FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 112: MAKING A HOME OF REST— PART 3

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies. 

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies, it is always great to be with you again.

I started off a couple of sessions ago, talking about all the beautiful “ness” words that belong to marriage and family.

We are actually talking about one of them at the moment, which is restfulness.

Let me give you just a few others: Peacefulness, pleasantness, positiveness, prayerfulness, pureness, respectfulness, restfulness (which we’re going to talk more about today), righteousness, sacredness, selflessness, sensibleness, sereneness, steadfastness, softness, soberness, songfulness, submissiveness, sweetness, teachableness, tenderness, tenderheartedness, thankfulness, thoughtfulness, togetherness, trustworthiness, truthfulness and I will leave some more for next time.

All these beautiful words relate to us in the home and in the family. I hope to talk to you about some of them. We have too many to talk about each one.

Currently we are on our third session of how to make a restful home, a home of rest for God because He wants to dwell in our homes, and He wants a place of rest where He can dwell.

David had a vision to make a home of rest for God.

We are up to point number five.

Number Five

ERADICATE ALL TENSION

Of course you know you’re not going to have any rest in your home while you’ve got turmoil in your home.

Last session we talked about how sometimes we have to have a battle before we can have rest because we can’t have rest until we conquer the enemy and also, until we’ve eradicated all tension, strife, turmoil, and all moods, too.

Moods are a terrible thing. They don’t bring rest into the home. They bring such a horrid atmosphere. Many times children grow up being allowed to have moods and then they take them into the marriage.

If perhaps that’s been in a habit in your life and maybe, though I hope not, if you’re doing that in your marriage that’s something you have to work on. Because if we get into a mood because our husband has said something we don’t like and we feel hurt and get into this silent treatment and give him the cold shoulder that’s not what we’re meant to do.

That doesn’t bring restoration. That doesn’t bring rest. We have got to sit down and gently talk about it. We have to seek to eradicate these things that upset the atmosphere of our home.

Number six

WALK IN FAITH NOT UNBELIEF

We go over to Hebrews. Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 talk about rest; they are all on the subject of rest.

We will start reading at verse 12 of chapter 3: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

Wow, they are pretty strong words, aren’t they? It says an EVIL heart of unbelief. Sometimes we are so used to being unbelieving that we don’t think there is anything really wrong with it.

We think, “Oh well, I don’t have much faith.” But the Bible calls it an evil heart of unbelief.

When we don’t believe the words that God has written that He has given to us, His eternal words that can never lie, if we don’t believe them, God says we have an evil heart of unbelief.

We go down to verse 18 and it says: “And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in [enter in the rest] because of unbelief.”

Unbelief stops us living in rest. This is something we often have to work on, too.

Let’s have a look at some more Scriptures in Hebrews chapter 4. Both these chapters are all about rest.

Verse 2: “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

In other words, when we read the Word of God but if we don’t believe it and don’t mix it with faith to act upon it and live those words, we might as well have not read it because it doesn’t do anything for us. We have to mix the Word of God with faith when we are reading it.

We go down to verse 3, the next verse: “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

Verse 6: “Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief.”

The Passion Translation of chapter 3:12-13 says: “So search your hearts every day, my brothers and sisters, and make sure that none of you has evil or unbelief hiding within you. For it will lead you astray, and make you unresponsive to the living God. This is the time to encourage each other to never be stubborn or hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

And so let’s watch unbelief, dear ladies.

Sometimes I have mothers saying to me that they are so concerned about having another baby because they don’t know how they could provide for another child.

Often it seems to me that it is more husbands who are lacking in unbelief than wives regarding this subject. Often, they don’t want to have any more children because they don’t believe that they can provide for those children.

But when we don’t believe, what does the Bible say? We have an evil heart of unbelief because when we get to the bottom line, what are we really doing? We’re saying, “God, I don’t believe You. Goodness me, I don’t think I can provide and really I’m god in my home.” Because if we think we are the ones who provide, we’re making ourselves as God.

But when we trust God and His words, even when we cannot see it happening in the physical, when we trust Him, we will find that God is faithful to His Word.

In Psalm 78:19-22 it says: “Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth [angry]: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel . . ..”

Why? “Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.”

We say, “Can God really do this? Can God really provide for another baby?”

Why do most Christians stop at two or three children? Maybe because they think they cannot provide for them. Maybe they think that when they get older, they wouldn’t be able to provide a college education for them.

Of course, sometimes we wonder if that would even be a good idea with the state of our colleges today. They have become breeding grounds for socialism. Unless we can send our children to a very conservative college they are going to be brainwashed in this socialism and Marxism.

We’re seeing the fruits of that happening in our nation right at this time.

Getting back to believing God: What does God say? Let’s go back, shall we, to Deuteronomy chapter 7. I love these verses.

Deuteronomy 7:12: “Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the  Lord  thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee . . ..”

Interesting, isn’t it? Here God is sharing His heart and how He feels for His people. He says, “I’ll show mercy to you.”

That is the Hebrew word racham, a beautiful word that is a word that is also used for the womb. It means compassion, and mercy, and pity.

“I’ll show mercy and compassion to you and I’ll love you and I’ll bless you.” God says.

How is He going to show us His love and His blessing? He says, “By multiplying you.”

“And I will multiply you and bless the fruit of your womb.” That is how God wants to bless us. Here is the Word of God and that is literally what it says. How does He want to bless? By blessing our womb.

Sometimes mothers may think, “Help, I don’t know if that’s a blessing. I don’t know how I will provide for this child that’s being formed in my womb.” But you haven’t read the end of the Scripture yet because God goes on. He starts off first blessing. Always the first blessing is the fruit of the womb.

He says I “ . . . will also bless the fruit of thy womb . . .” and listen to what He says next: “and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.”

Do you see the progression there? When God blesses with the fruit of the womb He doesn’t stop. He says, “And I’m going to bless your land and your sheep and your cattle and your fruit and everything.”

Why? To provide for the fruit of the womb. The whole reason for the blessings of wine and the fruit of the land and the cattle and the sheep to feed us is all to feed the fruit of the womb.

Let’s go over to Deuteronomy 28. This is the blessing chapter, which I like to read. It is also the cursing chapter, which I don’t like to read that quite so much. In fact, there are more verses about cursing if we are disobedient to God’s ways than there are blessings if we follow God’s ways.

Anyways, it starts with the blessings.

Let’s start at verse three: “Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.” I love that. God will bless you wherever you are placed.

Some people think, “Oh if only I could get out to the country. It would be so much easier to raise my family there. It would be so much easier to have children out there in the country. But I’m stuck in the city, right in the heart of the city. How do you expect me to do that here?”

Well, God says that He will bless you in the city and in the country. If God has placed you in the city because that’s where your husband’s work is, He will bless you there.

I know it is a blessing to raise children in the country. Currently many of our grandchildren live out here on the hilltop in the country. Not all of our grandchildren live in the country because some live in the city, too, but those who have lived out here in the country have had a beautiful blessed life.

But I didn’t raise my children in the country; we raised them in the city. In fact, when my children were teenagers living on the Gold Coast of Australia, right in Surfer’s Paradise, right in the heart of nightclubs (it was a holiday place where everyone came to party).

Our house was right underneath the big Jupiter’s casino. The church that we planted was opposite the casino. Our children lived looking out on a casino and the heart of sin city. How do you raise teenagers for God in that kind of place?

Well, God is true to His Word. You see if that is where God has you, He will bless you. He kept our children. He blessed them even in that environment.

Of course, my, I had to pray. Every day I walked the beach. We weren’t far from the beach. Every day I’d go down and walk the sand with the Pacific breakers rolling in and I would be crying out to God, crying out to Him to keep my children from the evil in that place. He was faithful to do that.

We’re talking about how God blesses not only the fruit of the womb, but He blesses everything else to provide for the fruit of the womb.

That’s right, I haven’t read you the rest yet, have I? Verse four: “Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body [here it is again but it carries on] and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.” That means all the provision that you need. You’ll be blessed with it.

“Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.” Now all these blessings come after the blessing of the fruit of the womb.

You may think, “Well I don’t know. The way we are living, I just don’t know how we could manage.”

Dear ladies, God doesn’t give you these blessings before the fruit of the womb. They come after the fruit of the womb. When God blesses you with conception, then He will provide for that precious child. God is faithful.

Let’s go over to Deuteronomy 30:9: “And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy womb . . ..” Notice how God always mentions the fruit of the womb first and now again, the third time we’re reading it.

“ . . . And in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good.”

And so you get the pattern. That’s what happens.

I could give you so many Scriptures. In fact, you may like to go to my webpage aboverubies.org and go to articles and stories and go to “Can God Provide?” There is an article there called “Is God able to Provide for Another Baby?” It gives you so many Scriptures. If you are feeling full of doubt and unbelief go to that article and print it off.

Read the Scriptures because it is the Word that will encourage you. As the Word gets into your heart it will give you faith. You see ,faith doesn’t come out thin air. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

As the Word of God fills our souls it generates faith to walk in that Word. You can’t do it if you don’t have the Word in you. So I would encourage you to go and read those wonderful Scriptures. Let me just give you one or two more in the meantime.

Deuteronomy 2:7: “For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.”

Nehemiah 9:20-21 says: “Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.”

They lacked nothing and yet, ladies, the children of Israel going through that howling wilderness didn’t live in homes like we do today. They just lived in temporary tents. They didn’t have all the mod cons that we have. They lived in the heat of the desert.

They didn’t have refrigerators. They didn’t have freezers. They didn’t have washing machines or dishwashers or vacuum cleaners. They didn’t have the nearest shop they could run to if they ran out of milk or bread. They just had to trust God each day.

They had the same diet of manna every day for forty years and yet God said they lacked nothing. We think that we have to have this and that and everything. We have such a high standard today.

But we don’t have to have everything to have what we need. In fact, we don’t even have to have a huge house. It’s amazing how even a big family can fit into a small home. Well, I do love big homes because my husband and I are lovers of hospitality. We love to have people.

God has been so good, and we sometimes have lived in little homes but often we have been able to live in large homes. But you don’t have to have a large home. You don’t have to have a bedroom for all your children.

People say, “How can we have more children, we haven’t even got enough bedrooms? “Well let me tell you: children don’t want to sleep alone. They hate it. They love to be together. They love to all sleep in the same room together.

You can have one bedroom for girls and one bedroom for boys. That’s all they need. They love to be together.

I remember when our children were growing, and we were moving into our first home we had built. We were so excited because had a few more bedrooms. Not that we all had a bedroom each ( the girls had one and the boys had one).

We’d put the children to bed and then we’d go back later as my husband and I were going off to bed and goodness me! What’s happened to the bedrooms? There are all these empty beds!

We found they were all in the one bedroom together. They had made a bed way up in a cupboard or something or the boys had gone outside to sleep out in some tent shack they had made. That was far more exciting! Children are quite happy to sleep together.

In fact, the Johnson children, some of my grandchildren, as they grew up, those boys, I don’t think they’ve hardly slept on a bed in their whole lives. They just slept on the floor in their sleeping bags.

Sometimes we think we  have to provide so much to have everything perfect when really all our children want is togetherness, unity, and love.

I love Psalm 37:25: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

Amen! Are you saying, “Amen,” with me? Yes. There are so many Scriptures in the Word of God about how He will provide for us. Look up that article and read them over.

Let’s be those who walk in faith and mix faith when we’re reading the Word of God.

Number seven

DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEART TO GOD OR YOUR HUSBAND

This is one of the things that come up when we are reading about rest in Hebrews chapter three and four.

We’ll read Hebrews 3:7-15: “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, TO DAY if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation . . ..” That just means in the times of rebellion when the children of Israel rebelled against the Lord.

When the spies went into the Promised Land to check it out, they came back with amazing reports of how incredible this land was. They brought back bunches of grapes that took two men to carry.

But ten of the spies brought back an evil report, the Bible says. It was a report of doubt. It was beautiful but, oh, there were giants there! They didn’t think that they could go in.

“We’re too little,” they said, “We’re just like grasshoppers and they’re giants!” They put fear into the people and so they were afraid to go in.

It’s a bit like what we’re facing now. Not quite the same, but we are in a time of so many people facing fear in our nation, fear of this COVID-19.

I’m truly amazed at how so many believers are filled with fear. Many of them are still too fearful to go back to their churches and yet we are not seeing thousands of people dying from this. It has flattened out.

Even though now there are many people testing positive but they’re not dying unless they’re a person who maybe has other underlying medical problems and it makes it worse for them. But if that is not the case, they’re not having anything much more than the flu. Why are believers filled with fear?

Oh yes, it was true; there were giants in the land. They weren’t telling lies. It was true. There were giants and when they went into the Promised Land, they had to face those giants and they conquered those giants.

It doesn’t mean to say that facts are not true but why are we filled with fear? We as the people of God are not meant to be filled with fear. We trust in our God. Therefore we’re not victims of fear and becoming filled with unbelief.

Here we are, they were filled with unbelief. This Scripture goes on to say: “When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)”

That generation did not enter into the rest and into the Promised Land that God had promised them. They all died of unbelief and hardness of heart.

We’ll go down to verse 15: “While it is said, TO DAY if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”

 Then we go to Hebrews 4:7: “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Three times God repeats those words.

TODAY. That happened way back, back there. We read about that way back in Exodus but now it’s TODAY. You see every word of God applies to us today, right now. Today.

If there is any hardness in our hearts, any stubbornness, any unbelief, we better repent of it now, today, because God says: “TODAY if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.”

We mustn’t harden our hearts to what God says in His Word. We have to be open to it, responsive to it, and obedient to it.

When we keep a soft heart to God, we keep a soft heart to our husband. The Bible tells us that the reason for divorce is hardness of heart.

We go to Matthew 19:8. The Pharisees had come to Jesus and they had asked Him if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife.

Jesus said in verse 4: “ . . . Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” or let not man separate.

Then He goes on to say in verse 8: “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.”

And so it happens through hardness of heart. Of course it is true that when we’re married it is God’s intention for us to be one. One together, one flesh, one soul, one spirit, one in unity; but we’re not perfect and life’s not perfect and that doesn’t always happen. Strife comes into marriage and sometimes things are said that hurt and then bitterness comes in.

Oh precious wives, don’t allow bitterness to ever get hold of your heart because it destroys you and it destroys your marriage and ultimately it destroys your children because they are affected, too.

Bitterness and hurt, oh, they are such destroying attitudes and that is why God says: “TODAY if you hear His voice DON’T HARDEN YOUR HEART.”

You’ve got to get down on your knees and let the Holy Spirit work in your heart. Our hearts are flesh and sometimes they just don’t want to do it. I’ve found that I’ve sometimes had to get down on my knees and say, “Holy Spirit, come, come into my life. Come and work in my heart. Work Your Spirit in my spirit that I would have a spirit of submissiveness, gentleness, softness toward You and toward my husband.”

So we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts. We don’t let them get hardened. We don’t carry on holding this in our hearts.

What does it say in Ephesians 4:26: “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” You might get angry but let not the sun go down upon your wrath. You do not go to sleep tonight until you’ve got things right.

That’s the Bible way. That’s the way that works. That’s what keeps our hearts right.

If we want to have rest in our homes, “TODAY if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.” There will always be things that happen in life and when they happen, on the day they happen, we allow God to work in our lives.

We let Him move in our hearts so we can get our hearts right with God, with our husband, say sorry, seek restoration AND THEN REST COMES! Praise the Lord!

That’s what this is all talking about: Rest. Do we want rest, or do we want strife? Are we going to continue to live in strife or are we going to do it God’s way so we can live in rest? Amen?

Well, I love The Passion Translation that says: “ . . . ‘They will never enter into the calming rest of My Spirit!’” That’s because of unbelief and hardness of heart. But if we yield those to God, we can live in the calming rest of God’s Holy Spirit.

In fact, this morning at our family devotions we sang the beautiful old hymn that says: “I am resting, resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art.”

I wish I could remember the rest of the words but anyway, let’s pray, shall we?

“Father, We thank You for Your precious Word. What would we do without Your Word, Lord God? It keeps us in line and shows us the way You want us to live. I pray that You will continue to work in our hearts. Expose any hardness of heart, any unbelief, bitterness, and hurt.

“Oh God help us to keep our spirits pure before You because we want to live in rest. We want to enjoy the rest that You provide for us. We want to make our homes a place of rest for You where You delight to rest. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Transcribed by Morgan Roth.

Words of the hymn:

1 Jesus, I am resting, resting
in the joy of what thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
of thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon thee,
as thy beauty fills my soul,
For by thy transforming power,
thou hast made me whole.

Refrain:
Jesus, I am resting, resting,
in the joy of what thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
of thy loving heart.

2 O how great thy lovingkindness,
vaster, broader than the sea!
O how marvelous thy goodness
lavished all on me!
Yes, I rest in thee, Beloved,
know what wealth of grace is thine,
Know thy certainty of promise
and have made it mine. [Refrain]

3 Simply trusting thee, Lord Jesus,
I behold thee as thou art,
And thy love, so pure, so changeless,
satisfies my heart;
Satisfies its deepest longings,
meets, supplies its ev'ry need,
Compasseth me round with blessings:
thine is love indeed. [Refrain]

4 Ever lift thy face upon me
as I work and wait for thee;
Resting 'neath thy smile, Lord Jesus,
earth's dark shadows flee.
Brightness of my Father's glory,
sunshine of my Father's face,
Kep me ever trusting, resting,
fill me with thy grace. [Refrain]

Author: Jean Sophia Pigott (1876)

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 111: MAKING A HOME OF REST— PART 2

We must eradicate evil and conquer the enemy before we can experience rest. How we deal with these situations will impact the following generations. Will our children and grandchildren live in peace and prosperity, or turmoil?

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. We are currently talking about making our homes a place of rest. I was sharing with you how there's loads of “ness” words that are so applicable to us in our homes. We're talking about “restfulness” at the moment.

Here's a few more of these lovely words: generousness, gentleness, godliness, goodness, graciousness, gratefulness, greatheartedness, happiness, hardworkingness, heavenliness. healthfulness, holiness, homeness, hopefulness, humbleness, industriousness, joyfulness, kindness, loveliness, meekness, mercifulness, motherliness, nestingness, oneness, orderliness. That's enough for today. I'll give you some more next time.

Now, we're up to point number three, about filling our homes with worship and beautiful music. We were saying last time how that, if God loves to dwell in praises, shouldn't we love to dwell in an atmosphere of praise too? Therefore, let's make our homes “homes of praising.” Praising our husbands, praising our children.

Do you remember that experiment that was done by the Japanese doctor, Doctor . . . what was his name again? Doctor Imoto. He talked about having three jars of cooked rice. To one jar you were to speak angry, hurtful words. To the other jar, you would speak loving, encouraging words, full of love and kindness. And the other jar, well, it was just sort of left alone.

OK, so he did this experiment and said that the jar which you spoke the angry words to, it began to go moldy and black. The jar with the encouraging words, it stayed amazing!

So anyway, my friend Erin Harrison, who I have done TALK SHOWS with in the past (we're not doing them at the moment because we're both doing other things).

Anyway, Erin, she actually did this experiment. We talked about it on our TALK SHOW and showed the jars. It literally works.

Now I have gone onto the internet, and there are people who pooh-pooh this experiment, and say it doesn't work. Well, they must be very negative people, because this experiment worked in front of our eyes. Because this jar, and every week, I went, I mean, for a few weeks, there was this jar, this one where Erin would speak horrible, hateful, awful words to it. It just became so moldy and black.

And the jar that she spoke the loving ,beautiful words over it, it just stayed beautiful! It was amazing! It kept on for a few weeks like that. We could hardly believe it. So it actually does work.

It shows you how our words have power. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. We mold our children by our words that we speak to them. Dear precious ladies, seek to make your home a home where not only God dwells in praises, but where your husband and your children dwell in an atmosphere of praises. It will make such a difference to their lives, and to their health.

I believe that positive, encouraging, affirming words affect people's health. You see, conversely, children, and even poor husbands, who live in a home where they are nagged at, and grumbled at, and spat at, oh goodness me! Oooh! No wonder it's just so full of hate and tension.

No husband can live in that. And children, how do they grow up? I think they grow up sickly. And I think they grow up hurting and bitter. So our words are so powerful.

I even like to speak to my garden. I go out to my garden and I'll speak to my plants, to my vegetable garden. My vegetable garden this year is doing so wonderfully. It's just beautiful! It's growing before my eyes. All the plants are strong and healthy.

As I was planting them, I would say to them, “Take root downward, and bear fruit upward!” That's a Scripture, actually talking about Israel, but I use it for my plants. I would just tell them how wonderful they are, and that they're growing so well. They are growing so well!

Words have such power, ladies! I believe we fill our walls with our words. It begins to affect the atmosphere of our homes.

All right.

Number four.

ERADICATE EVIL

If we're going to build a home of rest, we must eradicate evil from our homes, and conquer the enemy!

Now back in Bible days, the children of Israel, they only had rest when they had conquered the enemy. When there were enemies roundabout, they had to fight. Now at the end of Joshua's life, he was the one who took the men to the Promised Land. They fought all these battles and conquered the enemy.

It says in Joshua 21:44-45, “And the Lord gave them rest round about . . . and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.”

It says they had rest all around them. But then time went on. And the Israelites, they began to forget God as a new generation came on. As they got involved with the evil things around them, God's anger was hot against Israel, the Bible says, and he sold them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia.

So for eight years, they were in slavery and servitude to this king. Then they got sick of it, and they cried unto the Lord. God is so merciful. Oh what a great God He is! It says in verse nine, Judges 3:9: “And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer.” His name was Othniel.

So he defeated the enemy, and then the Bible says the land had rest for 40 years. For 40 years they lived in rest. No enemies, just in beautiful rest. Every man was beside his fig tree and his vineyard. Everything was lovely.

But after 40 years, oh, they got complacent, and they began to get involved in evil again. So when that happened, God allowed the king of Moab to subdue them. For 18 years they were in servitude to this king. Not an easy thing, to live when you are in servitude. But in Judges 3:15 it says: “But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer.”

This time it was Ehud. Now, this is quite a gruesome story here. Now mothers, if you have any boys and they like real gruesome stories, why not read them this story in Judges, chapter three, verses 12-30? Oh my, your boys will love it as you read to them of how Ehud killed the king of Moab, it's pretty gruesome.

After he killed the king, they went on to subdue the whole of the nation of Moab. In verses 29 and 30, it says: “And they slew of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valor; and there escaped not a man. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for 80 years.”

How wonderful! 80 years! Well, I'm going to be 80 next year. That's quite a few generations, because now I have our beautiful children, and then our grandchildren. And now we have great-grandchildren coming on. So a fourth generation is coming on.

Dear ladies, this makes me realize how powerful we are as mothers, and how what we do can impact the following generations in such a powerful way. The way we mother and nurture our children will affect them throughout their lives.

But it will also affect the next generation, and the next generation; who . Who we are as mothers, and how we stand up for righteousness, and how we keep evil out of our homes. We can have the power to bring rest to our families and to generations to come.

REST COMES AFTER SUBDUING THE ENEMY

You see, get it! Every time we read about this, they had rest after they subdued the enemy, after they got rid of evil, after they had repented, and cried out to the Lord.

So we have to watch, ladies, if there's any evil coming into our homes, just a little bit, “Oh, that's all right, you know, oh, just a tiny little bit.” No! You have to get rid of the even the little bit, because the little bit becomes bigger and bigger and bigger.

When the enemy gets in, and takes the little foothold, he'll soon take over the whole home. We must always get rid of evil! We must subdue the enemy! And that is one of our tasks as mothers, subduing the enemy!

Dear mothers, there is one part of motherhood that is so beautiful, and gentle, and nurturing, and loving. But there's another part of motherhood that is powerful, where we rise up to come against evil, to come against the enemy, to conquer the enemy, because we will not let our children be taken over by the enemy!

And so we must be women of God who stand up for righteousness. We love righteousness, and we abhor evil. We will not allow evil in our homes! We will cast it out!

We may have a war while we're doing it. Many times, some mothers are afraid to take authority over evil things that come into their homes. Or their teenagers begin to bring evil stuff in, or even stuff they may be watching on social media.

Maybe some mothers feel too timid. They don't want to make a scene. They just want their children to love them. No! There are times where we have to have a war if we want peace. Before they had rest on every hand, they had to conquer the enemy. They had to have war. They had to have a battle first.

Of course, we don't want battles. Who wants battles? Oh, help, no. But if there is evil, we've got to have a battle to eradicate it so that we bring peace. And we bring rest.

Now, after this battle with Ehud, they had rest for 80 years. At least four generations. Isn't that amazing? In fact, of course, if I think of my parents and my grandparents, who I knew, that 's six generations. So we're to mother generationally. We're not mothering only for today. We must always think of the future, and mother generationally.

That's why we have to think, dear precious mothers, of our children, as they're growing. They get to that age where it's usually the time to send them off to college. So many Christian parents just do that, because that's what you do.

But we are living in an hour where we'd better think carefully about doing that, because our colleges and our universities, at this present time, have become breeding grounds for socialism, which is now turning into anarchism. We are facing, at this time in our nation, a spirit of anarchy, as we have all these protesters, these people who are pulling down our statues, who are taking over cities, who are burning businesses, and wanting to just get rid of the police. This is anarchy.

This is coming from young people in our colleges. They have been brainwashed with socialism. Now dear precious parents, we have to think carefully. Are we going to send our children in to be brainwashed with socialism?

That is not going to bring peace and rest to this country. Already it's bringing terrible stress and anarchy. So we've got to think carefully of what we do, because we affect the future, and our children affect the future, and our nation will be what our children will be!

There are other ways of them being educated. They could do college class from home and still get a wonderful college education. There are some very good conservative colleges. But to just send our children to the normal rank and file public college today is scary, because in most cases, they are not only being brainwashed in socialism, but yes, even the Black Lives Matter.

Now of course, oh my, I'm getting onto a controversial subject, but of course we have to face it, because we're facing it right now with Antifa, and Black Lives Matter, who are rising up.

Of course, we love black people!  In fact, every person created by God is beautiful. They are God's creation. Every different race, and black lives, are beautiful! We stand with them.

But I have to confess, I don't stand with Black Lives Matter as an organization, because if you go to their website, you will read how that they stand with the queer, and they stand with homosexuals, and they stand with transgender. They stand with that which God says is an abomination. So therefore, I cannot stand and align myself with that organization. That doesn't mean to say I don't love black people!

On their website, it says, in very clear letters, that one of their agendas is to disrupt the nuclear family. They are not interested in the nuclear family at all. This is the very foundation of our nation, because it's biblical, it's God-ordained. God ordained the nuclear family of father, mother, and children, raised in a home. Of course, we then have the extended family. Then back in Israel they had the tribes, and then they had the nation. But the nucleus was the nuclear family.

Now Black Lives Matter does away with that. Because it is so sad that it's an organization which is being . . . Well, they also blatantly and openly confess that they are Marxist-trained. So we cannot stand with Marxism. We cannot stand with that which is against the nuclear family.

Therefore, dear mothers, we've got to watch. Our young people are being pulled into this. Young people in our colleges today are seeking to . . . they actually are brainwashed and made to feel guilty if they are white. People are having to confess that they have white privilege. No!

We should, of course, we should have no other privilege than any other race! Absolutely! Well, I shouted that, didn't I? I certainly believe that. But you see, this is where it is all getting out of hand. We are all the same before God. And yes, our precious black people in this nation have every privilege, every privilege of white people.

Now let's think about it. They can go to the very height of our nation. Our last President was a black President. You cannot get higher than being the President of the nation.

We have a black Supreme Court judge, Clarence Thomas, a beautiful, wonderful, conservative Supreme Court judge, a black man. That was . . . he was able to rise to that. That's one of the heights of our nation, to be a Supreme Court judge. And he is the second African-American to be a Supreme Court judge.

We have many politicians and senators and congressmen who are African-American. They can rise to whatever they want. Every one of us can rise to what we want. That is, it's the freedom of this nation. It is the land of the free.

But sadly, these organizations of Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and so on, they are bringing in a Marxist ideology, which brings in tyranny and servitude, where they want to take the money from the rich, where they want to take away private property, where it becomes mob rule, and no longer law and order, according to the Constitution.

So you see, we have to guard, dear mothers, how our young people are being brainwashed. We have to share with them what is truth, so that they grow up knowing truth; loving all nations, always being open to never ever taking on oppression in any way, but knowing that every man is free, and every man has privilege before God to be whatever they want to be.

But not according to Marxism and all these other things. Their organizations, they are not really, yes, they're people, but that's just a certain sector. There are  so many beautiful conservative black people who are crying out for their own race who are getting into this.

So, how did I get onto that? Yes, we're talking of the generations. You see, right now, how is our nation going to go? And why is it like this? How come? Because so many of our precious young people, even from Christian homes, have been brainwashed in our colleges.

So we are at a state in our nation. We have got to wake up and decide what we are going to do. How are our young people going to be educated? Because we want to have rest in our land!

At this particular situation, they had 80 years of rest. Oh, they can raise four generations in that time! I think now of my grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and future generations to come. My! If this country is taken over by Marxism, these tyrannical groups, what would be the life for our children to come?

So we must pray. We must cry out to God. Oh, we're crying out to God. Are you? I'm sure you are. Are you joining the thousands of godly people and righteous people across this nation who are crying out to God at this time? This is our only hope, to cry out to God! That He will bring down evil, and that righteousness will exalt a nation.

That is what the Word says: “Righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is the reproach to any people” (Proverbs 13:34).  But we've got to cry out to God. And when we do, He hears our cry, as we've been reading in these stories here.

Oh, yes, now let's read this Scripture. 1 Timothy 2.:1-4. And Paul says here, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers. intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; Who will have all men to to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

And how does this happen, ladies? It happens through prayer, by our coming together as families. And first of all, we cry out to God for those in authority. We pray for our President. We pray for those who are in authority.

Why? So that we can have a quiet and peaceable life. We haven't got it in our nation at the moment, ladies. So we better be crying out to God. As we do, we pray that God will hear us, and law and order will come, and righteousness will come, and revival of turning back to God will come. And that a revival of mothers and fathers turning back to their homes and to their families will come.

We pray for our precious black people, for there are so many single black mothers. Did you know that Planned Parenthood makes sure that they have Planned Parenthood places right near black communities? They target these precious people. We must pray against that. I mean, we don't even deserve God's mercy. And yet we cry out for mercy, even though we don't deserve it.

So after these 80 years, once again, in Judges, chapters four and five, we read how the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So this time God sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, and his captain Sisera, who had 900 chariots of iron.

The Bible says, they mightily oppressed the children of Israel for 20 years. That's a generation. Imagine your child being born, your little baby, and for 20 years, right up until the prime of life, that you're living as a slave. You're living in servitude. You're being mightily oppressed.

In fact, in those days, they were too scared to even travel on the highways. They had to find little back roads to go places because they were so scared of the enemy! They lived in fear. And they lived in oppression. In Judges 5:7, it says, “The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.”

Now the words “The inhabitants of” are not in the original at all. They're not even there. If you go to your King James Bible, you'll see they are in italics, and that means they're not in the Hebrew original. They put them there to try and make sense. So it really starts with the word “villages.”

Now, it's not even really “villages,” because when we go to the Hebrew, we see that the word is perazon, meaning “magistracy, leadership, chieftain, warriors.” They were the ones who guarded the villages and the towns and the cities.

But because they were living in such fear, and such oppression, even the leaders, even the warriors of the villages and the cities, they were living in fear. They were too scared to guard and rise up against the enemy! So they were all under oppression.

Now the word “ceased,” “the villagers ceased,” that word in the Hebrew is chadal, and it means “to be flabby, to cease, to leave off.” So, we're getting the picture. The chieftains and the leaders of these villages and cities, they ceased to take control. They ceased to protect their towns, because they were living in fear.

Now, the Message Bible, it explains it very clearly. It's very interesting, because sometimes people will say, “Oh, the Message Bible, it's just a paraphrase. You can't take it too literally.” And then I'm amazed sometimes when I will read it, and I'll go back to the Hebrew, I will find, wow, that is spot on!

And of all the translations, I've found that this time, the Message was exactly true to the Hebrew. Because it says here, “Public roads were abandoned. Travelers went by back roads. Warriors became fat and sloppy, no fight left in them.”

And that's exactly what the Hebrew says. It says: “They became flabby. They were soft and sloppy and wimpy. They gave into the enemy. They were too fearful to stand up.”

God is looking for warriors. Did you know that? God wants wimps . . .  I said that wrongly. God doesn't want wimps, He wants warriors! And that's what He looks for.

When he looked for someone to lead his people Israel, He was looking for a new king after Saul, because Saul had disappointed Him, and had not be obedient to the ways of God.

It says in Psalm 89:19-20: “I have energized a warrior. I have raised up a young man from the people. I have discovered David, My servant. With My holy oil have I anointed him as king.”

So when God looked for a king, someone to shepherd and lead His people Israel, He didn't look for a wimp. He looked for someone who was a warrior, who had no fear, who was ready to stand up against the enemy.

We remember how, when he was only 17 years of age, he may have been younger, David stood up against Goliath! He wasn't afraid because he trusted in his God. Oh mothers, let's raise sons and daughters who are not afraid of the enemy, who will stand against the enemy, who will be warriors for God!

So this time, God raised up a woman, as well as a man. He raised up Barack and Deborah. And you'll remember how Barack said, “I won't go into battle unless you come with me, Deborah.” And so they both went into battle. They won the victory. Praise the Lord!

Actually, the final victory was won by another woman. Do you remember that? Her name was Jael. Now ladies, here's another gruesome story you can read to your boys who love bloodthirsty stories.

Here at the end of the battle, Sisera, that was the captain who had 900 chariots of iron. Wow, he's no longer on his chariots of iron, because the children of Israel, with God's help, had raised up, had risen up, and they had conquered.

Now Sisera is running away, He's just on foot, running away. I don't know what's happened to all his chariots. I was reading, one time, a commentary and it was saying how they all got stuck in the mud. I think they couldn't even use them. So here he is, running away.

And he arrives at the home of Jael. She beckons him in. And she sees he's so tired and completely worn out, so she gives him milk to drink. She lies him down. She puts a covering over him. He goes to sleep.

While he's asleep, she gets a tent peg. And she gets a hammer, and she puts the tent peg right at his temple, and she hammers the nail through his temple, and he dies.

She was the one who actually won the victory, and where did she do it, ladies? She didn't do it out on the battlefront. She did it right in the heart of her home.

Oh, mother, you can be a warrior for God, right in the heart of your home! You're there with your children. You don't have the opportunity to go out into the battle, but you can be a prayer warrior in your home. You can take authority over the enemy that comes into your home. You can conquer him. You can subdue him in your home.

And God says in His Word, in Judges chapter 5, verse 24: “Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.” She was blessed above all the other women. Why? Because she took authority over the enemy. She subdued the enemy, right in the heart of her home.

Oh, that is so powerful. And then at the end of that chapter, verse 31, it says: “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love Him be as the sun when He goeth forth in His might. And the land had rest 40 years.” So after that battle, and subduing the enemy, they had rest for another 40 years. Praise the Lord!

Well, I will just give you two more Scriptures on that point. There's many more, but I think I've got the message over. Then we come to King David, 1 Chronicles 22:18-19. This is after David, he was older now, and he's conquered the land.

Now it's time for Solomon to become king. He says to all the people: “Is not the Lord your God with you? And has not He given you rest on every side?” I love that phrase, ladies, “rest on every side.” Every side. Yes, not just rest here, but there's tension over here. No, rest on every side.

“For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hands, and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before His people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God.”

When they had rest, they were able to build this house of rest. And now Solomon speaks, and David is giving the vision to his son, Solomon. He says, in 1 Kings 5:4-5, “But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. .  . ” That same beautiful phrase again. “so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent, and behold, I purpose to build a house unto the Name of the Lord my God.”

He's got rid of the enemy. The enemy is subdued.  There's rest on every side. And now he can build this house of rest for God.

Shall we pray?

“Dear Father, we thank You for Your precious Word. Every story that is written is not just a story. It is written for our learning. We thank You that every word is a principle for us today. We thank You for showing us today, Lord, this incredible principle, that we must conquer the enemy, we must subdue the enemy, we must defeat the enemy, before we can have rest.

“So Father, I pray for every precious home that I'm speaking into. Lord, if there's tension, unrest, strife, battles going on, Lord, I pray that You will enable these precious mothers to rise up, Lord, with the authority of the Name of Jesus, and the precious Blood of Jesus, and take authority over the enemy, the authority over all evil, and to subdue the enemy in their homes.

“Thank You, Lord, that You have given us the power as mothers to subdue the enemy in our homes. We cannot do it in our own, but we thank You for the precious Name, the wonderful Name, the Name of Jesus. We lift up the Name of Jesus. We lift up the precious Blood of Jesus that has power today. Oh, we thank You, and we thank You that we can take authority over the enemy through the Name of Jesus and the power of the Blood. We thank You, Lord Jesus.

“I pray Lord, that victories will come to these homes, wonderful victories in the Name of Jesus, and that you will give them rest on every side, rest on every side. And their homes will be filled with rest.

“We pray, Lord, for our nation. We pray for God to come against the demonic spirits that are rising up, in people to bring this spirit of anarchy into our nation. We break the power of these demonic spirits in the Name of Jesus. We take authority over them, only because we lift up Jesus' Name.

“And we thank You, Lord, that You will bring us the victory, and Lord, that we will have rest in our nation, and for our children, and for our future generations. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 110: MAKING A HOME OF REST— PART 1

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies. 

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. I hope you got to listen to the last four podcasts where I did a series on the subject of TOGETHERNESS.

It’s a beautiful word in the Scriptures. It’s something that is really God’s plan. When we incorporate all the Scriptures about togetherness it can bring such a blessing to our homes and to our church life.

Togetherness—it’s one of those “ness” words with N-E-S-S on the end.

I love words and I love “ness” words. When “ness” is added to a word it means: “The state or quality of that noun.” For example, “sweetness” is the quality of being sweet.

“In loveness” is the quality of state of being in love.

“Darlingness” is the state of being a darling.

There are loads of “ness” words in the world, but I have found 80 of all these beautiful “ness” words that actually apply to us as wives and mothers in our home. Of course there are many more, but these particularly relate to us.

Now with all of these words I am not going to be able to speak to you particularly on every one because there are so many.

Let me just read you a few of them today. I have A down to Z.

Let me just start with A:

Adorableness, amiableness, availableness, blessedness, braveness, brightness, calmness, chasteness, cheerfulness, cleanliness, courteousness, darlingness, devotedness, dutifulness, faithfulness, femaleness, forgiveness, friendliness, fruitfulness, and so they go on.

I’ll leave some more till next time but today I would like to talk to you about restfulness.

I was thinking about this because I was reading a Scripture of how David wanted to build a house of rest for God. I began to think about it and think how this should also be our vision. We should also want to build a house of rest for God.

Our God is a dwelling God. He loves to dwell.

Right back in the Old Testament we read of how He wanted to dwell with His people, even in the desert. He dwelt in a tabernacle. He went wherever the children of Israel went. In fact, He directed where they went but He went with them. He went before them.

When they stopped, He stayed in their midst, right in the very center of the camp to dwell with them.

He wants to dwell with us now. He wants to dwell in our hearts. He wants to be with us personally. And He wants to dwell in our homes.

God’s favorite place to dwell is in a place of rest. God loves to dwell, but God also loves rest.

He is a God of rest. He wants to bring rest to us when He comes into our hearts, but He also wants our homes to be a home of rest where He can enjoy dwelling.

Shall we look at some Scriptures? In 1 Chronicles 28:2, David is speaking and he’s sharing his vision.

He says: “ . . . As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building.”

David didn’t actually end up building this house. God said that his son would do it, but he got ready for it. You can read later in 1 Chronicles chapter 28 about all the materials that David got ready for the building of this house for God. Oh my, it is amazing how he gathered gold and silver. And everything that would be needed he gathered and had it ready.

There is another beautiful Scripture in this chapter, verse 11: “Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch . . . And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things: Also for the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord.”

And He goes on. All this had to be absolutely ordered and God gave it to David by the Spirit.

I love that. He didn’t just think it up by himself. The Holy Spirit showed him. I think there is a beautiful thought here because, ladies, every one of us are different. Every one of us is unique. Every one of us is going to build our homes differently because we are different, and God doesn’t cookie cutter. He makes each one of us so unique and so different.

That is why we have to seek the Lord like David did. He sought the Lord so God could show him how He wanted him to build this house for Him.

That’s a wonderful thing to do precious mothers. Get before the Lord and ask Him: “Lord, how do You want me to build this house for You? Please show me.”

God will show you and He will show you all the very practical things. All the things that He showed David were so practical. Every little measurement and how to do this and how to do that, it all was practical.

The running of your home is very practical. God will show you how to do the practical things and how to do them the best way for your household.

Sometimes you read books and you read the idea of this mother and it works so amazingly for her. Her house just runs smoothly, and everything works just great. She writes this book about it and you read it. You try to put it into operation and somehow it doesn’t quite work how it did for her.

That is because you are not her. God has made you differently and so you have got to seek the Lord personally to hear from the Holy Spirit how He wants you to run your home.

Isn’t that wonderful?

We go down to verse 19 and it says: “All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.”

Every detail of the pattern God gave him by the Spirit, and He will do that for you, too, dear mothers.

And so you’re going to be seeking to build this house of rest for God.

We go over to Psalm 132. David says here: “Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.”

The Passion Translation says: “ . . . I devote myself to finding a resting place for You! “What a beautiful vision to have: I devote myself to making my home a resting place for God.

My, that’s a big vision, isn’t it, dear ladies? ‘

We know that, just because what life is like, that our homes are not always this beautiful place of rest. Tension comes and things happen and oh my, it seems to be nothing like a place of rest!

That’s why we have to devote ourselves to make our home a place of rest. As we seek the Lord, He will show us by His Spirit.

I’ve written 10 points here. I don’t think I’m going to give them all to you. There will be more than 10. I know you will have lots of wonderful ideas also, but I will share these 10 points with you.

In fact, perhaps before I even get to sharing them, I should also share with you how God also sees our marriages as a place of rest. Did you know that?

Yes, in the Bible, marriage is aligned as a place of rest.

In the story of Ruth in Ruth 1:9, Naomi was leaving Moab because her husband had died, and her sons had died. She was in a state of depression, sadness, and self-pity. She was just going to go back to Judah.

She said to both of her daughters in law: “May the Lord enable each of you to find security in the home of a new husband.” The King James Bible says: “That you may find rest.”

That is the word: Rest.

The Hebrew for rest is menuwchah and it means: “repose, peaceful, consolation, abode; quiet, comfort, refreshment, a resting place; and specifically matrimony.”

In that Hebrew word menuwchah, which talks of rest, refreshment, quietness, and peace, it also means marriage and matrimony.

It’s the same word in Psalm 23:2 where our good Shepherd leads us beside “still waters.” That’s the same word. Our marriage is not meant to be turbulent waters.

Dear ladies, God means it to be still waters. That’s what He desires.

We continue with the story of Ruth and we know that Ruth would not leave her mother-in-law. She went back to Israel with her.

Naomi was very concerned about Ruth finding another husband. She needed to have someone who could provide for her and care for her.

In Ruth chapter 3:1 she says: “ . . . My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?”

The Good News Translation explains it a little more clearly: “ . . . I must find a husband for you so that you will have a home of your own.”

That’s what Naomi was talking about. Although she says, “I’m seeking rest for you Ruth so that it will be well with you and you will be looked after” she was concerned about finding a husband for her.

That word, this time, where the word rest was used, it is a similar word that was used, but not the same. It is the word manowach.

It has a very similar meaning. It means: “a settled spot, a home, a place of rest.”

Sometimes marriages are not always a place of rest, are they? But this is what God intends. God has a beautiful vision for marriage.

He wants our marriage to be a place of rest and a place where we find security, stability, and provision, and a resting place to fulfill our God given career of mothering and nurturing.

It’s very hard for single mums. Maybe some of you are listening today and you are trying to provide for your child or for your children. At the same time you are trying to nurture them and make a home for them. I know many single mums find themselves in this position through no fault of their own.

They need so much encouragement and help because it’s not something we were meant to do on our own. God intends there to be a husband and a wife in the home so that as children come along the wife can be secure.

When she has a husband who knows his mandate from God is to provide for his wife, and to protect his wife and children, then the wife can live in quietness and rest.

She can give herself to the work of managing her home and caring for her children because she doesn’t have to do her husband’s career. You see, God gives a career to the husband and a career to the wife. If we both have the same career, then we can’t really function properly because God has given to the husband that mantle to provide.

God says that if a man does not provide for his family, he is worse than an infidel (1 Timothy 5:8). That is his mandate from God: to provide well for his wife, for his family, so that she can be at rest to do her job, to manage the home, to bear children, and to train and nurture children.

That is a huge career and we cannot do it adequately when we’re trying to do a career out in the corporate world. It just is too difficult.

God has planned that marriage and the home become a place of rest when it is functioning correctly, and the husband is doing his mandate, and the wife is embracing her mandate from God.

THEN WE CAN LIVE IN REST!

It is so sad that there are husbands who want to get their wives out to work and help them earn more money for the family. What happens to the children?

I did mention that when we are living in the plan that God has, the wife and the mother has the opportunity to work in the home and give herself to this work of building her family and raising her family.

There we see two opposites: work and rest.

Did you know that they can actually go together? if we are living at rest, it doesn’t mean to say that we are sitting on the sofa looking at soap operas.

No, that is not the rest that we are talking about here. The rest we are talking about is a state of our soul where our soul is at rest. We can be busy. We can be working hard. We can have many projects that are going but we are in a place of rest.

We’re not doing them because we’re fretful about them. We’re doing them in rest. We can have rest in our soul so that we have this state of rest.

I love Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus said: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest . . ..”

Jesus loves to give us rest. He is rest. When He comes into our lives, He brings rest because He lives in rest. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Nothing gets Him in a state of nervous tension or depression or overwhelmingness. No, everything is under His control. 

When we come to Christ and we receive the forgiveness of our sins, we have rest from sins forgiven. I believe that is the first rest we experience but then the Scripture goes on.

Jesus continues and says: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I love that phrase: “rest unto your souls.” I believe this is something even deeper than the rest of forgiveness of sins and the guilt of sin taken away.

Then Jesus says: “Come, come with Me. Come and sit at My feet. Come and learn of Me. Come and spend time in My Word. Learn of My ways and as you do, you’ll find more and more rest in the depths of your soul.”

This is what God wants to give us. He wants us to have rest as mothers in our souls and in our homes. It’s difficult to do this if we are trying to do careers at once. That’s why God calls marriage a rest.

Of course everything that God ordains Satan seeks to destroy everything. He seeks to destroy marriage. He seeks to destroy the plan for marriage and God’s beautiful plan of the career He has given to man to be that ultimate provider.

Of course wives in the home, many times with gifts they have, they are able to do things that can help generate some income into the home without leaving the home, things that they are able to do in the home.

That’s of course also in seasons. When we have little ones, we don’t always have time to do those things. God has ordained for the man to be that ultimate provider. We have to watch, dear ladies, that we don’t let Satan get his foothold into the home and woo us out of the home, getting involved in not maybe even a career but maybe other things.

There are so many things that we can get involved in outside of the home. Often many of them are very, very good but they’re not very good for you if they are hindering you in the home and taking you away from managing your home affectively and nurturing your children, which is your ultimate mandate from God.

We have to watch that. We dare not be like the woman in the Song of Solomon and she said, “They have made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept” (Song of Solomon 1:6).

We have to watch that. If we haven’t got time to keep own vineyard, well don’t let’s go and keep other people’s vineyards. And so we guard that.

We also have to guard other things. We have to guard tension coming into the home. If we notice tension, then we better do something about it. If we notice evil creeping into the home, we better make sure we cast it out.

We resist all rebellious and selfish attitudes and especially bitterness and hardness of heart. We have to watch those things and those attitudes.

Marriage is all to do with our attitude, isn’t it, ladies? We can choose which attitude we will take.

It’s easy to just go to the negative one. That’s easy. But it’s not so easy to take the godly attitude but that’s the one that brings blessing and God will enable us as we trust Him.

We see that God wants our marriage and our home to be a place of rest. He wants to come and dwell with us and enjoy that rest.

Let’s see some ways that we can do this.

Number one:

MAKE A TIME AND PLACE TO MEET WITH GOD EACH DAY

That’s in 2 Chronicles chapter two. I’ve talked about this before so I will briefly mention it.

This is where Solomon is now beginning to build the house. Remember, David had the vision and he passed it on to Solomon.

In chapter two of 2 Chronicles, verse four, Solomon says: “Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual showbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening . . .” and so on.

Now Solomon was making a house of rest for God, but it was also a place where he could come before God morning and evening and sacrifice to Him.

We see in verse 6 where Solomon says: “But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?”

Back in the tabernacle days there was the principle of the morning and evening sacrifice, the morning and evening lighting of the candles, the morning and evening attending to the fire upon the altar, and the morning and evening lighting of the incense, speaking of praise and worship.

These were places where they met with God. God wanted them to do it morning and evening.

It’s a principle we should continue. We no longer need to do sacrifices, lighting menorahs, and lighting incense, but we are just doing it because we want to meet with God.

We don’t have to do all these external things now but we need to find a time and a place each day where we gather our families and we come into the presence of God to meet with Him, to seek Him, to pray to Him, to worship Him, and to listen to His voice from His Word.

As we do this, we are building a house of rest for God. We’re building a place where He can literally come to us and speak to us. It is a place where we can literally make this time to worship Him and spend time in His presence each day.

I don’t mind sharing this with you again because I know that so many of you have it in your heart to do this, but doing it is another thing. But I have found that unless I make this happen in my home it doesn’t happen.

I have to make it happen. My whole day revolves around our morning time with God and our evening time with Him as a family.

I meet with Him personally, but these are our family times. This paves a way, it builds and prepares us as we make a house of rest, a place for our God to dwell.

If there is no meeting time, if there is no time in the day when we bring our families before the Lord, where is God in our homes? Do we make any time for Him?

You see, we have to make these times. We make these times around the mealtime, around breakfast time, and at the suppertime, the chief evening meal of the day.

We do it at the end of these meals. They become meeting places with God.

I encourage you to do this. This is such an important part of our making a home of rest.

Number two:

FILL YOUR HOME WITH GOD’S WORD

In the same passage in 2 Chronicles chapter two, verse four, it’s saying that Solomon wanted to make this house where he could burn sweet incense for the continual showbread.

The showbread was the twelve loaves of bread that were baked every week and put on the Table of Showbread in the Holy Place. They were always to be there, never, never off the table.

In fact, once a week the priests would eat the showbread and fellowship together before the Lord. But before they took those loaves off, they had to put the new loaves on.

How they did it was:  so many priests would come in and as they took the showbread and the other utensils off the table, then another set of priests would immediately put the new, fresh bread on the table so that there was never a second that the bread was not on the table.

It was called the CONTINUAL BREAD as it is here in 2 Chronicles 2:4: “The continual showbread.”

It speaks of Jesus Who was is the Bread. He is our sustenance. He is our Bread. He is our Life.

It speaks of feasting upon Jesus. It speaks of feasting upon the Word for He Himself is the Word.

It speaks of the written Word and Jesus Who is the Word. We’re to feast upon Him continually.

Of course you can’t just sit and read the Word all day long. But once again, I find it so important that we read the Word at these times, morning and evening, as that principle was established in the tabernacle. It was that morning and evening principle that we read in the Word of God.

You can also have the Word of God around your home. You can have one in the bathroom where you do have to go throughout the day. You can have it open at Psalms and maybe pick up a little Scripture there. You can have another Bible open on your windowsill where you are preparing your meals and doing the dishes.

I used to do that when I was a young mum. I always had a Bible on my windowsill. My windowsill, at the moment, won’t fit a Bible, which is very sad. I hope you have got one that does fit a Bible because it so great. You can look up and get a little bit of sustenance to encourage you throughout the day or whenever you’re at the kitchen sink. That’s a place where you need encouragement too!

And so we fill our home with God’s Word. Psalm 119:165 says: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”

Number three:

FILL YOUR HOME WITH WORSHIP AND BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

Psalm 22:3 says: “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

Now our God, Who is a dwelling God, loves to dwell amongst praise and worship. Precious ladies, if you want God to live in your home and fill your home, fill your home with beautiful worship music.

God loves to inhabit praises.

I was thinking about this the other day. If God loves to live and dwell in praises, don’t you think that we who are His creation, would also want to live in an atmosphere of praises? I think so.

So as we seek to make our home a home of rest, let’s make our home a home of praises where we’re not only praising God, but we’re also praising each other.

We’re praising our husbands. Do you praise your husband? How many times a day do you praise him or speak loving things to him? Make your home a place of praises so they’re just coming out of your mouth. When you see your husband, you’re praising him.

Your children: you’re just praising them, encouraging them, affirming them, and uplifting them.

Just get into the habit. Make it a habit. Seek to think about it, to try and make this a habitual thing that comes out of your mouth, praises and encouragement, and these kinds of words are coming out of your mouth.

It is true how in Proverbs 12:25 it says: “ . . . a word of encouragement does wonders.”

It does miracles!

Ladies, is your home a little bit depressing at the moment? Maybe there is tension. Oh goodness me!

Hey, here’s the remedy: make it a home of praises. Praises to God, praises to your husband, praising your children, praising them all day long.

Oh my, you will be absolutely amazed! Yes, wonders will begin to happen. Miracles will begin to happen. Yes, do it! Okay?

I have something a bit more about this, but I have to wait till next week because time is up.

Let me pray.

“Father, I thank You for every precious wife and mother who is listening today. Father, I pray that You will come into their hearts in a wonderful way. I pray You will come into their homes.

“Lord, where there is tension, where there is strife, where there is bitterness, where there is hurt, oh God, I pray that You will help these dear wives and mothers to change the atmosphere by filling it with praises, with encouraging words, affirming words, praising words, uplifting words, positive words, exciting words.

“Oh God, I pray that You will touch their mouths and take them from the negative into the positive, that You will take them, Lord, from the despairing words and grumbling words into thankful words and praising words and encouraging words.

“Lord, You’ve told us that these kinds of words release wonders into our midst. I ask that You will do this in every home, Father, in the precious name of Jesus. Amen and amen.”

Transcribed by Morgan Roth.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 109: HOW DO WE RAISE CHILDREN WITH GODLY CONVICTIONS IN THE MIDST OF THIS DECEIVED WORLD?

My daughter, Evangeline pops in for a moment to begin the podcast. Then Allison Hartman and I discuss this powerful subject together of how to raise children who are strongly committed to God's truth. I know you will be inspired and encouraged. We then get on to masking on to unmasking! The podcast ends with a great testimony from 18-year-old Audrey Porter from Georgia.

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hi ladies! Here I am again. I have Allison Hartman with me again. But Evangeline, my daughter, has also just walked in the door. So she's going to say hi!

Evangeline: Hi, I just ran up the stairs, and she said, say, “Hi!” So I'm saying hi! Hahaha! Hey, I love all you ladies! Keep on doing the most amazing job in the universe. You know what that is? It's raising the next generation to be the leaders, not to be the “yes people.” Not to be a “give me” generation, but sons and daughters who know their God, who'll be strong and do exploits, instead of just being lukewarm.”

Mum, I haven't even told you of my revelation, but it's here, about the John the Baptist. Jesus is like, He's proclaiming how wonderful he is. We're all raising John the Baptists. We are. He says: “Who did you go out to see?”

You know, so many of us mothers, we take (it's good to keep the children clean and lovely and look nice), but He's like: “Who did you go out to see? Someone decked out in the splendid fashion of the day? Those are the ones who live in the lap of luxury.”

I want to tell you, women, I've been thinking about it in the last couple of days. Do you have a home? Do you have clothes that are nice and respectable today? You're living in the lap of luxury. We're living in the lap of luxury. We have no agenda to feel sorry for ourselves, to think, “Who am I? Look what I'm doing.”

Do you know who God called great? John the Baptist. And he didn't . . . He wore skins of camel's hair and ate locusts.

It's not like we're training our children to do that, but we're training our children with a mindset of God that's above the fashion of today. We've got to rise above the fashion of what you think you have to be as a mother, and what you're training your children to be.

I don't care what mothers really think of me, but it's what God's told me and what He thinks of me. And I tell you today, what God thinks of you is none other than, more than all the words of this world. It's amazing what you're doing. It really is.

I just was down there at the Basic Survival Course (BSC) that my sons put on: Basic Survival and Combat. And all these mothers were there with their children. I was just like . . .  these mothers are doing an incredible job. You're doing an incredible job, ladies. Hey, been good, Mum, I gotta fly.

NC: Thanks, I can't believe it, because Allison and I were talking and thinking, we want to talk about raising children to be leaders, and here you just spouted off with that same vision! Thank you!

Evangeline, Go for it!

Allison Hartman: Go for it! (laughter) OK, that's right.

NC: See ya later, Vange! Oh, that is so good. That is so true, isn't it?

AH: Who wants to be raising status quo children? No, no, we want to be . . . that's so boring, right, Vange?

Evangeline: Yes! (She’s now gone down the stairs).

AH: Nobody wants a status quo child, somebody who just takes whatever they're told. I think like with this latest thing going on with the second wave of COVID, where our government is stepping in and telling us what we can and can't do. you know, whether or not you're a masker or a non-masker, I don't think that's what we want to debate. It's really, I think it should be a personal issue. Like you were saying, you hate wearing masks because you can't even breathe. Whereas Colin said he doesn't mind wearing them. He wears them when he mows the yard.

NC: Only when he mows the yard!

AH: But you know, you see, you read on Facebook people fighting, family members fighting, friends fighting. Division, division, division over “You're a masker!” “You're a non-masker!” I've never seen such a divisive topic. I never thought it would happen. But I think what's on my heart is—our children are watching us. Our children are watching.

My 16-year-old Hallie, she's the quietest one in our family. She's the only quiet one in our family. But she is watching and she's paying attention. Every now and then she'll speak up. The other day she said, “You know, we are in, we should be a country of unity. But yet we're creating this country of division. It's divisiveness all over the place.”

I think this mask thing is the next. You know, the COVID started, and then it went into this civil tension war going on with the Black Lives Matter and now it's moving right on into the second wave of it with the masks. So I just feel like with my children, what I want to do is raise leaders, raise thinkers.

Are you doing what you're told because you were just told to do it? Because if that's why you're wearing a mask, because your state, your city, your governor, your mayor, said you must do it, and you're just blindly doing it, you really have to question your motives. Because I'll share this quote with you. I'm going to read it, and then I'm going to actually tell you who said it.

So the quote that I read, it says: “The best way to take control, the best way to take control over a people, and control them utterly, is to take a little bit of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, people will not see the things, those rights and freedoms, being removed, until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.”

Who in your mind right now would say that? It was Adolph Hitler. (Although some people say it wasn’t his quote).

So we would be, it would be not wise of us to not remember history, remember what happened in Nazi Germany. Adolph Hitler didn't go in there and just take away everyone's rights, guns, and everything, in one fell swoop. He did it slowly and methodically. He did it so that he eventually could say, “You have no freedom. You have no rights.” So yes, I know you want to say something about that. I don't want to take too much . . .

NC: No, that's fine, but I think you know you're training your children to be able to think, and to know what is right. Of course, our most important thing we're going to do, is going to make them to be children who are filled with the Word of God, and with His principles, because that is our underlying foundation of anything in life.

No matter what it is, I will go to the Word, and I find that God has a word to say about everything we face. We have got to teach our children to do that, and take them to the Word, and talk with them about these things. Also, they're going to see what we're doing.

AH: Sure.

NC: Now, you know, we've got onto masks here. But you know it is preparing us. They are just wearing masks, and many are getting their children to do it. I can't even believe that! How do you get children to wear a mask? I can't believe it.

I mean, I think it is dangerous for little children to have masks on. I think they're dangerous. You know, you can go to the supermarket, and you see a family, and the mother is wearing a mask, and the children, those poor little children. Then I watch her, and she's putting into her trolly, what do you call them here?

AH: Shopping carts.

NC: I still use the old words we used back in New Zealand! And she's putting into her shopping cart all these packaged foods that are refined and filled with sugar. And she's putting in Coke, and she's putting all these junk foods into her shopping cart to take home to feed her children! Goodness me! If she would instead fill her shopping cart with fruits and vegetables and healthy foods, and take off their masks, and let them run around in the fresh air, they'd all be so much healthier.

But our children are going to watch us and to see, well, what are mom and dad doing? What are their convictions? Are they just listening to what everybody says? Or are they really seeking out the truth? What is going on here? And so I think we have do that.

But I believe that this is an hour for raising children to be strong in their convictions. It is so sad that we have a generation of young people who have been educated in our schools, our public schools, our public colleges, and universities. They have been trained and infiltrated with socialism and pro-transgender.

In fact, there are many, many schools where teachers are being commanded to lift up those are who are going into this transgender lifestyle. At a couple of our Above Rubies retreats  last year and the year before, we had a family who came, and this guy's a teacher in New Jersey. He's a high school teacher. He is a godly man.

But he's in that system for his work, and he said, it is just heartbreaking. In one of his classes, he has two children who are in the transgender process. He is commanded to make them heroes in his classroom.

So we are in this generation. Our children are in an environment of absolute deception. If we, as parents, don't give them the truth, and talk out these things with them, and speak about them, and take them into the Word, they are going to be, little by little, just taken in by these things, and accept the lifestyle around them.

We have to raise children who will not accept the status quo lifestyle that is current at this moment, which is pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality and pro-transgender. And now becoming victims to whatever mayors or worldly liberal governors say. This is not the world of USA.

AH: And the irony of this liberal agenda is the same people that will say, “My body, my baby, you can't tell me what to do with it.” These are the same people that are saying they're going to force you to wear a mask! Crazy.

NC: That's, wow. You know, Allison, that is unbelievable. I mean, that is so true. These are the people who are demanding their rights to be pro-choice, to murder precious babies in the womb.

I just received this morning, a message from a dear friend of mine. She lost her precious baby at 10 weeks. She said, “Nancy, could I send you a picture?” I said, “Do.” I couldn't believe it. This beautiful picture of this little baby. You could see this precious baby in the womb. And yet so many are murdering them! Murdering them in cold blood in the womb!

AH: They're celebrating it! Celebrating it!

NC: And these same people who demand their rights to murder are going crazy if we don't submit to wearing a mask, wearing a little mask. What's that got to do with life? Oh, goodness me. We have to watch out for this total hypocrisy! We've got to seek true things. I believe it's . . . I was reading in the Word. Actually I was reading this morning in Deuteronomy. I'm reading through Deuteronomy at the moment. I was reading here, let's see, what was the one I wanted to . . .

Yes, it's chapter three, verse 28. And Moses is speaking. He's talking to Joshua, because Joshua is now going to take the children of Israel into possess the Promised Land. What does it say here? Verse 28: “And God told Moses to say, 'Charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people and take them into the Land.'”

You know, it's amazing, how, throughout the Word of God, and I may give you some more Scriptures, how God always wants people who are going to be leaders to be encouraged and strengthened and charged. He doesn't just say, “OK, this is your job.” No, “I charge you. And encourage you and strengthen you.”

Mother! You must continually charge, encourage, and strengthen your children to stand true and uncompromising in this deceived generation!

OK, if we are raising children who are going to be leaders in this nation, and who are going to stand strong in God's truth, we have to be mothers who are constantly charging them, and encouraging them, and strengthening them. You see, it doesn't just happen. It takes that putting into them, that strengthening them, that encouraging them. Joshua couldn't do that job without that being put into him.

AH: Right, right.

NC: I was so amazed by that. I began to look at some other Scriptures. Maybe I'll give a few, because as we talk about things, it's so good to have the Word. I always want the Word as my underlying foundation of truth. If I haven't got the Word for it, well, I haven't really got anything on which to base my convictions.

But over again, we go to the end of Deuteronomy, 31:7-8 It says: “And Moses called unto Joshua,” and he did it again. “And he said to Joshua, 'Be strong and of a good courage, for you must go with this people into the land. And the Lord,'” here is it, “goes before thee, he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed.”

And then we go down a few verses to verse 23, and it says: “And Moses gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge.” And again, He doesn't even just do it once. “And said, 'Be strong and of a good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land.'”

That word, “to be strong and of good courage . . . ” Actually, it's interesting ladies, “be strong” is the Hebrew word chazaq. I think you pronounce it that way. Could be something else. But that's the Hebrew word. “Of good courage,” same word again. The same word is used two times. Be strong! Chazaq! And of good courage! Chazaq!

And what does it mean? “To strengthen, to support, to be strong, to be courageous, to be valiant, to conquer, to seize, to hold fast.” It's a word that's used mostly in battle scenes. And that's how Moses encouraged Joshua because he was going to lead the people.

Now if we have a vision to raise our children to have strong convictions, to be leaders, that would be leaders of maybe just half a dozen, maybe a dozen. Some will be leaders of hundreds. Some will be leaders of thousands. But in whatever capacity, we have to be constantly encouraging, strengthening them into the battle that they're going to face.

I believe that our children, because we are facing it now ourselves, aren't we? A battle. We're in a battle in this nation at the moment. Our children who are growing up, and our young people, they are going to face it. They're the ones who are going to have to have the strong convictions. But we are the ones who are going to put it into them. Amen?

AH: Yeah. And I was just thinking, we all have children of all different types of personalities.

NC: Yes!

AH: So when you say be a leader, or be strong or courageous, it doesn't necessarily look the same in every person.

NC: No! It does not.

AH: You can have a timid, shy child that you can encourage to be a leader, to be . . . My oldest is very much the oldest type, very typical oldest child. But my next two are not so much.

NC: Goodness me, you might say that they're quiet, the most beautiful girls, but I have listened to Eden sit around our table, even when you haven't been here. They were up two weeks ago, and oh, speak out  with such strong convictions!

And then you look at Hallie, only 16, so quiet and beautiful, but my, she is a strong, strong person. You see her going into marriage, being a mother who will just impart strong convictions into her children. You don't have to be people like you and I who are crazy radicals! (laughter) But you can be soft and quiet, but strong, unmoved in your godly convictions.

AH: Something that's so been passionate in my life, because I think we all have to choose our (of course choose the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be our main message that we want to always share), but then I think we all have our own personal gospel.

So for me it has been, since I was a high schooler, has been speaking out for the unborn. A year and a half ago, I was in the shower, and I had this thought that I wanted to put together a shirt that as people looked at it, and they saw my family in this church, they would immediately think, “Protect life.” Protect life, protect life.

So the front of the shirt says, “Choose life,” and the back of the shirt says, “A person's a person no matter how small.” So we've taken that shirt, and we've ended up selling almost 2000 of them. We've given all the money to our local pregnancy centers and Above Rubies.

It's so neat, because my girls will wear those proudly. I don't even tell them to put them on. They'll wear them to volleyball practice. They're not ashamed of them. They're proud of them!

Something my husband was recently listening to . . . it was a group of politicians. They were discussing this whole Black Lives Matter movement, which (but not necessarily getting into that). One thing these politicians were faced with, they were definitely pro-Black Lives Matter.

The guy said, “Yes, ALL Black lives matter! Even the lives of the black unborn.” And the people that were so powerfully for the BLM movement, they completely were silent. The reason I'm saying that is I think it's very important for us to realize that it's OK to be bold and courageous and strong and convicted about certain things.

Let's definitely remember that those unborn, they can't protest for themselves. They can't hang signs up or go downtown to protest. They are, it's a silent scream in there. 

It's just neat to see my children, the ones that aren't necessarily... God made them super-vocal. They still are taking this in, whether it's just wearing a t-shirt, or just sitting down and sharing with somebody, “Hey, I do believe that black lives matter, but I believe ALL black lives matter, even those in the womb, especially those in the womb, because they can't defend themselves.”

Definitely something that struck me pretty powerfully when he said that, that those people were speechless. They didn't have anything else to say. So anyway . . .

NC: Yes, that is so powerful! Yes, let me just give you one or two more Scriptures. I have a few here, a few of so many. We go to Joshua. This time, ladies, it says, “And the Lord spoke unto Joshua.” This is amazing, because Moses has now passed away. Before, it was Moses putting into him, but now God speaks, and He says the same words again, “Be strong and of a good courage.” And then he goes, “Only be thou strong, and VERY courageous” (Joshua 16, 7).

I think that this is an hour for no longer being status quo. We, as believers, we can't be those who say, “Oh well, you know, I'm not sure . . . ” No! We have to, we've got to know what God says! And we've got to be prepared to speak it out. To do that, you have to be not only courageous, but VERY courageous! That's what the Word says here. Very courageous!

When you get a chance later, go to Joshua chapter one. Look at it in your Bible, and underline that “very courageous.” Yes! And then it goes on to say: “Turn not from His Word to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper. This book of the law . . . ” I love this. I memorized this verse when I was just a young teenager. And it's been part of my life all throughout my life.

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee, be strong?” Here is it again!

Oh, God keeps saying this to Joshua, and He told Moses to keep saying it to him. “Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest.”

In 2 Chronicles 35:2, Josiah set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord. That's that word chazaq again, meaning “to strengthen, to be valiant and courageous.”

So that's what we as mothers are doing to our children. We're just spurring them on to be valiant and courageous and strong in the things of God; and who will not waver, who, when they go out into this world, they will stand. Isn't that your greatest prayer?

Oh, you know, that's why so many are homeschooling, because they know their children are not yet ready to face the lions. Because there are lions out there. Lions devour little lambs. That's what they want to do. So we don't send our little lambs out amongst the lions. But we're getting them ready. We're strengthening them, We are pouring into them to be strong and valiant and courageous, and to conquer so that when they go out, they will not waver.

As it says in Ephesians 6:13 that they” will stand and having done all, stand.” They'll still be standing, even after the lions have been after them! Because they will get the lions.

God speaking through Haggai the prophet, says in Haggai 2:4: “Be strong, O Zerubbabel. Be strong, O Joshua the high priest. And be strong, all ye people of the land, says the Lord. For I am with thee, says the Lord of Hosts.”

Joab, when he was fighting the Syrians, he said to his army: “Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly” (1 Chronicles 19:13) Isn't that good? They're all using that same Hebrew word.

2 Samuel 10:12. It's really the same story, but in Samuel it says here: “Be of good courage,” chazaq, “and let us play the man.” I love that. Have you heard that phrase, “play the man?”

AH: Hmm, no.

NC: Yes, it's there in the King James Bible, but when I was reading through the Knox translation of the Bible, every time that it talks about “be strong and courageous,” it was always translated, “play the man.” Now that is a phrase that means, OK, when it says, “play the man,” I love it. Because it means “act like a man”! Men are meant to be strong, valiant, courageous. So act like men!

AH: OK!

NC: Good phrase for today, isn't it?

AH: Sure.

NC: Sadly, we have . . .

AH: And that doesn't mean that women need to act manly in normal life.

NC: No!

AH: But we can act manly in our convictions.

NC: Isn't that right?

AH: Be warriors and fight for what we believe in.

NC: That's right. There he's speaking to men to be valiant in battle. But we, as women, have to be valiant in the battle . . . for this battle between evil and righteousness, and good and evil, and the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. We're in this battle.

AH: One thing I was going to encourage. Something I find that I have a, sometimes challenging thing, to engage in conversation with my teenagers. I have found with the latest things going on in this society today, that a couple of mine have been really interested in what's going on. So I encourage dads and moms to really sit down with your teenagers (I don't really like that word) your young people.

NC: Your young people, yes.

AH: And ask them, “What do you think?”

NC: Exactly!

AH: “What do you think about these protests? How do you feel about this burning down of statues and knocking things down?” It has been, I've had some of the best conversations with a couple of mine. And they have gotten really . . .  Letting them hear what's going on, obviously in a protected way. You're not going to just hand them a phone and say, “You go research it yourself,” because they can really see some stuff you don't want them to see.

But don't be scared of letting them hear what's going on in social events and current events, and then letting them make those judgments for themselves. Bringing them back to Scripture, and then letting them process this, helping them process this.

“What should we do as Christians?” Again, that is how we're preparing them, so from Mom sitting there saying, “OK, this sounds great, but how does that look like in everyday life?” It's sitting down with your 16-year-old, taking their phones from them and saying, “Let's talk. Did you hear that this happened? Now what do you think about that? And how would you have reacted?”

NC: Yes!

AH: Or “Hey, we're about to go into this store. They're going to require masks. What are we going to do as a family? What do you think you should do?” And not just letting them follow you and do whatever you think. But question authority, Is your authority . . .

NC: Yes. So what have your older girls said when you asked them, “OK, you're not wearing a mask.” And what has been their attitude?

AH: Yeah, I think instead of just saying, “Well, whatever Mom and Dad say,” they have been researching it for themselves. We have found that there's definitely some health risks to wearing masks.

NC: Absolutely!

AH: And so because they've been able to view that research on their own, they have an opinion of their own. So when they have gone into a store, and they don't feel like they want to wear masks. They're not sick. They don't feel like it's necessary. Then they've been able to handle that themselves, instead of me telling them, “This is what you're going to say.” It's not just going to be masks; it's going to be everything.

NC: Oh! Everything!

AH: Because everything is going to come up. Because this is just the beginning.

NC: It is, and I think, you know, we're just using masks as an illustration. But it is something to talk about, because first of all, of course, we know that they are not healthy for you. I am surprised that so many people are willing to become victims. Why are people willing to become victims? I do not know.

But you know they are not healthy. Because when we have a mask on, we are breathing out and exhaling our carbon dioxide, which gets trapped when we have a mask. So we keep breathing back the waste that we're meant to breathe out into the fresh air. We're meant to breathe it out, so we can breathe in fresh air. But instead they're breathing in that stale exhaled waste air. And that is ridiculous!

Oh goodness me, I refuse to do that! I just simply refuse. Actually, there are things that you know within yourself that they're just not right. Even if you didn't know the science, and you didn't understand it. OK, they are unhealthy because of what you're doing. You're breathing in your carbon dioxide again. But even if you didn't know that, somehow you know it's not healthy.

It's like back in the years when we started raising our family. And even before God revealed to us His truth about being open to embrace children, we were still, back in those days . . . we started to use some form of birth control. But I would never, I couldn't never, never, never bring myself to use the pill because I knew it was harmful to my body.

Now it's the same thing with the masks. I know it is harmful to my body. I'm not going to wear it. Apart from that, I believe it's more than that. Because I believe it's a symbol of dumbing us down, of silencing our mouths, of tyranny over the population.

OK, I am happy for anyone who wants to wear a mask. But we live in America, the land of the free, and the home of the brave, where we should have the freedom to do what we feel is right. So therefore, we who are healthy, should be able to go without masks because we want to breathe in the fresh air. Also, we're not going to be intimidated by this leftist social fake media, and fake mayors and governors who are trying to rule their constituents.

AH: Right, they're just overstepping there.

NC: It is tyranny, tyranny in the land of the free! And why are people being victims? If everybody said No to this, well, there would be no trouble at all.

AH: Right. And I'm so encouraged by your story in college, because you're . . .

NC: Oh yes! Now we have right here beside us, Audrey, who is my new Above Rubies helper. They are recording our session today. Audrey was just sharing a little incident that she faced. Why don't you share it, Audrey?

Audrey: Of course. So I go to school at Athens Tech when I'm not here at Above Rubies. Athens Tech

had sent out an email to all of the students saying how they would really love it if we would all wear masks, but it is not required to go to school.

So I showed up at my school and walked into my classroom without a mask on. I had two teachers there that day. One of my teachers looked at me kinda funny and pulled the other teacher into the office and started talking to her. They both walked back out. She said, “Where's your mask?”

I said, 'I feel comfortable without one. I don't mind if anyone else wears one, but I'm not going to have one today.” She looked at me very strange, and she said, “I would really like it if you would put a mask on. I would really appreciate that.”

I was like, “Well, it's not an Athens Tech law that we have to have it on. It's not a policy written out.”

She said, “Yes I understand that, but I'm the teacher here, and I'm requiring you to put one on to be in my classroom.” She wasn't even the main teacher. She was an assistant teacher.

So I said “I have to respectfully disagree with you. It's not an Athens Tech policy, so I don't have to put one on.” So she said, “Well, I'm going to require you to leave and go get one.” At the time, the college had a policy that once we showed up for class, we couldn't leave until we were ready to be done for the day. I said, “I'm not done for the day yet, so I'm not going to leave. Do you have a mask I can put on? I'll help you out today, and I'll put one on if you have one for me.” I knew she didn't have one.

She said, “No, I don't have one.” I said, “Well, I'm not going to leave.” She got very frustrated and said that she would have to go work in a separate building because she didn't feel comfortable being there.

It was kinda scary. I went to the bathroom, and I called my mom. I was like, “Oh my goodness, this is happening, what should I do?” And she said, “Well, do what you know is right, because that's what we've taught you to do.”

So I walked back in there with a new courage that I knew what I had to do, and she really encouraged me to act on it. It was definitely scary, but it gave me a lot of encouragement. I feel like we're being tricked into thinking we don't have power. Especially young people, that we follow the guidelines that  we've been taught, and we don't waver from them. It gave me so much encouragement to think that I have authority to stand up for what I believe in and to stand up for what's right.

NC: Oh, I love that.

AH: You were probably the only student in the class that didn't have a mask.

Audrey: Actually I was not. The other students, after that, started taking their masks off. Only one of them kept the mask on the whole day, because I believe she had someone in her family that had an autoimmune disorder. I do as well, but she was not scared of it either. My sister has an autoimmune disorder. And she said, “I eat healthy, I haven't had any problems, so I'm not scared.” After that, a lot of the other students started taking their masks off, and weren't scared any more, which was such empowerment! That when you stand up for what's right, you change the world. You really do!

NC: That is amazing! Because it only took one person to take a stand. That is the most powerful thing of this whole session. That  is so wonderful! Thank you!

AH: I think in our city, everybody who's listening, probably most of you had your mayors come down and say you must wear masks. Again, I don't think we or you are trying to tell everyone that they should or shouldn't wear a mask. That's not the point. 

NC: No! It's the freedom!

AH: The point is, it's the freedom. Don't just feel like, don't force your . . . If you have young people who are on their own, don't encourage them to, “Hey, be submissive. Make sure you do whatever you told.”

Because it's not going to just be masks next time. It's going to be something else. It's not just . . . they

are going to be asked to do things that maybe you wouldn't even want them to do, even if you're a pro-masker out there.

But if you're raising your children to be “Yes, ma'am!” type people, then what happens when someone comes along and says, “Hey, don't you think that it's OK to question your sexuality?” “Well, my mom never really taught me to question things, so I guess you're right.”

We just get into this rut, kind of, of constantly taking what we're told, and not questioning authority. Not that we want to raise rebellious children, but we definitely want to raise children like Audrey, that will think for themselves, that are not scared to stand up for things like . . . Stand up for the unborn, and do it boldly, and do it unapologetically.

NC: Yes, and I think we have to also know what is the truth. Now each state, you need to find out, is it a statutory law in your state? If it is not an actually written statutory law, you do not have to obey it at all. In fact, they are in the wrong in putting it on you.

So we have to watch these things, because I think this mask thing is really just indicative of a trial run. Because, OK now, you're not allowed to go into the shop if you don't have a mask. You're not allowed to do this, (gasp) you're not allowed to do that (gasp)!

Now, what happens when we know, according to the Bible, there is going to come a time when we will face the mark of the beast? OK, it's all these believers who are already giving in to just wearing a little mask. They can't even be prepared to stand up for freedom in this! How are they going to stand up against the mark of the beast when they will not be allowed to buy or sell unless they take it?

Now that's going to take strength, and that's going to take martyrdom. Well, we'd better learn to have convictions now, and practice standing up. I believe with all my heart. Oh, what do you say?

AH: It's so true. I'm almost saddened to see a lot of the fighting that's going on on social media. I was sharing with you earlier, just how, like as a business owner, is this going to affect our business? Are people going to start, “Well, I'm not doing business with a local bakery in our town.”

They've been around for 50 years. They made a post on Facebook that they were not going to allow people to come into their store without a mask on. Just simply, they didn't say whether they agreed or disagreed. But the comments that they got! One lady said, “I'm canceling my cake orders! From now on, I will never walk into your store again!”

And then you've got others saying, “Oh, thank you for supporting people that have immunity issues!” I thought, my goodness, over masks, you've got such fighting and division! Families basically writing off their children because they don't agree with masks. Goodness! And you're right. It's just going to be . . . the next time will be something more important than masks.

NC: Yes, it comes back to, you know, this freedom that we have in this nation. We are the land of the free, and I believe we should keep our freedoms. We should stand for our freedoms, and not let them go. But anyway, we could talk for hours about a thousand things, and we must end now. We're over time.

Oh, Father, we've got a little bit controversial for some people, maybe, on this podcast, but we're so used to talking about things like this, and controversial things. We just think it's normal. But Lord, we pray, that You will help us all, Lord God, to seek You, and Lord, not to be victims of, Lord, a media which is a fake media, Lord, which is dishing out lies, and which is pro-murder in the womb, and pro-transgender, and hateful of God, and against the church.

“Lord, why, why do believers listen to these words that are coming from these people? Help us to be discerners, Lord, to discern who is speaking.

“Lord, most of all, we want to hear You. We want to dig into Your Word. We want to hear Your Voice speaking into our hearts. Give us courage, Lord, courage. Help us to be strong and valiant and courageous. Very courageous to stand in this hour, and to stand according to Your Word, and to stand for our freedoms according to the Constitution. We ask it in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”