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| See Weeds Galore |
The beginners answer in despair, "Is there no way to stop this invasion?"
We all know that ripping out weeds can also mean tearing out good plants. They even know how to camouflage themselves, growing up among similar plants. "Every good plant has a weed that looks just like it," an herbalist told me.
There are ways to reduce the invasion of weeds, although they can never be stopped entirely. The parallel with false doctrine is worth noting.
First of all, healthy plants will squeeze out weeds with their vitality. For instance a wide row of bush beans will shade the ground and make weed germination more difficult.
Health grass will not allow many incursions by weeds. I let the dandelions and clover grow, because they only do good things for the soil. Little ground cover "weeds" come and go. Mowing the grass long, frequently is good for the grass and chokes the weeds.
Part of making the soil even more productive is leaving it along, installing red wiggler earthworms, and mulching bare areas. Bare soil is going to germinate something, probably weeds. It will be a long time before a bare root rose plants itself in a bare spot.
I used cardboard, sometimes newspaper, with autumn leaves or wood mulch or pine needles on top. Denying sunlight, without sealing the soil in plastic, will discourage germination of weeds while letting plants have some elbow room. The garden requires a double layer - paper or cardboard, plus something organic to weigh it down, provide even more shade, and eventually rot into the soil. Lacking weighty organic matter, I use logs, gallon jars of water, birdfood containers, etc.
Angry Pietistic Sects
The angry Pietistic sects imagine that ripping out weeds, their eternal Ministry of the Law, will do the job. They will gladly tear up the garden because everything is a weed that does not come from them. Their train their own feeble teachers and the actual learning goes downhill with each generation, as they quote the earlier generations as the proper interpreters of Christianity. Blood is thicker than doctrine.
Naturally they tear up a lot of good plants with their abuse, but they like to look upon the piles of destruction as a job well done. Even now their empires are collapsing and they crow like roosters on a dunghill.
Needless to say, because ELCA-LCMS-ELS-WELS-CLC (sic) no longer recognize the Chief Article of the Christian religion, they cannot teach or preach the Gospel. That is why they have rallies and fund-raisers in honor of their own sects. Certainly some clergy teach the Gospel and many laity hear the liturgy, Creeds and Scripture readings (if allowed) - and they believe. But the Lutheran sects are organized and managed like airplane manufacturers that build everything except a working jet. Incompetents fall upward with a reward structure known only to their Father Below.
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| Everything is calmer, after a few beatings and executions. Ask Pope John the Malefactor and DP Buchholz. |
The Weeds Must Be Tended
If we did not yank weeds and pull little maple trees out of the ground, the roses and everything else would be doomed. The best mulch lasts about one year, at best.
I cleaned the weeds out of Mr. Gardener's azaleas not long along, but we have had good rains and plenty of sunny days. They were sprouting out of the bushes again, so I drafted our helper in a two-man strategy. I pulled bushes apart and wiggled the tall weeds (potential junk bushes and junk trees). He cut them off at the base, as low to the ground as possible. Mr. Gardener was immensely pleased.
Likewise, there must be a steady effort of identifying false doctrine on the outside but also our tendency to fall into similar errors - from the inside. Rah-rah sermons only harden people in their errors, as the blabbering defenders of Walther prove without ceasing or thought.
The Gospel Must Be Preached and Taught
Not everything is a nail to be hammered. Paul and Luther were constant in teaching the Gospel of grace - faith in Christ.
Jesus began, and Paul continued the emphasis on broadcasting the Word of God. As Luther wrote, "Wherever the Gospel is taught, death and sin are defeated, forgiveness and eternal life spring up."
1 Corinthians 3:6-8King James Version
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
The nasty incompetence of the Lutheran sects comes from their lack of faith, the lack of Gospel in their midst.
