Lenski Outline and Statement

 

Another from Lenski:

"The Great Confessional Mark: "What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?" The true answer should rest on the objective fact that Christ is the Son of God. Our confession does no more than to voice this fact as our personal conviction. The utterance of the confession is, of course, subjective, and yet it is not the same as the contrary subjective confession of unbelief, as the latter loves to assume. It is no mere matter of personal opinion or preference whether I confess: "And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord," etc., or deny: "I believe that Jesus Christ was a mere man, most likely the son of Joseph." For as Jesus himself indicates in our text: there is the invincible evidence of Scripture.

One of the real reasons why the Verbal Inspiration of the Scriptures is being attacked with renewed vigor at the present time is the necessity for getting rid of the binding force of the evidence of Scripture on this as well as on other subjects. If the wall of Scripture stands without breach, all who refuse to confess as the Scriptures place the confessional words into our mouth, stand utterly condemned. We need not say even a word; the facts themselves speak in thunderous tones. For ever it remains true that the confessors of the Lord's deity and of all that his deity involves, have the sacred voices of the entire Holy Writ assenting to their confession in grand, unanimous chorus, before the very face of God; while all who make bold to deny have all of these voices of Holy Writ denying their denial with the same overwhelming unanimity, before the face of God. How can this chorus with its testimony for and against be hushed? Many are sure that it can be done when once Verbal Inspiration has been sufficiently invalidated and has been wholly discredited.

How Our Pets Train Us for the Games They Love

Our Lutheran Librarian, Alec Satin, sent me the link to this wonderful book, My Dogs in the Northland, by Egerton R. Young. He took on missionary work in the frozen north, had little in the way of income, and ended up famous for his stories. 

Alec's theory is that pets teach us the games they want to play, allowing us to think we trained them.

Young wrote fascinating descriptions of his special dogs. Jack was a character that could to the butcher shop and bring home the meat in a basket, after taking along the list and the money to pay for them. Another dog became the doctor for the other dogs and treated their wounds and sores. 

Young's wife had her own dogsled, which she used to visit the native Indians in that part of Canada. The cold, snow, ice, and blizzards - carefully described - would make anyone marvel at the sacrifice and endurance of people and animals in the far North.

As everyone knows, Sassy is all personality. She enjoys pranking me, and I see the delight in her eyes when she has turned the tables on me again. Ranger Bob is her enabler but she does well on her own.

She makes a game out of jumping up on her bed (which she lets us use). She can effortlessly flow up to her spot. But if I am around, she needs to stop and whimper and ask for help. She got to the point one night where she took 15 attempts to get up on the bed but never jumped. I was getting peeved, so I saw down instead and petted her face.

Sassy grinned, because that is what she wanted. In fact, she glowed and smiled with affection. When she thinks I am short-changing her, she gives me the arrogant German Shepherd look, which makes me laugh and makes her scowl even more. But this was her affectionate puppy look. I got up and took my place at the computer. She sat down on the rug again with her head resting on the bed - she wanted more. I got up and petted her face and whispered about her great qualities. She had the biggest grin - or was she laughing inside and trying not to show it? I sat down at the computer again, because she did not want to jump up. She sat down a third time, looked over at me, and smiled. Eventually she made the jump, but she had me trained to spot her trick and pet her face, and tug on her ears.

Now Sassy knows she can get loveys from not jumping up on the bed, but sitting down with her head on the bed - aimed at me, "Time for pets!"

Some other great animal books are The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat (another Canadian. I memorized the book, reading it first in elementary school.

And - All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot, English vet, plus many other stories.

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