Tag: Church

“Why don’t you practice stepping out of your comfort zone? Determine in your heart to forgive anyone and everyone immediately. Set no limits on your giving to those who have need of any kind. Go “the extra mile” for someone who will never be able to pay you back. Make a big sacrifice secretly. Do something that has no benefit to you in any way. You get the idea. Take some time to implement the life of Jesus so quietly that it resounds throughout the heavenlies for eternity. Practice living His life to others when only you and I know you are doing it.”

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.”

Luke 9:23-25 AMP

23) And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

24) For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, will preserve and save it [from the penalty of eternal death].

25) For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and ruins or forfeits (loses) himself?

2 Cor. 9:7-8 NIV

7) Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

8) And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

 

Sometimes we are so busy following the letter of the covenant that we have been given that we forget the heart of everything that has been done for us. Unlimited, overwhelming, unending, selfless love is at the center of all the freedom life we have been given in Christ. Not the “stand in your face, look what I’m doing” kind of love, but the “I lay my life down continually because I was loved first” kind of love. Everything else is a bondage of some sort.

Teach me, Father,

Jim Corbett

“There is an epidemic that is growing within My church. It is an epidemic of serving the flesh and the ways of the world. At a time when I need crucified warriors who are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of those who don’t know Me, some of you are finding ways to maintain control of your own lives. When I need you to weep for the lost, you are asking Me to pad your comfort zones. Can you not see that the world as you once knew it is quickly passing away? How will you be able to stand in the midst of predicted events when you give no notice to training for them?

“You must make some proper decisions before I use someone else to do what was planned for you to do. You must cease from listening and never really hearing what I have been saying before it’s too late for you. You will not be equipped for what is ahead if you do not turn now. Repent of your ways. Pick up your cross and carry it where I tell you to go. Learn of the ways of Jesus and apply them to your life now! People need you. I want you to be My mouthpiece, but you will not be able to tell others what you have discarded as unimportant. Jesus must now become your only reason for breathing, or I will have to set you aside for the work that is ahead.”

Exodus 33:3-5 NIV

3) “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

4) When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.

5) For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.”

Joshua 24:15 NIV

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

2 Chr. 7:14 NIV

“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

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?

 

I wonder when the Lord says “enough.” I am convinced that He never stops loving us; but I am also convinced that when we do not respond to His call, He eventually uses someone else to do the work that He had planned for us to do. We too often forget that He is Sovereign God.

Please have mercy on me while I learn to respond properly, Lord,

Jim Corbett