Norma Boeckler

SERMONS OF MARTIN LUTHER -
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY


TEXT: EPHESIANS 4:1-6. 1 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

THE CHRISTIAN CALLING AND UNITY.

1. This, too, is a beautiful sermon, delivered by Paul to the Ephesians, concerning the good works of Christians, who believe and are obedient to the doctrine of the Gospel. In the knowledge of good works Paul desires Christians to grow and increase, as we learned in the epistle for last Sunday. The ground of all doctrine, of all right living, the supreme and eternal treasure of him who is a Christian in the sight of God, is faith in Christ. It alone secures forgiveness o£ sins and makes us children of God.

Now, where this faith is, fruits should follow as evidence that Christians in their lives honor and obey God. They are necessary for God’s glory and for the Christian’s own honor and eternal reward before him.

2. Paul, remembering the imprisonment and tribulations he suffered because of the Gospel and for the advantage, as he before said, of the Ephesians, gives the admonition here. He would have them, in return for his sufferings, honor the Gospel in their lives. First he names a general rule of life for Christians. “To walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called.”

THE CHRISTIAN CALLING.

3. The chief thing that should influence a Christian’s outward walk is the remembrance of his calling and appointment by God. He should be mindful of why he is called a Christian, and live consistently. He must shine before the world; that is, through his life and God’s work, the Word and the name of Christ the Lord must be exalted. Christ exhorts his disciples: “Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16.

4. Similarly, Paul would say: “You have received God’s grace and his Word and are a blessed people. In Christ all your needs are blessedly supplied. Be mindful of this and remember you are called to a far different and vastly higher life than others know. Show by your manner of living that you seek a higher good than the world seeks — indeed, that you have received far greater blessings. Let your lives honor and glorify the Lord who has given you such blessings. Give no occasion for dishonoring your treasured faith, or for scorning his Word. Rather, influence men by your godly walk and good works to believe in Christ and to glorify him.”

5. Let the Christian know his earthly life is not unto himself, nor for his own sake; his life and work here belong to Christ, his Lord. Hence must his walk be such as shall contribute to the honor and glory of his Master, whom he should so serve that he may be able to say with Paul, not only with respect to the spiritual life — the life of faith and of righteousness by grace — but also with respect to its fruits — the outward conduct: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 2:20. The Christian’s manner of life may be styled “walking in Christ”; yes, as Paul elsewhere has it ( Romans 13:14), “putting on” the Lord Jesus Christ, like a garment or an ornament. The world is to recognize Christ by his shining in us.

6. But the so-called Christian life that does not honor Christ makes its sin the more heinous for the name it bears. Every sin the people of God commit is a provocation of Jehovah; not only in the act of disobedience itself, but also in the transgression of the second commandment. The enormity of the sin is magnified by the conditions that make it a blasphemy of God’s name and an occasion of offense to others. Paul says in Romans 2:24: “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” So a Christian should, in his life, by all means guard the honor of God — of Christ. He must take heed that he be not guilty of blaspheming that name and of doing wickedness. The devil, aided by the world, construes every act, when possible, to reflect upon God’s honor and glory. His purpose is to manifest his bitter hatred against Christ and the Word; also to injure the Church by charging offenses, thus deterring unbelievers from embracing the Gospel and causing the weak to fall away.

7. To guard against such disaster, Christians should be particularly careful to give, in their conduct, no occasion for offense, and to value the name and honor of their God too highly to permit blasphemy of them. They should prefer to lose their own honor, their wealth, their physical wellbeing, even their lives, rather than that these, their most precious possessions and greatest blessings, should suffer disgrace. Let them remember that upon keeping sacred the name and honor of God depends their own standing before God and men. God promises ( 1 Samuel 2:30), “Them that honor me! will honor.” But pursuing the opposite course, Christians bring upon themselves God’s sternest wrath and effect their own rejection and shame. For he says further: “They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” And in the second commandment God threatens certain and terrible punishment to abusers of his name; that is, to them who do not employ it to his honor and praise.

8. Well may every Christian examine his own life to see if he is careful to guard against offense to the Gospel and to regulate his words and conduct by God’s first commandment, making them contribute to the honor and praise of the divine name and the holy Gospel. Weighty indeed and well calculated to cause complaint are the sins to which every Christian is liable in this respect; well may he avoid them lest he heap to himself the wrath of God. Especially need we be careful in these last and evil times when the Gospel is everywhere suppressed by great offenses. Man was created to be the image of God, that through this his image God might himself be expressed. God’s image, then, should be reflected in the lives of men as a likeness in a glass, and a Christian can have no higher concern than to live without dishonor to the name of God.

ADMONITION TO SPECIAL CHRISTIAN VIRTUES.

9. Such is the first part of Paul’s admonition concerning the general life of Christians. He goes on to make special mention of several good works which Christians should diligently observe: humility, meekness, longsuffering, preservation of the unity of the Spirit, and so on. These have been specially treated before, in other epistle lessons, particularly those from Peter. Humility, for instance — mentioned in today’s lesson — is taken up the third Sunday after Trinity; patience and meekness, the second Sunday after Easter, and the fifth Sunday after Trinity.

10. The text here presents good works sufficient to occupy all Christians in every station of life; we need not seek other nor better ones. Paul would not impose upon Christians peculiar works, something unrelated to the ordinary walks of life, as certain false saints taught and practiced. These teachers commanded separation from society, isolation in the wilderness, the establishment of monkeries and the performance of self-appointed works. Such works they exalted as superior to ordinary Christian virtues.

Indeed, their practice amounted to rejection of the latter, and they actually regarded them as dangerous. The Papacy has in the past shamelessly styled the observance of Christian good works as worldly living, and men were compelled to believe they would find it hard to reach heaven unless they became ecclesiasts — for they regarded only the monks and priests worthy — or at least made themselves partakers of the works of ecclesiasts by purchasing their merits.

But Paul — in fact, the entire Scriptures — teaches no other good works than God enjoins upon all men in the Ten Commandments, and which pertain to the common conditions of life. True, these make not such brilliant show in the eyes of the world as do the self-appointed ceremonials constituting the divine service of hypocrites; nevertheless, they are true, worthy, good and profitable works in the sight of God and man. What can be more acceptable to God and advantageous to man than a life lived, in its own calling, in the way that contributes to the honor of God, and that by its example influences others to love God’s Word and to praise his name?

Moreover, what virtues, of all man possesses, serve him better than humility, meekness, patience and harmony of mind?

11. Now, where is a better opportunity for the exercise of these virtues than amidst the conditions in which God destined us to live — in society, where we mingle with one another? Upon these conditions, self-appointed, unusual lives and monastic holiness have no bearing. For what other person is profited by your entering a cloister, making yourself peculiar, refusing to live as your fellows do? Who is benefited by your cowl, your austere countenance, your hard bed? Who comes to know God or to have a peaceful conscience by such practices on your part, or who is thereby influenced to love his neighbor? Indeed, how can you serve your neighbor by such a life? How manifest your love, humility, patience and meekness if you are unwilling to live among men? if you so strenuously adhere to your self-appointed orders as to allow your neighbor to suffer want before you would dishonor your rules?

12. Astonishing fact, that the world is merged in darkness so great it utterly disregards the Word of God and the conditions he designed for our daily living. If we preach to the world faith in God’s Word, the world receives it as heresy. If we speak of works instituted of God himself and conditions of his own appointing, the world regards it as idle talk; it knows better. To live a simple Christian life in one’s own family, to faithfully perform the duties of a man-servant or maid-servant — “Oh, that,” it says, “is merely the following of worldly pursuits. To do good works you must set about it in a different way. You must creep into a corner, don a cap, make pilgrimages to some saint; then you may be able to help yourself and others to gain heaven.” If the question be asked, “Why do so? where has God commanded it?” there is, according to their theory, really no answer to make but this: Our Lord God knows nothing about the matter; he does not understand what good works are. How can he teach us? He must himself be tutored by these remarkably enlightened saints.

FRUITS OF ORIGINAL SIN.

13. But all this error results from that miserable inherent plague, that evil termed “original sin.” It is a blind wickedness, refusing to recognize the Word of God and his will and work, but introducing instead things of its own heathenish imagination. It draws such a thick covering over eyes, ears and hearts that it renders men unable to perceive how the simple life of a Christian, of husband or wife, of the lower or the higher walks of life, can be beautified by honoring the Word of God. Original sin will not be persuaded to the faithful performance of the works that God testifies are well pleasing to him when wrought by believers in Christ. In a word, universal experience proves that to perform really good works is a special and remarkable grace to which few attain; while the great mass of souls aspiring after holiness vainly busy themselves with worthless works, being deceived into thinking them great, and thus make themselves, as Paul says, “unto every good work reprobate.” Titus 1:16. This fruitless effort is one evil result of the error of human ideas of holiness and the practice of self-chosen works.

14. Another error is the hindrance — yes, the suppression and destruction — f the beautiful virtues of humility, meekness, patience and spiritual harmony here commended of Paul. At the same time the devil is given occasion to encourage fiendish blasphemy. In every instance where the Word of God is set aside for humanly-appointed works, differing views and theories must obtain. One introduces this and another that, each striving for first recognition; then a third endeavors to improve upon their doctrine.

Consequently divisions and factions ensue as numerous as the teachers and their creeds; as exemplified in the countless sects to this time prevalent in Popedom, and in the factious spirits of all time. Under such circumstances, none of the virtues like humility, meekness, patience, love, can have place.

Opposite conditions must prevail, since harmony of hearts and minds is lacking. One teacher haughtily rejects another, and if his own opinions fail to receive recognition and approval, he displays anger, envy and hatred. He will neither affiliate with nor tolerate him whose practices accord not with his own.

15. On the other hand, the Christian life, the life of faith with its fruits, controlled as it is by the Word of God, is in every way conducive to the preservation of love and harmony, and to the promotion of all virtues. It interferes not with the God-ordained relations of life and their attendant obligations upon men — the requirements of social order, the duties of father and mother, of son and daughter, master and mistress, servant and maid. All life’s relations are confirmed by it as valid and its duties as vital.

The Christian faith bids each person in his life, and all in common, to be diligent in the works of love, humility, patience. It teaches that one be not intolerant of another, but rather render him his due, remembering that he whose condition in life is the most insignificant can be equally upright and blessed before God with the occupant of the most significant position.

Again, it teaches that man must have patience with the weakness of his fellow, being mindful of how others must bear with his own imperfections.

In short, it says one must manifest to another the love and kindness he would have that other extend to him.

16. To this Christian attainment, contributes very largely the single fact that a Christian is conscious he has, through Christ, the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And these not for his own merits or peculiar life and works, but because he is, no matter how insignificant in condition before the world, a child of God and blessed; a partaker, if he but believes, in all the blessings of Christ, sharing equally with the most eminent saint. So, then, he need not look about for works not enjoined upon him. He need not covet those wrought in prominence and by the aid of great gifts of God — of unusual attainments. Let him confine himself to his own sphere; let him serve God in his vocation, remembering that God makes him, too, his instrument in his own place.

Again, the occupant of a higher sphere, the possessor of higher gifts and accomplishments, who likewise serves in his vocation received from God, should learn and exhibit harmony of mind. So shall he continue humble and be tolerant of others. He should remember that he is not worthier in the eyes of God because of his greater gifts, but rather is under deeper obligation to serve his fellows, and that God can use the possessor of lesser gifts for even greater accomplishments than himself can boast. Having so learned, he will be able to manifest patience, meekness and love toward his weak and imperfect neighbors, considering them members of Christ with him, and partakers of the same grace and salvation.

THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.

17. Now you have the reason why the apostles Paul and Peter everywhere so faithfully enforce this virtue, the unity of the Spirit. It is the most necessary and beautiful grace that Christians possess. It holds together the Christian community, preventing factions and schisms, as before explained.

So Paul here admonishes men to be careful for harmony, making every endeavor to preserve it. The term “unity of the Spirit” is used to make plain the apostle’s meaning. He would thus emphasize oneness of doctrine — the one true faith. Since the Holy Spirit is present only where there is knowledge of and faith in the Gospel of Christ, “unity of the Spirit” implies a unity of faith. Above all things, then, the effort must be to preserve, in the Church, the doctrine of the Scriptures, pure and in its unity.

18. One of the wickedest offenses possible to commit against the Church is the stirring up of doctrinal discord and division, a thing the devil encourages to the utmost. This sin usually has its rise with certain haughty, conceited, self-seeking leaders who desire peculiar distinction for themselves and strive for personal honor and glory. They harmonize with none and would think themselves disgraced were they not honored as superior and more learned individuals than their fellows, a distinction they do not merit. They will give honor to no one, even when they have to recognize the superiority of his gifts over their own. In their envy, anger, hatred and vengefulness, they seek occasion to create factions and to draw people to themselves. Therefore Paul exhorts first to the necessary virtue of love, having which men will be enabled to exercise humility, patience and forbearance toward one another.

19. The character of the evils resulting to the Church from divisions and discords in doctrine is evident from the facts. Many are deceived; the masses immediately respond to new doctrine brilliantly presented in specious words by presumptuous individuals thirsting for fame. More than that, many weak but well-meaning ones fall to doubting, uncertain where to stand or with whom to hold. Consequently men reject and blaspheme the Christian doctrine and seek occasion to dispute it. Many become reckless pleasure-lovers, disregarding all religion and ignoring the Word of God. Further, even they who are called Christians come to have hard feelings against one another, and, figuratively, bite and devour in their hate and envy. Consequently their love grows cold and faith is extinguished.

20. Of so much disturbance in the Church, and of the resulting injuries to souls, are guilty those conceited, factious leaders who do not adhere to the true doctrine, preserving the unity of the Spirit, but seek to institute something new for the sake of advancing their own ideas and their own honor, or gratifying their revenge. They thus bring upon themselves damnation infinitely more intolerable than others suffer. Christians, then, should be careful to give no occasion for division or discord, but to be diligent, as Paul here admonishes, to preserve unity. And this is not an easy thing to do, for among Christians occasions frequently arise provoking selfwill, anger and hatred. The devil is always at hand to stir and blow the flame of discord. Let Christians take heed they do not give place to the promptings of the devil and of the flesh. They must strive against them, submitting to all suffering, and performing all demands, whether honor, property, physical welfare or life itself be involved, in the effort to prevent, so far as in them lies, any disturbance of the unity of doctrine, of faith and of Spirit. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”

21. Christians should feel bound to maintain the unity of the Spirit, since they are all members of one body and partakers of the same spiritual blessings. They have the same priceless treasures — one God and Father in heaven, one Lord and Savior, one Word, baptism and faith; in short, one and the same salvation, a blessing common to all whereof one has as much as another, and cannot obtain more. What occasion, then, for divisions or for further seeking?

22. Here Paul teaches what the true Christian Church is and how it may be identified. There is not more than one Church, or people of God, one earth.

This one Church has one faith, one baptism, one confession of God the Father and of Jesus Christ. Its members faithfully hold, and abide by, these common truths. Every one desiring to be saved and to come to God must be incorporated into this Church, outside of which no one will be saved.

23. Unity of the Church does not consist in similarity of outward form of government, likeness of Law, tradition and ecclesiastical customs, as the Pope and his followers claim. They would exclude from the Church all not obedient to them in these outward things, though members of the one faith, one baptism, and so on. The Church is termed “one holy, catholic or Christian Church,” because it represents one plain, pure Gospel doctrine, and an outward confession thereof, always and everywhere, regardless of dissimilarity of physical life, or of outward ordinances, customs and ceremonies.

24. But they are not members of the true Church of Christ who, instead of preserving unity of doctrine and oneness of Christian faith, cause divisions and offenses — as Paul says ( Romans 16:17) — by the human doctrines and self-appointed works for which they contend, imposing them upon all Christians as necessary. They are perverters and destroyers of the Church, as we have elsewhere frequently shown. The consolation of the true doctrine is ours, and we hold it in opposition to Popedom, which accuses us of having withdrawn from them, and so condemns us as apostates from the Church. They are, however, themselves the real apostates, persecuting the truth and destroying the unity of the Spirit under the name and title of the Church and of Christ. Therefore, according to the command of God, all men are under obligation to shun them and withdraw from them.

The Christ-Centered Liturgy

Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity

O God Our Help In Ages Past Hymn - Comfort for Christians:

The Bible raises ten thousand questions. If you answer any one of them in your own way only, and without looking farther, and say, “This is what I believe,” you are setting up a personal creed of your own. If you simply content yourself with the assertion, “The Bible is my creed,” you are leaving unanswered many of the most important and vital questions of faith and life. And a Church’s answer, more than your own, must be ample to meet all questions. When you refuse to take a definite stand on vital issues in the Christian Faith, but say, “The Bible is my creed,” are you really confessing Christ, or are you taking the problems of religious life easy, and evading the unpleasant but important doctrines which the Spirit of God has brought to an issue in the development of the Faith and His Church in history?

Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber is a model for future pastors, so they may have to merge all remaining ELCA seminaries into one. The WELS-LCMS-ELS seminaries are also cratering.

Downsizing All ELCA Seminaries - Trinity Seminary ... Sep 15, 2017,  689 From Bishop to Bishop - The Strange Case of DeJayn... Sep 8, 2017,  665 Dr. Lito Cruz Asked That Bethany Add a PayPal Acco... Jul 5, 2011,  643 Pastor Rick Johnson Chapped Jon-Boy's Hide So Badl... Sep 12, 2017,  527 Did Ricky Johnson, Resigned from WELS, Start His O... Oct 4, 2017,  353 The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2017. Comfort ... Oct 1, 2017,  318 Is the Price Right? Is He Even a Pastor? Mar 14, 2016,  289 Joel Osteen Agrees with the Antichrist Oct 3, 2013,  262 Top Views for the Last Month Sep 20, 2017,  219 WELS Runs from the Lutheran Name. Party in the MLC... Sep 2, 2017,  217

Rolf Preus has devoted his career to attacking Justification by Faith, so his mini-sect was a natural to partner with ELDONA, which considered the Chief Article an adiaphoron, until it was suddenly a thing. The Preusian union failed and the Rolfites crawled back to the ELS. "When we said - leave the ELS, we did not mean leave leave." They threw themselves on Pope John's shoulder, sobbing and begging for merciful reunion terms.

Last summer's roses benefited from warm weather and plenteous rain.

Here are some inexpensive tools for gardening. Some are free - examples of recycling.

We throw our cardboard boxes out - the back door. Flattened boxes are ideal for blocking weed growth. They need to stay in place at first, so we use water jugs and small logs to hold them down. At the end of summer, birds have pooped various unwelcome plants into the soil - fertilized in advance - to wreck a future garden. I have one area reserved for Hostas, and pine needles keep that mostly weed free. Another area is saved for the bird feeding area. There we get lots of Morning Glory plants plus various weeds from cheap bird food (that I do not use).

We used gallon water jugs for a long time, for making coffee and certain foods. When they were empty, I filled them with tapwater for weights and for emergency water. We soon had 20 gallons of water in the backyard. Twice creatures have chewed into the plastic to drink the water jugs dry, even though I keep kiddie pools with water in the backyard. Nevertheless, I am pleased they had some relief from thirst, even if they were trash pandas (raccoons).

When I mulch with cardboard or newspapers, small logs and water jugs are handy and mobile for keeping the mulch in place.

I also get heavily mulched areas in the Wild Garden that begin growing grassy weeds. All I do is throw cardboard on them and weigh the mass down with logs and bottles. The weeds and wood products become fertilizer. Logs always promote beneficial fungus in the soil

Small logs also help in propping up new plants that want to lean over. No sticks for tying up plants? Gently roll a log or two against them to help straighten them in the early stages of growth.

When my supply of small logs became a burden for the weed crew working the front yard, they gathered them and used the extras for firewood.

The rotting of a log is fascinating. When a hardwood log is cut, the bark slowly pulls away. I use the bark for mulch and beneficial creatures' shade (toads, soil creatures). When chunks fall from hardwood trees, they are already well rotted, lightweight, and full of holes. Sometimes it is like picking up a fragile chunk of sawdust barely stuck together. That is a good indication of the work of Creation in reclaiming the elements. Bacteria does the rotting of juicy, soft tissue, but fungus has incredible power in eating away wood products. Those wood products are moved to plant roots in exchange for the carbon fungus must have to grow.

My favorite log fell from the maple, full of holes from various animals and rotting. I keep it near the water faucet to facilitate  the rot. Every log is a soil-fertilizer station, a creature shelter, and a bird feeder. The same log that feeds the creatures of rot will attract those animals that prey upon the creatures of rot. 

How can anyone observe these things without recognizing the Creation, engineering, and management of God?

These two collars are much larger than the ones I am using.

Rose Collars
Mrs. Ichabod asked about this post, so I mentioned low cost tools for the garden. She said, "Be sure to mention rose collars."

They just came and I already installed them on some Crepe Myrtle starts. Each collar has four holes and two snaps to put through them to form the collar. I can see various benefits from them:

1. Protection from nibbling rabbits and electric weed-eaters.
2. Help in keeping them growing straight.
3. Insulation against bitter, dry, cold weather.
4. Funnel to feed organic matter to the plant until spring.

Calladiums in the shade make the Crepe Myrtle that much more colorful.

Not every pollinator is a bug.

Beneficial insect plants? Some gardeners like the broader term - pollinator - which includes those plants that especially attract one pollinator or another. The firms know how to press that button. Butterfly plant? Bee plant? Beneficial insect plant? Crawling with insects that kill garden pests? Hummingbird plan? Yes! Yes!

These are great plants that I have begun to enjoy lately - all easy to grow and bound to attract the attention of guests.

Joe Pye Weed is the worst name ever, but hard to obtain late in the season. Gardeners know! There is also a shorter version - Little Joe.

Joe Pye Weed began as a medicinal plant used by - Joe Pye. But it has sold out in most places in October. Why? JPW is the ultimate butterfly plant, perennial, growing easily, always attracting butterflies when in bloom, late in the summer.

Mountain Mint enjoys crazy pollinator action as it goes through its continuous blooming cycle.

Mountain Mint - is another plant that drives pollinators crazy when in full bloom. Coreopsis or Tick Seed also does this in bloom, but I prefer the tall growth of Mountain Mint and its clumping roots. I had three tiny plants at first. Now i have three large clumps of them, growing about five feet tall. On sunny, windless days, the tops of Mountain Mint are always buzzing with various bees and butterflies. I will divide the three plants I own in the spring and place them around the front and backyard.

Purple Monarda, aka Bee Balm, aka Horse Mint, aka Oswego Tea.

More Monarda. The purple blooming Bee Balm is heavy with bumble bees when blooming. When buying any mint, make sure it is the clumping variety. Those that spread through the roots can take over a garden quickly.

Daisies are now on my list for their role as a beneficial insect magnet. They are easy to grow, hard to kill, and generous in blooming.

Cat Mint is a safe, clumping relative of Catnip. The only way to get rid of Catnip is to move.

Cat Mint is a clumping mint I bought on sale, three little plants. Two of them are now good sized and worth transplanting to the Butterfly Garden or the sunny border. Cats think it is the obnoxious Catnip plant and stop by for aroma-therapy. Their purple flowers attract bees.

Groundcover for 2018

Where did I plant Empress Wu Hosta?

Hostas will be the major plant for groundcover in the new year. A few new plants are growing fast already. Their roots will continue to grow in the winter, which is still far away here. Their many virtues include flowers that attract Hummingbirds. Mrs. Ichabod is fascinated with all the colors available.

Tiny prolific Fever Few has been used to cure headaches and cause headaches.

Fever Few could be called Fever Many, because the plant will seed itself all over, once in bloom. This small plant will fill in all gaps in the yard with its tiny white blooms. Beneficial insects love it. If Fever Few is a weed, then it is an attractive, therapeutic, prolific weed.

Let's be frank. We all have weeds. My goal is to crowd out the least desirable weeds, like Bermuda Grass.

Chaste Tree is a woody shrub that loves the sun and hates watering. Bees love it.

Do not worry - WELS has a deep bench of shallow, spineless men.

That was Wendland's defense of the New NIV.

In short, we love it! The Greek text is constantly changing. They added our favorite dogma, UOJ, to Romans 3. They included feminist editing, to appeal to our softer side.

Rev. Ricky Johnson got himself an insta-church with an insta-treasury, and he is laughing.

About-us | CA | Amazing Grace Lutheran Church:



"Amazing Grace is a new church, starting in September of 2017.   You can expect 100 to 125 people attending on Sunday.  Children, age 2 through 5th grade, have their own environment on Sunday mornings.  They stay with their parents to worship together as a family for the opening part of the service.  Then following the Kids Message they leave the main service to connect with God on their level led by loving adults, many of whom also have kids that attend the Kids Ministry.
​
Every church has its own style. Ours is casual. We have a casual atmosphere while being serious about faith. Our Sunday service is about 60 minutes long and includes four songs and a message from a pastor. You choose if you want to participate or if you want to sit back and soak it all in. We believe that the most important thing you will experience is God’s presence. That’s the reason why we gather and what we want you to experience as well.
​
Amazing Grace is a portable church. That means we strategically choose to rent our Sunday morning space.  We currently are renting the Indonesian Evangelical Christian Church for our Sunday services.  Parking is on the street and there is a vacant medical building with parking."



'via Blog this'


PHONE (951) 660-3774
Mailing Address: 1522 JT Eisley Dr
Corona, CA, 92881
pastorrickj57@gmail.com

David Jay Webber allied himself with the Harvey Weinstein of Columbus - for the money, Kovo the Church Growth Guru, and UOJ, but worries publicly about tuxes.

David Jay Webber is feeling sad.

GJ - My advice - Keep throwing sand in everyone's eyes, so they do not see your clay feet.

This just arrived by special courier -

Our attorneys received a link to your slanderous blog post - The Harvey Weinstein Synods Worry about Tuxes. Our legal research department has examined your blog thoroughly. This is a formal demand that you cease and desist publishing that post, erase it, and remove all evidence of it - for the following reasons.

Mr. Weinstein is a distinguished entertainment executive. He has received many honors from his profession, from various charities, and from academia.

1. He has never murdered any of his wives, so we think calling these Lutheran groups Harvey Weinstein Synods is especially repugnant, since your fellow rabbis have done this, with few legal consequences.
2. If something so horrible had happened at Miramax or any other Weinstein company, we would have disclosed it at once, and not covered it up, as your Chief Rabbis have.
3. We employ the finest CPA firms to audit our books, so we would never have so many cases of embezzlement, especially at our own headquarters. Can you say the same? No.
4. We have never had the FBI raid our headquarters and seize computer equipment for dealing in gay child porn. And even if, heaven forbid, that happened, we would not excuse, pardon, and absolve the felon for the sake of good PR.

Therefore, we order you to stop comparing your out-of-control synods to our client.

You have 24 hours to comply or we will seek additional legal action.

Cordially,


Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe
Attorneys at Law
New York City
(satire)

Mr. Weinstein is seeking treatment in Europe at a secure and undisclosed location.

ΚΑΤΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΗΝ 191550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

The Mother of All Crepe Myrtles bloomed and set seed fast, so I pruned it for a second bloom. The Buckwheat in bloom around the CM grew like Jack and the Beanstalk and re-seeded itself when cut. Both plants added to the organic content of the soil.

Winter has not yet arrived here. Nor has autumn. We have a few leaves falling but highs at 80 and lows above freezing.

Someone was really startled that I plant in the fall. "Does that work?" That works quite well. Beginners think about plants - veterans think about roots.

Hardy - or fall bulbs - need a cold winter to do well in the spring. They do most of their initial growth after being planted in the fall - the earlier the better, but do not peek out of the soil until the right time for them.They are growing roots and reaching upwards during the winter. In the spring, their rise up according to the weather clock built into their systems. Some bloom especially early - like crocus. Others can be quite late - like tulips. But even within one of those categories, there are early and late bloomers.

I no longer support the hardy bulb industry because the winters here are too mild for really good results. Next year I have a bunch of tender or spring bulbs to grow, given to me by our neighbor. Glads are one type, and I think he gave me dozens of them. Tender bulbs have to be dug up again. Mrs. Ichabod loves Caladiums, so they have to be dug up and preserved or bought again.

All plants grow according to a weather clock, and it is fun to observe and take advantage of it. Could that be a co-inky-dink? The staggered bloom cycles mean that pollinators have a constant supply of food, which benefits the insects and birds alike. The explosive hatching of bugs in the spring matches the hatching of birds and their ravenous appetites for bugs and larvae.

I pruned the Mother of All Crepe Myrtles for a possible third bloom, but the Creator trumped my ace. The weather turned just enough to signal a stop to blooms and a finishing up of seeds. Here and there a twig is showing off the incandescent pink of the bush, but overall the plant is all seeds on top - a generous supply of seeds for the Cardinals.



Likewise, the rugosa rose n the Wild Garden, has bloomed and started to form its hips. All roses try  to grow hips - seed pods - and some are known for their big, attractive hips. Birds love to eat them. Because these hips are packed with Vitamin C, they are grown for Vitamin C tablets sold in stores. When we grow roses for their blooms, we stop the fruiting and seed formation, to encourage even more blooming. See John 15:1-10 for how Jesus applies this to grapes and the Means of Grace.

The hybrid tea roses will continue to bloom in this weather. At some point I will stop cutting the roses and let the bush become dormant for the winter, lest new shoots suffer frost damage.

If you want to learn the calendar of planting, just use one supplier and offer up your email address to them and "their partners." Soon you will get frantic, daily messages about something to buy. They are not selling seeds now, but plants that will get established before they take a partial rest in the winter.

Hostas are a great investment in the fall. I had some ordered in the spring, since my wife enjoys them so much. My interest increased when I saw how their flowers were attracting Hummingbirds. The tiny plants - in some cases, only the roots - arrived recently. I was warned by suppliers, "These are dormant. Do not expect much growth now." However, our weather remained warm and we had some heavy rains at just the right time. They decided it was spring and they sprang into action. Hostas with leaves grew quickly and roots sprouted leaves.

All winter, the Hosta roots will strengthen for the spring. That is why soil building matters so much. Plants can be in relatively poor soil all winter and grow stronger, or they can be nourished in rich, well aerated soil and burst into action in the spring.

Hosta roots grow all winter, and they grow their own Hummingbird feeders in the late summer.

Hostas will bloom, even in deep shade, and the Hummingbirds love to feed at their flowers.

The Difficulty of Faith - Comfort for Christians:



"149 – The Difficulty of Faith



Who, said one of a company, would really refuse to trust the blessed God?

None of us, certainly, said Gotthold, so long as he has also faith in his own hand or purse; otherwise, to trust in God is a difficult, nay, an impossible task, for an earthly-minded, sinful, and timid heart. Such a heart cannot trust God without God’s help, nor depend upon His grace without His grace’s aid.

Faith has many enemies and gainsayers; and therefore it is a fight, and only keeps its ground by fighting. It has to comprehend the great God and His whole heaven in a little heart; and that is no easy task. A mother takes and carries about her child in her arms; soothes, fondles, kisses it; gives it meat and drink, and is very patient with it. But how long is it ere the child, on its part, learns to know the mother, returns her embraces and smiles, and shows her love and respect?

For myself, I can say with thankfulness, that now, through many trials, conflicts, struggles, temptations, sighs, and prayers, I have come so far, that I am beginning to believe that God is my gracious Father, and that I have an interest in the crucified Jesus, and in His merits, blood, and death. This is a lesson which I learn from day to day. Like a tender infant at the mother’s breast, I lie at the Savior’s wounds, and imbibe from them His blood and spirit, that I may grow in strength. Lord, I believe: help Thou my unbelief!"



'via Blog this'

Graphic by Norma Boeckler

The Harvey Weinstein Synods of Lutherdom seem determined to embarrassment themselves as often as possible.

Which is worse? -

• Concordia Publishing House selling Reformation bar equipment and doggie t-shirts, or 
• Matt the Fatt having the convention vote to kick out anyone who publishes about doctrine without having an official title? 

I suppose "Pastor" is not an official role. That is simply too cute a way to celebrate Martin Luther speaking out for the entire Christian Church, sparking the Protestant Revolt  - as the Romanists fashion it. LCMS pastors leave the Vatican on the Mississippi for the real Vatican on the Tiber.

In the Wisconsin Synod corner, a sect known for despising the Book of Concord and Lenski, they publish their drivel about the Reformation by apologizing for Luther - at least "he pointed to Christ." Yet they point away from Christ, publishing JW Montgomery, another UOJ fanatic - who teaches forgiveness without faith and all that rubbish.

The Little Sect on the Prairie, a wholly owned subsidiary of WELS, plays a neat game called "We thank God we are better than Wisconsin." Meanwhile, they ape Wisconsin dogma in every way, but speak out against tuxedos. To be polite, they will not identify the WELS pastor by name who wore a tux for a service, but that pretty much clinches who it is. So delicate is their sense of ethical probity.

The so-called Church of the Lutheran Confession lives off its anger about WELS/ELS - and is dying from it at the same time. Nevertheless, they also swoon about Forgiveness without Faith and the Church Growth Movement, as if arsenic is not toxic enough - they also need to add lead to their diet.

This entire class of clowns and criminals will not allow a discussion about Justification by Faith in public, whether on Facebook or at a Free Conference. As most know, a Free Conference means anyone can express a position. Although the Emmaus meetings are clearly designed to serve as dating before the marriage, the LCMS-WELS-ELS pretends they are informal and non-binding. Spoiler alert - all three sects have already declared in public that they rejoice in their common teaching of Objective Justification - Forgiveness without Faith, Grace without the Means of Grace, Universal Salvation.

St. Paul summed up the synodical problem in two verses. Graphic by Norma Boeckler

A Modest Proposal
Various elections, conferences, blogs, and secret groups have failed to move beyond trivia for the last 50 years. Shallow, double-dealing politicians have not accomplished anything, so attempting to get someone elected is a total waste of time. Given the attention the leaders pay to the Scriptures - beyond pious slogans and mandatory tithing - electing anyone is counter-productive.

This program can be carried out stealthily, which is ideal for the clergy of today, who do not want to make waves or take a public position about anything beyond the level of adiaphora. Examples from the above sects - the Christian flag? - burn them all. Individual communion cups - anathema sit! Women teaching men? - that is a gre-e-e-e-ey area of Scripture.

Historical background. As the lost Pieper - Egbert - wrote, CFW Walther was not a Scriptural teacher. He used dogmatic theses. He was very weak in the Biblical languages, so he postured about teaching doctrine in Latin and became the first Pope on the Mississippi. The solution is not a new pope, but a vast cloud of Biblical expositors.

Graphic by Norma Boeckler

The Secret Plan
Every pastor has a unique opportunity to teach the truth once a week - or more - where everyone listens for 20 minutes plus, without interruption. Babies may squall and some people may become restless, but that remains a protected, special opportunity for the efficacious Word of God.

Here is the sermon -
The pastor will deal with the Gospel or Epistle text each week, verse by verse, explaining that lesson. The historic pericopes are best and Luther has great guides for this - the Lenker edition of his sermons. But other Biblical series are good too. One should avoid the anti-Scriptural paraphrases like the NIV and ESV in favor of the KJV, KJV21, and Third Millennium Bible.

Lenski has great insights too, but the sermon should be based on the pastor's own study and reflection during the week.

Gardeners and farmers get this parable - synod leaders and seminary professors do not. Graphic by Norma Boeckler

The Reformation did not happen because Luther taught Luther, nor did it erupt and take over Europe because he taught the organization (as the sects do today). He firmly believed that Romans 10 was correct - forgiveness and salvation come from faith, and faith from the preached Word of God.

The Gospel of John is the capstone of the Four Gospels, clearly  emphasizing the teaching of Christ as the righteousness of faith, which is reflected in all the works of the Lutheran Reformation.

Teaching through various books of the Bible, phrase by phrase, is another aspect of this proposal. Various cheerleaders have begged for the right election results, as if that will yield some result other than another politician elected as Synod President of District President.

Graphic by Norma Boeckler

Instead, pastors should teach faithfully the Word of God and accept the results - both good and bad - the Gospel fruits and the cross. Where that leads is God's business, not ours.

Isaiah 55 teaches with absolute clarity that God's will is accomplished only through God's Word. That Word always returns to Him with great effect.

• The Word is never void. This double-negative should be considered gravely, at all times. The phrase condemns virtually  everything being done in Lutherdom today.
• The Word always accomplishes His purpose. The results, which man may consider good or bad, are divinely blessed.
• The Word prospers His will, so the effect is so great that no one can deny its origin in the Triune God.

The Gadarene Swine of Lutherdom are trained at Fuller, Willow Creek, and Trinity Divinity. They have made a big splash.

The miraculous catch of fish was a visual representation of what the disciples would do in the future, trusting in the Word of God. Graphic by Norma Boeckler

Duerer's depiction of the Holy Trinity

Norma Boeckler

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.


This sermon is not found in the c. edition. Erl. 14, 163; W. 11, 2249; St. L. 11, 1686.

Text: Matthew 22:34-46. But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, gathered themselves together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, trying him: Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, What think ye of the Christ? whose son is he?

They say unto him, The son of David. He said unto them, How then doth David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet? If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

CONTENTS:

OF THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL; OR THE TWO GREATEST COMMANDMENTS AND HOW CHRIST IS DAVID’S SON AND DAVID’S LORD.
* The Substance of this Gospel.

* Where unbelief is, there is also stupidity and unrighteousness. 2.

I. OF THE LAW.

1. The foundation and kernal of the law. 3-5.

2. The law must be kept by the heart. 5-10.

3. To what end has the law been given. 6-7f.

* The custom of the Jews in that they offered their children to Moloch. a. The origin of this custom. 8-9. b. How and why God had displeasure in this custom.

4. The law must accommodate itself to our love and our need. 11-13f.

* The ceremonies and statutes of the Papists. a. They must give place to love. b. How and why the Papists are so strict that they neglect the commandments of God. c. What we should think of the Papists being so strict about their ceremonies. 16-17.

* A Judgment on the state of the priests and monks.

5. There are but few persons who understand the law.

6. Whether nature and reason can understand and fulfill the law. 20-21.

7. When and how the law is correctly preached.

8. There is no person who fulfills the law of God. 23-26.

* All people are alike in the inner wickedness of their hearts. 27.

II. OF THE GOSPEL.

1. The Gospel frees us of an evil conscience.

2. How the Gospel teaches us to become free from the law. 29-31.

* Faith and works.

* To what extent Christ can be called the son of David. 33 -34.

SUMMARY OF THIS GOSPEL:

1. The two commands in this Gospel, of the love of God and of our neighbor, condemn us all, not to say anything then that the law Justifies us.
2. The Spirit of God alone fulfills the commandment. Therefore all that pertains to us is against and contrary to the law of God, as St. Paul says in the third chapter of Romans.

3. Seeing all depends upon love, works do not Justify, but faith alone.

Blessed is he who has faith.

4. Christ is both God and man, and David’s son and David’s Lord; therefore he is also the only mediator between God and man, as St. Paul says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 2:5.

1. This Gospel consists of two questions. In the first the lawyer on behalf of the other Pharisees asks Christ: Which is the great commandment in the law? In the second the Lord asks the Pharisees and the lawyer: Whose son is David? These two questions concern every Christian; for he who wishes to be a Christian must thoroughly understand them. First, what the law is, and the purpose it serves; and secondly, who Christ is, and what we may expect from him.

2. Christ explains here to the Pharisees the law, telling them what the sum of the whole law is, so that they are completely silenced both at his speech and his question, and know less than nothing of what the law is and who Christ is. From this it follows, that although unbelief may appear as wisdom and holiness before the world, it is nevertheless folly and unrighteousness before God, especially where the knowledge of the two questions mentioned above is wanting.

For he who does not know how he stands before the law, and what he may expect from Christ, surely has not the wisdom of God, no matter how wise and prudent he may pretend to be. Let us therefore consider the first question, namely: What the law is; what it commands and how it is to be spiritually interpreted.

3. When the lawyer asked Christ, which was the great commandment in the law, the Lord said to him: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.”

4. As if the Lord would say: He who possesses love to God, and love to his neighbor, has all things, and therefore fulfills the law; for the whole law and all the prophets point to these two themes, namely: how God and our neighbor are to be loved.

5. Now one may wish to ask: How can you harmonize this statement, that all things are to be comprehended in these two commandments, since there was given to the Jews circumcision and many other commandments? To answer this, let us see in the first place how Christ explains the law, namely, that it must be kept with the heart. In other words, the law must be spiritually comprehended; for he who does not lay hold of the law with the heart and with the Spirit, will certainly not fulfill it. Therefore the Lord here gives to the lawyer the ground and real substance of the law, and says that these are the greatest commandments, to love God with the heart and our neighbor as ourselves.

From this it follows that he, who is not circumcised, who does not fast nor pray, is not doing it from the heart; even though he may perform external acts, he nevertheless does nothing before God, for God looketh on the heart, and not on our acts, 1 Samuel 16:7. It will not profit a man at all, no matter what work he may perform, if his heart is not in it.

6. From this arises another question: Since works are of no profit to a man, why then did God give so many commandments to the Jews? To this I answer, these commandments were given to the end that we might become conscious whether we really love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and in addition our neighbor as ourselves; for St. Paul says in Romans 7:7 (3:20), that the law is nothing but a consciousness and a revelation of sin. What would I know of sin, if there were no law to reveal it to me?

Here now is the law that saith: Thou shalt love God with thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. This we fulfill if we do all that the law requires; but we are not doing it. Hence he shows us where we are lacking, and that, while we ought really to do something, we are doing nothing.

7. That the Jews had to practice circumcision was indeed a foolish ceremony, yea, a command offensive to reason, even though it were given by God still to-day. What service was it to God, to burden his people with this grievous commandment? What good was it to him, or what service to a neighbor? Yea, and it did not profit the Jew, who was circumcised. Why then did God give the command? In order that this commandment and law might show them whether they really loved God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind, and whether they did it willingly or not. For if there were a devout heart, it would say: I verily do not know why God gave me circumcision, inasmuch as it does not profit any one, neither God, nor me, nor my neighbor; but since it is well pleasing to God, I will nevertheless do it, even though it be considered a trifling and despised act. Hence, circumcision was an exercise of the commandment, Thou shalt love God with all thy heart.

8. It was also a foolish command God gave to Abraham, to slay his son, Genesis 22:2. For if reason had been the judge in this, both it and all mankind would have come to no other conclusion than this: It is an unfriendly and hostile command, how can it be from God, since God himself said to Abraham that he would multiply his seed through this son, and it would become as innumerable as the stars of the firmament and as the sand by the sea. Therefore it was a foolish commandment, a grievous, hard and unbearable commandment. But what did Abraham do? He closes his senses, takes his reason captive, and obeys the voice of God, goes, and does as God commanded him.

By this he proved that he obeyed from the heart; otherwise, even if he had put his son to death a hundred times, God would not have cared for it; but God was pleased that the deed came from his heart and was done in true love to God; yea, it came from a heart that must have thought: Even if my son dies, God is almighty and faithful, he will keep his word, he will find ways and means beyond that which I am able to devise; only obey, there is no danger. Had he not had this boldness and this faith, how could his fatherheart have killed his only and well beloved son?

9. The Jews later wanted to follow this example and, like Abraham, offered their children unto God, hoping thereby to perform a service well-pleasing to God; but it was far from it. These poor people came to the conclusion:

The service of Abraham was pleasing to God, therefore will ours also be, and consequently they killed one child after another. O, how many healthy, noble and beautiful children perished! The prophets protested against this service, they preached, warned and wrote against it, telling the people that it was deception, but all was in vain. Yea, many a prophet lost his life because of this, as the history in the books of the kings shows.

10. But why was this service of the Jews displeasing to God? For the reason that it did not come from their heart, and was not done out of love to God; but they simply looked upon the service, and did it without the command and word of God; but God saith: My dear sirs, I was not concerned about the fact that Abraham offered up his son, but that he proved by this act that he loved me with his whole heart. There must be first love in the heart, then follows the service that will be pleasing to God; for all the works of the law tend to the end thereby to prove our love to God, which is in the heart; which love the law requires, and wall have above everything else.

11. We are also to notice here that all the works of the law are not commanded merely for the purpose that we simply just perform them; no, no; for if God had given even more commandments, he would not want us to keep them to the injury and destruction of love. Yea, if these commandments oppose the love of our neighbor, he wants us to renounce and annul them. Take the example of this, I recently gave you: Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, leading them for forty years through the wilderness, and not one of them was circumcised, although it was commanded them. Where was their obedience to the commandment?

Was God not angry with them because they did not obey his commandment? No, there was a higher commandment in force at that time, namely, that they were to obey God who commanded them to come out of Egypt in haste to the promised land. By their marching they daily obeyed God, and God accepted it as obedience; otherwise he would have been angry, in that they did not keep his commandments. Both the need and the love were at hand, which set aside all commandments, for it would have been unbearable to endure the pain of circumcision and at the same time the burden of the journey. Therefore love took the place of the commandment of circumcision, and thus should all commandments be kept in love, or not at all.

12. In like manner Christ excused his disciples, as is recorded in Matthew 12:3-4, when the Jews accused them of transgressing the law, of doing on the Sabbath that which was not lawful to do on the Sabbath day, when they plucked the ears of corn and ate them. Then the Lord gave them to understand that they were doing no wrong, as if to say: Here is no Sabbath; for the body needs food, necessity demands it; we must eat, even though it be on the Sabbath. Therefore the Lord cited the example of David, which he laid before the Jews, and said, “Have ye not read what David did; he and they that were with him, when he was an hungered, how he went into the house of God and ate the shew bread which was not lawful to eat, nor for those that were with him, excepting for the priests?” 1 Samuel 21:3f. Then David ate the bread, though he was not a priest, because hunger pressed him to do it. Neither did Ahimelech the priest violate the law in giving the bread to David, for love was present and urged him to give it. Thus even the whole law would have had to serve David in his need.

13. Therefore, when the law impels one against love, it ceases and should no longer be a law; but where no obstacle is in the way, the keeping of the law is a proof of love, which lies hidden in the heart. Therefore ye have need of the law, that love may be manifested; but if it cannot be kept without injury to our neighbor, God wants us to suspend and ignore the law.

14. Thus you are to regulate your life and conduct. There are in our day many customs, many orders and ceremonies, by which we falsely think to merit heaven; and yet there is only this one principle, namely: the love to our neighbor, that includes in it all good works. I will give you an example we recently heard. Here is a priest or monk, who is to read his prayers or the rules of his order, or to hold mass, or say penance. At this moment there comes a poor man or woman to him who has need of his help and counsel. What shall this priest or monk do? Shall he perform his service, or shall he assist the poor man? He should therefore act prudently and think:

True, I am required to read my prayers, hold mass, or say penance; but now on the other hand, a poor man is here; he needs my help and I should come to his rescue. God commanded me to do this; but the others man devised and instituted. I will let the mandates of men go, and will serve my neighbor according to God’s commandment.

15. However, very seldom do we think that the precious service of holding mass and reading prayers should be put in the background; and such a humble service, as you regard it, should have the preference. But what is the reason? The reason is that these dream-preachers, who have nothing to present to us but the ordinances of men, have made us so timid and fearful that we came to the conclusion, if we did not regulate ourselves in everything according to their preaching, heaven itself would fall. Yea, they would rather let ten poor people starve than fail to say one mass. We find even to-day many monks or priests who rather let a poor man freeze, than violate their statutes and ordinances. So lamentably and miserably have they been deceived by their godless preachers and teachers, and by their superiors, who with their statutes and devilish ordinances have drawn, and are still drawing, them away more and more from the law of God to our own notions.

16. These are the principal fruits of unbelief and godlessness, which, as the Scriptures declare, provoke God. Should not God be angry with me, if he commands me to show my neighbor love, and I go and follow my own or other people’s dreams? It is as if a master said to his servant: Go and work in the field, and the servant went and desired to wash the dishes. Should not the master rightly be angry with such a servant? Thus it is also with God. He wants us to keep his commandments, and to regard them more than the commandments of men, and all the commandments to be subservient to love, so that all be comprehended in these two commandments, of which the Lord here speaks in this Gospel: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.”

17. Do you want to do something pleasing to God, then do it out of genuine love. That the Jews practiced circumcision, fasted much, prayed much, and performed other like services, was not pleasing to God, for it did not come from the heart, as this commandment requires: Thou shalt love God with all thy heart. Thus it will be also with you, even though you should belong to the Carthusian friars, or to a still more exacting order; all would avail nothing, if you had not the love of God. From this you are to conclude, all works are nothing, that do not originate in love, or are against love. No commandments should be in force, except those in which the law of love can be exercised.

18. From this it now appears what a misleading calling that of the monks and priests is, in that they wish to merit heaven through their works alone, and they also bind the people to do good works, in order that they may thereby merit heaven, which is a cursed and godless service. Hence, as already stated, the law is to be only an exercise to prove our love; otherwise, aside from love, God never inquires about works, no matter how excellent they are.

19. You can now see how many people know what the law means: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.

Surely they are few who know it, and fewer still who keep it. How can they keep that which they do not know? We are blind and our nature is totally blind, and so is also human reason. It knows nothing so imperfectly as that which the law of God requires.

20. Now here Christ shows the Pharisees and the Scribes a twofold kindness. In the first place, he dispels their blindness and teaches them what the law is. In the second place, he teaches them how impossible it is for them to keep the law. Their blindness he dispels, in that he teaches them what the law is, namely: that love is the law. Human reason cannot comprehend this nowadays any more than the Jews did then, for if it had been possible for human reason to comprehend it, the Pharisees and Scribes, who at that time were the best and wisest of the people, could have understood it; but they thought it consisted alone in performing the external works of the law; in giving to God, whether it be done willingly or unwillingly; but their inward blindness, their covetousness, and their hardened heart they could not see, and thought they thoroughly understood the law and were fine fellows, holy and pious people; but they stood in their own light. For no one is able to keep the law unless his nature is thoroughly renewed.

21. Therefore consider it an established fact that reason can never understand and fulfill the law, even though it knows the meaning of the law. When do you do to another what you want him to do to you? Who loves his enemy from his heart? Who loves to die? Who willingly suffers disgrace and shame? Dear sir, point me to a man who enjoys to have a bad reputation or to live in poverty! For nature and human reason flee entirely from this, are afraid, terrified and shocked; and if it were possible, as far as it were in their power, they would never suffer such misfortune. Human nature alone will never be able to accomplish what God in this commandment requires, namely, that we surrender our will to the will of God, so that we renounce our reason, our will, our might and power, and say from the heart: Thy will be done. And indeed, nowhere will you find a person who loves God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself. It may indeed happen that two companions live friendly together; but even there hypocrisy is hidden, which continues until you are wounded by him; then you will see how you love him, and whether you are flesh or spirit.

This commandment therefore requires me to be friendly with all my heart to him who has offended me; but when do I do this?

22. Thus Christ desires to show us that we preach the law rightly, only when we learn from it that we are unable to fulfill it, and that we are the property of the devil. This we learn from experience, and it is shown now and then in the Scriptures, especially by St. Paul when he says in Romans 8:7-8: “Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” and it follows, that they who are in the flesh cannot please God.

23. Hence, take to thyself this commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and think upon it, contemplate it, and search what kind of a law it is; how far you are from fulfilling it, yea, how you have not yet even made a beginning to suffer and to do from the heart what God demands of you. It is pure hypocrisy, if anyone wants to creep into a hiding-place and think: Oh I will love God. Oh, how I do love him, he is my Father! How gracious he is to me! and the like. Yes, when God does our pleasure, then we can easily say such things; but when he sends misfortune and adversity, we no longer regard him as our God, nor as our Father.

24. True love to God does not act in this way, but in the heart it thinks and with the lips says: Lord God, I am thy creature; do with me as thou wilt; it matters not to me. I am ever thine, that I know; and if thou desirest, I will die this very hour or suffer any great misfortune; I will cheerfully do so from my heart. I will not regard my life, honor and goods and all I have, higher and greater than thy will, which shall be my pleasure all my days.

But you will never find a person who will constantly regulate himself according to this commandment; for the whole life you are living in the body, in the five senses, and whatever you do in your body, should all be so regulated as to be done to the glory of God, according to the regulations of this commandment, which saith, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.” As if Christ said: If you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, then nothing will be lacking; you shall experience it in your daily life, namely: when everything you do, whether you wake or sleep, whether you labor or stand idle, whether you eat or drink, is directed and done out of love to God from the heart. In like manner your mind and thoughts will also be directed wholly and entirely to God, so that you will approve of nothing you are not certain is pleasing to God. Yea, where are those who do this?

25. And this part where he says, “With all thy mind,” argues powerfully against the writings and teachings of man, upon which he especially depends, and thinks thereby to obtain a merciful God and merit heaven.

Such imagination of the human reason draws us in a wonderful manner from this commandment, so that we do not love God with all the mind; as has been done hitherto, and is still done at the present day. For these priests and monks think nothing else than that God is moved by the mass and by other human inventions; but he abhors it and does not desire it, as is said in Isaiah 29:13: “In vain do they serve me, because they are teaching such doctrines which are only the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:8-9. The commandment here requires you to consider nothing good that is against God and against everything he has commanded or forbidden. It thus requires, you to give yourself wholly and entirely to him in all your life and conduct.

26. From this you can conclude, there is no human being who is not condemned, inasmuch as no one has kept this commandment, and God wants everyone to keep it. There we stand in the midst of fear and distress, unable to help ourselves, and the first knowledge of the law is, that we see our human nature is unable to keep the law; for it wants the heart, and if it is not done with the heart, it avails nothing before God. You may indeed do the works outwardly, but God is not thus satisfied, when they are not done from the heart, out of love; and this is never done except man is born anew through the Holy Spirit. Therefore God aims to accomplish through the law nothing more than that we should in this way be forced to acknowledge our inability, frailtry and disease, and that with our best efforts we are unable to fulfill a letter of the law. When you realize this, the law has accomplished its work. This is what Paul means when he says in Romans 3:20, “Through the law is the knowledge of sin.”

27. From this it appears clearly that we are all alike, and are one in the inner wickedness of the heart, which the law reveals, when we look into it rightly. Therefore we might well say, If one is good, then all are good.

Therefore no one should accuse another. It is indeed true that in public and gross sins there sticks a deeper sin; but the heart is alike bad, unless it be renewed by the Holy Ghost. But what shall I do when I once recognize my sin? What does it profit me? It helps me very much, for when I have come thus far, I am not far from the kingdom; as Christ says to a scribe in Mark 12:34, who also knew that the works of the law were nothing without love.

28. But what shall we do to get rid of our bad conscience? Here follows now the other part of this Gospel, namely, who Christ is and what we can expect of him. From him we must receive and secure freedom from a wicked conscience, or we shall remain in our sins eternally, because for this purpose is Christ made known and given by the Father, in order that he might deliver us from sin, death, from a wicked conscience, and from the law.

29. We have now heard what the law is, and how through the law we come to the knowledge of sin; but this is not enough, another has a work to do here, whose name is Christ Jesus; although the first, the law, must indeed remain; yea, it is necessary. For if I have no sense of my sins, I will never inquire for Christ; as the Pharisees and scribes do here, who thought they had done everything the law commanded and were ready to do yet more; but of Christ they knew nothing. Therefore, first of all, when the law is known and sin revealed through the law, it is then necessary that we know who Christ is; otherwise the knowledge of sin profits us nothing.

30. But the law is known, when I learn from it that I am condemned, and see that there is neither hope nor comfort anywhere for me, and I cannot even help myself, but must have another one to deliver me. Then it is time that I look around for him who can help, and he is Christ Jesus, who for this purpose became man, and became like unto us, in order that he might help us out of the mire into which we are fallen. He loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, and submitted his will to the will of his Father, fulfilled the law in every respect; this I could not do and yet I was required to do it. Therefore, he accepts him; and that which he fulfilled in the law, he offers me. He freely gives me his life with all his works, so that I can appropriate them to myself as a possession that is my own and is bestowed upon me as a free gift. He delivers us from the law, for when the law says, Love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, or thou wilt be damned, then I say, I cannot do it. Then Christ says: Come to me, take me and cling to me by faith; then you shall be rid of the law.

31. Now this is accomplished in the following manner: Christ has through his death secured for us the Holy Spirit; and he fulfills the law in us, and not we. For that Spirit, whom God sends into your heart for the sake of his Son, makes an entirely new man out of you, who does with joy and love from the heart everything the law requires, which before would have been impossible for you to do. This new man despises the present life, and desires to die, rejoices in all adversity, and submits himself wholly and entirely to the will of God. Whatever God does with him, is well pleasing to him. This Spirit you cannot merit yourself, but Christ has secured and merited it. When I believe from the heart that Christ did this for me, I receive also the same Holy Spirit that makes me an entirely new man. Then everything God commands is sweet, lovely and agreeable, and I do everything he desires of me; not in my own strength, but by the strength of him that is in me, as Paul says in Philippians, 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.”

32. But you must take heed, that you do not undertake to secure this faith in Jesus Christ by your own works or power, or that you think lightly about this matter; for it is impossible for the natural man; but the Holy Spirit must do it. Therefore beware of the preachers of self-righteousness, who simply blabber and say: We must do good works in order to be saved.

But we say that faith alone is sufficient to this end. Our good works are for another purpose, namely, to prove our faith, as you have already frequently heard from me.

33. Now this is the purpose of the question the Lord put to the Pharisees:

What think ye of Christ; who is he and whose Son is he? But their answer, in that they say, He is the son of David, the Lord rejects and obscures their answer and refers to a passage from the Psalm, in order to leave them in doubt; so that no one is able to answer him a word.

34. However, when David calls Christ his Lord, in that he says in <19B001> Psalm 110:1, “But the lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool,’” it is to be understood that David speaks of him both as God and man, for according to the flesh alone he was the son of David. Paul also joins these two when he says in Romans 1:1-4: “I am called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which he promised afore through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh; who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” But it is something to know that Christ is Lord; for this has might and power and is especially comforting in the time of affliction. But concerning this I have said more elsewhere and will therefore now close, and pray God for grace.

Graphic by Norma Boeckler

Against the Professional Religious Establishment

Graphic by Norma Boeckler

Graphic based on Norma Boeckler's

Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity

Against the Professional Religious Establishment

KJV Matthew 22:34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

Many would like to frame the Gospels as the Jews against Jesus, resulting in the crucifixion. That gives a false impression of another religion against Jesus, as if that could not happen today. But the vast majority of His followers were Jews, and the Roman establishment does not enter the picture until the end.

The real theme of the Gospels - and the entire New Testament - is faith versus unbelief. The worst opponents came from the religious establishment, from the great, the wise, the holy, the scholars.

Even today, the hottest opposition and the greatest numbers of opponents do not come from the atheists organizations and the American Humanists, but from the Protestant and Catholic clergy, the college and seminary professors, and the professionals who may not have a church job but teach their version of Christian theology at the great universities - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, U. of Chicago, etc. The mainline eccelesiastics - with honorary and earned doctorates - lead the forces for radicalism, apostasy, and persecution of believers.

When Jesus taught, the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious establishment - sometimes the Sadducees too - gathered to criticize and condemn Him.

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 

This question is interesting, because Jesus also asked it when leading into the Parable of the Good Samaritan. If they asked Jesus, and Jesus asked them - with the same result - then this is a crucial summary of the Law. Naturally, the answer is from the Old Testament, because that was the only Scripture at the time. The New Testament came to be written soon after the death and resurrection of Christ - but not yet. The entire work of the Old Testament is to prepare Israel and the world for Christ, so Jews had the advantage of seeing the well known Promises fulfilled in Christ. Secondly, which is the case today, believers need to know the Old Testament to see how perfectly Jesus was promised centuries in advance, with passages so perfect that anyone can see they are about Jesus and only Him. Children see that right away in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.

Other prophesies were about that time and later - the sop of bread offered to the traitor.

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 

This is famous for being the summary of the Old Testament, whether it comes from one side or another. However, the truth of the statement is based on faith rather than righteousness through works, which is where most get stuck. And that leads to pretending obedience or making up a grand show of holiness. Luther called it "head over heels" in holiness. 

• "This is not Messianic." 
• "This does not promise what people learned in Sunday School."
• "Don't make faith a work. That is against grace." 

Graphic by Norma Boeckler

© Nancy Wong, photo courtesy University of Chicago Divinity School Dean Laurie Zoloth chatting with attendees at a reception in her honor March 28 at Swift Hall on the University of Chicago campus.

Chicago is first divinity school to hire a Jewish dean:



"The Jewish New Year arrived this fall with an unusual milestone: The University of Chicago Divinity School began its semester with a Jewish dean for the first time in its 125-year history.

In fact, Dean Laurie Zoloth is apparently the first Jewish dean of any university-based U.S. divinity school, according to the Association of Theological Schools.

“We normally think of Jews as deeply integrated in the American academic system, so it is unusual that there is a discipline or an area where one could be the first Jewish academic anything,” Zoloth told USA TODAY.

But divinity schools are a bit different than other academic programs. Such schools were aligned with a certain denomination, she noted, and were originally conceived as pathways to ordination for clergy of that faith. But many programs have shed their denomination as they have moved to focus on the academic study of religion. Seminaries are a separate category of education, generally unconnected to another institution, and designed specifically to train and ordain clergy.

Some university divinity schools continue to be expressly tied to a specific faith — for instance the website at the Duke Divinity School, another top program, describes its program as providing  "a strong foundation for Christian ministry and leadership, ensuring that students are prepared to serve the church and the world."

By contrast, the website for the University of Chicago Divinity School describes its program as is “a tough-minded, sprawling, rigorous and dynamic conversation about what religion is and why understanding it is so vitally important.”

Greg Stirling, dean of Yale Divinity School, said “I still define (Yale) as a Christian divinity school — which doesn’t mean the only thing we do is train ministers… but we certainly take that with real seriousness.” Stirling said Zoloth’s arrival at Chicago is part of the evolution over time toward religious study, which is more purely academic than “lived.”

“Chicago is a first-rate academic institution,” he said, “but their basic orientation is different.”

Chicago does also train clergy: Zoloth notes that the Chicago school also has a top-rated Master of Divinity program that trains clerical leaders across different faith traditions.

Zoloth said her appointment “tells us that what it means to study religion has opened up into a much broader terrain, and that many of us are now welcome in the academy where this study is pursued and I’m excited to be here.”

Chicago’s choice of an Orthodox Jewish woman to lead its renowned divinity school is “a sign of the pluralism and ecumenicism that is remaking American society” said David Ellenson, former president of Hebrew Union College and a “tangible sign of the historic tranformation” in religious studies as well.

Ellenson noted that the nation as a whole is growing in its religious diversity, which is opening new opportunities in leadership for people of diverse faiths. Zoloth said there has been a broad expansion of religious studies in the U.S. with “a great new generation of people across many different traditions — Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism — so there is enormous growth that is possible throughout our field of religions studies.”

Presumably, she said, a Muslim will one day head a major U.S. divinity school. “There could be anybody who is devoted to the serious academic study of religion and that includes anyone who takes religious traditions seriously and understands themselves as a scholar of these traditions.”"

Make sure the diversity is selective.

'via Blog this'

Zoloth began her career as a neonatal nurse working in impoverished communities. She said those early years are central to how she views religious studies and bioethics—an approach that brings together theoretical exploration with an understanding of how arguments of theology and moral philosophy can address societal challenges. Zoloth holds a bachelor’s degree in women studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of the State of New York. She received a master’s degree in Jewish studies and a doctorate in social ethics from the Graduate Theological Union. Zoloth also holds a master’s degree in English from San Francisco State University.

https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2017/03/28/laurie-zoloth-appointed-dean-university-chicago-divinity-school

Zoloth is the new dean of the U. of Chicago's Divinity School.

The University of Chicago scored a double-diversity victory by hiring a Jewish woman to be their new dean. Newspapers have enjoyed a number of Ripley's Believe It or Not stories in the last few years.

Going against logic and experience is one way the apostate religious institutions are destroying themselves. Every time they proclaim their latest diversity hire, they discourage reasonable candidates from laboring in the field. For example, why would a male Protestant minister want to wait around in the wings for a chance for the same job? The quota system is against him, and he is probably in the majority in his mainline group. In reality, the chances of getting an executive position is many times less than a woman with no real qualifications or experience. That may not last long, of course.

I wonder why any normal male would stay in a mainline religious organization. He is sitting in the back of the bus.

Latini, a Presbyterian minister, is the new head of ELCA's United Lutheran Seminary.

Look at all the ELCA men who might have been head of the new, doomed United Lutheran Seminary, the merger of the Gettysburg and Philadelphia seminaries. They hired a Presbyterian woman minister, who was earlier the Assistant Dean of Diversity at another school. They may not have promoted her to Dean of Diversity, but the ELCA Lutherans glorified her by raising her above all the ELCA professors. The New Testament professor will most likely be the most qualified (by quotas) from any place.

I wrote the book about A. D. Mattson, but Elizabeth Bettenhausen gave the A. D. Mattson lectures at the LCA's Chicago seminary. When Mattson's daughter could not get money to publish my dissertation, I suggested mentioning her attorney to the seminary president. The book was published soon after.

ELCA began its Long March into  diversity doom with quotas for all its leaders. They despised their former executives, who were greeted with diversity guillotines rather than continued jobs. They made a show of hiring people from other denominations. I went to one ELCA conference with Mrs. Ichabod - and it felt like a funeral. One person cheerfully asked an ELCA employee about which church he attended in Chicago, where he lived. He answered, a bit miffed, "I am not a Lutheran."

Both photos were posted by ELCA, but I added the caption. Olson with a Yale PhD was replaced by a woman with an MDiv and no real parish experience - Louise Johnson.

My Yale classmate, Stan Olson, found his top executive job eliminated due to budget collapse. He became president of Wartburg Seminary, in dire straits, and  soon retired to be replaced by a woman with no experience and no advanced education. She began by firing several people from the staff and offering public prayers for them.

Note the Presbyterian get-up which Hanson wore. Camouflage or reality?

Mark Hanson played to the Left, which united behind him and won him the lucrative and powerful job of Presiding Bishop. But lo, he facilitated the quota system, empowered the concept, and found himself replaced by a woman.


Liz Eaton made a point of identifying with her extreme supporters, who made sure a woman was finally in charge. Didn't the LCA dysfunctional activist, Liz Bettenhausen say on the cover of The Lutheran that her denomination was 98% controlled by men? Liz Eaton redeemed ELCA for those like LIz Bettenhausen who longed for real power. Suddenly the top higher education jobs went to women, one after another.

Louise Johnson, Wartburg Seminary president, followed Stan Olson.

As one reader noted, I am always looking at the fine print, such as "who translated this book?" The truth is often found - or hidden - in the details. Standard biographies issued by church bodies note the college, seminary, and graduate school of their newly elected or appointed leaders. Wives and children are also listed. That is how I found out how many Seminex veterans became ELCA bishops - truly an impressive number given their percentage of the clergy population. But alas, when most of these women are appointed, nothing is said about their families. Silence.

Second Style of Self-Destruction - WELS/LCMS/ELS - The Generic No-Name Congregation

The LCMS, WELS, ELS - even the CLC (sic) - are engaged in a program to rid America of Lutherans. The method is simple but effective.



Looking to Fuller Seminary as their Mecca, their Vatican, their Halle University - they start their newest and bestest mission churches with idiotic, generic names. My favorite is the quasi-occultic Illumine (WELS). Leave it to the forces of darkness to pretend they have the light.

The CORE (WELS) also stands out as having no meaning whatsoever - and synodical funding beyond belief.

These synods are ashamed they are Lutheran - and we should be ashamed of them too. They are frightened that the Lutheran name on the sign would scare away prospects. In fact, avoiding the name church is another tactic they emply.

They avoid Lutheran worship - the liturgy, real sermons, actual hymns, the Creeds, good Bible translations, and the Sacraments.

These so-called conservative Lutheran synods are self-destructing by training people to be generic no-name Christians with no Creeds, a hatred for the liturgy, and total silence about the KJV (Luther-centric) family of translations.

In the next generation - and even now - there will be few people who have any grasp of Lutheran liturgical worship or the actual text of the New Testament.

They are good at getting re-elected and earning princely salaries and benefits - but nothing else.

The "conservative" Lutheran leaders know this better than most readers realize. They know the numbers are already dooming them:

• Seminaries collapsing
• Worship attendance cratering
• Money without members leading soon to no money and no members.

They created this fatberg by their political dodging and weaving, their silencing of all opposition while elevating the incompetent and greedy.

The reasons this happened are clear. The "conservative" synods met their Leftist counterparts at Fuller, because Fuller abandoned whatever shreds of the Christian Faith they started with. As carnal leaders, they sought carnal solutions and reaped the harvest.

WELS still boils with hatred because their own clergy give me leads about what is going on under the sick, soggy suzrrainty Mirthless Mark Schroeder.

A great time for bird-watching is the winter, when they scramble for food in the garden and on the bird-feeders. Graphic by Norma Boeckler

When I made a Facebook page for Creation Gardening, I thought that the name would surely have been taken. But no, nothing like that came up until recently.

I double-post blog essays, so most readers read them from my main page and while others favor the Creation Gardening page, which only has gardening posts.

I am almost in the dream season, when no work can be done outside, but rose catalogues arrive faster than Medicare plan mailings.

At the moment, we are enjoying warm, sunny days and 40 degree nights. Roses are blooming but other plants have finished the season. I am protecting each rose with a collar, some peat humus, and leaves on top when they become available.

Most bugs are beneficial - I learned as a child. This is a Big-Eyed Bug.

Consider the Beneficial Bugs and Hungry Birds
Some gardeners want to clean up their gardens now, but Creation gardeners not only leave it trashy - but add to the trash.

1. Weeds or necessary cuttings are piled up as mulch in the back.
2. Plants are left standing, even when done for the season and fading away.
3. Autumn leaves are added everywhere and never raked up for disposal.

Graphic by Norma Boeckler

Many insects over-winter in the garden trash - by God's design. Some insects will be useful as food for the birds in the winter. Others will remain or hatch in the spring, when they provide food for the baby birds and strike out against insect pests.

I never thought of spiders-without-nests (cursorial) and rove beetles going out on patrol through the yard, but they are active and hungry. They enjoy the protection of organic trash that is never removed and placed on the curb for pick-up.

Leaving leaves alone has shown that I can be knee-deep in them until early spring - yet never rake them up later. Leaves cannot blow away easily in a backyard surrounded by fence. Instead, earthworms and mites reduce them to soil ingredients.

Some leaves become squirrel nests for the winter and birds use a few of them in the spring. One robin had leaves in its mouth when I came up close. It hopped away without letting go of the cargo, destined for a new nest. So I drape twine over the branches of the Mother of All Crepe Myrtles in the front. When a robin took one string up high in the maple tree and dropped it, the bird dive bombed to the ground to pick it up again.

Mountain Mint is still blooming in mid-October.

Ultimately - For the Soil
Whatever we do for the birds and insects will benefit the soil, because the Creating Word fashioned everything to work together and on schedule - for mutual benefits.

Whether we aim at more beneficial insects or greater numbers of bacteria and fungus, the increasing biomass (all organic matter) will make the soil more productive by activating the composition of the soil. Everything helps - as designed -

• Movement aerates the soil.
• Death and decomposition move elements from one creature to another.
• Fungus connects the plant roots so it can grow from their carbon while feeding them water and the nutrition they demand.

Because you want Tachinid Flies, you also want mounds of Daisies, which are fun and easy to grow.

I do not believe in Creation because of the infinite number of dependencies around me, but because of the Word. Creation by the Word begins the Bible and permeates the lessons of the Bible.

Modern man's silence on Creation - especially among the apostate mainline denominations - shows how this is a mystery revealed by the Spirit. Many see the Biblical revelation, and even while surrounded by the evidence, deny and avoid the implications of what God has done. They harden their hearts against it. The more they deal with Creation, the blinder they become.

There is even a field of study about the way everything happens right on time for thousands of plants and animals. I still have fresh blooms on the Mountain Mint, a prodigal provider of pollen and nectar, and butterflies still work the garden. In the spring, the flowers blooming right through the snow will feed various insects and bees, the insects and bees providing for the early hatching of birds.

Here is a little birds and blooms trivia. We think of birds feeding their young insects and worms to help them grow fast. But Mourning Doves, the ultimate seed-eaters, feed their young partially digested seeds. The dove family nests later, when seeds have formed. That is just one example of timing.

Jesus argued from the lesser to the greater. If God can do so much for the least of His creatures, how much more does He care for each and every one of the souls in His care?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus repeatedly teaches about His will and Word being in perfect harmony with the Father's. When we hear the Good Shepherd speaking, that is also the voice of the gracious, loving Father.





Jesus the Creating Word of Genesis 1, as John 1:3 clearly teaches.