This resurrection Sunday the Lord spoke to me before day morning in a dream and said read Matthew 9. I said, “Lord, do I start at the first verse or where.” He said, “Start at the first verse but really concentrate on verses nine through fifteen.  It always amazes me how candidly the Lord speaks to me in dreams and how I always ask questions, but He does not dismiss my questions, but dutifully answers them.

So, I wake up this resurrection Sunday 2011 and I read Matthew 9. When I get to the ninth verse I find…

“As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast.” Matthew 9: 9-15.

I smiled after I read it and said, “Lord I understand.” My message is not for the saved, but instead for the lost. I have often tried to figure out why I feel so different and why I’m not concerned with the things that others feel I should be concerned about, but He always gives me conformation of what He is doing in me. My one and only job is to make sure that sinners read my writings! So if you know someone who does not know the Lord, this resurrection Sunday after the church doors are closed, and the preachers cannot be found, grab the people who you can reach and offer them Christ Jesus. He died, He rose, and He is living within us!!!! I shall fast until He comes for me, and work the work of He who has sent me! Be Blessed!

Someone sent a question and it was, "What is Destiny's Decision?" Well, Destiny's Decision is a story of a  young Christian woman named Destiny who has to make one of the most important decisions of her life. Where so many woman are praying to get married, there are those who fear marriage and the fact of making a commitment.  Yes, some women do have commitment issues! Not all of our sisters are racing to have a man, and not all of them see themselves as wives.  For whatever reason, I needed to share this sister with you. She's really doing her, but she has Christ involved. Not afraid to take the directions that He has on her course, except for marriage. So the decision is does Destiny feel like becoming a wife is what God has destined for her.

Did you know that fear cancels out faith and faith cancels out fear? So many times in our lives we wonder just why we do particular things. Well, I can almost guarantee that some of our weirdest actions are derived from the basis of fear. Fear has a way of oppressing us and causing us to do things for the sake of fear.

The Common Sense Theory says that an energy called a stimulus automatically causes us to fear. Well psychologists call it energy and my Bible calls it a spirit. That's why the Bible specifically says..."God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind."

Either way you look at it, the spirit of fear comes along and strips us of our power, causing us to feel powerless. Then it distorts our minds, because how can you possibly think straight when you are scared. Many people have been killed because someone walked in fear. We must not allow the spirit of fear to over-power the Holy Spirit that resides on the inside of the believer.

See the rest of this article in my April Monthly Newsletter! Happy Reading! If you have not already subscribed to the newsletter, go to the homepage of my website and join. I’ll be happy to have you!

 I knew of God's grace, have even experienced it a few times in my life, but never have I been so up close and personal with His grace before now. You know it has been said that, "His grace is sufficient for us", and if I may, I would like to add,  "And the grace He gives you for the season you're in is more than enough." I realized now more than ever that I have been graced for each circumstance that He allows!

I think about when Reynard first became sick; I was the one who lifted him, moved him, bathe him, and became a cane. Now, if you would try to lean on me right now at this very moment, we both would fall. God specifically graced me to be able to support my husband and it totally shocked me. What would I have done without His grace? Even as I right this note, I am starting to cry. Heaven knows I've done wrong in my life and so many times I tried to do things by myself, but God still affords me His grace knowing all too well that I did not always deserve it.

Before you try to figure out why someone is being blessed and you don't feel like they deserve it; get to know how God's grace operates. He gives His grace not just to the good and the gifted, but to the greedy and to the gullible folks as well. What would I have done without His grace? When I smoked some dope laced with something that caused me to sleep for a whole day.....literally from 4 PM one Saturday until 7 PM the next day. When I slept with a guy who had more partners than he could name. When I was from club to club. When I was in jail. When I was sleeping with someone else's husband. When I was friends with my enemy. When I was doing wrong, even though I knew it was wrong. When I was stealing and talking to the cop at the same time. Where would I be without His grace?

I could name a few places that would have loved to keep me like: the grave and the jail. God's grace understood who I was even before I knew who I was. His grace covered me, bailed me out, woke me, kept me from disease, allowed me an opportunity to see myself as I was, and then gave me the opportunity to get to know the me God ordained me to be. Never in all my days would I have ever imagined just how good His grace would be to me. 

Don't let anyone look down on where you are! You have been graced to go through just what you are going through. You are exactly where God has you. God's amazing grace will carry you through, just like it carried me.

My family and I went to deliver blankets to the homeless and shelters tonight in the rain. This blanket drive is so important to us that even Dobrielle did not mind getting her hair wet tonight! (SMILE) Although we dropped off a lot, there are still some folks on the streets that we need to accomodate. I am asking all of you who can find it in your hearts to give, to call me and allow me to pick up all of your old blankets that are stuffed in the closets or some new ones that you don't mind going out to Walmart to buy. Our brothers and sisters who have no where to go really need our help.
You can email me at .,...info@danyellescroggins.com....if you have some to donate and I will be more than happy to come and get them. You will never know how much your donation means to me and my family, and my other family members who are out there with no where to go. God bless you and I love you dearly.

When I think of Dr. King, I think of how phenomenal we become when we do things God’s way. It’s never been more apparent to me than it is right now, how we as humans are so prone to using the world’s way, or the world’s tactics to solve problems and uncomfortable situations that disturb our lives. We are then reduced to uncivilized, underhanded humans led by the eternal inducements of sin. We must rally according to the Word of God, and rely heavily on the values that were saturated in the mission of Dr. King, knowing that there is a way that seems right unto man, and avoid this way by all cost.

We must never underestimate the power of God and the power of righteousness. When we consider with careful consideration how Dr. Martin Luther King, with men and women who understood obedience and how to truly follow the man of God, was able to accomplish so much, in so little time, we see how we have failed as a church, as a preacher, and most importantly as a Christian. Where are the men and women of God who finds the injustice and gather as a community to peaceably transform the wrongs that have been construed as right? We need not believe that we are living in a time, when the feelings of our past are far beyond surfacing in today’s society. The Scott sisters are the prime example of how our justice system still contains judges who merit unspoken that African American are still niggers. Our children are schooled with people who tolerate their kids being friends with blacks, but never dating. Some of the grandparents who walked to school calling our grandparents “Niggers”, have learned how to still teach their children and grandchildren values of hatred, but instead of open displays of hatred, they use secret measures empowered by finances and legislative pens.

So, I write because I feel that now is the time that we understand the importance of the NAACP. Now is the time to understand that the lives that were lost, the children killed, the people hosed down, the men of God murdered were not for us as a people to digress, but that promising progression be fibered in the debts of our souls. My heart bleeds each year on this day, as I think of our school systems filled with teachers who have demoralized their jobs to just getting paychecks,  and how our children feel that education is a gimmick and another measure to oppress them by teaching and demanding obedience. I think of how my great-great grandmother cared enough for the children to drive a horse driven buggy through the bumpy roads of Grand Cane, Louisiana, to ensure that the little black children were educated.  I know it is hard to love children that don’t seem to even love themselves, nevertheless, as an educator you have decided to take on the responsibility of teaching (parenting in an institution), and it is your responsibility to love these children enough to exalt every measure in you to teach what is right. Or is it that you don’t feel that you should have to parent forgetting after all, that our children are at school just as must as they are at home. Or could it be that the school system so bent of achieving high state mandated test scores to ensure governmental funding, is failing our children. So, as one woman rallied to take prayer out of the schools, should not the millions of teachers who understood the power of prayer fought to keep prayer in? Nevertheless, now we have created a mess and as education become less important, so does Christian standards, moral ethics, and human life.

 Now that we believe that we are free, we have taken freedom and human rights and have abused this state of mind as the Israelites continuously did in the days before Christ. I claim freedom as a state of mind, because I understand that only he whom the Lord has set free is free indeed. This is exactly why we as pastors, preachers, teachers, must help our people obtain this freedom in their minds by not succumbing in agreement to their decision to sin as they chose, but instead teaching an unadulterated gospel that is steep in the power of restoration, salvation, and transformation.  We must look beyond their faults, and as God- see their needs. We must show our people that the same love that covers a multitude of faults is the same love that unites a people in promise and through saving grace.

I was not born on August 28, 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his most uplifting, and remembered “I Have A Dream” speech, but I understand the power of having a vision to be a part of a day when right over-rules the intruding acts of hatred in people, and love abides to the point when we help one another without motives- but out of true obedience to God. I think of the Caucasian woman (M.E.), who opened my eyes to how God intended His love to over-rule all that this world has taught, penetrated, and saturated in the devil’s decisive and precise plan, and I honor her not because of what she has done, but because of the spirit in which she obeyed God. It is then that I not only received a true revelation as to how God intended this world to be, but I understood that when the Spirit of the True and Living God resides in man, he sees himself not as a race but indeed as a vessel that God can use and will use to help other vessels in this walk of life.

As we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, on this day, let’s make a prime decision to focus not on what has happened in our past, but instead how we as a vessel can make sure that we never walk into the aura of the past by becoming empowered to live a life dedicated to the Lord, peace, and the power to make a change in our environment, church, jobs, schools, and wherever we shall thread our feet. We all have the responsibility of being the best vessel on this earth that we can absolutely be. Thank you Lord for sending a man who truly understood as You, the power of laying down his life for a friend.

Remembering this day as the day that the Lord has caused us to understand Jeremiah 29:11, and we each have to seek God for that plan, and move accordingly....Just as Dr. Martin Luther King.

For the life of me, I could not tell you how afraid I was to step out on faith concerning my book ministry. I was totally relying on my sister/friend whom I just happen to call “Twin”, to hold my hand and walk with me the entire way. Well, on last evening God began to deal with me concerning trusting Him for everything.
I said, “Lord, why is it that I can trust you for my ministry concerning where I should go, what I should preach, what I should say in prophecy, but I cannot seem to muster up enough strength to trust you to show me which way to go concerning my books? Then God said, “Danyelle, you have always felt like you were alone, and the only way to curve this feeling was to invite people in. There were times when you did not even desire to go to the bathroom by yourself.” I smirked at hearing this because He knew. I would go constipated for days because I could not stand the thought of being alone in a bathroom. Then I discovered the art of taking the Lord and disciples in with me when I could find no one else. Meaning, I prayed or read my bible anytime I went to the bathroom.
Then I asked, “Lord, why am I like this, and I’ve been this way all of my life?” He said, “Because there was a part of you that always long for Me. I created you with this longing so that when you finally realized that I was with you, you would truly know this.” Then I said, “Well, can you teach me to walk in Holy Boldness concerning every area of my life.” And He said, “Better than that, I have even given you someone to become a help meet to, and if you would just allow him to help you, you’ll see that you will be helping him all along.”
So, here I’ve been depending on others to do what Reynard could have been helping me do all along. Then I said to my husband, “Baby, I need help with the blanket drive. I have got to get more people involved.” And he responded by saying one simple word, “Okay.” We both went to sleep and I thought, alright God you said that he was my help and all he said was okay….I don’t know. Then to my disbelief, Reynard woke up and said, “Baby, the Lord showed me in a dream how to help you with the blanket drive. I need you to draft up a letter and say this here, and then I will put it in the hands of those who will help.”

You know I almost hit the ceiling. God proved exactly what He’d shared with me, not two days later, or the following week, but in the matter of an eight hour sleep. Is not God good? Every day, He teaches me that He has everything I need in His hand and all I have to do is seek Him in and for everything I do, and trust Him. I pray that this encourages someone who always feels like they need help doing what God told them to do. Just do it, and God will send exactly who He desires to be a partaker in what He has given you to do! Be Blessed

Life is filled with choices but the choices we make should not breed hate. I am in no ways in agreement with a gay person who says that their lifestyle is not a choice. You were made to function as God created you to function, and anything less or other than that is a choice that you make. And be it that God has made us, Free Moral Agents, you have the right to chose what fits for you, what works for you. Whether I believe your choice is right or wrong, it's simply my opinion. Only you and God can weigh your decision according to its relevance, nevertheless, I have no more right to hate you because of your choice. We are to love everyone and although we may not agree on the choices they make, we still have the direct command to love our neighbor as ourselves.
I can't see myself not giving a person a place to live based on their choice, or not feeding someone based on their choice, or even not praying for someone based on their choice. Discrimination is totally a hate breeding state of mentality and whether it's against gay, black, women, etc., it hurts. We are to pray for one another and although the bible instructs us not to agree with what is wrong, we still have the obligation to love the person and not the sin. So, for my readers- I pray that you understand that I truly love you, and every book that I write is my best effort to share God's Word according to how I have experienced it in my life.

We are so excited that God has graciously thought us purposeful enough to be partakers of a New Year. Though, we do not know how long we will be here on earth, we wake up making the best of each moment, each day. There are many who did not make it to see this New Year, but there is the greatest blessing they left behind with us; Memories. My greatest mentor past and although he's in his resting place, I am left with tons of memories and a couple of his books, in which he never failed to remind me that, "Preachers never give back books." Then one day, I thought about it...Why if you know that preachers never give back books, you still loan yours out constantly. And I figured it out, he wanted to leave a legacy in that he always encouraged preachers to read! How awesome is that! Now, what am I doing to keep his legacy moving? I'm loaning books and although I don't expect to get them back, I'm going to remind the people whom I give books to, to pass them on.
Now, that God has saw fit to leave me here, I must continue to walk in the calling which substantiates my purpose. And I must continue to show each of you God's love through my love for you. I am grateful that you too are still here, and I pray that you are ready to start this New Year anticipating God's move, walking in crazy faith, and believing beyond what you see. Be Blessed!

 Once upon a midnight clear, although it was a rainy Christmas Eve,
I asked the Lord, to hear my cry, and do have mercy please.
 I had no money or gifts to give, and my spirit was quit down,
Then all of a sudden what did appear, was a thorn bush shaped in a crown.
I wiped my eyes and squinched real hard, cause my mind was playing tricks;
Then came a voice real sweet and clear, "For you I bore many licks"
I shook my head, said get a grip, a lump formed in my throat
Then He said, "For you I bleed, Danyelle get out of that boat!"
I said, "Lord I'm scared, I've been here too long, and I just think I'll sank."
He said, "Faith is better than a billion dollars, drafted from every bank.
I shook my head, breathe in some air, and closed my eyes real tight;
He said, "If you get out of the boat, have faith in me, I promise you'll be alright."
"Lord help me to believe, cause my strength is gone and I'm tired of being in this place,
I take two steps, get knocked down three, how will I ever finish this race?"
"Danyelle, it's not given to the swift or the strong, but to the child that shall endure;
Money's not the answer, trust in Me, and you will win for sure.
Just temporary set-backs to usher you through, as I pull you to,
If you never buy one single gift, just share what I've given you."
I thought real hard about the gifts I have, and the talents God has given to me,
I grabbed a pen and wrote this poem and said, "Lord this is the key."
Somebody's down, depressed, and stressed cause Christmas is a day away,
They had no money or gifts to give, and couldn't help feeling this way.
Listen friends, you must believe in what I'm trying to say,
The best gift you can give any day, is to fall on your knees and pray!
How do I know? It's Christ Birthday- and gifts I can't afford to give,
My gift goes like this, and if you get it, I promise that you will live.....
It started in a manger many years ago, Mary had a baby and the stars began to glow.
Wise men came brought gifts and stuff, but fled from Herold who would have put them in cuff.
The baby grew, in the temple too, and began to show that He was wise,
And John the Baptist preach, yes there is One, and when He came it was no surprise.
John baptized Him and said He's the One, And God confirmed, He's my only Son.
He preached, He taught, He healed, He freed, He raised dead folks, and He gave,
But it didn't stop the Romans soldiers from beating Him, like He was a Hebrew slave.
He marched, carried a cross, up Calvary's Hill and hung His head and died,
Mary said, "The Lord is Risen!",and the disciples thought that woman had lied.
Then He appeared, Thomas saw His hands, only then he could believe;
It was the same little baby, Jesus the Christ, that Mary did conceive.
He said I going to away to take My place, by My Father's side;
They stood there gazing so amazed, as He took His heavenly ride.
From beginning to the ending, His birth and His life, and even the day He died,
Was to reconcile, you back to His Father, so you could one day be by His side.
Now, that is the gift, I give to you and all you must do is believe,
Salvation is here, so near and so clear, On this fine Christmas Eve!

Have A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!