Why I Do What I Do

May I share a story I rarely tell?  When I was a child, my parents and I lived in rural Mississippi. Our nearest town was Ovett, which was about ten miles from our home. We had no motorized transportation. I remember riding to Ovett with my father when I was about eight years old in a horse drawn wagon. This particular time we took some shelled yellow corn to be milled into corn meal for my Mama’s cornbread and other uses.

Until that day I had never seen or shopped in a general store. My eyes were wide and searching all the new things I was seeing. I noticed a hatchet on a shelf. I picked it up and admired it while Papa was in another part of the store. I chose to put the hatchet in my overalls pocket and took it outside and hid it in our wagon.

As we left Ovett in our wagon, Papa saw the hatchet and stopped the wagon. He asked me how and where I had gotten it. Then he told me I had to return it and apologize to Mr. Dennis, the store owner, a wonderful man of Lebanese descent. I panicked at the thought of having to confess my sin, repent to Mr. Dennis and return the hatchet. I was broken and humiliated. Papa never mentioned it again. He didn’t need to.

Upon graduation from high school, I desired to attend college and get equipped to achieve good things in life. There were 12 in my graduating class. The academic quality was not good. I went to Mississippi State, but upon arrival I was assigned to remedial courses. I chose instead to join the United States Air Force. I could attend college classes while serving in the USAF and have academic funding after serving for four years. The USAF was my only “sponsor” through my B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Louisiana State University.

In 1955, I went to the Philippines for 18 months in military service. In 2001 I found myself again in the Philippines, this time as a minister of the Gospel. I ministered in a church near a huge city dumpsite in Lapu-Lapu City on the island of Cebu. At that garbage dump I saw little girls and boys scavenging through the trash of a city with a population of about 225,000 at the time. It broke my heart to see them all smudged with dirt and soot, wearing tattered and dirty clothing. But all had bright smiles on their faces.

GOD SPOKE to and through my heart and said, “Ras, you will spend the rest of your life seeing to it that these children reverse the cycle of poverty from their heritage.” I felt He also said you will send them to school because education is important for their future. Just as I needed a sponsor to get an education, so do they.

That was in 2001. Today, our sponsors help us send almost 900 children to school, feed them and provide Christian pastoral spiritual care through 24 carefully chosen and proven pastors and churches. To God be the glory.

This is part of the story of “Why I do What I Do” and without you Partners, Sponsors and Friends, we would not be able to do this. Thanks and God bless you.

I humbly ask for your prayers as we are no longer satisfied with 900 children and 24 pastors/churches. God has spoken and His vision for us now is to increase to 10,000 children and 240 pastors/churches. Please add this new vision to your prayer list. Put a note on your fridge and dashboards: 10,000 children. 240 Filipino pastors. 10 facilities to care for widows and orphans. Transformation of a nation. Pray. Fear not. Only believe.

Thank you, thank you,
Ras Robinson

If you feel led to respond, contact us at fcm@fullnessonline.org . Are you led to give to this? Go to http://fullnessonline.org/donate

Partners for Transformation

Romans 12:2 instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The Amplified Bible says, “be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude]….”

From the beginning, the vision God gave us was the transformation of the nation of the Philippines – one child at a time. Through that vision, God has touched the lives of hundreds of children, youth and their families in the past 13 years. Many of you have been part of that through your prayers, your financial support and as sponsors for children. The ministry to the sponsored children and their families will continue. In fact we are expecting a great increase as God will give us thousands more children in many more locations across the Philippines.

Now, beyond that ministry of sponsoring children, God has spoken concerning a “New and Bigger Vision” to transform the nation. We invite you to join us and “Think Big, Believe Big and Act Big.”

God has said this is the time for raising up “Partners for Transformation.” Many of today’s prophets are saying a great revival is coming to Asia. The Philippines will be part of a great transformation in Asia. It is time to prepare a new generation.

We are asking you to consider being a “Partner for Transformation.” The vision is a three-part vision. It includes what we do now with the education and disciple-making of poor children. But these words from the apostle Paul speak to us today: “… he (Paul) withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:9-10 NASB). God wants to do this again in Asia, including the Philippines.

The elements of this “New and Bigger Vision to Transform a Whole Nation” are 3-fold: 1) Homes for orphans and widows, 2) centers for training in computers and technology and 3) centers for improved and comprehensive food distribution with instruction in healthy nutrition. Much more can be said about each of these elements and will be expounded upon in the weeks ahead.

In Luke 5, Jesus instructed Simon (Peter) to cast his net. When he did, the catch was too much for him to handle. It was sinking his boat. Scripture tells us he called his “partners” to come and help bring in the “big catch.” He then told them that from then on they would be fishing for men. We are calling to you. We need your partnership because of the massive catch and we have just begun to fish these plentiful waters of the Philippines.

We anticipate a need for $100,000 for start-up of the first 3 elements: 1) the first home for widows and orphans ($50,000), 2) the first center for training in computers and technology ($25,000) and 3) the first center for food distribution and training in healthy nutrition ($25,000).

We are asking you to seek the Lord about this new and bigger vision. Ask if He would have you be part of it and respond as He leads you. “Think Big, Believe Big and Act Big.”

Click on the link below to give.

Partner for Transformation Fund — For transforming the nation of the Philippines

Thank you for considering and praying: Think Big, Believe Big and Act Big.

A New and Bigger Vision

Because of you, our Sponsors, Partners and Friends, together we have over 880 sponsored Filipino children on four different islands. These children are actively pursuing education and practical Christianity. All of this started when God spoke supernaturally and personally to me in April 2001 and is made possible by you Sponsors, Partners and Friends. God told me I would spend the rest of my life seeing to it that the children I saw one day on a monstrously large city dumpsite in Lapu-Lapu, Philippines, and others like them, would not repeat the endemic cycle of poverty their parents and grandparents embraced. Education is vital to this vision and is not free in the Philippines. If you are poor, you do not get to go to school. I was 65 years old at that time.

You, our Sponsors, Partners and Friends, are feeding and educating a new generation of world-changers within the Philippines. Our budget now is over $40,000 per month for reaching 880 children on four separate islands. Shout “Glory to God” with us! You are being used by God to make these things happen. We have no words to adequately say “thank you,” but we do love and appreciate you. The sponsored children and the pastors who care for them, together with us thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

NOW GOD HAS SPOKEN TO ME AGAIN! He recently said to me, “Ras, I want you to increase your faith this way: See to it that 10,000 children on all the islands I choose will not repeat the endemic cycle of poverty they inherited. Instead of $40,000 per month, you are to believe Me for $400,000 per month in order to get this done. I will raise up Sponsors, Partners and Friends sufficient to get this done”

He further said, “You will do three additional things beyond sponsoring the children. You will start homes for widows and orphans. The widows will be cared for and will in turn care for the orphans. You will open food and nutrition distribution centers to serve the poor on all the islands where I will send you. You will start a computer and technology center to train the children and youth in the use of the latest technology that I will use to reach the world. I will raise up Sponsors, Partners and Friends sufficient to get this done.”

If you would like to be a Sponsor, Partner or Friend in this new vision, write to me and tell me you are standing with me shoulder to shoulder. If you are already a Sponsor, Partner or Friend, write and tell me first how much per month you will commit and send your first donation by going to the following link.

If you wish to make a one time donation, indicate your intentions and send the donation.

The link is: Donate Now to This Bigger Vision

Controlling Anger Helps Build Happy Homes – 2-A – Ras

HOW TO HAVE A HAPPY HOME
2-A Controlling Anger Helps Build Happy Homes
Ras Robinson

Ephesians 4:31-32 (AMP) “Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, t- (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another, tender-hearted [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.”

As a young husband and father, anger was ruling my life. I desired to be the perfect father I felt my family deserved. My children regularly asked their mother, “What kind of mood do you think Dad will be in today when he comes home from work?”

Anger was so much a part of my life that it seemed “normal” to me. I justified my anger, knowing that my intentions were good towards my wife and children. In fact, I just knew they had the ability to be perfect in every way just as I tried to be. When they disappointed me, I would show my anger in words and actions towards them.

As time went by, I realized my quest to be perfect, just like Jesus was perfect, had some good things about it but some bad things too. God showed me I had a “spirit of perfection” for myself as well as for my wife and children and that spirit was not from Him. It was a hard day when I realized “only” Jesus could be perfect. When I was born again at age twelve, I acquired by the grace of God a perfect new man inside me that would last forever. But my soul was a different matter. It needed correction and discipline to be like Jesus.

Getting that “spirit of perfection” cast out of me was a good thing. God told me to confess and get right with my family. They forgave me with a sparkle in their eyes because they knew I loved them more than life itself. A peace and joy began to manifest in our home. It has lasted all these years, though not always perfectly.

In Paul’s passage above, we find that anger has some bad companions: bitterness, indignation, passion, rage, bad temper, resentment, animosity, quarreling, brawling, clamor, contention, slander, evil-speaking, abusive language and malice.

Paul goes on to teach us, “And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tender-hearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.”  This became one of my goals in our marriage and in raising our children.

Instead of showing anger, I sought to become useful and helpful, seeking to build up my family. Another goal was to be kind even when discipline or correction was needed and to be tender-hearted about it. I determined to become compassionate, understanding and loving-hearted. I would be quick to forgive and try hard to forget any wrongs. I would do this readily and freely just like God had forgiven me.

HOW TO BE ANGRY AND SIN NOT

Ephesians 4:26-27 (AMP) “When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down. Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].”

I well remember the first time I read these two verses in my Bible. My response was “That’s impossible.” But God was so good to give me this revelation: “You will have anger. Jesus had anger. God had anger. But Paul’s wisdom here is that you are to make sure, as much as possible, to get all your anger forgiven and taken care of before you go to sleep at night. The extra power needed is found in knowing that if you do not repent of your anger, the devil will take “ground” in your life. He will attack you again and again from that “ground” you have surrendered. God revealed to me that anger is a sin only if I never repent. With this revelation, I found power and grace to forgive myself and to ask forgiveness from my family.

WHAT GOD HAS DONE

Only God alone could have done for our home what has happened. Our home  is now a home of peace, a house of love for God and each other. In addition, over our more than 57 years of marriage, we have received, blessed and been blessed by many thousands of people who have come to our now happy home. To God be all the glory and honor.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT NOW THAN WHEN WE LIVED WITH “SPIRIT OF ANGER?”

THREE IMPORTANT WORDS: We have learned to affirm, bless and forgive at the deepest level possible. Forgiveness needs to include forgetting offenses. Once you forgive, keep on forgiving until the last vestiges of unforgiveness and offense are gone. You may remember the offense, but the memory of it will have no power in your emotions.

With forgiveness, we learned to affirm those we love and care about. Affirmation, sincerely from the heart, is easy to give and can change a life forever. Daily, I tell my wife how pretty she is and how I love her. She just may the smartest person I have ever met. Her love for her family, our church members and me is astonishing.  My wife is never to doubt that I am convinced she is in reality an angel sent from Heaven to me.

I try to create and maintain a steady stream of affirmation toward our daughter and our son, though they are now grown and have families of their own. We let them know how proud of them we are through a steady stream of affirmation.

Finally as our family has grown, we have learned the power of blessing one another in the family. Over the years, we have celebrated each family member’s birthday. The family member whose birthday we celebrate sits at the head of the table. The meal consists of whatever is preferred by their honoree. After we eat, the birthday person must sit quietly while each family member gives a birthday card and words to bless and affirm. This has served our family quite well for many years.

Anger need not ever be a problem in your family. If it is, deal with it. God will bless your family for it. Controlling your anger will help to build your happy home. Be kind, forgiving and full of blessings for your family.

Forgiveness

Sunday morning worship service is often riddled with worshipers contaminated by unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is destroying the church, our families and our nation. Surely we as believers in Christ will not sleep this one out and wake up one day to find ourselves angry and hating one another! The Lord speaks, “Wake up church, families and body of Christ. See the truth. Jesus set the example for us as He died on the cross and forgave those who put Him there. No subject was stronger in his heart than to command us to do as He did and “forgive those who wrong us for they know not what they do.”

People are leaving our churches in droves. Thousands enter the church week in and week out, but within weeks or months, they leave because they find no solution to their pain, their anger, resentments and unforgiveness.

Jesus looks down from the cross with fresh blood on his face, down his side, dripping from his hands and feet. He says to us this day “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” He paid, through His suffering, the full price for us. He forgave us and says for us to forgive and ask forgiveness. He could not have made it more plain: “Forgive them. Ask their forgiveness. Resist revenge and retaliation. Remember, what goes around comes around.”

Matthew 6:12-15 (NASB) “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”