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Celebrate! May 23, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on May 23, 2025


1 SAMUEL 7:12 | 12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and named it Ebenezer, for he said, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

 

The wonderful hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written by Robert Robinson and set to the wonderful Welsh tune called Nettleton, has a reference to a milestone: “Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I come...” The reference is to a verse in 1 Samuel. The great prophet wants the nation to remember the miraculous rescue of God just prior, and so set up a stone between Mizpah and Shen, calling it Ebenezer, meaning “the Lord has helped us.” Today we have many resources to remember and commemorate God’s actions. We can write book or journals, put together photo albums, or create slideshows, as we often do to    remember the gift of people’s lives.

 

How do you commemorate your blessings?

 

 

Gracious God,

Let us not forget Your deeds of grace and mercy. Teach us to remember and give thanks.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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