God’s faithfulness never ceases to amaze me. In my life I know there will be many mountains and valleys, many great successes and many great failures. Through it all I want to make sure to credit God for His faithfulness.
Ebenezer means “stone of help”.
1 Sam 7:7-12
When the Philistines heard that Israel was meeting at Mizpah, the Philistine leaders went on the offensive. Israel got the report and became frightened — Philistines on the move again!
8 They pleaded with Samuel, “Pray with all your might! And don’t let up! Pray to GOD, our God, that he’ll save us from the boot of the Philistines.”
9 Samuel took a young lamb not yet weaned and offered it whole as a Whole-Burnt-Offering to GOD. He prayed fervently to GOD, interceding for Israel. And GOD answered.
10 While Samuel was offering the sacrifice, the Philistines came within range to fight Israel. Just then GOD thundered, a huge thunderclap exploding among the Philistines. They panicked — mass confusion! — and ran helter-skelter from Israel. 11 Israel poured out of Mizpah and gave chase, killing Philistines right and left, to a point just beyond Beth Car. 12 Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it “Ebenezer” (Rock of Help), saying, “This marks the place where GOD helped us.”
(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
I wonder how many times a father walked by Ebenezer with his son or daughter and the child asked, “what is that?” It was both a reminder to the Israelites and also an opportunity to teach those that came behind them of God’s great love and faithfulness.
I want to mark all the places where God helps me. I want to always remember that God is, and always has been, faithful. No matter what life brings my way I can depend on God to carry me through. I have no idea what will happen tomorrow but I am certain God will be where He always is. And He’ll provide as He always has.
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I absolutely love this! I will definitely be marking this in my Bible.
Comment by Fostermom November 2, 2006 @ 10:46 pmTwo new studies show why some people are more attractive for members of the opposite sex than others.
The University of Florida, Florida State University found that physically attractive people almost instantly attract the attention of the interlocutor, sobesednitsy with them, literally, it is difficult to make eye. This conclusion was reached by a series of psychological experiments, which were determined by the people who believe in sending the first seconds after the acquaintance. Here, a curious feature: single, unmarried experimental preferred to look at the guys, beauty opposite sex, and family, people most often by representatives of their sex.
The authors believe that this feature developed a behavior as a result of the evolution: a man trying to find a decent pair to acquire offspring. If this is resolved, he wondered potential rivals. Detailed information about this magazine will be published Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In turn, a joint study of the Rockefeller University, Rockefeller University and Duke University, Duke University in North Carolina revealed that women are perceived differently by men smell. During experiments studied the perception of women one of the ingredients of male pheromone-androstenona smell, which is contained in urine or sweat.
The results were startling: women are part of this repugnant odor, and the other part is very attractive, resembling the smell of vanilla, and the third group have not felt any smell. The authors argue that the reason is that the differences in the receptor responsible for the olfactory system, from different people are different.
It has long been proven that mammals (including human) odor is one way of attracting the attention of representatives of the opposite sex. A detailed article about the journal Nature will publish.
Comment by StavyShealvew November 16, 2007 @ 4:44 am