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Marijo Stautberg, Associate Pastor of New Life in Recovery Ministries
First and foremost, I am a Christian - Jesus Christ is my only way to God the Father. He has been my friend and greatest companion. He brought me to my husband and has set me free from the bondage of a long line of generational sin. I was sexually abused as a child and have found my calling through ministering to others that deal with abuse. I am a prayer warrior and believe in giving everything over to God, though I fail and struggle daily with this, He never fails me and He continually reminds me that He is the one that can give me grace, forgiveness and unsurpassable peace. I believe that God loved us so much that He gave his only son to become a human and walk this earth amongst sinners. He freely died for us and took the weight of the world's sins. He is our only bridge to freedom and that as long as I turn to Him, I can find serenity in any situation, no matter how dark it may seem. With Him there is no darkness, with Him there is every hope and eternal life. I want so badly for everyone to know and understand this - I want the people that are bound by false promises of this world to come to realize what they already have and they need not do anything but accept Him into their hearts and He will set them free.
In and because of Christ's Holy and Precious Name I write these words. Marijo Stautberg, Associate Pastor, New Life in Recovery ministries / Testimony / August 22, 2007
Life isn’t easy and it isn’t fair. The good news is that Jesus Christ’s salvation isn’t fair either. What, you say? That sounds sort of . . . bad. Well, yes in the world’s eyes it would sound bad . . . but stop and think about it for a moment. If Christ’s salvation were fair . . . Who would be saved? No one - not even Mother Teresa, because she was not without sin. Every single person is set free and forgiven through God’s grace - His son’s willingness to become human, walk this earth, become our friend and then take every last sin that every last person ever to be born, on himself, only to be mocked and die a horrific death. Now, does that sound fair? Nope, not to me - but, it does speak volumes to how much we are loved and cared for and accepted - YES, accepted. Even if we keep tripping and falling over the sin in our life - it doesn’t matter as long as we take Christ into our hearts and say that He is our true Lord and Savior - that He is our only way to the Father and that He is our eternal friend. If you continue to trip and fall over your sins, but keep getting back up and trying to move ahead in Jesus’ name, it’s enough and guess what? Along the way, you just might pick some other strugglers up because you’ve shown them how good it is never to stop trying and then you become a stronger force to be reckoned with against the bad and the ugly. We’ve all heard how much harder it is to break 2 sticks in half than just one and even harder to break 3, 4, 5 and so on, and so on . . . Look, we were meant for relationships. It is how we survive - or at least let’s say this, it is so much easier to survive when we have real relationships; people to stand beside us, people that believe in us and care about us no matter how strong or weak we are, no matter how beautiful or not-so-beautiful (in the world’s eyes) we appear to be, rich or poor, famous or unknown - NONE OF IT MATTERS when we have transparent, authentic relationships. OK - you say “so what”? Well here it is . . . The so what . . . We are here to be in a relationship with you (if you choose), to help you, to comfort you, to listen to you and to say we relate to how you feel if you are depressed, scared, angry, isolated, defeated or just down on your “luck”. How you say? Because we are 2 recovering drug addicts, 2 sexually abused survivors, 1 rape victim, 1 recovering bulimic, and 3 children of God, siblings of Jesus who have found relief, comfort and ultimately joy no matter where we are. We know the side of hopelessness and we have found the side of freedom. We have 3 pair of ears as well as eyes and shoulders that have been through the depths of hell and back . . . We have not only been called to help you, but we want to help you. We are not here to judge you, convert you or preach at youWe are not here to “fix” you or cure you. We are NOT health care professionals. We cannot offer medical advice. We are not lawyers. We cannot offer legal advice!. So you are wondering, what CAN you do?We are here to listen and give spiritual advice when asked which comes from first hand experience. We will pray with you and for you. We will stand by you in your darkest hour because that’s what Jesus tells us to do. That’s what He did for us. Why do we do this you ask? Because we hated feeling lonely, stupid, judged, lost, scared and desperate and if we can do anything to help just one person discover some inner peace then we’ve done what we set out to do and what God has asked.
Marijo Stautberg, Associate Pastor, New Life in Recovery ministries
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