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| Backyard squirrels: "Is breakfast ready yet?" They take up this position when I am adding seed to the feeders. |
I brought a bucket of popcorn home after we saw Trolls. The platform feeder overflowed with fresh popcorn. The squirrels sat on this bed of popcorn to reach the sunflower seeds above. They also stretch up from the squirrel-proof feeder to reach the seeds. I told Mrs. Ichabod, "Look at that squirrel using one feeder to reach the other. Good for stretching the abs, I guess."
The popcorn shriveled up, so I tossed it on the ground for the mourning doves. They feed the way they bathe, taking their time. They sit on the platform feeder and slowly peck away at their food. Like the squirrels, they keep an eye on the people on the other side of the window, but they are not easily spooked by our movements.
Until yesterday we only had brief threats of winter, a few nights below freezing. We had roses until December 4th, but the blooms were frost-bit. The Alaskan cold front has ended that, but some rose bushes are still green - near the house.
Seeing the large bags of deer corn, I brought one home to try on the squirrels and birds. Enthusiasm for food has been lacking, because the weather was so good. As long as they could get food from Creation, they had little interest in seeds from Walmart.
Snow and ice change this immediately, if it is cold enough. Their favorite fast-food stops, bushes and tree-bark, hide the larvae wintering there. Snow cover hides the leaves whose insulating properties still support various insects.
Our gourmet squirrels in New Ulm were very picky about their food, until we had a massive sleet storm. Then, deprived of a lot of natural food, they were willing to pick single kernels of corn from the ice.
So it is with the dominance of false doctrine. When most Lutherans lived within walking distance of a congregation using the Creeds, liturgy, Lutheran hymns, and sermons, they took spiritual food for granted. They were more concerned with the painting of the church kitchen than the doctrine being taught. After all, the changes were all to help the congregation grow.
But now the faithful Lutherans have seen the hallmarks of their faith buried under an obscuring storm of propaganda from Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, Trinity Divinity, and the Vatican. No false doctrine is too obnoxious for the Church Growthers, who like to call themselves Church and Changers. If someone reads carefully, the horns and tail of the occult also appear.
Chemnitz observed in his Justification book that this is a good quality of false doctrine. Eventually false doctrine becomes so odious that people desire what is healthy and Scriptural. Suddenly they realize that the problems cropping up come from one source - rejection of the Word, indifference toward sound doctrine, adherence to the Anti-Gospel. What they were being taught to hate is really good, and what they were forced to consume is really toxic.
