Little White Dustmop Breaches Security Fence, Gets Dogs Dogs Barking and Running

 

Charlie Sue was resting after breakfast when she responded to the woof-woof of our neighbor's Great Pyrenees. I opened the backdoor and let Charlie tear over to the left, where she normally races.

I heard loud knocking, went to the front door - no one there! Then our neighbor soon came back to report a breach in the fence. The tiny, fluffy new dog - dubbed Little White Dustmop - tunneled under the fence! This crime also engaged the dog-sitter's troop who were yammering on the right side of my backyard. The pug directly behind our yard might have been barking, but it was too chaotic to tell.

Ranger Bob nicknamed LWD, sounding something like Popeye muttering against tiny, noisy dogs. Dustmop was happy to be captured and handed back over the fence. "My dog dug under the fence." I said, "All three of them dug under it. We need close the breaches."

Charlie Sue has established that she is the recreation director for all four yards. She loves to challenge them for a run with her sharp, pointed, barks.

 

Alec Satin's Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry

 

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The Story of Our Hymns by Ernest Edwin Ryden

This volume has been inspired by a desire on the part of the author to create deeper love for the great lyrics of the Christian Church… To know the hymns of the Church is to know something of the spiritual strivings and achievements of the people of God throughout the centuries.

Ernest Edwin Ryden

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The Columbus Theological Magazine Vol. 18, Matthias Loy, Editor

This volume includes “Of the Two Natures of Christ” by Martin Chemnitz, “The Doctrine of Infant Salvation,” “Some Hindrances to Jewish Missions (and how to remove them),” “Liberty and the Reformation” by Matthias Loy, and others!

Matthias Loy, Conrad Herman Louis Schuette, George Henry Schodde

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The Eisenach Epistle Selections by Richard C. H. Lenski

Updated to include working table of contents (2023-Sept.) Richard C. H. Lenski (1864-1936) is best known for his insightful and still invaluable series of New Testament Commentaries. He served as Professor of Theology at Capital University and President of the Western District of Joint Synod of Ohio and Editor Die Lutherische Kirchenzeitung.

Richard C. H. Lenski

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The Columbus Theological Magazine Vol. 17, Matthias Loy, Editor

This volume includes “Christ and the Sabbath” by P A Peter, “City Missions” by Simon Peter Long, “The Fourteenth Article of the Augustana” by J Humberger, and a “Short History of Higher Criticism” by G Finke.

Matthias Loy, Conrad Herman Louis Schuette, George Henry Schodde

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The Madness of David Baring by Joseph Hocking

Is Christianity Marxist? David Baring is a young Cambridge graduate who unexpectedly comes into a large fortune. Circumstances cause him to wonder if a rich man can really tell if he is loved for himself, or only for his money.

Joseph Hocking

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Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 15 - "But it is one thing to have possessions and another to serve them; to have mammon, and to make a god out of it."

 

 The Lost Dutchman's Goldmine

Trinity 15 Complete Sermon - God or Mammon. Exhortation Against Avarice and Anxiety for Temporal Things, and an Incentive to Faith.

14. Thus it is with those who serve this god, mammon. The true God is still of some use, he serves the people, but mammon does not, it lies quiet and lets others serve it. And for this reason the New Testament calls covetousness idolatry, since it thus desires to be served. However, to love and not to enjoy may well vex the devil. This all now experience who love the god, mammon, and serve him. Whoever has now no sense of shame and does not turn red, has a brazen face.

15. Thus now it is with the word, “serve.” For it is not forbidden to have money and possessions, as we cannot get along without them. Abraham, Lot, David, Solomon and others had great possessions and much gold, and at the present day there are many wealthy persons who are pious, in spite of their riches. But it is one thing to have possessions and another to serve them; to have mammon, and to make a god out of it. Job also was wealthy, he had great possessions and was more powerful than all who lived in the East, as we read in the first part of the book of Job: yet he says, in Job 31:24-25: “If I have made gold my hope, and said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; have I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much?”

16. The sum of all is, it is God’s will that we serve not gold and riches, and that we be not overanxious for our life; but that we labor and commend our anxiety to him. Whoever possesses riches is lord of the riches.

Whoever serves them, is their slave and does not possess them, but they possess him; for he dare not make use of them when he desires, and cannot serve others with them; yea, he is not bold enough to dare to touch it.

However, is he lord over his riches, then they serve him, and he does not serve them; then he teaches in 1 Corinthians 7:32. Hence he aids the poor with his wealth and gives to those who have nothing. When he sees a person without a coat, he says to his money: Go out, Messrs. Dollars, there is a poor, naked man, who has no coat, you must be of service to him!

There lies one sick, who has no medicine. Go forth, Squires Anneberger and Joachinesthaler, you must hasten and help him! Those, who act thus with their riches, are their lords; and all true Christians surely do this. But those who save piles of money, and ever scheme to make their heap larger instead of smaller, are servants and slaves of mammon.

17. He is a lord of mammon who lays hold of and uses it for the sake of those who need it and lets God rule, who says in Luke 6:38. Give, and it shall be given unto you; have you nothing more, you surely have me still, and I have still enough, yea, I have more than I have given away and more than can ever be given away. We see here and there many pious poor people only for the purpose that the wealthy may help and serve them with their riches. If you do it not, you have the sure proof that you hate God. He, whom the sentence does not terrify, that he will hear on the day of judgment, can be moved by nothing. For he will hear then from God: Behold, thou hast hated me and loved that which could not protect itself against rust and moth. Ay, how firmly you will then stand!

Tom Fisher - The Drought Continues in Illinois

 

Dear Pastor Jackson,

Please pray for abundant rain for my farm as the drought continues. Pray God will guide me and protect and preserve me and my farm as I face serious and very difficult decisions. 

Please pray for our country as we endure a persistent destruction and take over. I believe satan has a horrible thing in mind. It is a war between God and satan. It is not a war between good and evil but a war between God and satan. 

Please pray all true Lutheran Christians will immerse themselves in studying, memorizing, and pondering the true Word of God in the King James Bible. We all need to turn off all of the horrible TV stuff and read the King James Bible.

Please pray God will give us true faithful Lutheran pastors, laymen, women, and children who immerse themselves in memorizing, studying, and pondering the true Word of God in the King James Bible.

Do you know at least one strong faithful Lutheran pastor who holds to the King James Bible and TEXTUS RECEPTUS as the true Word of God, rejects OJ/SJ, rejects LCMS Brief Statement, rejects all corrupt Bibles (NIV, ESV, NKJV, NASB, RSV, Beck....)???? 

Perhaps God will need to cause the stones to preach the true Word of God in the King James Bible and the Lutheran confessions? or perhaps God will send apostate America faithful Lutheran pastors from other countries to establish a new Lutheran Synod faithful to God's Word in the King James Bible and the clear and correct teachings of Luther. 

I still remember talking to a pastor from Africa who lost his whole family to the murderous communists, and I asked him how he could keep going. He looked me in the eye and said, "Christ is alive." He went on to describe how his tiny Lutheran church helped each other memorize the Word of God. Church services on Sunday lasted all day. 

God's Word is efficacious when we read it. But far less when reading from a corrupt Bible (NIV, ESV, NKJV, NASB, RSV, Becks, Nestle-Aland....) containing intentional errors, omissions, and obvious false doctrine is not efficacious but destructive to faith. 

[GJ - The modern Bibles cleverly erase or distort passages of the New Testament in order to make us forget 

• faith in Jesus Christ, 
• His divinity, Sonship, and resurrection. 

The mainline sects and the Lutherans have done this quite deliberately by excommunicating the KJV.]

So what shall we say to smart aleck pastors, laymen, women, and children who insist on reading and studying from the corrupt Bibles even after admitting they contain errors and false doctrine?

I think now we must treat them the same way Luther handled that slippery heretic named Erasmus of Rotterdam. Luther said the following ( on pg. 159, Bondage of The Will, Associated Publishers and Authors, Grand Rapids Michigan, 1971) :

"I now return to my observation upon my liberty which I have asserted; giving it as my sentiments, that the tyranny of Erasmus which he would exercise by means of circumlocutive evasions, is not to be borne, but that he is to be judged openly, out of his own mouth. Where he speaks as an Arian, let him be judged an Arian; where he speaks as a Lucian, let him be judged a Lucian; where he speaks as a Gentile, let him be judged a Gentile; unless he repent and cease to defend such ways of expressing himself."

How do all of the corrupt Bibles read? Do they speak as an Arian? Yes most certainly!! They all remove, attack, dishonestly footnote, and cast doubt on the Holy Trinity in 1 John 5:7,8. They all remove, and dishonestly footnote the key word "Godhead" from Colossians 2:9. They all remove, dishonestly footnote, and cast doubt on the key word "God" in 1 Timothy 3:16. Arius would be proud of them (ESV, NIV...etc) and would stubbornly read only from them the same as his present day LCMS "pastors", laymen, and women and children.

 Would any faithful Lutheran pastor read Arius from the pulpit? Of course not!!! True faithful Lutheran pastors read 1 John 5:4-13 from the King James Bible asserting the Holy Trinity from the pristine, efficacious Word of God that preaches faith in Jesus Christ, true God and man in one person. 

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John 5:4-13

Would Arius remove the key word "Godhead" from Colossians 2:9? Yes!!! He would stubbornly and arrogantly remove it!! Arius would stubbornly and arrogantly read from all the corrupt translations (ESV, NIV...etc) the same as all his LCMS "pastors" read the corrupt ESV, and NIV from the pulpit.

Would any faithful Lutheran pastor, laymen, woman or child stubbornly read from corrupt translations (ESV, NIV, RSV, NASB, NKJV, Becks...etc) that removes, and dishonestly footnotes the key word "Godhead" from Colossians 2:9? Of course not!!! 

All faithful Lutheran pastors read Colossians 2:9 from the King James Bible asserting that all the power of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily.

"For in him dwelleth all the power of the Godhead bodily." Colossians 2:9

Would Arius remove, cast doubt on, and dishonestly footnote the key word "God" (theos in the Greek) from 1 Timothy 3:16?? Of course he would!!! 

All faithful Lutheran pastors read I Timothy 3:16 from the pristine efficacious Word of God in the King James Bible.

"God was manifest in the flesh" 1 Timothy 3:16

Pastor Jackson please publish with your comments, insight, and wisdom. True faithful Lutheran pastors, laymen, women, and children gladly discard the corrupt translations (NIV, ESV, RSV, NKJV, NASB, Beck....etc) and cling to the pristine, efficacious Word of God in the King James Bible. They need no strong persuasion. I am writing against the blind, hardened, arrogant, condescending, satanic LCMS "pastors" who stubbornly cling to the corrupt translations (NIV, ESV, RSV, NKJV, Becks...) and discard the pristine efficacious Word of God in the King James Bible, Luther's 1545 Bible and the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS. They are not afraid to read Arius from the pulpit. I am very afraid to read Arius from the pulpit or from my kitchen table at home here on my farm. The 52 years of clinging to the pristine, efficacious Word of God in the King James Bible has given me faith in Christ, true God and man in one person, one with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost from all eternity.

The Empty Tomb is the greatest possible declaration of the Son of God's power. However, the Bad Beck Bible genuflects to Codex Vaticanus, Codex Vaticanus, and other laughable sources to deny, reject, or simply slight the Resurrection of Christ. Ask the LCMS - "Scholars are divided."

Romney Quits Senatorial Post...Soon

 

Efficacy - the Fragrance of Creation

 

Wait for the tiny Clethra flowers to exhale their cloud of cinnamon and sugar. They do this as a surprise, after most of the garden's flowers have faded - and even the weeds look weary.

If only I could gather and tame the patient, hard-working creatures of the garden. But I have! Anytime an individual or business uttered the word "pollinator," I bought some. Why stop at big, bombastic roses? The best pollinators have tiny buds and minuscule flowers - all the better to make bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds hover like cheerleaders around a star quarterback.

Attempts to grow fragrant mint turn into swaths of tiny flowers perfect for tiny insects and birds. A few Joe Pye Weed starters turn into a zone of musk and vanilla, with enormous flowers created by hundreds of compound flowers. That is my absolute last reference to Joe Pye...for today.

The efficacy of God's Word is the divine power experienced in the Creation garden. Every scent has a purpose, and the purpose will always have an effect. 

I teach a random group of students about the Old Testament. We do not know each other, except through online learning sessions. We often have in common the same Scripture passages, their favorites and mine. They are drawn to those passages because the Holy Spirit has the power to teach through reading, remembering, and hearing. 

Atheist students - I have had a few - will fight and debate about the clear Word of God. That is another effect of the Scriptures, which we find in synod presidents, district presidents, circuit toadies, and seminary professors. Fighting against the Word of God hardens them and blinds them against the clear Message. God's true meaning offends them and stirs up hatred. 

KJV 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 3:16-18 is a perfect example of the efficacy of God's Word. Once treated as the perfect summary of the entire Bible, the passage is ignored or twisted into Universalism, Walter's Calvinism, or ELCA's latest distortion.

Yep! They Sang This Twaddle To Death

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Peter Scholtes

Clear, Concise Summary of Official Roman Catholic Teaching - The Anti-Gospel

 

Papal Audience hall is in Vatican City, designed as a serpent and featuring Jesus ambiguously with a serpent head.

Pure Roman Catholics and Walther-worshiping LCMS-WELS-CLC-ELS fans have this in common - the more they cling to their dogma, the less they grasp the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

The video above is a good example of the actual teaching of Roman Catholicism. The Council of Trent was organized to establish the supreme dogma of the Vatican and to crush the Reformation. The incense-sniffing Lutheran pastors itch to be as papal as possible - costumes shimmering, smoke-pots puffing, bowing and kneeing, angel-posing, "We are the real deal" bragging. One of their heroes from the Society of the Holy Trinity posted 10,000 times on the pan-Lutheran ALPB Online Discussion board before being hauled off by the police. The ALPB kept their silence.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 15 - "The hour the Gospel is received, there comes to me a hundred thousand dollars, and much more."

 

Trinity 15 Complete Sermon - God or Mammon. Exhortation Against Avarice and Anxiety for Temporal Things, and an Incentive to Faith.

8. Now the world cannot conceal its unbelief in its coarse, outward sins, for I see it loves a dollar more than Christ; more than all the Apostles, even if they themselves were present and preached to it. I can hear the Gospel daily, but it does not profit me every day; it may indeed happen, if I have heard it a whole year, the Holy Spirit may have been given to me only one hour. Now when I enjoyed this hour I obtained not only five hundred dollars, but also the riches of the whole world; for what have I not, when I have the Gospel? I received God, who made the silver and the gold, and all that is upon the earth; for I acquired the Spirit by which I know that I will be kept by him forever; that is much more than if I had the church full of money. Examine now and see, if our heart is not a rogue, full of wickedness and unbelief. If I were a true Christian, I would say. The hour the Gospel is received, there comes to me a hundred thousand dollars, and much more. For if I possess this treasure, I have all that is in heaven and upon earth. But one must serve this treasure only, for no man can serve God and mammon. Either you must love God and hate money; or you must hate God and love money; this and nothing more.

9. The master uses here the Hebrew, which we do not. “Mammon” means goods or riches, and such goods as one does not need, but holds as a treasure, and it is gold and possessions that one deposits as stock and storage provisions. This Christians do not do, they gather no treasures; but they ask God for their daily bread. However, others are not satisfied with this, they gather a great store upon which they may depend, in case our God should die to-day or tomorrow, they might then know a way out.

Therefore St. Paul says, in Ephesians 5: 5 and Colossians 3:5, riches and covetousness are the god of this world and are idolatry, with this Christ here agrees and calls it serving mammon.

10. Now, how does it come that the Gospel and St. Paul call especially covetousness and not other sins idolatry; since uncleanness, fornication, lust, base desires, unchastity and other vices are more opposed to God? It is done to our great shame, because gold is our god, that we serve, in that we trust and rely upon it, and it can neither sustain nor save us, yea, it can neither stand nor walk, it neither hears nor sees, it has no strength nor power, with it there is neither comfort nor help. For if one had the riches of the whole world, he would not be secure for one moment before death.

Norma A. Boeckler

11. Of what help are his great treasures and riches to the Emperor when the hour of death arrives and he is called to die? They are a shameful, loathsome, powerless god, that cannot cure a sore, yea, it cannot keep and take care of itself, there it lies in the chest, and lets it’s devotees wait, yea, one must watch it as a helpless, powerless, weak thing. The lord who has this god must watch day and night lest thieves steal it; this helpless god can aid no one. You should have contempt for this lifeless god that cannot help in the least, and is yet so scrupulous and precious; it lets its devotees wait in the grandest style and protects itself with strong chests and castles, its lord must wait and be in anxiety every hour, lest it perishes by fire or otherwise experiences some misfortune. Does this treasure or god consist m clothing, then one must be careful and on his guard against the smallest little insects, against the moth, lest they ruin or devour it.

12. The walls of our rooms should spit upon us in contempt that we trust more in the god the moth eat and the rust corrupt, than in the God, who creates and gives all things, yea, who holds in his hand heaven and earth, and all that in them is. Is it not a foolish thing on the part of the world to turn from the true God and trust in base and low mammon, in the poor, miserable god, who cannot protect himself against rust. Oh, what a disgraceful thing this is on the part of the world! God visits gold and worldly possessions with many kinds of enemies, to bring us to see and confess our unbelief and godless character, that we thus trust in a powerless and frail god, we who could at once so easily approach and cleave to the true, powerful and strong God, who gives us everything, money, goods, fruit and all we need; yet we are so foolish and make gods out of his gifts. Shame on thee, thou cursed unbelief.

13. Other sins give us a little pleasure, we receive some enjoyment from them, as in the case of eating and drinking; in unchastity one has pleasure for a little while; likewise anger satisfies its desire, and other vices more so.

Only in this vice one must incessantly be in slavery, hounded and martyred, and in it no one has any pleasure or joy whatever. There the money lies on a pile and commands you to serve it; in spite of it letting any one draw from it a thimble full of wine there comes rust and devours it, and yet he dares not attack it, lest he angers his god. And when his servants have protected their god a long time they have no more than any poor beggar. I have nothing, yet I eat and drink as heartily as any one who has a large supply of mammon. When he dies he takes just as much along with him as I do. And it is certainly the case that these people never live as well nor as richly as the poor people often do. Who arranges this thus? God, the Lord, does it. Here some have a certain affliction of the body that they have no appetite; there others are internally unsound and never relish what they eat; here their stomach is out of order; there their lungs and liver are diseased; here is this, and there is that sickness; here they are weak and afflicted at one point, there at another, and they never have an enjoyable hour to relish what they eat or drink.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - God or Mammon - No man,” he says, “can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 

Trinity 15 Complete Sermon - God or Mammon. Exhortation Against Avarice and Anxiety for Temporal Things, and an Incentive to Faith.

4. God cannot allow us to have another Lord besides himself. He is a jealous God, as he says, and cannot suffer us to serve him and his enemy. Only mine, he says, or not at all. Behold now how beautifully Christ here introduces the example: “No man,” he says, “can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” As if to say: as it is here in man’s relations to his fellows, so it is also before God.

5. We find very few, who do not sin against the Gospel. The Lord passes a severe judgment and it is terrible to hear that he should say this of us, and yet no one will confess, yea, no one will suffer it to be said that we hate and despise God and that we are his enemies. There is no one, when asked if he loves God and cleaves to him? would not reply, yes, I love God. But see how the text closes, that we all hate and despise God, and love mammon and cleave to it. But God suffers us to do this until his time; he watches the time and some day he will strike into our midst with all violence, before we can turn around. It is impossible for one, who loves gold and earthly possessions and cleaves to them, not to hate God. For God here contrasts these two as enemies to one another, and concludes, if you love and cleave to one of these two, then you must hate and despise the other. Therefore, however nicely and genteelly one lives here upon earth and cleaves to riches, it cannot be otherwise than that he must hate God; and on the other hand, whoever does not cleave to gold and worldly goods, loves God. This is certainly true.

6. But who are they that love God, and cleave not to gold and worldly possessions? Take a good look at the whole world, also the Christians, and see if they despise gold and riches. It requires an effort to hear the Gospel and to live according to it. God be praised, we have the Gospel; that no one can deny, but what do we do with it? We are concerned only about learning and knowing it, and nothing more; we think it is enough to know it, and do not care whether we ever live according to it. However, on the other hand, one is very anxious when he leaves lying in the window or in the room a dollar or two, yea, even a dime, then he worries and fears lest the money be stolen; but the same person can do without the Gospel through a whole year. And such characters still wish to be considered as Evangelical.

7. Here we see what and who we are. If we were Christians, we would despise riches and be concerned about the Gospel that we some day might live in it and prove it by our deeds. We see few such Christians; therefore we must hear the judgment that We are despisers of God and hate God for the sake of riches and worldly possessions. Alas I That is fine praise We should be ashamed of ourselves in our inmost souls; there is no hope for us! What a fine condition we are in now! That means, I think, our names are blotted out. What spoiled children we are!

 Norma A. Boeckler

8. Now the world cannot conceal its unbelief in its coarse, outward sins, for I see it loves a dollar more than Christ; more than all the Apostles, even if they themselves were present and preached to it. I can hear the Gospel daily, but it does not profit me every day; it may indeed happen, if I have heard it a whole year, the Holy Spirit may have been given to me only one hour. Now when I enjoyed this hour I obtained not only five hundred dollars, but also the riches of the whole world; for what have I not, when I have the Gospel? I received God, who made the silver and the gold, and all that is upon the earth; for I acquired the Spirit by which I know that I will be kept by him forever; that is much more than if I had the church full of money. Examine now and see, if our heart is not a rogue, full of wickedness and unbelief. If I were a true Christian, I would say. The hour the Gospel is received, there comes to me a hundred thousand dollars, and much more. For if I possess this treasure, I have all that is in heaven and upon earth. But one must serve this treasure only, for no man can serve God and mammon. Either you must love God and hate money; or you must hate God and love money; this and nothing more.

9. The master uses here the Hebrew, which we do not. “Mammon” means goods or riches, and such goods as one does not need, but holds as a treasure, and it is gold and possessions that one deposits as stock and storage provisions. This Christians do not do, they gather no treasures; but they ask God for their daily bread. However, others are not satisfied with this, they gather a great store upon which they may depend, in case our God should die to-day or tomorrow, they might then know a way out.

Therefore St. Paul says, in Ephesians 5: 5 and Colossians 3:5, riches and covetousness are the god of this world and are idolatry, with this Christ here agrees and calls it serving mammon.

Efficacy - One Word To Cure Our Ills, Listen to the Rain.

 

Charlie Sue and I watch documentaries together. Last night we finished a series on Napoleon, finishing with a lengthy explanation of the Battle of Waterloo. The British under Wellington were being clobbered all day long until the end of the day, when the French threw down their weapons and ran to save their lives.

Historical narratives are fascinating, because so often the richest and most powerful nations seem to have it all and then collapse into ruin. We see that today in the Lutheran sects, only a few steps behind the old mainline denominations (Presbyterian, Northern Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, Roman Catholics) and their own leader/partner/idol - ELCA.

"I'm Liz Eaton. The rest of the Lutherans - LCMS, ELS, WELS -  follow our example. They share the same programs with us through Thrivent. Ask Gregory Lee Jackson, CLU, if it ain't so."

Rome's aqueducts still work, after 2000 years, but Italy's greatest dam and reservoir collapsed after three years. 

Today we will watch the inevitable march of a great storm heading toward the South and the East, another coming from the West. NW Arkansas will get some rain but not much borrowed energy from Hurricane Lee. That is the key to all storms - energy. The Lord of Creation organized storms in such a way that heat builds them to release lakes of water, blankets of snow, sleet and hail. All rain begins as snow, but the snow usually melts. Hail is a dangerous combination of rain, ice, and snow making the worst kind of partnerships.

Scriptures a Dead Letter: No Energy?

Calvinism has dominated Protestantism, to take away the efficacy of the Scriptures. The King James Version was translated for all denominations, serving as the standard for the English language and correct translation. Twenty flavors of the Bible are perfect for the apostates, each having their own little book to sell.

Zwingli and Calvin 

• Make the Scriptures subordinate to reason, so rationalism leads to Unitarianism - no Trinity;
• Consider the Bible a "dead letter" that needs to be helped, enhanced, made germane and interesting. "The statue in the garden points the way" - so they say about the Bible - "but cannot make something happen."
• The Reformed consistently teach that the Scriptures are dead, lifeless, and incapable unless man makes them germane, relevant, or appealing by his effort. The Reformed  compare  the Scriptures to a statue of Hermes or a road-sign, which points the way but does not give the individual the power to go in that direction.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 15 - God or Mammon. "...He worries and fears lest the money be stolen; but the same person can do without the Gospel through a whole year."

 

Trinity 15 Complete Sermon - God or Mammon. Exhortation Against Avarice and Anxiety for Temporal Things, and an Incentive to Faith.

1. In this Gospel we see how God distinguishes Christians from heathen. For the Lord does not deliver these teachings to the heathen, for they could not receive them, but to his Christians. However, he does not consider those Christians, who only hear his Word, so as to learn it and be able to repeat it, as the nuns do the Psalter. In this way satan also hears the Gospel and the Word of God, yea, he knows it far better than we do, and he could preach it as well as we, if he only wanted to; but the Gospel is a doctrine that should become a living power and be put into practice; it should strengthen and comfort the people, and make them courageous and aggressive.

2. Therefore they, who only thus hear the Gospel, so that they may know it and be able to speak about the wisdom of God, are not worthy to be classed among Christians; but they, who do as the Gospel teaches, are true Christians. However, very few of these are found; we see many hearers, but all are not doers of the Gospel. We wish now to examine more closely what kind of doctrine the Lord teaches in this Gospel. First, he begins with a plain, natural example, so that we all must confess it is true; experience also teaches the same to everybody. He says: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or else he will hold to one, and despise the other.”

3. Now he, who tries to serve two masters, will do it in a way that cannot be called serving at all; for it will certainly be as the Lord here says. One can indeed compel a servant to do a certain work against his will and he may grieve while doing it; but no one can compel him to do it cheerfully, and mean it from the bottom of his heart. He of course does the work as long as his master is present, but when he is absent, he hurries away from his task, and does nothing well. Hence the Lord desires our service to be done out of love and cheerfully, and where it is not done thus, it is no service to him: for even people are not pleased when one does anything for them unwillingly. This is natural, and we experience daily that it is so.

Now, if it be the case among human beings that no one can serve two masters, how much more is it true in the service of God, that our service cannot be divided; but it must be done unto God alone, willingly and from the heart; therefore the Lord adds: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Norma A. Boeckler

4. God cannot allow us to have another Lord besides himself. He is a jealous God, as he says, and cannot suffer us to serve him and his enemy.

Only mine, he says, or not at all. Behold now how beautifully Christ here introduces the example: “No man,” he says, “can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” As if to say: as it is here in man’s relations to his fellows, so it is also before God.

5. We find very few, who do not sin against the Gospel. The Lord passes a severe judgment and it is terrible to hear that he should say this of us, and yet no one will confess, yea, no one will suffer it to be said that we hate and despise God and that we are his enemies. There is no one, when asked if he loves God and cleaves to him? would not reply, yes, I love God. But see how the text closes, that we all hate and despise God, and love mammon and cleave to it. But God suffers us to do this until his time; he watches the time and some day he will strike into our midst with all violence, before we can turn around. It is impossible for one, who loves gold and earthly possessions and cleaves to them, not to hate God. For God here contrasts these two as enemies to one another, and concludes, if you love and cleave to one of these two, then you must hate and despise the other. Therefore, however nicely and genteelly one lives here upon earth and cleaves to riches, it cannot be otherwise than that he must hate God; and on the other hand, whoever does not cleave to gold and worldly goods, loves God. This is certainly true.

6. But who are they that love God, and cleave not to gold and worldly possessions? Take a good look at the whole world, also the Christians, and see if they despise gold and riches. It requires an effort to hear the Gospel and to live according to it. God be praised, we have the Gospel; that no one can deny, but what do we do with it? We are concerned only about learning and knowing it, and nothing more; we think it is enough to know it, and do not care whether we ever live according to it. However, on the other hand, one is very anxious when he leaves lying in the window or in the room a dollar or two, yea, even a dime, then he worries and fears lest the money be stolen; but the same person can do without the Gospel through a whole year. And such characters still wish to be considered as Evangelical.

7. Here we see what and who we are. If we were Christians, we would despise riches and be concerned about the Gospel that we some day might live in it and prove it by our deeds. We see few such Christians; therefore we must hear the judgment that We are despisers of God and hate God for the sake of riches and worldly possessions. Alas I That is fine praise We should be ashamed of ourselves in our inmost souls; there is no hope for us! What a fine condition we are in now! That means, I think, our names are blotted out. What spoiled children we are!