Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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Mark Chapter 3 Jesus Heals on the Sabbath 1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their s...
Matthew 27:35 And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. I fear we have heard said, “Christ died for our sins.” to a point we begin to form an attitude about the crucifixion of Christ that trivializes His suffering. Children hear that statement and receive Christ and do not begin to fathom the magnitude of the horror. Young children do not...
At a time when it seems like everybody is blaming the other for the disunity in our social and political lives, I bring you this spiritual allegory from an unknown author. One day, the carpenter’s tools had a conference. Brother Hammer was the chair. Upon bringing the meeting to order, he said that there had been some complaining among his fellow tools and he thought it would be good to discuss it openly together. “Yes, Brother Saw, what is your complaint?” Brother saw stood up and said, “Brother Pencil is getting on everybody’s nerves. He can...
God never intended for there to be all the different religions or denominations From the beginning GOD wanted relationship with his most perfect creation man (mankind). In Genesis 1 GOD went looking for Man in the garden in the cool of the evening, this denotes GOD was relational, he went looking for man to have communion with him. God again wanted relationship with man when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and he invited the whole nation to ready themselves and come up onto the mountain and meet with him, but they chose to let on...
Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, and it reminds Christians of two central truths of our human condition. First, we are mortal. Genesis 3 says we are earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adam comes from Adamah, meaning soil, the human from humus. Second, we are all sinners, and as Israelite tradition ritualized this, we repent in dust and ashes. This forty-day journey towards Easter begins by marking our foreheads with dust. We acknowledge that we die and return to the earth. At the same time, the dust traces the life-giving...
Today is Ash Wednesday. It marks the beginning of the Lenten season. For those who observe Lent, it is a time of reflection and examining our sinful selves. This is a special time for turning hearts and minds to the suffering our dear Lord endured for us and recognizing His gift of grace. Romans 3:23-24 tells us, “……since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”. This is your redemption and my redemption….Christ bought us back ! By his sacrific...
Can we have some real talk here? There are many times in our lives that we feel like the world is against us. Our situations, circumstances, even people. Like we are completely alone and have nowhere to turn. Those feelings and circumstances are not specific to whom they apply, and no one is immune. Not even those who serve in ministry. In Fact, the great prince of preachers C.H. Spurgeon suffered from bouts of depression. He has famously once said “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me up against the Rock of Ages.” Meaning, that eve...
Romans 6:1-23 Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will...
Romans 6 Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will c...
We may not be what we say we are, but what we say is what we really are! Sounds like a lot of double talk, but there is a bit of truth in this statement. James Chapter three almost exclusively deals with one of the most practical issues of life having to do with the tongue. It has been said, that no matter how hard we try to hide it, eventually, we will reveal our true self through what we say. “If anyone can control his tongue, it proves that he has perfect control over himself in every other way. We can make a large horse turn around and g...
Before we leave the wonder of Christmas behind us for another year, I’d like us to think one more time about the Wise Men who followed the star to the Christ-child. An early leader of the Christian church, Pope Leo the Great, once wrote this, “A star with new brilliance appeared to wise men from the east that was brighter and more beautiful than others, attracting the eyes and hearts of those looking on. The determination of the Magi to follow the lead of this heavenly light expressed a willingness to be led by the splendor of grace to kno...
We are into January; the virgin birth has taken place, and the Messiah has come into the world. Advent was a time of reflection, a time of hope and waiting, and while the season has the symbolism of darkness, it also is a reminder that God’s promises have withstood the test of time, and the light has come. Christmas doesn’t stop on December 25. Like Easter, Christmas is a season, not merely a night and a day. Some churches have observed the season as lasting forty days, until February 2, but many others have kept Christmas for twelve days, conc...
We are in Christmas Season. We know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The name ‘Bethlehem’ means ‘the house of bread’. It is no wonder then that two thousand years ago, the man who was to become the bread for the world was born in that place. Giving heed to his direction, shall we not together say to the Father, “Give us our daily bread”? According to biblical scholars, ‘give us our daily bread’ could mean also ‘give us our daily wisdom’. If so, what does ‘Bethlehem’ mean to us? Rather than being the name of a place, Bethlehem should provide us...
Jesus was born into a very joyless world, and it was anything but peaceful. For most people, living in the time of Roman rule was a matter of survival with no religious freedom, human rights and talk about taxes! Criminals were crucified for all to see. That world really needed a little joy and peace for sure. Would I be stretching the truth to say that the world we live in today also needs the joy and peace that Jesus brings? I believe, behind all the Christmas glitter, Christian plays and holy services, there is a great need for the real joy...
Christmas should be about celebrating GOD’s answer to mankind’s problems. GOD came in the flesh (Immanuel-GOD WITH US), to provide us with the answers to our problems, for those who are anxious He is the Prince of Peace, to those who need someone to talk to and to get the answers they seek, he is The Wonderful Counselor, For those who are in trouble he is The Mighty GOD, to the fatherless, HE IS your EVERLASTING FATHER. (Isaiah 9) Christmas is about giving, not getting. God set that example by giving us his son Jesus. Christmas is about enj...
Everything zooms to a fever pitch this time of year – even in the church! The last Sunday on the Church calendar is Christ the King Sunday, which we celebrated on November 21st. The new Church year begins with the 1st Sunday in Advent, which we celebrated on November 28th. From now until the middle of June we’ll have a series of special celebrations, all of which mark the seasons of the Church, and basically, we have two seasons: Christmas and Easter. Both of these holy days have a period of preparation so we can focus our minds and hearts on...
There’s an old Egyptian story about a little boy named Miobi who came to a village where the people were very strange. They did little more than moan and groan about almost everything. The fires didn’t get lit, the goats didn’t get milked, the children didn’t get clothed, and the crops didn’t get planted, all because the villagers were expecting any time to get eaten by the monster that lived on top of the mountain. Miobi looked up and behold - the monster was real. He had a head like her crocodile and a body like a hippopotamus and a tail li...
If you awakened in the morning and had only that which you had thanked God for the night before …. what would you have ? Sometimes we become so focused on what we don’t have that we lose sight of what we do have and how God truly has blessed us. For most of us it is easy to pray our prayer requests to God and easy for us to forget to thank him for what he has done. An important part of our church women’s bible study is to pray for the concerns of the members of our church, community and the world. There are so many needs that sometimes our hear...
Isaiah 40:1-10 40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord wil...
Jesus began His ministry with a sermon about being a citizen of the kingdom of God and having the attribute of Divine love. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:” (Matthew 5:43-45) This is a very explosive and radical principle of non-retaliatory, non-resistant love. I...
Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus states come to me ALL who are weary and burdened, and i will give you rest. In todays world its easy to become weary and burdened, with everything going on around us. In 1 Peter 5:7 we are told to cast all our cares /anxiety on Jesus because he cares for us, folks what you can’t control you give to Jesus(GOD) in prayer, and leave it to GOD to take care of. We are to rest in Jesus, and take his yoke upon us and learn from him because he is gentle and humble and you will find Rest for your souls, for HIS yoke is easy and H...
The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, once said, “I want to know one thing, the way to heaven – how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end He came from heaven. He has written it down in a book. O give me that book! Let me be a man of one book. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone: only God is here. In His presence I open, and I read His Book, for this end – to find the way to heaven.” What he means is, learn to love reading your Bible! And don’t cop out b...
Submitted by Kelly J. Huenink Ishmael was 86 years old when I met him. He was a practicing Muslim and the person in his village who prepared and slaughtered animals for Islamic rituals. He came to a free vision clinic I was conducting. Typically, I would never begin a relationship by talking about Jesus to a Muslim. I passionately believe that you must build relationships strong enough to hold the gospel. But Ishmael advanced age, and the fact that Uganda's life expectancy is less than 60...
A central visual symbol in almost every Lutheran worship space is the cross. This cruel instrument of torture and death was reserved for rebellious slaves, violent criminals, and threatening criminal subversives. We see the Cross as a central symbol because we confess; “it is here, on the cross, that God meets us.” It is on the Cross that God made himself present in our weakness, in our vulnerability and suffering, and our dying. In the abyss of despair, in the deepest darkness, God comes. In the painful reality of our mortality, our ult...
Recently, I had the privilege of visiting my daughter’s church and hearing their Praise Group sing the song, “Your Love Defends Me” by Matt Maher. I left that church with the lyrics going over and over in my mind. The Gospel set to music gets down deep in the soul. Even though you won’t have the benefit of the beautiful tune, I would like to share some of the words with you. They are so meaningful and uplifting: “You are my joy, You are my song. You are the well, the One I’m drawing from. You are my refuge, my whole life long, where else would...
