Tag: Christianity

“Will you know how to walk in My light when there is only darkness all around you? If you are hearing My call to press in with Me, the answer is yes! I will protect you. I will be with you. More than that, you will be prepared for everything that comes your way. You see, I am making you into proper warriors who will flood this land with My presence. You will be places of safety for those who are too frightened to think straight. Because of your training now, your thoughts will be My thoughts then. We will move in concert, so you will be unavailable to the terrors that stalk the land. Remember My warriors in My Word.

"Remember how I fought the battles for them. Nothing has changed. I am available to you now, and in the future. Now, somehow, you feel that I am not needed every moment of the day. When everything falls away, you will need Me all the time. I will be there for you. I am your covenant Lord. I will never leave you. I promise.”

Luke 10:19 KJV 

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

 

Being a Christian is so wonderful, that sometimes all I can do is stop and praise. Think about this. We have the answer to life and death. We have been given all we need to make every proper decision in life. We are friends with our Lord. We have been given freedom, absolute freedom. Should I go on?

Do you know that most people spend more time picking out a new car than they spend determining for sure what happens after they close their eyes for the last time? Isn’t that an astounding truth? The most important decision in everyone’s life - what really is eternal truth - and few understand the impact of that decision well enough to go and find real truth. Pretty incredible.

What is even more incredible is that you and I have found the answer if we believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That belief, and the acceptance of His Lordship, is the answer that the confused world needs. Few are really aware of their need; but none-the-less, they need the answer.

Have you ever thought of what might be one of God’s major requests if He had the need to make one? That may sound like a pretty stupid statement, but have you? Over the years, I’ve tried to find out what it would be. I believe that our Father would desire that everyone who embraces His Son would fully grasp what has been provided for him or her because of the cross, and then walk in it. I think it would be that simple and that complex. Tell me if you’ve come up with something better.

Think of it. If everyone really did that, He would have warriors fully completed in His power and available for His plans. He wouldn’t have to spend the time convincing us that He means what He says. We could all get on with the business of bringing others into the kingdom, and then we could all go home.

Boy! Home sounds really great!

Jim Corbett

“Would you like to understand some of the reasons that I do not desire for you to attempt to plan your own future, but rely on Me to plan your steps? There is purpose in My asking you to focus on this day, and not look to tomorrow for your need, or happiness, or fulfillment of My plan for you. You know nothing of tomorrow. With your limited sight, you have no idea what tomorrow may bring; and, for that matter, even if I have a tomorrow planned for you. I have given you a task to pursue; I ask you to surrender to the life of Jesus. What are you waiting for? I have called you to a mission. I want you to bear My message of reconciliation.

"When will you make My desire your goal, instead of presuming upon a tomorrow that you may not have, or a tomorrow that the one who needs to hear may not have? How can you be so arrogant? In your foolish pride, you have put off all My callings, saying that you will serve Me with all of your heart another day. So many days have gone by that you have set aside the importance of My calling in your life. It has been dulled within you, all because you have thought that you have many tomorrows to do what I ask you to do today. You must change now. Today is the only day that I have in My hand for you. Today, you must respond to My will for you. Tomorrow may change everything.”

Proverbs 27:1 NIV

Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

James 4:13-15 NIV 

13) Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’

14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

15) Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.

 

One day, a very bright, much loved young man was killed while trying to break up a fight between two members of his high school. He died almost instantly. One of the comments in the local paper read like this.

“He just stepped in and tried to break up a fight. He was an innocent bystander in all of this. He was a quiet, good kid. He mentioned last week to his grandmother he wanted to get saved and get back to church. He was heading in the right direction…”

This young man’s tomorrow never came. Instantly, his life was gone. I wonder if anyone thought that he or she had another day to talk to him about the Lord the day he was killed.  Last week he mentioned that he wanted to “get saved” in a week that never came for him.

What has the Lord given you to do? I don’t mean, how long is your laundry list? What is your reason for breathing today, according to your Lord? Are you anointed to talk to someone about the Lord, ask someone for forgiveness, or simply tell others that you love them? Is it time for you to lay aside your pet sins or your critical spirit so that someone gets a better picture of Jesus? What has the Holy Spirit been talking to you about? Are you going to be obedient to do it?

Each of us needs to repent of what we have not done the many yesterdays in our lives, and be obedient to our life in Christ today. Every one of us is very much needed in our personal world. We need to begin to count every encounter, every word spoken to others, every action of every moment, very important. It is to God. He has given every one of us a defined number of moments that are designated as our lives. How are we going to use them and make them count? Will each of them glorify the Lord and fulfill His plan? What an eternal shame if they don’t.

Today, the first thing that I need to do is tell you that Jesus loves you and that you are valuable!

Jim Corbett

“Are you prepared? Are you prepared to work ceaselessly and tirelessly to understand My ways and find My heart? Are you prepared to defend the honor of Jesus at any cost? Will you give up your life for His life to work through you, so that others can know Who He is? Will you turn from your ways and embrace His ways just because it is right to do so? Are you prepared to love as He loved? Start now!”

 Isaiah 48:3 NIV 

“I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”

Jeremiah 12:5 AMP

[But the Lord rebukes Jeremiah’s impatience, saying] 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?

 

The above Bible verses confirm in my heart that the Lord always tells His people to prepare for a time when strength they do not have at present will be needed at a future date. He is looking for us to grow up, heed His warnings, and become strong enough to face those predicted challenges.

Even the most casual observer can see that our world is changing rapidly. Over the years, the Lord in His mercy has been warning His children to prepare for a time when we will need to be able to function with the heart of Jesus in the midst of those who do not want Him and those who say they serve Him but have no strength to do so.

Most of us don’t want things to change, and some of us desire to discard the warnings; but wish as we might, we cannot stop what is going to happen, especially if these are the end of the end times. Maybe it’s best to heed the warnings and submit to the changes that are needed to represent Jesus properly when called upon to do so.

Do what it takes to prepare my heart to glorify You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I seek out the hardened heart to change it. I pursue the damaged heart to heal it. I embrace the seeking heart to fulfill My Word in it. Examine your heart. Is it soft toward My ways? Are you available to the moving of My Holy Spirit for My reasons? You need to be.”

2 Samuel 14:14b NIV

“God does not take away life; instead he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.”

Psalm 51:10 AMP

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.

 

I am convinced that God is very particular about heart motives.  Why we do whatever it is that we do is far more important to the Lord than it is to most of us. Jesus had compassion for His motivation. We usually have personal agendas or pride at the center of our actions.

If our motivations for our actions are really as important as I think they are, there are going to be some very surprised Christians facing Jesus one day. I’m afraid some of us will only be bringing tinder for an incredible fire, when we thought we were carrying crowns to lay at His feet.

Change my heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Do you know that you are to be a herald and an ambassador, representing and proclaiming the glories of your Lord? My Holy Spirit is to precede you wherever Jesus chooses to make His presence known. After He prepares the way, you are to move with Him, bringing the character of Jesus to those who need to hear and see. Learn your lessons well. Become a study of your Lord. Learn His heart. Put aside any other gods you served at one time, so that you don’t represent them to the ones to whom I send you. Bring His clear life where it is needed through the Holy Spirit’s power. Watch how His life, flowing through you, changes things.”

Acts 4:29-35 NIV

29) “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

30) Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

31) After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

32) All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.

33) With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

34) There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales

35) and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

2 Cor. 2:14-16a NIV

14) But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

15) For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

16a) To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

2 Cor. 5:20 NIV

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

 

Sometimes we forget that one of our primary purposes is to take the indwelling Spirit of Jesus to everyone to whom we are sent. That is who we are, what we do, and one of the very important reasons that we have been born again.

Thank You for reminding me, Lord,

Jim Corbett