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Image of Jesus

Jesus was the image of His Father. Now we are to become the image of Him to the world.

Our privilege in life and the reason Jesus died and rose again was to establish an eternal covenant for us with His Father. In that covenant, Father God promised to do whatever it took to make us look and act like Jesus in a dead and dying world.

What's the point of the horrible death of Jesus, the cross and all it means, and the astounding resurrection if we don't submit to our Father's refining hand on us? Our goal should not be to live so God can serve us. It's to live and die to everything we once were by the power of the Holy Spirit!

7/15/20 Are You Spiritually Prepared?

As I’m sure you’re aware, the world is changing at an alarming rate. Times and seasons are moving in the direction of prophecies being fulfilled time after time with biblical accuracy. As a wise husband and father, it’s becoming increasingly important to have clear direction for the safety and preparedness of you and those the Lord has entrusted to you.

The seasons at hand will require more than simple economic or business savvy. They will require spiritual insight and a working relationship with the Lord so that you have His wisdom to lead your family through the challenging times ahead. The question is two-fold. Are you prepared to navigate the unique times on the horizon with proper spiritual insight, and have you also helped to spiritually prepare those you are a steward of? As things change, it will become increasingly clear that Sunday school classes will not be able to replace intimate family times of seeking the Lord for guidance and direction.

As the Lord’s plan unfolds, only those who have an alive and vibrant relationship with Him - those who are familiar with waiting on Him for each step they take - will be able to overcome the challenges posed in the coming months and years. Those who wait on the Lord will have insights far more important than any abilities gained in the past. Only they will know the proper directions to take and the dangers to avoid.

Now is the time for all of us to take an appraisal of our directions and motives. Are you putting aside those things that have little value, and trading them for those things the Lord considers of worth? Are you preparing yourself to be able to hear the Lord’s words as He says, “This is the way; walk in it”? Are you also preparing your family to be able to hear His clear voice in a time when many voices will be clamoring for their attention? If not, what are you going to do when you are out of answers and they are looking to you for direction?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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7/15/20 Repentance and Cleansing

“When you are in Christ, you have been made new and you are continually being made new. There are always new beginnings in Me. Old things are continually passing away and all things are being conformed into His image. Your part of this wonderful process is a life of repentance and subsequent cleansing. I know that you are in the process of change. I know that you will fail to act like Jesus every moment until His completed work on the cross is done in you.

"While you are being conformed to be more like Him to others, I want your fellowship. I desire that you come to Me to be refreshed and cleansed from any attachments to the world. Repent of who you are not and I will bring you closer to Who He is. Submit yourself to the completed work of the cross. Remain under the Lordship of Jesus. If you remain humble and insignificant in your own eyes, I will make your life significant. I will form you to be able to function properly within My eternal plans. I love you!”

2 Cor. 5-17 AMP

Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ, (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

James 4: 8-10 AMP

8) Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].

9) [As you draw near to God] be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep [over your disloyalty]. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame [for your sins].

10) Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].

 

What an astounding privilege it is to be given the opportunity by God Himself to have a significant life. The whole world scurries to and fro to find some sort of significance to their existence. Everyone craves to be known and embraced for who they are. Most of the time this is the driving force for all their worldly deeds and accomplishments.

If we have submitted ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus, we are known and appreciated by God for who we are. We also live in the promise whereby He will form us into the image of the most wonderful, most significant life ever lived. How wonderful it is to know and be known by the One Who created us in the first place. How wonderful it is to be able to live daily with the peace of knowing that we are significant and that our lives really matter.

I submit to Your hand, Lord,

Jim Corbett

7/14/20 I Appreciate You!

When was the last time you looked your wife in the eyes and said “I appreciate you”? For that matter, when have you ever simply spent some time with your children and expressed the appreciation you have for them? If that is not part of your MO, why have you been so fooled? Only the enemy of your soul would desire expressions of love and affirmation to be absent from your relationships, especially family relationships.

Most of us men had to earn any kind of affirmation from our fathers. Then, as we grew older, we earned our respect by what we did, not for who we became. All our lives we’ve been attempting to prove our worth by what we do, whether we know it or not. Visible success determines worth in today’s society.

Well, that’s not how God sees things! For some unknown reason, God has placed value on each of us, certainly not because we have earned it; but simply because he chooses to do so. He has in essence said, I consider them valuable enough to spend eternity with them. I appreciate who they are!

Men, the next time you withhold any expression of appreciation toward your wife or your children because you feel they haven’t earned your appreciation, remember how God has dealt with you. Then consider the horror of Him choosing to withhold His favor until you’ve earned it. If that really registers with you, you just might begin to express a waterfall of appreciation to those you love. Just watch as their lives change in the same way that a desert would if water began to flow into its parched land. They’re waiting for you!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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7/14/20 Not in Your Own Strength

“I know who you are not, and I love you. I see your desire to be like My Son and your struggle to attain that goal. You fret, strive, and worry when I goad you to become more like Him. I see you grieve when you can’t live up to the standards that I have set for you in My Word. When did I ever say that you could accomplish that task in your own strength? When did I ever require you to accomplish what even My law could not do in the most ardent follower? Why would you carry that burden?

"Listen carefully. You must hear this. Stop striving to become better. You must change your ways of achieving My goals or you will soon be overwhelmed if you continue misunderstanding Our relationship. Your job is to submit; My job is to change you. I am raising the standard. I am about to require bride-like devotion from anyone who will be used by Me in the near future. I need a representative people to show the world My Son. Only submissive power will rise above the turmoil. Only Christ-like obedience will bring souls to Me during the soon-approaching great deception.

"How will you ever make it? You will not possess My presence by striving to change what you have not been able to change so far. Stop striving. Stop struggling. Submit to My hand and surrender to My working in you what I need to do. There is no other way. What I require is impossible for you to do. I promise, however, to do it in you and for you. You can be free. Why would you insist on having it your way and continue to fail?”

2 Cor. 3:17 AMP

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

Gal. 3:3 AMP

Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?

 

Our publication, A White Stone, is - among other things - a clarion call to holiness. The main characters set an example of how each of us can prosper during perilous times. After reading it, many people come to me with a renewed enthusiasm to be like one or several of those characters; in essence, to be the kind of representation of Jesus that the character is.

They often tell me of several ways in which they intend to change. If I can’t talk them out of their formula and must let them attempt to change themselves, it is normally just a matter of time before they come back to me - broken, overwhelmed, and very confused - wondering why the Lord did not honor their hearts.

Most of the time, I just take them to the above verses and they get the picture. The Holy Spirit started all of this. He is the one who must be in every equation during the changing process; and He must be allowed a free hand to fully accomplish His will in making you like Jesus. Anything else is simply frustrating, burdensome religion. It is a yoke that is too heavy for any of us to carry.

Understand this. When you break under the weight of attempting to become holy in your own strength, crumple at the feet of Jesus. Repent of your foolishness of attempting to accomplish by yourself what only the Holy Spirit can do. You are needed in the upcoming times. Don’t allow your stubbornness to cause you to be left on the sidelines.

Needing to remember that the Lord authored my faith, and that it’s His job to finish it,

Jim Corbett

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