Creation Garden in Transition

 

 Monty Don, gardening expert.

The Joe Pye Weeds have bloomed, hosting the butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. The plants have done their job, so I am using them for mulch as I cut them down - Little Joe Pye, too. Their enormous production of stems and leaves are ideal for adding more humus to the soil and feeding the small creatures above and below the surface.

I enjoy Monty Don on multiple gardening series. He advocates stuffing the garden full of plants and then thinning them. Many people poke tiny plants into the overturned soil and hope they will have a garden some day.

Last year I started milk weed plants, which thrived this year. I planted two honeysuckle rose vines, which moved someone to yell, "You paid for a weed? My vine was 20 feet long and growing!"

 Cow squares - cows not included.

Honeysuckle is a fan favorite in the South, with unforgettable fragrance and sweet berries - so I wanted support for the two little starts. Jimmy, the repairman, suggested cow squares (not to be confused with square cows). One tendril could not decide where to go, but the other quickly reached six feet. 

The second plant went into the original Butterfly Garden, because I had hopes of it mingling with the fast growing plants around it. Some digging and accidents led to comfrey growing like crazy, mint planted to suffocate the comfrey, Russian sunflowers, two Joe Pyes, and some others growing but not identified. I check on the Honeysuckle Rose to see if it is reaching up on its own. They say, "Honeysuckle rose climbs from the darkness to reach the sun."

Plants commonly called weeds are robust and quick to find a place to thrive. A good way to decide whether it is a weed or not will come from muttering, "What have I done?"

Back to cow squares. Jimmy had plenty so we added the rest of them beyond the Little Joe Pye garden and around the corner.

I am pessimistic about rabbits chewing up edible candidates for the cow squares. Sugar snap peas and cucumbers come to mind. Warty gourds and small pumpkins could work out well, if the squirrels also mind their manners. 

Clethra, also known as Sweet Spice and Cinnabon, attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds with its fragrance. I now have nine of them because plastic collars seemed to keep vegetarian predators away.

In the WELS and Missouri Sects - All Truths Are God's Truths - Except Biblical Truths - Luther and the Book of Concord

 

Only Paul Kelm could encapsulate the errors of Calvinism in so few ill-chosen words. WELS made him appear to be the Second Coming - "When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith?"

 

Tis strange how Ski - a Jeske follower - pretended to have a separate church in a deluxe but broke movie theater. Another Jeske follower replaced Ski and landed on St. Mark's Hour of Power. Kelm briefly sojourned there.

TELL turned into an expensive propaganda tool. The late Robert Hartman just had to boast.

Eight years ago, WELS Pastor Kent Reeder, did his best to out-Kelm Paul Kelm, birthing Illumine, like one of those lab experiments from a midnight monster movie channel. Reeder is on LinkedIn, a good way to find out what individuals say about themselves. One famous LCMS star did that and soon erased his own basic facts - too much revealed.

Luther and the Concordists did not say -

1. Come to my church
2. Find a friend here
3. Embrace the love, have some popcorn and soda
4. Coin a cool name for our (name the sect)  church, and hide the denomination.

The Reformation taught the Bible (Traditional Text, not the Tischendorf-Westcott-Hort) to explain its meaning and to refute errors.

Seductive marketing gimmicks are not effective. They claim the concept but reject the truth - 

The Holy Spirit is always at work in the Word and never apart from the Word.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Holy Trinity Sunday - Guest Sermon - O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!

 

Complete Sermon Link ->Luther's Sermons - Romans 11:33-26. Trinity Sunday

18. Behold, Paul’s purpose in this epistle is to show Christians that these sublime and divine mysteries—that is, God’s actual divine essence and his will, administration and works—are absolutely beyond all human thought, human understanding or wisdom; in short, that they are and ever will be incomprehensible, inscrutable and altogether hidden to human reason.

When reason presumptuously undertakes to solve, to teach and explain these matters, the result is worthless, yea, utter darkness and deception. If anything is to be ascertained, it must be through revelation alone; that is, the Word of God, which was sent from heaven.

19. We do not apply these words of Paul to the question of divine predestination for every human being—who will be saved and who not.

For into these things God would not have us curiously inquire. He has not given us any special revelation in regard to them, but refers all men here to the words of the Gospel. By them they are to be guided. He would have them hear and learn the Gospel, and believing in it they shall be saved.

Therein have all the saints found comfort and assurance in regard to their election to eternal life; not in any special revelation in regard to their predestination, but in faith in Christ. Therefore, where Saint Paul treats of election, in the three chapters preceding this text, he would not have any to inquire or search out whether he has been predestinated or not; but he holds forth the Gospel and faith to all men. So he taught before, that we are saved through faith in Christ. He says (Romans 10:8): “The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart,” and he explains himself by saying that this word should be proclaimed to all men, that they may believe what he says in verses 12 and 13: “For the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

20. But he speaks of the marvelous ruling of God in the Church, according to which they who have the name and honor of being the people of God, and the Church—the people of Israel—are rejected on account of their unbelief. Others, on the other hand, who formerly were not God’s people, but were unbelieving, are now, since they have received the Gospel and believe in Christ, become the true Church in the sight of God, and are saved. Consequently it was on account of their own unbelief that the former were rejected. Then the grace and mercy of God in Christ was offered unto everlasting life, and without any merit of their own, to all such as were formerly in unbelief and sin, if only they would accept and believe it. He declares: “For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.” Romans 11:32.

21. Hereupon follows the text, which Saint Paul begins with emotions of profound astonishment at the judgment and dealings of God in his Church, saying: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!”