Heading Home

In the neighborhood where I live, I have one neighbor who likes to cause trouble. He picks the fruit from my trees, chops down my shade trees, and mows down my flowers.

He dumps trash in my yard, reads my mail, steals my packages from the delivery man, tries to tell me all the neighborhood gossip about my friends, and does his darnedest to make me mad.

Forever prowling around the premises, he tries to sneak in the windows and get his foot in the door, attempting to steal my belongings. So I put an alarm system on all the doors and windows.

He likes my house and wants to live here, but I’m under a lease contract for a single dweller. He can’t have it and he certainly isn’t going to move in with me! But he still continues to try to take it away from me.

It’s a comfortable old house, though it’s not the most beautiful on the block nor is it the biggest. The landlord was very generous in his lease, so I appreciate what I have, even if a few structural changes are needed.

A few of its rooms have become dusty and overcrowded and need remodeling. Some of the junk needs to be put out with the trash. Some rooms are in a constant state of upheaval; others just need rearranging.

The windows have become a little foggy, so they’re not as easy to see through as before. Some of the shingles are falling off the roof, while some of the fence pickets are missing.

A few of the hinges have become a little rusty and don’t work as well as they used to, but the landlord I lease from said he would make all the necessary repairs. I know he will, for he is a man of his word. However, he does have a busy schedule, so I’m just patiently waiting my turn.

I thought it might be time to move, but he says I can stay a while longer, if I do some of the maintenance work. I do look forward to moving, though, because I’ve had my eye on this perfect, little cottage that’s being built. I’d really like to move there some day…there’s no traffic, no noise, the air is clean, great neighbors, the scenery is beautiful, and best of all, no more Mr. Meany!

I’ve called ahead to see if it was ready but they tell me they’re still working on it. Well, I guess I can wait a little longer. I’m not really finished renovating this one!

~~I hope you know this was all tongue-in-cheek and about my physical body-home. Paul wrote, “For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down-when we die and leave these bodies-we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.” (2 Cor. 5:1 TLB)



This was one of the first posts when I started my blog. Hope you enjoyed it for the first time or as a rerun.

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Beholding Glory

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 Sam. 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 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 with you? Were you aware of His canopy of care covering you? Did He provide shelter and sustenance, even if in quantities less than desired?

Through all the contrary times, through sickness, through loss, through poverty, through grief, through trials, through temptations…the Lord has provided up to this point.

To celebrate and remember all the Lord’s goodness to my family and me during this past year, I will set up an Ebenezer stone of remembrance. That stone is the Lord. He is “The Stone of Israel,” (Gen. 49:24 NKJV), in Hebrew, the ‘eben’ of Israel.

Will you set Him as your commemorative stone over the victories of the year that has just drawn its last breath?

He stands poised, firmly fixed between the years. His presence casts a shadow over the year now passed, concealing its troubles, sorrows, and disappointments and transforming all the old…the old attitudes, the old habits, and the old ways…into something new.

As God said through Isaiah, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Is. 43:19 NKJV) May we not halt or destroy God’s plans for the future, for, out of the old, a newness arises through His regenerative grace, creating all things afresh.

As the light of the Lord’s guidance beams across the New Year, it illuminates the passage into the land of the unknown. His path will take us through each dry wilderness to streams of fresh, flowing water.

Therefore, on this virgin trek, let us not carry with us the baggage of regrets, unforgiveness, resentments, failures, ungrateful hearts, or disappointments in others or in ourselves, all of which weigh down our usefulness.

Will you stand bravely at the threshold of the unknown, ready, willing, and obedient to follow the Lord, no matter where He may lead? Will there be room in the New Year for the Lord to do a new thing in your life, or will it be filled with more of the same from last year?

Will you enter the New Year’s portal, remembering the Lord’s goodness and mercy over the past year and asking His blessings over the coming year? Will you make it a year of praise and worship from a grateful heart to its Maker? Will you resolve to serve God greater than the year that has faded?

Instead of making resolutions, ask yourself these questions and set goals to answer them:

* How many lacking souls can I replenish?
* How many grieving hearts can I console?
* How many lost ones can I introduce to salvation?
* How many heavy-ladened spirits can I encourage?

As “the LORD Himself watches over you,” I pray that the His hand will be upon your household “from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year,” that His comfort and blessings fill every room of your home so that the sounds of joy can be “heard far in the distance,” and that He will “preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.”

May the Lord’s shadow of forgiveness conceal the disappointments and troubles of the year behind you, while His light is cast as 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 happy New Year!