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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| It sounds like the University of Phoenix will be purchased by an entity in Arkansas. |
"Last week a news report broke the story of a potential deal between the University of Phoenix and the University of Arkansas System. Discussions are underway, but there's no agreement at this time. If something does develop, we'll be sure to keep you informed."
Do we get the UOP Stadium in the deal?
Or does Arkansas give up its coaches?
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| The Rev. Mrs. Joel Osteen escaped in anger after leaving her trial. |
Ski, Glende and other WELS pastors/staff (8 total) went to Osteen's church years ago to soak up what WELS seemed to be lacking. One of my friends was offered free tuition at Fuller to learn about evangelism for the sect. He refused.
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| Isn't that Joel Osteen with Ski? |
Wayne Mueller was lying about "no Church Growth in WELS" while The Love Shack was sponsoring leaders, world missionaries, and pastors to attend Fuller. Lawrence Otto Olson, D.Min. Fuller, tried to establish his innocence in the pages of Christian News.
The LCMS is just as guilty, and ELCA goes to the same pathetic citadels of Enthusiasm.
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| Grackles are large, loud, and creaky sounding. Like starlings and crows, they arrive and leave in large numbers. |
I do not wish an ice storm on anyone. Tree limbs break. Furnaces quit. Traffic comes to a halt and accidents increase. I am sure weather has dulled my brain. Two people notified me of outrageous typos, which is fine, when they do it in a caring, compassionate, diplomatic, and gentle way.
I used my windshield broom/scraper tool to brush the barrel lids down to their natural green and yellow colors. Then I poured corn and peanuts in a pile on each barrel, a handful flung across the place where the birds forage for seed on the ground.
Soon after, the food was covered up with a layer of snow and ice, so I figured nothing would happen. Just now I found a large flock of grackles (larger than starlings, cousins to the crows) working both barrels at once with even more birds on the ground. I spotted one female cardinal and some other birds on the perimeter, hoping or hopping for some food.
Squirrels were here and there, kept at a distance by the size and noise of the grackles.
KJV Matthew 9:16 No man putteth a piece
of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh
from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
People
scratch their heads over this parable, but the comparison is simpler than it
appears at first. The parables are for the studious, not for the superficial
who guess at and even make up their inventive and creative solutions. This is
made worse by a popular assumption that the Old Testament is all law and condemnation,
the New Testament all grace and forgiveness. True Judaism is also true
Christianity, but many have tried to patch Pharisaic legalism with Christian
words and phrases. Judaism declined into the perfection of the Pharisees in
works. Many modern Christian denominations are inclined to deny the Scriptures,
miracles, and divinity of Christ, replacing the Gospel of the Savior with man
redeeming society with new laws. This Social Gospel, as they called it, only
differs in kind from the old cloth of works righteousness. The National Council
of Churches is an example of the bitter fruit of Christian socialism.
17 Neither do men put new wine into old
bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles
perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.
The
second comparison is clearer because skins were used then and even in modern
times to hold wine or water. As Lenski observed himself, the goat skin was
removed in on piece, with the feet and tail openings sewn shut. The neck
opening was used for filling the skin. Since leather is fragile, new wine in
old wineskins could split the skin and splash the wine onto the ground, both
wine and wineskin ruined.
This
wrongful improvement, causing destruction, is easily found many quasi-Christian
sects today. The Bible is praised, the New Testament is emphasized, but the
effort to pour alien ideas into the container has ruined the Christian Faith mixed with
the cults’ or sects’ dogma.
KJV Luke 6: 47
Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you
to whom he is like:
48 He is like a man
which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when
the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not
shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
49 But he that heareth,
and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the
earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell;
and the ruin of that house was great.
Jesus performed many miracles, even stating that if
people did not listen to Him, they should at least believe on Him because of
those wonders.[1]
Many were drawn to Him and yet fell away when they heard hard words – as in
John 6. This parable compares the outcome of those who hear and do the sayings
of Jesus. It is also the closing of the Sermon on the Mount, KJV Matthew
7:24-29.
The Lukan version starts with hearing and doing the Words
of Jesus. Jesus began with the positive description of a well-built house
weathering a storm.
Therefore, Jesus first portrayed a home built
correctly –
·
A man built a house and began by digging
it deeply.
·
He laid the foundation on a rock.
·
The flood arose and the stream beat
against it vehemently.
·
The storm could not shake it because it
was founded on a rock.
Our
news is filled with photos, videos, and descriptions of storms, floods, and
tornados, and hurricanes. The power of Creation is so great that poorly built
homes are washed or blown away in a moment. They float away like cardboard
models.
KJV
Luke 6: 49
But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation
built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently,
and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
The second part of the
parable compares the gulf between a house built but only upon soil. Immediately
the swollen stream sweeps it away.
[1]
KJV John 10:37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I
do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe,
that the Father is in me, and I in him.
KJV Matthew 5: 14
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick;
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is
in heaven.
Luther used the sun and the moon to compare the Gospel with
the Law, since the energy of the sun is needed for the moon to illuminate the
night sky. In the same way, the light of Christ is in those who believe in Him
and absent in those who do not. Even the smallest light can be seen in complete
darkness. In fact, utter darkness makes light especially important for
believers and unbelievers alike.
President Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech included this
Biblical reference, a great contrast when compared to the deliberate darkness
of dystopia today:
In
my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept,
God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace;
a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there
had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone
with the will and the heart to get here.[1]
No one can hide a city built up high on a hill or
mountain. The light of that city penetrates the darkness and draws people to
it. In contrast, darkness makes people afraid, and they stumble from the
smallest obstacle. When my brother lost his shoe in a sheep pen at night, we
were playing with the farmer’s children. No one knew how to find it in the muck
– until the farmer brought out his flashlight, laughing. The farmer did not
hide the light but shone it until the shoe was found and extracted with the
expected jokes.
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.”
The secondary light
from the Light of the World shines in us as we practice the forgiveness which
bears fruit in love. Most importantly, that begins with our own households,
where faith, forgiveness, and grace dissolve the darkness of our natural selves
and selfishness. The early Christian martyrs witnessed to their faith by dying
instead of silencing themselves and hiding the truth. They were honored to
model the Savior in their deaths - and in doing so - to spread the Gospel. John
Hus’ death as a martyr paved the way for Luther, who stated, “We are all
Hussites,” and the Reformation which changed Europe and the world.
[1] https://ourlostfounding.com/ronald-reagan-and-the-shining-city-upon-a-hill/#:~:text=He%20said%2C%20%E2%80%9CFor%20we%20must,%2Dword%20through%20the%20world.%E2%80%9D.
See also John Winthrop Dreams of a City on a Hill, 1630.
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| Sometimes the hawk will land on a barrel and dare me to make a move toward him. No thanks. |
Yesterday was getting colder and the icy snow began to fall. The birds had enjoyed a feast but the snow-ice covered the remaining corn on the two barrels. I found two aging apples in the fridge and put one on each barrel.
I did some grading work and came back to look at the feeding zone. A squirrel was hugging and eating his apple on the recycle barrel. No one was going to get it from him. A starling was pecking the apple's flesh away steadily on the garbage barrel. The normal feeding contingent was all over the ground, finding the slightly covered seed I tossed earlier.
