ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
This morning, I was recalling John W. Montgomery's observation that Christian News was like the Policeman's Gazette, always promising an article that would prompt a heart attack. Dr. Dr. Dr. Montgomery clutched his chest dramatically.
The cub editor of the periodical has turned CN into Good Ol' Daze, a bit nostalgic, as threatening as My Weekly Reader.
What were his qualifications? Hale has eight children and OJ, just like Otten.
The current issue does not mention Justification by Faith, the Means of Grace, the efficacy of the Word, Objective Justification, or Subjective Justification.
That is like gardening without tools. Someone could plant some things with bare hands, but it would take a long time.
Terminology is a tool, words to define, support, reject.
Easy To Please is the last new rose of 2020...I think.
We no longer sow weeping. In the early stages of agriculture, some of the grain seed was saved for the next year. What if the crop being sown failed? How can the family and the animals be fed without the grain we are counting on for our lives?
Psalm 126 5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
I was thinking of the Psalm and hymn while I planted the last new rose for this year.
My great aunt wrote about free land they were given for farming, a bonus to get people settled in Ohio long ago.
Even with free land they could not survive there. The experience was so hard and bitter than her parents never wanted to see it again. My great aunt wanted to go back and talked them into it. Perhaps a child only remembered what was good and loving. Or the parents thought of the baby they lost - I am not sure when that happened. Looking at the carefully wrapped hair was an annual event, which meant a lot to my great aunt.
The Ohio farm failure got them out of Adventism, because they could not raise hogs in Iowa and be good Adventists. The family did well there.
"Behold a Host, Arrayed in White"
by Hans A. Brorson, 1694-1764
Hans Brorson also wrote "I Walk in Danger All the Way." He was a Danish Pietist.
"Behold a Host, Arrayed in White"
by Hans A. Brorson, 1694-1764
1. Behold a host, arrayed in white,
Like thousand snow-clad mountains bright,
With palms they stand. Who is this band
Before the throne of light?
Lo, these are they of glorious fame
Who from the great affliction came
And in the flood of Jesus' blood
Are cleansed from guilt and blame.
Now gathered in the holy place,
Their voices they in worship raise,
Their anthems swell where God doth dwell,
Mid angels' songs of praise.
2. Despised and scorned, they sojourned here;
But now, how glorious they must appear!
Those martyrs stand a priestly band,
God's throne forever near.
So oft, in troubled days gone by,
In anguish they would weep and sigh,
At home above the God of Love
For aye their tears shall dry.
They now enjoy their Sabbath rest,
The paschal banquet of the blest;
The Lamb, their Lord, at festal board
Himself is Host and Guest.
3. Then hail, ye mighty legions, yea,
All hail! Now safe and blest for aye,
And praise the Lord, who with His Word
Sustained you on the way.
Ye did the joys of earth disdain, Ye toiled and sowed in tears and pain. Farewell, now bring your sheaves and sing Salvation's glad refrain.
Swing high your palms, lift up your song,
Yea, make it myriad voices strong,
Eternally shall praise to Thee,
God, and the Lamb belong.
Hymn #656
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Revelation 7:13-17
Author: Hans Adolf Brorson, c. 1760
Translated by: composite
Titled: "Den store hvide Flok vi se"
Norwegian folk-tune, c. 1600
Tune: "Great White Host"
Arranged by: Edvard H. Grieg, 1907, ad.
Sometimes the Trumpet Vine flowers are so big, they look like plastic decorations from a party store.
I was going to claim all my vine efforts were failures. I made several attempts late last year, marked them, and wrote them off as bunny food.
But then I looked up into the maple tree in the front yard. That Trumpet Vine was spread out around the tree, going up the trunk, and blooming high above me.
Books are published on vertical gardening, getting as many plants as possible growing up with supports. I did this instead with a lot of tall, perennial plants.
The opposition party is the grassy weed. Mulching does not do the job; plastic collars are the best way to protect flowers while weed-whacking.
Bee Balm - plant it and they will come - bees, butterflies, hummingbirds.
The Military-Gardening Group enjoys watching the development of all the plants from the front porch. They are exquisitely and divinely planned to provide food for the bees, from early spring on.
Everyone's favorite bird needs insects for its diet. I expect to see more hummingbirds feeding as the days stay warm and the garden is packed with flowers -
Hostas
Bee Balm
Mountain Mints
Clethra - the Cinnabon shrub
Dandelions
Butterfly Weed
Shasta Daisies
Roses
Balloon Flowers
Ranger Bob asked, "Where are all the roses from this plant?" I answered, "I cut them for the altar and gave them to you for the cemetery. They bloom better if I harvest them all the time."
As I wrote before, I used to marvel at the way my mother had flowers blooming all through the summer. I created the same effect, just by planting a lot of types for one reason or another.
God has a plan and a calendar for each flower, plant, and creature.
This year began with massive discouragement, the accumulated sorrows of two summers of drenching rain. Nothing stopped the Japanese Beetles and the weather extremes killed off the roses.
I ordered some Veterans Honor roses. The rains came down on them at the start, but the sun began to make them grow too. I had the earliest best roses in years.
Luther said we should just keep doing our tasks and let God sort out the victories.
Butterfly Weed decorates the porch border, a good place to observe the patient bees doing their work.
I am feeling especially optimistic about America. Although there are Herculean efforts to scare everyone, the plans are failing. America caught cabin fever after months of limited freedom and hypoxia from breathing through cotton.
When I am forced, I briefly use the Demshevik mask - covering my mouth and breathing through my nose.
I view China as a giant with a glass jaw -
A fragile economy extended foolishly to create a global empire
The largest dam in the world - Three Gorges - on the brink of failure from shoddy construction and flooding.
Movement of industry back to America where it belongs. I have two friends who lost their factory jobs to China, but I do not know anyone who had Wuhan Flu.
Their ideology is failing while America is asserting its traditional stance - conservative, religious, freedom-loving.
The 5 year plan to suppress and eliminate Trump reminds me of the famous quote from Admiral Yamamoto after Pearl Harbor -
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Trump and his leadership have motivated perhaps 50 million people to study the issues, so we knew all the players on the top floor of the FBI building before they were ash-canned into history. That never happened before.
Many more sinister characters have been exposed and joined the long grey line into oblivion or prison.
Everyone has access to The Art of War. Why is only one side reading it?
More importantly, why have so many discounted the way God works in history, using the greatest evil to effect the greatest good?
This is Norma Boeckler's garden, and she designed the cover of Creation Gardening.
Ranger Bob was looking at the graphics that repeat on the Bethany video website. He wanted to see the one above.
Later, I had four copies arrive for distribution. One went to a neighbor on the next block. I saved another for PFC, a member of the Military-Gardening Group. Various items pass back and forth, such as the 3D book on the HMS Hood.
"Bob, what do you think of a 3D book on a WWII Japanese sub?" He made a face and said he only liked the Japanese subs that carried airplanes. I said, "OK. I won't let you read my copy I ordered - about a Japanese sub."
Bob said, "You have one coming?" The Hood copy was brand new, very inexpensive, and has exquisite graphics, close ups of every detail on the famous battle cruiser, lost during the battle with the Bismarck.
Bob had his hands on the book for a couple of days. He said before our latest confab on the porch, "Could I borrow a copy for a while? I picked up your gardening book and could not put it down."
Bob got the next book.
Mrs. Ichabod joined us last night as we sipped various drinks on the porch - Brazilian coffee and Diet Pepsi. Veterans Honor rose is often the favorite, but new blooms are opening all the time.
Bee Balm is just starting.
Butterfly Weed is in full bloom.
Joe Pye and Clethra are read to bloom.
Daisies are mostly in flower.
Oriental Lilies have emerged to bloom.
Borage, easily overlooked,is blooming white and blue.
Balloon flowers are showing off.
Hosta flowers attract the hummingbirds.
Bees work over the Butterfly Weed, close to our chairs on the narrow porch. Everyone enjoys watching them work over the blooms.
"Every time is different in this garden," PFC observed.
I said on Sunday that I would elaborate on lessons from my father, Homer Noel Jackson. He was born in 1910 when there was a classical revival. Ancient names sounded classic, but now Homer and Horace are considered rural names from the past - and funny.
Dad grew up on a farm, just like Mom. Both farms failed from FDR's schemes, so both reached adulthood during the Great Depression. It must have been great, because they never stopped talking about.
Dad was obsessive about saving everything that might be useful, and he carried a wad of money in his pocket, like all Depression survivors.
Those people expected to work, felt good about working, and were tough and resilient at the same time. Not working was a sin, and earning money was a day well spent.
Lessons from Hours of Repetition
A lot of work was repetitive, such as the time we sugared and bagged 900 dozen donuts for a money-raising sale at a Roman Catholic Church. Fortunately, I was able to hide evidence of donut breakage by eating the broken pieces.
Research can be tedious at times, and getting things done is often no more than copying and pasting - the Bethany Hymnal Blog - and placing links for Search Engine Optimization.
Quality Parts Management
Melo-Cream donuts were always getting better because Dad insisted on the best ingredients, long before W. Edwards Deming. The shortening, flour, cocoa, vanilla, sugar (cane, not beet), and nuts were the highest quality. My friends from 50 years ago want me to revive Melo-Cream for the cinnamon fries.
Dad got some kind of award, but the newspaper photo showed him looking through the hole of a donut. He loved that shot.
This also applies to theology. If someone constructs a book or article from junk - like carob for chocolate, cheap chemical flavors - the results will always be poor. Why start with the felon CFW Walther when Martin Luther is the greatest Biblical scholar of all time? Do you want a genius baker to make the wedding cake or some friend who makes cement style cakes for a deep discount? Yet people use their friends, relatives, and professors as the greatest authorities on the Word even when against the Word.
This was my first calendar, age 4, and I remember disliking the flour on my face to make me look cute.
This was my last photo-shoot for a calendar, at the nearby apple orchard, holding a Classics Illustrated comic book and my favorite vanilla iced bread donut.
Promotion
Dad was always promoting his products because he said, "I lose 25% of my customer base each year." We had family calendars, paper hats, ads on WQUA, and sponsorship of baseball teams. The WQUA disk jockeys got free donuts and coffee, and the station provided free ads. Dad was considered the other manager of WQUA because Flambo always listened to his advice and took it. Don Nelson told me about that.
Cousin Dean Jacquin wore his Melo-Cream hat for a postcard promotion.
When the Internet became available, I looked for ways to publish, first with websites, then with blogging, later with print on demand books from Lulu and Amazon. The social media allowed me to leverage everything by repeating the same material via links on different platforms, including Facebook. I have also helped promote non-profit activities for free, using the same methods. I showed a small college how to use blogging for world-wide publicity, gaining about 20,000 views for free.
The matches were popular because they were not cheap, crumply ones.
Rev. Charles Willey, Disciples of Christ, the denomination of Donald McGavran, Understanding Church Growth.
Dad Was Active in Church
I remember lots of congregational events at First Christian in Moline, now empty and sold to someone. Dad was an usher and we helped with that. He also made the donuts for their coffee hour.
Someone took this hard, but it is the truth. First Christian - and especially Rev. Willey - were the reasons I became a Lutheran. I asked Lawrence Eyre where he went - Salem Lutheran across the street from FC? - and crossed the street when the family arrived at First Christian.
"Where are you going?" GJ - "Salem Lutheran. I'll walk home."
Right from the start, as a pastor, Church Growth and other pestilences reminded me of Rev. Willey at First Christian. He was always tan, always smiling, and always trying a new gimmick, like arriving in a fire truck with his chaplain's white hat on.
Dad and Mom died as conservative Lutherans.
I gave a talk at the Ohio Conference, WELS, where I asked about using the Deming theory instead of Church Growth. "Why not start with Luther and the Book of Concord?" That was the equivalent of asking for the Left Foot of Fellowship.
Independent Little Business - Long-Lasting
Dad started Melo-Cream in the Depression with his brother, then bought him out and continued. After decades, he sold his recipes to Hasty Tasty, but continued making candy on his own! He never changed his method of preparing food, so it remains a legend among the Moliners who enjoyed it.
That is all we need to do, keep emphasizing the best when everyone wants to cheapen the product to make a few more dollars. That matters the most when it comes to eternal values and the treasure of the Gospel.
Is it possible that McCain helped Al Barry and Matt the Fatt get elected by appealing, chameleon-like, to the Romanists, the Seminexers, and the Bronze Age Otten bunch - all at the same time? McCain's Roman Catholic training was perfect for Missouri politics, where pastors pope and semi-pope regularly.
Compare the following
to what we are witnessing today.
Like Fascism and
Nazism, Roman Catholicism will use science when, but only
when, it suits its purposes. Just as its ‘leadership
principle’ was the groundwork of Nazism — as Goering
testified at the Nuremberg trials last March 14 —
so too were its censorship and Inquisition methods, its book
burnings and other means for the repression of individual
thought and scientific progress. Hitler himself, in Mein
Kampf, laid down the principle that, “The greatness
of every powerful organization… is rooted in the religious
fanaticism with which it intolerably enforces itself against
everything else, fanatically convinced of its own right.”
Further on in the same book (p. 882) he says:
McCain defended Objective Justification by quoting the LCMS professor who penned this drivel and later joined Rome, Edward Preuss.
“Here too one can
learn from the Catholic church. Although its structure of
doctrines in many instances collides, quite unnecessarily,
with exact science and research, yet it is unwilling to
sacrifice even one little syllable of its dogmas. It has
rightly recognized that its irresistibility does not lie in a
more or less great adjustment to the scientific results of the
moment… but rather in a strict adherence to dogmas… Today
therefore the Catholic church stands firmer than ever.”
From “The Roman
Catholic Church and Science” by JJ Murphy. Emphasis added.
We know McCain was the secret agent who forwarded DP Al Barry's material to Otten for early publication. Both pastors denied they were in cahoots while bragging to me that they were. Did McCain arrange or smooth the way for Matt the Fatt to sing Otten's praises when running for LCMS prez?
"We were wondering how we could improve the award-winning Easy-To-Love® collection – the best true rose collection containing fully petaled varieties with very good disease resistance. Well, it's quite simple! We've added a missing color to the collection with the pink flowering variety Easy To Please. Just like its name, this floribunda will please everyone! Want more bang for your bloom? With Easy To Please, not only are you getting a high performing rose in multiple climates, but you are also getting a multitude of classic spiraled flowers on a bush for which the disease resistance surpasses many landscape Shrubs. What else are we missing to make this rose a crowd pleaser? Nothing, as a moderate clove fragrance completes this SUPER flowerful, upright and vigorous plant to near perfection!"
Many of the roses bought were grown at Weeks, a big wholesaler for roses. The rainbow selections I get often have the Weeks tags on them. I get great roses at a big discount, plus an introduction to a new variety that may be spectacular.
Between today and tomorrow, we should have plenty of rain. I have bare root roses sitting in rainwater buckets. They could stay that way for a long time, but that also means keeping the water level even and not letting the roots get established.
Be back soon...
And I am back.
I found two places in the backyard garden for Heirloom (purple) and Julia Childs (yellow).
Another good place was hard as a rock - clay soil, dry. Rain would be coming along, so I decided to let the last three roses soak in rainwater.
Sassy had an overnight with Ranger Bob and she was due to come home. I walked down to fetch her, and she began telling me off. I sat down on the floor at Bob's and said to her, "You need your tummy rub!" She enjoyed that so much, even though Bob doted on her. Yesterday, his friend's wife guessed the same = and I watched Sassy's delighted face as she massaged the dog and talked to her.
When we got home (two houses away), Sassy took her spot on the bed and I went back to the roses and patio. I doubled the patio size by shoveling the mulch off and putting in metal sides to keep soil and debris away from the door and kitchen floor. Sunflower seed leftovers are very prone to come inside on five feet (my two and Sassy's three).
Here are the steps in bare root rose planting:
I soak them in rainwater or stored water, letting the branches stay out of the water (most of the time. The soaking roses can get sunshine and grow green leaves this way.
I plant on the east side of the house, which prevents afternoon baking. The west side is good when the roses get sun but not too much. North is generally too shady and south is too sunny.
I prune the branches somewhat and the roots a little. I take off anything discolored on the branches. That can happen after planting, so I clip that too. ROSES LOVE PRUNING.
I often fill the hole with upside-down sod, a treasure chest of bugs, minerals, fungus, and organic matter.
I used a $1.88 bag of Peat Humus as the top layer, which the soil creatures will pull down for the rose and themselves. That is a ruinous cost, almost a dollar a rose!
I used about 1/3 of a bag of shredded Cyprus wood as mulch on top of each rose, allowing sun for the branches.
I had barrels of rainwater, so I watered the two rose locations liberally.
Julia Child Rose - was I looking for this? No. It came in rainbow selection, free shipping.
"Just before our wonderful American icon left us, she selected this exceptional rose to bear her name. Julia loved the even butter gold color & the licorice candy fragrance. Yet it wasn't just the old-fashioned blooms that inspired the recipe. The perfectly rounded habit, super glossy leaves & great disease resistance finish off the dish. An awesome AARS award winner—a right & proper honor for a dear friend. Consistent, hardy & floriferous in all climates. Very disease resistant. Available budded & own-root."
This is the way I would look if I had my own John Deere tractor.
The Bee Balm is blooming now, and the bees are balmy with all the pollen they gather. The Shasta Daisies changed from little weaklings into large blooming clumps, with aphid-killing flies on them.
Next to bloom will be the Joe Pye Weeds and the two Clethra shrubs (aka Summer Sweet, Sugar Spice), both superb at attracting pollinators and butterflies.
We definitely have a vertical garden, with a lot of roses, Joe Pye, Bee Balm, and tall plants - more in the 5 foot plus category.
So I decided to pursue that and make the central part of the garden all Daffodils for the early spring and tall plants - like Clethra - afterwards.
I can protect plants with collars and weed-whack the grassy weeds.
Sadly (!) I will have roses in the back. I have found that having the plants close is more fun than tripping through a garden to reach distant, neglected plants.
Julia Childs Rose looks like a winner. This one is soaking in rainwater, hoping to be planted before it rains again.
In treatment - Mary Howell, Rush Limbaugh, Christina Jackson
Testing - Pastor Jim Shrader
Pastor and Mrs. Jordan Palangyos - Mission and Rice Delivery
KJV 1 John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
KJV Luke 14:16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
Second Sunday After Trinity
Lord God, heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee, that through Thy holy word Thou hast called us to Thy great supper, and we beseech Thee: Quicken our hearts by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not hear Thy word without fruit, but that we may prepare ourselves rightly for Thy kingdom, and not suffer ourselves to be hindered by any worldly care, through Thy beloved Son. Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen. Checking out some land, test-driving some oxen, and being married are humorous excuses. So the least are invited when the best will not attend.
Cain and Abel, Faith and Hate
KJV 1 John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
This is a blunt opening, but the Apostle who wrote so much about love also addressed the nature of hate. The verse before spoke of this -
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
That Genesis passage has always seemed to be mysterious, hard to understand or explain. The truth is eternal, so what was explained thousands of years later would have been true at the beginning. Abel had faith so his offering was pleasing to God. Cain did not believe, so what he did was evil. Whatever is done in faith glorifies God, but whatever is done without faith, no matter how grand - is evil in God's sight. Romans 14:23 and Matthew 7 - the good tree (faith) only bears good fruit.
Luther: 7. But whence arises the world’s hatred? John tells us in verse twelve when he mentions the incident of Cain, who, he says, “was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” An excellent reason, indeed, for hating—the hater and murderer is evil and the benefactor good! In civil and domestic affairs it is the evil-doers and disobedient who incur displeasure and receive punishment; and such reward is just. But whenever God has dealings with the world, it shows what a rotten fruit it is by hating, persecuting, and putting to death as evil-doers and impostors its very benefactors. This trait it inherits, John tells us, from its ancestor Cain, the great fratricide saint.
He is a true picture of the world of all times, and ever its spirit and fashion is patterned after him.
Therefore, the hatred of the world is directed at those with faith. The pure atheists are rather rare, but there are many who consider themselves religious who lack faith in Christ as their Savior. What else explains the persecution of the sincere believers by those who are in the church hierarchy? The bishops and popes and professors are no different from the Pharisees, who were honored and respected by the vast majority, even though they despised Jesus and challenged Him at every opportunity.
The Apostle John often dealt with faith and love in his writing, both the Gospel and the Epistles. The Fourth Gospel is his simple and powerful description of the ministry of Jesus and powerful hatred against Him. There the Apostle John saw the relationship between faith and love, as taught by Jesus Himself.
They were just grasping that connection during the earthly ministry. The Apostles had to deal with it even more as the Christian Church began to mature and break out in heresies.
Everything should be peaceful and loving in the Christian Church, people say. Everyone believes the same in the Church - no?. A mouse may be in a cookie jar, but that does not make him a cookie. He may be there to take advantage of the cookies in the jar.
My friend told me of the strange man in the balcony (second floor) of the church. He only appeared above the railing when the pipe organ was not playing. He was the organist. Children saw his face, so he was a mysterious and somewhat frightening figure. One day, during the Communion service, he came down for the first time and took communion. He played all the hymns and preludes and postludes, but he did not truly believe until the day he came down.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. This is a statement, a revelation we should keep in our hearts. The Fourth Gospel implies this all the time - the life Jesus gives is eternal life, which starts at the moment of faith, even for babies baptized. We are already in enrolled in eternal life, just living on the porch. We had a house like that in Moline. The porch was enclosed and had heating from the furnace, windows, lighting - an extra bedroom. We sometimes got to sleep there for Saturday morning adventures, waking up in the dark to hunt animals with bow and arrows. Someone on the porch could smell supper cooking (or burning, as we liked to say). "What's burning, Mom?" We could hear the TV and could almost hear people talking. The Apostle is urging his people to think of themselves as already in the Kingdom of God and therefore already enclosed by eternal life. The Gospel litmus test is love for the brothers - the fellow-believers. The reason is easy to discern. First of all, it is the first of the fruits of the Spirit listed, exemplified by Jesus' agape-love for the world and His disciples. Agape-love is giving and forgiving love, one that rejoices in both. In a world without faith, this is distorted. The word brother applies to believers (male and female). We are not obliged to forgive the unrepentant. In fact, that causes confusion and solidifies unbelief. But like a lot of matters, the evil may go unresolved without needing to dwell on it. Luther said that beautifully when he spoke of God not taking the affliction from our hearts, but taking our hearts away from the affliction.
I have thought about that many hours and used the graphic many times. (I combined Joplin tornado damage with a bouquet of roses.) I cannot get through this story today, speaking it, so I will write it. Erin Joy was in the Cleveland Clinic with her life ebbing away. We were talking to one family and she began to cry, because she loved being the center of attention. I told her this, because it helped her stop crying, which led to seizures - "I won't look at that red, tomato face until you smile." I told the family how that worked and they said, "Look at Erin!" The tears were dripping from her eyes and she was grinning as hard as she could. In the midst of very difficult times, the most peaceful and loving things happen. It is the very nature of the Gospel that makes us happy to participate in the afflictions and the losses of others. What makes people run away from trouble will draw believers in - to help in some, small way. In the midst of it all, someone will be as nasty, mean, and greedy as anyone could imagine, and the thought it - oh well, they are just an annoyance. Luther: 23. To abide in love should be the motive for us Christians. John contrasts it with the motive of the world in hating us—its wickedness. The world’s hatred of you, as John words imply, is not strange. The contrast between you and the world is exceedingly great. Through its own evil works, unbelief, pride, contempt for the Word and grace of God, and the persecution of the godly, the world has become by this time the victim of Satan and eternal death. It spurns all counsel and aid directed toward its rescue. Stiff-necked and hardened, under evident condemnation by its own conscience, it has chosen to persist in its doom. But we believers in Christ, God be praised! are different people. We have come forth from death; we have passed through death and entered into life through the knowledge and faith of the Son of God, who has loved us and given himself for us.
24. Such grace and goodness of God, says the apostle, should prompt you not to be offended and vanquished by the world’s ingratitude, hate and malice, and thus to cease from holy endeavor and become likewise, evil, which course will result in the loss of your treasure. It is yours, not by your own effort, but by grace alone; for at one time you as well as they languished in the kingdom and power of death, in evil works, far from faith and love.
Remember to comfort yourselves, therefore, with the thought of this great blessing, an advantage you enjoy above the others. What if the world, abiding in death, does hate and persecute you who abide in life? Whom can its hatred injure? It cannot take from you the life which it lacks while you possess it, nor deliver you to death, from which you have passed, through Christ. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. We were always cautioned not to think in terms of absolute truth and falsehood, but that is what the Bible teaches us -
Faith and unbelief
Truth and falsehood
Life and death
Salvation and damnation
Jesus spoke of two trees in Matthew 7 - the good tree (of faith) and the evil tree (unbelief). It helps us be patient if we recall that evildoers live in a world of death. We end up seeing many manifestations of this. One business had the salespeople locking up everything if they left their cubicles, because their fellow agents would go through the files to discover information, hoping to steal clients. If someone worships the material world and gaining honors from business, that is natural behavior. There was always the background noise of "grab what you can, however you do it" in the midst of pious congratulations on how pure they were, not being like those evil tax-collectors, etc. The good tree bears good fruit, which we may not see for what it is. God's divine will is carried out in His Word, and those unglamorous works add up in many ways. Misers are forever poor, yet the generous always have enough and to spare. The disciple-Jesus-loved says - hatred is murder and hatred means eternal death, not life. Is it not obvious when people who hate our country are happy to burn, destroy, harm, and kill? And that damage is hidden and downplayed by those sworn to communicate it - "without fear or favor." Faith in Christ supplants, displaces the evil of this world, and those good fruits grow so abundantly that they leave little room for evil. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Love is defined here as action, not a grin and a hug and "be on your way." What Jesus did in faith was to give up His life to atone for the sins of the world, that this Report - faithful to Isaiah 53 - would plant faith in the Savior in the hearts of those who heard it. Faith is access to God's grace. The more I read Luther, the more I smile at his comments about Justification by Faith, because they are on target all the time. We are always struggling for grace when faith is that access, that interview, that introduction to grace (Romans 5:2). It is too obvious, so obvious that the great and wise overlook it with astonishing ease. Strong on "access" in Romans 5:2 4318prosagōgḗ (from 4314/prós, "with, towards" and 71/ágō, "come") – properly, come towards (near); have access (approach), with intimate (face-to-face) interaction (note the prefix pros). All three occasions of 4318/prosagōgḗ ("interactive access") refer to "having audience (direct access) with God" (J. B. Lightfoot, MM). Yes, grace is free, so look for that grace only through faith. In faith, we pray for help and wisdom, in all matters. In faith, we wait for the answer. In faith, we thank God for His answer, even when we are mystified at His will, His timing. The ultimate faith in this eternal life, being inside the porch already, is laying down our lives for the brothers. That was the fact of persecution in the Apostolic Age, and it happened repeatedly during the Reformation, and it continues to this day. Luther: 33. These words delineate true Christian love and hold up the sublime example, or pattern, of God’s love manifest in Christ. Christ’s blood and death is God’s own blood and death. Paul in Acts 20:28, speaks of God having purchased the Church “with his own blood.” The heart of man by faith receives and apprehends this sacrifice. Under its transforming influence he is disposed to work good to his neighbor as he has himself received good. He even jeopardizes his life to that end, being conscious of his redemption from eternal death, and knowing physical death powerless to affect his eternal life. But the heart that fails to appropriate Christ’s sacrifice is without faith and insensible to God’s love and eternal life.
34. John uses an illustration plain enough for anyone to understand, and from which we may judge that the soul found wanting in small duties will be deficient in great ones. According to the apostle, if one possesses this world’s goods and sees his neighbor want, he being able to render assistance without injury to himself, and yet closes his heart against that neighbor, not assisting him with even the slightest work of love, how can the love of God dwell in him since he appreciates it so little that he will not spare his needy brother a penny? How can he be expected, then, to render a greater service—to even lay down his life for his brother? What right has such a soul to boast—how can he know—that Christ has laid down his life for him and delivered him from death? 17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. We do not say bowels - that makes children snicker a little. But we say "guts!" You have no guts - and - I really feel that in my guts. One "hip" education supervisor asked me, "How's your gut?" He was trying to antagonize me, so I said, "Just fine." I made a point of smiling at him because he was so mean to my best education friends. One swore never to be in the same building with him. How quickly the clergy supervisors lock up their feelings of compassion when they have a chance to help. Oh no, that might hurt their chances to be Circuit Pastors or even District Presidents! Earthly honors but heaven's condemnation without faith being present. As one person said about another, "There was no time lapse between willing and doing. No wonder Ephesus, where John lived and worked, was the Mother Church of Christianity.
