Above Rubies

21 hrs

The other week I did a podcast with Rebecca Southey from New Zealand (who was staying with us at the time) where she tells her story of God’s grace and blessing upon her life. She mentioned on the podcast of how I printed a testimony by her mother, Maureen Green, who gave birth to a spinal bifida daughter. Can you believe it? It was printed in the No. 3 issue of Above Rubies, away back in 1978! Here’s the testimony.

MY WOBBLY FAITH
How thrilled and grateful I was when my young daughter, Lois gave birth to a big bouncing baby boy. She had a perfect pregnancy and an easy natural birth. Little Joshua was my 15th grandchild, so why was it so special?

I thought back to a day 21 years ago when I lay on a hospital bed with a gynecologist/physician/surgeon surrounding me saying that this pregnancy must be terminated! This was because of my acute physical condition and the risk of childbirth. My previous pregnancies and births had been very difficult, and they did not think I could survive this one.

I was faced with an issue of life and death. How could I destroy life which God had put within me? No. I couldn’t allow it, even at risk to myself. I remember saying to the physician, “My faith is wobbly, but I will wobble on with the help of God” and I went through the pregnancy.

Lois was born with difficulty at five weeks premature, RH negative, and spinal bifida! She was operated on at two days old to close the opening. After the operation there was no reaction or sign of reflexes. Her legs just dangled. The doctor said they had done all they could.

My husband and I had many times experienced a touch from the Lord and so we turned to Him again. We took her to Wellington where a visiting evangelist from America prayed for her.

Nothing apparent happened, but my husband, being a man of faith, kept telling the Lord what we had read in His word: “They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover” (Mark 16:18). Each night as we put her to bed he would say, “Lord, we’re still waiting. We thank You that this baby will walk.”

The night she was one year old we were bathing her and suddenly she moved, and her legs kicked for the first time. What excitement as the whole family came crowding in the tiny little bathroom. Such shouting and rejoicing.

From this day on she grew stronger and began to hold her head which she could not do before. We decided to treat her from this day just as we had our other five children.

We had many opportunities to tell of Jesus and His love through what people saw happening over a space of time.

At 15 years she was last seen by the specialist who was surprised that she was just like any normal girl. However, he did say that if one day she should marry and have a child that she would need to give birth by c-section. How wonderful is the goodness of God that she had a beautiful natural delivery.

We have been a family who have known what it is to have sickness come our way, but we have seen the Lord’s hand on our lives and have been granted the ability to rise above it.

I strongly recommend this wonderful friend, Jesus Christ, to anyone needing healing, whether it be spiritual, physical, or emotional.

MAUREEN GREEN (who passed away many years ago).

(Maureen was also Sue’s mother who did the podcast, A LIFE POURED OUT, and Rebecca’s mother who shared her story in the podcast, GOD’S FAITHFULNESS.
Here's the link to Rebecca’s great testimony.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/183....665/episodes/1693845
Picture: Cover of Above Rubies, No. 3. I wonder if anyone in the world still has this copy of Above Rubies!

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THINK OF THE POSSIBILITY!
The following is one of my favorite quotes by General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army.

"Think of the possibility of raising a multitude of men and women whose bodies have never been poisoned by vicious indulgences,
whose minds have been enlightened and filled with the principles of divine truth from their infancy,
and whose hearts, from their earliest days, have been inspired with the love of Christ and possessed with the one supreme ambition to
GLORIFY THE FATHER, DETHRONE THE DEVIL, DESTROY SIN, AND SAVE THE WORLD!"

God has given to parents a great vision and purpose. We haven't got time for lesser things. We have a world to influence with glorious gospel of Jesus Christ as we prepare our children for their destiny.
~ Nancy

Painting: Three Brothers by Wilhelm Palmer, 1898

5 d

YOU ARE IN GOD’S PERFECT WILL
Dear lovely mother . . .

I want to remind you today that as you mother, nurture, and train your children in your home that you are in the perfect will of God.

When God gives His children to you (for they are ultimately His children) to raise and train for Him, He doesn’t give them to you to give to someone else. He knows that no one else in the world will love them, ache for them, protect them, and give their lives for them like YOU, their own mother. Mothers and babies are bound together. Mothers and children are bound together until they reach the age of maturity and are ready to charge out on their own.

I want to also remind you that because you are doing the will of God that you will abide forever. Here is the promisein 1 John 2:15-17: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, And THE WORLD PASSESTH AWAY and the lust thereof: but HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF GOD ABIDETH FOREVER.”

Sometimes you may feel like you would like to be out in the career world and doing important things. Let me tell you dear mother, that that kind of lifestyle is going to pass away as the Scripture says. You won’t take your career into Heaven with you. It will be left behind. Not a memory of it.

But you will take into Heaven your redeemed soul and the redeemed souls of your children who are eternal beings. Motherhood is an eternal career.

Rejoice that you are fulfilling God’s will. God sees your service which is ultimately unto Him. You may feel that you are hidden away, but as you are faithful to fulfil your calling, there is a day coming (and it comes too quickly) that from your home will come children who are polished and trained to bring God’s salvation and truth to the world, who will shine God’s light into the darkness, and who will overcome the evil.

You couldn’t be doing anything more powerful.

Love from Nancy Campbell
Painting: Thomas Little

6 d

VASECTOMY CAUSED PROBLEMS
When I was a young mother of two children I was given a stack of Above Rubies magazines. I gleaned messages from each magazine that were valuable to my life at the time. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have a large family or homeschool.

The Lord saved my husband's soul when my third born son, Isaiah (God is Salvation) was born and God led us to surrender our family size to Him. We kept building our wall. My sixth child, Nehemiah was born in 2019, and that year God gave my husband the gift of sobriety.

Nehemiah, and our seventh born, Jeremiah, were such difficult babies. My husband decided we would have one last girl, and he would get a vasectomy. Baby eight was a delightful little boy, Elijah Zion.

In spring of 2024 we welcomed our beautiful little Zinniah Blossom—our one last girl and my husband scheduled his vasectomy. With the finality of sterility, my heart ached for the children we would never meet. I held the conviction to allow God to create with our bodies so near to my heart.

I was advised by people much wiser to submit to my husband. He was a good man, of sober mind, and who loved the Lord. I tried to make my heart obey but it would not, and I threw the tantrum of my life when the month of his surgery came around.

We fought. I tried to hurt him with my words as badly as his decision was hurting me. It created a huge chasm in our marriage. A few weeks after his vasectomy my husband started having side effects that completely destroyed our sex life. These symptoms worsened as the weeks went by.

We went to counseling to work on the issues that stirred up this trial. We prayed together every single night without fail. The Lord answered us with a unified direction for my husband to have a vasectomy reversal.

During this time my husband decided to donate to Above Rubies for the first time and shortly after the most recent magazine, #102, was mailed to me. I couldn't believe that the first time my husband donated to this ministry was to put an issue about vasectomy reversals into my hands. What a blessed comfort each and every story was to my soul.

At Christmas, just four months after his initial vasectomy he had a reversal. God allowed us to schedule at the perfect time for my husband's work with the surgeon we felt was the best choice. The entire process was such a deep valley with so much provision from God.

My husband is now healed of all the side effects that destroyed our marriage bed. He is so proud that we are expecting a little baby soul from our Lord this Thanksgiving, our 10th baby that I never thought I'd have the privilege to carry.

The Lord fought this battle for me in entirety. I didn't need to force my will on my husband. God's will cannot be thwarted. Now as we stand on this mountain, I cannot believe I'm writing this. We are better than before. Our love is covered in daily prayer, and we have surrendered our will to our Father God.

CHELSIE PANELLA
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
chelsielauren17@gmail.com

Picture: Michael and Chelsie with the beautiful children God has given to them.

1 w

MORE THAN OUR DAILY FOOD
Currently we are reading through the book of Job in our Family Devotions. This morning we were encouraged by Job 23:12: “Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips: I have esteemed the words of this mouth more than mmy necssary food.”

The CJB translation and most others say: “I TREASURE his words MORE THAN my daily food.” Can we truly say these words? I believe this challenge comes to us personally and collectively as a family. I love my time in God’s Word each morning before everyone else is up. I treasure this time. I treasure God’s words. This is the exact meaning of the Hebrew word, “to treasure, to hide, to store up.” It’s the same word as Psalm 119:11: “Thy word have I HID in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Read also Psalm 40:7, 8; Proverbs 2:1; 4:20, 21; 7:1; and Jeremiah 31:33.

I’m a great believer in the words of the old Chinese saint who used to say: “No Bible; no breakfast!” He wouldn’t feed his body until he fed his soul and spirit.

But it is not enough to treasure God’s word pesonally. I believe we must treasure it as a family. Of course, if we treasure it more than our daily food, we’ll make sure that we are gathering our family together each day to feed them spiritually. We feed our family at least three good physical meals a day and often snacks in between. Are we feeding the spiritual inner man of our children MORE THAN that?

I think the least we can do is to have our morning and evening Bible time together. Anything less than this shows very clearly that we do not treasure God’s living and eternal Word.

Are you a family that can say, “We treasure God’s Word more than our daily food”?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell