Ebenezer? Who is that? No, not Scrooge. This Ebenezer was a what, not a who. In the Bible, Ebenezer means stone of help. It’s purpose? Let’s see… At one time in Israel’s history, when they faced the Philistines, Samuel and Israel fasted, prayed, repented, and offered a sacrifice. God answered their plea by confusing and defeating the enemy that pursued them. To commemorate the fact that Israel was victorious and recovered all the territory the enemy had taken, Samuel set up a stone as a marker of remembrance. When he did this, he exclaimed, “Up to this point the LORD …
Dear friend: a letter for the end of a year
By now you know I didn’t get Christmas cards sent this year. Though I couldn’t squeeze out the time to get them done, I feel compelled to carve out this time to write you a letter. A real letter. There’s something I want you to know before tomorrow comes and we stand on the first step of 2014 and wave goodbye to the year that was 2013. There’s something I need to tell you. I looked back over our Facebook messages to remember that thing you said to me, but I got distracted, scrolling through all the things that …