After All is Said and Done

The angel spoke...

God knew what you were going through
but he decided to turn his back away from you.
You knew what God represented
but you decided to walk away.

Common sense questioned,
What did you expect?

Your Spirit

I'm taken under way, way
down deep by your spell
beneath my heart.
I sing praise God!

A man of supreme love.
You are a savior to a soul
that was at one time ready
to travel a bitter trail.

You took away the lightening
and the thunder from tired lips,
spoiled fruit from a wounded body,
and daggers from vindictive eyes.
Thank you.

For you gave of yourself freely.
I foresee a prosperous future
trimmed in shimmering gold,
protected by heavenly spirits
together we walk side by side
toward the light.

Touched by His hand and embraced
by His power. His spell and your spell
I'm taken under.

A Prayer for the Holiday Season & New Years

Dear Lord,

I thank you for the many experiences you have given me this year. You have changed my life in so many ways and I praise you for it. Thank you for taking the blinders off my eyes when I wanted to see things differently when it came to family, friends, acquaintances, and co-workers. Make a way for me to go into the new year free of burdens, resentments, and un-forgiveness. Replace these negative emotions with love, kindness, and serenity.

Thank you for the protection you keep giving me from all harm and danger. Thank you for the angels you put around me even when I have failed to acknowledge your presence. Lord teach me your ways so that I am never a burden to anyone, but a blessing.

Provide me with the wisdom and courage to share your word when I am speaking with others. Let people who come in contact with me see your light and not my darkness. Encourage me Lord when I feel down and heal me when I feel sick.

Lord you know that living this life at times can be a challenge for myself and others, so bless us with the hope, love and passion to live again!

We need you Lord! We need your peace, knowledge, money, healing, a place in heaven, and so many other things. So we ask in your Son's name Jesus to help us Lord, right now! We are waiting for you. We will no longer take any more steps that will cause us to fall out of your will as long as you are with us. Lord we need you to guide us!

Thank you Lord for listening to my prayer.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

Moments with God

I hear...
Indian chants
the dialect of a foreign stranger
rhythms of peace
a calming wind
the world far away.

In the upper room
I hear my God
I am his Son
No past pangs from the evil one.
I'm free!

No more voices ringing
"You are a sinner."
I know.
I'm not perfect.
There's no wrong
in perfect love.

God my comforter
wake me up
when it's all over!

Who Can You Trust?

Darkness surrounds the individual who rejects the Lord. He wallows in his sorrows looking for a solution to a problem. His focus is not on the positive answers, because in darkness there is none. Looking amongst various family and friends, he hears several different solutions to one problem. Unfortunately, many are based on lies and selfish reasons. Misplaced trust that is his first problem.

Who will he trust when a loved one dies? Who will he trust when his money is gone? Who will he trust when his taxes are due?

His or her enemy isn't a neighbor, the government or a spouse. The enemy is within the individual, the devil within him or her.

For example, she trusts in her own solutions to solve problems at work. The boss is upset, because now it has been four times and she is still making the same mistakes. She knows that if she makes one more error, she will be on her way out the door. Eventually, the error is made and now she is left jobless. Her "instinct" tells her to trust in God. "Where was God before the mistakes occurred?" she asks herself. Answering her own question, she says, "My confidence and pride caused me to forget about God when things were fine."

How often must God's children go round and round to see what God is trying to say when things are good as well as bad? One can prevent the enemy of self by doing one thing and that is trusting in God.

So how does one trust in God? First, he must begin asking the Lord his opinion on the day-to-day activities he plans. If he knows he has a meeting to go to during the day, he may ask the Lord what shall he bring to the meeting or should he even go? Another example, he may have to prepare dinner after work, why not ask the Lord what to make for supper? In addition , there are house chores to be done, he may ask the Lord, "What task shall I accomplish today?" These little questions he asks God today will lead to bigger questions he will ask God tomorrow. Then , when times are rough and they will get rough, he can say, "Lord I trust that whatever happens in that operating room will be a success."

Remember the following scripture below as you begin to build a trusting relationship with God.

"Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." -- Proverbs 3.

Part Two: Is it god or God?

I really thought my spiritual teachers had it altogether so I hung on their every word back during those naive days I mentioned in another blog entry. However, what I didn't know back in the mid-nineties is that there is the god of the world that people praise and then there is the God of the Bible. What makes things a tad bit complicated is which Bible God do you serve?

There are so many bibles! How do you know which one is right? You don't unless you have the gift of the Holy Spirit or receive guidance from a believer who you know reads the word and you can see the wonderful things that are happening in and around his or her life. So how do you get the spirit? Well you can't get the spirit, he has to come upon you. That doesn't happen unless you open yourself up to the word of God, pray and fast, ask God for the gifts of the spirit, and allow the one who is appointed by God to lay hands on you. This usually happens when you walk down an aisle at a church or are in the presence of sincere, anointed believers who will pray with and over you.

Now while these things are going on around you, inside your mind you have to fight the thoughts like, "I have to get back to my seat, I bet people think I look stupid standing here, When will this all be over?" You have to think about things like how grateful you are to be alive, talk to God about the things you have done and ask him for his mercy, thank Him for the favor he has shown you even when you didn't deserve it, and ask him to draw near to you. This is what some of the people are thinking about when they are standing in front of the congregation crying and looking as if they are ready to pass out from grief.

God has a hold on the true believers who really want something miraculous to happen in their lives! All the ugly that those who walked in darkness said about God, what wrong they did to other people, and many other things is what causes them to grieve on the inside. It is through their convictions that they finally say, "Enough, I can't do this by myself Lord -- I need your help!" At that time some will fall out on the floor, shout, cry, even foam at the mouth because some very ugly things they are dealing with are being exposed. Afterward, they feel a sense of relief, a hope that things will get better.

For me, I studied a few chapters that were assigned to me after attending a class before I walked down the aisle and accepted Jesus as my personal Savior.(The study was in the Book of Acts, Galatians Chapter 5, and I John.) I wanted to know what I was getting myself into and even after reading the Bible and the teachers providing me with education and instruction I still didn't necessarily grasp what I was doing. All I knew is that where I was in my life between the physical abuse, drinking, clubbing, and acting a fool 95-96, I needed some guidance.

When I got up to the front of the church back then, I cried and the man of God touched my head. I didn't feel anything at that time, but as the days passed things began to change and I realized that there was something different about me. In time, I stopped having the desire to go out to places I didn't feel comfortable, end a relationship that wasn't good for me, and cut off some so-called friends that did nothing more than take from me. I still had problems back then that I struggled with and even now, but I am nothing like I used to be.

I don't recommend everyone go down any aisle especially if you haven't learned anything about the church, read the Bible, or don't feel right about the people, because the scripture does say, "many are called but chosen are few. " But what I do suggest is that if you attend a church and fill this tugging to walk down the aisle in your mind and body -- like Nike says, "Just do it!" You don't know what God has in store for you and you definitely don't want to miss a new and improved you!

For some of you it could happen this Sunday while you are visiting someone else's church. Better study up! That might be the first and last time you will get a special calling. Then once you get to the front of the aisle, listen to what the leadership says and go to a class so that you understand what this all means. If you don't get any understanding you will be walking between two worlds wondering why things seem to be getting worse.

You see things got worse before they got better for me because I didn't surround myself with prayer warriors back in the 90s. Sure, I got the minister's blessing and studied for a little bit with the mothers of the church, but in time I purposely lost contact, because I wasn't completely sold on God, so to speak. I made excuses because I wanted "to do my own thing." And doing my own thing almost got me killed! You see, in my mind I thought I was a "little god"--the god of self! I thought I didn't need anyone to tell me anything and if I wanted to know something I always had the Internet or a book to read. That is until God got a hold of me!

I leave you with this, if you think that you are a "little god" or you serve little gods then why aren't they saving you from your troubles? Could it be that the god you have been waiting on to answer your prayers isn't really God but just a figment of your imagination? The only way to know the truth is to read it.

Nicholl McGuire

Part One: Is it god or God? A Little Something for the Believers

At one time back in 95-96, during my naive days of accepting church invites without thinking, I thought all believers served the same God, I was wrong. I thought all believers were suppose to act a certain way, dress a certain way, and rightly divide the word the same way, I was really wrong. The truth is not everyone who says, "Oh god, Thank god, Oh my god," believes in God.

Some of the celebrities will say, "Thank god..." after doing a sexually explicit movie, singing a song full of cuss words, or acting crazy in some video, do you really think the one true God had something to do with that? After gambling away money for years and then finally winning something people will say, "Thank god!" Then put all the money back into the casino or lottery again or use it to pay for something that will only need more money to keep it going. Oh there was definitely a god in the midst, but it wasn't the one that put his Son on a cross for our sins!

I use to think this way until I started reading the word for myself and I had to ask God for forgiveness. I was thanking the wrong gods! You see we always think about fat statues and weird symbols being idols but we don't think about things like: material wealth, food, sex, and music being gods and/or idols in our lives. For example, there are people who serve food literally. Praising it often, talking about it too much, and spending just about the majority of their paychecks on it and as they do they are getting bigger and bigger starting to look and smell old just like it! No one seems to say too much about serving the god of gluttony until health problems occur. Too much food, money, sex, entertainment and anything related to these areas without balance and the discernment to separate what's wrong from what is right can be a god in your life!

The only way we can combat temptation is to take God at His word!

The Season of the Swine Flu

Although the term swine flu is a man-made term, I see that from a spiritual standpoint it is of particular significance. Those of you who are Christians eagerly awaiting to spread your new found wisdom from the Bible must take heed during this season of the swine flu. I recall a scripture from Matthew 7:6 the King James version that says, "...neither cast ye your pearls before swine." In the New International Version it says, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces."

Those powerful truths given to you during your quiet time with God are not always meant to be shared with the family you know and those you don't. If you ever did share information in the past with undeserving individuals, you know that at times they became offensive and what was meant to be a simple Bible lesson may have ended up with someone threatening to do another person bodily harm! Rather, those words of wisdom God gives you in your private time are there to help build you up, and keep you strong in the Lord!

At times we question the things that people say and we wonder if what they are saying aligns with scripture then when we find that it doesn't, some of us practically rush over to one another asking the person to read what it says. We feel good inside as if we are doing something wonderful for ourselves and them. But as you may already know, a person who doesn't read their Bible, doesn't attend church, and thinks that all Christians is one thing or another, will not accept what you say. Instead, you are putting yourself directly in the line of fire. Take your pearls and put them where you keep your most expensive jewelry protected! There is nothing wrong with keeping secrets between you and God.

So as the swine flu spreads throughout the land, be sure that you don't catch it, from a spiritual perspective, don't cast your pearls to swine!