All Gardening Efforts Begin with the Wee Little Creatures of the Soil

All Gardening Efforts Begin with the Wee Little Creatures of the Soil

         Man’s efforts to improve the soil disrupt its microbes and structure, killing and driving away the life that makes it fertile, adding needless toxins while having a paradoxical negative effect.

1.    Chemical fertilizers have little effect on the soil’s fertility, but a powerful toxic effect on microbes and larger soil creatures, while passing through into the water table.

2.    Insecticides temporarily kill anything that moves, allowing the worst pests to come back without the beneficial bugs that do the actual permanent work of keeping destruction at bay.

3.    Fungicides repeat these errors and kill off the most powerful tool of decomposition and fertility – fungus.

4.    When the chemical solutions have been applied and have done their damage, the gardening centers claim the solution is – apply even more of the same toxins. Walk through the aisles of bug killers and fertilizers and try to detect the fragrance of spring. Instead, the odors well up and make a sickening stench.

If all life on land depends on the soil, then we want the first 12 inches of soil, the root zone, to be as fertile, aerated, and moist as we can. Fortunately, the Creating Word fashioned an intricate system of dependencies that accomplish that goal. We can enhance that activity by doing less, to let Creation do more, tilling the earth harmless as doves, wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16.

Liebig

Justus Liebig and NPK

          One man inspired the chemical revolution in the 1840s, by measuring the impact of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) on plant growth – Justus Liebig. His concerns were based on fears of famine, something he experienced as a boy, but his later results, about problems with NPK, were overlooked and the chemical fertilizer industry never looked back in regret.

          My aunt asked her husband to fertilize the roses, my grandfather’s specialty. My uncle reasoned that double the fertilizer would be twice as good and administered the potion accordingly. Due to osmosis, the concentration drew the water from the roses and killed them all. At best, the rose fertilizer would pass through the root zone, having the same effect on microbes and larger creatures, and enter to water table. Too much phosphorus in the water leads to many bad effects and the chemical is much lower or even zero in commercial fertilizer at gardening centers today.

          Gardeners want fertile soil and would rather save money and labor in fostering that change. In addition, the ideal is to keep those changes locked into the root zone, and that can be done by reducing labor, costs, and soil-churning. Back to nature really means honoring and observing God’s Creation in the garden.

Fungus and the Trap

          Science teachers told us that humans are different from animals in our use of tools. Animals do not use tools. And yet, one gardening writer was stunned to see a photo of a fungus trapping and killing a nematode, using a triggering device to enclose the creature. That began Jeff Lowenfels’ journey from professional chemical gardener to toxin-free gardening - and publication of Teaming with Microbes.

          In the old days, before cell phones and grape-flavored apples, gardeners ignored the microscopic creatures and bragged about their earthworm populations. Like Darwin before any significant microscopic discoveries, we all knew about those tiny microbes, but gave them little significance in our quest for the perfect garden. But nothing compares to the lowly fungus in its role as a provider of useful chemicals for the plant.

Soil Logistics, Better Than Walmart’s

          The genius of America is the logistics system, which allows goods from all over the world to arrive at our stores and be purchased at low prices. The work of the fungus is parallel to our logistics and yet works without our knowledge or planning. We can only make it better or worse. Although microscopic, fungi have the ability to extend their influence far beyond their initial size, by growing and reaching out with the hyphae, growth tubes that end in a tip that can dissolve any organic leftovers.

          In contrast, the tiny bacterium, small enough to fit 500,000 within the period at the end of a sentence, cannot grow beyond its size and can only travel on a film of water. The fungus can travel meters by growing, but it must have carbon to grow.

          Fungus cannot makes its own carbon, but must have carbon. Plant root hairs provide the answer to this dilemma, and that solution is so astonishing that every gardener, sceptic, and atheist should consider this junction between plant and soil, this Vanity Fair.

Therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold: as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms; lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts…(Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Vanity Fair)

We now know that the root hairs signal for the ingredients needed by the plant, various compounds and water, exchanging carbon in the swap. The abundant carbon in plants is the medium of exchange and enables the fungus to travel by growing, find the requested supplies and bring them back in liquid form.

          One teaspoon of soil contains yards of delicate fungal strands, so the folly of tramping down soil or rototilling it should be clearly seen. Gardeners have known that the soil becomes infertile by stepping on it, but the reasons why were not so clear before this advent of fungal research. The seeds that fell on the paths, in the Parable of the Sower, were easily snatched up because they could not germinate and take root where foot traffic hardened the soil (Matthew 13).

          Fungus is not only powerful in its growth, but also in its ability to break down organic matter. Bacteria make a start in decomposition, but fungus attacks the toughest cells, like wood and bark, and reduces the complicated chemicals to ones needed and demanded by the root hairs of the plant. The hyphal tip makes the fungus similar to the giant subway drilling machines that cut through the earth with a cutting and smashing device in the front.

Letting the Fungi Work

          Creation gardeners can allow the fungi work to feed their plants in several ways.

1.    The soil should be left undisturbed, as much as possible. Stepping stones in the garden help prevent compaction. Avoiding the rototiller is also important, not only for the fungi, but also for the soil creatures affected by being osterized.

2.    Fungi love wood, so using log borders and shredded wood mulch will provide an abundance of food for all soil creatures, fungi in particular.

3.    Avoiding fungicides (rose spray for blackspot) will spare the innocent bystanders that will die, a problem greater than blackspot itself.

4.    Leaving the fertilizer bags at the store and relying on organic methods will also have beneficial effects on everything living in the yard.

Mind the Soil-Food Web

         Fungi  

Rototilling; spraying with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and miticides; compacting soil; removing organic material from lawns and under trees —all these human practices affect the soil food webs in your yard and gardens. Once a niche is destroyed, the soil food web starts to work imperfectly. Once a member of a niche is gone, the same thing happens. In both instances, the gardener must step in to fill the gap, or the system completely fails. Rather than working against nature the gardener had better cooperate with it; and this, as we shall see, does not require a lot of hard labor— not if the gardener understands and teams up with the soil food web, letting its members do the work.
Lowenfels, Jeff (2010-09-10). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Kindle Locations 1517-1520). Timber Press. Kindle Edition.

Bacteria

          Tiny specks of life seem insignificant, unless we are infected with them – strep, pneumonia, etc. The ability of bacteria to multiply is phenomenal. One cell can become 5 billion in 12 hours, but they are dependent upon water, both for survival and movement. Since 500,000 bacteria can fit within a period at the end of a sentence, a big trip for one bacterium is not impressive. Worst – or best of all, bacteria serve as food for many creatures.

          Bacteria are usually the first organism imagined when the subject of decomposition is raised. Unlike fungi, they do not have a chemical drill to puncture tough membranes and draw out nutrition. Instead, bacteria use osmotic movement through their cell walls to obtain what they want. Bacteria and fungi share in the chemical breakdown of organic matter so the root hairs can feed. The grass clippings on the surface of a garden cannot feed plants directly, but once they are attacked with mold and bacteria, then digested by earthworms, the final product— an earthworm casting— is easily absorbed by the plant.

Helping Bacteria

          Bacteria are powerful in their numbers and contribute a lot to gardening:

·       Fixing (creating) nitrogen compounds that can be used by plants, since nitrogen itself cannot feed the plant.

·       Breaking down the complex chemicals of organic matter so plants can ultimately feed upon what was too complex to feed upon at first.

·       Attacking the simple sugars while fungi attack the complex cell material.

·       Feeding the earthworms, who turn their soil-organic matter-bacteria food into castings perfect for plant use.

·       Holding a vast amount of organic food in the top foot of soil, serving as a recycling supply of nutrition for all creatures.

Protozoa

          The protozoa in the soil are much larger than bacteria. They can be seen with the naked eye while an entire city population of bacteria can hide within the dot of an eye. They have an unusual relationship, because the protozoa give the bacteria room to grow by devouring many of them. If the bacteria grew without competition, they would use up their food sources too fast and become a larger population with far less to eat. This is counter-intuitive for humans, because the sight of crowded grocery stores before a hurricane only drives more to empty the shelves of food, water, Pop-tarts, and flashlight batteries.

          The Creation becomes more apparent as we consider the relationship between the microbes. Fungi and bacteria play large roles in the breakdown of organic matter for other life-forms. The balance of nature we learned from science classes is really the complex engineering of the Creating Word. Although that seems more apparent at the larger scale of life, this balance is already essential and impressive among the microbes. By eating the bacteria, the protozoa exchange and hold onto the simple forms of organic matter. The primary ones of interest are the nitrogen combinations that the plants need, but all the chemical combinations are important and contribute to the health of the soil, the growth of plants. Leaving the soil alone allows the microbes to flourish and hold a Fort Knox of ingredients for plant life. The greater the biomass in the soil, the more water and minerals are held in the top foot of soil where almost all roots feed – even tree roots. Taproots dig much deeper and tree roots search below for water, but most of the nutrition for all land life is in that top twelve inches of soil.

Nematodes

          Microscopic nematodes first awakened the Teaming with Microbes author about relationships in soil. He saw a microscopic photo of a fungus springing a trap on the nematode, to kill and devour its tiny visitor. And yet, other fungi attract nematodes with a chemical lure and stun them into staying for lunch. Nematodes add to the balance of soil creatures. They are rich in nitrogen, the building block of protein and the green of the garden. They feed on plants, bacteria, and fungi. Everything living in the soil is food for another creature while feeding on other living things.

Two Wee Little Creatures of the Soil

          Soil life includes microscopic life of many types, which are briefly summarized here.

1.    Springtails are the most numerous creature on the planet, yet most people have never heard of this little insect, which can barely be seen. Springtails feed on plant decay and serve as food for other creatures. Since springtails feed on leaf litter, their presence as food attracts higher level creatures, which also serve as food higher on the menu. Leaf litter left alone will be attacked by fungus, springtails, mites, and earthworms, so a pile of leaves will always be a cafeteria for birds looking for those creatures and many more drawn to the moisture, food, and shelter of decaying leaves.

2.    Mites are joint-footed (arthropods) and related to spiders. They have no qualms about eating springtails.

Two common arthropods, mites and springtails, are alone responsible for recycling up to 30% of the leaves and woody debris deposited on a temperate zone forest floor. Teaming with Microbes. p .

          I have often made the point that people talk about gardening without knowing the name of the most numerous creature on earth, the springtail insect, which is all over the yard, helping with decay and serving as food. Man-made cures for the garden have a devastating effect on the entire soil food web: fungi, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, springtails, and mites. A poison aimed at a given pest or fungus will eradicate the soil populations that manage one another so successfully, as if they were engineered from the beginning to do so. The ocean of life in the soil was not made to cope with manufactured fertilizer. Instead, God created something designed to fertilize the soil and offer many more benefits, night and day – the earthworm. 

Luther's Sermon for Good Friday - How To Contemplate Christ's Suffering

GOOD FRIDAY.
 

A SERMON ON HOW TO CONTEMPLATE CHRIST’S HOLY SUFFERINGS.

In 1519 many pamphlet editions of this sermon appeared and other editions without a date. In 1519 there were 15 editions, in 1520 two, in 1521 one, in 1522 one and in 1524 one. In 152I a Latin translation appeared at Wittenberg. It is one of the most frequently issued writings of Luther.

German text: Erlangen edition 11:150; Walch 11:785; St. Louis 11:574.

CONTENTS:

THE TRUE AND THE FALSE VIEWS OF CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS.
I. THE FALSE VIEW OF CHRIST’ S SUFFERINGS,WHICH ARISES: 1. When in our consideration of Christ’s sufferings we become angry at the Jews

2. When we consider them only in a superficial way and apply them to incredible things 2.

3. When we weep for Christ and misuse the mass 3.

II. THE TRUE VIEW OF CHRIST’ S SUFFERINGS.

A. Christ’s Sufferings Are To Be So Considered, That We Thereby Become Terror-Stricken Because Of The Great Wrath Of God On Account Of Sin And Sinners 4-11.THIS TAKES PLACE 1. When we know and believe that our sins caused such great suffering 4-5.

2. When we know and believe that we should have suffered in eternity the same that Christ suffered. a. The nature of this knowledge 6-7. b. The necessity of this knowledge 8-9. c. The fruit and benefit of this knowledge

10. d. That this knowledge is not our work, but God’s 9-11.

B. We Are To Consider Christ’s Sufferings In A Way That We Are Comforted By Them.THIS TAKES PLACE 1. When we do not let our sins remain in our consciences, but lay them upon Christ. a. The necessity of this 12-18. b. The nature of it 18. c. How we come to this 14.

2. When we reflect upon the love of God and of Christ that shines forth out of these sufferings 15.

C. We Are So To Consider Christ’s Sufferings That They May Serve Us As An Example Through Our Whole Life 16-17.

I. THE FALSE VIEWS OF CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS.

1. In the first place, some reflect upon the sufferings of Christ in a way that they become angry at the Jews, sing and lament about poor Judas, and are then satisfied; just like by habit they complain of other persons, and condemn and spend their time with their enemies. Such an exercise may truly be called a meditation not on the sufferings of Christ, but on the wickedness of Judas and the Jews.

2. In the second place, others have pointed out the different benefits and fruits springing from a consideration of Christ’s Passion. Here the saying ascribed to Albertus is misleading, that to think once superficially on the sufferings of Christ is better than to fast a whole year or to pray the Psalter every day, etc. The people thus blindly follow him and act contrary to the true fruits of Christ’s Passion; for they seek therein their own selfish interests. Therefore they decorate themselves with pictures and booklets, with letters and crucifixes, and some go so far as to imagine that they thus protect themselves against the perils of water, of fire, and of the sword, and all other dangers. In this way the suffering of Christ is to work in them an absence of suffering, which is contrary to its nature and character.

3. A third class so sympathize with Christ as to weep and lament for him because he was so innocent, like the women who followed Christ from Jerusalem, whom he rebuked, in that they should better weep for themselves and for their children. Such are they who run far away in the midst of the Passion season, and are greatly benefited by the departure of Christ from Bethany and by the pains and sorrows of the Virgin Mary, but they never get farther. Hence they postpone the Passion many hours, and God only knows whether it is devised more for sleeping than for watching.

And among these fanatics are those who taught what great blessings come from the holy mass, and in their simple way they think it is enough if they attend mass. To this we are led through the sayings of certain teachers, that the mass opere operati, non opere operantis, is acceptable of itself, even without our merit and worthiness, just as if that were enough. Nevertheless the mass was not instituted for the sake of its own worthiness, but to prove us, especially for the purpose of meditating upon the sufferings of Christ.

For where this is not done, we make a temporal, unfruitful work out of the mass, however good it may be in itself. For what help is it to you, that God is God, if he is not God to you? What benefit is it that eating and drinking are in themselves healthful and good, if they are not healthful for you, and there is fear that we never grow better by reason of our many masses, if we fail to seek the true fruit in them?

II. THE TRUE VIEW OF CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS.

4. Fourthly, they meditate on the Passion of Christ aright, who so view Christ that they become terror-stricken in heart at the sight, and their conscience at once sinks in despair. This terror-stricken feeling should spring forth, so that you see the severe wrath and the unchangeable earnestness of God in regard to sin and sinners, in that he was unwilling that his only and dearly beloved Son should set sinners free unless he paid the costly ransom for them as is mentioned in Isaiah 53:8: “For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” What happens to the sinner, when the dear child is thus stricken? An earnestness must be present that is inexpressible and unbearable, which a person so immeasurably great goes to meet, and suffers and dies for it; and if you reflect upon it real deeply, that God’s Son, the eternal wisdom of the Father, himself suffers, you will indeed be terror-stricken; and the more you reflect the deeper will be the impression.

5. Fifthly, that you deeply believe and never doubt the least, that you are the one who thus martyred Christ. For your sins most surely did it. Thus St. Peter struck and terrified the Jews as with a thunderbolt in Acts 2:36-37, when he spoke to them all in common: “Him have ye crucified,” so that three thousand were terror-stricken the same day and tremblingly cried to the apostles: “O beloved brethren what shall we do?” Therefore, when you view the nails piercing through his hands, firmly believe it is your work. Do you behold his crown of thorns, believe the thorns are your wicked thoughts, etc.

6. Sixthly, now see, where one thorn pierces Christ, there more than a thousand thorns should pierce thee, yea, eternally should they thus and even more painfully pierce thee. Where one nail is driven through his hands and feet, thou shouldest eternally suffer such and even more painful nails; as will be also visited upon those who let Christ’s sufferings be lost and fruitless as far as they are concerned. For this earnest mirror, Christ, will neither lie nor mock; whatever he says must be fully realized.

7. Seventhly, St. Bernard was so terror-stricken by Christ’s sufferings that he said: I imagined I was secure and I knew nothing of the eternal judgment passed upon me in heaven, until I saw the eternal Son of God took mercy upon me, stepped forward and offered himself on my behalf in the same judgment. Ah, it does not become me still to play and remain secure when such earnestness. is behind those sufferings. Hence he commanded the women: “Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” Luke 23:28; and gives in the 31st verse the reason: “For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” As if to say: Learn from my martyrdom what you have merited and how you should be rewarded. For here it is true that a little dog was slain in order to terrorize a big one. Likewise the prophet also said: “All generations shall lament and bewail themselves more than him”; it is not said they shall lament him, but themselves rather than him. Likewise were also the apostles terror-stricken in Acts 2:27, as mentioned before, so that they said to the apostles: “O, brethren, what shall we do?” So the church also sings: I will diligently meditate thereon, and thus my soul in me will exhaust itself.

8. Eighthly, one must skillfully exercise himself in this point, for the benefit of Christ’s sufferings depends almost entirely upon man coming to a true knowledge of himself, and becoming terror-stricken and slain before himself. And where man does not come to this point, the sufferings of Christ have become of no true benefit to him. For the characteristic, natural work of Christ’s sufferings is that they make all men equal and alike, so that as Christ was horribly martyred as to body and soul in our sins, we must also like him be martyred in our consciences by our sins. This does not take place by means of many words, but by means of deep thoughts and a profound realization of our sins. Take an illustration: If an evil-doer were judged because he had slain the child of a prince or king, and you were in safety, and sang and played, as if you were entirely innocent, until one seized you in a horrible manner and convinced you that you had enabled the wicked person to do the act; behold, then you would be in the greatest straits, especially if your conscience also revolted against you.

Thus much more anxious you should be, when you consider Christ’s sufferings. For the evil doers, the Jews, although they have now judged and banished God, they have still been the servants of your sins, and you are truly the one who strangled and crucified the Son of God through your sins, as has been said.

9. Ninthly, whoever perceives himself to be so hard and sterile that he is not terror-stricken by Christ’s sufferings and led to a knowledge of him, he should fear and tremble. For it cannot be otherwise; you must become like the picture and sufferings of Christ, be it realized in life or in hell; you must at the time of death, if not sooner, fall into terror, tremble, quake and experience all Christ suffered on the cross. It is truly terrible to attend to this on your deathbed; therefore you should pray God to soften your heart and permit you fruitfully to meditate upon Christ’s Passion. For it is impossible for us profoundly to meditate upon the sufferings of Christ of ourselves, unless God sink them into our hearts. Further, neither this meditation nor any other doctrine is given to you to the end that you should fall fresh upon it of yourself, to accomplish the same; but you are first to seek and long for the grace of God, that you may accomplish it through God’s grace and not through your own power. For in this way it happens that those referred to above never treat the sufferings of Christ aright; for they never call upon God to that end, but devise out of their own ability their own way, and treat those sufferings entirely in a human and an unfruitful manner.

10. Tenthly, whoever meditates thus upon God’s sufferings for a day, an hour, yea, for a quarter of an hour, we wish to say freely and publicly, that it is better than if he fasts a whole year, prays the Psalter every day, yea, than if he hears a hundred masses. For such a meditation changes a man’s character and almost as in baptism he is born again, anew. Then Christ’s suffering accomplishes its true, natural and noble work, it slays the old Adam, banishes all lust, pleasure and security that one may obtain from God’s creatures; just like Christ was forsaken by all, even by God.

11. Eleventhly, since then such a work is not in our hands, it happens that sometimes we pray and do not receive it at the time; in spite of this one should not despair nor cease to pray. At times it comes when we are not praying for it, as God knows and wills; for it will be free and unbound: then man is distressed in conscience and is wickedly displeased with his own life, and it may easily happen that he does not know that Christ’s Passion is working this very thing in him, of which perhaps he was not aware, just like the others so exclusively meditated on Christ’s Passion that in their knowledge of self they could not extricate themselves out of that state of meditation. Among the first the sufferings of Christ are quite and true, among the others a show and false, and according to its nature God often turns the leaf, so that those who do not meditate on the Passion, really do meditate on it; and those who hear the mass, do not hear it; and those who hear it not, do hear it.

III. THE COMFORT OF CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS.

12. Until the present we have been in the Passion week and have celebrated Good Friday in the right way: now we come to Easter and Christ’s resurrection. When man perceives his sins in this light and is completely terror-stricken in his conscience, he must be on his guard that his sins do not thus remain in his conscience, and nothing but pure doubt certainly come out of it; but just as the sins flowed out of Christ and we became conscious of them, so should we pour them again upon him and set our conscience free. Therefore see well to it that you act not like perverted people, who bite and devour themselves with their sins in their heart, and run here and there with their good works or their own satisfaction, or even work themselves out of this condition by means of indulgences and become rid of their sins; which is impossible, and, alas, such a false refuge of satisfaction and pilgrimages has spread far and wide.

13. Thirteenthly. Then cast your sins from yourself upon Christ, believe with a festive spirit that your sins are his wounds and sufferings, that he carries them and makes satisfaction for them, as Isaiah 53:6 says: “Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all;” and St. Peter in his first Epistle 1 Peter 2:24: “Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree” of the cross; and St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “Him who knew no sin was made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” Upon these and like passages you must rely with all your weight, and so much the more the harder your conscience martyrs you. For if you do not take this course, but miss the opportunity of stilling your heart, then you will never secure peace, and must yet finally despair in doubt. For if we deal with our sins in our conscience and let them continue within us and be cherished in our hearts, they become much too strong for us to manage and they will live forever. But when we see that they are laid on Christ and he has triumphed over them by his resurrection and we fearlessly believe it, then they are dead and have become as nothing. For upon Christ they cannot rest, there they are swallowed up by his resurrection, and you see now no wound, no pain, in him, that is, no sign of sin. Thus St. Paul speaks in Romans 4:25, that he was delivered up for our trespasses and was raised for our justification; that is, in his sufferings he made known our sins and also crucified them; but by his resurrection he makes us righteous and free from all sin, even if we believe the same differently.

14. Fourteenthly. Now if you are not able to believe, then, as I said before, you should pray to God for faith. For this is a matter in the hands of God that is entirely free, and is also bestowed alike at times knowingly, at times secretly, as was just said on the subject of suffering.

15. But now bestir yourself to the end: first, not to behold Christ’s sufferings any longer; for they have already done their work and terrified you; but press through all difficulties and behold his friendly heart, how full of love it is toward you, which love constrained him to bear the heavy load of your conscience and your sin. Thus will your heart be loving and sweet toward him, and the assurance of your faith be strengthened. Then ascend higher through the heart of Christ to the heart of God, and see that Christ would not have been able to love you if God had not willed it in eternal love, to which Christ is obedient in his love toward you; there you will find the divine, good father heart, and, as Christ says, be thus drawn to the Father through Christ. Then will you understand the saying of Christ in John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,” etc. That means to know God aright, if we apprehend him not by his power and wisdom, which terrify us, but by his goodness and love; there our faith and confidence can then stand unmovable and man is truly thus born anew in God.

16. Sixteenthly. When your heart is thus established in Christ, and you are an enemy of sin, out of love and not out of fear of punishment, Christ’s sufferings should also be an example for your whole life, and you should meditate on the same in a different way. For hitherto we have considered Christ’s Passion as a sacrament that works in us and we suffer; now we consider it, that we also work, namely thus: if a day of sorrow or sickness weighs you down, think, how trifling that is compared with the thorns and nails of Christ. If you must do or leave undone what is distasteful to you: think, how Christ was led hither and thither, bound and a captive. Does pride attack you: behold, how your Lord was mocked and disgraced with murderers. Do unchastity and lust thrust themselves against you: think, how bitter it was for Christ to have his tender flesh torn, pierced and beaten again and again. Do hatred and envy war against you, or do you seek vengeance: remember how Christ with many tears and cries prayed for you and all his enemies, who indeed had more reason to seek revenge.

If trouble or whatever adversity of body or soul afflict you, strengthen your heart and say: Ah, why then should I not also suffer a little since my Lord sweat blood in the garden because of anxiety and grief? That would be a lazy, disgraceful servant who would wish to lie in his bed while his lord was compelled to battle with the pangs of death.

17. Behold, one can thus find in Christ strength and comfort against all vice and bad habits. That is the right observance of Christ’s Passion, and that is the fruit of his suffering, and he who exercises himself thus in the same does better than by hearing the whole Passion or reading all masses. And they are called true Christians who in corporate the life and name of Christ into their own life, as St. Paul says in Galatians 5:24: “And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.” For Christ’s Passion must be dealt with not in words and a show, but in our lives and in truth. Thus St. Paul admonishes us in Hebrews 12:3: “For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls;” and St.

Peter in his 1 Epistle 1 Peter 4:1: “As Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same mind.” But this kind of meditation is now out of use and very rare, although the Epistles of St. Paul and St. Peter are full of it. We have changed the essence into a mere show, and painted the meditation of Christ’s sufferings only in letters and on walls.

Tony Compolo - Only One of Many Evangelicals - Andy Stanley (WELS Guru) Led the Way Years Ago

BY CATHLEEN FALSANI  JUNE 10, 2015

WHY TONY CAMPOLO’S LGBTQ REVERSAL IS EVANGELICALISM’S TIPPING POINT

That crashing sound you heard Monday morning was waves of change breaching the levees of the evangelical Christian world when one of its most venerable icons, the Rev. Tony Campolo, came out in favor of full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the life of the church.

While his name may not be as familiar outside the evangelical bubble as his contemporary, the Rev. Billy Graham, Campolo, 80, is undeniably a pillar of the evangelical world and has been for close to 60 years.

Both Campolo and Graham, 96, are best known and beloved first and foremost as preachers largely unencumbered by overt denominational or political biases. Like Graham, Campolo also has been a spiritual counselor to U.S. presidents and has played the role of public pastor in times of national sorrow and joy. (Since I first heard him deliver a version of it during chapel when I was a student at Wheaton College in 1989, I cannot recall a single Holy Week passing without hearing his classic “It’s Friday But Sunday’s Coming!” homily at least once.)

Campolo. The Evangelicals have the same rule
as the WELS-LCMS-ELS:
no one can criticize their heroes,
for any reason.

Graham and Campolo, both Baptist by tradition and creed, have been among the leading voices of mainstream evangelicalism, and their influence spans several generations. Together they helped shape the direction and expansiveness of the church as it attempted to navigate H. Richard Niebhur’s Christ and Culture paradigms and be in the world but not of it in the midst of ever increasing pluralism.

So when Campolo posted a statement on his web site this week announcing that he had changed his mind about homosexuality and was “urging the church to be more welcoming” to LGBTQ people, it was a big deal.

A very big deal.

In his statement, Campolo, a sociologist who earned a doctorate from Temple University, said in part:

more at this link

New Booklet Title Now Established

I start the day with coffee and writing. Lately I fixed Mrs. Ichabod some hot tea and brew coffee for myself. She officially approved the new booklet concept.

This will follow the Creation Gardening book.

Luther and the Word: The Lost Dutchman's Mine Discovered

I might reverse the subtitle and title, but that is the concept. I taught in the Suspicion Mountain range, Apache Junction, in the Phoenix area. The Lost Dutchman's Mine was often featured in the news, because no one found it, yet there was proof that exceptional gold was found somewhere out there.

Dutchman is the Americanized name for a German - Deutschman - so I thought that fit Luther very well. Besides that, he compared the Scriptures to a gold mine. The Book of Concord often calls the Gospel a treasure.

Contents

I. First - the historic view of the Scriptures.

II. Second, Luther's view of the Word of God and the Scriptures.

Some dealing with the modernist evasions about infallible and the Bible containing God's Word but not God's Word.

Roman Catholic evasions - gra-a-a-a-a-ay areas of Scripture, the pope needing to clarify it, Holy Mother Synod - all the excuses used by Lutherans today.

III. Annotated Lutheran reading list - the most important books to read for theology students, clergy, and laity. I already have an offer to help with the research and a suggestion for the book list.

IV. Pretty good books. For those building up their libraries, paper or Kindle, additional titles.

V. How to find books, printed and Internet.

Snowflake Children - I Know All about Them - Administrators Coddle Them

The president of Emory University has spoken to demonstrators who said they were frightened after someone wrote 'Trump 2016' in chalk around campus.

Students at the Atlanta school, which has an enrollment of more than 14,000 claim their 'safe space' was violated when the messages appeared on sidewalks and buildings.

Jim Wagner, president of the Atlanta university, wrote Tuesday that the students viewed the messages as intimidation, and they voiced 'genuine concern and pain' as a result. He acted after student government wrote to him and slammed the university's response, prompting a meeting that led to protests. Now administrators want to track down those responsible for the controversial markings. But some commentators on the university's student newspaper website told the students to grow up and accused them of being babies.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3506491/Emory-president-Students-scared-Trump-2016-chalk-signs.html#ixzz43n3LdHI2
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

***

GJ - Many are alarmed at the students who cannot bear a different idea being voiced on their campus. The schools offer a safe place for them, hot chocolate, and all the extras for their pre-school emotional state.

The reason is simple. Each college student is a "walking bag of money," as they call foreign students in the WELS system who pay their full share of costs.

I "applied" as a Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato student - a child of alumni, with great SAT and ACT scores. That earned me about $12,000 off and a chance at a very big presidential scholarship. That has to come from somewhere, and foreign students pay 100%.

Even a tiny college with no frills is asking for $30,000 a year for room, board, and tuition. The gain or loss of a few students means a lot of money. Let's say a 200 enrollment college loses 10 students to other colleges charging less (especially for new and transfer students) and offering more frills. They just lost $300,000 from the annual budget.

If the private college is more established, the basic cost is often $50,000 a year. Ten of those goldmines are worth $500,000 a year.

That is why Martin Luther College has been in free-fall for years, always too few students and plenty of competition for Wisconsin Lutheran College and Bethany. Colleges need endowment funds to make up the difference, and the synodical schools lack that, so they throw the difference onto the students in the form of student loans.

No one wants to do anything to offend a single college student, and that attitude reverberates through the whole school.

If a student is offended by a single remark and tweets it around school, everyone is up in arms and getting the administrators to do something about it. The administrators are so worried about losing a few walking bags of money - or a lot of them - that they react with fear and cowardice.

First-hand experience: The official policy was to expel a student who is caught plagiarizing three times.  A student is caught three times in the same class and reported. He gets an F for the class, as is proper, and his coach gives him an easy A during the summer in a made up class. The two grades average as C, and the student stays, grinning about his fate, confirmed by his Evangelical school in his blatant dishonesty.

A faculty member told me that everyone was cheating, via tweets, during a test, so she erased the entire test from the gradebook. So - it never happened - and she continued teaching a lot of classes for very little pay.

The coaches, the college president, his mother, his sisters, and his brothers-in-law got the bulk of salaries. Those walking bags of money were precious in their eyes. Can you imagine anything more fun than dressing up as a coach, skipping all academic meetings, and playing ball all day? Only a sucker would teach a real class for McDonalds pay.

The graduation for Martin Luther College trannies. "You Don't Own Me."

Boo!
I had fun with the skittish in class. I grew tired of students who capitalized every word in the english Language but could not manage to capitalize The word bible. I said, "If anyone writes Bible with a small b again, I will flunk you out of this class and have you expelled from this college." The reaction ricocheted through the college for some time, and I saw Bible written the right way from then on.

The gradebook was online and calculated the grade average as soon as scores were put in the right place. I would drop in all the zeroes and watch the reaction. "But I have been sick, busy, pre-occupied, moving to a new place, getting a new job!"

My response was, "I cannot grade nothing with anything but a zero."

College graduates cannot write and spell because no one wanted to offend them with a low grade, so they enter graduate school unable to write at a junior high level.

The Boomers are still in charge of academics in America, and they are the Grifter Generation. We were lucky to have been taught by people who survived the Depression and WWII. The snowflake generation will melt away when challenged to accept adult roles in the future. But the saying goes, the housemates of the Bernie Sanders student cadre are all called "Mom" and "Dad."

A Traitor Rots the Soul of a Nation

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.

But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.

He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator

Reliable Translations Are the Bulwark against False Doctrine. That Is Why LCMS-WELS-ELCA Support a Myriad of Bad Ones

Forrest Bivens, WELS, could not even write his own introduction
for his disastrous UOJ essay.
He had to plagiarize Mark Zarling's equally bad effort.

No Lutheran leader today will let the words "King James" pass his lips, except to complain about the KJV translation.

Many excuses are offered for all the new ones. The Bible salesmen work like the agitating little sister one Yale professor wrote about. She would start something in the car, like, "The sun is so bright it hurts my eyes." No one thought so until she said that. Soon everyone was responding according.

All agitators work that way. "I really hate the thees and thous," they say. That is so comical, coming from a Germanic synod - not that anyone in seminary knows German anymore. If they did, the concept of thou (du) and word endings - which are now sparse in English - would make sense. And they might explain that to those who object.

But bring out a new Bible translation, every week, and the publishing houses can sell them like strawberry Pop-tarts.

One excuse is "The KJV came from Calvinists." That is especially comical, because the WELS-LCMS partnership loves the NIV (pan-denominational) and the ESV (a Calvinist editor for the old RSV).

The KJV, in fact, came from Tyndale, who worked in Germany during the Lutheran Reformation to produce his first English Bible. Thus the KJV is a fine representative of Luther-style translating, with precision, rather than the dynamic equivalence of the modernist failures. In other words - accuracy of translation versus

• Inserting words never in the text, 
• Erasing words that are in the text plus,
• Mistranslating words to change the meaning of the text - all failures of the RSV, NIV, etc.

In the NIV, which is now official in WELS, thanks to the corruption of the DPs, the Fullerism of the faculties, and the lethargy of the laity,

1. The Sacraments have disappeared entirely.
2. UOJ has emerged from Romans 3, by a miracle of invention - "all" are justified.
3. Testament in Hebrews 9 is Calvin's covenant.
4. The English language has been taken down to surfer dude eloquence, you know, like, um. cool.

More about Lutheran Reading

One reader looked at the Lutheran reading list I drew up and asked, "All those?"

Some readers are much younger than I am, so they appreciate a little guidance for a lifetime of reading.

Some are my age and need to be nudged back into the Luther orbit. At the very least, Luther's sermons and Luther's writings in the Book of Concord should be primary for all clergy.

How odd to have CFW Walther, Bachelor of Arts, the final authority on all things doctrinal, all practical applications, all cultural matters!

That is quite a sleight of hand, misdirection of the brain cells, to talk up Luther-an doctrine and use a poorly educated, unethical, dishonest cult follower like Walther as the ultimate, the ruling norm.

The yahoos running the LCMS, WELS, and ELS would be laughed off the stage if the somnolent clergy actually knew Luther's sermons and his Book of Concord writing. But this is why that never happens. No one enforces this statement of Luther.

Luther, Introduction, Large Catechism, Book of Concord
12] And what need is there of many words? If I were to recount all the profit and fruit which God's Word produces, whence would I get enough paper and time? The devil is called the master of a thousand arts. But what shall we call God's Word, which drives away and brings to naught this master of a thousand arts with all his arts and power? It must indeed be the master of more than a hundred thousand arts. 13] And shall we frivolously despise such power, profit, strength, and fruit-we, especially, who claim to be pastors and preachers? If so, we should not only have nothing given us to eat, but be driven out, being baited with dogs, and pelted with dung, because we not only need all this every day as we need our daily bread, but must also daily use it against the daily and unabated attacks and lurking of the devil, the master of a thousand arts.

14] And if this were not sufficient to admonish us to read the Catechism daily, yet we should feel sufficiently constrained by the command of God alone, who solemnly enjoins in Deut. 6:6ff that we should always meditate upon His precepts, sitting, walking, standing, lying down, and rising, and have them before our eyes and in our hands as a constant mark and sign. Doubtless He did not so solemnly require and enjoin this without a purpose; but because He knows our danger and need, as well as the constant and furious assaults and temptations of devils, He wishes to warn, equip, and preserve us against them, as with a good armor against their fiery darts and with good medicine against their evil infection and suggestion.

15] Oh, what mad, senseless fools are we that, while we must ever live and dwell among such mighty enemies as the devils are, we nevertheless despise our weapons and defense, and are too lazy to look at or think of them!

Eighth Commandment
I have noticed that the citation of the Eighth Commandment has receded a bit, because many are quite willing to quote this from the Large Catechism:

The Church Growth Movement has crept up under the cover of the Eighth Commandment, like the Roman soldiers who interlocked their shields as they approached their targets. With the shields overlapping, they were a mobile, armored division.

So when I quoted Paul Kelm at a conference meeting, where I was invited ot speak, Forrest Bivens (Fuller Seminary alumni) became Jumpin' Jack and sprang up to cite  the Eighth Commandment. He was so quick to call me a slanderer! Bivens, "I want to protect the good name of Paul Kelm." He solemnly doubted whether that was a gen-you-whine quotation.

Someone asked, "Do you have proof Kelm said this?" I opened my briefcase and got out the brochure where Kent Hunter (Fuller Seminary grad) quoted Paul Kelm (Fuller Seminary grad) on some Church Growth program they were hatching. Of course, I just made up quotations! And the picture of Paul Kelm in the brochure.

Someone offered, "How do we know Kelm actually wrote that?" So now Kent Hunter, who produced the brochure, was the liar who made up quotations!

Later, I asked Kent Hunter (Fuller Seminary grad) if Paul Kelm (Fuller Seminary grad) actually wrote those words. He said, "I asked him for a recommendation and Paul gave me one."

As readers might recall, if they have memorized 14,000 posts, Bivens bragged about studying at Fuller Seminary and denied it to his gullible students at Mequon. No wonder he said he said his students were not very bright. When he denied what I published about his study at Fuller, he was calling me a liar, which is ... fill in the blank.

DP Seifert denied twice that Bivens talked about studying at Fuller Seminary, then agreed when I reminded him. I did not give him a chance to deny the truth three times - too Biblical for a future DP.

Larry Olson (DMin, Fuller Seminary) bought a drive-by degree at Fuller Seminary but had a pal from WELS question in Christian News whether that was true. I had the physical proof of his love affair with Fuller, because I found his article in a Church Growth journal, where he gushed about meeting McGavran.

Likewise, David Valleskey showed obvious signs of Fuller intoxication when he gave his odious Spoiling the Egyptians paper, subsequently published in WELS' hideous journal of false doctrine. I asked him to his face, and he denied studying at Fuller. Later, he admitted it to David Koenig, CLC Church Growther and friend of Gutsche.

Valleskey was furious with Koenig for telling the truth, and Koenig was furious with me for quoting him.

Gutsche has been a WELS pastor too, according to his LinkedIn profile,
which I copied into this blog.

Falsehood requires refutation. Otherwise, we are simply condoning it.

Romans 16:17-18King James Version (KJV)

17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Books Lutherans Should Read - Must Read. Later This Will Become a Booklet

I am going to list a selection that really ought to be read in these times, highlighting a few things that must be studied.

Luther
His sermons. I like the Lenker collection, found on this blog and various other places, on Kindle, and in print.

Luther's Galatians Commentary. The short version is on the Net. The final printed version is from Kregel. The Book of Concord commends this work twice, so read it, mark it, remember it. You will be ahead of 99.9% of all Lutheran leaders and teachers.

Luther in the Book of Concord.
1. The Large Catechism comes from his sermons.
2. The Smalcald Articles, especially on Enthusiasm. See the graphic above.

Melanchthon
1. The Augsburg Confession, especially Articles 1-6.
2. The Apology, especially the section on justification by faith.

Chemnitz
1. The Formula of Concord.
2. The Righteousness of Faith, III in the Formula.
3. Examination of the Council of Trent and Two Natures - must be read by pastors.

Chytraeus
1. His doctrinal book is quite good, concise. He was a best-seller long ago, for about 100 years or so.

Gerhard
1. Baptism and the Lord's Supper - excellent book and very good on justification by faith.

Pastor Paul Rydecki Books
Where to start? Hunnius would be a good place. The post-Concord era is especially useful to know because Pietism gave us UOJ. The post-Concord theologians were death on UOJ and always taught justification by faith.

Pastor Paul Rydecki has uncovered a wealth of
post-Concord material worth owning and studying.

Theses Opposed to Huberianism: A Defense of the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification

Apr 17, 2012

by Aegidius Hunnius and Paul A. Rydecki

Paperback

$9.99Prime

Get it by Thursday, Mar 24

More Buying Choices

$9.88used & new(7 offers)

Synodical Conference
1. Stephan book on the real story to be read with Zion on the Mississippi, which is extremely detailed, especially the early years. So much to learn between the two books.
2. Walther Servant of the Word - funniest hagiography ever.
3. Fuerbringer's two books on the LCMS. Eighty Eventful Years and the sequel. Although he was CFW's nephew and did not deal with the criminal beginning of Missouri, Fuerbringer offers many insights about Missouri's first leaders and mentions the personal gift of the jeweled chalice to Bishop Stephan, which the Walther mob stole and used for Holy Communion ever since. Thieves, kidnappers, liars, and cover-up artists - the Synodical Conference tradition.

Muhlenberg Tradition
1. Krauth, Henry E. Jacobs, and Schmauk are very good, verbose at times but great evidence of the doctrinal struggle that took place as revivalistic General Synod leaders became truly Confessional.
2. Passavant's Life and Letters. Anyone who studies the Muhlenberg tradition without knowing Passavant's life is missing the story of this era, now mostly lost and forgotten.

Missouri and the Muhlenberg tradition struggled with Pietism versus the Confessions, but both have surrendered to rationalistic Pietism, universal forgiveness without faith.

The Big Freeze Is Almost Over - LCMS Will Gather Its Chicks Under Its Wings - WELS, ELS, CLC (sic)

One of these does not belong.

I was discussing the cult-attraction of the Synodical Conference participants with a reader. They have the same pathetic need to be accepted by Holy Mother Sect.

Just as all socialists look to Communism as the culmination of their hopes, so the little sects look up to Mother Missouri as the New Jerusalem, the Israel of God, heaven on earth. Anyone who leaves the bosom of Missouri can and should be shunned, but the icy looks or hostile gestures vanish when the Prodigal rejoins the fold.

Straight Talk - isn't that a micro-aggression?
Jeske's free ad on the LCMS websty.

Mark Jeske is the midwife who quietly minded the patient by being the media star of Missouri, WELS, and the ELS at the same time. He appeared on the Missouri website and WELS pastors were scandalized, for a few seconds. They are always shocked and alarmed for a short time, until the official excuse is passed around.

Joining the board of Thrivent ($140,000 a year!) made Jeske the Elijah of the great reunion - ELCA and the LCMS cult, united by Universal Objective Justification. How can they object when they teach exactly what ELCA promotes - universal forgiveness without faith? Besides that, WELS is not quite so open about it, but the Wisconsin Synod schools are gayer than lavender hose. They just need to get past their habit of lying about it to the membership.

On the sidelines, the cousins Tiefel are knitting together the fragments of the CLC(sic)-WELS-ELS alliance. James Tipple is the Mequon professor, an early promoter of Church Growth and other intoxicating ideas. Paul Tipple is the equally nasty promoter of Church Growth in the CLC (sic). They have done a fine job of turning their abusive sects away from any suspicion of Lutheran doctrine, uniting them in Church Growthism without damaging the methods of abuse still earnestly applied, like whips on unrepentant backs.

Kilcrease is born of a WELS parsonage, yet a product of ELCA and Jesuit education.
 He is an UOJ expert for LCMS, a Roman Catholic lecturer, and professor of UOJ
at Jay Webber's ELCA seminary, ILT.

Rated at Marquette - "Class is really boring. He is monotonous, rambling, doesn't use the board much (like 3 times in the semester he wrote a word or two, or drew a map). Not very engaging. 3 essays and a couple exams (essay/mc). he gave out pretty good study guides for all but the final exam. not too hard, just not exciting."

Institute of Lutheran Theology, Faculty

Kilcrease, Jack

Historical and Systematic Theology

B.A. ELCA's Luther College (2001); M.A. ELCA's Luther Seminary (2003); Ph.D. Jesuit Marquette University (2009) 

Kilcrease was apparently invited by David Scaer to promote his ideas a Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne. 

Both LCMS seminaries, like Mequon, are so pure that they can invite an endless stream of National Council of Communist Churches clergy to speak at their schools. Due to their purity, these seminaries cannot be damaged in any way by kissing up to Rome, ELCA, Fuller Seminary, Trinity Divinity, or Willow Creek.

• Jack Kilcrease, O.P. (Dominican, for you Mequon grads)

  Aquinas College, Philosophy, Adjunct

  |  

  Theology

  +87

Jack D. Kilcrease is a Lutheran layperson and an adjunct professor of theology at the Institute of Lutheran Theology and Aquinas College. He grew up in Oregon and attended Luther College in Iowa (B.A. History and Religion) and Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN (M.A. Doctrine and Theology). He graduated in 2009 from Marquette University with a Ph.D in Systematic Theology. 

He is the author of the following articles: "Martin Luther and Bernard of Clairvaux on the Bridal Mystical Motif," (Journal of Ecclesiastical History) "Creation's Praise: A Short Liturgical Reading of Genesis and Revelation," (Pro Ecclesia) "Kenosis and Vocation: Christ as the Exemplar and Agent of Christian Freedom," (LOGIA) "Gerhard O. Forde on the Law" (Concordia Theological Quarterly). His systematic Lutheran Christology ("The Self-Donation of God: A Contemporary Lutheran Approach to Christ and His Benefits" preface, David P. Scaer) has been published by Wipf and Stock Press.  He is current writing the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics volume on Sacred Scripture (Yes!)
Supervisors: Greon Kopf, Lois Malcolm, and Ralph Del Colle 

The Table Is Set - Jeske Has Prepared the Appetizer - ELCA Beckons - 

Come Home to Halle and Rome, UOJists, Come Home