Open post

9/09/24 Rejecting an Offer

A poverty stricken man had to travel to his job, which was located in a distant city. Because he was so poor and it was the only job he could find, he had to make the trip there and back each day in an old, barely running rust bucket of a car. His livelihood depended on that car. It was the only means for him to get there, even though it often broke down, causing him often to almost lose his employment.

So every morning long before anyone else was even up, the man packed all that he would need for the trip, and took off down the road in a cloud of smoke that would obscure him from sight the further he would go. Late at night, he would return exhausted, only to have to do the needed repairs on the car so that he could make the trip the next day.

One day, as the man pulled over on the side of the road to make some repairs so that he could continue on his journey, a kindly man in tattered clothes walked up to him, seemingly from nowhere. "I've been watchin' ya make this trip every day. Been lookin' at  ya from my porch over there," he said, pointing to a run-down shack just off the highway behind some trees. "I feel sorry for ya with this no-luck car that ya got, so I'd like to help ya," he continued.  "In that barn over there," he turned and pointed to a barn that looked even worse than the house, "I got me this limo. It's yours if ya want it cuz I don't use it no more. I'll even drive ya wherever ya gotta go if ya want me to. Got nothin' better to do."

"Get away from me, old man," the traveler spat with  impatience. "I have enough trouble without someone like you making promises that you can't keep." With that, he returned to the well-worn muffler to reattach  it.

The next day from his front porch, the kindly man sat and watched as the beat up jalopy hobbled its way down the road again. Shaking his head in sorrow for the embittered  traveler, he headed  toward the  barn to polish the new limo he had inherited, wondering how he might use it to help someone that day.

How often do we, as husbands and fathers, respond in the same way to God’s offer to be in charge of every situation we face?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

Open post

9/07/24 What Gospel Do You Follow?

“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

Open post

9/07/24 New Game Plan

As important as game plans are, the wise person considers other options when the plan in use no longer works. He will rethink the game to see if it has changed. If it has, for whatever reason, he will modify his plans to overcome the change and win.

How is your marriage and family game plan working? Have you analyzed your strategies in light of the changes that are happening throughout the world? Is the game plan you’ve been using going to allow you, your marriage, and your family to succeed when others around you fail?

God knows the end from the beginning. He knows how to win. He knows what it will take for you to walk in His wisdom and power to win any game at any time.  He is waiting for you to come to Him with the challenges you face. He delights in the fact that you seek Him.

Go over your family game plan with God. Ask Him if changes are needed for you and your family to overcome the world, as it reels out of control and changes the game. Find His answers and walk in His Holy Spirit, guiding others to do the same. By His side and undergirded with His love, you will win!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

Open post

9/06/24 A Loyal Love

“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

Open post

9/06/24 Above the Crowd

Lives that are significant to God are always found when we choose to walk above the fears, habits, social norms, and dictates of the crowd. That kind of life is acquired by spending time in the presence of God - learning His ways, enjoying His companionship, and allowing Him to impart His life to you.

The “I do nothing of Myself” lifestyle of Jesus seems impossible to live at first, until we find that lifestyle to be the safest, most productive avenue we’ve ever known. To lay down our own will and strength and do the Father’s will in His strength is a road map to experiencing the most profound kind of success because it is eternal.

As a husband and father, your job is to find a way to guide those in your care to a walk above the crowd and its bondages. You have the privilege of accessing the wisdom of God to accomplish your task. Jesus certainly walked above the crowd. Because of the cross, you have that same capability if you go to the true source of power and life as He did. If you choose His ways, the world can’t really touch you and yours, because they can’t reach as high as you are living. They’re not capable of breathing the air that you and your family breathe above the crowd with Him.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

Posts navigation

1 2 3 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 643 644 645
Scroll to top