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11/13/23 One Hundred Percent

“Will what you have planned for today matter in eternity? What about the plans you’ve made for the rest of the year? For that matter, how much of the resources of time, talent, and money do you use for yourself, compared to what you have dedicated to the work of the Lord? That’s not meant to be a guilt trip; it is an assessment challenge.

Your works will be judged. You will answer for your stewardship of whatever I’ve given you. Don’t fall for the ten percent trap. You said that Jesus was Lord over everything. Isn’t it time that you started to do what you have promised to Him? Do you think that He cares more about how many have come to the Lord or about your excuses? This issue is very much on His heart. It should be on yours.”

Prov. 19:21 AMP

Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand.

Luke 12:19-21 NIV

19) “And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’

20) “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21) “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12:48b AMP

…For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and demand all the more.

Heb. 12:1 AMP

THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.

It amazes me how easily the church gets offended when challenged about our stewardship of time, gifts, and especially our money. It seems that we would rather defend selfishness that offends God than face it, do something about it, and please Him. We forget that one day, we will be held accountable by the Lord Who accepted our songs and our promises that everything we have is His. That day is not the day to say oops!

Guide my steps, Lord,

Jim Corbett

11/13/23 Do You Really Need God?

OK. Your job is going quite well. Your marriage is as good as any of your friends’ marriages. Your children may not be serving the Lord with all their hearts; but they’re basically honorable, and anyway there’s plenty of time for that to change. In fact, things could be classified as satisfactory. You really don’t need to seek the Lord with all your heart, do you?

Whether you know it or not, you’ve become a blind guide for those around you. You’ve forgotten what your relationship with Jesus is all about. You’ve bought the lie that it’s all about you and how well things are going in your puny world. You have become the center of your relationship with the Lord and are teaching others to do the same by your actions.

Being a child of God and a steward of other people carries with it grave responsibilities - life and death responsibilities. Christianity 101 is being so sold out to Jesus that others see Him in you. Never in the Word is there any hint that your relationship has anything to do with your comfort or complacency other than when God calls those areas sin. You and I are called to be the light of Christ to the world.

I don’t know about you, but I desperately need God and His mercy and power to be anything like Jesus. I believe that’s the bottom line for every one of us. The things that happen in our lives have little to do with whether or not we are to pursue a first love relationship with the Lord every moment of every day, and urge others to do the same with our every action and breath. If we persist in pursuing the Lord, our lives will be significant assets for His use.

When people see who we are when we act like Jesus, they will see who they are supposed to be. What happens after that is of little consequence to our mission of knowing God and being where He desires us to be. As we walk as Christ walked because we have been with Him, everything else will fall in place. We really need God every moment of our lives to get to that place and stay there, no matter what others do.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

11/11/23 Whatever Stands in the Way

“If you fall, I will pick you up. If you wander, I will come and find you. I will show you the way home. You must understand that My love for you is much stronger than anything in you that will not serve Me. I have created you to have fellowship with you. Jesus has made the way to do just that. Whatever stands in the way of that fellowship, I will overcome for you. You can count on it. I love you.”

Hebrews 13:5b AMP

…for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]”

Rom. 2:4b AMP

Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?

Most of us forget that our heavenly Father is continuously at work bringing us to fullness in Him. Our life was His idea. He ordained the idea of mankind, and He initiated the salvation process, all motivated by love.

We need to settle in our hearts once and for all that God loves us. We also need to understand that His love is not a wimpy, tickly-feely kind of love that fluctuates with every whim. Godly love is a committed, full-of-promises kind of love that will never allow us to remain who we once were. It is the kind of love that sees prosperity as the total elimination of the hindrances to which the world and our old life restrict us. It is the kind of love that exists in the heavenlies with Him.

I receive it, Lord,

Jim Corbett

11/11/23 Distractions

Nations rising and falling, threats of economies crashing, terrorist threats world-wide, reprobate thinking abounding, Christian persecution being given a more prominent platform, and many more disruptions fend for their place in our minds on a daily basis. Any thinking believer can see that the world is changing at a rapid pace. Formulas that used to flourish during normal, much easier times no longer work. Procedures and plans that brought relative safety only a few years ago will not help our families survive if things progress in the direction they seem to be heading.

As prominent as all these disruptions are in our world, they’re really nothing more than distractions from the real war at hand. In the Word, it says that we are to look past those things that are temporal and on to the eternal. We are to look past what we see and on to what God is doing. All these issues that invade our lives distract us from keeping God’s plan and our real purpose in life from being in the forefront of our thinking. They take up our time by having us worry about them and plan on how to remain safe from them.

The plans of God, the falling away of the church, nations reeling in terror, wars, and rumors of wars are all foretold in the Bible. They will not be avoided. We, as believers, are to prepare spiritually when we see these times and seasons on the radar. We, as husbands and fathers, are to become all that we can be in Christ not only for His glory, but for those we steward. We are to show others the path to safety in Christ by looking past the distractions all around us and on to the real life we have been given because of the cross. We are called to overcome this dying world in the same way Jesus did. What are you looking at and how are you responding to it?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

11/10/23 Heart Exposure

“Those of you who are following hard after Me affect your world more than you know. Most people don’t know what to do with you, especially in My church. Your mere presence makes carnal followers of My Word very uncomfortable. People who are prideful in what they know become confused just being near you. Their little world is rocked by your immovable love for Me. Your faith makes them see how puny their faith is. I have told you this before; now I am telling you again, so that you can shake loose from the guilt that has been placed on you for so many years.

"Be prepared to see foolish, prideful hearts harden before your very eyes. Prepare yourselves to see what you have considered to be close friends separate themselves from you for no apparent reason. Watch as they do an about face, making flimsy excuses for their departure. It is not you. It is the exposure of their hearts. They cannot go where they would be expected to go if they stayed in your midst. Their boundaries are being stretched by My call on your life, and it is too far for them to go. All of their talk of service, all their religious games are too comfortable to leave. You don’t fit in their world. You are too much of a maverick in their eyes. They must revert to their comfort zones. They are too weak to face the scorn of their peers if they acknowledge your way of life fully.

"Rest assured; I will take care of you. You will never really fit with anyone but those of like mind and Spirit. Your life will always expose the values of others whether you know it is happening or not. Take comfort in the fact that I will lead you to those who are not playing games with Me. Others will go about their business, relieved that you are no longer in their midst. I will heal your wounds and remove the rejection. I will be Lord for you. I will be your friend. I appreciate you. Pray for the others as they increase their activities, so that the stain of rejecting you feels less painful to them.”

Ps. 31:20 AMP

In the secret place of Your presence You hide them from the plots of men; You keep them secretly in Your pavilion from the strife of tongues.

Matthew 5:13 AMP

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality) how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.

It is encouraging and refreshing to share “war” stories with fellow misunderstood, so-called maverick believers. Somehow, doing so makes the rough times a little easier and the very difficult times more bearable. It also helps to know that you have kindred spirits in your corner, when your faith seems small and all you have the strength to do is hang on desperately to the hem of Jesus’ garment.

To those of you who have embraced the call of a crucified, sacrificial life, you need to understand that you will not ever be understood. Every opportunity to discredit you will be taken. Every effort to show that your way of living is not the proper way will be made.

You will be forever on the sidelines, perpetually called to do without, and continually labeled as misfits. When your spiritual help is no longer needed, you will be discarded with as little concern as yesterday’s laundry, of no more use. After you have paved the way to the most current move of the Lord, others more powerful and more credible in the eyes of the church will take what you have given and make it more saleable, marketing it with professional expertise. You will then be called to start all over, paving the way for the heart of your Lord to be presented in another way, until that takes hold, and so on and so on.

Having said that, you will also have access to the heart of our Father in a way that few understand. You will be able to intimately hold the hand of your Lord during the roughest of times, and you will feel the refreshing breeze of the Holy Spirit more than those who do not have your calling could ever imagine. You are truly blessed.

In the times when you feel weakest, and long for even a morsel of the delicacies that most of the comfortable church enjoys daily, you need to remember the life of your Lord and Savior. You need to remember that you have been called to live as He did among others. Your reward is not in this present time. Your reward is in seeing the Lord’s pleasure as He directs your life, paving the way for His desires to be initiated in a cold church. He will be your reward.

You are groundbreakers. You are called to stir up the complacent. You are gaining the heart of God. You are the salt that has not lost its saltness. He is very pleased with you.

I remember what it is all about once again, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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