Just the Facts, Pastor Bruce Foster

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Seminex ELCA Pastor Bruce Foster and Mrs. Claus

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Mark and Avoid Jeske gets all the religions
together to spend their Thrivent loot.
WELS supported the United Nations years ago.

Experimenting - Low Cost Gardening

Anyone can spend $35 on a plant or half as much - or almost nothing.

Knowing the variety is important, which is why gardeners often employ the official Latin name.

At first, all Bee Balm is just that. But Bee Balm fans will favor one kind or another and only shop for the favorite at a good price. I found the red Bee Balm fast spreading but floppy. In contrast, the purple Bee Balm formed a big clump and bloomed in one place, swarmed by bumblebees and emitting a Vicks Vapo-rub fragrance.

Direct Gardening told me I just had to buy Catmint - which is related to, but different from Catnip. The dreaded Catnip spreads like Bermuda grass and has a powerful root system.

Catmint is showier and better behaved than its cousin. The best one, I am told, is Walker's Low, which is actually rather tall and very bloomy. So I ordered a couple at $2. I can also buy Walker's Low today for:

• $10.95
• $11.95, or 
• $29.95.

I'll take Catmint, Walker's Low for $2, from Direct Gardening.

Bee Balm also makes tea, as many mints do.
This Bergamot is my favorite, easy to grow and divide.

This is one reason for Bee Balm -
beneficial insect hosts are good for the whole garden.

These Bee Balms also make good hummingbird feeders.

Why These Mints?

I am wary about mints, because they are just as famous for being weedy as they are for attracting bees.

Creeping Charlie is often a visitor to lawns. It is another mint that easily multiplies by its stolons. I am trying to insert stoloniferous into my conversations. "Socialism is stoloniferous, like Creeping Charlie." 

I also need some short responses to Almost Eden's Yoda-like summaries. AE - "These are easy to grow, and they naturalize fast." GJ - "So they are stoloniferous?"

In general, plants with tiny flowers are attractive to the beneficial insects. Potent fragrances also help. A third quality is Extra Floral Nectar (EFN). Jessica Walliser writes quite a bit about EFN. These are extra ducts for high sugar nectar, having the effect of Coca Cola, providing an attractant and a boost, but leaving a hunger for a real meal, insects - the Quarter Pounders of the animal world.

EFN attracts beneficial insects for a snack. Ever have a Coke on an empty stomach? Next you want a sandwich and fries. The EFN brings in hummingbirds, which also need insects in their diet. Adult beneficial insects need nectar and pollen for themselves,  but they lay their eggs on or near pests.

When I cut roses for friends and place them in a vase, tiny insects hover around them, as if to say, "My babies are there. Take good care of them." I see Hover Flies (like little bees) and Ichneumon Wasps (micro-wasps) around the roses in the vase. 

When I water beneficial insect plants, a little cloud of tiny creatures lift up from their meals and work. The two Clethra bushes were loaded with beneficial insects when I watered them.

Borage (not a mint) constantly flowers and goes to seed.
One article said its very presence increases beneficial
insects all around it.

Spiritual Gifts

This Sunday's Epistle concerns spiritual gifts. The garden is quite similar to that passage. Each plant and creature has beneficial effects for the plants and creatures around it. The yard limited to grass and some bushes will never have the same diversity as one planned for the entire zoo.

Simply growing different plants for the enjoyment of their colors, fragrances, flowers, and fruits will attract everything. When I visit the large berm of soil at Almost Eden, I look over the plants that landed or grew from the soil. In the midst of all that greenery is a hum of insects and doubtless the lair of various animals. So much food, shelter, nesting materials can be found by this random but strangely harmonious growth. It also qualifies as a Beetle Berm, a raised area of ground, untilled and untended by man, that shelters and protects an army of beneficial beetles that will prey upon pests at night.

1 Corinthians 12 

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

14 For the body is not one member, but many.

15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?

20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:

23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.

25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?

30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are visited upon those who believe in the Creating Word - the Savior and Son of God, Jesus.

Paul had many gifts but they were not active in benefiting the Kingdom of God. Instead, he used them to persecute the Christian Church. God took the hardest material, Paul's personality, and used it to create the sharpest knife for dividing doctrine, the good from the bad.

Individual believers have spiritual gifts too. Some teach. Others preach. Some encourage the workers. Still others write or paint. God fills believers with energy (the Word at work) to accomplish things that glorify His Name. Those with the least that the world values are often the most productive for the Kingdom. They can be filled with Gospel energy in the hospital, in prison, in a nursing home, or on the doctrinal battlefields. 

John Bunyan wrote his best books in prison, in a room no bigger than a bedroom, but without the comforts. He converted his jailer to the Christian faith. His books were so popular that some were probably lost forever for being shared so often.

James Hastings Nichols - The Princeton Professor of Church History. Roland Bainton's Student, Widely Admired

James Hastings Nichols - History of Christianity - free copy:
Church Historian, Academic Dean, Princeton University
student of Roland Bainton.

We visited Princeton in 1972, in time to enjoy hurricane weather. The New Jersey town was beautiful enough to be a museum by itself, and the campus was very attractive from the outside. Many buildings had that dank, crumbling atmosphere that comes with the Ivy League.

I was directed to the office of James Hastings Nichols. A request for a great church history book reminded me of this. He was required reading in the field, the editor of the journal Church History, and the academic dean. He was very kindly, always assuming I would be accepted - Never "if you come here," but "When you come here..."

The Princeton staff was warm and welcoming, always bragging about professors who had Yale degrees. I thought, "Maybe I should start there." Strangely enough, I did.

Roland Bainton was on the divinity campus often and lectured for special occasions, the year we arrived in the Fall of 1972. In the 1980s he offered to xerox some pages from his book on Yale, to help me with my dissertation at Notre Dame.

Bainton was famous for the telling details in his books and lectures. While others bore us to death with enormous studies that never omit a single detail from their research, Bainton would offer a narrative that combined understanding with a picture. His study of 20 languages showed that learning a new language was no barrier to his research.

Nichols showed that narrative ability, mentioning in his textbook that the first slave ship to land in America was named Jesus.

George Hunsinger, Princeton, 
exposed the Marxist sympathies of Karl Barth.

Speaking of Princeton, one of their current professors is George Hunsinger, whom we met at Yale when he was a graduate student and his wife was at the Yale Medical Library - where I worked.

He was in our apartment, telling us stories about their experiences in Germany. He wrote a book that every admirer of Barth and Fuller Seminary should read.

Karl Barth and Radical Politics shows how the "red pastor of Safenwill" worked with the Communists to spread their propaganda.

I know Evangelicals who explode like the Fourth of July - or more appropriately, like Guy Fawkes Day - when I mention Barth's extreme apostasy and love for Marxism.

Barth is responsible for Fuller Seminary's abandonment of their inerrancy stance (which was pretty weak to begin with) and remains their official and beloved theologian.

Another study of Barth, buried in my library at the moment, describes his enormous insecurity at becoming a theology professor without any graduate study. His able-bodied mistress - Charlotte Kirschbaum - prepared the research for him and likely wrote most of his Dogmatics (as claimed by Frank Fiorenza, former president of the Barth Society, my professor at ND, now at Harvard).

But this is yet another important detail about Barth, which supports the idea of Kirschbaum writing most of his famous work (the fine print) with the professor writing only the outline (the large print).
Barth had graduate students and associates look over this drafts. Some added lengthy clarifications, which Barth simply copied into the final draft without attribution.

Fuller seems to have spawned a whole generation of plagiarizing apostates like Barth. WELS has made plagiarism a virtue, practiced with this motto - "Why re-invent the wheel?" They have group sermons they copy from a private server and steal Craig Groeschel material, slogans, and graphics without attribution, as shown by the Appleton Alcoholics.

Ski and Glende Turmoil - from 2009. The Late Tim Niedfelt Argued Against This Blog at First, But Realized How Empty His Paris Was. Niedfelt Joining St. John's Led WELS to Steal That Congregation and Its Endowment.

From Anonymouse: 

This has got to be a new low, even for you. You admit that you know nothing about this situation other than what you read in the St. Peter newsletter. As far as you know, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Core. Yet you print this story with your little photoshopped picture designed to make Pastor Glende and Ski look as ridiculous as you possibly can (What, you've never looked silly having a good time at a restaurant?) and hint that it has something to do with St. Peter's relationship with the Core. On the record: I have no Idea why Pastor Christenson asked for a call out of St. Peter AND YOU DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA EITHER! I really don't know how you can live with yourself or sleep at night.

"Lord, Lord, didn't I maintain a church on the internet and mercilessly mock those who weren't (in my opinion) orthodox enough?"

"I never knew you!"

***

Above is the original silly photo, posted by Bishop Katie herself on Twitter. Shame on Katie!

The threesome attended a pastoral conference on Mark Driscoll's home turf,

but no one owned up to being in Seattle for Driscoll.

GJ - Reading the tea leaves, I would say that the someone approved the departure of the new pastor after only a few months. The public record of Ron Ash and Tim Glende is clear - they are up to their necks in unionistic Church Growth. There is no possibility that the new pastor left because he was too growthy for that pair! Consider also the leaven of Ski and Katie, whose motto is: "No Enthusiast left behind." Another source confirmed that Glende and Ash are the cause, not the cure.

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The Appleton Dumpling Gang is well fed.

This PhotoShop above was inspired by Glende's and Ski's lack of candor

about their trip to Seattle.

 

This cartoon made Wally Oelhaven furious,

but it sure fits The CORE, Ski, Glende, Kati, and Ron Ash.

Ron Ash retired as the pastor of St. Peter, Freedom,

He still chairs the odious Church and Chicanery faction in WELS.

Floyd Luther Stolzenburg introduced Church Growth to St. Paul, German Village,when Tim Glende was an impressionable teen member there. Kicked out of the LCMS for cause, Stolzenburg was divorced by his wife, but WELS made him an overpaid CG guru - then Kuske and Schumann endorsed him for pastoral work.The apple does not fall far from the tree, does it?

But sometimes we just end up with The CORE!

Anonymouse has left a new comment on your post "St. Peter Freedom (The CORE Mother-Church) Loses S...":

Pretty hypocritical that it's OK for Confessional Crusaders to post anonymously. As long as it promotes your skewed agenda, right PJ? What a freaking double standard.

Run on sentences? Well that's typical criticism from someone who is narrow minded (or should I say closed minded) and needs to retake reading and comprehension. So if there's no real substance to criticize, lets (sic) nit pick (sic - nitpick is one word) grammar. Give me a break. Get a life.

Mighty Mouse [Most likely Tim Felt-Needs] But he denies it.

Tim loves to use the term "Confessional Crusaders."

Mequon graduates - click on this link for proof.

***

GJ 

2016 Update - Tim's family lost their love for the popcorn and soda at Victory of the Lamb. He lost his life in a tragic accident where a truck slammed into his car.

Tim first made fun of Confessional Crusaders and had a graphic made. Later he said he had become one. We do not have enough laity like that today, I am sorry to say.

Mighty Mouse was from Appleton, probably another Tim...Glende.

The Appleton gang got on the blog every day with their Apple computers (which were easily detected by my software). Lillo did not have an Apple. The Core/Glende did.

I think Don Patterson got into it until I identified the source of some really hateful emails - his hometown.

Facebook friends

"Let Us Battle about Synod Politics" - Says Satan

"I love synod politics -
they keep people from talking about sound doctrine."

Christian News may be an even bigger failure than the Church Growth Movement. Time will tell.

Larry Darby and I agreed about this issue 100% - When people play politics in their synod, they are playing the devil's games with the devil's rules. They cannot win.

Each Lutheran sect has unwritten rules about how to play the game. One thing they all know is this - never question Holy Mother Sect directly, because they will invite a severe counter-strike. That is just as true in ELCA as it is in WELS, Missouri, or the Little Sect on the Prairie.

I have not played that game

• By being anonymous, or 
• By following the rules of their Father Below. 

So one synod politician tells me I am nasty, then sends numerous emails about stuff I should post on this blog - but not with his name on it. Oh no.

But I do keep confidences, unlike the heroic synod politicians. There is no reason for the innocent to bear the wrath of felonious DPs, CPs, and wanna-B's.

The Intrepid Lutherans played that game in WELS. That got them silenced, scattered, kicked out, and almost completely silenced. Several of them joined ELDONA, where the imperious bishop-for-life has more unwritten rules and strictures than ELCA and Rome put together. 

Ralph Bohlmann was another creature of Christian News,
not a bad guy, just another opportunist.

Vote for the Right Man - Nope

The theme of Christian News has been a winner for Beezebub for 50 years. If the LCMS votes for the right man who wears the mantle of Walther, everything will be fine.

The politicians also have to court Otten. Once they no longer need him, they can fight with each other in public, which is good for the politicians. Everyone officially hates Christian News. If people knew how much the leaders handle the editor to spin their news and spike the stories on their crimes, subscriptions would be even lower.

Why don't the politicians court me and sing ballads written especially for me? Answer - I do not play their games. I keep changing the topic to doctrine and show with their own materials how far they have departed from the Christian Faith.

Additional proof comes from the crimes they cover up and excuse.

Naturally, they promote the worst clergy and punish the faithful. WELS' Mark Schroeder is a prime example.

But they are all following the template of CFW Walther, their guru, guide, and inspiration:

1. Steal property whenever possible.
2. Abuse women and children in the name of discipline.
3. Teach universal absolution without compromise.
4. Claim orthodoxy while teaching Pietism.
5. Break the law and cover up the crimes.

Why does Justification by Faith make
ELCA-WELS-ELS-LCMS-ELC furious?
Because they are closeted Universalists,
the unblessed fruit of Pietism.

Doctrine Judges Everything - Yes

Behold, here is the logic of your slavemasters, the synod politicians: "You cannot listen to him, because he is a terrible person. If you get information from him, you are just as bad as he is."

They glory in the personal attack, and never hesitate to make up whatever they want.

But only one thing judges everything else - 

The Chief Article of the Christian Religion - the Master and Prince - Justification by Faith.

Everything revolves around this central doctrine, which is why the Lutheran sects are so completely misled and corrupted by fads, enthusiasms, and pure hogwash.

The UOJ Stormtroopers came out against this blog like all the Plagues of Egypt. Knowing how they would hide their comments later, I featured them and replied to them. Almost nothing comes by email anymore, not even with my address posted conspicuously on the front page.

I continue to get positive responses from all over, but no one wants to prove UOJ to me. They are equally timid on the various fire-hydrants of the social media, where they used to leave their scent, often without an invitation or even being on the topic.

Tell Me - Why Does Christian News Join the Apostates in Banning Luther's Gospel?

There is only one possible answer to this question. The editor, like the Roman Empire, tolerates every confession of faith except the One True Faith.

He can keep up his circulation and please his multi-denominational base if he studiously avoids Justification by Faith. The only way Otten can teach the doctrine of the Scriptures - and the Reformation - is by repudiating the dogma of:

1. Knapp
2. Halle University
3. Rambach
4. Schleiermacher
5. Bishop Martin Stephan, the founder of the Missouri Synod
6. CFW Walther
7. F. Pieper
8. Edward Preuss, who became a famous Roman Catholic scholar and editor
9. Jack Cascione
10. JP Meyer
11. ELCA
12. Jar Jar Webber.

Popes come and go at Christian News,
but the papacy goes on forever.

Fall Bulbs - The Catalogs Are Arriving by the Hundredweight.

Daffodils are the national flower of Wales.
Mrs. Ichabod's boss loved seeing them on his desk.
We grew them in our lawn and mowed late.

A true bulb is actually a flower encased in food for the plant. Fall bulbs planted early will develop roots and send the stem upward, but break the surface only after a good winter and a spring thaw. Fall bulbs can  and should be planted early. When I got them late in New Ulm, Minnesota, I had to dig near the parsonage, where the soil was still soft from the heat in the basement.

Like roses, I have planted fall (akakhardy) bulbs almost everywhere we lived.

Someone was kind enough to plant Grape Hyacinths at our home in Springdale, the Ichabode. They bloom early, for a long time, flower and then go to seed, creating a patch of color here and there. They multiply, so they are a good choice for naturalizing.

Make a Big Bet on Bulbs
The only place to get fall and spring bulbs is Dutch Gardens. They are bigger and cost less than all others. That has been true for decades.

http://www.dutchgardens.com/

Sign up for their catalogs - works of art by themselves.

Like many gardening adventures, bulbs can inspire the hair-on-fire buy everything impulse. That will be coupled with remorse with all of them arrive at once. They have to be dug into the ground.

My suggestion is to make one big bet each year on favorite bulbs.

1. Buy a large amount of one variety, one color. The mass of color is impressive.
2. Or - buy two colors and group them accordingly.
3. Plan for a layer of little bulbs planted above the big ones.

Daffodils are an easy choice. Critters do not eat them, so they are not dug up and replanted by tree squirrels and ground squirrels - as crocus are.

The layer above could be early tiny bulbs.  That would mean one larger hold about seven inches deep, a fair amount of soil to move, the big bulbs covered up, then the tiny bulbs in the top layer.

We did group bulb orders at several churches and got a bulb discount, which we took in bulbs to plant at the church.

Grape Hyacinths are not hyacinths
and often come in other colors.

My Modest Plan
I am going to buy some Grape Hyacynths, which are very inexpensive, long lasting, and good at multiplying.

Our helper will get some to plant with his two children. They are enjoying gardening and participating:

• The maple tree seedling from our yard is now 10 feet tall in theirs.
• The Purple Splash roses are in bloom all the time.

Purple Splash blooms all the time if prune.
Our helper's son prunes and mulches it.

Reviewing the August 1, 2016 Issue of Christian News: Ralph Bohlmann RIP Issue. Reading CN So You Don't Have To.

 The late LCMS former Synod President, like Jack Preus,

had an earned PhD. 

• Jack Preus became SP in 1969, with a lot of help from Christian News and Herman Otten.
• Ralph Bohlmann, also supported by Otten, became president in 1981, voted out of office in 1992.
• Al Barry became president, with a lot of secret help from Otten via Paul McCain, in 1992.
• Barry died in office in 2001 and Jerry Kieschnick became president. His ironic help came from Otten attacking "conservative" candidates.
• Matt Harrison was elected in 2010, after serenading Herman Otten in New Haven - "The Ballad of Herman Otten." McCain rejoiced in surprisingly unflattering photos at the Purple Palace. Harrison made it clear that McCain was being rewarded for doing another Al Barry operation.

I was most impressed with Jack Preus and his brother Robert. The brothers actually stood for something and willingly fought the battles, even if they were opportunists. The brothers Preus also had earned doctorates and used their credentials to advance Biblical and historical scholarship.

I am least impressed with Harrison, who could not manage to finish an in-house seminary doctorate but had time to spend life working with ELCA, as he continues to do today. His partnership with and protection of Paul McCain speaks volumes. Harrison's election proves that faux-Waltherians do well as chubby faux-Lutherans.

Jack Preus was the only SP to move the needle toward Lutheran doctrine. The rest of them ran toward Fuller Seminary with arms extended, tongues lolling, Other People's Money jingling in their pockets.

"Herman, don't tell anyone that I worked with you,
even though I bragged to that blabbermouth Jackson."

Visual proof that milk is very fattening,
Roman Catholic propaganda addicting.

Herman's son Tim once talked about all the SPs tugged through the rocky channel of LCMS politics by his father's tabloid. In each case - Preus, Bohlmann, Barry - contempt rather than gratitude was shown by the victor toward his enabler.

Paul McCain worked deceptively with Otten to send Barry materials early, so CN could feature them and make Barry a hero to displace the eeevul Bohlmann. But McCain did not tell Otten about his promotion from campaign manager/pastor to Purple Palace Plutocrat. No, I knew before Otten.

Gratitude Is Not a Fruit of Pietism
Pietism does not generate much gratitude, love, or cooperation. How could Pietism - while denigrating the Means of Grace, ignoring the efficacy of the Word?

I consider the universal shun a mark of Biblical orthodoxy. For example. Otten has a free copy of Thy Strong Word, but he has no space to mention it, no space for Lutheran doctrine.

The ELDONUTs were deeply offended - as Pietists should be - that someone donated Lutheran books at their conference. My books were ordered removed at once! They must be a good sign. Although they had the books for as long as eight months (draft form), they were still "not vetted." Oh how I long for the Imprimatur of His Holiness and the Nihil Obstat of his Torquemada.

At the latest LCMS-LCMS-ELS Emmaus Conference, no Martin Chemnitz Press books were allowed to be displayed. Previously, our man on the scene was not allowed to discuss - shhhh - Justification by Faith, the Chief Article, with anyone. That prepared the servile to listen to Jar Jar Webber present the ELCA dogma of UOJ, pretending it was Luther's rather than Rambach's.

Did Otten or his UOJ pal Jack Cascione thank me for exposing Paul McCaine's Roman Catholic plagiarism, ending Paul's blogging Reign of Error? No. Cascione just stopped linking all the saints notices that McCain posted as links to his stolen-without-credit blog posts.

Filling the Rain Buckets Again

Clethra  - or Summersweet - is blooming now and
attracting scores of beneficial insects.

I laughed when I saw rain-barrels on sale on Amazon. Only $100 without the connections. Fortunately, rain falls from the sky and drips off the roof. I gather the results in:

1. Four large garbage cans, with lids used as birdbaths or toad pools.
2. Five 5-gallon paint buckets - all clean.
3. Two wastebaskets.
4. One broken wheelbarrow.

The paint buckets are easily carried to the plants that need extra care. The large containers can be dipped with the paint buckets and the rainwater carried to dry areas. The broken wheelbarrow is stationary now, so I am using its wide area to catch the rain.

The irony is, my biggest supply of rain develops when I have the least need. Thanks to the recent sprinkling and the steady rain tonight, the containers are all filling up.

A few years after I was ordained in the LCA (1973),
Fuller's Church Growth was established in the LCMS, WELS, and ELS.
"Come to the WELS," they sang, where sewage is sold as Perrier water.
WELS-ELS and LCMS work with ELCA all the time.

Likewise, when America was filled with traditional congregations of all types, everyone took that for granted. As I have mentioned many times, every LCA congregation used the traditional liturgy, hymns, sermons, pipe organ, and choirs. Anyone showing up to preach in his gardening clothes would have been laughed out of the building. The sermons I heard then were Biblical, and that was true through my vicarage in the largest Lutheran church in Canada. My dogmatics professor, Otto Heick, wrote the book that WELS pastors used - which I often spotted decades later in book sales.

A drought is not felt when the rain is falling, and a drought of the Word is not a worry when everything seems so peaceful and prosperous. The new addition and picking the paint colors are a distraction from the subtle changes in the environment.

We have to commend Fuller Seminary and its model church, the late Crystal Cathedral, for mining the gold and silver of all the denominations and poisoning them all with unending supply of toxins. The Israelites spoiled the Egyptians and left, but Fuller Seminary conned everyone into donating millions to their snake oil empire - and the denominational suckers arrived in droves, and spread the faux-Gospel of marketing and statistics to everyone.

Many parallels can be found in gardening, because the same Creation principles are violated. Every gardening center has stacks of chemical fertilizer and containers of insecticide and weed killers. Some companies combine the two with short-term fertilizer and temporary weed killers. The man-made answer to poorly growing plants is more fertilizer. Weeds? No problem. Either use broad-leaf weed killer, which is especially effective on flowers and bushes, or RoundUp, which kills everything green.

Studying Creation by the Word is easy, because the data is constantly being produced by everyone. No matter what the interpretation, the facts must emerge. When we received tours of the Grand Canyon and Sedona, sea life fossilized at great heights was pointed out by the guides. One said in Sedona, "The ocean left those fossils up there 300 million years ago." I added - "Or the Flood." The Grand Canyon guide admitted that the old description of the Colorado River - carving out the wonder over millions of years - was hilariously off-key.

I grew up on the Mississippi River Valley. Where was our Grand Canyon, carved out by the river? Instead, we had a massive deposit of mud (loess) and vast amounts of coal, which has to come from gigantic piles of leafy matter, pressed down, reduced to carbon, but leaving their prints on the fuel. Thus I lived and walked above coal mines, with nearby towns called Coal Valley and Carbon Cliffs. No wonder we had a giant foundry in the area and a large industrial base. We had water and coal, plus topsoil many feet deep. Our topsoil came from centuries of prairie grass growing and dying or burning, buffalo herds fertilizing, and finally European earthworms tunneling.

My gardening gurus (Sharon Lovejoy, Almost Eden, Jessica Walliser) have me fascinated with the beneficial insects and their work. As Walliser has written, timing is everything. Events must happen at the right time for insects to be nurtured into the next generation and plants to be pollinated and protected. 

 Monarch Butterfly

This summer the Sunny Garden was left to raspberry plants, a tribe known for quickly establishing a jungle. This ever-bearing kind does not disappoint, except in producing tasty berries. They are insipid, tasteless. So next year we will dig them up and replace them with plants known to nurture Monarch caterpillars (Butterfly Weed) and other butterfly babies (parsley for Swallowtails). That area just bakes with solar heat, and the block wall absorbs the heat and reflects it back to the plants all night. 

For those who like butterflies, the key is having diversity in the plants where the eggs must be laid. Like the general crowd of beneficial insects, the babies eat baby food and the adults enjoy something else. Some of the most common plants, like Milkweed, feed the butterflies that people enjoy.

 Tiger Swallowtail