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10/12/24 True Obedience

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?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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10/11/24 God’s Perspective of Ownership

“What do you still own? In the same way, what owns you? Name something that you will not or can’t give up and I will show you how it is not under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Would you like to know how I feel about ownership? It is what stops you from becoming all that you can be in Me. Lordship means that you own nothing in your heart. It means that you covet nothing but more of Jesus and His ways. It really means that you are absolutely free from the entanglements of the world. You are also free from guilt, because you have not robbed from Me what is rightfully Mine!

“You gave Me everything. When you take back what is no longer yours, it is theft and it is sin. Repent and turn from your old ways. You are too important to Me to have you continue in your old life. Turn now! I love you!”

Luke 12:19-21 NIV

19) ‘And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.” ‘

20) “But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21) “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Luke 21:1-4 AMP

1) Looking up, [Jesus] saw the rich people putting their gifts into the treasury.

2) And He saw also a poor widow putting in two mites (copper coins).

3) And He said, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them;

4) For they all gave out of their abundance (their surplus); but she has contributed out of her lack and her want, putting in all that she had on which to live.

Gal 2:20 AMP

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

 

Ownership is a big thing with Father God, especially heart ownership. Jesus paid a big price to have the Father own our hearts. Heart ownership is pivotal as to whether Jesus is the Lord of our lives or not. When He owns our hearts, we can finally be free to give Him what is rightfully His - everything else.

I surrender all, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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10/11/24 A Witness to Many

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.

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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10/10/24 Remember?

“Remember when Our times together were sweet and full of love? Remember when your only thoughts were of Me and My plans? Remember when being obedient to My will was your only desire? You were completely in love with Me and the influences of your life meant nothing.

“I want you to go back to that place. I want you to go back to and function from first love qualities. I really miss the quiet times.”

Matthew 14:14 NIV

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

John 13:33-34 NIV

33) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

34) All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Rev 2:2-5 NIV

2) “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

3) You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

4) Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

5) Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

 

Love is a high priority in the plans of God. Everything centers around and functions from love. If it were not for love, He would not have devised a plan for our redemption from sin through Jesus. Jesus functioned in love as He healed the sick and as He went to the cross. Love means much to God. Our functioning without it, even doing good things for Him, does not impress Him.

Take me back to first love, Lord,

Jim Corbett

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10/10/24 More Than You Know

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!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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