Tag: jesus christ

Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered, meaning the times that He won over His flesh.  Complete obedience means that He willingly and joyfully submitted to His Father in all things, no matter what. The heart of someone who is truly obedient thrives in doing another's will, forsaking his own will in the process.

Please notice that there’s a difference between obedience and compliance. Compliance is doing something because we fear the consequences if we don’t. Our joy will never be complete as compliant individuals. We will always want more for ourselves in our relationship with God. Obedience is doing something we’re told to do out of love. When we cease from doing the right things only because they’re right, and do them only because we want to bless our Lord, we enter into that little known realm of true obedience. When our greatest joy is to do our Father's will, we will walk in true obedience.

As husbands and fathers, it’s impossible to represent Jesus properly to the world and our families unless we take on His heart. He was always obedient.  In obedience to His Father's will, He lived, loved and moved as His Father desired. God can’t trust merely compliant men to raise His children and properly care for their wives as He desires. He can only trust Christ-like, obedient servants who understand His heart. Which one are you?

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Jim Corbett

I once heard a character in a movie state that people marry so they have someone to witness their lives. The more I thought about it, the more I saw it to be the world’s way of feeling valued and needed. People without the Lord continually attempt to find acknowledgment and purpose for their lives. They marry for their own good to satisfy an inner need of some sort.

One of God’s purposes for marriage is for the husband and wife to witness each other’s life so they can help each other become all they can be in Christ. They’re to observe each other’s spiritual needs so they can pray and encourage each other in the things of God. It’s the opposite of the way the world thinks.

We, as believers, are to marry for the good of the other. The world marries for their own good to fulfill their own needs.  As Christian men, we are to lay down our lives for the good of our wives. Our obligation before the Lord is to love our wives as Christ loved the church. He died for the church. We are to die to our own desires daily for the good of our wives.

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Jim Corbett

As men, the training God is putting you through and the challenges you’re facing are doing more than simply making you strong and capable of holding your marriage together and raising your family. They have a much greater and more extensive purpose.

Other men need to learn the wisdom you’re gaining as God puts you through His school. Unsaved men will soon be reeling as all their handles of safety disappear, and they can find no stable footing or belief to see them through life. If those men give their lives to Christ, they will need guidance and direction from someone who can point them to God and His Word to fulfill their real needs.

As a man of God, you have a wonderful opportunity to help others. You’re being taught life lessons - not only for the good of your family, but for the benefit of other men around you. You have the privilege of sharing solid, foundational truth in a slippery world of changing values. You have trustworthy answers to desperate questions in changing times. You are needed!

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Jim Corbett

As the fabric of our society as we know it breaks down, the Word of God and His principles remain the same. He never changes. His standards apply no matter what society might say. As the world adopts movable standards and a sliding scale of morality, God’s ways are steadfast and reliable.

As a husband and father, you can rely on God’s ways to guide you in nurturing your marriage and raising your children. You’ve been given a clear mandate on how to act, no matter what the world around you declares right or wrong. You’ve been given sure footing on a slippery slide of relative values and shifting priorities for living.

Soon the ways of God will appear archaic. The foolish will see them as foolish and old-fashioned, demanding that you follow their up-to-date example. Be very careful where you seek truth during those times. Moving in the direction of the world may appear right for the moment, but that’s not where God is. It’s not the criteria He uses to judge your life.  He uses His Word and His immovable standards. On the day you meet Him face-to-face, it will be best to have used His standards for your family during your time on earth.

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Jim Corbett

As a daddy, you have the privilege of loving your children right into the kingdom of heaven! You have the opportunity to forgive them for any time they’ve offended you, and be there for them when they fail and fall. You have the honor of sticking up for them when others decide to separate from them for whatever reason, and the joy of being their guide, counselor, father, and friend.

In today’s society, there are few opportunities to have really close lifetime friends. Other than Jesus, who promises to stick closer to us than a brother? Most of today’s youth rarely find that kind of companionship. You can be that person they can count on to love them no matter what, even if they don’t want it or ask for it.

No one can stop you from loving them. No one can stop you from praying for them. No one can hinder you from holding them in your spirit before the Lord until they can walk in the way God has planned for them to walk.  You, as a father, have the privilege of watching them grow and blessing them at every turn.

So let’s get on with it! Put aside anything that may separate you from your children. Stop being a watchdog and become a devoted father/advocate. Love them even if you can’t tell them. Hold them before the Lord even if you can’t hold them in person because of the past. Become the father God intends you to be. God loves them; so should you!  What happens next is up to Him.

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Jim Corbett