Here Is a Man Who Has Accomplished More Because He Began with Less

Nick.

Old Chicago Tribune Cartoon

1934 -
Left click for a better view.

Chrysostom on the Multitude

On Faithfulness, not numbers in the church.....

"Would you learn that it is the saints, not the numbers, which make the multitude? Lead out to war ten hundred thousand men, and one saint, and let us see who achieves the most? Joshua the son of Nun went out to war, and alone achieved all; the rest were of no use. Wouldest thou see, beloved, that the great multitude, when it does not the will of God, is no better than a thing of naught? I wish indeed, and desire, and with pleasure would be torn in pieces, to adorn the Church with a multitude, yea, but a select multitude; yet if this be impossible, that the few should be select, is my desire. Do you not see that it is better to possess one precious stone, than ten thousand farthing pieces? Do you not see that it is better to have the eye sound, than to be loaded with flesh, and yet deprived of sight?"

St. John Chrysostom, 5th Century, AD
Commentary on Acts, chapter 3

Another Triumph for the Compromisers:Cuban Health Care

The socialists passed their dream package, Cuban Health Care with abortion funding and death panels.

I have no idea what will happen. Some people, whose history knowledge is limited to "classics from the 1960s pop list," are saying nothing is ever repealed. Prohibition was repealed. All the pro-life protections of the past were nullified by the US Supreme Court. The Congress passed a protection of marriage act and gay marriage spread faster than ever. The Supremes even repealed natural law concepts in Webster. The Supreme Court thus reversed its own position in the Georgia case, although people act as if stare decisis is absolute.

Anything can be repealed. The US Constitution began to be repealed under FDR, with the groundwork done by his cousin, Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy grabbed land from various states, all for a good cause. That is why we are short on oil today - the feds can grab oil and coal fields simply by fiat. Everyone accepts it.

I give all the credit and the glory to the compromisers, the people who want to appear as nice guys by giving in to each bad idea, resisting a little, and then caving and justifying. No political leader fought against the Medicare D drug plan, which was the largest unfunded socialist plan since the New Deal of FDR. Medicare D simply grew into ObamaCare. The GOP laid the egg that hatched into a Democrat vulture.

The radicals need these useful idiots because the bare program itself is always so unappealing.

National trends in politics are foreshadowed in denominational trends. For instance, the willingness of WELS and the LCMS to work with ELCA meant that American Lutherans had lost their horror of abortion and homosexual ordination. ELCA pays for abortions in its health plan. The Lutheran's editor, wrote, about 20 years ago, "We have been ordaining homosexuals for years."

The Surrendered Fort used to make me laugh when they acted so snooty about their school while lavishing praise on any ELCA leader who condescended to speak at their shrinking academy. When an ELCA bishop spoke against the radical takeover of ELCA, Ft. Wayne acted as if they had just discovered the Fifth Gospel. And yet that same bishop was one of the worst ones just before the ELCA merger, calling inerrancy advocates "bat-brained cowards who don't have the guts to lean on Jesus Christ." He was just miffed that the new crop of radicals despised him for being old school.

The vast majority of "conservative" Lutheran clergy today are no more than ELCA enablers. They will not do anything that would make them lose out on a free trip to Europe or even a committee assignment. Their supine attitude toward apostasy is obvious enough. The only thing that arouses their wrath is being reminded of their timidity.

Time of Generic Grace Offers...Generic Grace

John has left a new comment on your post "Jeske's Name - 14 Times, Jesus' Name - Once:Jeske...":

sadoc,

My point is that what Time of Grace does can hardly be called outreach. It does nothing to guide folks to any resource other than Time of Grace.

Is the sacrament of Holy Baptism available at Time of Grace? It is not.

Is the sacrament of the Lord's Supper available at Time of Grace? It is not.

Does Time of Grace guide folks to resources in their area where they can be properly instructed/catechized? It does not.

These facts lead this layman to believe that Time of Grace exists only to perpetuate Time of Grace.

As far as your comment about the typical WELS pastor not doing much outreach:

I want the shepherd called to tend the flock of which I am a member to do exactly that, first and foremost.

So what if a great shepherd is not so hot at outreach? Maybe the congregation needs to be sure that it has a great evangelism committee/board in place.

Photographic Message

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory of the Coming of Paul Kelm

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WLC - Wisconsin's Little College - News":

"I just attended Kelm's first Proclamation and Praise service at WLC Willowcreek Leftist College and must say that he is quite a wonderful addition to our campus. May the name of the LORD be praised!"

Didja Know Soccer Is a Means of Grace?Raffles, Petting Zoo, Face Painting Too!

Source.

Here is another source.

WELS Pastor Paul Seager

About Christ Alone

Christ Alone emphasizes…

• Christ-centered worship.
• The loving and powerful work of God in his Word, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
• Bible Study appropriate for all ages.
• Personal pastoral care.
• Encouragement in our God-given, individual callings.

Christ Alone is…

• An outreach effort of Immanuel Lutheran in North Richland Hills.
• Associated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).
• A Confessional Lutheran Church.

***

GJ - People used to make fun of the Assemblies of God for bribing kids into coming to church. Valleskey's pal Radloff was the mission counselor for this area.

Who might the sponsoring pastor be? Doebler? Doebler? I have read that name before.

Judica, The Fifth Sunday in Lent

By Norma Boeckler


Judica Sunday, The Fifth Sunday in Lent


Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Daylight Savings Time


The Hymn #268 Zion Mourns 4:98
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #40 The God of Abram Praise 4:94

The I AM

The Communion Hymn #657 Beautiful Savior 4:24
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 45 Now the Hour 2:95

KJV Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

KJV John 8:46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. 48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 49 Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. 50 And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. 51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. 59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank Thee, that of Thine infinite mercy Thou hast instituted this Thy sacrament, in which we eat Thy body and drink Thy blood: Grant us, we beseech Thee, by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not receive this gift unworthily, but that we may confess our sins, remember Thine agony and death, believe the forgiveness of sin, and day by day grow in faith and love, until we obtain eternal salvation through Thee, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

The I AM of John’s Gospel

John 8:48 Before Abraham was, I am.

For a long time, the modernists raged against John’s Gospel because the divinity of Christ is so clearly taught. So is the pre-existence of Christ.

Those aspects of Christian doctrine are not lacking in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but they are especially clear in John.

The following characteristics of John’s Gospel were found to be true, and they all point to the apostolic authorship of the Fourth Gospel. The original manuscripts did not have a title, but they had traditional authors.

Characteristics:
1. The language of Jesus’ sermons is easily translated into Hebrew or Aramaic. They were not spoken by a Greek philosopher, as skeptics argued, but by Jewish rabbi addressing the largest group of people possible – the Greek-speaking population of the area.
2. The geography of John shows knowledge of the area, more in evidence than the other Gospels. Knowing the territory can only come from someone who was there. Imagine trying to get little details right about your area without ever living there.
3. The earliest scrap of a Gospel ever found is from the Gospel of John. That means it existed several centuries before the skeptics thought it was written.
4. The Gospel assumes people know the other Gospels, but it also fills in many details and spoken passages, without contradicting anything in those Gospels.

I could list more. This is writer’s intuition – the Gospel has the feel of a first-hand account. John’s claim is clearly made, since the “disciple Jesus loved” is his reference to who is the author. But the language of the Gospel itself reveals an eye-witness knowledge of the events no one can fake.

John’s Gospel is especially devoted to showing a harmony with the Old Testament. That begins with the first chapter starting in the same words as Genesis 1:1. References to Moses and the Exodus call up details from the holiest books of the Old Testament – the Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch). The Torah scrolls are the Books of Moses. When they march through the synagogue today, the Torah scrolls are carried. They are the holiest books of the Old Testament, according to Jewish practice.

This particular lesson features Christ identifying with the appearance of Moses before the burning bush.

Too many translations and books try to make “I AM” seem to be the same as Jesus saying, “It’s me.” When someone phones and asks for a given name, we say, “That’s me.” It may be bad English, but that is what we say. “It is I” seems a bit formal.

“I AM” is God’s name and it was used that way in Greek at that time. That is especially true of this particular use.

“Before Abraham was, I AM” – that makes no sense in any language, unless Jesus is God. The “I AM” transcends any sense of tense. English demands “I was” because both should be past tense. “When Sam was in the Army, I was in school.” No one would say, “When Sam was in the Army, I am in school.”

“I AM” means that the Son of God has always existed.

Secondly, Jesus called to Moses out of the burning bush.

KJV Exodus 3:4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. 6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. 7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 11 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. 13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

The orthodox Lutherans also identified the nature of the burning bush with the Two Natures of Christ. The bush burned but was not consumed, so it had two natures – the flame and the bush. In the same way, Christ has two natures, human and divine. Just as there is one burning bush, there is one Christ.

For Jewish people, faith in Christ meant seeing that all their religious observances of the Passover were pointing them to Christ. For those who were outside of Judaism, learning the Old Testament was essential.

JUSTIFYING FAITH
"But when we are speaking of the subject itself, it is certain that the doctrine of gracious reconciliation, of the remission of sins, of righteousness, salvation, and eternal life through faith for the sake of the Mediator is one and the same in the Old and in the New Testament. This is a useful rule which we must retain at all costs: The doctrine, wherever we read it, in either the Old or New Testament, which deals with the gracious reconciliation and the remission of sins through faith for the sake of God's mercy in Christ, is the Gospel."
Martin Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1989, II, p. 459.
"Therefore God, 'who is rich in mercy' [Ephesians 2:4], has had mercy upon us and has set forth a propitiation through faith in the blood of Christ, and those who flee as suppliants to this throne of grace He absolves from the comprehensive sentence of condemnation, and by the imputation of the righteousness of His Son, which they grasp in faith, He pronounces them righteous, receives them into grace, and adjudges them to be heirs of eternal life. This is certainly the judicial meaning of the word 'justification,' in almost the same way that a guilty man who has been sentenced before the bar of justice is acquitted."
Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 1989, II, p. 482.
"Yet these exercises of faith always presuppose, as their foundation, that God is reconciled by faith, and to this they are always led back, so that faith may be certain and the promise sure in regard to these other objects. This explanation is confirmed by the brilliant statement of Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:20: 'All the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen, to the glory of God through us,' that is, the promises concerning other objects of faith have only then been ratified for us when by faith in Christ we are reconciled with God. The promises have been made valid on the condition that they must give glory to God through us."
Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 1989, II, p. 495.
"Therefore this apprehension or acceptance or application of the promise of grace is the formal cause or principle of justifying faith, according to the language of Scripture."
Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 2 vols., II, p. 502.
"We must note the foundations. For we are justified by faith, not because it is so firm, robust, and perfect a virtue, but because of the object on which it lays hold, namely Christ, who is the Mediator in the promise of grace. Therefore when faith does not err in its object, but lays hold on that true object, although with a weak faith, or at least tries and wants to lay hold on Christ, then there is true faith, and it justifies. The reason for this is demonstrated in those lovely statements in Philippians 3:12: 'I apprehend, or rather I am apprehended by Christ' and Galatians 4:9: 'You have known God, or rather have been known by God.' Scripture shows a beautiful example of this in Mark 9:24: 'I believe; help my unbelief.'"
Martin Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 2 vols., II, p. 503. Philippians 3:12; Galatians 4:9; Mark 9:24.
"For we are not justified because of our faith (propter fidem), in the sense of faith being a virtue or good work on our part. Thus we pray, as did the man in Mark 9:24: 'I believe, Lord; help my unbelief'; and with the apostles: 'Lord, increase our faith,' Luke 17:5."
Martin Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 2 vols., II, p. 506. Mark 9:24; Luke 17:5.
"But because not doubt but faith justifies, and not he who doubts but he who believes has eternal life, therefore faith teaches the free promise, which relies on the mercy of God for the sake of the sacrifice of the Son, the Mediator, and not on our works, as Paul says in Romans 4:16: 'Therefore it is of faith, that the promise might be sure according to grace.'"
Martin Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, 2 vols., II, p. 507. Romans 4:16
"Thus when we say that we are justified by faith, we are saying nothing else than that for the sake of the Son of God we receive remission of sins and are accounted as righteous. And because it is necessary that this benefit be taken hold of, this is said to be done 'by faith,' that is, by trust in the mercy promised us for the sake of Christ. Thus we must also understand the correlative expression, 'We are righteous by faith,' that is, through the mercy of God for the sake of His Son we are righteous or accepted."
Melanchthon, Loci Communes, “The Word Faith.” Cited in Martin Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, II, p. p. 489.

Our Spring Snow Warning, Sunday AM

Canada, 1972. But it feels like that today.


A WINTER STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT...

FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES... * IN OKLAHOMA...CHEROKEE...ADAIR...CREEK...OKFUSKEE...OKMULGEE... WAGONER...TULSA...ROGERS...MAYES...DELAWARE...PAWNEE...OTTAWA... PUSHMATAHA...CHOCTAW...WASHINGTON...OSAGE...CRAIG...NOWATA... PITTSBURG...SEQUOYAH...MCINTOSH...MUSKOGEE...LE FLORE...LATIMER AND HASKELL. IN ARKANSAS...WASHINGTON...MADISON...CRAWFORD... BENTON... SEBASTIAN...CARROLL AND FRANKLIN.

HAZARDOUS WEATHER... * SNOW WILL CONTINUE ACROSS MUCH OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS THIS MORNING. THE SNOW WILL MIX WITH OR CHANGE TO RAIN BEFORE IT ENDS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.

* ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF UP TO 6 INCHES WILL OCCUR TODAY FROM THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF ARKANSAS TO NEAR MUSKOGEE TO NORTH OF MCALESTER WITH LESSER AMOUNTS TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH. STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS SINCE THE SNOW BEGAN SATURDAY WILL EXCEED A FOOT IN PARTS OF FAR NORTHWEST ARKANSAS AND FAR NORTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL OKLAHOMA.

***

GJ - It's colder than a Friendship Sunday event in WELS.

Texans Egg-static Over Choice of Two Different Easter Egg Hunts in Austin

"Easter eggs? Where?"


Holy Word will be holding its annual outdoor Easter sunrise service at Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms The farm, situated on eighty acres on scenic Walnut Creek in northeast Austin, is a living history museum that preserves the cultural heritage of early Texas settlers.

We expect over 800 people to attend the Easter sunrise service, consisting of Bible readings, music, and an Easter message preached by Pastor Donald Patterson. The service begins at 7:00 am. Feel free to stay after the service to enjoy the beautiful scenery as well as donuts and drinks. In case of rain, the service will be held at the church.

There will be an Easter Egg hunt for children through age 8 at Pioneer Farms at 8:15 am. A full breakfast will be served at the church beginning at 8:45 am in the Fellowship Hall. Following this will be an Easter festival service at church at 10:30 am.

In addition, Living Word is holding an Easter sunrise service in Marble Falls again this year.

We invite you to join us this Easter as we celebrate our Savior's resurrection. By rising from the dead, Jesus Christ completed the plan of salvation that gives us forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life in heaven. We want to share this good news with you as we join together to praise and worship our God.

Different URL from the church website! - http://www.eastersunrise.net/


***

GJ - The Easter egg hunt is missing from the Holy Word site.

But it is perhaps hinted at in the Church and Change website:

"Worship - Easter Sunrise Service in the Park

Holy Word Lutheran, Austin, TX
We have a service in the park with two weeks prior advertising Good attendance - mostly non-members. Service - Hymns, Prayers, Sermon, Solo, Offering, 2 Choirs


Phone: (512) 836-4264
Email: pastor@holyword.net"

Patterson went to the latest Chicanery conference and shares his pagan ideas with them, but he would have us believe he is not working with them and for them!

---

Easter eggs are missing again, in a web announcementt:

"Holy Word - Easter Sunrise Service
Sunday, Apr 4 7:00a
at Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms, Austin, TX

Holy Word will be holding its annual outdoor Easter sunrise service at v The farm is situated on eighty acres on scenic Walnut Creek in northeast Austin.

We expect over 800 people to attend the Easter sunrise service, consisting of Bible readings, music, and an Easter message preached by Pastor Donald Patterson. read more
Price: Free
Phone: (512) 836-4264
Age Suitability: All Ages
Tags: christian, easter

Holy Word will be holding its annual outdoor Easter sunrise service at v The farm is situated on eighty acres on scenic Walnut Creek in northeast Austin.

We expect over 800 people to attend the Easter sunrise service, consisting of Bible readings, music, and an Easter message preached by Pastor Donald Patterson. Feel free to stay after the service to enjoy the beautiful scenery as well as donuts and drinks. In case of rain, the service will be held at the church."

---

wistex (http://wistex.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Texans Egg-static Over Choice of Two Different Eas...":

"A crooked tie points to a crooked heart"?

Gee, thanks for adding to the discussion.

Sorry for the snark, but absolutely inane, idiotic comments such as these are the reason it is hard to take most commenters of this blog seriously. Most of the time, comments are petty and insulting for their own sake and do nothing to promote dialogue. [GJ - Unwarranted claim. The dumb, nasty, gratuitous comments went away with OpenID being use. There are some exceptions, like wistex's.]

It would be better if one actually made a point, no?

***

GJ - If Kudu Don Patterson is so proud of his Easter egg hunt that he set up a separate website to promote it, then why not admit it on his church blog and in other announcements? Perhaps he thought no one knew how to use Google.

WELS Bunnies Muliply in Texas as Ichabod Eggs On the Chicaneries

Patterson's Easter egg hunt was last year,
with no published evidence about it this year.
Team Ichabod is waiting for an official denial,
to prove it is happening again.

wildcard (http://wildcard.myopenid.com) has left a new comment on your post "Here Come Doebler Cottontail, Hoppin' Down Chicane...":

Are WELS congregations in Texas so devoid of the Gospel that they need live bunnies and an Easter egg hunt to draw visitors?

Pastors like Patterson and Doebler obviously trust live bunnies and an Easter egg hunt more than the Word when it comes to drawing visitors. The congregations fall in line and go along with it.

Spring in NW Arkansas: Daffodils Blooming in the Snow

I kelmed this from the Internet, but our yard looks like this tonight. The snow is falling steadily, the bird baths are freezing over, and the daffodils are just starting to bloom.

Doris Day ear-worm.

Here Come Doebler Cottontail, Hoppin' Down Chicanery's Trail

Doebler got a $20,000 grant for this?

Source

Are WELS congregations in Texas so devoid of the Gospel that they need live bunnies and an Easter egg hunt to draw visitors?

Kudu Don Patterson did this last year, so I borrowed the bunny photo and replaced Dom Perignon's face with Doebler's.

WELS Church Lady says Doebler is confessional. If Doebler is a confessional Lutheran pastor, then Glaeske is a conservative DP.

For all you missionaries looking for a call, any call, and all the congregations and schools that are out of money - rent a bunny suit. The grant-givers love a touch of fleece.

I am sure the ELS and WELS boards of doctrine will jump on this like hobos on a hotdog.

Search Easter egg hunts in WELS.

Search Easter egg hunt in the LCMS.

Jeske's Name - 14 Times, Jesus' Name - Once:Jeske's Face - Thrice, Jesus' Face - Zero!

Counted by a WELS layman.

John has left a new comment on your post "Jeske's Name - 14 Times, Jesus' Name - Once:Jeske'...":

Jeske makes an effort to do what?

His TV program is nothing more than a few couple of minute snippet teasers from a DVD or series of DVD's that one must purchase from Time of Grace in order to get the complete class/series.

If this man was truly interested in bringing folks into the fold, he would encourage his watchers to seek out the closest WELS pastor/congregation for more information. He does not do this.

I haven't watched his program for some time. He never acknowledged on his program that he was a Lutheran pastor in all the times that I did watch. Does he continue to deny that he is a Lutheran pastor?

Ah, De Oprah - Bishop Katie Teaches Ex Cathedra

Katie, doing the work Ski won't do - and she is not an illegal immigrant!


From The CORE, Bishop Katie's Blog

“Well, that's a bit of a gray area.”

I was catching up on some blog reading this weekend and came across that phrase a lot. Almost too much. And it got me thinking.

Now, I get that there are things in the Bible that are adiophra (sic) - not really addressed - a.k.a. gray areas. However, I think oftentimes we abuse this phrase. Instead of using it to say it’s an area we can’t really say with certainty is right or wrong and therefore have absolutely no right to tell others whether it’s right or wrong, I wonder if we use it as an excuse. I wonder if we use it as an excuse to allow ourselves to satisfy our desires without guilt. You know like if we are 100% honest with ourselves we probably shouldn’t be doing it but the Bible doesn’t explicitly say it’s forbidden so we call it a gray area and all is well?

I’m not saying everything is black and white, but I’m not sure saying so much is a gray area is the right way to go either. What do you think? Are we using our gray crayons just a little too much?

***

GJ - I have not read such illiterate mush since Dorothy Sonntag vexed readers of The Northwestern Lutheran. Then she joined ELCA.

Here is another example of women (who think they are) teaching men in WELS. The term is adiaphora. The appropriate section of the Formula of Concord should be studied, because graduates of The Sausage Factory (examples - Ski, Glende, Ash) always get it wrong. Pretending to be Babtist is not longer an adiaphoron (singular of adiaphora) when there is a confessional crisis.

One might expect Ski to edit Bishop Katie's theological discourses, when he is done framing his latest celeb photo op. Ski does not exhaust himself writing. His blog is DOA and his alleged Twitter account is lifeless.

I cannot blame Ski for copying and pasting his sermons from the Schwaermer super-stars he admires so much. Kelm has done that for decades and always has calls and defenders in the WELS clergy. Why defy the formula for success in WELS?

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Ah, De Oprah - Bishop Katie Teaches Ex Cathedra":

I am aware of a WELS lady who teaches in a local WELS grade school and practices the New Age satanic healing technique called Reiki.

Ask Mrs. Wendland what WELS women should be doing.

March 2008 - Coming Soon - “Heirs Together of God’s Gracious Gift of Life” - This study was written by Prof. Richard Gurgel and Mrs. Kathy Wendland after years of study together with a larger committee. It takes a close look at the equal status and purpose that Men and Women share in God’s church as well as the unique calling that they each have as Men and Women.Page 4
http://www.stpaul-amherst.org/Newsletter/0803newsletter.pdf

***

GJ - Richard's (or Kathy Wendland's) "Heirs Together" needed considerable cleaning up before NPH would publish it.

"Apt to teach" does not count with Sausage Factory professors.

Kooba - The Socialist Dream Come True

Travelers must go to Detroit
to see socialist squalor equal to Cuba's.

From The American Thinker:

Cuba is an antique car-collector's dream...except that Cubans aren't collecting 1940s and 1950s vehicles -- they're driving them. New cars? A few. But generally, oldies must do. Licenses? Interesting. Socialists say everyone's the same. So why link someone's status to license color? Brown plates, for example, signal a government VIP, blue an inspector-controlled vehicle.

Here's something on Obama's wish list: the civilian security system. In Cuba, it's called the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, or the CDR. Billed initially as an extra security force, "a collective system of revolutionary vigilance," it puts at least one government spy in the neighborhood. And those spies monitor everything. Even an extra bag of groceries is suspect.

Obama's mandatory national service? Alive and well in Cuba. Eighteen-year-olds complete military or social service. (Many believe that this is additional indoctrination.) Those not attending higher education serve two years, while the rest serve only one. In this communal "utopia," there's plenty of discrimination.

Of course, there's free health care, which Cubans (and Michael Moore) are programmed to hype to Americans. They tell you that Fidel brought universal health care. Sounds terrific, right? All services free? Docs earning 250 pesos a month, yet working nonstop? What could be better?

Well...remember that Tylenol? It's a donation to Cuba. Cuba's health care has "minor" glitches like no medicines. There aren't over-the-counter or prescription drugs, vitamins, or supplies like diabetic strips. There's inferior training, doctor shortages, rationed care, and a lack of equipment. (A few years ago, Havana -- a city of 2 ½ million -- had only one MRI machine.) The hospitals are in terrible shape, and the system is economically draining. Actually, some with money might get better care, but they pay under the table.

Cuba boasts the ultimate jobs bill: Everyone's guaranteed work. Of course, it's government employment -- there is almost nothing else. Jobs pay about $250 a month, which won't cover basics. (Many Cubans rely on remittances from U.S. relations to survive.) There's no incentive, nothing really works -- try the toilets -- and innovation is squashed. The government dictates hours...they're long. A taxi driver I met works from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days but still can't make ends meet.

Swedish Economy Explained

The part about devaluing currency is the best explanation ever.

Patterson Disciple Stelljes Holds Carnival in Lent

John Stelljes' father is a lay leader at Dom Perignon Patterson's church in Texas.


Pastor John Stelljes is quite busy these days -- busy building a church.

Stelljes has attracted nearly 50 people in the Greenwood area to become members of his new Light of Life Lutheran Church -- even with construction of a building still about two years in the future.

The church is the only one on the Southside of Indianapolis associated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, he said.

Stelljes -- who came from Orlando, Fla., in July to begin developing a congregation -- has been holding semimonthly Sunday services in the Greenwood Community Center, 100 Surina Way, since January.

Now, services will be at 9:30 a.m. weekly in the community center, and anyone interested in joining is welcome, he said.

The church offices are in its Ministry Center, 360 S. Madison Ave., Greenwood.

At 1 p.m. Friday, the Greater Greenwood Chamber of Commerce will hold a ceremony welcoming the church at a 7-acre field on the southeast edge of Greenwood where the church eventually will be built. The site is on the southwest corner of Sheek and Worthsville roads.

On Saturday, a free carnival will be held at Clark-Pleasant Intermediate School to introduce the church to the public.

Stelljes said the Wisconsin synod has some more theologically conservative teachings than other affiliations, such as the more populous Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The Wisconsin synod has 1,290 congregations and nearly 400,000 baptized members in the United States.

"Our church body asked me if I was interested in starting a mission in Greenwood," Stelljes said.

He doesn't regret saying "yes."

"Since we moved here, we've found Greenwood an absolutely fabulous community," said Stelljes. He and his wife, Angela, and 3-year-old son, Jonah, have a home near the church site.

Founding members of Light of Life, he said, are "people who have been looking for a church and didn't have one."

A native of Minnesota, Stelljes grew up in Texas and graduated from Black Hills State University in South Dakota and the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.

Facebook

***

GJ - Two people sent me this link. People are watching Church/Change and the odious Patterson Network. The Doctrinal Pussycats are not watching anything. This strikes everyone as crass and inappropriate. Once an LCA member brought up "having a carnival." A local business leader said, "You don't want those people in town. Their reputations are earned."

WELS is earning a reputation, too.

---

New Greenwood Lutheran church to sponsor free carnival

Published March 18th, 2010

By Mike Alexander

---

A new Greenwood church is introducing itself to the community with a carnival of free food, games, live music, puppet show and prizes.

The big event will be in the Clark-Pleasant Intermediate School from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The school, near where the church will be built, is at Sheek and Worthsville roads on Greenwood’s southeast side.

Three-year-old Jonah sleeps on the shoulder of his father, Pastor John Stelljes, near mother, Angela (right), while committee member Angela Meister looks on. Photo by Mike Alexander/Southside Times

Light of Life Lutheran Church is host for the family fun carnival that also will include indoor bounce houses, face painters, an artist who makes characters out of balloons, fishing, bowling, ring toss and corn bag-in-the-hole contest.

Highest scorer in the basketball free-throw contest will win tickets to an Indiana Pacers game. Highest scorer in birdie golf will win an Otte Golf of Greenwood package.

“It’s our way of letting people know that we (as a church) are here for them,” said 34-year-old Pastor John Stelljes.

He and his wife, Angela, 30, are overseeing a dozen-member committee in promoting the community attraction.

Stelljes said the church will be built in about two years on a 7-acre site in the southwest sector of Worthsville and Sheek roads. Mayor Charles Henderson will cut the ribbon as part of the official grand opening of the church at the site at 1 p.m. Friday. Source

Warning to Bethany, MLC, and WLC: Another One Bites the Dust

Dana College, built to provide an education
for future ministers among the Happy Danes,
has been sold to a for-profit education firm.

"In 1884 Danish Lutheran pioneers established Trinity Seminary at Blair, Nebraska, for the purpose of training men for the parish ministry. Reverend A. M. Andersen, founder of the institution, began teaching seminary courses in his home. Two years later, the first permanent building on the campus was completed. The main emphasis during those early days was on theology and, although some academic courses were offered, they were taught primarily as a background for theological study. The need for additional academic courses was recognized but not fulfilled until 1899 when the Danish College at Elk Horn, Iowa, was merged with the Blair school. The result was the establishment of Dana College as a separate educational institution." Source

From Wikipedia:

The institution faced economic troubles in the 2000s. In 2010 it was sold to a group investors who formed the Dana Education Corporation. This group intends to transform the institution into a for-profit institution with a focus on "doubling enrollment, aggressively marketing the school and building Dana's study abroad program."

ELCA put a smiley face on the Happy Danes in their news release.

Some are asking, "Howzacome you are covering Blair, Nebraska in your position as self-appointed journalist for apostasy?"

I stayed overnight at Dana College when the Augustana College concert band toured the Great Plains. The Happy Danes were a tiny contingent of the LCA, often overlooked in the 1960s merger. The Happy Danes of the LCA were Grundtvigians, contrasted with the Gloomy Danes (Pietists) who joined The ALC.

Grundtvig wrote two very famous hymns: "Built on a Rock," and "God's Word is our great heritage."

Dana's room, board, and tuition were running at $27,000 a year when the school was sold to a for-profit, much like tiny Waldorf College in Iowa. Notre Dame and Yale are costing about $50,000 a year now.

The tiny colleges are failing because their fixed costs are extremely high while their appeal is rather limited. Strange how these little schools survived in the days before federal loans plumped up their finances.

How do they become for-profits? If I may share a few insights from Grand Canyon University, the process works this way:

1. The school is bought for a fraction of the cost of building a new campus.
2. Tenure ends and the over-paid and under-worked faculty may be fired.
3. Online students are added from all over the country.

The key is going online. People feel better about an actual campus location rather than getting a diploma from a server farm. I used to kid online students about logging onto their computers on graduation day for their jpg diploma. I get little in-house training certificates that way, but online graduation is normal, with robes and certificates and speeches.

Not long ago, online schools were a shock. Now everyone takes them for granted. The Ivy Leagues offer online courses. But Mrs. Ichabod and I went to college the old way, which comprises 16% of all college students today. Few can afford the luxury of living at school and taking classes. I commuted.

One college had to limit the number of online courses the students could take, because they were in the dorms and taking all online classes.

The itty-bitty WELS/ELS colleges will have to merge or sell themselves to a for-profit concern. They are not going to survive the next crunch.

Mary Lou College collects a huge fee for the paltry education offered.
Your Costs, 2009-2010
Tuition - $10,660
Room & Board - $4,140
Total = $14,800

For that they often get faculty whose education is little more than a bachelor's degree, in academic standing. Larry Olson has unaccredited MDiv and a Fuller DMin. With that he runs the "Staff Ministry" program, the foundation for women pastors in WELS. Most colleges would laugh at his qualifications to teach. In the Assemblies of God, or the CLC (sic), he would be among the intellectual giants.

Jobs are few in New Ulm. Anyone could stay home, work full-time, and earn an online degree with that amount of money. The teacher candidates are not going to teach. The future ministers will need to have picked the right parents to get a call. If they attend Chicanery conferences, they may get two calls.

---

Apostates Have the Same DNA

False teachers are tolerated
and excused for their behavior, says Luther.

Luther says this about false teachers:

False Doctrine Tolerated

"And such false teachers have the good fortune that all their folly is tolerated, even though the people realize how these act the fool, and rather rudely at that. They have success with it all, and people bear with them. But no patience is to be exercised toward true teachers! Their words and their works are watched with the intent of entrapping them, as complained of in Psalm 17:9 and elsewhere. When only apparently a mote is found, it is exaggerated to a very great beam. No toleration is granted. There is only judgment, condemnation and scorn. Hence the office of preaching is a grievous one. He who has not for his sole motive the benefit of his neighbor and the glory of God cannot continue therein. The true teacher must labor, and permit others to have the honor and profit of his efforts, while he receives injury and derision for his reward."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 110f. Second Sunday in Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9. Psalm 17:9.

God Punishes Ingratitude by Allowing False Teachers

"In the second place such teachers are disposed to bring the people into downright bondage and to bind their conscience by forcing laws upon them and teaching works-righteousness. The effect is that fear impels them to do what has been pounded into them, as if they were bondslaves, while their teachers command fear and attention. But the true teachers, they who give us freedom of conscience and create us lords, we soon forget, even despise. The dominion of false teachers is willingly tolerated and patiently endured; indeed, it is given high repute. All those conditions are punishments sent by God upon them who do not receive the Gospel with love and gratitude."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 111. Second Sunday in Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9. John 5:43.

False Teachers Flay Disciples to Bone

"In the third place, false teachers flay their disciples to the bone, and cut them out of house and home, but even this is taken and endured. Such, I opine, has been our experience under the Papacy. But true preachers are even denied their bread. Yet this all perfectly squares with justice! For, since men fail to give unto those from whom they receive the Word of God, and permit the latter to serve them at their own expense, it is but fair they should give the more unto preachers of lies, whose instruction redounds to their injury. What is withheld from Christ must be given in tenfold proportion to the devil. They who refuse to give the servant of truth a single thread, must be oppressed by liars."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 111f. Second Sunday in Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.

Avarice in False Teachers

"Fourth, false apostles forcibly take more than is given them. They seize whatever and whenever they can, thus enhancing their insatiable avarice. This, too, is excused in them."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 112. Second Sunday in Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.

They Lord It Over Us

"Fifth, these deceitful teachers, not satisfied with having acquired our property, must exalt themselves above us and lord it over us...We bow our knees before them, worship them and kiss their feet. And we suffer it all, yes, with fearful reverence regard it as just and right. And it is just and right, for why did we not honor the Gospel by accepting and preserving it?"
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 112. Second Sunday in Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.

We Are Dogs and Foot-Rags

"Sixth, our false apostles justly reward us by smiting us in the face. That is, they consider us inferior to dogs; they abuse us, and treat us as foot-rags."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 112. Second Sunday in Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.

***

GJ - Nothing Luther wrote 500 years ago is wrong about the apostates of today. They have the same DNA, generation after generation. Their reward is peace and security on earth, followed by an eternity of turmoil. Meanwhile, the faithful face a brief period of turmoil before they find eternal rest.

The midwives of apostasy should be anxious about their future. They are the ones who pose as confessionals or conservatives while gently and diplomatically excusing the doctrine, behavior, and wreckage of the apostates.

In WELS alone, it is easy to track millions of dollars wasted by these junkyard dogs, whose only spiritual gift is their protection of their money and perks. The Chicaneries spent all of the Schwan money, liquidated the rotating gift fund, and hired one another for the cushy positions at the Love Shack, the Sausage Factory, and Mary Lou College. Meanwhile, they published lavish praise for themselves in FIC (nee The Northwestern Lutheran).

Multiply this in the larger groups. ELCA is delighted to have only two retired bishops fighting them over gay ordination while the active bishops place their consecrated and consecrating hands on the lavender mob formerly roped off from the Holy of Holies. Who helped achieve this triumph? Answer - The two retired bishops, who acted as midwives for ELCA and now sound like fishwives to the progressives who run the show.

I knew retired bishop Ken Sauer back in 1973, when I was just ordained and he was newly enthroned as Ohio Synod, LCA, bishop. In God's time, it is a short transformation from the midwife of apostasy to the fishwife of the retrosexuals.

God wants His church to grow, seriously. I will show you how.
It will take a lot of money, trust me.

ELCA-Episcopal Merger the Sears-KMart of Protestantism, Done in Lavender

KJS = Katherine Jefferts-Schori,
Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church

KJS: One of the more effective evangelical tools right now does just that - it goes into the places where people spend time, at work and at leisure, and it gathers people who want to ask significant spiritual questions. Asking questions is actually something that sets Episcopalians apart from a lot of other traditions, particularly the ones who say there's only one right answer and doubt is a sin. Remember that bumper sticker, "Question Authority"? I've never been sure whether it's a description of somebody who's good at asking questions or a challenge to keep asking difficult questions of the powers that be. But asking questions is a central part of our tradition. We don't insist that doubt is a sin; we see doubt as necessary to growth.

Bishop Robinson
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

VOL: Yep, question authority. And if you do question the authority of KJS and The Episcopal Church, you will hear from her attorney David Booth Beers and it won't be pleasant. Just ask Bishops Bob Duncan, Henry Scriven, Keith Ackerman, Jack Iker, John-David Schofield, Mark Lawrence, to name just a few. Four dioceses have questioned her authority. They are now spending millions of mission dollars questioning HER authority over property ownership. Virtue Online

ELCA Presiding Bishop asks,
"Does this robe make me look...
Lutheran?"

The T-Bird I Never Had

1956 T-Bird, now selling for $30,000.
I used to walk by one just like this on the way to grade school.

Comments made in the year 1955!
That's only 55 years ago!


'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $10.00.

'Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $1,000.00 will only buy a used one.

'If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. 20 cents a pack is ridiculous.

'Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging 7 cents just to mail a letter.

'If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.

'When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage. [RA: I can remember when it was only 18¢]

'I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas .

'Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $50,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President.

'I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.

'It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women have to work to make ends meet.

'It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.

'I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.

'Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to government.

Sent by Linda Pearson

Shelves Up

We got the shelves up after the chapel lights were installed.

Henry Eyster Jacobs

Henry Eyster Jacobs, General Council Seminary, Philadelphia.


"Even then, while God was reconciled to all men in Christ, He was redeemed to none outside of Christ. All were forgiven in Christ; none were forgiven outside of Christ. That redemption should be realized, those for whom it was intended had to be brought to such relation to Christ, that they could be said to be 'in Christ.' A series of agencies for applying Redemption, or bringing Christ to men, and men to Christ, is, therefore, also devised. The gift of the Holy Spirit, the efficiency of the Holy Spirit in the means of grace, the various stages of His applying work, until Redemption would reach its goal in life eternal, all were comprehended in the plan."
Henry Eyster Jacobs, The Elements of Religion, p. 76.

***

GJ - I was interviewed for a position on that faculty. The interviews were called HEW interviews, because the candidate was already chosen. Asking people in for interviews proved the school was being fair and balanced, diverse. Nevertheless, the experience was great.

Some of the names listed below were my introduction to the traditional theologians of the Muhlenberg (General Synod, General Council, ULCA, LCA, ELCA) tradition. How many seminaries in America today could boast of such theologians?

+ Charles Frederick Schaeffer, D.D.

+ William Julius Mann, D.D., LL.D.

+ Charles Porterfield Krauth, D.D., LL.D.

+ Charles William Schaeffer, D.D., LL.D.

+ Gottlob Frederick Krotel, D.D., LL.D.

+ Adolph Spaeth, D.D., LL.D.

Henry Eyester Jacobs, D.D., S.T.D., LL.D.

+ Jacob Fry, D.D., L.H.D., LL.D.

+ George Frederick Spieker, D.D., LL.D.

Henry Offermann, D.D.

+ Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., LL.D.

+ Edward Traill Horn, D.D., LL.D.

Luther Dotterer Reed, D.D.

Charles Michael Jacobs, D.D.

Charles Theodore Benze, D.D.

Emil Eisenhardt Fischer, D.D.

John Conrad Seegers, D.D.

Charles Peter Wiles, D.D.

Mid-Week Lenten Service, Because We Are Not an Emerging Church, 7 PM Central Daylight

The Lost Sheep, by Norma Boeckler


Mid-Week Lenten Vespers


Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 7 PM Central Daylight Time

The Hymn #167 O Darkest Woe 3:66
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 23 p. 128
The Lection The Passion History

The Sermon Hymn #387 Dear Christians 3:41

The Sermon – Bearing the Sins of the World

The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for Grace p. 45

The Hymn #36 Now Thank We 3:40

Bearing the Sins of the World

The reading for tonight has a great contrast in it, the three-fold denial of Peter and the steadfastness of Jesus during His trial. In a sense it was a dual trial. Peter was accused outside of being a follower of Jesus. He denied it three times, as Jesus had predicted.

Jesus’ trial was a farce because He committed no sin and was no threat against the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, there was a constant effort to make sure He was guilty of something, even when He answered quietly.

During the time that Jesus was on trial for His life, Peter was disassociating himself from Jesus.

Peter’s real trial was an emotional one. He was afraid and he answered out of fear. Even though he clearly marked himself as a Galilean by his accent, he was not arrested or hurt in any way. Not at that time.

Jesus trial was emotional and physical, because the attacks were directly against Him and it included a slug in the face.

When people complain about bearing the cross, as we all do, we should remember that it includes being slugged in the face, as Luther said. He meant, I am sure, there is nothing too low to use against an individual for adhering to the pure Word.

That is the contrast we have to live with. On the one hand, wolf-preaching is rewarded in every possible way. The more someone slays the souls of his followers—with false doctrine and various forms of predation—the more that person is praised, supported, honored by society.

One minister reported how his children offered to give him money from their piggy-banks when he was short. He mentioned that to a church member and the story became one where he was stealing money from his children’s piggy banks. That is being slugged in the mouth.

In the book and movie, One Foot in Heaven, people wanted to get rid of the minister, so they told people that a girl left town after the minister’s son got her in a family way, as they said in those days. That was a slug in the mouth. The minister tracked down the rumor-mongers and straightened them out. Next someone gave large donation to a church college so they would hire the minister away. What seemed like an honor turned out to be an insult, so the happiness first created was turned into a very bitter feeling. Unlike many clergy, the minister was against using money to dissolve his conscience.

The examples are given because our first reaction to that sort of effort, by seeming members of the church, is shock. Why should a believer get slugged in the mouth by another believer? The answer is – bearing the cross means that and more, because Jesus Himself accepted humiliation, torture, and death on our behalf.

Whenever we share a tiny bit of Jesus’ experience of the cross, we understand a little more about the Passion of Christ. And we have a little more empathy for those who are being persecuted, tortured and killed for their Christian faith – all across the world right now.

The extensive Passion narrative tells us that Jesus suffered every single horrible, human experience – the silence, fear, and escape of His disciples, the physical pain of His beating and crucifixion, the humiliating taunts of the soldiers and the crowd. He was taunted to prove His power, which we would have used ourselves. But He withheld that power, to fulfill the Scriptures and take away our sins.

Nothing we experience is alien to what Jesus already has done for us, and He suffered without being a sinner. This contrast has always been the strength of Christian martyrs, who knew that anything they did paled in comparison with what Christ suffered, including death.

The Christian experience of the cross helps us understand the Atoning death of Christ and trust in its power.

Redemption means that Christ has already paid the price for our sins with His innocent blood. That knowledge, revealed by the Holy Spirit through the Word, fills us trust in the love and mercy of God.

WELS Bra-Burners and the Spineless Leaders Who Enable Them

Future graduation wear for The Sausage Factory.

Left click for a closer view of past and future Schwaermer.
Yellow highlights are for known Shrinkers.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "WELS Follows ELCA and Pentecostals in Women's Libe...":

If you can wade through this tripe without laughing you just might be WELS
http://www.charis.wlc.edu/publications/charis_summer04/wendland.pdf

Does the title scream Confessional Lutheran? No.
202a.... WELS “Women Leaders–No Longer an Oxymoron”–Kathie Wendland
(http://www.churchandchange.org/home/2384/2384/CanCprogram.Web.pdf) page 8.

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE TO BE HELD JULY 7, 2007

All WELS women are invited to attend the 2007 National WELS Women’s Leadership Conference, to be held July 7 at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, in Mequon, Wis. The conference will encourage and edify WELS women through discussions, skits, worship, and the introduction of a new Bible study, “Heirs Together—Serving Together.” The keynote discussion titled “A leader . . . Who? Me?” will be led by Kathie Wendland, women's Bible study writer and leader.

Other conference speakers include

1. Bruce Becker, Board for Parish Services;
   
2. Richard Gurgel, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary;
   
3. Dave Kehl, Commission on Adult Discipleship;
   
4. Sarah Owens, Wisconsin Lutheran Institutional Ministries; and
   
5. Jane Schlenvogt, Westside Christian School.
   

For more information or to register, contact 800-567-8669 or visit www.wels.net/jump/womenconf.

(http://www.wels.net/cgibin/
site.pl?2617&collectionID=1499&contentID=70941)

***

GJ - I kept telling people that WELS would have women pastors before Missouri. Now SP Quiche-nik is working hard to catch up.

Women's lib and gay lib go hoof-in-claw, so start picking your pink tutu for future graduation ceremonies.

---

KJV 1 Timothy 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

NIV 1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.

NIB 1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.

RSV 1 Timothy 2:12 I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent.

NRS 1 Timothy 2:12 I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.

NKJ 1 Timothy 2:12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.

YLT 1 Timothy 2:12 and a woman I do not suffer to teach, nor to rule a husband, but to be in quietness,

VUL 1 Timothy 2:12 docere autem mulieri non permitto neque dominari in virum sed esse in silentio

ELB 1 Timothy 2:12 Ich erlaube aber einer Frau nicht zu lehren, auch nicht über den Mann zu herrschen, sondern ich will, daß sie sich in der Stille halte,

LUO 1 Timothy 2:12 Einem Weibe aber gestatte ich nicht, daß sie lehre, auch nicht, daß sie des Mannes Herr sei, sondern stille sei.

SCH 1 Timothy 2:12 Einer Frau aber gestatte ich das Lehren nicht, auch nicht daß sie über den Mann herrsche, sondern sie soll sich still verhalten.

NLT 1 Timothy 2:12 I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.

***

GJ - The Greek has a clear "but" as an explanation and additional emphasis. This was not Paul's personal opinion, but an application of God's Word. WELS' long history of mocking the Word, as shown by yet another First VP (Wayne Mueller before, now James Huebner) is bearing fruit in the feminist/Chicanery leadership at Mequon.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "WELS Bra-Burners and the Spineless Leaders Who Ena...":

Note how the NIV changed God's Word to make teach and usurp authority mean they can't teach a man or usurp authority over a man. The KJV uses the word 'nor' (neither or) to mean they can't teach in the church. (period) They can't usurp authority over the man in the church. (period)

1 Timothy 2:11-12 (KJV)
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

1 Timothy 2:11-12 (NIV)
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man: she must be silent.

Here are some quotes from Luther which speak to the subject of women's roles in the church.

"As St. Paul says in Gal. 3:28, you must pay no attention to distinctions when you want to look at Christians. You must not say: “This is a man or a woman; this is a servant or a master; this person is old or young.” They are all alike and only a spiritual people. Therefore they are all priests. All may proclaim God’s Word, except that, as St. Paul teaches in 1 Cor. 14:34, women should not speak in the congregation. They should let the men preach, because God commands them to be obedient to their husbands. God does not interfere with the arrangement. But he makes no distinction in the matter of authority." Page 8, first full paragraph

"But in the New Testament the Holy Spirit, speaking through St. Paul, ordained that women
should be silent in the churches and assemblies [I Cor. 14:34], and said that this is the Lord’s commandment. Yet he knew that previously Joel [2:28 f.] had proclaimed that God would pour out his Spirit also on handmaidens. Furthermore, the four daughters of Philip prophesied (Acts 21[:9]). But in the congregations or churches where there is a ministry women are to be silent and not preach [I Tim. 2:12]. Otherwise they may pray, sing, praise, and say “Amen,” and read at home, teach one another, exhort, comfort, and interpret the Scriptures as best they can." Page 15, first paragraph
http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/LutherGenderMinistry.pdf

WELS teaches now that God's Word doesn't teach until it's read by a duly appointed man, "...we believe that antiphonal worship is a proclamation or reading of God's inspired word and is not considered to be 'teaching' the congregation. Reading of scripture as a congregation is an activity to be encouraged in worship. Teaching of scripture is an activity that the Lord in His Word has clearly reserved for the Pastor or other duly appointed official man of the congregation."
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, WELS