Out of Church

Is God Calling You out of Church to come away with Him ?

15 years ago God (Yes God) led me to leave the organized church as we know it and come away with him into the desert. I asked him for 3 confirmations telling no one. We all know everyone has an opinion :0). I received my confirmations and ventured into the unknown with God.

Boy was I judged and called backslider etc by those who supposedly loved me In Jesus name...It was sad and hard at first but exciting a whole new adventure were I was not in control.

Daring to live on the edge were Jesus lives’ to boldly go where most Christians long to go, but because we have seen too many examples of our Brothers being shot down, we listen to man and not God…Fear of your neighbor is a terrible thing…but a holy healthy fear of your heavenly father is a powerful way to live.

Over the past 20 years I have only met a hand full of people who were thoroughly passionate about God, the vast majority have a knowledge of him or are more concerned about their status before others or telling other Christians how they should live their lives or building their own kingdoms and bringing converts into the same bondage as themselves.

In short I believe God brought me to this country to teach me how to love the lost sheep of his flock and it has been very hard class to take! Many times I have wanted to quit. But as I slowly progress and gain his understanding of unconditional love I gain understanding of how he feels by the churches rejection of his love.

Over the next 8 years I had more fellowship than I had in all the 14 odd years of churches I attended. Truth be told I was bored to death in church, It was like I was dying inside spiritually and my spirit needed to be fed…the more I cried out to God I felt his heart for a people that had chosen to go their own way. Everything looked right but inside no real life existed.

I knew I was not the only one and I know there are 1000`s more God has called out into the desert to be wooed by HIM: 0)

When you look at it biblically all the people who wanted more of God spent long times alone with Him, being broken, engineered, rebuilt. Their ministries destroyed and his plan being restored in their hearts….Moses…David….Joseph…Paul...to name but a few :0)

God continually sent me Angels and Visions along the way to encourage me…the Following is one instance….It happened in the High desert of Central Oregon on one of many motorcycle trips….

It was early in the morning I was heading north bound on Highway 97 about 60 miles north of Klamath Falls Oregon. The sky was clear and the temp was in the 90`s and I was doing one of my favorite things....I had been gone for 3 days riding my! 1985 BMW k100 motorcycle...the worlds rolls Royce of bikes :) I have ridden many bikes before, but in my estimation no other bike comes close...those Germans know what they are doing vvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I had just had breakfast at a roadside cafe and now relaxed and well fed I opened up the throttle and sped north through the morning air of vast high desert of good old Oregon.....I was feeling truly alive , gloriously present. This is living I thought to myself...I wish my dad could see me know living my dream in the US of A...

As a child growing up in Ireland, I had always dreamt of riding through the desserts of cowboy land ,sleeping under the stars ,now I was riding a wonderful piece of engineering, at last playing in my own westerns!! YAY for me :)

Then a thought came to me...pull over and make a memorial...yes just like that.....Ok God! I will , so I looked for a side road, found one, propped the beamer on the stand , walked down a sandy embankment to a clearing in the high desert pines. (Seven years before I had left Church / organized religion to embarked on a journey of self discovery and had come into a deeper more meaningful relationship with my creator)

So I looked around for some rocks to make a memorial but could only find wood. That will do I thought and so I knelt down and placed my right hand on the sand and with my left plied the small clump of wood on top. Ok! God what to you want me to say.... the words just flowed out....I told God that the old Michael Quinlan with all his hurts and fears was dead , gone ,the new man was alive , ready to live. So I stood up and felt the most tremendous peace envelope me.

While this was going on my cell phone rang, it was my friend Sonya. Mike where you...out are in the desert I said..... When are you coming back...don't know I replied...Hey guess what just happened I said and filled her in ...wow she said , we agreed to meet in a few days for tea and hung up.

I climbed the embankment and feeling like a new man hopped on the beamer and sped north.....wow ...that was great I thought reliving the moment, I felt so free..... then it happened! No I did not crash :0)

... All of a sudden I knew I was not alone and could sense something coming up on the left side of the bike , as I looked the most beautiful vision pulled up and rode alongside of me....It was a golden motorcycle , it looked like a cross between an Indian bike / Harley . Riding it was God , his hair and beard were flowing in the wind and a big grin was on his face..

Before I could get a word out...He said...Is`NT this great... (I always knew he was with me ...but this was so cool...for a kid that always wanted to go riding with his earthly dad ( it had never happened...) this was the ultimate :0) ) Then I had a strong urge to check my right mirror , I saw another bike coming up fast...I recognized the white helmet , the black leathers with red stripes down the arms , the brown bull nose tank of a Kawasaki 750..IT was My DAD..I began to weep uncontrollably (My Dad had died 9yrs ago) he drew up alongside me quickly and Glanced over at me...there was no face in the helmet only his spirit...I felt such unconditional love for him like I had never known before ..The author of many of my troubles in life...I was now loving freely and unshackled from...words can not describe how I truly felt...alive would be an understatement lol..

Through my tears of joy I kept thinking I have to watch the road. That was some moment! All three of us Riding north on highway 97 on the breathtaking ride of our lives...well mine anyway :)

It seemed like it went on forever or that time stood still , then it was over . I wept all the way to the high desert museum just outside of bend ( manag`ing to keep the bike on the road) had a long rest and reflection on the past couple of hours...a lot more happened on that trip....

I have many stories but This is written to those of you That have dared to live on the edge and Follow the desire of the spirit …hang in there, it’s well worth it :0) and those of you feeling Gods pull on your heart GO FOR IT!!!!! Loose all for the sake of finding your none religious true self in Him :0)

Cheers Mike :0)

Demons ?

Demons are real but a force not to be afraid of and as long as we stay connected to the father he will always have our back.

Recently on a trip to Maui I and 2 friends decided to visit a beach in Hana a small village at the end of a 50 mile curvy road that takes about 4 to 5 hours to drive as it is very narrow with a lot of one lane bridges. The drive though tedious for the driver has amazing sites and ocean views.

Well in order to get to “Red beach” in Hana you have to cross an open field ,walk a steep trail up and around a cliff edge before descending a narrow path to the beach.

I was the first to view the beach from the cliff top it was a sheltered cove full of sun worshipers and 40 % of them were naked. A fact my local friend forgot to mention.However I had peace about carrying on and so we descended into adventure.

The third member of our group was a young Hawaiian 22 and unfamiliar with this beach along with some of its unsavory sites depending on your point of view.

He remained quiet on the issue.

We chose a nice spot to lay our beach towels on the sand and I went swimming. I was not bothered by my naked surroundings. When I came out of the water I noticed friend number 3 was feeling uncomfortable by the adam and Eve`s.

I told him I understood and that we would leave...We then went to tell Andy that we wanted to leave but he said he did not want to leave just yet... as he was speaking an older man sitting with some people about 60 yards away began yelling at us and cursing us he was wearing clothes.

I turned to my two friends and said

“notice how of all the people on the beach we are the only ones he is cursing and we have not even given him any previous attention or reason to do so”

I said with your permission I would like to pray 2 things one that you (the young Hawaiian will) not be affected by the people you see here and two I will speak to that demon in the possessed man yelling at us in the name of Jesus to be quiet and leave.

This was what I felt led to do by the holy spirit in this situation.

They both agreed and I did quietly under my breath after all I was not speaking to the man but the demon within him.

With in a minute the cursing old man got up and left and our young friend was filled with Gods peace and was no longer afraid.

A look of amazement came over both my friends, it was not that they didn’t believe God could do it, it was just they were not used to seeing things like this happen to them.

Then after some time passed we all agreed to leave realizing God had done in us all what he wanted to accomplish which was the release from fear in those area`s

What a great Free class :0)

Keep on keeping on!!!!

Love Michael Q:0)

Any one for Chinese :0)

Had a cool thing happen yesterday.

Cynthia and I were having our moving sale (which went very well by the way)

Anyway had this guy come in and buy a lamp no big deal there, as I was helping some one out the door with a purchase to their truck I noticed the guy who bought the Lamp had the hood up on his mini van.

So I went over to see if all was ok .

His battery positive connection had corroded and fallen off.

Easy fix, so I drove him to the auto parts store and when we got back replaced it , we chatted a bit and then he left.

Then went back to selling our effects, Cynthia gave out free smoothie samples to all who came, we had a great crowd of customers over the two days.

At 3pm we closed shop and cynthia suggested going to “PF Chang’s” in bridgeport for some good Chinese nutrition.

I thought on it then said you know what lets pass and walk down the street to our favorite Thai and a cold beer.

Later that night while watching a movie we were Hungary again around 10:30pm.So I got up to make something and then some knocked on our front door.

Cynthia opened it and low and behold it was the guy who I helped with the mini van.

He worked at “PF Chang’s” as a chef and made brought us a special meal.

Got to love God and his timing :0)

Hello I`m A Teenager :0)

Hi I’m your local teenager :0)

Please take your rules regulations, religious language, and pious lofty attitudes and put them where they belong on the garbage heap. Please listen to me, hear my heart cry, fill and meet my needs. You have a wonderful tool given to you by the creator of life that has nothing to do with religion, the walls of a crystal cathedral, fleet of busses, multitude of television stations or franchised churches or healing programs for sale from your minster only for a suggested donation.

You are not someone I can look up to and admire walk, talk with, pour my heart out too. OH, yes you will listen for a price as long as I will be a member of your church, pay a monthly. Weekly fee, give to orphans in Africa. You will not hug me as I cry at night or sit awhile and chat. Oh, yes you will hold classes, sell books, have concerts and all for a fee. Yes, you accelerate everything, build bigger, better, larger and quicker.

But the sad fact is many of you do not even know God let alone who you really are, if we don’t see it your way there is something wrong with us. If we dress differently, talk funny, or think outside your religious box, you call us sinners and blasphemers and yet you are trying to reach us…why are you doing this, we do not want to be like you, we don’t even look up to you, you don’t truly love us….why don’t you just quit trying please and get to know this God you are all talking about, if he is so full of love as you claim then learn from him. After all is that not why he created you in the first place so that he could have a relationship with you, a real live one, one that is full of real passion taking all the human emotions to depths and heights of shear enjoyment.

Please stop calling us Generation X, Y, or Z or dressing like us to reach us….just be who your creator made you to be. When I was a child I thought as a child, played like a child, I did not need a book to teach me how to play, I just naturally did it. If you had just taken my hand and played with me I could have taken you to a magical land of knowing me and how wonderfully gifted I am. we could have had marvelous journey you and me, God made me perfect in his sight, but you tried to improve me, mold me control me, boy did you miss the boat. Therefore, I retreated into my own world and shut you out. I stopped growing because I was denied the one thing God created us all for…Fellowship, yes as simple as that, you talking to me and me talking to you and both of us listening.

Well as Don Francisco once sang, “I don’t care how many busses you own or the size of your sanctuary or care how tall your steeple are if it’s sitting on a cemetery”......

Do you love me are you willing to die for me a complete stranger, Jesus did, I am not far away I`m your neighbor….let’s start with Hello and leave the religious face behind :0)

Lipton Ice Tea ?

It was a hot summer afternoon I and a co-worker were busy  laying a new concrete sidewalk outside an Elementary school in south Salem Oregon.

Ken and I had dug the foundation the previous day and today we had just poured the concrete.
It was hot exhausting work.

We decided to break for lunch, so we grabbed our lunch pails from the work truck and sat down on the steps in the shade by the back entrance to the school .
We chatted for a while, I was telling Ken about Gods provision  and then Ken said

" Boy a couple of Lipton Ice Tea`s sure would be nice right now"

I prayed out loud

" God please give us some Lipton ice tea`s"

Right at that moment a navy mini van pulled up to the kirb in front of us and parked.

A women in her late forties got out and walked towards us carrying a brown paper bag.

We both looked up and figured she was probably lost and looking for directions and yet at the same time, thinking something was about to happen out of the ordinary.

She stopped in front of us and said

" you boys look like you could use a couple of Lipton Ice Tea`s"

She said taking two Ice Tea`s out of the bag and giving them to us and then she left with our grateful appreciation .

Ken Just sat there with his mouth in Fly catching mode stunned

I did not have to say another word, the Lipton Ice tea did all the talking!!!

Love Gods provision!!!

Later Michael :0)

Leaving Ireland First step :0)

Leaving Ireland First step :0)

It was a bright sunny morning and a gentle breeze was blowing inland from the sea. The sent of salt and freshly caught fish filled the air as the local fishermen offloaded their weekly catch to the local auction house, it was 8.30am. I pulled on the starter of our new green lawn mower and began to cut the backyard that faced onto the southwest corner of the harbor.

As the mower was self-propelled, I followed along lost in thought stopping only to guide the mower in the needed direction.

I was thinking about how I had come to this place in my life, the subsequent events, the fact that I had my life’s dream, Hotel by the sea surrounded by mountains and terrific scenery, nice car, motorcycle and all the amenities a good hotel can provide. But alas, I was miserable, feeling unfulfilled and wanting back the peace I had enjoyed when I first asked Jesus into my heart.

Then the mower started to drag and veer of course. As I glanced down to find the cause of the problem, I noticed that the left front wheel had come off. I soon found it but could not find the nuts, washers and bolt that held it in place. After I had searched for some time a thought struck me, why not God challenge, hey what did I have to loose.

So I looked up to heaven and said God thank you for this Hotel and all that you have allowed me have but I am miserable and I want to have back what I had before and to follow you for the rest of my life and London England keeps coming to mind and if you want me to go there, I will, but my sign and confirmation will be if I find those nuts and bolts, but not just find them but find then in a row.

As soon as I prayed that, I turned around and there they were behind me in a row in the spot I had walked over and searched many times.

I did not hesitate I marched inside to the hotel laundry room, grabbed a large blue laundry bag, went to my room and packed the bag with my belongings and as I knew my Dad was driving to our house in cork city I hitched a ride and also told him of my plans, I told my sister she could have my half of the Hotel and of course they both gave me that look of we know you will be back. I did not tell them what had occurred earlier, they already thought I was nuts, why confirm it.

So dad drove me to our house and I walked into my church to visit my friends and tell them of my plans. It was great to see them all. They laid hands on me and prayed that I would hear clearly from God and then I went bought my boat ticket for London England and left 2 days later.

I Need Back up !!!!!

Red dude white Dude!!

About 2 weeks ago, I was out for a walk in downtown Portland Oregon. It was 5:30 pm with dry streets a pleasnt Surprise in this neck of the concrete jungle world. I walked from block to block following the pedestrian lights leading. It is a game Cynthia and I love to play. We call it Red Dude white dude. Whichever one is lit that is where we cross. Found some great streets and restaurants this way.

Well as I walked all of a sudden, I noticed I was praying in the spirit, so I went with it and said ok, God whatever you have in mind I am up for it. Therefore, I continued following the lights somewhat ironic, you think Ha ha!

About five or six blocks later, I came in sight of “Pioneer court house square” Portland’s Meeting Hub well at least in my mind; others may choose to drop in at the river, each to his own. So yes, the lights and not the voices this time led me to the square.

I arrived at a light at the entrance to a store Called “Nordstrom’s” across from Starbucks coffee that was situated on the NW corner of pioneer sqr. Two Street musicians were playing stringed instruments so I stopped to listen. All this time I was praying in the spirit. Then the light changed to the white Dude and I had the urge to cross to the NW corner of the square and cross I did.

The yearly Christmas tree took center stage (Middle of sq.) with its brilliant colorful light display, better than last years I thought. Starbucks was packed as per usual and throngs of commuters were waiting for the Tri Met train, it was rush hour.

I stood at the corner of the square observing the scene before me. Then I saw him or more likely heard his voice above the hustle and bustle. A guy in his late forties was standing with a bible in his left hand sharing the gospel. I watched him for some time and asked the Holy Spirit what he wanted me to do. Two people were beginning to heckle him so I quietly moved between him and them and prayed they would be quiet and they ceased. Then I noticed a women wearing a red coat in her forty’s with her back to the preacher who I could tell was listening and struggling with inner turmoil so I prayed for her. All this time I just prayed in the spirit and acted nonchalant.

The preacher was incredibly humble yet preached a bold powerful message, not loud and obnoxious or judgmental but like a father talking to his children. Just as he finished the train pulled in, the women in red walked through the open doors and moments later the train left, and the sidewalk was virtually empty for a brief period.