How can Dad and I say thank you to all of you who helped to make our 25th wedding anniversary so happy and memorable? You children are a HUGE BLESSING to your Dad and me. We couldn’t do half of what we do without your creativity and diligent expertise. When God said, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”, he described accurately our situation. Thank you to the Doug Smith family who traveled many miles and practiced many hours to attend and to provide beautiful music with violins, viola and cello. True friends! Thanks to Uncle Joe and Aunt Linda for traveling so far to be with us. Your love for us is evident and treasured. Thank you to many friends who set aside time to be with us to celebrate a really special day with us. We have heard several of your stories of how you made our celebration a priority. We greatly appreciate the honor of your presence. Thank you. We love all of you.
August 18-24 we were with Bearing Precious Seed in El Paso, Texas. There were about 105 of us there for the last week of short term mission work in Juarez, Mexico for the summer. What a blessing the week was! We were blessed to watch God work in answer to prayer regarding weather, health, vehicle trouble, crossing the border and many souls saved. Twenty-two people went from our church. We also took two friends. It was a blessing to worship with Mexican brothers and sisters in Christ. We also were blessed to work with the Bearing Precious Seed missionary families there in El Paso. Our actual anniversary date is August 21st. I can’t think of a better way to spend our 25th than to spend it handing out tracts, inviting people to an outdoor evening service, praying and seeing many people receive Jesus Christ as Savior! What a perfect anniversary! What joy to see people realize that salvation is a free gift and cannot be earned and that it is for THEM!
The Lord graciously gave us a week to do laundry, clean house and get rested before our Super Surprise– our 25th anniversary celebration, and our scheduled revival services. We had a glorious week beginning with the anniversary celebration. Our house was home to eight Corbetts, eleven Smiths, occasionally three Guynns and for a couple of nights some of the six Stanleys. What a wonderful time! Thank you, Lord, for arranging that blessed time! The revival services were a special time of worship, cleansing and spiritual refreshment. The Lord was evidently working in the preaching of the Word and in the ministry of music, both instrumental and vocal. Steven recently preached a message on a right view of God. In the message he reminded us that we were created for God’s pleasure. This has helped me to ask regularly, “Is this bringing pleasure to God?” This has changed my life of late. Try it and see.
When our house guests left we were blessed to have Brother Jarvis of Bearing Precious Seed for a couple of nights. He was able to speak in our Sunday morning service. What a blessing! In our home Brother Jarvis told story after story of God’s awesome answers to prayer. We stayed up until midnight, blessed to have the messages of this man of God being shared with our family. When God is continually answering prayer for your family, like He is for ours, it is so refreshing to hear from someone else that He is not only doing this on a daily basis for your family, but He is active in all of His children’s lives! Our God is awesome!
Once again, we had a week to catch up on all of the things that we had let slide, and now here we are in western Maryland. Right now I am with my son Steven at the Higher Ground coffee shop in Hagerstown. It’s a nice place to have some refreshment while you work on the computer or have a small meeting. The men are doing some work on Nanny Edna’s house this week. She will be 90 on October 4th. We will celebrate on Saturday of this week. It seemed to be the only time we could all get together. Today is Dad Corbett’s birthday. He is 68. What a blessing Dad is! We’re getting together tonight to celebrate his birthday. Wherever we have lived he and Mom Corbett have been faithful to make our family a priority. He gives wise counsel that is in demand as much as ever even though he has retired from the banking business.
The temperature has cooled down rapidly. The nights have been in the thirties and forties, and we will be camping tonight and the rest of the week. On Wednesday Steve and I will be returning to LaPlata for our evening service. We will head back to Hancock the next morning. Camping at Steve’s home has been a great place for our family to “come ye apart” to rest, have some family fun and regroup. This refreshment has been essential for our crew when we find ourselves quoting, “and be not weary in well doing” repeatedly. We love the work God has called us to; but find it necessary to be refreshed occasionally.
May God bless each of you in the work He has called you to. If any reading this do not KNOW God but would like to, it is very simple. Even a very young child can understand. 1. Know that we are all sinners. We have missed the bulls eye in life. We have done some things we should not have done and we have not done some things we should have done. (Have you ever told a lie? Stolen a pencil or pen? Taken God’s Name in vain? Looked at someone lustfully?) Okay, so now we all agree, yes, we have sinned. 2. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. Yes, because of the sin of the human race as a whole, our natural bodies will die. But because of our personal sin nature we will also die spiritually–eternal separation from God. The Bible describes this state of separation from God as hell. The Word of God graphically describes this place as a horrible place of torment. 3. But the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Lord instructs us to repent: be sorry for our sins and turn from them. He tells us that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. The Bible says, today is the day of salvation. No matter where you are, God will hear your prayer (simple talking to God) of repentance. Call on His Name (God, Jehovah or Jesus will do. I answer to Mom, Lisa, Mrs. Corbett, etc.). 4. What if I sin after I am saved? God’s Word says we are sealed unto the day of redemption. If we sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. First John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When you become God’s child, you are his child permanently. But, like any good parent, God disciplines all of his children. If you haven’t received any correction from the Lord lately, you should seriously look into whether you have truly trusted Christ for your salvation or if perhaps you are trusting in your own righteousness. God says our best righteousness is like filthy rags to Him. We need His righteousness.
Trusting Christ alone,
Lisa Corbett
One Response
Wow! What a first entry!
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Please keep them coming!