A Stone of Remembrance ~ by Lynn Moser

A Stone of Remembrance

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 has helped us!” (1 Samuel 7:12 NLT) Samuel, whose name meant heard of God, knew the Lord would hear them and be on their side in the future.

The Lord’s hand remained against the Philistines and the enemy never came back into the territory of Israel. Peace reigned throughout the land all the days of Samuel.

Did the enemy pursue you this past year? Did you experience the Lord’s presence in your circumstances? Did He provide for you, even if in quantities less than desired? Did He bring you victories in certain areas of your life?

We all have reasons to set up an Ebenezer of the Lord, the Rock of our salvation, to mark the closing year. As we do, He will stand poised, firmly fixed between the years. His back will be against the year now gone, resolving its troubles, sorrows, and disappointments and transforming all the old…the old attitudes, the old habits, the old ways, and the old circumstances…into something new.

The light of His presence and guidance will beam across the New Year, illuminating the passage into the land of the unknown. His path will take us through each dry wilderness circumstance to streams of fresh, flowing water.

Therefore, on this virgin trek, let us not carry the baggage of leftover regrets, unforgiveness, resentments, failures, ungrateful hearts, or disappointments, all of which weigh down our usefulness. Let us make room in the New Year for the Lord to do that new thing in our lives.

I plan to ask myself these questions. Will you?

*Will I stand bravely at the New Year’s threshold, ready, willing, and obedient to follow the Lord, no matter where He may lead?

*Will I make room in the New Year for the Lord to do a new thing in my life, or will it be filled with more of the same from last year?

*Will my attitude be to enter His portal with thanksgiving, praise, and worship from a grateful heart, remembering His goodness and mercy over the past year, and asking His blessings over the coming year?
*Will I resolve to serve God greater than the year that has faded?

My prayer for you: May the Lord’s shadow of forgiveness conceal the disappointments and troubles of your year now past, while His light casts a beacon of guidance to His safe haven of the days yet to be explored. May His hand be against your enemy and His peace reign all your days.

May His servants Goodness and Mercy pursue you throughout the days to come.

Have a very blessed New Year!

New Year’s blessings,

Lynn

Lynn Mosher loves to dig into God’s Word and treasure hunts for golden nuggets along the road Home. Lynn lives with her hubby (since 1966) in their Kentucky nest, emptied now of three kidlets and embracing three giggly grand-chicklets. Her greatest passion is to share those nuggets in her devotionals and inspirational stories, fulfilling God’s call on her life to encourage others and glorify the Lord. Lynn writes monthly for several sites and bi-weekly at her online residence, Heading Home. 

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Nursing the Wounds of Betrayal

I can’t believe she did that! How could she have been so thoughtless? So cruel? So…fill in the blank.

We’ve all felt it, haven’t we? The sting of betrayal is like nothing else. If a stranger had said or done the same thing, it wouldn’t have hurt quite so much. But when you’ve given someone a closer look at the deepest parts of you…shown them the soft underbelly that isn’t for the world to see…let down your guard and trusted them enough to show your vulnerabilities… You don’t expect that person to poke at those soft places in your heart. And when they do? Well, that’s a pain unlike any other.

But what do we do with the feelings that follow? The Bible speaks of the limitless grace of forgiveness.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”. –Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV)

But…How, Lord? How?

There’s something to be said for understanding your reactions, for defining the turmoil that’s going on in your heart. Much like the physical loss of a loved one, there are stages of our grief after the betrayal of a friend or loved one.

Denial. No way! She never would have said/done such a thing. I must have misunderstood. Let me look at this again because it just doesn’t make sense. She would never!

Anger. Does she really think she’s going to get away with that? How could she have said/done that!?What is WRONG with her? Doesn’t she know…

Bargaining. I don’t want to lose the friendship we’ve built, so I’m going to have to figure out a way to deal with this. I’ll wait and see what happens. If she sincerely apologizes, THEN…

Depression. The reality is sinking in now, and I can’t escape it. My friend/spouse/sister actually said/did that. I just don’t know what to do with this. How will I ever move on? It’s hopeless…

Acceptance. Well. What’s done is done. It is what it is. I’m going to have to figure out a way to forgive and move on, even if it means moving on without my friend. Help me, Jesus.

And so – at last! – we fall into the arms of grace and allow our faith to begin healing our heart and mind. In times like these, I often wonder why I had to go through the grief process, why I couldn’t have just immediately turned to Christ and tossed my burdens at his feet without facing all those demons head-on. But I’ve come to believe it’s an important part of the process. As humans, it seems we have to make our way to forgiveness. As hard as we try, we just don’t have the same capacity for love as the One who IS love, and we have to navigate toward his light in order to reflect it.

Working our way through the muck toward healing and forgiveness takes a little time. But keep your eye on the prize, my friend. And try to remember that pain, resentment, anger…these are all temporary bricks on the path that was laid to lead us through grace to eventual forgiveness. We cross over them; and quickly too, because they have a pretty rapid rate of growth. If we stand there with them long enough, they’ll eat us alive. So we fight our way over them, knowing that He’s waiting for us on the other side.

In times like these, while I’m hacking at the jungle between me and the forgiveness that offers my heart’s healing, a song called Losing (by TenthAvenue North) ministers to my heart.

“We think pain’s owed apologies and then it’ll stop.
Truth be told, it doesn't matter if they're sorry or not.
Freedom comes when we surrender to the sound
of Your mercy and Your grace. Father, send Your angels down.

Oh Father won't you forgive them;
they don't know what they've been doin'.
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them,
cause I feel like the one losin'.”

Pain, suffering, betrayal…These are the things that make up parts of our lives, whether we like it or not. Pleasant? Absolutely not. But no matter how broken your heart feels, working your way through the jungle toward forgiveness is the only way to the other side. And reaching the other side is imperative. There are no lessons taught, and no one suffers by your unforgiveness…except you. 

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Sandra D. Bricker is a best-selling and award-winning author of laugh-out-loud romantic comedy for the Christian market. Her most popular series (that started with Always the Baker Never the Bride from Abingdon Press) will conclude this spring with Always the Baker FINALLY the Bride, which is now available for pre-order at Amazon.


Connect with the author on her website or on Facebook.

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The Blessing of Forgiveness

Especially at this time of year, when we’re locked in a small space with a group of people that we may not see the rest of the year, or perhaps with whom we have nothing in common outside of DNA, forgiveness is a timely and God-inspired topic for us to address. 

Receiving and giving forgiveness should be a way of life for Christ-followers, right?

 Matthew 6:12 puts a high priority on reconciliation, not only between us and God, but also between us and our fellow man.

Matthew 6:12

…and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

There are many songs on the radio today that talk about forgiveness. We often sing along with the artist, but do we fully understand what “forgiveness” means?

While giving forgiveness can be challenging—even agonizing—for many of us, we all eagerly desire to be forgiven. However, pride can keep us from admitting when we’re wrong. And ignoring our fault (or our sin) has a price, especially when it involves sin that we do not or will not confess to God.

While we are forgiven for the past, present and future of our sin, we still need the cleansing experiences to put away sin that would otherwise cause guilt. We don’t want to be bogged down by guilt and bitterness. When we confess, it’s like fresh air and we don’t have that distance between us and God.

Unconfessed sin eats away at us— from the inside out—and puts a distance between us and God. And when we hold onto a grudge with both hands, when that slight or hurtful behavior begins to define the relationship, the wall grows – brick by brick – until we can hardly see that person on the other side. In both cases, when we humble ourselves and admit our mistakes, nothing is sweeter than being forgiven.

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Sandra D. Bricker is a best-selling and award-winning author of laugh-out-loud romantic comedy for the Christian market. Her most popular series (that started with Always the Baker Never the Bride) will conclude this spring with Always the Baker FINALLY the Bride, which is now available for pre-order at Amazon.

Sandie leads a team of writers in creating the Living It Out daily Bible study for CedarCreek Church. Today's devotion is based on the Living It Out study on the importance of forgiveness. If you enjoyed it, feel free to check out the daily studies by e-mail or audio podcast by clicking HERE.

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Once Again

Marcia Laycock is a writer and speaker living in Central Alberta, Canada. Her devotionals have been widely published and her novel, One Smooth Stone won her the Best New Canadian Author Award in 2006.

There's a song by Matt Redman that says -

"Once again I look upon the cross where You died.
I'm humbled by Your mercy and I'm broken inside.
Once again I thank You, once again I pour out my life."

While in Israel we visited a heritage village. It was much like the heritage villages here in North America that portray past history in tableau, with real actors and working artifacts. This village was in Nazareth and was laid out to represent the town as it would have been in the time of Jesus.

The day we visited, it was raining - pouring rain, in fact. Most of the actors kept inside the small shelters, which didn't really keep them dry because the roofs were made of thatch and far from water-proof.

We moved from one scene to the next - the potter's, the weaver's, the wine press, and finally the carpenter's shop. It was here the fact that this was a representation of Jesus' home hit me. I looked at the tools, the kind of rough wood he would have worked with, and Jesus became more real to me.

Perhaps that's why one of the tableaus we saw next had such an impact. The figure at the centre was made of rough wood too, and was draped with a simple cloth. The lighting was subdued, flickering with small oil lamps, their tiny flames leaning toward the focal point of the display. The cross. The cross of Christ.

As the song says, once again I was struck by what Jesus suffered, what he endured for me. I was struck not just by the physical pain he was subjected to, but by the torture of having the sin of the world put upon His shoulders, the agony of knowing His Father was turning His face away.

And once again I became aware that there is nothing I can do to make it up to Him. No remorse, no penance, no acts of kindness, no great work of fiction or text of apologetics. Nothing I do can repay that debt. And once again that act of pure mercy stuns me.

The unconditional gift of love and forgiveness causes my heart to break. And that, I realize once again, is the only thing Jesus wants of me.

A heart broken wide enough for Him to enter in.

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To Resolve or Not to Resolve

Marcia Lee Laycock was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. She lives in central Alberta Canada with her husband, two adolescent golden retrievers and a six-toed cat.

I was delivering Christmas cards last week and stopped in to the small gym where I have been noticeable only by my absence lately. I admit I felt a little guilty going in the door. The owner greeted me with a wide smile and we wished one another a Merry Christmas. Then I said, “One of my New Year’s resolutions will be to get here more often.” My friend shook her head. “Oh don’t do that, don’t make yourself feel guilty about it!” Then she stammered a bit. “But …. I don’t mean …. Do come back!”

We laughed and I assured her I would.

I’ve been thinking about what she said ever since. I’ve been thinking about guilt. It does seem to be a big part of what we do at this time of year. We feel guilty for all the things we didn’t do in the past year - like finish that novel or write that article that’s still in draft form in the computer -and most of us resolve to do better. So guilt isn’t such a bad thing, if, and that’s a big if, we make the changes necessary in our lives. If guilt is unresolved it becomes an unhealthy thing and can lead to bitterness and anger that will only make us miserable. But guilt that leads to change, that’s healthy guilt.

So I have decided to make that New Year’s resolution, and a few others – like finish that novel and write that article - and I’ve gone a step further. I have a plan for carrying it out. Often that’s the key. If we just dwell on our guilty feelings and set no goals or plans for how to change, nothing constructive will happen. Unhealthy guilt will result.

I’ve heard many people scoff and say that all religion does is make you feel guilty. They are absolutely right. But Jesus has gone a step further. He has set out a plan that wipes away the guilt. All we have to do is move from religion to relationship. Accept Him as our brother, our friend, our saviour, and no amount of guilt can hold us down.

The word guilt appears a few times in the Bible. My favourite is in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 22 – “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

I like those words, “assurance”, “cleanse” and “washed with pure water.” Though the guilt of our sin may bear us down, there is forgiveness. No matter what we have done, or what has been done to us, God forgives, and we are set free “by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body…” (Hebrews 10:20).

The best resolution any of us can make as we move into 2009 is to get to know Him more. I pray we will all resolve to do so. It’s the only way to get rid of all that guilt.

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