Critters and Cold Weather Plants

Ornamental kale looks really hardy!

Some people object to Creation/organic gardening because they cannot imagine dealing with the critters, those biting, devouring, and spoiling insects that drive the pesticide industry.

I let them battle it out among themselves. Most insects are beneficial, so pesticides kill all the good ones that eat the bad ones. Spiders die in the aerosol genocide, so spraying is usually not a good idea.

Something has chewed on my new plants - probably grasshoppers. There are two solutions to this. One is to plant early, before insects are active. The other is to plant more and assume some seedlings will not survive the early growth state.

Roses are vulnerable to a lot of disorders and pests. They suffer from mildew and black spot, June bugs, mites, and other pests. I use an all-purpose rose spray on them.

Cold Weather Plants

People seldom think in terms of cold weather plants that love to get started or finish in the cold. The hardiest is kale, which is grown as an ornamental in Columbus, Ohio because it endures the winter. Kale can be dug up from under snow and be fresh and green. However, its texture is more like rubber than food. Mrs. Ichabod grinds it up in the processor - and loves it. 

Like most unpleasant foods, kale is full of nutrition. 

My favorite cold-weather plants are peas and spinach. Most gardeners wait far too long to plant them. Spinach should be planted, and covered a little later, in the fall. They will be at their best in the cold wet spring, which will destroy the appeal of the "freshest" spinach from the store.

Likewise, peas can be planted as soon as the soil allows. One fanatic drilled holes in the soil and dropped in the peas. Peas keep getting better. I have miles of fencing, so I will plant edible pod peas all along the fencing. They are cheap by the pound.

Wide Row Gardening

Many plant their vegetables as if they are soldiers standing at parade attention, one plant in line with another. I have never marked rows. Plants make their own mulch and shade in wide rows. Planted like tin soldiers, a lot of soil is exposed to sun-drying and wind erosion.

God mulches pine forests with pine needles, deciduous forests with leaves. Someone should eyeball Creation every so often. Creation loves mulch, because the mulch preserves, protects, and enriches the soil according to the plant grown.

Why would I haul away the leaves from the yard when those trees have mined minerals from the depth of their extensive root system? Instead, I rot them down into compost I can spread for mulch. Since the compost is filled with earthworms, their castings (manure), and their eggs, the material will improve any garden area.

Birds Getting Bold in My Yard

I went outside with Sassy. Robins tend to fly away, but this morning one flew to my feet, picked up a bug, and flew away. No fear. Likewise, one almost flew away when seeing me, dropping its worm. But it had second thoughts and picked its worm up again. 

Birds quickly learn who provides food and water for them. I would provide seeds in the feeder, but I do not care to feed the starlings and squirrels exclusively. They leave nothing for the rest. This winter I will place suet (fat) around the yard for all the insect eating birds. But if raccoons feast on it, they will have to subsist on the natural food from Creation gardening. 

A regular water source will attract dogs, cats, birds, and other creatures. They remember where the dependable source is. Little White Mouse went right to my auto-fill bird-bath. 

I let the air conditioning condensate drip into an aluminum pan. The pan fills and drips into the ceramic dish with a big stone in it. Birds like shallow water and something to perch on. Dripping water is a sound easily noticed by creatures, so that is another benefit. My only labor is to dump the water and clean up the pans a bit.

Mark Jeske to Milwaukee - I Want Your Taxes and Your Old Schools for My Empire. Bwa-ha-ha-ha. Don't Ask If I Pay Taxes on My House.

The Wizard of Ooze wants your tax dollars in vouchers
to buy himself another school.
Does he pay taxes on his so-called parsonage in the white suburbs?

Ironically, this practice is clearly contrary to the official WELS doctrine contained in "This We Believe," which states in its article VIII:

"8. We reject any attempt on the part of the church to seek the financial assistance of the state in carrying out its saving purpose."

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2014

St. Marcus Makes an Aggressive Push for MPS Building

Voucher school plans to enroll an additional 850 students in Lindsay Heights

By Lisa Kaiser

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The Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) board will be taking up a fast-tracked offer by St. Marcus Lutheran School to purchase the shuttered Lee Elementary School in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood.

St. Marcus has been building its case for the school in well-attended community outreach meetings in which parents of St. Marcus stressed the need for another site for “strongly Christian” education underwritten by state taxpayers.

According to St. Marcus School Superintendent Henry Tyson, the school would like to renovate and reopen Lee this fall with roughly 200 K3 through first graders. Eventually, it wants to expand on that site and enroll 750-850 students through the eighth grade.

But first St. Marcus needs the approval of both the MPS board, the Milwaukee Common Council and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

St. Marcus hopes to gain the Common Council’s approval at its June 24 meeting. For that to happen, the MPS’s Accountability, Finance and Personnel Committee would have to approve it on Tuesday, as the Shepherd goes to press. The full MPS board would need to sign off on it June 19 before sending it over to the city’s Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee, which would have to call a special meeting before the Common Council’s June 24 vote, according to Sara Roemer, assistant director of development and communications for St. Marcus.

A Change in Sale Process

St. Marcus’s fast-tracked bid for Lee Elementary comes amid controversy over how MPS disposes of its unused buildings and the state support for religious schools in its voucher program.

Republicans and some members of the Common Council have been pushing MPS to sell off its unused or underused buildings to avoid the ongoing maintenance costs. Legislation authored by state Sen. Alberta Darling and suburban Republicans last fall would have forced MPS to sell its underused buildings to an “education operator,” defined as a charter or private school operator or an entity that wants to set up a charter school. After being blasted by Common Council members for rigging the real estate market in favor of loosely regulated charter or voucher schools, the bill passed the full Assembly and one Senate committee but didn’t make it to the Senate floor.

At roughly the same time, St. Marcus was trying to purchase the vacant Malcolm X Academy. The MPS board decided to redevelop it as a mixed-use community center instead.

MPS leaders gave St. Marcus three more options: Lee Elementary, Garfield Elementary or Edison Middle School. Tyson refused all of them, claiming that they were too small, outdated or far away from the school’s main campus. Now, St. Marcus is having a change of heart and is aggressively pushing for Lee Elementary, which was closed in 2009.

The process for a potential sale of an MPS facility also seems to be up in the air.

Earlier this year, the St. Lucas Lutheran School in Bay View had indicated an interest in purchasing the vacant Dover Street School; St. Lucas already uses some of the other school’s property as a playground and parking area.

St. Lucas didn’t make a formal offer on the Dover Street School, but the MPS board voted to turn the facility into affordable housing marketed to teachers. The local alderman, Tony Zielinski, pushed the developers to scale back their proposal and the Common Council asked for more involvement in the sale of MPS facilities.

The city is developing a memorandum of agreement with MPS for MPS’s disposition of its unused properties but as of Tuesday, the draft agreement wasn’t on any committee agenda. 

Skeptical About Test Scores

On another front, St. Marcus is making claims about its student performance, saying that the school is outperforming MPS students in all areas by a “wide margin,” according to the St. Marcus website.

Count MPS Board Director Larry Miller, vice chair of MPS’s Accountability, Finance and Personnel Committee, as skeptical about St. Marcus’s claims about its “high-performing school.” 

Miller said that those claims are overblown and compare St. Marcus’s elementary school students to all of MPS’s, including its high school students.

The difference between St. Marcus’s state test scores and MPS’s aren’t significant, Miller said, although at 20%, MPS’s special needs student population is more than double the 9% of special needs students St. Marcus says it educates.

Miller also noted that MPS seventh graders are performing better than St. Marcus’s in both math and reading. According to fall 2013 data from the state Department of Public Instruction, just 17% of St. Marcus’s seventh grade students and 15% of its eighth grade students are proficient in reading. That compares to 17.4% of MPS seventh graders and 17% of MPS’s eighth grade students who are proficient or advanced in reading.

Miller scoffed at St. Marcus’s attempt to promote itself as a high-performing school.

“At the eighth grade, in our 116 elementary and middle schools, we are testing higher than they are,” Miller said.

He’s also analyzing the demographics of the area to determine whether MPS should reopen Lee to serve the neighborhood’s kids.

“I want it to be a public school,” Miller said.

‘Strongly Christian’ Education

A religious education seemed to be St. Marcus’s biggest asset, according to testimony given by supporters at a June 11 community meeting, organized by the neighborhood’s new alderman, Russell Stamper II, and attended by the city’s Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux; state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis), a voucher supporter; MPS Board members Michael Bonds, Larry Miller and Annie Woodward; and Alderman Nik Kovac. (Stamper didn’t respond to the Shepherd’s request to comment for this article.)

Both St. Marcus and St. Lucas participate in the taxpayer-funded voucher program and are members of the conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). This is the extreme wing of the Lutheran Church, which asserts that the Roman Catholic pope is the Antichrist, condemns homosexuality as a sin, teaches the belief in evolution and the age of the earth as 6,000 years old and prohibits women from voting in church meetings.

St. Marcus employee Kerry Guzman, whose child attends the school, urged Milwaukee leaders to sell Lee because 200 students are waiting for a “Christ-centered education.”

“As a Christian educator, I’m really excited because we have the chance to empower the children at St. Marcus with the love and the respect to show others in the community the love that Christ first showed us,” Guzman told the audience.

But MPS backers questioned whether the city should sell an MPS asset to allow a religious voucher school to expand, which they say ultimately penalizes taxpayers and leaves MPS with a higher percentage of special needs students, who require more resources to educate.

“What we’re seeing in Milwaukee is the development of a two-tier school system, a school system that has a large number of students with special needs, students who are difficult to educate, and a private school system that doesn’t have to adhere to certain state and federal anti-discrimination laws,” said Bob Peterson, the head of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA). “That’s not fair. That’s not what we need for this community.”

Does Anyone Doubt SP Schroeder's Support of Deputy Doug?

Rev. Douglas Engelbrecht, president of the Northern Wisconsin District, is also retiring from the ministry. On June 17, the district elected Rev. Joel Zank to serve as its new district president. Zank, a 1987 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, has served as pastor at Mount Olive, Appleton, Wis., since 1996. In 2011, Zank became the first vice president of the Northern Wisconsin District.

When asked what his advice for the new district presidents would be, Engelbrecht said, with a straight face, “Be extremely patient in dealing with people. Place all of your burdens in the hands of the Lord before you go to sleep each night. Enjoy the opportunity to serve.”

Zank supported Ski. Just remember that.

---

WELS noted that each new DP was the first VP previously.
That is a WELS tradition that rewards the toady/hatchet man.

First VP Kuske was voted off the praesidium for his work in the Michigan District and in Columbus Ohio, where Tim Glende the Boy Wonder grew up. Where do you think Tim learned his tactics?

Jay Webber was happy to work with CG Wonder Floyd Stolzenberg and AA's Kovaciny, because money.

Lito Cruz and His Wife Lyne

Dr. and Mrs. Lito Cruz

Park Seed on Sale - My Resistance Crumbles

Hollyhocks seed themselves.

Park Seed sent me an urgent message about their seed being on sale. I wanted more sunflowers to grow, so I bought two kinds. One is quite short with large blooms - for flower arrangements. Another is the giant Russian or striped sunflower, with the big seeds for eating.

My helper came over to do some trimming. He stood on the porch and inhaled the aroma of the rose garden. He and his wife love having the flowers in their house. "Have we cut too many?" I said - "No, we have to prune them to get more." Although the rose garden looked bare yesterday, I had a number of new buds on the hybrid tea roses this morning.

I told him about the new seeds ordered. The hollyhocks can line up along many places - the fencing, the back wall, and so forth. They take a little time to get established but seed themselves generously without being a pest. (Feverfew - never again.) I have planted colored ones before, so I decided on white this time - and they were on sale.

Bean seeds were so cheap that I could not pass them up. We decided that each new garden would be opened by mulching rather than digging up sod. I get 5 to 10 bags of wood mulch, spread them out on the lawn, and dig only where needed. This relieves us of digging and rototilling the lawn, plus the dying sod will become the richest possible soil without being osterized.

Behind the house will be good for beans, spinach later, and corn next year.

Some fun plants for children will be:

• Pumpkins of various sizes - far in the back yard.
• Edible pod peas.
• Gourds of various sizes, shapes, and uses - many yards of free support from fencing.
• Sunflowers - so the kids can take home a disk. Some people roast their own seed.
• Giant alium - spring monsters that few people see.
• Hollyhocks - girls like to make hollyhock dolls from them.
• Herbs that smell good. Basil is one - there are many more to enjoy.
• More roses - because roses.

Sassy is able to understand and ignore
over 50 commands.

While we were gardening, Little White Mouse showed up to play. He is a Chihuahua from across the street. He has another name, but we call him LWM. This guy wanted to play tag at 60 mph. Sassy gave chase and had a great time. Another puppy appeared from somewhere. LWM stopped to catch his breath and get some water in our self-filling bird-bath. He stood there surveying the battlefield and took off again. Sassy thought it was great fun. Soon we were in the backyard where more trimming was being done.

Soaker hose.
Another time and money saver is the soaker hose. My monthly water bill is only $35, and it will not go up much from watering. Still, a decade plus in Phoenix taught me to conserve water. Sassy and I used to pass small lakes where the same people left the water on far too long, draining the yard into the street.

I use splitters to get soaker hose going to two different gardens from the same faucet. The birds love the puddles formed for baths and drinking, the abundance of insects and worms to eat.

The new sunflowers and pumpkins need watering to get them established. This is what many parents neglect after their children are baptized. They forget that the living seed of the Word, planted at baptism, needs nourishment to grow. Their apathy becomes the children's apathy.

The marketing dimwits of the "conservative" synods have imagined that gimmicks will drawn and keep people in a Word-free church.

The seminary professors should look at the origin of the word - seminary. The school should be a place where the Word of God is nurtured, not scorned. I would sentence the lot of them to five years of gardening. They might start teaching Biblical Christianity again.

Basil - ordinary looking - beautiful aroma.

Take a Combat Veteran to Court District, WELS - Meeting This Week

Here is the link for the Northwest Wisconsin District WELS meeting.

Agenda for the meeting - which starts today.

DP-in-Waiting Zank voted in favor of Ski's CRM status,
which was energized by Don Patterson arranging a call in advance.
They kept their dirty deal a secret from the ministerium.
Clever?

WELS Reaction to Iraq Combat Veteran Typical of the Sect

Ron Ash snatched Tim the Boy Wonder from his Savoy failure,
and soon Wonderboy was senior pastor.
Katy Perry remains unconverted by her Road to Damascus experience with Glende and Ski.

WELS reacted as it always does when someone gets in the way of their corruption, immorality, and unearned arrogance.

As a group, they filed four lawsuits at once, each one without merit. Their argumentation was so ridiculous that the judge dismissed Glende's pathetic whining (two hours worth) - he had no case. The other three, including Ski, knew they had nothing, but they stalled instead of dropping the lawsuits.

Ski really had a lot of nerve showing up in a courtroom. He should have been defending himself for showing porn to his staffmember, talking porn to her, and using disgusting sexual references about a woman who came into the bar/restaurant where they were. One could include drinking on the job, being intoxicated on the job, and Ski's previous court case in Milwaukee, where he had to post an appearance bond.

Glende joined in the abusive behavior. They billed their CORE as a coffee-house ministry but they  made it a bar ministry. How else can one get paid to get hammered? Why not buy a bar with a liquor license and attract the downtown alcoholics?

The CORE's fridge was stocked with beer, which was consumed all day long.

Basic point of law, Ski and Glende - it is not slander if it is true. Simply responding to a request for Ski's future in the ministry is not harassment. Don't ask me - ask the judge. The judge did not need to hear the combat veteran's side of the question. I am told Glende whimpered about "a blog in Arkansas" and got an astonished reaction from the judge.

I would love to claim that only Fox Valley is that bad, or that the Anything Goes District is the only one so corrupt. But no - I experienced the same hate campaigns in Columbus while drunks and adulterers ran the show and led the youth conference. DUI accident? Perfect for Schwan money and foreign missions.

I could describe the experience of others in WELS, which are just the same, but that would expose them to more hatred and slander.

No one wants to stand up for this combat veteran and his wife? Is America so gone on alcohol and recreational drugs that no one has a spine?

The cesspool in question has its district convention this week. I wonder if anyone will speak up.

ELCA seemed to go on and on with no reaction, for 22 years. But they took one vote in 2009, one that necessarily followed everything they had done for the previous decades. Explosion. Over 20% of the synod packed up and left, even the gutless bishops had enough. At least the safely retired and pensioned bishops did.

And WELS, with its nose in the air at all times, still works with ELCA.

Glende-Ski Vicious Attacks against Layman Still in the Court Records. Will SP Schroeder Do Anything? Why Did Kudu Don Patterson Adopt Ski?

Mark Jeske's Hydra - Church and Change,
aka Change or Die,
aka The Synagogue of Satan.

Additional Links to the Story Can Be Found Here.

WCCA vs. WELS Privacy Concerns

June 16, 2014 by Rick Techlin, attorney, WELS member

WCCA stands for Wisconsin Circuit Court Access (formerly known as CCAP), and is the internet portal for information about Wisconsin court cases.  When someone applies for a job, an apartment, or any important position; every employer, landlord, or inquirer of every denomination checks WCCA.  If your name shows up on WCCA, it could have a profound long-lasting negative effect on your life.  Information on WCCA lasts for decades.  For example, information on a civil lawsuit is available on WCCA for 20 years.

Recently, four WELS church workers brought four almost identical civil lawsuits against a WELS layman.  (See Two WELS Pastors and Four Meritless Lawsuits).  They publicly accused him of harassment, they publicly said he was mentally unbalanced, they publicly said he might have a gun, they publicly implied he might use this alleged gun against them, and they publicly said they were living in fear.  These accusations were made in open court, in a public hearing, and as part of a public record.  Their written accusations remain a part of the public record.  Their cases all appear on WCCA.

The court dismissed all four harassment restraining order petitions.  But WCCA does not really explain why they were dismissed, just that they weredismissed.

So what happens when this young WELS husband, father, and layman goes out to apply for jobs?  What do prospective employers see?  They see four civil lawsuits against him, and not just small-claims court stuff, but harassment restraining order petitions.  Harassment restraining order lawsuits are the sort of cases that usually involve stalking, threats, and/or violence.  How many potential employers would stop right there?  How many potential employers would interpret these public court records to mean that at a minimum this young man is a troublemaker who can not get along with others?

If a potential employer were to dig a little deeper, they could go down to the courthouse, and read the four vicious letters that the church workers filed with the court against this WELS layman.  Each of those letters was a public violation of the Lutheran understanding of the Eight Commandment: each of them twisted every word and action into the worst possible construction, and those disgusting documents are all a matter of public record.  They are all on file at the courthouse.

What else could a potential employer find?  Nothing.  Not a single word of defense from this young man appears in the public record.  That is because during the court case, he never spoke in his own defense.

The court dismissed these WELS pastors’ accusations before the defense presented any evidence.  Why?  To find out, a potential employer would have to read the court transcript.

Some benefactors paid to have the transcript prepared to help defend this young man, so that people could see directly the vacuousness of these WELS pastors’ accusations.  (For example, the pastor’s evidence for threats was that the young layman said, “I will publicly defend my wife because that’s what God demands of me.”  The pastor testified, that was “a very open-ended statement,” thus the pastor was concerned what the young husband would do.  Court transcript, pages 45 & 47.  The pastor’s evidence for the young layman being mentally unbalanced was his pastoral knowledge that the layman had suffered trauma in combat while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.  The pastor’s evidence for the layman possibly having a gun was that the layman had served in the U.S. military.  So there was no evidence of any wrongful threats.  There was no evidence of anyone being mentally unbalanced or dangerous.  And there was no evidence that anyone had a gun, as if that should matter anyway).  Because some people paid to have the transcript prepared, now a potential employer could at least go to the courthouse, and read the 80 page transcript of the proceedings.  But realistically, who would do that?

WCCA is society wide, and can destroy a man’s reputation far beyond the WELS.  Who will defend the reputation of our young Christian brother?

Some people tried to discuss this case on a WELS Lutherans Facebook group, but WELS pastor administrators deleted comments and entire threads.  Some WELS pastors have said that discussing this public case on the internet is profoundly wrong because it doesn’t go through the right channels, it aligns one with the tools of the devil, it leads to false rumors, and it hurts Christians because they might lose trust in their WELS pastor.

Unfortunately, this concern is all focused on the WELS, but the WELS does not exist for its own sake.  The good news is not that the WELS is perfect, but rather that Christ is perfect.  The WELS is supposed to be brothers and sisters walking together in truth and repentance, but anytime someone says, “Here is the truth, we need to repent,” the WELS minders shout “No!  You are harming the WELS’ reputation.”

A WELS pastor posted on Facebook that if we post truthful negative things about the WELS on the internet, then we are aligned with the tools of the devil.  However, this is not true Lutheran teaching.  Lutherans don’t believe in a holy WELS Synod, instead we “believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church.”  (Nicene Creed).  He who speaks against the one holy Church is aligned with the devil, but he who exposes sin in the visible church is not aligned with the devil.  It is false teaching to confuse the WELS with the one holy Church.

Further, if talking truthfully on a little WELS Facebook page or blog is communicating with an audience too large, then what does it mean when WELS church workers put undeserved black marks against a WELS layman on WCCA, the Godzilla of reputation destroyers?

Is it the reputations of only WELS pastors that matter?

When these church workers brought their unfounded allegations against this young man to the WCCA and the public court system, they forfeited their claim to privacy.  Even then, all of this could have remained “private” for the sake of the visible church.  However, when the Northern Wisconsin District publicly declared one of the pastors who brought these meritless lawsuits to be “blameless” and “above reproach,” then the District also forfeited its claim to privacy.  The Church calls pastors to the public ministry (Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraphs 23-24), and the Church is composed of every baptized believer.  Everyone in the WELS is now involved.  Everyone in the WELS should know what is happening.

We need to collectively repent, and make restitution to this young couple we have victimized.  We in the WELS need a genuine culture of repentance.  And the Northern Wisconsin District needs new leadership.  The Church calls and ordains, but the District leadership does it directly for the sake of good order.  If they cannot uphold good order, then the leadership must be removed.

The Northern Wisconsin District convention will be held in Appleton, Wisconsin on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17 & 18, 2014 A.D.

Kyrie eleison.

Sassy Supervises the Garden

For Father's Day, I picked a large bouquet from the Ichabode Rose Garden. A mist was falling before the service, so the roses were as fresh as possible. I had large bi-color yellow roses (pink edges), lavender, magenta shrub roses, and some other colors. Some were aromatic, so the chapel was filled with delicate aroma.

After the service and study of 1 John 3, Chris took the flowers over to our neighbor and had a long visit. She is going to place chairs and an old table on the porch for visiting and viewing the garden. Three neighbors have received flowers because we keep ours outside and share the ones I cut for church.

Sassy supervises when I work outside. She likes to wander on our side of the cul-de-sac, or sit under the shade of the maple tree in front.

When a neighbor arrived with his children to pick up a bed, Sassy got into the van with the children. The youngest said, "I want to keep her." Our neighbor down the block says he will take Sassy "any time you get tired of her." When I tell others about that, they say, "I would keep her too. She is so sweet."

Sassy loves the attention, and she enjoys stories about her afterwards, when I tell Mrs. I about our adventures. At Lowe's Gardening Center, I asked Sassy, "Do you like Lowe's?" She barked loudly once. The staff, loading the trunk with mulch, laughed. I then said, "Do they do a good job, Sassy?" Once more she gave her happy bark. "Aw, what a smart dog." She grins from her seat in the back, the window open for better flirting with her growing fan club.

Sassy knows that barking into the bank's PA system, at the drive-through, will usually gain some treats for her. One dog-loving banker is always looking for Sassy and getting her three treats instead of one. I whispered "Bark" for the latest haul.

We had a torrential rain on Sunday morning, which did not knock the worship service off Cox Cable. Usually a rain like that will cause the Internet to break off briefly - and often.

My gardening neighbor and I were in a drought mood on Saturday, so we watered everything. Perhaps the evaporation from our yards alone triggered the storm.

The grass is ready for mowing again, after a few days. All the new tomatoes and cucumbers perked up from the combination of watering and rain. I know the earthworms are thriving. My front yard is a convention center for robins. I caught one robin picking up a red wiggler. She dropped it, ready to fly when she saw me. I did not move, so she picked it up in her beak and flew away. "Steak tartar for the kids." Earthworms are all muscle, so they must be a treat.

The mulch promotes the growth of all soil creatures, since they work as a group to kill pathogens, digest rot, and digest one another. The end result is turning all living matter into something useful for the plants, the basis for life above and below the surface.

Mulch helps because plants grown on bare soil will droop easily. The soil gives up moisture much faster when open to the sun. Wind blows away soil, and the heat of the sun keeps the earthworms down below.

Mulch holds the moisture in and keeps the soil surface earthworm-friendly. They use that zone to pull down debris and deposit their casts (manure). Since the worms sweeten and grind the contents of their gut, their casts are considered the best soil improvement of all. These things were ordered at Creation, though many people overlook them - to their detriment.

Pumpkins and sunflowers are growing out of the wood mulch on the south side of the house. My helper is not impressed so far. He will be when both bully-plants take over the area. The sunflowers will be around six feet tall with large flowers/seed-disks. The pumpkins will spread out to absorb sun and moisture.

What are you doing on the shady side? some are wondering. As many know, hostas do well in the shade. I like hostas, but not the ordinary garden center green ones.  I will order some that are wedgewood blue.

Exotic additions to the garden are fun, especially when justified by "The grandchildren will love them."

The giant alium (garlic) bulbs grow a thick stalk with a ball of purple flowers on top.

The giant alium can intimidate children.

There is a stinky bulb that is spectacular and odd - crown imperial.

Crown imperial.
You will know when they arrive at the door.

Early bulbs will grow up through the grass, although squirrels tend to eat them with relish - or without relish.

Birdhouse gourds can be used for...birdhouses.

Some gourds are odd shaped or good for other things, such as the birdhouse gourd.

SpenerQuest Discovers the Ski-Glende Situation, A Bit Late

Jojakim Dettmann (Random_layman) Senior Member Username: Random_layman Post Number: 3409 Registered: 5-2006

Posted on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 12:25 am:       Evidence of abuse: http://vdma.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/two-wels-past ors-and-four-meritless-lawsuits/ Why this is not surprising to me: http://www.reveal.org/development/Churches_that_Ab use.pdf http://www.reveal.org/development/Recovering_from_ Churches_that_Abuse.pdf There are denominations out there which have recognized abuse and have taken steps to resolve it. I am waiting for the WELS do to do the same with this case. One survey indicated 3.1% of churchgoing, adult women have been the target of unwanted clergy sexual misconduct. I personally know one of them. She was very angry. Here is the study: http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.ph p/96038.pdf Back when I was in school, one of our newer female teachers decided not to be a teacher any more after enduring repeated sexual comments from another teacher who was much older and married. This was an LCMS Lutheran school. She finally complained to her students, including me. 1 out of 24 WELS pastors (4.2%) in a survey published in 1998 admitted to clergy sexual misconduct. The percentage was similar to that for the LCMS, (5 out of 117, or 4.3%). The federal government is currently investigating an ELCA college, Wittenberg University, over concern that they are covering up or discouraging the reporting of rape or sexual harassment type cases. When you see leaders standing up for sexual misconduct by clergy against females, that indicates a broader cultural problem.

Rick Strickert (Carlvehse) Senior Member Username: Carlvehse Post Number: 4821 Registered: 10-2003

Posted on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 10:33 am:       The behavior of James Skorzewski and Timothy Glende, as seen in the excerpts from "Two WELS Pastors and Four Meritless Lawsuits," fits the operative word, "sleaze." Here's James Skorzewski with Mariqueen, a Playboy model and member of a 'music' band, "How to Destroy Angels." Sadly the sleaze is now in Texas.

Joe Krohn (Jekster) Intermediate Member Username: Jekster Post Number: 255 Registered: 4-2011

Posted on Friday, June 13, 2014 - 1:24 pm:       "I am waiting for the WELS do to do the same with this case." "Sadly the sleaze is now in Texas." I believe the WELS has resolved it in their usual fashion. There is a strain of antinomianism that runs through the WELS that has been perpetuated by a warped view of Objective Justification. It has manifested itself in the South Central District of the WELS.

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James Skorzewski

Works at Christ the Rock

Attended Michigan Lutheran Seminary

Lives in Hutto, Texas

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The Feast of the Holy Trinity, 2014. John 3:1-15

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/04/norma-boecklers-new-book-treasury-of.html

The Feast of the Holy Trinity, 2014

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

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Time

The Hymn # 246     Holy, Holy, Holy                   3:35

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 Athanasian Creed             p. 53
The Sermon Hymn #236            Creator Spirit             1:9

Nicodemus at Night

The Communion Hymn # 308            Invited Lord    1:63

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 #261   Lord Keep Us Steadfast                   1:93

KJV Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

KJV John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Pentecost Monday Gospel:

KJV John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Trinity Prayer

O Lord God, heavenly Father: We poor sinners confess that in our flesh dwelleth no good thing, and that, left to ourselves, we die and perish in sin, since that which is born of the flesh is flesh and cannot see the kingdom of God. But we beseech Thee: Grant us Thy grace and mercy, and for the sake of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, send Thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, that being regenerate, we may firmly believe the forgiveness of sins, according to Thy promise in baptism; and that we may daily increase in brotherly love, and in other good works, until we at last obtain eternal salvation, through the same, Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/04/norma-boecklers-new-book-treasury-of.html

 

Luther’s Trinity Sermons Linked Here

Nicodemus at Night

KJV John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

We should never overlook the details provided by John's Gospel, because they explain so much about early Christianity. Jesus converted NIcodemus through the spoken Word, which meant the Savior had an advocate in the Jewish leadership and a witness there to everything that happened.

John 7:50 Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night,[j] being one of them) said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”

52 They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

John 19:39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.

The Gospel carefully notes who Nicodemus is each time, since there could be another man with the same name. He was accused of being a follower of Jesus early on, by the Jewish leaders, and he risked his life to help bury Jesus.

Jewish and Roman leaders made sure Jesus would die, but some Jewish and Roman leaders were also converted, so the Gospel made its way through both areas of opposition.

And yet today, people are afraid to raise an objection to falsehood - lest someone might unfriend them or Facebook or they might lose a precious committee assignment with their synod.

2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 

The origins of Nicodemus conversion were the Old Testament Scriptures, which prepared the way, and Jesus appearance as a boy in the Temple. We do not have a direct historical connection between Jesus in the Temple and Nicodemus becoming a believer. But that visit had to have a great impact.

For example, Ronald Reagan's first job was serving as a radio announcer in my hometown area, the Quad Cities. As president, he came back and sat down at the same microphone. That was 30 years ago, and people still speak about it. Some remember friends or relatives being in the studio, because of the excitement and local pride. Certainly the boy Jesus in the Temple had the same  lasting effect, even more so, because the Word of God is always effective in opposition and conversion. The Word incites great opposition, and it also converts in person, in reading, and even in remembering.

Nicodemus had faith in Jesus when he came to Him, but it was a weak and curious type of faith. He probably came at night because of fear. That label stuck with him in the Gospel - Nick at Night (an old children's TV show). But he wanted to know.

Children receive faith in Holy Baptism, if not before from the Word (their parents speaking to them about the Gospel). Baptism is definite and gives us certainty about their conversion. But note - infant faith is not dithering. Children have an all-encompassing faith. If it is nourished with the Word, it can withstand the challenges of becoming an adult.

It is more difficult for an adult to unlearn all the errors.

God chose to build the foundation of the Christian faith on Judaism, which is no different in its pure form.

However, by the time of Jesus, there were so many Pharisaical traditions that the errors submerged the clear Gospel of Isaiah 53 (for example) and justification by faith. Nevertheless, because people studied and heard the Word, there were believers, and Nicodemus was one.

Nicodemus' first confession was rather weak, but it was a beginning. Jesus came from God - because of His miracles. Therefore, He had to have God's blessing. And that was important, to see the wonders confirming the Word.

Modern rationalists reverse that. By undermining the miracles first, they undermine Jesus as the Son of God. They do not choose a frontal assault on His divinity, which would not end well for them. They just add those little corrosive doubts to each miracle until all of them have a reasonable explanation.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again [from above], he cannot see the kingdom of God. 

This is the great pun on born-from-above, which can be understood in the context of Jesus' sermons in John. This can only be understood in Greek, so it is commonly misunderstood as "a conversion experience" in English.

The primary meaning of the adverb is "from above." However, the secondary meaning is "again." Those who discussed things with Jesus (the woman at the well, chapter 4, and Peter in discussing foot-washing) picked up on the wrong information, which is called a fallacy of emphasis (often used in humor).

Nicodemus is a bit foolish in asking about being born a second time when he was told he must be born from above. Like the man born blind, there is a bit of humor in the conversation. More importantly, this conversation is a catechism by itself. That is why we have it for the Holy Trinity Gospel lesson.

Jesus said, "A man cannot see the Kingdom of God unless he is born from above."

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

This response is so bizarre that children remember it without really comprehending how dense it was at the time. As such, it makes the conversation memorable. "Oh, that one."

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit [ be water/Spirit born], he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

This also needs some grammatical analysis. The "of" in the KJV means it is an extra word added for clarity. The Greek really means water/Spirit born. By leaving out the article, which we do with /, the two words are welded together.

It does not separate the Holy Spirit from baptism, as the Pentecostals want to believe. It does just the opposite. The Greek grammar, which Jesus used, puts the two together.

To be baptized in water (with the Word) is to be baptized by the Spirit. For adults, this means confirming the conversion to faith. For babies and their families, baptism marks the beginning of the Faith in that soul.

There are exceptions, like the thief on the cross, but the norm is baptism and faith, one preceding the other. To ignore one is to deny the other.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again [from above]. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

For unbelievers, especially those within the visible (institutional) church, everything is flesh - human reason, money, lust, power. Unbelievers think carnally because they are born of flesh alone.

In contrast, when someone is converted by the Spirit at work in the Word, the spiritual viewpoint takes over. The two are worlds apart - flesh and spirit - and they contend against each other, in us and in society, in all congregations.

The power of the Spirit is illustrated by the wind. This is another word-play. Spirit and wind are the same in Greek and Hebrew. No one doubts the power of the wind. Some think that the ancient Egyptians raised large stones by using wind power, via kites. If you doubt the power, experience a hot desert wind some day.

The wind has the power to destroy large buildings and turn semis into toys flying in the air. We saw the effect of the Joplin tornado, one year later, where over 160 people died.

Luther and others have commented on the power of the Spirit in the Word, when patiently taught. Often no results are seen for decades. Suddenly, from our viewpoint, an entire region is converted. That happened at Yale when the president, Timothy Dwight, taught the Scriptures for the longest time. Suddenly there was an interest in the Bible once again.

What believers do and accomplish, through the Spirit, is just what Jesus taught. No one can predict or measure how much it is. The Spirit is like the wind, powerful and invisible.

9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Here we have the clearest possible teaching of the sufficiency of faith in Christ. All possible good, starting with forgiveness and salvation, come from faith in Christ. No conditions are attached to faith. It is not faith plus good works, the subtle but fatal error promoted by Rome and the sectarians.

But good works come from this faith. 

Faith saves and unbelief condemns. Jesus taught faith in Him. The Spirit witnesses to the Father/Son relationship, and thus we have the work of the Holy Trinity.

Ambrose is supposed to be the Book of Concord expert on UOJ.
Yep - he is against it.