We Long for Rain and Then Take It for Granted

 

 Photo by Tom Fisher

We had two days where it rained a bit, and that was appreciated. Before that, when Charli Sue ran or dug in the backyard, clouds of dust billowed from the clay soil.

But now we have an evening of severe thunderstorms coming up. Everything is green, rain barrels are overflowing, and few people feel a craving for more rain.

 Nine Clethra shrubs are growing and blooming, the smallest only knee-high.

God's Creation lays out a map for us, what we should expect in the long run. Jesus said, "The sun rises on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just (believers) and on the unjust (non-believers.

KJV Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

One readers likes to ask if my rain barrels are emptied for the next rain - without being mosquito maternity wards. Lacking rain, the barrels and the soil dry up, and sprinkling is only a little bit effective. Watering shriveled plants is discouraging, especially when we look at the current results.

Is this an herb brought over to America for its many benefits or "just a weed" filling the coffers of Scotts Lawn and Garden?

Be patient. This is all about congregations. The garden gets very discouraging at the end of summer, when few people buy gardening equipment and plants and tenacious weeds find many places to grow and thrive.

Spring brings a new look, especially when snow melt and sunlight prompt a revelation. The half-dead, feeble, dying plants show themselves as eager, growing, budding - elbowing and overshadowing the weeds. The roots work all winter and the bulbs popping up in the early spring add to the color and charm.

Discouraged gardeners mutter about all their problems. They openly suggest replacing the gardens with green-tinted concrete. That is the problem. Dis-couraged means lacking courage and faith. If the whole world responded with such pessimism, we would be eating frozen food made from algae. Mmmmm-yuk.

Joe Pye Weed is medicinal, attracts butterflies and bees. It improves the soil's nutrition and water storage.

God's Creation is full of surprises. Roots provide 75% of the organic matter added to the soil, much appreciated by the earthworms and an army of soil creatures, including moles, ants, beetles, larvae. Deep roots provide channels for rain and underground storage. Seven foot Joe Pye Weed is the trust fund for water and nutrition, farming the water supply and organic matter, giving and taking. Shrubs like Clethra (Cinnabon or Sweet Spice) need water and send roots down for aeration and storage, rewarding the soil creatures with mulch and leaf litter.

The congregational parallel is impossible to miss. There are two major church themes - essential and yet almost entirely neglected by Fuller dolts, synod officials, and rationalists: 

1. The efficacy of the Word and 
2. Faith in Jesus Christ.

Word of God - Effective

The Word of God is just as effective as the rain and snow - it never returns void, it accomplishes God's will, and it prospers God's will.

The Word of God is active and energetic in all its forms, because the Holy Spirit never works apart from it. The Word never lacks the Spirit, and the Spirit is never divided from the Word.

That means a church should emphasize the Scriptures in their best form (King James Version) and trust in their power. 

Faith in Jesus Christ, The Son of God, Savior

Pursuing the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel, I was struck by the practical advice given but clearly ignored by the soi-disant Lutherans. The work of the Holy Spirit is to teach sin - "because they do not believe in Me."

1. There are your Fuller DMins (pronounced Demons).
2. There are your phony success stories.
3. There are your millions of dollars wasted on carnival style snake-oil salesmen.
4. There are your dumb and lazy clergy who labor in the carnivals and bars, neglecting the vineyards.

Guess what? The Evil Four Bibles plus Beck deny these two elements - efficacy and faith in Jesus Christ. They have erased and distorted the eloquent and simple divine Word in favor of their own philosophies, dogmatics (yay the adulterous Barth and Tillich), and deism (no Trinity).

Faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins when the Gospel Word is planted in our hearts. The Spirit dwells in us and keeps us within the flock, listening to faithful shepherds and following them to the green pastures of the Faith and the quiet waters of forgiveness through faith in Him.

Gardens are peaceful and beautiful in whatever form they take.

 Photo by Tom Fisher

The Fear and the Rainstorm

One seminary student was about to graduate. He was filled with dread about all the things he was supposed to do. He listed them all. I went through my mental check list as I read it. Only one thing was missing - preaching and teaching faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

The farmer at the dinner table said, "We need rain." I was aching to say, "I'm in sales, not management." It reminded me of the installation of an ELS pastor. The air was so heavy with thunderstorm implications that I said to Christina before the service, "Lightning and rains during the sermon." 

During the sermon, lightning began flashing with thunder breaking loose, sometimes far, sometimes directly over our heads. I was up front, robed, so I had a chance to look at her for every thunderclap. How many husbands have a chance to say, "I was right! I was right! I was right! I was right!" I did not miss a boom, crash, or explosion of energy.

One person said afterwards, during the reception, "That is a million-dollar storm."

On the way home from Minnesota, rain began to fall in stingy amounts, then more and more until the traffic added its own fog of tossed rain into the air. A McDonalds worker said, "We need that rain. The lawns are burning up." I added, "Not to mention the crops." 

Did anyone say, "The rain will not have any results at all"? No. Nor did anyone suggest buying something that really worked in Hoboken and that gimmick would surely work everywhere if used the right way. They knew in Minnesota and Iowa that they needed rain, not a sprinkle, not a cloud-burst, but a good old-fashioned gulley washer.

 "Please do not ask me about Gasoline - or anything else."

When someone quotes "Lord, Liar, Lunatic," I know he favors two out of three.

God is so patient with us that He established the parable (to stretch the term) of the snow and rain coming down, always having a three-fold effect, attaching that fact of Creation to the Word of God. Like the rain and snow, God's Word will

1. Never return to Him void;
2. Always accomplish His purpose;
3. Prosper His will.

Isaiah 53:8 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 (1) the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but (2) watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that (3) 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: (1) it shall not return unto me void, but (2) it shall accomplish that which I please, and (3) it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

The entire Bible is filled with references and paraphrases about the effectiveness of the Word, the work of the Holy Spirit always effective through the Word. Remember that nitwit teaching Universalism to the LCMS youth? "Everyone! Everyone!" He put his adverb - always - in the wrong place. The Word of God is always effective, and nothing else is. Nothing! Nothing!

Nothing makes me more suspicious than a Universalist videotaping himself in front of 300 unread theology books. Borgwart is not the only one.

So put down your worn Fuller-Willow Creek-Church Growth manuals.

HERE I STAND SOCKS. Clearance price, CPH. Is this when you knew it was all over for Matt the Fatt?

The manuals are why the LCMS-ELCA-ELS-WELS-CLC-ELDONA fail so spectacularly. They would likely buy expensive umbrellas to jump out of airplanes, because they heard that works.

So I came home from my 1,400 mile round-trip north, finding the gardens at home watered but still wilting in the 105 degree days. Rain is coming soon, and I know exactly what will happen. 

Is this not a bonk-on-head reminder for all Gospel churches, all faithful congregations? We have a self-imposed drought - NOT RELYING ON GOD'S WORD - purchased for millions of dollars, cleverly exploited by apostates waving their magic wands and pocketing their commissions:

• Waldo Werning
• David Valleskey
• Paul Calvin Kelm
• Lawrence Otto-B Retired Olson
• And many more.

 When David Valleskey, Fuller student (depending on the audience) said we should use the treasures of Fuller Seminary, much like the Exodus escape, I said to the Ohio Conference group - "They stole the gold and precious gems, not the garbage." Valleskey became visibly angry. The entire (tiny and shrinking) conference shunned me from that moment on. The Word is indeed effective. 

Rain - And Its Absence - Should Teach Us about the Effectiveness of God's Word

 Some efficacy posts are found here.

This Isaiah 55:10-11 passage is the central teaching point about efficacy in the Bible, but not the only one. The Efficacy Motherlode is linked here. Shorter links are under the graphic by Norma A. Boeckler.

There are three points in Isaiah 55 about the efficacy of God's Word, and they are so inclusive that all other passages relate to these verses, and they also serve to quash and destroy man-made illusions, dreams, and con jobs.

Just like the snow and rain coming down:

1. God's Word is always effective.
2. God's Word is never lacking in its effectiveness. This is a double negative that excludes any flimsy excuses or exceptions. 
3. God's Word prospers the object of God's will, so we can never be discouraged (no courage) or disheartened (no heart).

References to the Triune God are found in groups of three, just as we find those groups in Genesis 1 and John 1.

I bought a few bare root roses this spring and planted them after a good soak in rain water barrels. Rain water lacks chlorine and is abundant in usable nitrogen. Tap water is abundant in chlorine and lacks nitrogen. One source is from God, one is from man.

Bare root roses are not going to leaf out and grow without enough rain, so I harvest rain from the custom rain barrel and add what God has already begun. Now every new rose, every veteran rose, and every wild rose is leafing out and starting to bud.

I enjoy that because I know how little I do to grow spectacular roses. 

God's Word Never Returns Void

The moment someone says that their efforts with the Gospel have not accomplished something, they are violating this anchor point. The hysterical church leaders lack faith in Jesus Christ and His Word, so they run to Fuller, Trinity Divinity, and the Willow Creek Womanizing Cult to become successful, honored, promoted, and united with fellow felons of Fuller.

Who are we to judge the results of God's Word? WELS training is so bad that they encourage docile seminarians to "test the soil!" So where is soil-testing in Isaiah or anywhere else in the Bible? Sorry, the Sower Parable repudiates testing the soil because the living Seed of the Word is tossed with abandon but is overwhelmingly productive. 

All the Lutheran sects are "scientific" and imbued with the "treasures" of sociology. They are melting faster than a July frost.

God's Word Is Always Effective

The effective Word certainly stirs up wrath and revenge, but the Beatitudes address that. We have gradually grown with such anti-Fuller concepts as 

• The King James Version, 
• The Lutheran Hymnal, 
• traditional liturgy, and 
• Luther's Sermons.

The district president and mission chair who defended and promoted clergy adultery in Columbus, Ohio have gone to their reward. The new district president, a reformer in the mold of Buchholz and Schroeder, gave a known clergy adulterer a new call. But that is how the apostates roll. Proud of their lies and bullying, they only advance the Kingdom while befouling their cozy nests. Are you a drunken, lying pastor? Win a free trip to Russia with all the wodka you can drink. Do not ask why synodical leaders are so fond of alcoholic and adulterous clergy.

God Always Prospers His Will

The positive aspects of God's Word are strengthened for us - who cave easily - by making His power in the Word so clear that we cannot refute it or work against it. Our frail and laughable methods of measuring are usually the opposites of God's work. Big church, big parsonage, big pastor limo. Boom. Crash. Suddenly everything is gone, locked up or given away to their Father Below. I collect photos of those disasters. 

Only the eternal treasures of the Gospel, faith in Jesus Christ, matter. What does a charlatan say when he boasts? "We just got over $2 million from the foundation where the rich man drove his wife to suicide. What a blessing for us!"

 Listen up, son, and this could be yours one day!

 The Pope owns the Crystal Cathedral!

Subordinate Steps Back for the Master Gardener To Take Over

 Enchanted Peace Rose

Sunday was a perfect, sun-shining day, though the birds seemed a bit nervous. They not only have radar (in a manner of speaking) but also a great sensitivity to barometer readings.

 The Clethra, known for its tiny bottle brush blooms, exudes a sweet and cinnamon fragrance, often by surprise.

By afternoon, with no winds in sight, we could see that the brooding clouds were warning us. Sunday landscapers pruned trees and bushes. Sassy supervised while I began pouring wood mulch around the new and old rose bushes, with additional attention paid to the mature Clethra bushes - known as Summer-sweet and Sweet Spice. I call it the Cinnabon tree because the breeze will carry an enchanting aroma to visitors and workers alike, but not so early in the season.

 Queen Elizabeth, developed by a Lutheran Creationist, is still on the throne as one of the best roses in the world. His other famous rose, Chrysler, has outlasted the car and corporation.

 Bees love the way Bee Balm provides so much food while they are blooming. Hummers love them too. Tiny flowers have little glory for most people, but they make up for bloom size with their constant parade of airborne visits.

The Military Gardening Group split after lunch to get things done before the predicted week of rain. The radar predicted a massive system moving west to east, starting in the wee hours of Monday. 

I mulched the new roses, the mature Clethras, and the mature roses not appearing to have gone wild. (Scholars are divided until the wild bushes bloom dark red.) I filled several holes where the messy Spirea bushes were removed. Last of all, the Rugosa rose, known for its hardiness and big hips, got a new wooden floor. Rugosa roses are tough and tolerate drought, but they love attention for their fruit - the large, bright red pods known as hips. In theory, that is the only rose I let go to seed. Birds and squirrels enjoy the fruit (hips) and people make tea and Vitamin C tablets from them.

I am just a subordinate in gardening. The Thunderstorms of the Creator seem to say, "Step aside. I will water and fertilize the plants with water and usable nitrogen. I will wake up the sleeping plants and soften the soil for earthworms. All the soil creatures will multiply and hold that rain in their bodies as new generations form."

Isaiah 55: 6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 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, 

c - and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Joe Pye Weed Arrives - My Rainwater Methods

Today the Joe Pye Weed arrived, 10 plants carefully wrapped and each one positioned in a box to arrive whole, looking great.

Growers Exchange is the only place where I buy herbs.

I had to chase a bunny out of the back garden, where I planted six of them. While I was gathering up tools and trash, he hopped back, doubtless curious about what was new on his menu. I chased him away, yelling, "Not your garden. Get out." He hopped a few steps and waited. I pursued him until he was in the front yard.

Rain Water - Always for Planting

My mother's secret recipe was either 1) rainwater, or 2) stored water to let the chlorine evaporate out. Her school room flowers bloomed while others drooped. The teachers asked her secret; she smiled.

When plants arrive, I soak them for hours if possible. We have an all-night rain coming, so I gave them a few minutes of rainwater, then a soaking at the end.

Roses get several days of soaking, the bottom half only.

Plants can be immersed before digging them in, but not overnight. The more fragile ones, like Bee Balm, will start to die from too much water.

Rain water lacks chlorine and has usable nitrogen for the plants. During a storm, tons of nitrogen come down and green up everything, as noted in Isaiah 55:8ff.

I have rain-barrels and buckets all over the back, where the roof collects and dumps the water. I usually have a supply, and if not, I fill a garbage pail with Springdale water to let the chlorine evaporate out.

Yes, I dump water out from the barrels to avoid mosquitoes multiplying.

Rainwater for Doting on Flowers

One member (name withheld) kids me about dumping rainwater from the barrels, filling in the sentence for me - "because rain is coming."

I pick flowers to dote on so they grow even better. I did that with the slow-growing Crepe Myrtle, which now reaches up to the kitchen sink window. The plant grew faster and flowered better than its "drought tolerant" identical brothers in the front yard.

A day or two after a rain, I will pour a bucket on the kitchen window Crepe Mytle, for continued growth and flowering. I saw damage that could only have been caused by a Fluffy-Tailed Food Thief, aka a young squirrel. Looking closer, tender new branches were torn off on one side.

Over-watering can be bad from the garden hose, but it seems fairly difficult to over-water with stored rainwater. Last year was such an extended deluge that I saw lack of growth (little sun) but no death from extensive rain storms followed by more of the same. I did not use rainwater supplements.

I was happy to get the garbage barrels out of the flooded backyard, several times rolling the barrels through the house to avoid sinking into the mire, with muddy groan, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

How Lutherans Got Lost. Foundations for Calvinism in American Lutherdom

To take back our neighbor's garbage barrel, I opened the gate to Mrs. Gardener's backyard. Their two dogs, Chuckee and Skinny, greeted me and ran for the western horizon. I followed them for a time but lost sight of both, running toward the Interstate, spurred onward by my calls. I could imagine the voices on my way back, "You opened the gate and let them out?"

Lutherans let the basic Biblical principles escape, too.

Any casual reader can find all the historical inroads for Calvinism in the American Lutheran Church. One was the Prussian Union effort (promoted by Schleiermacher, Halle University grad). Another was the blend of Calvin and Luther in Pietism. Spener is rightly called
"the first union theologian" in Heick's book. (He was our friend and my professor at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.)

Besides all that, each branch of American Lutheranism can be traced back to Pietism, especially the CFW Walther circle who followed their cell group guru, Martin Stephan, obsequiously.

However, the most important part of this doctrinal decline is the failure to teach basic Biblical principles. Not knowing these truths well means the door is open to Calvinism and a host of other isms.

I. Efficacy of the Word

The efficacy of the Word, which means the Spirit and Word always work together and never apart from each other. This is taught with utmost clarity in Isaiah 55, but also throughout the Old and New Testament.

In contrast, Calvin repeatedly stated in his works (see Benjamin Milner) that the Spirit is sovereign and may or not be present in the Word and Sacrament.

 Sig Becker enjoyed adoration for his Objective Justification nonsense. The LCMS and WELS began with Justification by Faith, not OJ.

II. The Ministerial Use of Reason

The Bible is inerrant and infallible, but that definition loses all value when people teach that we must use our human reason, tradition, or both - to judge the Word of God. Sig Becker, who blindly followed Walther in many ways, wrote wisely about this in The Foolishness of God. The Bible is the master, the teacher, so we subordinate our reason and experience to the Scriptures - the ministerial use of reason.

Deviously, the Calvinists repeat the inerrancy language but teach the Word is dead and lifeless unless we use our reason to make it real, relational, and relevant (the slogan of The CORE, WELS).

This perverse approach has led modern theologians, led by Barth-Kirschbaum, to consider the language of the Bible as something to play with, admire, distort, change, and improve. Calvinists are the ultimate improvers, and Barth-Kirschbaum hated Luther.

III. The Means of Grace

Our world is hopelessly in love with the media, but forgetful of the media gratiae, Latin for the Means of Grace. Everyone speaks well of God's grace, as they should. However, the Calvinists have stolen the Means of Grace from Lutherans - or the Lutherans have given them up.

The Lutheran Reformers were quite emphatic and clear about invisible Word of teaching and preaching, the visible Word of the Sacraments being the only means or instruments of God's grace.

Lazy know-it-alls like Jack Cascione and Phil Hale think they are so cool in following the Calvinist line of thinking. Everyone is already forgiven (and saved)! Calvin loved to mock to efficacy of the Sacraments in his Institutes. But is it not mockery to teach everyone is born forgiven and then baptize babies, for forgiveness, washing, renewal, and rebirth?

And it is additional sacrilege and blasphemy to say everyone is already forgiven - just tell them so - and administer Holy Communion "for the forgiveness of sin!"

IV. Justification by Faith

So many clergy are poorly educated, mis-educated, and trained to hate the Scriptures and Luther. Not only the ELCA aspirants, but also the illiterate are "sent empty away" - from The Fort, Concordia St. Louis, Mordor in Mequon, the Little Seminary on the Prairie, and the almost empty CLC (sic) M.Div. program.

Because the nominal Lutherans have learned to play with the Scriptures - like Calvinists, they see and yet do not see the Chief Article in Genesis 15:6, Romans 4, Galatians, or anywhere else. They read about the Atonement and issue their rebel yell - "Objective Justification, all through the Bible!"

I could cite the academic world outside of the Stephan-Walther cult, but what really matters is the clear teaching of the Bible. We do not need to untangle the SynCon mythologies to understand the Scriptures.

The Book of Concord and Chemnitz are clear about Justification by Faith, as are Gerhard and Calov. When Robert Preus published devastating quotations against OJ, and people noticed, his son dropped Justification and Rome from his citations. Likewise, Rolf stopped chanting "Raised for our justification, Romans 4:25!" and "Behold the Lamb of God!"

V. The Traditional Text

We should not ignore the insidious effect of taking away the traditional text of the Bible in favor of the "scientific view." All the Lutheran groups promote the modern translations, which generate a lot of loot for them. They do not even bring up the King James Version or any Bible in that family (NKJV, KJV21, Third Millenium, etc) - because they adhere to the traditional text.

Is that not just like Calvin to play with the text, based on rules invented by Westcott, Hort, and Tischendorf? If one verse is shorter or longer than another, then it is preferred. Yes, I know that is a contradiction. My favorite is this one - The reading that is more difficult is the better one. Difficult? - more heretical!

Luther and his team of scholars produced the standard German Bible, to supplant lesser efforts. Luther established the German language from that Bible, and I still consult it for his reading of the text. One does not find Luther's Bible "making disciples" or laying down fog on the Sacraments.

So Tyndale modeled his translation on the Luther Bible and was burned at the stake by the King of England for his efforts. A future King of England published the standard English Bible, with Tyndale's work (Team Luther's in English) as the foundation. Translating is a special talent and few are capable of being great language students and translators.

Tyndale Wikipedia

Moynahan writes: "A complete analysis of the Authorised Version, known down the generations as 'the AV' or 'the King James' was made in 1998. It shows that Tyndale's words account for 84% of the New Testament and for 75.8% of the Old Testament books that he translated."^[57] Joan Bridgman makes the comment in the Contemporary Review that, "He [Tyndale] is the mainly unrecognised translator of the most influential book in the world.

Good News! 

Skinny caught up with me while I was moping on my way home. She joyously jumped me, bumped me, followed and ran ahead of me. I let her into her backyard and told her owner. He said,  "Don't worry. Chuckee will come back and sit on the front patio. She always does."

Biblical doctrine can come back too.

Learning and Teaching a Theme of the Bible

Start with John 16 - or -

Isaiah 55.

If someone can get the dogmatics statements past these two anchor points of the Bible, well done! But the mountain of garbage being foisted on Lutherans today cannot pass the test.

The Holy Spirit passages judge everything written or taught by man.

The neo-quasi-semi-demi Lutherans want to talk about Jesus, but what does Jesus say about sin and forgiveness? The foundation of sin is unbelief. Forgiveness comes through faith in Jesus.

What is the work of the apostles, the Church, the Holy Spirit? Their work is to preach against unbelief. Hold that stick of UOJ-margarine up to the light of the Scriptures, and the faux-spread melts away, looking more like paint than food.

Appeal to their felt needs (Kelm) - No. Gather friends for them (Valleskey) - No. Teach them they were born forgiven (LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC sic) - No.

If we are utterly convinced from the Word that the Spirit is always at work in the Word and never apart from the Word, we know to use the only powerful and effective Shield and Weapon.

The Spirit passages of the Bible are also in harmony with the passages about the Word. Our confidence grows in the Spirit-Word combination when we see its astonishing power. Pious, flabby milquetoast synod officials fly into a rage, and the blind-in-doctrine see. Uncountable blessings follow and so does the cross.

The clergy have been taught and seduced into thinking that blessings will follow their obedience to Holy Mother Sect. I have seen them dart their eyes around in fear when something forbidden was discussed - like apostasy, DP and SP crimes. What if someone hears me? They are afraid of DP Jellybelly but not God! DP Jellybelly will feed him, but God will walk away?

I want all the SPs to be re-elected until their work crumbles around them. No one seeking office will make anything different, but the power of the Spirit in the Word is so great that the Word alone can do what God wills, often in seconds, sometimes over decades and centuries.

Hauling Rainwater - In Certainty, Not in Doubt about the Results. Can This Be the Key?

We have rain tentatively forecast for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, but with more certainty Easter Sunday. After Sassy's morning walk in cool air yesterday, I began hauling rainwater from our four barrels and four large paint-buckets.

The newly protected Crepe Myrtle twigs were already leafing out, so they received more hand-delivered rain. So did the two Queen Elizabeth roses, certain other roses, and the Butterfly Bushes in the backyard. The roses along Mr. Gardener's fence got special treatment.

Later I used the sprinkler on the main rose garden, finishing with a cold shower for Big Pink, the Crepe Myrtle I have doted upon since we moved here. Once again, the pyramid of organic matter placed under the bush was flattened by the soil life that feeds the roots. They could say, "We wintered in Crepe Myrtle." Jealous microbes and earthworms would say, "I always wanted to winter in Crepe, but I worry about the Category 5 moles that frequent that location."

I am the only one in this neighborhood hauling rainwater, but then again, I am the only one sharing roses all over Northwest Arkansas. I enjoy pouring rainwater on the plants because I have no doubts about the results. The struggling plants get rainwater to give them strength and health. The ones growing abundantly get rainwater to make them even more fruitful.

The three-fold Promises of God apply first to rain and snow.

1. Rain and snow never return to God without effect.
2. Rain and snow always accomplish His purpose.
3. Rain and snow always prosper His will, whatever that might be. 

Those Promises are metaphors for the efficacy of the Word, so we identify the Word of God with the unmistakable power of the snow and rain upon God's Creation. Our artist-in-residence, Norma Boeckler, wrote to us about repeated flooding of the lowlands where she lives. I asked, "Snowmelt." Yes, that was the cause - so the water-table will be raised in her area and the soil moist and especially fertile for spring planting. 

Intense snowfall and rains have remarkable effects on the normal features of the landscape. I sat next to a retired agriculture professor in one waiting room, and we discussed the plant and tree changes caused by repeated eight-inch rainfalls. In Phoenix, excessive rains make the area bloom with opportunistic plants that only set seed when the water is available. California is enjoying that rebirth this spring.

I even saved rainwater in one barrel for some long-legged beauties, famous for their perfume, who will arrive today and stay a long time. The Lincolns are expected today and will be placed in rainwater to hydrate and get ready to root themselves in the main rose garden. Even our limo is a Lincoln, so what do readers expect in the garden?

Sassy loves her Lincoln,
especially when going to Walmart and Lowe's.

The clergy who want to be known as experts love to debate trivia. Can those who use individual cups for communion be saved? Is the Missouri or WELS concept of Fuller ministry more God-pleasing? Who is our favorite Synod President to continue the road to perdition?

Professor-Pastor-District President Lenski summed up the ministry with a reference to the efficacy of the Word - "Programs come and go. Only the Word builds up the Church."

There - I just saved someone $20,000 in loans for a Fuller Seminary drive-by D.Min degree. Millions of dollars in synodical programs will be shut down at the same time. No? Of course not - they continue to rely on Dame Reason, which teaches them that money must be spent for results, for they truly rely on the efficacy of the dollar. "Spend abundantly that thou mayest reap abundantly, especially for thyself."

Inescapable Truth of Isaiah 55

The inescapable truth of Isaiah 55 completely unlocks the ministry. Once learned, it cannot be unlearned - so it is seldom taught anywhere. Nor is the efficacy of the Word in the New Testament mentioned much at all in all the academic literature of the windbags called Biblical scholars.

Here is that truth - foundational for all of Luther's writings and the Lutheran Reformation - "The Spirit never works without the Word, and the Word never works without the Spirit."

Fuller Asked - And Dame Reason Responded

Trinity ELCA Lutheran Seminary in Columbus provided me with every Church Growth book ever written up to that point. Their theme was simple - look at an airplane and ask, "How does it work? What makes it fly?" And apply that to large and growing congregations. Find out what makes them work. 

Dame Reason responded by listing the personality traits of the ministers and the programs of the parish. Apostate synodical leaders said, "Fuller and Willowcreek have done the research and have the answers for us. We only need to study at Fuller and the cloned bee-hives to unlock the secrets of growth."

Never mentioned - sow the Word of God and God will work His will. The seed even grows secretly when we are asleep or away, if Jesus is to be trusted on this.

Mark 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

In Isaiah 55, God does not promise to accomplish our will but His will. That is why so many synodical smart-alecs wrestle the ministry from God - Who has done a good job up to now. They hand it over to the whispering seductions of Satan, the energy behind Dame Reason.

The Efficacy of God's Word - Seldom Tried, Never Taught
The poor Lutheran seminarian must find these things out for himself, because the synodical professors are synod salesmen and public relations executives for Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy, or the popes of Pasadena and Willowcreek.

And why are their students' eyes blinded? They have magnificent libraries, often in their own rooms and digitally inscribed on their computers.

WELS has a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, but teaches that this splendid one volume commentary on the Bible is "boring and irrelevant." Justification by Faith statements in their own seminary curriculum are labeled MISLEADING! - lest the future pastor fall into Luther's doctrine - and Paul's - by mistake.

The LCMS piously subscribes to that same quia subscription to the Book of Concord, which must be a powerful anaesthetic, since many of the clergy and all the leaders are asleep. Some are like zombies, sleep-walking while repeating the maxims of Universalism, insisting that CFW Stephan-Walther is the Great Prophet, dreaming that Luther's Reformation anticipated the ethereal insights of Halle University and the OJ/SJ of Calvinism.

Counter-Attack
If Dame Reason guides the apostate synods, which are no better than the ELCA they covet, then something must be done. As I recall, the hymn is "Fear Not, Little Flock" rather than "Rock On, Mega-Church."

Here is a modest program carried out by our little congregation and a blog no one reads - except for 6,000 views two days in a row.

The sermons are almost always expository, explaining the Biblical text for that day, verse by verse. They are delivered, broadcast over the Internet, and published. Links are leveraged by Google Plus and Facebook.

We post Luther's sermon for that Sunday or holy day, through the blog, Facebook, and Google Plus.

Holy Communion is celebrated, following the norms of the Book of Concord.

We do not have or advocate the meaningless quia subscription to the Book of Concord. We just teach what it teaches. Therefore, we do not agree with the "boring and irrelevant" subscription of WELS, either.

The books of Martin Chemnitz Press are supported by people who allow most titles to be given away.

Most days begin with a doctrinal post on this blog.

We use Norma Boeckler's beautiful artwork on the blog, in books, and shared on Facebook.

I visit members and give them Holy Communion as opportunity allows.

We are teaching a class on New Testament Greek for anyone who wants to attend via Ustream or by watching the videos saved on Facebook.

In our neighborhood and community, I give away Bibles when requested. That includes a Gospel of John in Spanish (twice) when someone was studying Spanish. The latest is my wife's surgeon.

Walking with Sassy allows me to talk to a wide variety of neighbors. One became a Lutheran before she died, against her cult's wishes. My wife and I visited her often and saw her in the hospital, at her request. She watched the Sunday service each week, after she asked for the Ustream link.

Giving away roses allows me to talk about Creation with everyone who admires them. Giving away the Creation Gardening book has been easy - here and other places where I send multiple copies for that purpose. A waitress and her husband loved the book. She said, "I like the way you combine gardening and faith." I do not know how the two can be separated. My favorite gardening experts (three Facebook friends) see how I move from gardening to the Christian Faith.

I still buy large amounts of seed when possible, and share the extras. Sowing in abundance may only result in chubbier squirrels and rabbits at the moment, but the approach bears fruit in time. I enjoy having wonders blooming in front of me and bearing fruit in abundance - and hearing visitors gasp at what God has done.

Likewise I have seen the Word of God bearing fruit abundantly in many places, even when crossing carefully guarded synod lines.

 John 15:1-10 is my guide for growing roses.