what does your life mean? Part 101

 What does your life mean?

As we travel thru life; somehow many are troubled as to why we are here!  The one thing that God did was to place within each of us; the desire to return to Him the Great creator..  Here is an excellent example of this! 

Which goes to show how a single moment in a person's life became a major Paradigm Shift and lead to a movement which changed part of the world!  

Article from Christians .com - 2008.

  

Ecce Homo (Behold The Man)

Living for Christ

source: Count Zinzendorf : Firstfruit by Janet and Geoff Benge

Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf climbed the stone steps of the art gallery in Dusseldorf. The doorman bowed low, and Zinzendorf nodded in recognition of the gesture. It was May 20, 1719, and this was the fifth art gallery he had been to since setting out on the trip a week before. Zinzendorf strolled around, taking in the various masterpieces that were on display. With him were his new tutor, Herr Riederer, and his older half-brother, Fredrick, who had joined him for the early portion of the grand tour of Europe. The excursion to the art gallery was much like the others Zinzendorf had made on the trip, until he came to one particular painting. for some reason he felt attracted to it. He stopped and studied it closely. The painting, by Domenico Feti, was titled Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) and it showed Jesus with a crown of thorns on His head. At the bottom of the picture, the artist had painted the words: This I have done for you. What have you done for Me?

The question astonished Zinzendorf. It seemed to hang in the air as he pondered what, indeed, he had done for Christ. The usual answers came to mind. He had loved Him, read the Bible, prayed and sang hymns, but somehow these things seemed insignificant compared to all Christ had done by dying on the cross. Zinzendorf repeated the question to himself: What have you done for me? His mind went back to the dining room at the Paedagogium in Halle. He thought about the time he sat at the table listening to all that Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg, the missionary from India, had to say. Now, there was a man who was doing something for Christ!

"I will do more," Zinzendorf vowed quietly as he stood in front of the painting. "My life will not be spent in idle touring and visiting." "Don't you want to see the rest of the gallery?" Fredrick asked, his voice breaking into Zinzendorf's thoughts. "You've been standing here in a trance for fifteen minutes." "Oh, yes, I suppose I must go on," Zinzendorf replied, taking one last look at the painting. Zinzendorf went on to view the work of famous Dutch and German artists, but he could not get out of his mind the idea that it was time to do something for Christ. Shortly thereafter, he caught a vision of his life's work. What could he do for Christ? It was so obvious to him now: he could use his life and his money to try to bring all Christians together into one family - one fellowship that would accept and tolerate one another's differences. And so, that was what he did from that moment on.

I Gave My Life For Thee

source: Spirtiual Moments with the Great Hymns by Evelyn Bence

I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might ransomed be,
and raised up from the dead
I gave My life for thee,
what hast thou given for Me?
see the whole hymn

As a young woman, Frances Ridley Havergal traveled from her home in England to advance her education in Dusseldorf, Germany. While on the continent, in a pastor's study, she saw a motto printed beneath a painting titled "Ecce Homo". The portrayed scene is Christ at his trial, whipped mercilessly, wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe meant for mockery. He's standing between a crowd demanding death and Pilate, who says, "Ecce Homo (Behold the Man)". This arresting depiction of Jesus' trial struck Havergal, who paused to contemplate the biblical event. Before leaving the scene, she copied the caption-phrase, translated: "I did this for you. What have you done for me?"

Later, back home in England, she noticed the line in her notebook, recalled her emotional response to the painting, and quickly embellished the caption. She wrote a poem of five stanzas, each ending with a pointed challenge: What have you given to . . . left for . . . borne for . .. brought to . . . the Christ?

Pausing to read through her completed verse, Havergal thought poorly of her endeavor, and threw the paper into the fireplace. Yes, into the fire. But it didn't burn. {it fell from the grate}  Retrieving the lines, she eventually showed them to her father, who suggested they be saved. 

Years later, she wrote what would become one of her most famous hymns, "Take My Life".

Have you lived your life fully for God as He did for you?

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Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf  supported the Moravian Church when it was being persecuted in Europe! 

The Moravian Church (Latin: Unitas Fratrum, meaning "Unity of the Brethren") is a Protestant denomination. This church's nickname comes from the original exiles who came to Saxony in 1722 from Moravia to escape persecution, but its religious heritage began in 1457 in Kunvald, Bohemia, today Czech Republic, an autonomous kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire. The Moravian Church places a high premium on Christian unity, personal piety, missions, and music.

The church's emblem is the Lamb of God (right) with the flag of victory, surrounded by the Latin inscription: Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur, or in English: "Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him".

In 1722, a small group of Bohemian Brethren (the so-called "Hidden Seed") who had been living in northern Moravia as an illegal underground remnant surviving in Catholic setting of the Habsburg Empire for nearly 100 years, arrived at the Berthelsdorf

 estate of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a nobleman who had been brought up in the traditions of Pietism. Out of a personal commitment to helping the poor and needy, he agreed to a request from their leader (Christian David, an itinerant carpenter) that they be allowed to settle on his lands in Upper Lusatia, which is in present-day Saxony in the eastern part of modern-day Germany.

The refugees established a new village called Herrnhut, about 2 miles (3 km) from Berthelsdorf. The town initially grew steadily, but major religious disagreements emerged and by 1727 the community was divided into warring factions. Count Zinzendorf worked to bring about unity in the town and the Brotherly Agreement was adopted by the community on 12 May 1727. This is considered the beginning of the renewal. Then, on 13 August 1727 the community underwent a dramatic transformation when the inhabitants of Herrnhut "learned to love one another", following an experience that they attributed to a visitation of the Holy Spirit, similar to that recorded in the Bible on the day of Pentecost.

Herrnhut grew rapidly following this transforming revival and became the centre of a major movement for Christian renewal and mission during the 18th century. The episcopal ordination of the Ancient Unitas Fratrum was transferred in 1735 to the Renewed Unitas Fratrum by the Unity's 2 surviving bishops, Daniel Ernst Jablonski and Christian Sitkovius.The carpenter David Nitschmannand, later, Nicolas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf,were the first two bishops of the Renewed Unity. Moravian historians identify the main achievements of this period as:

1. Setting up a watch of continuous prayer that ran uninterrupted, 24 hours a day, for 100 years.
2. Originating the Daily Watchwords.
3. Establishing more than 30 settlements internationally on the Herrnhut model, which emphasized prayer and worship, and a form of communal living in which simplicity of lifestyle and generosity with wealth were held to be important spiritual attributes. The purpose of these communities was to assist the members resident there in the sanctification of their lives, to provide a meeting place for Christians from different confessional backgrounds, to provide Christian training for their own children and the children of their friends and supporters and to provide support for the Moravian Mission work throughout the world. As a result, although personal property was held, divisions between social groups and extremes of wealth and poverty were largely eliminated.
4. Being the first church body to begin missionary work; and
5. Forming many hundreds of small renewal groups operating within the existing churches of Europe, known as "diaspora societies". These groups encouraged personal prayer and worship, Bible study, confession of sins and mutual accountability...