3: Count Zinzendorf's Life in Dresden

During the next few months of his life, Count Zinzendorf spent much of his time in the royal court at Dresden. These days were dreary ones for him. The only thing that kept him going was his new wife and his Sunday afternoon fellowship meetings with other believers. During this time, he wrote many hymns, in which he also found solace.

I learned this hymn on the violin and we sing it as a family. It really has some beautiful words!

Jesus Still Lead On

Jesus still lead on,
Till our rest be won,
And, although the way be cheerless,
We will follow, calm and fearless;
Guide us by Thy hand
To our fatherland.

If the way be drear,
If the foe be near,
Let not faithless fears o'er take us,
Let not faith and hope forsake us;
For, through many a woe,
To our home we go.

When we seek relief
From a long-felt grief,
When oppressed by new temptations,
Lord, increase and perfect patience;
Show us that bright shore
Where we weep no more.

Jesus, still lead on,
Till our rest be won;
Heav'nly leader still direct us,
Still support, console, protect us,
Till we safely stand
In our fatherland.

As the Moravian community developed on Count Zinzendorf's estate, many different people came to find religious freedom. He soon realized the need to bring some order. He solved this by setting up different groups of men and women and groups to minister to the needy. The leader of the women's group was an 18 year old girl named Anna. They also started a 24-hour prayer chain that lasted over 100 years!

(to be continued)

2: Count Zinzendorf Hears God's Call

When Count Zinzendorf got out of school at age 18, he traveled around Europe for one year just a every son of nobility did in his time. He was not particularly interested because he felt God had a special call on his life, but he went anyway. While he was touring, he visited a gallery of paintings. One that caught his attention was called "Behold, the Man". It was a painting of Jesus with a crown of thorns on his head, and on the bottom the painter had painted the words, This I have done for you, What have you done for me? After seeing that, Count Zinzendorf was more determined that God had a special call for him. He went home and took up his jobs in the royal court, wrote hymns, and attended meetings on Sunday. At last the answer came. He inherited his father's money, and with it bought his grandmother's castle. One day, a man named Christian David came to him and told him about a group of persecuted Christians in Moravia, just south of Saxony, and asked Count Zinzendorf if he would be willing to make his estate a community where these Christians could flee to. He agreed, and plans were made. Just before the first family came to settle there, Count Zinzendorf married a daughter of nobility named Erdmuth.

(To be continued)

1: Count Zinzendorf's Early Years

I recently finished reading a biography on Count Zinzendorf. I was greatly inspired by his life, so I thought I would share a bit about him with you.

For all of you who do not know Count Zinzendorf (I will try to be brief), Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (known as Count Zinzendorf) was born in Germany on May 26, 1700. When he was young, his father died and his mother went to marry another man, so he was raised by his grandmother, aunt and uncle. One of my favorite stories about Count Zinzendorf is one from when he was 6 years old. He was reading the Bible and praying one day when Swedish soldiers stormed in to raid the castle. They stopped, looked at him, and then at each other. Then they quickly turned and left. They said they could not raid a place that God watched over. When he was 10 years old, he went to a school where he first saw and talked with a missionary from India who was visiting the school. From that point, he decided he did not want to follow his noble birth and become Count of the Saxony, but he wanted to dedicate his life totally to God.

(To be continued)

Those Are Some Leaves!

Our grandpa and brother found these leaves while up in the woods. They are by far the biggest we have seen!

On the right is the big maple leaf, and on the right is the big oak leaf.
The smaller maple leaf on top is an normal sized one!

There Is Much To Do

by M. W. Spencer

There is much to do, there's work on ev'ry hand,Hark! the cry for help comes ringing thru the land;
Jesus calls for reapers, I must active be,
What wilt thou, O Master? here am I, send me.

Refrain
Here am I, Lord send me,
Here am I, Ready at thy bidding, Lord, send me.There's the plaintive cry of mourning souls distressed,
And the sigh of hearts that seek but find no rest;
These should have my love and tender sympathy,
Ready at thy bidding, Lord, send me.

Refrain

There are hung'ring souls who cry aloud for bread,
With the bread of life they're longing to be fed;
Shall they starve and famish while a feast is free?
I must be more faithful, here am I, send me.

Refrain

There are souls who linger on the brink of woe,
Lord, I must not, cannot bear to let them go;
Let me go and tell them, brother, turn and flee,
Master, I would save them, here am I, send me.

Refrain

This morning we sang this hymn as a family. As we thought about and discussed the hymn together, we all agreed that for our station in life the harvest or work that God is calling us to is in the home. The thing that God keeps bringing before us is “Christianity begins in the home”. These things in the hymn start in the home – serving and loving each other and teaching the members of our family about Christ.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" – Isaiah 6:8

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.” - John 4:34-36

Meekness

Our family has been learning about meekness for the past couple months, focusing on the verse in Matthew 5:5. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth". I never really knew what meekness what until we started studying it, but God has been working it in my heart and it is a beautiful thing when one can become meek like our Heavenly Father!

Meekness - yielding my personal rights and expectations to God.

The outflow of meekness in a person's life is when a situation comes that would cause us to be angry, upset, or frustrated, but we choose to be calm and Christlike instead. Meekness is our power under God's control.

"Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matt 11:28-30

Chickadees

When I snapped this picture, I was only a yard or two away...

See the three chickadees? One on top of the feeder, one eating from it, and one on the suet feeder.

Excel Still More

1 Thessalonians 4:1 and 10
Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more...for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more...

Paul used the phrase "excel still more" two times here. That caught my attention this morning while I was reading this passage with my family. We are to "excel still more" and be perfect like our Heavenly Father (Matthew 5:48). Press on to perfection!