The God Pause Daily Devotional from The Luther Seminary of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Sunday, 12 November 2017 - "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," ELW 807

The God Pause Daily Devotional from The Luther Seminary of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Sunday, 12 November 2017 - "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," ELW 807 
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"Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," ELW 807
1. Come, thou Fount of ev'ry blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
While the hope of endless glory
fills my heart with joy and love,
teach me ever to adore thee;
may I still thy goodness prove.
2. Here I raise my Ebenezer:
"Hither by thy help I've come";
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand'ring from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
3. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be;
let that grace now like a fetter
bind my wand'ring heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.
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"Here I raise my Ebenezer." When I sang this hymn as a child I always wondered why we were singing about Ebenezer Scrooge! With maturity, and the help of Google, I have come to hear these familiar words and cadences as a reassurance of God's mercy and grace as well as a heart-felt cry of desire as I seek to build a life worthy of the price God paid for it. Wherever you are in your faith's journey, you can know that God has caught you up and sustains you in the forgiveness of sin. Though we may wander on the path, Jesus always walks both with us and ahead of us through death, into the promise of everlasting life. Wherever we are, we are there only by the grace of Jesus Christ. It is good to remember this truth today.
Holy Spirit, you have called us and made us holy for one purpose, and that is to glorify God. Help us to be more fully what God has called us to be. Ebenezers, each and every one. Amen.

Chris Enstad, '00
Lead Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Madison and Verona, Wis. ---
Eb·en·e·zer [eb- uh- nee-zer] NOUN 1. a male given name: from a Hebrew word meaning “stone of help.”
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