Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

What vision do you have for building your home for the Lord? I’m not talking about building a mansion with elaborate and expensive décor. There are far more important things to build in your home than materialistic things.

The word "magnificent" is “gadal” in the Hebrew and means, "to make large, advance, exceed, grow up, increase, lift up, magnify, and promote." Our family life should never become stagnant. We should always be advancing and thinking of better ways to intensify the manifestation of the presence of God in our family lives. Always increasing and strengthening the quality of our family life. Always open to the increase of children. This is what makes a home magnificent—not the adding of things, but babies and growing children. They are the true riches of our home.

Every day we seek to grow our marriage relationship. Doing something to make it more magnificent and amazing each new day. Of course, this won't just happen. David worked hard to make preparation to build God's home. The Bible says he prepared abundantly (1 Chronicles 22:3-5).

Do you think you could aim to build a home that is . . .
EXCEEDINGLY MAGNIFICENT in godliness,
EXCEEDINGLY MAGNIFICENT in the beauty of order and simplicity,
EXCEEDINGLY MAGNIFICENT in family togetherness,
EXCEEDINGLY MAGNIFICENT in the disciplines of prayer and love for God's Word,
EXCEEDINGLY MAGNIFICENT in peace and harmony,
EXCEEDINGLY MAGNIFICENT in joy, gladness, happiness, and laughter,
EXCEEDINGLY MAGNIFICENT in the manifestation of the presence of God?

Are you building an ordinary marriage or a magnificent marriage?

Are you building an ordinary family life or an amazing family life?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

A 2015 survey by AVG Technologies reorted hat one third of children said that they felt unimportant when their parents looked at their smartphones during meals or when playing together. Even replying to a quick text message sends your child the message that your phone is less important than he or she is.

NO IPHONES AT YOUR FAMILY MEAL TABLE

I trust that you never allow digital devices at your family meal table. I think it is sacrilegious. Family meals times are some of the most important times in our homes. They are our “together” times when we all gather around the able to share and fellowship together. To allow our children to use their iPhones and communicate with others outside the home when they should be dialoguing with their parents and siblings is very disrespectful. I will not allow iPhones at our family table.

Many secular articles advocate lessening time on digital devices. Amy Morin from verywellfamily suggests:

1. No digital devices during family meals
2. No screens allowed in bedrooms
3. No electronics use during family fun nights

WHAT ABOUT A DIGITAL DETOX?

She suggests that families consider a digital detox for the whole family—perhaps a screen free night once a week, or even unplugging one weekend a month!

I think this can be a very good idea (for parents and children). It helps to save them becoming totally addicted. And remember, everyone survived quite well before iPhones. For generations! And they actually survived better—physically, and mentally. You don’t have to answer every text or message. You don’t have to check every ding on your device! You can use it to serve you, but never becomes its victim!

CHILDREN UNDER TWO SHOULD HAVE NO SCREEN TIME

The Center for Parenting Education states:
1. Children under two years should have NO SCREEN TIME! That means any time in front of a digital screen, TV, video game players, household digital devices and computers.
2. Children 2 – 10 should have only one hour of supervised time.
3. Tweens and Teens should have no more than two hours each day, after all homework is completed.
4.
Dr. Nicole Beurkens proves that screen time can be dangerous for our children’s mental and physical health. You can read her article by going to this link:
https://www.drbeurkens.com/dangers-overexposure-electronic…/

I’d love to hear what you do in your home.

Love from Nancy Campbell

DO THAT WHICH IS GOOD AND RIGHT

Deuteronomy 12:28: “Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and WITH THY CHILDREN AFTER THEE FOR EVER, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God. (12:25; 30:2).

FEAR THE LORD

Deuteronomy 5:29: “O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and WITH THEIR CHILDREN FOREVER.”

The words “may go well” is the Hebrew word “yatav” and means “to do good, beautiful, pleasant, lovely, blessed.” We want our children to have a lovely life, don’t we? God promises this to them if we as parents walk in the fear of the Lord and obey His voice.

Psalm 112:1,2 is a wonderful promise to fathers who fear the Lord: “Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed (his children) shall be mighty on the earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.”

Acts 2:39: “For the promise is unto you, and TO YOUR CHILDREN, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

OUR LIVES IMPACT OUR CHILDREN FOR GOOD OR EVIL

Dear mothers, read the following Scriptures in the fear of the Lord. How wonderful that all our sin are forgiven and forgotten through the power of the blood of Jesus when we repent. But if we harbor sin in our lives and do not walk in the fear of God, if we harbor bitterness, rejection, jealousy, and hate etc. it doesn’t only hurt us, it hurts the following generations.

Exodus 20:5: “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” These words are repeated in the following Scriptures: Exodus 34:6, 7; Numbers 14:18; and Jeremiah 32:17-19.

Let’s give God the preeminence in our lives, in our marriages, and in our homes that we will bring blessings on our children and children’s children.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Let’s go back to the beginning. The very first words God spoke to mankind were: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” But before He says those words the Bible says: “AND GOD BLESSED THEM, and God said unto them . . . “

Here’s some more interesting Scriptures.

Genesis 32: 9: “I will deal well with thee.” The Hebrew word for “deal well” is “yatav” and means “to do good, beautiful, pleasant, lovely, blessed.”

God continues talking to Jacob and in verse 12 says: “I will surely do thee good (it’s the same word, yatav).” And how does God do us good and give us a beautiful life? Let’s find out. The verse continues: “And make thy seed (children, descendants, progeny) as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” This is how He wants to give us a beautiful and blessed life.

Deuteronomy 6:3: “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well (yatav) with thee, and that ye may INCREASE MIGHTILY.”

Deuteronomy 30:5, 9: “And the LORD thy God . . . will do thee good (yatav), and multiply thee above thy fathers . . . And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy womb . . . for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers.”

Are you getting the picture? When God rejoices over us and wants to do us good, He blesses us with children! Now here comes the question. Is this the God you believe in? The God of the Bible? Or do you believe in someone different, the God you have made to fit your circumstances.

We also read it in a negative way when God speaks the curses over those who will not heed His commandments. Deuteronomy 28:63 says: “And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good (yatav), and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you . . .”

Let’s be Bible believers.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

The words “may be well” are “yatab” in the Hebrew. This word means “beautiful, happy, successful, cheerful.” All they needed to do to enjoy a happy and beautiful life was to obey God’s voice and walk in all His ways. But what did they do instead? “They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imaginations (stubbornness) of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward” (v. 24). It’s worth reading the whole chapter!

Psalm 81 is a lament again. Verses 11, 12 say: “But my people would not hearken to my voice: and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts; lust: and they walked in their own counsels.”

And yet God longed to pour out his blessings upon them. He continues to share the longings of His heart in 13-16: “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had waked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries . . . He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”

THEY DIDN’T WANT THE GOOD LAND
Jeremiah 11:5-8 says: “Obey my voice . . . that I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey . . . for I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them put out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.”

Even with the promise of receiving a land flowing with milk and honey, what was their response? “Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear . . .” (v. 8).

THEY DIDN’T WANT TO RETURN
God spoke to the people of Judah in Jeremiah 18:11-17 and said: “Return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” Did they return? No. They said: “But we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.” They turned from God’s ancient, timeless, and everlasting ways to go their own ways.

THEY DIDN’T WANT GOD’S PROTECTION
Jesus cried and wept over Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under where wings.” What was their response? “And ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34).

Why are we so stubborn? Why do we go our own way and get stressed out when God invites us to His life of rest?

Don’t refuse God’s invitations. Embrace them with a great big “Thank You.”

Love from Nancy Campbell

Again in Jeremiah 6:16 God speaks about rest: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Another beautiful invitation to God’s rest. But did they receive His invitation? No. Instead they said: “We will not walk therein.” They would rather trust in their own ideas than go back to the old paths, even when it’s stressful.

Jeremiah 17:19-24 speaks about the literal Sabbath Day of rest and not violating it. But this same principle applies to us in our daily lives. God says: “If you diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein, Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David . . . “

When we bring burdens into our lives through the gates of our minds, we lose our rest. We live in turmoil instead of God’s rest. We allow our burdens to become king in our hearts instead of Christ Himself. Either Jesus is King or our burdens and troubles. It’s our choice.

But did they listen? No. ”They obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, not receive instruction.” (v. 23).

Do we accept God’s way for rest or try to do it our own way?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

What happens when we do it God’s way? God continues speaking: “To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing” (Isaiah 28:12). Did you get this dear, weary mother? It says: “This is the REST and this is the REFRESHING!” Let me repeat it again: “This is the rest!” God knows the best way for your children, and they learn a lot more this way.

He also knows the best way for YOU. You will enjoy rest instead of becoming a stressed-out, anxious mother.

Of course, you will be diligent. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 tells us to diligently teach our children. This is not a half-hearted word. It means: “To impress sharply by verbal repetition, to point, to show, to engrave, to make them penetrate, and to whet as in whetting the appetite with repetition and diligence.”

How do we do this? God tells us to do it as we live life—when you sit in your home, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. He doesn’t tell us we have to complete every curriculum we purchased (just because we spent the money on it). He doesn’t tell us we have to accomplish the set block of teaching we planned for the day. He wants us to faithfully teach, but little by little, line upon line. Isn’t that lovely?

However, we have a problem. Many don’t believe God’s way. They think they must teach like the school system, or like some other mother. Dear mother, don’t be like the people to whom God showed His way but the response to the “line upon line; here a little, there a little” was “yet they would not hear” (Isaiah 28:12).

Why are we so stubborn? Why do we go our own way and get stressed out when God invites us to His life of rest? Don’t refuse God’s invitation. Embrace them with a great big “Thank You.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Pino Daeni (1939-2010, Italian artist).

A true marriage resists all evil. Hebrews 13:4 (NET) says: “Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled.” Refuse all flirtations with other men. Refuse all kinky sex. Keep the marriage bed pure and holy.

e) CEDARS ARE FRAGRANT
The cedar exudes a gum which gives off fragrance. Does your marriage exude fragrance like the cedar? I love the quote of John Piper: “There has never been a generation whose view of marriage is high enough.” Our marriages are sacred. Their purpose is to reveal the relationship of Christ and the church—of Christ who laid down His life for the church and the bride who submits to His Lordship. This is a “glorious” thing (Ephesians 5:27).

Can we allow God to work in us to make our marriages a glorious testimony to our families and to all around us?

Be blessed,

Nancy Campbell

Picture: From matrimonio.com.pe

We live in an unprecedented hour in history when divorce is as rampart in the church as it is in the world. How God’s heart must grieve as the beautiful institution of marriage, which He ordained, is attacked and torn apart by the devil. This is not the vision of “lovely homes” which God designed (Numbers 24:5.

How can our marriages last? Only by doing it God’s way. Our selfish flesh continually puts a wrench in the works! “Self” and “selfishness” are the root of all problems in marriage. We must lay down our own rights and embrace the same attitude of Jesus who did not cling to His rights as God. Instead, He made Himself of no reputation. He became a servant, humbled Himself, and was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:6-8). The outworking of this truth in our lives is sufficient to keep a marriage to the end.

Too many people think that love is a feeling. When the feeling dies, they think love has finished. Love is a commitment. It goes beyond feeling. It goes beyond circumstances. Even when we have no vestige of love left within us, God’s inexhaustible love is still available to us. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (MLB) describes the kind of love we need to survive marriage. It is agape love, which starts with: “Love endures long” and ends with “love endures without limit.”

King Solomon used cedar timber to build God’s temple as well as his own palace because of the durability of the wood. God wants our marriages to be built of cedar too, not poplar or untreated pine that does not stand the tests of time.

Build something special into your lasting marriage today. It doesn’t happen without your DOING something.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Enjoy!

I’ll print the words for you too so you can enjoy them as you listen.
You can’t put much weight on one single vine
But you can pull yourself up when two are entwined,
We two became one and True Love grew stronger,
So strong we believed it couldn’t grow any longer.

CHORUS:
But watch our love grow like a body of water
From a fresh springtime rain in the form of our daughter,
Watch our love grow like a good deed we’ve done
That will be passed along with the name of our son,
Watch our love grow.

I’ve seen the mountains, the deserts and seas,
All the latest inventions and cures for diseases,
There’s so many wonders beneath God’s blue skies
But nothing compares to when love multiplies.

This love that we planted will live on and on,
It’ll grow even after we’re gone.

Picture: Pearl and Charlie with their grandson, Warren.

Ezekiel 31:3-7 (NET) is an allegory about Assyria, likening it to a cedar in Lebanon. Think of your marriage growing like the cedar as you read: “Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds . . . the deep made it grow tall . . . it towered high above all the trees of the field.”

We can either stunt our marriage or make it grow. We stunt our marriage by curbing each other. We must release each other into God’s wondrous plan. We let our husbands be men. We don’t expect them to be like us or even think like us. They don’t think like us. Forget it! They are different.

Let your husband be who he is. Let him take the responsibility of his role seriously to provide, protect, and lead you in God’s ways. Don’t take that from him. Many women think they help their husbands by going out to work. That doesn’t help them. It weakens husband’s mandate from God to be the provider
.
Let’s get it straight. When we embrace our high calling of motherhood and homemaking and release our husbands to their calling, our marriages can grow tall. Neither of us were created to do the job of the other. God made male and female with their own specific purpose. We accomplish far more for God and this world when we do it God’s way.

Grow your marriage today.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

The Hebrew word for cedar is erez and means “from the tenacity of its roots.” I read that for every 10 feet of height above the ground, the roots of the cedar go down 30 feet under the ground. Amazingly, the tips of the roots have a substance that allows them to drill through the toughest rocks as they go down deep into the earth.

God wants our marriages to be rooted like this. He wants them to be strongly rooted in God’s principles and the covenant we made on our wedding day. He wants them to be strongly knitted together in commitment, faithfulness, morality, unity, and love. Nothing stopping them.

However, they don’t become strong automatically. We must proactively strengthen them. We must do something to build and strengthen our marriages each new day. With our words and our actions.

Are you doing something tangible to strengthen your marriage today?

More about our “cedar tree” marriages tomorrow.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Everything depends on our understanding of truth, on our attitude, and our thought patterns regarding what we do. Live in the truth rather than deception. And your life will change. You’ll enjoy your beautiful life.

And there’s more. God says that you will be rewarded for every good thing you do. You are doing GOOD things, and therefore your reward is coming. Be encouraged. Read these Scriptures:

Romans 2:6-11: “Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL DOING seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: . . . glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh GOOD . . . “

Ephesians 6:6-8: “Doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever GOOD THING any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.”

Every little good thing you do today is not in vain. It has eternal value.

Be blessed, Nancy Campbell

MORE SCRIPTURES TO READ:
1 Corinthians 3:8, 14; 15:58; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 6:7-9; Colossians 3:23, 24; and Revelation 22:12.

The words He speaks are: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”

God is the ultimate Father. He is the Father of fathers. He is also the source of all maternal nurturing. He is the ultimate Nourisher and Nurturer.

Dear mother, when you embrace your motherhood--your nurturing and nourishing anointing which comes from the heart of God, you reveal what God is like to your family and to the world.

God is a family God. He is the One who planned marriage and family and the raising of children. God is into the business of raising families. He gathered a family to Himself when He established the race of Israel. They were His children and he poured out his heart of love and compassion upon them.

We see God’s nurturing heart as we read: “Listen to me, O house of Jacob . . . who have been upheld by me from birth, who have been carried from the womb: Even to your old age, I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you” (Isaiah 46:3, 4).

We read again in Isaiah 64:9, 10: “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his Presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.”

Did you notice the last words? God says again in Isaiah 65:2: “I have spread out my hands all the day unto rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.”

Have our poured out your heart and nourished and nurtured and yet your children have grown up and rebelled? Dearest mother, if you are facing this pain, I want you to know that God understands the grief and ache in your heart. He understands your burden. He has been through it and He knows the anguish of your heart.

But God never gives up. And He will help you to keep fighting the forces of evil in prayer to win your child back into the kingdom.

Be encourage today, Nancy Campbell

I am sure your heart yearns to stop the holocaust of abortion, the dismembering and burning alive of living babies in the womb.

However, I think that the devil, who is the mastermind behind abortion, has hoodwinked those of us who say we are prolife. The devil, who comes to “rob, kill, and destroy,” hates life. His plan goes beyond abortion. The trio he uses to rob, kill, and destroy are contraception, sterilization, and abortion. His first aim is to eradicate life before it is born. Abortion is his back-up plan.

Statistics tells us that clinic abortions are decreasing, but the aborting and stopping of life is increasing. Americans are now being introduced to “mail-to-your-home abortion pills” so mothers can freely annihilate their babies.

The American Life League states that “Using formulas based on the way the birth control pill works, pharmacy experts project that about 14 million chemical abortions occur in the United States each year.” That’s more babies killed through the Pill, and its various associated methods, than through abortion!

Since Roe v. Wade (46 years ago), over 61 million babies have been aborted in USA. If we count the babies that could have been aborted by the Pill from that time it would come to 644 million! Far more than abortion!

Recently my husband was speaking at a church in Louisiana. We were privileged to talk to the pastor of this church who has a passion for saving babies. He wanted to shut down abortion clinics in his area but did not have much success. He cried out to the Lord as to why he didn’t seem to be making a difference. The Lord spoke to him and said, “You are aborting children in your own home. Your wife is taking the Pill.”

He was surprised. He spoke to his wife who was not very happy to hear this news. It took her some time to come to the realization of this truth and to stop taking the Pill. However, when she stopped, God began to move. God gave strategies to this pastor and he has now closed down nine abortion clinics in his area.

The devil does not have the power to give life. He cannot give conception. And therefore, He seeks to undermine God’s power to give life. We, as God’s people of life must be truly pro-life. We must think pro-life. We must have God’s mind about pro-life. If we have the mindset to stop life by our own decision, or the pill, or other contraceptive devices, that’s not pro-life. It’s pro-choice.

When we limit our families and stop life coming into the world, it is an abortive spirit. It belongs to the kingdom of darkness, not God’s kingdom of life. God is pro-life! His first mandate to mankind was “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” He did not say “Contracept, sterilize, and abort.” God wants His image to fill the earth.

May God give each one of us a truly pro-life thinking. To think like God thinks. To always be open to life. Until we come to this understanding, how can we win the battle against abortion? We must be totally against the spirit of abortion which is the same spirit as contraception.

Let’s be true battle soldiers for life.

Nancy Campbell

The subtle acceptance that life and death are in human hands lends itself to the belief that life is just a random act of biology, rather than a foreordained creation of an almighty and sovereign God.

As readily available and fairly reliable options for birth control became widespread, so did the belief that couples could “have their cake and eat it too,” so to speak. Both married and unmarried couples could now easily engage in the pleasures of sex without the fear of having to take responsibility for a child that could come from that union. It also removed any need for trusting in God in the area of conception, financial provision, sacrifice of health and personal goals, and all that's involved with having and rearing children.

Rather than believing what Scripture says about children always being gifts from God, the subtle attitude began to grow, even in the church, to the point where society at large sees children as a burden and disruption to better and more important things. There's not time here to go into all the ramifications and negative consequences that we are currently and will in the future suffer for having that attitude, but that's a different story.

In my humble estimation, it was at that point where the subtle devaluing of human life began, along with the belief that we are entitled to have pleasure without any commitment or responsibility. If life can be prevented in the first place (by using birth control), demonstrating the perception that children are an annoyance and disruption to personal space, is it really any different of a root attitude towards the sanctity and miracle of life than the choice to have an abortion?

I believe the acceptance of and even encouragement of the casual use of birth control propagates an attitude of selfishness and the idea that we are sovereign over our bodies and lives. I'm certainly no authority, but these are some of my thoughts on where the widespread devaluing of life may have started.

VAL HALLORAN
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