Winter List

  The winter is winding down and yesterday I reached the end of my winter to-do list when I put the last stitch in this afghan.

   Since October I have

• embroidered a quilt top
• put a 2000-piece puzzle together and two smaller ones
• crocheted a baby blanket
• quilted a crib quilt
• made a baby comforter
• scrapbooked my 2022 pictures
• wrote eight devotionals and five short stories
• crocheted an afghan

   Of course, I had all the usual housework and other activities to do as well. How did I get all that done in five months? Simple. I wasn't writing a book.

The Junk Drawer

   We have lived in the same house for fifty-five years. One top drawer in the kitchen cupboards has always been the junk drawer. When my daughter got married, she said she is not going to have a junk drawer. But the first time we went to visit them, she had a junk drawer. She said a person just needs to have a place to put things like that. Maybe you have a junk drawer too but gave it a more dignified name. 

   What is in my junk drawer? Mostly things that are needed ranging from every day to never. The scissors is used almost every day. A pen, pencil, ruler, scrap paper for writing grocery lists, scotch tape, and matches are used frequently. The junk drawer is also a bank for new batteries, recipes I clipped to try someday, a pill bottle repurposed to store thumb tacks, a jar of little screws and bits of hardware that might be useful sometime, a bag of keys that has outlived their usefulness because nobody remembers what they were for, a small paint brush that is there because that's where it always was.

    Sometimes I empty the junk drawer and reorganize it. But my German thriftiness balks at throwing things away that might be useful someday. So the recipes I never got around to trying, the bag of unknown keys, jar of little screws, and paint brush go back in the drawer. 

    My junk drawer has been there for fifty-five years, but my memory drawer reaches back much further. My earliest vague memories were just before and after I turned three years old. They became clear by the age of five and continued to this day. One drawer isn't big enough to hold that many years of memories so it became a file cabinet. Everything is still in there but I can't always find the right folder in the right drawer of the file cabinet. I give up and then all of a sudden it pops up when I'm not thinking about it.

     Like the contents of my junk drawer, I use some memories every day. For example, remembering how to read and type. Other things I use frequently, such as telling a story or singing by memory. There are other memories that (like the bag of keys) serve no good purpose and should be discarded and forgotten. Good intentions that were never acted upon are (like the unused recipes) not worth the space they take up. There are ideas (like the jar of screws) for things I want to do sometime but never get around to it. And things which I think must be done a certain way because that's the way we've always done it, are like the paint brush which has no good reason for being where it is.

    Memories can be useful or like useless clutter in a junk drawer. Discarding the clutter frees up space for the useful.

    

Three Trees

    Did someone ever share a need with you so you "know how to pray"?   We won't pray for a need if we don't know about it, but what does "knowing how to pray" mean? 

   I'm afraid too often we ask God to do what we think will solve the problem. God doesn't need our solutions or even our suggestions. He already knows about the problem and the solution. That does not mean we take a "whatever" attitude. He wants us to bring our concerns and desires to Him. James said, "You have not because you ask not." Bringing our cares and desires to God is an expression of trust in Him. We need only to ask for the basic need, not the way to make it happen.

   I have done that more times than I care to admit. I have been praying about a need in another person's life. I asked God to do a certain thing so something would happen. Nothing happened, but now I see God is moving in another direction and things are beginning to happen to answer the basic desire.

 

 Tale of Three Trees

   Once upon a mountain top, three little trees stood and dreamed of what they wanted to become when they grew up.

   The first little tree looked up at the stars and said: “I want to hold treasure. I want to be covered with gold and filled with precious stones. I’ll be the most beautiful treasure chest in the world!”

   The second little tree looked out at the small stream trickling by on its way to the ocean. “I want to be traveling mighty waters and carrying powerful kings. I’ll be the strongest ship in the world!”

   The third little tree looked down into the valley below where men and women worked in a busy town. “I don’t want to leave the mountain top at all. I want to grow so tall that when people stop to look at me, they’ll raise their eyes to heaven and think of God. I will be the tallest tree in the world.”

   Years passed. The rain came, the sun shone, and the little trees grew tall. One day three woodcutters climbed the mountain.

   The first woodcutter looked at the first tree and said, “This tree is beautiful. It is perfect for me.” With a swoop of his shining axe, the first tree fell.

   “Now I shall be made into a beautiful chest. I shall hold wonderful treasure!” the first tree said.

   The second woodcutter looked at the second tree and said, “This tree is strong. It is perfect for me.” With a swoop of his shining axe, the second tree fell.

   “Now I shall sail mighty waters!” thought the second tree. “I shall be a strong ship for mighty kings!”

   The third tree felt her heart sink when the last woodcutter looked her way. She stood straight and tall and pointed bravely to heaven.

   But the woodcutter never even looked up. “Any kind of tree will do for me,” he muttered. With a swoop of his shining axe, the third tree fell.

   The first tree rejoiced when the woodcutter brought her to a carpenter’s shop. But the carpenter fashioned the tree into a feedbox for animals.

   The once beautiful tree was not covered with gold, nor with treasure. She was coated with sawdust and filled with hay for hungry farm animals.

   The second tree smiled when the woodcutter took her to a shipyard, but no mighty sailing ship was made that day. Instead, the once strong tree was hammered and sawed into a simple fishing boat. She was too small and too weak to sail on an ocean, or even a river; instead, she was taken to a little lake.

   The third tree was confused when the woodcutter cut her into strong beams and left her in a lumberyard.

   “What happened?” the once tall tree wondered. “All I ever wanted was to stay on the mountain top and point to God...”

   Many, many days and night passed. The three trees nearly forgot their dreams.

   But one night, golden starlight poured over the first tree as a young woman placed her newborn baby in the feedbox.

   “I wish I could make a cradle for him,” her husband whispered.

   The mother squeezed his hand and smiled as the starlight shone on the smooth and the sturdy wood. “This manger is beautiful,” she said.

   And suddenly the first tree knew he was holding the greatest treasure in the world.

   One evening a tired traveler and his friends crowded into the old fishing boat. The traveler fell asleep as the second tree quietly sailed out into the lake.

   Soon a thundering and thrashing storm arose. The little tree shuddered. She knew she did not have the strength to carry so many passengers safely through with the wind and the rain.

   The tired man awakened. He stood up, stretched out his hand, and said, “Peace.” The storm stopped as quickly as it had begun.

   And suddenly the second tree knew he was carrying the king of heaven and earth.

   One Friday morning, the third tree was startled when her beams were yanked from the forgotten woodpile. She flinched as she was carried through an angry jeering crowd. She shuddered when soldiers nailed a man’s hands to her.

   She felt ugly and harsh and cruel.

    But on Sunday morning, when the sun rose and the earth trembled with joy beneath her, the third tree knew that God’s love had changed everything.

   It had made the third tree strong. And every time people thought of the third tree, they would think of God. That was better than being the tallest tree in the world.

    The next time you feel down because you didn’t get what you wanted, sit tight because God has something better to give you.

Source unknown

Winter Projects

    Every winter I have a list of things I want to do before spring comes. It's a time to withdraw from the world, hole up inside, and do things there isn't time to do in the summer. Since we are empty nesters now, I can begin my winter projects in October. My list for this winter is:
Embroider a quilt top

Put a puzzle together

Crochet a baby blanket

Write six devotionals for a new book

Scrapbook my 2022 photos

Quilt a baby quilt

Crochet an afghan

   So far I have checked off the first four things on the list and will start on the photos today. The quilt top took me about two months. I will let the quilting for next winter.

The puzzle was the largest one I have ever done. It was the first (and the last) 2000-piece puzzle I have done. It consumed my life for three weeks.

  I don't have a photo of the baby blanket but it is ready to give when there is a baby shower for a great-grandchild who is on the way,

   Having a list of projects helps make the winter interesting and pass more quickly. By March I am usually ready to move on to other things. Now on to the photos!

Moravian Hymn

 

   As we were singing in church Sunday morning, I suddenly noticed the song was written in 1723 by Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf. "Heart With Loving Heart United" is a Moravian hymn! What is it doing in a Mennonite hymnbook? Why not? We also have a Lutheran hymn, "A Mighty Fortress," written by Martin Luther and a Catholic hymn, "Holy God We Praise Thy Name."

   When I thought about the words of Zinzendorf's hymn, I could see the Moravian theology in it. The Moravians stressed community and brotherhood. The four leading Moravian communities of Bethlehem, Emmaus, Nazareth, and Lititz were founded in the 1700s and located in eastern Pennsylvania. They were not Anabaptist as they practiced infant baptism, but they shared some of the Mennonite beliefs in nonresistance and non-swearing of oaths. Zinzendorf was the most influential leader of the Moravians.

   Nicholas von Zinzendorf was born into a noble family in 1700. His father died when he was an infant, and he was raised at Gros Hennersdorf, the castle of his influential Pitetistic grandmother. Zinzendorf married a cousin, Erdmuth Dorothea von Reuss, and assumed his duties as a young noble in the court of King August the Strong. 

   In 1722, he was approached by a group of Moravians who requested permission to live on his lands. He granted their request, and a small band crossed the border from Moravia to settle in a town they called Herrnhut. Zinzendorf was intrigued by the story of the Moravians. A few years later he left public life and began spending all his time working with the troubled group of Moravians.  Largely due to his leadership, the group came to formulate a unique document, known as the "Brotherly Agreement," which set forth basic tenets of Christian behavior. They experienced a revival, and the Moravian church was firmly established.

   Zinzendorf believed that salvation was a matter of the heart and not merely an intellectual assent to certain principals or following prescribed liturgy in worship services. He also focused on missionary outreach with an ecumenical idea of uniting existing denominations. The Moravians sent missionaries from Greenland to South America as well as to Native Americans during Zinzendorf'a lifetime. They established schools and emphasized music. During the Revolutionary War, the Brother House in Lititz housed wounded soldiers who were cared for by members of the community. 

    In later years, the Moravians lost their nonresistant beliefs, distinctive dress, and other unique beliefs. They were basically acclimated to the dominate culture. They are still known for some distinctive traditions such as the Moravian Star, putz (nativity scene), and music. The archives at Bethlehem preserves an extensive collection of Moravian music.

Here are the words of Zinzendorf's hymn written in 1723, soon after he became acquainted with the Moravians.

Heart with loving heart united, 

Met to know God's holy will,

Let His love in us ignited, 

More and more our spirits fill, 

He the head, we are His members;

We reflect the light He is.

He the Master, we the brothers,

He is ours and we are His.

May we all so love each other,

And all selfish claims deny,

That the brother for the brother

Will not hesitate to die.

Even so our Lord has loved us;

For our lives He shed His blood.

Still He grieves and still He suffers

When we mar the brotherhood.

Since, O Lord, You have demanded

That our lives Your love should show,

So we wait to be commanded

Forth into Your world to go.

Kindle in us love's compassion

So that everyone may see

In our fellowship the promise

Of the new humanity.

Moravian Star

What Happened to The Russian Mennonites?

 

   For a long time, Russia had vast areas of uninhabited land. In the late 1700s the Russian czars offered many incentives for German speaking people to settle on some of the most fertile land. The first Anabaptists to move into Russia were Hutterites who settled into an area northwest of present-day Kiev, Ukraine. By 1877, all of them had moved to Canada and the United States.

   Mennonites in Holland and northern German had fled to Prussia (now Poland) to escape persecution. In 1786, Prussian Mennonites were offered land in Ukraine.  Two delegates of the Prussian Mennonites went to inspect the land. Russian Empress Catherine II guaranteed they would have exemption from military service and free exercise of religion. Two hundred and twenty-eight Mennonite families moved to Ukraine in 1788 and established the Chortiza Colony along the Dnieper River. From1803-1806, another 365 Mennonite families moved to Ukraine and established the Molotschna Colony. By 1859, there were 34,500 Mennonites in sixty villages in Ukraine, primarily in the Crimea and Zaphoresia areas.

   In the late 1800s, military exemption was revoked. From 1874-1880, one-third of the 54,000 Mennonites in Ukraine left for United States and Canada. They took with them the Turkey Red wheat seed that turned the Great Plains into the breadbasket of North America.

    The Mennonite population in Russia grew to 120,000 by World War I. The Bolshevik Revolution had taken away all religious and economic freedoms. From 1922-1927, about 23,000 Mennonites left Russia for Canada, Paraguay, and Argentina.

   In World War II, the Chortiza Colony came under German occupation. When Hitler's army was driven out by the Russians, the Mennonite population followed the German army to Poland where they had come from 150 years earlier. Two-thirds of these 35,000 Mennonites were forcibly exiled to Siberia and the Far East in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan where all faced persecution for their faith.

   A Pietist Evangelical church was established near the Molotschna Colony in 1845. The movement spread through Russia and played a large role in the formation of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia. It drew together the Baptists, Evangelicals, and Mennonites as well as some smaller groups. Since 1943, these groups have been united as the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists. 

   The persecution after the Revolution and during the two World Wars tended to draw believers together as they found themselves in prisons and labor camps. There were no Mennonite churches in many of the places where the Mennonites were exiled, so they attended Baptist or Evangelical churches. Their shared faith in Jesus Christ drew them together instead of splitting as was happening in the Mennonite churches in North America where there was freedom of religion.

   As the Baptists organized, they got some concessions from the government, especially if they registered their churches. The Mennonites had never been recognized by the government and received few concessions. By joining hands with the Baptists, they found a measure of tolerance. The merger resulted in a Baptist church with many Mennonite convictions and practices. 

   There were some who refused to register because it restricted them from having Sunday school or taking their children to church. The unregistered churches worshiped in small groups in homes and suffered much persecution for "illegal" activities. Registered or unregistered, the believers were commonly called Baptists. The Mennonite name faded into history in Russia but was carried with those who left the country. Although they are known as Russian Mennonites, they were actually Dutch and German Mennonites who migrated to Russia and maintained the German language in all their wanderings.

   

   

Three Challenges of a Christian

   I was impressed and challenged by a message my brother Merle preached this summer titled Three Challenges of a Christian. These are not three obvious sinful acts but insidious ways we can get off center and veer off the path. Here are some excerpts from his message.

1. Nominalism

   People who are nominal Christians may do all the things we would expect a Christian to do. They adhere to a religious system and learn the behaviors they need to practice in order to be accepted and approved by the group. They know what words to use or not use, what to wear and not wear. They meet the group's expectations and appear to be doing well. However, it is all external behavior with little happening in their hearts.

   Too many Christians are going through the motions of what they feel a Christian should do, but without any deeply felt heart emotions. They are missing out on so much. The Christian faith is not about what we do but about our relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

2. Individualism

   Individualism is a focus on self and what is good for me. It is the idea that I need to take care of myself and make sure I get what I want or need. Individualism in spiritual matters results in a person who serves God only because of what they feel God does for them. It brings a consumer mentality to matters of faith. I am willing to invest in matters of faith and a relationship with Christ as long as the return on my investment is working for me and in my favor.

  Individualists focus on the idea that if they faithfully serve God, He will bless them and things will go well for them. This mentality puts me in control. If I behave a certain way, I can manipulate God to do what I want. It also reduces the Christian life to a business arrangement. I have a contract with God. If I do my part He is obligated to serve me. 

   Our relationship with Jesus Christ should not be a "what's in it for me?' but "what can I do for You?" If we love Him we will want to please Him. We will serve Him gladly, not expecting anything in return.

3. Minimalism

   Minimalism is an effort to keep things to a bare minimum. In spiritual matters, this is often expressed as a desire to minimize the expectations of Christians down to just what are salvation issues. The question is often asked, "Is this a salvation issue?" or "do people who do this go to heaven?" The idea is that if we can go to heaven without doing something, then we need not make an effort to do it. Or perhaps it is something that people are asked not to do, but there will be people in heaven who did it. Why do we require things or forbid things that are not salvation issues?

   The minimalist makes several false assumptions about Christian faith. First, they assume the objective of the Christian is getting into heaven. But the goal of the Christian is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If we reduce the Christian experience to just getting into heaven, we miss the joy of an intimate, ongoing relationship with Christ in this life.

    The second false assumption the minimalist makes is that only those things that are salvation issues are things that please God. There are things that please or displease God that are not salvation issues. Our desire as Christians is to please God because we love Him and want to glorify Him. 

   Why is there pressure to do just the bare minimum spiritually? We don't take that approach to our marriages or employment. Why do we want to do the bare minimum spiritually? Is it because of a lack of a relationship with Christ?

   We live in a society that has a spiritually deadening effect, promotes Individualism, and distracts us from a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us live with spiritual passion, strive to please God, and enjoy our relationship with Him.