to enjoy.

My situation’s a little bit different than other people’s because I have the two special-needs children that we care for. So, I’m making blenderized foods for their health. My husband is out there helping. He’ll make a couple of eggs for us. He’ll make us smoothies. So, we kind of tag-team it.

But there’re different seasons for different things. When I wasn’t in this season I was in, every morning I was baking fresh bread. I always had a keeper bread that I would make every evening. Then in the morning I would bake it.

If you wanted to . . . my typical life before I adopted these children, I was always up at the crack of dawn, making a beautiful breakfast every morning. I always liked to put the dishes out on the table and make it really lovely for everybody because once all the children would wake up, they would see all the dishes gleaming back at them. It gives everybody such a satisfying feeling to wake up to something like that.

Your husband can sit there and be able to be served. Your children are waiting, and then you can give them jobs. Somebody can be passing out the silverware. They can be helping set the table as well. Then they started their day right, too. They all make their beds. “Did everybody make their beds this morning?” Then they answer, “Yes, Mother.”

Then you say, “OK, so now we’re going to have breakfast. The bread is baking, so who would like to set the table?” And one of the children could be putting the plates out. The other one could put some napkins, and another one could put the spoons or the cups for the smoothie or whatever. So, it makes it such a fun family activity. Right in your own home, you don’t have to go anywhere. You get to do this fun stuff together! It’s so enjoyable.

Nancy: Making everything beautiful. It’s so wonderful. I also noticed you said you come out dressed for the day! I love that. In the Living Bible, in Proverbs 31, it talks about that. It says: “She dresses for the day.” You can’t, how can you work if you’ve still got your dressing gown on? You feel as though you’re still in bedroom mode.

I mean, if you’re going to work, you’ve got to be dressed, don’t you? If someone is going out into their career, out to their job each morning, they don’t go in their pajamas or their dressing gown. They go dressed for the job!

Well, we have the most amazing, powerful job in our homes! Wow! So, let’s get dressed for the job! Amen!

Erin: Amen!

Nancy: And I’m loving all the things you say. You come out to the kitchen. That’s the first place you land after the bedroom. And there it is, so what are you going to do? Mope around in your dressing gown? “OK, children, there’s the cereal boxes. Just get them out.” Help!

No, we start the day seeking to make it glorious for our family and for our children! Oh, I’ve heard you talk about how you love to make your whole kitchen glorious.

Erin: Oh, yeah. I mean, I love to have flowers sitting on the table. I use fake flowers I have for different seasons. I have some fall arrangements. I have more Christmassy arrangements. I have springtime and summer arrangements. I like to take these beautiful arrangements and swap them out.

There’re always beautiful, beautiful flowers sitting on the table with candles around them. I’ve got two candlesticks, and then I also have two pedestal candles as well. Most of the time, even with my little special-needs children, most of my children are gone working, so a lot of times I like to put beautiful music on. When I’m preparing the day, and breakfast, I put on classical music, or really soft worship music with strumming of guitars, or this or that. It brings all the ambiance of beauty and glory into your home.

I make it like you’re at a fancy restaurant. Why not? It’s your home. You can make it whatever you want it to be. You don’t have to have it be just some drab, boring situation. You can put on the beautiful candles and the music, and have a whole beautiful, candlelit dinner, even if you’ve got two little children who don’t even hardly know how to talk. You can just enjoy the beauty of it together.

That’s what we do when we enjoy it so much. Oftentimes we sit there, and I’ll try to sing to them, and I’ll do a few twirls, and I’ll dance while I’m getting in between the different little parts of their meal. I’ll make it a whole event, a special event, right in my kitchen.

Nancy: Yes, and you think, “Oh, goodness me, Erin’s just saying all these beautiful things! How can I do that? How can I put candles out and make it beautiful? Goodness, you don’t know what’s going on in my house!” Well, you heard Erin say she has two little special-needs children! And she does it, even with them.

They maybe don’t know you, so just tell them about your little special-needs children, so they know where you’re coming from.

Erin: Well, about two years ago, we were blessed with taking on two little special-needs children through the state. We had a heart for adoption all along, but it solidified our heart when we were part of this community, and all these people having babies. Because of my surgery, where I had explained that I was having terrible pain, I also lost my uterus and things. So, I wasn’t able to have any more children.

In the back of my heart, I always wished and prayed that I could adopt. But it can be expensive. It’s a big process. It makes you really appreciate how we’re adopted into the family of God. It’s just easy. It’s just there, and it’s glorious, and it’s beautiful, and you don’t have to jump through a million hoops or spend a lot of money on that. It’s just given freely of the Lord, to be a part of His family.

So, first, we’ve got these little children, and it was quite a battle to get them to where they are now. They have various severe health issues. One of them was a complete vegetable, just lying in a bed, diapered and lying in the bed, with not really much hope for his life at all. So, we’ve been battling on that. But right now, he’s to the point where he had a g-tube, and he had a trach in his throat to breathe through. We’ve gotten him to overcome that.

Hip surgery that helped him be able to walk. So, he’s now walking, and he’s able to breathe out of his mouth, praise the Lord. And he’s learning how to eat by mouth. He eats all of his food by mouth, but I still have to help spoon-feed it with him. We’ve gotten him to the point where he sits right at the table while we’re listening to this beautiful music, to our candle-lit dinner. It’s all of his little, super-healthy . . .

I’ve got him off all his medications, which is another miracle. He takes his spoon in his hand, and I put my hand over his hand, and I help him guide his hand into the bowl for the food. Then we bring it to his mouth. He helps me. He licks the food off the spoon, and it’s all blenderized food, like avocados.

I’ve got a super-smoothie with kale, and berries, and granola, organic granola, raw honey, MCT oil, protein powders, and collagen. It’s really healthy, and even a fried egg as well. My husband makes a few fried eggs. He always gives me one for Alex. I throw that in his blenderized food.

 has a little bit of that, too. Yes, so we enjoy the beauty of life, even though there’s a lot of challenges.

Oh, and then we were able to adopt Kathryn as well. She’s three years old. Alex is the older one I was just telling you about. He’s six years old. Kathryn is three years old. She came to us through one of the private-duty nurses that we had prior to adopting Alex. We had private duty nursing that DCF required us to have. But I didn’t really need them so as soon as I adopted him, I went away with all of that and took care of him myself.

Then one of the nurses had Kathryn as a foster child. They were looking for an adoptive family. It’s nothing short of a miracle that we ended up with her because they don’t always like to give children to people that ask for them. They like to pick their own families. It’s a crazy situation.

We ended up getting her, and she was very, didn’t really, wasn’t able to do a lot of things at first. But just the constant interaction, she is doing quite well. They said she’s off the charts with her high-functioning Down’s Syndrome. So, she’s doing quite well.

This morning, when we were going to eat breakfast, she held Alex’s hand and walked him out to his chair. And she likes to be like a little Mommy to him and help him.

There’s a lot of obstacles when you have special-needs children. It takes a lot more time. You have to be so much more patient. But I tell you, it's the most beautiful, beautiful, glorious thing I’ve ever done in my life. It repays far more than anything ever could, because they really appreciate the candles. They appreciate the beautiful music, the dancing we do, and the singing we do. They’re just a touch of heaven. When the Lord said, “What you do unto the least of these, you’ve done unto Me.” I feel like, in a sense, I’m in the presence of the Lord.

Nancy: Yes, so beautiful! Hopefully you have received your new Above Rubies by now, #99. Erin’s story about little Alex and Kathryn is in this issue. You’ll see pictures, and you will love it. Oh, if you haven’t got it yet, I know there’s been a bit of delay with the sending out, but it will be getting to you. If you haven’t got it now, or soon, let us know. Email in with your mailing address, and if you’re not on the mailing list, email into me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., to make sure you don’t miss out.

This is a very powerful issue of Above Rubies, to really encourage and affirm your great role of being a wife and a mother. Some beautiful testimonies of marriage restorations and wonderful testimonies that affirm motherhood. You’re going to be so blessed!

We’re still in our kitchens at breakfast-time. What do we do in our kitchen? Well, one thing I don’t have, and that is these boxes of breakfast cereals. Oh, goodness me! I think you might as well eat the cardboard! They’re so refined! And many of them are so filled with sugar.

They’re nothing like the original food that they’re supposed to have come from! It’s absolutely inferior food. Well, I know they add these other things but they’re all synthetic. Oh, goodness me! I just wouldn’t have them in my house! Except I have people living with us who sometimes bring them in. But I never would give that to my children when they were being raised. I always liked to start with the original.

My husband likes to eat rolled oats, so I often make that for him. I’m not crazy on rolled oats. I prefer the steel-cut oats myself. I love steel-cut oats, and even more, I love the oat groats. Have you ever bought oat groats? That’s a real original! And what I do with them, I soak them, usually soak them in whey, or kefir, or even my sourdough starter. I’ll soak them overnight, throw out the water, then soak them again. Sometimes soaking them for one day, sometimes for up to three days. Then they are so beautiful and plump. I cook them up and can keep them in the fridge, and each morning I can put some in a saucepan with water and simmer them up. Make them hot and beautiful, and just have them with whatever I decide to have them with. I love that.

I do the same with barley, too. I’ll soak barley for overnight, or even up to three days, usually using kefir, or whey, or my sourdough starter for the soaking of them. And, oh my, it just makes them so healthy. I cook up the big lot and then they are ready to heat up each morning. So those are some of my special things I love to do for breakfast.

Sometimes I have eggs, or if I don’t have them in the morning, I’ll have them at lunchtime. Then, of course, I have kefir and fruit, or sometimes if I’m very busy, I might just have our sourdough bread for breakfast, because I like to make our sourdough bread. Those are some of the things I love to have for breakfast in our home. I’m not sure what you love to do, but. . .

Oh, another thing that I think is very important for breakfast-time is that everybody in the house is up and ready for breakfast! How can you organize a home, how can you have breakfast together if everybody is not up? I have always made it that in our home, everybody is up. They get up for breakfast.

So, we have breakfast together, and then we’re ready to have our family devotions together. How can you have devotions if nobody’s up, and everybody’s eating breakfast at different times? This is how we used to do it when our children were growing up.

I still, in our home now, we still have our family devotions. At a certain time, we all have to have breakfast before that, so we’re ready. We’re ready. We’ve eaten our physical food, and now we’re going to eat our soul food, our spiritual food.

Although, I think it’s important, personally, to get your spiritual food, even before you eat the food for your body. So, I love to always get up early to spend some time in the Word, just to feed my spirit before I even feed my body. Then, of course, we’ll feed again some more spiritual food at family devotions.

I often think of that wonderful, dear Chinese saint. He always used to say, “No Bible, no breakfast.” He refused to have his breakfast before he had his Bible. He would always make sure he would do that first.

That’s breakfast! Any other ideas you have about breakfast, Erin? 

Erin: Oh, yeah. I think some easy things for some of these moms out there that feel a little overwhelmed. They’re trying to start some new habits and routines. Crockpots are a great thing, because you can put oat groats in there with some kefir, yogurt, milk, or whatever. You can just put some fruit in there, and season it with some cinnamon, and some honey or maple syrup, or something. In the morning, you’ve got this glorious food, ready to go.

Another really easy breakfast idea that I’ve been making for years, and years is, I call it “toasted custard.” Some people call them “Dutch babies.” They’re so easy. You just take a 9 by 13 pan, and you stick it in the oven with a stick of butter in it at 400 degrees. And then, while that butter is melting, you take your blender, or Vita-Mix, or food processor. You put eight eggs, two cups flour, and two cups of milk, and a splash of vanilla, and maybe a pinch of salt. That’s it! Easy.

Blend it up until it’s smooth, pour it in with the melted butter. You’ll hear it sizzle a little bit. You let it bake until it poufs all the way over the top and gets a little bit golden brown on the top. It is so delicious. You can put fruit on it, you can put real, pure maple syrup on it.

I’ve even done custard. For my birthday this year, I had a special birthday breakfast. I made a beautiful vanilla custard, like a pudding-type, home-made cooked. I made it the day before, and we put that on top. Then I drizzled a little dark chocolate syrup that I made from scratch, just drizzled that over the top a little bit. It tasted like a chocolate eclair! It was so divine! What a way to celebrate a birthday! What a treat!

But that’s one thing. Egg bakes are pretty easy, too. Just cracking some eggs into a bowl and mix in some cheese and some vegetables. Even like you’ve got leftover meat. You could put a little leftover meat in there. You can put some green peppers and onions, and even some kale or spinach. You could put some leftover broccoli that you cooked the night before. That’s the best, actually. Stick it all in there, throw it in the oven, and just watch it bubble and cook. It smells so savory. Once you fix a bowl, bake it for 45 minutes, and you’ve got this beautiful breakfast stuff it in there, and you’re ready to go when everybody’s up.

But I was the same way. When my children were all at home, we never missed a meal around the table, never. If we were on an adventure, we had a picnic and we were all still engaged together, looking at each other, talking, being with one another. Praying together before we eat.

I’ve even taught little Kathryn and Alex to pray. Now they really enjoy that. So, I always say, “Praise Jesus,” and they both put their hands together. Then we say prayers. Then they say, “Amen,” and they put their hands up in the air. They bring them apart, “Amen!” And they just love it!

So, it’s these little things you can do. It doesn’t have to take a lot of effort. Even those little things translate into big things, big, wonderful memories. It’s just such a beautiful atmosphere too. You’re all together and you’re eating glorious food together. You’ve got all this beautiful stuff to look at. It’s all eye candy and candy for the soul.

I can’t understand how anybody could want for anything less than that. It’s so easy to put it together. You don’t really have to think about it that much after you get in the habit of it. It’s easy!

Nancy: I think it’s getting in the habit of it. Some of you listening may think, “Oh, goodness me! How can I cook all those things in the morning?” But some of them you’re doing at night. You’re just putting them in the crockpot. That makes it so much easier. Then the smell is beautiful for the children as they get up in the morning.

Sometimes you’ve got to get up a little bit earlier to do it. But everything is worthwhile. You put yourself out a little bit and get up that little bit earlier to make these things. It’s just such a blessing. Those of you with big families, throwing a casserole in the oven with eggs or doing your Dutch babies. They are just so easy and so amazing!

Erin: And inexpensive! Actually, taste so divine. Even my sons-in-law, they were like, “Oooh, oooh, oooh!” Before they were married, they would come to family breakfast every Sunday morning. I would make this beautiful breakfast for all of my children and their significant others. We would have a Dutch baby every Sunday morning. They missed it so much that I had to re-institute it. The married couples were coming back in on Sunday mornings.

Now that she’s just had the baby, we’ve been sending up some Dutch baby to Noble. He just can’t stand not having it!

Nancy: What would he do without his Dutch babies?

Erin: On a Sunday morning, it became such a lovely tradition that he didn’t think he could do away with that tradition. Isn’t that neat?

And then after breakfast, I always thought it was really fun to. . . That’s when everybody works together to put everything back in order again. So, after we’re done, and even with these little special-needs children, little Kathryn and Alex, they help me unload the dishwasher. They help me load it back up. They help me rinse off the dishes. They’re just right in there with me.

It’s something fun that you can all do together. Somebody can clear the dishes. Somebody can scrape them. Somebody’s on duty for sweeping under the table. One wipes off the table. You’ve got ten children; you’ve got ten little jobs! Many hands make light work!

Nancy: So, you like to make sure that your whole kitchen is glistening and sparkling before you start the rest of the day.

Erin: Absolutely! There’s nothing that feels more satisfying and good to the woman’s soul than to have a kept home. Just to have it shining and glorious. I always would tell the children, “We’re not leaving this place until this place is shining and glorious!”

If we really had a messy house, then I would make even more of an incentive, like, “Oh, would you all like to do a picnic and an adventure today?” And they’d all say, “Yeah!” “Well, we can, but we have to make this home shining and glorious.” In a matter of minutes, the whole house would turn from messy to marvelous, beautiful, glorious home, because everybody was motivated. They wanted to go and do the fun, special trips.

It’s so easy to motivate your children. You don’t have to think, “Oh, how do I get them to do things?” Oh, my, if you’ve read my Living Virtuously book that she carries, in her store, thank you.

Nancy: Yes, and I have advertised it in this latest issue of Above Rubies, so you will see it there. Living Virtuously. It’s a book Erin wrote on the whole of Proverbs 31. Very, very practical book that will bless you. Also, the story of her life, Erin’s been writing that. She’s got Book One available. You’ll be able to see how you can get that book, too.

Erin: The main thing with Living Virtuously is, it’s a practical guide. Beautiful, wonderful Nancy Campbell here, she gives me so many beautiful spiritual tips. This book brings it into reality. Some helpful things that you can do in the natural to make your house a home.

I give actual activities you can do with the children to get them motivated to help around the house. I’ve got a thing called “Mom Bucks” in there. You’ll have to find out what that is. Just different little things that they can do that they earn a currency that they can pay for special privileges. It’s really neat. It teaches them responsibility and it’s fun. It’s like a game. The possibilities are endless. Just to give you a little idea.

Nancy: Oh, yes. Well, can you believe it ladies? We’re only up to breakfast time! So, we’ve got to do another session, Erin! Our next session, we’ll talk about what we do at lunch, and what we do at supper. I hope that you are being blessed.

Well, Erin and I, we love our kitchens, and we love to cook. You’re thinking, “Oh, goodness me! I don’t love to cook!” Well, cooking is part of mothering. It’s part of raising our children, so why have a bad attitude about it? We need to get a great attitude. Change your confession from groaning about it to saying, “I love cooking! I love my kitchen!”

You know, what you say affects your whole being! The power of confession is powerful. Begin to speak the right words, lovely precious moms, and start saying, “Oh, I love cooking! I love my kitchen!” Because you’re in your kitchen for so much of the day, so why not love it? If you’re not loving it, what a boring life you’re living! When you start to love it, well, you’ll just enjoy life. Amen?

Erin: Amen! One more thing. I’ve heard this said before. If you have dishes, that means you’ve been fed, because there are people in the world who don’t even get to have dishes because they don’t ever get fed. There are starving people in the world. So, remind yourself of that as well when you feel like complaining. There are people out there that would love to be able to even eat a nice meal, much less have dishes to eat them on. We live like royalty!

Nancy: We sure do! Let me just give you a little poem as we close.

We Cannot Live Without Cooks

We may live without poetry, music, and art.

We may live without conscience and live without heart.

We may live without friends and may live without books.

But civilized man cannot live without cooks!

He may live without books; what is knowledge but grieving?

He may live without hope; what is hope but deceiving?

He may live without love; what is passion but pining?

But where is the man that can live without dining?

So, we all know that a wonderful way to the heart of our husband is to get to his stomach! To feed him! And to feed our families. Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You that we can talk about the practical things of life. Eating, and cooking, and being in our kitchens is so much part of our life. Lord God, please help us to always have the right attitude, and to understand that, in our kitchens, serving our families, preparing meals for our families, that we are in the very perfect will of God.

“Lord, encourage each mother, and each young person listening today, that they will have a whole new understanding about their kitchen and cooking. In the Name of Jesus, Amen”.  

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

MAKE YOUR BED: Little Things That Can Change Your Life . . . And Maybe the World

by Admiral William H. McRaven

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LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 186: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 8

What is your greatest reason for building your home? You'll hear Solomon's answer in Point 10! We also complete our series today speaking on the last letter of F F P P and K which is KEEPING God's commandments. How do we keep them?

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Now, when you get this, it will be January 4th. Well, you may be listening to it later than that, but it does come out every Tuesday morning. That is January 4^th.  Happy New Year to you today!

I do trust that you have a wonderful year this coming year. Of course, as we face every New Year, we never know what the year is going to bring forth. We have no idea. But the wonderful thing is, we know that we can trust Him. We can trust God who is in control of all things.

We can put a big smile on our faces knowing that we can trust Him. So, keep your heart trusting in the Lord, looking to Him, always praying, always praising, always trusting, and always looking up to Him. Amen?

All right. Now, I think this will be our last session on the F F P P and K, the five things God wants us to establish in our lives as we prepare for end times.

THE REASON TO BUILD THE HOUSE

We are continuing today our last point on the altar of incense. That is point number ten. We’re going to go to 2 Chronicles. This point is this is the reason to build a home. We see this in this passage. It’s the chapter about Solomon building a temple for God.

Solomon wanted to build a glorious temple. It was glorious. 2 Chronicles 2:5: “And the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful, great.” In another passage, he says it’s “for fame and for glory” (1 Chronicles 22:5). So, this is what he wanted to do.

But there was something even bigger, even bigger than making a house that would be wonderful, and great, and glorious, and famous. There was something more. And we read about it in 2 Chronicles 2:4: “Behold, I build an house to the Name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him, and to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.”

Solomon is speaking here. “I am building this wonderful, great house for God. But the reason I’m doing it is so we can do all these things to Him.” The first one he mentions is the altar of incense that we’ve been talking about for the last couple of sessions. It’s the altar that speaks of coming into the Throne Room. It speaks of prayer, and intercession, and praise, and worship.

You see, this is why I want to build a home, so I can offer sweet incense unto the Lord. We’ve talked about how it is a sweet ministry. The incense they had to burn was a beautiful, sweet incense, made of sweet spices. God wanted that aroma filling the Holy Place, filling the house. He wants it to fill our homes, too.

We go down to 2 Chronicles 2:6. Solomon talks about what he wants to do again. He says: “The only reason I’m doing it is to burn sacrifice before Him.” “But who is able to build Him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I then, that I should build Him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before Him?” That was his reason.

Dear ladies, this should be a huge purpose of our homes. Oh, yes, I’m establishing a home. I do want it to be glorious. I want it to be beautiful. I want it to be wonderful. But my whole reason is that it will be a place where we, as a family, can meet with God, where we can meet with Him every morning and every evening.

We can gather our families together, and we can burn incense before Him. Yes, we’ll read His Word, but we’ll burn incense. We’ll pray. We’ll all pray together. Mummies, Daddies, children, right down to the little ones who are just beginning to talk. Yes, as soon as a child can talk, we’re teaching them to join in that prayer, in that beautiful offering of the incense up to the Father in the Throne Room.

That was King Solomon’s highest purpose. This should also be our highest purpose, to establish this altar of incense in our homes. Now, we’re not going to have a literal altar, of course, as they did back in the Old Testament. But we don’t need to have that. We are even more blessed, because we can come into the Throne Room at any moment, any time, wherever we are in our homes, wherever we are, outside our homes. We can do that.

But I do believe it is very important to establish the morning and the evening principle, because that’s what they had to do. God established that. They had to light it, morning and evening. That was an established principle that God gave, because if they did it twice a day, that incense would keep going. If they only did it once a day, it would fade out. They needed to do it two times a day. This is what Solomon established in the home that he built for the Lord.

Before we go on to our last letter, I thought I would give to you, and remind you, about the six different pieces of furniture that were in the tabernacle, and then, later in the temple. Because, ladies, every single one of them affects us in our lives today. They reveal the gospel. They reveal the revelation of God for us in our relationship with Him.

It is important to know them. They reveal the full gospel. Because we often don’t know them, we don’t really understand the fullness of our gospel. We have a very shallow understanding. You see, the believers in the early New Testament who came to Christ, they had a greater understanding of salvation than we have today, because they knew all the laws, and all the patterns of the tabernacle, and the sacrifices, and everything that they did.

It was all just tradition, most probably meaningless to many of them. But when Christ died and rose again, and they saw that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of everything that happened in the tabernacle and the temple, it was such incredible revelation to them.

It must have just about blown their minds to see it all actually fulfilled in Christ because everything that was written . . . You read through the book of Exodus and Leviticus. It may seem boring to someone not understanding. But every single thing is revealing Christ. It’s so wonderful.

When we understand the foundation of it, we have more understanding of our salvation. I think back to Luke 24:27. In that beautiful story of when Jesus had risen from the dead, and He was going to Emmaus. There were two disciples going to Emmaus, along the road, and He caught up with them. As he talked, they were so sad, because Jesus had died, and they didn’t know He had risen again. They were all forlorn. Jesus came along and asked them, “Why are you so sad?” They said, “Don’t you know that He that is going to redeem us and deliver us has died? That’s it. That’s the end.”

But then Jesus began to speak to them, and it tells us here, Luke 24:27: “And beginning at Moses,” that means beginning at the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament, including Exodus and Leviticus and all the revelation of the tabernacle. So “beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

They didn’t have the New Testament back then. They only had the Old. But Jesus revealed Himself from the Torah, and from the prophets. Do you remember in John 1:45? When Phillip found Nathaniel, both of them were disciples. He said to Nathaniel, “We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

So, they knew! Wow! When He came, they had a revelation that He was the One. Paul also shares. Romans 15:4: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

1 Corinthians 10:11: “For they are written for our admonition, upon Whom the ends of the world are come.” So, all these things that were written, they are for us now.

All right. There were six pieces of furniture in the tabernacle.

Number one: the brazen altar. When you came into the tabernacle, the very first thing you saw was the altar, the brass altar where they sacrificed the animals. They sacrificed a lamb every morning and every evening, every single sacrifice pointing to the Lamb of God who would be the sacrifice for the sins of the world.

When Jesus died, there never had to be another sacrifice for sins, for He was the one sacrifice, the only One Who was worthy. That was a picture of Christ.

Then the next thing you came to was the brazen laver. It was a brass laver filled with water. It speaks of baptism and the washing of the water by the Word of God. When you first came in, you had to be at the brazen altar where they sacrificed. That’s where you start. You can’t even go any further until you’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Then they came to the water, where it speaks of baptism. Also, as I said, we get washed as we read the Word of God.

Number three: OK, that was the outside. Now you go into the inside, to the Holy Place. On the left was the golden lampstand. That speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, shining His light on the Word, which was the table of showbread.

On the right-hand side there was the table of showbread. On the table were 12 loaves of bread. They were called the Presence bread, speaking of the Presence of Christ, and speaking of Christ as the bread of life to us, and how that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And how all our sustenance, all our strength, and our salvation, and our healing, and our help, and our sufficiency, is all found in Christ. That is found in His Word. We find the revelation of it is in His Word. Then we experience it as we feed on Him and fellowship with Him.

Then the fifth one was what we’ve been talking about, the golden altar of incense. The prayer, and praise, and worship, and intercession. As you’re saved, and baptized, and you move into the feeding of the Word, you come into prayer and praise.

Then, of course, in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. The shekinah Presence of God, which we now have the privilege of coming into every day through the precious blood of Jesus. Amen!

That was just a little quick sharing. Of course, if we had time to really look into them, we would be having to spend a couple of sessions on each one. But we won’t do that, because we want to go to our last point and finish that today.

KEEPING GOD’S WORD

We’re up to letter K, aren’t we? We’ve talked about FEARLESSNESS, FAITHFULNESS, PERSEVERANCE, PRAYER. And now it’s KEEPING THE WORD OF GOD. Let’s look at Revelation 1:3: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

Revelation 12:17 talks about the remnant “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  In this Scripture it says that it is the remnant who keep His commandments and keep their testimony. My. Is it only the remnant? There is a remnant, you know. That’s not everyone who thinks they are saved. The remnant are the ones who endure to the end, the ones who keep His commandments, and keep their testimony to the end. I pray that I will be part of the remnant.

Revelation 14:12, we’ve shared this Scripture: “This demands the perseverance of the saints who keep God’s commandments, and their faith in Jesus.” Now, this word “keep,” what does it mean? The Greek word for “keep” is tereo, meaning, “to watch, to guard from loss or injury, to keep your eye upon.”

In Revelation, we are commanded to keep the words of the Lord. We’re to keep the words of the prophecy of Revelation. That’s something, because at the moment, we are reading through Revelation in our evening family devotions. We don’t always understand everything that is going to happen. But it is such a powerful book. We’re reading it through for the second time. We just couldn’t take it all in one time. Maybe we’ll do it a third time!

But it’s good to read through Revelation. If you haven’t done it yet while we’ve been doing this series, take time to read it. Let it fill your soul. Read it personally, but you may like to do like we are doing, do it in your family devotions. Do a chapter each morning or each night, or both, whichever you would like. I know it will be blessing to you.

So, how can we keep the Word of God? Three points I have here.

No. 1. YOU MUST KNOW IT TO KEEP IT

1 John 2:3: “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Yes, we will know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. You’ve got to know the Word.

Just a casual reading of the Word is not enough. It’s not enough to keep us from deception. To keep us from deception, we’ve got to really know the Word. We get to know it by pursuing it, and reading it, and studying it.

I believe we would most probably have more Bibles in this country than at any time in all of history. I mean, there are millions of Bibles in the USA. But how many of them are being read? I always love that quote by Horace Greeley:

“It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people.”

And yet, we saw last year, and this year, many of God’s people have been enslaved. They have caved into tyranny. They have caved into whatever the government says.

Oh, by the way, I was just reading yesterday how that it is now completely proved, and a known fact, that our government, along with the vaccine manufacturers, own these vaccines. They are all part of the great money-making deal of these vaccines and are part owners. So many have caved into this tyranny.

Dear ladies, we can’t be people who just go along with the crowd, or what everyone’s saying. We’ve got to get into the Word. We’ve got to know it, know what God says. I am amazed. Every day I open the Word, I find God showing me understanding about the very everyday things of life. In just the little interesting things that we face, oh, I’ll find an answer in His Word.

I noticed some. I didn’t bring them with me, or I would have shared them with you. Maybe another day. Just some very practical things. I’m always discovering these practical things. They’re in the Word. Sometimes they’re hidden away, but you find them, and it’s just so exciting. It’s like finding gold, like finding treasure.

But let’s be people who know the Word. Because when we do, we won’t be enslaved, and we won’t be deceived. The Word of God is what keeps us from deception. It reminds me of that dream I shared with you last session, how that I was being led into the dark with a group of believers. But how I had to run from it! We’ve got to run from darkness and run to the Light! Amen?

No. 2. YOU MUST SPEAK IT TO KEEP IT

Oh, I’m a great believer in this, dear precious ladies. If you don’t speak the truth, you’ll lose it. You speak it, you’ll keep it. The Psalmist said in Psalm 116:10: “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” If you believe what God says, you speak it, even if you haven’t got anyone else to speak it to. Just speak it out loud.

But mothers, you can share it with your children, share it with your husband, share it with friends. But that Scripture is not only in the Old Testament, it’s in the New. 2 Corinthians 4:13, It’s repeated: “I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.” If we truly believe, we will confess. When we confess, the truth becomes stronger in our hearts and lives.

I find myself, it’s the truth. It’s the Words of the Lord that I speak about. I am blessed to speak to women, because the more I speak the truth, the more I experience it. The more I share it, the more it becomes part of me. It is so true that what you speak is what becomes part of you. You can read something, and you can affirm it, and even nod with your head. But it is truly only what you speak that you will keep. Can I encourage you to do that?

Actually, you’ll soon be getting the new Above Rubies. It is printed. I am so sorry that everything takes so long. Even now it’s printed, I’m waiting now for the company to send it out. Now at this stage, wow, well, perhaps you’ll have it by now, seeing you’re in the new year. I do hope so.

You will see in this magazine that I have advertised my two new devotional books.  I have written previously 100 DAYS OF BLESSING, Volume One and Volume Two. And now I’m publishing Volume Three and Volume Four. I know you’re going to be blessed, so blessed.

In Volume Four, I have a little study there that goes on for a few days. I found, can you believe it ladies? I found 75 different things that God wants us to do about His truth and His Word—75 different attitudes to it. Oh, it’s unbelievable! He wants us to be truth-confessors, and truth-continuers, and truth-declarers, and truth-speakers, and truth-readers, and truth-heralders. And it goes on, and on, and on.

And, of course, truth-keepers. Yes, that’s one of the biggest ones. Truth-keepers. I read here in the Word . . .  go back to the Old Testament now. We learned about the Greek word. Well, the Hebrew word for “keeping” the word in the Old Testament is shamar It means, “to guard, to protect, watch over, take heed, observe.”

I found a number of things of how we’re to keep the truth. I won’t give you the references, but when you read the transcript, if you get around to reading it, or if you need to check it, I’ll put the references there for you.

But God’s Word tells us we are to keep God’s truths always, not only when it suits us. Not only when it fits in with our ideas, or with our circumstances. No, always.

The Word reminds us to keep God’s truth diligently. Three references for that one. It reminds us to keep His truth to a thousand generations. We’re passing it on from one generation to the next.

 It reminds us to keep God’s truth unto the end. Remember, those who endure to the end shall be saved.

It reminds us to keep His truth with our whole heart.

It reminds us to keep His truth continually forever and ever.

It reminds us to be a companion of those who keep God’s truth. We hang out with those who love the Word of God. We make sure our children, that their friends are those who love the Word of God. We’re to be a companion of those who love it.

And even for the nations. Isaiah 26:2: “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.”

Let’s be keepers, ladies, keepers of the truth. You’ll be able to enjoy those beautiful devotionals, Volume 3, and Volume 4, when you get them.

Isn’t that amazing that I found 75 different things about keeping God’s Word? Maybe I didn’t exhaust them all.

No. 3. YOU HAVE TO OBEY IT TO KEEP IT

This of course really means much the same thing, doesn’t it? Yes, we do keep it when we obey it. Just a couple of Scriptures now, as we close.

Let’s go to John 14:15: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”

John 14:21: “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.”

John 14:23: “If any man love Me, he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Isn’t that amazing Scripture? Oh, the ones who keep His commandments, God says, or Jesus is speaking here. He says: “We will come unto him, and will dwell with him.” Do you notice it says “we”? Not I. Jesus didn’t say “I.” He said “We,” the triune God. “We,” the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, “will come unto you and dwell with you.” How absolutely glorious!

Revelation, over to the last book that we began with and the last chapter. In the very last chapter, we read again about seeking God’s words. Revelation 22:6: “And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”

Verse 8 tells us how John fell down to worship at the feet of the angel, but in verse 9, the angel says to John, “See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book.”

One last Scripture, 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” Amen.

So, of course, we’re now going to practice getting God’s Word into our hearts, and into our minds, and into our mouths. We’re going to be speaking it forth. We’re going to keep the sayings of God’s Word right unto the end.

“Dear Father, we thank You so much for your precious Word, and how You show us the way. Help us to be keepers of Your Word, and Lord, all the 75 other things that the ladies can find out about when they get 100 DAYS, Volume 4. Oh, God, there is just so much, so much. And Your Word is so precious, that you have 75 things You want us to do about it. I can hardly believe it. Oh, it’s amazing.

“And Lord, I pray that, as I pray for each mother, and each child, and each young person listening today, that You will, Lord God, You will make them people of Your Words, lovers of Your Words. Oh, Lord, that they’ll just love it, and they’ll want to explore it, and study it.

“Oh, God, I ask, Lord, that You will mightily bless them. I pray that you’ll make each family so strong, Lord God, as they prepare, Lord, for whatever we face ahead. Here we are, speaking at the beginning of this new year. We don’t know what is ahead, Lord God, but we pray that You’ll make us strong, You’ll make us ready.

“We pray that You will, oh, God, give us these wonderful qualities of fearlessness. Fill us with faith and strength and courage, in the Name of Jesus. Lord God, help us to be faithful, to persevere, to become prayer warriors, and keepers of Your Word. Lord God, I know that strong families like this will make such a powerful, strong nation. This is the only way to make a strong nation, is strong families. So, strengthen these precious families today, I pray, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

P.S. January 4^th is my daughter, Serene’s birthday, 45 years today.

It was also my mother’s birthday who would be 106 years today if she was still living.

And I also had a new grandbaby born today, baby Ezra to our daughter Mercy.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES FOR TRUTH KEEPERS

Deuteronomy 5:29 reminds us to keep God’s truth “always,” not only when it suits us.

Deuteronomy 6:17; 11:22; and Psalm 119:4 remind us to keep God’s truth “diligently.”

Deuteronomy 7:9 reminds us to keep God’s truth “to a thousand generations.” We must be

             faithful to pass it on from one generation to the next.

Psalm 119:33 reminds us to keep God’s truth “unto the end.”

Psalm 119:34 and 69 remind us to keep God’s truth with “my whole heart.”

Psalm 119:44 reminds us to keep God’s truth “continually, forever and ever.”

Psalm 119:63 and 115 remind us to be “a companion” of those who keep God’s truth. We make

friends with those who keep God’s truth.

WE HAVE NOW COMPLETED EIGHT SESSIONS ON THIS SERIES, THE FIVE NECESSARY QUALITTIES FOR END TIME LIVING. DID YOU GET THEM ALL?

DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THIS PODCAST, “LIFE TO THE FULL” WITH NANCY CAMPBELL.” DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 185: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 7

Two more points today about the Golden Altar of Incense which speaks of prayer and intercession. Point 8: It's the "take it wherever you go" ministry, and 9: It's the "closest to the Throne" ministry. We also check out some Scriptures for the years 20:20, 20:21, and 20:22!

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Good morning, ladies. Or, good evening, wherever you are. Now I’m recording this podcast before Christmas, but I realized you’re not going to get it until the week after Christmas. So, I’m not even able to say, “Happy Christmas” to you. But I do hope you have a lovely Christmas with your family. Or Hanukkah, whichever you like to celebrate.

We’re celebrating family here, so we like to celebrate both. We celebrate Hanukkah and we did enjoy a beautiful Hanukkah season this year. When we have Hanukkah, we like to read each day, each morning and evening at our family devotions all the different Scriptures about the light.

It’s so wonderful to see how much God has written about light in His Word. The Hanukkah festival was also called “The Festival of Lights.” In John’s gospel, it tells us how Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate that festival.

It was called “The Festival of Lights” because it celebrates the lighting of the menorah. This was a dark, dark time in Israel’s history when Israel was nearly wiped out as a nation. But God raised up these very brave and courageous Maccabees who fought and fought. They were able to gain back the kingdom. They gained back the Temple.

The Temple was in a terrible state. It was desecrated. They had to spend so much time cleaning it all out. Of course, they dedicated it again. That’s what “Hanukkah” means, “to dedicate.” That’s the word in the Hebrew.

They dedicated the Temple and they had to repair everything again. When they went to light the menorah, the seven-branched candlestick, they only had enough oil for one day. They couldn’t use any oil, because the Bible is very specific about the recipe for the oil that must be used.

While they were preparing it, tradition tells us that the light kept burning for eight days until they were ready with the new oil. That was a miracle. That’s what Hanukkah is all about. So, we really enjoy that time.

It’s interesting, ladies, that that Scripture in Proverbs 22:6, where it says: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” The word “train” there in the Hebrew is chanak. It is the same word used for Hanukkah, “to dedicate.” That is very interesting.

You know, we read the Word, “train up a child,” and think that it really means “training,” which, of course, it does. If you’re dedicating your child to God, you are training your child for God. But it does put a new understanding upon it when we understand that this is the word “to dedicate unto God.”

It’s a beautiful thing to remember. Every day, when you’re training your children, as you’re raising them, teaching them, looking after them, and caring for them each day, you are dedicating them in every action. Every word is seeking to dedicate them to the Lord.

Your whole understanding of how you train them will be, “Is what I am doing dedicating them to the purposes of the Lord?” That will determine how you train your children. That will determine how you educate them. That will determine where you will send them to be educated because you are dedicating your children to the Lord. That’s your whole purpose of mothering. Dedicating them to the Lord.

So, talking about the light, Hanukkah being the Festival of Lights, of the light being restored to the Temple, I had a dream the other morning. I'm not a person who has dreams at all. Oh, sometimes I’ll dream, and they’re all stupid and I forget about them. But I woke up after this dream, and oh, I was so affected. I knew it was a dream that meant something.

It was very powerful to me. It affected me powerfully in the dream. I had been with beautiful believers that I know. Somehow, it was at some kind of a gathering. I got disconnected from them and ended up with some other believers and was sort of hanging out with them. As I was with them, we were being drawn along to someplace. This was apparently the next thing that we were meant to go to.

So, I just followed along. Now I look back and think, “Why was I following along?” We have to be careful about just following along and getting in the groove with others, don’t we? We always have to know where we’re going. But I followed along, and it eventually led us into this building. We went into this building, and it was very dark. They closed the doors, and it was black.

Wow! Why is it so dark? And what are we going to hear in this place? But the more I realized and became aware this place was not God’s kingdom. It was the other kingdom. It was Satan’s kingdom. I knew I had to get out. I knew if I didn’t get out quickly that those doors would be locked, and I would be stuck.

So, I went to the door, and I opened the door. Sort of sunbeams of light came in as I opened the door. I just felt this urgency and I called out with this loud voice, “If there are any Christians in this place, get out now!” And I ran for my life.

I wasn’t even aware whether any others followed me or not. But thinking about it later, I just realized that this was a warning dream, how we have to be careful that we do not get deceived. That we do not just follow along with the crowd. It can even be a Christian crowd.

Sometimes a Christian crowd can be taking us in the wrong direction. We must constantly come back to the Word of God which is the Light. What does it say in Psalm 119:105? “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” We need the constant, everyday guiding of the Word to keep us walking in the Light.

We must know everything that we do, or wherever we’re going, or wherever we’re being led in life, we must know it lines up with His Word. If it doesn’t, well, it’s not the Light. I mean, God’s Word is the Light. You can read everything else you want to and a lot of it can be good. A lot of it is not good. But it’s the Word that’s the Light.

I am a great believer in black and white. I’m not a person who goes in the grays. It’s black or white. I believe we’re either in God’s kingdom or Satan’s kingdom. We’re either living in God’s kingdom, or we’re living in Satan’s kingdom. So, let’s be those who walk in the Light. Amen?

I was talking about Hanukkah and Christmas. We haven’t yet, because we haven’t experienced it yet, because I’m doing this before Christmas, we haven’t enjoyed our Christmas time. But we love Christmas, not for the Christmassy festivities. For us, it is always such a beautiful family time of many family get-togethers. That’s what we love about it.

Also, the remembering of the birth of Christ. Now, I know that Jesus was most probably not born at Christmas time. I think most people believe it would have been at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. That would have been the time of his Birth.

I think this time, this Christmas time, would have been the time of His incarnation, His being conceived by a virgin. The Holy Son of God coming to a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. That was just so incredible. Oh, the incarnation. It’s so miraculous, so powerful, so beyond our human comprehension, isn’t it?

Then the birth of Christ. To think, ladies, to think that Christ, Jesus, the One to whom one day every, every knee will bow, this One came into this world, not with pomp, not with ceremony, not in a great chariot. No. He entered this world through the birth canal of a woman. He came forth into the world as every little baby comes forth, coming through the birth canal of a woman.

It is so beyond our understanding. We sometimes, we take it all for granted. We don’t take time to think of how powerful was the birth of Christ. I mean, every birth is powerful. In fact, I think that birth is perhaps the most, the most raw, the most primal, and yet, the most powerful of all things that happen in this earth. There is nothing more primal. There is nothing more powerful.

I think a woman is at her most primal when she’s giving birth. Everything else is forgotten but bringing this baby into the world. It comes with gutterings and groanings. It’s powerful. It can have pain, but the pain ends in such joy. It is just such an incredible thing that comes with blood and mess.

And God, the Son of God, came into this world with blood, and in a manger, for the purpose of shedding His own very precious blood to save us from our sins. How amazing! Oh, I think it is important to have a time of the year when we remember this most amazing and miraculous and powerful night in all of history.

In fact, I think there should always be some moment in this time where we do bow, where we fall on our knees before Him. As the beautiful carol says,

“Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices.

O night divine, O night when Christ was born.”

Anyway, I do hope you had a beautiful time at Hanukkah and Christmas.

Now let’s get onto our study. We are going through this series, F P P and K. We’ve been talking about prayer. Talking about prayers, we’ve been going back to the altar of incense, because in the Bible, it speaks of prayer and worship. In Revelation, this is where we’re coming from. We’re looking at what John saw in Revelation. He saw the altar of incense. He saw the prayers going up to the Father.

Prayer, we know, is something that is so important. It must become part of our lives. Not when we face that end time, but now! It’s part of our lives now, so that when we come to more difficult times, it’s just part of our lives. It’s a habit. It’s like our breath. We’re not having to suddenly get into prayer. We’re already prayer warriors.

Now, do you remember last week? I talked to you about how the altar of incense is a golden ministry? It’s a sweet ministry. It’s a come-up-higher ministry, a morning and evening ministry, a horning ministry where we really gore and bore into the devil and come against the works of darkness. It’s a four-square ministry.

And now, three more points today because there are ten points.

TAKE IT WHEREVER YOU GO ALTAR

So, this is number eight. This one is, take it wherever you go ministry. Now, where do I get that? Of course, I get it from the Word of God. In Exodus 30, it tells us about the altar of incense and how they were to make it. God told them, “You’ve got to make two gold rings that you’ll put under the altar. Then you’re to make two staves or carrying poles.”

They were to be made out of acacia wood and then covered with gold because everything on the altar was covered with gold. The reason that they had to do this was so that they could carry it, wherever they went! When God said, “OK, time to go! Everybody pack up! We’re moving on!” The priests would have to get the altar of incense and put the staves in it so that four priests could carry it wherever they went.

Now everything that is written about the altar of incense is for us today. Everything that’s written in the Old Testament is for us today, ladies. It’s not just something written back there. God wants us to take prayer and intercession and worship with us wherever we go. No matter where we’re going, we don’t leave it behind. Even when you go on vacation!

Sometimes you can be tempted when you go on vacation to forget about it. Reading the Word, prayer, take a vacation from that. But the Bible shows us that this is something we don’t take a vacation from.

I remember, way back in New Zealand, in the days when we were living there, raising our young children there. Every Christmas time, because back in New Zealand, our vacation time is about three times throughout the year. We don’t have the big summer holidays like you have here in the States. But our main vacation time is over Christmas, when that’s the biggest holiday of the year Down Under, because it’s summertime then.

So, every year we would go away at this time. We would go as a family. My parents would come and other members of our family. But we would tell all our church folks where we were going. And you’d never believe it! Half the church would come with us!

So, off we’d go, this great entourage of families. It was so great and so wonderful. Our children so loved it because they had all their friends. They had their cousins and then they had their church friends. It just made such a beautiful time for them.

I remember one year we went up to Pauanui which was one of our favorite places to go. Beautiful beach up there. One of the ladies from the families of the church said, “Now, why don’t we continue our prayer meetings like we do back home?” Because what we would do, was every morning at six o’clock, there was a prayer meeting for those who could get to it in the church. We had this six o’clock prayer meeting every morning.

So, she suggested, “Let’s keep it going while we’re here.” I thought, “Oh my, I think I’d just like a holiday.” But what could you say? You couldn’t say no to her! So, we established this prayer time every morning. We’d gather in one of the tents and we would pray. Pray for the needs and pray for the safety over everyone.

I do believe that God was with her, bringing that suggestion up, that we actually all got with it, and obeyed. Because during that particular holiday, we had a very, very serious boating accident with a couple of our families. Many could have died. It was totally miraculous that everyone came out whole.

We know, because we were praying every morning. We hadn’t left the altar of incense behind. We took it with us. We kept praying, and we were also praying for safety, which you always do when you’re on holiday with children, out in the surf, and boating, and skiing, and doing all these things. God did answer our prayers. I know He saved lives that day because we were praying.

Remember that dear ones. That’s another part of the altar of incense. You take it wherever you go. You don’t leave it behind.

CLOSEST TO THE THRONE ALTAR

Number nine: it’s the closest to the Throne ministry. In Exodus 30:6, God told them that they had to place the altar of incense just outside the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies where God dwelt in all His shekinah glory. The altar of incense was right next to the curtain, the closest, closest piece of furniture to the Presence of God.

Then in Revelation 8:3, and this is now John looking into the heavenly realm, he saw the golden altar, which was before the Throne. Right before the Throne of God! Now, in the heavenly realm, of course, there is no curtain there. In fact, that curtain was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died upon the cross.

Now there is access into the Presence of God, into the Throne Room of God. So, in heaven, there’s the altar of incense. It’s right next to the Throne. Oh, dear ladies, when you come to the Lord in prayer, you are right next to the Throne of God! And as you cry out to Him, and you bring your petitions, you bring your longings, and your cries, and your prayers for your children and your husband, and all the needs that you have upon your heart, you bring them before the Father. He’s right there. He’s right there, dear ones.

The altar of incense is right before the Throne. Isn’t that wonderful? Oh, what a privilege we have. We have access. We can come in boldly, having access to the Throne of God. Isn’t it amazing how we belittle prayer? I mean, no, I wouldn’t say that we belittle it. We would revere it, I know.

But we don’t really put a lot of time into it, do we? How much incense goes up to the Father from your home? In that passage in Revelation 8, it says that “much incense is going up.” Because prayer is so powerful, and we have this privilege of coming into the Throne Room of God, let’s just come, all the time, whenever there’s a problem. Come to the Throne Room.

Oh, there’s so many needs you face during the day. Oh, even just mothering your children, there’s always challenges all day long. Well, look, bring them in your heart to the Lord. You just come into the Throne Room. He’s right there. And He will give you wisdom, and He will show you the way. Oh, such a wonderful blessing.

Yes, and of course we know that praise and worship are also part of the altar of incense. Prayer and intercession and praise and worship. Because prayer and praise are twins. They go together, don’t they?

I must share a little thing with you. A few weeks ago, my husband and I were blessed to hear a man of God give a wonderful message. We went to this place to hear him. And he took us to 2 Chronicles 20. Well, that wasn’t the only Scripture. Of course, this preacher spoke of many, many, many Scriptures, but this was one that he gave us. 20:20.

It’s the story of Jehoshaphat and how he had this great multitude come against him and he just didn’t know what to do. But, of course, he sought the Lord and he called all of Judah together, and all the families came, and the children came, and the toddlers came, and the nursing babies came. They all met together to seek the Lord. God miraculously showed them what to do.

2 Chronicles 20:20. No, 21. Oh, goodness me! I’m taking you to 2 Chronicles 20:21, because this preacher was telling us, this is the year of 2021. What should we be doing in 2021? Well, it says: “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for His mercy endureth forever.”

And he was talking about whatever you’re going through, in all the tough times, what do you do? You praise, and sing, and worship. We all know this amazing story, of how when the singers went out before the army, and they worshipped and praised the Lord, that God gave them the victory. There is such victory in praise and worship.

So, he gave us that Scripture for 2021. But when I came home, I was looking at these Scriptures, and I looked at the one before and the one after. I got this little thought. Now, I’m going to share it with you. But you have to know, it’s just my thoughts, so you can take it how you like.

But 2020, I thought, “OK, let’s see what 2 Chronicles 20:20 says, because 2020, last year, was a very, rather amazing year. I mean, this was the year of the plandemic. Yes, and although we had a 99% cure, or even more, many people did die. Yes, they did. But most of those who did die often had other illnesses. And also, they were given the wrong medicine.

Maybe you are aware, but Fauci was the one who prescribed to every hospital that they must give their patients remdesivir. That was really a medicine for death. It causes the kidneys to shut down and if anybody got that medicine, well, they would most probably die. Most people did.

Every hospital in the USA was told that they must not use hydroxychloroquine, or ivermectin, or budesonide. None of those were allowed to be used, but they have all been proved to be complete healers of this thing that’s been going around.

In fact, there’s a doctor in Texas. He prescribed budesonide, and he has not had one death. Not one! Not one. But it was a horrific year. As you know, many people did die, through being given the false medicine. It was all a plan.

Sadly, the whole plan now, and even of these vaccinations, is to depopulate the world. Of course, we had shut down the churches, locked down, masking, social distancing, all this junk that is so ridiculous, and so against how we’re meant to live life.

So, what did it say in 2 Chronicles 20:20? “And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.”

That was the word for 2020. And I thought, “Yes, now when you look back, there were many, many prophetic words for 2020. Actually, they were given in 2019, and even earlier, before. Many people who have a prophetic anointing prophesied that Donald J. Trump would be president, a second term. Now, that didn’t happen.

Well, it did, actually, because we know that Trump won the election by a huge majority. But it was stolen from him. It was true, he won, but he did not become the president for a second term at that time.

However, I’m one of these people, I love to believe what the Word says. So, I take that Scripture for 2020, where it says: “Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” I still believe those prophetic words, because they weren’t given by one person, but by many, many prophets.

In fact, way back in 2007, yes, that far back, when President Trump had never thought of being president, it was prophesied that he would be, and would have two terms. So, I still believe that that can yet happen. God can yet work miraculously and supernaturally, because I believe His Word.

Then we have 2021. That is to be praising the Lord. Is that how you got through this last year? Whatever you had to go through, did you go through it praising and worshipping? We keep on doing that. We keep on praising, keep on worshipping, and keep on praying, and keep on calling upon the Lord. Are you doing that?

We are calling upon the Lord daily. We are still crying out for deliverance, especially for many countries that are more locked down even than the USA. We think of Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Austria, Canada. Many of these countries are facing incredible lockdowns. And we keep crying out and praying for them.

But let’s see what 2022 has to offer, shall we? You won’t be quite in the New Year when you hear this, but we’re just about there. 2 Chronicles 20:22: “And when they began to sing and to praise. . .” Remember what’s happening? “When they began to sing and to praise,” we keep praising, keep worshipping. “The Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.”

OK. Wow, that’s what I’m trusting for 2022, that the enemy will be smitten! That’s a good promise to take, isn’t it? Yes, oh, there is so much evil in our land.

Oh, how we have to be praying daily, coming against this evil, this evil of abortion, which is murder, which is human sacrifice. Oh, are you praying for the Supreme Court judges as they are debating on Roe vs Wade? Let’s be in prayer for that.

We must keep praying against the sex trafficking which is horrific. How can we even bear to think about it? These precious, beautiful girls being sold into this tormenting, degrading, terrible lifestyle! Oh, how we must keep praying.

But we keep praying against the enemy. We keep praying against the deceptions of our government and our media, and how they’re trying to bring the nation into deception. We pray that they will be smitten! And God will have the victory! Amen?

Well, let’s pray now, shall we?

“Dearest Father, we thank You that we can come into Your Throne Room. Oh, Lord God, You’re not far away. As we move into the realm of prayer, we are right in Your Throne Room.

“And we come this morning, we come, Lord, we come in the mighty powerful Name of Jesus against the evil that is coming upon this world. We push it back in Jesus’ Name. Oh, God, we pray, Lord, that all evil will be brought down, all evil speaking, all deception, everything that is false, Lord God.

“We pray that righteousness will prevail, that justice will prevail again. Oh, God, we cry out to You for this. We cry out for a revival in our nation. Oh, for the people of God. Lord God, we have faced so much in this nation in these last two years, and yet, even yet, Your people yet, on the whole, are not crying out to You. Lord, prayer meetings haven’t doubled or tripled.

“What is happening? Oh, God, what do You have to do with us, Lord, to get us to really seek Your face? So, we pray, Lord, that You will just wake up Your people. Arouse Your people to prayer, Lord God, that we will be people of this golden ministry, right now, that we will be people of prayer. Lord, we know that this is one of the greatest things that prepares us to face whatever is ahead. I pray that You’ll make each one of us, Lord, more and more prayer warriors. In the precious Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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