Take This Life
Written by Shawn McDonald and Chris Stevens
As I'm standing here, staring into the mirror
See the figure of a man trying to take a stand
And live for something more
Integrity is what I need and honor to my soul I feed
To give it up, pack it in, getting rid of all my sin that's weighing me down
Won't You come and fill
I want You to come and make me more real
Take this life, won't You change this life
Come and make me whole
Won't You take this life, won't You change this life
Come and make me whole
In my pursuit of what is real
My heart is longing with a need to feel my soul come alive
I trudge and I step through the height and the death
Of a long narrow road as I'm growing old
And soon I will be home
Beautiful
Written by Shawn McDonald
As I look into the stars
Pondering how far away they are
How You hold them in Your hands
And still You know this man
You know my inner most being, oh
Even better than I know, than I know myself
What a beautiful God
What a beautiful God
And what am I, that I might be called Your child
What am I, what am I
That You might know me, my King
What am I, what am I, what am I
As I look off into the distance
Watching the sun roll on by
Beautiful colors all around me, oh
Painted all over the sky
The same hands that created all of this
They created you and I
What a beautiful God
What a beautiful God
And what am I, that I might be called Your child
What am I, what am I
That You might know me, my King
What am I, what am I
That You might die, that I might live
What am I, what am I, what am I, what am I
What am I
What am I
What am I
What am I
What am I
Hi! My name is Merry. I have been a Christian since I was a small child. My grandfather sat me on his lap as a young child and led me to the Lord. I will never forget that day. My grandfather went to be with the Lord many years ago, but I know that I will see him again (along with many other friends and family). Recently my 'thirst' for Christ has been as though I am in the dry dry desert. My desire to know Him more and more and share His love with others is on fire. I live in Southwest Ohio. I am married and have 5 children and a step daughter. My children are Curtis 17, Whitney 15, Alex 13, Kaitlin 12, Drew 10 and Mackensie, who is 5 years old. I am an RN and I work full time with the disabled individuals in our county. This has been the area of nursing that I feel most called to and feel it is a blessing to be a part of their lives! They bless me so much!!! This full time schedule has been difficult to juggle the family activities, however I feel blessed to have this job and how many people can honestly say the LOVE their jobs? (I do!!!) I am married to my best friend and soulmate, Brent. He is currently unemployed and seeking Gods calling to place him in whatever is according to His will. He is also an ordained minister. We love to reach out to others and 'be a blessing'. We are the founders of the 'Be A Blessing Foundation', which focuses on blessing others with providing help in different ways. We might do yard work for an elderly person or paint someone's house that can't afford the cost of labor. The only thing we ask is the recipient pass the blessings forward. It has been amazing to see peoples responses to this ministry. Most think 'whats the catch?'. There is no catch except the 'catch' of Gods love and grace. We hope to continue to touch others lives as we show His love through our acts. If you have a personal prayer request or need help with something, please let us know. We would love to pray for you, with you or assist you in anyway possible. Please send me a message, if you would like. Thanks for visiting my HHS page and God bless you!!!
So good to hear from you Merry, hope you & Brent are doing good as well has all the kids. I know you two have very busy lifes with working & raising your family, I remember those days lol. Blessings & love Shirley
Hi Merry,
Thanks for sending the comments, and the kind words. I love you all, too. I don't write as often as I should, and I apologize for that. I just don't spend as much time online as I did before I started working. I do think about you all often though and would love to spend some more time with you all. It is good hearing from you, and I really enjoyed talking with Mackensie and Brent last night, too. I sat here with tears in my eyes, because that call really made my day and now your comments, too really makes my week a blessed one. I could tell last night when Mackensie told me that she loves me, that she really meant it, because I could hear it in her voice and it really touched my heart, too. Tell her that Grandpa Ray loves her and misses her, too. I look forward to seeing you all and spending some time with you in July. I send my love to you, Brent, and your family. Keep me in your prayers, and I will be praying for you all, too. I hope that your week is overflowing with God's glorious blessings. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Love and blessings,
Ray
Love makes us Holy: The Spirit of Holiness is the Love of the Father that flows through us. Hence any act or deed done without Love is not holy. A holy man is one who allows the Love of God to shine through him into the lives of others.The more the Love of God abounds in a person's Life the greater that person is in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not how much head Knowledge that counts, but how much heart Knowledge of God you have. The Father looks at our hearts. A heart overflowing with Love is very pleasing to Him.
The Incarnation provides a uniquely Christian response to human tragedy. God stands with us in it, bearing our sorrow, responding to humanity's suffering by entering it. Finally, in that most desolate of cries, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" we see Christ at the bottom of the abyss. We see God wearing our humanity, entering our desolation, and drinking the cup of all that contradicts His own goodness. Draining the venom of human misery from the inside out, by death He tramples down death. Kevin Chiarot, WORLD magazine, November 24, 2001, pp 26-27.
Sweetheart, just a note to say that my love and dedication to you grows more and more every day. No matter what each day brings, no matter the frustrations of life...know this...your Father in Heaven loves you and holds you in the palm of His hand, and will never allow anyone or anything to pull you from His hand, and
I love you and honor you and desire to give to you whatever your need, and to be for you whatever you need. Our vows to each other are eternal, and ones that I will hold and cherish forever and always Thank you for everything, and thank you for being my best friend I love you Brent
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either. If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal. That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana ? I wondered. I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair. On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up. When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.... THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer: 1. 'Yes!' 2. 'Not yet.' 3! . 'I have something better in mind..' God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar. You maybe going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine. My instructions were to pick four people that I wanted God to bless, and I picked you. Please pass this to at least four people you want to be blessed . This prayer is powerful, and prayer is one of the best gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of rewards Let's continue to pray for one another. Here is the prayer:.... Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Amen.
