Reflections From Sunday Evening

Ebenezer! It could be simply Scrooge's first name. I suppose someone might actually name a child Ebenezer. It could be the name of a town. Actually there is an unincorporated community in Green County Missouri, six miles north of Springfield that is named Ebenezer. There is even a church there. The Ebenezer United Methodist Church worships there. But today I had another emphasis on "Ebenezer." When we sang "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" we sang verse two..."Here I raise mine Ebenezer..." Some of us have been singing that hymn most of our lives. Did you ever stop and wonder "what is an Ebenezer?" Take a moment and look up I Samuel 7:12. Now that you have done that...you know Ebenezer is basically a pile of rocks. But the meaning is significant. "Stone of help" sounds good. In the Bible story the Ebenezer stone reminded the people of the fact that "thus far the Lord has helped us." So today we did a little activity in church. There were all these dusty, dirty pond rocks placed all over the communion rail. We talked about issue number two in our HAUNTED series. It is a fact that there are people haunted by "guilt." Something was said or done in your past and every once in a while it pops back into your mind. People carry around guilt that they need not carry. But I am doing my message again. Suffice it to say it is not satisfactory to merely suppress guilt. We need our guilt removed. That brings us to a couple of "good news" ideas. Isaiah 6:7; "...your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Dare to believe that as a child of God's, in relationship with Jesus Christ your guilt is taken away. Going back to the dusty stones on our communion rail today. We sang "Come, Thou Fount" and invited people to come and take a stone. A trade was offered. Leave your guilt and receive God's grace. I trust many experienced a really good deal today. I would always give up my guilt in favor of God's grace. It's been a good day. I trust you've had a good day too. steve