Martin Wickens

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up… He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”

1 Samuel 7:12

God knows we too-quickly forget the good He has done for us.

So, He has always provided ways to remind us of Who He is and what He has done.

Feasts and Memorials

In Leviticus 23 God expanded on the one feast He already given Israel, the Passover, with six more. Each annually celebrated feast taught Israel truth about God, reminded them of something God had done, and pointed to something God would do in the future.

When Joshua crossed Jordan, leading the nation of Israel, God commanded that they set up stones as a reminder of where God had brought them from.

All through Israel’s history, God established reminders for them of who they were, Who He was, and what He had done or them.

In the New Testament church, we regularly observe Communion. The bread and the grape juice serving as reminders of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Come Thou Fount

One of my favorite hymns ties together the Old and New Testament beautifully. It references 1 Samuel 7, where Samuel raises up a stone and calls it Ebenezer, to remind Israel what God did for them there.

In Robert Robinson’s famous hymn, Come Thou Fount, he pens these words,

Here I raise my Ebenezer; Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.

He knew the importance of raising up reminders of what God has done.

It is something I do frequently, with the aid of Facebook’s “Memories” page.

Raising Ebenezers

So, with all that said. I want to raise some Ebenezers, I want to share some important events that happened on or near this day in years gone by.

1. January 25th, 2018 – We were still living in England and had begun my application for a Green Card. It was on this day that my application was received at the embassy in London.
2. January 27th, 2019 – Bedford Bible Church met and unanimously voted to invite me to serve as their pastor. Almost a year to the day of beginning the process of moving to the USA, God had made His path clear. That year, at the time, seemed long, but in hindsight it all happened quickly and in a way that only God could work.
3. January 28th, 2019 – AMS, the company I worked for at the time, let me know that my contract was finished and they had no further work for me. God was literally opening and closing doors to make His will known.

We cannot thank God enough for His goodness to us. We love the people with whom we worship and serve. We love the place He has led us to live. We are excited about some events taking place that will allow us to further put down roots here. We look forward to all that God has for us as we serve with Bedford Bible Church in the years ahead.