PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 169: LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 4
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 169 – LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 4
How can you change your face from a sour, dreary face to a smiling, bright face? Learn the secret. And we talk about more FILLING Scriptures again today – even FILLED with laughter!
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, LIFE TO THE FULL, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hi there, ladies! We are continuing our series, LIFE TO THE FULL. Last session, we were talking about being filled with joy, filled with peace, filled with hope, and talking about how you can do these things when life is not really very joyful or hopeful. We do it by looking to Jesus, keeping our eyes on Him.
I have a poem that I’d love to read to you today. Just a poem I wrote a few years ago about looking up.
LOOK UP
How can I do it? I have too much to do,
I’m overwhelmed and feeling real blue,
I’m stuck in this house like super glue.
Don’t look around – LOOK UP!
The dishes and laundry are piled up high,
When I look ‘round the house I simply sigh,
And for supper my husband’s expecting a pie!
Don’t look around – LOOK UP!
We can’t pay the mortgage; bills are overdue,
I’m tired and have headaches, not a few,
These children are driving me crazy too!
Don’t look around – LOOK UP!
My husband comes home late; he doesn’t care,
He doesn’t help with the children; it’s not fair!
I don’t want to smile; I just want to glare!
Don’t look around – LOOK UP!
Take your eyes off your problems, look up to Him,
God’s presence is with you, even in the din!
Confess your bad mood and He’ll cleanse your sin.
He is your God – LOOK UP!
He will show you how to order your place,
He will give you direction as you seek His face,
He wants to pour upon you His anointing of grace.
He is your God – LOOK UP!
Keep your eyes fixed on Him; He is your Stay,
He is your Wisdom for problems each day,
He’ll bring His presence right into your fray.
He is your God – LOOK UP!
Each morning He comes as the refreshing Dew
To revive your body, and your spirit too,
He is your Deliverer and He’ll make you new,
He is your God – LOOK UP!
Keep your eyes looking up, dear lovely mother.
CHANGE YOUR FACE
I want to share another Scripture with you too before we go on to more points about being filled. I found this Scripture a while back and it really challenged me. It’s found in Job 9:27. Job says: “I will leave off heaviness.” Now, what’s it really saying? The word “leave off” means “to relinquish, to forsake, to refuse.”
The commentary on the New English Translation of this Scripture says it means, “I will abandon my face.” Or, another commentary says, “I will rearrange my face.” Wow! What’s that talking about? Well, dear lovely ladies, many times we have to rearrange our faces. Sometimes we’ve got to abandon, and relinquish, and write off the face that we have at this moment because our face is not showing a very nice face!
Many times, we can feel heavy, down in the dumps, full of self-pity. We’re feeling gloomy and depressed. It shows on our face. As the Bible says: “The show of thy countenance doth witness against thee” (Isaiah 3:9). We reveal on our faces how we are feeling.
But there is a secret, ladies. I have proved this secret. It's a scriptural secret. I want you to get a hold of it. We can rearrange our faces. If you have a downcast, grumbling, gloomy, sour face, you know what you must do? You’ve got to change it! And you don’t wait for your feelings before you change it. You change it by faith. You just get a hold of yourself, and you put a smile on that horrible, grumbly, gloomy face.
“I beg your pardon?” you say. “How can I smile when I’m feeling so down and everything’s going wrong around me?” Dear ladies, this works. How you arrange your face will be how you end up feeling. And it will change your whole attitude!
You see, when you take action to rearrange your face, and put a happy face on, and put a smile on your face, it begins to change the way you feel. And then, that will change the atmosphere all around you. That will change the atmosphere of the whole home and change the attitudes of your children! It is so powerful!
But you have got to do it. You’ve got to take a step of faith. You’ve got to do things, not according to your feelings, but by faith. This is how I have learned to walk over the years. I didn’t start off like this. But I had to learn that my life does not consist of my feelings.
But I live, as the Word of God says, in Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” So, I take hold of God’s truth, and I will live by that rather than live by my feelings. Because feelings come, and feelings go, and feeling are deceiving. Yes.
So, do you think you could try a bit of this face rearranging? It really does work. Let me give you a few other translations, shall I?
The Amplified says: “I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer and brighten up.” How about that? Yes, so, you have to put off, you’ve got to abandon your sad face, and put on a good, happy face, and brighten up.
The Common English Bible says: “Put on a different face, so I can smile.” Yes.
The Holman says: “I will change my expression and smile.”
The ESV says: “I will put off my sad face and be of good cheer.”
The Darby Translation says: “I will leave off my sad countenance, and brighten up.”
The NCV says: “I will change the look on my face.”
And so, dear precious mothers, have you ever tried it? Even when you feel lousy, you put a smile on your face. Oh, you don’t feel like smiling, but you smile anyway! You put a smile on your face! Try it. It will change how you feel. It will change your attitude. It will change the atmosphere.
And so, get that smile going all the time. When you look at your children, smile at them. You see, lovely ladies, your children are going to be like what they see on your face. Just as it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with open face” (unveiled face) “behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
As we behold the Lord in worship, as we behold Him in His Word, we become more like Him. It’s the same. Our children, they look at us all day. They’re going to be like what they see on our face. If you’re frowning all day, and you’ve got a sour look on your face, and it is so sad, (because as I go around, I see many mothers with very, very, ooooh, frowning, stern faces. Oh, I’m wondering, “Where are their smiles? Help!” . . . If that’s what their children see all day, what are their children going to be like? Are they also going to be sour, boring, and frowning?
But if you smile at your children and brighten up, they’re going to smile. They’re going to have bright, happy faces, too! OK? Do you think you can take hold of that word?
I hope you don’t only listen to my podcasts. I hope that you also seek to put them into practice. Amen? Because I’m not giving you all these ideas. This is the Word. I’m giving you the Word.
Well, let’s carry on with LILFE TO THE FULL.
No. 8. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH MERCY AND GOOD FRUITS
We are up to number eight. Better check. . . Yes, number eight: God wants you to be filled with mercy and good fruits. We read about this in James. That's where it’s talking about wisdom, the wisdom from above. James 3:17: “But the wisdom is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
There’re seven pillars of wisdom listed there. We go back to Proverbs 9:1. It says: “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.” Well, different commentators of the Bible have different ideas about what those seven pillars are.
I like to think of, perhaps, in being these seven pillars of wisdom that we build into our homes. One of them is being filled with mercy and good fruits. Yes, good fruits. So, let’s be filled with that.
No. 9. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH ASSURANCE OF FAITH
God wants you to be filled with assurance of faith. Hebrews 10:22: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Maybe, in your past, you have done things that you’re ashamed of, things you wish you had never partaken of. Maybe you still feel under condemnation of those things. But dear precious ladies, I want to remind you today that the blood of Jesus has power to wash you clean. When we come to Jesus, we repent of our sins, and we receive His forgiveness and the washing of His precious blood, He forgives us. He completely washes us clean. I mean, the blood is powerful, to completely wash you clean.
1 John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all unrighteousness.” ALL unrighteousness, totally clean. Amen?
Let’s see, go to Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost (Some people like to say, ‘even the guttermost’) that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Not only does He completely cleanse us and wash us our sins away, but He also remembers them never again. Once Jesus forgives us of our sins, He forgets. He never remembers our sin again. We can read about that in Hebrews 8:12. Never ever remembers it again.
Psalm 103 tells us that He removes our sins as far as the east is from the west! Whoo! You can’t get any further than that! It’s just gone! And then, do you remember how that on the Day of Atonement, the high priest had to have two goats? They would bring two goats to him. One was the sin offering, and one was the scapegoat.
One goat was slaughtered, and the blood was shed. That blood, the high priest would take into the Holy of Holies for his own sins, and the sins of his family. And then he would take more blood in for the sins of the whole nation.
And then he would come out and he would put his hand on the other goat’s head. This goat was alive, and he put his hand on the goat’s head and confessed over it all the sins and rebellion of the Israelites. Then they would choose a man. He had to be a very fit man and he would have to take this goat, run this goat way out into the wilderness, far, far away so that no one would ever see it again.
This goat, it was just a picture. This goat took the sins of the nation of Israel and took them away so they would never be remembered again. They were completely lost. That goat was never ever to be seen again. So the Bible gives us this amazing picture of how they will never be remembered again.
And then, in Isaiah, it talks about how our sins are blotted out, like a thick cloud (Isaiah 44:22). And so, you can have full assurance of faith that your sins are forgiven. They’re washed, they are forgotten, and they are never to be remembered again. That is full salvation. Amen? Isn’t that good?
No. 10. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH GOODNESS
So now we’re up to number ten. I’ve got to keep up with myself here. All right, number ten is to be filled with goodness. Romans 15:14, let’s have a look at that. Can you believe, ladies, as we’re going through this, how many things God wants us to be filled with? Whoo! Wow! Can you imagine?
I mean, if only we could live according to the truth of God’s Word, not just having a little bit, but filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with joy, with peace, with hope, with goodness, with righteousness, and with grace, and with truth! And we’ve still got more to go! It’s amazing, isn’t it?
OK, Romans 15:14: “And I myself also are persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness.” Isn’t that beautiful? “FULL of goodness.” Just as God is a good God, so He wants us to be filled with goodness. Everything that God is, He wants us to have, too. What is in Jesus? In Jesus is all goodness. Well, we will have it, because he dwells in us. What He is, we have, because of His dwelling in us.
I may have shared this with you before. Philemon 1:6. It’s always been such a great blessing to me, where it says: “That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus.”
This Scripture is reminding us that every good thing that is in Jesus—all His goodness, all His joy, peace, longsuffering, patience, all these beautiful, good things, they’re all in me, because He is in me. That’s the revelation of truth we must get. So, we learn to live by the fullness of all these good things in us.
1 Peter 5:10 gives a description of the way God wants us to live as women. It talks about the woman who is filled with good works. These good works are embracing motherhood, and reaching out to the needy, and opening our homes in hospitality, and relieving the hurting and the afflicted. God calls them “good works.”
And then, in Titus 2:3-5, where it tells the older women to teach the younger women, it tells them they are to be teachers of something. Do you know what it is? Oh, yes, it enumerates the different things, but it calls all these different things something. Have you ever noticed?
It calls them “good things.” They are to be teachers of good things. What are these good things? How to love our husbands, how to love our children, how to be submissive to our husbands, how to be keepers at home, and so on. All these are good things. In fact, they are even more than that. The Greek words is kalos, and it literally means they are “beautiful things, lovely things, beautiful to behold.”
So, older ladies, if you are listening, God wants you to be a teacher of good, beautiful, lovely things, all the things to do with being married, being a mother, being in the home. And they are all good. We’re to be filled with these good things.
No. 11. GOD WANTS US TO E FILLED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL
God wants us to be filled with the knowledge of His will. Colossians 1:9: “That ye might be filled” (not just have a little bit), FILLED with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”
Romans 15:14 again says: “That ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish and encourage one another.” Filled with the knowledge of His will. We’re only going to know that as we are in His Word. What is His will? His truth! What He says in His Word. So, let’s be women, let’s be wives, mothers, who know His Word, so we can be filled with all the knowledge of His will.
And not only for ourselves, but for our children, so we can teach them His ways. We need to know what is His will in this current time in which we are living. I pray that prayer constantly, of that testimony of the children of Issachar, one of the tribes of Israel, who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32).
In this hour of deception, of tyranny, of lockdowns, of masking, of vaccinations, all these things that are being brought upon us, not for our health, but for tyranny. we must know what is going on and we must know God’s mind.
What does God want us to do? How is He wanting us to live in this hour? We’ve got to seek Him. We’ve got to seek His Word. We’ve got to be in prayer so we can be filled with the knowledge of His will.
No. 12. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL
Romans 15:29: “I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” Are we always ready to share the gospel? Or maybe we’re not ready.
That's challenging, isn’t it? I find it very challenging, because the Bible talks about being ready in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2). Sometimes we can be all geared up when we’re in season, but oh, if it’s out of season, it’s not, oh, wow, we just don’t say anything, or we don’t do anything.
But we’re meant to be always ready, wherever we go, to be filled with the fullness of the blessing of the gospel, to share it, and to be ready to give an answer to those who ask us (1 Peter 3:15).
No. 13. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD
Ephesians 3:19, where Paul is praying this prayer, that they, the Ephesian believers: “Will know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD.” Well, I find that so hard to comprehend and take in. But this is the will of God. This is knowing what His will is for us that we will be filled with the fullness of God.
Now, that can only be the life of Jesus Christ dwelling in us and allowing His life to live through us. Oooh, that’s amazing, isn’t it?
Ephesians 4:13: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the FULLNESS OF CHRIST.” I don’t think we can really come to the fullness of Christ on our own. I believe it’s something that we come to in a togethering, and as a body, because as a body, we’re all fitly joined together to make this one whole to be filled with the fullness of Christ.
That's why it is important to not hide away. It’s important to gather together with the saints. It’s important to have fellowship with one another. It's important to show hospitality to one another. It's important to pray for one another. It’s important to encourage one another. It’s important to help one another with our gifts and with our abilities, and so on. There are so many “one anothers” in the Bible which will all help us to come into the fullness of Christ.
No. 14. GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH PRAISE
Psalm 78:8: “Let my mouth be filled with praise, and with Thy honor all the day.” Wow! Once again, what a challenge! We praise the Lord sometimes. We praise the Lord when something good happens. But are we FILLED with His praise? That's a challenge, isn’t it? May the Lord help us to be filled with His praise.
I love that beautiful old hymn; I wonder who wrote this hymn now. I think it was Horatius Bonar. But it says:
Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise.
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being, and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e’en for the praising heart,
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part.
Praise in the common things of life,
It’s going out and in;
Praise in each duty and each deed.
However small and mean.
Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be and weak.
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free,
But all my life, in every step
Be fellowship with Thee.
So, that’s a little encouragement, and what would I say? Challenge for us, isn’t it? To be constantly filled with His praise.
I was reading a book about missionary a while back, a missionary in Belize. She has this little story in her book. Someone who was very mad about her came and destroyed all her beautiful flower beds. They ripped out all the plants. They broke the rose bushes, and they threw them on the path.
And when this dear lady came home, she saw all this mess. Instead of getting mad, what did she do? She just said, “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”
“What are you doing?” another person asked her. She said that she had read about saying “Praise the Lord” ten times before you say anything else when something traumatic happens, or something bad happens to you. So, you just say, “Praise the Lord” ten times.
Her friend asked her, “Does it help?” “Well,” she said. “At least it gives me time to reflect that for some reason God allowed this to happen to me.” So maybe that’s a little trick for you to try.
All right. We’ve only got time for one more, I think, in this session.
No. 15: GOD WANTS UT TO BE FILLED WITH LAUGHTER. Isn’t that a good one? Job 8:20-21: “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers: till He fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoicing.”
Ecclesiastes 10:19: “A feast is made for laughter.” Well, we’ve all heard the phrase, haven’t we? “Laughter is the best medicine.” Well, actually, it’s not an old wives’ tale. It has been proved medically. Laughing protects the heart. It relaxes the body, relieves stress, releases endorphins, and boosts the immune system, which of course, improves our resistance to disease.
So, it’s very good to laugh. I actually wish, myself, that I laughed more. I can remember as a young person, always laughing. Oh, goodness me, I was so bad at laughing that it would be terrible. In church sometimes, something funny would amuse me, and I’d get giggling, and I’d have to hold it in. Then the church seat, because we didn’t have chairs in those days, we had pews, would begin to rock, and then someone next to me would begin to laugh, and we’d all be rocking with laughter. Oh, that is so disgusting and terrible.
But anyway, it’s so good to laugh! I think, as we get older, somehow the responsibilities of life get upon us, and we don’t laugh and giggle, especially laughter that really gets your heart pumping and makes your whole insides jump up and down. I think that’s when laughing is so good for you.
Anyway, I love to laugh, but I’d love to laugh even more, because it is so healthy. So, seek to laugh. I mean, laugh when you’re watching your children. It’s wonderful to have children around you, isn’t it? Because they do make you laugh. They do the craziest things.
Because they’re your children, you think they’re amazing. So, you laugh at them. But it’s good to laugh at your children. Laugh at things that happen. Laugh when things go wrong. Laugh at yourself. Laughing is contagious, too. When you laugh, other people will laugh.
I remember traveling back from New Zealand on one of my trips. I was reading a book. It was called “The Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson is a writer who writes many books about travel and about different countries. This book was about Australia. A really good book. If you want to really find out about Australia, read that book.
Well, there were some funny things in there. I was on the plane, and I began to laugh. It was so funny! I couldn’t even keep it into myself. I was laughing out loud! Just because I was laughing out loud, other people around me started to laugh! Because it was contagious! It was amazing.
Now, we also know the old adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” But they also say, “A laugh a day keeps a heart attack away.” So, start laughing, ladies. And smiling, of course. If you’re not laughing, at least smile! Smile! Oh, it will change your whole attitude. It will change your children. It will change the atmosphere of your home. Make your home a place of smiling and laughter. OK?
Time to stop again.
“Dear Father, I thank You for all the precious mothers, and wives, and older mothers, and little children, young children, young people, everyone who is listening today. I pray Your blessing upon them. I pray Your blessing of joy and smiling, and laughter.
I pray, Lord, that You will give them the revelation that, because You dwell in their hearts by faith, that You dwell in them in all Your fullness, and You want all the beautiful fruits of Your Spirit to fill them, Lord, and overflow them.
Bless their homes and bless their children. Bless their husbands. Oh, God, I pray for the blessing of the Lord to be upon every home and everyone that is listening in a very special way. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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