JESUS PAID IT ALL, SO OUR BEGGING GOD FOR FORGIVENESS (REPENTING ALL THE TIME) IS SUPERFLUOUS AT BEST !!

People often just don’t get it.
What am I saying?
I often just don’t get it!!!
(Or, at least, I tend to lose track of it.)
Now, I’m not talking about those big jail-baiting sins, lol !
But I often hear myself silently saying:
“Oh I’m so sorry, God, I went off track again :'(
Please forgive me, Jesus!”
But now it’s time to quit that whole mindset
Just … simply … let … it … go !!!

I lost my sister when she was 19 – auto accident – no warning, suddenly the light of my life – gone! She was 11 years younger than me. Very, very bright, compassionate leader in every way, loving, beautiful – gone! Shocked to the core! When my mother called to tell me, she prefaced it with “We must remember that God is Life.” I clung to her preface for my dear life and God took me through the “grieving process” miraculously!!! . I was told by many, many people that I was a tremendous inspiration to them. This glorious healing is available to anyone who asks. April, my sister, is always with me – in a very happy way.

I have always had a major issue with regard to the generally held construct of prayer. I spend hours and hours alone with the Holy Spirit every day but I don’t do an awful lot of talking – as I just love to listen. When I have issues and don’t know quite how to present them, He tells me “That’s alright, Robin, I got this one. Here’s what We’ll do . . .” We!!! . Did you get that? . We!!! . The answers are always spot on! . When I need a little help during the day, I sometimes just say (silently is fine) “Jesus, help!” . He’s there in a flash (‘cuz he never left!). None of this fits the ‘Our Father’ paradigm as I never need to beseech Him for anything. Even when I try a kind of standardized prayer, He just waits til I quit. But, how to pray for others? Pray in tongues. But, sometimes they have a grocery list of things they need covered? . Pray in tongues. What if… What if… What if… Pray in tongues.

David didn’t have this (New Covenant) type of relationship under the Old Covenant. Therefore, when he was repenting over his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, he prayed,

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit” (Ps. 51:10-12).

However, for us as New Testament believers to pray this same prayer would be an insult to what Christ has done for us. God created a new heart in us when we were born again (2 Cor. 5:17) and sealed it with His Holy Spirit so it would never be polluted again (Eph. 1:13). He promised He would never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), and His love, joy, and peace are now a permanent part of our born-again spirits (Gal. 5:22). Yet multitudes of New Testament Christians pray and sing the exact opposite of this.

Therefore, most Christians aren’t bold in their relationship with the Lord. They approach the Lord with fear of punishment and rejection. They fear they aren’t worthy and that they haven’t done enough to earn the right to be in His presence. They still believe their relationship with the Lord depends on their performance, and mixing the Old and the New Covenant makes the Word of God void in their lives.

Andrew Wommack

In order not to lose the gift of this beautiful Psalm and many, many others, I simply pray (as inspired by Andrew) “Thank you, dear God, that You already have created in me a clean heart through Jesus and have renewed a right spirit within me.” ……. Then I’m good to go, free of mixing, adding or distorting.

The English language – and every other language on the planet – is so deficient in depicting EXACTLY what we are experiencing. The Law has been completely fulfilled at Calvary. Jesus does not have to die for us again: we are redeemed (from the Law). Being born again, the old man is GONE along with the sin nature. We need to accept what is already done by renewing our minds every day – again and again UNTIL WE “KNOW” IT IN OUR ENTIRE BEING. AMEN
Galatians 2:16 KJV
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

A THOUGHT ABOUT TOLERATION
by Dr. Robin Starbuck

I just don’t think Christians are anywhere near tolerant enough – OF EACH OTHER !! . This simply should not be! . We’re all doing our level best to represent Jesus; but some of us act like we have THE LAST WORD !! . When was the last time we felt a deep loving appreciation for our brother who doesn’t see endtimes or communion or politics exactly as we do?
I was recently raked over the coals for being too open-minded!! . Sounds oxymoronic to me, but let me love in return. Whatever your path is, whatever your calling . . . that’s YOUR calling, your way, and it most certainly doesn’t fit every one of us! . Lack of forgiveness is the greatest enemy to a healthy mind and body. Let’s dump our own opinions about how another person ought to be conducting their ministry once and for all. Let’s ask Jesus to enable us to let go of all COMPETITIVENESS – which necessarily emanates from FEAR – and harness our God-given love for everyone in its stead!

HE CAN USE EVERYTHING

Yes, everything you’ve ever done

Or, been through

Everything you’ve ever dreamed of

Or haven’t yet imagined

He can use it all.

He can show you the fruits

Of your every experience

The good, and the better

(Nothing is bad in Spirit, and

Nothing is ever lost.)

Nothing real is ever forgotten

And nothing needed

Is needed for long.

You can bank on it – every bit of it

God can use (and is using)

Every last bit of you

In His infinite design.

Dear Friend,
It has occurred to me that, in an effort to be helpful when I believed my assistance was sought, I may have inadvertently offended you – and that’s the last thing I would ever want to do.
I know you have been suffering from this ailment for a very long time and that you have asked a number of friends to pray for you. As a fellow AW-JP enthusiastic, I took the liberty of assuming that the bottom line was to eradicate and obliterate the ‘mountain’ by showing ‘it’ no mercy. I think anything less than 100% starvation gives the devil an inroad to sneak back in.
I am ‘guilty’ of doing the same thing that I was trying to get you to quit, namely, after asking God for healing (by asserting the spiritual fact that “by His stripes” we are already healed), we go right back and give voice to the devil. We talk about it (the sickness whose very existence we have just denied) with our wives, husbands, friends and anyone who’ll listen! We take medicine, massage, acupuncture, aroma, salves – for that thing that doesn’t deserve the right time of day.
When I have symptoms that vie for ALL my attention and I’m unable to function, I do the least I have to in order to free my mind to STRIVE TWICE AS HARD to get right with God, knowing that healing takes place when our minds are off the problem. If I spoke out of turn with you, or too harshly, or like a know-it-all, I do sincerely and humbly apologize: I only wanted to shake up the devil and send him packing.
Much love,
Robin

WE HAVE BEEN PERFECT FOR A LOOOOONG TIME !!
Jeremiah 1:4-7 KJV
Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [5] Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. [6] Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. [7] But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

THE REAL GOAL OF SALVATION WASN’T TO KEEP US FROM PERISHING . . . .
John 3:16 KJV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
. . . . IT WAS TO GIVE US EVERLASTING LIFE !! (Hell and sin got in the way and had to be dealt with!)

THIS MAY BLOW YOUR MIND (ALTHOUGH I’M SURE YOU’VE READ IT MANY, MANY TIMES): JESUS DIDN’T EVEN MENTION HEAVEN *IN THE SCRIPTURE, John 17:3, QUOTED BELOW. HE’S TALKING ABOUT THE HERE AND NOW !! . A CLOSE, PERSONAL, INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT !! . IT SOLVES EVERYTHING !!

*John 17:3 KJV
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

If one knows nothing of Marxism, or the philosophy of Karl Marx, they at least know the famous quote stating that religion is “…the opium of the people.” Both theist, atheist, and agnostic alike, however, often wrongly understand this as meaning that Marx understood religion as something of a mind-numbing agent that could be used to dumb down, or control the masses. This is an infantile reading of Marx, however, and in no way reflects what he had in mind. Here is the quote in a fuller context:

“Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

For Marx, opium, here, does not represent something dumbing the people down, or controlling them, but rather a pain killer. Religion, in his understanding, was man’s best and most beautiful attempt at liberating themselves from suffering. It is an opium, or a pain killer that helps them to deal with real suffering. Additionally, he calls religion “the heart of a heartless world.”

For Marx, religion was a delusion that helped humanity deal with their suffering, and his criticism of religion was aimed at helping us recognize the delusion, so that we could deal with the suffering, the oppression, itself. Unfortunately, the very religion his philosophy sought to extricate us from can, and did, in many ways, become its mirror image. Why? Because it, like all religions, promised utopia in response to certain actions on humanity’s part. Marx’s utopia was a societal one, as opposed to a heavenly one, but it was still the very same promise. It was one more failed pathway to Nirvana, alongside of millions that came before it.

The Gospel invites us into something entirely different from both religion, and philosophies that mirror religion. The Gospel does not call us to pursue a utopia, or a heaven, that is gained in response to actions of ours, but to realize that heaven, or utopia, is the actions themselves. The Kingdom of God does not sit on the other side of yonder cloud formation, awaiting our arrival, but on the other side of our loving our enemies, or showing hospitality to a stranger. The sigh of the oppressed, and the heart of the heartless that Marx saw in religion, is problematic, but only because it feels it must translate itself into religion, or some other ideology that promises it utopia. The heart itself is not enough. The Kingdom of God, however, *is* the heart that is seeking expression through religion. The expression is unnecessary in the Kingdom, for it is only the heart that is needed. The act of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, hosting the alien, etc., need not be done in the name of religion or ideology to gain significance, or earn one heaven. No, the act itself is heaven, and is therefore all that is needed.

In other words, the Gospel does not call us to funnel our hearts into a system promising us something in return, but calls us to pour our hearts out upon the world in love, knowing that there may be nothing given in return, but that that is precisely why the action is beautiful. The heaven promised by religion, and the utopia pursued by Marx, are, in the Gospel, found in the heart that religion is an expression of, and that Marx sought to liberate by criticizing religion.

Heaven is the heart that loves, and utopia is the soul that sighs for the enslaved.
~Jeff Turner