Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

14f) HOW CAN WE DENY GOD WHAT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO HIM?

This is the last post on this theme. We begin a new theme tomorrow.

We 21st century Christians must take God's Word as final. If God's Word says that children are rewards, blessings, and the heritage of the Lord, then who are we to deny it? Who are we to ignore, despise, and reject this truth?

"Situational ethics" which applies the truth only if the situation is favorable is a serious enemy of the truth. The church of this present time is full of situational ethics. Ethics are principles, morals, and foundational truths, not to be fooled with. Church politics have superseded truth. Church politics soon become church tradition.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:3, 6, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? ... Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition."

Men, we must shake ourselves free of the dust of man's traditions and excuses, no matter how appealing to our own logic. We must also remember that not only are children our rewards, blessings, and heritage, they are also God's rewards, blessings, and heritage. Would we dare deny God of what is rightfully His? Who are we to apply situational ethics to this truth? May God have mercy on our unbelief.

May we be courageous for the truth, no matter what the opposition.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

14e) MAKE YOUR HOME A HAPPY HOME!

Psalm 128:3 NASB, "Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants round your table."

Although it is praiseworthy that God should have souls added to His kingdom from unconverted families (after all, this is the purpose of the Great Commission), and yet there is something to be said about being born into a godly family. It is indeed a great heritage to be brought up with parents who love God, who love the Bible and read it at the meal table at least once per day, preferably twice a day.

What a blessing it is to be brought up in the atmosphere of hymns and spiritual songs, surrounded with parents who love each other, and brothers and sisters playing happily with one another. What a blessing to be lovingly trained, discipled, and molded into God's culture of godliness.

This is the home where boundaries are established, where all worldly, fleshly, and ungodly media are strictly guarded and kept out. This is the home that is full of many good things. Children are not bored. Rather they are cultivated into the riches of the true godly Christian culture. This is what we were made for. This is what man was originally designed for.

Psalm 144:15 says, "Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." Men, may your home a happy one. Our homes should happier than those of the world.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

14d) THE BIBLICAL FATHER SEES HIS CHILDREN AS REWARDS (AND A THREAT TO THE ENEMY!)

Who in their right mind would want to turn away the rewards that God values and gives? If we do not value what God values, there is something seriously wrong with our thinking. Furthermore, God says that a man is blessed if He has a quiver full of "rewards." The majority of the present church fails to realize that Satan himself is acutely opposed to quiver full families because the larger the Christian family, the greater threat to his kingdom.

Men, do we realize that the main enemy of the devil is godly Christians who are being raised in godly homes and godly churches? I have often heard people say that it's not about numbers. This statement is true, but God's Word has to be interpreted by all Scripture. Psalm 33:16 says, "There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength."

Then we compare Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." And Psalm 127:4-5, "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

I am not saying that an individual who is saved out of an ungodly family is not a threat to the enemy. They are! However, the quiver full godly family is potentially a greater threat to the devil's kingdom.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

14c) THE BIBLICAL FATHER SEES HIS CHILDREN AS REWARDS

A heritage is that which is inherited, a status into which one is born, a birthright. God's chosen people, Israel, and the true Christian church, has inherited exceeding great and precious promises and are "joint heirs with Christ, if so be we suffer with Him" (Romans 8:17).

Just as Christ, and all that He has inherited, is ours, so are all the children that we raise to be set apart for His inheritance. The fact that God counts redeemed sinners as His inheritance (heritage of the Lord) is mind blowing. It is amazing grace. It is an astounding truth that we humans, with all our weaknesses, can have the privilege of not only bringing to birth an inheritance for God, but also the privilege of raising and molding this inheritance for God.

The problem is that most of the church has such a deceived and warped understanding of this truth. The church believes that we should win as many souls as possible for the Lord and disciple them. This is right. But, the deception is that we should limit our own families in order to accomplish the great commission. They believe that any more than two or three children would hinder fulfilling the great commission. The question unanswered is: how many evangelists and soul winners, etc. have we refused to raise for the heritage of the Lord?

John Wesley was the 15th child of Susannah Wesley and Charles Wesley, the great hymn writer, was the 18th of her 19 children.

Be encouraged. Colin Campbell

14b) THE BIBLICAL FATHER SEES HIS CHILDREN AS REWARDS "THAT WHICH IS "OF THE LORD"(Psalm 127: 3).

We are living in a time when godly values are being seriously eroded and challenged by a humanistic media, the state education system, as well as a liberal, brain-washed, soft-soap church system. Numbers are often a higher priority than godly moral values. More and more politicians value votes and numbers far more than godly traditional morals. The Anthony Wieners of today's politics are brazen and have no conscience or fear of God. Sad to say, a lot of the church is not far behind when it comes to priests and young boys, etc.

Proverbs 29:2 says, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." Hence, Detroit mourns. Both the liberal state and liberal church want numbers, but they do not want quiver full families.

The devil knows that godly families who have caught the revelation that their children are rewards as well as the heritage "of the Lord" are a threat to the devil's end time strategy. Satan will do all that he can to malign and deceive parents who hold these biblical values of "quiver full rewards." That which is "of the Lord" is not to be taken lightly, but should be treated with utmost respect.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

"A woman needs a man she can trust and a man who will be true to his word. His word should be his bond. A man of integrity is a man who can be respected and honored. The lustful eyes of the porn-peeping womanizer do not belong to the man of integrity."

~ Colin Campbell

14) THE BIBLICAL FATHER SEES HIS CHILDREN AS REWARDS

The Biblical father has all the children God wants him to have. He sees children as arrows, rewards, blessings, and the heritage of the Lord. Amen. So be it! The unbelieving Christian father does not see it this way. He does not believe in God's Word of truth, such as Psalm 127:3-5. This is an amazing paradox. The very idea of an unbelieving Christian is in itself a contradiction of true Christianity, for true Christianity is all about faith in Christ and the testimony of the Scripture on all subjects.

Most modern day Christians have very little understanding on God's values of having and raising children. Most of the average 21st century church believes that any more than two children, or at the most three per family is being down right undisciplined, unthinking, unacceptable, and inconsiderate of popular opinion. They think Family Planning has nothing to do with God.

I constantly hear Christian grandparents bewailing their own children for having any more than two or three children. They feed them with unbelief, telling them that in today's world they cannot afford them and it will put more burden on the grandparents. Rather than being an encouragement on biblical family values, they discourage God's heritage and rewards for young Christian families. Many pastors are just as discouraging.

To be continued.

Be encouraged. Colin Campbell

13b) SHOOTING ARROWS (Sorry, one more point about ARROWS. Definitely starting a new topic tomorrow).
MAKE SURE THEY ARE EQUIPPED!

When Jesus sent forth His disciples He made very sure they were trained, polished, and endued with power from on high (Acts 1:8). Apart from their own parental training, plus synagogue training, they were mentored by Jesus Himself for three years. Matthew 28:18-20 says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe ALL THINGS whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world. Amen."

There is no doubt that these disciples were trained and polished arrows. I believe that we Christian fathers, along with our wives, must wholeheartedly apply ourselves to make sure our children are equipped in the same way as the first disciples. How can we possibly send them forth to teach the world "ALL THINGS" that Jesus taught His disciples if they don't know all these things? Would Christ Jesus send our children forth untrained in the Word of Christ? The "great commission" is the shooting forth of ready arrows for which parents have a solemn duty to perform.

Fathers, do not abdicate your responsibility by passing it on to others, including the church you attend.

Isaiah 38:19 Says, "The FATHER to the children shall make known thy truth."

Be encouraged. Colin Campbell

13) SHOOTING ARROWS (Our last point about ARROWS. We start a new subject tomorrow.)

Psalm 64:7 says, "But God shall SHOOT at them with an arrow; suddenly they shall be wounded."

Psalm 144:6 says, "Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: SHOOT out thine arrows, and destroy them."

Men, arrows are meant to be shot. They are not meant to be just look pretty in the quiver. They are not meant to be sitting around doing nothing. God's arrows are not for ornamentation. They are created for a purpose. Every single one of them! And that purpose is to be shot forth from the bow to destroy God's enemies.

Men, every one of our children are arrows. It is our responsibility, as fathers, to put our very best endeavor into the straightening, polishing, and disicipling of these arrows so that when the time comes for action they will be ready to shoot forth.

This is where Family Devotions comes in as a very important role in preparing our arrows for it gets God's Word into their hearts. God's Word entering into the hearts of our children, coupled with prayer, is God's method of preparing arrows. The average Christian parenting, without morning and evening in the Word and prayer will not cut it in preparing them for the true purpose of God for their lives.

My wife said to me recently,

"Our God is the eternal King of kings and Lord of Lords and the Word He gave to us is the eternal Book of books. If we really believe this, surely the least we will do each day is to take time morning and evening to gather our family into His presence to worship Him and hear from Him."

As such we must develop in our children (our arrows) a deep hunger and respect for God's truth as found in His Book of all books.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

12c) ARROWS OF DELIVERANCE FOR VICTIM CHILDREN!

James 5:17-18 says, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

Last week, the Fox YouTube video of the day was about the brave little 11 year old from Yemen who fled from her parents who were giving her away in marriage. At our Family Devotions we have been praying for the city of Kano in Nigeria. One of the prayer points for this city is to pray for the high divorce rate caused by the forced marriages of 10 - 12 year old girls who become pregnant and damage their reproductive organs at delivery and are then divorced by their husbands. We are seriously praying for these precious little girls who desperately need arrows of deliverance.

If this little Yemeni girl's crying out to the world at the injustice of such an oppressive culture doesn't stir our hearts to intercede for these little victims of deliverance then we are cold-hearted and indifferent to such evil behavior. We must get our families involved in prayer for these injustices upon little innocent victims. I don't believe that the revealing of this video, coupled with the prayer points for Kano in Nigeria, was a coincidence. I believe that our great Intercessor at the Father's right hand, has brought it to our attention so that we will also intercede that God would provide arrows of deliverance from this terrible injustice.

Men, God has given you a wife and family for greater and higher reasons than only raising children. When you hear your children pray you will realize that they are God's arrows for deliverance.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

“Men, don’t forget that you are a king and a priest (Revelation 1:6). Many days can be wasted because we do not take advantage of who we are in Christ. Be a king today and set some captives free by giving the enemy his marching orders. Be a priest today and pray for others who need help. Be on the look out to speak encouraging words, pray, or help someone, especially your wife and children.”
~ Colin Campbell

12b) ARROWS OF DELIVERANCE

Isaiah 60:1-2, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come; and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall e seen upon thee."

When evil abounds and seriously threatens to suffocate all that is good and righteous in the earth, men who regard themselves as true Christian must be much in prayer that God will raise us up, as well as our children, to be arrows of deliverance.

How disgusting and defiant can it be when certain churches raise over their houses of worship gay flags alongside the USA flag. That is clearly sticking a dirty finger in God's face. They may call themselves Christians but they are of "the synagogue of Satan" Revelation 2:9 says, "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." We certainly need arrows of deliverance to put a stop to such abhorrent blasphemy. We Christian men must pray that God will use us and our children as arrows to bring deliverance to our country from such defiance and mockery of God's Holy Word.

Forty-four percent of students in Poland said they would not like to have a Jewish neighbor. Forty percent said they would not want a Jewish classmate. And 45 percent said they "would not be happy" if they had a Jewish relative. Dutch teens were quoted as saying they "regret" that Adolf Hitler didn't finish "the job he began." Europe needs arrows of deliverance for the Jews again as it sinks into godless humanism and anti-Semitism.

May God save America from such fanatical racism.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

12a) ARROWS OF DELIVERANCE

2 Kings 13:14-21 tells us what Elisha said to the Joash, the king of Israel, when he was dying, "And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said Shoot, and he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. And Elisha died."

This is a sad ending to the great prophet of Israel. He dies an angry man because the king should have struck the ground with more arrows than only three. He should have struck the ground five or six times. The prophet could have departed this earth with a mighty final victory of deliverance for the people of God. But, the king of Israel lacked prophetic insight.

Perhaps one of the reasons for not striking the ground with more than three arrows was that he may have had only three arrows left to fire. Like the king of Israel, the present day church lacks prophetic vision for arrows (children). We must view all our children as arrows to bring forth deliverance in some special way for the kingdom" per Christian family is not going to do much damage to the kingdom of darkness. compared to the "five, six or more arrows of deliverance."

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

11f) "ON FIRE" ARROWS continued again.

Without a doubt God wants us and our children to be on fire and red hot in our passion of love, devotion, worship, and service for Him.

In Revelation 3:14-19, Jesus Christ states that the Laodicean church confessed they were "rich and increased with goods" and yet spiritually speaking they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Because they were neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, the Lord Jesus was ready to spew them out of His mouth.

In our materially western world today, I wonder how many churches would fall into the category of being lukewarm. Men, I believe that it is very good for us to have our quivers filled with lots of arrows, but what's the point if these arrows are not on fire and red hot for God? This is why we must heed the call that Jesus gave to this Laodicean church that they "be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19).

This is why we men need to desperately lead our families in daily devotions around the table morning and evening. We need to make this a matter of our heart's affections and love toward Jesus Christ, a subject of earnest prayer that our heart will be hot and on fire for Jesus.

I most certainly do not want myself, or my wife and family, to be spewed out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. These are strong words and many churches would not want this mentioned at all, but Jesus said it, and He meant it.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

11e) "ON FIRE" ARROWS continued again.

The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit fire is to purify and cleanse us of all that is unclean, fleshly, and worldly. This fire is often manifested through fiery trials. 1 Peter 1:7 says, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

On fire arrows represent God's people who are going through, or have come through the fiery trials of persecution or affliction, and have allowed their faith in Christ to be purified. These are the ones who are red hot in love with Jesus. They are red hot in their obedience to be His true disciples. They are red hot to proclaim His message of salvation to a lost and dying world.

Although we shy away from the idea of welcoming fiery trials, yet I am forced to think that the hotter the trial, the hotter the arrows will be on the other side of them. Have you ever thought that in order for God to heat up the church He must lovingly allow it to pass through the fiery furnace of trials and afflictions? This true doctrine is supported by what the Children of Israel faced for 40 years in the wilderness after leaving Egypt.

Jesus Christ, after His baptism, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted and tried for 40 days (Luke 4:4). We notice in Luke 4:14 that Jesus returned from the wilderness "in the power of the Spirit." Obviously, the wilderness experience did Jesus no harm. On the contrary, it endorsed His power.

The lesson to learn from all this is that God's arrows, in order to be on fire, must of necessity go through the fire. The fire of the Holy Spirit will always burn up the self life. Sin and the flesh always hinder the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

11d) "ON FIRE" ARROWS continued again.

John the Baptist proclaimed in Matthew 3:11-12 says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather this wheat into the garner: but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

John the Baptist makes it clear that the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire is infinitely more powerful and significant than the baptism of water. Most Christians have been baptized in water.

However, if we are honest to ourselves as well as God, we have little evidence of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, let alone the fire that consumes the chaff. Chaff is what's left after the wheat is harvested. It is sterile and cannot reproduce any fruit. In Bible days, they burned the chaff. The chaff represents the works of man, the self nature, the flesh nature, the cross-less Christian.

Men, God has provided us with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and unquenchable fire in order to consume what is not of God in our lives.

We need to ask ourselves why the church seriously limits fiery arrows. We ourselves need a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit's power and fire in order to affect our own generation, as well as future generations. Men, always remember that the Holy Spirit knows how to get rid of all the chaff. The answer is power and fire.

Jesus promised in Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Acts 2:3 says, "And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as fire, and it sat upon each of them."

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

11c) "ON FIRE" ARROWS continued again.

Men, we must never forget that our God is a "consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24; 9:3).

Hebrews 12:29 says, "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire."

It stands to reason that if our God is not only a God of grace and mercy, but also a consuming fire towards His enemies who refuse to repent, that we who claim to be His sons should also have the self-same attribute toward all that is dark and evil and an offence to our God.

I am not suggesting that we should run around like "hell fire preachers" who are always ready to judge and condemn anyone who does not conform to their way of thinking. These show no love towards sinners and rarely see anyone really converted. And yet, we must be "on fire" in our hearts towards all things in our lives that are "wood, hay, stubble."

This consuming fire needs to be in our homes and churches. When we allow tolerance towards sin to override our resistance towards it we immediately become weaker until we reach the point where we become enemies of God.

We must allow and welcome God's consuming fire to consume all that is consumable in ourselves, our homes, and our churches. If we don't, we will ourselves will be consumed and will suffer great loss.

Men, we must pray that God's consuming fire will burn up all false tolerance.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

11b) "ON FIRE" ARROWS continued.

There can be no revolution of any consequence without people being fired up for a cause that means a lot to them--a cause of deep personal concern or conviction.

Revolution to many is something to steer away from because of the mass hysteria that often surrounds it. There is often much death and destruction caused by the negative extremism of revolution. However, when things go dramatically wrong, and there is just cause for a righteous revolution in order to bring about change, then we must not shy away from what is needed. The truth is that there can be no revolution without certain people to fire it, and keep on firing it, until the revolution sought has accomplished its goals.

For this reason we need to be praying for the people of Egypt who righteously realize that their future is bleak under the repressive regime of a never increasingly fanatical Islamic Brotherhood.

We Christian men need to get on fire for God now for the sake of our own country. May God save us from being status quo when our God is calling us to stand up against lies, corrupt morals, and all ungodliness.

This we must do in the grace and love of our Sovereign God.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

11) "ON FIRE" ARROWS.

Psalm 120:4 says, "Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper." Evidently they attached hot coals from the juniper wood to these arrows. They were very damaging because of their ability to set the ancient cities on fire. These arrows could be shot right over the city walls to land on the roofs of the dwellings. In this chapter, God uses these hot "on fire" arrows against the lying, false, deceitful tongues (Psalm 120:2-3).

Psalm 127 mentions that children of the youth are as arrows in the hand of a mighty man and that our quivers need to be full of them. We Christian men, along with our wives, need to understand that our individual families are our quivers. Whatever it takes to make our arrows "on fire" with the Holy Spirit of God, we must pay the price for this to happen.

We parents are also arrows and we need to be "on fire" The devil sends forth fiery arrows against us. His arrows are made hot from hell itself. How much more on fire from Heaven should God's arrows be.

We are living in a world of deceitful, lying, false tongues and they are growing bigger every day. It is high time for us men to reach into the burning foundry of the Holy Spirit and get ourselves and our children on fire so that all the lying tongues of our politicians will be burned into ashes.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell

10c) HITTING THE MARK ARROWS continued again.

Despite all that has happened to us through our coldness of heart and indifference to God, we must repent and rise up to hit the mark.

Psalm 78:9 says, "The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle."

Psalm 78:57 says that they "turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow."

Unfortunately, this pretty much describes the present state of most, if not all, of our Christianized western nations. The whole of Psalm 78 speaks of God's goodness and faithfulness towards His covenanted people and yet verses 10-11 tell us, "They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; and forgot his works, and his wonders that he had showed them."

The question we have to ask is, Will God who chastised them for such coldness of heart and ungratefulness of spirit refuse to chastise and discipline us? We must also remember that Israel only had the law, plus types and shadows represented in the Old Testament.

Hebrews 10:28-29 says, "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"

In spite of all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus, western Christianized nations have missed the mark. Our bow is deceitful (twisted, not accurate). The greatest need of this hour is for us to turn back to God and repent for the way we have been despiteful to His amazing grace.

Be encouraged. Colin Campbell