Sunday, April 28, 2013

Ebenezer Scrooge...you say bah humbug...I say blessed stone!

(subtitled this dude got type cast) or (My Ebenezer MOMENT)



1 Samuel 7: 12  Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens  is one of my favorite holiday stories and movies.  The book  was published in 1843 and the American version of the movie  came about in 1938.  And here we are in 2013 and we are still talking about it, buying it and sharing it.  To watch or read it is a tradition in many homes.  It just isn’t the holidays if I don’t see at least one version of A Christmas Carol and of course A wonderful Life.

But back to A Christmas Carol and good old Ebenezer Scrooge. I don’t care the spin that is put on it – It could be the Mickey Mouse version, the Twilight Zone version, Jim Carey (remake) or the original  black and white I love it and I’m always excited at the end when he sees the errors of his ways and takes on the true meaning of the holiday (Yes even on my 100th viewing tissue and a deep sigh are usually involved)   If you’ve never seen it (good googaly where have you been) The movie is about an old man who because of life events has become a mean dude who has a lot of material goods but a cold heart and a cold office too.  He gives little of his heart or materials to others or for that matter even himself (FYI love yourself)    He is visited by an old ghost of a friend who warns him.  Man you going down a lonely path (Senetra interpretation).  He is then blessed with being able to witness his past, his now, and his future).  He learns a lesson about who he was, is and who he can be all in one night. (I’m slightly jealous of his revelation because I’m four score into this party and still don’t have a clear picture( but I am enjoying the ride- and NO THANK YOU ON THE GHOSTLY VISITS)

Anyway believe it or not this is not about Christmas or the reflection of the past the present and the future.  This is about the name Ebenezer!

Ebenezer was quite a popular name in the 1800s but did you know it’s also a biblical name!  Who knew that’s what I said any way when I heard a minister make a comment about calling a monument an Ebenezer – A stone of help.

*The word "Ebenezer" comes from Hebrew and is actually two words pronounced together: Even Haazer. Written in Hebrew it looks like this: 
 
I am excited amazed humbled and blessed to say that on Friday April 26, 2013, somewhere out on this beautiful planet a person read my blog and I was met with meeting a monument/a stone on this God journey of blogging, reaching 1500 hits.  Basically what that means is that someone (possibly my family or me) have accessed the blog 1500 times!  I know it isn’t just my mom LOL, but I clearly remember when God told me to blog and I thought, I don’t know how to do that.  Heck I still don’t people often ask how can I follow your blog (I’m working on it, but right now...)my answer is I don’t know.  To see that people have viewed it in China, Russia, London, and Venezula is amazing, not because I’m  great, but because God has taken me places I’ve never been. 

So this blog, this writing this moment is my Ebenezer – God my stone of help moment- My ode, my grammatically incorrect love card to you who have read it and to God who promotes it and to us who are connected because of this.

I love you.  I thank you.  I pray for you.  I delight in you.  May God’s blessings always be upon you.  You are my blessings you make up my Ebenezer moment. 

God you are my stone of help!  More priceless than the hope diamond.  You make us we this Priceless. 
Hey what are your Ebenezer moments?  I would love to celebrate with you.
 

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Friday, April 19, 2013

No Sir…I ain’t answering that!! (Who's calling ME?!)

Deuteronomy 4:36    He let you hear his voice from heaven so he could instruct you. He let you see his great fire here on earth so he could speak to you from it.
 
There was a time oh just a few decades ago when you had to muffle your voice or simply hope for the best when you answered the phone, because you never knew who was going to be on the other line when you answered.   

One of my Aunt’s always sounded like you woke her from a sound sleep when you called her until she figured out who you were then she was all the way live.  Jabbering and going on. 

We’ve all done it sometimes you didn’t have it in you to tell the telemarketer no so you just pretended like you weren’t the lady or the man of the house and you advised that poor hardworking telemarketer (I use to be one it’s not the most loving field to go into) that the owner of the house had moved to Cambodia on safari and would not be returning, hoping that they would take you off their list, but bless their hearts they always called back the next day. 

Then like technology magic our phone system evolved first away with the rotary, then to the cordless and then loe and behold caller ID!!

Caller ID the enemy of telemarketers and bill collectors.  We’ve evolved so much in this arena that I don’t even have to look at the phone, some phones speak the caller’s name or you can just glance up at the TV, where the caller id displays  and lazily decide if you should even make a motion for the phone!

Several years ago a funny (ok funny to me, not so much for my Aunt Emily who was probably in her late eighties  or early nineties)  She had the caller ID and was quite tickled by it.  People loved calling her because she was full of history and kindness and wisdom.  One day her phone rang and like any person with a reasonable amount of sense would do she checked the caller id first.  The name that came across was Adele Jenkins.  My Aunt looked at that phone for a long time and decided she wasn’t going to pick up this call!  You see Adele was my great Aunt and Aunt Emily’s sister who had died a few years prior to this phone call. 

I hollared when I heard this story.  My great Aunt Adele was beautiful but known for being mean and rather cut throat to folks.  Personally I adored her she use to make me sugar sandwiches!  I never heard many kind words about her from family, so if Adele was calling from the grave clearly my Aunt Emily felt the conversation wasn’t going to go to well. 

We later learned that Aunt Adele had gotten one of my cousins house phones in her name.It didn’t matter prior to caller ID because you couldn’t see the name of the biller on the phone.  And I bet  a lot of family members were ignoring or not returning calls to my cousin, because the caller ID was coming up with the name of my dearly (sugar butter sandwhich making) departed Aunt Adele.

This was so many years ago, but it still cracks me up!!!  It also made me think about how God speaks to us.  I believe I’ve written before I talk to God and he does talk back.  He speaks through images and sometimes words, He speaks to both my mind and my heart and my ears.  Even sometimes through my writing.  There are a lot of people who don’t believe He speaks at all and you know what that is there business and human right to believe that (I still got nothing but love for you).   But this is the part that makes me sad is that some poor folks think they aren’t worthy to even hear from God. 

He spoke to Moses, through a burning bush, because maybe that’s how Moses needed to hear God.   He spoke to David through Psalms.  Samuel heard voices.  Jesus communicated through prayer.  Everybody has their own way its personal and all yours.  Check your God caller ID verify how he’s trying to call your name.  Let me be real sometimes I don’t like what He says and I would have to believe that He doesn’t like what I say, but isn’t that the depth of communication anyway!  Isn't that love.

My prayer is that  one know you are worth talking to even in your darkest places.  Two enjoy a great conversation every day with God.

Saturday, April 13, 2013