Bible | TFRC | The Faith Resource Community

8/26/23 The Purpose of Challenges

As part of His covenant with us, God has promised to give us every opportunity to become like Jesus. He allows us to go through challenges and devises means for us to come to the end of ourselves. He guides and directs our responses to those challenges as barometers of our progress toward holiness.

Let’s talk facts. Although this life is not about us, this life we live has great importance in God’s eyes. His whole plan is the perfecting of those who will be spending eternity with Him. As we focus on Jesus, God is focusing on us to make us into His image. He is orchestrating opportunities for us to make decisions. Those decisions become more and more like the decisions that Jesus, in His holiness, would make as we submit to God’s hand. Without opportunities to come to the end of ourselves and turn to God for help, we would never experience our Father’s keeping power over us. Our need imparts God’s wealth to us as we surrender.

As men after the Savior’s heart, we understand that challenges are only spiritual opportunities to grow in Christ. As those who do want to become like Jesus, we have learned to embrace any and all challenges that come our way as acts of love, not as reprimands. In doing so, we release the power of the Holy Spirit to move in concert with God’s plan for our lives as we grow closer to Him from challenge to challenge. Will you pay the price?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

8/25/23 The Time Is Now

“The time is coming when serving Me will cost you everything. The time is coming when even your movement will be observed. Freedom to praise Me will be non-existent. It will be a time when you will need to mention the Name of Jesus with a whisper or you will be in peril. What is of utmost value to you now will fall pale, as your quality of life decreases and others rob you of your freedoms. Who will you turn to if you are not in the habit of turning to Me now? How will you find the strength to endure then, when you are immobilized now if someone yells at you with his or her face?

"In that day you will wish that you had redeemed the time to grow in Me, while you had the opportunity to do so. You will regret the foolish ways that you spent your time, squandered your money, and trivialized My availability to teach you how to survive, even prosper. You need to take stock in your life now. What are your priorities? What are you learning? Who are you really serving? What are you doing with My resources of time, freedom, and wisdom? I have warned you; do not cast aside My counsel. Suddenly you will wish that you had heeded My Words.”

Isaiah 28:9-11 NLB They say,

9) “Who does the Lord think we are? Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, barely old enough to talk?

10) He tells us everything over and over again, a line at a time, in very simple words!”

11) Since they refuse to listen, God will speak to them through foreign oppressors who speak an unknown language!

Jeremiah 12:5 AMP

….. If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if [you take flight] in a land of peace where you feel secure, then what will you do [when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted by lions] in the swelling and flooding of the Jordan?

John 12:35 NIV

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while there is light, before darkness overtakes you.”

We have been so blessed in this land that we firmly believe that nothing can really change to the point of bondage and desperation, even when there have been so many warnings to the contrary. Throughout the Bible nations rise and fall, some because they were so decadent that God would no longer tolerate their sin.

In the last years, our Lord has warned those who would hear to be ready for anything at any time. The world is creaking and moaning, straining for the return of Jesus, and at the same time an unusual stillness has permeated our land. Business as usual is the order of the day while things are all heading in the direction of prophecy fulfilled. We as Christians should be working while there is light to work; instead, we are sleeping our way through them, consuming His grace and mercy on our lives. Our spiritual muscles have atrophied to the point that we can no longer stand, much less be a readied army. I believe that the Lord is heralding a wakeup call over and over again, and we are not hearing Him. We have been lulled to sleep.

Teach me to really hear what You are saying, Lord,

Jim Corbett

8/25/23 The Image of the Father

Jesus is the image of His Father. Even though He walked on this earth as a man, He was the perfect spiritual imprint of Who His Father is. His Spirit is alive with the wealth of all that His Father is by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As spiritual men, men with the same Holy Spirit dwelling in us that lives in Jesus, you and I are to pattern our lives after His. We are to walk and conduct ourselves in the same way that He walked and conducted Himself. His pattern of doing nothing of Himself and relying totally on the Father should be our course in life. His desire to commune with His Father as the priority of His days should be a craving of our hearts. As we go to God in prayer, a primary petition should be to ask Him to make us like Jesus.

Because your offices of husband and father are spiritual in nature and ordained by God, the spiritual patterns you set are very important. As you imitate the patterns of Jesus’ life, you give impressions about His life to those who are watching you. They see who He is when you represent His life properly.

Jesus showed us the Father. Now we are to show others who Jesus and His Father are through our lives. What do They look like to those who are watching you?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

8/24/23 Learning Mercy

“Would you like to be given the same mercy that you are giving others? How would you fare? Would you be under the weight of intolerance, judgment, and condemnation? Would you always fall short of someone’s expectation? You need to learn mercy! Give it away freely. Jesus died so that you might be free. I now expect you to flood others with the same mercy you have been given.”

Matthew 5:7 NIV

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

Matthew 5:7 AMP

Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous - with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!

A heart of mercy always wants to forgive, even when forgiveness is not asked for, nor deserved. Mercy is our means to salvation. Without it, none of us would have the possibility of spending eternity with God. It was mercy that initiated Father God’s sending His Son (Himself) for us. To continue to receive mercy, we must give mercy. A heart of mercy will never focus on itself. As soon as it desires something for itself, it will lose the ability to be merciful.

The merciful heart always esteems others more valuable than itself. Those with mercy understand bankruptcy and place themselves at the center of the need. Mercy drove Jesus to the cross. Neglecting mercy cuts off the lifeline with God, because He always operates where mercy is demonstrated. God’s judgment, the separation of good from evil, is always an act of mercy. In His mercy, God reveals our sin for the single purpose of providing freedom for us. Truth with mercy always brings life. Truth without mercy brings bondage, death, and a religious spirit. The heart of mercy always desires to treat others as God would treat them…

Thank You for Your mercy, Lord,

Jim Corbett

8/24/23 Sins of the Father

The offices of husband and father carry with them a spiritual, protective covering for your wife and family. That covering is like an impenetrable dome over them, which keeps them sheltered from the onslaught meant to nullify their worth. Functioning under it, they have freedom to make their own spiritual choices, but are protected from the enemy’s tactics that are not their fights to engage in.

When you blatantly sin or deviate from God’s Word and choose the ways of the world rather than God’s sold-out ways, that covering is compromised. Because it is not intact, those under your covering are faced with challenges and battles they are not well suited for. You can’t help them because you are ill-equipped to do so. Your decision to focus on the world rather than on the deep things of God violates the safety they need to truly prosper in Christ. That is one of the reasons most young people today are reeling in confusion and spiritual weakness. There is an onslaught against them, and they have no safe place to grow in Christ because you are not providing it.

If your family is not an example of a Christian family as God sees it, you might look to the Lord to show you where you are compromising His plan for you. Where have you violated your office of husband and father? You may have cleaned up the visible sins, but what about the sin of disloyalty to God in all things? What about your life of neglected time with the Lord? What about choosing to handle the urgent matters you face in your own strength rather than surrendering them fully?

It’s time to really take account of your life, men. Are you on your face for your wife to become all she can be in Christ? Is the spiritual wealth of your children the priority of your life? Do you care if the covering you are supposed to be is fractured? It can be repaired if you choose to eliminate any spiritual adultery in your life. Allow the Lord to show you anything that is not in order. Your family will greatly appreciate it! Are you willing to change?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

1 2 3 … 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 … 648 649 650

Posts navigation