The Woman Who Kept Saying Papa

The Woman Who Kept Saying Papa

by Starr Daily

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

I want you to visualize now, after that wonderful song service, something that was filled with great joy and great power and great love. I want you to visualize Peter and John. They had passed through the gate Beautiful, probably a thousand times.

And there was a cripple there at that gate. And he was begging alms. They would bring him and sit him down there every day. And Peter and John never saw him. They just passed on. Then they were up in the upper room of John Mark’s house. And they had received a baptism of holy love and power at Pentecost.

And when they passed, came to the gate Beautiful, this time they saw him. We rarely ever see anybody except through the eyes of love and power. And they saw him sitting there with his legs all tangled up beneath him, been that way from birth. A little tiny ankle, it’s about that big.

And Peter looked at him. And he said to him, “Silver and gold have I none. But such as I have, give I unto thee.” And then he made a contact with the man. Love always makes a contact. Love isn’t afraid. Love is bold. So Peter reached down and took the man by the hand.

And he told him to get up. An impossible thing to tell a man like that. And the man began to unfold these little legs and ankles. And he stood up on those little tiny legs and feet. And suddenly he leaped up and began to praise God.

And he was made every whit whole. Now if you have someone in your life who is in grave danger tonight, someone who is flirting with some terrible, disastrous habit, someone who is trembling even now on the brink of some tragic temptation, or who is involved, already deeply involved, in something that is possibly going to ruin that person’s life.

Why, you just see. You just take that person by the hand in your divine imagination. You reach out and take that person. Make a contact. A ground. Or if we have a ground, the power can come through. And then you put your left hand in the right hand of Jesus.

In your divine imagination. And Jesus will put His left hand in the right hand of the Father. And then He will say, “You are released from that trouble.” You have the ground wire. And when you have got the ground, the power comes thundering through from the Father, through the Son, through you, to the person you are praying for. You really don’t have to formalize your prayer. Just do it. You are. I want to reminisce a little with you tonight on redemptive suffering and non-redemptive suffering, on redemptive misfortune, and on non-redemptive misfortune.

Beginning about eight years of age, I entered into unredemptive misfortune. And up until 1926, I remained in that unredemptive misfortune and learned that the way of the transgressor is hard. And I found out by following a pathway of hate, and that I was destroying myself. I did not destroy myself and then through grace, a wonderful fortune that was not merited and was not sought, had no self effort in it whatever, that hate life reversed itself and became the more excellent way. Now love is not a gift of God. Love is God. And all we have to do is to receive it by faith. Walk in love by faith. It’s here. It fills this room. It fills all creation. And there isn’t anything else in creation but love. The love of God. All these other specialized gifts you receive by prayer, supplication, and various kinds of pious activity. But love is present. There isn’t anything else. The very air you breathe is love. And this love is receivable by faith. Walk in love by faith. Every breath you take is the breath of love. And so I learned that by an unmerited non-effort on my part because I was invaded, infused, and transfused by this love that changes your life. And it gives you power. And it gives you power. And it gives you power and the control of power.

I have written it all down in two of my books, Release, and Love Can Open Prison Doors. And I found that I came into fortune. Good fortune. And for over 30 years, 36 years almost, by following this more excellent way to the best of my ability and capacity to receive, and to receive and accept His strength and the sufficiency of His grace, I lived in fortune. And during that period, one of the main things that I… most valuable things that I achieved were friends.

Or having lived in the underworld all the early part of my life, and then going out in 1930, out of a prison, I was going out without a friend except Jesus. And Jesus is the incarnation of this love that I’m talking about, and the total manifestation of it. And He is the way. Since love is the more excellent way, He is the excellent way, sure. So He was the only friend I had. And during those years, the most valuable thing that I have seen come into my experience is a great multitude of friends. Because He is the friend. And I think He told me, “I don’t call you My servant anymore. I call you My friend.” There isn’t anything that I know of that is more valuable to us than friends. Good, trustworthy, honest, transparent friends who love us. And so I received through Him many friends over the world. And He gave me, in grace and by strength and His wisdom and intelligence, the ability to write many books.

And through these books to witness to many, many, many people. I suppose to a million people through books, a witness through the years. And these books opened many doors into other areas of opportunity to witness. And so that was a great fortune for me. I mean a spiritual fortune. No one is likely to get rich writing religious books. Once in a while, Catherine Marshall or somebody will write one, get rich.

But I have never done that. Mine has been a slow, sort of a staple product, unfolding slowly through the years. But it has opened many doors. And some of these doors have been into the prisons of the United States.

In these books I have never criticized any penitentiary in the United States or anywhere else in the world. I have never sat in judgment upon any prison official. I have never rebuked any of them. And I have seen all sorts of things that a carnal mind would rebuke. I have seen punishments and tortures and penitentiaries that a carnal mind couldn’t do anything else but rebuke and condemn. But I had it coming. All suffering that is on the outside of redemptive love is unredemptive.

Not until it is turned around and turned upside down, turned inside out does it become redemptive. And if there is any unredemptive suffering, all you have to do is to forgive everybody that has hurt you, and love everybody who has wounded you, and to follow the way of the excellent way of Jesus and forgive. He had a right, perfect right being the Son of God, to say to the Father, “I don’t deserve anything but crucifixion.”

“All this other stuff they’ve added on to it hasn’t been in the bargain at all. When I said, ‘Thy will be done,’ back there in Gethsemane, I didn’t mean that they were going to apply a lot of things to Me that I didn’t bargain for. I didn’t bargain for the spear stuck in My side. I didn’t bargain to have My… to be insulted. And to be hurt in any way. I didn’t bargain to have My face slapped and mocked.

“I didn’t bargain for any of these things.” But Jesus didn’t say anything like that. He accepted all that. And said, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” Can you do that? Can I do that? When He says, “Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow Me,” He means that you can do just that. He means that if you take up your cross and follow Him, you’ll get into trouble.

And lots of times serious trouble. And you haven’t this trouble coming to you at all. You haven’t merited it. You haven’t deserved it psychologically or spiritually. You may get it right in your own home. Persecution. You may get it from all sides. And you haven’t merited it. You haven’t had that coming to you. And to those people who hurt you, for righteousness’ sake.

You’re not to react against them, but forgive them, “for they know not what they do.” That’s the way love does it. Quite a chore, isn’t it? To do that. But that’s the thing that turns misfortune into redemptive fortune. Well, He sent me even over into Asia.

And I had an opportunity over there to enter, I guess, every prison in the country. I don’t think there was a single one in any of the three great islands of Japan that I didn’t get into and witness.

I know I was in all the prisons in Hokkaido and Honshu and Kyushu. I’m quite sure that I entered every prison and every preceptor, prefecture in Japan. And witnessed there. And every while. Besides going all over the country speaking. And it was quite an ordeal to speak to people outside of prison.

They expected you to talk too long. They wanted you to love much, but don’t stop talking. And I had occidental energy. And it was easily screened and windowed out. You speak about nine hours a day and you get kind of tired if you’re from America.

But that isn’t all. After that’s all over at midnight, you go to a Japanese inn and take the partitions out, and make one big room, and the students come then and make semicircles around you. And you talk to them about communism and Christianity until the wee hours of the morning.

Then you get up and get on a crowded Japanese train. Go to the next place. And you keep that up and keep that up. And by and by you’re ready to go to bed. I was under the auspices of a Dr. Masaru Tanaguchi.

He was about 80 years old and looked to be about 50. And he went on these grueling itineraries all the time. I told him I was tired. He said, “Yes, I know. That’s the way you’re thinking. That’s what you are.”

Well, I said, “How can you think anything else? When you just go and go and go. And lots of times eat food that you have no faith in.” Well, he said, “You’ve got to love the people. Love never gets tired. It never gets tired by waiting and it never gets tired by acting. So you just go ahead and love the people. And you get rid of your weariness.” Well, I tried.

I did a pretty good job. Loving them. But I was glad when it was all over. I slept on the ship practically all the way home. But he had the principle right. The only thing was that I was turned in upon myself instead of out upon them with love.

I was turned in on self-love instead of outflowing redemptive love. Anyway, it was a good mission over there. I learned a lot of things. Especially about bathing. Marvelous thing, the way they bathe together. I had an exaggerated sense of privacy about men.

The first time I was asked to do that, I didn’t know what to do. My physique wasn’t very perfect either. And I preferred keeping it covered. But we were in the home of a wealthy lumber man. And he had three daughters. And the youngest one, the most beautiful one, was assigned to me.

I properly took off my shoes when I went into their home. But when it came to the bath, I didn’t know what to do. She came and held the kimono. And I was standing there fully dressed and in my right mind.

And my manager and interpreter came by. And they had on their kimonos and they had one of the daughters apiece going to the bath. And they looked at me in amazement standing there in my clothes. And my interpreter said, “Starr, aren’t you ready to bathe?” Well, I said, “I just took a bath in Tokyo yesterday.”

Well, he said, “You have to take another one. You have to take a bath every time you enter anybody’s house.” Well, it was quite a task. But I finally turned around, undressed. And she slipped the kimono. And I went with her to the bath. And it wasn’t so bad after you got started.

Before I left there, it was one of my relaxations. And that was a great mission. Now then, this love is a wonderful thing. You know that. Well, there’s a different side to it. I went along for all those years. I guess I spoke to a hundred thousand unchurched people in practically every denomination but Catholic Church in the country. High schools and universities, colleges of all kinds, witnessing, giving my witness. Never asked one single place for an invitation in all those years. But I accepted and said yes to what invitations came.

And I wouldn’t advise you to get into that habit of saying yes when you mean no. As you might get into some very, very embarrassing situations. But all that was good fortune. That was love in action. That was the more excellent way in action. And then redemptive misfortune had to come in there.

And that hit about three years ago, I guess, when my wife was driving on a freeway out in California. And had a car wreck. And she had great brain damage. And three very serious operations on her brain.

And a seat of memory is in the brain. The actual organ of the body. And where this damage was mainly was back in here. And in the third operation, and trying to get a blood clot out of that, they removed some tissue along with the blood clot. And that removed her past. And her future.

And left her in the present. And that is a wonderful place to be. We had a new relationship. She didn’t know. She doesn’t know me. She calls me “that man” or something else. And everything she sees is… nearly all the time, it’s beautiful.

And when you talk trivialities or mundane things to her, she just simmers off out into the present. Or the kingdom. You can tell when she’s ascending, because all this conversation stops. Now she had always worried a great deal. Had many cares. Worries. Cares and cares and cares piled up out of her past.

Great tensions and combats and conflicts and everything else that emerged out of her past. That was all taken away. Now she hasn’t a care in the world. There isn’t a single negative thing that is left in her whole being. Doesn’t exist anymore. And she usually worried about the future. She was worried about finances especially. And worried about me.

She didn’t want me to get on airplanes. Worry about that. No wonder I hadn’t crashed. The way she worried about it. Fearful about it. But I know that the thing that you fear doesn’t always come upon you. Or I’d have been in an airplane crash.

But there’s no future. And no past. And only the present. And the presence is always in the present. If we’re in the present, He’s in the present with us. He’s in the past all right. And in the future. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. But when we’re in the present, and we have no cares and anxieties and worries about… I’m coming up out of the past. And we have no anxieties and worries about the future. Then He is in that present. The divine presence occupies vividly, and almost tangibly, that present moment. And so I have been greatly edified by that. I sneak away and go over there when I need edification. And I just sit and saturate myself in that presence that she is manifesting. And I’ve fallen in love with my wife on a new plane.

It’s a wonderful thing for people who have been married a long time. And they have found that the usual ups and downs of emotional love begins to wear thin. And by and by gets to the place where there’s really nothing left of it. And then it’s a wonderful thing to rise up into another plane and express it up there. You fall in love all over again. A new… on a new plane. And that is glorious.

And she’s in this hospital. It’s a home hospital. And one last winter I was withdrawn from the world and the public with a broken foot. And all kinds of misfortunes began to set in to me. But being withdrawn, I was really being prepared to enter into a new phase of the redemptive life.

And that phase usually comes through suffering. It is compassion. In all those years that I’m talking about in the fortune stage, I only experienced compassion very briefly, and only a few times. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand people who suffered. I did. I knew what suffering was. But I couldn’t have compassion because the suffering that I had gone through was unredemptive.

Now I passed into this new phase of suffering which not only understands but has compassion. This is the phase of love that Jesus used to heal people with. Set them free. He never used sympathy. He never used sympathy.

He never used the ordinary love that we have even on a high plane. He always had compassion upon them. He was above them and came down. Not this way. You can comfort people with a wonderful sympathy. And you can comfort them with ordinary love, if they’re suffering on a horizontal plane. But it will not help them. It will not release them. But this compassion that He has, that Jesus has, is up above. And it comes down upon them. And they are released from their suffering. And I got hold of that. I experienced compassion through these visits I made over there to my wife. Now I had gone into that place, I don’t know how many dozens of times, and just go on through the halls and on down to her room. And that was it.

And these people were in there. Elderly people. Many of them senile. And they were in there almost like vegetables. With no consciousness at all hardly. And they just looked like people who were dead and yet living. And now I discovered that I not only had love for them, but I had compassion. And I remember one lady about eighty years old

who was always saying, Papa. All the time. Every time you’d go in, she’d be saying, and calling her Papa. Well, I’d pass by, just thinking of it sort of a habit pattern of some kind. And that was just going on and on perpetually. And I never gave it any attention. Because I didn’t have compassion.

And I heard her saying that, and I had great compassion upon her one day. She attracted it. And she was saying, “Papa.” And I went in to her room. She was lying there in bed saying, “Papa. Papa.” And I sat down on the edge of her bed, and I had this wonderful feeling of compassion for her. And a joy in me that must have been something like a third degree depth of joy. It’s something that doesn’t manifest itself anywhere on the outer plane. And she was saying, “Papa.” And I said, “Yes? What is it?”

And when I said, “Yes, what is it?” she sort of hesitated about it. And then she began saying “Papa” again. And I said, “Yes? What do you want?” And she said, “Are you Papa?” I said, “Yes, I am. Is there something you want or need?”

And she didn’t say anything. Stopped saying Papa. I sat there quite a while and just sort of bathed there in this compassion, let it flow out. She closed her eyes and went off to sleep. I went on down to my wife’s room.

And the nurses told me that she never said that again. You never… she just lie in bed and say Papa all day long. All day long. And they told me that she had just stopped saying it. Had never said it again. And they had no trouble whatever with her. And she passed away in great, deep reverence and serenity. And I think just went right straight into the kingdom. I think her spirit went right into the kingdom.

So that is redemptive. That is misfortune. That is redemptive. And it’s about three years of it that I had. And I glory in God for that. For it not only gave me an understanding of people who suffer and are in trouble, but it gave me a great joy

in being able to receive the grace of God, and the directions of God, and the strength of God, and to somehow or other communicate that compassion to them. Wonderful day. So there is a ministry of suffering that is redemptive. And there is a suffering that is absolutely worthless. And that is a suffering that is on the outside of redemptive love.

It piles up no benefits whatever, no values. The whole thing is destructive. And even at the end of it, unless we come into grace and under that strength that He is giving us all the time, and we really do have remorse, and we really do repent, and we really do surrender.

Why, there is no reason to think that we will not carry that condition right over into the other plane. The continuity of life is not going to be broken. I know that. And I know what we are here today

will determine pretty accurately what we’ll be tomorrow. And I know that what we are this week, if nothing is done about it, it will accurately predict what we’ll be next week. And what we are this month will be a prophecy of what we’ll be next month, if nothing is done about it. This is a schoolhouse. It’s a training place. And what we are this year, if nothing is done to change it, if there is no repentance, no remorse,

and there is no surrender, no yielding of it, why, next year we are to be the same thing. We don’t get rid of anything at all unless we change. And what we are in this life will determine what we are in the next life, if nothing is done about it. And that is why we have great evangelists in the world. They get something done about it. And we wonder. That is why we have CFO Camp. Something is done about it. Into a place like this, and it takes about two or three days, and you are in a great corporate ocean of love.

Everybody is in love with everybody, and there is a great sense of agreement. And all become mutuals, and there is no condemnation anywhere, no judgment, after about the middle of the camp. And so you go out, and you, at the end of it, you say, well, how… what is that? Someone will ask, well, it is just like the kingdom of heaven. You say, what you have actually done is to come into a corporate manifestation of God’s love. And that should change the life to a certain extent at least. So that when you go outside into the world, you can carry some of that with you and forgive.

And the evangelists call. They give an altar call. And anyone who is sick of soul and in great torment and vexation and troubled with great spiritual combat and conflict within them, and this stirring evangelistic sermon is given, and then the evangelist extends an invitation, and they go down, and he says a prayer, and they are converted. There is a change that comes into their life. And when they get enough of these conversions and go down to the altar enough, pretty soon it becomes a part of them, and the whole life then goes on to a new level. So there is a suffering that doesn’t produce any good results, and there is a suffering that produces nothing but good results. And Jesus said, in the world you will have trouble.

That is, if you follow Me. If they stone the prophets and kill the prophets, why, they will do the same to you. Only now we don’t use stones, and we don’t kill. We just do it now with the kids.

But He promised these things that are happening to you, these persecutions, these insults, these wounds. If you will love your enemies, then you will be doing the redemptive thing. And if we can’t love our enemies with our emotions, we can love our enemies with the greatest love there is on this earth. And that is the love which is goodwill. Exceeding goodwill. If we have exceeding goodwill, we’ll have peace. Because the angel promised it. The angel promised it at Jesus’ birth. Peace on earth to men of goodwill.