The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2023. "Master, Don't You Care?"

 

 "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Mark 4

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2023

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

Link to Trinity 18 Vimeo

 

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Daylight Time

The Hymn # 239                 Come Thou Almighty King                         

The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16

Introit

Reward them that wait for Thee, O Lord: 

and let Thy prophets be found faithful.

Hear the prayer of Thy servants: and of Thy people Israel.

Psalm. I was glad when they said unto me: 

Let us go into the house of the Lord.

The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19

Collect

O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee, mercifully grant that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth, etc.

The Epistle and Gradual       

The Gospel              

Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed             p. 22

The Sermon Hymn #261        Lord Keep Us Steadfast   

  Master, Don't You Care?

Communion Hymn # 145               Jesus Refuge of the Weary  Savanarola

The Preface p. 24
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 #503   Rise Crowned with Light - Pope   

        

Announcements and Prayers

• Medical care: Lori Howell, Sarah Buck, Randy Anderson, Pastor Jim Shrader, Doc Lito Cruz; stress and metabolic disorders; Callie, seizures.
• Congratulations and God's Blessings - 34th Wedding Anniversary - Brett and Amy Meyer.
• Carl Roper - 80th Birthday. "Carl was in Reserves Navy for 6 years. Then he was in Reserves Army until after Desert Storm when he was called up for duty 9 months. He served that time in George training troops to go over seas. He was in counter intelligence. When Pres. Bush Senior came to visit the troops, Carl stood behind to guard him. Carl retired with 30 years of service. Yes, he was in the military!"

 Graphic by Norma A. Boeckler

    

KJV 1 Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; 5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; 6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: 8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

KJV Matthew 22:34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

 Graphic based on Norma Boeckler's Art

Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity

Lord God, heavenly Father: We are poor, miserable sinners; we know Thy will, but cannot fulfill it because of the weakness of our flesh and blood, and because our enemy, the devil, will not leave us in peace. Therefore we beseech Thee, shed Thy Holy Spirit in our hearts, that, in steadfast faith, we may cling to Thy Son Jesus Christ, find comfort in His passion and death, believe the forgiveness of sin through Him, and in willing obedience to Thy will lead holy lives on earth, until by Thy grace, through a blessed death, we depart from this world of sorrow, and obtain eternal life, through Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

Special Sermon - Faith versus Fear, Based on Epiphany 4 (Matthew 8:23-27)

Mark 4:35-41

KJV Mark 4:35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. 37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? 39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

I often think of this passage, because Luther wrote about it so eloquently. The opposite of fear is not courage, but faith in Jesus Christ.

Fear is a gigantic force within our lives, ranging from one experience to another, based on daily issues, like health, jobs, 

relationships, weather, and national, international events. We also have genuine fears about the evils that are around us, which can be magnified by those who foster them. That includes Satanic lore, active promotion of the occult, and signs of Christianity shrinking back to make way for the devil rather than the Savior. Without effort we can find in the newspapers men dressed as women, teaching children their real meaning of Christmas, as "pastors" of that Lutheran church.

Jesus invited the disciples to go on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. They were sailors who were used to the stable boats that carried commercial loads (the miraculous catch) and a number of passengers. Even the greatest and best sailors are hit with sudden, deadly storms, which happened to them.

There is no sense of direction, only bad things happening, everyone cold  and beaten down by the icy winds and water.

37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

The boat became swamped with water and easily sunk by waves and winds. Many know the song about the Edmund Fitzgerald (Yale graduate) a ship owned by Northwestern Mutual. The huge oar ship sank in a storm suddenly and mysteriously. 

38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

Jesus was in the back of the boat - asleep on a pillow! That seems remarkably careless. But isn't Jesus always near us though He may seem to be absent? The disciples were accusing Him of not caring! Isn't that our attitude when things are going wrong, or are terrifying, or are dangerous?

39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

A mother rabbit goes into a freeze position when threatened by a noise or something else. The baby bunnies instantly hide behind her and join the the frozen position, less likely to be prey. Then they all go back to eating their food and drinking their water. Jesus rose and rebuked the wind - rebuking was what Peter said to Jesus and Jesus in response to Peter. The sea could have kept up its energy in threatening all the ships, but Jesus said "Peace!" and saved the lives of the disciples and those in ships. The winds stopped at once and the sea was completely calm - truly a miracle for the crowds and disciples to see and experience, from death to life with Words from the Son of God.

Lenski, p. 200

How could a former carpenter help these expert sailors when all their skill was at an end, and death in the roaring waves was their certain fate? In the providence of God this storm brought to expression such faith as they really had. Completely at the end of their resources, in which they had always taken great pride, they now throw themselves upon Jesus as their only hope. They forget that he had never sailed a boat ; they think not of human but of divine ability in him. They abandon all human help, the best of which they had in their own skill; they throw themselves utterly into the divine hands of Jesus. That was faith. But their terror, the resorting to Jesus only in their extremity, their fear of death in the waves, are not faith but littleness of faith and are in glaring contrast with the calmness of Jesus.

Fears can crush us, and they can be really self-crushing. We can easily go over every possible danger, repeating them and making them even worse. They are often quite real, and some people (Job's long-lost Comforters) will eagerly emphasize how real they are. I got an announcement, "Courses are being consolidated." What does that mean? I asked. Silence, they replied. Nothing changed for me, but I had vivid thoughts of frying burgers, scrubbing cars, and shoveling organic fertilizer.

40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

The opposite of fear is not courage, but faith in Jesus Christ. Luther expected to die, because the Church of Rome was very good at executing people they did not like. God protected him while the Reformation built up across Europe through the printing press (a co-inky-dink, you imagine?). Consider this - the Roman Catholic Emperor needed the Germans to fight against the Muslims, so the Catholics were compelled to let the Gospel take root.

Jesus gave His disciples training over three years so their faith grew. Even then, they were shocked that He rose from the dead and came before them in a locked room. We have lifetimes to learn what is clearly stated in the Scriptures, but we let our outward experiences overwhelm faith at times.

Paranormal

There are plenty of reasons to believe that the world of Satan overlaps the Kingdom of Christ. The underworld's intention is to bring as much people - or as many souls - as they can. No one needs to research the Paranormal because the minions of the Devil are legion, without count. They are like those who drove the Gadarene swine to Fuller Seminary after leaving the possessed  person.

The aim of the Paranormal is to replace Jesus Christ with their Father Below. Already the mainstream denominations - including all the Lutherans - are too weak to stand against the old, evil foe. They are afraid of losing what they had and lusty for the alternatives to the Christian Faith.

The key factor is fear, the opposite of faith in the Savior.

One expert claimed that gorillas scream and pound their chests when they are afraid. I am not going to test that because I have seen that happen with lawyers and other bullies.

One lawyer for a hospital blew up when I asked if the surgeon had a substance abuse problem. He tore off his glasses (just like the movies) and began spewing four-letter words at two of us pastors. I told the mother, "You won." She did not see that. I said, "He was afraid and proved it." A week later the medical bill was reduced to zero.

Two other lawyers did the knuckles on the desk routine. I was helping people get outrageous bills reduced (two different states). Each man stood up, leaned on the desk, did the gorilla pose and shouted at the top of his voice. Both bills were greatly reduced.

Fear is highly motivating when someone seems to be a wee bit dishonest. I learned from Bethany Joan Marie (in a crib) that I could say, "I already talked to my attorney" and get good results.

Having faith in Jesus Christ necessarily brings the cross. We do not have to look for it - it is already on our backs. We can see that when someone gets all kind of help and retaliates with viciousness. Ask any minister, especially when he has dealt with synodical officials.

Some people can be especially annoyed with the Paranormal. Our best move is to ignore those events and to trust in the help of Jesus Christ.

41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

If we look back we can see how the Savior has protected and helped us, in the most improbable ways. One comment from this passage is - Apparently that pillow was always there in the boat. Jesus was asleep on the pillow, but not unable to help them. He repeatedly said to His disciples - "Have you no faith?" Those experiences test us and make us stronger. At the End of Time, it will be far worse than now. "When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith?"

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 18 - "For these priests and monks think nothing else than that God is moved by the mass and by other human inventions..."

 

Complete Sermon - Trinity 18 - The Two Greatest Commandments - Christ Is David's Son And David's Lord

23. Hence, take to thyself this commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and think upon it, contemplate it, and search what kind of a law it is; how far you are from fulfilling it, yea, how you have not yet even made a beginning to suffer and to do from the heart what God demands of you. It is pure hypocrisy, if anyone wants to creep into a hiding-place and think: Oh I will love God. Oh, how I do love him, he is my Father! How gracious he is to me! and the like. Yes, when God does our pleasure, then we can easily say such things; but when he sends misfortune and adversity, we no longer regard him as our God, nor as our Father.

24. True love to God does not act in this way, but in the heart it thinks and with the lips says: Lord God, I am thy creature; do with me as thou wilt; it matters not to me. I am ever thine, that I know; and if thou desirest, I will die this very hour or suffer any great misfortune; I will cheerfully do so from my heart. I will not regard my life, honor and goods and all I have, higher and greater than thy will, which shall be my pleasure all my days.

But you will never find a person who will constantly regulate himself according to this commandment; for the whole life you are living in the body, in the five senses, and whatever you do in your body, should all be so regulated as to be done to the glory of God, according to the regulations of this commandment, which saith, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.” As if Christ said: If you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, then nothing will be lacking; you shall experience it in your daily life, namely: when everything you do, whether you wake or sleep, whether you labor or stand idle, whether you eat or drink, is directed and done out of love to God from the heart. In like manner your mind and thoughts will also be directed wholly and entirely to God, so that you will approve of nothing you are not certain is pleasing to God. Yea, where are those who do this?

25. And this part where he says, “With all thy mind,” argues powerfully against the writings and teachings of man, upon which he especially depends, and thinks thereby to obtain a merciful God and merit heaven.

Such imagination of the human reason draws us in a wonderful manner from this commandment, so that we do not love God with all the mind; as has been done hitherto, and is still done at the present day. For these priests and monks think nothing else than that God is moved by the mass and by other human inventions; but he abhors it and does not desire it, as is said in Isaiah 29:13: “In vain do they serve me, because they are teaching such doctrines which are only the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:8-9. The commandment here requires you to consider nothing good that is against God and against everything he has commanded or forbidden. It thus requires, you to give yourself wholly and entirely to him in all your life and conduct.

26. From this you can conclude, there is no human being who is not condemned, inasmuch as no one has kept this commandment, and God wants everyone to keep it. There we stand in the midst of fear and distress, unable to help ourselves, and the first knowledge of the law is, that we see our human nature is unable to keep the law; for it wants the heart, and if it is not done with the heart, it avails nothing before God. You may indeed do the works outwardly, but God is not thus satisfied, when they are not done from the heart, out of love; and this is never done except man is born anew through the Holy Spirit. Therefore God aims to accomplish through the law nothing more than that we should in this way be forced to acknowledge our inability, frailty and disease, and that with our best efforts we are unable to fulfill a letter of the law. When you realize this, the law has accomplished its work. This is what Paul means when he says in Romans 3:20, “Through the law is the knowledge of sin.”

27. From this it appears clearly that we are all alike, and are one in the inner wickedness of the heart, which the law reveals, when we look into it rightly. Therefore we might well say, If one is good, then all are good.

Therefore no one should accuse another. It is indeed true that in public and gross sins there sticks a deeper sin; but the heart is alike bad, unless it be renewed by the Holy Ghost. But what shall I do when I once recognize my sin? What does it profit me? It helps me very much, for when I have come thus far, I am not far from the kingdom; as Christ says to a scribe in Mark 12:34, who also knew that the works of the law were nothing without love.

28. But what shall we do to get rid of our bad conscience? Here follows now the other part of this Gospel, namely, who Christ is and what we can expect of him. From him we must receive and secure freedom from a wicked conscience, or we shall remain in our sins eternally, because for this purpose is Christ made known and given by the Father, in order that he might deliver us from sin, death, from a wicked conscience, and from the law.

29. We have now heard what the law is, and how through the law we come to the knowledge of sin; but this is not enough, another has a work to do here, whose name is Christ Jesus; although the first, the law, must indeed remain; yea, it is necessary. For if I have no sense of my sins, I will never inquire for Christ; as the Pharisees and scribes do here, who thought they had done everything the law commanded and were ready to do yet more; but of Christ they knew nothing. Therefore, first of all, when the law is known and sin revealed through the law, it is then necessary that we know who Christ is; otherwise the knowledge of sin profits us nothing.

30. But the law is known, when I learn from it that I am condemned, and see that there is neither hope nor comfort anywhere for me, and I cannot even help myself, but must have another one to deliver me. Then it is time that I look around for him who can help, and he is Christ Jesus, who for this purpose became man, and became like unto us, in order that he might help us out of the mire into which we are fallen. He loved God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, and submitted his will to the will of his Father, fulfilled the law in every respect; this I could not do and yet I was required to do it. Therefore, he accepts him; and that which he fulfilled in the law, he offers me. He freely gives me his life with all his works, so that I can appropriate them to myself as a possession that is my own and is bestowed upon me as a free gift. He delivers us from the law, for when the law says, Love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, or thou wilt be damned, then I say, I cannot do it. Then Christ says: Come to me, take me and cling to me by faith; then you shall be rid of the law.

31. Now this is accomplished in the following manner: Christ has through his death secured for us the Holy Spirit; and he fulfills the law in us, and not we. For that Spirit, whom God sends into your heart for the sake of his Son, makes an entirely new man out of you, who does with joy and love from the heart everything the law requires, which before would have been impossible for you to do. This new man despises the present life, and desires to die, rejoices in all adversity, and submits himself wholly and entirely to the will of God. Whatever God does with him, is well pleasing to him. This Spirit you cannot merit yourself, but Christ has secured and merited it. When I believe from the heart that Christ did this for me, I receive also the same Holy Spirit that makes me an entirely new man. Then everything God commands is sweet, lovely and agreeable, and I do everything he desires of me; not in my own strength, but by the strength of him that is in me, as Paul says in Philippians, 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.”

32. But you must take heed, that you do not undertake to secure this faith in Jesus Christ by your own works or power, or that you think lightly about this matter; for it is impossible for the natural man; but the Holy Spirit must do it. Therefore beware of the preachers of self-righteousness, who simply blabber and say: We must do good works in order to be saved.

But we say that faith alone is sufficient to this end. Our good works are for another purpose, namely, to prove our faith, as you have already frequently heard from me.

33. Now this is the purpose of the question the Lord put to the Pharisees:

What think ye of Christ; who is he and whose Son is he? But their answer, in that they say, He is the son of David, the Lord rejects and obscures their answer and refers to a passage from the Psalm, in order to leave them in doubt; so that no one is able to answer him a word.

34. However, when David calls Christ his Lord, in that he says in Psalm 110:1, “But the lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool,’” it is to be understood that David speaks of him both as God and man, for according to the flesh alone he was the son of David. Paul also joins these two when he says in Romans 1:1-4: “I am called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which he promised afore through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh; who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” But it is something to know that Christ is Lord; for this has might and power and is especially comforting in the time of affliction. But concerning this I have said more elsewhere and will therefore now close, and pray God for grace.

LCMS-WELS-ELS-ELCA: Your Thrivent Dollars at Work, Melting Down the "Lutherans" with Brimstone and Fire

Luther Seminary Preacher Compares Herself to Jeremiah, Says We Must Repent of Climate Catastrophe, Anti-Trans Laws, and Banning Books

 5 hours ago Staff Writer

"The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is one of the vilest denominations in America. Pro-homosexuality, pro-choice, and certainly anti-Jesus, it’s populated by spiritually decrepit senior citizens and virtue-twerking LGBTQ twenty-somethings. Less than 1% of the congregants in the denomination are saved, as you can only submit to a satanic pastor for so long without getting a little demonic yourself.

We’ve written about them before, in Lutheran Pastor Promotes Hookups, Polyamory, and Premarital Sex
, ELCA Leader in a Polyamorous/’Ethically Non-Monogamous’ Relationship, the time where After Annual Meeting, Lutheran Leadership+ Pastors Celebrate in Gay Bar, in Transgender Lutheran Pastrix Compares the Death of Trans Shooter to the Crucifixion of Jesus and lastly ELCA Church Recites Blasphemous ‘Sparkle Creed’ + ‘I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural’."

During Luther Seminary’s June 20 chapel service, preacher Anna Ferro, who works as a community fellow with the Student Affairs office while she awaits her first call, gave a message on Jeremiah 20: 1-6. In this reading, Pashur, the official in charge of the temple, hears Jeremiah prophesying doom and gloom and, beats him and throws him in jail, causing Jeremiah to tell him his new name is ‘Terror on Every Side.’

The Two Best Medicines Are Exercise and Food

Eat expensive processed food, ignore major muscles, and complain about the results?

Daily hospital trips - as driver - and fast food - mea maxima culpa! - gave me lots of reasons to repent. One vivid visual - another person - resulted in each leg artery clogged and both legs therefore infected.

We all complain about tired legs and aching feet, but exercise will reduce pain. Our circulation must push the blood upstairs - or else. The calf muscles are very good at that, but they need help through flexing, exercise, and lifting them up.

Don't laugh, but I stand at the kitchen window, looking out at the bird feeders and sing "Tip Toe Through the Tulips." Yes, I go up on my toes, and that pumps the gastrocnemius (calf) muscles.

Some make sure they walk a definite distance each day, and others use dreadmill walking machines and even magical, moving stairs.

Charlie Sue and I will do regular walks, now that it is cooler.

Medicare helps pay for gym fees, so I pay nothing for Planet Fitness. I use the resistance equipment regularly, after starting with the dreadmill. Like good food, good exercise makes us move from clinging to the unhealthy to craving the healthy.

Food Is the Best Medicine - 

Especially Food for the Poor

The farmers - like my parents - were always first to praise the food grown in gardens. They ordered us "spoiled rotten kids" to try everything, especially salad and vegetables. They had no choice on the farm, where they gladly ate from the vegetable garden and fruit trees.

The irony! Poverty in the Depression enforced the best nutrition for those with little cash. Today their food plan has become the least expensive at the grocery store, and also the most effective for good health. 

The less we do to food, the better it is for us, the better we feel. When someone offers a brand, new, super exciting, guaranteed to cure pill or food substance, backed by a real doctor - it is a ruse, fraud pure and simple.

Shockeroo - the food labels in the store are often as depressing as a Biden rally. The farmer's garden is downplayed and the photogenic combinations of salt, grease, and sugar are portrayed with loving devotion. Chopped frozen greens are shunned in favor of stacks of frozen pizza. 

Warning! - do not take home fresh fruits, fresh or frozen vegetables, nutritious seeds and nuts - they will ruin your taste for the super expensive, super salted, grease-sugar extravaganzas that drain our bank accounts and send us limping to the doctor.

Basics - 

1. Lots of fresh or frozen greens every day.
2. Four fruits a day (base) or six for the disgustingly healthy.
3. Some nuts (walnuts, almonds) and seeds (like flax, sesame) each day.
4. Some meat.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 18 - "Thus Christ desires to show us that we preach the law rightly, only when we learn from it that we are unable to fulfill it, and that we are the property of the devil."

 

Complete Sermon - Trinity 18 - The Two Greatest Commandments - Christ Is David's Son And David's Lord

22. Thus Christ desires to show us that we preach the law rightly, only when we learn from it that we are unable to fulfill it, and that we are the property of the devil. This we learn from experience, and it is shown now and then in the Scriptures, especially by St. Paul when he says in Romans 8:7-8: “Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” and it follows, that they who are in the flesh cannot please God.

23. Hence, take to thyself this commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and think upon it, contemplate it, and search what kind of a law it is; how far you are from fulfilling it, yea, how you have not yet even made a beginning to suffer and to do from the heart what God demands of you. It is pure hypocrisy, if anyone wants to creep into a hiding-place and think: Oh I will love God. Oh, how I do love him, he is my Father! How gracious he is to me! and the like. Yes, when God does our pleasure, then we can easily say such things; but when he sends misfortune and adversity, we no longer regard him as our God, nor as our Father.

24. True love to God does not act in this way, but in the heart it thinks and with the lips says: Lord God, I am thy creature; do with me as thou wilt; it matters not to me. I am ever thine, that I know; and if thou desirest, I will die this very hour or suffer any great misfortune; I will cheerfully do so from my heart. I will not regard my life, honor and goods and all I have, higher and greater than thy will, which shall be my pleasure all my days.

But you will never find a person who will constantly regulate himself according to this commandment; for the whole life you are living in the body, in the five senses, and whatever you do in your body, should all be so regulated as to be done to the glory of God, according to the regulations of this commandment, which saith, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.” As if Christ said: If you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, then nothing will be lacking; you shall experience it in your daily life, namely: when everything you do, whether you wake or sleep, whether you labor or stand idle, whether you eat or drink, is directed and done out of love to God from the heart. In like manner your mind and thoughts will also be directed wholly and entirely to God, so that you will approve of nothing you are not certain is pleasing to God. Yea, where are those who do this?

WELS-LCMS: Chasing Andy Stanley, ELCA, or Both?

 

Andy Stanley Comes Clean About Supporting Homosexuality, Sort Of

"Andy Stanley came under fire earlier this year for his support of homosexuality which publicly dates back to 2012, yet that sermon did not attract the same level of notoriety as what he said behind closed doors. Nevertheless, Andy Stanley would continue to have a pro-sodomite conference at his church last month, which was brought up in his most recent sermon. In uncharacteristic fashion, Andy Stanley did not make public his most recent sermon, but audio obtained by Protestia has gone viral.

Andy Stanley begins by telling his audience that he has not changed his position on this, meaning he’s always been affirming of homosexuality.

Andy Stanley makes it clear that he teaches that same-sex attraction is not sinful. This is in direct violation of the Bible’s teachings on sinful desires.

Andy Stanley then denies that the Unconditional Conference was gay affirming. This is a lie, but Andy Stanley is clearly doing damage control as he mentions that people left his church because of this. He mentions two presenters at the conference, Brian and Justin who are homosexuals in a “marriage,” yet their faith is affirmed by Andy Stanley also. He then says that these two people have been regular speakers at his church for some time in an attempt to own discernment bloggers for not knowing this. Yet ironically, he proves the point that he’s gay affirming in trying to lie about it while at the same time affirming it."

A Great Honor!

 Also called the Snap, Crackle, and Pop Gym Award

How Did the American Lutherans Depart from the Book of Concord?Walther Led the Apostasy and the ALC/LCA Followed in His Hoofprints

 

The editor frowns on tobacco products, but this Luther caricature is just too humorous.

Lutherans came to America through various European sources of Pietism. The Pietists were not all alike, but they were influenced by the fact of Pietistic societies and schools (like Halle) emphasizing good works and getting along (like Spener).

By Civil War times, the General Council came out of the General Synod. The original seminary was in Gettysburg (General Synod) and those who favored Lutheran teaching (General Council) formed their seminary in Philadelphia (Mt. Airy).

Pietism is fertile ground for everyone getting along together, ignoring differences, and leaning on rationalism. Mergers created the American Lutheran Church, The American Lutheran Church, the ULCA, the LCA, etc.

The Synodical Conference (LCMS, WELS, ELS) began with Pietism, though their history scribblers do a ferocious amount of lying about it. CFW Walther B.A. made himself the dogmatic dictator of the Pietists who came to America, led by Bishop Martin Stephan who was arrested in Germany for adultery and mismanagement of funds, a true Church Growth founder.

The Seminex liars came back the same day. The Preus brothers taught the same OJ as the Tietjen fans. This was the first split in history where both sides were consummate liars.

Walther and Company were radical Pietists, not unlike the Wheat Flour Messiah, and they both taught the Objective Faithless Justification of Halle University. Walther made sure that F. Pieper (Wisconsin Synod) followed him and his OJ, his seminary presidency, and his synod leadership. The natural affinity of Germans to follow Dr. Luther rather than Walther, B.A., kept back OJ - though no one cares to admit it today. The LCMS printed and still prints Justification by Faith catechisms and other sources from the Book of Concord.

A cast of hundreds, a wasted forest of innocent trees, an anchor for all the unread books above the pastor's desk.

Listen up, LCMS groupies. Missouri stopped being Biblical long ago and now publishes Seminex dreck almost exclusively. Try to read the giant "Small" Catechism, the toxic Dogma-tanic, or the bloated doubled-down Mark commentary. Seminex insiders took over Concordia Publishing House to print their rationalistic propaganda while making a few bucks on the side.

The Efficacy of God's Word? "Never Heard of It. We Promote Happy Campers."

 

"Thrilled and excited about the next year!"

The newly hired Professors of Church Growth get furrowed brows when they are asked to teach the Church History 101 course. "But, but, but," they say, "We only know the part after Understanding Church Growth was published. Those were glorious wonder years, when the classrooms erupted with Oh! Oh! Oh! I just discovered another Church Growth Principle!"

"All of us bathed in the serenity of Pasadena, whether priests, bishops, or Salvation Army members, or ELCA, or LCMS, or WELS, or stealth ELS."

 

 I photoshopped the Episcopal leaders, above, anticipating the future WELS advocacy.

WELS hazing helps students conform and fit in with the "names" who run the show.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 18 - "Do you want to do something pleasing to God, then do it out of genuine love."

 

Complete Sermon - Trinity 18 - The Two Greatest Commandments - Christ Is David's Son And David's Lord

17. Do you want to do something pleasing to God, then do it out of genuine love. That the Jews practiced circumcision, fasted much, prayed much, and performed other like services, was not pleasing to God, for it did not come from the heart, as this commandment requires: Thou shalt love God with all thy heart. Thus it will be also with you, even though you should belong to the Carthusian friars, or to a still more exacting order; all would avail nothing, if you had not the love of God. From this you are to conclude, all works are nothing, that do not originate in love, or are against love. No commandments should be in force, except those in which the law of love can be exercised.

18. From this it now appears what a misleading calling that of the monks and priests is, in that they wish to merit heaven through their works alone, and they also bind the people to do good works, in order that they may thereby merit heaven, which is a cursed and godless service. Hence, as already stated, the law is to be only an exercise to prove our love; otherwise, aside from love, God never inquires about works, no matter how excellent they are.

19. You can now see how many people know what the law means: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.

Surely they are few who know it, and fewer still who keep it. How can they keep that which they do not know? We are blind and our nature is totally blind, and so is also human reason. It knows nothing so imperfectly as that which the law of God requires.

20. Now here Christ shows the Pharisees and the Scribes a twofold kindness. In the first place, he dispels their blindness and teaches them what the law is. In the second place, he teaches them how impossible it is for them to keep the law. Their blindness he dispels, in that he teaches them what the law is, namely: that love is the law. Human reason cannot comprehend this nowadays any more than the Jews did then, for if it had been possible for human reason to comprehend it, the Pharisees and Scribes, who at that time were the best and wisest of the people, could have understood it; but they thought it consisted alone in performing the external works of the law; in giving to God, whether it be done willingly or unwillingly; but their inward blindness, their covetousness, and their hardened heart they could not see, and thought they thoroughly understood the law and were fine fellows, holy and pious people; but they stood in their own light. For no one is able to keep the law unless his nature is thoroughly renewed.