Beyond the Duggar Headlines

The media will chew on the Megan Kelly interview of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. This never came up - three abusers were very close to the family:

1. Bill Gothard - They routinely attended training at the Gothard conferences. Josh and Anna Duggar met at one Gothard confab. Over 30 women reported being abused as youth by Bill Gothard, while Gothard's brother committed adultery with the women staffers.
2. Doug Phillips - This home-schooler's hero moved a young woman into his home to serve as a nanny and as his intimate, much like the Gothard approach. Like Gothard, he had to resign when the facts came out.
3. State Trooper Joseph Hutchens, a re-offender in state prison for the rest of his life, was a child pornographer.

This cluster of offenders around the family should tell us something about their toxic influence on the faith and actions of the Duggar clan. Gothard was a blatant false teacher among Evangelicals. Phillips was offended anyone brought up his disgusting behavior, because he was out of a job now. 

In Gothard’s booklet Establishing Biblical Standards of Courtship there is a page for sons and daughters to cut out which is a covenant they sign with their fathers to “…demonstrate your commitment to God’s plan for courtship instead of man’s philosophy of dating….”22 

The young person must say to his or her father, “I will wait for your full release before entering into marriage.” The father, in turn, tells his daughter that “I will protect you from unqualified men.” To his son the father says, “I will protect you from strange women.” This covenant is “between a father and a son as witnessed by the Lord Jesus Christ” and must be signed by the child, the father, and the family’s pastor.

Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 4219-4225). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition. [GJ - Sound familiar, Duggar fans?]

Someone wrote me:

Your blog helps a lot, no question about it.  Just think about the people who have been abused in the church.  If even one finds your blog and is able to retain their faith because of the comfort they receive, isn't that fulfilling the will of God?

And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold [water] only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. Matt 10.42

I am only using the Duggar cluster of abusers to warn people away from similar situations in their own "conservative" Lutheran synods.

The Mother of the Year Award
came from an Evangelical leader who kept a hawt nanny in his home -
for his children, of course.
LCMS founder Martin Stephan did the same,
and left Dresden "In Pursuit of Religious Freedom."

Those who enable and empower these abusers are the worst criminals of all, yet they are at the top of the food pyramid, devouring the estates of widows and orphans, pointing their crooked fingers at anyone who questions their infallibility. I know another Josh who willfully erased the evidence of criminal behavior of synod leaders on the group blog he helps to edit - at the command and by the authority of Matt Harrison.

"Put not your faith in princes" - and that includes the princes of the visible church. 

Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard
must have shared tips on grooming young women for the harem.

Mulching the New Roses. Plus Soil Follies

The fungus has trapped the nematode, dissolving its body,
bartering its chemicals for some delicious carbon from the plant's roots.
Fungi need carbon to grow.

Mulching the new roses requires a large bag of newspapers and plenty of cyprus mulch.

The mulching began last year, with 10 bags of mushroom compost added around the maple tree's perimeter, cyprus mulch spread under the drip-line of the tree. The idea was to create enough soil to plant some shade-tolerant roses, since the tree was so poorly managed. Our helper and I pruned as many branches as we could at that time - safely. This spring our landscaper friend trimmed all the trees with great glee, using a powerful, small electric chain saw.

When we moved into this house, the maple tree was a disaster of suckers and untended bulb growth, plus weeds growing around the base. Cutting out the suckers growing up from the base helped. More trimming followed.

We now have a circle of new roses growing around the tree, drawing attention to more weeding and suckering that needs to be done. Mulching creates an attractive, woody look while feeding the roses year around. Earthworms like a damp, dark environment. When I dug in moist areas around the tree, the red wigglers were plentiful and active. They were almost absent where the soil was dried out.

Soil Follies
Many false ideas about gardening come from earlier ages. When woodland soil was broken up in colonial days, and animal manure added, production improved. That changed the soil from being woodland and fungi dominant to having more bacteria, which is good for vegetables. But the theory of the time was - plants eat soil.

Tull also actively encouraged farmers to loosen soil before planting crops; he had noticed that vegetables did better in loosened soil and from this concluded that plant roots possessed little mouths and ate soil particles (how else could a plant ingest nutrients?). Believing that loose soil consisted of smaller particles that would more easily fit into root mouths, he developed a horse-drawn hoe to put his theory into practice. His writings later caught the attention of gentlemen farmers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who encouraged their fellow Americans to break up soils. The end result is that most home gardeners still break up and turn over their soil at least annually, even though we know plant roots don’t eat soil.

Lewis, Wayne;  Lowenfels, Jeff; (2010-09-10). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Kindle Locations 2803-2808). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

If plants eat soil, then it makes sense to turn it over and fluff it up, so the rototiller industry continues unabated. Leaves should be composted or mulch-mowed into the grass, not gathered up and hauled away. My neighbor at Almost Eden Nursery collects bags of autumn leaves to use as free food for his plants.

Fungi feed the plant roots directly in that delicate interface between soil and root hairs. Since one teaspoon of soil can have three miles of fungal tubes, breaking that up should be minimized. Soil should be left undisturbed, as much as possible.

Let me offer one anecdote from 2015. Our heavily mulched old rose garden had plenty of maple leaves stuck on top. Our helper said, "I will have to get out the blower and get rid of the leaves." I knew that would also blow the mulch around, so I suggested waiting. "Soon they will be gone."

Leaves do not leave this yard. I add leaves from other yards. Now all the leaves are gone from the rose garden, because the earthworms have pulled them down and digested them. The leaves, newspapers, and wood are all part of the food the roses get daily. No fertilizer is added, and the roses are spectacular.

Dandelions
My favorite herb likes to sit on top of the rose garden mulch and send its tap roots down below. They are mining calcium, which they can get deep down but not at the surface. Some call dandelions lawn nails. All plants like soluble calcium, but not all have such deep roots.

I bought a very large pair of scissors to trim the most aggressive dandelions and use their nutrition for the roses. I like cordless trimmers, but they nibble slowly, good for large swaths of trimming.

Lawn weeds can be influenced by the soil food web. Dandelions, for example, appear in calcium-poor soil surfaces. Their long taproots seek out the calcium they lack, and the calcium is deposited in the soil when the dandelion dies. In time— unfortunately, sometimes quite a long time— the soil food web biology works this calcium into the upper layer of soil, where it has been missing.

Lewis, Wayne;  Lowenfels, Jeff;   (2010-09-10). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Kindle Locations 2630-2633). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Traditional theory holds that plants need the macro-ingredients (NPK) and also the micro-ingredients. That lends itself to soil mixing, but ignores the need for trapping nutrition where it is needed. The inorganic fertilizers pass through to the water table, providing only a little boost. Notice how often the great, wise gardening books say, "Add more fertilizer after blooming, or just before, and later too." Every gardening center will argue against manure because, you know, salts in it. And what are inorganic fertilizers? Nevermind.

The great and wise argue for fertilizer because most of it is wasted. The more one uses the chemicals, the more they wreck the soil food web. Lacking the natural controls, more chemicals are added to treat the problems cause by the previous wonder-chemicals.

Tuscan Sun rose - $5 each.

The soil creatures move nutrition around by devouring each other, and that traps these nutrients by holding them in their bodies, to be used when necessary by the fungi feeding the plant roots in exchange for carbon. Thus an active, healthy soil food web will maximize the number of soil creatures in the root zone - the top 12 inches - trapping useful, soluble chemicals and moisture.

Soil creatures do not feast and sink down into the water table, to pollute it with their dead bodies. Their deaths simply feed other creatures.

Bad Foundation
Most gardening is based on a poor foundation - evolution. Thinking about a Creation with a Purpose changes everything, especially Creation through the Word of God.

"Horrors!" - think the thought police. But early American and European scientists thought that way about everything around them. They were studying what God had done, not what chaos had developed by accident over billions of years.

When we look at every aspect of Creation having a purpose and many dependencies (bee, clover, nitrogen, soil creatures) - then all our practices change. They get easier and less expensive.

Every plant cell is a collection of chemical factories.

Roses Arrived and Now Circle the Maple Tree. Going Postal on the Slugs

Paradise rose.

The bargain roses for Father's Day came, ten in a surprisingly compact box. The box was quite warm, which may explain why roses are so beat up and dried out when they arrive.

They came via Gurney's from Weeks Roses, a wholesaler. This time I received two of each, one in each pair a very large and well developed plant. In the last shipment, all 10 were very large, more than any of the other companies'.

The first shipment has burst into so much color, so prolifically, that I decided to get more for Father's Day. Our initial agreement was just out the back door, where I had soft soil and mulch. But no, Chris had a better idea this morning.

"Why don't you put them around the maple tree out front?" I said with muted cheerfulness, "Sure." In movies, that is when the sound track starts sound like "wree, wree, wreee, wree" or someone begins chanting in Latin.

Bride's Dream rose.

I knew digging among maple tree roots would be a major challenge, especially since they had been dreadful close to the house.

Experts suggest avoiding maple trees, but there it is, pruned back by our landscaper friend, who loved creating a mountain of branches, logs, twigs, and leaves. The objection of "not enough sun" is met by the bottle brush look of the maple tree. Secondly, I planted as far away from the trunk as I could manage.

Tuscan Sun rose.

The first hole dug was fairly easy and the second one started well - "wree, wree, wree, wree." I hit a block of interconnected roots that were the size of a small loaf of bread. I shoveled, sawed, pried, hammered, and finally dislodged the entire lump.

Meanwhile, I was checking the labels on the roses as I fished them out of the rainwater barrel. They had a long soak and stayed there until the next two holes were dug each time.

I always wanted to grow Europeana, and now I had two of these floribundas to add color to the front yard. The other batch  is mostly floribunda, and I really like the sprays of flowers they produce. So does everyone else.

The others are just as promising, all hybrid teas. I used the shovel to measure distance and 10 fit around the tree just right. Mrs. Ichabod said, "I told you."

Europeana rose has been one of the top floribundas for years.

Hybrid teas are the favorites for vases, but floribundas make good bouquets, too.  So far the floribundas have not had the same staying power when cut. but there are plenty to harvest daily, and this is their first year.

Slugs - Use Egg Shells, Clay Shards, or Diotomaceous Earth

Slug control

Slugs are sensitive to having any kind of cut or abrasion. Some suggest egg shells as free treatment for slugs. I used some clay pot shards around one plant. But I saw more slug damage around younger plants, so I bought a bag of diatomaceous earth.

As the link suggests, watering early in the day is one control. This area is so soggy that we have a flood watch with no rain. The waterways are so full that we could still have flash flooding. Therefore, slugs are well watered and plenty hungry.

On the good side, observing the Eighth Commandment, slugs are mostly underground, where they are moving bags of water. They can cocoon themselves during a dry spell too, so they contribute to the overall moisture of the soil, but locking up water, just as mulch, earthworms, soil creatures do.

This Earned a "Can't Stop Laughing" Comment from an Alumnus - WELS Martin Luther College - Where Gay Is OK"Call Days Underline the Need for Recruitment"

 Hopeless drunk in college? -
expect a call in WELS.
Lead teachers in spiritual values.

CALL DAYS UNDERLINE THE NEED FOR RECRUITMENT

Call day at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., saw 86 candidates assigned to their field of ministry. All 2015 graduates available to go anywhere were assigned, but 40 requests for graduates were not able to be filled. A week later at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis., 32 graduates and about a dozen previous graduates received assignments, but approximately a dozen requests from congregations seeking a graduate were not able to be filled

It's all in fun, all in fun, all in fun,
until graduation day and the outing ceremony.

Michigan Lutheran Seminary is looking for a few good men,
to dress as women.

One Does Not Simply Harvest Asparagus. How To Attack a Shipment of Bare Root Roses

German Police Alerted to Armed Mob

BERLIN –  Police in rural northeastern Germany rushed out to track down a reported mob of up to 15 people armed with knives and sticks. Instead, they found a group of asparagus harvesters.

Police in the town of Ludwigslust said a man called their emergency number Saturday to report having seen "10 to 15 people armed with knives and sticks" on a local road.

Within minutes, six police cars were on their way to the scene. Officers quickly discovered, however, that the group was asparagus harvesters walking along the road with their work tools as they went to take a lunch break.

***

GJ - We have a beloved cousin living in Berlin, so my wife and I found the news story hilarious, especially since I. Grow. Asparagus.

In other news, the $5 bare root rose bushes arrived, my Father's Day gift from Mrs. I. The previous shipment from Gurney's has been so colorful and abundant that I had to take the second offer instead of Amazon's cordless drill and 87 drill bits.

The first priority was placement. I thought of a colorful row of roses in front of the wild area, but Mrs. I opted for roses close to the kitchen door. I will plant them at the end of the pumpkin patch, which is mulched and sunny. 

A sceptic wondered when I would run out of room for roses. I answered that I have the maple tree to circle with roses and a little room left in the corner of the main rose garden. I doubt whether any bare root roses are left for this year.

Steps in Creation Planting Roses:

• Placement - two factors really matter. One is sunlight. Morning sun is best, so the East is very good for roses. The second is viewing and access. The closer they are to viewing, the better. Just outside the backdoor works well for this group and they have some shade, so they will not cook on the hottest days. Water is easily available, too.
• Soaking - I have two barrels of rainwater for immersing them two hours or more. Judging by how hot the box was, the roses had a good sauna and could use the moisture before planting. The canes need it just as much as the roots. If rainwater is in short supply, stored water in a big barrel or garbage can is good. The chlorine evaporates out in a day or two.
• Digging the holes. If the area is tough to dig, soak it well the night before but not the day of. Digging in sloppy mud is not an experience to repeat. 
• I use a tripod box to measure how far apart I plant the roses. If they are parallel to a fence, I stretch out a line to keep the holes parallel. Otherwise a little bit of irregularity is not a problem as they grow. They are roses, not soldiers.
• If I dig into sod, I keep the lumps for upside-down placement in the hole. They decompose quickly and enrich the soil, packed with roots, worms, and soil microbes. A sod lump also stabilizes the new rose in its place.
• Rose roots can be pruned and often are. The real growth comes after planting. I prune broken ones and long ones that make planting awkward.
• Plant the rose on a pyramid of soil at the bottom of the opening. Pack it with some firmness, but not jumping up and down on the spot. Compacted soil is not good.
• After planting, two steps are important. Soak the soil into place, ideally with rainwater. Prune each cane to spur growth. I soaked the most dried out roses I have ever seen and pruned the dreadful looking canes - and they grew faster than all previous full-priced roses.
• Once planted - water roses daily for two weeks - especially the canes. Watering at the base is not enough at this stage. I often give the roses a shower and wash down the entire plant, long after planting. However, at this stage cane hydration is essential. 
• Mulching can be done or completed later. This is true rose feeding. The first layer is newspapers. I open a section of the newspaper and spread it out. If it is breezy, I soak them first. Wood mulch goes on top the newspapers to hold them down and complete the weed barrier, earthworm and fungus paradise.
• Look for the red-to-green leaves to pop out, some earlier, some later. Rainwater on lagging roses is a good idea. So is pruning another inch off the canes, especially canes that look woody, dead, or harmed at the tips. Water is never going to pass through dead areas so there can be no growth or flowers there until the pruning is done.
• Red wiggler earthworms will do the best in converting the mulch into rose food, tunneling, mixing, and fertilizing. 
  

Roses Do Not Need or Do Well With - 

1. Inorganic fertilizer. The chemical fertilizers drive away earthworms and harm the soil microbes that feed rose roots.
2. Pesticides. Spraying for pests will kill all the beneficial insects (ladybugs, flower flies, ichneumon wasps), harm the earthworms, and keep birds away - no food. Give the beneficials time and opportunity to eat their favorite foods.
3. Neglect. Roses are NOT a lot of work. They do require an appreciation of God's Creation and their needs. Continuous care means pruning - that is - cutting roses off for enjoyment, plus removing deadwood and blackspot. Watering may be necessary at times.

Rove beetles kill the bad guys, so do not kill them with pesticides.

The Jackson Rose Gardens
use Creation principles to have a constant display
of beautiful flowers with little expense and labor.

The Despised and Little Ones of the Garden

After I read several books that included the ichneumon wasp,
they began appearing before my eyes.

The despised and little ones of the garden get little attention, and when they do, it is often to get rid of them. Last night I let Sassy outside, since we cannot have a doggy door. I noticed our nightly slug had crawled under the kitchen door  and was slowly moving inland, at breakneck speed.

We get one a night, unless it is raining hard. Then several will show up. One was so large and fat that I thought the gasket on the door was loose.

When I woke up later and turned on the lights, that same slug did a quick u-turn and began working its way back to the door.

People often rant about how much they hate slugs. A criticism against Ruth Stout's mulch gardening efforts was - "She had a lot of slugs." True, when one begins to compost and mulch, the slug population increases along with all the other soil and decomposition creatures.

Those who believe in Creation might consider God's purpose. We now realize that the lowly maggot is an excellent medical tool for treating infections, since it eats the diseased flesh and excretes an antibiotic, far better but less attractive than pills.

I thought Rodale, the Jerusalem and Mecca of organic gardening, would have some kind words about slugs, but this article dismisses slugs as annoying pests.

For every slug you see above ground, three or four are underground, foraging in the soil. Both snails and slugs possess a radula, a series of chitinous teeth not unlike a wood rasp, which allows these garden gastropods to grind their food down to very tiny particles. Many slugs and snails are capable of digesting cellulose. 

Snails and slugs have a place in the soil food web. They speed decomposition and decay by shredding their food before they consume it. Like earthworms and some of the arthropods, they open up organic matter so that fungi and bacteria can get at it. Their underground travels create pathways for air, water, and roots; the slime they produce helps bind soil. They themselves are a food source for ground and rove beetles (particularly in their larval stages), spiders, garden snakes, salamanders, lizards, and birds. Some nematodes that subsist on slugs are now available commercially; these blind worms “heat-sink” in on a hapless slug, parts of which become a meal for the successful nematode while the remainder is left to bacterial and fungal colonization and decay. 

When gastropods are part of a healthy food web, their numbers are controlled; they do not become the serious pests they can be in a garden where the use of chemicals and other damaging practices has thrown the system out of balance.

Lewis, Wayne; Lowenfels, Jeff; (2010-09-10). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Kindle Locations 1484-1491). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Feeling sluggish? These spineless creatures
do their work in great numbers but never at high speed.

Slugs have rasping mouths, even though everything else seems to be mucous or slime, making them very vulnerable and a favorite food for ducks, garter snakes, toads, and starlings. On the negative side, they chew on living plants, leaving holes in the leaves, and prey upon those new tender shoots, like the plants just bought at the nursery - tiny leaves on tiny plants in tiny cardboard pots.

I find this kind of damage on a limited number
of young plants, sunflower seedlings and new vines.

Slugs are mostly underground and quite numerous, so battling to eliminate them is rather futile. As mentioned many times before, hosting pest eaters is a great way to have pest control for free.

I will concede that first-aid may be needed for new plants struggling to grow beyond the first few leaves. I would use diatomaceous earth as my first choice. Egg shells, beer traps, and some other green controls are in this linked article. 

Here our secondary consumer is the ground beetle that captures and consumes the immature slug.


Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 243-244). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Firefly larvae live under or on the ground and are generalist predators, consuming the likes of slugs, snails, worms, and various insect larvae. Their plated, armorlike exterior affords protection from other predators.


Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 915-917). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Rove beetles are distinguished by their short wing covers and exposed, segmented abdomen. Adult beetles like the one shown here consume the same prey as their fast-moving larvae—termites, slugs, snails, root maggots, and various other insects.


Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 1033-1034). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Earthworms will also travel inside, sometimes in a great migration of 20-25 in the kitchen. They are not regulars but they seem to come inside as part of a group. Peer pressure? 

Creation gardeners do their best to increase the earthworm population. Red wigglers are ideal, but they need food to do their work. Dropping them onto un-nourished soil will limit what they do best. But using them with compost and mulch will multiply their numbers beyond belief. They are not only the ultimate mixers and tunneling agents, they also multiply and make useful the chemicals needed by plants. I dropped 4,000 earthworms around the growing areas, on the compost, and around the perimeter of the yard. I have not dug anywhere this year without plenty of red wigglers already on duty.

Plants create their own mulch all the time, shedding leaves and organic matter, roots growing and rotting, so earthworms are a natural in the lawn. One section of the main rose garden has a colony of white clover growing unhindered. Some would get rid of it, but I see it as a McDonald's for bees and a nitrogen fixer for the roses.

I did not notice flower flies in the garden
until I read about them in Sharon Lovejoy's book, A Blessing of Toads.
They are not tiny bees but insects whose babies eat pests like aphids.
I see them all the time now.

If bees like a plant, other nectar and pollen creatures will also depend on it. We do not need a degree in science to know about all of them, but it is good to look for them and increase the support for them. 

To paraphrase Luther, God delights to use the despised and little ones in the garden to do His best work. A teaspoon of soil contains up to three miles of fungal tubes, which are essential in feeding and protecting plants. They even trap and kill destructive nematodes, delivering the nematode innards to the hungry plant.

The great and wise ones in the visible church are really parasites. They live off the labor of the very congregations and pastors they despise, but the little ones are doing the Gospel ministry while brief and meaningless honors go to their oppressors.

The conservative Lutheran leaders eat this up
and close traditional, liturgical congregations.
A corrupt tree (unfaith) can only bear evil fruit.

Don't ask WELS consultants what they charge.
You will have a heart attack.

Time for the Warm Weather Plants - Buying Tomatoes - Roses for Father's Day

Today we went to Walmart to buy some tomato plants. I already had some in frozen animation, not doing much for the last two months. I now see a few green tomatoes forming. The new plants will probably outshine the ones blessed by an abundance of rain but little warmth or sunshine. A headstart in the cold does not help warm weather plants. Some corn germinated but not enough for a crop. I could start over and replant, but I am going to just use that patch for pumpkins.

As I wrote before, all the gardening centers love people who buy tomato plants early, because they will be back to replant later. I put five pots down in the back and soaked them with rainwater. DV, I will plant them tomorrow.

These flower flies will decimate the aphid population.

I wrote to Sharon Lovejoy on Facebook. She introduced me to flower flies, and I wondered about how to spot them. Soon I realized they were hovering over some roses - very effective against aphids.

We had a good crop of roses for the altar today, and I took some of the best one over to Mrs. Gardener. The three best ones from the garden were two Mr. Lincolns and one Tropicana. We talked about growing roses, and I mentioned again that they were no trouble. Plant, mulch, water, prune, and give them red wigglers.

Mr. Lincoln bud - fragrant, opening up slowly with a beautiful bloom,
fast blooming and long lasting in a vase.

She expressed an interest in earthworms for composting, so I am going to get her started with mine - I have a few million to spare. The landscaper wants some and our helper wants to raise them for fishing and gardening.

Meanwhile, I ran out of newspapers and some grassy areas are erupting in the wrong places. I asked our neighbor with four daughters if she had some. Out she came with a 50 pound bag. I was slowly carrying the bag across her yard when her little daughter offered to help. I said, "This bag weighs more than you do." She grinned.

Father's Day came up at a good time, since Gurney's repeated their offer - $5 bare root roses, about 20% of the going rate. The last ones I bought are prodigal bloomers and very attractive. We worked out a good place to put a row of 10 roses, and they were ordered. I get a chance to explain that roses grow like the grapevine of John 15. The dead wood is pruned away and the productive canes are pruned to make them flower even more.

Some of the bargain roses are floribundas, grown more for color than cutting. The advantage is a stem with five or more roses on it. Sometimes they the buds are ready to open, so the blooming cycle continues in the vase.

Bird Food Question
One reader asked about skipping a feeding for the birds. They do not depend on us for food, but food is a major help during times of great freezing and sleet, If the ice covers the trees and bushes, the natural repository of food is gone.

Skipping their food is not a problem.

Their greatest need is for water, so having many shallow birdbaths available will increase the entertainment and make the yard a destination for birds Shallow pans will probably attract toads, who hydrate by sitting in water, not by drinking it.

Bird watches also provide -

• Logs on the ground to host food for birds. Toads like them too.
• Mulch - bugs and worms are always underneath, moving around and promoting their mission from soil enhancement to baby bird food.
• A pile of sticks and branches. This is a convenient perch, a good place to wipe beaks off, and a food source.
• A diversity of flowering plants that provide seeds for various species. 

All Translations Are Equally Blessed, But One Is More Blessed Than the Rest. SP Mark Schroeder Leadership

Let's see - Brug is on the left, Wendland on the right.
Who is in the middle?

Pastor Mike - The CORE - WELS Booze Mission in Appleton

The WELS Booze Mission in downtown Appleton has removed this video. I am surprised they knew it was being shared, because "no one reads Ichabod."

The Feast of the Holy Trinity, 2015. John 3:1-15

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

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Daylight Time

The melodies are linked in the hymn name. 

The lyrics are linked in the hymn number.

• The melody site is linked here.
• TLH Lyrics site is linked here.

The Hymn # 246                              Holy, Holy, Holy               

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 #251                  We All Believe in One True God      

We Confess the Holy Trinity

The Communion Hymn # 308            Invited Lord     

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 #657                                  Beautiful Savior                 

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

We Confess the Holy Trinity

An age or a church without confessions of faith will soon become one without the Scriptures. When the confessions are mocked, the Word of God is subtly mocked. Some of the mockers may not realize it. If a Lutheran pastor is poorly trained in the Confessions, then he is also poorly prepared to comprehend them. They see without seeing. 

Likewise a denomination that is antagonistic toward confessions of faith will allow man's opinions to replace them. Today we heard a little of Charles Stanley's sermon and began debating how old he is. I said closer to 90, and he proved to be 83. But in looking up his bio, I found this quotation - 

Wikipedia:

As a young pastor, he was given the motivational book [Napoleon Hill] Think and Grow Rich. He has written, "I began to apply the principles of that book to my endeavors as a pastor, and I discovered they worked!" He also wrote, "For years, I read Think and Grow Rich every year to remind myself that the truth of God is not just for one career field. It is for all manner of work and ministry."^[2] (Stanley, Charles, 2009, How to Reach Your Full Potential for God, p. 224, Thomas Nelson Publishers, ISBN 978-1-4002-0092-4)

Charles Stanley is the father of a favorite among some Lutherans:

When we speak the Apostles, Nicene, or Athanasian Creed together, we are confessing the truth of God's Word with all believers of all ages. That is why we call them Ecumenical Creeds - they are the stated or implied confessions of all Christian denominations.

Whenever I speak those words, I think of the millions who have gone before us, saying and believing those same words of faith. Each phrase is shaped from the Scriptures. To say we do not need Confessions is the same as saying we do not need hymns, many of the hymns coming from times of religious and doctrinal crisis.

The Book of Concord is our major textbook because each section (except perhaps the Apostles Creed) comes from a known doctrinal crisis. A large part of it comes from the Reformation and the second stage, when the students of Luther and Melanchton worked out a harmony, a concord, and dealt with all current disputes.

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

We have to view each episode in the context of the entire Bible, although few have the scope of Luther in that regard. Nicodemus can be seen many ways, but they are conditioned by what we know about him later, risking his life, and the way Jesus dealt with those who came to Him.

Nicodemus was a great scholar among the Jews, a leader among scholars and a saint in their eyes. He could not have been more trained in the Scriptures and traditions, and as a member of a strict sect, he could have have been more saintly in the eyes of others.

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. 

Many long explanations can be given for "by night" but the most obvious is timidity. It was not natural to be out and about at night, but that was the easiest way to be anonymous.

Luther said Nicodemus was fond of Jesus, an interesting term. Nicodemus is not being a two-faced flatterer as some were, but showing his glimmer of faith. If he came from his studies, as some would offer, Nicodemus was intrigued by the power of Jesus' miracles, acknowledging this could only come from God.

So Nicodemus is a man with a great reputation, some faith, and no understanding. Many have reaching the tipping point and listened to reputation, man's wisdom, and popularity, so Nicodemus is an Everyman in one sense, representing what many go through in a confessional crisis. 

If he continues along the path of faith, his life will be in danger and people will shun him. We often discuss at home the cross-cultural and inter-denominational game of shunning. It is all the rage. If someone questions a sacred cow, the word spreads and the shunning begins. That may be Common Core or the new definition of diversity. One may touch the third rail of page 5 and 15 and become unemployable among Lutherans. One must belong to the proper sub-group within the sub-groups.

So Jesus seems to be quite harsh in his response, but that misses the context of the Gospel and Jesus' way of dealing with the wrong understanding. In John's Gospel especially we see people listening to Jesus' spiritual wisdom and only seeing the material side. Examples:
1. Nicodemus.
2. The woman at the well, John 4.
3. The Keystone Kops leaders in John 9.
4. Peter wanting a complete wash after protesting his feet being washed.

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.

This sounds dismissive and it is intended, no doubt, to shake Nicodemus from his trust in works and his scholarly knowledge. While it may seem harsh to some, it is Jesus revealing the truth, which never sounds good from the perspective of man's wisdom.

Jesus began with truly, truly, to emphasize the truth of God's revelation. The word is one we still use - Amen. We sing that or say Amen to express agreement. Jesus took the ending and made it the beginning. 

Man must be born from above, an interesting pun, which Nicodemus took the wrong way. The main definition is "from above" and the Greek word is formed from those two words, from and above.

Soundcheck - So Jesus always taught in Aramaic? If so, why do we have them debating a Greek conversation? Wouldn't Aramaic be natural, a Jewish rabbi speaking to a Jewish rabbi? If the pun could be created in Aramaic, then few in the whole world at that time could understand it. In contrast, thanks to Alexander the Great, Greek was the universal language of scholarship and commerce.

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?

Nicodemus cannot grasp this truth, which is shown in his assumption about the secondary meaning of the word - again.

So his wisdom is foolish, as Paul pointed out in "making foolish the wisdom of the wise." Wisdom was the great virtue among the pagan scholars at that time, and Jewish wisdom was encased in traditions apart from Scripture. I can think of Lutheran examples, such as open communion, which is a contradiction, because it is popular with sceptics, mockers, and unionists.

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. 





Naturally people will jump to bad conclusions about this sermon alone. Many want to isolate the Spirit, and they will if given a chance. But the Spirit always includes the Word throughout the Scriptures. "The Word never without the Spirit. The Spirit never without the Word. That is sound doctrine." - WELS A. Hoenecke.

The Word is so powerful that the Spirit's effect is compared to the wind. In Hebrew and Greek, Spirit and wind are the same words. That is no accident, because we see the effect of the wind without seeing the wind itself. In fact, we only know the wind from its effects.

Teaching and preaching are the invisible Word. The wise of this world mock teaching and preaching because it does not have material gain associated with it - not like a CPA audit or a visit from the plumber. Therefore, it cannot have value, cannot be measured, and cannot even be assessed based on effect because the effect may come much later.

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.

This is the great revelation of truth, which will be fulfilled in the crucifixion. This passage unites Moses with Jesus, showing us the the Exodus foreshadowed the ministry of Christ.

So we have the conclusion, which is found on Pentecost Monday, rather than a continuing story about Nicodemus being converted. So when did that happen and how do we know? He risked his life to associate with Jesus after the crucifixion which he heard predicted.

Thus we never know the true results of the Word at any given moment. The harvest may be realized decades later, like the story of the organist who finally came down from the balcony to receive Holy Communion. After all those years of playing hymns and hearing sermons, he believed.

And there are many clergy who gladly sold their souls to Satan for the chance to enjoy the wealth and power of the world. They thought they were only leasing their souls for a short time, but of course, mortal life is a short time and not to be despised as God's gift.

The de-confessions are more significant today than the confessions, which should warn people the End Times are nearer than ever before. But what God promises is invisible and untouchable, the truth of His grace in Christ, received in faith.