May God walk in your home today.

 (What a beautiful picture for us to imagine...God walking in our homes. Give it a try and be amazed at what He will do.--Lanita)


Genesis 3:8 says, "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." This is the first thing we read that God did after He created the world, created man and created the first Garden home. He walked in the garden! The Garden of Eden (which means "delight") was the first home and was an example for all future homes. God wants us to make our home a delight. That is what homes are meant to be--a delightful place to live. They should be a delightful place for our children, a delightful place for our husband to return home each evening, a delightful place for everyone who comes in through our doors, and a delightful place for ourselves.

The greatest way we make our homes a delight is to experience the presence of God in our homes. And this is what God longs to do--to walk in our homes and fellowship with us. He wants to be part of everything we are doing.

You may be thinking, "Help! I can't imagine God walking in my home. There's stuff going on around here that God wouldn't be very happy about!" The amazing thing is that God does not only come to us when everything is perfect. He comes down to our lives when everything is out of order. He wants to come into your home to make everything right. That's what He was doing in the Scripture we read. Adam and Eve had disobeyed God's command and sin had entered the world. It was a tragic moment! But God did not abandon them. He still came walking in the garden to meet them--to meet them right where they were. He came to put things right. He came to bring them salvation and restoration.

At first Adam and Eve "hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God" as we often hide ourselves from God when things aren't right, when we are in rebellion, or when things seem out of control. But when they allowed God to find them, they came to great repentance and God brought salvation to them. Of course, it was not without great cost. Animals had to be killed and blood was shed for the first time (Genesis 3:21).

But now Jesus has shed His perfect and precious blood to make atonement for our sins (Ephesians 1:7; 2:13; 1 John 1:7, 9). There is nothing too hard for God to forgive and cleanse. And He comes walking in your home to meet you right where you are, even in the midst of your sin and hopelessness. As you come to the foot of the cross with a repentant spirit, He will forgive you and cover you with His righteousness. He will bring healing to your relationships. He will bring restoration to the things that are out of order in your home. That's why He comes--to bring us salvation, healing and restoration and to fill our homes with His delightful presence.

Will you let God walk in the midst of your home? Will you let Him find you right where you are and minister into your deepest need? He is walking and He wants to find you and bring you His blessing.

Leviticus 26:12 says, "I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people."

Jeremiah 31:1 says, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."

Ezekiel 37:27 says, "My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people."

We go over to the New Testament and read in 2 Corinthians 6:16, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

May you enjoy God walking in your home today.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org   

Preparing Princes

by Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies

"Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord."

2 Chronicles 36:9 NASB

We noticed in Preparing Princes, Part 2 that Josiah sought the Lord while he was still a youth. His son is now made king while a child, but the Bible says that he did that which was evil before the Lord. And yet he was only eight years old! Even at an early age children can follow after evil or follow after the Lord.

I am sure it depends on their training. This is why we must be faithful to fill our children with God's living Word even while they are small. Satan is out to get our children and he will try even when they are young. I remember at nine years of age wanting to ask Jesus Christ into my life. I struggled. I felt the power of the enemy holding me back. It was a spiritual battle.

My daughter, Evangeline experienced the same thing when she gave her life to Jesus as a young child. Evangeline shares her testimony: God saved me at four years of age. Even today, it is still the most vivid and powerful experience of my life. I was lying in bed. I still remember the orange bedspread cover. My mother came into my room and said, "Stephen (my twin) has just asked Jesus to come into his life. Would you like to also?" At that moment the world stopped and the fight between the powers of darkness and heaven began. My whole body was shaking. With all my heart I wanted to ask Jesus into my life, but the pull from Satan was so strong. "No, no, no..." the voice of Satan pulled at my heart. The struggle was powerful.

Eventually I said, "Yes" with all my heart. I followed my mother in prayer asking Jesus to come into my life. At that moment I knew God. I experienced the reality of God. He came into my life and filled me. He opened my mind to Him. I was saved for life - no turning back! I have known His powerful presence in my life ever since. Instantly I felt peace. Instantly I was not afraid of the big owl outside my room - or of anything. I have never been afraid of anything from that day.

Satan wants the minds and hearts of our young children. That is why we must be diligent to train them from a very young age. We want them for God, not for the devil's kingdom. This makes me wonder why God-fearing parents allow their children to go into the public school system to be subtly indoctrinated with humanism, socialism and progressivism. It is there they are trained to think like socialists and become more and more conformed to this spirit of this world.

Psalm 1:1 says, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night." Many of our children, especially at college, sit under professors who scorn the Bible and the ways of God. God's blessing is on those who do not sit in the seat of the scornful and the counsel of the ungodly. Just imagine if every God-fearing parent took their children out of "the counsel of the ungodly" and brought them home to teach them in the ways of God! We would have a revolution in the country. And we certainly need one!

Back in the days of Israel when they were training princes and mighty men to fight for their country, they didn't train ones and twos; they trained thousands of them. Look at some of the numbers that came to help David to make him king in 1 Chronicles 12.

"The children of Judah... ready armed to the war." ... ... ... 6,800

"The children of Simeon, mighty men of valor for the war." 7,100

"The children of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, which could keep rank; they were not of double heart." ... ... ... 50,000

"The children of Dan, expert in war." ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 28,000

The children of Asher, expert in war." ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 40,000

As I read through the Word of God I don't see any commandments to send our children to God-hating colleges where they are brainwashed to think like humanists. Instead, I see God wanting to pour out His Holy Spirit upon them. Acts 2:17-18 says, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters hall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy."

Do you want your children and teens to be worldly humanistic thinkers or do you want them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly speaking forth God's truth in this deceived world. This won't happen unless they are in an environment for God to pour His Spirit upon them. That environment is not in a godless education system. Who do you think has the best idea? God? Or man with his own ideas?

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Above Rubies, http://www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

"Oh God, please help me to raise my children in an environment where you can fill them with your Holy Spirit and prepare them to be mouthpieces for you in the land. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I'm taking God's side rather than man's!

Nursing Homes and Day Cares

(used with permission)
Vickie Matthews, ICor15_57@msn.com writes...

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you."

My mother-in-law just spent two weeks in a local rehab after three months of in and out of hospital visits. I have to say that it was clean and full of cheerful people who were trying their best for the most part to care diligently for the occupants. She came home on Saturday. On Friday she was a wreck for she didn't believe that we would come for her. Why? Because so many others there were told the same thing and they did not come back for them.

She was so relieved to be home. While the place was clean and bright, it was an artificial environment. It is NOT a family situation as the LORD created for His people. I think of what Yeshua said about the hired hand in John 10:12-13, "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep."

My mother-in-law was upset as they washed her each day. Some were so rough she felt violated. One day she was brought to the shower with several other ladies. She was mortified as they all sat there naked. The thought made me think of concentration camps. What about dignity and modesty? Each night she HAD to give up her hearing aids. They said it was to keep them from being lost or stolen. In the morning she had to wait till they could bring them to her.

These people were not mean, just doing a job. One day a young aide was trying to get them interested in "trivia". But they sat there, slumped in wheelchairs. Most devastating of all is the lack of hope. I thought of how in the beginning of Dante's Inferno (the book) the gates to Hell said "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

I thought about how the commandment says to honor our fathers and mothers. Yet the question is, are we really when so many and in growing in numbers are being placed in homes? We soothe our conscience by having "nursing home" ministries--go in a day here or there and go home feeling good.

I thought a friend's mom who had cared for the grandmother for years and years 'till she died last spring. How could she do otherwise she said. .

It is the same today with many children who are dumped into daycares. Nowhere in the Bible does it say to do such a thing! God has no alternative but families. Has not love grown cold when we think we can shove those who need constant care into the hands of strangers? What is the better witness for the LORD? Which exemplifies John 15:3, "Greater love has no one than this, than one lay down his life for his friends."

The LORD doesn't ask many to physically die but He does ask us to put others first. If we put in the same effort as others do in their jobs, what a difference it would make! I have long thought that each young woman should have practical nursing skills as part of their education.

Obama's healthcare makes provisions to ration seniors. I know that my mother-in-law has cost 10s of thousands in the past few months. So there is logic in it. Worldly logic that is! Logic, that as a cousin years ago told me, that it was best for her children to grow in daycare for she had her own life to live.

I have watched people over the years work like crazy for houses, cars, security etc. I have rarely seen them work to have the mother return to the home to care for their own children and elderly. How can an elderly person be cared for as they should if the woman is out of the home? When did the dollar become more valuable than family life? It is ironic that there are those who won't care for their own family, but will care for others if paid for it.

I was taught and have taught my children that family takes care of family. Love freely does what money can't buy. I think of Yeshua who gave His mom into the care of the disciple John who took her into his own home, who said in Mark 7:11 He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of G-d in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, "Honor your Father and Your Mother"; and "He who speaks evil of Father or Mother is to be put to death; But you say, "if a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would have helped you is Corban (that is to say given to G-d); You no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the Word of G-d by your traditions which you have handed down and you do many such as that.

PS Vickie wrote me and told a little more about her MIL.
"...my mil just spent 3 weeks in the hospital with Congestive heart and kidney failure. She is now home again and doing very well thanks be to the LORD! I am a blessed woman. This evening was her 88th birthday. Now a party is planned for next week but 4 of my 8 children were here, 2 of the great grandchildren. It was such a blessing to me to see all around the table. My mil coaxing Emma 3 to eat her dinner. "One potato, two potato, three potato, FOURRRR!!! Emma would open her mouth and eyes wide to receive the forkful! All gathered around my mil to sing Happy Birthday as we gave her a small piece of sugar free cheesecake with 2 candles on it. 2 because she is a "double diget!" LOL"

Home by the Eshes

This beautiful song was written by one of the 12 children of John and Sadie Eshe. The parents and four of their children, plus a son-in-law to-be and a grandson and two friends were killed in a crash two days ago. This song was written after their oldest son died in an accident while a missionary over seas a couple of years ago.

Please pray for the remaining family members. Here is a link to an article about the accident.