Garden Myths and Lutheran Myths - So Much Alike

"This evil weed must be destroyed...
Dandelions are herbs? I still hate them."

I read the hilarious Cascione review of Scaer's article about Bishop Martin Stephan, eight years after the fact - fast response, Jack. Cascione's and Scaer's claims sounded so much like the gardening myths I have often heard repeated.

This link has some good resources on Bishop Martin Stephan and the Perryville disaster.

This is Scaer's original article about Stephan.

Gardening myths are repeated back and forth, even though they have little or no factual basis.

• Birds will starve if we stop feeding them. 
• Egg shells will improve the soil, by adding calcium. 
• Roses are difficult to grow and need constant attention, with lots of fungicides and pesticides.
• Organic matter should be rototilled into the soil - the more tilling, the better.
• Epsom salt is perfect for improving the soil - at least, according to the Epsom Salt Council and Martha Stewart.

Some basic facts about Stephan, Walther, and the Saxons:

1. Martin Stephan was the second abusive guru of Pietism that the Walther circle followed. Their education was rationalistic, but their voluntary associations were purely Pietistic, including cell groups. Guru is a Hindu term for someone with total control over one's life, and that title fit both of their Pietistic leaders.
2. Stephan was called to Dresden to be a Pietistic pastor for a Pietistic congregation, and he never finished his university education, which included time at Halle University.
3. Stephan cultivated an external organization of followers and clergy, which his own congregation resented. He had the Walther circle collect money for his needs.
4. Stephan did not leave with his group until the government took him to court for his promiscuity with young women and his financial dealings. He was long suspected of crimes in both areas, and his main mistress testified about him.
5. Walther and the others had no qualms about kidnapping children for their exodus to America, and they bragged about minors joining their throng. They urged divorce for those whose spouses did not want to join.
6. Stephan taught that he himself was the Means of Grace, and that the Gospel left Europe when they sailed away.
7. The St. Louis residents were suspicious of Stephan because of his female companions and lack of a wife. That is the reason he dictated the purchase of land around distant Perryville - far too much money for land they could not use very well. How ironic - they were snookered by the polygamous Mormons who sold it to them.
8. Yes, CFW Walther signed the document making Stephan their bishop-for-life. 
9. Walther organized the mob that threatened, robbed, and kidnapped Stephan. CFW also stole the bishop's land (given by the followers) and talked the bishop's healthy son into giving up the land that his father owned.
10. Walther's committed many felonies, which are all excused or simply forgotten in telling his glorious, mythical story. Walther blamed the bishop's wife (!) for Martin Stephan's pursuit of young women - confidentially of course and repeated in Servant of the Word.

 As one of these pastors claimed,
"Just because we are with McCain, laughing with him,
and taking photos - that does not mean we are friends."

Walther was the ultimate opportunist - not in the least bit sincere. How did he pass the pastoral exams in Europe when his friends were turned down for the crime of  being Pietists? No one seems to ask that.

Walther imposed Stephan's discipline on his fellow clergy, but the leader suspected Walther was "a fox." One minute Walther pledged lifelong support to the newly promoted bishop. A short time later, he was leading the mob against Bishop Stephan.

The lies told then and now do much to explain how eagerly the LCMS embraces opportunistic synodical leaders today. Money lights up their eyes and the only false doctrine in their minds is Justification by Faith.

The deification of Walther was completed at his 200th birthday, which was more solemnly recognized than the Reformation's 500th will be.

Another Change or Die! Video - ELCA Minister Erin Morris

 Erin Morris laughed about ELCA, LCMS, and WELS!
working together the last six years -
"and the world has not ended."
Everyone laughed. Hahahaha.
Nice work, Mark Jeske and Mark Schroeder.

ELCA meeting, New York.

Erin Morris spoke to Change or Die! The video is not embedded, probably an oversight, eh?


Siebert Foundation

Erin serves as a Diaconal Minister at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedia, MN, a congregation worshipping over 2,300 weekly. She describes this role as, “A Diaconal Minister is a bridge builder; someone who traverses the gap between the sacred and the secular worlds.” Throughout her life, Erin has lived into this calling, walking on the edge with those in various communities and pointing to where Christ is present. Growing up in Appalachia and attending Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, she learned first-hand that God is amongst all cultures in a variety of ways. Despite her humble rural beginnings since then, God has called her to work in large suburban congregations. There Erin has learned that even in affluence, you still have nothing if you don’t have Christ on the inside. She received her Master’s in Youth, Culture and Mission from Wartburg Theological Seminary, has worked at churches in Ohio, Colorado and Minnesota and has been serving full-time in Youth Ministry since 1997. When she is not working at the church, you might find her pursuing her other great love, the hospitality industry. She has worked as a Barista for Starbucks, as well as taken the Quality Service course at the Disney Institute.  

 Louise Johnson, MDiv is the president of Wartburg Seminary, ELCA, where Erin studied.
She has Jeske's lopsided, ambivalent smile.

Long ago, Louise Johnson.

John 15 - I AM the True Vine

John 15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

The Name of God is I AM, and Jesus identified with this Name in John 8, when He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Pharisaical Jews saw themselves as children of Abraham by blood, while Jesus taught them the true children are Abraham's by faith. Like the Good Shepherd passage, this term is the Vine the True in Greek, which gives a greater emphasis, similar to writing "the one and only, the model for all the grape vines growing," as Lenski notes.

John's Gospel begins by revealing that nothing was created apart from Him, the Logos, so in identifying His role as the True Vine, Jesus comforts and challenges everyone.

He also shows how the He and the Father are One in teaching and works while Two Persons in the Godheard. This chapter is explicitly Trinitarian, yet the rationalists cannot find the Trinity until about 500 AD, when the term Trinity was first used to express the Biblical teaching in shorthand - tri-unity - Three Persons, One God.

This great I AM sermon, defines believers and unbelievers alike. 

2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Those who are members in name only, who bear no spiritual fruit, God takes away. For emphasis, the verse begins with unfruitful branches, not with God. Just as we see with grapes, roses, and other plants, the ones that produce are pruned so they can produce even more, be even more fruitful. 

The disciples are cleansed through the Word, so we can see in the original text - the fruitful ones are cleansed - but how? - Answered by - You are cleansed through the Word I have solemnly declared to to you. This is clearly a passage about the Word as the Instrument of Grace. No Word - no grace.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

The frequent Johannine  use of this verb - to abide, remain, dwell - is fully explained here, because abiding in Christ means He abides in us.  And this is the only way to be fruitful - no exceptions. Self-esteem is not a factor. Nor is coaching. This verse also destroys the Calvinistic error of the "Sovereign Spirit" dropping by and doing God's work, apart from the Word and Sacraments.  

6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

The false teachers want to slither into the church without being noticed or identified, but Jesus was especially clear about polar opposite of His teaching. Someone who does not abide in His Word is:

1. Thrown out as a branch of the Vine,
2. Dried up,
3. Gathered up,
4. Thrown into the fire, and
5. Burned.

7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Those who abide in Christ will experience His Word abiding in them. The result is that whatever is asked will be done for those faithful. God is glorified when believers bear fruit.

9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

The Father's love for His Son is also experienced in the Son's love for His disciples. Guarding the commands of Christ mean abiding in His love. These teachings mean the joy of Jesus will abide in His disciples, and His will is that their joy be full.

12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

The Father's love for His Son, and the Son's love for His disciples is perfected with the love of His followers for one another. Love is the fruit of faith when the Gospel Word converts someone. As Luther said, love is the fruit, not the cause of conversion. Where people teach against faith, there will be no fruit, as we see in abundance today.

15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

The teaching of Jesus, in this Gospel and the Synoptics, is the teaching of the Father. The Fourth Gospel emphasizes Jesus as the Face, the Voice, and the Will of God the Father.

16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Jesus chose the disciples and placed (ordained) them in the role of apostles, so they would be fruitful and be able to pray for anything from the Father in the Name of the Son, that the Father would give it to them.

17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

With love as the fruit of the Gospel comes hatred in bearing the cross. That hatred is most bitter from the wolves in sheep's clothing. No believer should take it personally, even thought the attacks are most personal, against the minister, his spouse, his children, even pouncing on his friends with murderous delight. Just as the worst opponents of Jesus were the religious without faith, so are the worst opponents today the clergy without faith, teaching forgiveness and salvation without faith.

20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.

23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

This passage above may be easily overlooked because I AM the True Vine is so powerful in its message. However, this is an important part of it. Jesus taught His disciples that they will be persecuted, that His audiences are not excused because they heard His teaching and saw His miracles. There is no cloak for their sin. If they hate Him, they also hate the Father they pretend to worship.

26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Jesus explicitly taught the Holy Spirit and the Paraclete (Advocate or Comforter) proceding from the Father and the Son. The term I forgot last night is filioque. The seminarians who do not even comprehend the Gospel get their albs in a knot over filioque (and the Son). Seminaries think their job is to teach everything except the Gospel, to promote worship of the synod, and to make plaster saints out of all their false teachers. 

ELCA - the Trinity is not in the Bible and Jesus is only a man.

John 15 - Jesus clearly expounds His relationship as the Son of the Father and teaches the Holy Spirit as coming from Him and the Father.

LCMS-ELS-WELS - "Let's see how many programs we can do with ELCA to gain more money from Thrivent. We need money to grow, dontcha know."

Cascione Writes Off Fellow UOJist Scaer as a False Teacher. But Cascione Gets History and Doctrine Wrong

Born forgiven? Cascione adores UOJ dogma,
the wackier, the better.

Doctor David Scaer writes a sympathetic review of “Martin Stephan: The Other Side of the Story or At Least Part of It” in the October 2008 issue of The Concordia Theological Quarterly. <I embedded the actual link to the Scaer article.

 Scaer may be even more full of himself and his dogmas
than Cascione. We will let God sort that out.

Stephan was the leader of approximately 700 Lutheran colonists who migrated from Dresden, Germany in 1839 to flee religious persecution and founded what would eventually become the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

GJ - False. Stephan was not being persecuted. He was under house arrest and had no career left after his adulteries and financial misdeeds became known to the court system.

Their leader, the orthodox Stephan, fell victim to the demonic teaching that pastors rule the congregation by divine right. He taught that his decisions were God’s decisions. He used the colonists’ and their assets for his own lavish life style. When it was discovered that eight unmarried women had slept with Stephan, they threw him out of the colony.

 Quenstedt seems to be arguing against Rambach the Pietist.
He is certainly refuting UOJ.

 Jay Webber, a Ft. Wayne graduate,
favors Rambach over Martin Chemnitz.

GJ - False. Stephan was a Pietist of the worst sort - dictatorial, abusive, in constant pursuit of young women. Everyone knew it, but Walther still served as his enforcer and sycophant. Stephan taught Walther UOJ, which makes the bishop "orthodox" in the scale-covered eyes of Cascione.

Scaer wants us to look at Stephan as more of a victim than a villain. This approach necessarily paints C. F. W. Walther, the founder of the LCMS, as the villain. Scaer has never agreed with Walther’s “Church and Ministry” the consequent result of Stephan’s removal from the colony. From Scaer’s perspective, all LCMS pastors are victims of Walther’s “voters’ assemblies” who practice voter’ supremacy, the only official polity of the LCMS.

GJ - Jacky One-Note's Chief Doctrine - the Voters' Assembly is the Master, the Prince, the judge of all articles of the Christian faith - or unfaith in his and Scaer's twisted opinion.

Scaer writes: “A certain bias can be expected in a book written by a descendant of its subject, but in this case it is a useful antidote in coming to terms with a man who, in spite of his infraction tilled the ground from which the LCMS sprang.”

Rather than say that Stephan was wrong but that Lutheran theology is correct, Scaer tries to defend Stephan while criticizing the very foundation of the LCMS.

GJ - The infallibility of Walther is hard to defend, especially since he wanted the early LCMS history hidden away and forgotten. Today's LCMS misleaders do not seem to have read the Stephan book or Zion on the Mississippi or Servant of the Word. The Fuerbringer books? Nope. And worst of all, they have never comprehended Luther, Paul, or the work of the Holy Spirit.

Scaer writes: “When Pastor Georg Loeber shared Louise Guenther’s confession with Pastors Keyl, Buerger, and C. F. W. Walther, they were embarrassed by their published defense of their bishop (May 4, 1839), which they retracted on May 27.” “Louise Guenther was unaware that her private confession had become the reason for deposing Stephan as Bishop.”

GJ - Zion on the Mississippi records the obvious - the confession story was a lie. The Walther gang admitted the lie, and anyone can guess that much about the bishop's promiscuity. Stephan left Germany with his mistress in a cabin close by, but his wife and children - dying of syphilis - were left behind. Stephan and Louise sail away, sail away, sail away, enjoying an ocean voyage to the Promised Land, and there is something left to confess? Hahahahahahaha.

What Scaer doesn’t point out is that Stephan was also the victim of his own Sacerdotalism. He claimed he was the “Chief mediator of the Means of Grace.” He made everyone in the colony including all of the clergy, swear an oath of allegiance to him.

It is almost humorous to read Scaer’s observation that Stephan didn’t receive justice, when it was Stephan who claimed that he was the judge of everything and everyone in the colony including their assets, by the divine right of ordination. The misguided clergy only practiced the justice that Stephan taught them. Scaer writes, “These pastors served as his accusers and judges in requiring him to leave the community.” Well, first, they were not pastors; they were assistants to Stephan. Stephan had so much control over them their sacraments were not valid without Stephan’s permission. After Stephan was deposed, they realized that none of them had valid calls. They debated whether they should go back to Germany or invite Swedish Bishops to ordain them.

GJ - Walther organized the mob that threatened Stephan's life, kicked him outside his cabin, stripped him of his clothing, robbed him of his gold and land, and then took all his books and personal possessions. Except in the LCMS, that is not the way pastors deal with adultery. No, this was the convenient discovery - Stephan gave his syphilis to the young girls of the colony. He told them he controlled their spiritual lives and their bodies. Everyone went along with until the horrible disease became obvious. That is also why Stephan's behavior was increasingly more bizarre and illogical.

Scaer’s sympathetic view of Stephan ignores the fact that as many as 25% of the colony died from bad administration, disease, and exposure while Stephan insisted that his house be completed and including a wine cellar.

GJ - The real crime was teaching them the rationalistic Pietism of UOJ - universal forgiveness without that - that makes adultery so easy to ignore. Stephan killed more souls than people, and Walther carried out this demonic task of teaching against Luther in the name of Luther.

Scaer states that four ships arrived but he doesn’t mention that five had set sail for America. They also booked a cheap ship, the Amelia, to save money and 125 of the colonists drowned on the way to America. One of those terrible attorneys Scaer refers to as Stephan’s accuser, lost five children to disease, following Stephan into the wilderness.

GJ - The attorneys defended Stephan in court in Germany, but no one seems to remember that fact. They all knew what Louise and the other girls were to Stephan. 

Scaer writes: “At first Stephan refused what he considered an illegally constituted tribunal, but in seeing a mob armed with whips outside his cabin, he acquiesced and was deprived of his possessions.” Scaer ignores the fact that if these colonists had not been Christians they most certainly would have lynched Stephan, and we doubt that St. Louis authorities would have done anything about it.

GJ - There he goes again. Walther's merciful hand kept the murderous mob from mauling the bishop he helped install upon landing in America. But who organized the mob and left the pro-bishop people behind in St. Louis? Walther did. Hmm.

Scaer laments that the private confession of Louise Guenther should have been privileged information and facts of Stephan’s fornication should have been kept secret. Of course all of these young girls were convinced that they were honored by God to have sex with, their Bishop/cult leader.

GJ - Fake news from the 19th century. The private confession was invented to excuse the mob. Walther wanted the bishop's job, the bishop's land, and the bishop's gold, and the bishop's chalice. 

Scaer writes: “First, a confession made privately to a pastor is privileged information.” In most cases I would agree, but not when it places the lives of the members and the existence of the congregation in jeopardy. Scaer uses false ethics to protect the clergy at peril of the church.

GJ - I long to study ethics under these two gasbags.

Scaer writes: “Though current LCMS guidelines disallow making confessions public, the deposal of Stephan might be a warning for some to withhold potentially disastrous sins from their pastor. What was then considered a sacrament is looked on with suspicions now.” Just think of all the honorable people who kept quiet about Jim Jones.

Let the layman beware. Even if the life and safety of members and/or the congregation are at risk, the LCMS believes clergy indiscretions about fornication, adultery, and misappropriation of funds should be kept confidential because that’s the way God wants it.

Fortunately, this was not practiced by Walther and the people who deposed Stephan or else there wouldn’t be an LCMS. When people can’t trust their pastors the church and Synod must die.

GJ - The dictatorial Cascione appeals to the laity, one of the ironies of this age of posing, primping, and pimping. What rescued the LCMS was a strong Luther element that evidenced itself in the outstanding German Luther edition - a work of art in printing. German Lutherans could and did read the original documents. Now the LCMS is devoted to Fuller, Willow Creek, and Kent Hunter clones of the same.

Scaer’s defense of successive generations of the Stephan family is completely justified. We don’t practice visiting the sins of the fathers on the children.

Scaer calls the Lutheran colony an experiment in communal living and compares it to Quakers in New Harmony, Indiana, and Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois. What about correct doctrine? Doesn’t that count for anything?

GJ - Since you asked, Jack. How is Stephan's dogma different from Walther's, his disciple who covered for him until the time to replace Stephan came along?

I’ve been to New Harmony. They practiced celibacy as they waited for the end of the world. Their false doctrine actually led to the end of them, not the end of the world. What about Joseph Smith who was shot and hung as a horse thief in Illinois. He wasn’t as fortunate as Martin Stephan. Of course, Smith practiced open polygamy while Stephan kept things quiet.

Now we get to the quote that led Herman Otten to ask me to take a look at Scaer’s article. Scaer writes: “This is the dilemma of any church which sees itself as the true, visible church on earth.”

GJ - The real issue is - when will the LCMS give back the chalice that Walther stole from Stephan and used in his church in St. Louis? The Stephan family would like it back, since it was a personal gift.

No, Scaer’s hatred of congregational polity and affection for Sacerdotalism, along with the majority of the Fort Wayne Faculty, is the death knell of the LCMS.

GJ - Jack and Otten and Scaer did their best to kill the LCMS with UOJ and Church Growth. But the Gospel will survive the fools that attack Justification by Faith.

How much of a contributing factor is a lack of trust in the LCMS clergy to a consistent loss of 25,000 to 35,000 baptized members a year?

GJ - It is not a loss to get away from abusive tyrants who teach against the Chief Article and call themselves "orthodox."

The LCMS forefathers would have had no trouble sending Scaer, his cronies, and the COP across the river with Stephan for presenting the warm and fuzzy side of Martin Stephan. Just think how talented and misunderstood Pope Leo X, Benedict Arnold, Napoleon, and Mussolini really were.

GJ - Whoa, Jack. Go easy on the airplane glue. Open a window for a while and rethink this tirade. Walther and his mob made Stephan get even sicker, sleeping outside for the night, then forced him at gunpoint across the river (probably on a steamer). They gave him almost nothing and refused to help him at all afterwards. But they gleefully accused him of keeping a gold coin or two from what they stole. Even Servant of the Word, which promoted Walther for sainthood, had to admit the "stolen coins" story was another fib.

 Walther's mob reaped great rewards when they
kidnapped Stephan and robbed him.
But as, Cascione reminds us, it could have been worse.
They could have given CFW a life-time subscription to Reclaim News.

About Us - Trinity Lutheran Church. Bishop Martin Stephan

About Us - Trinity Lutheran Church:



"Historic Trinity Lutheran Church was organized in 1842 by German immigrants who settled in the Horse Prairie community of Southern Illinois. They built the first church in 1844. The present facility was dedicated in 1868.

Among the pastors who have faithfully served this congregation is Pastor Martin Stephan. Stephan, born August 13, 1777 in Stramberg, Moravia, is considered to be the "first Lutheran bishop in North America." Serving as a Lutheran pastor in Dresden, Germany, Stephan became the leader of the Saxon Immigration to Perry County, Missouri in 1839. He was called to Trinity in the Fall of 1845 and served as the first resident pastor, living in the church. He served this congregation until his death February 26, 1846. He was among the first to be laid to rest in Trinity's cemetery. The present marker was erected in 1988."

Stephan's main mistress joined him in Red Bud,
after the Walther mob threatened him, robbed him of
his gold, land, books, and personal possessions.
The stolen books, land, and gold made the
future LCMS solvent, Walther a hero.
Stephan left his wife in Germany.

'via Blog this'

Greek Lesson - John 15 - The Basics of Growing Grapes - and Roses. The Word - Means of Grace

Parser Link

ΚΑΤΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΗΝ 151550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

15 εγω ειμι η αμπελος η αληθινη και ο πατηρ μου ο γεωργος εστιν

Ge-org: land worker, farmer.

2 παν κλημα εν εμοι μη φερον καρπον αιρει αυτο και παν το καρπον φερον καθαιρει αυτο ινα πλειονα καρπον φερη

Katharine, Polycarp

3 ηδη υμεις καθαροι εστε δια τον λογον ον λελαληκα υμιν

4 μεινατε εν εμοι καγω εν υμιν; καθως το κλημα ου δυναται καρπον φερειν αφ εαυτου εαν μη μεινη εν τη αμπελω, ουτως ουδε υμεις εαν μη εν εμοι μεινητε

importance of remaining or continuing or dwelling in John

5 εγω ειμι η αμπελος υμεις τα κληματα; ο μενων εν εμοι καγω εν αυτω ουτος φερει καρπον πολυν, οτι χωρις εμου ου δυνασθε ποιειν ουδεν

6 εαν μη τις μεινη εν εμοι εβληθη εξω ως το κλημα, και εξηρανθη και συναγουσιν αυτα και εις πυρ βαλλουσιν και καιεται

Xerox, xeriscaping (desert)

7 εαν μεινητε εν εμοι και τα ρηματα μου εν υμιν μεινη ο εαν θελητε αιτησεσθε και γενησεται υμιν

8 εν τουτω εδοξασθη ο πατηρ μου ινα καρπον πολυν φερητε και γενησεσθε εμοι μαθηται

9 καθως ηγαπησεν με ο πατηρ καγω ηγαπησα υμας μεινατε εν τη αγαπη τη εμη

10 εαν τας εντολας μου τηρησητε μενειτε εν τη αγαπη μου καθως εγω τας εντολας του πατρος μου τετηρηκα και μενω αυτου εν τη αγαπη

11 ταυτα λελαληκα υμιν ινα η χαρα η εμη εν υμιν μεινη και η χαρα υμων πληρωθη

12 αυτη εστιν η εντολη η εμη ινα αγαπατε αλληλους καθως ηγαπησα υμας

13 μειζονα ταυτης αγαπην ουδεις εχει ινα τις την ψυχην αυτου θη υπερ των φιλων αυτου

14 υμεις φιλοι μου εστε εαν ποιητε οσα εγω εντελλομαι υμιν

15 ουκετι υμας λεγω δουλους, οτι ο δουλος ουκ οιδεν τι ποιει αυτου ο κυριοςk υμας δε ειρηκα φιλους οτι παντα α ηκουσα παρα του πατρος μου εγνωρισα υμιν

16 ουχ υμεις με εξελεξασθε αλλ εγω εξελεξαμην υμας και εθηκα υμας ινα υμεις υπαγητε και καρπον φερητε, και ο καρπος υμων μενη ινα ο τι αν αιτησητε τον πατερα εν τω ονοματι μου δω υμιν

17 ταυτα εντελλομαι υμιν ινα αγαπατε αλληλους

18 ει ο κοσμος υμας μισει γινωσκετε οτι εμε πρωτον υμων μεμισηκεν

19 ει εκ του κοσμου ητε ο κοσμος αν το ιδιον εφιλει, οτι δε εκ του κοσμου ουκ εστε αλλ εγω εξελεξαμην υμας εκ του κοσμου δια τουτο μισει υμας ο κοσμος

20 μνημονευετε του λογου ου εγω ειπον υμιν - ουκ εστιν δουλος μειζων του κυριου αυτου; ει εμε εδιωξαν και υμας διωξουσιν; ει τον λογον μου ετηρησαν και τον υμετερον τηρησουσιν

21 αλλα ταυτα παντα ποιησουσιν υμιν δια το ονομα μου οτι ουκ οιδασιν τον πεμψαντα με

22 ει μη ηλθον και ελαλησα αυτοις, αμαρτιαν ουκ ειχον; νυν δε προφασιν ουκ εχουσιν περι της αμαρτιας αυτων

cloak, pretense

23 ο εμε μισων και τον πατερα μου μισει

24 ει τα εργα μη εποιησα εν αυτοις , α ουδεις αλλος πεποιηκεν, αμαρτιαν ουκ ειχον; νυν δε και εωρακασιν και μεμισηκασιν και εμε και τον πατερα μου

25 αλλ ινα πληρωθη ο λογος ο γεγραμμενος εν τω νομω αυτων οτι εμισησαν με δωρεαν

26 οταν δε ελθη ο παρακλητος ον εγω πεμψω υμιν παρα του πατρος το πνευμα της αληθειας ο παρα του πατρος εκπορευεται εκεινος μαρτυρησει περι εμου

27 και υμεις δε μαρτυρειτε οτι απ αρχης μετ εμου εστε

1550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

by Public Domain

The Power of Creation: Hurricane Harvey and Nine Trillion Gallons Plus - Lake Michigan Falling on Houston

Journalists, when reaching for a comparison, talk about floods of "Biblical proportion." So - they think the Genesis Flood really happened?

The newscasts said that 9 trillion gallons of water had fallen on Houston before the rain was over. That was equal to Lake Michigan falling on the area in a few days. Some suggested that was only half of the rain, since the tropical storm was continuing.

Houston has not done much to lessen the impacts of storms and hurricanes, but even a city like Phoenix - with mandated flood control - cannot contain a flood when a desert hurricane arrives. I drove out of that one and also came home from Tucson the night of 10,000 lightning strikes - which flooded the Interstates.

God creates rain - man creates floods to a large extent -

• building levees,
• covering low-lying land with houses and parking lots, 
• draining fields with pipe rather than infiltrating the soil with deep-rooted crops.

We take the orderly progression of Creation for granted until one important event shows us what a disruption can cause. Creation awareness is almost zero. That might be one of the last dirty words in our vocabulary.  When I wanted to name a Facebook page "Creation Gardening"  - no problem - the name was not taken.

I use the term a lot. A pest control salesman came by, and I said, "Toxins in our yard? No thanks - this is a Creation Garden. You know the toxins do not work anyway. I like bugs, spiders, hornets. They work for free, feed the birds, and reproduce. You know well that your mosquito sprays do not work at all. Mosquitoes come in from other yards." He to agree, but added - "Some people are afraid of..."

We should be in awe of Creation, which rights itself when things go out of balance - and not by accident. If God did not hold back chaos, we would all be shivering in our darkened households, hoping for relief.

My favorite moment in gardening is sitting on the soil and planting something new. Underneath, billions of creatures work to make soil a living entity:

1. Earthworms and slugs to shred plant material.
2. Fungi to work on woody material.
3. Bacteria to reduce soft tissue and serve as food.
4. Moles to stir the soil, eat slugs and larvae.

All summer long, the soil has felt more like a waterbed than a parking lot. The living soil has digested many bags of wood mulch, autumn leaves, and the normal organic offerings of the living populations.