LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 173 –  LOSING A CHILD TO CANCER

Today you will meet Shavona Shaw, married to one of the Imperials (Southern Gospel Quartet). Shavona tells the story of how their little two-year-old son was suddenly taken from them by cancer, and how God has enabled them to walk through this grieving trial with hope and victory.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, LIFE TO THE FULL, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Today is going to be a special day. I have another beautiful mother with me today. Her name is Shavona, Shavona Shaw. Can you say “Hi” to the ladies, Shavona?

Shavona: Hi, ladies.

Nancy: Here she is. Well, Shavona has a very special story to tell you. But first of all, we’ll introduce her. Shavona is married to Will. Will belongs to THE IMPERIALS, so if you love SOUTHERN GOSPEL, you’ll be familiar with THE IMPERIALS, that amazing quartet. He has been with them for three years. He used to be with Southern Sounds, so he’s a southern gospel singer, with the most beautiful voice.

We met the Shaws at our Above Rubies Retreat in Panama. In fact, this last August, we had a reunion for all the families who were at the April Panama retreat. It’s such a special retreat, and just getting more popular every year.

Next year coming up, 2022, the dates for our Panama retreat will be April 20^th to the 27^th. So, if you would like to come, you need to check out the website AboveRubies.org, and book in now, because I think it’s just about filled up, or filling up so quickly. You’ll need to get in quick. It’s such a special time.

But at our reunion, oh, it was so beautiful, so special. It was a time, actually, because the families wanted to get together again. So many of them came, just to hang out and yet, every day there was something organized, wasn’t there? It was so incredible. We had a couple of lovely, amazing ladies’ meetings where all the mothers got together. It was so incredible.

On one of those days, we were celebrating your birthday!

Shavona: Yes, it was my 41^st birthday, and my 23^rd wedding anniversary, the same day.

Nancy: Yes, well, we did something that morning that we love to do in our family. Every time we have a birthday celebration, we always have speeches. We did this when our children were growing up and now they do it with their children. Then we just passed it on to so many people, so that it’s become something so many of the families that we know do.

So, that morning, we asked everybody to say something to Shavona. I was amazed. Can you keep a hat on your head? [laughter] After all the things they said to you? And you most probably didn’t know, but I was writing down some of the things that people said to you. I’m always writing things down. I wrote these things down.

I thought, “Oh my, what a testimony to have of your life,” because here’s a few of the things that people said about Shavona. It wasn’t just one person. So many people said the same thing, that they saw sweetness in your life. They saw the beauty of Jesus, and the peace of God upon you. And that you were just gorgeous, and the queen of your family.

It just went on and on like that, what these other ladies saw in you. I think that is so amazing, especially when you’re going to hear Shavona’s story. And that they could say that they saw the sweetness of Jesus and the peace of Jesus all over her. You’ll begin to realize how precious that is when you hear the story.

But we haven’t quite got onto it yet. So, we’ll talk about your family for a little bit. The Lord has blessed you with nine children. You have William, who is the oldest, and he’s already married! Isn’t that amazing? Yes, married, and this was a young marriage. Tell us about it.

Shavona: They met at an Above Rubies Retreat three years ago. Just little teenagers themselves. He was 18, and she was 16. They immediately hit it off. One of the things you say is for the young people to get to meet each other. They did, and I knew, leaving. I told him, “William, wait a few days before you text her. Don’t be bothering her.”

He was like, “Oh, Mom, we’re already texting!” I knew then. I was like, “She’s the one! I know she’s the one!” I could just tell. So, they will be married a year this coming up November.

Nancy: So, she married on her 18^th birthday.

Shavona: Just a few days after her 18^th birthday. Yeah, we’re keeping it young.

Nancy: Well, that is so beautiful. It shouldn’t be unusual to see these lovely young marriages, because they’re biblical. When we read in the Word, we read about “the wife of your youth.” We read the Scripture, “the husband of your youth.” We read about “the children of your youth.” And that’s Bible language.

When we go to the Hebrew, we see that the word for “youth” literally means “juvenile.” it’s teenage years. So that was when they married back in biblical times. But they were ready for marriage because they were prepared for it. They were prepared to take on responsibility of providing. They were prepared to be ready to embrace children.

So, it’s not just the age of the person. It’s the maturity and the preparedness that they have. I know young people who are in their 20’s, mid-20's, maybe late 20’s, and they still are not ready to take on responsibility. I think, maybe, because they haven’t been taught it. We are not taught it in the church. When do you hear messages about getting married and preparing for marriage, when this was normal lifestyle back in Bible days?

It is so beautiful. Of course, you know how I love to see young couples meet at our Above Rubies Retreats. Oh, Colin and I met at a family retreat. We think it’s a great place to meet. When you meet kindred spirits, and there you are, both families are there. Both are kindred spirits. You know, it’s just so beautiful, isn’t it?

Oh, I’m trusting for many, many more beautiful, romances to happen as we have these wonderful family retreats. I think it’s so wonderful. Then you have a bit of the same testimony, don’t you? When did you meet Will?

Shavona: I was 14, and he was 16, in the youth group. I was staying with some friends. I went home that night, and I said, “I’m going to marry him!” My 18^th birthday is when I got married.

Nancy: Isn’t that amazing? And now, another beautiful young marriage. Now, they have the fruit of such a beautiful family life. All the lovely children God has given them. They have, oh well, you can tell us.

Shavona: So, we have William, who’s 21. His wife, Olivia, is 18. Calvin is 19. Tristan is 16. Our only daughter, Mary Taylor, is 14. Then we have Malachi, who’s 12. Josiah, 10. Then we have Wyatt, who is 8, Jedidiah who is 6, and then Ethan, at two.

Nancy: We’re actually going to let Shavona tell the story about Ethan today, their ninth precious little baby. I’m sure, oh goodness me, when a little baby comes into a big family, it’s unbelievable, isn’t it? They have so many mothers and fathers and people wanting to hold them. Such a loved, loved child. Then he was just perfect for most of his time, wasn’t he? Until one day, what happened?

Shavona: Well, we had just got back from a trip to New York. We noticed that he was walking a little bit dizzy acting. I thought, “Oh, he must have an earache.” So, I made an appointment to go the doctor because I thought, “It’s not getting better on its own with natural remedies.” Went into the doctor on March 19, just a couple months after his second birthday.

She looked at him and said, “He doesn’t have an earache.” I thought, “Well, I think she’s wrong,” because he has to. What else would be causing him to be dizzy? She said, “I’d like for him to see a neurologist.” That’s when your heart sinks. It was like, “Whoa. Why so extreme? Why can’t we just try antibiotics or something first?”

She said, “It may be a few weeks to a month before we can get an appointment.” I said, “OK.” Well, we left and went on about our day. A few hours later, she called and said, “There’s this neurologist that has an appointment for tomorrow. I’d like for Ethan to go in and be seen.”

So, I said, “OK, we’ll do this.” Got in, the neurologist looked him over, let him walk, and said, “I want to do an MRI.” This was happening so fast. You’re like, “What? Why?” They did an MRI. We were at Centennial Hospital at Nashville. The MRI came back that he had a four-centimeter tumor on the back of his brain.

Nancy: What was that word again?

Shavona: He had a four-centimeter tumor that they thought was already cancerous.

Nancy: Wow. That would have been so hard to take, so suddenly!

Shavona: Well, that’s right when covid was starting. So, my husband was not even allowed to be there at the appointment with me. I had my daughter, because I thought, “She’s 14. She’s going to go in with me to this appointment really quick, and we’d be back home.”

The results came back. They did the MRI and said that they wanted to do surgery the next morning. I had to call my husband on FaceTime, and he heard over FaceTime that our son had a tumor. So, they allowed him to come up to the hospital. We were being transferred to Vanderbilt. They did surgery the next morning at 9 AM.

Nancy: So, that surgery, how did that go?

Shavona: The doctors did surgery and said it went well. That the tumor came out easily. They were afraid that it was going to be tied into the nervous system. But he said it came out easily, and we were like, “OK, God, thank You! This is great! We’re good to go now.” We had to stay in the hospital for a week because he had the drain tube in. It was brain surgery. It’s a major surgery.

Nancy: So, now that you are in hospital with little Ethan, was any, your husband allowed to come and be with him?

Shavona: They did make an exception and let him stay with us. We were one of the very few that were allowed to do that. But I think they knew it was pretty serious. We were still in denial, I guess, not thinking that it was as bad as it was. So, yeah, he was with me.

Nancy: Oh, that’s so good, because so many faced family members dying without anyone there with them. That was such a terrible time. So, what happened next?

Shavona: After that, they said he would need to go on chemo, a very strong chemo. Matter of fact, not just one, but five of them. They were going to be very hard on his body. As the testing came back, we were waiting on the results. It came back as a cancer called medulloblastoma, which still needed the high-grade chemo.

But we found a doctor that was going to treat us in Texas. We loaded up our RV and took off there. He had good results with treating medulloblastoma. I talked to survivors that had it when they were little and went on his chemo medicine or whatever. They’re grown and doing good and got children and their children are healthy. So, that’s what we did. We took off and went there.

Nancy: So, you were encouraged by that, and believing for the best.

Shavona: Yes, absolutely. We had to have a port put in. There were tons of testing. In between there, they did say, when they did the first MRI, that they thought they saw something in the spine, like a little spot. A little spot, but they wanted to check again.

We had another MRI done in between all of this. It came back that it was in the spine, that it had dropped down. There were also . . .

Nancy: How do these things “drop down”?

Shavona: It’s the way the cancer goes. It starts up in the brain and goes down through the spine and grows there. While all this is going on, while he’s on medicine, and we’re traveling back and forth to Texas, he’s healing, and he’s looking good. His surgery site had healed up.

His right side was a little off from the surgery. When they do something like that, they talked about issues. But through physical therapy and stuff, he was doing better and starting to walk again. We would post videos of him pushing the little walker and using his right arm again. We were really hopeful and believing, “OK, he’s getting better. This is doing good.”

And then we got a call that they had continued testing on his biopsy, and it actually wasn’t medulloblastoma like they thought it was in the beginning. But it was one called ECMR, which is actually a very aggressive brain cancer. There are no survivors of this one.

So, he was diagnosed to be terminal at that point. It was the worst news you can get.

Nancy: Oooh, it would be so . . . You just expect them to get better, don’t you? And to receive that, oh, goodness. How did you cope at that time?

Shavona: Well, the only thing we could do was rely on Jesus. We knew that it was not going to be medicine that helped him. The results were showing that the medicine he was on was not helping in any way.

Nancy: So, did they take him off everything?

Shavona: Yes. At that point, it was only making it harder for him to be attached to medicines and ports and all this stuff. So yeah, we took him off everything and went home. They started talking hospice. We just prayed and asked the Lord.

We did a YouTube video, and a Facebook, and all these, just asking other people to pray with us. We had thousands. We thought, “Lord, just be with us. Help heal him.” We just held onto hope. That’s all you can do when you’re going through something like this.

Other people were worried for me, and thinking, “Is she going to make it? Because what if God doesn’t heal her son?” You can’t listen to stuff like that. Even in the midst of it, you must hold onto hope. You can’t walk through life defeated already.

We said, “No matter what Lord, we’re going to praise You, we’re going to still trust You. But we’re asking that You heal our son.”

Nancy: Yes. Amen. I believe that is exactly the attitude you must have. I think our responsibility is to have hope, to have faith, to trust God, right to the very bitter end and beyond. But it’s God’s responsibility, His sovereign will, what He does.

But we can’t go in despair. We have to always live in faith. It’s the only way, isn’t it, to get through. It’s like those three men in the fire. You know, they said, “OK, we believe that God will deliver us. But even if He does not, we will not bow.” Yes, the Lord must have given you strength for that.

Shavona: Definitely. We were constantly in prayer. But sadly, Ethan did pass on June 11^th. It was 11 weeks from finding out that he had cancer.

Nancy: Wow. Was he, could you communicate with him right up to the end?

Shavona: Basically, yes. It happened so fast. Usually, you have months and months of people, when they’re going through cancer, of slowing down on things. But his was literally just a few days. He was communicating. I have pictures of him sitting up on Sunday, drawing his pictures. We had a good time with him. He slept a lot, but he was still, he was not hurting. So, we’re very thankful for that.

But on Thursday, he went to be with Jesus, just a few days later. He just went to sleep.

Nancy: He didn’t wake up.

Shavona: No. He started having seizures.

Nancy: Oh, my. OK, that was the next step. How did the Lord get you through this?

Shavona: Well, after that, I’m not going to lie and say that it was easy to just get back into church and sing Christian music and praise and worship. It was really hard. There was a lot of songs that we had just clung to and were believing for a miracle.

Then it was actually a testing of our faith. Do we believe that God is real? Do we believe that the Bible is real? Satan was attacking us at every angle, saying it’s something we did in our past that caused our child to have cancer. We were like, “No, Jesus talked about that. And that’s not what it is.” But Satan is really good to attack you at every angle.

Nancy: At the most vulnerable time, yes.

Shavona: When you’re weak and having to rely on the Lord, the only thing you can do is renew yourself in His Word. That’s where we were, just clinging on to Jesus and His Word. We renewed ourselves, and we read the Scriptures.

I still say, a year and a few months later, I wake up every morning, and I say, “Lord, please give me strength,” because it still hurts. It’s probably a hurt I’ll have the rest of my life. That’s something people don’t realize, talking to someone who’s lost a child, or even a close family member.

We have those human attachments. We love them. And so, there’s always pain, but we have to walk in strength. We have to renew ourselves and not give up, not let Satan win. That's what he wants to do. He wants to defeat us and kill and destroy. When we realize that it’s not our fight, that it’s Jesus’ fight, and that He wins this fight, it makes it a little easier.

It renews your hope, in knowing that we’re not left without hope. We have heaven. I am going to get to see Ethan again. Our whole family is going to get to see him, and everybody that’s listening that goes to Heaven with us, is going to get to see him. So many of our other loved ones. That’s made possible because Jesus died for us.

It really has strengthened my faith so much more. It’s made me . . . When I was a teenager, I don’t know how many times I rededicated my life or got saved. I’ve got a teen girl, she’s not my daughter, but she’s getting baptized for her third time, and she’s only like 16.

You know, you feel like you’re constantly asking a lot from Jesus, but He gives it freely. Now, looking back, it means so much more now than it ever did when I was a teenager, just going back and forth, to and fro. I mean, the Bible is true. It’s amazing. I’m so thankful that He’s preparing a place for us.

Nancy: Yes, oh yes. It’s lovely to hear how you’re finding each day you still have to come to the Lord for His strength and His comfort. Because it doesn’t suddenly go away, does it? It’s like when you have a loved one taken from you. It’s like it’s ripped out of your very heart. You must grieve. I mean, grieving is very important. You’ve got to go through that grieving time.

I guess people go through it in different ways. Some people want to scream and yell. But you have to go through it. In Bible times, they didn’t grieve for a day. They grieved, they had great mourning times. That grief was never quite taken away, but God, as we grieve . . .

I think there’s two ways you can grieve. One is to grieve in despair, or to grieve as you’ve been talking about, Shavona, to grieve in hope. You see, we can grieve in hope. Yes, we grieve the loss, but we grieve in hope. We allow God to comfort us. You can also go through grieving and let it be pushing God out. Because “OK, I just want to go through all this because I'm still grieving.”

Or we can let God come in and comfort. Yes, and I can see that you’ve done that, because we get back to that morning when all the ladies were there, and saying how they saw the joy of Jesus, and His peace, and His sweetness on your face.

I mean, you are coming out of this trial without the smell of fire upon you. Like when those three men came out of the fire, the Bible says there wasn’t even the smell of fire upon them. I mean, some people come through trials, and wow, the smell is still there. They’re still hurting. Of course, you’re still hurting, but they’re hurting in despair and bitterness.

Or you can still feel that terrible ache, but your hope is strong in Jesus. Yes. And that’s when you come forth without the smell upon you.

What about the children? How did they go through, Shavona?

Shavona: They’re doing a lot better. Here we’re talking about grieving, and the first Scripture we went to was Job. You look at how they grieve in the Bible. They would tear their clothes and wear ashes. I thought, “I remember reading that when I was younger, thinking, wow, that’s a bit extreme.” But then, you don’t realize it until you walk through it. I can totally see how I could end up doing something like that with the grief.

But the children are doing a lot better. They're still really sad some days. There’s just a lot of memories. We do stuff together as a family, and the children will say, “Ethan would like this.” Or “Ethan would like that.” I’m like, “I guess he would.”

We go into Walmart, and my six-year-old goes, “Oh, that’s an outfit that Ethan would like to wear.” I said, “Yes, but he doesn’t need clothes. He’s good in heaven.” We just talk about him like he’s still with us because his spirit is alive.

I had to go to a friend right after Ethan passed, because I knew I was going to need help from somebody who has been through something like this. I have a friend, an older lady, and years ago, she lost six of her children in a car explosion. Her baby was just six weeks old.

I had to go to her, and I was like, “How do I get through this?” I mean, I know what I’m supposed to do. I know I’m supposed to rely on Jesus and the Scriptures, but I’m like, “You’re weak,” and I needed her help.

She told me the one thing that really helped her was to not feel like it’s all on us. Like God is forsaking us, or not to feel self-pity. And I thought, at first, I was like, “How can I not feel self-pity? This is me, and it doesn’t happen to everybody.” But then you look back, and I let that strengthen myself.

I went to Jesus, and I was like, “I can’t put You back up on that cross and keep feeling sorry for myself every single day.” Because that’s kind of what you do, you feel sorry for yourself. But the Scriptures have helped so much, just renewed my faith.

I work with teen girls now, in our church group. I just want to tell them about Jesus. And I'm like, “Satan, you have taken so much from me. And I am going to steal back from you. I am going to help win souls for Jesus.”

And that’s what we’ve got to turn our anger and our grief into, is working for the Lord, and being His disciple. I am on a mission now. If anything, Satan thought he was going to destroy me, and while it hurts, he’s not destroyed me though.

Nancy: Amen! Oh, and that dear friend of yours, she obviously is one who also came through eventually without the smell upon her. Wow, what a . . . Oh, goodness me, how could someone lose six children at once? That’s just beyond it, isn’t it?

But I love your sharing of how Ethan is still part of you all and the children talk about him. That is so healthy. So healthy. I think sometimes it happens in families and they try to not talk about it. But no, it’s so healthy, isn’t it, to talk about him, because he is alive!

He is alive, and you know, bringing little Ethan into the world was never, ever, ever a waste. You brought into the world a precious child that will affect your lives and your children forever. But you brought a child in for eternity, who you go to live with for eternity. It’s an eternal thing. It was a powerful thing. It’s so wonderful your children know he's alive and they’re going to enjoy him forever. Oh, what hope we have in Christ! It’s so amazing, isn’t it?

Shavona: Yeah. An old saying is, “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Looking back, I would do it a hundred times over again. I mean, we do have eternity with him, and he’s there. So, it’s worth it.

Nancy: Amen! And you would never have missed those two beautiful years with this precious little boy. I mean, oh, it’s so added to your life. I loved this beautiful Scripture in 2 Corinthians. I’m sure it was so comforting to you. I love to read it, just because I know so many of you who are listening, you’ve been through similar heartaches and losses. You’re with Shavona as she’s been sharing.

I want to give you this Scripture. We all need to be reminded.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy, and the God of all comfort.” Isn’t that beautiful? He doesn’t only give some comfort, or a little bit of comfort to tide us over. But it’s ALL comfort. I love the Scriptures. ALL COMFORT. Isn’t that amazing?

In fact, I think I should read this. That's King James. I’d love to read it to you from the Passion Translation, because actually, as you read this through, it’s bringing out the true understanding of the Greek words. It says: “All praises belong to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the Father of tender mercy, and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us, to comfort us in every suffering, so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial.”

And I’m reading it from that translation because it’s bringing out that word that is used there for “comfort,” paraklesis, which comes from paraclete, which speaks of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us, to comfort us. It brings that out here. So that He comes alongside us, to comfort us. Isn’t that beautiful?

And it goes on, “We bring them this same comfort that God has brought about on us. And just as we experience the abundance of Christ’s own sufferings, even more of God’s comfort will cascade upon us through our union with Christ. If troubles weigh us down, that just means that we will receive even more comfort, to pass on to you, for your deliverance. For the comfort pouring into us empowers us to bring comfort to you. And with this comfort upholding you, you can endure victoriously the same suffering that we experience. Now our hope for you is unshakeable, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in God’s comforting strength.” Isn’t that amazing?

Now, I want to count how many times the word “comfort” comes in that little passage. So, let’s go here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times God uses this word “comfort.” “His endless comfort,” “the God of all comfort,” and then in verse five, where we are to abound, “abounding in comfort.” And that word, ladies, can you believe it, is that word that I’m always telling you about. It’s perisseuo, that word that means “to be super-abounding, abundant, more than is necessary, above and beyond, to exceed.”

Now here this word comes again. We find it right throughout the New Testament. Here we find it in the context of comfort. God’s comfort is even beyond the normal. It’s abundant. It’s super-abounding. So that is available to us. Sometimes we don’t always receive it. We must open our hearts to receive this comfort. As we open our hearts, He will pour in this comfort that He wants to give us. Then we can comfort others. Like I think that’s what you are doing now, you and Will. You’re comforting so many people.

Shavona: That Scripture is amazing. I’m going to have to hang that on my wall and memorize every word. That’s great. Yes, absolutely. That’s what we’ve been called to do. And that’s what you’ve been doing, Nancy. You’ve helped so many people, and I’m thankful for you in my life. I’m sure everybody listening to this is. It’s amazing that you spend your whole life helping others. That’s great.

Nancy: Yes, but I’m just so blessed as I see you now, pouring out your life for others. You proved God’s comfort, and you proved He’s real, and you’re sharing that with others. Thank you for sharing this beautiful story with us. Let’s pray.

“Father, we thank You that You are faithful. Thank You that You’ve been so faithful to Will and Shavona and their precious children. Thank You that You show forth Your faithfulness each new day.

“Lord God, I think of precious mothers listening, Lord, who’ve been through similar experiences. I pray, Father, that they will also know and experience Your endless. It’s not just for one day, Lord God, because we keep, oh God, sometimes the overwhelmingness and the ache of loss can come over us. But Lord, You come again, because Your comfort is endless. It is abounding.

“We thank You, Father, and I pray that Your comfort will pour out on all those who are aching, Lord, for the loss of loved ones. Bless them and encourage them this day. Lord God, raise them up, Lord, to be comforters of others. I pray 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.

 

FLORIDA FAMILY RETREATS IN 2022 – NEED TO BOOK NOW!

There are two amazing Above Rubies events in the Gulf Coast area in 2022. Go to this website to check out the details and to register: https://aboverubiesgulfcoast.com/

April 2022 Annual Gulf Coast Family Retreat

April 21-24 (Conference Only) or

April 20-27, 2022 (Full Week)

Families have the option of coming for the official conference or you may stay the full week for unofficial and informal hangouts, sharing, prayer and evangelism. We highly recommend coming for the full week as the conference schedule is packed tight with activities (see example schedule). Having a few extra days to relax and enjoy getting to know people is everyone’s favorite part of the week!

Location: https://christiancamp.com/

The 2nd Annual Family Reunion

August 10-17 2022

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 172 –  LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 7

FOOD TWINS. God associates many different things with food in the Bible. Come on in to discover them. We also find that God wants us to set an ordered table. And when we set an ordered table, our children will be more orderly at the table.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, LIFE TO THE FULL with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hi, ladies! We’re on our last point of LIFE TO THE FULL, and we have found out that God also wants us and delights for us to be filled with His good food. That means physically and spiritually.

And now we are talking about a number of points about food, and all things that God associates food with in the Bible. It’s amazing how many. And we started off last week, talking about NO. 1; FOOD AND THE TABLE. We were talking about how God even wants us to sit at the table. He wants us to sit and relax as we enjoy our food together.

GOD WANTS US TO PREPARE A TABLE

Another thing we notice in the Bible about food and the table is even setting the table. Did you know that the Bible even speaks about this? I love the Word of God because it’s so practical.

We read Psalm 23:5: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” A table must be prepared before people can come and eat at that table. Well, I know so many times you can be so busy. Just throw a bit of food on the table. “Come and get it!” But that’s not exactly what the Bible is talking about. It's talking about a real preparing of the table.

Psalm 78:19: “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?”

Proverbs 9:2: “Wisdom hath builded her house . . . She hath also furnished her table.”

Now, that word, “to prepare, or furnish, or set the table” is the Hebrew word arak. It means “to set in a row, to set in order, to set in array.” It’s used 26 times in the Bible about setting the battle in array. So, when an army is going out to fight, all the soldiers are all set in their perfect order, ready to fight.

But it’s also used to set a table. So, we see, dear ladies, that this is a very important thing, too. It’s amazing, the more you prepare your table to make it look inviting and to draw your family to it, you’ll find that the more you will enjoy your meal.

Now last time I was telling you how tables originated in heaven. But where do read about them first in the Bible? The first table that we read about is the TABLE OF SHEWBREAD in the tabernacle. This table was also a type of the heavenly table.

Exodus 40:2-4: “On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle.” Then He told them that the first thing they were to bring into the tabernacle was the Art of the Covenant, and to put it in the Holy of Holies. Then, the next thing they had to do was to fill the Holy Place. The very first piece of furniture they were to bring into the Holy Place was the table of showbread. So, we read: “And thou shalt bring in the table and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it.”

OK. They had to bring in the table, and the Bible tells us that the table was to be placed on the north side of the tabernacle. I think that’s interesting too, because in the Bible, there are quite a number of Scriptures that tell us that God dwells in the north. Well, we don’t know where that is, but it’s somewhere in the north.

God wanted this table of showbread to be placed on the north side, looking towards God’s dwelling. God said that everything that was to be put on that table, there was the showbread. It was called the table of showbread because on this table they had to put 12 loaves of bread. They were called the showbread. In the Hebrew, it’s lechem ha paniym, meaning “bread of faces,” or “presence bread,” the bread that reveals the character and the presence of God.

But there was not only the showbread. They had to put other things on the table that are listed in the Bible. God said they all had to be put in order, just how He wanted it to be put. They weren’t to be put haphazardly on the table, just any old where. No, they were to be set in order.

So, we can learn from this, can’t we, ladies, how it’s even important to set a table, even to put a tablecloth on. Well, some of you may have little ones, and you think, “Oh, goodness me! I haven’t got time for washing tablecloths.” No, of course you haven’t.

But, you know, in that season of your life (because we have lots of seasons in our lives), it you’re in this season of little ones spilling everything on the table every time they come to the table, you can choose a beautiful tablecloth and you can put clear plastic over it. Or you can find some lovely plastic tablecloths with beautiful designs. You can just wipe it down after the meal.

But try and make your table look attractive. Set it nicely with each place setting. As your children get older, you can teach them how to set the table, and how to make it attractive. In fact, your children can have turns. Maybe one child is on for one week, one for the next week. You can encourage them to see how beautiful, and how attractive, and how creative they can make the table. It can be quite a competition between the children as they see how beautiful they can make the table and how they can set it orderly.

I have a little quote that I like to say:

“When you set an ordered table,

your children will be more orderly at the table.”

And this is so true, dear mothers. If we just, OK, here’s the food, just put it out in the table, not even a tablecloth, and everybody sits anywhere and gobbles up their food, they don’t put any importance on the table.

So, they act like that. But when they come to a lovely table, that’s set and prepared and furnished and ordered, wow! They rise to that. They will be more orderly.

YOU ARE PREPARING IN TE PRESENCE OF THE LORD

All right. Now let’s go down in this same chapter to verse 23. We see that Moses obeyed the Lord, and it says in Exodus 40:23: “And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord.” Oh, I love those words. When we read in the King James Bible, “before the Lord,” it literally means, “in the presence of the Lord.”

You see, the bread on the table in the tabernacle was to sit in the presence of the Lord. It would stay there for a week before they would take that bread off. The priests would sit and fellowship and eat it together, and the new bread was put on the table. But it was in the presence of the Lord.

And, dear ladies, I’d love to take you to a higher plane. Don’t think, “Oh, well, just got to set the table,” or tell them, “Go and set the table.” But, no, realize that when you are setting a table, and preparing a table for your family, you are doing it in the presence of the Lord. When you think about that, it will change the way you do it. Remember, you’re setting your table in the presence of the Lord, because you’re going to come and sit at the table together, in the presence of the Lord. Oh, I want you to get a whole new and higher vision about your table. Amen? Yes.

OK. Now talking about the table, the Bible even gets down to every little nitty-gritty thing. It even tells us that we should have set times for eating at the table. Now we go over to Luke 12:42. This was a story that Jesus told, a parable. Luke 12:42: “And the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?”

Many translations will say, “at the proper time,” or “at the specified time.” This word “household” here actually is a Greek word that means “healing.” I love that. It’s another name for our home, a healing home. Our home is a healing home. The table is a place of healing, not only when we minister good, healthy, wholesome food to our children, but we also seek to bring the presence of the Lord to our tables.

It says here, this steward, he makes sure that everyone in this home had their meals at the right time. Now, I think it is good to have specific, specified times for our meals. They don’t have to be on the dot, but around that time, that’s when we will have our meals.

Of course, life is filled with surprises, and things that happen, or something is going to happen, and we want to go here or there. So, there will always be exceptions, but we always need an underlying foundation and order in our home. That lays the foundation for spontaneity to do special things. So, you won’t always be exactly at the same time, but you will have that order.

OK, we have breakfast at this time. We have lunch at this time. We have supper at this time. And it will be different in every home. In our home, I love everyone to have breakfast before our family devotions, which are at 8 o’clock. Lunch, we have roundabout 12, 12:30. And supper is usually roundabout 6:30 or so. But it’s never on the dot. It may be 6, it might be 7, it might be whatever, but it’s roundabout that time.

Because then, the family knows, OK, when we’re going to eat. This is even brought out in this Scripture. There is a Scripture for everything! I remember talking to a young person one time. They were in our home and she was sharing. “Oh, you know,” she said, “In our home, we don’t even know when we’re going to have our evening meal, because my mother gets onto projects. She’s busy on them, and we may think, oh, goodness me! We need to eat! About 8 o’clock, sometimes 9 o’clock, we’ll think about the meal.”

I said, “How on earth do you live that way? When you don’t even know when you’re going to eat?” There’s something so good about, OK, having set times. So, you do that as much as possible.

Now let’s go on to the next point.

NO. 2. FOOD AND ABUNDANCE

I have so many Scriptures here of how God wants to give food to us abundantly.

NO. 3. FOOD AND FULLNESS

 Most of the Scriptures under this point use the word “satisfied.” God loves to satisfy us. That means “filled to satisfaction, to satiate.” Let’s look at just two or three Scriptures. I have so many listed here.

Let’s go to Nehemiah. It tells us here Nehemiah is giving the history of all the goodness of God to his people. Nehemiah 9:25: “And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled (that’s the word, filled to satisfaction) and became fat and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.”

Let’s go over to Job 36:16: “That which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.” The New Living Translation says: “He is setting your table with the best food.”

Let’s go to Psalm 37:19: “They shall not be ashamed in the evil times: and in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied.” Wow, that’s a wonderful promise, isn’t it? Not only in good times, but even in times of famine. “They shall be satisfied.”  

NO. 4. FOOD AND LEFTOVERS

Once again, ladies, the Bible even talks about having leftovers! Did you know that? There’s not one thing the Bible misses out about. We can go to the story in 2 Kings 4:42-44. This is a story in the life of Elisha. Elisha performed so many miracles, even more than Elijah! Well, he was given a double portion, wasn’t he?

Reading from the New American Standard Bible, let me read you this story. 2 Kings 4:42-44: “Now a man came from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God (that was Elisha the prophet) bread of the firstfruits, 20 loaves of barley, and fresh grain in his sack. And Elisha said to all the servants, give them to the people, that they may eat. But his attendant said, how am I to serve this to 100 men? Nevertheless, Elisha said, give them to the people that they may eat, for this is what the Lord says. They shall eat and have some left over. So, he served it to them, and they ate, and they had some left over in accordance with the word of the Lord.”

Isn’t that amazing? Even at a time of famine, God was looking after His prophets. There were 100 prophets in this particular place. This man was touched of the Lord to bring food to them. When God brought this food, He told Elisha that there would not only be enough for them all to eat, but there would be leftovers. God goes beyond the normal. God always does this. He loves leftovers.

Now the word here, the word “leftover” is yathar, and it means, “to jut over, to exceed, to excel, to remain and be left, cause to abound, too much, plenteous.” That’s a beautiful story of leftovers.

Then we go over to the New Testament. We read about the feeding of the 5,000. You all know this story, how Jesus fed all these men, and most probably there were women and children too. He not only fed them, but they took up 12 basketfuls of food left over! Isn’t that amazing? Yes.

In one of the gospels it says, “over and above what they wanted to eat.” That word, “over and above,” is that word I often talk to you about, perisseuo, which means “super-abounding, excess, exceed, more than is necessary, over and above.” The actual words “over and above” are used in the King James Bible about what was left over.

So, ladies, it’s a good idea, when you’re cooking, to cook plenty and have some left over. I like having leftovers for lunch the next day. You don’t then have to think of, “What are we going to cook for lunch?” It’s great to have leftovers. They always taste better the next day, don’t they?

I know a lot of you like to cook extra so you have your meal, and then you can just freeze a leftover, which is enough for another meal. So, always great to have more than enough. You never know when someone is coming, and you’ve got to get out an extra plate to feed someone who came to your home unexpectedly. Never be stingy in preparing and cooking your food. Always cook plenty, over and above.

If you’ve got more, you never, ever, ever waste. Oh, I hate waste, don’t you? I mean, God hates waste, too. That’s why he told them to go around and pick up all the food that was left over. It wasn’t to be thrown out. It was to be used for those others who would need food. There were so many poor in Israel. So, we cook more so we can have for leftovers for another meal, or even freeze for another meal. But we don’t waste.

We teach our children not to waste. In fact, if you put dishes on your table, sometimes, when the children are little, you just serve the food onto their plates. As they get older, often you’ll go to putting the dishes on the table and they can serve themselves. But we teach them to only take what they will eat. They’re so welcome to come back for seconds, but they must eat what is on their plates.

I hate to see people take food. Their eyes are bigger than their stomach. And then they leave it! I want to cry! That’s good, good food! I hate to see it wasted. I think we should teach our children not to waste. Only take what they know they’re going to eat. But, of course, they can come back for seconds.

So, we have that, on one hand, we don’t waste. But on the other hand, we cook plenty for leftovers. Amen? Because it’s all biblical! Isn’t that fun?

NO. 5. FOOD AND COOKING

Yes, so many stories of food and cooking in the Bible. Oh, wow! Even Jesus cooking! How about that, ladies? Even Jesus cooking? Did you know that? Yes, let’s look at that one, shall we? We won’t have time to look at them all, but let’s look at that one.

By the way, I have lots of Scriptures listed under all of these points. If you really want to truly look them all up in the Bible, you’re welcome to email me, and I will send them to you. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

After Jesus had risen from the dead, He wanted to feed His disciples. He went down to Galilee. He knew that’s where they’d be, out fishing. That’s where they were, out on the lake. They’d been toiling all night fishing. The Bible says that Jesus made a little fire of coals on the shore. He gathered the coals and the wood and made this little fire. Then He began to cook. He cooked some fish. He cooked some bread. He prepared breakfast for His disciples.

Ladies, are you getting this? This was Jesus cooking. The One who had just risen from the dead, conquered death and hell, and what is He doing? He’s cooking. And sometimes you think cooking is a bit, “Oh, what do I have to cook for? What’s the purpose of that? I’ve got better things to do!” 

No! One of the first things Jesus did after rising from the dead was to cook a meal! And when His disciples came in, He called them, and He said, “Come! Come and dine!” He called them to breakfast and He had it ready for them. You see, Jesus had some things to say to His disciples. He had very important things to share with them. He had a very important word for Peter that He wanted to share with him. You can read all about it in John 21. But He prepared a meal for them first.

You see, God loves to speak into our hearts, but often He has to fill our physical bodies first. That’s why it’s wonderful to have family devotions at the table. Because we fill the physical body and many people don’t feel so agitated. No, they feel relaxed. When we eat, we release oxytocin, and we feel calmed and relaxed. We’re ready to hear from God. So that’s why Jesus cooked a meal for His disciples.

We read over in 1 Timothy 5:10, how cooking is part of mothering. Oh, yes!

NO. 6. FOOD AND HEALING

We read in Matthew 24:45 how God calls the household a healing home.

NO. 7. FOOD AND COMFORT

NO. 8. FOOD AND CELEBRATION

Whoo, I’ve got loads of celebrations listed here. You’ll be able to look them all up if you get hold of these Scriptures if you email me.

NO. 9. FOOD AND FELLOWSHIP

Yes, that’s what food is all about. We’re not meant to eat food on our own. I think that’s why God says He sets the solitary in families, not only because every person is meant to live in a family, never isolated, never on their own. No, we’re meant to live as families. God intends us to live with social interaction together.

Also, eating together, fellowshipping together, because when we eat, we gather round the table, and we are face to face. Yes, eating is actually FACE TO FACE TABLE FELLOWSHIP. Dear ladies, can I encourage you? Don’t get into the habit of, you’re out, you’ve been out somewhere. Try and get home at the appropriate time to prepare a meal for your family.

Many times, you get out, you’ve maybe taken your children to sports or something like that. It’s getting late. “Oh, how will we have time to cook the meal?” So, you grab some fast food, and the children just eat it in the car, and they’re looking at the neck or the head of someone in front of them. That is not how we are meant to eat! We are meant to eat face to face! Looking at one another, talking to one another.

Yes, in 2 John, the apostle John is writing to the elect lady. 2 John 1:12: “I trust to come unto you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.” Oh, there’s such joy in fellowshipping face to face.

And then in 3 John, the apostle John was writing to Gaius. John 3 1:14: “I want to come to you to speak face to face.” That means they would gather to eat. That is the greatest way to communicate with people, around food, sitting around a table, fellowshipping. That is very, very much part of eating and of food.

NO. 10. FOOD AND GLADNESS AND JOY AND REJOICING

Yes, when we eat, we’re meant to eat our food with gladness and singleness of heart. It tells us in Act 2:46 to have joy and rejoicing. I’ve got lots of Scriptures about that for you to look up.

NO. 11. FOOD AND GOOD CHEER

NO. 12. FOOD AND GOOD THINGS

NO. 13. FOOD AND LAUGHTER

Ecclesiastes 10:19: “A feast is made for laughter.”

NO. 14. FOOD AND LEISURE

 Oh, let me take you to this one. Jesus had been with His disciples, feeding the 5,000, and healing people. Mark 6:31: “Jesus said unto them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”

Now, isn’t that interesting? They didn’t even have any place where they could sit down and relax for a little bit and take time to eat. So, Jesus said, “Come on, disciples. Come on. We’re going to get away out here, away from everybody, where we can sit and eat together.”

You see, Jesus understood that you don’t eat on the run. You don’t, “OK, let’s just grab a bit of bread and we’ll keep going to the next place. Keep on, come, on, just eat as we go!” No, Jesus says, “Let’s get away from the coming and going. Let’s have a little bit of leisure as we eat.”

Did you know that’s meant to be part of eating? You don’t keep working as you eat. Oh, I know, I’m tempted all the time. We can be so tempted! Oh, yes, there’s so much to do! And so, we just keep eating, keep working. No, we’re meant to STOP. Stop your busyness, even for just a little bit. Sit down, have a little leisure, and eat. OK? That’s what you’re meant to do. Jesus shows us the way.

NO. 15. FOOD AND MERRIMENT

NO. 16. FOOD AND STRENGTH

NO. 17. FOOD AND RAISING CHILDREN

You’ll have to get all these Scriptures, because I'm going to try and finish them all in this session.

NO. 18. FOOD AND TEACHING

Jesus used the supper table for most of His teaching. He loved to talk and teach at the meal table.

NO. 19. FOOD AND HOSPITALITY

 Oh, once again, so many Scriptures here! Dear precious ladies, did you know that hospitality is not an option? No. Hospitality is the LIFESTYLE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

It was the LIFESTYLE OF THE EARLY CHURCJH. They met together, not once a month, or not once a week. No, they met together daily in their homes, to break bread and fellowship together. They opened their homes to one another. And as they met daily and fellowshipped, the Bible says the Lord added daily to the church such as should be saved (Acts 2:47).

Hospitality is a doctrine of the Word of God that starts in Genesis and weaves its way right through to Revelation. OK. Maybe we’ve got time for just one Scripture.

Romans 12:13: here it tells us to be “given to hospitality.”

Now, that word in the Greek is dioko. It means “to pursue, to run after, to follow after.” It even means “to persecute.” Dioko is translated 32 times “to persecute.” We even must be so going after hospitality that we just about persecute people with our love, and kindness, and wanting to have them in our homes, sitting them around our tables.

The Passion Translation says: “Eagerly welcome people into your home.” Oh, hospitality is such a glorious thing. I think it’s been one of the greatest blessings of our lives, to have people sit around our table, to fellowship with them, to enjoy their company, and to bless them, and to minister to them. Oh, my, it’s a powerful, powerful ministry.

It’s not thinking "Oh well, you know, those people, they’ve got a real ministry of hospitality. But that’s not my thing” No. God’s mandate for hospitality is to all the same. We are all to follow after hospitality. We are all to open up our homes, because that’s the lifestyle of the kingdom of God.

NO. 20. FOOD AND WORK

We all know the Scriptures that give us the mandate that “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.” (1 Thessalonians 3:10) We work hard to grow our food, and prepare our food, and cook our food so we can eat. So, food and work are also twins.

NO. 21. FOOD AND PROVISION

God will always provide for His people. What did David say? “I have been young, and now I am old, but I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25)

NO. 22. FOOD AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD

I’ve got to just tell you this one. Let me to Exodus 18:12: “And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.” Now those words, “before God” mean “in the presence of God.” They came together to eat in the presence of God.

We go over to Exodus 24. This time, it’s when Moses and Aaron and Nahab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel went up the mount, not to the top of the mount where Moses went. But they went a certain way.

Exodus 24:10: “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.”

They saw God, but they didn’t see the face of God, for the Bible also says that if anyone sees the face of God, they cannot even live. But they saw something of God. We notice here it says: “And as it were.” It was like sapphire stone. It was like the body of heaven in its clearness. It was under His feet. They only just saw His feet, but, oh, the power of His presence! They knew they were in the presence of God.

And it goes on: “And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not His hand: they saw God and did eat and drink.” I think that is one of the most incredible Scriptures in the whole of the Bible. They saw God. They felt, and experienced, and glimpsed the presence of God. And they did eat and drink.

God wants us to eat and drink at our tables in the presence of God.

He loves to come and be with us and bring His presence at our meal tables.

NO. 23. FOOD AND PAYER AND PRAISE

Because the disciples loved to meet, and pray, and praise God at their tables.

NO. 24. FOOD AND PROPHECY

 1 Kings 13:19-20: “As they sat at the table, the Word of the Lord came.” There’s something about sitting at the table, where healing happens, prophecy happens, teaching happens, blessing happens, fellowship happens. Oh, all these glorious things happen at the table! Amen? Let’s pray.

“Lord God, we are so blessed by Your Word, filled with the way You want us to live, talking to us about all the little nitty-gritties of life. The hows, and the whys, and the wherefores, and how You want us to do it.

Lord, You’ve shown us everything in Your Word. Help us to take notice of it all, and to walk in the experience of it. Lord, I pray for each precious person listening today, that You will bring them to a higher plane, that You will help them to see the table as You see it.

Lord, You love the table. You designed the table, the gathering of people around it, around food, to fellowship together, to encourage one another, and bless one another, and pray for one another, and delight in You, and all the good things You give to us. Lord God, help us to elevate our tables to the place where You want them in our homes. We ask it 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.

If you would like to look up all the Scriptures to meditate upon them from each of the 24 points, here is the link:

https://tinyurl.com/FoodTwins

No. 21. FOOD AND PROVISION.

If you would like to read more Scriptures of how God provides for us, here is the link:

http://tinyurl.com/CanGodProvideforBaby

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 171 –  LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 6

God also loves to fill us with good food. We talk about the table in this session. Do you know where tables originate? You'll be surprised to find out. We also talk about how God wants us to sit at our tables rather than eat food "on the run."

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, LIFE TO THE FULL, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Back together again! We’re still on the same series, “LIFE TO THE FULL, Part Six.” This is podcast #171. I finished last time saying that God wants us to be filled with His glory.  I want to give you the correct reference. It’s 1 Peter 1:8: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and FULL OF GLORY.”

A few more Scriptures for you about glory.

2 Thessalonians 2:14: “Whereunto He called you by our gospel to be OBRAINING OF THE GLORY of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Isn’t it amazing? We’re being called to obtain glory. Wow! We need to live in glory. We do live so sub-zero, don’t we, when God wants us to live in His glory.

When He comes into our lives, we invite Him to come in, He comes by His Spirit. When He comes, He comes in the fullness of His Spirit, and He is glory. He is the Lord of Glory; He dwells within us. So, not only are we to live in glory here, and of course, we’re going to live in the real glory, the glory that we cannot even fathom in the eternal world, but let’s not wait till then, dear ladies. God wants us to experience and live in His glory now. He wants us to be filled with it.

I’d love to take you to 2 Corinthians 3. This is the glory chapter of the Bible. Did you know that the word “glory” or “glorious” is used 14 times in this chapter? It’s the most times that “glory” is used in a chapter in the Bible. So, we’d better have a look at it, don’t you think?

Let me read just a few of the verses. You can take time to read them when you’re on your own, in your own personal reading of the Word.

 So, 2 Corinthians 3:7 (Passion Translation): “Even the ministry that was characterized by chiseled letters on stone tablets came with a dazzling measure of glory.” We know that, don’t we? When God gave the Ten Commandments up there on Mt. Sinai, wow, it came with great glory and great mighty thunderings. The power of God was so evident that all the children of Israel were totally in awe and fear. They were actually scared because of the glory of God upon that mount.

But it goes on to say: “Yet HOW MUCH MORE RADIANT is this new and glorious ministry of the Spirit that shines from us! For if the former ministry of condemnation was ushered in with a measure of glory, HOW MUCH MORE does the ministry that imparts righteousness FAR EXCEL IN GLORY.” This is the ministry that we now have: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Let’s continue reading: “What once was glorious no longer holds any glory because of the INCREASINGLY GREATER GLORY that has replaced it. The fading ministry came with a portion of glory, but now we embrace the unfading ministry of a permanent impartation of glory.” Whoo! Amazing!

Verse 12: “So then, with this amazing hope living in us, we step out into freedom and boldness to speak truth.” Yes, because we are filled with glory. Every day we wake up, what do we do? We wake up with freedom, with boldness to speak and to shine. Yes, to shine forth.

And then, of course, I love verse 18: “We can all draw close to Him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who BRIGHTLY REFLECT THE GLORY OF THE LORD JESUS. We are being transfigured into His very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Oh, it’s so hard to take that all in, isn’t it? It’s amazing! Yes, verse 18 in the King James: “But we all,” I love the way it starts “We all.”  It’s not only me personally. Our faith is a mutual faith. We’re walking together. We’re walking this road to the eternal kingdom together. And we will be stronger as we do it together. We will shine more brightly as we do it together because we encourage one another. We spur one another on. We invigorate one another. We help one another. That's how God intends it to be.

So, He says: “We all,” all of us, “we all,” with open face, “with unveiled faces, behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into His image, FROM GLORY TO GLORY, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Yes, well, let’s have a look, shall we, at just one or two Scriptures here. I was reading to you from the Passion Translation but let me get back to my good old King James Bible here. We’re going to go to 2 Corinthians 3, the glory chapter.

2 Corinthians 3:9: “If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness EXCEED IN GLORY.”

Now, the word “exceed” in the Greek is the word perisseuo. This word, dear ladies, if you listen to my podcasts, I’m often giving you this word. Why? Because we read it so many times in the New Testament. It’s one of the reasons why I changed the name of my podcast to LIFE TO THE FULL. Because this is a New Testament word that is part of our Christian walk. Here it’s saying that this glory that we have now, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our lives, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” it exceeds far, far beyond that glory that came with the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai.

It exceeds, and this is the word, “exceed.” Let me give you a full understanding of that Greek word. It means “to super-abound, to be in excess, to excel, to abound, nothing to spare, over and above.” You see, it’s above the normal. It is not average, it’s not normal.

GOD DOES NOT INTEND US TO LIVE ORDINARY LIVES

 Dear, darling ladies, dear young people who are listening, little children who are listening, God does not intend us to live a normal life like everybody else around us. How can we live a normal life when Christ, the Lord of glory, dwells in us? It's a super-abounding life. It’s a life that exceeds the normal.

We’ve got to change our thinking, dear mothers. Our thinking is all wrong. Our thinking is sub-zero. Our thinking has been influenced by the enemy who does not know, he does not want us to know who we are in Christ! Yes, we are to live in glory.

Now, we go to verse 10: “For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that EXCELLETH.” Here’s another word. Let’s find out what this one is. The Greek word here is huperballo. And what does it mean? It means, “to throw beyond the usual mark, to surpass, exceeding.”

So, dear ladies, once again, different Greek words, but very similar meanings. It means “to go beyond the usual mark.” Once again, we can’t live ordinary lives. Are you living an ordinary life in your home? Dear mother, you don’t have to live an ordinary life. That’s sub-zero, ladies.

Jesus Christ dwells in you. When He comes into your life by His Spirit, He comes with all His fullness. He comes with His life, His joy, His peace, His patience, His longsuffering, His rest, His glory. It’s all in you! You, in your homes, changing diapers, just trying to survive all your little ones around you, trying to get through your day, cooking the meals, and managing your home, you can DO IT IN GLORY!

You can do it at sub-zero levels if you want to. Or you can do it in glory! Living the glory life. That’s what God intends you to do. You see, sometimes you’re, “Oh, goodness me, if only I could be out doing what I want to do, just fulfilling all my amazing gifts.”

Oh, it doesn’t depend on where you are, or what you’re doing. It depends on what you believe and how you are living. Because, no matter what your circumstances, you can live sub-zero. Even if your circumstances are just normal, and you’re just doing the daily grind of duty, you can still live the glory life!

Drudgery turns to delight. We can turn every mundane thing into miraculous glory when we realize what God has for us, His life, which He wants to live through us. So, dear ladies, can you come up to the glory living?

Yes, and what does it say, we were reading in the Passion Translation: “How much more radiant is this new and glorious ministry of the Spirit that shines from us?” Shines from us.

So, you wake up in the morning to shine to your husband. Yes, you’re not going to get up with your “poor me, oh, not another day,” and grouchy face. No! You’re going to shine with love to your husband.

You’re going to get up and face your children with joy. “Good morning, children! What a wonderful day we’ll have together!” Shine His glory. If you’re going out to the supermarket, going out somewhere, wherever you have to go, you’re going with a shining face, to reveal His glory.

MASKS HIDE THE GLORY OF GOD SO GOD’S PEOPLE DON’T WEAR THEM

That's why we don’t wear masks. We don’t cover the glory of God. That’s what this chapter is the “glory chapter.” At the beginning of the chapter, it says that we are His epistles, “known and read of all men.” We go out to reveal Jesus, to reveal His glory.

And how do people read us? They read us by our faces. The expression on our faces, whether we have got this sour, boring face, or whether we have a smile on our face and we’re shining with the glory of Jesus who dwells within us. So, we do not ever cover our face, because that comes from the pit of hell. Satan wants to cover faces because he wants to cover the glory of God. God created us with an open face to reveal His glory.

So, dear mothers, we want you to be filled with glory, right there, in your home. If you’re filled with glory in your home, then you’ll take that glory as you go out of your home. Amen? Can you say “Amen” with me?  Oh, I hope you will do that. Come on now, say, “Amen!” Yes.

AFFIRM TRUTH WITH YOUR MOUTH

We acknowledge it. We must always acknowledge the truth. It’s not just an affirmation in the head. We have to affirm it with our mouths.

That’s how we were saved. Romans 10:8-9: If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, “Thou shalt be saved. . . With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

That’s how we were saved which is how we continue our Christian walk. In every way, we believe, we read the Word of God, we see the truth, we affirm it. We can nod our heads, sort of nodding, “Yes, I believe that, that’s amazing.”

But we need to affirm it also verbally, “Thank You, Lord Jesus. Oh, thank You for Your truth. Thank You that You dwell within me. Thank You that You are the Lord of Glory, and You dwell in my life. Lord, I can hardly take it in, but I thank You. I thank You for this truth.

Oh, Lord God, I want to reveal Your glory to my family. I want to reveal Your glory as I go out into this world. Lord God, Oh Father, I thank You for Your truth. I thank You for Your glory that is in me. I thank You for all the glorious things that You have given to me—Your wisdom, Your righteousness, Your peace, Your holiness, Your patience, Your longsuffering.

Oh, Lord God, I thank You it is all in me, not because I have any of it in myself, but because it is Your life, and You dwell within me. So, I confess it, and I thank You. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Yes, so, you not only believe with your head, you affirm in your heart, but you affirm with your mouth. Amen?

No. 20. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH GOOD FOOD

All right. Let’s go on to the last one, number 20. This one, ladies, is a very, very practical one, because our God is a practical God. Not only does He want us to be filled with all the fruits of righteousness and all that He is, but He also. . . Do you know what? Yes, He also wants us to be filled with good food! Yes! Isn’t that amazing?

Oh, there are so many Scriptures about God wanting us to be filled with food because God is the One Who provides our food. He doesn’t want us to barely get along. He wants us to be filled with the good food that He has given to us.

Deuteronomy 11:14-15: “I will give you the rain of your land in his due season.” Talking about the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey. “That thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. . . That thou mayest EAT AND BE FULL.” Yes. God talks so much about food in His Word, and so much about eating, and so much about being filled. He wants us to be filled with spiritual blessings, and He wants us to be filled with the physical blessings of food.

Well, I have so much here. I won’t even have time to give it to you all in this podcast. But I did a study a while back, and I called it, “FOOD TWINS.” I found 24 different things that God associates with food in the Bible. The Bible gets down to the nitty-gritty of our lives. It talks about the very things that we face every day in our homes. So let me begin to give them to you. Let’s see how we go.

No. 1 FOOD AND THE TABLE

Food is associated with the table. Why? Because God wants us to eat our food at the table. Well, pretty obvious, but God talks about it in His Word, because He wants us to make sure this is where He loves us to eat. At the table.

We see a picture of this in Psalm 128:3. This whole Psalm is a family psalm. In verse three, it gives the picture of the wife in the home. “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine, living in your home. Your children like olive plants, all around your table.” The picture that God paints of a family that’s blessed of the Lord is a picture of the father, and the mother, and the children, ALL AROUND THE TABLE. God loves tables! Did you know that?

Now, maybe you’ve just got an old rickety table in your home. Or maybe it’s a beautiful, amazing table. It doesn’t matter what kind of a table. God loves your table, because it’s not actually the table, it’s what happens at the table. The table is a gathering place. It’s where we gather our family together. It’s where we bring them around, so we can be together, and look at one another, face to face.

You see, the whole point of the table is to feed our family—body, soul, and spirit. We feed the whole man. It’s a place to fellowship, to eat food, yes, fill our hungry tummies. But to fellowship, and to feed the soul, then to feed the spirit. Before we leave the table, we will open the Word of God and feed from His food, His food that He gives us in His Word.

If we let our children leave the table before we give them spiritual food, they are leaving half-fed. So, we’re feeding the whole man. It’s face to face, table fellowship, looking at one another, interacting with one another, fellowshipping with one another.

I wonder if you know where tables originate. Do you know? Can I tell you?

Tables originate in Heaven!

Did you know that? God thought of tables before we ever, ever had them on earth. In fact, when Jesus was here on earth, talking with His disciples, He said to them: “I want you to come and sit with Me, and eat with Me at My table in My kingdom.” He said that to them more than once (Matthew 8:11 and Luke 22:30).

He talks about “My table in My kingdom.” You see, God had tables before we ever thought of them, because God loves the table that bring people to sit around, to sit around, and fellowship.

Now, a table can even mean a mat on the floor. In some passages of the Word of God, they met, and they sat around a mat with the food in the middle. It was the gathering around. That is the table.

Oh, I have so many Scriptures about it. In fact, dear ladies, in this little study on FOOD TWINS, I have so many Scriptures for every point. I won’t have time to give them to you all. But if you would really love them, you would love to look them up and really find out what God says about food, you can email me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I will be so happy to send them to you.

Now, God not only wants us to draw our families to the table, but did you know that He wants us to actually SIT at the table. Of course, if you’re going to gather round, you do have to sit. But many times today we have to remind people to sit at the table.

We live in this fast-paced world, and so many people today, they eat on the run! In fact, I think the majority of people today eat on the run. They eat breakfast on the run. They eat lunch on the run. But God wants us to SIT. Yes, when you have breakfast, when you have lunch, when you have supper, He wants you to sit at the table.

There’s something about sitting. It’s a beautiful Hebrew word, yashab. It means “to sit, to remain, to enjoy, to be at home.” Even scientists have proved that you get so much more nutrients from your food when you sit, and take time to eat, and fellowship, and talk. Your food will do so much more for you than eating on the run. Sometimes you hardly know that you’ve even eaten.

Let me take you to 1 Samuel. We’ll see a few little examples. There are many examples in the Word of God about sitting at the table. Did you know about that? Yes, there are. We go to 1 Samuel 20.

This is the story of when David is now living in the palace with King Saul. The trouble is that King Saul is getting very jealous of David. Remember when the women would go out in the streets and say, “Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.” He was getting angry and jealous with David.

So, David and Jonathan, they were such best friends. One day they went out into the woods, and David said, “Look, what are we going to do about this? I mean, I can’t stay here. Any night he can just throw his javelin at me, he gets so mad and crazy.” So, they thought up a plan. And they said, “OK. I won’t go to supper tomorrow night, and we’ll see what happens.”

Jonathan said to David in 1 Samuel 20:18: “Tomorrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed because thy seat will be empty.” Obviously, Saul had everyone, all his most important people, sitting at his table, and everyone had their particular seat.

So, when it came to the next night in 1 Samuel 20:24: “So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat food. And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times.” That means that’s where he sat. They all sat in the same place, every time. “Even upon a seat by the wall: and Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, and David’s place was empty.” Oh my. OK.

But Saul didn’t worry too much that first night, because he thought, “Oh, maybe something just happened to him.” But the next night, wow. David’s place was empty again. And then King Saul got really mad and realized that David had escaped. So, it was after that that David and Jonathan met again. David realized that “Yes, King Saul’s too angry. I’ve got to clear out of this place.”

But do you notice, just in this story, we see an example of how they sat. And they all sat at their same place every night. Actually, I think that is a very good thing too.

I had one mother who came to me once. She said, “Oh, my children, they can just sit anywhere they want at the table.” But she said, “It gets bedlam, because this one is wanting to sit in this seat, and the other one wants to sit in this seat, and they’re all arguing and fighting.”

I said to her, “Well, look, the Bible talks about having a seat for each person. Why don’t you try that? It takes away all the arguments, and people know exactly where they’re going to sit. Of course, you don’t have to keep those assigned seats the same forever. Maybe after a couple of months, you could change it around. Johnny gets to sit next to Daddy this time, and Mary gets to sit by this one, and so on. They can have a different turn. But for that amount of time, they have their assigned seats because that really helps.”

And then we go to the New Testament, shall we? We see the example of when Jesus is feeding the 5,000, and another time, the 4,000. Actually, this story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 is in every gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let’s read from Mark 6:39: “Jesus COMMANDED them to MAKE ALL SIT DOWN by companies upon the green grass.”

Isn’t that interesting? In every single gospel, it tells us that Jesus MADE THEM SIT DOWN. Interesting, because I am sure that you have to face that challenge in your home. Do you have to MAKE your children sit down? How many times during a meal do you have to make them sit down?

Actually, the table is a great training place. We are teaching your children to sit at the meal. It is a training and it’s not easy. You’ll have lots of times when bedlam . . . Goodness me, I had many bedlam times at my meal table. But you keep training. You keep on because you will reap the rewards. Therefore, try and get your children to sit, OK?

I’ve got lots of Scriptures about that, too. But once again, time is gone, and I didn’t believe I’d be doing another podcast on this subject, but we’d better finish it next session, OK? So, let’s pray.

“Lord God, we thank You so much for Your lovely Word. Lord, it’s so down to earth, it’s so real. It gets to the nitty-gritty. Thank You that You talk to us about eating, and how You want us to eat, and how You want us to sit at our tables. Lord, You have planned this. It’s all in Your Word, and this is what brings blessing and order to the home. So, help us, Lord, to do things Your way. We ask it 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.

I have shared a lot about GLORY in this podcast. But dear ladies, there is just so much about LIVING IN GLORY in the Bible. It is full of it.  I have previously shared two series about GLORY and I still haven’t exhausted this subject. I’d love you to catch up with the other podcasts:

THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD, Parts 1 – 10 (Nos. 68 – 77).

LET’S GET BACK THE GLORY, Parts 1 – 6 (Nos. 159 – 164).

Be blessed!

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 170 –  LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 5

More about the FILLED life. Filled with His presence, filled with His praises, filled with His goodness, and filled with His glory. God wants His Holy Spirit to shine from us. How can we do this?

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, LIFE TO THE FULL, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! We’re back together again. And I’m still continuing our series, “LIE TO THE FULL.” Also, I have renamed our podcast LIFE TO THE FULL, because that’s what it’s all about. I love to share with you from God’s Word how He wants us to live.

As we discover and read through the Word of God, we find that it is LIFE TO THE FULL. At the moment, we’re discovering all the different things which God tells us with which He wants us to be filled! He doesn’t want us to be half-filled. He wants us to be filled! And, FILLED TO OVERFLOWING.

Today, I want you to come with me to John 12:3. Here we read the beautiful story of Jesus coming to stay with Lazarus, and Martha, and Mary. Then it says: “Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.”

It must have been a beautiful aroma to inhale and smell this aroma that was filling the house. It wasn’t just a little whiff. You know how you can pass someone, and you get a little whiff of their perfume? No, this wasn’t a little whiff. This was a fullness. The house was FILLED with it, the odor of this ointment that came from her worship and her love for Jesus.

This is how we fill our lives and fill our homes with a beautiful perfume and a beautiful odor. It’s with our love and worship for the Lord. This is a beautiful thing for our own personal lives and for everyone in our homes. So, let’s be encouraged, lovely ladies, to always have a heart of worship, a heart of thankfulness, a heart of prayer.

We go back to the Old Testament in Exodus, chapter 30. It tells us there about how God told them to build the altar of incense in the Holy Place. It was a place where they took fire from off the altar and then they burned the incense on it. So it filled the Holy Place with this beautiful aroma. It was a sweet incense. It was made with beautiful, sweet spices.

It tells us about that in Exodus 30:34: “And the Lord said unto Moses, take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight.” Then they were to grind it, and grind it, and temper it, to make it very, very refined. It was to be this pure and holy and sweet incense.

God told them that they were to light that incense every day. In fact, not only every day, but every morning and every evening. Because when they lit it in the morning, this beautiful, sweet aroma filled the place. God loves to smell. The Bible talks about even the sacrifices went up to Him as a “sweet-smelling savor. “

Isn’t it beautiful how the things we do in life, like even smelling, how we love to smell a beautiful fragrance! Isn’t it lovely? Or, the opposite, to smell something that is horrible, or it’s off, or putrid. Oh, goodness me, you can’t stand it!

It's so glorious to smell something beautiful. God loves it. He just wanted the sweet incense wafting and filling the Holy Place all day long. But as the day wore on, it would begin to fade. So once again, they had to come in the evening and light it again, so it was always there. In the Bible, this altar of incense always speaks of prayer and worship unto the Lord.

We go over to Revelation. We were talking about something back in Exodus, but then we go over to Revelation, at the very end of the Bible. We read about it throughout the Word, but let’s go to the very end and see that the Bible is still talking about this altar of incense.

John, on the Isle of Patmos, was banished there for his faith. But on that island, that little Greek island, God came to him and showed him so many visions, and what was going to happen in the end times. John saw a vision of Heaven, of the Holy Place in Heaven. Because back in Exodus, where it talks about the tabernacle, that was created and built and made in the same way as the heavenly. It was built according to the pattern of the heavenly (Hebrews 8:6).

And then, all those years later, John looks into the heavenly realm. He sees it! There’s the altar of incense! It’s still there! Isn’t that amazing? And you know what, ladies, it’s still there now. It’s still in the eternal realm.

Revelation 5:8: “When he had taken the book (that was the Lamb’s, slain from the foundation of the world), the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials FULL OF INCENSE (and it goes on to say) which are the PRAYERS OF SAINTS.”

You see, our incense, that beautiful perfume that goes up to God is our heart of worship, our heart of prayer that is going on continually throughout the day (but it was specific times to light that incense, the morning and the evening).

And then we go over to Revelation 8:2-3. John is looking into this heavenly realm again: “And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar of incense.” Wow! We read about it in Exodus. John is still seeing it now in the heavenly realm, here in Revelation.

“And there was given unto him MUCH INCENSE, that he should offer it with the PRAYERS OF ALL SAINTS upon the golden altar which is before the throne.” You see, ladies, the altar of incense was the altar that’s right before you went into the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt in His shekinah glory. And the heavenly realm, the altar of incense is right before the throne of God.

And now, we are so blessed. We can come, not with a veil between us. But we come, with open face, with an opening, the veil torn apart, into the presence of God’s throne, the throne-room of God to bring our prayers, to bring our worship before Him.

It’s like incense! Yes! So, precious, lovely ladies, if you want your life to be filled with this beautiful odor, this sweet incense, remember worship and prayer create this incense. Dear worshiping mother, be a praying mother. Try and make these times in your home, where every morning and every evening you light the incense, where you gather your whole family together. You pray together.

Is praying part of your home? Is it just natural in your home? Natural to you, natural to your children? As you come together each day, make sure everyone prays, right down to the littlest one who’s just learning to talk. Prayer should be like breathing to us.

I was talking recently to a mother. She was in a prayer meeting. She was telling me afterwards, “You know, Nancy, I haven’t been in a prayer meeting like that since I was in college.” I was so surprised. I mean . . . a prayer meeting? We should be having prayer meetings every day in our homes with our families.

Then, I trust that your church has a prayer meeting every week. That was normal for every church life. If it doesn’t, well, have a prayer meeting in your home. Invite some other people in. The more you have prayer in your home, the more it is filled with this beautiful odor.

I love that Scripture in 2 Corinthians 2:14. In the JB Phillips translation it says: “We should have above us the unmistakable scent of Christ.” Isn’t that beautiful? Now, the way we get that is that as we pray, as we worship, make prayer such a natural part of your life, it will fill your whole being and it will fill your home. Amen?

Well, that point was number 17. I actually have 20 points of all these things with which God wants us to be filled. So, let’s go to the next one.

No. 18. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH HIS GOODNESS

(Sorry ladies, I now realize I actually talked about being FILLED WITH HIS GOODNESS in No. 10. I forgot I covered his point, although what I am saying here is different than what I shared in No. 10).

Jeremiah 31:14: “And I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.” What a glorious Scripture! “And I will SATIATE.” Oh, I love that beautiful word, “satiate.” Just say it. When you say it, it fills you with the meaning of it. “Satiate.” It’s the Hebrew word ravah. It means “to slake the thirst, to make drunk, to fill abundantly, to satisfy.”

Oh, how beautiful that is. God wants to do that in our lives. He wants to come to us and satiate us. Of course, He can only do that if we come to Him. He waits for us to come to Him. As we come to Him, He will then come to us and satiate us.

Actually, it’s very, very interesting that that same word is used in a passage about married couples. In that passage in Proverbs 5:19, it’s talking about marriage. It talks about the husband and the wife. I’m thinking of it because it’s the same Hebrew word. It says here, “Let her be (that’s the wife) Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.” That’s the same Hebrew word there they used “satisfy,” that the wife is to ravish and satisfy her husband.

But here it’s talking about how God wants to satiate us. Then it goes on to this other word: “And my people shall be satisfied.” That’s the Hebrew word saba. It means “to fill to satisfaction, to satiate, to satisfy.” Wow! That’s incredible! That's not just, oh, God will comfort and console and fill us just a tiny little bit to get us through. No, He want to satiate us. He wants to satisfy us with His goodness because God is a good God. That’s Who He is, dear ladies. He is a good God. You must know Him as a good God.

If you don’t know Him as a good God, you don’t know Who your God is. For He is good. I would encourage you to do a study. Get a concordance out. Have you ever used a concordance? Look up all the Scriptures about how God is good. As you read these Scriptures, they will go into your being, and they will begin to satiate you. Just the goodness of God will fill your soul.

There’s many Scriptures that talk about God’s great goodness. He’s not just good. It talks about the great goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 107:9: “For He satisfieth the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” Yes.

In Psalm 65:4, it talks about being “satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple.” That’s a beautiful thing, too, to come to the house of God, to the gathering of the saints. To be satisfied with and satiated with the goodness of God’s house. That’s not just a building, but it’s a gathering of God’s people. It’s a beautiful thing.

You see, the gathering of God’s people is not just, “Oh, well, we come to church, we worship, we hear a message, and we go home.” Well, that’s good. You can get a great message and be encouraged in your soul. But that’s only just half of it. God wants the gathering of His people to be where we do gather, where we fellowship, where we interact, where we speak to one another, where we pray for one another, where we’re togethering. That’s real fellowship. That’s when we learn to understand and experience the goodness of His house.

Now, maybe at your church, well, maybe you don’t have that fellowship. Or perhaps you have home meetings where you can do that. Often, just going to church, and going home is not enough. We need that fellowship together. If you’re not getting it, well, make it happen! Invite some fellow believers into your home. Invite them for a meal. Have rich fellowship around the table. Oh, there’s nothing like it, to fellowship over the things of God!

The sad part about it is, many people today, you want to do that, you try to do it with them, but, wow, they don’t have much to say. You want to say to them, perhaps, “Now, what’s God been saying to you in the Word recently? What’s He saying?” You don’t even get an answer. It’s very sad.

It’s my favorite question to ask, and it’s so lovely. Often, we’ll have folk around our home, and some, they don’t have anything to share. Well, we’ll just bless them and share with them. But often, it’s other folks who will come, and oh, the richness! Because they’ve been in the Word! God’s been speaking to them, and they can share. We’re all blessed together. It is so wonderful!

Isaiah 66:11. Oh, yes, this Scripture is interesting. This is actually an allegory about Judah. In this allegory, God is liking Judah to a nursing mother. We see two things here. We see the relationship of Judah to God. Or it can be our own relationship with God. We also see the relationship of a baby and his/her mother. It says here: “They will suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations.”

Now, that is an allegory. It’s revealing how a mother nurses her baby. When the little baby sucks from the mother, this little baby’s not only sucking for food, but it’s also sucking to be satisfied, to be consoled, to be comforted. Nursing a baby is far more than food. Here we see this. The baby sucks and is satisfied. Not just satisfied with the milk, but satisfied with the breast of her consolations, her comfort, and her consoling that comes from within her. It is far more than just food.

But then we take it spiritually. We also need to come to Christ, in His presence, and suck from Him. What does the New Testament say? 1 Peter 2:2: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.” So, we come to Christ. We come to suck. We come to draw from Him.

Maybe you are going through a difficult time. You’re going through a trial. Oh, goodness, you hardly know how to get through. Look, don’t languish on your own, precious one. Come to God. Just come to Him. Suck from Him. Draw from Him. As you come and pour out your heart before Him, you will find that He will console you, He will comfort you, He will satisfy you, He will satiate you.

But that comes as you come. God waits for you to come. You will be satisfied with His consolations and His great goodness.

Now, OK. Maybe you are, you’re going through this tough time. Somehow you wonder, “Goodness, how can I say God is a good God?” I want you to know, no matter what you’re going through at this time, no matter what you will face in the future, or what all of us may face in the future, God is good. We must get into the habit of acknowledging God is good. He is a good God. Oh, I will praise the great goodness of the Lord!

We go back to Genesis. We read about Joseph. Don’t you love the story of Joseph? Joseph was ripped away from his family at about 17 years of age and taken to a foreign land. He was lonely, but he pressed into God. God blessed him and he became ruler over everything in Potiphar’s home.

But then we know how Potiphar’s wife . . . He must have been a handsome young man. She was trying to get him for herself. As he ran from her because he wanted nothing to do with it, she held a piece of his cloak in her hand and used that against him. He was thrown into prison.

So now, not only is he away from his beloved family, his beloved father, but here he is. He’s in prison. He’s left. No one knows about him. He’s there in prison.

Now, if you were languishing in prison, would you be saying “God is a good God”? I’m sure that Joseph was, because he wasn’t in a state of self-pity. Instead, he showed who he was. He began to be someone who was always helping. In the end, he was put over the prison and over all the other prisoners! Because he rose to the top. You can never rise to the top when you’re in self-pity and “Poor me! Why is this happening to me?” That keeps us at the bottom.

Even in trials, you can rise to the top! That's what happened with Joseph. Now, with many, many years, it didn’t happen quickly. But eventually, we know the story, of how he was brought before Pharoah and interpreted the dream and became next to Pharoah in the whole of the land.

But God allowed Joseph to go through all this because He had a bigger plan. And, dear ladies, how can we go through these difficult times? We think, “God has forgotten me.” But God has a bigger plan. You’ve got to trust Him. He is always good. And He wants us to be continually filled with the goodness of the Lord.

I love what Joseph spoke to his brothers in Genesis 45:7-8 when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers after they had been coming back to get food because of the famine. This time, they’d gone back again, and the food had run out, and this time they came back again. This time, Joseph revealed himself to them.

And he said: “And God sent me before you to preserve your posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, brothers, it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”

But you see, Joseph was able to see God’s hand. Yes, all the suffering, loneliness, abandonment, that he went through, he saw it was all for a purpose. God allowed it. God allowed it, because God had a greater plan, to save his family alive from a famine, and to save a nation, and many other nations around.

Then we go over to the last chapter, Genesis 50:18-21. Now, his father Jacob has died, and his brothers come to him again. They’re scared. “Oh, now our father has died. He’ll really get us this time!” But, no, Joseph comes to them again: “And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you thought evil against me; but GOD MEANT IT UNTO GOOD.”

All the tough times he went through, God was working it out for good: “But God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.”

So, be encouraged! God is good, even in the tough times, even in the difficult times. God is working out everything for good. You know, we have to see life, see our difficulties. Maybe we’re going to be facing more and more persecution in times to come. Even at this time, there are many, many people who are facing the fact they have to leave their jobs or be fired from their jobs because they’re not prepared to take the vaccine.

It’s tough. But you know, they trust God. God will show His hand. Even if we have to go through difficult times, we have to keep eternity in view. This life is but a vapor. And the real world is the eternal world.

As we read through Revelation, we see so many of the saints. John looked as he got the vision, and he looked into the eternal realm. There were the saints who were beheaded for sake of the gospel. They were there waiting for more of their fellow brethren to also be beheaded and to join them (Revelation 20: (Revelation 20:4).

Well, maybe in the future, we will face that. But even in that, God is good! Because look, all we’re doing here on this earth is to learn how to conquer evil, walk with God, that we will be ready for the eternal realm, which is the real world, the world forever and ever!

Oh, we can never even dream of what it’s going to be like. God is getting us ready for that. Oh, He is a good God!

I was thinking the other day about Hebrews and the cloud of witnesses that are watching us. Hebrews 12:1: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.”

That cloud of witnesses, I’m sure many of them, those who got there by being beheaded, or tortured for their faith, but they are now there, just waiting, urging us on.  So, the goodness of the Lord. All right. Now that was number 18.

No. 19: GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH HIS GLORY

(I can’t believe it. I actually talked about this point also in No. 1. I began with it and forgot about it. But there’s still more to share).

Oh, isn’t that amazing? Glory. I’ve been speaking so much about glory. I did a series on the glory of womanhood. Recently, I did another series about glory and moved on to how God even wants us to dress with glory.

Everything about God is glory. He is the God of glory. Jesus is the Lord of glory. The Holy Spirit is the God of glory. God, who is all glory, He longs to come and fill us with His glory.

1 Peter 5:8. Actually, that's not the right Scripture. I must have put down the wrong reference there. But it’s talking about we are to be filled with “joy unspeakable, and FULL OF GLORY” (1 Peter 1:8). Wow!

I will just tell it to you. “Rejoice with joy unspeakable, and FULL OF GLORY.” Amen?

Well, I want to talk a little bit more about glory, but our time is going, so I think we’ll close off this session. Next week I will talk a little more about it, because there’s still more about glory. I want to give you a few more Scriptures about it.

So, let’s pray.

“Oh Father, we thank You so much that You want us to be a filled people—filled with wisdom, filled with Your goodness, filled with righteousness, filled with love, filled with peace, filled with joy, filled with Your glory. Oh, God, help us and save us from going around half-filled. Help us to be those who are filled to the top and overflowing, so we can bless those around us—our husbands, our children, people that we meet. We ask this in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Before I close, I’d love to read you the words of a lovely hymn. We were talking about having our lives filled with the odor of the ointment, the sweet incense, which speaks of His presence, and, of course, our prayer and our worship unto the Lord. But do you know this lovely hymn which says: “Fill Thou my life?”

Let me read. I love the words:

Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,

In every part with praise.

That my whole being may proclaim

Thy being, and Thy ways.

Not for the lip of praise alone,

Nor e’en for the praising heart,

I ask, but for a life made up

Of praise in every part.

Praise in the common things of life,

It’s going out and in;

Praise in each duty and each deed.

However small and mean.

Fill every part of me with praise;

Let all my being speak

Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,

Poor though I be and weak.

So shall no part of day or night

From sacredness be free,

But all my life, in every step

Be fellowship with Thee.

 

“The Lord pour His blessing upon you, upon your husbands, upon your children, upon your homes, and may your homes be filled with the beautiful, sweet incense of His ointment, His aroma of prayer and worship unto Him. 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.

I have shared two other podcast series on the Glory of God, if you would like to check them out:

THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD, Parts 1 – 10 (Nos. 68 – 77).

LET’S GET BACK THE GLORY, Parts 1 – 6 (Nos. 159 – 164).