ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
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Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Today Is Teachers' Day
Like many in our 50th reunion class, Moline High School, 1966, I remember the teachers from elementary school the best. I went to Garfield, now closed, and remember those teachers and the school with great fondness. In fact, when someone thought another Moline elementary school was dominant on Facebook, I began listing all the names from Garfield, just from our class. Others chimed in and named more.
My mother taught there, so we often trooped to school on foot and sometimes enjoyed a car trip. Within a short distance was Whitey's Ice Cream, Wharton Field House, Hasty Tasty Restaurant, and Teske's Hardware Seed and Feed (now Teske's Pet and Garden).
A notorious candy store was in the same neighborhood. I was warned not to go there, which made the candy even sweeter. The place looked a bit seedy but nothing ever happened there.
Walking to school meant going by Guy Johnson's home. Several of us collected and read comic books of all kinds. Classics Illustrated taught me the plots of all the famous works of literature. In time I owned all that were in print. Superman was another favorite, and it became part of my PhD dissertation, since the early Superman was a clear example of the Social Gospel Movement.
Parents frowned upon Superman to some extent, the Three Stooges even more, TV most of all (when they were not hogging the set themselves), and various other evil influences, like Mad Magazine.
Most of all I remember being surrounded by teachers. We had teachers at our home countless times, a teacher's daughter, Liz Copeland visiting, teachers' stories, teachers' complaints, PTA meetings at Garfield - total immersion in teaching. Th PTA meetings featured potlucks with an endless supply of desserts, none of which escaped my attention.
Some meetings meant I had to be babysat by the Garfield Library. It was a small room filled with the best books. There I read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I enjoyed the elephant book so much that I eventually read all that were in the school or shelved elsewhere. I recently bought one for myself because I still enjoyed it so much - and later sent it to a church member's daughter. Everyone should love that story.
Books were everywhere - in every classroom. Garfield teachers read to us. My mother read to us at night. Later I read to our children, and our son read to his.
The teachers I remember best from Garfield -
I even remember being taken in for an interview for Kindergarten, which Mrs. Steelman taught. I was going "early" since I turned five in October. Apparently I passed the oral exam and started a few weeks young. In Kindergarten I hated naptime and got in trouble for talking and fidgeting. We slept on our individual rugs, which were obsolete once we passed into the maturity of First Grade.
I felt so teeny-tiny with the big kids of Sixth Grade around. One of them boosted me up for a drink from the fountain. As a son of the Mrs. Jackson, I always got special treatment from the big kids who loved her classes. I grew up with kids of all ages saying, "Your mom was my favorite teacher!"
She was not alone in that regard. Mrs. Copeland was also loved by her students. We had one at Garfield who was simply crazy as a hoot owl. I was never allowed to criticize a teacher, but I did a great imitation of Mrs. Daily, which made my mother burst into laughter.
Mrs. Parks was my First Grade class, but I have few memories of that year. She was very kindly and I may have had her twice, for third grade as well. If only I could ask my mother.
Mrs. Woods was my Second Grade teacher. I remember the kids from that class quite well. Mrs. Woods looked like everyone's beloved grandmother, and I can still hear her voice in my head. Like all the teachers at Garfield (except one), she loved her students. She read stories to us in class and taught us how to read. I loathed Dick, Jane, and Sally and their rabid dog Spot.
After that year I began to read voraciously, so the Moline Public Library also babysat me at times.
Fourth Grade meant I had the fascinating Mrs. McMillan. She was in the Philippines or near them during WWII. Her son and I palled around for a time.
Hallie Emory taught Fifth Grade. She looked fierce and took no guff from anyone, but she poured herself out for all her classes and gave us so many things to learn. She set up the Good Citizens Club, where we elected officers and practiced Roberts Rules of Order. Later I dealt with adults who never caught on to Roberts Rules or why those rules were articulated.
Miss Maynard struck me as rather grim and humorless, so our gang made a point to have fun in Sixth Grade. I have often told on Facebook how our gang drove a substitute teacher nuts one day. Unfortunately, she was the wife of our minister at First Christian. Needless to say, I was the focus of considerable wrath when my mother found out.
The Garfielders did very well in adult life, and I give our teachers the credit for laying the foundation for our educations and careers.
In our class -
Three of us went to Yale University for graduate school, certainly far beyond statistical predictions.
One became a physician, perhaps the only one in the senior class of around 750.
Two earned PhDs
One went to Broadway.
I am sure many more accomplishments could be listed, but I do not have the data on everyone. One thing is sure about the Moline public school system of the time - we had all the opportunities of the finest private schools, thanks to local industry and the dedication of the teachers.
When I had to use base two in computer science, my fellow students in Phoenix were perplexed. They had to count 0, 01, 10 and figured out what 11111111 meant. And hexadecimal? How could ff be 11111111 and 255? It was old stuff for me.
I am sure many others could add to this. When I get tired of teaching and grading and dealing with educational supervisors who do neither, I think of the graphic at the top. We are the result of teachers who never knew where their influence would stop.
Labels:
Garfield School,
Moline High
Prayer Is the Fruit of a Christian's Faith - Rogate Sermon in Full
Prayer Is the Fruit of of a Christian's Faith
KJV John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
The opening of this Gospel lesson is the culmination of Jesus' childbirth analogy, comparing His death and resurrection to the experience of labor and the joy of a new baby born. So this passage on prayer follows the pattern seen throughout the New Testament, where the Gospel promises precede the Lord's encouragement to pray.
Coming out of a monastic experience of laws and commands, Luther like to say that God does not command the believer, He persuades. America still suffers from a confusion about prayer, because of the way it is often presented, not to mention confusion about the Word always conveying Jesus through the power of the Spirit.
Evangelical Conversion by Prayer
The typical presentation today has people believing after they hear the Gospel. "What do I do now?" The answer - "Pray for Jesus to enter your heart." There is even a basic Sinner's Prayer along those lines.
The proclamation of the Gospel itself brings Jesus to the individual, whether that person is a believer or not. It is the Holy Spirit working in the Word that does this. The very act of prayer in the Name of Jesus is an act of faith. As Peter said, "I believe. Help my unbelief."
Grace Separated from the Gospel
This should always concern us, that grace is separated from the Gospel proclamation. This happens several ways among the errorists.
The first is the one I just described. The person believes, but he is commanded to pray for grace. He already received grace through the Word, which caused him to believe for the first time - or the Gospel renewed his faith. The message of Jesus' death and resurrection is grace - they are never separated.
Prayer is taught as THE Means of Grace. Worship in church is expected, but not really important. The prayer group (from Pietism) is where grace is received. This comes from Pietism and from Roman Catholic prayer groups (rosary groups) that inspired Spener. As I have said before, someone can be a paid Bible study leader at a Baptist church and brag about never going to church for decades.
Despising the Means of Grace. The Sacraments are denied the power of the visible Word, so Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are neglected and often belittled as mattering very little. This easily collapses in the clown ministries offered in generic circus locations everywhere in every denomination. Do NOT call it a church. Do NOT give it a name associated with the Christian faith. Do NOT wear anything more formal than hiking clothes. Long ago a Church Growth leader among the Lutherans said,"If Jesus were conducting His ministry today"....(He isn't through the Means of Grace?!) "He would have something like The Tonight Show on TV." That minister became a burn-out and lost his entire church empire.
One error piles on another error and this results in confusion and lack of faith in the Gospel itself.
KJV John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.
This is the kind of statement that wakes us up. It does not sound right. In fact, it is stated in such a way that we have to take notice. At the time, the disciples were dependent upon Jesus for everything, and they were always asking Him to teach them and provide for them in various ways. But now, they would ask the Father directly in His Name because they were His brothers by faith. What would move them to ask and persuade them to ask? The energy of the Gospel at work does that.
Luther's Five Requirements of Prayer
1. The Gospel Promise
The first requirement of prayer is the Gospel Promise, as I mentioned above. But this increases in power with its purity. Many hear a watered down Gospel or they listen to a clever combination of Gospel and Law, such as the demand for works "to adorn faith" as the Church of Rome claims.
What does this means - Behold the Lamb of God, who bears the sins of the world?
That means the Son of God has been born of the Virgin, has performed great and unique miracles to confirm His divine Word, and suffered torture and death to pay for all of our sins, His innocence displayed in His resurrection. When we confuse regret over past sins with a lack of forgiveness, we are saying, "That sin remains on Jesus. He has only destroyed and conquered my minor sins, not my major sins. The major sins are still there." That puts a lie on the Gospel message, that Jesus bears all the sins, that He is our righteousness, our perfection that we receive through faith.
The Christian believer is forgiven all sins each day because the Spirit brings Jesus to Him each day. The individual is still a sinner, but sin no longer controls and enslaves him. It is wonderful to see how the Gospel breaks people out of their slavery to impulse, addiction, cruelty, and blasphemy. John Bunyan was such a horrible person that his conversion itself was seen as a Gospel miracle by all his acquaintances. No one was written off more than he was, and the rest of his life consisted of teaching that Gospel, as in The Pilgrim's Progress.
So we pray, because God has promised us that He will hear our prayers. This is such a completely different from pagan religions where the individual must pay for and work for God's favor.
2. Faith in God's Promise
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Luther:
2. In the second place, it is necessary that we never doubt the pledge and promise of the true and faithful God. For even to this end did God pledge himself to hear, yea, commanded us to pray, in order that we may always have a sure and firm faith that we will be heard; as Jesus says in Matthew 21:22: “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
When people tell us that it does not matter whether we believe or not, the whole concept of trust in God flies out the window. Instead of being direct toward Christ, we are told to believe their strange dogma. If not, we are heartily condemned and roughed up in every way possible.
We live in an ocean of doubt and rationalism, but that does not mean we need to immerse ourselves in it. In contrast, we have this bubble, this bathysphere, this submarine that allows us to exist with the ocean of doubt, to view the monsters of that realm, and yet rest in the gracious Words of the Gospel.
Bibles are everywhere but not always open. Bibles are often open but not comprehended. The greatest share of Biblical professors do not believe the actual Word and works of Christ but do their Irish step-dance around the words of the Scripture, agonizing about the date of St. John without believing the Fourth Gospel. In the midst of that kind of training - in the LCA - I came upon a book about St. John's Gospel. The facts dispelled the false claims being offered in so many books that John's Gospel was 300 years later than Jesus' life, that the Gospel was influenced by non-Christian philosophy. But the Word itself, which I was studying in Greek, struck me as being so alive, personal, and powerful, that the facts were subordinate to the power of he Spirit in the Word.
I sang "In the Garden" too many times in the Disciples of Christ church that I left. But when I got to Jesus and Mary in the garden in John's Gospel, I realized that it was a hymn about that passage. When Jesus says, "Mary" in that passage, and she says, "Teacher," it reads in Greek or Latin like a You Are There script, for those who remember the old Cronkite show. The Gospel of John takes us there more intimately than the other three, as great and powerful as they are.
As Luther says, Christians have this wonderful blessing of having the secrets of the universe opened up to them - the nature of God, the Creation, the Flood. And that very wealth makes people take it for granted. Because I had rationalism pounded into me by the LCA system of college and seminary, I strongly resist and like to expose the same rationalism in the LCMS-WELS-ELS system, the one that makes them so cozy with ELCA and yet so hostile to faith.
Human reason doubts that God can stop and adjust the workings of the universe to benefit, help, or sustain one puny individual. But the spiritual wealth of the Scriptures teach us that this is God's intention and gracious will. Because all His Promises have been kept, unlike ours, we continue in the firm conviction that His Promises will always be kept.
Luther:
2. In the second place, it is necessary that we never doubt the pledge and promise of the true and faithful God. For even to this end did God pledge himself to hear, yea, commanded us to pray, in order that we may always have a sure and firm faith that we will be heard; as Jesus says in Matthew 21:22: “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
When people tell us that it does not matter whether we believe or not, the whole concept of trust in God flies out the window. Instead of being direct toward Christ, we are told to believe their strange dogma. If not, we are heartily condemned and roughed up in every way possible.
We live in an ocean of doubt and rationalism, but that does not mean we need to immerse ourselves in it. In contrast, we have this bubble, this bathysphere, this submarine that allows us to exist with the ocean of doubt, to view the monsters of that realm, and yet rest in the gracious Words of the Gospel.
Bibles are everywhere but not always open. Bibles are often open but not comprehended. The greatest share of Biblical professors do not believe the actual Word and works of Christ but do their Irish step-dance around the words of the Scripture, agonizing about the date of St. John without believing the Fourth Gospel. In the midst of that kind of training - in the LCA - I came upon a book about St. John's Gospel. The facts dispelled the false claims being offered in so many books that John's Gospel was 300 years later than Jesus' life, that the Gospel was influenced by non-Christian philosophy. But the Word itself, which I was studying in Greek, struck me as being so alive, personal, and powerful, that the facts were subordinate to the power of he Spirit in the Word.
I sang "In the Garden" too many times in the Disciples of Christ church that I left. But when I got to Jesus and Mary in the garden in John's Gospel, I realized that it was a hymn about that passage. When Jesus says, "Mary" in that passage, and she says, "Teacher," it reads in Greek or Latin like a You Are There script, for those who remember the old Cronkite show. The Gospel of John takes us there more intimately than the other three, as great and powerful as they are.
As Luther says, Christians have this wonderful blessing of having the secrets of the universe opened up to them - the nature of God, the Creation, the Flood. And that very wealth makes people take it for granted. Because I had rationalism pounded into me by the LCA system of college and seminary, I strongly resist and like to expose the same rationalism in the LCMS-WELS-ELS system, the one that makes them so cozy with ELCA and yet so hostile to faith.
Human reason doubts that God can stop and adjust the workings of the universe to benefit, help, or sustain one puny individual. But the spiritual wealth of the Scriptures teach us that this is God's intention and gracious will. Because all His Promises have been kept, unlike ours, we continue in the firm conviction that His Promises will always be kept.
3. Faith That Our Prayer Will Be Heard
25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
The more we see how Jesus prepared and guided His disciples, step by step, and gathered them again after the resurrection, the more we see how He trains us in the Word and in our experiences to have a greater and greater trust that our prayers are heard.
Clearly the disciples did not grasp much of what was told them at the time. We are like spectators watching them learn what we already know. That should reveal to us that we are quite the same. Little challenges prepare us for great ones. And false concepts we were taught or we imagined on our own - these are swept away by the Word. We may read or hear a passage 50 times and then one day. And it is the Spirit that opens up the meaning to us. "Why didn't I get this before?" Because some things require repetition and experience.
When I was new in the ministry, I wanted to make things happen. I wanted to accomplish something. After a few years it is clear that God's Word makes things happen, that His agenda can be entirely different and clearly not what we thought at first. I was sitting in a seldom used church office about 40 years ago when a Lutheran calendar had this quotation on it from Luther: "The older I get, the less I rely on myself and the more I rely on God." That was naturally the opposite of what everyone was telling me - do this, make this happen, get results. And when things did go well, someone was always around to rip things apart. That was taught by Luther too, about the hostility of Satan toward the Word, never wanting it to take root and prosper.
The parables of Jesus become clear to us, as they did to the disciples.
4. A Sense of Our Unworthiness
26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
As I said in the chapel service, nothing is more obnoxious that ordering God around, giving Him the time, place, and manner of His work. And yet, this Management by Objective method, taught by Peter Drucker, has been the rage in all the synods, from ELCA down to the ELS. I went into an beautiful old Episcopalian church in Charlotte, and there on the bulletin board was the pastor's and congregation's demands of God, to wit - 10% increase in worship and attendance for the next three years, etc. And the pastor was just back from a conference at Fuller Seminary.
But the Canaanite woman, when challenged by Jesus time and again, instead of being offended by the reference to taking the children's bread and giving it to dogs, said, "Yes, Master. And yet the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master's table."
The old LCA hymnal used to have a prayer for communion that said, "We are not worthy to gather the crumbs from the Master's table, nevertheless..."
So we do not pray on the basis of our own worthiness but because Christ has made us worthy and made us His brothers. And even greater is this Promise, that God loves us because we love the Son and believe He comes from God.
So God persuades us to pray to Him by saying how much He loves those who believe in His Son. And how can we not trust in Him who serves as our Good Shepherd?
5. That We Never Limit God in Any Way
28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
I continue to think that the greatest miracle of all--above the Creation, the Genesis Flood, and the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament--is this one miracle, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. If we trust in this miracle of the Incarnation, that God became man for us, how can we doubt or limit God in any way?
God never said, "Ask if you have figured out that it is do-able. After all miracles must be specific, achievable, and measurable" (SAM goals, which are also taught by Peter Drucker, Management by Objective). We are promised again and again -
Ask and it will be given to you.
And also
And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” With this and like promises and commands we must consolingly exercise ourselves and pray in true confidence.
So often I have been mocked by "conservative" Lutheran clergy for emphasizing faith, which they did to show they were so much better than I. And even more so, they made fun of any person's ability to do anything in such modest circumstances. And I would agree with these screeching jays, except God keeps showing how He works and how much He accomplishes through the Word alone.
That means faith in His Word, not in our words. Henry Jacobs wrote a great comparison, true to the Scriptures. The power of the Word is related to its purity. The more we water it down with human reason, the more it is man's words and not God's Word and therefore this base alloy is rendered ineffective by us.
One only need to look around and see the vast collapse of the rationalistic Lutheran synods - WELS, ELS, LCMS, ELCA, CLC (sic) - to observe how God has let their delusions take down every material thing they cherish, worship, and adore.
One layman cannot get over the nastiness poured out upon those layman who cling to justification by faith instead of Universalism disguised as UOJ. The strength of the reaction is equal to the power of Satan and his hatred of the Word. So justification by faith and all the Promises associated with it - that only has a little toe-hold here and there. But is the power and glory of the Prince of this world compared to the Prince of Peace, who will return in majesty to judge between the sheep and the goats. Whenever that happens, in this generation or 200 years from now, His followers will need to pray.
Labels:
Prayer,
Rogate Sermon
Monday, May 2, 2016
Rogate Service Truncated Due To Problems Saving the File
What?
The video file did not save properly for Rogate Sunday. Pray that it does not happen again.
I was able to place a shorter version up, which begins with the Epistle Lesson, James 1.
The written sermon will appear on the blog and in that service some time today.
The Jackson Rose Farm Is Bursting into Bloom - How To Get There
Our extra newspapers were on the soil, out in the rain and snow, all winter. They were loaded with earthworms, dampness, and soil critters. |
When Sassy and I returned from our morning walk on Sunday, the owner of the nearby plant nursery was there with his son and their new dog. Sassy wanted to meet them as they entered our cul-de-sac. Because of some neighborhood business that developed, we had a long visit that ended up in our yard and in our house. Mrs. Ichabod had a great time answered a bunch of little boy questions, and Sassy had a new dog-friend, Opie.
Our yard is rapidly developing into a destination for rose lovers. Almost Eden handles the plants I know little about, and I began to grow them and learn about them last year.
Here is our current bloom list:
All 20 of the roses in the maple tree garden are blooming now, because they mostly came from the Gurney's specials of 5 for $25 last year. Some of them are already favorites of mine or others.
- Mr. Lincoln and Veteran's Honor, both fragrant reds, are producing intensely beautiful red blooms.
- Peace is ready to burst into bloom, with bushes full of buds.
- Pink Peace had such spectacular blooms that I cut some for the chiro.
- Pope John Paul II produced some perfect white blooms for the bouquet, above. Some may be getting hit by aphids already. They are a good trap plant to attract aphids that feed the beneficial insects. The next round will be won by the beneficials like the ichneumon wasp and flower flies.
- Queen Elizabeth bloomed and was so captivating that Almost Eden took a vase home with some unidentified orange roses from the first planting - 8 for $64, QVC.
- Tropicana is a great rose for cutting, short canes and enormous blooms.
- Many others are just starting to show off their colors.
- Each red KnockOut has 50 buds and blooms. The white KnockOuts, another aphid haven, is in full bloom, and so are the two pink KnockOuts.
- The new roses are popping their first leaves and seem 100% growing.
The ill-fated straw bale slug farm was here. The sunny garden should be reserved for heat and sun-loving plants: such as sunflowers and tomatoes. |
Last year's plants respond to two rainfalls, the last one - 4 inches!
- The blueberry canes were already flowering and fruiting. Now they look very prosperous.
- Trumpet vines in several places seem likely to grow more and flower for the hummingbirds.
- Blackberry bushes have gone from survival to spreading themselves.
- Raspberry canes in the sunny garden are also spreading. They are candidates for the Wild Garden.
- The wild strawberries, which spread on their own and also via the B-52 bombing tactics of birds, are all over the yard and stretched out in a shady area - fruiting like crazy. Their berries are little red jewels.
- The elderberry plants are tall and budding, soon to flower, with many sprouts around their base. Soon they will be a hedge for birds and a home for beneficial insects. See below for EFN - extra floral nectar.
- Three butterfly bushes are bursting into growth, and one is struggling. The last one may not get the water it needs, so it is on my rescue list again this year, Last year the slugs were feasting on its tender growth.
- The honeysuckle vine is bursting with buds and starting to claim territory. I used some gardening tape to help it cling to the tree stump I left in place, with a soaker hose draping down on it to water it extra. The vine said, "Thanks I will make my own supports on the soaker hose, to sip it more effectively."
Lawns are so boring and wasteful. This has become all rose garden. |
Extra Flower Nectar - From Jessica Walliser
The extrafloral nectar produced via the specialized structures on this cherry leaf offers a sweet reward to beneficial insects in return for their help controlling herbivorous pests.
The composition of EFN is different from that of floral nectar. It’s about 95 percent sugars and 5 percent amino acids, lipids, and other components. It is known to be a suitable food source for a large range of insect species; it is not, however, a complete source of nutrition and therefore makes beneficial insects need to feed on protein sources (like pest insects!) to fill in the nutritional gaps.
A study that examined the EFN of lima beans to determine its role in attracting predators and parasitoids determined that parasitic wasp and fly species were significantly increased when artificial EFN was present, and the bean tendrils with artificial EFN present had significantly less pest damage than those without the artificial EFN. You may ask why these researchers had to use artificial EFN for their project. Interestingly, natural EFN is often secreted in conjunction with semiochemicals, making it difficult to determine whether the parasitoids and predators are coming because of the EFN or because they are receiving the emergency signal from the plant. These researchers, however, only added the artificial EFN in amounts and locations similar to natural EFN production. It was clear in this study that the presence of EFN alone accounted for the increase in predation and parasitism.
Many different insects sip EFN, including a large number of natural enemies, making it a valuable tool in a plant’s defensive arsenal. When plants with the ability to excrete EFN are attacked by herbivores, they pump out more of it in hopes of luring in the good guys. EFN serves as an indirect defense against herbivores and can be produced throughout the day and even during the night.
EFN can be produced by members of many common plant families, including Rosaceae (roses, strawberries), Euphorbiaceae (euphorbias, poinsettias), Asteraceae (asters), Liliaceae (lilies), Fabaceae (peas, beans), Curbitaceae (squash, cucumbers, melons), and Asclepiadaceae (milkweed). In my garden I can readily spot EFN production sites on my elderberries, fruit trees, beautyberries, peonies, sunflowers, morning glories, impatiens, and hibiscus. EFN is, in fact, a very important extra nutrient source for natural enemies, especially when prey are scarce. Being on the lookout for EFN production sites on your own plants can lead to some interesting interactions with insects.
Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 1468-1492). Timber Press. Kindle Edition.
Needless to say, the EFN section really woke me up about the engineering of plants at Creation. I always thought of nectar being the bait for pollinators - and it is. But the production of EFN clearly aims at (the purpose puzzle - evolution? no Creation) attracting beneficial insects. Subsequently, we can see the value of a plant crawling with insects for the bird population. They see plants as a good place to gather insects for themselves and their young.
Sunflowers develop their EFN especially early, so they are valuable for their size and battleship sized platforms for all life. A grasshopper can munch away (until eaten) on a leaf and not hurt the plant. The beneficial insects gather for the rich food resources. Birds and squirrels look forward to the seeds, and the bees carefully pollinate each bud of the compound flower.
The oldest part of the main rose garden kept its mulch, because we mulched it again whenever weeds erupted through it. |
Do Not Stir or Shred the Earthworms
Another question came in about earthworms, cardboard, and newspaper. The contributor will remain anonymous at a secure, undisclosed location.
He asked about rototilling and earthworms! I ask in return, "Would you bring a lit torch into a fireworks display?"
There is no need to rototill or dig organic materials into the soil, because the earthworms and other soil creatures will accomplish this on their own.
Newspapers and cardboard have the primary job of blocking the sun and tying up nitrogen that weeds and grasses need. The result is decomposition of everything green underneath. Green stuff, even old straw, is high nitrogen and candy for the bacteria. The earthworms graze on bacteria, so their population soon explodes, especially among the red wigglers which specialize in this kind of digging, tunneling, and reproducing.
The wind easily picks up newspapers and cardboard, so I use organic matter - leaves and wood mulch - to hold down them down. Cardboard stays down the best and covers the longest. Later, anyone can poke through cardboard to plant or cut rows for crops. Newspaper are good for this too, but tend to dissolve faster, especially in a summer of torrential rains (last year in Springdale - 14 inches once).
If I had a brand new area to garden, I would carpet it with cardboard, hold it down with weighty stuff, and add all the organic material I could get for free - manure, grass clippings, leaves, etc. Some things are going to sprout the best weeds ever - like spoiled hay and grass clippings. In that case, cardboard alone is a good start when weighed down. We had great results from cardboard laid down in the fall and weighted with everything we could find, from logs to actual dumb-bells. The winds were howling when we got the Wild Garden started.
Some municipalities offer free mulch or compost from their gathering and storage of tree leaves. That would be a great opportunity for those who blessed by such far-sighted town fathers. Midland Michigan would dump a truckload of free wood mulch when asked, and I had a blast wheelbarrowing that all over the yard. The kids next door, noticing the exotic cedar mulch, said, "It smells like Christmas."
The crepe myrtle bush was leafing out, the logs scattered as we expand the rose garden. |
Support Your Fungal Jungle
The earthworm is a shredder and mixer, an earth-mover of incredible energy and tenacity. But the real decomposer and feeder is the fungus. Its microscopic strands connect its food (like a rotting bird) to the roots of various plants, including trees. Fungus feeds the root hairs in exchange for carbon it needs to grow. Expert management? Credit the Creating Word for the software in each creature, directing its role.
Fungus is the primary reason why gardeners do not walk around their plants unless absolutely necessary. The fungal role is also the best reason for leaving the soil alone and not osterizing it.
My best corn patch consisted of a compost pit four feet deep, the corn rows mulched with piles of grass clippings over newspaper, but also mulched and shaded by Atlantic Giant pumpkin vines. The compost below had tree clippings, Christmas trees, grass, rabbit manure, and every last ounce of autumn leaves we could find. Shameless, I scraped slimy piles of leaves from the street.
Mix the compost? No thanks. I gave up on that early, especially when I saw how ardently the earthworms worked and wooed and won new territory. Mr. Gardener asked me yesterday if I was digging earthworms for fishing. I said, "I don't dig worms up, I plant them." He laughed.
We dig the holes for the roses before mulching, plant the bare roots, then lay down cardboard and wood mulch. The grass, weeds, and clover are my free compost. |
Wood Not Hurt
Almost Eden also asked about my rustic fence and where I got all the logs for that project. I told him how I walked around and drove around with the right-sized logs and stumps in mind. The newest fence is from across the street.
Wood is food for fungus, and logs are havens for toads. Therefore, I agree with Queen Elizabeth in fostering fungal growth wherever possible. A patch of soil in the sun will grow plants. If the same patch is shaded with a stump, it will foster the growth of soil creatures, from earthworms to centipedes, milipedes, springtails, slugs, and more. Lift a stump and there will be impressions from the soil life in the stump and the soil. The toads like the shade and the abundance of food.
Two stumps sit in the middle of the mulched main rose garden. They are for the birds and visitors to perch on. I also have little lawn chairs for the delicate who do not want to share with birds. Beneath each stump is a zone of cypress mulch and newspaper or cardboard, many voids where moisture and air can feed a population of decomposers and predators. A Creation gardener simply activates the principles already instilled at the beginning.
Before the maple tree garden bloomed, the rose buds were forming. |
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J. C. Ryle: An Anglican Bishop of the Old School - From Churchmouse, 2011
J C Ryle: an Anglican bishop of the old school « Churchmouse Campanologist:

Read more at this link. The quotations are especially worthwhile.
As an antidote to the recent Church of England debacle involving St Paul’s Cathedral and Occupy, it seems apposite to examine a bishop who did much for the Church: J C Ryle.
John Charles Ryle was born in 1816 to a wealthy banker. Having attended Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, his family expected him to pursue a career in politics. However, Ryle felt called to the priesthood and was ordained in 1842.
Read more at this link. The quotations are especially worthwhile.
Would that we had priests and bishops like this today.
My chief desire in all my writings, is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him beautiful and glorious in the eyes of men; and to promote the increase of repentance, faith, and holiness upon earth.
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ChurchMouse
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Rogate Sunday, 2016. The Fifth Sunday after Easter. John 16:23-30.
Luther's Five Points of Prayer
Rogate 2016 - The Fifth Sunday after Easter.
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Hymn # 202 Welcome Happy Morning
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #454 Prayer Is the Soul's Sincere Desire
Prayer Is the Fruit of a Christian's Faith
The Communion Hymn # 207 Like the Golden Sun
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #457 What a Friend We Have in Jesus
KJV James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
KJV John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. 26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. 28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Fifth Sunday After Easter
Lord God, heavenly Father, who through Thy Son didst promise us that whatsoever we ask in His name Thou wilt give us: We beseech Thee, keep us in Thy word, and grant us Thy Holy Spirit, that He may govern us according to Thy will; protect us from the power of the devil, from false doctrine and worship; also defend our lives against all danger; grant us Thy blessing and peace, that we may in all things perceive Thy merciful help, and both now and forever praise and glorify Thee as our gracious Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Prayer Is the Fruit of of a Christian's Faith
KJV John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
The opening of this Gospel lesson is the culmination of Jesus' childbirth analogy, comparing His death and resurrection to the experience of labor and the joy of a new baby born. So this passage on prayer follows the pattern seen throughout the New Testament, where the Gospel promises precede the Lord's encouragement to pray.
Coming out of a monastic experience of laws and commands, Luther like to say that God does not command the believer, He persuades. America still suffers from a confusion about prayer, because of the way it is often presented, not to mention confusion about the Word always conveying Jesus through the power of the Spirit.
Evangelical Conversion by Prayer
The typical presentation today has people believing after they hear the Gospel. "What do I do now?" The answer - "Pray for Jesus to enter your heart." There is even a basic Sinner's Prayer along those lines.
The proclamation of the Gospel itself brings Jesus to the individual, whether that person is a believer or not. It is the Holy Spirit working in the Word that does this. The very act of prayer in the Name of Jesus is an act of faith. As Peter said, "I believe. Help my unbelief."
Grace Separated from the Gospel
This should always concern us, that grace is separated from the Gospel proclamation. This happens several ways among the errorists.
The first is the one I just described. The person believes, but he is commanded to pray for grace. He already received grace through the Word, which caused him to believe for the first time - or the Gospel renewed his faith. The message of Jesus' death and resurrection is grace - they are never separated.
Prayer is taught as THE Means of Grace. Worship in church is expected, but not really important. The prayer group (from Pietism) is where grace is received. This comes from Pietism and from Roman Catholic prayer groups (rosary groups) that inspired Spener. As I have said before, someone can be a paid Bible study leader at a Baptist church and brag about never going to church for decades.
Despising the Means of Grace. The Sacraments are denied the power of the visible Word, so Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are neglected and often belittled as mattering very little. This easily collapses in the clown ministries offered in generic circus locations everywhere in every denomination. Do NOT call it a church. Do NOT give it a name associated with the Christian faith. Do NOT wear anything more formal than hiking clothes. Long ago a Church Growth leader among the Lutherans said, "If Jesus were conducting His ministry today"....(He isn't through the Means of Grace?!) "He would have something like The Tonight Show on TV." That minister became a burn-out and lost his entire church empire.
One error piles on another error and this results in confusion and lack of faith in the Gospel itself.
KJV John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.
This is the kind of statement that wakes us up. It does not sound right. In fact, it is stated in such a way that we have to take notice. At the time, the disciples were dependent upon Jesus for everything, and they were always asking Him to teach them and provide for them in various ways. But now, they would ask the Father directly in His Name because they were His brothers by faith. What would move them to ask and persuade them to ask? The energy of the Gospel at work does that.
Luther's Five Requirements of Prayer
1. The Gospel Promise
The first requirement of prayer is the Gospel Promise, as I mentioned above. But this increases in power with its purity. Many hear a watered down Gospel or they listen to a clever combination of Gospel and Law, such as the demand for works "to adorn faith" as the Church of Rome claims.
What does this means - Behold the Lamb of God, who bears the sins of the world?
That means the Son of God has been born of the Virgin, has performed great and unique miracles to confirm His divine Word, and suffered torture and death to pay for all of our sins, His innocence displayed in His resurrection. When we confuse regret over past sins with a lack of forgiveness, we are saying, "That sin remains on Jesus. He has only destroyed and conquered my minor sins, not my major sins. The major sins are still there." That puts a lie on the Gospel message, that Jesus bears all the sins, that He is our righteousness, our perfection that we receive through faith.
The Christian believer is forgiven all sins each day because the Spirit brings Jesus to Him each day. The individual is still a sinner, but sin no longer controls and enslaves him. It is wonderful to see how the Gospel breaks people out of their slavery to impulse, addiction, cruelty, and blasphemy. John Bunyan was such a horrible person that his conversion itself was seen as a Gospel miracle by all his acquaintances. No one was written off more than he was, and the rest of his life consisted of teaching that Gospel, as in The Pilgrim's Progress.
So we pray, because God has promised us that He will hear our prayers. This is such a completely different from pagan religions where the individual must pay for and work for God's favor.
2. Faith in God's Promise
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Luther:
2. In the second place, it is necessary that we never doubt the pledge and promise of the true and faithful God. For even to this end did God pledge himself to hear, yea, commanded us to pray, in order that we may always have a sure and firm faith that we will be heard; as Jesus says in Matthew 21:22: “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
When people tell us that it does not matter whether we believe or not, the whole concept of trust in God flies out the window. Instead of being direct toward Christ, we are told to believe their strange dogma. If not, we are heartily condemned and roughed up in every way possible.
We live in an ocean of doubt and rationalism, but that does not mean we need to immerse ourselves in it. In contrast, we have this bubble, this bathysphere, this submarine that allows us to exist with the ocean of doubt, to view the monsters of that realm, and yet rest in the gracious Words of the Gospel.
Bibles are everywhere but not always open. Bibles are often open but not comprehended. The greatest share of Biblical professors do not believe the actual Word and works of Christ but do their Irish step-dance around the words of the Scripture, agonizing about the date of St. John without believing the Fourth Gospel. In the midst of that kind of training - in the LCA - I came upon a book about St. John's Gospel. The facts dispelled the false claims being offered in so many books that John's Gospel was 300 years later than Jesus' life, that the Gospel was influenced by non-Christian philosophy. But the Word itself, which I was studying in Greek, struck me as being so alive, personal, and powerful, that the facts were subordinate to the power of he Spirit in the Word.
I sang "In the Garden" too many times in the Disciples of Christ church that I left. But when I got to Jesus and Mary in the garden in John's Gospel, I realized that it was a hymn about that passage. When Jesus says, "Mary" in that passage, and she says, "Teacher," it reads in Greek or Latin like a You Are There script, for those who remember the old Cronkite show. The Gospel of John takes us there more intimately than the other three, as great and powerful as they are.
As Luther says, Christians have this wonderful blessing of having the secrets of the universe opened up to them - the nature of God, the Creation, the Flood. And that very wealth makes people take it for granted. Because I had rationalism pounded into me by the LCA system of college and seminary, I strongly resist and like to expose the same rationalism in the LCMS-WELS-ELS system, the one that makes them so cozy with ELCA and yet so hostile to faith.
Human reason doubts that God can stop and adjust the workings of the universe to benefit, help, or sustain one puny individual. But the spiritual wealth of the Scriptures teach us that this is God's intention and gracious will. Because all His Promises have been kept, unlike ours, we continue in the firm conviction that His Promises will always be kept.
Luther:
2. In the second place, it is necessary that we never doubt the pledge and promise of the true and faithful God. For even to this end did God pledge himself to hear, yea, commanded us to pray, in order that we may always have a sure and firm faith that we will be heard; as Jesus says in Matthew 21:22: “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
When people tell us that it does not matter whether we believe or not, the whole concept of trust in God flies out the window. Instead of being direct toward Christ, we are told to believe their strange dogma. If not, we are heartily condemned and roughed up in every way possible.
We live in an ocean of doubt and rationalism, but that does not mean we need to immerse ourselves in it. In contrast, we have this bubble, this bathysphere, this submarine that allows us to exist with the ocean of doubt, to view the monsters of that realm, and yet rest in the gracious Words of the Gospel.
Bibles are everywhere but not always open. Bibles are often open but not comprehended. The greatest share of Biblical professors do not believe the actual Word and works of Christ but do their Irish step-dance around the words of the Scripture, agonizing about the date of St. John without believing the Fourth Gospel. In the midst of that kind of training - in the LCA - I came upon a book about St. John's Gospel. The facts dispelled the false claims being offered in so many books that John's Gospel was 300 years later than Jesus' life, that the Gospel was influenced by non-Christian philosophy. But the Word itself, which I was studying in Greek, struck me as being so alive, personal, and powerful, that the facts were subordinate to the power of he Spirit in the Word.
I sang "In the Garden" too many times in the Disciples of Christ church that I left. But when I got to Jesus and Mary in the garden in John's Gospel, I realized that it was a hymn about that passage. When Jesus says, "Mary" in that passage, and she says, "Teacher," it reads in Greek or Latin like a You Are There script, for those who remember the old Cronkite show. The Gospel of John takes us there more intimately than the other three, as great and powerful as they are.
As Luther says, Christians have this wonderful blessing of having the secrets of the universe opened up to them - the nature of God, the Creation, the Flood. And that very wealth makes people take it for granted. Because I had rationalism pounded into me by the LCA system of college and seminary, I strongly resist and like to expose the same rationalism in the LCMS-WELS-ELS system, the one that makes them so cozy with ELCA and yet so hostile to faith.
Human reason doubts that God can stop and adjust the workings of the universe to benefit, help, or sustain one puny individual. But the spiritual wealth of the Scriptures teach us that this is God's intention and gracious will. Because all His Promises have been kept, unlike ours, we continue in the firm conviction that His Promises will always be kept.
3. Faith That Our Prayer Will Be Heard
25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
The more we see how Jesus prepared and guided His disciples, step by step, and gathered them again after the resurrection, the more we see how He trains us in the Word and in our experiences to have a greater and greater trust that our prayers are heard.
Clearly the disciples did not grasp much of what was told them at the time. We are like spectators watching them learn what we already know. That should reveal to us that we are quite the same. Little challenges prepare us for great ones. And false concepts we were taught or we imagined on our own - these are swept away by the Word. We may read or hear a passage 50 times and then one day. And it is the Spirit that opens up the meaning to us. "Why didn't I get this before?" Because some things require repetition and experience.
When I was new in the ministry, I wanted to make things happen. I wanted to accomplish something. After a few years it is clear that God's Word makes things happen, that His agenda can be entirely different and clearly not what we thought at first. I was sitting in a seldom used church office about 40 years ago when a Lutheran calendar had this quotation on it from Luther: "The older I get, the less I rely on myself and the more I rely on God." That was naturally the opposite of what everyone was telling me - do this, make this happen, get results. And when things did go well, someone was always around to rip things apart. That was taught by Luther too, about the hostility of Satan toward the Word, never wanting it to take root and prosper.
The parables of Jesus become clear to us, as they did to the disciples.
4. A Sense of Our Unworthiness
26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
As I said in the chapel service, nothing is more obnoxious that ordering God around, giving Him the time, place, and manner of His work. And yet, this Management by Objective method, taught by Peter Drucker, has been the rage in all the synods, from ELCA down to the ELS. I went into an beautiful old Episcopalian church in Charlotte, and there on the bulletin board was the pastor's and congregation's demands of God, to wit - 10% increase in worship and attendance for the next three years, etc. And the pastor was just back from a conference at Fuller Seminary.
But the Canaanite woman, when challenged by Jesus time and again, instead of being offended by the reference to taking the children's bread and giving it to dogs, said, "Yes, Master. And yet the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master's table."
The old LCA hymnal used to have a prayer for communion that said, "We are not worthy to gather the crumbs from the Master's table, nevertheless..."
So we do not pray on the basis of our own worthiness but because Christ has made us worthy and made us His brothers. And even greater is this Promise, that God loves us because we love the Son and believe He comes from God.
So God persuades us to pray to Him by saying how much He loves those who believe in His Son. And how can we not trust in Him who serves as our Good Shepherd?
5. That We Never Limit God in Any Way
28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
I continue to think that the greatest miracle of all--above the Creation, the Genesis Flood, and the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament--is this one miracle, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. If we trust in this miracle of the Incarnation, that God became man for us, how can we doubt or limit God in any way?
God never said, "Ask if you have figured out that it is do-able. After all miracles must be specific, achievable, and measurable" (SAM goals, which are also taught by Peter Drucker, Management by Objective). We are promised again and again -
Ask and it will be given to you.
And also
And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” With this and like promises and commands we must consolingly exercise ourselves and pray in true confidence.
So often I have been mocked by "conservative" Lutheran clergy for emphasizing faith, which they did to show they were so much better than I. And even more so, they made fun of any person's ability to do anything in such modest circumstances. And I would agree with these screeching jays, except God keeps showing how He works and how much He accomplishes through the Word alone.
That means faith in His Word, not in our words. Henry Jacobs wrote a great comparison, true to the Scriptures. The power of the Word is related to its purity. The more we water it down with human reason, the more it is man's words and not God's Word and therefore this base alloy is rendered ineffective by us.
One only need to look around and see the vast collapse of the rationalistic Lutheran synods - WELS, ELS, LCMS, ELCA, CLC (sic) - to observe how God has let their delusions take down every material thing they cherish, worship, and adore.
One layman cannot get over the nastiness poured out upon those layman who cling to justification by faith instead of Universalism disguised as UOJ. The strength of the reaction is equal to the power of Satan and his hatred of the Word. So justification by faith and all the Promises associated with it - that only has a little toe-hold here and there. But is the power and glory of the Prince of this world compared to the Prince of Peace, who will return in majesty to judge between the sheep and the goats. Whenever that happens, in this generation or 200 years from now, His followers will need to pray.
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