Saturday, October 1, 2016

Luther's Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Ephesians 4:22-28




SERMONS OF MARTIN LUTHER -
NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
 
TEXT:

EPHESIANS 4:22-28. 22 That ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; 23 and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. 25 Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 neither give place to the devil. 28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.

DUTY TO NEW AND OLD MAN.

1. Here again is an admonition for Christians to follow up their faith by good works and a new life, for though they have forgiveness of sins through baptism, the old Adam still adheres to their flesh and makes himself felt in tendencies and desires to vices physical and mental. The result is that unless Christians offer resistance, they will lose their faith and the remission of sins and will in the end be worse than they were at first; for they will begin to despise and persecute the Word of God when corrected by it. Yea, even those who gladly hear the Word of God, who highly prize it and aim to follow it, have daily need of admonition and encouragement, so strong and tough is that old hide of our sinful flesh.

And so powerful and wily is our old evil foe that wherever he can gain enough of an opening to insert one of his claws, he thrusts in his whole self and will not desist until he has again sunk man into his former condemnable unbelief and his old way of despising and disobeying God.

2. Therefore, the Gospel ministry is necessary in the Church, not only for instruction of the ignorant — such as the simple, unlettered people and the children — but also for the purpose of awakening those who know very well what they are to believe and how they are to live, and admonishing them to be on their guard daily and not to become indolent, disheartened or tired in the war they must wage on this earth with the devil, with their own flesh and with all manner of evil.

3. For this reason Paul is so persistent in his admonitions that he actually seems to be overdoing it. He proceeds as if the Christians were either too dull to comprehend or so inattentive and forgetful that they must be reminded and driven. The apostle well knows that though they have made a beginning in faith and are in that state which should show the fruits of faith, such result is not so easily forthcoming. It will not do to think and say:

Well, it is sufficient to have the doctrine, and if we have the Spirit and faith, then fruits and good works will follow of their own accord. For although the Spirit truly is present and, as Christ says, willing and effective in those that believe, on the other hand the flesh is weak and sluggish.

Besides, the devil is not idle, but seeks to seduce our weak nature by temptations and allurements.

4. So we must not permit the people to go on in their way, neglecting to urge and admonish them, through God’s Word, to lead a godly life.

Indeed, you dare not be negligent and backward in this duty; for, as it is, our flesh is all too sluggish to heed the Spirit and all too able to resist it.

Paul says ( Galatians 5:17): “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh … that ye may not do the things that ye would.”

Therefore, God is constrained to do as a good and diligent householder or ruler, who, having a slothful man-servant or maid-servant, or careless officers, who otherwise are neither wicked nor faithless, will not consider it sufficient once or twice to direct, but will constantly be supervising and directing.

5. Nor have we as yet arrived at the point where our flesh and blood will joyfully and gladly abound in good works and obedience to God as the spirit is inclined and faith directs. Even with the utmost efforts the Spirit scarce can compel our old man. What would be the result if we were no more urged and admonished but could go our way thinking, as many selfsatisfied persons do: I am well acquainted with my duties, having learned them many years ago and having heard frequent explanations of them; yea, I have taught others? It might be that one year’s intermission of preaching and admonition would place us below the level of the heathen.

6. Now, this exhortation in itself is simple and easy of comprehension. The apostle is but repeating his exhortations of other places — on the fruits of faith, or a godly walk — merely in different terms. Here he speaks of putting away the old man and putting on the new man, of being “renewed in the spirit of your mind.” “THE OLD MAN.”

7. What he calls “the old man” is well known to us; namely, the whole nature of man as descended from Adam after his fall in paradise, being blinded by the devil, depraved in soul, not keeping God before his eyes nor trusting him, yes, utterly regardless of God and the judgment day. Though with his mouth he may honor God’s Word and the Gospel, yet in reality he is unchanged; if he does have a little additional knowledge, he has just as little fear, love and trust in God as heretofore.

8. Such a life and such conduct should not be found among you, says the apostle; you are not to continue with “the old man.” He must be put off and laid aside. Your former manner of life, inherited of Adam, consisted in disobeying God, in neither fearing, trusting nor calling upon him. Again, in your body you obeyed not God’s commandments, being given to lust, pride, insatiable greed, envy, hatred, etc. A life and walk of this nature is not becoming a Christian who is regarded as, and truly is, a different order of being from his former self, as we shall hear. Necessarily he should walk differently.

9. In this respect a Christian must take heed that he does not deceive himself; the true Christian differs from the hypocrite. True Christians so live that it is apparent from their lives that they keep God before their eyes and truly believe the Gospel, while hypocrites likewise show by their walk that their pretensions of faith and forgiveness of sin are hollow. No proof is seen in their lives and works showing that they have in any wise mended their former ways; they merely deck themselves with a pretense, with the name of Gospel, of faith, of Christ.

10. Now, the apostle has two things to say of the old man: that he corrupts himself in error as to the soul and in lusts as to the body. Paul portrays the old man — meaning every man without true faith though he bear the name of a Christian — as in the first place given to error: coming short of the truth, knowing naught of the true knowledge of Christ and faith in him, indifferent alike to God’s wrath and God’s grace, deceiving himself with his own conceit that darkness is light. The old man believes that God will not be moved to vengeance though he do as he pleases, even to decorating vices with the names of virtues. Haughtiness, greed, oppressing and tormenting the poor, wrath, envy — all this he would call preserving his dignity, exercising strict discipline, honestly and economically conducting his domestic affairs, caring for his wife and children, displaying Christian zeal and love of justice, etc. In short, he proceeds in the perfectly empty delusion and self-conceit that he is a Christian.

11. Out of this error proceeds the other corruption, the lusts of the body, which are fruits of unbelief. Unbelief causes men to walk in sinful security and yield to all the appetites of their flesh. Such have no inclination toward what is good, nor do they aim to promote orderliness, honor or virtue.

They take desperate chances on their lives, wanting to live according to the lusts of their flesh, and yet not be reprimanded.

12. This, says the apostle, is the old man’s course and nature. He will do naught but ruin himself. The longer continued, the greater his debasement.

He draws down upon himself his own condemnation and penalty for body and soul; for in proportion as he becomes unbelieving and hardhearted, does he become haughty, hateful and faithless, and eventually a perfect scoundrel and villain. This was your former manner of life, when as yet you were heathen and non-Christians. Therefore you must by all means put off the old man and cast him far from you; otherwise you cannot remain a Christian. For glorying in the grace of God and the forgiveness of sin is inconsistent with following sin — remaining in the former old un-Christian life and walking in error and deceitful lusts.

THE GROWTH OF

“THE NEW MAN.” “And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

13. Having put away the old man, the apostle exhorts us further to put on the new man, that day by day we may grow as new creatures. This is effected by first being delivered from error — from the erroneous thoughts and ideas incident to our corrupt nature with its false conceptions of God, wherein we do not fear nor believe him — and then from God’s Word receiving the right understanding of him. When we rightly understand, we shall fear his wrath against sin and rely on his grace in true faith, believing that he will forgive our sins for Christ’s sake and will hear our prayer for strength and assistance to withstand and conquer, and to continually grow in faith.

14. This change Paul calls being “renewed in the spirit of your mind”; that is, constantly growing and becoming established in that true conception and clear knowledge of Christ begun in us, in opposition to error and idle vaporings. He who is thus received, says the apostle, is a man “that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” In the old man there is naught but error, by means of which the devil leads to destruction. But the new man has the Spirit and the truth, by which the heart is illumined unto righteousness and holiness, wherein man follows the guidance of God’s Word and feels a desire for a godly walk and good life; just as, on the other hand, the desire and love for sin and wickedness is the product of error. This new man is created after God, as an image of God, and must of necessity differ from such as live in error and in lusts, without the knowledge of God and disobedient to him. For if God’s image is in man, man must consequently have the right knowledge of God and right conceptions and ideas, and lead a godly life consistent with holiness and righteousness as found in God himself.

15. Such an image of God Adam was when first created. He was, as to the soul, truthful, free from error, and possessed of true faith and knowledge of God; and as to the body, holy and pure, that is, without the impure, unclean desires of avarice, lasciviousness, envy, hatred, etc. And all his children — all men — would have so remained from their birth if he had not suffered himself to be led astray by the devil and to be thus ruined. But since Christians, by the grace and Spirit of God, now have been renewed to this image of God, they are so to live that soul and spirit are righteous and pleasing to God through faith in Christ; and that also the body — meaning the whole external life — be pure and holy, which is genuine holiness.

16. Some there are who pretend to great holiness and purity, but it is mere pretense, deceiving the people in general. Such are the factious spirits and monastic saints, who base their holiness and uprightness solely on an external, peculiar life and on self-elected works. Theirs may be apparently a commendable, holy and pure way of praying and fasting, of denying self, etc., and the people may call it so; but inwardly they are and remain haughty, venomous, hateful, filled with the filth of human lust and evil thoughts, as Christ says of such. Matthew 15:19; Luke 16:15.

Likewise their righteousness on which they pride themselves before God has a certain gloss, on the strength of which they presume to merit the grace of God for themselves and others; but inwardly they have no true conception of God, being in rank unbelief, that is, false and vain suppositions, or doubts. Such righteousness, or holiness, is not true nor honest. It is made up wholly of hypocrisy and deceit. It is built, not of God nor after God, but after that lying spirit, the devil.

17. The true Christian, Paul asserts, has been molded through faith in Christ into a new man, like unto God, truly justified and holy in his sight; even as Adam originally was in perfect harmony of heart with God, showing true, straightforward confidence, love and willingness. And his body was holy and pure, knowing naught of evil, impure or improper desire. Thus the whole life of the man was a beautiful portrait of God, a mirror wherein God himself was reflected; even as the lives and natures of the holy spirits the angels are wrapped up in God and represent true knowledge of him, assurance, and joy in him and utterly pure and holy thoughts and works according to the will of God.

18. But since man is now so grievously fallen from this cheerful confidence, this certainty and joy, into doubts or into presumption toward God, and from unspotted, noble obedience into the lusts of iniquity and ungodliness, it follows that not from mankind can come help or relief. Nor can any one hope for remedy except the Christians, who through faith in Christ begin again to have a joyful and confident heart toward God. They thus enter again into their former relation and into the true paradise of perfect harmony with God and of justification; they are comforted by his grace. Accordingly they are disposed to lead a godly life in harmony with God’s commandments and to resist ungodly lusts and ways. These begin to taste God’s goodness and loving kindness, as Paul says, and realize what they lost in paradise. He, therefore, that would be a Christian should strive to be found in this new man created after God; not in blind error and vain conceit, but in the very essence of righteousness and holiness before God.

TWO CLASSES OF SINS.

“Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.”

19. Lest there might be one who failed to understand the meaning of the old and the new man, or of true and false righteousness and holiness, the apostle now proceeds to give an example or two, making it easier for us to grasp the idea. All sin comes under one of two classes: First, that of the devil’s own making, such as murder and deceit; for by lies he establishes all idolatry, error, false faith and holiness, and among men he creates faithlessness, deceit, malice, etc. Secondly, those sins which he instigates man to commit against man; deeds of wrath, hatred, vengeance and murder. Paul combines these two classes.

20. Now, when a man does not deal fairly with his neighbor, but practices dishonesty and deceit, be it in matters spiritual or temporal (and the world is ever deceitful in all transactions), then certainly the old man holds sway and not righteousness nor holiness, however much the man may effect a good appearance and evade the courts. For such conduct does not reflect God’s image, but the devil’s. For the heart does not rely on God and his truth, otherwise it would war with fraud and deception; but its object is to clothe itself with a misleading garb, even assuming the name of God, and thus to deceive, belie, betray and forsake its neighbor at the bidding of every fiendish whim, and all for the satisfaction of its avarice, selfishness and pride.

21. In contrast thereto you can recognize the new man. He speaks the truth and hates lies, not only those momentous lies against the first table of the Ten Commandments, but also those against the second table; for he deals faithfully and in a brotherly way with others, doing as he would be done by himself. Thus should Christians live with each other, as members of one body, according to the apostle, and as having in Christ all things common and alike. “Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”

22. Half the sins which the world has learned of its lord and master, the devil, consist in lying and deceiving, and that in the name and appearance of truth. No one wants to be called a liar, and even the devil covers his lies with the name of truth. The other half, which is easier to recognize, consists in wrath and its fruits. And this class is usually the result of the other. The world, for its own advantage, lies and deceives; and when it sees mankind acting in opposition to its wishes, or beholds its lies exposed and its schemes thwarted, it begins to rage in wrath against God, endeavoring to avenge itself and inflict harm, but fraudulently disguising its wicked motive under the plea of having good and abundant reasons for its action.

23. Therefore Paul admonishes the Christians as new creatures, to guard against this vice of wrath, adducing the fourth verse of the fourth Psalm: “Stand in awe and sin not.” The repetition of this passage sounds, in Paul’s rendering, as if permission to be angry were given; he says: “Be ye angry, and sin not.” But Paul is taking into consideration the way of the world.

Men are tempted and moved to anger. There are no clean records. Under sudden provocation the heart swells with ire, while the devil busily fans the flame; for he is ever alert to stamp upon us his seal and image and make us like unto him, either through error and false doctrine, or through wrath and murder in conflict with love and patience. These two forms of evil you will encounter, especially if you make an effort to be a godly Christian, to defend the truth and to live uprightly in the sight of all. You will meet with all manner of malice aforethought and deceit, and with faithlessness and malignity on the part of those you have benefited; again, with unmasked violence and injustice on the part of those who should protect you and see to your interests. This will hurt and move you to wrath. Yea, in your own house and among your dear Christian brethren you will often meet with that which vexes you; again, a word of yours may hurt their feelings. And it will not be otherwise. This life of ours is so constituted that such conditions must be. Flesh and blood cannot but be stirred at times by wrath and impatience, especially when it receives evil for good; and the devil is ever at hand kindling your anger and endeavoring to fan into a blaze the wrath and ill humor between yourself and your neighbor.

24. But right here, says the apostle, you should beware and not sin; not give rein, nor yield to the impulse and promptings of wrath. That you may indeed be moved, the apostle would say, I well know, and you may fancy to have the best of reasons for exhibiting anger and vengeance; but beware of doing what your wrath would have you do: and if overcome by wrath and led to rashness, do not continue in it, do not harbor it, but subdue and restrain it, the sooner the better; do not suffer it to take root or to remain with you over night.

25. If followed, wrath will not suffer you to do a single right thing, as James affirms ( James 1:20). It causes man to fall and sin against God and his neighbor. Even the heathen have seen that wrath gets the better of reason and is never the source of good counsel. In line with this, we read that St. Ambrose reproved the emperor Theodosius for having, while in a rage, caused the execution of many persons in Thessalonica; and that he succeeded in having the emperor issue a rescript to the effect that no one should be executed, even on his imperial order and command, until a full month had passed by, thus affording an opportunity to rescind the order if given in haste and wrath.

26. Therefore the Psalm says: When wrath attacks and moves you, do not at once give it leave to do its will. Therein you would certainly commit sin.

But go into your chamber, commune and take counsel with yourself, pray the Lord’s Prayer, repeat some good passages from God’s Word, curb yourself and confide in God; he will uphold your rights.

27. It is this the apostle has in mind when saying: “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” A Christian must not entertain wrath; he should instantly quench and stifle it. It is the part of the new man to control anger, that the devil may not move him from his new-found faith and make him lose what he has received. If he yields to these instigations of his flesh, he thereby returns to the error and condemnation in the old man and loses control of himself, following his own desires. Then he adorns a lie with the appearance of truth, claiming the right to be angry and take revenge; just as the world does when it asserts: This fellow has done me infinite violence and injustice; am I to suffer it? I have a just cause and shall not recline my head in ease until he is repaid! By such talk it loses its case before both God and men; as the saying goes: He that strikes back has the most unjust cause.

28. Both divine and human justice forbids that a man be judge in his own case. For this very reason God has established governmental and judicial authority, in his stead to punish transgressions, which — when properly administered — is not man’s but God’s judgment. He therefore that invades such judgment, invades the authority of God himself; he commits a double wrong and merits double condemnation. If you desire to seek and obtain redress in the courts, you are at liberty to do so, provided you proceed in the proper way, at the proper place and with those to whom God has entrusted authority. To these authorities you may appeal for redress. If you obtain it according to law, well and good; if not, you must suffer wrong and commit your case to God, as we have explained more fully elsewhere.

29. In short, we find in this unique passage a statement to the effect that he who curbs not his wrath but retains it longer than a day, or over night, cannot be a Christian. Where then do they stand who entertain wrath and hatred indefinitely, for one, two, three, seven, ten years? Such is no longer human wrath but fiendish wrath from hell; it will not be satisfied nor extinguished, but when it once takes possession of a man he would, if able, destroy everything in a moment with his hellish fire. Even so the arch-fiend is not satisfied with having cast the whole human race into sin and death, but will not rest content unless he can drag all human beings into eternal damnation.

30. A Christian therefore has ample cause to carefully guard against this vice. God may have patience with you when wrath wells up in your heart — although that, too, is sinful — but take heed that wrath does not overcome you and cause you to fall. Rather take serious counsel with yourself and extinguish and expel your anger by applying passages of Holy Writ and calling upon your faith. When alone or about to retire, repeat the Lord’s Prayer, ask for forgiveness and confess that God daily forgives you much oftener than your neighbor sins against you. “Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.”

31. This thought is brought out also in the next Epistle, namely, that a Christian should guard against giving offense to anybody by his life, lest God’s name be blasphemed. It is a grand thing to be a Christian, who, as has been stated, is a new man created after God and a true image of God, wherein God himself desires to be reflected. Therefore, whatever of good a Christian does, or whatever of evil he does, under the name of a Christian, either honors or disgraces God’s name. Now, says Paul, whenever you follow your lusts, in obedience to your old Adam, you do naught but give occasion to the slanderers — the devil and his troop — to blaspheme the name of God. For the devil, even without your assistance, at all times seeks opportunity — nor can he desist — to befoul our dear Gospel and the name of God with his slanderous tales, composed, if need be, entirely of lies. But where he finds the semblance of occasion he knows how to profit by it. He will then open his mouth wide and cry: Behold, these are your Gospel people! Here you have the fruits of this new doctrine! Is their Christ such a one as they honor by their lives?

32. So then a Christian should be exceedingly careful and cautious for this reason, if for no other: to protect the name and honor of his dear God and Savior and not to do the devil the favor of letting him whet his slanderous tongue on Christ’s name. How shall we stand and answer in his sight when we cannot deny the fact that our life gives just cause for complaint and offense? By such a life we intentionally bring disgrace and shame upon God’s name and Word, which things should be our highest treasures and most valuable possessions.

33. When the apostle says, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need,” he indicates the true fruit of repentance, which consists in abandoning and utterly abstaining from evil and in doing good. He at the same time attacks and reproves the sin of theft so common in all walks of life. And them who idle away their time and neglect their duty of serving and helping their fellow-beings, he calls — and rightfully — thieves in God’s sight.

34. For the right interpretation of the commandment, Thou shalt not steal, is this: Thou shalt live of thine own work, that thou mayest have to give to the needy. This is your bounden duty, and if you do not so God will pronounce you not a Christian but a thief and robber. In the first place, because you are an idler and do not support yourself, but live by the sweat and toil of others; in the second place, because you withhold from your neighbor what you plainly owe him. Where now shall we find those who keep this commandment? Indeed, where should we dare look for them except where no people live? But such a class of people should Christians be. Therefore, let each of us beware lest he deceive himself; for God will not be mocked nor deceived. Galatians 6:7.

Martin Luther College (WELS) and Their Obscene Homecoming "Talent" Show


 
Martin Luther College added 10 new photos to the album:
MLC Homecoming 2016 - Talent Show.
6 hrs
The MC's and students rocked it last night! Well done and thank you to everyone involved. (Sorry, we're not able to stream or archive these events due to music copyright laws.)

***

GJ - Now that is a very big lie. Martin Luther College does not care about violating copyright laws. They uploaded Party in the MLC on YouTube - twice - for world-wide consumption, stealing a Miley Cyrus song without permission, copying a parody - almost frame by frame - without permission.

WELS Source:

Laughable. 

It's not due to copyright laws that they don't stream the homecoming talent show....
It's because it is filled with raunchy humor that would make even professional comedians blush.

The MC(s) aren't chosen because they are good at doing it, they are chosen because they are the raunchiest guys at the CoS parties.

Party in the MLC was a homecoming video... It was "mild" compared to the talent show "humor."



Birds Boycott Bird-Feeder,
Baffling and Bewildering Bystanders,
And Allaying Alliteration Anxiety

 Bad kitty wants the birds drawn by Norma Boeckler.

I made the slightest change to the bird-feeding stations. The hanging feeder was often out of sight when I was relaxing in my spacious office-bedroom-digital publishing center.

To change this, I installed two screw-hooks into the eaves and moved the Jackson EZ Bird Swing closer to the house, using one vacant hook for the hanging feeder from Lowe's, the best $10 I ever spent. This placed the most-used feeder in the line of sight for Mrs. Ichabod and me.

She approved, but the birds did not. The area, often teeming with birds and squirrels. became vacant, as if I had put a Kitty Training Center sign on the Butterfly Bush.

Birds do not trust anything new, even this slight adjustment in all the feeders - hanging, platform, Finch, and suet baskets. The configuration changed and they stayed away in droves.

Birds follow a distinctive pattern in their feeding behavior, easily noticed among flocks. The scout bird lands first and is quite tentative. If the scout spots anything new, different, or moving, he is gone.
If all is well, the others slowly join. But if a scout bird takes off from anything strange, everyone leaves at once. If doves are in the mix, there exit noise (wings and distress call) make quite a racket.

Flight from movement presented a problem for the birds when I first set up the feeders, since we create movement in the background by walking by them. But they became used to it and now feed happily as we watch from a few inches away.

 Old Buckeye could not be startled from his meals,
and used my squirrel baffle for standing on and shaking loose seeds
from the squirrel-proof birdfeeder. If he jiggled the closed gate,
he could get the seeds to drop into his ruthless, rodent mouth.

Squirrels are the most tenacious in time, reacting in stages according to their familiarity with a feeding place:

  1. Pushing off as soon as anyone appears or moves.
  2. Waiting until something noisy or dramatic happens.
  3. Flinching and waiting a few seconds, then feeding - no matter what.

The Bella Vista squirrels were shameless, fearless, and impossible to distract from their raid of the squirrel-proof bird feeder.

I moved the hanging birdfeeder yesterday morning, and the area became quiet. Sunflower seeds filled the hanging feeder and mounded up on the platform feeder, but no creature arrived. Late in the afternoon, one squirrel sat and ate from the platform. Annoyed, I opened the window and he jumped away, not returning to the newly designated danger zone.

Today should mark a slow return to the feeders, but I am patient. Those who install a birdfeeder for the first time will wait weeks for the birds to call it a regular stop, but those birds remember and expect to be fed. Jays and Robins have called to me, from close-up, to remind me of my responsibilities, and Chickadees have made themselves known.

Birds are not dependent on us, as some warn, but we are dependent on them. They appreciate extra food in relation to the shortage at the moment. When trees and bushes are coated with ice, they are almost completely bereft of those tasty insects lodged in the bark and wintering in bushes. Leaf litter and mulch are also sources for birds and other creatures, so a variety of natural food will attract and keep a diverse selection of wildlife.

Supercold will also make birds and all creatures eager for extra food. They burn too many calories to stay alive in 20 below weather with strong winds. Then the little bits of food scorned before will be treasured by the hungry creatures. In New Ulm I saw squirrels chew kernels of corn from the ice when the weather was cold and sleet coated everything.

Creatures may seem thankless when scooping out food to get what they want most, but God does not waste anything. The food on the ground will be patiently picked up by doves and other ground feeders. I noticed Jays landing on the ground to eat corn loosened from the feeder by squirrels. The wet and gummy old birdseed from a long rainstorm will sit in piles on the ground, but sparrows will glean all the nutrition from that source and leave nothing, except sometimes a kernel of corn or a sunflower will later germinate in the soft litter around the feeder.

 Norma Boeckler's Bluebird


Our gardening birds and squirrels planted corn in the rose garden and a lone stalk was growing vigorously in the sun until I cut it down.

People are now more grateful for the Word, not that there is a drought in the land. Unbelievers and rationalists can go through the motions and use the faith-words like magic wands, but they offer nothing satisfying. A current graphic has Joel Osteen's Bible (unused) for sale on eBay, but worse yet is the hollow language used by apostate Lutherans to mislead believers.

Like sparrows, many of us are scrounging in the used market and book sales for real classics. The great books of the Reformation are scooped and pawed away by the big birds of Lutherdom. They want to be current on megachurches, multi-site, and marketing.

For almost 100 years, the Synodical Conference has growled "False Doctrine" when anything outside their UOJ circle was mentioned. Granted the Muhlenberg tradition (General Council and General Synod) could be obtuse about the Four Open Questions, but even the rock-ribbed Wisconsin Synod - a member of the General Council for a time - could have pastors who agreed with the wobbly Iowa Synod.

Wiki:
In the 1860s, the Wisconsin Synod became increasingly conservative along the Lutheran viewpoint and against the Reformed. In the synod convention of 1867, the synod joined the General Council, a group of Neolutheran synods that left the General Synod because it sought to compromise Lutheran doctrine in order to join with non-Lutheran American Protestantism. However, some pastors in the Wisconsin Synod agreed with the "open questions" position of the Iowa Synod that some doctrines could be left unresolved and good Lutherans could agree to disagree about them.[4]



More importantly, the Synodical Conference slowly moved away from Justification by Faith, which was taught in its 1905 German Catechism - and still is in the KJV Small Catechism from CPH.

As we all know - wink wink - the Masonic Lodge remained a major force in the ELS (George Orvick's parish), in WELS (welcome lodge members kicked out of Missouri!), and the noble, haughty, holier than thou Missouri Synod. John Brug told me how his Pennsylvania parish was full of Masons, and so did a Missouri Synod circuit pastor. Orvick grew his Madison parish by taking in lodge members.

Justification by Faith - in contrast - is not an Open Question. Justification by Faith is the Chief Article of Christianity. But these seminaries -

  • The Sausage Factory in Mordor, WELS,
  • The Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie, ELS,
  • The Surrendered Fortress - Ft. Wayne, LCMS, and
  • The Pope's Own - St. Louis, LCMS -
teach Justification without Faith, Universal Absolution without Faith, and Universal Salvation without Faith.



The Synod Presidents - Mirthless Mark Schroeder, Matt the Fatt Harrison, and Pope John the Malefactor - are scared to death of actual doctrinal discussions, where laity and pastors can question and study what is going wrong among the Lutherans.

 "Happy to serve you -
as fresh mutton for the Kingdom of Satan."


The current Synodical Conference teaching is like those bottled up seeds I found in large glass jars in the closet in the CLC church in New Ulm. The living seeds had been stored so long that no birds or squirrels would touch them when dumped on the ground. The seeds were dead and moldy from being stored in the dark, dank closet and left alone, perhaps for decades. We let the bacteria, fungi, and bugs reclaim what was once a treasure.


The members and seminary students are being starved, fed the putrid seed of rationalistic Pietism, the very dogma of ELCA itself. To dress it up, the LCMS-WELS-ELS machine garnishes the moldy meal with Church Growth, Emergent Church, entertainment, and the hellish lure of popcorn and soda at the seeker services.

The pastors sit numb and mute, waiting for someone else to ask about the acceleration of decline, the burial of the Reformation while celebrating the 500th year in 2017.

Friday, September 30, 2016

Brave New Browser - Brave.
Faster and Smoother - Avoids Ads and Tracking


Brave Download Here  - I Like It!

Shunned for supporting natural marriage, former Mozilla CEO is back with new browser

SAN FRANCISCO, September 28, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — The former CEO of Mozilla has released a new Internet browser called Brave.
Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript, continues to lead the technological revolution with Brave, an innovative concept in Internet browsers. 
After blowing away the competition (read: Microsoft's Internet Explorer) with the Internet browser Firefox, Eich has come up with Brave, a nearly ad-free, lightning-fast browser that eliminates intrusive ads as well as common but unwanted tracking tack-ons.
A tech legend for his Java and Firefox contributions, Eich was betrayed by his contemporaries and forced out of business as CEO of Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, because he supported natural marriage.
When it was revealed in 2014 that Eich donated $1,000 to California’s Proposition 8 ballot proposal, which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, he was blackballed, even though Proposition 8 was supported by the majority of Californians and easily passed in 2008.
Image
Eich was publicly shamed because he believed in natural marriage and family. He was openly called a racist, Nazi, and inhumane.
But the tenacious techie didn't give up. Without apology, Eich continued to innovate and ultimately came up with a whole new concept in web browsers: the ad-free, tracking-free, fast internet browser Brave.
In November 2015, Eich raised $2.5 million to create an advanced super-technical team.  By August 2016, the company had raised $4.5 million in seed money to launch the browser. 
Brave is called an entirely new way to browse the web without being intrusively tracked, and without time-consuming download ads.
Internet users have increasingly been using ad blockers like AdBlock Plus to cut down on the ads that slow Internet browsers down. But even with ad blocker software, users still see a lot of ads because the blockers have special arrangements with major advertisers to let their ads through.
Even the ad industry has acknowledged it has "alienated" users with so many ads slowing down computers, causing users to wait an inordinate amount of time for basic searches and information.
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), which represents 650 organizations serving nearly 86 percent of all Internet advertisements, has admitted defeat to the ad-blocking software onslaught.
“We messed up,” IAB Vice President Scott Cunningham wrote. “As technologists tasked with delivering content and services to users, we lost track of the user experience.”
Internet analyst Al Hilwa told Forbes that Brave “recognizes the key fact that browsing has become truly onerous and ever slower, even as devices have become faster.” He pointed out that the “complex web of ad downloads” is far greater and more time-consuming than the website content itself.
In contrast to the Internet status quo, Eich’s new Brave blocks everything. It doesn’t load any of the advertising software code and also blocks tracking from the start.
"On the desktop, Brave provides a 40 percent to 60 percent speed increase, and a 2x to 4x speed increase on mobile devices," Brave's Catherine Corre told LifeSiteNews.  "Therefore, mobile users also see a direct reduction in both battery and data plan consumption."
"Brave also protects users with leading privacy and security features such as encrypted data traffic, fingerprinting shields, phishing protection, malware filtering, and script blocking," Corre explained in an email.
Because of Eich’s history, Brave was opposed before it was officially launched. Major media websites took legal action to stop it, sending a cease and desist letter, claiming Brave was illegal because it blocked advertisements.
But Eich defended Brave, explaining that it does not replace the publisher's own ads.  "We do not tamper with any first-party publisher content, including native ads that do not use third-party tracking."
"Brendan picked the name 'Brave' because we need users who will take a stand and fight back," Corre told LifeSiteNews.  "We see third party ads and tracking as toxic, and we block that by default."
To compensate websites and advertisers, Brave inserts non-obtrusive, non-obnoxious ads that do not track users. Revenue from the ads helps pay websites, ad networks, and users.
Brave's address bar even has a timer displaying how quickly a webpage loads.
Who says the traditionalists can't win in today's politically correct world?

The UOJ Cathari


I was reading this small book in the car repair shop when the Ichaboat was being repaired. The alternator went bad and a bad alternator was used to replace it, so the replacement had to be replaced.

I ran across one paragraph where Chemnitz described the Cathari in his list of those who botched and twisted justification.

The Cathari considered themselves completely blameless and free of sin. Therefore, repentance was a foreign idea to them.



The UOJists insist they were saved "2000 years ago." Like the Cathari, one bad foundational idea leads to a host of rejections of Biblical truths. The UOJists are extreme hedonists, because they were born forgiven. Repentance is a foreign concept for them, too, because of this false concept.

The UOJists are habitual liars, because their deception is always for a good cause, such as getting Al Barry elected with deceit while denying it, attending Fuller Seminary while acting offended anyone would even mention that idea.

The Cathari were also known to feel superior to those not of their elite group. The three UOJ sects - LCMS, WELS, and ELS - never stop congratulating themselves about their UOJ. And oh what a blessing they are to Lutherans. Here is one example - the juxtaposition is too funny to ignore...

For 125 years, by God's grace, Northwestern Publishing House has served the spiritual needs of Lutherans and other Christians. The year 2017 will mark another special event: the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation--a movement that ushered in a return to the pure Word of God. NPH is here to help you dig deeper into that Word and strengthen your daily walk with Christ. Check out our resources below, including books and gifts commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Visit www.nph.net to see all we have to offer!

If you want to get along with the New Cathari of UOJ, just remember that they are completely without sin and need no repentance. They look down on everyone else - and like Paul McCain - demand apologies from everyone who has offended them. The rest are "the earthly" and give themselves away by not getting UOJ, by not admiring the corrupt and bitter fruit of anti-Christian dogma. You have been warned.



Thanks from a Reader - For Lutheran Reading Material



From One Reader:

Dear Pastor Jackson...

I want to express my thanks to God for the great blessings that He has  given to me through you, Pastor Jackson, and your Ichabod website.  I have  been introduced not only to your own writings ("Catholic, Lutheran and  Protestant" and "Thy Strong Word")  but also to  further readings of 
Luther (Romans and Galatians Commentaries, "The Bondage of the Will"),  Gerhard ("Annotations on the 1st Six Chapters of Romans", "Schola  Pietatis, Vol. 1), Robert Preus ("Justification and Rome"), and Lenski.  (Presently I am reading his Romans commentary and finding it immensely 
rewarding.)  And this has just been my reading in the last 8-9 months!   You have also introduced me to "Zion on the Mississippi" and "The Error of  Modern Missouri", both of which gave me insight into my own  Christian/Lutheran background and increased my understanding of the  apostasy found in so many of today's churches.


***



Lately I have been hearing from a number of people. Several younger men are in regular contact about Lutheran books to read and authors to avoid. I am getting three (3) boxes of books ready for some Lutheran book fans, which began with a fourth person buying a small library, scanning it, and giving the books to me to distribute.

That is why I began re-reading Chemnitz on Justification, translated by Jack Preus, a real treasure. More on that later. Some car issues slowed down my blogging but I read Chemnitz in the car repair shop.



My primary aim is to shock people into reading the classics of the Lutheran Reformation, starting there rather than having the pea-brains of today tell us what Lutheran doctrine is. The current Lutheran leaders have no clue and clearly hate Lutheran doctrine.

ELCA is obvious enough, but their "conservatives" did not discover the problems of their radical group until the 2009 vote. But keep them in mind, because the LCMS-WELS-ELS combine works with them all the time.

The handpicked zombies of the ELS-WELS-LCMS gathered to work on a more obvious unity, merger, and closing of schools in the future. They all agreed on repudiating Justification by Faith. They were thankful to God for agreeing on UOJ. That was no accident.

Matt the Fat could not manage to get an easy "doctorate" from a Missouri seminary, and his best pal in politics, Paul McCain, spent two extra years at Ft. Wayne without a "graduate" degree - STM or anything else. The Matt the Fat fanclub is impressed that their plump hero started a doctorate and never finished. Matt and Paul are in the sack with UOJ, so their merger group would be 100% UOJ, even though Missouri has never produced a  UOJ catechism.

Mirthless Mark Schroeder (WELS) and Pope John the Malefactor (ELS) are so gonzo for UOJ that nothing more needs to be said. I just want Lutherans in this 500th celebration year to note all the UOJ essays being excreted from Mankato, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Ft. Wayne.

Liz Eaton must be so proud of her dedicated followers.

 I have heard of "conservative" Lutheran pastors
who think this ELCA pastor is the greatest.


One can easily run around and wonder, "Where do I start with Reformation Lutheran theology?" Here are some ideas:

  1. Luther's Large Catechism is really an edited set of his sermons.
  2. Luther's Galatians Lectures, starting at chapter 3 of Galatians. Read a paragraph and think about that for a time.
  3. Melanchthon's Augsburg Apology - on Justification, a brilliant and lucid lecture.
  4. Any given Chemnitz volume.
Walther borrowed a Latin phrase - "Not many books, but much of the same." That should be the guide. One row of good Lutheran books is better than a library gathering dust. 

My books are available either as free PDFs or as Kindle e-books. Thy Strong Word will give anyone a good sample of what is going wrong among the Lutherans.




Thursday, September 29, 2016

Butterfly Bushes Attract Butterflies, Bees, Birds, and Squirrels


I bought Butterfly Bushes for two reasons. One was to screen the view of the houses behind us. There I have two Bonnies, which are reputed to grow very tall.

I planted a White Profusion near our bird feeders, to attract butterflies while enjoying a view from close-up. We have seen more butterflies all the time since the Whtie Profusion grew so tall and full of blooms.

Butterfly Bushes need watering and sunshine. Supposedly the watering needs of the plant will decrease when established, but this area is notorious for ending the summer with heat, humidity, and no rain. We were fairly dry again at the end of this summer.


The White Profusion near our window was blessed with stored rainwater and the soaker hose that runs out to the fence. I also dumped the dirty birdbath water on the bush at regular intervals, getting back my investment in birdseed.

The plant transformed itself from a weak little bush this spring to a 9-foot tall woody shrub now.

The squirrels used it as a ladder to their food but found the branches easy to break at first. The birds were also flummoxed by the flimsy branches. Now every creature is happy, and the Butterfly Bush is the waiting room for the feeders:

  1. Sunflower seed platform
  2. Finch seed, squirrel-proof feeder 
  3. Hanging sunflower seed feeder
  4. Hanging baskets with six pounds of suet in them.
Part of the fun is watching the birds go from the bush to the swing to the feeders and back to the bush again. Squirrels have squatted on the platform and waved away birds, which fly in close to peck the squirrels away from their food.

Meanwhile, the bush has grown up to be a tall, wide screen that filters the sun and blocks the view of the neighbors' backyards.

Mrs. Ichabod has asked for another Butterfly Bush to screen the kitchen window. That is an ideal location, because the rest of that garden will be Hosta and a soaker hose passes by the future location of the bush.



Butterfly Bush Pruning
I should have pruned the blooms the way I trim roses, but I let them go to seed instead. Next year I will remove more of the spent flowers to keep the bushes completely in bloom and energized by the pruning. 

They are commonly cut back in the winter or early spring, but not in the fall - bad timing there (like pruning roses late in the fall). Leaving a foot or two of growth will let the Butterfly bushes fill in faster in the spring and bloom on the new wood. They have a candy-like sweet aroma in bloom.



Tilting the Creation
The backyard gets less attention, but we have been reclaiming and expanding areas for easy gardening - and I mean even easier than roses. That means laying down cardboard and weighing it down before the fall leaf curbside grab.

We use reclaimed rotten wood from morning walks and water jugs filled with aromatic, bad tasting Springdale water. The same jugs will store heat and reduce frost harm in the early spring, basking in the sun and giving up solar heat in the evening. We use Walmart water, 88 cents a gallon, for drinking, which spoiled us for tapwater.

God manages things very well, so I like to help out in small ways. Where we had nothing but grass, we now have various gardens developing, garnished with - 
  • Hosta
  • Wild Strawberries
  • Roses
  • Butterfly Bushes
  • Rugosa Rose (for shade)
  • Willow Bushes
  • Pokeweed (for birds and beneficial insects)
  • Praying Mantids (hatched the eggs, turned them loose)
  • Dutch White Clover - now most of the lawn
  • Blueberries
  • Beautyberries
  • Blackberries
  • Raspberries
  • Asparagus
  • Trumpet Vine
  • Morning Glory Vine
  • Honeysuckle Vine

I was giving a tour to our neighbors, who have pine trees. Always praise pine trees, pet rabbits, and horses, because all three donate for the good for gardening. The mother pointed to a praying mantis that I overlooked - "You have a helper." 

I bought some egg cases in the spring, hatched them in the window, then took the swarming cases to the front and back for the pious predators to finish and establish themselves. Our granddaughters took some egg cases home, put them in an solarium, and fed the hatchlings fresh insects until they were ready for the outside.

What begins slowly develops because the Creation does 99% or more of the work. So it is with the Word of God, which is the living Seed. By sewing this living Seed of the Word, the Gospel springs up and grows, forgiveness of sin and eternal life springing up with it.

Those who never plant asparagus say, "But it takes three years to produce!" Most worthwhile plants take three years to be established. Excuses among congregations and pastors are even more vapid and self-defeating. 
  1. They need money. 
  2. They need plans. 
  3. They need an organization.
  4. They need time.

Yet they remodel the church kitchen for thousands, as if they were running a large restaurant or hotel, and use their time to decide which table decorations to use.

Three Promises -
1. The Word never returns empty.
2. The Word always accomplishes God's purpose.
3. The Word always prospers God's plans.

LCMS Pastor Gets Prison Sentence



Former LCMS pastor gets prison for child enticement





http://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/news/crime/2016/09/29/former-pastor-gets-prison-child-enticement/91264412/


OSHKOSH - A former pastor says he regrets what prosecutors called "sexually aggressive" online chats with who he thought was a 13-year-old girl he planned to meet for sex while in town for a pastor's conference.
Joshua C. Scheil, 29, formerly of Trevor, was sentenced Thursday in Winnebago County Circuit Court to two years in prison, three years of extended supervision and 15 years of probation for child enticement and causing a child 13 or younger to view sexual activity.
"I screwed up, your honor; there's no denying that," Scheil said during Thursday's sentencing hearing. "I've lost most everything important to me. I've lost my wife. I've lost a career that was important to me. I've lost all of my friends. ... Those 11 days (in jail) were absolute hell for me."


LCMS and WELS Lutheran Colleges Fail To Make the List



Yesterday the Wall Street Journal had a list of the top 500 colleges in the USA. No LCMS school made the list. My wife went through the list as well, and she didn't see any. 

However, some ELCA-affiliated ones did make it: Concordia Moorhead, Luther in Decorah, Wartburg, Wittenberg, Augsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, St. Olaf, & Augustana. She did say she could have missed some. While there are always problems with lists of this kind, if the standards are applied uniformly it does say something about ranking.

 What do you want to bet the Stuckfast Lutherans and the Questing Lutherans won't say anything?




Martin Luther College changed Samantha Lily,
who arrived as a male student and graduated pumped full of hormones.
But nobody knew. Nope - no one.

Short version - 50% of members in Wisconsin,
where they are densest.
25% in Minnesota, 25% in Michigan.
The rest are scattered.