PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 68 – THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD- PART 1

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 68- THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD- PART 1

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello lovely ladies, welcome again to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours.

I’m going to begin again today with a lovely poem. This is a poem by Edgar Guest. He lived back in the first part of the last century and he wrote many poems.

Actually they say he wrote over 11,000 poems and published more than twenty volumes of his poetry.  He just wrote about the simple things of life and about family. People loved it because it was all about their lives.

At one stage he printed a poem every day in the paper because he was a journalist.

This one is called “No Children in the House.”

I actually remember a few years ago when I would take my grandchildren with me to Above Rubies Retreats. I remember Mercy (my daughter), Rashida and Meadow (my granddaughters) coming.

Meadow has one child now, little Warren. Meadow and her husband, Kendall, are currently living in Japan. He is an engineer for Nissan, and he is posted there for a year.

Rashida, she has two beautiful little girls now (Ezra called Ezzie for short and

Emory), and Mercy, who is our youngest daughter, she has one little boy called Canaan. 

So they all have children now, but this was in their single days. If anyone came to an Above Rubies Retreat with me, they always had to do something.

Of course Meadow used to sing, but sometimes they’d recite this poem. Between the three of them, they would all take a verse or so each. I’m remembering that as I read this to you.

Here we go:

“No children in the house to play—
It must be hard to live that way!
I wonder what the people do
When night comes on and the work is through,
With no glad little folks to shout,
No eager feet to race about,
No youthful tongues to chatter on
About the joy that's been and gone?
The house might be a castle fine,
But what a lonely place to dine!

“No children in the house at all,
No fingermarks upon the wall,
No corner where the toys are piled—
Sure indication of a child.
No little lips to breathe the prayer
That God shall keep you in His care,
No glad caress and welcome sweet
When night returns you to your street;
No little lips a kiss to give—
Oh, what a lonely way to live!

“No children in the house! I fear
We could not stand it half a year.
What would we talk about at night,
Plan for and work with all our might,
Hold common dreams about and find
True union of heart and mind,
If we two had no greater care
Than what we both should eat and wear?
We never knew love's brightest flame
Until the day the baby came.

“And now we could not get along
Without their laughter and their song.
Joy is not bottled on a shelf,
It cannot feed upon itself,
And even love, if it shall wear,
Must find its happiness in care;
Dull we'd become of mind and speech
Had we no little ones to teach.
No children in the house to play!
Oh, we could never live that way!” 

 

Now ladies, I want to start sharing a series with you called “The Glory of Womanhood.”

My first point is, ladies, we already have glory.  I love that Scripture in Proverbs 11:16 and it says: “A gracious woman retains her honor . . ..” In other words, she already has honor, she’s just got to keep hold of the honor and the glory God has given her.

That word there in the Hebrew “A gracious woman retains her honor,” that word is actually “glory.”

It’s the Hebrew word kabod and in most places in the Bible it’s translated “glory.” It means “to carry authority in speech and demeanor and comportment, the way you live and walk.” It means “esteem, majesty and wealth.”

One of the main meanings of this word is “weight.” Now this doesn’t mean we put on weight. No, it’s the meaning of a weight of honor, a heaviness of honor. We carry a weight of authority because of this glory that God has given to us.

Now ladies, how is it that we already have glory? It is because we were created in the image of God. In the very beginning God created man or mankind and when He created the man there was only one being. But in the man, there was already the woman.

We then go on to Genesis chapter two and we read how God took the woman out of the man and then there were two. There was a male and a female. God Himself is genderless, but when He created mankind, He created the male and the female and each one reveals different aspects of Who God is.

The man reveals the manhood, the maleness of God.

God has planned for us to reveal the beautiful femaleness of God, His nurturing heart, His compassionate heart. Of course a man can have compassion and mercy also, but it is physically and very innately exemplified in the female.

So when God created us this way, He put in us something of His glory. Of course we don’t live in the fullness of the glory of God. When we read about God, He is called in the Scriptures the God of Glory. He is called the Father of Glory. He is called the Spirit of Glory. We also read of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. We read about the throne of glory in His heavenly realm.

Everything to do with God is related to glory. He is glory. That word glory, as I have shared, is “majesty, esteem and wealth.” It’s a beautiful word.

We have some of that glory; we reflect some of His glory. God wants us, as His female creation, to embrace how He created us because when we do that, when we embrace who He created us to be as a female, we live in our glory. Isn’t that wonderful?

Dear ladies, God wants you to live in your glory. To live in your glory, not to go against it, not to think it’s of no worth, no, but to embrace it with all your heart and to live in it.

We’re going to find out more as we go along how to live in this glory. We have to retain the glory that God has given to us.

That word “retain” in the Hebrew is the word tamak and it means “to keep fast, to hold up, to maintain.”

It is the same word that is used when Joseph held up his father’s hand to place it on Manasseh’s head, his son’s head, when his father was blessing his sons. It was a holding up. It’s the same word when it says: “Thy right hand upholdeth me” (Psalm 63:8). It holds  me up.

And just as God holds us up, He wants us to hold up the glory that He has given to us. He wants us to hold on to it and not bring shame to it. When we don’t live in it, we’re actually bringing shame to His glory.

In Psalm 4:2 it says: “ . . . how long will ye turn my glory into shame?” “Glory”— that’s that word kabod. How long will you turn it into shame? We either do two things, precious ladies: We either embrace the glory that God has given to us, or we bring shame to it.

In Jeremiah 2:11 it says: “But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” That’s a powerful Scripture, isn’t it?

We see the feminist world today coming against everything that is truly womanly. They call themselves “feminists” but they’re the opposite to everything feminine. They are the opposite to every way God created them.

We don’t have to be very intelligent to look at our bodies and see how God created us: femininely, womanly. Our most basic characteristic as a woman, as a female, is that we have a womb. It’s our most basic characteristic; it’s what makes us a woman.

This womb is a powerful place. Maybe one time I’ll do a series for you about the womb. The womb is where we conceive and carry a baby that grows in our womb. We bring this beautiful baby forth, this life, this child within us that has been a child from the moment of conception, a child that has been born not only for this world, but for the eternal world. We have the privilege to do this from our womb.

We have breasts from which we nourish and nurture this child. This is the glory that God has given to us.

It is so sad that today feminists and liberalists are turning away from who God created them to be and they are no longer who they are.

I remember one time our grandson Zadok (he’s Evangeline’s oldest son, he’s 27 years now), and he has such an anointing of evangelism upon him. Everywhere he goes he speaks about Jesus. Sometimes we call him “the Wal-Mart evangelist” or “the bus stop evangelist” because he goes to these places and everywhere he goes he finds people who need Jesus and he is not inhibited in anyway. He just speaks to everyone he meets. He leads people to Jesus in Wal-Mart. He prays for people to be healed at Wal-Mart. He goes to a gas station to get gas and he will end up leading someone to Jesus.

I remember one time he decided to go down to the streets in downtown Nashville and he didn’t know that the night he went down was going to be some gay demonstration. It was filled with gays and homosexuals.

He was sharing with us later how he came up to one person, this guy who was dressed as a woman and the anointing of God just came over him.

He rose up with such authority in God. He spoke with this loud voice and he pointed at this man, and for many they would think, “Help, help, why would you do this?” but it was the anointing of God and he pointed at him and said, “You are not being who God created you to be. This is not who you are!”

Then he began to speak to him, to this man, and because it was under the anointing of God, God arrested him, and this man began to weep.

But what a true statement, “This is not who you are.” I believe this is the message for so many precious women today who have been deceived, who are duped by this feminist dogma. “This is not who you are!” and this is not the glory of womanhood that God has given you.

So, precious ladies, we have to embrace this glory. Yes, it is a glory.

I’m not just talking to you, making this all up to make it all sound great, that this is all glory. No, I’m speaking to you from the Bible and as we go through today, we’re going to see that this is Bible language.

We have got to get the right language. We have got to get the truth. We are bombarded on every direction by deception from the feminists and the humanists and all the “ists” and “isms” that are so contrary to the Word of God.

It’s time we came back to the truth and the language of the Bible. This is our very beginning basic point, precious mother, precious daughter, whoever you are today. You were created in the glory of God. You carry the glory of God. God has put some of His glory on you so you can reveal it in this world and show to the world what God is like.

When we as women embrace our femininity, we bring glory to God. When we as a mother come to motherhood and when we embrace it, we are revealing the nurturing, compassionate heart of God and He wants this revealed in the world.

It is God’s glory and He wants us to revere it. Amen?

You’ve already got it precious, ladies. You’ve got to just hold on to it, hold on to your glory. Amen? 

All right, let’s look at some other Scriptures. We go to Proverbs 31:25 and this is speaking about the virtuous woman and in this verse,  it says: “Strength and honor are her clothing. . .. ”

The word “honor” there is another word for glory, another Hebrew word this time and it’s the word hadar.

There are a lot of different Hebrew words for glory, but the ones we’re going to speak about today are kabod, which I’ve talked about, and now also hadar.

Hadar is also a wonderful word and it also means “glory, honor, majesty and beauty.”

In fact a while back I had a beautiful girl living with us as an Above Rubies helper. I think you know that I have Above Rubies helpers come to live with us. They come from all over the USA and also the entire world.

This girl, Avigail, was from Israel. We were so blessed to have her come all the way from Jerusalem. Avigail has lived in Jerusalem all her life. She has grown up living among the Orthodox Jews. Hebrew is her first language.

It was so wonderful when we would have prayer times, she would begin praying in English and then move into Hebrew. She just couldn’t help it! Oh goodness, when she began to pray in Hebrew it was so powerful.

But I loved having Avigail with us because when we were reading the Word we would say, “Oh I wonder what this word really means.”

We can look it up in our Strong’s Concordance and find the meaning there, but often it’s not the full meaning.

I remember one day asking Avigail about this particular word. It was “Strength and honor are her clothing” and we realized it was the word hadar. 

I said, “Avigail, okay, do you use that word today in your everyday language in Israel?”

She said, “Yes.”

I said, “Tell me, what does it really mean?”

She thought for a moment and she actually found it quite hard to fully express the meaning. She said, “It really means ‘beyond honor.’ It’s a very powerful word. It means ‘beauty from above.’ In other words, it’s a beauty that comes from God.’” She said that it’s such a beautiful word that many mothers in Israel love to call their daughters “Hadar,” so they speak that over their daughters, this beauty from above, this honor.

Isn’t that beautiful? And this is the word here in Proverbs 31 where it says: “Strength and honor [beauty from above] are her clothing.” This is what she is clothed in.

Dear ladies, this is our testimony. We are to be clothed in glory. We put on glory each day. We wrap ourselves around in glory. It’s not a glory of our own. We haven’t got it of ourselves. It’s given to us from above. It’s this beauty from above. It’s this reflected glory of the image of God that we are revealing as a female.

Let’s look at another Scripture. I’m going to turn over in my Bible here to Psalm 111. It’s just a description here of the works of the Lord.

All of the works of the Lord are so wonderful. On the sixth day God created His final creation, mankind: male and female. Every day He said it was good, but on the sixth day, after He had created His highest creation, He said “It is VERY good.”

We use the word “very” and it’s not really such an incredible word we use. If we want to say something’s really amazing, we use the word “amazing” or “incredible” or “fantastic.”

Well that’s really what that word means. It’s not just “very.” It does mean “incredible, amazing and just so beyond the normal.” It was very good. Exceedingly good.

So as we read this passage we can think about all God’s works of creation, but His highest creation, which is male and female.

Psalm 111:2-3: “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable. . ..” That’s the word howd. Wow, that’s another word for glory in the Bible and it means “beauty, glory, excellency.”

“His work is honorable and glorious. . ..” That’s the word hadar. That’s the word that we’re talking about now. She’s clothed with hadar and when God created us, He said He created us with hadar, that’s the word here, ”glorious,” He created us with hadar.

Are you getting it ladies? Yes, hadar, which also means “dignity.” That’s another part of it.

In fact, I’ve noted here, I’ve found 19 different translations of Proverbs 31:25 where they use the word “dignity.” So although it means glory, it also means dignity.

Some translations will say: “Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come.”

What does dignity mean? Well, the dictionary tells us that “it’s the quality of being worthy of honor. It’s a high sense of propriety, truth and justice. It’s an elevated deportment of manners and behavior. It’s an elevated office, an honorable or high rank.” That is the meaning of dignity. God has given you, as a female dignity so embrace it. You are not inferior as a female. You are created with hadar, with glory, with beauty from above.

Psalm 111 goes on with verse 3: “He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered . . ..”

Wonderful, that’s the Hebrew word pala. Oh goodness me, how I love that word! It means “wonderful, marvelous, miraculous, extraordinary, astonishing, beyond the bounds of human power or expectation.”

Verse 6: “He hath showed the people the power of His works.” They are powerful.

Then it goes down to verses 7, 8 and I am going to read these verses in the ESV: “The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness. . ..”

Dear ladies, you can trust the way God made you. Everything He says, everything He does is trustworthy.

Daughters, beautiful daughters who are listening today, young daughters and older daughters, embrace your femininity. It’s your glory and it’s who you are. Always be who you are, who God created you to be.

I think one of the saddest things in the world is for someone to go through life and to not be who God created them to be. I think that is the most devastating thing in the entire world.

Fancy being here on earth and not being who you were meant to be! The greatest thing you can ever do is be who God created you to be.

That means as a daughter, that means when you become a mother, we embrace who we are with all our hearts. As we do, we live in our glory and we keep and hold on to the glory God gave us at creation. We are giving glory to God.

I believe it is time that we took back the glory.

I wrote something this morning, just a little kind of ditty:

“Why don’t we live in our glory?

Because we’ve been told a different story.”

I believe that’s the reason, ladies. That’s the reason that we’re not living to the full of our feminine glory is because we’ve been told a lie.

Not only have we been told a lie. We’ve been told it so much, that we have been educated in the media, in society all around us and, sadly, in the church today that we don’t believe the truth.

And so we don’t live in the glory. That’s why we’ve got to come back to Bible truth, Bible language so we can live in our true glory.

Then I wrote another little ditty:

“If you want to live in your glory,

Take heed to the Bible story.”

Amen?

All right, ladies, I’m going to pray and then next week we’re going to carry on learning more about the glory God wants us to live in.

“Dearest Father, Oh how we praise You that You are the God of glory. You are the Father of glory. You live in glory. Your throne is a throne of glory and we will never, with our finite minds, fathom even a little of the glory of all who You are and where You dwell.

“One day we will live and see this glory, but now, oh God, we can only dream about it. But we thank You for Your truth that You have created us to live in Your glory, to live out Your glory, to bring glory to You.

“We ask that You will save us from ever bringing shame to Your honor and glory, but that we will truly be who You have created us to be. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.”