If you haven't read my comments on the last post, I just wanted to let you know I got my argument wrong. Chemnitz didn't say anything close to what I thought he had said. I've spent the last couple of days reviewing the doctrine of the Call, and I blew it. In an ironic twist, however, I still think my conclusion holds. I just used bad assumptions to get there.

On that jolly note, I have even more jolly news: the link purge happened. If you were happily thinking I'd leave your link up there forever and you could ignore etiquette, you're wrong now. Linking back to someone who links to you is a simple matter of courtesy. I even went through the Lutheran Blog Directory and checked to see if anyone linked to me and I didn't link back. I now have a couple of blogs on my blogroll I didn't have before.

As to the doctrine of the call, I have an answer to a question that came up in Tabletalk. There are two types of calls in Scripture. These two types are the immediate call and the mediate call. The immediate call is a call that comes directly from God. For instance, burning bushes are signs of an immediate call. Moses, most of the prophets, and all the Apostles were given immediate calls. Miracles and other signs accompany immediate calls because the people need to know that the call came from God. Mediate calls, on the other hand, are calls given through ordinary means. The priesthood in the Old Testament, for instance, is an example of a mediate call. It was a call through the means of birthright, but it is a call. All our modern clergy are called by ordinary means.

Anyway, I'll get my logic together and represent my case that the "divine call" isn't really a call.

Another thing just came to me. If this call isn't a Divine Call, this shouldn't even be handled by the SP, whose job is to maintain orthodox doctrine. This should fall to the Board of directors, being a kingdom of the left issue since a divine call is no longer in play. Of course, the SP has his hands in everything, so the maintenance of the kingdom of the right falls by the wayside.

I don't know if any of you have commented on this post by Bunnie, or if you have read this memo from our Synodical President. It deals with divine calls and does the Synodical President have the right to block a divine call. The only problem is there is a deeper issue here that is being missed: how come the Board of Communications are issuing "divine" calls in the first place. This whole issue pisses me off. We keep adding temporary calls and calls to organizations and calls to elected offices that Chemnitz is just evaporating from our minds. Unless I was really drunk when I read it, I seem to remember him saying a call is only a divine call if a CONGREGATION issues it. Not some board, not a district, not and RSO, and not even missionaries should have what one would call the divine call. Only pastors called by congregations have the divine call. Period. So, in my mind, to say Kieshnick is blocking a divine call is ludicrous.

As usual, however, he's letting his minions (the Commission on Constitutional Matters (CCM)) do his dirty work. If he really wanted to screw everyone over, however, he would have referred this matter to the Commission on Theology and Church Relations. They could have mucked up the theology of the divine call even more, making it more meaningless than it is now.

I just changed the blog of the week because the old blog was shutting it down. I'll miss Steve's posts. However, there is a very new blog (just put up today) that has ascended to Blog of the Week because, well, she's cool. With that being said, welcome Musical Ramblings to my blogroll and Blog of the Week.

I also added the The Joshua Victor Theory.

edited because I can't spell and talk to elle at the same time

I was coming home from the Y today, and I heard one of my favorite country songs ever on the radio.

Well I love her
But I love to fish
I spend all day out on this lake
And hell is all I catch
Today she met me at the door
Said I would have to choose
If I hit that fishin' hole today
She'd be packin' all her things
And she'd be gone by noon

Well I'm gonna miss her
When I get home
But right now I'm on this lakeshore
And I'm sittin' in the sun
I'm sure it'll hit me
When I walk through that door tonight
That I'm gonna miss her
Oh, lookie there, I've got a bite

Now there's a chance that if I hurry
I could beg her to stay
But that water's right
And the weather's perfect
No tellin' what I might catch today

Well I'm gonna miss her
When I get home
But right now I'm on this lakeshore
And I'm sittin' in the sun
I'm sure it'll hit me
When I walk through that door tonight
That I'm gonna miss her
Oh, lookie there, I've got a bite

Yeah, I'm gonna miss her
Oh, lookie there, I've got a bite

For some reason, this song just amuses me. It's a creative spin on the "my wife left me" song, and it's sung in such a way as to make one think that he really doesn't care that she will leave him. It's the antithesis of what most people joke about a country song being.

While coming home from MTW's production of Seussical, (Elle and I went to see A Chorus Line and we both enjoyed it immensely), I was listening to the classic rock station in town. I just have a question: since when has Skid Row and Judas Priest been considered classic rock? I'm just curious.

I took the old poll down because it hit over 100 responses, so now I have another silly, meaningless poll up for you to ponder and vote on. I can assure you that this poll probably is close to being sacrilegious. I admit, I like the t-shirts that ask "What would Jesus Do ... for a Klondike Bar?" I'm kind of silly that way.

Sometime soon, I am going to go through my blogroll. Those blogs who have links to me shall continue. Those who do not shall be purged. I'm starting to get a little sick of linking to everybody else and people not linking back. It's called etiquette, people. On that note, if you link to me and for some reason I don't link to you, please tell me and I will remedy that situation as soon as possible.

In case you are still wondering, the French still suck.

It annoys me that in New York, they are beginning random searches of bags in the New York subway system. Oh no, we can't just search all the Arabs that ride the subway because that's profiling and profiling is wrong, even though male Arabs are the ones who are blowing themselves to Allah and hoping for 72 virgins. I won''t say what I think those guys get, but it involves habeneros and enemas. Anyway, once our somewhat warped government quits being politically incorrect and starts actually trying to protect us domestically, I'll let you know. Once the border becomes one giant game of "Don't piss on the electric fence," I'll feel a little safer.

The first 29 years of my life, I never attended a WELS service. In the past three months, I have attended two WELS services. I found there were good and bad points to these experiences, but I'll leave those comments for later.

Once again, I prove I am random and nuts.

Elle was so wonderful to be around the past couple of weeks. We spent a lot of time doing various things like going minature golfing, visiting museums and other attractions I hadn't been to in years or had never been to, and a lot of time annoying my sister and having her say, "I saw that!"

Actually, everyone who met Elle liked her, which made me very happy. I kind of expected that reaction, but you never know. All of my crazy relatives that matter and all my friends that met her liked her. Even some of my coworkers told me they liked her. No wonder I like her.

Elle has gone home today and I miss her greatly. In the next day or two, I might tell some of the adventures we went on and the fun we had. I am determined to enjoy her company again soon. Skype, however, will have to do again for a bit.

I will be catching up on my reading the next few days. I hardly read any blogs when she was here. I only caught a few snippets here and there. I am completely clueless as to what has been discussed recently.

I have three birthdays to celebrate soon. My sister is turning 21, my mom is turning 52, my grandma is turning 80. I'll probably get out of my funk soon.

Anyway, I need to get some sleep and take a shower. It's been a trying day for me, and I don't like going through this. Not only that, Elle is taking all the cool air back home with her. It's going to get into the 100s. The day before she came, it was over 100. Now, it's getting hot again. Just my luck.

If you haven't noticed, girlfriends take up a lot of time and energy. That's not a bad thing, mind you. I enjoy pouring all my energy and time into Elle. I wouldn't bother giving her two of the most precious gifts God has granted us if I didn't enjot it. I'm only posting to remind everyone I am not dead.

After grittiness and grimacing through the Wikipedia article on the LCMS, I once again realized something I have apparently forgotten: you cannot define theology by using the traditional left-right conservative-liberal political axis. As I have mentioned before, the distinction between conservative-liberal tends to end up being defined by what a group happens to think about political issues and not about their theology. With many conservative Christians, what they proclaim with their mouth doesn't necessarily square with their practice. In the end, the best thing to do is to go back to the system the Church herself developed: orthodox or heretical. Yes, this doesn't make people happy because many people think calling someone a heretic is a mean and horrible thing. It is horrible, but not for the reasons some may think. It is horrible such a term must be used because these people are not orthodox and are allowing their sinful natures to rule their hearts. Thus, we shouldn't sit there and adopt terms that either confuse and confound the issue, but cut to the heart of the matter. What is Rick Warren? He isn't a conservative. He's a heretic. Period. John Shelby Spong? Heretic. Robert Schuler? Heretic. Jesse Jackson? Heretic. George Bush? Heretic. Benny Hinn? Heretic and sucker-puncher of crippled people (thanks Larry the Cable Guy!).

I think some of you may be wondering if I have forgotten how to blog. In some ways, I have. Love is such a strange thing, and it makes you do things that you normally wouldn't do. For instance, I normally wouldn't be all sad while at work because work is work and I need money. Because Elle is here for so long, however, I have to work some. My job is such that I don't have to work full time, but I do most of the time because I need the money. I'm taking some time off while Elle is here, but I still need to work some. Otherwise, how am I going to afford my Y membership. That being said, when I am at work, I miss Elle. We've grown close over the short time together.

Tonight is movie night. We're going to go see War of the Worlds. I'm not much of a Tom Cruise fan, but who is. Anyway, I heard the first 20-30 minutes of the movie is awesome, then it goes downhill after that. At least I can take solace in the fact we're going to a theater where we can drink (yea, real alcohol) while watching the movie. We'll see how much beer improves Tom Cruise's acting.

I'm really glad John and Chris and their families are OK.

To a Chris H., I suggest a diet of almonds, fish, buffalo, and any other low-fat protein you can get your hands on plus healthy doses of cheesecake and soda.

Went here and here today. It has been a good few days so far. Elle has enjoyed her time here, and I have been taking her around the area and seeing the sites Kansas has to offer. Kansas, by the way, has a lot to offer, even for people from Alaska. Anyway, we're going to go see fireworks tonight, so I need to go take a couple thousand bottles of DEET and bathe in it.

Anyway, as you might imagine, we are both very distracted at the moment. It's not that I suggest you don't come here, as I am sure many of you would comment. Half the fun of my blog is the comments.

We had an awesome storm rip through the area about three hours ago. The sky takes on this blueish-green hue, which means hail. I was over at my cousin's house celebrating my aunt's birthday, and the storm dropped hail up to about nickel size. My dear Intolerant Elle finally got to see a severe storm, and experienced the temperature dropping over 20 degrees within minutes. It was a good day today.

Ron just wiped me out on poker. He, however, once again proved that he cannot hold his liquor. His wife is currently driving him home. Lucky dog.