Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Here I Raise My Ebenezer

This lesson explores the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, by Robert Robinson, performed by Sufjan Stevens as the soundtrack to the cool BluefishTV video.  I played through the song once, and then we watched this retelling of his life.


One of the curious things about this hymn is the line, Here I Raise My Ebenezer.  Not a word you hear every day, so we explored it, using the Bible verses below, and then creating our own Ebenezers with "5 smooth stones," purchased at Hobby Lobby, and mounted on spray painted wooden bases.  To top them off in accordance with the final lines of the hymn, "Here's my heart o take and seal it, seal it for thy very own," we topped our Ebenezers off with sealing wax.


Here's a breakdown of how the craft and lesson fit together:

Stones Project
Materials
Enough stones for everyone to have 5 (30 or so?)
Glue guns/glue sticks
Sealing wax
matches/lighter
Gold Sharpies
Bases for stone stacks  Paint for bases

Bible verses on Stones
Ebenezer 1 Samuel 7:12
David’s five smooth stones 1 Samuel 17:40
Stones of the temple Matthew 24:1-2
Stumbling block 1 Corinthians 1:23
Stones and bread Matthew 7-9; Matthew 4:3
Stones would cry out Luke 19:37-40; Habakkuk 2:11
Seal it for thy very own - fire/wax

Lesson Plan
Write lyrics/chords on sheet
Write Bible verses on the board
Play Come thou fount
Watch the video
Talk about the story, read bio of Robert Robinson
Focus on the word Ebenezer - 1 Sam. 7:12

Do Project
Write citation on the base
Stack stones with glue gun (watch Michael Grab vids while doing this)
Melt wax over them, red or gold








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