Asparagus Planted While Peas and Sunflowers Make a Surprise Appearance. Rain Predicted Tonight

I was planting peas in early February, but never saw them under the mulch. I also planted a wide row of sunflower seeds, but did not expect them to survive the cold and squirrels. I pawed through the thick wood mulch several times to see the Little Green Sprout.

Today I began raking back the mulch and saw a tiny sprout, then another. Soon it was clear a line of sprouts was coming up - not weeds - but peas. Mrs. Ichabod said, "Only a line?" I admitted, "I planted a wide row. a lot more will come along now."

Asparagus crowns arrive as a big disappointment. They are shipped dry and  look dead. I checked a few places about asparagus planting on the Net since it has been about 20 years since ordering them. Dry ones are common, so I decided to soak mine in rainwater - which the mop bucket gathered by accident. They plumped up a bit in a few minutes.

Many gardening experts make a big deal about planting them - no wonder few even try. I simply dug holes, placed each crown on its side, and tamped the soil down gently. As readers might have guessed, the soil was goofy with earthworms. They had shelter, rain, snow, and food all winter. Clay is very fertile soil, and earthworms will make it even better.

Besides the asparagus along the fence, I will go vertical up and down. The peas will grow now, but Mrs. I really wants beans, so I have Blue Lake pole beans to plant along with the peas. They will bloom later or even with the peas, both climbing the fence. Outside their parallel rows will be a line of carrots.

Closer to the house along the fence, will climb scarlet runner beans, simply to attract hummingbirds, who love their flowers. Nearby are the bee balm plants (hummingbird friendly) and some others to be planted when they arrive.

The onslaught of bare root rose plants will arrive soon enough. That will be fun, since the soil is damp and easy to dig. I need a John Deere shovel to get the clay off, but otherwise have no complaints.

Daffodil bulbs are really the flower in a case, ready to bloom.

Daffodils should bloom next week.

Veteran, Tank Gunner
Our veteran neighbor talked about how he had to sleep in when he really wanted to do some landscaping in his yard. I said, "Get up earlier. Someone stole your autumn leaves."

He said, "My brother finally worked on them. They were there since October."

I said, "No, I stole them." His eyes widened. "Your brother offered me leaves a long time ago, saying I was known for playing with earthworms. I took them for my straw bale garden and they worked out fine.?

Using lively language, he described how many weed killers and barriers he used for his rose beds and still had a weed takeover. "Look at that *&$^@!" I said nothing.

It's that time.

Thank You Very, Mulch. Three More Days Until the Next Rainstorm.

Weather.com says I have three days before the next rainstorm. Meanwhile, various plants will be arriving. I feel like a CPA during tax season.

Consider the value of mulch in gardening 
Anything organic can be mulch - compost, leaves, straw, hay, weeds, newspapers, grass clippings.

1. The best mulch will stay in place on its own, which eliminates leaves and newspapers as the top layer.

2. Another quality is being weed neutral - not adding to the weed population already in the soil. Grass clippings can be carriers of weed seeds, but thick layers of dead grass do not promote weeds. I used them in the corn and I only had purslane, which is harmless and good to eat. Hay can have all kinds of field weeds in it, like deadly nightshade and its cousins, but it will do no harm when in the shade of bushes.

3. Mulch should be attractive on the top layer, so that makes shredded wood a good choice. Wood also holds down anything below and provides the right ingredients for soil health. It may tie up nitrogen when fresh but it also releases that nitrogen as it rots. One of the Band of Brothers turned Hershey's cocoa hulls and used them for a deliciously aromatic mulch - trash into cash.

4. Mulch is a perpetual bird-feeder that fills itself, without additional cost, fulfilling two Prime Directives - Maynard G. Krebs (no extra work) and Scrooge McDuck (no extra cost). Organic matter feeds and attracts the soil creatures needed by birds. They will even toss scraps aside to nab the bugs they find jostling the ingredients. The bird population and spiders (who also love mulch) will digest them instead of letting them be pests.

Mulch absorbs water and holds it. Organic matter is a sponge that holds onto water while decomposing, and that water feeds the creatures of decomposition.

Mulch slowly releases water. A watered area will tend to have much of the water running off, but mulch will absorb all it can in one place and keep the water from straying. That also holds the top soil in place.

Mulch prevents sun and wind evaporation. The mulch will give up moisture and scatter a bit without letting the elements get to the top soil. I imagine the total surface area of mulch contributes to how much it can hold. The soil is always damp under mulch.

Another layer builds beneath the mulched soil. The soil creature population increases with more moisture and food. The creatures, like the slug (mostly underground), are moving water storage units. They hold and move moisture while transferring nutrition to the plants. One big advantage of fungi is watering the plant roots.

Gardeners have always thought of gardening in terms of inert ingredients - water from rain, soil, NPK chemicals we add to make things grow. That is all wrong. The most important items affecting the plants are living, breathing, dying, eating, and being eaten creatures. They are the real gardeners - the insect killers, the fertilizers, the water sources. Gardeners spend a lot of time killing off the creatures God placed there to do the work for us.

The Creation survives our foolishness, but it will reward a little wisdom.

Naumann Introduced and Welcomed Church Growth - And the Worst False Teachers - Into WELS. WELS Documented Blog Retells the Myth

Synod President Naumann welcomed TELL in its first issue.
The door was flung opened and the the Jeske Mob took over -
led by Valleskey, Witte, Bivens, Kelm, Roth, Hartman, Larry Olson (DMin Fuller)
and many others.
The way to get ahead  in WELS, Missouri, and the ELS
is to have credits from Fuller Seminary.

WELS Documented Blog
It was reported that after the election, John Brenner congratulated his successor and mentioned to him that he had heard some talk about a “change in Bible thought” with the election of a new president. “God forbid it,” said the new president. Naumann may have been young, but he would not be intimidated by those demanding that the synod change its stand on Scripture to accommodate a changing world. He remained steadfast and faithful to the Word. Naumann’s steadfast faith, patience, and endurance would help the synod in his years as president, particularly in the painful break up with Missouri.

Here is Steve Witte with his Gordon Conwell drive by DMin degree.
Dr? No academic institution recognizes a DMin as a doctorate.

***

GJ - 

Old man Brenner had the drop on Naumann.

What a load of booshwa.
Kelm is an alien invader, importing the latest idiocies from Fuller Seminary.

Jackson Bird Spa Expansion - Stolen Leaves Are Sweeter

The Jackson Bird Spa is party central in our neighborhood -

nine feedings stations and seven places to drink or bath,

twigs, sticks, string, and lint for their nests.

When I came home from Walmart today, Mrs. Ichabod asked about the two huge garbage pails I had in the car. "They aren't garbage pails. They are rain barrels with birdbaths on top."

In the trunk I had some mulch for the Jackson Bird Spa expansion. I left newspapers out in the rain, which finally stopped. They are far easier to spread when soaking wet, and breezes do not blow them away. I expanded the area to be covered and mulched on top.

I put the garbage-can-lid birdbaths upside-down in the mulch and filled all the baths. These Rubber Maid lids were especially shallow and very large, which birds appreciate. They are not going to step into deep water, and I want toads to have a pleasant area with plenty of water.

I never looked for toads before, but I had one under the faucet last summer. I also saw baby toads here and there, without thinking much about them being such a blessing - eating slugs and insects.

Rain Barrels
I thought of capturing rain from altering the down spouts, but I had second thoughts after wrestling with one of the spouts today. Reworking the spout means additional work, which is a violation of the Maynard G. Krebs Prime Directive - Do not create extra jobs in the garden.

Instead I will leave the downspouts alone and capture rain from the roof runoff in the backyard (no downspouts or gutters there).

There are two ways to have great water for special treatment of plants. One is to fill a barrel and let it evaporate the chlorine out of it for at least 24 hours. The other is to collect the rainwater and use it before it generates a population of mosquitoes.

My mother always stored water before using it in the classroom. All the teachers wanted to know why her flowers were so bountiful and theirs were so poor. She just smiled. Moline water was so bleachy we did not need whiteners for our teeth.

The Crown Imperials are beginning to show.
Giant aliums are next.

Stolen Leaves
I watered the straw bale garden, which is going to produce gushy soil around it. The benefit of straw bales is that watering them will motivate the roots to go down deep. The disadvantage is the need to water often and stay out of the mud.

We began with a good base - heavy ragweed growth, pumpkin vines, and tomato vines mulched into the soil, which had plenty of wood mulch. Newspapers were on top of this, and straw bales on the newspapers.

Lacking was an area to dress up the sloppy look of leaning bales and newspapers under them like old nappies.

I know our veteran on the corner wanted his leaves gone, and his brother was taking several more months to finish the job. Sassy and I went down with the wheel-barrel and nicked them in  two trips. If no one saw the trips, the brothers will wonder how the leaves disappeared after abiding so long on the corner of the lot, killing the grass.

Autumn leaves, piled up, rained and snowed and sleeted on, are dark, wet, and somewhat slimy. They are pure food for the soil. Leaves harbor beneficial insects, soil creatures, and earthworms. Microbes and larger soil creatures (yea, even slugs) will shred, digest, and fix all that food in the root zone.

Yes, I smile at at Lowe's customers carting bags of inorganic fertilizer out to their cars. They probably bag their leaves and have the city pick them up. Endless withdrawals from the soil cannot be made up with inorganic salts.

So I piled my treasure along the base of the straw bales. Overflow of water will facilitate additional decomposition. The leaves will settle down in a few days, so I will add a bag or two of wood mulch,  on top - as I did at the base of the crepe myrtle bush.

I mulched the crepe myrtle all last year, and the mulch kept going down. What does this mean, class?
Answer - the soil creatures below consumed the trees leaves, bush leaves, mower grass clumps, and wood mulch, feeding the roots of the bush and giving us the most glorious crepe myrtle in the area.

We pruned the top of the crepe myrtle and got a second bloom when all others stopped. Why? They did not prune for a second bloom. The seed pods formed and lasted all winter and fed the birds. We mulched all the pruned branches by cutting them up into twigs. They decomposed into the soil.

Sunlight Plus + Organic Additions = Soil Health
The renewal of the soil comes from a combination of solar power and organic additions.

Solar power makes the plants grow, create complex compounds above and below the surface, and build the soil by turning energy into useful nutrition.

Organic additions build the soil by adding a wide variety of food for soil creatures to turn into food for plant roots. Just as the birds show up for suet, peanuts, corn, and sunflower seeds, the soil creatures arrive to consume manure, plant leftover, mulch, leaves, and grass clippings.

Great blooms, but this crepe myrtle could use a lot of pruning.

The Lyle Lovett pruning of the crepe myrtle bush
puts all the flowers on top, the branches below bare.
Little Ichabod laughed.

WELS Sharia Law

If an alcoholic WELS pastor--who specializes in porn--uses x-rated language around a woman staffer, makes lewd suggestions to her, and shows her a nude male photo, she must be shunned and her husband sued for objecting to this behavior. The District President and his successor covers up for him. The Synod President arranges a quickie call to another district - his fourth in four calls.

If a married WELS pastor hits on a young, single woman, she must be forced to resign and take the blame, but he receives a new position - and a free cover-up from the District President.

If a WELS pastor arranges to have his wife murdered, he takes a call to another state. Nobody knows nothing and evidence disappears.

If a WELS teacher stabs his wife to death in their bed, the president of Martin Luther College comes to Phoenix as a character witness - to defend him as a poor, innocent man.

Your Daily Gardening Fix

I am thankful for all the artwork from Norma Boeckler. I have a wide array of graphics to use each day, and I share them on Facebook, as others do.

Various people ask for more about gardening, and that is leading to a book about Creation Gardening later this year.

I am usually up before dawn, so I take the paper to door of my neighbor, Mr. Gardener. Paper delivery has declined so they make people walk out to the street to get their newspaper, which is often hidden behind parked vehicles. For that they want $360 a year for the daily newspaper.

Walking next door is also a chance to take Sassy out - she loves that. And I check out the progress of the garden. We are often up and about before the birds, so I feed them when necessary.

Gardening does not compare to the thrill of children and grandchildren, but it is still a pretty good drug, addicting but healthy and low cost.

I like the long-term investment and repayment system. When I buried the fall bulbs from Dutch Gardens, I had nothing to show for it. The mulched rose garden even covered the scars of digging. A late winter snowstorm or two delayed the bulbs breaching the surface, but when they did - ecstasy. Garlic is hard to mess up. Those stalks poked up first, then daffodils, then the start of Crown Imperials. One was missing. Where is the last Crown Imperial? The tulips worked up slowly and finally - the last Crown Imperial appeared, like a submarine sticking its periscope up.

Our helper is justifiably proud of our mulched gardening areas. Today I can easily pull aside some mulch along the fence and plant oodles of pool beans. I plan on a second, parallel slot for carrots. And if some of that fails, hundreds of plants will still grow.

The sunflower seeds I saved are called King Kong. They are not only 14 feet tall, but strong and multi-branched. They should be fun to see growing.

I was thinking about putting all the bee, butterfly, and hummingbird plants in the far back, partially as a screen to block the view, but I am going to have a cluster of these plants near the back door, so everyone can see the action there too. This summer will be fun.

Support your local fungus. They are smart enough
to spring a trap on a nematode and dissolve it,
moving the nutrition to plant roots in exchange for carbon credits.
Creation or a co-inky-dink? You decide.

Polemics Are the Best Tool. Lutherans Gone Mild

ELCA beckons and Thrivent pays the tolls on the way.

I have seen the reaction many times. If someone clearly defines a topic and also shows why the opposite is not true, manufactured storms of protest arise. The accusations are mostly personal attacks, but the real issue is - No polemics are allowed.

Another version of the rule might be - No Confessions allowed, There is not much difference between polemics and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church (or any good confession of faith). The Book of Concord defines sound doctrine and also repudiates false doctrine.

America was not afraid of polemics in the early days. The Founders had to motivate people to fight for their freedom rather than remain colonies of the British Empire. Ben Franklin had a great joke played on them once when he published a letter in England saying Britain should pay taxes to Germany since England was originally a German colony with a Germanic language. On a feature show a British gentleman became angrier and angrier reading this out loud - until the end, when the satire said - "After all, these are the same arguments used for America paying taxes to Britain." He burst into laughter and Franklin smiled.

Blogmasters have to deal with the way things are. Lutherans have gone mild, In the good old days, the Methodists were the mild ones. They were moderately conservative on all topics, but irenic, always anxious to keep everyone happy. Lutherans are the irenic Methodists now. Nothing will keep someone from a plush position faster than having a position on anything.

This attitude makes everything sublime for the false teachers. Simply raising an issue is an attack on Holy Mother Synod. It is considered "bad form," in the language of the New England prep school. The coven of false teachers quickly lands on this Neanderthal and silences him, especially when the point is on target.

Lutherans should welcome banishment by the Synodical Con-Men. The more people jump from the hot air balloon, the faster it will rise into the stratosphere of New Age Paganism. The fact is, the midly conservative Lutherans - who will not fight for justification by faith - are keeping the balloon on course toward merger with ELCA. Mild Lutherans are ballast, just ballast.

Bad form, Luther.
Synodicals will celebrate the Reformation while rejecting
your Biblical doctrine.

How Does the Garden Grow? Sow Abundantly and Reap Abundantly - 2 Corinthians 9

Susan Wilkinson photographed this common grackle,
a member of the corvid (crow) family, very smart and great at grubbing.
I spotted one eating the peanuts thrown out on the mulch.

Several asked about the gardening today. We had a fine mist raining part of the day, but more rain was predicted. When the going gets wet, the gardeners go straw baling.

The strawberries already perked up from one day of rain, I planted them the day before. The potatoes were cut but not planted. Today I took a very large plate of potatoes out and wedged each one into the straw.

Since the potatoes would be soaked by the garden hose first, then the rain, I decided to sprinkle some seeds on top the straw. The surface is so even and such a good medium for planting, that I reckoned a number of plants would spring up. I sowed some carrots, dill, hollyhocks, and parsley, and borage was already there from the day before.

On the sides of the bales I pushed in goblin gourd seeds. The idea is to have vines trailing out of the sides. The rain moved in at night and provided a long, thorough soaking for all the new plants and seeds.

Straw was a pain to wrestle into the limo, a big mess to clean out. However, if the potato harvest is good, the straw bale garden will grow next year.  With careful planning, Mrs. Ichabod will insist on what I want to do. Fortunately, she adores roses and loves having the ones I also enjoy. I found some $5 roses on sale from Gurney's and she said, "Get them!"

The peas and spinach did not survive our radical winter, with such extremes of cold and warmth. The very early planted sunflower seeds did not germinate, so that may have been the cold or the squirrels eating them. I planted a wide row in the back with plenty of seeds. Squirrels think it's all about them.

Doing well:

• Garlic bulbs planted last fall are springing up.
• Daffodils are almost ready to bloom.
• Tulips are above ground, just behind the daffodils for blooming.
• Crown Imperial bulbs have sprouted, but not the giant aliums so far.
• The old rose garden looks almost 100% green and growing leaves.
• No new roses have arrived, but they should soon.
• Butterfly bushes and the crepe myrtle bush are still dormant.

I will prune the roses back about 2/3rds when it is dry. Contrary to the fears of dabblers, pruning will spur cane and root growth. The most damaging pruning is no pruning at all. The dead wood builds up and the flowers go to seed. Roses love to be pruned, mulched, and watered. No other care is needed. 

The bird population has increased since I build up every possible way to attract them. I am not spending much on food. Suet lasts a long time and is very inexpensive at the meat market. I scatter seed to watch the varied species according to their Creator's design. 

By Norma Boeckler

Birds want water most of all, for bathing and drinking. As I mentioned before, a robin was willing to approach me because the shovel left on the ground held some rainwater. She drank from it and walked away, the most daring of the larger birds. Soon I will have garbage cans collecting rainwater from the two downspouts and the lids serving as ponds at the Jackson Bird Spa. One might go in the far backyard for the shy creatures, like cardinals, that avoid the crowds.

The male birds are singing to establish their territory, find mates, and build nests. This is a good time to put string and dryer lint out for their nesting. I leave twigs for them. My random stick pile is one place, part of the Jackson Bird Spa. Pruning the crepe myrtle adds twigs and bits for the front yard nesting stash. What does not make it into a nest becomes food for the fungi and bacteria in the soil. 

The Apostle Paul said to the Second Corinthians - 

9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

The spider tirelessly catches insects that would eat our flowers and crops.

This applies to treating the birds well, promoting microbial growth in the soil, and planting seed, fruit, and flowers. Some things will fail, and the failures are larger on a bigger scale. But the harvest is so abundant that the non-growth does not matter.

Random success is great fun, when one afterthought turns into one of the best experiences. When I walked Sassy past the veteran's home, I recalled, "He has all kinds of materials I can use, and he was worried about how to reduce his pile of paving stones, and other materials." 

I even covet his leftover autumn leaves. He is using Jackson Mulch for his rose gardens this year, after seeing how mine grew without weeds and without pests.

He is going to prune my trees soon, to let more light into the front and back yards. He is after his brother to remove the last of the leaves, and I may help with my wheelbarrow. They are ideal for the straw bale area, where we have to walk to water and care for the plants.

As Sharon Lovejoy has noted, gardening means being eager to get in the morning and see what has changed.

Rain Continues - Potatoes Headed for the Straw Bale Garden. In Praise of Dead Plant Material

The seed potatoes arrived yesterday, but I learned the cut ones needed to dry a bit before planting. If the potato is big enough, more eyes are available for growth. These had subtle eyes, so I guessed while  cutting the bigger ones - and spread them around on a tray.

The drying step may be one of those gardening fantasies, like double-digging, trenching, and putting Epsom Salts around every plant.

One gardener wrote to say, "I can't wait to start removing the old dead stuff from the flower gardens. I've been reading all your articles about gardening and really enjoy all of them."

I am inclined to leave all the old dead stuff, because plant material is food for the soil. Following Ruth Stout, I mulch everything and treat plant material as mulch. She advocated pulling the mulch aside, planting in the bare soil, and pushing the mulch back around the seedlings.

If dead plant material looks unattractive, shredded wood mulch works well to cover it, hold it down, and create a consistent look for the bed. Bare soil will always sprout weeds, especially the irritating ones, but mulch will quash most of them.

If I wanted to hide the ungainly look of compost around plants, I would add a layer of wood mulch.

Consider dead plant material. Dead leaves absorb water and become more like gelatin. That is what we want in and on the soil. Someone has a video on the Net, showing how diaper stuffing can be used to hold water for plants. Innocent gardeners buy the chemical and add it to soil. Leaves do the same while sharing real nutrition with the soil creatures.

Experiment - fill a basket with dry autumn leaves. Life. They are all air - great insulation for a rose garden in the North. Now fill the same basket with wet, slimy, rotting leaves. Oof! They are sponges for water. Repeat the experiment with newspapers. A stack of newspaper cellulose is relatively light. When wet, the same stack is far heavier.

Earthworms are all protein and great diggers who sweeten the soil.
They graze on bacteria, so promote bacteria for more earthworms.

Dead plant material is an excellent soil amendment. That is why I like to kill the lawn with Jackson Mulch before or soon after planting. The intensely alive grass is already loaded with soil creatures. Shutting down the sunlight turns the green grass and the miles of roots into compost. The creatures multiply and hold all this food in the top foot of soil. Inorganic fertilizer, in contrast, kills off creatures, passes into the water table, and has only a temporary effect on the plants.

Fungi are the ultimate decomposers and also the primary sources of nutrition for the roots. When plant material dies, fungi and bacteria and protozoa thrive. When the microbes thrive, the super-large earthworms (in comparison) finish, multiply, and mix around the positive results, adding tunnels for air and the movement of water.

Meanwhile, the birds flock to where dead material supports bug life. As one writer said, the best and biggest bird feeder is a mulched garden. That is another reason why I mulched the Jackson Bird Spa. Birds like mud for nests, but I have mud galore. The mulched spa means the seed falling from the table will stay relatively dry, and the bugs will always be available.

Stacks of newspapers are under the mulch. They will wick water away from the mulch and hold it over the soil. Plastic does not work because the soil needs air. Plastic never stops weeds but becomes part of the problem later. "Landscaper fabric?" - please avoid it at all costs.

Maypop or Passion Flower.

Planting Between the Raindrops - When Straw Bales Are the Best Option

Bee Balm is also attractive to hummingbirds.

We had a break in the rain and drizzle for a short time. The postman brought strawberry plants, bee balm, and potatoes. The potatoes had to be sliced and dried a bit, so I planted strawberries and three monarda (bee balm) plants. I dunked the bee balm plants in rainwater while I worked on strawberries.

I hope to capture rainwater more this year, very handy for many gardening uses - like manure, compost, and mulch.

This is my first straw bale gardening experience. I poked the strawberry plants into the bales and wetted them down with the hose. The rain continued to fall and should continue tomorrow as well.

Borage is one of those bee plants that will nurture
the hard work of the bees by providing constant supplies of food.
The flowers are herbs, good to eat.
"I borage, give thee courage."

Someone suggested planting flowers in the front side of the bales. I decided not to bend over or kneel in the mud, so I put about 200 Borage (bee bread) seeds on the top of the bales and soaked them in.

Potatoes will go in tomorrow, God willing.

Earthworm Paradise
How fertile is the soil, you wonder? The norm is one earthworm in a shovel of soil. I had several worms per trowel in the soil I was digging. It was fun seeing them come up out of the soil. I tossed several over the fence from the backyard into the straw bale area. I could see one wiggling to grasp the straw, fail, and drop to the ground, only to bury itself underneath the bale. Earthworms do not like the sun and plant themselves fast when exposed.

I have earthworms in abundance because I distributed red wigglers twice last year and fed them with mulch, dead weeds, mushroom compost, and newspapers all winter. The straw bale garden is sitting on newspapers on top of mulch and ragweed from the explosion of ragweed there last summer. Our helper said, "What are we going to do with all the weeds?" I said, "We will leave them alone, harvest the tomatoes from them, and cover them with newspapers for the winter.

No need to get hysterical over ragweed. When a former ragweed area is covered with newspapers and mulch, the weds will not grow. Instead, seeds and plant material will decompose and feed the soil creatures and ultimately the plant roots. Fresh, growing ragweed will blacken and rot when covered with newspapers and wooden mulch.

Bee Balm
Bee balm (monarda) is also called Oswego Tea, Horsemint, and Bergamot. The plant has several medicinal uses.

I planted the three varieties in the open sun, in relatively new garden space. During our earlier outbreak of spring we created a new row of garden with newspapers and mulch. The grass was still rotting under the newspaper and mulch, but it was easy to dig and loaded with earthworms.

Scarlet runner bean flowers.
Order early, because supplies dry up.

Nearby I will have scarlet runner beans, whose flowers are also attractive to hummingbirds. I am too lazy (or cheap) to fill hummingbird feeders, so I grow them. If all goes well, many vines in the yard will provide addition food and shelter for the tiny flying rainbows.

Bird Spa Update
The birds had a riot eating and bathing today. They were wary of the new digs, since I mulched the area. Once a scout starling landed and found no trouble, all the rest came in for the feast and pleasures of the bath. A male cardinal showed up again for the seeds and suet. Mourning doves covered the area looking for seed.

Now the tiny birds are dominating the feeder by the bedroom window. Nothing compares to having a bird land a few inches from my face, swing on the Jackson EZ Bird Swing, drop down for food, and fly away.

"Birds? Where?"

Midweek Lenten Service - John 10 - I AM the Good Shepherd. March 18, 2015. 7 PM Central Daylight Time

Mid-Week Lenten Vespers, 2015

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

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

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 7 PM Central Daylight Time 

The Hymn #145 - Jesus Refuge of the Weary           
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody                   Psalm 23                  p. 128
The Lections                            The Passion History

                                                 John 10:11ff

The Sermon Hymn #436 - The Lord's My Shepherd                  

The Sermon –     I AM the Good Shepherd

 
The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect for Grace                                            p. 45

The Hymn #660 - Heaven Is My Home            

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

I AM the Good Shepherd

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

These words are so familiar to us, so it is good to look at them anew and think about their meaning. We would tell an English student, "Do not move from one metaphor to another." This chapter has Jesus saying "I am the door" and also "I am the Good Shepherd."

But this is not an English exercise but the revelation of God. The I AM sermons are so important that John's Gospel gives them special meaning. The seven I AM sermons are unique to the Gospel, so the Spirit led the Apostle to preserve them for us.

1. John 6:48 I am that bread of life. KJV
2. John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. KJV
3. John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. KJV
4. John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. KJV
5. John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: KJV
6. John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. KJV
7. John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. KJV

There are two important lessons in this single verse - John 10:11. We have no adequate way of translating the first statement and making it sound right. In Greek, it is literally "I AM the Shepherd the Good." But we use good in a different way. Good means not the best in common speech. This word really means "noble." The way in which it is statement really means "I AM the ultimate Shepherd" or "I AM the Shepherd above all shepherds."

Because hundreds of passages about sheep and shepherds are drawn together here, the familiar words are the best, just as we remember them. What is more natural, through the revelation of God, than to think of Jesus as our Good Shepherd. He leads us into green pastures, protects us from evil, and guides us into eternal life, as Psalm 23 teaches us.

Jesus then defines His role as "giving His life for the sheep."

This is where the metaphor does not match human experience. Ordinary shepherds watch over their flocks and lead them to food. They protect them against predators, but they do not die for the sheep. This is another example of John's Gospel taking the definition to a higher level through repetition and clarification. 

Jesus taught this way so His disciples could memorize the sermons and pass them along to believers. All believers, in any language can memorize the short, simple cadences and dwell on their meaning.

The Word of God is efficacious when heard, read, and recalled from memory. It is the same Word and has the same power. That is why faithful hymns have kept Christianity alive during eras of rationalism and apostasy. The liturgy and creeds did the same, which is why the Left wing of the church wants to dump the liturgy and creeds forever.

The same sect that never taught the Book of Concord to its seminarians and "had" to have a feminist creed is the one that raised up Mark Jeske to teach New Age paganism to the masses. The cure for this is faith in Christ, study of the Scriptures, and clarification of doctrine through the Confessions.

Today we had a break when it was not raining, and I had strawberries to plant in the straw bale garden. I got out this bundle of stringy things outside and said, "Wait, I need directions for this," and looked it up on the Net - how to plant strawberries. It told me the dangers of planting too deep and too shallow - with pictures. The Confessions are very much like that.

12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

This may offend some - it always does offend someone. Jesus also contrasts His role as the Good Shepherd with the work of the hired hand. That is also the role of Confessions - they define what is and also the opposite - what is not.

I use that for directions. I look for where I am going and write down what I will see when I have gone too far. If I have been lost on the way to your home, please do not laugh. The method works when I follow it.

We live in an era where the hired hands are shepherds, ordained pastors (shepherds in Latin) and run away instead of protecting their flocks from the wolves. These hired hands refuse to teach about false doctrine and let everything peacefully rot away. 

Many ALC pastors long ago knew the difference between sound doctrine and false doctrine. One told me, "If I let my congregation know what the denomination was doing, i would lose them all." In a few years his conservative ALC church was an ELCA church, owned and controlled by the new Leftists, not the congregation. The "new truths" are now being taught in a parish where Lenski was an honored Biblical expert and another famous Lutheran preached even earlier than that.

14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

This is another one of the overlapping descriptions, which reveal our relationship to God as the same as the Son's to the Father. Jesus knows who the believers are, each and every one of them. And believers know His voice and listen to Him.

This knowledge of Christ comes to us through the work of the Holy Spirit in the Word. It is not persuasion but the power of the Word, and this is so certain that no one can tell us otherwise. In fact, when others try to mock the Faith, it only makes believers more trusting in God. The Spirit testifies that we belong to Him.

This relates to the intimate knowledge of the Father and the Son. The Father knows the Son, and the Son knows the Father, just as He knows us, and we know Him. The Father loves us because we know His Son and love Him.

How is His love shown - He lays down His life for us.

16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

This is not Jesus praying for the World Council of Churches, but His statement that there is only One Church, made up of those who trust in Him alone for their salvation. There can only be One Shepherd, One Fold. Diversity of doctrine is never taught in the Scriptures - there is only One Truth revealed by the Holy Spirit.

This is Isaiah 53 taught again - the Gospel - Jesus lays down His life for the sheep. What more shepherdy chapter is found in the Old Testament than Isaiah 53?

If the disciples did not know this at first, they did by the time they were taught after the Resurrection. Isaiah 53 became the Old Testament Gospel by revelation. It was there all along. It was known but not understood fully. When Jesus became that Suffering Servant, then each verse took on meaning for believers and for preaching the Gospel to Jews. Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. All who believe in Him have forgiveness and everlasting life.