Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

 

Jesus said in Mark 13:31-37, "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is... Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleep. And what I say unto you I say unto all, WATCH."

 

The understanding of the Greek word for "watch" means "wakefulness, intent, and riveted to a certain thing."

 

Men, let's be alert and riveted to watch and pray for the great needs of this hour.

 

Be encouraged.

 

COLIN CAMPBELL

our labor for Him,

our patience as we wait for Him,

our patience with one another,

our intolerance of those who do evil things,

our not fainting in the day of battle,

and even fact checking those who are going around the churches proclaiming to be apostles but are liars.

 

All of these things that are important and on which we place much emphasis fade into comparison to the question: Are we continuing to walk in the fire of our first love to Christ?

 

Our devotion and worship to Christ must come first. In this passage Jesus is walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks. He is attending and adjusting the fire on these candles so they will burn more brightly. He warns the Ephesus church that their candlestick is in danger of being removed because their love for Christ is not as bright as it should be.

 

“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and REPENT, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (v. 5).

 

We note that the first of the 10 primary commandments of God in Deuteronomy 6 is: “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with ALL thine heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy might.”

 

Again in Matthew 22:27, 38 Jesus says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind. This is the FIRST AND GREAT commandment.”

 

Worshipping God is one of the greatest ways to express our love to God. We must never underestimate it. If we do not have “fired up” love and worship, we will have our candlestick removed. I am sure we don’t want this to happen.

 

Fathers, we must, along with our wives and families in our homes, greatly increase our loving worship to God. You can make this happen with your family worship time every day, not just once a week on Sundays.

 

Be encouraged.

 

COLIN CAMPBELL

“A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.”

 

John Wesley

“If Jesus preached the same message ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.”

 

~ Leonard Ravenhill

 

Some Americans may not understand what I am getting at when I talk about hedgehogs as they are rare to USA. They are cute, nocturnal, little animals found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and in our land of origin, New Zealand. Although they may look innocent enough, you need to be very careful around them because they are covered with spines that are very sharp indeed. When defending itself, a hedgehog rolls up in a ball, exposing its 5,000 to 7,000 sharp spines! And they can do it so quickly, within a second!

 

You may be tempted to pick it up or even kick it out of the way, but you had better make sure your hands and feet are protected. Growing up as a boy in New Zealand I was sometimes tempted to give hedgehogs a hard time because boys are naturally challenged by defiance.

 

Prickly people are difficult to be around and hard to live with. If you happen to say the wrong word, even sometimes by accident, they will quickly roll up into a ball of defiance and challenge you with their sharp words.

 

Who would want to be married to a hedgehog? Not me. Who would want to live in a family of hedgehogs?

 

All true Christians are blessed to have a new nature, the life of Jesus Christ living inside of them. Sad to say, many still allow the old prickly nature, inspired by the old serpent, the devil, to usurp itself. The new nature that we have through Christ has absolute authority to resist, deny, and crucify the old prickly nature from rising up and hurting the ones to whom we should be loving and gracious.

 

This “hedgehog nature” is destructive. It is probably one of the main reasons why so many marriages are destroyed, and families break up. No one should feel they have to walk around their spouse on eggshells! Just one wrong word and it’s another world war! May God have mercy on us. This is insane.

 

Is their new nature locked up in a closet somewhere?

 

Most Christians would say, “I would never deny Christ, not even if I was placed before a firing squad.” And yet, in everyday life, they lock Him up and hold Him back from manifesting His life to those around them. What hypocrisy.

 

Colossians 1:27 speaks of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It is high time for us to shut down the prickly, grouchy, old nature and release the glory of the new nature, which is Christ in you! What miracles it will bring about in your marriage and family life.

 

Matthew 10:33 says: “Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

 

When we deny Jesus Christ the right to reign in our lives and reveal His nature to those closest to us, our spouse and family members, we deny Him. When we deny His right to speak kindly and lovingly through us, we deny Him before our family members.

 

Do not feed the hedgehog spirit in your life anymore. Do not make it your pet. It will destroy you and everyone around you.

 

 

Be encouraged.

 

COLIN CAMPBELL

“For the truth’s sake, and because the true God is on our side, let us in these modern days of warfare emulate the warriors of Israel, and unfurl our banners to the breeze with confident joy. Dark signs of present or coming ill must not dishearten us; if the Lord had meant to destroy us, He would not have given us the gospel.”

"The simple step of a courageous individual is not to partake in the lie. One word of Truth outweighs the world."

If you have not heard about it, we would encourage you to check it out at the following link:

 

 

There are now 500 million Christians worldwide who have committed to pray for Israel for the next three weeks. This is an incredible thing and could only be orchestrated by the hand of God. It would be sad to not be part of what God is doing in this hour.

 

We would encourage you and your family to become part of this prayer commitment which obviously God has ordained. Check out the link, learn more, and also how you can effectively pray for Israel.

It is called Isaiah 62, coming from Isaiah 62:6, 7: “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

 

You can also receive daily updates from:

 

 

Colin and Nancy Campbell

 

~ Colin Campbell

"The credibility of the Bible has never been at this level."

 

~ Tommy Waller, speaking of the fulfilment of Bible prophecy in Israel.

 

We therefore hold it to be nothing short of a positive blasphemy to assert that we have arrived at a stage of our career in which the Bible is not sufficient, or that we are compelled to travel outside of its covers to find ample guidance and instruction for the present moment, and for every moment of our earthly pilgrimage.

 

The Bible is a perfect chart in which every urgent need of the Christian mariner has been anticipated. Every rock, every sandbank, every shoal, every strand, every island, has been carefully noted down. All the need of the Church of God, its members, and its ministers, has been most fully provided for.

 

How could it be otherwise if we admit the Bible to be the Word of God? Could the mind of God have devised, or His finger sketched an imperfect chart? Impossible. We must either deny the divinity or admit the sufficiency of The Book.”

 

~ Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820 – 18906).

In spite of toil and business life

If you value your dear wife—

Tell her so!

 

When days are dark and deeply blue

She has her troubles, same as you

Show her that your love is true

Tell her so!

 

Don’t act as if she’s past her prime

As tho’ to please her were a crime

If ever you loved her, now’s the time—

Tell her so!

 

She’ll return for each caress

A hundred-fold of tenderness,

Hearts like hers were made to bless;

Tell her so!

 

You are hers and hers alone;

Well you know she’s all your own;

Don’t wait to carve it on a stone—

Tell her so!

 

Never let her heart grow cold

Richer beauties will unfold

She is worth her weight in gold

Tell her so!

 

~ Unknown

“We are not commanded to agree with one another but only to love one another.”

 

~ Colin Campbell