A little fence check today

 With two of my sons, we went out and had some fun checking the fences this afternoon. Some places didn't get any readings, but others got really good readings. More work to do, but that kinda gets me going. Stay tuned. Also we got our first really quick surprise snow of the season in the process. It didn't last long, but kinda got us thinking about the winter. Going down to 28 degrees tonight. Brrr!

Why "the Grass Farmer"?

 When I started this "blog" back in 2014 I had every intention to keep it about Agriculture, and small scale farming by managing grass, soil, and animals. After a certain turn of events shortly after I started this blog (and I use that term lightly) I switched to mainly writing about Theology. I am still very passionate about both topics. I kept the title "grass farmer" since that passion has never left me. It's been a little dormant for the last several years since the blog began... but has recently been re-ignited, or re-germinated.  I can't quite remember the moment it happened. But I found myself noodling again with the idea that I might be able to do some good locally with some cattle, and some pasture, that is not even my own.. but belongs to other people. Stay tuned. God willing, there will be more to come.

The Soul of Man

The Human Soul...

Where does it come from? ...When is it created? Does the soul exist before the body? ...How is it bound to my physical body?

These are some questions that I have not given much thought in any measure. That is until I found myself reading the book titled "The Conservative Reformation  and it's Theology" by Charles Porterfield Krauth. An 830 page collection of his writings regarding the topic of the Lutheran Reformation.

Many things are amazingly explained for the lay-person to understand. And they bring a great light to our understanding of the Reformation, it's impact, its history, doctrine, and it's purpose. One area in particular has really stirred me to awaken, in a specific and rudimentary way. And that is the origination of my human soul, and no less important... it's condition.

I still love how Wordsworth so beautifully states the notion in his "Intimations on Immortality" that our souls come from afar, and are preexisting from our bodies. I've even quoted him myself in this blog in the past, and thought nothing of it really in terms of the origination of the human soul. But, no matter how beautifully he has put this thought into prose, he is ...to say it nicely ...not exactly correct.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home: - William Wordswoth

About the middle of the book, he (Krauth) is writing about the "Specific Doctrines" of the reformation, startling with Original Sin. Specifically as a way of understanding how Original Sin is passed from generation to generation, from parent to child, all the way back from our original parents Adam and Eve. He discusses the human soul and it's creation.

The Apostle Paul asks us all the question, "What do you have, that you have not received?" In this book of C.P. Krauth we hear the echo of this same doctrine. Krauth rightly points out, that to imagine, like Wordsworth, the unique individual soul, pre-existent to the body ...just waiting in heaven, to at some point be joined with the body... that this notion would be to understand God, as having created perfect holy souls, that may yet be placed into a body that is profoundly sinful, and even on many occasion, damned to hell. This is akin to placing God as the "punisher" and destroyer of Holy Souls. Certainly not a Biblical understanding!

We are taught by Holy Scripture that our very souls ultimately come from God, but by means of our immediate parents. Not placed there from another location in Heaven. There was something very interesting with the way God created man "in His image" when we think about the creation of the soul. Also something very interesting about the way the son of Adam, Seth (and the rest of us) were created in Adam's likeness. and from Adam's image. Adam and Eve had Cain, and Able. But then after Able's death they had Seth, and the Scripture gives us some interesting detail about his creation. God has designed it, that when a man and a women come together and create another life "The two shall become one." a soul is created that DOES have a beginning, but doesn't have an end. ...from the combined souls of the mother, and the father, a new and entirely unique soul is created from the mother, and from the father. The mother and father are the means that God Himself uses to create a soul. I'm reminded of the farmer who plants the seed and waters, but it is God that gives the growth. As Adam and Eve were created "in Our Image" speaking of the Image of the Triune God... Seth (Adam and Eve's son) was created "in his own likeness, after his image" talking about Adam's image. Which was no longer the pure, righteous image of God any longer, after the fall. Seth received the image (likeness) of Adam. A man created in the image of God, but an image that is now marred, and an image that is bent in on itself, and at enmity with God.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. -Genesis 5:3

Adam sinned in the the Garden. Now his image was marred irrevocably, by that sin. He and all of man, were now cursed in the Fall. Adam's "likeness" was now, not what it used to be.

 Now, to understand this "the two shall become one flesh" we see how undeniably, intrinsically and amazingly unique every human being is. And the amazing bond that is occurring between parent and child. Also between brothers, and sisters.

This understanding also helps us see clearly a lot of other things in Scripture when it comes to certain doctrines. For example, I think about the doctrine of Salvation. A lot of things that are already written and understood, but come to new light. ...Infant Baptism for example. Babies are not "innocent" if they are born from unholy things. To name one, Krauth points out the verse in Job 14:4

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.  -Job 14:4

In the Psalms King David talks about his own conception and birth, when he confesses "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my Mother conceive me."  -Psalm 51:5

Krauth asks the question, "Is a seed truly a tree" or better to ask "is it truly vegetable? Does the seed have truly the same nature as the tree? and the reply is "...it has. Nay, rather the tree is but a phenomenon of the seed; it is itself  the parent seed developed, and it's own perfect potency ends in a seed."   Krauth continues, by describing our sin nature by looking at a baby's face. Perhaps a baby is upset, and turns angry for  a moment, (maybe someone has taken his toy away) and we see the cute little scowl on his precious face, and we might smile, and think, 'how cute'. We can imagine Cain as a baby (says Krauth) with the lines of anger on his baby face, and that is the same angry nature that murdered his brother, but was thought of as cute, and laughed at by his parents.

Sin, comes from, and is the fault of man, not God.

By understanding what happened from the first sin, and how that "original sin" is passed down to us, through the generations will lead us into truly understanding what is going on in our own time. Also it will lead us into correctly understanding SO MUCH of Biblical Theology. As a tree's roots grow deep, and wide beneath the soil, and also the branches expand, and grow tall and wide... so does our Biblical understanding of Original Sin reach into every facet of Biblical Theology. I've heard it said, that the Doctrine of Original Sin was the rudimentary doctrine of the entire Lutheran Reformation.

I'm not sure exactly about the following verse, but I think there may be something in there about Original Sin, and the Origination of the Soul from the parent to the child, that this verse may shed a little light on, to help us understand that idea, and help us (perhaps) understand the verse and what God is telling us in it. I'm checking with my Pastor about this. Stay tuned. This verse below has me thinking, because it is talking about the Command "You shall have no other gods before me". And visiting the iniquity of the fathers to the children etc. etc. 

9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
-Deuteronomy 5:9-10  

God's Love, Mercy and His Grace are truly unfathomable to our little minds, and our wicked and inward bent hearts.

Thanks be to God!

Deep musings from a beloved Church Father.

Some very thoughtful, and deep quotes from one of our ancient fathers in the Faith. Athanasius of Alexandria. Alexandria, Egypt. 

 St Athanasius the Apostolic, was the 20th bishop of Alexandria. His episcopate lasted 45 years (c. 8 June 328 – 2 May 373), of which over 17 were spent in five exiles ordered by four different Roman emperors. He is considered to be a renowned Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century.

 “He, the Life of all, our Lord and Saviour, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest He should seem to be afraid of some other kind. No. He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those other His special enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and by no means to be faced; and He did this in order that, by destroying even this death, He might Himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be recognised as finally annulled. A marvellous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonour and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death's defeat.”
― St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation   (298 - 372 A.D.) 

“In ancient times before the divine sojourn of the Savior took place, even to the saints death was terrible; all wept for the dead as though they perished. But now that the Savior has raised his body, death is no longer terrible; for all who believe in Christ trample on it as it were nothing and choose rather to die than deny their faith in Christ. And that devil that once maliciously exulted in death, now that its pains were loosed, remained the only one truly dead.”
― Athanasius, On the Incarnation

If I do not wash you...

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand."  Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me."  Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" John 13:6-9 ESV

I am so eternally grateful that Peter asked Jesus that question! When I think about Jesus washing the apostles feet and Peter asking, "Lord do you wash my feet? ...You will never wash my feet." Jesus reply "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." That statement makes me think about justification by Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Christ alone. We know scripture informs us that we are saved by grace, and not by works. Our Lord said "If I do not wash you...". He said that they do not understand what he's doing now, but later on they would understand. What we see in this amazing event is Christ giving us a lesson, not only a lesson about how to serve others, but a loving doctrinal lesson, that it is His washing that makes us clean from sin, and when He... washes us, He washes us once and for all, clean from all of our sin. It is His work that opens the doors of Heaven for all who Believe. It is not our own righteousness, but His, which He imparts to us, that opens the gates of Heaven to a person. "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." He has done the work. 

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
    for you have indeed done for us all our works. - Isaiah 26:12

Now when Peter said "Lord, not only my feet but also my head and my hands." We hear that and we think ...oh such devotion and love, and faithfulness. 'Now Peter understands' we say to ourselves. But Jesus once again corrects him and says, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean...". It's so easy in our human minds to want to do the things that make us holy. Christ is here telling us 'you cannot, let me make you holy in the way that I do it. For it is the only way possible.' What a beautiful picture of justification by faith. Jesus simply, and miraculously washes us in our baptism and cleanses us from all our sin in his name, the name of the Triune God. And it is our faith in His work and His act on the cross that is delivered to us in our baptism. Our faith clings to His work.

   "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." 

Baptism

...What a wonderful word. What a joyous and cleansing action, and work of God! God Himself, through the hands of the pastor, washes us in His Name, and by his command. Cleansing us from all of our own sin, our very own, most grievous sin. And we are brought into both the death, and the resurrection, and life of Christ! He imparts and gives us His name. He sees us, and traces the Cross over us, to cover us with the Cross of Christ.

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."  - Romans 6:4 ESV

 From the Book of Concord we read about Baptism.
“Baptism is not a work that we do but … a treasure that God gives us and faith grasps. … In baptism, therefore, every Christian has enough to study and practice all his or her life. … Thus, we must regard baptism and put it to use in such a way that we may draw strength and comfort from it when our sins or conscience oppress us, and say: ‘But I am baptized! And if I have been baptized, I have the promise that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body ….’ ”


What an amazing Promise Christ has given us in our Baptism. I do find it extremely significant that at the end of the Gospel of Matthew when we hear the words of the Son of God telling us...

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

 Think of it, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Here Christ Jesus is telling us, that, I am about to tell you all something very important, "all authority in heaven and on earth is given to me." and what is the next thing he tells us? I imagine the next thing he says would be of utmost importance, and relevance. He says "Go, therefore" ..."and make disciples of all nations..." And of all of the doctrines, and practices the Lord would have us understand, know, and use in our going... He tells us to "...lead everyone into making a personal decision to follow me"? No, you say? That's right, he commanded us to lead everyone into the sinners prayer to invite Jesus into our hearts. No again? Our Lord Jesus here, on this statement of all authority in heaven and on earth, tells us to "Baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 
  Thanks be to God for the Baptism that He has given us! 

1 Corinthians Chapter two gives us a very clear understanding of what God has given us. And how we are to understand it.

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

-1 Corinthians 2:10-12

To understand the deep things of God, is to understand what He has freely given us, In Christ.
Now of course Baptism is not a "get out of jail free" card. But that is a topic for another time.

God's peace be with you!

Happy New Year 2020?? "By Gracious Power" Yes!

I've just recently heard of this New Years Hymn written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was certainly not aloof, and thinking like most do today as we see on every new year celebration.. "oh Happy New Year, this year is going to be so much better, I'm going to be better, and..." better better better... Blah blah blah! Here in his Hymn, he makes no such empty platitudes. 

Here in his Hymn, he is looking forward with realistic hopefulness. Looking into the face of unknown adversity, in a way that is counting on it almost.  BUT With Hope in Christ, because He is enough! The Hymn was written in German of course. Below is the English translation.

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
       and confidently waiting come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
       and never fails to greet us each new day.

Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
       and evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
Oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation,
       for which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.

And when this cup you give is filled to brimming
       with bitter suffering, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling
       out of so good and so beloved a hand.

Yet when again in this same world you give us
       the joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through
       and our whole life shall then be yours alone.

Words © 1974 Hope Publishing Company, 380 S Main Pl, Carol Stream, IL 60188