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3/08/22 Just Get in the Car

A while ago I was faced with an opportunity to see how much I lacked faith and really needed God if things were going to work out. As a husband and father, the weight of my responsibility was somewhat overwhelming. We had packed everything we owned in a small truck and our van, given away what we were told to share, and spent most of what we had at the time for necessities. What little I had, I knew that my faith was being tested. I felt like a rubber band that had been stretched to its limit.

I had read somewhere that faith combined with sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit fills hands that were formerly empty. Well, my hands felt really, really empty. My faith felt like a single drop of water on its way to attempting to put out a raging fire. So we went - not in a bright powerful way, but just one foot after another, one mile after another until we reached a temporary destination.

A little while later, someone mentioned a phrase that really spoke to my heart. He said something like, “Faith is simply getting in the car and going when you are told.” Boy, did that hit home! I felt that phrase applied directly to me. “Just get in the car.” That’s faith!

Men, if you are attempting to be a monument of faith to your family, you may be imparting the wrong message to them. Maybe it’s time to trust in the faithfulness of God instead of your ability to have faith for any situation. Maybe it’s time to simply “get in the car” and trust God to do what He has told you He would do. God is faithful. You are His greatly loved child. He desires to walk with you even more than you desire to walk with Him every moment.  Why not trust Him to be Who He says He is?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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3/07/22 The Sweet Fragrance of Christ

“Do you realize how important one soul won for eternity is to Me? It is important enough for Me to hold up My plans until the last one comes in. I wish that none should perish, so I will wait. You need to repent of your non-caring attitude. It is not My heart. It is not the heart of Jesus.

"Determine this moment to seek Me to change your heart. I need you to be My representatives. I may need you to touch the very last person, so that all things can come to pass. It may be one of the most important reasons that you have been given breath.”

Prov. 11:30 AMP 

The fruit of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a tree of life. And he who is wise captures human lives [for God, as a fisher of men – he gathers and receives them for eternity].

Matthew 11:12 NIV

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”

II Cor. 2:14-16a AMP

14) But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere,

15) For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:

16a) To the latter it is an aroma [wafted] from death to death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh].

 

Everything that Satan has is being thrown at you and me to sway us from our destiny of loving God above everything else and then loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we would one day wake up to the fact that we really are in a war, one to hinder the work of God, we would never be defeated again.

So many times, we think that success is finding ourselves overcoming some personal trial. Have you ever considered that the trials that are not intended to build us up and make us more like Jesus are intended to stop us from reaching others for Jesus? We spend so much time attempting to make ourselves more comfortable, that we have already placed ourselves on the sidelines in the battle for souls.

Let Your heart of compassion beat steadily in me, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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3/07/22 A Truly Wealthy Man

I know a man who doesn’t consider himself rich, and I suppose he isn’t by the world’s standards. This man works hard each day at a physically demanding job to support his family.  Even though his days are long, I doubt there is much money left at the end of the month for anything other than the essentials.

But, oh my! You should see the light that shines from his family. His wife has a joy that spreads to everyone she sees. She is a companion and fellow servant, and a guardian of virtue and instructor in the things of God to her daughters.  She is a true helpmate to her husband.

And his five daughters! Wow! Not too long ago, I had the privilege of observing them standing in a circle with my daughter, just talking, laughing, and being themselves. Their brightness, joy, open-hearted love, and all-around beauty was a sight to behold. Each of them is an incredible example of the integrity won at the cross. Each of them is a woman of virtue and an incredible example to anyone of their generation. They are truly a wonderful legacy for their father and mother.

As far as I’m concerned, this man is one of the wealthiest men I know. I’m convinced that one day he will stand before the Lord and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” because of the atmosphere he’s created for his family to prosper in Christ. He set the pace for all of them to overcome the world, just as Jesus did. In this case, true wealth is not found in silver or gold, or in how much “stuff” they have. It’s found in six lives living each day to bring honor and glory to the Lord. This man is rich beyond measure!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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3/05/22 Love as I Love

“Love others as I have loved you. Turn from thinking only of yourself. It consumes too much of your time and energy. When functioning outside of My ways, your carnal mind begins to worry and becomes concerned about the circumstances around you, because it can only function in carnal ways while living in carnal responses.

"When you love others with selfless love, you function in spiritual realms where the Holy Spirit moves to change you. My power anoints your days. My presence brings you the kind of peace that allows you to remain functioning with Me, no matter what is happening around you. Choose this day to love others as I love. I will then choose to bring Myself into your midst.”

 

Most of us fail to continually function in the spiritual realm because we have such limited knowledge of how it works. We don’t understand that powerful spiritual tools - such as loving someone or forgiving someone, especially someone who hates us or misuses us - initiate spiritual responses from our Lord. These responses change our character more and more into the character of Jesus each time we choose to function in them, rather than functioning in our old carnal ways of hate and unforgiveness. God’s spiritual responses bring us close to Him, while carnal reactions keep us imprisoned in our old carnal ways and submitted to the father of lies.

Most of us go through this walk with our God void of any of the fullness that was intended for us. Our days are filled with seemingly meaningless - but at the time urgent - tasks that fill our time until we are caught in an endless circle of lifeless days. There is reason for this: it is because we do not love others as God does.  Here’s what His Word says:

John 15: 9-14 NIV 

9) “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.

10) If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11) I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

13) Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command.”

The Father saw Jesus through His kind of love and His joy was complete.  Jesus saw us through His and His Father’s kind of love, and His joy was complete. He told us of His Father’s ways, so that our joy may be complete. He has us in mind in all that He does. We see others through our imperfect, selfish kind of love and wonder why we have little or no joy.  It doesn’t take much reasoning to figure out the simplicity of God’s equation.

It goes like this: Choose to love others with God’s motives for loving someone, and then there will be great joy in every area of your life.  If you choose not to love with God’s kind of love, joy will not be found in you, at least not complete joy.

Let Your joy be complete in me and through me,

Jim Corbett

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3/05/22 Pancakes and Sausage

How many of the men’s groups around this land are no more spiritually filling than the pancakes and sausage breakfasts that are considered valuable gatherings? How many men’s groups do nothing more than gather as a social get together? How many men’s group leaders have real answers for men attempting to restore their marriages or rescue their children? Look around; there are seemingly very few.

God is in the process of rebuilding Christian families, because they are the most powerful witness available to a dark and dying world.  A proper marriage tells others about the relationship between Jesus and His church. A proper family builds a legacy that not only impacts those around them, but potentially generation after generation to come.

Men, the power, love, and wisdom needed to walk with God in order to help restore those offices will not come from one more pancake breakfast or weekly social gathering for men. It will not happen through weak leaders who have no answers for themselves. The power to help turn marriages and families around will only come to a man who desires to see wholeness restored as He seeks God in His throne room.

If the leader of your men’s group (even a pastor for that matter) is not a frequent visitor to the throne room of God, where he can receive what is needed to help rebuild marriages and families, he is nothing more than a blind guide. He’s probably a very nice, very caring guy; but, more than likely, he’s incapable of helping anyone who really is serious about God’s plan for the family, which is the key unit for all He does.  That man is unable to share and give away whatever is needed if he doesn’t own it himself.

Today is the day to look around at those you are following and those who are walking with you in life. Are they heading in God’s direction, or are they remaining where they are, hoping that things will one day get better? Are they hearing the call to become servant leaders, first in their marriages and families, and then to those around them? If they aren’t, it might be time to make some changes, so you don’t find yourself with no answers and no one to encourage you to go to God for inspired answers when they are needed.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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