While You Were Sleeping, The Living Seed of the Word Was Sown and Began To Grow

This post is sponsored by Honduras coffee.

KJV Mark 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

I worked out a system to review books on Amazon and to get them accepted. I repost the reviews on two blogs and many Facebook pages because we have an unusual situation. Several households are engaged in proclaiming the Word in various ways. I link them  with many different methods, because Search Engine Optimization builds visibility on the Net through search engines and the habit of going to favorite sites.

Alec Satin constantly publishes many books as free PDFs. They are ideal for searching and quoting, and they are portable:

Lutheran Library

Lutheran Librarian.

Norma Boeckler patiently posts her Christian artwork on Facebook and produces even more. We have many new and old graphics on The Bethany Lutheran Hymn Blog (almost 11,000 views.

Norma Boeckler's Christian Art Books

Norma Boeckler's Christian Art

Norma Boeckler's illustratrated hymns.

Martin Chemnitz Friends blog (almost 14,000 views) is used to link readers to these faithful efforts. If someone or some production has been overlooked, please contact me.

Yesterday I said to Mrs. Ichabod, "Think how many dishonest people and unpleasant events it took to have a dream come true - and then some. We get to work with wonderful people. I get to write, teach, and edit with a lot of freedom." 

[GJ - A reader wrote to say how glad he was that things worked out. If I edited for a synodical operation, the apostate leaders would dictate the content. If I wrote what the Scriptures teach, about the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace, the apostate editors would not print it. Oh, they did once with Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure. The day I got my five (5) free copies in the mail, the WELS hitmen organized the council members to get rid of me, which did not work that time. The editors who pushed the book through - with big delays - were forced out of NPH. The book sold like crazy and went into three editions. NPH gave me the rights, so it is available as a free PDF and a printed book. WELS is fine with adulterous divorced ("Scriptural divorce") and bi-sexual pastors, but the Means of Grace?]

KJV Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

κατα την δυναμιν (GJ - the power, dynomite, literally, the Spirit in the Word) την ενεργουμενην (GJ - energy, literally - works in us effectively) εν ημιν

21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

We Can Do So Much To Broadcast the Word - Using the Net

I am doing more with the Martin Chemnitz Friends blog to promote the work of Alec Satin and Travis/Lauren Cartee. I learned over the years to overlap blogs, to use mutual linkage, to increase the reach of each one. One of my students taught me Search Engine Optimization, because multiple sources leverage each other.

You may have noticed that our Philippine Missionary - Pastor Jordan Palangyos - is doing the same with his links on the Lutheran Cowboys blog.

Alec Satin

Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry - Free PDFs

Lutheran Librarian - Inexpensive Print Books, Based on the PDFs

Broadcasting is a way to start crops, and it works. I turned the Rose Garden into Buckwheat by sowing those prolific seeds. When the crop was weed-whacked down, the mature seeds created a second crop. Jesus did not teach measuring the soil, but spreading the living Seed of the Word everywhere.

Progress on Luther's Sermons - Volume IV Being Prepared for Amazon and Kindle

 Norma A. Boeckler designed the cover
and illustrations for Volume IV.  She had an author's
day at the Midland Dow Library in Michigan.
Her latest book is Those Days on the Farm.

Norma A. Boeckler's extensive list of books and illustrated books is listed here by Amazon.

Progress, The Sermons of Luther -
Volume IV is being prepared for Amazon print and Kindle e-book publication by Janie Sullivan.

Volume V is edited for typos and being finished for Janie Sullivan and for artwork by Norma A. Boeckler.

Volume VI is being read for typos, glitches, and other barriers to good reading.

The last two sermon volumes and The Gems of Luther's Sermons will be finished very early in 2018.

Future Plans
God willing, as always, publishing plans include the two Catechisms and Galatians.

New titles being planned include -

1. An Ichabod Lutheran Dictionary, 
2. The Gospel of John - A Brief Commentary, and 
3. Calvinism Ruined the Protestant Church.

Plans for Martin Chemnitz Press

When someone is banned, blocked, and shunned at supposed Lutheran publishing firms, including "independent" lapdog ones - even the micro-mini ELDONUT's bookmobile - the best approach is to distribute books.

Martin Chemnitz Press is expanding the titles available by print and Kindle e-books, not to sell a lot of them, which is impossible without distribution, but to make them available at cost or slightly above cost.

Frank Fiorenza, now enjoying an endowed chair at Harvard University, made this point when I was driving him home from Notre Dame, after class, "I don't care how many books you write, Greg, or how good they are, you have to have distribution."

Like Roland Bainton and Stan Hauerwas, Fiorenza had books everywhere.

I started a blog called Martin Chemnitz Friends since he is the key figure in defining Lutheran Orthodoxy. Last night I told some LCMS classmates that I was not Missouri. Three of them, kidding me, took two steps backwards, and we all laughed. I pointed out that I had about 500 LCMS friends on Facebook, which says something.

Chemnitz is the key figure because he united the divided Lutherans after the death of Luther. He was not alone, of course, but he was the senior editor of the Book of Concord and a genius as rare as Luther himself.

I will use the Martin Chemnitz Friends blog to announce book news and to mention the work of others, because social media attention really matters. I will compose the post on Ichabod the Glory Has Departed and copy it over to Martin Chemnitz Friends.

The new blog is fed onto the author's page on Amazon.

The Plan
I am moving titles to Amazon because the author's price for printed books is far below  that from Lulu.com. I was always waiting for their special one-day Lulu sales.

If a church or a group of pastors would like a bunch of books, I will send them at price plus shipping. I can list those prices later. Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant is only $6 printed, without shipping, one third the retail price.

Another advantage of Amazon is the Kindle e-book. Those books are ideal for immediate delivery and use on all mobile devices. I use Kindle for writing so I can copy and paste quotations that include the citation.

People can easily bring their smartphones to class and read from them.