FAMILY AND LOVED ONES: I am shooting this to you because I just registered for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. As you know many of us have been affected one way or another by the grave effects of cancer. Some of us have survived our bouts, others of us have experienced the loss of our loved ones when they are no longer able to fight the good fight . Whatever your reason, won’t you join me in creating more birthdays! When I registered online, I was issued my own personal fundraising web page. It explains what Relay For Life is and why I chose to get involved. My web page also has my fundraising goal and how much money I’ve raised so far. Please visit my page, and while you’re there….why not make a donation to the American Cancer Society? Your donation will help the American Cancer Society create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. The amount you donate will count towards my fundraising goal. Thank you so much for your help – I will keep you updated on my progress! I’m Shawn R. McCoy & that’s Real Talk!

Copyright 2010/2011 © American Cancer Society
]]> http://srmrealtalk.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/i-am-helping-to-create-more-birthdays/feed/ 0 srmministries acs-can-logo2.gif More Birthdays PixelServer Matching Gifts The American Cancer Society: Mosaic American Cancer Society: Cancer Action Network http://srmrealtalk.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-lords-prayer/ http://srmrealtalk.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-lords-prayer/#comments Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:58:52 +0000 srmministries http://srmrealtalk.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-lords-prayer/ ]]> YES, IT’S A FORWARD but I receive IT!
I’m Shawn McCoy and that’s REAL TALK!

The moment you receive it,say:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory now and forever. Amen.

GOD WANTED ME TO TELL YOU, it shall be well with you this coming year.

No matter how much your enemies try this year, they will not succeed.

You have been destined to make it and you shall surely achieve all your goals this year…

For the remainder of 2011, all your agonies will be diverted and victory and prosperity will be incoming in abundance.

Today, God has confirmed the end of your sufferings, sorrows and pain because HE that sits on the throne has remembered you. He has taken away the hardships and given you JOY. He will never let you down.

I knocked at heaven’s door this morning, God asked me …

"My child, what can I do for you?"

And I said,

"Father, please protect and bless the person reading this message."

It has never been broken. Within 48 hours, send as many as you can. God knows if you don’t have 20 people to send it to. It’s the effort and intent that counts. Send it to family and friends.

This is a powerful Prayer. It couldn’t hurt. It can only help.

1. God is saying “Hey stupid (that’s his little nickname for me… just kidding)… you need to make better decisions about who you decide to enter relationships with.
2. Clearly, he is teaching me that he is the only one that can meet the needs of his people. No matter how genuine my heart may be to meet the needs of those who I meet, only he can provide for every need that a person has… so I have to learn inevitably, to get out of his way and let him “do what he do baby!”

Making Better Decisions

As I continue to read and study to show myself approved, I find continually this undeniable debunking of the idea of falling in love. Notice in the first segment, I used the words “choosing to be in relationships with” instead of “falling in love with.” This denotes an intention on my part to be in relationships with people instead of some mystical, magical moment that leads to a fantasmic experience.  Martinborough asserts in his book I Love You that:

“We do not fall in love, we climb up to love. True love does not come by accident ; it involves effort. It takes thinking, and working, and caring. So, while infatuation is a human pit, true love is a divine ladder. And every person has the freedom to chose between the tragedy of one and the triumph of the other. “

In essence, we have to make a conscience effort to weigh the cost and consider the outcomes of  potential relationships. We have to beware of “happily ever after” thinking but not be so timid of things as to become afraid to succeed. We have to explore different perspectives to gain the big picture. All of these things make for better decision making processes which in turn can make for better relationships on the whole.

Meet God, the “Need-Meeter”

Do you know the weight it takes off your shoulders to simply allow God to do his job. Ellen G. White asserts:

“Our Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme, will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet.”

We have to accept our limitations and know that no matter how much we desire for the people around us to do well, in the end it is God’s job to provide for them. Inevitably, we fail when we try to take his place anyway, so we might as well turn things over to the one who can do something about it, ya dig? LOL

Well, hopefully you can glean from what I have learned and experienced first hand. I pray that as you make better decisions, and let God “do what he do” that he brings increase and blessings to everything that he has for you!

I am Shawn R. McCoy and thats Real Talk!

Today I share with you my most vulnerable issue because, in some way, I believe it be the key to my own healing and deliverance. And though that may sound or appear selfish, or should I say self-serving, I totally believe, in my spirit that God has brought me to this place in my life to be transparent so that I can  help someone else who may be going through what I am going through and feel, as I do, that too are “fools” for love.

Gordon O. Martinborough, in his book I Love You, shares a most humorous definition of love that I find quite appropriate for this particular conversation.

Love is the heterogeneous conglomeration of absurdity calculated to bamboozle the anatomy of the individual who becomes intoxicated with its abominable and irresistable power.

Of course, this is not a true definition. But I can’t help but wonder if this very ridiculous suggestion has reigned true in my personal life. I was discussing my relationships with a good friend of mine the other day. Not surprisingly… gotta know this guy… in that one hour-long conversation, by simply asking me releevant questions , he helped me to notice two very interesting things about myself in a relationship.

1. He helped me to notice the pattern of women who I was choosing to be with in a relationship – I mean similarities were really quite astounding. And I am not merely talking about physical attributes because really they are really varied. But emotionally, spiritually and even socially, the group share alot of commonalities. It really is quite scary when I think about it to be honest, because these things were apparently attracted through my subconscience. For instance, one of the things we looked at was that each of these individuals had a noticable need. Which leads me to my second thought…
2. He helped me to understand that in a love relationship, I desire to meet the needs of the other person involved, whatever that need may be – Whether it be their need for affection, or their need for counseling and conversation, my character is such that if someone I care for is in lack or in need, and I can provide for that need, than it becomes both my obligation and my pleasure to assist them if I can; even if it means my own detriment. This is how I exhibit my love to that person. You may think, “Well, what’s wrong with that???” The problem with that is that me, meeting their needs is only an illusion!

See the truth of the issue is that I, no matter how hard i try, AM NOT THE “NEED-MEETER!” Only God c an truly meet our needs. So when the reality of this comes to light, and I am unable to meet the needs of the other person, then the relationship falls apart, leaving me playing the “fool for love”, so to speak. Needless to say, this revelation has thrust me into a place of transition because having the knowledge of such a problem has the power to propel me into my destiny or return me to this endless cycle where I constantly end up hurt, confused, and alone.

So what is the lesson??? Well, tomorrow I will share with you what I believe God to be saying to me in the midst of this situation. Until then… I am Shawn R. McCoy and that’s Real Talk!

“Have you ever heard how some preachers or theologians try to explain the unspeakable misery that is crippling most of Haiti’s population of 8 million? Everywhere you go, from your television screen to the Internet, what you are most likely to find is a reference to a spiritual pact that the fathers of the nation supposedly made with the devil to help them win their freedom from France. As a result of that satanic alliance, as they put it, God has placed a curse on the country some time around its birth3, and that divine burden has made it virtually impossible for the vast majority of Haitians to live in peace and prosperity in their land. Surprising, right?

The satanic pact allegedly took place at Bois-Caïman near Cap-Haïtien on August 14, 1791 during a meeting organized by several slave leaders, under [Dutty] Boukman’s leadership, before launching what would become Haiti’s Independence War. This brutal period lasted 13 years until the last survivors of the French expeditionary forces, dispatched to Saint-Domingue with the sole purpose to re-establish slavery, were allowed by Dessalines to leave the island and return to Napoleon. Those who made it safely to France wrote and reported about the utmost bravery and supreme courage of Haiti’s indigenous army.

Obviously, the idea that Haiti was dedicated to Satan prior to its independence is a very serious and profound statement with potentially grave consequences for its people in terms of how they are perceived by others or how the whole nation is understood outside its borders. One would agree that such a strong affirmation should be based on solid historical and scriptural ground. But, although the satanic pact idea is by far the most popular explanation for Haiti’s birth as a free nation, especially among Christian missionaries and some Haitian Church leaders, it is nothing more than a fantasist opinion that ultimately dissipates upon close examination

I was born and raised in Haiti, and I am a graduate of the State University in Port-au-Prince. I am also a believer in the Lord Jesus-Christ in accordance with the Bible. In all of my studies of Haitian history, however, I have yet to find a good evidence of even the idea of Satan’s assistance in the Independence War, let alone a satanic pact.For quite some time now, several articles on the Internet have mentioned the existence of an iron pig statue in Port-au-Prince as a monument to commemorate Haiti’s so-called pact with the devil through Vodou. The statue would be in remembrance of a pig that was killed during the gathering by the African slaves. In an effort to know more about that rumor, I contacted several authors about the exact location of the pig statue that’s incidentally nowhere to be found in the country. Their answer was complete silence, a simple apology, or just the removal of the reference from their texts.One writer was grateful to me for pointing out the inaccuracy of her article, and she made the necessary adjustment. But I am sure that the same allusion can be found somewhere in other published pieces of writing and documents. The worst part of the whole picture is that the story is believed by many sincere Christians in America and around the world; and not only do they believe it, they also spread it as fact. The tragedy of our age is that repeated lies are often mistaken for the truth, especially when repeated long enough. That’s particularly the case in religious circles where faith on the part of the audience is generally expected, but that should never be so for those who believe in the Bible. Maybe, believers need to return to biblical texts like 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Test everything. Hold on to the good”.

Tired of being Ignorant?? Please read more on the subject…

God, Satan, and the Birth of Haiti, Part I – III

http://www.blackandchristian.com/articles/academy/gelin-10-05.shtml; http://www.blackandchristian.com/articles/academy/gelin-11-05.shtml; http://www.blackandchristian.com/articles/academy/gelin-12-05.shtml.

I’m Shawn R McCoy and that’s Real Talk!

But nowhere in the biblical text does it tell us that everything will go as planned, or that all things will be perfected in the life of the believer. Please note that the scripture does not say, “All things work good for those who love him…” It does say, however that “all things work FOR the good…” It may not look like it right now; it may not seem like it; it may not even feel like it. But what I am going through, is working for my good.

One of the most profound and promising statements that I believe God has ever blessed me to hear is that:

“Sometimes God will purposefully interrupt our happiness in order to perfect our holiness.”

Believe it or not: what you went through in your past drew you closer to God and made you the person of faith that you are today. Likewise, you should allow what you are facing today to thrust you into a deeper relationship with the Master. Let this time of temporary unhappiness take you into a place of everlasting joy, knowing that “it is well with your soul because all is well between your soul and your savior(James Edward Brown).”

I’m Shawn R. McCoy and that’s Real Talk

¹⁷And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. ¹⁸And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my LORD: ¹⁹Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: ²⁰Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. ²¹And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. ²²Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. ²³The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.

The angels who came to warn Lot and his family admonished him to escape to the mountains so that he and his family could be safe. But Lot ended up seeking refuge in a bordering town because the mountain journey would have been too far for he and his family to make. So they ended up in a town called “ZOAR”, meaning smallness or nothingness! And it occurred to me that often times, God pulls us from a place of desperation, and allows us to go into a place of preparation, so that we can get the inspiration that we need to make it to our final destination.

But notice that the place of preparation is often as challenging, if not more so than the place of desperation. Lot was in Sodom, a place of desperation; and was pulled to Zoar, the literal definition of nothingness; till he could reach the promise of the mountainside. Israel was in Egypt, a place of desperation; until God pulled them into the wilderness, a  place of preparation; until they could reach the destination of the promised land. Jesus left the persecution of Herod, a place of desperation; and hid in Egypt, a place of preparation; until he reached the destination of  his ministry.

Listen, I don’t know about you but for me, 2008 was a year of desparation; 2009 for me was a year of preparation; so 2010 for me must be the year I reach my destination! Looking forward to seeing you on the other side!

I’m Shawn R. McCoy and that’s Real Talk

“Have you ever thought about the purpose and nature of a love song? I mean a REAL love song! I’m not talking about a sex song – we already understand and recognize the purpose and meaning of those kinds of songs, but I mean a real love song; a “sho’ nuff” love song! I’m talking about a “chair is not a house, and a house is not a home” kind of love song (Some of y’all will get that on the way home); An “anything I do, I do for you” kind of love song; A “girl you know I-I-I-I love you” kind of love song; A “love – need – and want you” kind of love song; A “Sweet Love” kind of love song; a “Ribbon in the Sky” kind of love song. I mean, have you ever really thought about the purpose and nature of a real love song. Love song are melodical, rhythmical expressions of our innermost emotions. They remind us of the romantic value that we find in our relationships. They touch our hearts by telling tales of love and the happiness that it brings. But how much more does the love of God mean to our lives, and how much more is the power of love available because of my relationship with him. Surely if I sing love songs to my significant other than how much more should I sing them unto the Lord.”

“Believe it or not there are those out there, who share in our faith who believe that songs about God can contain too much intimacy; that our songs should only deal with the sovereignty of God and that alone. But it is the fact that a sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God desires an intimate relationship with me that is the source of my faith. Yes, he is awesome; yes, he is wonderful; yes, he is high and lifted up; No one with any sense of who God is could deny that. But he thought it not robbery to literally reach inside himself, send to us his son, who at the age of 33 would lay down his life for my sins… You can’t get more intimate than that!”

You can hear the rest of this message on the RTR moments website at the link above…

I’m Shawn McCoy and that’s Real Talk

5My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. 6He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be moved. 7In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 8Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.

Obviously, experiences and episodes in life lead us to the conclusion that God desires that we love, trust, and believe in him no matter what stage of life we are going through. I have found in the wisdom of this passage 4 Key Elements to learning how to trust God while life hurts that I believe offers us some reprieve from the struggles that we endure. In yesterday’s blog, I discussed the first two elements in detail. Today, I wish to conclude by giving you the last two elements of trusting God in the midst of trying times.

• Key Element #3 – Know that your deliverance comes from God, not man – The reason why a great many of us experience what we do is because we believe and are looking for the solution to our issues to come from ourselves, or worse yet, other people. We look to doctors to heal our health issues; lawyers to fix our legal issues; accountants to repair our tax discrepancies; mechanics to repair our vehicular struggles; and ministers to mend our spiritual woes. Yet doctors play games of hit and miss when they diagnose us; lawyers win AND lose cases regularly; accountants have been known to crunch numbers incorrectly from time to time; we all know mechanics who tend to milk their customers for more money than they need to; and ministers are mere mortals, men and women, who can certainly offer you insight but still cannot work out your salvation for you. Listen, and please take no offense to this next statement, but it was under the leadership of one man that the entire American economy fell into havoc, so what makes you think that another man is going to pull us out of this mess. Superman couldn’t pull us out of this one –– and he has x-ray vision, is faster than a speeding bullet, and is more powerful than any locomotive. Oh, but I know somebody who can pick me up, and turn me around, lay me feet on solid ground. I know somebody who is “able to keep us from falling, and present us faultless before the presence of His glory.” Ultimately, it is God, through the power of his reconciliation to us which is in Christ Jesus, and him only who can bring deliverance to us. Psalm 56:13 says that “For You (God)have delivered my life from death, yes, and my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life and of the living.” So, in order to have faith in God during hard times we must understand that he is the source of our deliverance.

• Key Element #4 – Know that your trust should be in God, not man – Watch this family! From his word, we understand that he is the source of our salvation. In this text, we read where he is the source of our expectation (v. 5), the source of our strength (v. 6), and the source of our deliverance (v. 7). So why then is it so hard for us to trust him. The scripture declares that he extends faithfulness through all the generations: that means to you, and to your children, and your children’s children. The text says, that he is my refuge and my shield in whom I place my hope. With a God who is all that for me, I can’t help but trust him. So I’m going to trust him in spite of my predicament. Whether life is happy or sad, I’ll trust him; whether life is easy or difficult, I will trust him; whether things are going good or bad, I will trust him. My resolve has got to become: I will trust in the Lord, till I die!

I’m Shawn R. McCoy and that’s real talk!

5My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. 6He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. 7In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 8Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.

• Key Element #1 – Know that your expectation is in God, not man! – Some of us ought to know by now, that every time we place our expectations in the hands of a man, they fail us. We’ve placed our expectations in man for employment and now our country is experiencing one of the largest unemployment rates ever… Man will fail you! We’ve placed our expectations in man as far as the mortgage crisis is concerned, yet the rate of foreclosures in America continues to rise…. Why?? Cause man will fail you.  We’ve placed our expectations in man to provide for us a thriving financial system, yet we find ourselves in the worst economic crisis since the great depression… Why??? Because man will fail you every time. My expectations are only misplaced when I put them in man. Instead, my hope must be built, “on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness – I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Whether I am happy or I am hurting, I must place my expectation in God, for my hope is in him. 
•  Key Element #2 – Know that your strength is in God, not man! – I cannot live in the fullness of God, I cannot operate in a fulfilled life until I recognize that it is not my own strength that keeps me moving. It is not my own power that keeps me motivated or my own force that keeps me inspired but it is the power of God that gives me the strength that I need in order to walk this life out. And when he gives me strength, it is made perfect by the Holy Spirit that indwells my life. SO I can walk it out till my change comes to pass; I can walk it our till my joy returns; I can walk it out till my peace gets here; I can walk it out – not by my own power, not by own might, but by God’s spirit in my life. I have got to know that my strength lies in him

Elements 3 and 4 tomorrow.

I’m Shawn R. McCoy and that’s real talk!