Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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“Come and See!” Those are the words that greet the women who first discovered the empty tomb. They come Sunday morning with spices, but without a plan to move the stone. As they wonder about what they’re going to do about the stone, they are greeted by not only the stone moved, but an angelic visitor. “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” Matthew 28:5b-6 “Come and see!” The angel challenges the women to test his words. If the massiv...
This September, we are examining God’s Playbook. We’re looking at the various choices and decisions that God has made preserved in the Bible. Plays God has run, that we would be wise to expect he might run again. When we talk about monumental moments in God’s plan, one of the moments that ought to make the list every time is God freeing his people from Egypt. Israel had grown from 12 brothers into an entire nation; but in the process, they had become slaves of Egypt. Then God sends Moses to perform 10 of the most dramatic miracles in the Bi...
This September, we are examining God’s Playbook. We’re looking at the various choices and decisions that God has made preserved in the Bible. Plays God has run, that we would be wise to expect he might run again. Mark 5:19 might be one of the most disregarded verses in the Bible. Verses 1-18 tells the story of a man who Jesus freed from a particularly destructive demon. I’m sure many of us know the story of the demon who called himself “Legion.” He tortured the poor man until he lived alone in tombs, screaming and cutting himself. That is,...
This September, we are examining God’s Playbook. We’re looking at the various choices and decisions that God has made preserved in the Bible. Plays God has run, that we would be wise to expect he might run again. If you open your Bibles to the very first page of the New Testament, what you’ll find is a list of names. Matthew chapter 1 begins with the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah. In that list you’ll find some absolute studs. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Hezekiah, and Josiah, to name a few of the absolute rock stars of God-followers you’ll...
This September, we are going to be examining a few of God’s plays in his playbook. When a football coach goes into a game, he enters with a playbook. As I understand it, a playbook is a collection of the plays that he can call during the game. These plays are in his book either because he likes them, or because his team is particularly good at them, or he likes to keep some surprises up his sleeve. Whatever the reason, whether he coaches 10 years or 40 years, those are the plays fans will likely see over and over. Similarly, God has p...
Where is God? Surveys consistently show that while not everyone believes in God as portrayed in religion, the vast majority of people believe there is a divine being. So, since most of us agree that there is a supreme power, where is it? On a mountain? In the ocean? Within ourselves? Where can the supreme being be sought for requests, worship, knowledge or justice? I’m never sure who reads these things, but if you’re not a church goer, but you believe in a supreme power, where do you seek it? I’ll wait… Having been raised in the church,...
A heavy metal band I commonly listen to, Skillet, recently released a song called “Hero.” In the song they describe, with no shortage of energy, how we need a hero. From the Skillet’s perspective, there is so much wrong with the world, life, and inside all of us that there is no way to make it through without an intervention by a hero. They feel a necessity for someone to fight for the weak, someone to fight for what’s right, and for someone to fight for humanity after death. Skillet isn’t crazy. I see this desire for a hero everywher...
Adino killed 800 men in one battle. Eleazar slayed Philistine warriors alone until his arm was exhausted from destroying his enemies. Shammah, despite being fully surrounded, held the high ground alone and won the victory. These three also tore through Philistine battle lines, and then slashed their way back through… merely to fetch David a drink of Bethlehem water (David did not command or order them to do this.) Then there was Abishai who struck down 300 Philistine warriors alone, as well as Benaiah-who killed two prominent Moabites, an i...
The devil doesn’t mind your church growing. I know, it’s an eye grabbing first line (the youth might call it “click bait,”) but bear with me, I stand by it. Throughout the gospels, one of the consistent themes is Jesus driving out demons. Most people know and celebrate this. However, many people forget the odd thing Jesus always does along with exorcism. Predictably, the demons always try to shout out that they recognize Jesus as “the Holy One of God,” but Jesus always commands them to be quiet, then exorcises them. Think about that. What...
One of my father-in-law’s hobbies is collecting toys. He has a myriad of different collectible figures from different movies or TV shows. Recently he visited me and gave me five figures based upon the characters from the TV show ‘Lost.’ I find them fairly amusing because they are plastic models of actors attempting to portray people who never really existed. That thought makes me laugh a little inside. My father-in-law has figures from all sorts of movies (Star Wars, the Fantastic Four,) TV shows (Lost), and I believe he even has a few based...
Wait for it. In 1st Samuel we come across the first king of Israel: Saul. Now, many of us know how the story of Saul turns out, but he began as a courageous leader. His first royal action was to rally all of Israel together (a feat unto itself in those days) and rescue a city in danger of being captured by one of Israel’s enemies. Saul initially inspired confidence that he may just be the kind of leader Israel needed. However, it didn’t take long to begin to see his shortfalls. See, his initial victory and subsequent crowning had riled the mas...
In the book of Judges, we find many strange stories. From a left-handed assassin killing an obese monarch, to a coward who destroyed an idol only to build a new one after God saved him; all of it and much more can be found in this dark and gruesome book. However, despite the strange nature of the book, at least one of the “heroes” is still well known in a children’s Sunday School room: Samson. His story, found in Judges 13, begins in mystery. The story begins with a woman being visited by an angel. Neither the angel nor the woman is named...
This last week, I was studying my way through Romans 7 when I came to a very intriguing passage. The passage was Romans 7:14-21. The main theme in this passage is the struggle between the Apostle Paul’s two natures. A part of him is utterly fallen and sinful, and another part of him desires to please God. I found this to be very thought provoking. Most Christians would acknowledge Paul as being a stellar believer. The Apostle Paul writes about living in faith, loving God, and loving people with such passion that it is hard for people today t...
Who am I? The world, culture and politicians will give me plenty of answers. They’ll tell me who gets to identify me, how they can identify me, and which identities are acceptable and which ones are not. While the world has many answers for identity, to get the true answers we must turn to God and His Word. We are created by God. We are created in God’s image. In every one of us, there is a bit of the divine. This, however, isn’t always obvious because it’s usually buried beneath our sin and the effects of our sin. Part of being human is bein...
Who am I? In a world that puts stock in how we identify, we must ignore the temptation to allow us to identify ourselves, and turn to the Bible. The answer to the question “who am I?” isn’t on social media, and the politicians certainly don’t have it; it is only found in our creator and in our creator’s words. Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen the first two ways to identify ourselves. First, we are created by God. We’re not accidents, experiments, or the result of random chance. We are intelligently designed. Second, we’re designed in God’s i...
For the month of September, we’re looking at our identity. While the world seeks to tell us who we are and how we identify ourselves, we’re going to look to the Bible. What does God have to say about who we are? Last week, we began at the beginning. Above all else, we are created. We didn’t happen by chance, but by careful intentionality. That being said, there is another fundamental aspect to God creating us that must be addressed. When God stated His intention to create us, He gave it a specific description: “in our image.” Presumabl...
Identity Politics. It’s a major “conversation” in our culture right now. The youngest generations have spurned labels, and yet continue to create new labels. Whether it’s in regard to their political affiliation, religion, gender or even race, who we identify ourselves as continues to grow as an issue. This conversation has the potential to be encouraging and enlightening, except for the fact that politicians (who, ironically, tend to be of the older generations), continue to use these labels and identities for their own gain. Thus, weaponi...
Sin is a concept I don’t enjoy. I know, that’s not very surprising— a pastor who doesn’t enjoy sin. However, my struggle with the concept isn’t what you might assume it is. Obviously, I struggle with it because part of me enjoys sin, and part of me hates it; but that struggle is simple and easy to understand. No, what frequently bothers me about sin is how confused we often are about what actually is sin. The word is thrown around frequently, both in and out of church circles, but I don’t think we usually use it properly. See, “sin” isn’t...
I’m sure many of us know John 3:16. As the most famous verse in the Bible, almost everyone who’s been in a church has it memorized, and many outside the church as well. However, the entire section is excellent. Including this little gem in John 3:19. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. John 3:19 This is a statement that I understood, but gained a deeper understanding of lately. Sin loves the dark. The dark conceals things, it removes cla...
“The Centurion’s Faith” Over the course of his three years of ministry, Jesus interacts with many different people. Obviously, religious leaders, fishermen and his disciples; but also prostitutes, tax collectors and many other people. Some of them had faith in Jesus, some did not. But across the board, only once does he seem surprised by a person’s faith. That person was not a religious leader, or a faithful blue-color fisherman, or even a Jew, but a Roman soldier. A man whose name is not recorded, but rank of centurion is. The story goes th...
Christians like to talk a good game. We love to brag about how this is a Christian nation. We champion conservative causes. We claim victories when abortion laws get passed. We’re proud of how in North Dakota, Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings are still kept mostly clear for church activities. Let’s be honest, we consider New Rockford to be a by-and-large Christian community, don’t we? I suppose I can’t speak for the world, but I can say from my life experiences, Midwestern Christians have a lot of pride. And the root of that confide...
These last couple of weeks have been tough for a lot of us. While few (if any) of us have actually been touched by COVID-19, we’ve seen our schedules go up in flames. High school events, church services, community events, family gatherings, all sorts of things have been sacrificed on the altar of social distancing. The upheaval has been wide spread and dramatic. In this time of clear schedules and ‘shelter in place,’ I want to point to Jesus’ words as recorded by Matthew. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust des...
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25 For years, it has been easy to do as the author says and continue to gather together and encourage one another. Our culture almost shuts down on Sundays, and there are many churches to choose from. Most of the churches utilize the efforts of paid professionals, comfortable church buildings, and plenty of chairs to sit in....
I saw a bear once. It was the summer I worked at Boy Scout camp and I was ambling half-awake down the trail to breakfast and there, running down and then across my trail was a black bear. I was so startled, I didn’t react; I just stood there stupidly processing what I had just seen. After being surprised by a bear, that was one morning that I was FULLY awake before breakfast. I think I was shaking as I continued down the path. I remembered my boy scout training that told me that black bears aren’t very dangerous unless it is a mama bear wit...
God weighs the spirit “I’m a good person.” “I do good things.” These are phrases I hear tossed around quite a bit. Especially at funerals, I frequently hear people justify why they should be able to get into heaven by stating that they ‘are good people’ or that the deceased was ‘a good person.’ It seems that it is natural that when we are faced with whether or not we are ‘good’ people, we can’t help but judge by what we think. The measuring stick, by which we determine whether or not we’re going to make it into heaven, is apparently in...
