German pastor Martin Rinkart served in the walled town of Eilenburg during the horrors of the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Eilenburg became an overcrowded refuge for the surrounding area. The fugitives suffered from epidemic and famine. At the beginning of 1637, the year of the Great Pestilence, there were four ministers in Eilenburg. But one abandoned his post for healthier areas and could not be persuaded to return. Pastor Rinkhart officiated at the funerals of the other two. As the only pastor left, he often conducted services for as many as 40 to 50 persons a day - some 4,480 in all. In May of that year, his own wife died. By the end of the year, the refugees had to be buried in trenches without services. Yet living in a world dominated by death, Pastor Rinkart wrote the following prayer for his children to offer to the Lord:

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms,
Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.


Where would I be without my God today ?  Well, I certainly would not be here with my wonderful family He has given me.  I would not be the person I am, trying to seek God with all my heart, mind and soul.  I could be out in the streets, a product of the drug culture, or in a very unhappy marriage that was not made in heaven.  Worse case scenario?  I would be dead. 

I am so very thankful for my God and all His blessings.  Even though I complain about my hurting body and why did I have to get this nasty disease.  But with this came a whole new relationship with my Lord and Savior.  He was and is the only One Who understood what I felt. He was the only One that was unchangeable in my oh so changeable world.  He was the One I felt I could talk incessantly with about how I felt.  I did not want to burden my family with this. He took it upon Himself to die all my sins....past, present and future.  He did this to secure for me....for me.....to go to Heaven forever....forever......

What do you have to be thankful for?

Welcome to Maxine's thoughts on Thanksgiving.....





We are having a real break from home school next week so I won't be posting here .  Everyone enjoy their T day with their relatives.....just like Maxine......LOL

Here is a devo I received this morning and decided to share with you all.....

A Psalm For A Suffering Soul



"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide
your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every
day have sorrow in my heart? (Psalm 13: 1-2 NIV)

In scripture, there are only a few brief glimpses into the very center
of a soul. It is a rare thing to be privileged to take such a journey
with another, for often the center of a soul is filled with suffering
and sorrow, and it is the innermost part of a person that is well
walled off from the outside world and often walled off from the
individual so completely that its very existence is often questioned.

But, there are moments when we are invited by another to that place
and hear from the heart the pain and plight of another. Jesus took us
to such a place one night in the garden called Gethsemane. He
privileged us by pouring out his soul in such a way that we might see
to the very center, and there we hear how he gave his very will to God
for the great adventure unfolding before him, an adventure that will
cost him in suffering and sorrow and torture and trial, and then,
finally, death and destruction.

The Psalmist invites us on this journey too as we are welcomed into
the depths of his prayer and petition before God. He speaks aloud the
very thing we dare not speak even in the darkest and deepest recesses
of our soul.

Prayer: Lord, I trust your steadfast love; my heart rejoices in your
salvation. Even in the suffering of my soul, Lord, you have been good
to me. Amen.

"Believers obey Christ as the one by whom our obedience is accepted by God.  Believers know all their duties are weak, imperfect and unable to abide in God's presence.  Therefore, they look to Christ as the one who bears the iniquity of their holy things, who adds incense to their prayers, gathers out all the weeds from their duties and makes them acceptable to God."

 - John Owen, quoted by Jerry Bridges in The Discipline of Grace (Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress), 42.

Monday is a home school day.  We always start with

  Thank goodness Amy loves math.  Don't tell her I don't.....LOL

We are also doing Astronomy in her Science classes. Today we learned about the phases of the Moon and about the Sun.  She is doing a lapbook to show what she has learned.  I love lapbooks. They really do alot towards learning. Not only does it show what the student has learned, it gives them a time to be creative also.  Amy loves art and it shows with the lapbooks she makes. For those of you who don't know what a lapbook is...here is a link. 

I will have to take pictures of her finished lapbook when she is done.  She is so proud of her creative side and so am I .

Everyone have a blessed Monday....we are

Please go this website and let's let them know we appreciate our freedom

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html

Ever have one of those nights when you just could not get comfy????

Like many Americans I was astounded by the 700 billion dollars recently required to save our banking system. That amount of money is hard to comprehend.

But the cost to rescue me from sin, as my pastor reminded me on Sunday, was infinitely greater than any economic bailout:

    "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." 1 Peter 1:18-19

Consider the cost and grieve. Consider the cost and worship.                                     by Nicole Whitacre

~ THE TEA CUP ~

A couple vacationing in Europe went strolling down a little street and saw a quaint little gift shop with a beautiful teacup in the window. The lady collected teacups and she wanted this one for her collection, so she went inside to buy the teacup, and as the story goes the teacup spoke and said:

I want to thank you for the suffering. I want to thank you for the process of pain. Here I am! I give you myself - fill me; pour from me, use me as you see fit. I really want to be a vessel that brings you glory within my life."

"Faith is transferring your trust from your own efforts to the efforts of Christ. You were relying on other things to make you acceptable, but now you consciously begin relying on what Jesus did for your acceptance with God. All you need is nothing. If you think, 'God owes me something for all my efforts,' you are still on the outside."

- Timothy Keller, How Can I Know God?