Here I Raise My Ebenezer

This blog has been a long time in the making. Not so much because it was an especially difficult or trying task, but because of my own inability to follow directions. Quite a while back, during a sermon, the Lord told me that it was time for me to raise my Ebenezer to remind me of who God is and what He has done specifically for me and my family. Three years later, here I am, finally starting. The idea of raising an Ebenezer comes from 1 Samuel 7:12 where it says, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."

Translated, Ebenezer means Stone of Help. It is a way to remember God's living and real presence and aid. For me, this blog is become my Ebenezer, where I will go to lay down my stones of help. I will lay these stones of remembrance to bear witness to myself and to others that God is active in my life. That not only does He love me so much that He gave up His life so I could spend eternity with him but that he chose to have a relationship with me and to help me in my times of deepest troubles and needs.

The posts will probably be a little jumbled, especially at the beginning, as I work on laying out some of the old works He has done that He wants me to remember along with recording the new ones. I hope that as they are put down, they become a tangible reminder to me that, at times I may not feel Him or see Him or know that He is there, but He was there for me before, He is here for me now, and He will always be there, no matter what I am feeling at that moment.

And with that I will leave you with this:

400. Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Text: Robert Robinson, 1735-1790
Music: Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second
Tune: NETTLETON, Meter: 87.87 D

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.