Category: MASH United

For those who are wanting to deepen their walk with the Lord to become the man God has created them to be, this daily devotional is designed to encourage, equip, challenge, and support you in that endeavor. Very much like the direct but kind, guiding words of a craftsman to an apprentice, this devotional says to searching hearts what they most likely have longed to hear all their lives. That may sound hard to believe, but history has proven that many grown men have never had a father’s guidance that could direct them either in word or example into the truth regarding love, marriage, intimacy, and nurturing. This devotional provides opportunities for men to revisit what it means to be a leader, husband, or father God’s way.

11/15/19 How Will He Recognize Us?

Given that God has ordained the offices of husband and father as His highest offices, the most powerful position a man can take is on his knees for his family. I believe that no other position is dearer to the heart of God or garners more favor, because the family produces and fosters pastors, prayer warriors, and every conceivable worker for the Lord. God's heart responds to a man praying for his own. (In case you think I'm overlooking something - yes, He also has a fervent spot in His heart as people pray for souls to come to know Jesus Christ!)
I think of David's mighty men. His men understood warfare. His men were tried in battle and came out unbeaten, far more proficient than greater numbers of other warriors. They knew how to fight. They knew what it would take to win the battles for their king.
Most men today have no idea how important their position is. Most men give little thought to the probability that they've lost the most important battles of their lives as they see their families fall apart or, at the very least, become unproductive in the Lord's work. Few men even consider that their wives or children are literally supposed to walk as Jesus walked, and that they are supposed to provide the atmosphere for them to do so.
Men, God intended you to be just like David's mighty men in the war for your families. He is more than willing to respond with power to your requests for their ability to overcome the world. You are a man of power when you call upon His power on behalf of those you steward. Why are you not laboring for them as your priority work in this life? Paul said that he was in birth pangs until Christ - the character of Christ - was formed in others. Is that not supposed to be your heart for those you love?
Let's talk more!
Jim Corbett

11/13/19 How Prepared Are You?

How prepared are you as a husband and father to love your wife and lead your family through the coming perilous times? What is life really all about? What is your place in your marriage, your family, your workplace, and your immediate circle of influence?

Let's start over and rephrase the same questions from God's point of view. How prepared are you to lead your family with spiritual wholeness, powerfully glorifying God through the coming times and love your wife as Christ loves His church? What is your life really all about in the eyes of the Lord? Why has He placed you in your marriage, your family, your place of business, and your circle of influence for this generation? Have you fulfilled His plans in those areas? When you stand before your Father in heaven, these are some of the questions you really should be prepared to answer without stammering.

As you look around, you're no doubt seeing how fast things can change. You've begun to fully understand that the things that were at one time secure, even your own personal security, can disappear in a matter of moments. If you have any spiritual discernment, you know that something very important is on the horizon, something far greater than you read about in the daily news, something for which you have little experience and little power on tap to overcome in your present spiritual state. However, God is raising up His special forces out of the ashes of refiner's fires to restore the powerful family unit. He is giving those men, who choose to hear His voice, certain footing in a very uncertain world. He is giving them the spiritual power to overcome a dead and dying world. Are you going to be one of them?

Let's talk more!

Jim Corbett

11/02/19 Offices of Importance

While functioning in the offices of husband and father, have you ever thought about the reason why your Father God chose to give you breath?  I know that is pretty much a leading question; but none-the-less, it's a question most men don't really know how to answer. Let me answer it for you before you go on the typical rabbit trails of providing for them or making sure they're safe in this world.
God has placed you in the most important position He ever created so that you can provide a fertile atmosphere for your wife and children to overcome the world. That's it! All the money you make, the kind of house you own, the cars, vacations, the college educations mean nothing if those you are steward of have not learned how to function in a life separate from the world and its tentacles. As a husband and father, you will answer for that when you stand before God. Whether you like it or not, it's what your offices require of you.
Most men don't have a clue on how to create this atmosphere, because they haven't chosen to function in that atmosphere themselves. Most men don't grasp the impact of what Jesus was telling them when He said that those who overcome the world, as He did, will sit beside Him on His throne just as He overcame and sat down beside His Father on His throne.
Men, what is your plan to get in line with God and His desires for the offices He has given you?  How do you plan to turn your life and the lives of your family around so you can all prosper in a dying world and overcome it through the power of the Holy Spirit? The answer to those leading questions is for you to make your priority intimacy with God. You need to change your address to God's Throne Room to receive all that is needed to lead others where you have been. Once you determine in your heart to live there yourself, you will be able to lead others there, too.  God has called you to live that life with Him so that you can give away what you own! Will you do it?
Let's talk!
Jim Corbett

11/01/19 Your Job

While functioning in the offices of husband and father, have you ever thought about the reason why your Father God chose to give you breath?  I know that is pretty much a leading question; but none-the-less, it's a question most men don't really know how to answer. Let me answer it for you before you go on the typical rabbit trails of providing for them or making sure they're safe in this world.
God has placed you in the most important position He ever created so that you can provide a fertile atmosphere for your wife and children to overcome the world. That's it! All the money you make, the kind of house you own, the cars, vacations, the college educations mean nothing if those you are steward of have not learned how to function in a life separate from the world and its tentacles. As a husband and father, you will answer for that when you stand before God. Whether you like it or not, it's what your offices require of you.
Most men don't have a clue on how to create this atmosphere, because they haven't chosen to function in that atmosphere themselves. Most men don't grasp the impact of what Jesus was telling them when He said that those who overcome the world, as He did, will sit beside Him on His throne just as He overcame and sat down beside His Father on His throne.
Men, what is your plan to get in line with God and His desires for the offices He has given you?  How do you plan to turn your life and the lives of your family around so you can all prosper in a dying world and overcome it through the power of the Holy Spirit? The answer to those leading questions is for you to make your priority intimacy with God. You need to change your address to God's Throne Room to receive all that is needed to lead others where you have been. Once you determine in your heart to live there yourself, you will be able to lead others there, too.  God has called you to live that life with Him so that you can give away what you own! Will you do it?
Let's talk!
Jim Corbett

10/30/19 Generation Gap

Did you know that in God’s eyes there is no such thing as a generation gap? That whole concept is nothing more than spiritually ignorant, psycho-babble hogwash. Spiritually alive parents who have chosen to invest in their children, considering them more important than themselves and spiritually alive children, who have chosen to invest in the family by the power of the Holy Spirit, have no time to buy into that ridiculousness.

The generation gap concept was created by spiritually impotent people, who attempted to incorporate their impotence into guiding and directing their offspring. It is nothing more than a way to excuse their inability to lead their children as they continue to walk in their own ways and thinking. What they really need to do is submit to God through Jesus Christ so that the life of Christ can flow in them through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is God’s wisdom, strength, love, etc. that we need – not ours. Ours will not truly get the job done. Of course, each generation has its own tastes and preferences; but communication, understanding, mutual love and respect, discernment, and prayer overcome any differences and allow generations to flow together with peace and harmony.

Raising godly children requires a lifetime of investing in them, most of the time in ways that violate our personal comfort zones. It is going to take a lot of surrender of our own ways to the Lord, a lot of prayer, a lot of selfless choices, placing their well-being above our comfort; and a lot of heart work. Yes, heart work. However, the eventual satisfaction and rewards of seeing a child being formed by God and the character of Jesus going forth through our children more than compensates for whatever price we may have to pay.

Godly children, who eventually become godly adults, are the goal and heart desire of Father God for both marriage and family. His standards are higher than the world’s standards and most of the standards in the typical church of today. He is after the heart of our children, not their compliance. His methods raise the bar in comparison with “normal” child rearing.

[While education is vitally important and must be part of any child’s growth process, which child lives a more significant life – one who has all of the degrees in the world, a successful business, and a mediocre life in Christ; or one who has the priorities of God as his priority, dedicating himself to bringing others to significance while having few of the successes of the world?]

Investing in our children God’s way creates generations of strong, healthy children, who are full of integrity and inner wealth and capable of not only overcoming any of the challenges that come their way, but actually prospering because of them. Raising children God’s way brings proper credit to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and a testimony of His eternal work.

Knowing this, each of us has a choice to make at some point in our lives. This moment may be that time for you. You can approach child rearing with an attitude that your children are the ones who need to conform to His ways on their own, or you can settle it in your heart, once and for all time, that who you are and who you become in Christ is a major factor in determining who they will become.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

 

 

 

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