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Mail Carrier Hands Out Advice on Growing Roses. One Way a Gardener Can Get Big Hips

 Creation Gardening - By Him Were All Things Made.

The warm weather has prompted a burst of rose blooms. First the wild roses bloomed in profusion - three of them. They have small, dark red flowers, so colorful that the mail carrier asked about them.

His daughter recently said, "I want to grow roses, but I do not know how." He told her, "I have a book for you, but you have to give it back." He smiled, because I gave him two copies of Creation Gardening.

The small, bargain roses are blooming. I think one is called Home Run. The veteran Easy Does It rose began blooming on Saturday, but just for color - short stems so far. I need some longer stems for the vase.

Buckwheat is getting even for being mowed down last summer. It engulfed the roses to such an extent that our Laotian neighbors laughed and pointed at my rose buckwheat garden. The buckwheat plants grew so tall, they covered the Lincoln (very tall) roses. Buckwhat is sensitive to cold, but many seeds survived the winter. They tend to exclude weeds, so I am going to let them have their way for now.

Hostas are gained in two ways. The tiny ones I planted last fall are popping out of the ground, so my despair is disipating. The established ones from the backyard and Mrs. Gardener's are in great shape and ready to bloom in the rose garden this year. I have permission to thin out her hostas, so I will spread more around when I get a good idea about the survival of the little ones.

People think a front yard of roses is odd, but people ask about it all the time. No one drives up to a yard and says, "Is that grass?"

 The hybrid teas were not ready for vases, so I bought a dozen roses just for the neighbors - $10 at Walmart.

Roses for Mother's Day
This is the third year I gave roses to each neighbor on our cul-de-sac for Mother's Day. Our SuperMom got a big bunch - she has four daughters, which I call the Esses. S1 played with Sassy, then S2, and now S3 fusses over her. The baby is not quite ready for Sassy's barking and kissing, but that may develop when the dog to child ration changes.

Ranger Bob takes flowers to the cemetery as often as he can, so Sassy and I took the other bunch of flowers to his house. We prayed for John and Pat in church - she got her rose. Another rose went to a police officer's wife a few blocks away.

 Rugosa for rag-like leaves. I don't see that either.
But they are easy to grow and enjoy.

Rugosa Roses Will Give the Gardener Big Hips
The old-fashioned roses have fewer blooms but larger hips (the seed-pod or fruit of the rose). I got some rugosa roses from Direct Gardening and put them where they had rather poor light and eratic watering. I transplanted the rose this spring and it burst into bloom.

Rugosa roses are as tough as they come, so I may get more in the future.

 Home Run - early color.

Do Not Stand So Close to the Excavation

 We knew Jaroslav Pelikan at Yale. Soon after, I met his father and brother in Cleveland.

Questions come in from people who are being swindled by the UOJ hoaxers. The situation reminds me of Pastor Pelikan, father of the Luther scholar, who was doing the commital at the grave site. Just as he was finishing, he felt the earth give way. He deftly jumped across and landed on solid ground.

At the next funeral, the family asked him, "Pastor Pelikan, will you do the graveside ceremony of leaping over the grave for us?"

Professor Pelikan said, "That is how quickly traditions get established."

The UOJ hoaxers try to pull the innocent into their traps by quoting Luther selectively. One must always remember - Spinning a new doctrine from a brief quotation is bound to be deceptive and wrong.

An example of this can be found in the 50 page bloviation of Jay Webber, trying to make Luther an advocate of Halle's Objective Justification - Universal Forgiveness without Faith.

 The improvement gang and correction guys want to take us as far away from the Gospel as they are. They do not trust the efficacy of the Word.

"Jesus Is All Forgiveness" and "You Are Already Forgiven"
Naturally we should start with the Gospel of John, the Epistles of Paul, Genesis 15, or anywhere in the Bible.

But they pull out these Luther quips to build their case, like the time I stacked book boxes on empty cardboard boxes to keep the books dry. The basement floor became wet and the foundation crumbled, tumbling the book boxes into the water. Thus Webber and his coven of ignorant, false teachers tumble into the swamp they have constructed for everyone else.

So let us start with Luther since they want to lead with their weakest hand. What was Luther arguing against? Answer - the Roman Catholic dogma of faith requiring works to satisfy God, not that all the works in the world are enough. 

Opposing the papal portrayal of Jesus as an angry, vengeful Judge, Luther repeated the Johannine portrait of Jesus - He has died for all our sins, so trust that He is all forgiveness.

What is sin in the Teaching of Jesus? The Spirit will convict the world of sin - "because they believe not on Me."

Basic Luther
Since everyone claims a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, let's give the Quia Marias a lesson from the Confessions. The Formula of Concord commended Luther's Galatians Lectures for further study of Justification by Faith. Webber mentioned the work but clearly has never read it, and certain has not understood it if he did.

Basic Paul
If St. Paul teaches Justification without Faith, parallel with Justification by Faith, he contradicts himself and Genesis 15.

 This Luther refuted Objective Justification before OJ was belched forth from Huber the Calvinist Lutheran or the Halle Pietists (Lutheran style/Calvinist substance).

Really Basic Biblical Doctrine
What we call Lutheran doctrine is simply what the Scriptures teach. The Holy Spirit works through the Word and only through the Word, so there is no magical poof where everyone in the world is forgiven and saved without faith. When they define their magical poof, they contradict each other, reminding us of how the UOJists hate each other and scrap like junkyard dogs fighting over a wounded rat. Poof! - when Jesus died? when Jesus rose? when the angels announced His birth?

Applying filters for "understanding" the Word - that comes from the Pope and his legion of followers, from Calvin and his confused disciples.

No wonder the graduates of the Concordia Seminaries either run to Rome and the others align with Fuller Seminary. It depends on which dogmatic foundation seems most appealing to the poor, misguided UOJists.