Coffee is the great motivator.
I awoke to the second of two job candidates messaging me at 4 AM - that dream job came through, the chief benefit in each case being the right place and the right job.
As I drink morning coffee and read the news, the desire to write something increases. I am happy to have my own dream job. We love living in Springdale, in this neighborhood, and not far from our son's family. Team Jackson will grill again this weekend.
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| Jesus' first miracle created a miraculous abundance of perfect wine, through the power of the Word. |
I get to work from home where my hobbies are
- Gardening,
- Writing, and
- Writing about gardening.
Pastors late to the party are starting to explore what our little congregation has done for years - broadcasting to everyone via the Net. That means various people write to me about doctrinal issues. I enjoy responding to them. At least I can offer educational and synodical perspective, from the grim and grimy to the hilarious.
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| The Feeding of the Multitude is another example of miraculous abundance through the Word. |
Luther called the pastoral ministry Predigtamt - the preaching ministry. His view of the ministry is the opposite of what we see today, where the emphasis is on management, keeping the operation running smoothly, achieving critical mass, and getting good, measurable results.
Luther's perspective, borrowed from the Scriptures rather than Peter Drucker's Management by Objectives is rather simple - sow the living seed of the Word and trust God for the results. I do that in the garden by not trying very hard.
I sow various seeds and many of them come up, flower, and bring their fruit to perfection. With roses I get ugly little thorny and dormant sticks, soak them, and plant them. This involves effort, but nothing compared to what God accomplishes through His Creation, engineering, and management.
Today I will have the before and after photos of the front yard.
Broadcasting the Word is exactly the same. The Word goes out the same way as the snow and rain come down from heaven, bringing seed to the sower and bread to the eater. The Word is never without an effect, both positive and negative - it is always effective.
The Word
- Is never void.
- Always accomplishes God's will.
- Always prospers God's will.
The trouble with man's manipulations is that they reveal so little trust in the Gospel Word.
Many of these posts make ministers hopping mad. Why? The Word condemns their unbelief, because they do not utterly trust in the Savior. Otherwise, why would a blog "that no one reads" have any effect at all? Perhaps if we owned a shining, marble temple endowed by a famous adulterer, we could have some real impact. But here we are, broadcasting and blogging from rented rooms, so we should be dismissed rather than fried, scattered, and chunked like Waffle House hash browns.
