tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974781155697047842024-03-12T20:46:08.741-05:00Another Long-Winded PasquinadeWe are all Bloggers. Hoc est verum.Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-87474834060434596512015-04-25T14:09:00.000-05:002015-04-25T14:09:33.208-05:00Emptying out my Kindle Clippings, cont'd.<em>The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Heather, Peter)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 100-101 | Added on Sunday, July 20, 2014 2:29:51 PM</em><br />
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<em>THE ROMAN EMPIRE was the largest state western Eurasia has ever known.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Master and Commander (Vol. Book 1) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) (O'Brian, Patrick)<br />- Your Highlight on page 108 | Location 1589-1598 | Added on Sunday, July 20, 2014 3:57:26 PM</em><br />
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<em>‘And do you hate Papists, so?’ asked Stephen. ‘Oh, yes: and I hate paper-work. But the Papists are a very wicked crew, too, you know, with confession and all that,’ said Jack. ‘And they tried to blow up Parliament. Lord, how we used to keep up the Fifth of November. One of my very best friends – you would not believe how kind – was so upset when her mother married one that she took to mathematics and Hebrew directly – aleph, beth – though she was the prettiest girl for miles around – taught me navigation – splendid headpiece, bless her. She told me quantities of things about the Papists: I forget it all now, but they are certainly a very wicked crew. There is no trusting them. Look at the rebellion they have just had.’ ‘But my dear sir, the United Irishmen were primarily Protestants – their leaders were Protestants. Wolfe Tone and Napper Tandy were Protestants. The Emmets, the O’Connors, Simon Butler, Hamilton Rowan, Lord Edward Fitzgerald were Protestants. And the whole idea of the club was to unite Protestant and Catholic and Presbyterian Irishmen. The Protestants it was who took the initiative.’ ‘Oh? Well, I don’t know much about it, as you see – I thought it was the Papists.</em><br />
<em><br /></em><em><br />==========<br />Broad-Sword and Single-Stick With Chapters on Quarter-Staff, Bayonet, Cudgel, Shillalah, Walking-Stick, Umbrella and Other Weapons of Self-Defence (Allanson-Winn, Rowland George)<br />- Your Highlight on page 55 | Location 602-607 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 3:05:00 AM</em><br />
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<em>The old trial for teachers of fencing was not a bad test of real excellence in the mastery of their weapon—a fight with three skilled masters of fence (one at a time, of course), then three bouts with valiant unskilled men, and then three bouts against three half-drunken men. A man who could pass this test was a man whose sword could be relied upon to keep his head, and this is what is wanted. All rules, then, which provide artificial protection, as it were—protection other than that[Pg 56] afforded by the swordsman’s guard—to any part of the body are wrong, and to be avoided.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Broad-Sword and Single-Stick With Chapters on Quarter-Staff, Bayonet, Cudgel, Shillalah, Walking-Stick, Umbrella and Other Weapons of Self-Defence (Allanson-Winn, Rowland George)<br />- Your Highlight on page 81 | Location 849-851 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 3:11:17 AM</em><br />
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<em>Don’t make any remarks either in a competition (this, of course, is worst of all) or in an ordinary bout. Don’t argue, except with the sticks. Remember that the beau-ideal swordsman is one who fights hard, with “silent lips and striking hand.”</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Broad-Sword and Single-Stick With Chapters on Quarter-Staff, Bayonet, Cudgel, Shillalah, Walking-Stick, Umbrella and Other Weapons of Self-Defence (Allanson-Winn, Rowland George)<br />- Your Highlight on page 84 | Location 891-891 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 1:16:01 PM</em><br />
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<em>The really expert swordsman is surely he who inflicts injuries without receiving any,</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Broad-Sword and Single-Stick With Chapters on Quarter-Staff, Bayonet, Cudgel, Shillalah, Walking-Stick, Umbrella and Other Weapons of Self-Defence (Allanson-Winn, Rowland George)<br />- Your Highlight on page 107 | Location 1107-1110 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 1:24:12 PM</em><br />
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<em>The weight of the stick is an important matter to consider. Some blackthorns are so enormously heavy that it is next to impossible to do any quick effective work with them, and one is reminded, on seeing a man “over sticked,”—if I may be allowed such an expression—of Lord Dundreary’s riddle,[Pg 108] “Why does a dog wag his tail? Because the dog is stronger than the tail,” or of David in Saul’s armour.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Art of Fencing The Use of the Small Sword (L'Abbat, Monsieur)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 75-77 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 1:35:28 PM</em><br />
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<em>There is no Guard but has it's Thrust, and no Thrust without it's Parade, no Parade without it's Feint, no Feint without it's opposite Time or Motion, no opposite Time or Motion but has it's Counter, and there is even a Counter to that Counter.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Art of Fencing The Use of the Small Sword (L'Abbat, Monsieur)<br />- Your Highlight on page 78 | Location 1130-1134 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 2:04:10 PM</em><br />
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<em>I think it proper to finish this Chapter by confuting an Error as common, and more ridiculous, than the others; which is, of an infallible Thrust, which a great many People think that Masters reserve for dangerous Occasions, or to sell it at a dear Rate. This wonderful Thing, is called the secret Thrust. I don't know whether this Error proceeded from those who have not learned, or from the Chimera of some self-conceited Masters, who have sold to ignorant Scholars, some Thrusts as infallible, of their own Contrivance, as ridiculous and dangerous as the Simplicity of the Scholar and the Knavery of the Master are great.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />With the Battle Fleet Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908 (Matthews, Franklin)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 91-92 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 2:10:39 PM</em><br />
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<em>On every ship the band was playing the usual good-by medley composed of "Home, Sweet Home," "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and "Auld Lang Syne."</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />With the Battle Fleet Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908 (Matthews, Franklin)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 588-590 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 2:43:35 PM</em><br />
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<em>some of the English bluejackets once had difficulty in pronouncing the word Ohio. They said the name of the Ohio was "Ho and a Haich and a blooming 10," and they didn't know what to call a ship named O H and 10.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />With the Battle Fleet Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908 (Matthews, Franklin)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 638-638 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 2:49:41 PM</em><br />
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<em>I</em><em>t wasn't long before the "Coast of the High Barbaree," "Avast! Belay! We're Off for Baffin's Bay,"</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />With the Battle Fleet Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907-May, 1908 (Matthews, Franklin)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 641-641 | Added on Friday, July 25, 2014 2:49:59 PM</em><br />
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<em>"Coast of the High Barbaree," with "Blow High, Blow Low,"<br />==========</em><em><br />Master and Commander (Vol. Book 1) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) (O'Brian, Patrick)<br />- Your Highlight on page 392 | Location 5941-5943 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 3:12:03 AM</em><br />
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<em>The officers of the Hannibal and the Sophie were on parole: that is to say, until they were exchanged for French prisoners of equal rank they were bound in honour to do nothing against France or Spain – they were merely prisoners in more agreeable surroundings.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Book of Five Rings (with linked TOC) (Musashi, Miyamoto)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 39-39 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:29:48 AM</em><br />
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<em>Recently there have been people getting on in the world as strategists, but they are usually just sword-fencers.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Book of Five Rings (with linked TOC) (Musashi, Miyamoto)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 42-43 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:30:07 AM</em><br />
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<em>The true value of sword-fencing cannot be seen within the confines of sword-fencing technique.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Book of Five Rings (with linked TOC) (Musashi, Miyamoto)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 82-82 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:31:23 AM</em><br />
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<em>It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Book of Five Rings (with linked TOC) (Musashi, Miyamoto)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 132-133 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:35:35 AM</em><br />
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<em>The Way of the warrior does not include other Ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, certain traditions, artistic accomplishments and dancing.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Book of Five Rings (with linked TOC) (Musashi, Miyamoto)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 130-131 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:35:49 AM</em><br />
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<em>If he attains the virtue of the long sword, one man can beat ten men. Just as one man can beat ten, so a hundred men can beat a thousand, and a thousand can beat ten thousand. In my strategy, one man is the same as ten thousand, so this strategy is the complete warrior's craft.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Book of Five Rings (with linked TOC) (Musashi, Miyamoto)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 143-144 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:36:51 AM</em><br />
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<em>From inside fortifications, the gun has no equal among weapons. It is the supreme weapon on the field before the ranks clash, but once swords are crossed the gun becomes useless.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Book of Five Rings (with linked TOC) (Musashi, Miyamoto)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 148-148 | Added on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:37:23 AM</em><br />
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<em>You should not have a favorite weapon.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 61734-61736 | Added on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 10:53:43 PM</em><br />
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<em>8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and gthat not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The Far Side of the World (Vol. Book 10) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) (O'Brian, Patrick)<br />- Your Highlight on page 103 | Location 1468-1469 | Added on Thursday, July 31, 2014 10:59:55 AM</em><br />
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<em>the ceremony of the mixing of the grog by the master’s mate – three of water, one of rum, and the due proportions of lemon-juice and sugar</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />reflections-trinity5-10-2014-linear (<a href="mailto:buetowmt@gmail.com">buetowmt@gmail.com</a>)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 407-409 | Added on Sunday, August 3, 2014 8:37:22 AM</em><br />
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<em>How many times in your life will you receive the Lord's Supper? As much as you want, really. For there it is, given in Christ's Church as often as we need it. Whenever our sins trouble us, there is the Body and Blood of Jesus, under that bread and wine, to forgive our sins and give us life and salvation.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The World of Yesterday (Zweig, Stefan)<br />- Your Highlight on page 1 | Location 345-358 | Added on Thursday, August 7, 2014 7:55:25 PM</em><br />
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<em>When I attempt to find a simple formula for the period in which I grew up, prior to the First World War, I hope that I convey its fullness by calling it the Golden Age of Security. Everything in our almost thousand-year-old Austrian monarchy seemed based on permanency, and the State itself was the chief guarantor of this stability. The rights which it granted to its citizens were duly confirmed by parliament, the freely elected representative of the people, and every duty was exactly prescribed. Our currency, the Austrian crown, circulated in bright gold pieces, an assurance of its immutability. Everyone knew how much he possessed or what he was entitled to, what was permitted and what forbidden. Everything had its norm, its definite measure and weight. He who had a fortune could accurately compute his annual interest. An official or an officer, for example, could confidently look up in the calendar the year when he would be advanced in grade, or when he would be pensioned. Each family had its fixed budget, and knew how much could be spent for rent and food, for vacations and entertainment; and what is more, invariably a small sum was carefully laid aside for sickness and the doctor’s bills, for the unexpected. Whoever owned a house looked upon it as a secure domicile for his children and grandchildren; estates and businesses were handed down from generation to generation. When the babe was still in its cradle, its first mite was put in its little bank, or deposited in the savings bank, as a “reserve” for the future. In this vast empire everything stood firmly and immovably in its appointed place, and at its head was the aged emperor; and were he to die, one knew (or believed) another would come to take his place, and nothing would change in the well-regulated order. No one thought of wars, of revolutions, or revolts. All that was radical, all violence, seemed impossible in an age of reason.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The World of Yesterday (Zweig, Stefan)<br />- Your Highlight on page 2 | Location 361-369 | Added on Thursday, August 7, 2014 7:58:27 PM</em><br />
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<em>The century of security became the golden age of insurance. One’s house was insured against fire and theft, one’s field against hail and storm, one’s person against accident and sickness. Annuities were purchased for one’s old age, and a policy was laid in a girl’s cradle for her future dowry. Finally even the workers organized, and won standard wages and workmen’s compensation. Servants saved up for old-age insurance and paid in advance into a burial fund for their own interment. Only the man who could look into the future without worry could thoroughly enjoy the present. Despite the propriety and the modesty of this view of life, there was a grave and dangerous arrogance in this touching confidence that we had barricaded ourselves to the last loophole against any possible invasion of fate. In its liberal idealism, the nineteenth century was honestly convinced that it was on the straight and unfailing path toward being the best of all worlds. Earlier eras, with their wars, famines, and</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The World of Yesterday (Zweig, Stefan)<br />- Your Highlight on page 3 | Location 369-372 | Added on Thursday, August 7, 2014 7:59:05 PM</em><br />
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<em>r</em><em>evolts, were deprecated as times when mankind was still immature and unenlightened. But now it was merely a matter of decades until the last vestige of evil and violence would finally be conquered, and this faith in an uninterrupted and irresistible “progress” truly had the force of a religion for that generation. One began to believe more in this “progress” than in the Bible, and its gospel appeared ultimate because of the daily new wonders of science and technology.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 51 | Location 808-811 | Added on Friday, August 15, 2014 2:59:30 AM</em><br />
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<em>It was like that with a lot of things: the first time I drank I thought, “This isn’t bad—it’s awesome!” Then a couple of months later I tried pot and I was like, “This is awesome, too!” Then I did some cocaine and I thought, “Okay, this feels kinda funny—but I’m not dead, and I’m not in jail, so it can’t be that bad.” They teach you in high school that every drug is a gateway to the next drug, and they’re right, because the next thing I knew, there I was on heroin.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 52 | Location 822-823 | Added on Friday, August 15, 2014 3:00:35 AM</em><br />
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<em>I was becoming a bona fide addict after only a single year in Los Angeles. By mid-1984 I was drinking, smoking pot, using cocaine, and taking heroin. Those became my Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 144 | Location 2039-2042 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 1:44:07 AM</em><br />
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<em>At this time there was a wave of modern heavy metal where all the bands tuned down, which was a different sound from that of traditional metal bands like Megadeth who tuned to the standard concert pitch of A440. It was funny writing with the Dry Kill Logic guys, who were all ten years younger than me, tuned down to A# and all these other whacked-out tunings.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 173 | Location 2435-2437 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 2:09:15 AM</em><br />
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<em>These days, I find that modern church culture is fantastic. It is much different from what it was when I was growing up. Nowadays it is tied in with social media and with cool, uplifting rock music. For people of my age it needed to make that shift to remain relevant.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 178 | Location 2497-2499 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 2:12:51 AM</em><br />
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<em>My feelings about church were that it was culturally irrelevant, that it was dated, and that it was for my parents’ generation, not mine. Then, like I said, the church reinvented itself, and that was something that I wanted to continue with MEGA Life!</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 206 | Location 2854-2856 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 2:36:20 AM</em><br />
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<em>And yet here we were only a few years later, with kids in tow for preschool. At the urging of our children, we started attending church there, so they could be with their friends. I presented my Lutheran Confirmation credentials and we officially joined as a family.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 217 | Location 2993-2996 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 2:46:21 AM</em><br />
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<em>Music started as a passion for me, and to this day it still is. Some musical settings can really rob you of that passion and leave you empty, even to the point of disliking music altogether. I try to avoid those people and those settings. After all, if music is your gift, anyone who tries to quench that gift is like a thief robbing you of what is rightfully yours to enjoy.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 233 | Location 3472-3473 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 2:50:35 AM</em><br />
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<em>Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod seminary, St. Louis, Mississippi, 201</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll (Ellefson, David;McIver, Joel)<br />- Your Highlight on page 201 | Location 2797-2798 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 2:51:01 AM</em><br />
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<em>My faith walk continues and progresses. I now study in a Senior Mentoring Program, or SMP, for members of a congregation who wish to become ordained. It is run by the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, which offers online studies.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 33751-33754 | Added on Saturday, August 16, 2014 3:49:47 AM</em><br />
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<em>22“How long, O anaive ones, will you love bbeing simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? [aLit simple ones bOr naivete]</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The World of Yesterday (Zweig, Stefan)<br />- Your Highlight on page 85 | Location 1497-1500 | Added on Thursday, August 21, 2014 7:28:54 AM</em><br />
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<em>Nothing seems to me to confirm the greater honesty and naturalness of our present-day life and love forms than the fact that it is possible and almost normal for the youth of today to do without this once indispensable institution. It is not the police nor the laws that have restricted prostitution in our world. This tragic product of a pseudo-morality, except for a small remnant, has liquidated itself because of a decreased demand.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />The World of Yesterday (Zweig, Stefan)<br />- Your Highlight on page 94 | Location 1620-1626 | Added on Thursday, August 21, 2014 7:38:21 AM</em><br />
<em>M</em><br />
<em>ost of our universities were founded in the Middle Ages, that is, at a time when being occupied with the learned sciences was considered unusual, and in order to attract young people to study, certain class privileges were conferred upon them. The medieval scholars were not subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts; officers of the law could not seek them out or molest them in their colleges. They wore special dress, and had the right to fight duels with impunity. They were recognized as a closed guild with certain rules of conduct, or misconduct, of their own. In time, with the increasing democratization of public life, when all of the other medieval guilds and corporations were being dissolved, these academic prerogatives were done away with throughout Europe.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Heretics (Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith))<br />- Your Highlight on page 5 | Location 120-122 | Added on Saturday, August 23, 2014 5:51:11 AM</em><br />
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<em>Blasphemy is an artistic effect, because blasphemy depends upon a philosophical conviction. Blasphemy depends upon belief and is fading with it. If any one doubts this, let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor. I think his family will find him at the end of the day in a state of some exhaustion.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Heretics (Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith))<br />- Your Highlight on page 6 | Location 143-152 | Added on Saturday, August 23, 2014 6:37:41 AM</em><br />
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<em>Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, "Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good—" At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Heretics (Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith))<br />- Your Highlight on page 8 | Location 169-174 | Added on Monday, August 25, 2014 12:48:42 AM</em><br />
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<em>I remember a pamphlet by that able and sincere secularist, Mr. G. W. Foote, which contained a phrase sharply symbolizing and dividing these two methods. The pamphlet was called BEER AND BIBLE, those two very noble things, all the nobler for a conjunction which Mr. Foote, in his stern old Puritan way, seemed to think sardonic, but which I confess to thinking appropriate and charming. I have not the work by me, but I remember that Mr. Foote dismissed very contemptuously any attempts to deal with the problem of strong drink by religious offices or intercessions, and said that a picture of a drunkard's liver would be more efficacious in the matter of temperance than any prayer or praise. In that picturesque expression, it seems to me, is perfectly embodied the incurable morbidity of modern ethics.</em><br />
<em><br />==========<br />Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Second Edition (Pocket Edition) (McCain, Paul Timothy)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 4534-4537 | Added on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 2:42:03 AM</em><br />
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[7] First, Genesis 1:28 teaches that people were created to be fruitful, and that one sex should desire the other in a proper way. We are not speaking about lustful desire, which is sin, but about that appetite that was in nature in its perfection. They call this physical love. This love of one sex for the other is truly a divine ordinance.<br />
<br />==========<br />Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Second Edition (Pocket Edition) (McCain, Paul Timothy)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 4545-4546 | Added on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 2:43:03 AM<br />
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[9] Second, because this creation, or divine ordinance, in humanity is a natural right, jurists have said wisely and correctly that the union of male and female belongs to natural right. Natural right is unchangeable.<br />
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<br />Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Second Edition (Pocket Edition) (McCain, Paul Timothy)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 4589-4590 | Added on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 2:45:59 AM<br />
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For Daniel 11:37 attributes this mark to the kingdom of Antichrist: hatred for women.<br />
<br />==========<br />Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Second Edition (Pocket Edition) (McCain, Paul Timothy)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 4636-4636 | Added on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 2:51:21 AM<br />
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The Gospel frees us from these Levitical impurities.<br />
<br />==========<br />Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Second Edition (Pocket Edition) (McCain, Paul Timothy)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 4671-4673 | Added on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 2:53:33 AM<br />
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So now, marriage should be strongly defended by the strictest laws and warning examples. People should be encouraged to marry. This duty belongs to public officials, who should maintain public discipline. Meanwhile, the teachers of the Gospel should do both of these things: encourage unchaste people to marry; encourage others not to hate the gift of chastity.<br />
<br />==========<br />The Book of Concord - Concordia Triglotta Edition ( )<br />- Your Highlight on Location 4258-4261 | Added on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 2:57:54 AM<br />
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7] First, Gen. 1:28 teaches that men were created to be fruitful, and that one sex in a proper way should desire the other. For we are speaking not of concupiscence, which is sin, but of that appetite which was to have been in nature in its integrity [which would have existed in nature even if it had remained uncorrupted], which they call physical love. And this love of one sex for the other is truly a divine ordinance.<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 142-144 | Added on Thursday, August 28, 2014 6:21:26 PM<br />
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It was the victorious Allies who were judging the crimes of the Nazi leaders at Nuremberg, but it would be a pastor of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod who would try and convince those criminals that it was really God’s judgment that they should fear.<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 465-466 | Added on Thursday, August 28, 2014 11:05:10 PM<br />
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The students were given Reformation Day off.<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 475-477 | Added on Thursday, August 28, 2014 11:06:40 PM<br />
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The one-dollar-per-week tuition expense didn’t apply to students in the ministerial course. Their tuition was paid by the synod with the understanding that “students who abandon the course are liable for full amount of back tuition.”<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 667-668 | Added on Friday, August 29, 2014 1:53:00 PM<br />
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Gerecke was a serious evangelical, but his little chapel was called Good Shepherd. He was not a sheep stealer.<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 671-673 | Added on Friday, August 29, 2014 1:53:16 PM<br />
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“Every new patient, if not Catholic, receives a booklet by the missioner upon his arrival,” Gerecke wrote. “That’s the opening wedge for spiritual healing. If he is a bona fide member of a protestant church, he is urged to call his pastor. Our missioner backs out of the picture.”<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 842-844 | Added on Friday, August 29, 2014 4:22:31 PM<br />
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Two hundred and twenty army and navy chaplains served during the Revolutionary War, but they received no military training and had no uniforms. At regimental inspections, when other soldiers raised their muskets at “present arms,” chaplains often raised their Bibles.<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1015-1018 | Added on Friday, August 29, 2014 4:37:37 PM<br />
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During the war, a company in the United States sold “GZY” rings for Americans at home to send to their loved ones fighting abroad. In Hebrew the letters were an abbreviation for “Gamzu ya’avor,” or “This too shall pass.” The rings referred to a story attributed to King Solomon.<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1018-1020 | Added on Friday, August 29, 2014 4:38:11 PM<br />
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In one version, the king, in search of a cure for sadness, assembled his wise men together. They discussed the issue for a long time, then advised him to engrave a ring with the letters GZY. King Solomon did so and wore the ring constantly. “Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful.”<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on page 265 | Location 4252-4257 | Added on Tuesday, September 2, 2014 1:16:32 AM<br />
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“I cannot with a clear conscience commune you because you deny the very Christ who instituted the sacrament,” Gerecke said. “You may be on the church roll, but you do not have faith in Christ and have not accepted him as your savior. Therefore, you are not a Christian, and as a Christian pastor I cannot commune you.” Then Gerecke revealed his last card. “Herr Goering, your little girl said she wants to meet you in heaven.” “Yes,” Goering said slowly. “She believes in your savior. But I don’t. I’ll just take my chances, my own way.”<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on page 267 | Location 4299-4300 | Added on Tuesday, September 2, 2014 1:32:45 AM<br />
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Indeed, other Lutheran pastors later criticized Gerecke for withholding Holy Communion from Goering.<br />
<br />==========<br />Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis (Townsend, Tim)<br />- Your Highlight on page 300 | Location 4827-4832 | Added on Tuesday, September 2, 2014 2:11:08 AM<br />
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In 1953, the chaplain tapped into television broadcasting and began showing inmates 16 mm film episodes of a half-hour drama called This Is the Life, created for network television by the Lutheran Church. The warden gave Gerecke permission to show the episodes in the prison’s auditorium on a large screen. The show was often casually referred to as The Fisher Family after the fictional midwestern family it portrayed. Each episode dealt with a problem such as racism, infidelity, or alcoholism, which was eventually tackled using a Christian solution.<br />
<br />==========<br />The World of Yesterday (Zweig, Stefan)<br />- Your Highlight on page 251 | Location 3824-3832 | Added on Saturday, September 6, 2014 6:36:22 AM<br />
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Now the War Archives wished to secure for its files all the original Russian proclamations and placards in the occupied Austrian area before they had been torn down or otherwise destroyed. The colonel, who happened to be aware of my collector’s technique, asked me if I wished to undertake the task. Of course I accepted at once and I was given a passport which permitted me to travel on any military train and to move about freely wherever I chose without being assigned to any definite division and without having to report to any particular office or superior. This caused a number of the strangest occurrences, for I was not an officer but merely a titular sergeant-major, and wore a uniform without any special insignia. Whenever I produced my enigmatic document it elicited particular respect for the officers at the front and the officials thought that I must be some officer of the General Staff in disguise, or that I had been entrusted with some mysterious task. Since I avoided the officers’ mess and stopped at hotels, I achieved the additional advantage of being outside of the great machine, and seeing whatever I wished to see without official “guiding.”<br />
<br />==========<br />The Book of Concord - Concordia Triglotta Edition ( )<br />- Your Highlight on Location 6736-6736 | Added on Sunday, September 7, 2014 10:50:37 AM<br />
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honor<br />
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<br />The Book of Concord - Concordia Triglotta Edition ( )<br />- Your Note on Location 6710 | Added on Sunday, September 7, 2014 10:52:42 AM<br />
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akadia<br />==========<br />
<br />The Book of Concord - Concordia Triglotta Edition ( )<br />- Your Highlight on Location 6710-6710 | Added on Sunday, September 7, 2014 10:52:43 AM<br />
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ajkhdia,<br />
<br />==========<br />The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Edsel, Robert M.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 16 | Location 342-348 | Added on Saturday, September 13, 2014 1:18:19 AM<br />
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Much had changed since Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938. By the end of that year, Czechoslovakia had capitulated. On August 24, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a nonaggression pact. A week later, on September 1, the Germans invaded Poland. In May 1940, the Nazi blitzkrieg (lightning war) turned west, routed a combined British-French force, and overran Belgium and Holland. By June, the Germans had taken Paris, catching the shocked French in the midst of evacuation. The Battle of Britain began in July, followed in September by a fifty-seven-day aerial bombardment of London that became known as the “Blitz.” By the end of May 1941, the bombs had killed tens of thousands of British civilians and damaged or destroyed more than a million buildings.<br />
<br />==========<br />The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Edsel, Robert M.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 169 | Location 2563-2566 | Added on Sunday, September 14, 2014 3:15:54 AM<br />
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General Patton, upon seeing the Roman ruins at Agrigento, remarked to a local expert, “Seventh Army didn’t cause that destruction, did it, sir?” The man replied, “No sir, that happened in the last war.” “What war was that?” “The Second Punic War.”<br />
<br />==========<br />Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839-1841 (Forster, Walter O.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 7529-7530 | Added on Monday, September 15, 2014 6:14:22 AM<br />
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Here was to be found that stratum of “self-righteous, non-churchgoing” Germans which was composed largely of Rationalists, social reformers of anticlerical bent, and those among the other elements who, for one reason or another, followed them.<br />
<br />==========<br />Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839-1841 (Forster, Walter O.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 7521-7534 | Added on Monday, September 15, 2014 6:15:37 AM<br />
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Religious life among the German immigrants was at a low ebb in the forties.45 One reason for this condition was indicated by Münch, who, in 1859, could still say that “educated” Germans did not take part in church life.46 This remark was Münch’s highly inaccurate way of making a fundamentally accurate observation. Many of the immigrants of the thirties (the decade in which Münch entered the country) and of the forties, who enjoyed an educational training above that of the average immigrant, were militantly or passively opposed to the established church organizations. This attitude has been described in part above in connection with the Anzeiger des Westens, and Bek comments on the many “freethinkers” in the large German settlement at Hermann, Missouri.47 The colonies of Germans in Missouri, established by the time the Saxons arrived, had largely been founded by this class of immigrants. Here was to be found that stratum of “self-righteous, non-churchgoing” Germans which was composed largely of Rationalists, social reformers of anticlerical bent, and those among the other elements who, for one reason or another, followed them. These were the places where coarse ridicule was encouraged; where “sacred rites were rudely satirized”; where a dog could be baptized, or a beer keg dragged into the pulpit; where self-styled “liberals” deliberately planned the destruction of churches in order to force out the pastors currently serving them, so that these pastors could be replaced with men (e. g., F. Münch) less objectionable to those engineering the change; and where violence against the reverent was not unknown.<br />
<br />==========<br />Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839-1841 (Forster, Walter O.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 7538-7539 | Added on Monday, September 15, 2014 6:16:06 AM<br />
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Nevertheless, there were large numbers of German immigrants who would have continued their church affiliations in the United States had the opportunity been given them.<br />
<br />==========<br />Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839-1841 (Forster, Walter O.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 7499-7502 | Added on Monday, September 15, 2014 6:16:36 AM<br />
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The observation of Arends in 1838, concurred in by Münch two decades later, was that generally preachers in the Western States were poorly educated.39 In the case of Münch, of course, the generalization was partly the result of his simply ignoring denominations that did not suit his fancy. As late as 1859 he wrote as though he did not know of the existence of Concordia Seminary. However, the condition he described<br />
<br />==========<br />The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Edsel, Robert M.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 228 | Location 3368-3369 | Added on Tuesday, September 16, 2014 12:03:42 PM<br />
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He quoted Hitler: “The crowd will succeed in remembering only the simplest concepts repeated a thousand times.”6<br />
<br />==========<br />The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Edsel, Robert M.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 235 | Location 3468-3469 | Added on Thursday, September 18, 2014 4:54:11 PM<br />
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The Germans were wonderfully disciplined and “correct” while they had the upper hand—and went berserk when it was obvious their visit was at an end.<br />
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<br />The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Edsel, Robert M.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 424 | Location 6138-6140 | Added on Sunday, September 21, 2014 4:28:35 AM<br />
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that Harry learned about the work of Raoul Wallenberg, the wealthy Swedish diplomat of Lutheran faith. In 1944, Wallenberg inspired others to help him save the lives of 100,000 Hungarian Jews. In January 1945, he and his chauffeur were taken by the Soviets and were never seen again.<br />
<br />==========<br />Rupert Red Two: A Fighter Pilot's Life From Thunderbolts to Thunderchiefs (Broughton, Jack;Hallion, Richard P.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 192 | Location 2660-2663 | Added on Sunday, October 5, 2014 6:32:45 AM<br />
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a T-33 out to the flight-test center at Edwards Air Force Base to see if we could pick up any hot tips from the acceptance flight-test records on the F or from the guys who had done the test work. The day we got there was the day the Edwards pilots found out that they would have a team in the race, so obviously they had no hot tips for us. In fact, their attitude was one of, “Why are you peons from the field bothering us super-smart test people?” That was OK, because it made us realize that we needed to be imaginative and different if we were to win.<br />
<br />==========<br />Rupert Red Two: A Fighter Pilot's Life From Thunderbolts to Thunderchiefs (Broughton, Jack;Hallion, Richard P.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 274 | Location 3912-3913 | Added on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 6:15:35 AM<br />
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identified the unit and included the Latin phrase Isti Non Penetrabunt (The Bastards Shall Not Pass).<br />==========<br />The Abolition of Man (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis) (Lewis, C. S.)<br />- Your Highlight on page 13 | Location 127-129 | Added on Thursday, October 9, 2014 1:50:10 PM<br />
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My own experience as a teacher tells an opposite tale. For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.<br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 64309-64312 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:40:07 AM<br />
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5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that athe Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, bsubsequently destroyed those who did not believe.<br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 64315-64316 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:40:24 AM<br />
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aTwo early mss read Jesus<br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 60680-60681 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:41:14 AM<br />
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and the rock was aChrist.<br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 60682-60682 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:41:18 AM<br />
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aI.e. the Messiah]<br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 57296-57296 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:42:25 AM<br />
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41These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.<br />==========<br />New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995 (Includes Translators' Notes) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 57065-57069 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:43:16 AM<br />
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56Your father Abraham rejoiced ato see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham bwas born, I am.” 59Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus chid Himself and went out of the temple.<br />==========<br />American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile (Neuhaus, Richard John)<br />- Your Highlight on page 24 | Location 303-306 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:49:32 AM<br />
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The author goes on to point out that Christians reject certain practices of the Roman world. For instance, they refuse to abort their children or to practice infanticide by exposing their children to the elements, as was common among the Romans. Christians recognize, says the letter writer, that they are viewed as alien, and are not intimidated by that. On the contrary, they rejoice in it.<br />==========<br />American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile (Neuhaus, Richard John)<br />- Your Highlight on page 23 | Location 299-301 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 2:51:25 AM<br />
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The Letter to Diognetus. The letter was written by a Christian, possibly toward the end of the first century, to Diognetus, a pagan who was curious about the way Christians thought of their place in the world.<br />==========<br />American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile (Neuhaus, Richard John)<br />- Your Highlight on page 200 | Location 2381-2384 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 4:50:05 AM<br />
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Although ostensibly removing it from politics, the Court’s abortion decisions forced into the political arena an issue that was thought to have been settled in the centuries of civilizational tradition of which our polity is part: namely, that it is morally wrong and rightly made unlawful to deliberately kill innocent human beings.<br />==========<br />American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile (Neuhaus, Richard John)<br />- Your Highlight on page 200 | Location 2384-2387 | Added on Friday, October 10, 2014 4:51:12 AM<br />
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If a principle is established by which some indisputably human lives do not warrant the protections traditionally associated with the dignity of the human person—because of their size, location, dependency, level of development, or burdensomeness to others—it would seem that there are numerous candidates for the application of the principle, beginning with the radically handicapped, both physically and mentally, not to mention millions of the aged and severely debilitated in our nation’s nursing homes.<br />==========<br />Gods and Generals: A Novel of the Civil War (The Civil War: 1861-1865) (Shaara, Jeff)<br />- Your Highlight on page 361 | Location 7019-7021 | Added on Thursday, October 23, 2014 5:35:34 AM<br />
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He knew he was angry, and an officer cannot be angry, does not have the luxury of the good old-fashioned cleansing temper, of walking up to headquarters with a pint of whiskey and two hard fists, kicking down the door and launching a bolt of lightning through the face of the man who did this. He felt himself shake. Yes, that would be very damned nice.<br />
<br />==========<br />Justification and Rome (Robert D. Preus)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1547-1547 | Added on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 2:51:32 PM<br />
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Helsinki debacle<br />==========<br />The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism Volume II (Preus, Robert D.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 3384-3385 | Added on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:05:40 PM<br />
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Creation is often attributed specifically to Him in Scripture (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Eph.3:9; 1 Cor.8:6). It<br />==========<br />reflections-trinity17-endofchurchyear-2014-linear (<a href="mailto:buetowmt@gmail.com">buetowmt@gmail.com</a>)<br />- Your Note on Location 726 | Added on Sunday, November 9, 2014 5:20:24 AM<br />
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efficacy<br />==========<br />reflections-trinity17-endofchurchyear-2014-linear (<a href="mailto:buetowmt@gmail.com">buetowmt@gmail.com</a>)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 726-726 | Added on Sunday, November 9, 2014 5:20:24 AM<br />
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These words deliver what they say. They give what they promise.<br />==========<br />reflections-trinity17-endofchurchyear-2014-linear (<a href="mailto:buetowmt@gmail.com">buetowmt@gmail.com</a>)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 724-728 | Added on Sunday, November 9, 2014 5:21:56 AM<br />
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“I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..” “I forgive you all your sins...” “Take, eat; this is My body. Take, drink; This is My blood.” These words deliver what they say. They give what they promise. They make new and do and act and create and forgive and save. Because they are Jesus' Words. And since He is the Word, His Words do what only the Word of God can do: forgive sins and bestow upon us forgiveness, life, and salvation.<br />==========<br />reflections-trinity17-endofchurchyear-2014-linear (<a href="mailto:buetowmt@gmail.com">buetowmt@gmail.com</a>)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 728-731 | Added on Sunday, November 9, 2014 5:22:37 AM<br />
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Jesus scolded the crowd that it would take signs and wonders and miracles for them to believe. Yet what really brings faith is His Word. His Word creates faith in us and that faith trusts in Him and receives the gifts His Word delivers. He speaks. It happens. That's the sort of Word the Savior is and has and speaks. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.<br />
<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1501-1501 | Added on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 7:31:41 AM<br />
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He expressed his gratification at the services the howitzer in the church steeple was doing,<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1506-1508 | Added on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 7:38:37 AM<br />
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Belen. The troops that I was with were in the houses north of the road leading into the city, and were engaged during the night in cutting passage-ways from one house to another towards the town. During the night Santa Anna, with his army—except the deserters—left the city. He<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1508-1512 | Added on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 7:38:51 AM<br />
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liberated all the convicts confined in the town, hoping, no doubt, that they would inflict upon us some injury before daylight; but several hours after Santa Anna was out of the way, the city authorities sent a delegation to General Scott to ask—if not demand—an armistice, respecting church property, the rights of citizens and the supremacy of the city government in the management of municipal affairs. General Scott declined to trammel himself with conditions, but gave assurances that those who chose to remain within our lines would be protected so long as they behaved themselves properly.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1679-1680 | Added on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 8:59:57 AM<br />
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Another amusement of the people of Mexico of that day, and one which nearly all indulged in, male and female, old and young, priest and layman, was Monte playing. Regular feast weeks were held every year at<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1680-1685 | Added on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 9:00:24 AM<br />
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what was then known as St. Augustin Tlalpam, eleven miles out of town. There were dealers to suit every class and condition of people. In many of the booths tlackos—the copper coin of the country, four of them making six and a quarter cents of our money—were piled up in great quantities, with some silver, to accommodate the people who could not bet more than a few pennies at a time. In other booths silver formed the bulk of the capital of the bank, with a few doubloons to be changed if there should be a run of luck against the bank. In some there was no coin except gold. Here the rich were said to bet away their entire estates in a single day. All this is stopped now.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 630-632 | Added on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 3:22:18 PM<br />
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Almost every Mexican above the age of ten years, and many much younger, smoked the cigarette. Nearly every Mexican carried a pouch of leaf tobacco, powdered by rolling in the hands, and a roll of corn husks to make wrappers. The cigarettes were made by the smokers as they used them.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1771-1775 | Added on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:05:10 PM<br />
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It must have been a Saturday night; the peons had been paid off, and spent part of the night in gambling away their scanty week’s earnings. Their coin was principally copper, and I do not believe there was a man among them who had received as much as twenty-five cents in money. They were as much excited, however, as if they had been staking thousands. I recollect one poor fellow, who had lost his last tlacko, pulled off his shirt and, in the most excited manner, put that up on the turn of a card. Monte was the game played, the place out of doors, near the window of the room occupied by the officers of our party.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 2041-2053 | Added on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:47:47 PM<br />
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Doubtless the founders of our government, the majority of them at least, regarded the confederation of the colonies as an experiment. Each colony considered itself a separate government; that the confederation was for mutual protection against a foreign foe, and the prevention of strife and war among themselves. If there had been a desire on the part of any single State to withdraw from the compact at any time while the number of States was limited to the original thirteen, I do not suppose there would have been any to contest the right, no matter how much the determination might have been regretted. The problem changed on the ratification of the Constitution by all the colonies; it changed still more when amendments were added; and if the right of any one State to withdraw continued to exist at all after the ratification of the Constitution, it certainly ceased on the formation of new States, at least so far as the new States themselves were concerned. It was never possessed at all by Florida or the States west of the Mississippi, all of which were purchased by the treasury of the entire nation. Texas and the territory brought into the Union in consequence of annexation, were purchased with both blood and treasure; and Texas, with a domain greater than that of any European state except Russia, was permitted to retain as state property all the public lands within its borders. It would have been ingratitude and injustice of the most flagrant sort for this State to withdraw from the Union after all that had been spent and done to introduce her; yet, if separation had actually occurred, Texas must necessarily have gone with the South, both on account of her institutions and her geographical position. Secession was illogical as well as impracticable; it was revolution.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 2053-2057 | Added on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:48:11 PM<br />
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Now, the right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression, if they are strong enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable. But any people or part of a people who resort to this remedy, stake their lives, their property, and every claim for protection given by citizenship—on the issue. Victory, or the conditions imposed by the conqueror—must be the result.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 2095-2097 | Added on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:51:54 PM<br />
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Under the old regime they were looked down upon by those who controlled all the affairs in the interest of slave-owners, as poor white trash who were allowed the ballot so long as they cast it according to direction.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 2105-2109 | Added on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:53:43 PM<br />
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There was a time when slavery was not profitable, and the discussion of the merits of the institution was confined almost exclusively to the territory where it existed. The States of Virginia and Kentucky came near abolishing slavery by their own acts, one State defeating the measure by a tie vote and the other only lacking one. But when the institution became profitable, all talk of its abolition ceased where it existed; and naturally, as human nature is constituted, arguments were adduced in its support. The cotton-gin probably had much to do with the justification of slavery.<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 2120-2124 | Added on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:57:00 PM<br />
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Meanwhile the Administration of President Buchanan looked helplessly on and proclaimed that the general government had no power to interfere; that the Nation had no power to save its own life. Mr. Buchanan had in his cabinet two members at least, who were as earnest—to use a mild term—in the cause of secession as Mr. Davis or any Southern statesman. One of them, Floyd, the Secretary of War, scattered the army so that much of it could be captured when hostilities should commence, and distributed the cannon and small arms from Northern arsenals throughout the South so as to be on hand when treason wanted them. The navy was scattered in like manner<br />==========<br />Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant: All Volumes (Grant, Ulysses S.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 2144-2146 | Added on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:58:35 PM<br />
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The Confederates proclaimed themselves aliens, and thereby debarred themselves of all right to claim protection under the Constitution of the United States. We did not admit the fact that they were aliens, but all the same, they debarred themselves of the right to expect better treatment than people of any other foreign state who make war upon an independent nation.<br />==========<br />History, Law and Christianity: A Vigorous, Convincing Presentation of the Evidence for a Historical Jesus (Montgomery, John Warwick)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 226-226 | Added on Saturday, November 29, 2014 5:38:38 AM<br />
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Christian theology cannot be divorced from logic and history.<br />==========<br />The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Heather, Peter)<br />- Your Highlight on page 111 | Location 2053-2055 | Added on Saturday, November 29, 2014 12:35:56 PM<br />
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In addition, transport was hugely expensive; Diocletian’s Prices Edict (see p. 65) records that a wagon of wheat doubled in price for every fifty miles it travelled.<br />==========<br />The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Heather, Peter)<br />- Your Highlight on page 111 | Location 2055-2057 | Added on Saturday, November 29, 2014 12:36:34 PM<br />
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In these fundamental ways, the Roman economy was at every era trapped at not much above subsistence levels. Until very recently, scholars have been confident that the higher tax-take of the late Roman state aggravated these conditions to the extent that it became impossible for the Empire’s peasant population to maintain itself even at existing low levels.<br />==========<br />The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Heather, Peter)<br />- Your Highlight on page 110 | Location 2051-2053 | Added on Saturday, November 29, 2014 12:36:51 PM<br />
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sophisticated techniques for maintaining fertility, were unable greatly to increase their output of foodstuffs in anything like the way that the use of chemical fertilizers has made possible in the modern era. This in turn acted as a brake on population levels, since human numbers tend to increase up to a limit imposed by the availability of food.<br />
<br />==========<br />At Home in the House of My Fathers: Presidential Sermons, Essays, Letters, and Addresses from the Missouri Synod's Great Era of Unity and Growth (Harrison, Matthew C.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 14354-14355 | Added on Friday, December 12, 2014 3:10:42 AM<br />
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The world rejoices when it sees a Christian fall, and telegraphs the news over the entire continent, because it sees therein a welcome excuse for its own unbelief.<br />==========<br />2010_Handbook-rev032013 (<a href="mailto:tcschenks@yahoo.com">tcschenks@yahoo.com</a>)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 961-962 | Added on Friday, December 12, 2014 3:17:39 AM<br />
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(1) Every congregation is encouraged to include in its organizational structure an elected or appointed board or committee for stewardship. (2) This board or committee shall be responsible for carrying on an adequate stewardship program in the manner prescribed by the congregation.<br />
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The policeman was an unregenerate Stalinist, and he was very unhappy about the criminal element taking over Vladivostok. He said that four of his men had been shot in the past year and that the police in the city felt like they were under siege. He said darkly—as translated by the trader—that under the old regime such elements would have been eradicated. The gray man nodded agreement and we all raised a toast to the old regime.<br />==========<br />Stewardship (Clements, C. Justin )<br />- Your Highlight on Location 340-341 | Added on Sunday, December 28, 2014 5:48:15 AM<br />
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No longer is the priest one of very few highly educated members of the community; no longer can pastors rule parishes as fiefdoms or benevolent dictatorships.<br />==========<br />The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Tolkien, J.R.R.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1314-1321 | Added on Tuesday, December 30, 2014 4:36:08 PM<br />
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The last Christian marriage I attended was held under your system: the bridal pair were ‘married’ twice. They married one another before the Church’s witness (a priest), using one set of formulas, and making a vow of lifelong fidelity (and the woman of obedience); they then married again before the State’s witness (a registrar, and in this case – adding in my view to the impropriety – a woman) using another set of formulas and making no vow of fidelity or obedience. I felt it was an abominable proceeding – and also ridiculous, since the first set of formulas and vows included the latter as the lesser. In fact it was only not ridiculous on the assumption that the State was in fact saying by implication: I do not recognize the existence of your church; you may have taken certain vows in your meeting-place but they are just foolishness, private taboos, a burden you take on yourself: a limited and impermanent contract is all that is really necessary for citizens. In other words this ‘sharp division’ is a piece of propaganda, a counter-homily delivered to young Christians fresh from the solemn words of the Christian minister.<br />==========<br />The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Tolkien, J.R.R.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1400-1407 | Added on Friday, January 2, 2015 1:14:03 AM<br />
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If you don’t do so already, make a habit of the ‘praises’. I use them much (in Latin): the Gloria Patri, the Gloria in Excelsis, the Laudate Dominum; the Laudate Pueri Dominum (of which I am specially fond), one of the Sunday psalms; and the Magnificat; also the Litany of Loretto (with the prayer Sub tuum praesidium). If you have these by heart you never need for words of joy. It is also a good and admirable thing to know by heart the Canon of the Mass, for you can say this in your heart if ever hard circumstance keeps you from hearing Mass. So endeth Fæder lar his suna.1 With very much love. Longaoð þonne þy lǽs þe him con léoþa worn, oþþe mid hondum con hearpan grétan; hafaþ him his glíwes giefe, þe him God sealde.<br />==========<br />The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Tolkien, J.R.R.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1590-1605 | Added on Friday, January 2, 2015 3:04:33 PM<br />
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I was pleased that you managed to get some church at the end of Holy Week, though not too pleased with your Even-christians (as they called ‘em in O. & M.E.).4 However that cannot be helped. The only salve is the sudden reflection that one of them is prob. making an adverse judgement on oneself, not unreasonable as founded on one’s looks and deportment, but as wide of the mark of the inner self as our own are! God ána wát.5 But as for sermons! They are bad, aren’t they! Most of them from any point of view. The answer to the mystery is prob. not simple; but part of it is that ‘rhetoric’ (of which preaching is a dept.) is an art, which requires (a) some native talent and (b) learning and practice. The instrument used is v. much more complex than a piano, yet most performers are in the position of a man who sits down to a piano and expects to move his audience without any knowledge of the notes at all. The art can be learned (granted some modicum of aptitude) and can then be effective, in a way, when wholly unconnected with sincerity, sanctity etc. But preaching is complicated by the fact that we expect in it not only a performance, but truth and sincerity, and also at least no word, tone, or note that suggests the possession of vices (such as hypocrisy, vanity) or defects (such as folly, ignorance) in the preacher. Good sermons require some art, some virtue, some knowledge. Real sermons require some special grace which does not transcend art but arrives at it by instinct or ‘inspiration’; indeed the Holy Spirit seems sometimes to speak through a human mouth providing art, virtue and insight he does not himself possess: but the occasions are rare. In other times I don’t think an educated person is required to suppress the critical faculty, but it should be kept in order by a constant endeavour to apply the truth (if any), even in cliché form, to oneself exclusively! A difficult exercise. . . . .<br />==========<br />The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Tolkien, J.R.R.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 1922-1923 | Added on Saturday, January 3, 2015 2:54:08 AM<br />
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I’m afraid I have made a great mistake in making my sequel too long and complicated and too slow in coming out. It is a curse having the epic temperament in an overcrowded age devoted to snappy bits!<br />==========<br />The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Tolkien, J.R.R.)<br />- Your Highlight on Location 2289-2294 | Added on Sunday, January 4, 2015 2:41:46 PM<br />
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Mr Eden in the house2 the other day expressed pain at the occurrences in Greece ‘the home of democracy’. Is he ignorant, or insincere? δημοχρατìα was not in Greek a word of approval but was nearly equivalent to ‘mob-rule’; and he neglected to note that Greek Philosophers – and far more is Greece the home of philosophy – did not approve of it. And the great Greek states, esp. Athens at the time of its high art and power, were rather Dictatorships, if they were not military monarchies like Sparta! And modern Greece has as little connexion with ancient Hellas as we have with Britain before Julius Agricola. .Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-54812803777546340572015-04-25T13:51:00.001-05:002015-04-25T13:51:34.439-05:002015 Missouri District LCMS Convention<br />
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Looking through the Convention Workbook for the first time, as I've recently gone from Alternate to Voting Delegate:</div>
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I remember a few years ago, someone submitted an overture to give the District President more control over the pastor's conferences because no one was consulting with Pres. Mirly and he apparently wanted a say about it. So, the District voted to add the DP as a consultant or advisor (whatever that meant). At least that's how I recall it.</div>
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Now the MO District BOD is proposing outright control by the District Praesidium (and a couple of other people elected at convention) over the planning of the pastor's conferences.</div>
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<span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2750" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2797" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2796" style="font-family: Courier New, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif;"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2795" style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif;"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2855" style="font-size: x-small;"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2683" style="font-family: Georgia-Bold-SC700; font-size: medium;"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2682" style="font-family: Georgia-Bold-SC700; font-size: medium;">See R</span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2685"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2684">esolution </span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2661"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2660">3-07 (</span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2672"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2671">T</span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2670"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2669">o </span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2668"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2667">C</span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2666"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2665">hange </span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2663"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2662">O</span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2857"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2856">fficial </span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2681"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2680">C</span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2679"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2678">onference </span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2674"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2673">C</span></span><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2677" style="font-family: Georgia-Bold-SC700;"><span id="yiv6234166772ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1429972470536_2676" style="font-family: Georgia-Bold-SC700;">ommittees) in the Convention Workbook at <a href="http://mo.lcms.org/">http://mo.lcms.org/</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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This resolution is also being associated with President Harrison by name-dropping the ubiquitous Koinonia Project and that the resolution is “to conserve and promote the unity of the faith"???? What????</div>
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Side Note: Why are there so many resolutions submitted by the Board of Directors? If they would stop recommending all these ridiculous changes we wouldn't even need to have a convention this year, and I'm not even talking about time-wasters such as changing the by-laws to read Visitor instead of Counselor. It's like they're having to make up stuff to vote on.</div>
Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-88063932678323082272015-03-17T15:46:00.001-05:002015-04-25T13:50:03.525-05:00Bad Communion HymnsA few years ago I was flipping channels in a hotel room and stopped on a Roman Catholic channel broadcasting a recording of a Mass. A woman was singing "You satisfy the hungry heart." I'd never heard it before and I thought it was some kind of contemporary worship thing. Didn't pay much attention to it. After that, I've noticed my pastor using this as a communion hymn. I'm not sure why a 1970s Roman Catholic hymn ended up in the Lutheran Service Book. <br />
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<em>From a Roman Catholic education website:</em><br />
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A fifty-year ban is in order here. As it is for "Gift of Finest Wheat." The late Omer Westendorf did a lot for liturgical renewal, but he was no poet (as his attempt to improve on Luther in his rewrite of "A Mighty Fortress" "the guns and nuclear might/stand withered in his sight" should have demonstrated). Why Mr. Westendorf was commissioned to write the official hymn for the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia is one of the minor mysteries of recent years. "You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat/Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat" isn't heresy. But it's awful poetry, and it can be read in ways that intensify today's confusions over the Real Presence. It, too, goes under the fifty-year ban.</blockquote>
<br />Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-68046464411439742522015-01-06T11:46:00.001-06:002015-01-06T11:46:01.947-06:00Dave Ellefson "My Life With Deth"<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>A letter from an LCMS pastor three years ago (Jan. 2012):</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For those who have not read the newspaper article that I referenced yesterday, you now have it in this forward. Please take the time to read it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> After reading it, I would join all those who say: "Thank God for reclaiming to the Christian faith someone who had been led astray by bad music and human associations. The angels in heaven rejoice. So do we. Thank the Lord."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> But now that Ellefson has returned to the faith and is studying for the ministry, I still have not had answered a couple of questions that pop into my mind. No lay person or pastor or seminary person has answered these questions as of today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) If you were one of the individuals who helped to start Megadeth as a hard rock musical group and your association with that group led you to deny your faith, if you returned to the faith and started MEGA Life which sends the opposite message of Megadeth, how can you continue to tour with Megadeth and still be connected with MEGA Life?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) Ellefson says in the second last paragraph of the article that "he has learned to keep his faith and his onstage persona separate..." My question is this: "Does the Bible tell us that we are supposed to separate our faith from our life?" I thought we were supposed to let our light shine forth wherever we are, whether on stage or off stage, whether in private or in public?" Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos would be a good example of that. So also are we!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I would appreciate any of your comments.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> And a follow-up to that letter a few days later from the same pastor:</span></strong><strong><br /></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I had tried talking with Pastor Bjorgard earlier but no luck. I tried once at church. All I got were the recordings. I tried again and actually got to talk to someone. I got his cell phone number and called him. Left a voice mail message. He returned my phone call about an hour ago. Our talk was most helpful.
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> He said he himself had the read article. When I told him my two fold concerns, he said: "I don't blame you. I had the same concerns you just expressed after I read the article. He said my concerns were very valid on the basis of the article." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> He told me that he was sure that most people who read the article would blow right past these valid concerns because they were seeing it only from their perspective of someone coming back to the faith after falling away from the faith and now serving the Lord in his new position.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> He thanked me for being theologically astute enough to pick up on these two following concerns since he was sure that most people would pick up on them:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) Concern # 1 - How can someone who had fallen away from the Christian faith because of his involvement in Megadeth now serve in MEGA Life and still go back on tour with the same group that was responsible for his departure from the faith? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) Concern # 2 - How can someone separate their Christian faith from their Christian life? When I read to him the quotations from Dr. Martin Luther in his Commentary on Galatians from Galatians 2,20 he said: "I am in total agreement with what you have just said. There is no way that we Christians can separate our faith life from our daily life. They go together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Briefly stated, Pastor B said that this newspaper article did a great injustice to David Ellefson. He said it totally misrepresented the real David Ellefson. I told him I made allowance for this misrepresentation since I have often been misquoted and misrepresented in newspaper articles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> In short, Pastor B said that David shares his Christian faith wherever he goes on tour. David is very concerned about reaching out to those who have become addicted to many anti-Christian things since he himself had at one time become addicted to some of them. Pastor B said that David and one of the other band member are both Christian men. They have Bible study every day wherever they perform. Before and after their performances, they invite people backstage so they have an opportunity to talk to people about the Christian faith. He said David lives out his Christian faith. Thanks be to God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Pastor B said that the "old Megadeth" lyrics are now different than the "new Megadeth" lyrics. He said that their songs are not Christian songs but were mostly intended to send a political message. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> When I asked him whether or not the lyrics agreed with the Bible, he said that it might be possible that some of the political messages may not always be Scriptural. But at least it is not the dark kind of stuff that used to be associated and probably still is associated with heavy metal and hard rock.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Pastor B also indicated that David is not now the leader of MEGA Life but does make appearances there once in awhile when he is off tour. But his ministry is an outreach ministry to those who have become addicted to various sinful behaviors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Pastor B thanked me again for giving him a telephone call. He said he was in full agreement with my concerns and that I was not off base in asking about them. He said that maybe when David is on campus the next time for residential work that both he and David can meet with me. I said that the door is wide open as far as I am concerned for such a meeting.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are some clippings from Dave Ellefsen's Autobiography "My Life With Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock and Roll (Ellefson, David; McIver, Joel)".</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">"It was like that with a lot of things: the first time I drank I thought, “This isn’t bad—it’s awesome!” Then a couple of months later I tried pot and I was like, “This is awesome, too!” Then I did some cocaine and I thought, “Okay, this feels kinda funny—but I’m not dead, and I’m not in jail, so it can’t be that bad.” They teach you in high school that every drug is a gateway to the next drug, and they’re right, because the next thing I knew, there I was on heroin."</span><br />
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<li><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana;"><em>I commend Vicar (?) Ellefsen's acknowledgement of marijuana being a gateway drug.</em></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
==========</div>
<div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"I was becoming a bona fide addict after only a single year in Los Angeles. By mid-1984 I was drinking, smoking pot, using cocaine, and taking heroin. Those became my Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
==========</div>
<div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"These days, I find that modern church culture is fantastic. It is much different from what it was when I was growing up. Nowadays it is tied in with social media and with cool, uplifting rock music. For people of my age it needed to make that shift to remain relevant."</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana;"><em>The labels cool, uplifting, and relevant are troublesome to me. Word and Sacrament are efficacious, but do they have to be relevant?</em></span></li>
</ul>
<em><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
==========</div>
<div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"My feelings about church were that it was culturally irrelevant, that it was dated, and that it was for my parents’ generation, not mine. Then, like I said, the church reinvented itself, and that was something that I wanted to continue with MEGA Life!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em><span style="color: red;">More comments about relevancy...dated..."not mine..."</span></em> </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
==========</div>
<div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"And yet here we were only a few years later, with kids in tow for preschool. At the urging of our children, we started attending church there, so they could be with their friends. I presented my Lutheran Confirmation credentials and we officially joined as a family."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><em><span style="color: red;">I'd never heard of a years-inactive/delinquent members showing up at a sister congregation and "presenting Lutheran Confirmation credentials" to join then. No catechesis? This sounds extremely weird.</span></em></li>
</ul>
<div>
==========</div>
<div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"Music started as a passion for me, and to this day it still is. Some musical settings can really rob you of that passion and leave you empty, even to the point of disliking music altogether. I try to avoid those people and those settings. After all, if music is your gift, anyone who tries to quench that gift is like a thief robbing you of what is rightfully yours to enjoy."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana;"><em>Does that mean he's going to avoid everyone else in the church body? He's attempting to become a member of Synod, not merely a pastor of one satellite congregation.</em></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
==========</div>
<div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">(Index/Back of Book) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">"Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod seminary, St. Louis, Mississippi, 201"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana;"><em>An editorial mistake, but one that the author should have noticed. Concordia Seminary in St. Louis is in the state of Missouri, not Mississippi.</em></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><div>
==========</div>
<div>
</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"My faith walk continues and progresses. I now study in a Senior Mentoring Program, or SMP, for members of a congregation who wish to become ordained. It is run by the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, which offers online studies."</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana;"><em>I'm curious if this was a typo or is the author aware of the name of his seminary program (Ellefson stated elsewhere that he served for a time as a member of his congregation's board of elders). SMP is the LCMS seminary Specific Ministry Pastoral Program, not a Senior Mentoring Program.</em></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><div>
</div>
<br />
Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-64139356816597827262014-10-09T11:48:00.001-05:002014-10-09T11:48:21.926-05:00LCMS Doctrinal Resolution About (Lay) Elders1850 LCMS Doctrinal Resolution regarding "Lay Elders." (Boards of Elders, etc.)<br />
<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-small;"><div align="LEFT">
Ruling elders may not pray publicly, though they may read a pastor’s written prayer in his place.</div>
</span><br /></span><br />Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-58258039380545965362014-07-15T17:49:00.000-05:002014-07-15T17:49:48.834-05:00Moral Therapeutic Deism<a href="http://pastoralmeanderings.blogspot.com/2014/07/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-say-that.html">http://pastoralmeanderings.blogspot.com/2014/07/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-say-that.html</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-37979427406959266292014-07-15T17:48:00.003-05:002014-07-15T17:50:37.937-05:00Why Be Lutheran?Reply posted by Pr. William Weedon on the ALPB Online Forum on the question of why be a Lutheran:<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
George,<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
Been rather occupied of late, but I didn't want the question to go unanswered from my LCMS perspective. First, the reason I'd want anyone and everyone to be Lutheran is because I believe that we hold the pure and true confession of the Christian faith. Second, the way I'd share that with anyone is rather simple. I'd use the old Patristic method that St. John Chrysostom espoused:<br />
<br />
There comes a heathen and says, "I wish to become a Christian, but I know not whom to join: there is much fighting and faction among you, much confusion: which doctrine am I to choose?" How shall we answer him? "Each of you" (says he) "asserts, 'I speak the truth.'" No doubt: this is in our favor. For if we told you to be persuaded by arguments, you might well be perplexed: but if we bid you believe the Scriptures, and these are simple and true, the decision is easy for you. If any agree with the Scriptures, he is the Christian; if any fight against them, he is far from this rule. -- St. John Chrysostom, (Homily 33 in Acts of the Apostles [NPNF1,11:210-11; PG 60.243-44])<br />
<br />
So I'd say: here's the Scripture. Here's our Confessions. If you find they say the same thing, you're a Lutheran! And when it comes to our Confessions, I'd really just stick to the Creeds, the AC, and the SC. That's the sum of the Confessions and everything else in them can be extrapolated from those documents. So it's not too hard, but it IS worthy of hard study, prayer, and thought.<br />
<br />
If the person had any questions about why we taught X or Y, I'd certainly be more than ready to demonstrate why we do so from the Scriptures.<br />
<br />
But that's how I'd approach it. I don't think the Scriptures are the least bit unclear (despite OUR cloudiness!) and I don't think there's a clearer exposition of the Scriptures to be found anywhere in the world than the Lutheran Symbols.<br />
<br />
<br />
P.S.S. Let me also add (because I can hear the objection arising already), but EVERY Protestant sect claims that (as also, of course, do Rome and the East). But the great joy of the Lutheran Church is that it simply knows no other way to persuade a person and absolutely renounces every coercion of conscience. We say:<br />
<br />
Here are the Scriptures.<br />
<br />
and<br />
<br />
Here is what our Church believes, teaches and confesses on the basis of those Scriptures.<br />
<br />
You check it out and see.<br />
<br />
There was a time when Orthodox polemics had almost persuaded me that private judgment was an evil, but then Krauth showed ever so clearly (and also St. Augustine!) that one arrives at any conviction (even the renunciation of private judgement!) only by its exercise!!! We cannot do better than what we saw the Christians do at Berea: to check what is taught against what is written.Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-65836883552508163032014-07-13T05:52:00.001-05:002014-07-13T05:52:24.737-05:00I Do Not want My Grandfather’s Church Nor Captain Kirk, by Pastor Klemet Preus<h2>
Reposted from Aug. 12, 2008 article at <a href="http://steadfastlutherans.org/">http://steadfastlutherans.org</a></h2>
<div class="info">
<span class="date">August 12th, 2008</span> by Pastor Klemet Preus<span class="author">
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">While
theology does not change, management style and theory do. And these days we are
experiencing a leadership style which is painfully similar to that of my
Grandfather’s church but without effectiveness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Baby Boom
took place from 1946-1964. Those born before the baby boom tend to have a top
down leadership theory and style. Those at the top make decisions which those
under them carry out. In this system, leaders, if they are to function at
maximum efficiency must have the authority to appoint subordinates, instruct
them, direct them, replace them if necessary and basically lead through giving
directions. The quintessential leader of this generation is Captain James T.
Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. He made decisions without really consulting too
many people. He rarely sought the council of his detractors and he was always
flying by the seat of his pants. He delegated as little as possible insisting
that he was really the one to carry out most of the crucial tasks. When McCoy is
complaining “Darnn it Jim. I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker,” you know that
too few people are doing the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This is
president Kieschnick’s style – kind of. He is top down in his approach. He was
the president who, in encouraging us to give our money to the synod wrote,
“You’ve got it. We need it. Let’s have it.” Is that top down? You bet. When the
Board of Communications Services called someone to be the assistant editor of
the Lutheran Witness, President Kieschnick nixed the choice because he did not
like the board’s appointee. In his fundraising visits President Kieschnick has
to make the direct appeals himself. This cannot be entrusted to others. And,
while President Kieschnick apparently does have his advisors, most seem to be
cut from his cloth. He even beseeched the convention in 2001 to elect men of his
ilk to other positions of leadership. Those vice presidents who served during
his first term were used sparingly if at all. In fact the 2004 convention was
the first convention in recent memory in which no vice president chaired the
assembly. His first vice president was consulted neither on the Benke matter nor
on other matters of crucial importance to the synod such as CCM appointments.
President Kieschnick would no more listen to guys like Daniel Preus or Todd
Wilken than James Kirk would heed the council of a Klingon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
difference between Kirk and Kieschnick is that Captain Kirk was actually willing
to endanger himself for the sake of his goals and his comrades. He fought the
Klingons hand to hand. He would never have hung a colleague out to dry. Are you
listening David Strand? He never intimidated by innuendo or through his minions.
He did it face to face by the force of his own person. Would it have taken Kirk
five years to sit down and talk to NICL? No way. He would have initiated dialog
immediately and would have had the confidence to be the chief spokesmen in
dialog. Top down leadership must be courageous and competent. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Baby Boomers
tend to be drawn to a more synergistic style of leadership. They want a leader
who will invite the advice of detractors, who will surround himself with people
who are experts in many diverse subjects. Baby Boomers want a leader who will
say, “You’ve got it. We need it. How can you teach us to get it?” Baby Boomers
don’t necessarily need a leader who has all the answers when it comes to
administrative decisions. They want one who will listen to a multitude of
answers and sift through them. The quintessential leader for the Baby Boom
generation is Jean Luc Piccard of the Starship Enterprise. He was captian in
“Star-Trek: The Next Generation”. His style was to call a meeting of all his
senior staff. Here he would pose the problem, analyze it with his staff and
listen to possible solutions. And his staff was a thoroughly diverse group made
up of aliens, Klingons, Robots and – even some detractors. Piccard knew that you
can never solve problems without making room for all within the decision making
mechanism. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Of course
this style actually requires a bit of trust and respect. You can’t call your
detractors “speed-bumps.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t
ignore them for years on end. You can’t refuse to consult anyone you think will
disagree. You can’t hoard power or grasp it. You don’t push, you – well – you
lead.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I’m a Boomer
and I enjoyed both Kirk and Piccard. Kirk was much more exciting than Piccard.
But Kirk got fat, raised horses and lived off the past. And while he had power
he endangered the ship recklessly. Piccard. Ah, Piccard. I wish we could find a
Piccard for the church. I sure am getting tired of my grandfather’s church. </span></span></div>
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Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-64882241715435827742014-07-03T04:30:00.000-05:002014-07-03T04:30:08.731-05:00Southeast MO State University Chapel Now LCMS RSO<a href="http://blogs.lcms.org/2014/rso-update">http://blogs.lcms.org/2014/rso-update</a><br />
<br />
Congratulations to the University Lutheran Chapel of Hope in Cape Girardeau, MO, on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. Formerly a mission of the Missouri District, they've recently been accepted as an RSO of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod.<br />
<br />
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Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-88162855779534200652014-07-01T18:35:00.002-05:002014-07-01T18:35:19.836-05:00"Oh, How They Loved One Another (How to destroy a church)" by MO District President<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22553" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>From June 2010 Voice of Missouri by District President Ray Mirly:</em></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, How They Loved One Another</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></strong><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22558" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22557">How to destroy a church:</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22559" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Teach false doctrine.</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22560" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Find something that you do not like in your church, get others in the congregation to agree with you, but do not go to the pastor or other church leaders to tell them what it is you dislike and why.</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22561" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Spread gossip, share rumors, participate in “parking lot” meetings or use e-mail to gripe and complain.</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22562" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Demonize the pastor or other congregation workers or leaders. </span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22563" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Withhold your offerings because you are upset about something that happened in your congregation.</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22564" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Expect others in the congregation, other than yourself, to change their negative behavior. </span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22565" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Fail to follow Matt. 18:15-18 when you feel like someone in the congregation has done something wrong toward you or someone else.</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22566" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Expect the pastor, congregation leaders or fellow members to know that you are upset, what you are upset about, and to “fix the problem” without telling them what it is that upsets you.</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22567" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. When asked to serve on boards or committees, decline.</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22568" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. Be against every new idea without studying it, praying about it, discussing it, and joining all the members to make a decision about it. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One would think that only the teaching of false doctrine would be sufficient to destroy a congregation. Frankly, Missouri District congregations are not willing to put up with false doctrine. Members know what the Bible says, have put to memory Luther’s Small Catechism, many have studied Luther’s Large Catechism and a goodly number the Lutheran Confessions. Most everyone knows when a doctrine is being taught correctly.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22569" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amazing as it might seem, the rest of the list above is not fictitious. Unfortunately, numbers two through 10 happen fairly regularly. The devil knows us well, doesn’t he? He can get us to do so much damage to one another’s reputation that our ability to proclaim the Gospel is severely compromised. He can get us to think that only our ideas are right and those that do not agree with us are wrong. He knows how to cause us to take our eyes off Jesus Christ.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22570" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you or I really believe that having the reputation as a fighting congregation, district or Synod enhances the proclamation of the Gospel? Do we believe that our attempts to destroy the reputation of fellow members, congregation leaders, the pastor, those leading the district or Synod is going to make our congregation or the LCMS stronger? The Old Adam in each of us loves the negative! He loves to hear someone tear down the good name of someone else. He wants us to destroy one another. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22572" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the Holy Scriptures we read these simple words, “Oh, how they loved one another.” Jesus said, “Love one another even as I have loved you.” St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 what Christian love looks like. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22571" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus tells us to build one another up. The Holy Scriptures encourage us to pray for one another; encourage one another; defend one another; and forgive one another. Martin Luther in his explanation to the Eighth Commandment says that we should “put the best construction on everything” we say about our neighbor.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22577" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your pastor and lay leaders cannot read your mind. I encourage you to speak with them first before you speak about them to anyone else. Jesus encourages us to be a “light unto the world.” That light is Jesus Christ! We do this when we speak the Gospel and also live out the Gospel in our lives.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22576" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God in Christ has reconciled us unto Himself. Even as Christ has reconciled us with our</span><br /><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_22575" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">heavenly Father, so through Him we become reconciled with one another. Imagine that it is said of all of us, “Oh, how they loved one another."</span> <br /><br />--Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-21520995419000494712014-07-01T18:32:00.002-05:002014-07-01T18:32:29.835-05:00"President Mirly, 'Can't you help us get rid of our pastor?" by MO District President<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13656">
It looks like the MO District deleted most of their archives when they rebuilt their website. I found a copy of "President Mirly, Can't You Help Us Get Rid of Our Pastor?" and typed it out.</div>
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<b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13596"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13595" style="color: #231f20; font-family: Helvetica-Bold; font-size: 24pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13594" style="font-family: Times New Roman;">President Mirly, “Can’t you help</span></span></b> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: Helvetica-Bold; font-size: 24pt;">us get rid of our pastor?”</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica-Bold; font-size: 10pt;"></span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13633"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13632" style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Ray Mirly – Voice of Missouri March/April 2007</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13635" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13638" style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Y</span><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13637" style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">es, I have received phone calls, e-mails, letters and held office visits where this request has been presented to me. In turn, I have received e-mails, phone calls, letters and held office visits with pastors alleging that individuals in the congregations are guilty of slandering and libeling them or concerned that a small group of members are seeking to force them out of office. These situations are not unique to the Missouri District. All 35 district presidents of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod are dealing with similar situations. Pastors are not perfect! Congregations are not perfect! In fact parishioners and pastors are sinners. And yes, within the context of a congregation’s ministry, at times there are members who sin against the pastor. There are times when pastors sin against members.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Where should we begin with the issue of conflict between a congregation and its pastor, a congregation member with its pastor or a pastor with either of the two? What I find in many cases is that when either becomes upset with the other, they do not go to the pastor or the pastor to the congregation member in order to sit down and discuss their differences.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">We Lutherans incorporate public confession of sins into our worship service. In that confession we all confess that we have sinned. There is not one of us who is perfect. In confession we take our sins to the cross of Jesus, lay our sins upon Him and through our faith in Him beg our heavenly Father’s forgiveness. There is nothing more important for us to hear than the words of absolution, is there?</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">What has happened to Matthew 18? There Jesus says that if our brother or sister has sinned against us, we are to go to him or her to show them their sin. In our relationships in the church today, it seems that we have forgotten this very first step in dealing with an offense, sin or hurt. We instead tell everyone but the person who has sinned against us the terrible things that that person has done to us. This includes parishioners toward their pastors and pastors toward parishioners.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">When someone brings a complaint against their pastor or vice versa, the first question that I ask is, “Have you personally gone to the pastor . . . to the congregation member to discuss your concern?” The typical answer is, “They won’t listen to me!” Or, “It won’t do any good.” Then what often follows is a litany of other wrongs that have been committed.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Unresolved conflicts simply breed additional conflicts. Jesus knew that when He spoke the words of Matt. 18:15ff. Jesus also knew that when fellow Christians do not properly confront sin and sinners do not have deep sorrow for their sins that most often new sins will be added to the sins already committed. On the other hand, confessed sin that is brought to Christ’s cross and God’s forgiveness is announced to the sinner, the sin is washed away never to be charged to the credit of the one who had committed it.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Lay members . . . pastors are not the enemy. Pastors . . . lay members are not the enemy. The enemy is Satan, the world and our sinful old Adam. These three sinful allies have turned us Christians against each other. Instead of focusing our time and energy upon the mission that Jesus has given us to do, namely the Great Commission, we are far too focused upon personal wants,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"> </span><span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">personal feelings and personal agendas. There is but one agenda that is appropriate for God’s people. That agenda is that we be in the Word, properly giving and receiving the Sacraments and using our time, talents and treasures as servants of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">When our hearts and souls are focused upon Jesus and our life as His disciples, Satan, the world and our sinful old Adam find it very difficult to divert our attention. When, on the other hand, they are focused upon ourselves or worldly matters, we have entered Satan’s playground.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13654" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13653" style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13652" style="font-size: small;">If you are in conflict or bear anger toward a fellow Christian—whether pastor, parishioner, neighbor, friend or enemy—take your grievance to Him who bore all sins on the cross. If you are unable alone to bring about resolution with your brother or sister in Christ, then take a trusted fellow Christian with you in order to discuss the matters that weigh down your heart.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13651" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13648" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13650" style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13649" style="font-size: small;">Remember Christ’s invitation, “Cast all your burdens (here He has our sins in mind) upon Me and I will take care of you.”</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13647" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13646" style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13645" style="font-size: small;">P.S. To elders and pastors . . . you have been placed into your office to restore the peace of God that comes through faith in Christ Jesus. Where there is conflict you are to bring the parties together, facilitate efforts at reconciliation and by God’s guidance and blessing see that the parties reconcile. This is one of the primary roles associated with your office. If there is no peace, then proper ministry cannot be carried out.</span></span> <div class="yiv0994228228MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404255794008_13640" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-63915847549537691532014-07-01T13:47:00.001-05:002014-07-03T04:34:08.336-05:00Epistles from Exile: LUTHERAN PURGATORY BOOK now available!<br />
This short book covers subjects such as pastors improperly/unscripturally removed from their calls, and LCMS missionaries and chaplains returning to the country but unable to find work as a pastor.<br />
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<a href="http://pastoralkorn.blogspot.com/2014/06/lutheran-purgatory-book-now-available.html">Epistles from Exile: LUTHERAN PURGATORY BOOK now available!</a>Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-73373014208874157952014-07-01T10:57:00.002-05:002014-07-13T01:19:55.620-05:00More Quotes (Kindle "My Clippings")The Right Stuff (Wolfe, Tom)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 29 | Location 565-566 | Added on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 4:57:35 PM<br />
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Khrushchev was right about one thing: when it came time to hang the capitalist West, an American businessman would sell him the rope.<br />
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The Guardians of the Flame (Guardians of the Flame combo volumes) (Rosenberg, Joel)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 5538-5540 | Added on Saturday, March 15, 2014 3:31:10 PM<br />
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When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. —Thomas Paine<br />
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The Guardians of the Flame (Guardians of the Flame combo volumes) (Rosenberg, Joel)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 8586-8587 | Added on Sunday, March 16, 2014 5:51:00 PM<br />
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Shh. We're not required to be perfect. We're just required to do our damnedest.<br />
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Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing (Duin, Julia)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 353-354 | Added on Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:40:05 PM<br />
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People are not taught that it is possible to live up to Christianity’s high standards, and so they drift off out of shame or frustration.<br />
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<strong><span style="color: red;"><em>NOTE: ^This was a very non-Lutheran book and much of it was from a "Church Growth Movement" and charismatic point of view. There is a lot wrong with the above claim. -Tim</em></span></strong><br />
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Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing (Duin, Julia)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 476-477 | Added on Sunday, March 16, 2014 6:45:27 PM<br />
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“Eighty percent of the U.S. population is faith-based, but only 18 percent go to church. So where are they getting their faith content?<br />
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The Guardians of the Flame (Guardians of the Flame combo volumes) (Rosenberg, Joel)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 11229-11231 | Added on Monday, March 17, 2014 6:29:36 PM<br />
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If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. —Mark Twain<br />
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Guardians of the Flame: To Home and Ehvenor (Guardians of the Flame combo volumes) (Rosenberg, Joel)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6836-6837 | Added on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 10:23:00 AM<br />
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Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. —Robert Frost<br />
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A Summary of Christian Doctrine: A Popular Presentation of the Teachings of the Bible, 3rd Edition (Koehler, Edward W.A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6478-6481 | Added on Sunday, April 6, 2014 12:49:45 PM<br />
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Denial of or exclusion from church fellowship is not equivalent to excommunication. Although we do not tolerate the teaching and spreading of false doctrine, it is possible that a person errs in sincerity of heart without losing faith in Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:14–15; 1 Corinthians 3:11–15). We do not have fellowship with false teachers (Romans 16:17), yet we do not regard them as “heathen and tax collectors” (see Matthew 18:17).<br />
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A Summary of Christian Doctrine: A Popular Presentation of the Teachings of the Bible, 3rd Edition (Koehler, Edward W.A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6451-6454 | Added on Sunday, April 6, 2014 6:15:20 AM<br />
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Such action on the part of the congregation and pastor should be unanimous. This is a matter that concerns all members and should be done with the consent of all. If there are some who are not convinced of the person’s impenitence or who believe that he can still be won, then they should be encouraged to deal with the erring brother until they have either won him or are convinced of his impenitence.<br />
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A Summary of Christian Doctrine: A Popular Presentation of the Teachings of the Bible, 3rd Edition (Koehler, Edward W.A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6460-6464 | Added on Sunday, April 6, 2014 6:16:18 AM<br />
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It sometimes happens that a person refuses to deal with his congregation. By word or deed (by joining a church of another denomination, for example), an individual declares his withdrawal from that congregation. Consequently, this congregation cannot really excommunicate him because he is no longer a member. Although it is sinful to act in such a manner, we have no right to declare such a person manifestly impenitent because we have not had the opportunity to establish this fact. In such a case we can only say that he severed his connection with the congregation in a way that is not God-pleasing. We judge and condemn this person’s act, but we do not judge and condemn this person’s heart.<br />
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Tough-Minded Christianity: Legacy of John Warwick Montgomery (Dembski, William;Schirrmacher, Thomas)<br />
- Your Highlight on Unnumbered Page | Location 274-276 | Added on Monday, April 7, 2014 3:01:18 AM<br />
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But Montgomery decided early in his career that Dale Carnegie's approach to winning friends and influencing people was inadequate for handling the theological disarray of his time. Stronger medicine was required.<br />
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Tough-Minded Christianity: Legacy of John Warwick Montgomery (Dembski, William;Schirrmacher, Thomas)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 4 | Location 577-580 | Added on Monday, April 7, 2014 3:12:38 AM<br />
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We know, or at least we should know, that fallen human nature on its own is incapable of choosing a path that leads to real happiness; all paths that sinful humans, left to themselves, actually choose lead to disillusionment, more or less. We know that when people are encouraged to be egocentric, and to live their own lives and do their own thing in their own way, the result is a compound of pride and misery and cosmic resentment that may well find expression in antisocial behavior.<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6619-6621 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:18:58 AM<br />
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Since then the church has again and again witnessed the phenomenon of laymen keeping the ship of the church on even keel by their protest against the intrusion of a foreign “gospel” into its ranks.<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6707-6713 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:27:40 AM<br />
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“We will neither privately nor publicly speak or write anything contrary to it, but, by the help of God’s grace, intend to abide thereby; therefore, after mature deliberation, we have, in God’s fear and with the invocation of His name, attached our signatures with our own hands” (FC XII, 40). This is an oft repeated pledge, made not only by pastors who bind themselves with quia subscription to the Confessions at the time of their ordination or call into office—that is, subscribing them without equivocation because they are a true exposition of Scriptural teaching—but also by many laymen, articulate and learned in the Confessions as well, who wish to indicate their agreement in every way with the stated position of the Confessions.<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6726-6731 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:30:38 AM<br />
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The papalist authorities were in error when they excluded the people, especially the leaders among them, from the process of choosing qualified pastors and leaders in the church. Especially the leading laymen, Chemnitz acknowledges, are by their background, education, and experience able to exercise salutary judgment and discretion in this matter of procuring qualified pastors for the local churches.8 But implicit in this choice is the will of the people, and it should always be understood as a matter of expediency and wisdom when the magistrates act as representatives of the people or congregation at large.9<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6733-6733 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:30:56 AM<br />
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mobocracy<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6749-6750 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:32:15 AM<br />
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We do not intend, says Gerhard, to “make shepherds of the sheep,” but by the same token, “we do not want them to be brute sheep, which neither can nor should distinguish between shepherds and wolves.”14<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6781-6784 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:36:40 AM<br />
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“The only purpose of voting in matters of doctrine is to see whether all now understand the teaching of the divine Word and agree to it” and “not to decide the correctness of a doctrine by majority vote or even by unanimous vote.”22 This is frequently misunderstood. But for peace, unity, and concord there is need for all, laity and clergy, to bow before the Word of God, drive down personal views or private opinions, and assent freely and believingly to God’s truth.<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6791-6792 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:37:55 AM<br />
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Augustine’s dictum still obtains: In ecclesia non valet: hoc ego dico, hoc tu dicis, hoc ille dicit, sed: Haec dicit Dominus, “that which prevails in the church is not, this I say, this you say, this that man says, but, thus saith the Lord.”<br />
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Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (Concordia Scholarship Today) (Klug, Eugene F. A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6821-6822 | Added on Sunday, April 13, 2014 3:40:06 AM<br />
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St. Paul, states Luther, “delegates to Christians the power to judge and condemn even an angel of heaven, if he should preach another gospel.”33<br />
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The Book of Concord - Concordia Triglotta Edition (Dau, W.H.T.;Bente, F.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 10280-10281 | Added on Monday, April 28, 2014 5:24:23 PM<br />
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godless Christians [Christians only in name].<br />
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The Book of Concord - Concordia Triglotta Edition (Dau, W.H.T.;Bente, F.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 6422-6423 | Added on Sunday, June 8, 2014 11:08:35 AM<br />
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However, for the common people we are satisfied with the three parts,<br />
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Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Second Edition (Pocket Edition) (McCain, Paul Timothy)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 12770-12771 | Added on Monday, June 9, 2014 1:09:05 AM<br />
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[70] Whoever would be saved should not trouble or torment himself with thoughts || about God’s secret counsel, about whether he also is elected and ordained to eternal life. Miserable Satan usually attacks with these thoughts and afflicts godly hearts.<br />
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Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Second Edition (Pocket Edition) (McCain, Paul Timothy)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 12774-12776 | Added on Monday, June 9, 2014 1:09:48 AM<br />
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[71] According to Christ’s teaching they should abstain from their sins, repent, believe His promise, and entirely trust in Him. Since we cannot do this by ourselves, by our own powers, the Holy Spirit desires to work these things’repentance and faith’in us through the Word and Sacraments.<br />
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Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible (NASB) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 45160-45162 | Added on Monday, June 9, 2014 1:12:57 AM<br />
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11Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”<br />
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Altar Guild Manual LSB Edition (Maxwell, Lee A.)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 823-829 | Added on Monday, June 9, 2014 1:21:52 AM<br />
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Paul H. D. Lang states: “The crucifix emphasizes the incarnation of Christ and His atoning sacrifice. A plain or empty cross lacks this emphasis. Some say that the plain cross stands for the Resurrection. Be that as it may, it can also represent a devaluation of the Incarnation and a spiritualizing of Christ. The Lutheran Church, however, believes that ‘apart from this man there is not God’” (What an Altar Guild Should Know [St. Louis: Concordia, 1964], 52). Lang cites the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, VIII 81, from Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1959). As Lang goes on to point out, however, the use of the crucifix is not necessarily a confessional matter; if it is not, the altar guild should not make an issue of it.<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 184 | Location 2988-2990 | Added on Monday, June 16, 2014 1:06:28 AM<br />
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The rebels wished to reform government, not so as to depose or fundamentally hobble kingship but to bring it within what they regarded as reasonable bounds. They wanted to force the king to govern peacefully and fairly within the law, yet they were doing so by breaking the law. It was a situation of deep complexity for both sides.<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 186 | Location 3024-3024 | Added on Monday, June 16, 2014 1:10:09 AM<br />
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As a peace treaty—for this is what it was—the Magna Carta was an immediate failure.<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 228 | Location 3729-3731 | Added on Monday, June 16, 2014 4:25:26 PM<br />
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In comparison with the staple tactical set pieces of siege and plunder, battles were wasteful, uncertain, and chaotic. So strenuously did medieval commanders avoid them that few, if any, of the knights on either side had ever fought in one.<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 235 | Location 3840-3842 | Added on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 6:03:31 AM<br />
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There would be no reprieve for de Montfort himself. A twelve-man hit squad independent of Edward’s main army stalked the battlefield, their sole aim to find the earl and cut him down.<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 450 | Location 7183-7185 | Added on Sunday, June 22, 2014 2:38:22 AM<br />
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Serfdom was dying out as an institution in the late fourteenth century, but it seemed to many of those who rebelled in 1381 that it was giving way to a new and equally oppressive system, by which lawyers and justices kept the rural poor in just as deep a misery as they had suffered when they were bonded to the land.<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 471 | Location 7528-7528 | Added on Sunday, June 22, 2014 4:10:57 AM<br />
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palatinate (that is to say, quasi-royal<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 471 | Location 7536-7538 | Added on Sunday, June 22, 2014 4:12:12 AM<br />
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Whereas in the past English kings had been addressed as “my lord,” now titles such as “Your Highness” and “Your Majesty” were introduced for the first time, in mimicry of styles fashionable in France.<br />
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Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible (NASB) (The Lockman Foundation)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 48844-48849 | Added on Sunday, June 22, 2014 6:39:30 AM<br />
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9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.<br />
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The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (Jones, Dan)<br />
- Your Highlight on Page 502 | Location 7991-7993 | Added on Monday, June 23, 2014 1:24:16 AM<br />
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(Indeed, after Henry VII had legitimized his usurpation of the throne with a wealth of pageantry attempting to demonstrate his descent from Edward III, he and later his son Henry VIII set about murdering and destroying every surviving member of the English aristocracy with a trace of Plantagenet blood.)<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 183-184 | Added on Monday, June 23, 2014 3:05:45 PM<br />
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Replacing the chaotic system with a clean, efficient military one, he divided the empire into twelve neat dioceses, each governed by a vicar who reported directly to his emperor*<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 671-674 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:07:21 AM<br />
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The emperor, however, stubbornly refused to give up. If paganism wouldn’t recover, then Christianity must be crushed. Christ had prophesied that the Jewish temple wouldn’t be rebuilt until the end times, and in order to disprove this and cast Jesus as a false prophet, he ordered it to be rebuilt. Work started quickly enough, but an earthquake (and, according to Christian sources, “great balls of fire”) shattered the foundations, forcing the terrified overseers to abandon the project.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 750-754 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:24:57 AM<br />
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From the east came a new and terrifying power, wild Huns so barbaric that the frightened Germanic tribes ignored the decaying imperial forces guarding the frontiers and came flooding across. This time, however, they came as settlers, not invaders, and the prize they sought was land, not gold. The influx of new people, unwilling to assimilate, provoked an identity crisis within the Roman world and stretched the creaking empire to its breaking point. The pressure would redefine what it meant to be a Roman and nearly bring down the classical world.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 817-819 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:40:54 AM<br />
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spoke their own language, and maintained their own customs. They had no reason to blend in and so failed to become Romanized, remaining a semiautonomous group within the borders of the empire. Within a generation, they would completely dominate the government and push Europe toward the terrible chaos of the Dark Ages. Though<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 851-853 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:51:46 AM<br />
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Ambrose turned up the pressure by denying him communion or entrance to a church until he performed penance. After several months of endangering his soul without the sacrament, Theodosius caved in. Dressing in sackcloth and sprinkling ashes over his head, he publicly apologized and submitted to the bishop.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 860-861 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:52:22 AM<br />
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Christianity had triumphed, and the coup de grâce came in 391, when Theodosius made it the only religion of the Roman Empire.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 862-865 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:53:19 AM<br />
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By making Christianity the state religion, he had merely put the finishing touches on a movement that had begun at the Milvian Bridge. Christianity had become so entwined with the Roman way of life that for barbarians and Romans alike, to be a Christian and to be a Roman were essentially the same thing.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 867-870 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:53:58 AM<br />
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Even the ceremonies of the church and the court had begun to mirror each other. Priests and courtiers dressed in luxurious vestments, elaborate processionals and singing choirs heralded the beginning of services, and incense and candles were carried as a sign of honor. Where the court had its emperor, the church had its bishops, and both were accorded the same outward signs of respect.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 870-871 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:54:47 AM<br />
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There was a comforting sameness to it all, a familiarity that reassured each celebrant of the divine order.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 878-880 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 7:59:22 AM<br />
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There were, however, troubling signs on the horizon. Most of the money from taxes had been drawn from the nobility, and these families were exhausted. As more and more of them fled their burdens by joining the clergy or embracing the monastic life in the deserts of Egypt or Asia Minor, the government responded by leaning more heavily on the poor and working classes.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 880-882 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 8:00:28 AM<br />
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Successive governments would raise taxes and try to bind peasants to the land, arguing that this was necessary to keep society running smoothly, but the end result for many was grinding poverty.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 885-889 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 8:01:28 AM<br />
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*Although Gratian was the last emperor to use the title Pontifex Maximus, it didn’t disappear into the mists of history. In 590, Pope Gregory I adopted it in his role as “chief priest of Christianity.” and from it we get the title “pontiff.” Literally, it is translated as “bridge builder,” because the Pontifex Maximus bridged the gap between the world of the gods and the world of man. Constantine had kept the title because he saw himself as the “Bishop of Bishops”—a title that the pope also assumed.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 899-901 | Added on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 8:02:22 AM<br />
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Even the army was unrecognizable; the traditional Roman infantry had given way to barbarian cavalry, and the orderly legions were now a strange, heterogeneous mix with each group sporting different armor and speaking a different language.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 2095-2097 | Added on Saturday, June 28, 2014 9:23:22 AM<br />
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Every emperor from Augustus to Heraclius had been hailed as Imperator Caesar and Augustus, but after him they were known only as Basileus—the Greek word for king.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 2244-2247 | Added on Sunday, June 29, 2014 1:19:06 AM<br />
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†That war still splits the Islamic world today. An assassin loyal to the fearsome general Muawiyah assassinated the caliph Ali while he was praying in a mosque in central Iraq. Those who rejected Muawiyah and held that only a descendant of Ali could become caliph are known as Shiites, while those who accepted Muawiyah as caliph are called Sunni. Iraq remains largely a Shiite country to this day.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 2646-2654 | Added on Sunday, June 29, 2014 3:38:48 AM<br />
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The pope’s men had a head start, but they alienated the Slavs by insisting that all services be conducted in Latin, even though their new converts didn’t understand a word of it. Cyril and Methodius, by contrast, set to work immediately learning Slavic, and when they found it had no written alphabet, Cyril provided one.* Western bishops angrily complained that Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were the only tongues worthy of a sacred liturgy, but Cyril countered by saying that since God’s rain fell on all equally, then all tongues were fit to praise him.† The Bulgarian khan, impressed by the new freedoms promised by Photius (and in any case unwilling to subordinate himself to Rome), traveled to Constantinople to be baptized in the Hagia Sophia, and Bulgaria entered the Byzantine cultural orbit, in which it remains to this day. By allowing Byzantine culture to be separated from the Greek language, Photius had spread the empire’s influence far beyond its borders and immeasurably strengthened the bonds that held the diverse Byzantine world together. It would be more than six centuries before Latin was similarly dethroned in the West.<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 2897-2898 | Added on Sunday, June 29, 2014 5:46:39 AM<br />
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†The normal custom would have been to name the boy after his grandfather,<br />
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Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Brownworth, Lars)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 3101-3103 | Added on Sunday, June 29, 2014 6:23:08 AM<br />
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*These were the descendants of Viking warriors who had as yet to be absorbed into their Slavic surroundings. Elsewhere in Europe, they had already ripped apart Charlemagne’s empire, and for centuries Western prayer books would include the plea “O Lord, spare us from the fury of the Northmen.”<br />
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The Fall of the Roman Empire (Heather, Peter)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 187-191 | Added on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 3:33:47 AM<br />
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The legionaries constructed these themselves, according to a standard pattern: ditch, mound, rampart and defensive towers on the outside, barrack blocks within. The length of the walls was dictated by an ancient formula: two hundred times the square root of the number of cohorts to be accommodated. Subdued tribes in the immediate neighbourhood were responsible for supplying the troops through the winter, until the grass grew again to support the pack animals, and campaigning could begin anew.<br />
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The Fall of the Roman Empire (Heather, Peter)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 217-218 | Added on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 3:36:32 AM<br />
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veni vidi vici – ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’<br />
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The Fall of the Roman Empire (Heather, Peter)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 535-535 | Added on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:59:24 AM<br />
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imperator (commander of the army)<br />
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The Fall of the Roman Empire (Heather, Peter)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 537-540 | Added on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:59:56 AM<br />
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For one thing, all pretence of republicanism had vanished. Augustus had worked hard at pretending that the power structures he had created around himself did not represent the overthrow of the old Republic, and that, in a mixed constitution, the Senate continued to have important functions. But even in his lifetime the veneer had looked pretty thin, and by the fourth century no one thought of the emperor as anything other than an autocratic monarch.<br />
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The Fall of the Roman Empire (Heather, Peter)<br />
- Your Highlight Location 542-545 | Added on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 8:00:56 AM<br />
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The first among equals became a sacred ruler, communing with the Divinity, and ordinary human beings had to act with due deference. By the fourth century, standard protocols included proskynesis – throwing yourself down on the ground when introduced into the sacred imperial presence – and, for the privileged few, being allowed to kiss the hem of the emperor’s robe.<br />
==========Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-8653878757529378572014-06-26T09:40:00.000-05:002014-07-01T10:58:37.123-05:00Update on LCMS' Specific Ministry Pastoral Program"I'm very pleased to say that this class of SMP men are orthodox and highly eager to serve as ministers of the Gospel. I enjoyed teaching them the SMP "Means of Grace" course. I'm sad to report, however, that the second class I taught wanted their relatively light workload cut in half, and that I suffered rebuke by the Chair of the Systematics Department at CSL for teaching Pieper and being critical of Schlink on his views of Baptism, which are weak and lean towards the Reformed. Star in my crown, as they say." --<strong>Robert C. Baker, M.Div., M.S. </strong>Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-84102923856444673512014-05-27T17:41:00.003-05:002014-05-27T17:41:55.280-05:00Fleeing Faithful?Eighty percent of the U.S. population is faith-based, but only 18 percent go to church. So where are they getting their faith content?<br />
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Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing (Duin, Julia)<br />
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<br />Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-43602508144854992102014-04-13T17:36:00.000-05:002014-05-27T17:37:32.211-05:00Klug1. "St. Paul," states Luther, "delegates to Christians the power to judge and condemn even an angel of heaven, if he should preach another gospel."
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2. Augustine's dictum: "That which prevails in the church is not, this I say, this you say, this that man says, but, thus saith the Lord."
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3. "The only purpose of voting in matters of doctrine is to see whether all now understand the teaching of the divine Word and agree to it" and "not to decide the correctness of a doctrine by majority vote or even by unanimous vote." This is frequently misunderstood. But for peace, unity, and concord there is need for all, laity and clergy, to bow before the Word of God, drive down personal views or private opinions, and assert freely and believingly to God's truth.
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4. We do not intend, says Gerhard, to "make shepherds of the sheep," but by the same token, "we do not want them to be brute sheep, which neither can nor should distinguish between shepherds and wolves."
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Eugene Klug, Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor and People from Luther to Walther (CPH)Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-89295924834573751422012-11-12T02:21:00.001-06:002013-06-18T18:02:25.938-05:00Apologetics to Homosexuals (Does it work?)<b>Tim Schenks (Member of Zion Lutheran Church) – Original Post on Facebook</b>
I must echo and embellish a comment by Illinois LCMS Pastor David Juhl, that is, you really shouldn't add your pastors or elders on Facebook when you're going to be posting images or opinions that are most likely going to clash with what your congregation believes, teaches and confesses. I'm talking basic Ten Commandments here.<br />
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When you post about your drunken raves, strip club activity, homosexuality, pro-abortion stance and shacking up, yet you or your family members tell the church officers that you want to remain a member, you're going to be asked to explain yourself and why you still want to remain a member of that church.
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February 3 at 2:48am
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<i>Heather Ganime, Laurie Reed and Tonya Michel like this. (Members of Zion Lutheran Church)
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<b>Gonzalez Shellie (Member of Zion Lutheran Church)
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II Timothy 3:16 & 17 KJV <br />
February 3 at 7:05am<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson </b><br />
Sounds like religious tyranny to me, suppression of free speech and free thought and free association -- but that's what so much religion is about. So glad I'm not in a strait-jacket that is denominational religion -- especially the arch-conservative variety such as LCMS.
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February 3 at 7:06am<br />
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<b>Gonzalez Shellie
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I Timothy 5:14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
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February 3 at 7:34am<br />
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<b>David Juhl (LCMS Pastor)
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Rodney: As a Christian, I am free. Full stop.
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February 3 at 7:45am<br />
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<b>Chris Fiske (Member of Zion Lutheran Church)
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I agree Tim in so much as we should not do those things that are against the Christian beliefs. And you do, dont post them to facebook. Me as Youth leader try not to post anything or share someone else's post if it would like bad toward...s me. Because I am freinds with all the Youth. How would that like towards them if the would read something that would shed a bad light on my as a Christian. Does the rambling make sense?
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February 3 at 7:47am<br />
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<b>Tim Schenks</b>
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Rodney, Christianity isn't freedom of expression, it's repenting of your sins and receiving forgiveness and eternal life by the grace of God for the sake of Jesus Christ. Of course you're going to say that -- you are a homosexual. I pray that all homosexuals repent of their sins, but it is a kindness for me to say if you do not repent of that activity and cease then you will find yourself in hell after you die.
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February 3 at 7:48am
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<b>Rodney Wilson
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You remind me of Martin Luther now -- didn't he talk likewise about the Jews in those insane anti-semitic screeds of his. (Why anyone would call themselves Lutheran, I'll never know.) Come on, Tim, this is 2012, and there's no room for prejudice or hatred in the Body of Christ. But I won't condemn you to hellfire for your prejudice as you just did me. I know we're all just doing the best we can here below and that God's grace is sufficient for all of us and that God's strength is revealed in our weaknesses. Now, let's all let go of the hatred, for God is love and love is from God.See More
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February 3 at 7:53am<br />
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<b>David Juhl
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God is love in His Son Jesus Christ, who died for sinners. Christ's death is for sinners. Christ's death is not merely to show God's love for everyone. Please read Holy Scripture. God's Word clearly teaches what I just wrote.
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February 3 at 7:59am<br />
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<b>Tim Schenks
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I'm not condemning anyone, Rodney. If anyone is condemned it is through their own actions and choices, not by me crying wolf. Maybe you will convert in your old age, that's fine...but in the meantime there's going to be years of very poor witness and bad example that you as a teacher are going to be imparting to the youth.
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February 3 at 8:00am<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson</b>
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David, I've read the Bible cover to cover at least seven times and I've studied it for thousands of hours. I bet I could beat you and Tim in a Bible trivia contest. ha, ha (Just lightening the conversation a bit.) Tim, your religion bores me. Jesus excites me. End of story.
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February 3 at 8:03am<br />
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<b>Tim Schenks
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My religion tells me that it's not about you. It's about what Jesus did for you. That's exciting.
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February 3 at 8:06am<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson</b>
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I'm all for Jesus -- but I'm not for Lutheranism or the laws of the LCMS, handed down like holy writ, with those who disobey cast aside. That's what Luther did to the Jews and others. I don't like it.
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February 3 at 8:13am<br />
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<b>Tim Schenks
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I'll agree. That is most certainly true. The laws of the LCMS were handed down like holy writ, because the Bible is exactly what they use.
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February 3 at 8:14am<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson</b>
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And that's what they all say, friend. Everyone wants to believe that their little denomination is *the one.* I say that Jesus is the one, not any human contrivance called denomination.
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February 3 at 8:15am<br />
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<b>Gonzalez Shellie
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I would hope that if my youth was ever posting something that is questionable that my youth would have it brought to his/her attention and remove it because as a mom, if it were in opposition to the church then it would not be profitable for either the church or us. Profitable in my understanding does not always mean monetary gain.
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February 3 at 8:16am<br />
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<b>Gonzalez Shellie
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It's also true that this is a free country but the opposition should never be towards one who is doing good because it would be rewarding the bad and then it would never leave your house. Now if I'm guilty of adding or deleting from His words so help me in the Name of Jesus. Forgive me in Jesus name. Love does cover all sins. :) Peace Out. :)
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February 3 at 8:18am<br />
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<b>Tim Schenks</b>
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Rodney, you make it sound like people are cast aside for nothing. That's not how it works. Anything can be forgiven, and there are plenty of passages in Holy Scripture about that including how to address it, but not manifest, unrepent, persistent sinful behavior.
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February 3 at 8:20am<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson
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One man's sin is another man's virtue. No one has a stranglehold on truth. Those who claim they do, are deceived.
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February 3 at 11:09am<br />
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<b>David Juhl
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I am sorry you do not recognize objective truth. I cannot have this discussion with you if you are not willing to recognize objective truth.
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February 3 at 11:10am<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson</b>
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If by objective truth, you mean Jesus, we are in agreement. If by objective truth you mean the doctrines of Martin Luther or the Lutheran Church or any other denomination, then indeed we will not be able to agree. I'm with Jesus on opposing the power of religion and the power of the religious elite.
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February 3 at 11:49am<br />
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<b>Gonzalez Shellie</b>
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It would be my preference to have a subjective walk with Jesus and take him personally rather than to look at my religious perspective objectively as to examine the outwardness of my internal being. Rather it's the inward man that counts.
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February 3 at 1:14pm<br />
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<b>Chris Rosebrough (Lutheran Layman; Apologist)
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Rodney - and yet you're acting exactly like a member of the religious elite. You're casting aside anyone who disagrees with your doctrinal views regarding doctrine. Odd tactic dontcha think?
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February 4 at 2:47pm<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson</b>
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I disagree, Chris. I'm saying allow all to be free -- don't enslave others with one's religious yokes. Jesus said it best: "my burden is easy, my yoke is light." Too bad few believe him.
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February 4 at 3:27pm<br />
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<b>Chris Rosebrough </b><br />
Rodney - define the term "religious yoke".
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February 4 at 3:37pm<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson
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The rules of the LCMS, for example.
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February 4 at 5:16pm <br />
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<b>Scott Diekmann (Lutheran Layman; Apologist)
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Rodney, did you see Jefferson Bethke's You Tube video "Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus?": <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1IAhDGYlpqY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1IAhDGYlpqY</a>
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February 4 at 8:03pm<br />
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<b>Rodney Wilson
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Yes, Scott, I did see that. The young man has some good ideas. I hope that the next generation of Christians -- his generation -- is not so uptight.
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February 4 at 10:39pm<br />
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<b>Scott Diekmann
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Did you see this similar one?: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TbsadOQK_6A#">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TbsadOQK_6A#</a>!
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February 4 at 10:49pm
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<b>Rodney Wilson</b>
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Some good points there, too. Bottom line -- all this debate is beside the point. Can't we all agree that we need to cultivate the fruits of the spirit; that love is the greatest of these; that love of God, self, and neighbor are supreme; that the Sermon on the Mount, followed, could tranform the world. We all can do so much better!
<br />
February 4 at 11:01pm<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Schenks
</b><br />
I think most will agree about the fruits of the Spirit, but also about the fruits of the flesh in that same chapter of Galatians.
<br />
February 5 at 12:38am<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Schenks
</b><br />
--cultivate fruits of the Spirit; avoid fruits of the flesh.
<br />
February 5 at 12:41am<br />
<br />
<b>Scott Diekmann
</b><br />
We do need to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit Rodney, and love is very important. Yet we will fail in the transformation of the world. The Gospel is not about us transforming the world, it's about Christ transforming people – killing th...em and making them alive by His Word. Law and Gospel. Without first considering that, all we're talking about is a social Gospel. Since we're sinner and saint at the same time we always need to keep both the Law that convicts us of our sin, and the Gospel which frees us to serve our neighbor in love, in view. Consider the following words St. Paul writes to Timothy. They illustrate a proper balance of Law and Gospel. Note here that Paul specifically points out that sound doctrine is important, and directly related to the Gospel. These aren't the words of some denomination or another, they're straight from Scripture: "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been
<br />
entrusted" 1 Timothy 1:5-11 ESV.
<br />
February 5 at 1:00am<br />
<br />
<b>Rodney Wilson
</b><br />
Here's a difference, Tim -- I believe that if we cultivate the fruits of the spirit and the lifestyle of I Cor 13 love, the works of the flesh are murdered. That's how we fulfill the law of love, the law of Christ -- not by trying to follow... the stone cold Law of Moses or the stone cold Law of the LCMS or any other denomination. By walking in the Spirit, as Paul wrote, we put to death the deeds of the flesh. Grace. Grace. Grace. And more grace! That's good news. "Follow these rules of my church and believe what we all believe and think how we all think and vote how we all vote is not Good News -- it's bondage, fleshly slavery."See More<br />
February 5 at 6:20am<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Schenks </b><br />
The problem is that you're cultivating the fruits of the flesh and saying it's the Spirit. That is not Christian. That's re-writing the Bible.
<br />
Tuesday at 4:31pm
<br />
<br />
<b>Rodney Wilson</b><br />
That's putting yourself in the judgement seat of Christ, something Christians are famous for. :-(
<br />
Tuesday at 4:46pm<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Schenks</b>
<br />
I must not know the same people you do, Rodney. I don't know any Christians who put themselves in the judgement seat of Christ.
<br />
Tuesday at 5:46pm<br />
<br />
<b>Rodney Wilson
</b><br />
I, a Christian, shall now put myself in the judgement seat of Christ by saying that it seems to me that you did that when you looked into my heart and soul, godlike in your discernment, and pronounced judgement: "You're cultivating the fruits of the flesh and saying it's the Spirit."
<br />
Tuesday at 6:08pm<br />
<br />
<b>Scott Diekmann</b>
<br />
Rodney, I think it would be better to recast the direction of the discussion somewhat. St. Paul says in Romans 6 "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instrume...nts for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." From this it can be deduced that sin exists, and that it has been defined by God's Commandments. We can't get away from the reality of sin, since we all sin daily, and without Christ, we would die eternally, because the wages of sin is death. Thanks be to God that He sent His Son to die in our place. The above verse also tells us not to let sin have dominion over us, and the flip side, if we do let sin have dominion over us, we are no longer in a state of grace, and have instead allowed Satan to rule in us. While it sometimes seems like Christians are being judgmental (and maybe some of them are just being hypocrites, or it certainly seems that way at times), Scripture tells us to help fellow Christians who have fallen into willful sin. This can be seen in Matthew 18. If I as a Christian see someone sinning, I should care about them enough to kindly point it out to them, showing them their sin, that the Law may do it's work of killing the old Adam, and the Gospel can then raise them up. If I don't do this, I myself would be sinning against my brother by not helping him. Matthew 18:18 tells the Church to bind and loose - to forgive the sins of those who repent and to hold the sins of those who refuse to repent against them. This is JESUS HIMSELF TALKING. We still need to hear the Law, all of us, including you too. If we ignore the Law, we become complacent, think that sin can't hurt us, and eventually fall away from the truth and lose our salvation. I hope you will consider these things seriously. I am not judging you, since I don't even know what started this whole conversation. I can only tell from some of what you've said up above that you'd benefit from what I've said. Yours in Christ, Scott
<br />
Tuesday at 10:19pm<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Schenks</b>
<br />
The conversation started as a post to members of my own congregation. I'm not sure why Rodney replied to it.
<br />
1:31am<br />
<br />
<b>Rodney Wilson</b>
<br />
Tim, if you had written "For LCMS Members Only," I would have ignored it. (I usually ignore your, in my view, cult like devotion to the LCMS). Instead, you threw it out to everyone on your FB list and judged homosexuals. Your post sounded l...ike just one more religious Pharisee judging the outcasts, when all the while Jesus is having dinner with them. Ah, history doth repeat itself. Once again, the religious elite abandon Jesus and the sinners and prostitutes enter the Kingdom.See More
<br />
6:13am<br />
<br />
<b>Rodney Wilson
</b><br />
Scott, thank you, brother. I love those words of St. Paul. I love most of the words of St. Paul. Not the ones that tolerate slavery. Or the ones that subject women to inferior / weaker status. Or the ones against gays. But most of Paul's stuff is excellent and inspiring!
<br />
Yesterday at 6:14am<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Schenk</b>s
<br />
Rodney, when I mentioned pastors and elders and church officers and members of a congregation, how could you NOT know that I was talking about my own church?
<br />
7:23am<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Schenks
</b><br />
<a href="http://issuesetc.org/2009/03/07/playing-the-pharisee-card/">http://issuesetc.org/2009/03/07/playing-the-pharisee-card/</a> would be a good site to check out about now.
<br />
Sample Article: "Playing the Pharisee Card" - Issues, Etc.
<br />
7:35am<br />
<br />
<b>Rodney Wilson
</b><br />
I know nothing about your little denomination, to be honest, so I had no idea you were referring only to your clan. On the Pharisee issue, I always try to side with the sinners, the whores, the alcoholics, the despised and marginalized ones -- like my example Jesus did.
<br />
<br />
-----------<br />
I then showed this "conversation" to Pr. Borghardt from Higher Things, who suggested I ignore Rodney's posts in the future.Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-17244679813965776702011-12-02T12:30:00.000-06:002014-12-02T12:06:12.347-06:00Pistol-Whipping Pastor-Publisher<a href="http://cyberbrethren.com/2011/04/12/my-vdma-1911-45-pistolan-homage-to-the-smalcaldic-league-and-the-lutheran-reformation/">http://cyberbrethren.com/2011/04/12/my-vdma-1911-45-pistolan-homage-to-the-smalcaldic-league-and-the-lutheran-reformation/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Pr. Paul T. McCain: "...I do not intend to use this pistol as part of my ministry, unless somebody tries to shoot me while performing it."<br />
<br />
<br />
Tim Schenks: "While performing it? Do you carry your pistol into church, CPH and the International Center?"<br />
<br />
<br />
Pr. Paul T. McCain: "I adhere to all laws of the state of Missouri and any other state I am in. Now, why do you ask? I would note again, Tim, your propensity for *only* posting snarky remarks on my blog site. Why is that? I want an explanation."<br />
<br />
<br />
Tim Schenks: "You have a way of bringing out the snark in me, Pr. McCain."<br />
<br />
<br />
Pr. Paul T. McCain: "I’m sorry to hear that, Tim. Because of that, you are no longer welcome to comment on this blog site."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
--- On Wed, 4/13/11, Paul T. McCain <<a href="mailto:boc1580@gmail.com">boc1580@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br />
From: Paul T. McCain <<a href="mailto:boc1580@gmail.com">boc1580@gmail.com</a>><br />
Subject: A question<br />
To: <a href="mailto:tcschenks@yahoo.com">tcschenks@yahoo.com</a><br />
Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 8:15 PM<br />
<br />
<br />
Mr. Schenks,<br />
<br />
<br />
Over the years, I can not recall a single time when you have posted a comment on my blog site that has not been rude, snarky and frankly, looking to pick a fight.<br />
Can you help me understand why? I don't get it.<br />
<br />
<br />
Paul McCain<br />
<br />
<br />
-----------------------------<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Dear Pr. McCain,<br />
<br />
<br />
I won't deny that I have posted rude, snarky responses to posts of yours that were themselves rude or snarky on websites such as ALPB discussion forum or Luther Quest discussion forum. If you want to discuss those, be my guest.<br />
<br />
<br />
As for rude, snarky or intent on starting a fight on your own Blog ... I don't think so. If you considered them offensive then I'm sure they didn't make it through your moderation screen, indicating that they remain private comments and we should talk about them if you wish. If you want to discuss any of those, let's do it. But I couldn't find any such posts on your Blog using Google, so I have to disagree that every post has been in the manner that you claim and I can't exactly remember everything I've posted on your Blog in the last five years.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here's what I could find:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NEW CPH WEBSITE July 26, 2007<br />
"You erased my wishlist!" (Someone else replied ditto)<br />
<br />
<br />
KICKIN' IT OLD SCHOOL ROMAN STYLE June 19, 2007<br />
I asked about Luther's proposal to train children in four different languages to use them all in the Divine Service.<br />
<br />
<br />
POCKET CONCORDIA Dec. 22, 2008<br />
"This is great!"<br />
<br />
<br />
GOOGLE CYBERBRETHREN Aug 19, 2007<br />
"Pr. McCain, be careful promoting Google search because..."<br />
You: "That's okay too!"<br />
<br />
<br />
A TALE OF TWO CONGREGATIONS Oct 11, 2007<br />
"How did their membership double or triple while attendance remained static?"<br />
<br />
<br />
TASTE OF CHICAGO! June 21, 2008<br />
I related how we now have Chicago-style hotdogs and also gyros in my home town.<br />
<br />
<br />
BECAUSE IT MUST BE SAID: PART TWO Sept. 28, 2007<br />
Asked question about why Seminarians or Uncalled Pastors aren't refusing to serve congregations who unscripturally remove their pastors. Recieved a reply from Pr. Cwirla.<br />
<br />
<br />
DUAL-CORE MACINTOSH: SO CHOICE June 18, 2007<br />
Made a comment about someone comparing a Mac to a Ferrari (I didn't agree). Asked if Mac use is taught in the Seminaries because so many LCMS pastors I know use them (I was serious).<br />
<br />
<br />
TLSB IS NOT A LUTHERAN BIBLE: HERE'S WHY Sept. 13, 2009<br />
Asked if any material by Dr. Robert Preus was in the new Bible. Question was answered.<br />
<br />
<br />
THE LUTHERAN BIBLE ONLINE June 2, 2007<br />
Asked a question about the Apocrypha and Luther Bibel.<br />
<br />
<br />
LUTHER HYMNS IN LUTHERAN HYMNALS Oct 2, 2006<br />
My statement of my fault in a misquote on a message board, that there weren't as many Luther hymns in the new hymnal, was related on your blog that you had overheard from a third party and labeled as taking the cake in the "silly rumor" category. I informed you on your Blog that I was in error and had been corrected by the COW Chairman, to which you replied that you were glad to repeat that it was certainly not true.<br />
<br />
<br />
FAN OF THE CARDINALS YOU BET, BUT NOT THESE GUYS March 7, 2007<br />
I stated that the picture reminded me of the Spanish Inquisition from Monty Python. <br />
<br />
<br />
NOAH'S ARK June 30, 2006<br />
I stated that the wood from the arc was probably used for building materials or firewood.<br />
<br />
<br />
FENTON'S ADMISSION Dec 2, 2006<br />
Asked about Seminary examination of students in light of Pr. Fenton's defection to the EO Church.<br />
<br />
<br />
BURGUNDY BOOK CONTEST Dec 16, 2008<br />
Now-dead hyperlink to my pictorial entry for the Burgundy Book contest. No comment made.<br />
<br />
<br />
THINKING OF SWITCHING TO A MAC? Dec 6, 2007<br />
"Can you run Lutheran Service Builder on it?"<br />
<br />
<br />
WHICH BOC DO YOU USE? Oct 22, 2006<br />
"Bente/Dau 1922. Waiting on the Revised Concordia."<br />
<br />
<br />
BOOKOFCONCORD.ORG: HARD TO FIND DOCUMENTS NOW AVAILABLE Oct 5, 2008<br />
"Thank you for adding the Confutation. That is really cool."<br />
<br />
<br />
EMBARRASING, BUT WHAT'S A DOG TO DO? Nov 8, 2008<br />
Me: Concern about the hairball going up in flames.<br />
You: Not to worry, just the camera angle and perspective.<br />
<br />
<br />
THE BEST LUTHERAN HYMN EVER! Dec 5, 2006<br />
"We sang all 10 stanzas today! It was great." re: Speratus<br />
<br />
<br />
HAIR DRYERS AND DE-BAPTISM July 18, 2010<br />
I commented that Baptism is never invalidated and can't be repeated.<br />
<br />
<br />
NOT SAYING ALLELUIA DURING LENT IS STUPID (SURE TO CAUSE APOPLEXY AMONG HIGH CHURCH PURISTS) Feb 18, 2010<br />
Me: "Pr. McCain, are you saying I should tell my pastor that everything he told us in Bible class about "The Little Ordination" is wrong?"<br />
You: "I find no support for the view."<br />
You: "(Not saying Alleluia).. as fundamentally stupid, silly and reeediculous!<br />
Me: "What if this adiaphora offends people?"<br />
You: "Then they should get over being offended. See today's post on Christian maturity."<br />
<br />
<br />
VATICAN OFFICIAL PROPOSES ECUMENICAL CATECHISM Feb 14, 2010<br />
My reply was that it sounds like the Orange Catholic Bible from the Ecumenical Translators in Frank Herbert's Dune novel. Science Fiction!<br />
<br />
<br />
THE ESV STUDY BIBLE Oct 15, 2007<br />
I asked if NIV Self-Study footnotes will be added to the new Concordia ESV. You answered no; brand new.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
WHERE IS THE SNARK, RUDENESS AND FIGHTING???<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Soli Deo gloria.<br />
Yours in Christ,<br />
Timothy C. SchenksTimothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-72221036679866277152011-11-20T19:43:00.002-06:002013-03-28T09:46:51.123-05:00Various Quotes I Want To Remember<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>The Inspiration of Scripture: A Study of the Theology of the 17th Century Lutheran Dogmaticians, Robert Preus, CPH, 1955, 1957</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Preface - [B]itter invective was the rule in all controversial issues, the fact that abhorrence, hatred and intolerance of false doctrine, all of which seems so strange now, was a guiding principle then ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">...their stubborn, unrelenting assaults on Romanism, Calvinism, unionism and everything not strictly Lutheran.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">...their rigid adherence to the Lutheran principle of sola scriptura and in their doctrine of verbal inspiration, tenets which are not cherished by the majority of modern theologians and historians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">They would not have hesitated to overthrow the doctrine which they had inherited if they had thought it contrary to Scripture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Church and Ministry Today, The Luther Academy, 2001</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 23 - ... Maurer says, "Therefore, to fear no one and to set for the truth freely and openly is not a test of the pastor's courage; it is a matter of office and command. Those who preach should not wear out and let themselves be chased into a corner, nor should they become impatient and creep away into the wilderness. Public service demands a person who is willing to risk everything and who is totally committed, who is tough when things are tough, and who will not be frightened or silenced." To minister publicly means to witness for the truth in season, at every opportunity, no matter what the consequences. And the minister has the divine call to do this. (Dr. Robert D. Preus, The Doctrine of the Call in the Confessions and Lutheran Orthodoxy)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 33 - The call is always permanent. The notion of a temporary call is inconceivable in the nature of the case, and therefore the matter is not even considered by Luther or the Confessions or any Lutheran theologian. The function of the ministerial office, Calov asserts, is to work for the church as a servant (diaconus), not as a lord, to do the work of the evangelist to the grave, to guard and be an example to the flock, an angel of God's revelation of His Word. One never quits such a calling. As the immediate call in apostolic times was for life (until God Himself called the person to a new place), so it is with the mediate call. It is permanent and irrevocable, unless God Himself intervenes. (Dr. Robert D. Preus, The Doctrine of the Call in the Confessions and Lutheran Orthodoxy)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>The Theology and Life of Robert David Preus, The Luther Academy, 2009</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 49 (David Scaer) - In some ways the post-Seminex war syndrome presented the LCMS with more problems than those the conflict resolved. Where the liberalism of the 1960s was soon recognized as a not-so-subtle form of unbelief, neo-evangelicalism with its dependency on the Bible slipped its nose under the LCMS tent "while men were sleeping" (Mt 13:25). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 118 (Oliver Olson) - [At the 1953 convention Robert Preus commented:] "Issues of life are not decided by counting noses but by the Word of God."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 119 (Oliver Olson) - God does not hold us responsible for our "impact," but for faithfulness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 122 (Kurt Marquart) - In the case of Piepkorn -- whom Sasse somewhere dismissed as the "high priest" of the American Lutheran liturgical movement -- we are dealing, for all the pedantic detail, with a very one-sided, not to say eccentric, interpretation of the Confessions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sasse's case is much more like that of Robert Preus, in that both men rose to global theological importance. For one thing, Sasse was a historical theologian and Preus a dogmatical one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The standard orthodox Lutheran divines were for him (Preus) the legitimate heirs and executors of the Lutheran Reformation's legacy, laid down once and for all in the Book of Concord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That explains why Robert Preus founded no distinct theological party or school of thought. Like Walther he strove only for the Lutheran equivalent of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, that is, plain unvarnished, generic Lutheranism, if you will. Frills and eccentricities and hobby-horses Preus left to others. They did not interest him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 132 (Kurt Marquart) - The point, however, is not to pine for new confessions while ignoring the ones we've already got.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Book of Concord</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Preface 21 - In our lands, dominions, schools, and churches no other doctrine should be proclaimed and accurately set forth except that which is founded upon God's Word and contained in the Augsburg Confession and the Apology (when properly understood it its genuine sense). Opinions conflicting with these are not allowed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>At Home In The House Of My Fathers. Matthew Harrison, ed. Lutheran Legacy, 2009.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 68 - Despite our willingness to understand him [Grabau] and to do him justice, we are yet closer to the side of our brothers from Missouri, Ohio and Other States and their practices, even though regarding the so-called renegade preachers [Rottenprediger], they have become amiss here and there. (Letter from Wilhem Loehe October 24, 1851)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 103 - But as unpleasant as the first clash was at times, thus it always showed in the long run that despite many theoretical differences that have existed until now, the one love that binds all true Christians with a bond that cannot be broken -- the love unto the truth --<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bound us on both sides so intimately together that not only could no discord generated by the intensity of the conflict remain but also, almost always to the end, we, unified in the truth, had to extend the brotherly hand anew. (Walther, Trip Report of the visit to Germany)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 108 - There is only one point that could violate our consciences deeply, if we are forced to bear it in the old way. It is communion fellowship with the United and Reformed. We do not recognize this as a mere emergency or exceptional state (Not- oder Ausnahmszutstand]. It burdens our consciences as a sin. No peace can be made with this situation. It is to be renounced as soon as possible and in every way ... as difficult and sorrowful as this could be for ourselves here and there. (Walther, Addendum to the trip report)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 130 - For loyal, positive Lutherans believe what the Lutheran Church teaches in its Confessions. A doctrine does not become an open question when supposedly loyal Lutherans are not in agreement. And whoever permits such doctrines to be treated as open questions surrenders the fortress of the Confession of our Church and is in reality no loyal Lutheran. (Walther, Why Should Our Pastors Subscribe Unconditionally?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 247 - Furthermore, a synod that is "faithful to the Confessions," must also "c. supervise the confessional faithfulness of its members." (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 248 - It is not even enough that it receive only such pastors and teachers as prove themselves faithful to the Confessions. It must also see to it that they remain that way; for only he that is "faithful to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22, Luther Bibel). (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But it is impossible for a sizeable church body to remain in the true faith if there isn't a constant check to see that everything is as it was in the beginning, when the pastor came to the congregation. Without visitation it is probably impossible for a church to remain in the unity of faith and confession. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 251 - The Preface to The Book of Concord says: We likewise purpose to cooperate with one another in the future ... through diligent visitation of churches and schools. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 253 - How we are slandered, what nasty names people call us, how horribly we are portrayed as loveless, contentious, arrogant, proud spirits, who regard themselves alone as orthodox and infallible! It is indeed not easy to bear this insult to which we are subjected. But, dear brethren, we must bear this insult. Regardless of how repugnant it may be [to people] in this age of religious unionism and religious indifference to remain aloof from those who do not teach pure [doctrine]: God's Word demands it. Someday God will make a fearful separation, against which no creature will be able to say anything. That is simply God's governance: always separate. According to 2 Corinthians 6:14, the Church is not allowed to "be unequally yoked with unbelievers." (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 253 - But that is how false teachers usually condemn the witness of the orthodox Church; they say: "They are excommunicating us!" No, we say only, "We do not belong together, and we cannot participate in the falsification of God's precious Word." They want us to say, "We are of one heart and mind; you indeed falsify God's Word and proclaim your own ideas, but we won't let that make us enemies." No, a true church must consist only of those who are united in the true faith, as we heard in the opening sermon (on Ephesians 4:3), "One Faith."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For that reason, the Formula of Concord says:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe, teach and confess that no church should condemn another because it has fewer or more external ceremonies not commanded by God, as long as there is mutual agreement in doctrine and in all its articles as well as in the right use of the holy sacraments. [FC Ep X 7; Tappert, 493] (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 260 - We read in Matthew 18 that in dealing with church discipline, the final step takes the matter to the congregation; and when it has been decided, Christ does not say, "Then the sinner can appeal to the pastor," but it says: "Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector". Therewith Christ declares that the congregation is the final and supreme court from which there is no appeal. When [the congregation] has decided in conformity with God's Word, then the matter is settled. No one can protest against it. That is what Scripture teaches. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 264 - If a manifest sinner has been dealt with according to the steps of Matthew 18 and refuses to listen also to the congregation, Christ does not say, "Then go to the synod (or a consistory) as to a higher court," but He says: "The case is closed; then he is to be considered a heathen and a publican." (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 265 - Yes, even a small rural congregation of seven families has as much power as all the congregations in America combined, because it also has Jesus in its midst, with all His grace and all the rights and merits He won for us on the tree of the cross. Let everyone who is in such a tiny little congregation take note and know that church matters are not like worldly matters. The smallest congregation is just as important as the largest one, and the largest is no more important than the smallest, because every congregation is great only because Christ is present in it. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 269 - For instance, Huelsemann [1602-1661] writes: "There is difference between dependence on the jurisdiction of another (church) and the obligation to preserve unity of faith and doctrine with all other particular Christian churches. The latter (obligation) is a matter of divine law (1 Corinthians 12:24f.); the former (dependence on jurisdiction) is a matter of human law governing the relationship of one congregation to another." (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So the old Leipzig theologian wants to say: "Don't confuse the matter. That one church should always have the same faith [and] the same doctrine as the other, and on the basis of that doctrine, [have] the same practice -- that is a matter of divine law; for God says" "Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:3-6); [Luther Bibel]). And in 1 Corinthians 1:10, the apostle says: "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there shall be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgement." However, that several congregations unite and that there then should be some sort of superiors over them -- that is a matter of human law. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 285 - On the subject of other pastors and whole churches becoming involved when false prophets arise, Luther writes: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">... Such as situation is similar to a fire; if the landlord can't put the fire out by himself, then all the neighbors must come on the run and help to put out the fire ... so that the rest of the houses can be saved. ("On the Councils and the Church," 1539; Walch 16:2765f. Cf. WA 50:509-653; Aland 382) (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 286 - But is the synod is upright [rechtschaffen], it is the greatest possible blessing for a congregation to have a group of other congregations and pastors for support. For if a fire breaks out, there are hundreds, -- yes, thousands -- of helping hands, or better yet, the united voice of a thousand people to help out. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our synod has had the experience of a pastor giving offense to his entire congregation and dividing it into an endless number of factions. The synod, through its President and his assistants, came to their aid, with the result that almost all of the members were saved [gerettet]. The pastor had to leave ... But if there is a synod that maintains close doctrinal supervision, such cases will become more and more rare, for such as pastor knows that he cannot get by with what he's doing. And if he tries to lord it over the congregation, they will tell him, "Perhaps we should have the [District President] come down for an investigation," and then he'll quietly back down so as to head off such an investigation. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 287 - To put it another way: Synod as a whole, or by means of its District Presidents and Visitors [circuit counselors], or through its members in general, must provide sound counsel for the pastors who need it. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 289 - However, if this divine purpose is to be achieved, it is essential that Christians band together, mutually sharing and benefiting from these many gifts. That is what happens when you have a synod, and when the individual Christian knows, "I do not stand alone; I have a large number of brothers and sisters with whom I can share my needs; and if one of them has no solution for my problems, I can go to another for help, and eventually one of them will have the solution, because God will help them to find a solution." God leaves no one without help, so long as he uses all the means that are at his disposal. It is only the proud and haughty whom God allows to remain stuck. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 299 - God forbid that we ever get to the point where we merely put on a big show and then have a convention in which we discuss all sorts of peripheral piffle about ceremonies, rules, and insignificant trifles [armselige Lappalien]. Instead of that, may we always concentrate on the study of doctrine. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 300 - There are many things that one person cannot administer all by himself. How much more will it be necessary for a larger church body, consisting of a large number of congregations, to be able to discuss and consult with one another about possible ways to promote its interests! Therefore a synod's primary purposes are 1) unity of confession and 2) integrity of practices. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 301 - If the study of doctrine is not the number one priority at synodical conventions, then one of two things will happen: Either the convention will be manufacturing laws, or even worse, it will degenerate into an affair of mutual praise, love, assurance, and life insurance. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 305 - Regardless of how limited in ability your pastor may be, you can be sure of this: If you derive no benefit from the service, it is your own fault. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pg. 317 - We cannot avoid offending one another, but we can let ourselves be reconciled, and then we can forget the whole incident. Otherwise God will say, "I shall do as you have done. I'll make up with you, but you'll have to go to hell anyway, because of the way you've acted; 'With the measure you use it will be measured to you' (Matthew 7:2)." (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, if he refuses to accept admonition, I must proceed to tell him in a friendly fashion, "It is your own fault that your sin has become public knowledge. Why didn't you accept our brotherly admonition?" (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When someone goes too far but says, "Dear brother, I didn't intend to be so mean," I should immediately forgive him. But if I would respond, "Do you realize the full enormity of your conduct? Do you really repent of what you've done?" then I am being too legalistic [da wird die Goldwagegenommen]. That is wrong. We should not do that unless the offender has clearly demonstrated that he is a hardened and unrepentant sinner. In that case we must firmly inform him, "If you do not repent of your sin, you are lost." That is the proper procedure. (Walther, Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Article VI Conditions of Membership (2007 Handbook)</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Conditions for acquiring and holding membership in the Synod are the following:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. Acceptance of the confessional basis of Article II.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">3. Regular call of pastors ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Article XIII Expulsion from the Synod (2007 Handbook)</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. Members who act contrary to the confession laid down in Article II and to the conditions of membership laid down in Article VI or persist in an offensive conduct, shall, after previous futile admonition, be expelled from the Synod.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Bylaw 1.3.6 (2007 Handbook)</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Districts and circuits are component parts of the Synod are obligated to carry out resolutions of the Synod and are structures for congregations to review decisions of the Synod, to motivate one another to action, and to shape and suggest new directions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>C.F.W. Walther -- The True Visible Church and the Form of a Christian Congregation, pp. 31-32</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Quoting Hollaz: "Are schismatics true members of the church? I answer: Those who knowingly, willingly, maliciously, contrary to their own conscience, and moved by admiration of their own virtues and the purpose to offend others, incite trouble in the church, are not true members of the church. Schismatics, properly so called, are those who voluntarily and deliberately separate themselves from the church and cause divisions in it without any just cause, purposing only to disrupt its unity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Martin Luther -- "On Maintaining Friendship and Love," Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, volume 24, pages 244-246.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It does not require such great skill to begin to love; but, as Christ says here, remaining in love takes real skill and virtue. In matrimony many people are initially filled with such ardent affection and passion that they would fairly eat each other; later they become bitter foes. The same thing happens among Christian brethren. A trivial cause may dispel love and separate those who should really be bound with the firmest ties; it turns them into the worst and bitterest enemies. That is what happened in Christendom after the days of the apostles, when the devil raised up his schismatic spirits and heretics, so that bishops and pastors became inflamed with hatred against one another and then also divided the people into many kinds of sects and schisms from which Christendom suffered terrible harm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>C.F.W. Walther -- "The Motives and Qualifications of a Genuine Church Member," Church Membership: Addresses and Prayers at the meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Congregation of St. Louis, MO., and Its Board of Elders, by Dr. C.F.W. Walther, CPH, St. Louis, MO. 1931.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A member of a Lutheran congregation should be able to distinguish pure doctrine from false doctrines. Only spineless Lutherans can say: "What do I care about doctrinal controversies! They do not concern me in the least. I'll let those who are more learned than I am bother their heads about such matters." They may even be offended when they observe that religious leaders engage in doctrinal disputes. A genuine Lutheran will not forget that in the Epistle of Jude also lay Christians are admonished "earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." What is more, Christ warns all Christians: "Beware of false prophets." And St. John writes in his first epistle: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world." It is a settled fact that whoever is indifferent to false doctrine is indifferent also to pure doctrine and his soul's salvation, and has no right to bear the name Lutheran and the name of Christ. </span></div>
Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-84592542779295299122011-09-13T11:44:00.002-05:002013-06-18T17:52:59.440-05:00Update on ULC in Minneapolis (Assault on the Gospel)<div id="yui_3_2_0_14_131593188824243"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">----- Forwarded Message -----<br />
<b><span id="yui_3_2_0_14_131593188824258" style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Rev. David Dissen <ddrev@clas.net><br />
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Chapel of Hope Board List</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, September 13, 2011 8:57 AM<br />
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Fw: [CampusTalk] Update on ULC in Minneapolis</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please keep this Campus Ministry and their pastor in your prayers, that God </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">will lead the District Board of Directors to keep their present place of </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">worship. What a shame it would be to lose such a place, even as it would be </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to lose the wonderful site and facilities that we have for our Campus </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ministry at SEMO at Lutheran Chapel of Hope.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know Rev. David Kind personally. I baptized him as an infant when his </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">parents were members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Beloit, Wis. while I was </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pastor at Trinity.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pastor Kind is a very effective, conservative and confessional Campus </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pastor. All of them in his ministry need our prayers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In Christ Jesus,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Pastor Dissen,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Rev. 2,10b</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">----- Original Message ----- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From: "Rev. Marcus T. Zill" <</span><a href="mailto:zill@higherthings.org" ymailto="mailto:zill@higherthings.org"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">zill@higherthings.org</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To: "CHRIST ON CAMPUS TALK" <</span><a href="mailto:campus-talk@higherthings.org" ymailto="mailto:campus-talk@higherthings.org"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">campus-talk@higherthings.org</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 7:17 AM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Subject: [CampusTalk] Update on ULC in Minneapolis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> Dear everyone,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> It is with a heavy heart that I beseech you and your people to pray in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> earnest for Rev. David Kind, the members of University Lutheran Chapel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> in Minneapolis, and all or her members and students as they await news</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> as to whether or not the Minnesota South District plans to sell their</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> campus ministry building and leave them homeless. Pray also that the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> Minnesota South Board of Directors will be led to reverse their</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> apparent course of action and not make such a shortsighted decision.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> In case you haven't heard, today (9/13) the Minnesota South Board of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> Directors is considering a proposal to sell University Lutheran Chapel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> to a development company for $3 million for the purpose of leveling it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> and developing apartments for college students. Of course, college</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> students at the University of Minnesota can find other temporary</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> places to live, but what they can't hear everywhere is the timeless</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> and eternal Gospel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> We were afraid that this day might come and unfortunately it appears</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> it has. Make no mistake about it. This is an assault on the Gospel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> However, we can take solace in the fact that we all have done all that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> we could and that we have a God who has a consistent habit of taking</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> things that the Evil One means for our destruction, and using them for</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> His purposes in ways that we can not even fathom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> May God care for those most closely effected at ULC, comfort those who</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> mourn such a loss especially the young and impressionable college</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> students whom we all seek to serve together, and grant all of us</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> further resolve to support and defend the preaching of the Gospel and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> the administration of the Sacraments on our nations campuses precisely</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> for the sake of the Gospel and not mammon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> God's will be done.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> Lord, have mercy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> Marcus</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> __________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> Rev. Marcus T. Zill</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> Christ on Campus Executive, Higher Things</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> </span><a href="http://higherthings.org/campus" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://higherthings.org/campus</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> 1309 Grand Ave, Laramie, WY 82070</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> 307.745-5892 (study)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> 307.760-7497 (cell)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> "Confessing Christ on Campus Since 1517"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">> </span><br />
</div>Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-79647232852339430302011-06-30T11:53:00.007-05:002013-03-28T09:46:51.134-05:00Second Retirement of Pastor David Dissen<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUFWoyAfZ5Qd_IiQ-J1Gx6mi4TFISbI_6kv_boWBz72TcrHKzClcJ3V5Pr0X7Xm8kVkcqxs28kE6qUek5vXZ3e3uVGMlC3ujAsoXSYRDz7cfZdOMj1Ttf6pyV1PqdA07X3ZpQ1-1Iec4/s1600/prdissen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUFWoyAfZ5Qd_IiQ-J1Gx6mi4TFISbI_6kv_boWBz72TcrHKzClcJ3V5Pr0X7Xm8kVkcqxs28kE6qUek5vXZ3e3uVGMlC3ujAsoXSYRDz7cfZdOMj1Ttf6pyV1PqdA07X3ZpQ1-1Iec4/s320/prdissen.jpg" width="224px" /></a></div>This post is a few weeks overdue. <br />
<br />
Pr Dave Dissen recently retired after eleven years of part-time service as Vacancy Pastor of the University Lutheran Chapel of Hope in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and after over fifty years of ordination as an LCMS pastor. He has also served as the Vacancy Pastor at my congregation -- Zion Lutheran Church in Poplar Bluff -- and Senior Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. Over the years he had supervised twenty LCMS Seminarian Vicars, including my current Pastor, Rev. Marty E. Reed. His own vicarage was in Cuba at the beginning of the communist revolution there. Pr. Dissen has also served as a Missouri District Vice President, member of the Board of Regents at Concordia Seminary, chaplain of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department and member of various synodical task forces. According to Dr. Martin Noland's paper in <em>The Theology and Life of Dr. Robert D. Preus</em>, Pr. Dissen was president of Dr. Preus' International Foundation for Lutheran Confessional Research which was originally associated with the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series. His chapel devotions are frequently seen reprinted in <em>Christian News</em>.<br />
<br />
Here are the last letters he sent to the University Lutheran Chapel of Hope board of directors:<br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Greetings everyone,</span></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> I want to express my sincere thanks to all you Board Members for the very thoughtful gift presented to me yesterday by Beverly Lewis at the Chapel service by the Board at my retirement. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> Thanks so much for the digital desk clock and pad and also the very nice card. I'm glad to see the numbers on the clock are very large. At my age, large letters help. Most of you don't know what I am talking about now but if you live long enough, you will experience it for yourself.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> Thanks also for the beautiful altar flowers. It is not often that we have altar flowers for our Chapel services so this was an extra added touch.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> Thanks also to Curt Wills for providing the supper, to Kirk Sandfort for the very tasty and wonderfully decorated cake, to Howard Hemman for bringing the salad and Joyce Wollenburg for bringing special plates, napkins and also some brownies. Thanks also to all those who cleaned up after the supper.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> These past eleven years have gone quickly. I thank the Lord for permitting me to provide a Word and Sacrament Ministry to our college students and also to see some of the immediate blessings of this ministry in the lives of some of the students.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> You have a great leadership team for the future in Pastor Schwiesow and Matthew Younghouse. Give them your continued support in the coming years as you have supported my ministry in the past. You have been a true blessing to his ministry and will continue to be. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> Thanks again for a wonderful retirement supper. Since I have asked but have not received a "clear" answer as to who all was involved in planning yesterday's event, I will say to all of you and especially to those who did the planning: "THANK YOU SO MUCH" for a wonderful retirement gift.</span></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> In Christ Jesus,</span></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> Pastor Dissen,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> Rev. 2,10b</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span> </div><div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><strong>GREETINGS EVERYONE AS ANOTHER ACADEMIC YEAR COMES TO A CLOSE,</strong></span></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Tomorrow, May 8th, is our last worship service for this semester. We worship at 5 PM with Holy Communion and supper after the service which is provided by the Board Members and co-ordinated by Curt Wills. Thanks, Curt, for your help.</span></strong></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">This is my last service in my present capacity since I am retiring from the Campus Ministry after the end of this month. Pastor Wayne Schwisow and Matthew Younghouse are assuming the new leadership. They are a real God-send to our campus ministry and, with God's blessings, will do very well.</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Many thanks to all those who have been such a tremendous help to me in this vital ministry the past 11 years. It has been a joy to be involved in this campus ministry.</span></strong></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">No Bible Study next Wednesday.</span></strong></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">All personal possessions must be removed from the campus facilities by the end of Friday, May 13th. The locks will be re-keyed and your present key to the back door and the library/computer room will no longer work.</span></strong></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Congratulations to all our graduates. May you be a blessing to many in the future. </span></strong></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">In Christ Jesus,</span></strong></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Pastor Dissen,</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;">Rev. 2,10b</span></strong></div><div></div><div></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><strong></strong><strong>STAND UP! - STAND UP FOR JESUS!</strong><br />
<strong>One of my many favorite hymns in The Lutheran Hymnal is "Stand Up! - Stand Up for Jesus!" I realize that some Christians do not like this hymn because they think that it is too militant! They don’t want to hear Christians singing about fighting and warfare! However, these Christians overlook the inescapable truth that this side of heaven we Christians are members of the Church Militant, not the Church Triumphant.</strong><br />
<strong>Jesus Himself reminds you and me and all His followers that in this life there is a daily battle going on between right and wrong, and truth and falsehood in which we are engaged. He states very plainly: "I came not to send peace, but a sword." </strong><br />
<strong>As Christian students at a secular college at SEMO in Cape Girardeau, you know all too well the constant temptations you have both on and off campus to become bed partners with sin, to silence and desensitize your conscience when it comes to sins of commission and omission, and to excuse and/or rationalize any covenant you make with sin and Satan.</strong><br />
<strong>Christians with a knowledge of God’s Word and an operative brain know that our college students (and all of us) are constantly faced with very powerful anti-moral and anti-Christian forces that confront all of us. These forces are evident in college professors and fellow students who ridicule the Bible and Christianity. These forces attack our Christian faith in classroom books that undermine the truth of God’s Word. They assault our Christian faith and moral decency through the filth of poisonous pornographic magazines and the moral debauchery of inter-net websites that feed sinful lusts. They seek to destroy our Christian values through seductive and destructive movies, songs and TV programs that laugh at sin and chastity, ridicule Christian family life and make a mockery of Christ’s morally pure truths.</strong><br />
<strong>As you students either continue your studies at SEMO after I leave the campus ministry or as you pursue your chosen career after graduation, my prayer is that you will always "Stand Up - Stand Up for Jesus! Fight against all the treacherous forces of evil and your own sinful flesh by taking to heart the words of the hymn writer: "Put on the Gospel armor, Each piece put on with prayer; Where duty calls or danger, Be never wanting there." </strong><br />
<strong>Receive the daily strength that you need to "Stand Up for Jesus" by going to the Word of God’s Grace in which He assures you that He forgives you all your sins and removes the guilt and stain of your sinful lives because Christ died for you and rose again. Keep up your DBR degree—your Daily Bible Reader degree. Read it with reverence. Read it for the indwelling guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit. Read it to build up your Christian faith, life and character. Through the unconquerable power of God in His Word and His holy sacraments, He will use you to be a spiritual and moral blessing in this sin-perishing world and will on the last day give you the crown of eternal life by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Never be ashamed to "Stand Up! - Stand Up for Jesus!" and His Word of truth.</strong><br />
<u><strong>Prayer:</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>In Christ Jesus,</strong><br />
<strong>Rev. David V. Dissen,</strong><br />
<strong>Lutheran Chapel of Hope</strong><br />
<strong>PO Box 1465 Cape Girardeau, MO 63702</strong><br />
<strong>Tel.: Home: 573-334-5736 Cell: 573-837-0969</strong><br />
<strong>Website: <a href="http://www.lutheransonline.com/chapelofhope" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.lutheransonline.com/chapelofhope</a></strong><br />
<strong> </strong></u><strong> O God, help us always to Stand Up for Jesus! We pray in His holy name, Amen.</strong></span></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
hasEML = false;
</script>Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-31877058111132741022011-04-09T01:38:00.001-05:002014-05-18T03:50:36.466-05:00Lord Have MercyAttached below is something one of my congregation's former presidents wrote to me four years ago. This man was one of the ringleaders who tried to get rid of our pastor over the last four years -- through my entire brief experience as a church council member. His bragging points over the years were introducing female membership to our voters about forty years ago (not a big deal these days), promoting theistic evolution, writing letters to the congregation stirring up strife and dissent. He also suggested we emulate the practices of a RIM (LCMS charismatic/pentecostal errorist) pastor in Florida. He later transferred to a congregation that drove away four pastors in a row.<br />
<br />
Dr. A.C. Piepkorn wrote that allowing impenitent members to transfer for the sake of getting them out out of your hair is damage to the unity of Synod, but that's becoming a very common thing.<br />
<br />
----- Original Message ----- <br />
From: --- ------<br />
To: tcschenks@<br />
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 9:37 AM<br />
Subject: Convention<br />
<br />
Hi: I was pleased to read you are a delegate to the convention. I hope the delegates in all their wisdom are able to help guide the LCMS in its path to bring Christ to the world. <br />
<br />
The LCMS has been loosing members. There is a great diversity among the many individual ministers within the church. I have found that some are attracting people and some are repelling them. This seems to be caused by whether or not the minister follows an extremely conservative stance or not. For instance, although a member of the church since a child, I never heard any Lutheran minister expound his belief that the universe was created in 6 days time. They all seemed to realize that science has disproved this. A few years ago, a Lutheran minister expounded the belief in the 6 (24 hour) days of creation, contrary to all knowledge learned over the past 500 years. Now, this would not be harmful in itself, but it is the type of thing that drives educated people from the church, and the reason we are loosing so many people. Each week, I listen to the frustration of our parishioners in this reguard. I presume they vent their frustration to me because in the past I have help guide the church away from such archaic views as male only voters and positions such as male only secretary. <br />
<br />
So, I would hope the delegates would be guided by the churches who are bringing people into the fold as opposed to those who are driving them away. I mention the above paragraph as just an example. In itself, it is not that important, but it is a symptom of the illness spreading its virus throughout the LCMS. <br />
<br />
Best wishes, --- ------Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-75822931902585439222011-03-18T12:52:00.002-05:002013-06-18T17:52:59.438-05:00Commemoration of Issues, Etc. Cancellation<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9wKW6NY6dpjguCiaGflW0e6aLOjR-uG_MGH_Mn7Q5T-_TqWeOX6rFJWGdMd2qJ3HEsmVISNd9ch2ORXigWjvwtZGQfja17QoHE5yBwaR1Aej2wxvn2gDNxDOBoHjzzqXlm9xt7LJbL8/s1600/madhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9wKW6NY6dpjguCiaGflW0e6aLOjR-uG_MGH_Mn7Q5T-_TqWeOX6rFJWGdMd2qJ3HEsmVISNd9ch2ORXigWjvwtZGQfja17QoHE5yBwaR1Aej2wxvn2gDNxDOBoHjzzqXlm9xt7LJbL8/s1600/madhouse.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Issues, Etc. Producer Jeff Schwarz<br />
LCMS, Inc. Termination Debriefing<br />
Courtesy of Board of Communication Services</td></tr>
</tbody></table>This is the anniversary of a notable event, an LCMS Night of the Long-Knives.<br />
<br />
MAR 18 2008 (Monday of Holy Week)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <br />
The LCMS cancelled the radio program bearing the name “Issues, Etc.” The Executive Director of the LCMS Board for Communication Services, David Strand, directed KFUO-AM management to remove immediately all references to the name “Issues, Etc.” from KFUO-AM broadcast programming and website. According to Strand, “Once the decision to discontinue ‘Issues’ had become public, modifications had to be made to the KFUO-AM website to reflect the changes in the programming schedule and to remove references and links to the discontinued program... Many things had to happen quickly on the afternoon of March 18 to make the necessary changes to the programming schedule on the AM website and to remove references and links to ‘Issues, Etc.’”<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtWTJz6-rh0OgVHiQBH4rxisOnk3PqRMJefeCnYE48Q7cuweguUExaycvaUOelT7JdDQSMdaQ9Y2dgK0qLKCeeyu1UbLMcBfHFWm63agzNnLtMRMt-49MiljLdIXJfjL903AebLWQrFs/s1600/ielogo2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQtWTJz6-rh0OgVHiQBH4rxisOnk3PqRMJefeCnYE48Q7cuweguUExaycvaUOelT7JdDQSMdaQ9Y2dgK0qLKCeeyu1UbLMcBfHFWm63agzNnLtMRMt-49MiljLdIXJfjL903AebLWQrFs/s200/ielogo2.gif" width="177" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZKh5q5V9qFrjRQKrWSaaxAL0GGVMZsVlkGsnNklHeqWLXXIoytvd3HI6wZZRkUkfV-LUQet2VRC2cbl5NzYgKrmKrDYeiqAqNLoZHk5no6nzwLaMzq6EbJQS_yO4LL13ouQJoZxb-n8/s1600/Issueswidget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZKh5q5V9qFrjRQKrWSaaxAL0GGVMZsVlkGsnNklHeqWLXXIoytvd3HI6wZZRkUkfV-LUQet2VRC2cbl5NzYgKrmKrDYeiqAqNLoZHk5no6nzwLaMzq6EbJQS_yO4LL13ouQJoZxb-n8/s200/Issueswidget.jpg" width="198" /></a></div><br />
They're still here. Listen to them at <a href="http://issuesetc.org/">http://issuesetc.org/</a><br />
<br />
Don't forget: April 14, 2008 -- March on the Purple Palace (AKA Prayer vigil at LCMS International Center, Kirkwood, MO).Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-56009925727379493232011-02-21T09:48:00.000-06:002013-03-28T09:46:51.099-05:00<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3cxSZ6LdM6bmauQlCzp3sowEvBu3URSDFEkIUe74vSQrVtJxNcLm5AirXVyUclmh46Kk30d9NnBkYXkf-uxxc24M1wMISfrGGR1HmI9GIUG3u3fInyBWoK-9tV0Tcamq8VpUkuV1QYE4/s1600/PRCHAS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3cxSZ6LdM6bmauQlCzp3sowEvBu3URSDFEkIUe74vSQrVtJxNcLm5AirXVyUclmh46Kk30d9NnBkYXkf-uxxc24M1wMISfrGGR1HmI9GIUG3u3fInyBWoK-9tV0Tcamq8VpUkuV1QYE4/s1600/PRCHAS2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rev. Marty E. Reed<br />
Pastor<br />
Zion Lutheran Church U.A.C.<br />
Poplar Bluff, Missouri</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2697478115569704784.post-73043065424718800012011-02-20T07:39:00.000-06:002013-03-28T09:46:51.126-05:00Walk in Your Vocation.Volume 2 (That is, Year 2) of the English translation of <em>Der Lutheraner</em>, published by C.F.W. Walther in 1845, is now available. Subscribe at <a href="http://markvpublications.com/">http://markvpublications.com/</a><br />
<br />
Excerpt from Volume 2, No. 2:<br />
<br />
<strong>Walk in Your Vocation.</strong><br />
<br />
God's Word, command and work alone must be regarded, and that alone honored and praised and what comes along outside of God's Word and Command must all be reproached as something else. Now when a maid tends to the chickens, a wife bears her children, a husband attends the labor of his hands, a prince or a lord has wicked fools knocked on the head, they should all be approved regardless of their station and say: God has done that. But even if you had the ability to save all the world with your preaching and yet you did not have a command to do so, just leave that alone, for you would transgress the legitimate Sabbath and it would not be pleasing to God.<br />
<br />
--Luther on Exodus 20:8-11Timothy C. Schenkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770741345144496175noreply@blogger.com0