Tag: Faith

“Don’t tell me that you love Me if you close your heart to those to whom I send you. Don’t sing your praise to Me with your fists clenched tightly around what is Mine for you to give away. Do you really believe that you are acting like Jesus when you have no compassion for the needs of others? What gospel are you following? Who are you really following?

"The world loves its own and provides for the needs of those who fall or are hurt. Where are My hands of compassion? Where is the extension of My love? Everything that you own has been bought from you by the blood of Jesus. I gave it to you in the first place. How can you reach out in the love of Jesus with your hands in your own pockets?

"That is not the way of Jesus. That is not My way! Whose example are you following? Where is the cross in your life?”

John 15:13 AMP 

No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.

I John 3:17-18 AMP 

17) But if anyone has this world’s goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him?

18) Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity).

 

We really need to take stock in our lives. What are our priorities? What do we value? For what does our heart long?

Let’s rephrase those questions in a way that will be asked of us on the day we stand before the Lord face to face. What priorities did you place above Mine? What did you value more than Jesus and My desires for your life? What did you long for in your heart that had no eternal value?

Let me walk in the truth of Your Word, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“It’s time to fall in love with Jesus again. Mechanical Christianity cannot and will not work. It never has. It will not now. Those who were sent to the arena would have cursed Me, if they had not been passionately in love, burning with zeal, and intimately concerned for My Word to be performed in their lives. I chose them to carry the torch of My love into the darkness of their world. The privilege of carrying the Name of My Son cost them everything, a price they were delighted to pay. They loved with a loyal love. They could not and did not play the kind of Christian games that your generation is playing. Hypocrites were found out quickly. Religious bigots turned and ran.

"I am asking you once again to carry My love into the darkness. You are in training in a season of relative peace. Flee from your cold fellowships that contain cold people and useless programs. Fall on your face and do what it takes to fall deeply in love with Jesus. It is the only way you will properly represent Him when I call for you.”

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?

Amos 5:21 AMP

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell a savor or take delight in your solemn assemblies.

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 is so easy to forget our real purpose for living. It is difficult for us to understand that those who willingly gave up their lives for the gospel of Jesus Christ were the same kind of people we are.

Someone once said: “God does not call equipped people; He equips called people.” You need to know that you are called by God as His personal representative. He is, at this very moment, equipping you for mighty things, like laying your life down for another, loving those who hate you, understanding that you are not your own and have been bought with the high price of the life of Jesus, etc. etc.

Time for another overhaul, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Why are you so concerned over the circumstances in which you find yourself? When did you forget all that I have taught you so far? Don’t you remember how I do things? When you ask Me for things, I give you more of Myself. That is the best gift that I can think of. When you ask Me for help, I give you My power to overcome. You may not be delivered from your trial, but you will overcome. There is nothing that can withstand My everyday force against the foes of My children.

"Don’t you remember that We are in this covenant relationship together? We share what the other is. In your weakness, I am strong. Become weak in Me; I will remain strong for you and through you.”

Phil. 2:12b-13 AMP

12b) … work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

13) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

II Cor 12:9-10 NIV

9) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

10) That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

In my teens and early twenties, I used to work on cars quite a bit. I would buy “junkers” and fix them up to sell them, hopefully making some kind of a profit.

One of the tools that I used to use was affectionately known as a “knuckle buster.” It was an adjustable wrench that would efficiently remove a nut that was fairly loose and not frozen in place by rust.

As I was about to use the wrench for the first time, my dad warned me to use it only in the previously mentioned circumstances or the wrench would round off the nut, slip, and cause my knuckles to hit the closest object with whatever force I happened to be applying to the wrench at the time. I don’t remember my reaction to his words - it was probably some “know it all” kind of teen grunt - but I do remember my reaction the first time I misused the wrench while trying to save time. (In fact, tears almost come to my eyes now as I recall the countless times I had the privilege of experiencing that pain. It was not fun!)

We laugh, but most of us play out some version of that story each day in our relationship with God. It’s almost like we read some of the directions for doing things God’s way a long time ago and decided just after reading them that we understand completely and can do things just fine on our own now, thank you very much!!

In my day, bandages on our hands or skinned knuckles were some kind of “badge of courage” with my buddies and me. We almost paraded our ignorance with a “Yep! I’ve been workin’ on my machine again” kind of bravado.

How foolish it is to regard the teachings of our Lord in the same way. He has told us that if we trust Him completely our “skinned knuckles” will be at a minimum in this life. Since the bandages we need are mostly spiritual, few people see our wounds. They are very real, however, and most of them could be avoided if we would only follow our Father’s directions.

Ouch!

Jim Corbett