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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 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 National Council of Churches.
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| CFW Walther took over from Stephan. As one person said, "A bishop landed in New Orleans, and later a pope emerged." Jim Heiser replaced DeJaynes and took the Waltherian "Repristination Press" with him, slowly gathering fellow Ft. Wayne graduates who had been removed from their calls. |
Greetings! Emmanuel Lutheran Church has been gathering around God’s Word and Sacraments in Las Cruces since the late 1970’s. We officially organized as a mission of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) in 1987. For awhile we met together in homes, at bridge clubs and at the local VFW, but since 1992 we have been gathering at our present facility on Highway 70. We became an independent Lutheran congregation in 2012, no longer affiliated with the WELS.
Rev. Paul A. Rydecki has been serving as our pastor since April, 2007. Pastor Rydecki graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2000 after completing eight years of pastoral training and was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry in July, 2000. He served as a WELS missionary in Puerto Rico and in Mexico from 2000 – 2007 and was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA) from 2013 until 2022, when he chose to become an independent Lutheran pastor. He is fluent in Spanish, and also has a love for German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
Notice the three pastoral popinjays |
| Heiser parked the fish-hat, robes, and big stick for another merger with Objective Justification. |
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| Knowing the Rolf Preus Synod was 100% Objective Justification, Heiser courted them to pump up the size of ELDONA. |
"After breaking away from the ELCA and adopting its own constitution and bylaws, the church did not prosper, and membership declined from several hundred to fewer than two dozen by 2001, according to circuit court records. Financial hardship followed, and that is when a further schism occurred."
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DECATUR - The eight families that have been worshiping at Christ Lutheran Church, 34 S. Country Club Road, in recent years will hold their final service there at 9 a.m. Sunday prior to leaving the property under a court order to vacate.
Holy communion will be served and a thanksgiving service held for the blessings the congregation has received in recent years, said the Rev. Al Weidlich, who will lead the service.
The future of the property will be up to the board of directors, said Bishop Randy DeJaynes of the Lutheran Confessional Synod, the chief plaintiff in the lawsuit against the families. He declined further comment.
The Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court on Aug. 20 rejected the families' appeal of a Sept. 24, 2003, order issued by Circuit Judge A.G. Webber IV. The order awarded the church property to the Lutheran Confessional Synod. Christ Lutheran was the only church in that synod after breaking away from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in June 1994.
After breaking away from the ELCA and adopting its own constitution and bylaws, the church did not prosper, and membership declined from several hundred to fewer than two dozen by 2001, according to circuit court records. Financial hardship followed, and that is when a further schism occurred.
The congregation divided with the families becoming defendants in a lawsuit seeking control of the property filed June 6, 2002, by church members Dorothy Tribbett, Heidi White, Rhonda Nichols and members of the DeJaynes family: Randy, Arlis, Christopher, Sara, Adam and Amy. Christopher DeJaynes is pastor of the church.
The lawsuit followed a congregational meeting on Sept. 16, 2001, to vote on a proposal to sell the church property. The families claimed the meeting was not properly called and walked out prior to the vote on selling the property, elected their own board of trustees and took possession of the church.
Those families reaffiliated the church with the ELCA.
Weidlich said the group is looking for another location to hold worship services. He said the defendants have until Tuesday to turn over the keys and vacate the church.
"The board tried to negotiate an offer on it, but nothing happened," Weidlich said. "We're hoping the ELCA can negotiate something. It's all happened so quickly in terms of how churches operate."
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/herald-review/name/randy-dejaynes-obituary?id=22940511
Randy L. DeJaynes - Minus the LCS, etc.
Jan. 10, 1951 - Aug. 18, 2021
FORSYTH - Randy L. DeJaynes, 70, of Forsyth, Illinois, died Wednesday, August 18, 2021, at Decatur Memorial Hospital. Randy struggled for two weeks with a COVID-19 infection that resulted in pneumonia.
Born on January 10, 1951, in Macomb, Illinois, to Roy E. and Joan (Martin) DeJaynes, Randy grew up in the Plymouth, Augusta, and Bowen villages and graduated from Bowen High School in 1969. He met his wife, Arlis White, in 1973, and they were married January 18, 1975, in Quincy, Illinois. He later earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees (summa cum laude) from Western Illinois University in Macomb, where he taught at the university for several years. Later, he earned his M. Div. degree from Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and he served as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Decatur for sixteen years.
Randy and Arlis were blessed with two sons, Adam John and Christopher Nicholas, who were the lights of his life. Both sons reside in Decatur. Randy is survived by his devoted wife of forty-six years, Arlis: his sons: Adam (Sarah Hayes) DeJaynes and Christopher (Sara Hammann) DeJaynes, all of Decatur; his beloved grandchildren: Noelle (DeJaynes) Malkamaki, Christian DeJaynes, Caley DeJaynes, Avery DeJaynes, Mary Margaret DeJaynes, and Ella Smith; one brother, Roger (Gretchen) DeJaynes of Blandinsville, Illinois; one sister, Rhonda DeJaynes of Santa Rosa, California; numerous in-laws, 22 nieces and nephews, and his beloved Corgis, Huey and Taffy.
Randy was a simple man who loved simple things like his many flower gardens, fruit trees, his dogs, and his baking. He owned Daily Bread Bakery for several years. More than anything, he loved his family and being around them.
Services for Randy L. DeJaynes will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 23, 2021 at Sacred Heart Church, part of St. Katharine Drexel Parish, with a private family visitation preceding service. Burial will be at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in rural Illiopolis, immediately after service with a family luncheon at Grace United Methodist Church, in Decatur, Illinois after the burial. Memorials in Randy's honor may be given to Sacred Heart Church in Springfield or to his grandchildren's education fund c/o CEFCU.
The family is being served by Brintlinger and Earl Funeral Home in Decatur, Illinois.
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| No rainbow stole...yet. |
| Here is a really expensive robe for Matt the Fatt, but no fish hat yet. Time to catch up with ELDONA: a fish hat and a really big stick. |
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| The Right Reverend (his chosen title) Bishop James Heiser wears the full panoply of episcopalian finery, except he is only a circuit pastor in reality, not yet ready for those oh-so-cool Medieval titles, like His Beatitude, The Right Reverend STM. I enjoy seeing the Canadian lady bishops grasping their too thick sticks in their tiny feminine hands, equally awkward, given the tiny numbers of ELCiC members. |
I have watched many church leaders and craven laity stand there and lie, sometimes on the phone, but also by mail.
I have often carried out searches on the Net, illuminating to me, boring to most. I searched one name and got eldona.org showing up - no content, just the website domain, which had to be formalized in some way. That is the domain they use today. Go ahead, try it.
Anything new going on? "No." Yet that same parson had decided on an organizational name and established a domain for the group. This same parson used to cling to the LCMS the way lint clings to black slacks. I thought it would take a SWAT team to get him out of the synod. He waited for his pension to vest - not exactly martyrdom!
I continue to be astonished at the way clergy leaders lie, as if God does not know anything and we are also easily fooled.
Look at the data. The braggarts of yesteryear are hiding the statistics today. The very nature of their pronouncements sound like they are holding back the anguish, depression, and terror - "How much worse will it get?"
The United Church of Christ, a goldmine of mergers, has incredible losses, which seem to be accelerating.
First, I heard that Paul Rydecki was no longer in ELDONA, which was verified by Paul's own words on his website.
Then I learned that others had left the stony vastness of ELDONA:
Pastor Sullivan - Ask the Pastor - is no longer affiliated with ELDONA and the Rogers Arkansas congregation has excommunicated those items from their website. I am not hip on social media defenestrations. Apparently, a video can be recommended as kosher one week and jettisoned another week.
Pastor Carver - He was touted by ELDONA as a Missouri Synod pastor leaving the fetid swamps of that denomination. The little sect of Texas did not mention Heiser clinging to the Missouri Synod while waiting for his pension benefits to vest. Carver gave up his call, unlike Bishop Heiser, and is not in ELDONA.
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| What is more delightful than a hummingbird sipping nectar, 18 inches away? |
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| The smallest bird is the bravest. Synodical bullies should take note of that. |
I read your posts from 2018 about my family and I leaving the LCMS for Orthodoxy. The debate between Lutherans on justification by faith and UOJ was not among the most important issues for me in the decision. You published a comment by one of your readers that demonstrated my writing on "No Longer Sola" explained that well enough.
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| The original joke is - "The bishop also moves obliquely in chess." That means he or she never tells the truth or shades the meaning of everything so much that no one really knows. Ask Jim Heiser for tips on this, except he never tells the truth. |
| And your little dog too! |
We have a simple way to look at our health - the blood panel. After drawing blood, the diagnostic machine produces the mysterious numbers and explains what they mean.
The bad cholesterol is too high? Start eating one handful of walnuts or almonds each day. The good cholesterol will remove the bad stuff for great results on the next test. Avoid the party nuts with sugar or salt added.
High blood sugar on the A1C? Replace desserts, candy, and sodas with fresh fruits. Diet drinks are just as bad as sugared drinks: avoid them.
Blood pressure too high? Losing weight is the easy way to start lowering the numbers. Reducing meats, fish, milk, eggs, and cheese will lower the movement of fats from the plate to the waist.
Food cravings? Leafy greens - like spinach - by themselves will stop the eat-a-loaf-of-bread, box-of-chocolates, half-a-whipped-cream-cake food cravings. For example, note what happened after your last magical diet was over. Yes, several family members and the cat were knocked down in your mad rush to the freezer for ice cream.
A lifetime of bad food habits? That takes time to reverse, because we get away with a lot until we reach 60 or so. Weighing each day is a good way to track results. The first 5-10 pounds are easy. The rest of the loss comes from reducing the cravings for sweets, fats, and salt.
Poor Folks Food -
God's Answer to Obesity
My first grocery store stops after fresh fruits (apples, oranges, blueberries) are the frozen vegetables aisle, then the beans. I buy chopped frozen kale and collards, both super rich in nutrients, very inexpensive.
The best beans to buy for nutrition are the chickpeas. When they are out, I get garbanzo beans (a joke, they are the same, but sold under both labels). They satisfy hunger and have a zillion good qualities - plus they are cheap.
Poor people get by on beans and greens, which means they get the best nutrition while the upper classes are going to the doctor to get medicine to turn around their bad blood test results.
In Short -
Reverse the Eating Machine.
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| First birthday - the addiction began... |
Those who comprehend Creation can easily understand that God gave us an enormous selection of good nutrition at a very low cost. The contrast is startling.
Leafy greens are so inexpensive that a box of fresh baby spinach at WM is good for 5-7 large helpings, lasting much longer (in eating and spending) than a quarter-pounder with cheese. Processed food is always far more expensive and much more invested in fat, salt, and white bread.
The protein argument in favor of meat, milk, and cheese is not strong because greens and vegetables are packed with protein, which the body re-arranges during digestion - when needed for complete protein. I was asking myself, Who though this up in advance?
I have not become a vegetarian, but I did switch the budget from fast-foods, bread, PBJ, desserts, etc to beans, greens, fruits, and nuts.
In the nutrition and food-as-medicine categories, vegetation is far superior to meat, milk, and cheese.
That is another irony - we are asked to buy nutrition dried up in little expensive bottles (fiber? YUK!) instead of enjoying it fresh in beans, greens, fruits, and nuts.
Fiber pills, fiber powder, and fiber drinks can be replaced with fresh fruit, vegetables, and leafy greens. Fiber is really important in soluble and insoluble form, especially as we age. Natural fiber calms the craving we get from enjoying desserts too often. We knew at Melo Cream that donuts were great for 15 minutes, then needed for replenishment, sometimes in cookies, fudge, peanut brittle candy (mostly corn syrup), and danish.
Fiber slows down the dessert, fries, and chips habit. We have an ongoing joke about how many eggs are used in a batch of bread donuts. Christina asked my father and he expressed surprise that anyone would wonder. Eggs definitely improve bread and bread donuts, but the per donut argument failed, much to her delight. I was arguing for the nutritional value of bread donuts and never heard the end of it, even after 55 years.
Nuts show up at parties and often grow stale, then they are tossed to the squirrels and birds. Almonds and walnuts are very good at taking out the bad cholesterol from our bodies. Even when I was eating ice cream twice a day, the walnut regimen (topping) gave me perfect cholesterol results. Daily use of walnuts and almonds? - yes.
Once I replaced desserts, fast food, and bread with vegetables and lots of fruit, my weight dropped - so did my blood pressure and A1C (blood sugar). Both went to just above normal.
Now I am adding more exercise because that is essential to increase the benefits of nutrition.
Nutritional Benefits Of...
I do that Google search often, to see what is so special about chickpeas, various beans, fruits, nuts, greens, and seeds. To increase greens, I get fresh frozen and chopped kale, collards, mustard, and turnip greens. Chopped kale is almost free! So are the others.
Nutritional benefits of chickpeas aka garbanzos
Nutritional benefits of green peppers - whoa! C!
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| This worked well until the warrantee on my pancreas expired. |