SpenerQuest Puts Another Quarter in the Joke Box. Wardrums Beat and Stormtroopers Gather

"Graduation, fiends forever."

David Bickel (Drb) Advanced Member Username: Drb Post Number: 858 Registered: 11-2009	Posted on Monday, January 18, 2016 - 8:47 am:       "Rev. Paul A. Rydecki said... I still think Hunnius puts it best regarding the relationship between redemption and justification (from A Clear Explanation - I can look up the page number if anyone needs it): We interpret those things that the Scripture contains regarding the redemption and reconciliation of the world (or of the human race) concerning the benefit gained and acquired through the death of Christ, and concerning the sufficiency of that merit of Christ—that it is sufficient for the whole world to be reconciled, justified and saved, if the whole world were to believe; that it was also intended for the world and acquired to this end, that all men should thence obtain salvation through faith. Meanwhile, God has never intended it to mean that it avails for justifying or for remitting sins without faith, through some sort of general remission of sins or justification, which is also supposedly done among those who never have faith, never had faith, or never will have faith. OCTOBER 7, 2013 AT 8:38 PM" Source: INTREPIDLUTHERANS.COM/2013/10/LAST-YEARS-LETTER-TO -PRESIDIUM-OF-AZ-CA.HTML Fine. I am reconciled to you, but I don't forgive you. No, I demand payment of your debt—in full. Pay up or else. But doesn't being reconciled mean peace and the non-imputation of sins? The quote looks partially Calvinistic. Calvinists like Charles Hodge say the atonement was sufficient for the entire human race but not intended to save the entire human race. Does this quote accurately reflect Hunnius in the context of the debate he was engaged in? If so, how sound was he on election? dawning realm Advent of the Crucified http://www.dawningrealm.org
Alan Lubeck (1431) Senior Member Username: 1431 Post Number: 1349 Registered: 11-2004	Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - 6:11 pm:       Professor Bickel asks the question: But doesn't being reconciled mean peace and the non-imputation of sins? Only according to Holy Scripture 1 Corinthians 5:19. But, hey, who needs the Holy Scripture when man's reason drives their teaching about God. Best wishes on those who subscribe to Rydecki's formula trying to discern whether they have been given enough justification in their reconciliation. They can no longer look to the Word of God alone for comfort, they must also have a special Easter Egg hunt to make sure they have found faith in their heart.
Paul Jecklin (Paul_jecklin) Member Username: Paul_jecklin Post Number: 57 Registered: 2-2015	Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - 7:56 pm:       “. . . . God has never intended it to mean that it avails for justifying or for remitting sins without faith, through some sort of general remission of sins or justification, which is also supposedly done among those who never have faith, . . . “ “AVAILS” may be an important word in this statement. Article IV: Of Justification. “Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4.”
Paul Jecklin (Paul_jecklin) Member Username: Paul_jecklin Post Number: 58 Registered: 2-2015	Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - 8:05 pm:       “. . . . God has never intended it to mean that it avails for justifying or for remitting sins without faith, through some sort of general remission of sins or justification, which is also supposedly done among those who never have faith, . . . “ “AVAILS” may be an important word in this statement. Article IV: Of Justification. “Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4.”
Rev. Guillaume Williams Sr. (Revhardheaded) Senior Member Username: Revhardheaded Post Number: 5286 Registered: 10-2004	Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - 8:34 pm:       I think I need a broader context, but yes, avails is an important word there. Also, as we do not subscribe unconditionally to everything Luther wrote, nor do we to the orthodox fathers. The Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr God justifies the ungodly. Rom 4:5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Bad Weather for Birds, Good Weather for Feeding Them

The robins have been acting like it was spring - all winter. We had an earthworm crawling across the road a few weeks ago. We had a little snow this week, but that melted away in hours.

Yesterday the cold was setting in and a mist began to fall in the late afternoon. By 3 AM, they tell me, the mist was freezing. When I walked Sassy this morning the frozen drops on the bushes looked like tears ready to fall.

Birds know all about weather changes, so they load up on food before the heavy rains, snow, or sleet storms arrive. If they feed during a storm, I figure the storm will be lasting. Normally they want to stay in their shelter with their feathers fluffed out for holding in the body heat.

Sleet is especially difficult for birds eating, because they count on bark holding insect eggs and pulpae.

I scoop the sunflower seeds onto the platform feeder, paste peanut butter onto the window ledge, and scatter corn around the yard. The message is - This is a place to build a nest and have some children. When the babies start crying for food, I will have an ample supply of toxin free creatures to feed them. Birds can feed their children and get their supplements from my continuous bird-food stations.

Blue jays are notorious for attacking anyone near their nests. In Bella Vista, we had a blue jay nest just outside our window, perched in a bush. Team Jackson enjoyed watching them grow up , trying their wings, then disappear. I made a point of taking piles of sunflower seed to the parents. They watched me and never attacked, even when I got close to their nest. They were glad to get the spare food, thankful to their Creator, just as we should be. They sounded their beautiful bell-like calls to show their joy.

Bird Scouts

All summer long, your resident birds are assessing and re-assessing their options for the fall and winter. They are learning where feeders are and scouting out locations to roost on cold winter nights. Since those decisions are being made months before the first snow flies, it’s best that you help them along. Start training these birds now! Set up your feeders in a safe location and keep them full so those birds recognize your yard as a reliable source of food.

Super Secret Blog Capture Method - Borrowed from WELS

Blogger - What software do you use to capture social media content, etc for use in your posts?

Ichabod - I borrowed this method from WELS - I copy and paste.

Thanks Greg.  Your blog captures always look so good - I though you might have some super-secret method :)

As you've said in the past, many things have a short life on the web.  If you don't capture them, they seem to not be there when you look again.

***

GJ - Google Blogger had a software called Blog This! - and that made copying and crediting easy. However, that went poof so I fell back on the method I learned from Ski-and-Glende's sermon preparation - copy and paste. I simply highlight text and photos with the mouse, control-c, and then control-v in my blank blog space. I post the link, or embed the link in the title, trying to make it very clear where the verbatim quotation begins and ends.

I learned early that Lutheran bloggers erase the evidence very quickly once they are quoted or mentioned on Ichabod. Pictures often last only temporarily with copy and paste, so if I want the picture to be there always, I copy those graphics into my extensive file, then I copy the actual picture. Otherwise, links change and the picture becomes a big blank square - no location found.

Blogs open to great fanfare and close quietly, with everything erased. That is another reason to copy their best material. I use labels so that every post from that blog can be followed by clicking on the label list.

I enjoy promoting good and bad blogs. Few blogs last long. Having a blog is like having an alligator for a pet - it requires regular feeding. For that reason I have stopped blogging the Moline and Sassy blogs, unless there are special reasons. I simply copy Sassy posts here to her blog, because her foster mother likes to keep up with "the smartest dog we ever took care of."

News organizations welcome copying their stories - with the link taking readers back to the source. It is their right to demand only partial quotation, but regular news sources have never asked that. Yale Alumni Magazine is a separate enterprise, so they want only limited quoting. ChurchMouse is a great blog that does not want the complete copy and paste; it is also one of the few that tempt me to copy everything - but I resist.

Research on Ichabod
I have posted so many articles, -13,600 -  that finding them again is a chore. If I want to reclaim a graphic or link to an old article, I use Google to google them. Google owns Blogger, so posts enter the database at once.

That is good for me and bad for apostate Lutherans. Almost any search for a Lutheran topic will yield posts and graphics from Ichabod. I have heard complaints about this effect from all over. That happened again when I created three blogs for the local Evangelical college, to get them involved in social media. The newly assigned blogger complained that my blogs owned the topics and graphics, so I said, "OK. Then out-publish me."

Numbers
I noticed, from looking, that the college blogs were beyond 30,000 views already, which is pretty good for free media attention. The map showed that people all over the world were reading it.

Ichabod registers more than 4.3 million total views now. The recent big day had 8,300 views and the monthly total is around 60,000 views. I seem to have the only blog with a counter showing the numbers, even though I never intended to reach more than a few dozen people.

Impact
Faithfulness to the Word of God is directly related to the impact of a blog. Most efforts simply recirculate current bromides and repudiate Luther at every opportunity. Some - like SpenerQuest - are handy as toxic waste dumps. Whenever I want something entertaining to copy and paste, I click on LutherQuest (sic).

Practice Is Everything
I have learned so much from blogging for eight years that I could never teach all my hints to new bloggers. The most important one is "practice," or as the Germans say, "Practice is everything."

"Writing makes a precise mind." That bit of wisdom is quite valuable in theology. Being challenged is good for study. Making a point in writing is far more difficult that simply speaking about it. That is why so few pastors write out their sermons today. The ministers think they can get up and blab for 15 minutes, finding it easier to parrot what someone else has already committed to video or audio.

WELS advocates plagiarism of sermons and protects those who copy from false teachers. But of course, how does one discipline a known false teacher who saves himself time by copying from another false teacher?