I’m Tellin’!: What Has God Done for You Lately?

By Rev. Muriel Taylor

The nuts and bolts of this book is to encourage, exhort, and actively engage the reader to readily see the goodness of God in their everyday life experiences. There are no coincidents or incidentals in the daily life of the born-again believer. Life is like a stage play which consists of plots, twists and turns in various plots – we just walk through the script as it has been assigned to us. God is our Director, he writes the script, we are just the players or actors. Sometimes we are not in full agreeance with the way everything seems to be playing out – crazy scenes, dark spots, pits, escalators, roller coasters, illness – and we wonder why we’re even a part of the whole scene. Yet we’re trusting the Director knows what He is doing because all scripts under His direction has NEVER faltered or failed. Then the passage takes a turn, or twist, if you will and the fog begins to lift and we began to see a little more clearly – “Ah ha!” – and as we continue to walk through the script we see the ending, though it may not have turned out the way we would have written the script, turned out exceptionally well. This book shares my testimonies of how my Director (God) always came through for me; I just had to keep walking through the script, knowing He did it before and He’ll do it again – I’m Tellin’!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664220799

Rev. Muriel Taylor

Muriel Taylor, is an extremely prolific author of two books, Inspirational Poems, and Look At God: The Testimony of A Breast Cancer Survivor. She immediately arrests the reader’s attention as she tells and testifies to the astounding workings of God in her life. Her vivid transparencies will cause you to laugh, cry, and even shout in agreement as you share her intentional walk of Spirit-filled accounts.

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Copyright © 2021 Rev. Muriel Taylor.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2080-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2081-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-2079-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021901406

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/27/2021

CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

I Must Tell Jesus

Chapter 1 Can Any Good Thing Come Out of Pruitt-Igoe?

Chapter 2 2233 Division, Apartment 301

Chapter 3 He’s My Savior

Chapter 4 He’s My Healer

Chapter 5 He’s Wonderful

Chapter 6 He’s My Counselor

Chapter 7 He’s My Mighty God

Chapter 8 He’s My Everlasting Father

Chapter 9 He’s My Provider

Chapter 10 He’s My Prince of Peace

Chapter 11 He’s My Waymaker

Chapter 12 Teatime Talk

Tell It Out!

Bibliography

DEDICATION

Image1.jpg

Aaron Douglas McNeal

Dedicated to my brother,

Aaron Douglas McNeal,

who went home to be with the Lord,

February 13, 2019

HE’S WORTHY

I must tell of the goodness of the Lord. (Repeat 1X)

He stepped into my life, removed all misery and strife,

He gave me a new determination, He’s the joy of my salvation.

I’ve got to tell of His goodness, I’ve got to sing of His mercy,

I’ve got to give Him the glory, for He alone is worthy.

Even in the midst of the storm, I don’t have to be alone;

I’ve got to give Him the glory, for He alone is worthy.

I must tell of the goodness of the Lord!

(Taylor-Brown)

FOREWORD

Sean A. Taylor

Pastor, St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Euless, TX

No single person has been more influential in my life than my mother, Muriel Taylor. She was my first Bible and theology teacher, ethics professor, evangelistic and Christian education mentor, life counselor, and social-emotional intelligence coach. The greatest investment she made in my life was leading me to faith in Jesus Christ and modeling what it means to live by faith. When I was little, Mama would drink coffee from a cup with a saucer. I would just stand there, in begging mode, waiting for her to let me drink; she never did. However, every now and then she would let me sip from the saucer because she knew that was all I could take. I’m grateful that, through this autobiographical testimony to the greatness and grace of God, others can sip from the saucer that God has used to sustain me through my own faith walk through the years.

This book is for you! No matter your race, place, or space in life, I’m Tellin’ will provide a few things for you on this faith journey: First, it will provide encouragement for those who feel that life has dealt them a bad hand. As you read this story from the projects of St. Louis to the back porch in Memphis, you will be reminded that your destiny is not in life’s bad hand but in God’s good hand. Daniel Taylor was on point when he said that hope resides in our history (Taylor D., 2005) Second, this book will remind you that you were never meant to walk alone. One of the ways that God ministers to us is through the people He places in our lives; God provides a support system called community for the purposes of shaping and sharing life. Third, you will find that Mama’s story becomes contagious; it will move you to look at your own life and discover how God is writing your story to be a blessing to others. This does not mean that everyone will publish on paper, but you can tell your story. Fourth, this is not a mere recollection of precious memories but a reservoir of godly wisdom filled with old-school lessons for new-school living. Finally, this work is a new song that exults the God who confiscates stories and includes them as part of His story that is for His glory. The reason the scriptures instruct the people of God to sing a new song is because God has added a new chapter to the redemptive story, and He wants the redeemed to sing it out so that others will come to faith in this God who is the author and finisher of our faith. Yes, sipping from this saucer will lead you to drink from His fountain.

Sean A. Taylor

Senior Pastor

St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church

Euless, TX

PREFACE

I’m tellin’! How often have we heard this outcry from our children? When siblings become frustrated or intimidated by another sibling, they make that last exasperated search for some parental intervention. And before the parents actually see their little faces of aggravation and frustration, they can hear them approaching with the loud chorus of disapproval, I’m tellin’!

I remember hearing this outburst more than a few times as a young parent. Our daughter, Synnamon, the youngest of our two children, could be heard from the back of the house on her way to wherever I or my husband was, loudly announcing to our son Sean, I’m tellin!

Of course, siblings don’t just tell on one another when things are not going right. I remember so vividly a scenario that involved one of my four older brothers—Aaron, aka Czechos. He is a year older than me but was one of the toughest guys in our neighborhood of Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, Missouri. Anybody who knew anybody knew never to mess with Czechos or anyone in his family. I was about fourteen at the time, and he was fifteen. This guy whom I’ll just call Bubba had a crush on me and would get a kick out of teasing me by pulling my hair or trying to flirt with me. Bubba was a known troublemaker, and no one cared for him that much, especially me! One day, I had just had enough of his teasing and hair-yanking, so I turned my little four-foot body around to this five-foot, six-inch guy, looked up at him, and yelled,— You’d better leave me alone or I’m tellin’ my brother!

There is no respecter of persons with God. He doesn’t care what position you hold in high society—or anybody’s society for that matter. God doesn’t care what your title is. He doesn’t care how large your bank account is—you can’t just pay your way into heaven or into His good graces. It’s all because of grace that we’re able to even approach Him. We did not earn this privilege and cannot achieve it through works (Eph. 2:8, 9). It’s all one level playing field with God. I love that about my Father. I mean, you just can’t move up in front of the line just because you’re Mr. or Mrs. Move-Aside-Because-I-Think-I’m-All-That-and-a-Bag-of-Chips. That’s the way of the world, you know. If you have the right amount of money or if your name just happens to belong to the right family, you may get that coveted position, and you would probably get moved to the top of the Most Important People list.

Every day I hear some of the things that believers are talking about or tellin’ to others.

• Tellin’ things we shouldn’t be tellin’

• Tellin’ other folks’ business

• Tellin’ on someone else because we just don’t care for them

• Tellin’ how busy we are (as though we’re the only ones with a full plate)

• Tellin’ about that vacation we’re planning on taking

• Tellin’ others how hard we’re working on that master’s or doctorate degree

• Tellin’ how smart our children or grandchildren are and how proud we are of them

• Tellin’ how we wish the meteorologist would give us a great forecast for the weekend (as though he or she is the one who has the final word on that!)

• Tellin’ folks how much better the world would run if this or that person were leading it

We’re tellin’ and talking about some very interesting topics, yet the world is steadily drawing to a final curtain close and people still don’t have a clue that they have a choice in where they will spend eternity—in heaven or hell. We’re tellin’ lots of things, but we’re not tellin’ about the love of God and the fact that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save our souls.

I am just as guilty and can join the ranks of those who have been tellin’ and talking about everything but what is of the utmost importance. You know what, though? I got fed up and decided that, before I take another breath of God’s air, I must do all I can to tell others about the goodness and blessings of the Lord; hence, this book, I’m Tellin’!

My earnest desire is that this book will encourage you to also make a definite decision that, while you’re tellin’ other things that may or may not be significant, you will determine to not let another day go by without tellin’ others about the goodness of God in your life so that they may know we serve an awesome God!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are a few people that I would like to take time to acknowledge:

First and foremost is my husband, Pastor Anthony (Tony) Taylor. You are the greatest husband in the world, and you are special to me. Thank you for all the encouragement you have given me over the years in working on this book and for always being the wind beneath my wings in whatever project I worked on. Although you know how to