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12/01/21 Knowing vs. Serving

From The Overcoming Life by Jim and Merry Corbett

Oftentimes we choose to serve God rather than get to know Him because it is easier to focus on and control what we do than it is to focus on becoming who God desires us to be. The Lord’s main concern centers on us reflecting the character of Christ, and the only way that occurs is by spending time in His presence. Interestingly enough, it’s also the only way to truly serve Him, because how do we really know what He desires us to do if we do not wait in His presence to find out?

Remember, even Satan would be pleased to have you busy with good things if it stops you from becoming intimately acquainted with the Lord and walking in the real power that comes through surrender and obedience.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

11/30/21 Choices

From the book, The Father Factor, by Jim and Merry Corbett

Chris stared at the needle tracks in his arm, a constant reminder of the choices he had made to bring himself to this point in his life. Once a successful businessman on his way to the top with a loving wife and family, he could only lament over the turns his life had taken because of his addictions. How could he have fallen so far? How could his needs mean more to him than those he once loved and who once loved him?

He had to make a choice, or he was going to die as one more hapless vagrant in some garbage-strewn alley. He had to choose either life or death. He knew it and he knew how difficult the road back would be. Picking up the filthy needle, he inserted it in his arm once again. As the drug flowed through his body, he resolved that maybe he would choose to love his wife more than his habit tomorrow. Maybe he could help his kids tomorrow. Maybe … Chris rolled into a smelly corner near a large dumpster and passed out.

Across town, Jerry turned the corner and drove into the parking lot of his club. Late for his meeting, he had shaken off the pleading look in his son’s eyes that said, “Please, Daddy, stay here with Mommy and me.” Business once again called. It was going to be one more late night, one more closed deal that allowed him to live the way he wanted. “Success has its price,” he thought to himself. Anyway, to change direction in life now would be almost impossible. He was way too far down the corporate road to give his family the amount of personal time with him they seemed to need.

Maybe one day his wife and family would realize that he was doing this all for them. It was a time in life to set them up, so they wouldn’t have to grow up in poverty as he did. They needed to realize that. He was sure that God knew that.

“Why don’t I have peace in my heart, Lord? Why can’t I shake off the look that Tommy gave me? Why do I feel so bad when I’m doing so much for them?”

As he locked his car and headed for the club entrance, Jerry resolved to spend more time at home tomorrow. Tomorrow he would give some special time to his wife, Susan. Tomorrow, he would really focus on her insistent need to be with him and make some changes that he knew were necessary to be the husband and father she and Tommy wanted. Oh wait, tomorrow was that conference in Detroit …

Whatever vehicle Satan uses to hinder the work of God, whether dismal failure, monumental success, or anything in between, the results are always the same - an insignificant life standing before Father God one day. His entrapment is so diabolical that the road back is impossible to embrace without God’s involvement and intervention.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

11/30/21 Look What God Has Done

“As you grow in Me, you will begin to realize the work that I am doing in you. You will understand two of the steps that are part of your growth pattern when serving Me. When you first come to Me through Jesus, you learn to make choices between those things that are against My will or those things that are within My will. In essence, you are making choices between good and bad.

"As My heart develops in you, your choices become those of a more spiritual nature, rather than those of your sin nature. You will be making choices between doing good things and doing those things that are specifically of Me. They are no longer choices between good things and bad things, but between good things and God things.

"I am raising you to a place that, when presented with the opportunity to decide whether to do the usual good things or do things that refine you and send you deeper with Me, you choose the latter. “Deeper with Me” is leading you to the heart of Jesus. It is a place of training for His remnant bride. It is preparing you for His soon arrival.”

Jeremiah 10:23 AMP

O Lord [pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people], I know that [the determination of] the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man [even in a strong man or a man at his best] to direct his [own] steps.

Matthew 16:22-23 NIV

22) Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23) Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Out of my sight, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

I remember when I first came to the Lord. I was so full of worldly sins - yet so full of love for my newfound Lord - that I would fluctuate between extremes of overpowering desires to sin and then a rush to repentance immediately after my sin was committed. My life was a roller-coaster ride of high praise and deep repentance, a desire for the fulfillment of my lusts and an equally strong desire to no longer sin. I feel like I have sinned more since I’ve come to the Lord than I did before I accepted Him as my Savior. At least it seems that way because I now know what sin is.

The Bible says that the kindness of the Lord brings us to repentance. Over the years, the reality of this verse and the promised effectual working of the Word in my life have changed the complexion of my sin. Offenses that I once was powerless to overcome, no matter how hard I tried, have become distant memories and manageable temptations through the power of the Lord. The change has little to do with me and everything to do with what God has done in me. It is His covenant fulfilled in each of our lives, as we seek the Lord and choose His ways over ours every day.

As Paul changed from the hapless sinner who agonized over his helplessness in doing what he didn’t want to do - and was not able to do what he really wanted - to the person who only wanted to know his Lord and the power of the resurrection, we too are changed from glory to glory. Our purposes for living, our attitudes of service, and our focused desires all change as the work of the Lord is continually being completed in each of us.

Only You can complete what You’ve started, Lord,

Jim Corbett

11/29/21 Share and Share Again

“You must never hesitate to bless someone. You must never be afraid to share what I have given you when I tell you to bless that person. It’s time for you to realize that whenever you have come to Me in your need, I have shared something of Myself with you. You have never gone away empty-handed. You have always become a bit more like Jesus. If you have the misfortune of thinking that all the wealth I have imparted to you is for you alone, you are wrong. You are My ambassador to those around you.

"Here’s how it really works. I woo you—or drive you if necessary—to Me, so that you can be changed. You come at first because of your need. Eventually you begin to come because of Our mutual love. That is when I can begin to trust you with those who also need Me. Share with them what We share with each other in its proper season. Keep coming to Me. I have much more for you. Then help others begin to know Who I really am.”

Matthew 19:14 NIV

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

John 14:12 NIV

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

2 Cor. 1:3-4 AMP

3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement),

4) Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.

Whenever we become self-centered and selfish, we lose the overall purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God’s plan is to have each of us come to Him through Jesus, learn of Him; and then tell others about Him, so that they can repeat the cycle. Most of us must not really learn of Him, or else we would know His heart. He wishes that none should perish. We wish that things always get better for us.

Create in me a clean heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

11/29/21 Godly Men

From the book, The Father Factor, by Jim and Merry Corbett

Father God’s goal for your life is that you become all you can be in Christ Jesus. So if your goal is to head toward becoming a pathetic, frail, atrophied, self-serving loser in this world, while claiming to be a follower of the ways of His glorious, all-powerful Son, don’t look for Him to help you get there. There is no more important mission on His heart than the mission that Jesus has for you. There is no more powerful way for Jesus to be glorified than to have valiant spiritual warriors, who are unwilling to compromise, unwilling to turn away until the battle for souls has been won and the last enemy of the cross experiences the eternal consequences of his choices.

The Lord is cheering you on and doing everything in His power so that you can come to a full realization of who He created you to be both now and in eternity. His great desire is that you walk in the fullness of the overcoming, victorious life in Christ that is available to you.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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