ABOVE RUBIES NEWSLETTER #2, July 2017
MINI ABOVE RUBIES, No 2 for 2017
Dear Above Rubies readers,
A little mini Above Rubies to keep in touch with you while you wait to receive the new magazine. This newsletter is filled with loads of wonderful information that will challenge you, encourage you, and inspire you. I trust you will be blessed.
Once again, I am still waiting for the finance to come in to print. However, I am going ahead in faith to prepare the new magazine and trust we won’t have to wait too much longer. I may have mentioned before that it costs over $60,000 to print and send out each issue of Above Rubies across the world.
If God touches your heart to help us get out this most important message, you can go to the website to donate: http://tinyurl.com/DonateToAboveRubies
Featured Articles
NEED HELP WITH MARRIAGE OR MOTHERING?
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE MEAN TO YOU?
MODESTY – IS IT DEPARTING FROM GOD’S PEOPLE?
TEN THINGS TO DO IF CPS COMES TO YOUR HOME
YOUR CHILDREN NEED MICROBES MORE THAN ANTIBIOTICS
IS MARRIAGE EXCLUSIVE OR OPEN?
WILL YOU HAVE CHILDREN READY FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD?
WRITE FOR ABOVE RUBIES
I am always open to fresh, heart-felt testimonies for Above Rubies on any subject relating to marriage, motherhood, the home, and family life. A couple of feature articles I would like to do in the new magazine are as follows:
LEARNING TO LOVE HOME
I have a couple of wonderful testimonies from mothers who found it difficult to be at home and how God gave them a love for their homes. I’d love to get one more testimony from someone who has a change of heart in this area.
GOD’S FAITHFULNESS AND PROVISION
I’d love to receive testimonies of how God has provided for your family as you have taken the step to be at home with your children.
MARRIAGE RESTORATION
I am always looking for testimonies of how God has restored marriage and ways God has shown you to enhance and strengthen your marriage.
BABIES IN YOUR FORTIES
I have just received a phone call from a lady who would love to hear testimonies of mothers who have had babies in their forties. She herself had her last baby at 43 and is still hoping for another baby. However, she said she would love to testimonies from other mothers who are having babies in their forties and their stories about it. So once again, if you’ve got a testimony about this, please share.
Also, let us know if you conceive in your forties and perhaps how you share your joy you’re your family and the world.
POINTS TO REMEMBER WHEN WRITING
- Don't make it too long - 1500 words are adequate, but shorter is even better.
- Only put one space between sentences, please. Very important.
- Send as a Word Document by email attachment.
- Please also add at the end of the article:
Your full name.
Your husband’s name
The names and ages of your children.
Your email address.
And I should add. When you write for Above Rubies you do it freely, as unto the Lord, to bless other wives and mothers. You will not be paid. Above Rubies is a love ministry. We do everything out of love and a passion to encourage, bless, and nurture mothers. I have been pouring out my life for forty years, writing every day, but not for money.
FAMILY NEWS
The best news in the family is baby news. Praise the Lord, we have some babies coming. Our grand-daughter, Rashida, is expecting her second baby in September. And Meadow, Rashida’s best friend and cousin since they were babies, is expecting her first baby in January. It’s going to be so exciting for them to have babies together.
And Serene is expecting a baby in February. She is due only one week after Meadow’s baby. This is Serene’s ninth biological baby, but No. 14 in their family with her five adopted children. Serene is also a grandmother of five and waiting for three more. Her oldest daughter, Selah, who has three children, is waiting to adopt three children from Liberia. These are children of Sam and Selah’s family members who have died of Ebola and other tragic events. We hope it won’t be too long before they come into our family.
Although Dylan and Jessie are not Campbells, we consider them part of our family. Jessie was an Above Rubies helper too and they are expecting their first baby in December. They will be part of the coming babies.
We are praying for more babies. We still have couples in the fam who are desperately waiting for God to bless them. We keep praying for Arden and Esther. Instead of coming home from their honeymoon in February 2016 with “a honeymoon conception,” they came home to find Arden had cancer. Praise the Lord, although we don’t yet have a clearance, he is looking so amazingly healthy and we are praising the Lord.
We have another wedding in September. Crusoe (Evangeline and Howard’s son) is marrying Stephanie Graham from Florida. Stephanie was also an Above Rubies helper a couple of years ago. She is the fourth Above Rubies helper to get married into the family!
ABOVE RUBIES HELPERS
I am so blessed to have girls come here to Tennessee to live with us for a period (about two months, sometimes longer) to help me in this great ministry of Above Rubies. We have been blessed for so many years now. We love having them and they certainly keep us young. I could not fulfil this ministry without them. I remember years ago when I wondered how to cope. And then I thought of how so many young women go on mission trips to serve the Lord. I thought, “Why don’t they come on a mission trip to Tennessee to help in this great ministry of encouraging and strengthening families across the word.” And they began to come.
Many have come not only once, but on two or three occasions. They make friends from all over the world. They are bridesmaids at each other’s weddings. They visit one another in different countries. It’s so beautiful see the friendships they make.
Most girls who come are between the ages of 17 and 24. I like the girls to be about 17 years before they come so they are ready to be away from home and are mature enough to work well. In our home, we work hard and play hard. We work consistently each day during the week (except weekends). But the girls also have time for fun and fellowship with all the young people around here of which there are many with all our grandchildren.
The need is always ongoing and I usually like to have at least two girls at a time. I am now needing new girls from the end of this month until the end of this year and on to next year.
If your daughter is interested during any of these times, please contact me. Either call me at 931 729 981 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. giving me details and asking any questions you may have. If you email, please leave your phone number too.
SIGN PETITIONS
I love to and make a stand for truth in whatever way I can, don’t you? I know that phone calls are the best. But if there is a petition, I’ll sign it. Ephesians 5:11 says: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather REPROVE them.”
THE MORAL OUTCRY
A friend of mine has just emailed me to tell me about a very important petition to end abortion. She is currently at a preparation meeting for the RISE UP gathering on October 9th, 2017 in the National Mall in DC where they are believing for hundreds of thousands to gather.
To sign the petition against abortion, go to: https://www.themoraloutcry.com/
This petition, which will be given to the Supreme Court, is to “wake up the nation and galvanize the national conscience to end the scourge of abortion in America. It will declare that as a people, we do not accept the compromise that leads to the unnecessary death of millions of innocent babies.”
HOMESCHOOLING IN CUBA
HSLDA has been working to support the Rigal Ramon family and to help overturn this unjust sentence. Ramón has expressed his firm commitment to continue the fight for freedom for his children and others to quietly educate their children at home in accordance with their convictions.
“I will continue to fight and not give in to their impositions and I will not take the children to school,” he told me. “This fight must be continued until they let me educate my children quietly in my house or let me leave the country. They want to impose their injustice and how to make an example out of me so that others do not follow my example of homeschooling. If I am not allowed to homeschool here in Cuba, I wish the authorities would let me leave the country to go somewhere that I may.”
HSLDA commends Ramón and Adya for their courage. We will continue to call on the Cuban government to allow its citizens to homeschool in keeping with its international human rights obligations. Not jailing Ramón surely qualifies as better treatment—but the regime should also acknowledge the Rigal family’s right to homeschool their children.
You can sign the petition at: - http://www.citizengo.org/en/ed/41526-cuban-pastor-arrested-homeschooling-sign-petition?m=5.
NEED HELP WITH MARRIAGE OR MOTHERING?
Have you been to the Above Rubies website, www.aboverubies.org for help? Or just to be encouraged and inspired? Under ARTICLES AND STORIES, I have many articles and testimonies on nearly every aspect of marriage, mothering, and homemaking etc. They will be such an inspiration, help, and encouragement to you.
Go to http://aboverubies.org/index.php/articles-stories
BE PART OF HOMESCHOOLING BOOK
MARIE MACPHERSON * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. writes:
“My husband and I are hoping to put together a book about homeschooling, written by homeschooling families, much like Mothering Many was written by numerous. We have information about joining our "research team" on our blog. If you could put in a plug for us, we'd be most grateful! We'd love to include as many families as possible, especially from different Christian denominations than our own."
DON’T GO TO BED ANGRY
IS IT POSSIBLE?
I posted this on Facebook this morning. I know that many of you are not on Facebook so I thought I would share it with you here. I think it is a question that needs to be answered in this day of deception.
IS IT POSSIBLE?
I have a question for you. I asked this same question to the folks around our table this morning. Do you think it is possible to “glorify God in your body” which the Scripture tells us to, if we tamper with the way God created us?
We know that all God’s ways are perfect (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:30; and Revelation 15:3). Therefore, the way He created our bodies is perfect. He created the female body for childbearing. He designed her body that during “the time of life,” which is the time of ovulation each month, that she has the opportunity to conceive a baby.
However, we live in a society where many women don’t want to have babies. They don’t want to live the way God designed their bodies so they use contraception, or even sterilization, to make sure God cannot bless them with life.
Sterilization tampers with the Creator’s design for our bodies. It changes the function. More accurately, it stops the function! It stops the ultimate plan of our Creator. Therefore, in doing this, is it possible to glorify God in our body? Let’s be honest now.
We need to read the Scriptures again: 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 (ESV): “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN, for you were bought with a price. So GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY.”
And the Scripture we all know, but need reminded of daily: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye PRESENT YOUR BODIES A LIVING SACRIFICE, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2).
We notice that this Scripture exhorts us to present our BODIES to the Lord, not just our spirits. How are we to offer them? “Acceptable” to God. This word means “what is agreeable and well pleasing to God.” And its repeated in verse 2. The perfect will of God is that which is agreeable and well pleasing to Him. It’s not what is agreeable to us and fits in with our lifestyle, but what is in accordance with His eternal plan and purpose.
We either live according to the humanistic plan of our modern society or according to God’s eternal plan that has never changed and never will change from the beginning of time.
IS GOD ABLE TO PROVIDE?
As expected, some folks have already commented on this article and can’t believe that God is able to provide for children. Isn’t it sad that Christians do not trust God. Isn’t that what it means to be a believer? To believe God? To trust Him? Of course, it’s difficult to trust if we don’t know the truth. If you are also wondering about this question, here is a good article for you to read. It takes you to the Scriptures instead of what man says.
This is important because we are either on the side of the supremacy of man’s reason or the supremacy of God’s infallible Word! Which side are we on?
Here is the article: http://tinyurl.com/CanGodProvideforBaby
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE MEAN TO YOU?
Great quotes by Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820 – 1896).
“We cannot listen for a moment to men, however profound in their reading and thinking, who dare to treat God’s book as though it were man’s book, and speak of those pages that were penned by the All wise, Almighty, and Eternal God, as though they were the production of a shallow and short-sighted mortal.”
“We believe that the Bible, as written in the original Hebrew and Greek languages, is the very word of the only wise and the only true God, with whom one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day, who saw the end from the beginning, and not only the end, but every stage of the way. 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 t5he 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. Howe 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.”
“We should just as soon think of bringing out a flashlight to assist the sun’s meridian beams, as of calling in human tradition to aid divine revelation.”
SIX MILLION DIFFERENCE
The latest statistics from Pew Forum reveal that according to the current birth rates, between the years 2055 and 2060, the birth gap between Christians and Muslims is excepted to be six million (232 million births among Muslims vs. 226 million births among Christians). Read the full report. Very informative.
http://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/
VACCINATION ARTICLES
http://yournewswire.com/harvard-unvaccinated-children-risk/
MODESTY – IS IT DEPARTING FROM GOD’S PEOPLE?
The following are a few links to check out about modesty. And while on this subject I have a few further thoughts.
We know that we reveal what we are like inside by our countenance. I believe we also show to the world what we really believe by what we LIKE on Facebook. It grieves my heart to see so many Christian girls and women posting pictures of themselves that show cleavage, very bare shoulders, and very short skirts etc. Although they may be the "in" fashion, even the church, they are not godly. They do not equate with the fact that when we are born again the HOLY Spirit indwells us. Nor does it have any resemblance of holiness "without which no man will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
Not only do we see these posts, but so many Christian LIKE them! I don't know what to think! Do they love cleavage? Do they love seeing other Christian women showing off their bodies? And by LIKING the post they do not help their fellow sister toward holiness and a closer walk with Jesus. Instead, they are saying, "Go for it. I love seeing you show off your body. Keep walking in the flesh."
Don’t you think we should think carefully before we LIKE! Because others see what you like and you reveal your standard.
Another thing that I can't understand. How is it that husbands do not mind their wives going out into public showing off their bodies and showing cleavage? Do they want every other man to gawk at their wife? Shouldn't a husband protect his wife? Doesn't he want to keep his wife to himself instead of her showing off her precious and private parts to the world?
If you are interested, here are a few articles:
http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/is-modesty-an-issue-in-the-church-today
https://peacefulwife.com/2014/01/18/my-journey-into-femininity-and-modesty-2/
http://servingyhwh.blogspot.com/2014/01/where-modest-meets-hot.html?m=1
https://thetransformedwife.com/are-immodest-women-responsible-for-causing-men-to-lust/
TEN THINGS TO DO IF CPS COMES TO YOUR HOME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faxz85nGH4o
DID THOMAS EDISON HAVE ADHD?
“The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation.” - Thomas Edison
Check out the following link:
YOUR CHILDREN NEED MICROBES MORE THAN ANTIBIOTICS
IS MARRIAGE EXCLUSIVE OR OPEN?
A Facebook question popped up on my Facebook recently: “What's your take on guys and girls being friends? Even best friends? Can a girl be friends with a guy who isn't friends with her spouse and just be friends? Vice versa too? Can it be a purely platonic relationship?”
I was grieved in my spirit by the answers to this question. Most answered saying they thought it was healthy and beneficial to have friends of the opposite sex who were not their husband.
I beg your pardon! What has happened to God’s ideal of marriage? What has happened to the sacredness of marriage? What has happened to keep true to our solemn marriage vows?
The marriage officiant asks the groom: “Do you take [bride’s name] to be your wedded wife, to live together in marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and FORSAKING ALL OTHERS, BE FAITHFUL ONLY UNTO HER, as long as you both shall live?” The bide is asked the same question.
We know that “FORSAKING ALL OTHERS,” means to keep sexually pure in marriage. But I believe it means more than that. It means forsaking personal friendships (without including your husband) with the opposite sex. I don’t care what all these young marrieds say, it is not in God’s plan for marriage. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t have friendship with men. My husband and I have many friendships with couples and families. Our lives have been given to hospitality through the years and we have enjoyed the rich blessing of many couples at our table as we fellowship together.
But I wouldn’t dream of going out to eat or going somewhere on my own with the husband of that couple. Why do I need to do that? Why do I need another guy apart from my husband? Isn’t he enough? My husband is my best friend. I have vowed to forsake all others and be faithful only unto him—sexually, emotionally, mentally, and because of my scared marriage vows.
And how does this affect our children, the next generation? As I write my thoughts, I stopped and talked to my Above Rubies helpers in the office, young girls in their twenties. I asked them how they would feel if their father or mother went out on their own with someone of the opposite sex. They were aghast. They felt it was wrong. They said it would make them feel very insecure. One girl mentioned that before she came to Above Rubies, she was coming home from work and saw her mother with another man in the car. Her heart fell! She arrived home to find that her mother was taking the builder home who was working on the house! But just seeing another man in the car devastated her.
The Bible tells us that love is jealous. What kind of love does a husband have for his wife if he is happy with her being with other guys? Or vice versa.
One comment from the Facebook stated: “Psychology has proven that relationships thrive when both parties maintain friendships outside of the relationship.” I’m tired of listening to man-made wisdom. I’d rather adhere to God’s Word!
Song of Solomon 8:6: “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death: jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” It’s not wrong for a husband or wife to be jealous.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said: “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2, 3).
God states emphatically in Exodus 20:3-5: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am jealous God.”
Marriage is a mystery. It is a picture of God and His people Israel. It is a picture of Christ and the church. God’s first commandment is to love Him with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength. And to cleave to Him. God is jealous when we love other things more than Him. He wants us to have the same commitment to Him that has. Hosea 2:19, 20 says: “I will betroth thee unto me forever: yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness.”
The marriage relationship is an exclusive relationship. We do not share it with another.
Don’t you think it is time for God’s ways to be lifted up again in our society?
ROLE REVERSALS
Writing about parenthood, the great preacher and writer, J. R. Miller says: “Duties cannot be transferred.” I happen to agree with him, although many modern Christians would not.
Why do we think we know better than God? Why do we think that we have a better plan for our lives that the one who intricately, wonderfully, and marvelously created us?
God, in His perfect design, for “all His ways are perfect,” created a father and a mother to bring children into the world and to care for them in this world. He gave each one distinct roles to fulfil. Each brings their own strengths to the marriage and the parenting career. Many want to change the roles because of convenience. The wife wants to take on the role of provider which means she must give her children to someone else to watch. And yet no guardian, no matter how loving, can ever be in tune to the innermost needs of her child like the mother.
Sometimes a mother can earn more money than her husband so she goes to work while her husband stays home with the children. This is a role reversal and not planned by the God who created us.
But you say, “I know fathers who are great stay-at-home-fathers to their children.” That may be so, but they cannot be a mother no matter how they try. God has put within women a maternal anointing that men don’t have. Yes, men love their children. They have a strong instinct to protect their children. They want to provide for their children, but they cannot mother their children, especially babies and little ones.
Babies and toddlers need the comfort of their mother’s breasts. Breastfeeding is tied up with motherhood. Scientific studies reveal that the more frequently a mother breastfeeds her baby the more motherly and nurturing she becomes. Prolactin and Oxytocin release mothering hormones and a man does not have the abundance of these hormones that God gives to the breastfeeding mother.
God has also put within women a love for home, unless of course it is brainwashed out of her by our education system, the media, and the deception of our progressive society. A man is not cut out for the finer touches of the home and to making a home feel like a home. He was created to go out and to provide. To work hard for his family.
To get back to our original statement, I do concede that men and women can transfer their roles to a certain extent, but only at the expense of God’s ultimate blessing for the family. God intends fathers and mothers to fully embrace the way He created them and to reveal these strengths to their children so they pass them on from one generation to the next. Children who grow up in a family where the mother works and the husband stays home with the children will have a distorted understanding of God’s definitive plan. They will be confused and deceived. And what happens in the next generation? Will they think it normal to carry on this pattern until we have a society of men at home and women in the work force? God forbid.
Once again, it’s time to get things straight! We certainly live in a distorted and crooked generation. We must rise and shine like lights in this dark world.
WILL YOU HAVE CHILDREN READY FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD?
Are you preparing for the Coming Day? The day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns from Heaven? What will we present to Him on that day? Paul writes about what He is preparing for the Lord Jesus. He doesn’t mention any material things or aspirations of building a great organization. Instead he talks about his babes in Christ.
When writing to the new Thessalonian believers, he says: “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy” (1` Thessalonians 2:19, 20 ESV).
What a challenge to us as mothers. We have such a powerful ministry right in our own home. It’s right on our doorstep. God has given us precious lives to lead to salvation and to nurture, train, and teach to be ardent disciples of the Lord. We have the responsibility to pray and pour into their lives so we can present our children to the Lord at His coming—sanctified and blameless in body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
We have no greater ministry. The Lord Jesus will not be interested in our presenting our career to Him. Or our material possessions. Or the great name we made for ourselves. He will only look for cleansed, purified, and holy sons and daughters. This will not happen without our intercession, dedication, sacrifice, and pouring out our lives (1 Thessalonians 2:7-12).
I noticed Paul had the same heart for his babes in Christ at Philippi. He called them his joy and crown too. In Philippians 4:1 he says: “Dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.” In verses 7 and 8 he says: “I have you I my heart . . . how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.”
This was his life. To pray for and exhort and encourage these young believers so they would be “pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (1:10 ESV). We should have this same passion for our children. More than any other aspiration for our children we should long for them to live lives that are “pure and blameless” in this evil society.
It was the same kind of society in Philippi. Paul exhorted them to “be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” (2:15,16 ESV).
To keep our children straight and not veering into the humanistic lifestyle that is so prevalent today, and even in the church, we must constantly fill our children with God’s Word. It is the only antidote against deception. We must do it daily. Morning and evening. Without fail.
We must be strong to speak out against evil. We love people, but we don’t love and tolerate sin. If we don’t speak up against what is evil, our children will not know God’s standard and can easily fall into the groove of society. There are too many Christian young people who accept homosexuality! How can that be? Do they no know God’s Word? Do their parents not speak up?
We are not raising children to be like the world, but children who walk pure and holy lives. Children who will shine their light in the darkness of this world. Children who will be our “joy and crown” at the coming of the Lord.
We’ve got to become passionate parents for the Kingdom of God. May we not run in vain or labor in vain! Amen
BY FOR NOW
May you be blessed and encouraged. Please pray with me for finance to come in quickly so we can soon get out another Above Rubies to the world.
Love and blessings,
NANCY CAMPBELL