Pray that families understand the value they have in each other.
Pray that each of us attempts to see others as Father God sees them.
Pray that we will not deviate from the calling our Lord has given us as we wait for His plans to unfold.
A poverty stricken man had to travel to his job, which was located in a distant city. Because he was so poor and it was the only job he could find, he had to make the trip there and back each day in an old, barely running rust bucket of a car. His livelihood depended on that car. It was the only means for him to get there, even though it often broke down, causing him often to almost lose his employment.
So every morning long before anyone else was even up, the man packed all that he would need for the trip, and took off down the road in a cloud of smoke that would obscure him from sight the further he would go. Late at night, he would return exhausted, only to have to do the needed repairs on the car so that he could make the trip the next day.
One day, as the man pulled over on the side of the road to make some repairs so that he could continue on his journey, a kindly man in tattered clothes walked up to him, seemingly from nowhere. "I've been watchin' ya make this trip every day. Been lookin' at ya from my porch over there," he said, pointing to a run-down shack just off the highway behind some trees. "I feel sorry for ya with this no-luck car that ya got, so I'd like to help ya," he continued. "In that barn over there," he turned and pointed to a barn that looked even worse than the house, "I got me this limo. It's yours if ya want it cuz I don't use it no more. I'll even drive ya wherever ya gotta go if ya want me to. Got nothin' better to do."
"Get away from me, old man," the traveler spat with impatience. "I have enough trouble without someone like you making promises that you can't keep." With that, he returned to the well-worn muffler to reattach it.
The next day from his front porch, the kindly man sat and watched as the beat up jalopy hobbled its way down the road again. Shaking his head in sorrow for the embittered traveler, he headed toward the barn to polish the new limo he had inherited, wondering how he might use it to help someone that day.
How often do we, as husbands and fathers, respond in the same way to God's offer to be in charge of every situation we face?
Let's talk more!
Jim Corbett
"When all the systems of men fail, I am there. When the places of safety disappear, I am your strong tower. I will always be there wherever and whenever you have need of any kind.
"I ask you this! Why would you wait for all of your worldly resources to fail before you call upon Me? Why would you not build Our relationship now so that We can overcome and prosper when times are difficult, instead of simply solving immediate needs?
"I am interested in a long-term relationship. Jesus has provided access to My inner chamber any time you come to Me in His Name. Why would you wait until you are in distress? You miss so much. You miss so much of what We can have together. Come now! Don't wait until your panic limits Our intimacy."
Psalm 3:1-6 AMP
1) Lord, How they are increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me.
2) Many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God. Selah [pause and calmly think of that]!
3) But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
4) With my voice I cry to the Lord and He hears and answers me out of His holy hill. Selah [pause and calmly think of that]!
5) I lay down and slept, I awakened again, for the Lord sustains me.
6) I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about.
Psalm 20:6-7 AMP
6) Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.
7) Some trust in and boast of chariots and some of horses, but we will trust in and boast of the name of the Lord our God.
For many years I thought of God as being off in the distance somewhere, too big and too busy to have time for someone like me. Only after the Lord showed me how much that kind of thinking offended Him was I able to understand what the cross was all about. Jesus died so that you and I could have access to our heavenly Father. He lives to interact with us on an intimate level. Yes, He is Lord! Yes, the Godhead is holy! In spite of that and because of that, Father God has provided an immeasurable privilege that is given to us once we have surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. He has given us the covenant right to come close to Him. Incredible!
Teach me who I am in You, Lord,
Jim Corbett
Smith Wigglesworth, an evangelist from the early 1900's, would enter a train compartment and people would have to leave it because the presence of God in him convicted them of their sins. He didn't preach or say anything.
We don't even begin to understand that. We spend the largest portion of our lives providing for our feathered nests; and finally, if we have any time left over, it goes to God. Then we wonder why we are powerless to affect - for eternity - the people that God brings across our path or help our families find real safety during deep challenges.
Think about it. How many people have you been in contact with since you were saved? How many have seen Jesus, even a little bit, because of that contact? I'm not talking about today's version of Jesus - the scurrying around to put out social fires lit by others rather than helping them to see Jesus. I'm talking about the Jesus Who came to show us His Father's love, the One Who came to die for them. That Jesus is supposed to ooze out through every one of our pores, because we have given God full possession of our lives.
Let's talk more!
Jim Corbett
"May I tell you one of the wonders of Our relationship? I am always with you! I understand that you have heard that saying so often that it has lost its real meaning, so please listen with an open heart. The work of the cross accomplished many wonderful things. Some are so wonderful that your mind cannot comprehend what they are, so I am not going to share them with you until you are with Me.
"One completed work that you can understand, however, is the fact that I became near to you once again because of what Jesus did. Spiritual law separated us before the cross. That law has been fulfilled in Christ and now We have free access to one another. That means nothing can separate us again. This fact makes the difference between you being limited to your miniscule, human limitations, and having full access to My boundless, spiritual nature. I now reside in you. You have been made alive in your inner being by My Holy Spirit. I bring My world to your world through you.
"If you ever really comprehend what that means, you will never again choose to dabble in the limitations of your world. You will become a study of the cross to find out what has been provided for you and why I have provided it. You will seek real wisdom and flee from listening to your old, selfish nature, which limits your perspective. You will rejoice in Our relationship as I flow through you with wonders that have limitless, spiritual impact on everything and everyone with whom you come in contact. You will be free in a world that continually attempts to place bondages on you. You will be able to rise above every limitation because of the freedom that I have given you.
"I am with you, in you, and for you. Come to Me and allow Me to show you how wonderful that really is!"
Ephesians 3:16-19 AMP
16) May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].
17) May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,
18) That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];
19) [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!"
This spiritual stuff often gets confusing and far beyond my comprehension if I try to figure it all out with my pea brain. My mind gets so cluttered that I almost become immobilized with it all. That is why my mind is not the place to discern spiritual things. That is also why most of the body of Christ gets bogged down with contentions, judgments, and disagreements. We are trying to grasp the spiritual with our carnal minds. It doesn't work.
Because of our acceptance of the work of the cross, we have become spiritual. Our bodies are dying daily, but our spirits have been made alive. Our inner man - the spiritual person that we really have become - comprehends, accepts, and thrives on things of the Spirit. It has been made alive through Christ, and will continue with Him throughout eternity. That is where we should allow ourselves to be guided daily by the Holy Spirit within us, not in our thinking and reasoning abilities.
At times, I am almost immobilized by my inabilities. I look at those around me and sometimes become hamstrung with who I am not, in comparison to who they appear to be because of their worldly presence and achievements. To my mind, and by the world's standards, I am a failure. In those times, I realize that my incapability is exactly what drives me to God's capabilities. He is my power. He is my dwelling place, my real life - not what I see and feel.
Needing to function much more in my spiritual parts,
Jim Corbett
