What is an Ebenezer?

So, many of you know that I have recently moved from the beautiful state of RI to my new home in TN.  It is beautiful here and I am over-the-top amazed at how friendly the people are here, but right now, I feel like I will always be missing our Little Rhody.

I have the personalitly that tells me to just sit in my screened porch and look at the lake all day.  Perhaps go into my new art shed and do a bit of art, but not get out into the community.  This could be because I feel like I would be cheating on RI, it could be due to the fact that I am just scared.  Although I like myself and feel that I can offer great things to any community, I am not naturally outgoing. I don't want to interfere with people's lives...which sounds pretty stupid as I am writing this. 

I am though, forcing myself out of my comfort zone.  As I write this I am sitting in a really great coffee shop called, "The Grinder House".  It is way more than coffee and has a great vibe.  I also am looking for a church so that I can get to know some like minded people to share my life with.

Looking for a church is a great undertaking because unlike the North, there are a zillion churches!  Honestly, from a list of over 100 churches in our town, I whittled it down to 15 to start out with.  From there I checked out websites and listened to parts of semons and the music.  By doing this, I picked out 5 churches that I will check out and hopefully find the one.

While listening to one church's music leader, I was reminded of something really interesting to me.  The Ebenezer.

The music leader was explaining what the Ebenezer means.  I haven't heard about this in a long time and was very interested to learn again.  He mentioned the line in the song, "Come Thou Fount"  which says, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer".  He went on to say that Ebenezer means Rock of Help. Oh, how this touched my soul because I was really needing my Rock of Help at that time.  (This was in the middle my last blog post called, "Feeling Lost"  if you want to read about that.) 

Two days later I randomly opened my Bible to see what God had for me that day.  And...I know it is hard to believe, but I opened up to the story in 1 Samuel 7 which tells the story of the Ebenezer.  About how God helped win the victory in the battle.  I just cried.  I needed to get a hug from God that day, and He gave it to me! 

So, what I decided to do is make my own Ebenezer to be a constant reminder of how much God loves me and is my Rock of Help.  I am just using little flat rocks that I have collected over the years from the beaches of RI plus one red shale rock from my Dad's property in PA.  (I just love red shale.  It is actually pink and it reminds me so much of my childhood.)  I set it up on the window sill in our screened porch so I will see it daily and be reminded of how much I am loved by the Creator and that He is always on my side being my Rock of Help.  

Much love,

Cherie