Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

The Mirror exposition of 2 Timothy 1:18 says: ”His visit meant so much to me that day in Rome: HE MADE GOD’S MERCY TANGIBLE.” What a challenge. Am I a visible and evident expression of God to my husband and family? What about you?

I love the quote of William Makepeace Thackeray: “Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.” We are the touchable expression of God to our children. Every day we show them what God is like. What about our husbands? Do they come closer to God through seeing Him manifested lives?

Let’s be the tangible proof to our husbands, our children, and the world of what God is like.

Love from Nancy Campbell

In our society where we can buy any vegetable or fruit we could imagine from the supermarket (at any season and from anywhere in the world) we don’t think gardens are important for food. However, where can you purchase food as fresh as harvesting from the garden as you prepare your next meal? Even organic vegetables (which are usually too expensive to purchase) often look old and wilted.

The first home was called the Garden of Eden and it was the prototype of all homes to come. Even when the children of Israel were taken captives to Babylon, God (the Lord of hosts) brought a word to the people through the prophet Jeremiah. He told them that even in captivity that they were to “Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them” (Jeremiah 29:5). In other words, keep doing the plan I gave you at the beginning, even though you are in captivity and life is difficult.

This is now the season to plant. I have planted 106 tomato plants and three rows of sweet and hot peppers, plus cucumbers, kale and lettuce so far. I hope to plant okra, zucchini, golden squash, and more cucumbers today. It’s hard work, but I am encouraged by the promise I read this morning of the wonderful harvest to come.

Can I encourage you that even if you live in the city and only have a tiny piece of earth, to try and plant something. Even if it is a few lettuces or one or two tomato plants. You can even plant these in pots to grow on your deck or verandah. And if you truly don’t have one piece of dirt at all, grow herbs on your window sill. At least have some vestige of a garden, for this is God’s plan from the very beginning.

Happy gardening.

Love from Nancy Campbell

THE WRONG WAY TO GARDEN!
A picture of Evangeline in the garden. Actually, she is a hard-working gardener, but she can work or relax in the garden!

Do you feel that everything is cut away from you? Life is finished. Dear friend, there is hope. Even if the tree is dead, it can live again. All it needs is some water! In fact, this Scripture says that even the smell of water will awaken life. Read the Scripture again. Read it OUT LOUD!

Water your situation in prayer. Water your marriage in prayer. Cry out for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to come. Zechariah 4:6 says: “Not my might, not by power, but by my Spirit saith the LORD of hosts.” The living water of the Holy Spirit awakens life. Soak in the anointing of God’s Word and speak it into your situation.

As you continue to water your situation with prayer, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Word of God life will come. Your dead situation will sprout again. “For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses” (Isaiah 44:3, 4). Read also Psalm 1:1-3.

Be encouraged.

Nancy Campbell

Titus 2:3 exhorts the older women to be “teachers of good things.” The word in the Greek language is “kalodidaskalos.” It comes from two words:
didaskalos - teacher, instructor
kalos - beautiful, good, worthy, valuable or virtuous for appearance and function.

Therefore, when Titus 2:3-5 speaks about loving our children, loving our husbands, being submissive to our husbands, and keepers at home, it is talking about BEAUTIFUL works. They are beautiful in God’s eyes. They are beautiful in the eyes of your husband. They will also be beautiful in your eyes when you understand they are God’s perfect will and His ultimate plan for you.

Embrace your beautiful role wholeheartedly. When you get up in the morning, thank God for the privilege of having such a beautiful career. Thank Him for the privilege of nurturing your little ones with God’s love and compassion. Thank Him for the joy of cooking and preparing meals for your family. Oh yes, 1 Timothy 5:10 tells us that this is also a beautiful work: “Well reported of for good (kalos) works: if she has brought up children . . .” The words “brought up” mean to not only nurture and raise your children, but to feed them with food!

Thank Him for the privilege of loving your husband and making your home a sanctuary for God. And yes, thank Him for all the challenges you face, because how could you expect to escape challenges and difficulties when you work full time in the most important career in the nation?

Love from Nancy Campbell

P.S. In case you haven’t read about Prayer Boxes, you can go to these links:
http://tinyurl.com/OurPrayerBox
http://tinyurl.com/TryDifferentPrayerBoxes
http://tinyurl.com/IdeasForPrayerCards
http://tinyurl.com/RecommendedLinks

Many Christians have this same relationship today. They go to church on Sunday and sing and worship, but they rely on the pastor to meet with God face to face during the week to listen to what God is saying and proclaim it to the people. That’s second hand Christianity. Each believer has the privilege of meeting with God every day and hearing from God first hand.

Every family has the privilege of meeting with God each morning and evening to hear from God and enter into His “face to face” presence. Why do we let other things take precedence to this great honor and privilege? Why do we let busyness crowd out our visiting with God each day? When we allow this to happen we teach our children that other things are more important than God. That He takes second place, or even last place! Or does He have a place at all?

How much time do you give as a family to God each day? Are you wooing your children into a “face to face” relationship with Christ, or allowing them to grow up with a “afar off” relationship, which is indicative of most Christians today.

May we aim to be nothing less than “face to face” with God families.

“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance;
to seek Him the greatest adventure;
to find Him, the greatest human achievement.”

~St. Augustine of Hippo

Amen!

Have a wonderful day,

Nancy Campbell

Jesus Christ does not think low, negative thoughts. His thoughts are high thoughts. Isaiah 55:8, 9 says: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

And of course you know 2 Timothy 1:7 where it tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of a “sound mind.” This is God’s gift to us through the cross of Christ, through the life of Christ who lives within us.

What does this “sound mind” mean? Let’s check it out. The word is “sophronismos.”
“Sophron” comes from two root words:
“sozo” meaning “to save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve, be made whole.”
“phren” meaning “to rein in or curb, fence or enclose; the mind or cognitive faculties, understanding.”

In other words, it means to have a saved, healed, and redeemed mind. Saved from what? Saved from our low negative thoughts. One translator says, “a mind saved from tolerating inferior thoughts.” Wow! Do you get that? The power of Christ within you enables you to be saved from tolerating inferior, second-rate thoughts!

Come on dear ladies, let’s rise up from our low, inferior thought life. Let’s embrace the mind of Christ within us and begin to think His thoughts. Fill your mind with His Word which are God’s thoughts, His high thoughts. Do not tolerate any longer the humanistic thought patterns that seek to overcome you.

Please be blessed as I encourage you, for this is what God tells me to do. When God tells the older women to teach the younger women in Titus 2:3-5, He emphasizes this word two times. We are to teach the younger women to be “discreet” which is “sophron” and to be “sober” which is “sophronizo” meaning “discipline, self-control.”

Rein in your self-defeating bucket thoughts. Yield to the Spirit instead of the flesh. Think God’s HIGH thoughts today. Proverbs 23:7 says: “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Be blessed,

Nancy Campbell

Like thy springs of running water
Make me crystal pure,
Like thy rocks of towering grandeur
Make me strong and sure.

Like thy dancing waves in sunlight
Make me glad and free,
Like the straightness of the pine tree
Help me upright be.

Like the arching of thy heavens,
Raise my thoughts above,
Turn my dreams to noble actions
Ministries of love.

God, who touches earth with beauty
Make me lovely too,
Keep me ever, by thy Spirit,
Pure and strong and true.

~ Mary S. Adgar

And here’s some of my favorite lines. I trust they will bless you today, too.

Trust Him when dark days assail thee,
Trust Him when thy faith is small,
Trust Him when to simply trust Him
Is the hardest thing of all.

You’ll never go wrong putting your trust in the L9ord. Isaiah 2:22 says: “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”

Blessings today,

Nancy Campbell

A wise old owl lived in an oak,
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard,
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

Love from Nancy Campbell

And of course, don’t neglect to keep up the habit of praying every morning and evening as you gather to read the God’s Word and worship as a family.

What will happen in this nation if God’s people really become praying families? If only we could realize the power of our family prayers. Satan know it and that’s why he seeks to keep us from prayer.

Love from Nancy Campbell

The priests and Sadducees put Peter and John in custody until the next day when they met together to make their decision. Their verdict? “That it SPREAD NO FURTHER among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:17, 18).

Did Peter and John become victims to their verdict? No. They answered: “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19, 20).

We see how the enemy became very agitated when the children of Israel multiplied in Egypt. The new Pharaoh was shaking in his boots. He said to his people: “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; LEST THEY MULTIPLY.” The devil is scared of God’s people multiplying. He does everything in his power to “rob, kill, and destroy” to stop children coming into the world.

Praise God, we will not give into the deception of the devil to hide God’s light and truth and the revelation of His image on the earth. We will spread His truth wherever we go. We will not hold back the children God wants to bring into this world.

I am so glad you are a testimony to God’s truth and that you are shining the light in the midst of the darkness. Keep spreading the Word. Never be silent. Keep spreading Above Rubies wherever you go. And don’t discriminate who you give them to. Give them to everyone you meet. You will be surprised who God will speak to through the magazine--sometimes the most hardened feminist!

Love and blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell

P.S. If you would like to read more ideas about sharing Above Rubies, go to: http://tinyurl.com/DistributingIdeas

But mothers, we face another challenge. This challenge is not only for ourselves, but for our children. God has given us the responsibility to train our children to obey when we speak to them. This trains our children into the habit of obeying God when He speaks to them through His Word. If we are lazy about training our children to obey, we set them up for the habit of continually disobeying God’s Word.

One of the secrets of teaching your children to obey is to first of all teach them to listen. If we do not teach our children how to listen, they will not learn to obey. Make sure your children hear what you tell them to do. Make eye contact with them. You may need to get them to repeat it back to you. Then expect them to do it! True hearing results in actions.

When your children learn to listen, they will learn to obey.
When they learn to obey you, they will learn to obey God.

Get them into the “obeying habit” now so that when they hear God speak through His Living Word, they will automatically respond and obey.

What kind of ears are you training your children to have? Lazy ears? Dull ears? Defiant ears? Resistant ears? Gullible ears? Or are you training them to have diligent ears that are quick to hear and obey you, and ultimately God’s words?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell