FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 41: HOW CAN WE CHANGE THE WORLD? Part 7

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies. I am so excited that I have Serene with me again today. We are so blessed to have her. At the end of last week's poddy, I mentioned a Scripture, but I didn't have the right reference for you, so I must give that to you. I was talking about how the Hebrew word for sperm is the word zerah. It's so amazing that God, in His Word, uses the same word for people. This was the Scripture I was trying to give you, and it was about Jacob coming down from Canaan down to Egypt where Joseph was going to look after him and his family because of the famine.

Genesis 46:5-7, that's the reference. It says: “And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father and their little ones and their wives, and they came to Egypt. Jacob and all his seed with him.” There's the word, zerah, the same word used for sperm. Now, did all these little sperms float down from Canaan? No, they were people. They were his sons and his grandsons, his daughters and his granddaughters, as the next verse says. It says it again: “And all his seed,” meaning all his children, from his sons to their children, three generations, maybe more, coming down to Egypt with him. We see that the Scripture uses this same word for people of all ages.

We see it again, Isaiah 59:21 where God says: “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord, my spirit that is upon thee and my words that I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed.” There it is again and it means your children. Yes, they started from a sperm, the word zerah, and now Scripture is still calling them zerahs, “nor out of thy seed’s seed,” meaning out of their children's children, “saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.”

What about Psalm 37:25: “'I have been young,' said David, 'now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed.'” zerah, but of course meaning children, “'nor his children begging bread.'”

Do you remember when God came to Abraham, and he told him to come out and look at the stars? He said to Abraham, well I think it was Abram at that time, “Look at the stars, if thou be able to number them, and he said to Abram, so shall thy seed be.” The word is for sperm but also for children. It's used hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times in the Bible for people, for little ones, children, teenagers and adults. We are reminded again, this is how God sees it. He sees that a person begins with the sperm.

Now, of course, I have to say that the sperm is not the new person. It becomes a new person when the sperm joins with the egg, and then it's called a zygote. I don't really like that word, do you? I don't like a lot of these medical words, zygote, and oocyte (ovum) and all these words (they don’t sound very human or nurturing). I love what the Bible says. Do you know what the Bible calls a baby in the womb? “With child.”

Serene: That's beautiful.

Nancy: When someone is having a baby it says, “with child.” Isn't that lovely?

Serene: I don't want to interrupt you, but I started this interesting thought. You're talking about how the Bible calls carrying a baby “with child.” An interesting line of thought about when the Bible says life begins. Of course, we know in the understanding now of science is that conception and also in the Bible it says that He breaths life at conception. It's so interesting that when Mary was told: “Don't be afraid, you're going to be overshadowed with the Holy Spirit, and you're going to be carrying the Son of God,” when she conceived life by the Holy Spirit. then the angel, at the same time, says: “Elizabeth, your cousin is six months with child.” She goes down to Elizabeth, and the life inside of Elizabeth's womb leaps and Elizabeth says: “What honor do I have that my Lord has come to see me?” (Luke 1:43). The Bible calls the baby in her womb already LORD!

Nancy: Yes, isn't that amazing?

Serene: The Bible says she stays with Elizabeth for three months. At the time of Mary's conception, the angel says Elizabeth is six months. She goes and stays for three months because it says she stays until the baby is born. When he basically told Mary, “you are now carrying the son of God,” that was the first moment, so it was already considered to be the Son of God.

Nancy: I know, isn't that amazing?

Serene: The time-frame was given. Isn't that interesting?

Nancy: It's beautiful and the fact, Serene, I think this is incredible that, “my LORD.” Isn't that revelation that Jesus, in the womb, was the age many babies are being aborted at that time.

Serene: Before that because when she went to Elizabeth, Elizabeth was six months and then she stayed three months from there, so at their greeting, Mary was just a few days from conception.

Nancy: That's right!

Serene: That's what I'm trying to say. He's called “LORD” right at the conception time (Luke 1:43)!

And adding a little bit here for you ladies. The word LORD in the Greek in this Scripture is kurios and mans “supremacy, supreme in authority, Master, God, Lord.” He owned this name at the very beginning of conception, the time when many babies are being aborted)!

Nancy: Yes, at the beginning,” my LORD.” Goodness, not even a child in the womb, but “my LORD.” Have you got it, precious ladies?

Another little article, I wonder if you noticed it. It was way at the back in the new issue of Above Rubies #96 on page 28. I have a little article called, “What do you call a Pregnant Mommy?” I speak here about how the Word of God so often says when a mother is pregnant, she is “with child.” Now, there are three different Hebrew words that I used to explain “with child,” and then we go over to the New Testament and there are two Greek words that I used.

One of them, I love the word brephos. That word is used of Jesus. Again, it was used of Jesus, and it says how she was with child of the holy Ghost and that's the word, brephos.

Then we come over to chapter 2 of Luke and verse 12: “And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in manger.” The word brephos, was used of a baby in the womb. Now it's used of the baby who's just born and again, in verse 16: “You'll find the babe lying in a manger.” Brephos.

Then we go over to 2 Timothy 3:15 where Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says: “From a child, thou hath known the holy Scriptures.” Well, how old was he as a child? Well, I'm sure they began giving the Scriptures to him at a very early age. The same word is used of the baby in the womb to the little baby that's born and now the little baby who is a child. We are seeing this one in the womb is a child from the time of conception. Isn't it amazing?

Serene: Science calls it embryo, whatever, the child, when inside the womb, when it only weighs 1/30^th of an ounce. It has all the internal organs of the adult in various stages of development. It has little lips, an early tongue and buds for twenty milk teeth. Its sex and reproductive organs have begun to sprout.

Now, I'm allowed to say it. This is the most incredible news. It's your podcast so you can say it.

Nancy: No, you're allowed. You're the mother.

Serene: No, I'll say it on my poddy.

Nancy: You're the mother. I'm only the grandmother.

Serene: No, you can say it on your pod, and I'll say it on my poddy.

Nancy: Well, it is so wonderful. Now, many of you have been those who have faithfully prayed for our grandson, Arden. You know that he did have cancer. God has miraculously healed him. We thank you for your prayers as we went through those trying and terrible times while he was stage four, but God has brought him through. One of the things that we kept crying out to God for as we were praying through this was that he would not lose his fertility. When Arden and Esther were married, they just longed to have a baby. In fact, I think they took a pregnancy test on their honeymoon. Is that right?

Serene: Bought one.

Nancy: They longed to have a baby, and yet, of course, they went through all this instead. They have longed and waited and hoped, but now, we have the news. They have conceived and are now expecting a baby! September isn't it, Arden?

Serene: Yes!

Nancy: God has been so faithful

Serene: We have seen the little baby on a sonogram. We've seen the little hands and the little feet, the two eyes and the beating heart. It's unbelievable. I can't wait! Bringing that all up, because when they had the sonogram, the baby was eight weeks.

Reading this book by Randy Alcorn, it says by eight weeks, hands and feet are almost perfectly formed. Now Arden and Esther are now entering in to the ninth week of the baby. They are inside of the ninth week. By the ninth week, a child will bend fingers around an object placed in the palm. Fingernails are forming and the child is now sucking its thumb. The nine-week baby has already perfected a somersault, back flip, and scissor kick. The unborn nine-week old baby responds to stimulus and may already be capable of feeling pain.

Now, the reason I want to say that is because abortions at this time are called early abortions. They are already capable of feeling pain. Already they are doing back flips and somersaults and kicks, putting their hand and enclosing it around an abject.

Nancy: That is a child!

Serene: I'm saying, the only difference where we are celebrating all these amazing things that this sweet baby is doing and learning and growing in, we are celebrating it because this baby is wanted. There is no difference with the facts that the baby is a baby to the nine-week-old baby that is being aborted. The only reason they say it's a clump of tissue is because it's not wanted. The facts are the facts. These poor beautiful ladies are being told not to look at the screen of their baby when they go into these abortion clinics. Why? Because the facts are the facts. It's sad because the baby is a baby no matter if it's wanted or unwanted.

Nancy: Yes, exactly. It is a baby being created in the image of God. Isn't it incredible all the little things that baby is already doing? It's so exciting and amazing. For people to stop the life of this little child is nothing less than murder, and we should call it what it is because so many things in society now are called names to lessen what is really happening, but we need to call things what they are.

Serene: Yes, and I want to say this too because this is just incredible. After the first three months, nothing new develops or begins functioning. Nothing new. It has all happened in the first three months. It's growing but nothing new. It's all done. But we are growing for the rest of our life. A three-year-old isn't fully grown, so we just lop it's head off? That's the point.

“God, take the wool off of all of our eyes and our society’s eyes.” Because this fully intact child is just growing and maturing as it goes through life. Every abortion, unless life is lost through miscarriage, every abortion, it's an undisputable, scientific fact that it stops the beating heart and stops already measurable brain waves.

Nancy: I know; it's incredible. We are talking in this series about changing the world. Dear lovely ladies, you can help change this in our society. I can help it as we stand up for what is truth, as we educate our children in what is truth. We have got to do this, and we have got to be a voice.

Serene: Sometimes, like we said yesterday in the pod, sometimes it takes opening up your eyes again. Sometimes it takes viewing things that aren't comfortable to view. I notice with my children, you know, they would go down to abortion clinics, and not at all in any disruptive, awful way, but in a very gentle way, just praying outside of abortion clinics and holding up signs that Jesus loves babies but nothing at all in any violent way or violent message or anything like that. Just standing up for life.

But sometimes they would get exhausted and say, I can't be bothered, I'd rather just hang out at so and so's house. After watching Gosnell, that's all they want to do. The reality of it can fall away from your brain space. Even if you're about the work, sometimes you can forget the purpose and the meaning behind the work you're about. It's like Martha. She was running around serving Jesus and the disciples. Maybe she forgot what Mary knew, who was at Jesus' feet. It's great to be about the work of life and being an activist for life, but we've got to remember sometimes and reeducate ourselves so that there's PASSION behind it.

Nancy: Yes, we do. We have to keep reminding ourselves and also the fact that we are constantly, well science, is finding out more and more wonderful things. We need to keep reeducating ourselves so that we are up with the information so that we can share with people. Once again, another reminder, don't forget to get Gosnell if you haven't seen it yet. Do watch it with your children, especially your teens and bring in others.

Serene: Another thing too, I'm getting my children for homeschooling is Randy Alcorn's, “Why Pro-life: Caring for the Unborn and their Mothers.” It's a great read for older teen boys and girls. I'd get the updated version because it's the updated facts.

Nancy: Yes, that is so good. Maybe I should get that and have it available through Above Rubies too.

Serene: Another thing I love about it is that he goes into the beginning, why abortion. He goes into the whole history about Margaret Sanger and genocide. Oh, my goodness, the heart behind it was evil, was the devil, was demonic. The Nazi whole thing was just a tiny window into all that's behind abortion. The interesting thing he goes and talks about is everyone these days is about women's rights, women's rights, women's rights, but abortion is actually the most opposing of all women's rights because abortion has opened up for more female death than ever before. In India and in China, these nations, they want the men to be able to provide so there are more girls killed and murdered through abortion than boys. If a woman, through sonogram, finds out she is pregnant with a girl in China and India, 80 something percent of them are aborted.

Nancy: It's horrific, isn't it? It's hard to even take in. I had a few little interesting thoughts. I mentioned before that when the 23 chromosomes of the egg or the ovum and the 23 chromosomes of the sperm come together, they are yoked and it's called a zygote. I was interested to notice that it's actually a Greek word. It comes from the Greek word, zygotes, which means “to join, to be yoked.” When the ovum and the sperm are yoked together, then they become this living organism. They were living cells, but now it's a living organism, which is the very beginning of this new life.

It's amazing how you pick up things, and I noticed that we have a word in the Bible that's also so similar to zygote, and it means exactly the same. It's zogos and it's the word in 2 Corinthians 6:14 where it says that believers should not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. That's interesting because they use that same word meaning to be joined or yoked together. Isn't that interesting?

There are lots of types in the Bible. You know that when the egg and the sperm meet, they keep finding out new things all the time. Science is exciting. We have to keep up with it because a lot of things they used to think are no longer valid because they are finding more understanding. Both the ovum and the sperm have a protein around them which helps them come together. If they didn't have that, they wouldn't be able to. After they've come together, then that protein disappears. One of the reasons is that another sperm will not be able to come in and penetrate the ovum.

Also, another thing happens, it becomes hardened around the edges so that no other sperm can penetrate once it is joined together. That's an interesting thing, and it just made me think. You see, there are little types all the way along in God's plan, and I thought of the type of marriage. How that when a couple are married, when a man and wife come together, from that moment, they are yoked. You see, it's the word, zygote, yoked, they are joined together, they are couple together in a yoke and that yoke is not ever to be separated. Around that yoke, like the newly formed, it's now a zygote, it has this hardening around so that nothing else can penetrate.

This is something we need to know in our marriage, even young couples getting married. From the day you get married, that is the last day you have another special male friend. Of course, you'll have lots of male friends that you enjoy with your husband along with others but never on your own. You will never ever go out, out to lunch, out to supper, out to have an afternoon with another man. No, no one ever comes and penetrates your marriage. No. What are our marriage vows? “FORSAKING ALL OTHERS”. I thought that is a little type that goes back to the baby.

Serene: So amazing.

Nancy: It is amazing. There are so many types. God is so amazing. Even in the way He planned sexual intercourse. Now, the sexual part of the man, it goes forth, it stretches forth, and that's who the man is and that's who he is in his life. He's the one who goes forth; he goes out to provide; he's the leader. That's how God has made him.

Now, the woman, she embraces the seed, and it is taken and hidden in the heart of her being. This is how God intends her to be in the home. It's a picture, once again. Now, a lot of women don't like to know this, but this is God's picture. Psalm 128:3: “Your wife is like a fruitful vine in the heart of the home.” In the heart, there in the home, but not wasting her life. No, she has the greatest career of all time, raising and nurturing and teaching her children and building the nation to be a great nation. Of course, Satan knows all this stuff, and he tries to wipe it out. Just interesting, a few little types along the way.

Serene: So good. Another word, when you're talking about words, I don't remember what it is, but when it says in the Bible about Adam, it says that God breathed life. What is that Hebrew or Greek word? What is it? Do you know what it is?

Nancy: He breathed life. Well, we better have a look.

Serene: I think it’s plural, lives. The breath of lives into you. He breathed into Adam the breath of life, but in the Hebrew and Greek, I believe it's a plural word. The breath of lives.

Nancy: Well, we will just check it out because we always have to be absolutely right exactly what we tell people.

Serene: Breathes into his nostrils the breath of life and man becomes a living soul. I think it's plural. Then I'll tell you my thought about it once I found out.

Nancy: Genesis 2:7. We’ve got to be absolutely right in what we share with all you lovely ladies. It is the word, chai.

Serene: Is it plural?

Nancy: It doesn't say it's plural. I'm so sorry.

Serene: Well, I just read a book, and it says the breath of lives, but is there another word?

Nancy: Could be another word.

Serene: There's another word, and they said it was plural. When it said, the breath of life, when he breathed in the breath of life, this one book said, “the breath of lives.” It wasn't just for you to be a life, it was for you to be a life-giver. It was in interesting book. It was actually a book encouraging people after abortions and miscarriages. I'll have to look up the word.

Nancy: Yes, it could be in another Scripture. Talking about life, this is the thing too that we have to see, is that God's kingdom is a kingdom of life. God is all about life; it's who He is. He’s a life-giver. He's the one who gives life. No one else can give life. Of course, Satan hates this. You know why, ladies? Because he can't give life. Satan has no power or capability of giving life, so he is against life. He hates it.

That is why Jesus said in John 10:10: “I have come to give you life abundantly.” What does the devil do? He comes to rob, to kill and to destroy. It's very interesting that there are three things mentioned there, a trio. Isn't this what Satan has today? A trio. A trio to stop life—contraception, sterilization, and abortion. It is a trio of destruction to stop life.

Of course, I know, I am sure each one of you listening today are against abortion. It horrifies you, but I think that a lot of us haven't quite got it yet that contraception, sterilization, and abortion are all the same thing, in different ways, of course, but they all have the same motive, the same purpose to eliminate and destroy life. In fact, abortion is really only the back-up plan.

Contraception is the very first thing on the mind of Satan, the devil, the one who comes to rob, kill, and destroy because he wants to eliminate life as much as he possibly can. If he can eliminate it through contraception, he's just won a great victory. Of course, a lot of times it doesn't work, so abortion is the back-up plan.

Now, I do feel, lovely ladies, until we really understand this as the people of God, I don't think we can win the victory in the abortion issue. How can we win this victory for life when so many Christians, and I know so many are just doing it ignorantly. They have not been educated or informed. They come to church faithfully, but no pastor gets up and teaches them the truth about this; this very, very powerful truth that should be taught in all churches. About life and that when we contracept, we are stopping, we are contracepting life from going into the world. We are stopping life. We are stopping, many times, life that God has intended to come forth.

I believe that one of the reasons why we are in such a place in our nation today, where there is such a fight to hang on for righteousness and life and godliness and now we have the socialists, and the extreme feminists  and leftists, and progressives with their communist agenda which is against life, and we are trying to fight it. Wow, are we really winning? We should have so many more to stand up as a voice against it, to vote against it, but we haven't got them. They are not here because God's people have stopped them coming into the world. They have stopped the godly seed, so we have eliminated the godly in the land, when God intends his people to fill the land.

Serene: Amazing. Sorry, I was listening, and I was actually being naughty because I was looking up that Hebrew word.

Nancy: Oh yes, do, because we want to find out about it.

Serene: The Hebrew word for life I was talking about there is the word chayim. It's a plural noun.

Nancy: Chayim. Yes, it's plural. It wasn't in that Scripture, but it could be in other Scriptures. Chayim is the plural definitely.

Serene: Of breath of life.

Nancy: Yes, because when they have “im” on the end of a Hebrew word, it's plural.

Serene: Yes.

Nancy: We've got to get the Scripture where that word is. While you're finding that, let me just read you from Exodus 1, and this is how it's meant to be. This is talking about the children of Israel in Egypt, and it says in verse 7: “And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them.”

Dear ladies, this is the picture of how God intends the land to be filled with His people. The godly giving glory to Him, filling the land with His glory. Raising children, filled with His spirit, who will take His salvation and His truth and His justice into the land. This is God's plan, but we have forfeited His plan. We have stopped His plan. All because of many times, selfishness, sometimes rebellion, but perhaps mostly ignorance. We have been educated with lies, so we don't know the truth, and we don't know God's plan.

If we want to win, we've got to multiply. Do you know why? Because God's principles never change. God's first commandment, but it was also His first principle, the very first words He ever said to man. Well, before He said them, He did something. Before God spoke these words, He blessed Adam and Eve. He poured out His blessing on them and then He said: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” But He didn't stop there. He went on to say, “subdue and take” (Genesis 1:26). It is a progressive law of God that those who are fruitful are those that will subdue and take dominion.

Dominion comes through fruitfulness, multiplying. This picture we are reading here in Exodus chapter one how they waxed exceeding mighty because they filled the land. In verse 9, the new pharaoh said, “Oh goodness me, these people, the children of Israel, are “more and mightier than we are.” That is what God intends for His people. Now, we could be that, if we brought the children forth that God wanted us to and raised them for Him. Think of the thousands and millions of godly people filling the land with His joy and His love and His salvation and His truth and justice. It's unbelievable.

But then, of course, we know what happened, that they were so scared of the people of God that they began to afflict them. But verse 12, “The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” and so on. This is how it's meant to be. This is what God wants. Let’s be who God intends us to be. We are either on God's side, which is His kingdom, which is the kingdom of light, or we are in the devil's kingdom which is the kingdom of death. If we stand for stopping life, can we say that we're in God's kingdom, which is a kingdom of life? There are only two kingdoms. One, the devil’s, who comes to rob, kill, and destroy, and God's kingdom which is a kingdom of life, which loves life and wants to bring forth the godly seed.

I'm thinking of Malachi 2 where it's talking about marriage. What does it say? The married couple, they come together, and God looks. What does He look for in the marriage? It says, “What does He want from this marriage?” and then it goes on to say in verse 15: “I look for the godly seed.” There's that word zera again, the word that is used for sperm and the word that is used for children. Most translations will say: “I look for godly offspring,” or “godly children.” That's what God looks for in our coupling and joining together. He wants a godly offspring. He wants them to fill the world, and this is His plan. Let's not forfeit God's plan. Amen? I'm going to pray, and I think we might need one more session on this subject.

“Lord, we thank You. We thank You for Your divine truths. They are so amazing and Lord, You're allowing scientists to see more and more and more of Your divine truths, as we see and behold the glory of the baby in the womb. It's unbelievable.

“Lord God, we pray that You will awaken us more and more to stand for Your truth. We pray that You will awaken Your people across this nation. You'll awaken your church, You'll awaken pastors and teachers, You'll awaken every God-fearing person to stand and be a voice in this nation against murder of precious life that is being created in the divine image of God.

“Lord, help us not to be dumb-downed, to be deceived, but Lord, to know the truth. We pray for Your truth to come forth in a mighty way in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

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Episode 40: How Can We Change The World - Part 6

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

I am joined today by my daughter, Serene Allison of Trim Healthy Mama. We begin the subject of not only being on the side of life, but adamantly advocating for life. We make it a habit to choose life in every situation, from conception to the grave.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Wonderful to be with you again. And sitting right beside me is my lovely daughter Serene, and her darling little baby, Solly! Are you going to say “Hi.” Solly?

Serene: She will, probably as we go along. Probably has a lot to say, about this subject too!

Nancy: Yes, well, it's so wonderful to have Serene today, because, wow! She's so busy! A mother, of 14 children! Wow! Nine biological.

And little Solly, she is sitting here. She always sits with Serene, no matter where, even on their own poddy. I know that most probably all of you listen to the THM poddy. Of course, that poddy was No. 1 for health last year, in the whole world!

So, the reason I've got Serene with me today is that Pearl is away this week. I said, “Please, Serenie Beanie, would you come and be with me?” She really hasn't got time, but here she is!

Serene: Of course, I've got time!

Nancy: So that is so exciting. Anyway, we are speaking at the moment in our podcast about HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WORLD? I believe that we are meant to be changing the world. Yes, you in your home, as a mother, and we have the power to do this.

We are up to point number 13, and I've got quite a few more to go. This one is:

No. 13. ALWAYS ADAMANTLY ADVOCATING FOR LIFE

We're finding that if we're going to change the world, we can't be ordinary about anything. We've got to be extraordinary.

Now in regard to the subject of life, I believe we have to be more than those who say, “Yes, I believe in life.” No, we have to ADAMANTLY believe in life.

Serene: And I love, I was just thinking, on our poddy, my poddy, we've been talking about THE POWER OF YOUR WORDS. You know, death and life, and the power of the tongue. Just when you were talking about adamantly believing in life, I was thinking about, wow, I've never thought about that before, how death and life are in the power of the tongue.

We need to, it's good that we're talking about this subject, because sometimes it's so politically incorrect today to talk about life and abortion issues that it's not spoken out enough. But death and life wages here, death and life, and the power of the tongue. So you're right, it's not just about speaking about it, but it starts with speaking about it. Speaking, and then the action comes, definitely.

Nancy: Yes, because what we speak about is what we're passionate about. Why should we be adamant and passionate about life, ladies? I believe it's because God is passionate about life. He is the author of life. He loves life. He loves to give life. He's the Creator of life.

Serene: Life in every area. We're specifically talking about life here in humans—conception, and human form. But you know, life in every area of life, we stand with God. We stand for life, whether it's eating. We choose life every day whether its on our meal plate.   

You know, whether it's our attitude, we choose life. We don't choose negativity. We choose to look at, you know, like the Bible says, think of things that are noble and great and pure. These are things we think about. So we choose life in our thought patterns. We choose life in our marriage. We choose to focus on the things that breathe life in our marriage, not the destructive, looking at all the negatives of the other person. So life, yes, in every area.

Nancy: Yes, and I think, especially as wives and mothers, we are the life-givers of our home. Yes, life begins in the womb, and we have the privilege, privilege, a blessing to bring forth life. But it doesn't stop there, as you said.

We've got to speak life-giving words, create life-giving meals, life-giving attitude. We've just got to release life, life, life, all the time. We don't always do it. Sometimes we can get negative, and so on. And really, that's just what produces death. So we just need to be encouraged, don't we?

We want to encourage you today to choose life in every area of your life. When you wake up in the morning, and all through the day, you'll have opportunities where you can choose death, or can choose life. And we have to CHOOSE LIFE!

Serene: And as we talk about the subject of life, conception in the womb, we bring it forth from a place of total . . . no condemnation . . . we bring it forth from a place of going forward, not looking back in the past. I have so many wonderful friends myself, personal wonderful friends, who have had abortions, but who are incredible, incredible people that have been forgiven by the Lord, and are wonderful mothers.

They were hoodwinked by the devil, and they were sold a lie. You know, they have suffered grievous consequences, of just painful . . . but this is where God released them, God can release totally, but you know, they're the victims as well, the victims of the deception. So this is not here to bring anyone down. This is not a condemnation, but it's a moving forward. How are we going to look at it from this point onward?

Nancy: Yes, that's so true, Serene, because, as you know, I have Above Rubies retreats for ladies. We have Above Rubies retreats for families, where my husband comes and speaks too, to the men. One of our traditions at our retreats is that every Sunday morning at our closing session, we have testimony time.

I love it, because I love hearing the stories of the ladies. Often, I look around at these beautiful ladies who come to these retreats, the lovely wives and beautiful mothers. Then, one of these most beautiful, gorgeous mothering ladies (you'd think she had been mothering from she was a little tiny tot) gets up and gives her testimony.

I'm listening, and my mouth gets bigger and bigger as I listen. Well, she only had six abortions! And here she is now, today, the most beautiful mother. But God is able to redeem in all things.

Serene: All things are new. Every day is a new day, and we're new creatures in Christ. All things are possible. Our sins are just totally separated as far as the east is from the west. I mean, they can never ever come in contact.

Nancy: Yes, but the thing we've got to do is choose life. Because these are the words of the Bible.  I think it would be good if we begin to talk more and more about this in this session. To start off with this Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:15- 20. I'll just read a little bit of it:

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil; In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes and his judgments, that thou may live and multiply: and the Lord your God will bless you in the land.”

Verse 19: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore,” and here's the words that we need to take and make part of our lives! “Therefore CHOOSE LIFE.” That's what we have to do. In every little and big area of our lives, choose life, “that you and your children may live, and that you may love the Lord your God, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cling to him: for he is your life, and the length of your days”

So there we've got it in the Word. Choose life.

Serene: Yeah, and, where do we choose it? And how early? Like the abortion people, pro, pro-choice, which is not really about pro-choice . . . really, it's such a confusing . . .

Nancy: Yes, very confusing! Because there, God is telling us, choose life! God gives a choice!

Serene: Choice is a good thing. Make good choices!

Nancy: Isn't it amazing? God says choose life and good. You want good in your life? You want blessing in your life? You choose life!

Serene: I believe you do, an individual has total choice over their own life, and God wants that to be a good choice. So we're PRO-GOOD CHOICE, not pro-choice.

However, the problem comes then is that they're not choosing over their own life with abortion, because the child within them is not them. Definitely not part of their body. It's inside of their body, but it is different. It is a unique soul, and it's separate from their body as well. So you're actually choosing for somebody else, and that's not right.

Nancy: That's right. Oh, I'm sure you have the latest magazine, Above Rubies 96. In this magazine, pages 12-13, I reprinted an article from Randy Alcorn. It's called, “Is the Unborn Part of the Mother's Body?” He shows explicitly, scientifically, and so clearly here, how that the baby that is growing in the womb is a totally different person than the mother, from the time of conception, with different DNA. Over half the time, or half the time, a male or female. Different everything!

Yes, this baby is inside the mother's body, but it is a different person. I think of a little illustration.  When Jonah was vomited into the . . . well, the whale vomited him out, but somehow he landed inside the whale's belly. Now when he became inside the whale's belly, did he become part of the whale?

Well, he was in the whale, but he wasn't a whale. No, he was still Jonah, a completely different person!

Serene: Yes, the fact is that they are a different person, because if they are aborted, they die, but the mother is still living.

Nancy: Yes, and if someone murders a mother with a child in her womb, most states in the nation will look upon that as a double murder. That's still law. You can look it up on the Internet. And yet, how do we have these abortion laws?

I mean, we just think about, just scientifically, this is the thing today, to say that a baby is not a new, living person, and, of course, an eternal soul at the moment of conception, is to just go against all science. Everyone knows it.

Serene: They can even do surgery on babies inside of the womb, incredible. They're still connected to the mother by the umbilical cord. They can be removed, given anesthesia, operated on. They have their own medical records, their own unique individual, their own blood type.

Nancy: Yes, they have their own blood type. Yes, completely different. Now, how about this? The American College of Pediatricians states this: you can look it up on the Internet. They say: “The predominance of human biological research confirms that human life begins at conception—fertilization. At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated, zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage, and its zygotic stage, is one of form, not nature. This statement focuses on the scientific evidence of when an individual human life begins,”

Now, that's the American College of Pediatricians. They state scientifically that the moment of conception begins a new living person, a different person inside the mother. Therefore, that is the truth. How is it that we still have these abortion laws allowing babies to be killed up to a certain number of weeks, but now in some states, right up to birth! This is so horrendous, and so abhorrent, that we cannot be status quo about it!

Serene: There's a doctor in Paris, he's a genetics professor, a Dr. Jérôme Lejeune. He says, after fertilization has taken place, there's a new human being. A new human being has come into being. He said, I quote: “It's no longer a matter of taste or opinion anymore. Each individual has a very neat beginning at conception.”

He's not necessarily like, a pro-life activist or anything. He's a professor, a genetics professor, who sees the facts. And it's not merely pro-life people who are the ones supporting this. The owner of Oregon's largest abortion clinic has testified under oath, of course, human life begins at conception. They know it!

Nancy: They know it because you have to defy science if you deny it. So dearest ladies, we want to change this world about abortion, don't we? So we can't keep quiet. We can't keep quiet, because this is absolute, absolute murder. We have to see it as a murder of a precious life.

Serene: The other day, I mean, look at us here, sitting here, all hundred and something pounds of us . . . that's all good and all. I was thinking of the constant choices, power, in the newly conceived life. The concentration, the power in that!

All of the genetic coding, all the DNA, all of the information is inside that tiny, amazing life! The newly fertilized egg contains a staggering amount of genetic information, it's staggering! It's sufficient to control the individual growth and development for its entire life.

Yes, they say a single thread of DNA from a human cell contains information equivalent to a library of one thousand volumes. This is (I've been reading Randy Alcorn's book) so interesting, because I went to this used bookstore lately, and I'm like, “God, awww, all these hundreds and hundreds of books here! Probably a whole bunch of wisdom of men. I just want Your truth. I don’t have a great amount of time to read, so, hey, if there's something You want me to read, just let it catch my attention.”

And I'd asked the Lord that prior to when I found the book about Capps (the author is Capps) about THE POWER OF THE TONGUE.

I mean, it's in the Bible, but sometimes it's great to have teachers that unfold it to you, and that's what happened with the Capp’s book, THE POWER OF THE TONGUE. I don't know if that's the exact title, but anyway, WHY PRO-LIFE? by Randy Alcorn just kinda like jumped off the shelf to me recently, and I've been reading it lately.

And so it's pretty, and that's what I told my mum, if you ever speak about life, pro-life, I want to come on the podcast with you, because I have a new, great passion about it. Because, in your head, I don't know about you, but I've always been mentally, yes, against abortion. It's not right. It's killing human life.

It was all there in the mental assent, but I had become desensitized and numb. I didn't realize it, but I'd just become, like, yeah, it's bad. OK, so what time is it? Oh, what am I making for supper? Chicken cordon bleu? Like, you know, just like, boom! Like it was just part of, there wasn't enough of a . . . It needed to be reopened in my mind. And I watched Gosnell . . .

Nancy: Oh, yes. Have you watched Gosnell yet? Oh, you've got to get that movie. It's now out on DVD. Just go to the Internet, pull up Gosnell, about the serial killer. It's the most powerful movie. You've got to watch it, you've got to show it to your children, especially your teenagers, not your little wee ones. Bring in others and show it to them. This is one of the most powerful movies exposing abortion.

Serene: It's interesting, because, you know, my children and I have been praying against abortion for years. You know, it's just a prayer, it was almost like . . . I would never have admitted it was robotic-like. But I am in a new state of passion, you know, against abortion. So what with Gosnell, and this book jumps up itself, and I feel like it's just God's moving inside of me, saying, “Hey, it's time to re-fire up your prayers. It's time to be more vocal about the subject, because enough is enough!”

Nancy: Yes, and I do think that most probably you are feeling the same way. I believe there is a rising up against the horror of abortion, as we are seeing states like New York just brazenly saying, yes, we can murder the baby right up to birth.

I mean, this is so horrific that if God's people don't rise up, if they don't begin to pray and cry out to God, if they don't begin to be a voice, there's something wrong with us. And as you were saying before, about the amazing glories, the incredible miracle that happens even at the moment of conception, and the growth in the womb!

Some of you will have listened to my last series, Psalm 139, about the wonder of the birth, of the growing of the baby in the womb, and how one of the words that's used in the Hebrew is that it means “miraculous, amazing, incredible, wonderful, beyond the power of human understanding.” It is really beyond us.

Serene: A spark, a lightning bolt, takes place at the moment of conception, because it's God's breath on life. You know, and even just the photography into the womb these days is so spellbinding because that's the thing. It's illegal in many debates between pro-life and pro-choice to bring the evidence on film.

Nancy: Oh yes, they don't want people to see it!

Serene: But that's totally . . . ah, it doesn't even make sense. In every other murder scene or anything, they have to bring the evidence. They bring pictures of the murder spot, but they can't in this situation. Why? Because it's so telling. It's so telling. You can't see that and not see that it's human life, and it is murder.

You know, even in the little, few days of conception it may not look like a baby at 40 weeks, but it looks perfectly like it should at that stage of development of humankind.

Now a young girl at 17 looks very different than a six-month-old baby girl, because they're at different stages of development. So before puberty, do you say that's not really a human? Or before 45, you're not really human because you don't look like you're up to that level? Or when the elderly kind of start going down in a different direction, well, you know, you're not at your peak anymore. You're not really human life anymore.

I mean, you start getting into real wacko stuff, thinking when you have to have a human look, like a certain level of development to be human.

Nancy: But you know, Serene, I think that this issue goes even beyond abortion, because I don't think we understand life completely as God sees it. I believe that life begins in the sperm, even before conception, because this is where life is. When we read the Word, when you go into the Hebrew, you read the Hebrew word for sperm.

Now the Hebrew word for sperm is zerah. OK, zerah. Now, it means, in the King James Bible, it's called “the sperm of copulation,” no, the “seed of copulation.” Most modern translations would just call it the sperm, as we know it today.

But the interesting thing is (that's why I love going into the Hebrew) I found that the word, the same word zerah, is not only used of the sperm, but it's used to speak of people, of children, teenagers, adults. God uses the same word, because God sees that that person began in the life of the sperm. That's where the sperm united, coupled, joined with the egg. It became life.

But if that sperm was cut off, or killed, or spurned, before it could just come to the egg and become life, that's still a life that could have come into this world that does not come into the world!

Serene: See, I was thinking about it. I was thinking to myself, OK, choose life. And that's what I began about 15 minutes ago. Where do we start choosing life? You know, we start talking about conception, but yeah, earlier, even earlier than that. There's a Scripture that says: “Before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you.”

So there's a vision of life. God has a dream of life. He has His visions of these people He wants to bring to fruition, because it says: “Before I formed you in your mother's womb,” before you were even there, I knew you. So I'm wondering, how many dreams, visions, desires of people, does God want to spend eternity with, but they're not around?

And I look, I look at Solly as my ninth child. How many people have nine children? Quite a few, but not everybody. It's OK if God doesn't give that to you, because, well then, God does, God may give you one.

But I look around and think, “Oh my goodness, if I didn't have her!” It's just too incredible and too amazing and look at that personality! God had a vision of her. Imagine if I had said, “No, God, I don't want, I don't care for Your desire to have her in eternity with You.”

I was thinking about this here, and this may be too much. I don't know, it's like, out there. But I was thinking, OK, the very responsible in life today are told the real way to be responsible is to be responsible with your womb. You balance your checkbooks, and you use your coupons, and you know, you be frugal in this area and that. And in your womb, you be responsible and have one point something children.

I wonder, oh man, every time you turn around, there's these women on crack, and they're pregnant again, and pregnant again, and you wonder their fertility is so, like whoa. I thought to myself, “I wonder if God has to bring life, because He's a generous God with life. He wants eternity filled.  

He doesn't want a small house. He wants to celebrate eternity with people. You know He says: “Be fruitful and multiply.” He's a big God, a big-hearted God. He wants the people at the supper, at the marriage supper of the Lamb. He wants lots of people at the feast.

So if the other door was shut (am I a wacko?) I've been thinking along that line. Is it like, OK, but I'm, I mean, I have these people in mind. You know?

Nancy: Well, I don't know. I do believe you have something there, Serene.

Serene: They're just so responsible, they responsible themselves out of a lot of . . .

Nancy: This is the sad part. Overall, of course there are many who are open to the sovereign plan of God for their lives, but so many, even in the church, have said no. They get to their, maybe up to three, and that's it.

I get emails constantly from precious mothers who say, “You know, I have three children,” or some have even said, “I even have five, and I'm still longing for another baby, but my husband says no, no more.”

Because mostly I find husbands are out there in the world. They're very conditioned by the guys around them. Most of them have got the snip, and so that's just the culture of society today. So they get taken into that culture.

Serene: Because they just love their wives so much too. Sometimes us women can get in a habit of just complaining, and they come home to a tired, complaining wife, and they don't want her to give  . . . they love her so they're wanting to bless her. Sometimes we can kind of cut our own desire off by being complaining.

Nancy: That's true. But you know, like you were saying, Serene, there is very much truth in that, because God sees children before they are born. He sees them even generations ahead. Now, come on, ladies, we've got to get that.

You see, we don't see, we don't even think like God thinks. He thinks beyond us. His thoughts are higher!

Serene: I'm not trying to say anything . . . What I'm not saying is, He's not thinking if these humans in the church aren't having them, He's going to give them to the womb of somebody else. No, that's not even possible. I'm not even thinking along those lines. What I'm saying is, He does love, He does love human life.

Nancy: He loves life, yes . . .

Serene: If it's not coming through one girl, He loves to bring it to another. It's the only open door.

Nancy: Well, look. God is Omniscient. He knows. That's why He says that He planned our lives before the foundation of the world. He knows.

I often think of this Scripture in Hebrews, oh, Hebrews 7:10. It's in the chapter about Melchizedek. It says: “Levi also, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.”

Now, are you getting this? Levi was the great (not a grandson), the great-grandson of Abraham. He wasn't even a twinkle in Abraham's eye. But God, God says he was already in the loins of Abraham, even though he was all those generations down. He was there. He was in his loins. He actually paid tithes in Abraham as Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek.

That's how God sees it, ladies. That's how God sees it. We don't think like that. But this is God-thinking. So God has the children He has planned for us as a married couple to bring forth, and not just for us, but for our children, and who they will bring forth. For our children and who they will bring forth, up to our great-grandchildren.

I am so blessed that I am now beginning to have great-grandchildren. But you know, when I first got married, I was never thinking of right down to great-grandchildren at the time then. But God sees them.

He says: “Levi was in his loins.” Now if we . . . If Abraham lived in this culture today, would Levi have been born? Because it is the culture of cutting off the godly seed, cutting off children who God has planned, not only with purposes and destiny for this life, but for the eternal realm. That's why Jesus died. Why? To bring many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:10).

Serene: Wow!

Nancy: Hey, here's another thing. Can I pop this in? I know you've got something you want to say too.

And that is, OK now, when we cut off the godly seed, and we say, “No, that's it! We don't want any more,” what are we doing? Not only are we cutting off a blessing from our lives, blessing ourselves, blessing our grandparents, blessing the church, blessing the world, but we're cutting off a child from experiencing glory! Experiencing eternal life forever and ever!

None of us can yet fathom eternity. Even if we tried to dream about it, we can't even fathom the glory of eternity that God is bringing His redeemed ones into. We can forfeit precious lives from experiencing that eternity! Isn't that amazing?

Serene: So amazing, yes. You know what I was thinking? It's the devil behind the whole thing, anti-life.

Nancy: Because he hates life!

Serene: He hates life.  He's behind . . . He makes it to be a drudgery to have a lot of children, when it's the most amazing, incredible gift out there. Sometimes he tries to put it in the minds of people it's a drudgery to read the Bible, it's a drudgery to do certain things. But it's the very place where all of our thirst is taken away. It's that place of refreshing.

I just think of these people, sometimes I'll pass their homes, because we live out in the country. I'll see these farms, and it's like 45 yapping dogs, and they have like two parrots squawking, and they have . . . They're just so big-hearted when it comes to their animals, and it's a loud, noisy, kind of like, you know, the dogs are pooping everywhere, and they've got a bird . . .

Nancy: Some of those ladies, you go into their house, and you can't even hear yourself talk with all the dogs yapping!

Serene: Yeah! Talk about responsibility, and talk about pressure, and a lot of mouths to feed. But boy, do they love it! And it's fantastic!

But you see, so many people have hearts towards, “Oh, I might have another dog. That would be great.” You know? But when it comes to humans . . . why, why is it this wall? “Oh, oh, couldn't do that!”

It is, it is the enemy because it's an eternal soul when it comes to life in human form. An eternal soul, and it's kinda like a wall that's put up to make people think that it would be difficult or hard. But in my experience, having more children has made my life so much easier.

The more I have, you know, you go to Walmart, and they're like, “Better you than me! I don't know how you do it. Two almost killed me!” And I'm like, well, two is starting!

Nancy: Yes! Exactly!

Serene: And then they realize that they grow up, and then they help, and then it's all one big party from then on.

Nancy: Oh, I know. I think one was my hardest, because you were their sole entertainer from morning till night. But then another child comes along, and they become playmates. Another child comes along, more playmates! And then they just wind up getting older.

Now Serene, she has these teens in her home. She couldn't even do a quarter of what she does without these amazing older children!

Serene: They're your best friends. You're never bored. The rich fellowship is absolutely amazing!

Nancy: Yes, you see, oh, God's heart, if we could just see His heart for life. When He wanted to bless His people, what did He say? “I will show mercy to you, and I will love you, and I will bless you.” And how did He say He would do it? Then He says: “And I will multiply you.” This is how He shows His love, and His blessing. Check it out in Deuteronomy 7:12-15.

Serene: I love that beautiful prophecy that promises: “I will make the barren woman a joyful mother of children, and the home she lives in will be filled with laughter.” (Psalm 113:9). So what picture does God see of a home filled with children? Laughter! A home filled with laughter.

Nancy: Oh, yes, absolutely! Well, look, I can't believe how time has gone so quickly this session. I just want to, oh, Serene, can we do another session? Can we fit it in?

Serene: I'd love to! Yeah!

Nancy: Oh, praise the Lord!

Serene: When the mice are away, the cats will play! (Laughter) When the cat's away, the mice will play!

Nancy: OK, we've got to finish next time. But can I just close with one Scripture? Yes, I remember I was saying how the word “sperm” is zerah, and I want to prove it to you here. This is back in Exodus, chapter one. Of course, there are so many Scriptures, just one as we close.

And God is speaking of how Jacob came down from Canaan, down to the land of Egypt. Joseph brought him down and gave him land in the land of Goshen. And it says: “And all the souls that came out of the loins,” out of the loins, “of Jacob, were seventy souls.” For Joseph was in Egypt already, and Joseph died, and da-de-da-de-da.

Yes, I'm trying to find the actual Scripture where it says: “He came down, and all his seed with him.” And his seed. Oh, yes! Because he came down, and it's the word zerah. I think it's that long passage, but the Scripture is where Jacob came down, with all his seed, word zerah, and all his seed's seed.

(You can find this Scripture in Genesis 46:6, 7: “And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and ALL HIS SEED with him: His sons, and his son’s sons with him, his daughters, and his son’s daughters, and ALL HIS SEED brought he with him into Egypt.” This Scripture is talking about sons and daughters of all ages, and grandsons and granddaughters of all ages—babies, little ones, teens, and adults! And they are all called zerah, the same word for sperm!)

OK. So he came down with all his children who were adults by now, and their children, and their children, which were all zerah, same word as “sperm.” God saw no difference from the word “sperm” to when they were adults. He sees them all as one, because this is where the life began.

So, as we become adamant for life, let's understand where life really begins, and begin to see the preciousness of it, and protect it. Oh, that God will save us from just seeing it as something we can throw away. It's precious, and must be protected, because it's life.

OK, let's pray!

“Father, we just thank You. We've only just started talking about life, according to how You think about it. We pray that You'll teach us more, Lord God. We're just so used to thinking like culture thinks, thinking like man thinks.

Save us, Lord God! Lift us up to this higher plane, Lord, where Your thoughts are. On a higher plane. Help us to think like You think, to understand like You understand, to understand about life. And Lord, we only find out about life from You, because You're the Author of life! So we pray that You will teach us.

We speak Your blessing over every precious mother, father, home, and every child in these homes today, in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Serene: Amen!

UNPLANNED

Don’t miss the moving coming soon, UNPLANNED, released March 29.

Abby Johnson becomes the youngest clinic director in the history of Planned Parenthood, then a life-changing experience turns her into an anti-abortion activist.

And also this….

WHY PRO-LIFE?

Caring for the Unborn and their Mothers

By Randy Alcorn (Award winning and best-selling author)

This book must get into the hands of EVERY person in the nation. In this critical hour of states in our nation wanting to freely murder babies after they are born, we have a responsibility to know the truth. This book is grounded in medical science and psychological studies and offers answers to this abortion debate in a concise and informative manner.

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Purchase extra copies (two or upwards) to share with friends and give to everyone you can for ONLY $2.50! Let’s get the message out.

Order from our Bookstore: Why Pro-Life?

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 39: How Can We Change the World? Part 5

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, it's so good to be with you again today or this evening, whenever you are listening, and you are listening. You wouldn't be here if you weren't listening. I'm so glad you are listening. I think listening is a very important thing, but then again, we've got to listen to the right things, don't we?

I was reading the other day, in John 10, the beautiful words of Jesus. Of course, this is the shepherd chapter. Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, is speaking and says: “The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but they will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”

I was thinking again about this Scripture; if we are His sheep, we will hear His voice. I do trust, as you listen to these podcasts, you will listen for God's voice, that you'll listen for the voice of Jesus. Yes, you'll be hearing my voice, but I pray that you'll hear His voice and that you'll listen for His voice. If there's anything that you don't feel is quite right, check it out. I love to do that. I'm one of those people who is called a Berean. Do you remember Bereans in the Word of God? In the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17:11), it tells us how Paul spoke and preached, but the Bereans didn't just listen to them, they checked out what Paul said. They got into the Scriptures to see “whether those things were so.”

Of course, when you hear truth, it burns in your spirit, doesn't it? I love that Scripture when Jesus met the two disciples after He had died and after He had risen from the dead. They were walking down to their little village of Emmaus, and they were so forlorn, and unhappy because they thought Jesus was dead. He came alongside them, and He began to open up the Scriptures and then eventually, they got to their little town and invited him in.

The Bible tells us, as Jesus broke the bread and gave thanks, that their eyes were opened. They realized it was Him, and He vanished out of their sight. Then they said in Luke 24: 32: “They said unto one another, 'Did not our heart burn within us as he talked with us by the way and while he opened unto us the Scriptures?'”

When we hear truth, it burns in our spirit. It witnesses in our spirit, doesn't it? We have to get used to listening to His voice and discerning the voice of the stranger because Jesus said in John 10 that His sheep will not listen to a stranger. That word in the Greek is allotrios, and it means “someone who isn't one's own. they are not your kin, they are foreign, alien, hostile” and they are voices that are hostile to God's words. They are alien to God's Word.

The sad part about it is that I hear many people who say they are Christian who actually listen to the voices of the strangers more than they do to God Himself. I find most Christian young people today know more about the current movies and more about movie stars, and they talk more about them than they know of God's Word. I'm amazed so many times of how little they know of God's Word. If you start a Scripture, a very familiar Scripture, they can't even finish it.

Really, if we are listening, if we are listeners, if we are His sheep who listen to His voice, we'll know the Scriptures, and even us adults.

It's the same with adults. Often, their talk is no different than young people. Most families today are more familiar with the voices of feminism and humanism than they are of the Scriptures. Most people in the church today have the mindset of limiting their families to one or two children, and this is in the church I'm talking about. Where does that come from? That's the voice of feminism. That's the voice of humanism. That's the voice of the stranger to the Word of God. That's strange, that's alien to the Word of God because the Word of God is opposite.

The Word of God reveals God's heart. Over and over again, we read of how God wants to bless and then it tells us how he wants to bless us. “I will bless the fruit of your womb. I will do you good, and I will multiply you.” Over and over again, we read these words that reveal the heart of our Father and His plan for us. This is the voice of God, the voice of the Word of God, opposite to the voice of the stranger.

What does it say? When they hear the voice of the stranger, they won't listen to him, “they will flee from him.” They will run from him. Do we really run from the voice of the stranger, from the voice of the world, from the voice of feminism and humanism and socialism that's all around us? It becomes so part of us, we get so use to it. That is the voice of the stranger.

Let's truly be His sheep who hear His voice, and we are prepared to obey His voice. Everything else is alien, hostile to us; it doesn't belong to us. Amen?

Well, before we get on with our points today, I thought I'd love to read you a poem. It's an old poem. I used to recite this poem when I was a young girl. I think some of you may know it. It's called: If Jesus Came to your House.

“If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two,
If he came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do.
Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room to such an honored Guest,
And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the very best,
And you would keep assuring Him you’re glad to have Him there
That serving Him in your own home is joy beyond compare.

But when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door
With arms outstretched in welcome to your heavenly Visitor?
Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in?
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they’d been?
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard?
And wish you hadn’t uttered that last, loud, hasty word?

Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?
And I wonder if the Savior spent a day or two with you,
Would you go right on doing the things you always do?
Would you go right on saying the things you always say?
Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?

Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace?
And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?
Would you sing the songs you always sing, and read the books you read,
And let him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed?
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go?
Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends?
Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on?
Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do?
If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you.”

Wow, would we really love to have Him in person all day, every day, with us because He wants to be with us every day. He's in us if we have invited Him in, and He wants to be in our homes and be a part of everything we do.

Remember, we are doing Podcast 39, although we will be doing 59 next week. This is a recap of a podcast that disappeared. You never got it unfortunately, but we want you to have it because it is part of the series: HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WORLD? I did 24 podcasts on this series, and I want to make sure you have them all. The points on this one are eleven and twelve.

No. 11. PASSIONATELY LOVING

God not only wants us to love but to love passionately or love fervently. You'll remember that this is what we are finding out in this series of HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WORLD?. We are finding that God has all these adjectives. We don't do things normally when Jesus lives within us. We do them ultra-normally, extraordinarily; we do them abundantly and exceedingly.

We read these Scriptures:

1 Thessalonians 3:12: “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men.”

2 Thessalonians 1:3: “The love of every one of you all abounds toward each other”

1 Peter 1:22: “Love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

1 Peter 4:8: “And above all things, have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins.”

We see that God wants our love to be hot, fervent, not just loving but fervently loving. Isn't it wonderful, ladies, to have the Scriptures? I need the Scriptures because if we didn't have the Word of God encouraging us and telling us how it's meant to be, we would live sub-zero level. I know I would. I'm encouraged, and I'm stirred on; I'm spurred along by the Scriptures to love more fervently because I can just get along with my life and love the people I love, but there is more than that.

You see, Romans 5:5 says: “But the love of God is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who has given it unto us.”

When Christ dwells in us by His Holy Spirit, we have the love of God being shared abroad and poured out in our hearts. We need to be reminded of this because we can live so normally, but God wants us to live above the normal, so we are encouraged and reminded to do this.

Where does our love start? It's very easy to love people we barely know because you haven't really had to find out what they are really like and all their idiosyncrasies and the things that get on your nerves. You can say, “How lovely to meet you. Oh, I love you.”

Where does it really start? It starts in your home, of course. Everything starts in our home, with our husband. How do you love your husband? Do you just love him, or do you love him fervently? You see, my lovely ladies, we've got to get past the normal, the mediocre, and go beyond that to love fervently.

Maybe your love is in a bit of a rut. I know what that's like. I've got into that in my own marriage. You know you love one another, and life goes on, I mean, you don't have any problems with your husband, and yes, you love one another, but it’s just pretty normal. No, God wants us to go beyond that. He wants us to love fervently, to be thinking of extra ways to show our love beyond the normal.

Of course, love is not just a feeling, lovely ladies. No, love takes work, hard work. Love is serving. Love is often doing the duty, but it's love. We can get into the grind. Instead, we realize sometimes the grind can be part of our loving. We do the grind, but we do it with love because it's for our husband, it's for our family, it's for our home, and we are building a strong and godly family.

There may be some of you where you feel your love has gone out the door. You don't feel love anymore. Once again, can I encourage you? Love can be a great feeling. There are times when you do really feel love, but you can't base your love on feeling. No, because sometimes you don't feel, and you have to love anyway. That's where you know the Scripture: “The love of God is spread abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost that is in me.”

If my love has gone out the door, it doesn't matter, because God's love is pouring into my heart. I can still love even if mine is gone. I love with God's love. You have to do that with faith. You haven't got a feeling about it, but you do it anyway. You love even when you don't feel like loving. That's true love, that's powerful love, that's real love, when you love when you don't even feel like loving. I want to encourage you in this: love your husband fervently. If you haven't done anything fervent or passionate for a while, think of something you can do that is passionate, that is fervent, that is over the top, that's more than necessary, that's above the normal. C'mon lovely ladies, don't stay in the rut. Don't stay in the boring normality. Get out of that. Amen?

What about your children? Of course, you love your children but sometimes you know, you don't show it. You may be frowning more than smiling at them. You may be in that self-pity, “Poor me.”

Poor children. Oh goodness, they've got to put up with that? That's not love. Love has to go beyond ourselves. The trouble is, many times, we love ourselves the most. It's all “poor me “and looking after me and how everything affects me. No, God's love goes beyond us. It pours out for others. Even when you are feeling lousy, you don't give into that self-pity, poor me, lousy, down in the dumps depressed feeling. No, you rise above that and once again, you claim the promise: “The love of God is spread abroad in my heart.” You think of the other Scripture where it says when we lay down our life for ourselves, we hold it for ourselves, we are going to lose our life. When we lose our life for others, we find it (Mark 8:35).

True love is in pouring out our lives for others, serving others, giving to others. This is what true love is, and this is what brings joy. Then, as we have the love of God filling our homes, we are going to take that out to others, and we are going to love the brethren and love the people around us. It’s spreading love abroad wherever we go, isn't it?

Now, I love this Scripture in Psalm 16:2, 3 where David says how he showed his love for God by loving the saints. Here's what it says: “O my soul, thou hath said unto the Lord, 'Thou art my lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.'”

David understood and David realized that when he was filled with love and praise to God, the greatest way he could show his love to God was to show it to His people around him because God is in His people. When we love His people, we are loving Him; we are loving His body. He said, this is how I'm going to show my goodness unto the Lord. I'm going to show it in delighting in the saints, the excellent in the earth who are all around me. This is another beautiful way to show our love, to show it to God's people.

How can we show it to God's people? We show His love to His people by praying for them as God puts them up in our hearts. We show it by doing something good for them as God puts it upon our hearts. When we know someone is sick or hurting or in the hospital or whatever, we'll go and visit them because we want to show God's love for them.

HOSPITALITY

I think a very practical way that we can show the love of God to His people is by hospitality, having them into our home. Some people love to hear that, some people don't. Some people think, “Oh goodness me, hospitality isn't really my gift.”

Well, lovely ladies, I know that there are some families who have that gift of hospitality, and it is something special in their lives, but I can't let you off the hook. I'm sorry, but the Bible speaks about hospitality for everyone, not just the people who think it's their gift or love doing it. No, it's to the whole body of Christ. You see, our God is a hospitable God. He loves to say, “Come.”

Come is one of God's favorite words. He says, “Come, come unto me, come all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come and take of the water of life freely. Come, Come, Come. Go out onto the highways and byways and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.” God wants a full house, and He's saying, “Come onto me, I want to bring you into My kingdom. I sent My Son to die for you so that you could come and be part of My family and inherit all that I have given to My Son. You are not only my heirs, but you are joint heirs with Christ.” He’s invited us in.

This hospitable God lives in you and me. If He is in your heart, if He abides in you, this One who lives in you is hospitable, and He wants to say ”Come” through you. He wants you to invite people into your home.

As we invite people into our homes, we are inviting them in to get them into God's home. Often, that's how God gets them into His home. It's not just taking people to church and hoping they'll get saved. No, it's inviting them into our homes, sitting them down at our tables where it is the most wonderful opportunity to speak about Jesus to the unsaved and of course, to fellowship in the Word and with kindred spirits amongst the saints of God.

Let me see if I can give you a few Scriptures.

Romans 12:13. In this Scripture, Paul is writing, and he exhorts to all the saints, not just to a specific few. It says we are to be “given to hospitality.” Now, that word “given” in the Greek is dioko, and it means “to pursue, to follow after, to seek after eagerly, to press toward, to earnestly endeavor.” Now we see this same word, “given,” where we are to be given to hospitality, we see it in Philippians 3:6 where it talks about being persecuted. Wow, we've got to persecute people to hospitality. We don't even give up until they come. We invite them for a meal, and they have excuses, but we don't give up. We persecute them with love and kindness until they come.

“Follow after.” That Scripture is in Philippians 3:12-14  where it says we are to “Press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” “Press toward.”  Well that's the same word, dioko. When it says we are to be “given toward hospitality,” we are to press toward making it happen in our homes. We are to go after it, pursue it.

Here's some other translations.

The Living Bible says: “Get into that habit of inviting guests home for building or if they need lodging for the night.” Get into the habit. It actually should be a habit of our lives. Now, it used to be more in the church than it is today. Somehow, hospitality is kind of fading away, yet it is meant to be part of our lives. In fact, in the early church, do you remember? It was part of their everyday lives.

Let me go to Acts 2 and we read about what they did in the early church, the early believers. Acts 2:46: “And they, continuing daily, with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat (that means their food), did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart.” Now, that's a beautiful picture. What were they doing? Were they going around and having communion from house to house? No, this was talking about their daily meals because breaking bread is the way they used to speak about having a meal. They broke bread together. Especially in the Middle East where they break the pita bread and dip it in the dish, they dip it in the hummus, they dip it in the baba ganoush, and they dip it in the foods they have made. They call it the breaking of bread. It was their eating of their meals together.

All of the sudden, when the Holy Spirit fell, thousands were saved and came into the kingdom, and they were filled with God and the revelation of their newfound faith. Because they were Jews and they had been daily used to the sacrifices in the temple and all the ritual of the temple, which all speak of Christ, then for the first time in their lives they began to see what it was all about. These sacrifices of the lamb morning and evening, they all pointed to the Lamb that was slain once and for all because He was the purest, sinless Lamb who was able to take our punishment and die once and for all for our sins.

They began to see all the different meanings of everything that happened in the temple. Can you imagine when they met together? They couldn't wait to get together. They worked during the day, so they would have to get together at suppertime. They would bring their food and they would eat together, and they would talk and fellowship. “Did you realize this? Did you understand this? Oh, I understand this now, this revelation. Isn't this incredible? Everything we've done for years and generations past has all pointed to Jesus.”

Their fellowship was rich, and they gathered daily in one another's homes and breaking bread and eating their evening meal together and praising God and having favor with all the people. I'm always challenged by these words: “And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved.” Do you notice the correlation there? They continued daily breaking bread from house to house and then daily, the Lord added to the church such as should be saved. I believe there is a great correlation there. As the people around saw their lifestyle, saw their love for one another, and it was said of them, “Look how they love one another,” and the richness of their fellowship, they looked on and wanted it.

As they daily showed hospitality, daily the Lord added souls to the church. How often do we have souls being added to the church today? Not so often these days which is so sad. I wonder if it comes back to our hospitality. How often do we have hospitality?

Now, during the course of our lives and our marriage, we've been married, I keep forgetting, I think I said in the other podcast 55 but I think it's 56 years (yes, it’s 56 years). Anyway, we've either done two things when we've been in a church.

We have a fellowship meal which we currently do with our church fellowship here. We have a fellowship meal after the service. Everyone brings a dish, so we eat together, we fellowship together which is so wonderful. I believe, my precious ladies, that church is far more than going to a church, listening to a message, and going home. Church is fellowship. It's the meeting of the saints together. It's encouraging one another and having that fellowship of kindred spirits, even those who are not so kindred, encouraging and inspiring them. You can't do that by driving up to a church, walking in, having some worship, listening to a message and going home. That's not real fellowship. It’s not koinonia.

I do believe that we need this because this is how we show our love to one another. In fact, even the fact of coming to church shows our love for the brethren. What does it say in 1 John 3:14? “We know that we have passed from death onto life because we love the brethren.” We love them. If you love them, you want to be with them. If you love them, you're going to be there, Saturday or Sunday, whenever you worship, you're going to be there because you love them.

You stay away, what does it say? You don't really love the brethren. You want to do your own thing. You've got other things to do. No, we show our love by being there and then we show our love by going further and showing hospitality. At the moment, we have our fellowship meal and that sometimes carries on into the afternoon, and it's so wonderful.

In times when we didn't have that, we would always invite people back to our home after Sunday service and have people around our table. I can remember when our children were still home with us, we would often end up with 30 or more people around our table or around the deck or around somewhere, all eating, because not only would Colin and I be inviting folks home, but our teenage children would be inviting their friends home, and it was wonderful.

It was a continuation. It wasn't just we go; we listen to a service. No, we come home, we continue that dialogue. We talk about that revelation that we got from the Word, and people can ask questions. Oftentimes, people would even come to Jesus around our table, or we'd be praying for them or praying for someone to be healed, praying for those who need encouraging. It is wonderful. Why do we do this? Because not only does the Word say so, but because we love the brethren and we want to love them fervently.

Some other translations of Romans 12:13:

New Living Translation (NLT):  When God's people are in need, be ready to help them, always eager to practice hospitality.”

The Passion Translation (TPT): “Eagerly welcome people as guests into your home.”

The Holman Translation (HCSB): “Pursue hospitality.”

Do you remember about the house of Stephanas in 1 Corinthians 16:15? It says of them: “You know the house of Stephanas, they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.” Addicted! They were addicted to blessing and serving and showing hospitality to the saints.

Hospitality shouldn't be a haphazard occurrence of our lives but the habit of our lives!

1 Peter 4:7-9 says: “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore, be serious, watchful in your prayers and above all, have fervent love to one another and be hospitable to one another.” Here, the Word is showing us how to do it. How do we have fervent love? Inviting people to our home, without grumbling.

I'd love to talk to you so much more about hospitality because I know you have lots of ifs and buts and questions. Maybe you could go back and have a look at the TEATIME AND TALK SHOW that I do with Erin Harrison. We ended up doing twelve live talk shows, where you can see us, on the subject of hospitality. We didn't exhaust it, but we answered lots of questions there and all the excuses we have about hospitality, we answered those. You can find those if you go to my Above Rubies Facebook and look for the videos, or you can go to Erin's Facebook, Keeper of the Homestead blog, and you can find them there. There's twelve of them you could look at about hospitality.

Time is running out for this podcast and I've got to do number 12 because we have to fit it in number 39 podcast. I'll tell you what it is.

No. 12 EXCEEDINGLY GROWING IN THE FAITH

God not only wants us to have faith in Him but to exceedingly grow in the faith. We've got to grow, ladies. Never stay the same. Grow, grow, grow. One Scriptures says that “all may see your growth in the Lord.” The RSV says: “That all my see your progress.”

Colossians 1:22, 23 says: “To present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight: If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”

2 Thessalonians 1:3: “We are bound to thank God for you always, brethren, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of everyone of you toward each other abounds.” Did you notice those words? Your faith grows exceedingly. How are you growing in the Lord? A little wee bit or exceedingly? Come on now, if we are going to change the world, we've got to grow exceedingly.

Now remember, that word exceedingly is huperauxano in the Greek, and this is what it means: “to increase above the ordinary degree.” Isn't that amazing? God is always looking for more, above the normal, above the ordinary degree.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Dear lovely ladies, our Christian walk is a more and more walk. It's always more and more. When you wake up in the morning, say, “Thank You, Jesus. I belong to You. Thank You that I'm walking on the journey of a more and more walk. I want to know more of You today. I want to learn more and more. I want to show more and more of You to my husband and to my children.”

Always be seeking for more and more. As you read the Scriptures, be looking for more and more, listening. As we started this podcast, listening for His voice, never to the voice of the stranger. I think I said on one of my other podcasts that line from a song, “I don't want to miss one word you speak.”

I actually looked up the song because I love those words so much. It's from the song, “I'm Listening” by Chris McClarney. The chorus says:

“I don't want to miss one word You speak

'Cause everything You say is life to me.

I don't wanna miss one word You speak,

Quiet my heart, I'm listening.”

Keep listening to the Lord, and as you do, you will grow more and more.

“Dear Father, I pray that You will bless each one listening personally in their lives. Give them such a passion to seek after You more and more. Give them a longing for prayer more and more. Give them a heart to read Your Word more and more and more. Lord God, fill them more and more with Your love and with Your Spirit. Lord, fill their homes more and more with Your love and Your joy and the manifestation of Your presence and the atmosphere of heaven. I ask this in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 38: How Can We Change the World? Part 4

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. Well, Arden has just come in to do the podcast, so I’ve had to stop everything else I was doing. I was actually doing tomatoes. We were out in the garden to harvest our tomatoes. Oh, it’s such a wonderful time of the year! I love harvesting from my garden. Although, I have to admit, my garden isn’t quite as good this year as usual. I’m not sure why.

But at least we’re getting lots of tomatoes. I had my Above Rubies girls helping me. We were cutting them up and then I put them in the big pot and simmer them a little.

When they’re cool I puree them in the blender, put them in plastic bags and put them in the freezer. It’s so quick and easy. Then throughout the year I’m able to get out a bag of tomatoes, pureed and ready to go, and put them in my soups, casseroles, or whatever I’m making. ( I have also canned or “bottled” loads of bottles of tomatoes too).

So I’m using lovely tomatoes out of the garden all through the year. But when I have come to the end of my harvest, I actually don’t eat another raw tomato until next year’s harvest. After eating such lovely tomatoes out of the garden I can’t bear to buy them from the shop. They just don’t taste anything like homegrown, do they?

So we were doing that, but now Arden has come in with a new mic, so I hope this sounds really good! The other mic we were using belonged to THM. Arden now needs that down at the factory where the girls will be doing their YouTube cooking videos. Arden does all their filming for them.

We have now had to buy one here for ourselves, and Arden says it will be better than the THM Poddy! What do you think about that? I hope it sounds really good.

Any way, it’s so good to be with you again today. It’s hard to believe that we have now finished our series on “How Do We Change the World?”

Did you know that I had talked about this for 24 weeks? Can you believe it? That’s how long we talked about how we can change the world as wives and mothers. I had 20 points.

By the way, one of our lovely listeners emailed me and asked if I would make a list of the points that I could send to her. I have now completed that.

But, lovely lady who wrote to me, if you’re listening, I have a big confession to make— now I can’t find your email. So if you’re listening, would you email again, and I will send them to you?

If any others are listening would like to get a list of all the points, just email meat This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and I will send them to you.

Now, what happened along the way was that we lost two of our podcasts. You may have realized that as we were going along. We thought they were all recorded, but somehow they could not be found on Arden’s computer. So they were gone— forever.

I am now going to do them again. There were four points, numbers 9, 10, 11 and 12. They were podcasts 38 and 39, which I am going to do again, although I can’t remember what I told you when I first did them.

But we’ll do those points again because sometimes people like to go back and listen to the podcasts again. Some are just hearing about the podcast. Or if you have missed some from this series on “How do we Change the World?” you can go and listen to the whole series— that’s 24 podcasts! Any way, if you want to do that marathon, you’re so welcome to.

So now we’ll catch up. Today we’re going to do what was podcast 38.

The point in this podcast, which was No. 9 in our series, was about salt.

No. 9. TASTY SALT, NOT BLAND

God not only wants us to be the salt of the earth, but to be tasty salt.

I’m sure you know the passage in Matthew 5:13 where it says: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

We have to watch, dear ladies, that we don’t lose our salty flavor. If salt is insipid or bland it is good for nothing. What is the point of even using it? It may as well be cast out.

The word for “if it has lost its flavor” is actually the word “foolish.” It just means “how foolish for salt to lose its flavor.”

If we, who are meant to be the salt of the earth, lose our flavor or lose our saltiness, we’re really good for nothing.

The Passion Translation (TPT) translates it as “bland.” If the salt becomes bland, it’s no good for anything. I picked up on that word bland. Bland— it’s such a boring word, isn’t it?

I don’t like bland food, do you? Well, there was a time when that’s all I was used to was bland food. I come from New Zealand. They have got more flavorful food there now, but back in my day it was just the same thing, meat and vegetables.

We’d cook up a roast of lamb and there would be vegetables with it. But there was no actual spiciness or spices added to the food. I loved it!

But then I started to go to other countries where they had hot food that was quite hard to get used to. And then we adopted our Liberian children, and my, they loved hot food. They loved to have not jalapeño peppers, but habanero peppers.

I used to grow habanero peppers for them and even hotter ones if I could get them. They loved them in their food. Every dish they wanted their habanero peppers.

I’d make it pretty spicy and we got used to spicy food when they were living with us (they’ve all left home now, of course, they are in their late twenties). That is when we really got used to the spicy food and we still love it spicy!

I remember my son, John—he would not only have the peppers in his food. After harvesting the peppers, I would dehydrate them and then I would put them in the blender and whiz them up into powder. Then he would add a tablespoon of habanero peppers to his food and not even blink an eyeball.

But any way, we do like spicy food. We love Indian food. If Colin and I go out for a meal for a special occasion, we usually choose to go to Indian because of the curry flavors— we love that.

My son, Rocklyn, and his family they are Indian freaks! If he doesn’t go to Indian every week he goes through withdrawal! Sometimes he goes more than once because he loves the flavor of it.

I remember when my oldest son, Wes, was married, years and years ago, he decided to have Indian food for his wedding reception. Well, that was in New Zealand and it was a failure because most of the people were not used to it and they couldn’t handle the hot flavor. They were all drinking Coke and water and whatever they could find to try and get down this hot food!

But we’re all used to it now and we love hot food. I usually don’t like just bland food.

I think, too, in our daily lives we should be salty. Flavorful. Bringing flavor to everyone we meet. Of course it starts in our home. Everything starts in our home. This podcast is From My Home to Yours, so I talk about my home and we go into your home.

This is where we live and so this is where our saltiness has to work. It has to work in our marriage.

Now, what kind of marriage do you have, precious wife and mother? Is your marriage bland? You know, that horrible, boring word BLAND.

It’s easy to get into a rut in your marriage. I have to confess, there have been times when I’ve got into a rut.

My husband and I have always loved one another, but there’s sometimes when we’ve got so used to each other, have taken each other for granted, and we’ve just become a bit boring and bland.

But our marriages are not meant to be like that. They’re meant to be spicy! That’s the opposite to bland. We have to try and keep them spicy.

They don’t just become spicy without us doing something. We have to make them spicy, make them salty, and make them flavorful.

When we’re making a dish it can be bland or if we add some spices, we add some cayenne pepper, curry, or some other flavors, we spice up the dish. We make it more enticing to eat and more exciting.

That’s what we have to do with our marriage. If you’re getting a little bit boring or you’re getting into a rut, think of some ways to spice it up. Just think of some ways you could show love to your husband or some creative ways you could make your life a little bit more interesting together.

Do something different! You don’t have to pay a lot of money to go out to some exotic place to spice up your marriage. You could even do it at home! It’s amazing if you just get your brain thinking of the creative things you could do in your home or around your home or not too far away from your home. It’s amazing!

I’m just going to let you think. But ask the Lord for some imagination and some creative ideas to make your marriage spicy.

I love the Scripture in Proverbs 5:15-19. It’s here talking to the husband, actually, but of course it includes the wife because this can’t happen to him without his wife: “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well . . ..”

Most commentators say that this is an allegory about private property or common property. Now in a marriage, our marriage is private property. It is for our own. We drink waters out of our own marriage, our own well. We confine satisfaction and excitement in our own marriage. We don’t have to go out and find it in other places. It’s amazing how you can find it in your own marriage!

“Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own . . ..” Do you get that? That denotes possession, personal possession “.And not strangers' with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth . . ..” That’s an interesting phrase, too. We often read this phrase in the Bible. We often read “the children of your youth” and “the husband of your youth.”

The Bible talks a lot about that. Back in Bible days they married young. They didn’t wait till they were older. They got married when they were young.

In fact, in Jesus’ day, most young men were married by the time they were 18. Now that’s different than today when the average age for men is 29 years and 28 for women. I think they’re getting a little bit on the shelf there.

Sometimes I think that some people don’t meet that person that God has for them until their late twenties, or maybe their thirties. But on the whole I think that most couples meet when they’re young.

I don’t think they have to wait around to get married and go to college first, get their home first, or do this first and that first. No! They’re meant to get married young and do it all together.

We’re not meant to waste those beautiful, youthful years in our young twenties when we’re full of energy and the joy of life. These are the most wonderful years to have children.

Often as we get older it is harder to conceive. Sometimes this can be a ploy of the enemy who wants couples to be kept from having children and bringing forth the godly seed.

But here we see again, the wife of thy YOUTH and if we look up the word “youth”, we see that it just means “to be adolescent, in your adolescence.”

It carries on: “Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.”

And how can the husband be ravished unless his wife ravishes him?

So in our marriages we have to watch that we don’t get into that boring, bland rut, but we keep that spice and we make times to ravish our husbands.

Some of the other translations say to “intoxicate him,” “for him to be transported with delight. “Another translation says: “the ecstatic joy of a captivated lover.”

So, not only do we keep our marriages salty and spicy, but what about our mothering? Oh my, that can get pretty bland and boring, too, can’t it?

We just get up in the morning, we do our duty for the day, we do the household mundane tasks, watch over our children making sure they don’t die and don’t kind of kill themselves with all the things they can do!

No, there’s far more to it than that, isn’t there? I believe that we are meant to be spicy, exciting mothers!

Our children shouldn’t have to look at a boring, downcast face. They should look at a happy mother full of excitement—“Children! Hey! Why don’t we do this? I’ve got this neat idea—come on! This is what we’re going to do today!”

When you go to bed at night, sometimes as you’re going off to sleep, or if you’re having trouble getting to sleep, start thinking about “What are some exciting things I could do with my children?”

Maybe it’s your little ones. Or maybe you have middling ones or even bigger ones. But think of some different, new and exciting things that you can do. Become a spicy mother.

Even at our mealtimes I think it’s a good idea, at least once a week (you can do it more than that), to think of something special we can do at our mealtime when we all come together to sit around the meal table.

I could just start you off with one or two ideas.

When our children were little, or not just little, but younger or middling, I would say, “Okay children! We are going to have Red Night. I want you all to go to your bedrooms and find red things. When I say supper is ready, you’ve got to come out all dressed in red. Nothing else!”

They would think that was so exciting and they would have fun finding all their red clothes! I would set the table with a red tablecloth, red plates, red knives and forks. I would make all the food red. I would color the potatoes or the rice with coloring to make them red. I would cook beats and all the things that are red. Then we would have red jelly for dessert or other things that were red. Anything I could find that was red.

In fact, from time to time we would do different colors. I think we went through every color of the rainbow! It was just fun! Children love doing things like that.

You would have to prepare for this a bit before, but maybe another night you could say, “Okay children, today we’re going to think of something special you can write to Daddy.” They can make cards and write something special to him, how they love him and what they love about him.

They could make these beautiful cards with a picture and what they want to say. The little ones who can’t write yet, well, they can dictate to you what they want to say to Daddy, and you can write it down.

Then when he comes home and comes to the meal table, they can all have their cards, letters and pictures waiting for him and he can read them out. They love things like that. You could even do this for homeschooling. Forget all your paces and curriculums today.

Another night you may want to do special name places for all your children. I often used to do this. I would do different ones. Sometimes I would write their name, then another word underneath it that would say something special about them.

Perhaps, for example, your son’s name is Blake. You could put underneath it “Bold for God.” You could think of some little phrase starting with the same name as your child.

Or you could write a little rhyming couplet. I would often do that. I’d have to work on those a week or so ahead, thinking about each child and what I would write for them. But you can have those things ready for another special night.

Oh! There are so many ideas! I know you will think of wonderful ideas yourself.

Keep it spicy! Once a week have a spicy mealtime. I’m not saying you have to spice up your food if you like not-so-spicy food. But you can spice it up with doing fun things!

You could get your children to come dressed up as someone from a different country.

Or you can say, “Tonight I want you to find a poem that you can come with to bring to the table and read.” You could have some other idea you can ask them when you’re at the table. There are so many things you can think about.

But let’s keep our marriages and our mothering spicy, flavorful, and filled with salt! Amen?

Let’s be salty when we go out from our homes, out into the neighborhood, out to the supermarket. Let’s go with a smile on our face with the joy of the Lord upon us, ready to just speak a word for Jesus wherever we go. To speak a word for motherhood when people ask us about our children. Yes, we’ve always got a little seed of truth ready to share with someone. We’re impacting the world wherever we go. Amen?

The next point is . . .

No. 10. FERVENTLY PRAYING

We all know that God wants us to pray. The Bible exhorts us to pray. But how often do we pray?

My sister called a few days ago and said, “I’ve got a joke for you. I heard it on a podcast I was listening to.” She told it to me. Actually, I didn’t think it was a joke— I thought it was very profound and challenging.

But anyway, this couple invited another couple to their place for a meal and they had a lovely meal together. After they had gone the wife said to her husband, “You know. I’ve got a spoon missing. I wonder if that guy stole my spoon.”

I was thinking when she told me that story, “Goodness me! I wouldn’t even notice a spoon missing!” We have a lot of spoons because we have so many people living here and coming and going.

“Anyway, this wife, she noticed the spoon that was missing.

Well a year went by and they invited this couple over again. They were good friends and they invited them over again for a meal.

She thought to herself, “You know what? I think I am going to ask him about this spoon.” So she said to him, “By the way, did you by mistake take a spoon when you were last here?”

“Oh no,” he said, “I put it in your Bible!”

Oh my, was it a year since she had opened her Bible?”

I thought that was a little bit more than a joke. That was pretty profound, wasn’t it?

That was talking about our Bibles, but I think the same applies to prayer. How often are we praying?

Our church fellowship that we have here is called a “House of Prayer.” We love that because we believe in prayer. But I think all of our homes should be called a house of prayer—don’t you?

Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Now I’m sure that you have dedicated your home to the Lord.

If we have dedicated our homes to the Lord, if we have dedicated our homes to Him, it should be a home of prayer, a place where prayer is part of the place. It’s quite normal to pray throughout the day. We also have special times that we pray.

In our home, we put aside every morning and every evening to pray as a family. We do that after breakfast and after supper.

You may have different times in your family. But I love those times because I believe the table is a place where we feed the whole man. We feed the body, the soul and the spirit. We like to eat and feed the body, but we love to open the Word of God to feed the soul and spirit. Then we love to pray because that’s all a part of our spirit just communicating with God.

So we love to do that every morning and every evening, which is also a Biblical thing. It’s a Biblical pattern, the Morning and Evening Principal. You can go to my webpage, aboverubies.org and do a search for the Morning and Evening Principle. There you can read up all the Scriptures that tell you about this wonderful principle.

God not only wants us to pray, He wants us to pray FERVENTLY. Do you go to prayer meetings where sometimes everyone is praying, but no one is really praying fervently?

I love to be in a prayer meeting where people are praying fervently, don’t you? In James 5:16 it says: “ . . . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

It doesn’t just say “prayer avails much,” but the FERVENT prayer of a righteous man avails much.

The Amplified Version says: “ . . . The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”

The Passion Translation says: “ . . . tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a godly believer!”

God not only wants us to pray fervently. He wants us to pray CONTINUALLY.

I have got lots of references for that, but we won’t have time to go through them all. Although I will read Colossians 4:2 which says: “Continue in prayer . . ..”

God wants us to pray PERSEVERINGLY.

He wants us to pray EARNESTLY.

He wants us to pray BELIVEINGLY.

He wants us to pray EXCEEDIGNLY.

These are all Scriptures. First Thessalonians 3:8-0 says: “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God; Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?”

Night and day, praying exceedingly. And who was Paul praying for? He was praying for the believers in Thessalonica. He also says here “For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.” He was praying for that end. I often think of Paul praying for his new believers who had just come to Christ. They weren’t his flesh and blood, but they were so precious to him.

What about our children? Isn’t that how you feel? That’s just how I feel. That’s my longing for my children and my grandchildren. I can live if they stand fast in the Lord. 

My greatest prayers and longings for them are that they will stand fast in the Lord. I pray that they will be passionate for God and never be mediocre or ordinary, but totally sold out to God, to prayer, and to His Kingdom. That is what we long for and so that is what we pray for.

I go back a chapter in 1 Thessalonians, chapter two, and here Paul uses “night and day” again. My! He just poured out his life, didn’t he? Poured out his life “night and day.”

We read from 1 Thessalonians 2:7 where Paul is speaking as a man, but he is speaking as a mother: “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children.” He longed for them like a mother longs after her children.

We continue in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, 9: “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day [here he has this night and day again.], because we would not be chargeable unto any of you . . ..”

This is how he poured out his life for these young believers. Night and day praying for them. Night and day laboring for them, just as a mother pours out her life for her child.

Yet sometimes we can complain when we have to get up in the night to our babies and to our children. And they’re our flesh and blood.

I was always challenged by this Scripture as a young mother. If Paul could do this for his believers, how much more can we do it for our very own children that God has given to us, to nurture and to train and prepare for His purposes?

So, here we go, praying EXCEEDINGLY. The Greek word “exceedingly” is perissos. It means “exceeding some number or measure, over and above, more than is necessary, much more than all, surpassing the ordinary.”

We’ve talked about this meaning quite a few times in our series, “How do We Change the World?” because it comes up so much and this is the meaning. So much of our walk with God is never meant to be ordinary. It’s meant to be more than the ordinary, surpassing the ordinary, over and above.

This comes to our prayer life. It’s the same word here, the word that is used for our prayer life.

What is our prayer life like, dear ladies . . . dear mothers . . . dear wives . . . dear grandmothers? Are we praying?  I know I long to pray more. I don’t pray as much as I long to pray.

We do have our time of prayer every morning and every evening. I just thank the Lord that we set aside this time. There may be days we pray more than this, but at least we have those two times.

If I didn’t put those two times aside and establish those two times morning and evening as a habit in our home I wonder, how much would we pray? Because life is busy— it just takes hold of us. It takes over us sometimes. If we don’t establish those times, we don’t take time to pray, let alone pray exceedingly. Praying night and day.

It’s so good, too, to have a prayer meeting in your home. Have you ever had a prayer meeting in your home? You can gather people to pray.

We’ve been married for 56 years, and most of our lives we’ve had a prayer meeting in our home. We’ve lived in different countries—New Zealand, Australia, and now here in the USA. 

We’ve had prayer meetings for different needs. For years I had a prayer meeting for Above Rubies in my home. I had a prayer meeting for praying for Israel in my home.

Currently we have a prayer meeting praying for whatever need we need to pray for. We do pray for Israel, we pray for the persecuted saints, we pray for our nation, we pray for the nations of the world.

We came out to the land here in Primm Springs about 19 years ago now, and we started our prayer meeting here in 2001, so that’s 18 years ago now. We’ve never ever, ever, ever stopped this prayer meeting. For 18 years we’ve been gathering together.

And it’s been different over the years. When we first started we gathered in neighbors around us who were Christians. They all came from different denominations. Some were Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Pentecostals, and it’s amazing because we all came together, and we all prayed in unity.

Our hearts were concerned for our area that we lived, for the nation, and for all the other needs that God would put on our hearts. Some of those neighbors have passed away now, some have moved on and our prayer meeting is different now.

I think now our prayer meeting is mostly filled with young people! It’s just so wonderful. Often our whole lounge can be filled with young teens praying. I think this is one of the most exciting times of our prayer meeting.

You will find that you have different seasons in your life. But it’s a wonderful thing to gather people into your home to pray.

When you have a prayer meeting in your home, you don’t have to put all the children to bed because you’re having a prayer meeting. You can let them stay up. You can let your baby stay up if you want.

You can hold your baby and nurse your baby with a nursing cover and no one really knows what you’re doing. Your little toddlers can be there till they just go to sleep or you can pick them up and take them to their beds.

Your older children can stay and pray. The most wonderful thing for children is to be in a prayer meeting and learn to pray.

Because we have little ones come, often Colin will say to them at our prayer meetings, “Okay, all you young ones pray first before you go to sleep,” because lots of them throughout the prayer meeting gradually go to sleep. But they pray first and they all know how to pray.

It’s the most wonderful thing for children to be part of prayer meetings. Why would we go and put them to bed when this is the most powerful thing that they could ever do?

Let’s be motivated to pray, amen? We don’t change the world, dear ladies, by praying a few little prayers here and there. We will become world changers by being committed to prayer, wrestling in prayer, persevering in prayer, pouring out our hearts in prayer. Praying continually, perseveringly, exceedingly, which, do you remember means, “surpassing the ordinary, much more than all, more than is necessary.” You’re not going to just pray some little wee prayer; you’re going to pour out your heart.

These are the prayers that are going to change the nation and the world. Just imagine if every believing family would begin to pray for this nation, every morning and every evening at their family worship time at their family devotions.

My, the Bible says that five of you can put one hundred enemies to flight! That’s in Leviticus 26:7, 8.

Now, have you got three children? Mommy, Daddy, and three children are five of you. The Bible says five of you can put one hundred enemies to flight.

We have enemies in this nation. We need to be praying, pushing back the devil, pushing back the enemy, pushing back the evil, taking authority in the name of Jesus over the deceptions, over the evil and over all the wicked things in our nation.

As we do this, we can be nation changers.

We have prayer boxes and one of our prayer boxes is Countries and Capitals of the World.  We will just pick out a card and it will have the name of the capital city and the nation. We will pray over that city and nation.

And here we are, just on the hilltop, in little Primm Springs, surrounded by trees and nobody knows what we’re doing. But I’m telling you, really, prayer is mainly hidden. But—we are affecting nations of the world. Nations that we could not even go to if we tried and if we wanted to preach the Gospel our heads would be cut off.

But we can pray and see God move because prayer has power! Let’s be those who move into world changing prayer, praying exceedingly so that we will see great and mighty things happen.

Oh, I think my greatest longing in this hour is to see revival come to our nation. I just see so many broken marriages. I see so many who have named the name of Christ walking away in rebellion. It grieves my heart. I see worldliness in the church. I see luke-warmness and my heart cries out for a revival of turning back to God. My heart cries out for the turning back of fathers and mothers to the home (Malachi 4:5, 6).

Do you have this burden on your heart? Oh, if only we would all begin to pray and pour out our hearts to God, we would see this revival come because it comes through prayer. Amen?

“Dear Father,

“We thank You that You have given us the privilege and the responsibility to pray. So many things You talk about in Your Word You tell us to then pray about them. You tell us to cry out to You.

“We ask that You would make us those who are pray-ers who pray exceedingly, who pray continually, who have such a love and a heart to pour out our hearts to You, oh God.

“I pray that You would pour out the spirit of prayer upon every precious wife and mother listening. That You would pour out the spirit of prayer upon their husbands and their children.

“Pour out the spirit of prayer upon Your people today, that we would become a praying people. For we know, O God, that it’s only as a praying people that we will be a powerful people to impact this world for You.

“We ask it in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”