Enchanted Peace seems to be lit from the inside. I cut a large group for church and gave them to our neighbor. Ranger Bob and I are going to try lots of wood mulch for the winter. |
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.
Martin Luther Sermons
Bethany Lutheran Hymnal Blog
Bethany Lutheran Church Springdale AR 72762 Reformation Seminary Lectures USA, Canada, Australia, Philippines 10 AM Central - Sunday Service
We use The Lutheran Hymnal and the King James Version
Luther's Sermons: Lenker Edition
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Sunday, September 25, 2022
Sassy Greets the Military Gardening Group
The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2022
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Holy Spirit and the Word
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #309 O Jesus Blessed Lord - Kingo
Announcements and Prayers
- The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John: The Name of God in Exodus 3 is being sent.
- Medical concerns - Anita Engleman, Pastor Jim Shrader, Kermit Way and Maria Way, Randy Anderson, Callie (severe seizures), C. and others.
- One year ago - Norma A. Boeckler received honors from India for her Christian art.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:11 So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:
a) it shall not return unto me void,
b) but it shall accomplish that which I please, and
c) it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Saturday, September 24, 2022
Paperback of The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John: The Name of God in Exodus 3
Is Finished, Not Posted Officially Yet
Yesterday was fun and tiring, finishing up with the Kindle and paperback. Norma A. Boeckler let me know that the book on the parables was already completed on her side - the graphics!
I decided to post each new part on this blog as I completed it. That gives everyone, especially me, an interesting topic. Charles Dickens wrote his enormous novels that way. Hoenecke's Dogmatics was also issued slowly as pamphlets and stitched into hardbound books at the end.
Friday, September 23, 2022
The Glen Kotten and Esther Estrada Wedding - Three MDivs
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Far left - Pastor Jackson, Esther Estrada, Glen Kotten Pastor Jim Shrader, Zach Engleman P.E. and MDiv |
Already in Kindle - $1 - The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John: The Name of God in Exodus
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Norma A. Boeckler created the graphics and the cover of the book. Janie Sullivan did the book and Kindle production. Virginia Roberts did a splendid job of editing. |
Amazon site. Keep that in mind. The review can be short, long, hostile, guarded, or laudatory. Book reviews matter and the Word gets around.
Battle of the Tabloids - Christian Snooze versus ALPB Ovaltine Discussion Group
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Steven Tibbetts, ELCA pastor, ALPB Discussion Forum leader with 10,000 posts, member - STS (high church, smells and bells). |
Thursday, September 22, 2022
Finishing a Book - Relaxing!
I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John - The Name of God in Exodus 3
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This is the frequently copied statue of Jesus by Bertel Thorvaldsen. |
The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John book is due to be sent to Amazon. Janie Sullivan has the copy, which is the last stop along the way to the printers. Virginia Roberts kindly went over the text and - surprise - found more than a few.
I will send it to the usual suspects list, two copies to each, one for sharing. If you anticipate needing more, I will increase the number. Let me know by email.
The usual suspects are on the Amazon list, so it is not too difficult to send them. Contributions come all the time and they cover the cost of books sent out.
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I enjoy having Norma A. Boeckler's art to use in books. She created more just for this book. |
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
The I AM Sermons Are in the Last Stage of Publishing
Sending a book off is a combination of pain and exhilaration. I am sure I will find something wrong the moment I open up the first copy - and that is inevitable. On the other hand, I am excited to see it in print because I believe the actual Greek of these sermons, from Jesus Himself, conveys more than I am. The two words in Greek match the Voice from the Burning Bush.
That also fits into the historic identification of the Burning Bush as a representation of the Incarnate Son of God - Two Natures in One. The bush burns but remains whole.
A wonderful book is one of my all-time favorites - The Two Natures in Christ by Chemnitz.
For Text Criticism - aka Lower Criticism - A New Source Revealing Its Depravity
Finishing the I AM book led me to a series of quotations showing how corrupt - or maybe lazy - the critics of the Greek New Testament are.
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Almost Ready To Send The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John - The Name of God in Exodus 3 Book
Monday, September 19, 2022
New Book Almost Done - The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John - The Name of God in Exodus 3
I am going over the edits of Virginia Roberts tonight, to finish The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John: The Name of God in Exodus 3.
Tomorrow morning, I will do another edit to finish and to send off to Janie Sullivan. The book will be full color only and about 50 pages long, trade paperback size.
I should mention that Dr. Bruce Church offered an important insight on the general use of common Greek in the days of Jesus. That was the universal language at the time of Jesus. Speaking Aramaic would have limited His audiences. I grew up and grew old under the false claim that the New Testament was first written in Aramaic; also, the argument that no "is" exists in Aramaic, so that voids the Real Presence, so they imagine.
Thanks to the progress of the computer and summer Greek courses (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in Koine, to pretend seminarians know Greek) - nobody knows New Testament Greek from reading it in its context instead of using cute little phrases that might impress the congregation.
The question is not whether Jesus meant to equate Himself with God, but why no one seems interested in that fact. Those highly educated Jewish scholars, like St. Paul, certainly knew Greek as well as they knew Hebrew. When Jesus said "I AM" to the soldiers arresting Him, they fell back in terror. When the Jewish leaders taunted Him about His true identity in Mark (which is supposed to be the Unitarian Gospel for learned scholars), Jesus said, "I AM." That was a confession of His divinity. The Jewish leader tore his garment in ritual distress. They knew the truth from His raising of Lazarus, but they needed the confession.
My favorite contemporary professors are Brett Meyer, Zach Engelman, Pastor Jim Shrader, Terry Howell, Ed Buck, Dr. Lito Cruz, Randy Anderson, and Alec Satin.
My favorite theology professors are the sainted Otto Heick (Waterloo), Nils Dahl (Yale), Paul Holmer (Yale), Abraham Malherbe (Yale), and Roland Bainton (Yale). Still alive, Robert Wilson (Yale) was a new PhD, earned at Yale when I studied Genesis in Hebrew under him. Malherbe, Dahl, and Wilson veered me away from the modernist, Unitarian theories I learned in favor of studying the text itself. As Dahl said with unusual force, "The text! The text! All we really know is the text of the Bible."
Our little Bethany Lutheran Church in Springdale, Arkansas, is full of encouraging members. They always urge me forward to complete new projects, and I enjoy the support and the question, "What is next?" Answer - The Synoptic Parables.
We have almost 10 million views from the main blog - Ichabod, and 20,000 posts (some copied and cited). I am happy to know that "Nobody reads Ichabod" (ELS pastor) and that I have "No credibility" as he said on the phone.
Just over a year ago, Christina - my best and most diligent cheerleader - passed into eternal life after 55 years of love, laughter, disasters, and defenestrations. I still feel the overwhelming loss, but now I know that Christina's influence will continue in whatever I can do.
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Christina's engagement photo. I was especially pleased to have her sister Maria and her husband Kermit Way attend the funeral service. |
Predestination - From Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry
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The Synod leaders say "No!" |
(Luther:) “We should with all diligence guard against arguing predestination; for this, through Satan’s influence, leads men to pay no regard to God and the sacraments, and to look upon Christ rather as a cruel tyrant and hangman, than a Savior.”
“By no means dispute about predestination. Dr. Staupitz advised me and said: If you would argue about predestination, begin at the wounds of Christ and all disputation about predestination will cease at once. For if we give way to it, and argue about it much, Christ, His Word and Sacrament, must give way: I will forget Christ and God. By indulging in these thoughts I will regard God as wicked and cruel… . In predestination we will forget God — the cantate will cease and the blasphemate begin.”
From Columbus Theological Magazine, Vol. 3. “Missouri’s Infatuation By Rev. P. Eirich, Hoboken, N. J. Third And Last Article.”