Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
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This Advent season I am struck by how many dreams and visions are part of the story leading up to Jesus’ birth. Take one of Joseph’s dreams for example: “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20). Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. It appeared that Mary had been unfaithful, that she had disgraced Joseph. What else could it be but unfaithfulness? She was pregnant and Joseph wasn’t the father. I...
Change is something I have never been very good at. When it comes to large changes, I tend to have a mini-crisis. Eventually, I will be okay, but each brand-new season almost always comes with a rocky start. An example of this is when I first started college at NDSU. I came into college as a music education major, and I quickly realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I love music but I didn’t want to study classical music for four years. I didn’t know what I wanted to change my major to so when it came to my second semester, I decided to drop...
“Trusting the Father” by Rhianne Bowman One of the big things God taught me in college was how to trust him. I came to college and didn't know what my major was going to be or what I wanted to do with my life and people kept telling me "just trust God, he will lead you in the right direction." I got frustrated because I wanted to trust God but I didn't know how to do that. As I went through my four years of college, God slowly started to teach me how to trust him. It started with small things, my class schedule. He worked everything out, ope...
This past weekend, my staff and I went to Iowa for a conference. This was the second of three conference road trips we will be taking within the next few weeks. It is only the beginning of November, and already I am tired. It is clear this month will be a crazy one. In the midst of these crazy few weeks, God has been teaching me a lot about what it means to rest in him. Our intern class went to Minneapolis to visit the University of Minnesota Chi Alpha. One of the pastors there was talking about the importance of taking a Sabbath and working...
Obedience includes the humble and sincere acceptance of the authority and will of God. It’s not only conforming, but also demonstrating our devotion through our thoughts, words and deeds. The general concept of compliance both in the Old and the New Testament is based upon us yielding our will in order to do God’s will and if we choose to advance in our spiritual relationship with Christ, we can understand a lot more about personal accountability. One of the Greek terms for obedience con...
One of the biggest lessons I have learned in college and continue to learn, now that I am graduated, is learning to wait on and trust the Lord. I think in each season of life, God teaches us something new about waiting for him and how to trust him in each area. My biggest challenge and season of waiting in college was trusting God with choosing a major and what he was calling me to. Once I was called to ministry, it was learning how to trust him with that calling and waiting to graduate so I could enter the ministry field. Now, I am graduated a...
I need to exercise more. No doubt. I know this. Our town (and the internet!) has resources to help me carve out time for exercise. Exercise lengthens lives, and increases quality of life. It helps our brains and our mental health. So why don’t I do it? Maybe, for you, it’s not exercise. Maybe you’re good at exercise. But you have something. You have something you wish was better in your life. You have something you know would be good for you, but you still don’t do enough. Prayer and/or meditation? Morning devotions? Don’t floss enough? D...
The John Tesh radio show told me about an experiment done on competitive bicyclists. All the participants started by competing in a hot-weather bike ride. Then they were split in half, one group continued to train physically in the hot-weather conditions, and the other group focused their training on mental health, including positive affirmations, learning how to deal with uncomfortable situations while racing. In the follow-up competition, the group who focused on mental training improved their speed and duration by 25%. We’ve all heard s...
Moses declares the Ten Commandments two different times in his lifetime: once on Mount Sinai, just after God freed the Israelites from slavery, and again 40 years later, at the end of Moses’ life, just before the Israelites enter the Promised Land. In this second declaration, Moses says, “It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today” (Deuteronomy 5:3). Moses is saying that these commandments are for those who are gathered there. Is this even true? What about those who h...
I was talking with a Christian brother the other day about how it seems that many people are living in sadness and discouragement when suddenly he made a comment that really caused me to think. He said that according to his studies about the Christian life, it seems to be impossible to be depressed and to walk in the joy of God’s presence at the same time. After our conversation, I continued to ponder this statement and by the way, I do agree with it. I’m not saying that developing an opt...
Genesis 2:15,18,19: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. Our work, how we spend our days (whether we get paid for it or not) is our calling in life, and each and eve...
by Rev. Doug Nemitz First Lutheran Church New Rockford When I think about our New Testament reading for Sunday, Sept. 29 (1 Timothy 6:6-19), and the ever widening gap between the wealthiest Americans and the poorest, it seems to me that the Christian faith always lives in uneasy tension with wealth. On the one hand, we who follow Jesus recognize that wealth could be seen as a genuine gift from God to be used to bless others. On the other hand, as Jesus recognized in preaching so much about the dangers of wealth, it can be a devious tem...
When it comes to finding our place in this world, let’s consider two categories. The first one I call, “floating down the river.” Picture a scenario of someone napping in a small boat without a compass or a paddle. Having a spectator mentality, they have no map or intentional direction but rather are just hoping for the best. It’s also common for these individuals to throw pity parties from time to time, as a happy-go-lucky lifestyle usually runs into serious disappointments. Often haunted...
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” — Luke 15:1-2 It seems to me that in our rush to get into the stories that attract our interest in Luke 15:1-10, the Gospel reading for Sunday, Sept. 15, we often skip past these introductory statements that set the scene and miss at least two interesting questions. First, why were the tax collectors and sinners attracted to Jesus? Second, why did their attra...
Our assigned Old Testament reading for Sept. 8 is Deuteronomy 30:15-20. I find these words fascinating as we get to listen in on a few of Moses’ concluding words to the Israelites as they were about to enter into the Promised Land. After 40 years in the wilderness, the people of God are finally ready to cross the Jordan River, and Moses’ final words urge the people to do nothing less than “choose life.” This is huge. A constant theme in the book of Deuteronomy is that there is a loving God, and this God invites our love. It seems to me, as...
As I reflected on Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, one of our assigned readings for Sunday, Sept. 1, I noticed that the writer of this letter (or sermon?) was nearing the end of the message. It’s no secret that last words have real power, so it was often the case in this type of communication for a writer (or speaker) to begin exhorting the readers (hearers) to live in the proper ways in response to what was written (spoken) earlier in the message. The writer of Hebrews is no different. The author exhorted, urged, charged the listeners to a style of l...
You have probably heard this a thousand times already, but where has the summer gone? Wasn’t it in just the last couple of weeks I wrote an article on the kids getting out of school and people going on vacation? It sure seems like it. Now the kids are back in school, some happily and some sad. The same goes for the teachers I suspect. On the positive side, if your summer was a little on the boring side, we have the football and volleyball seasons starting for our entertainment. It will be fun to cheer them on again this year and I look f...
Rain. We love it. It is needed to grow our crops. Oh, there may be some irrigation on a small scale here and there but for the most part, our farmers here need the rain. I must admit, agricultural purposes aside, I do like the rain. Even as I write this sitting at my desk, there is a very light drizzle happening right outside my window. The other day when I got home from the office I was in my recliner reading and listening to a gentle rain. It wasn’t storming or blowing, just enough so that I could hear it. Yes, I know it is going to make t...
We all love to sit down to a good meal. Whatever our favorite food, we really look forward to enjoying the things we love. After our appetite is satisfied, it doesn’t take but a few hours and we are hungry again, but we seldom consider that our spiritual life functions in much the same way. For those who follow God, they have been given a new spirit which loves to spend time reading and praying, meditating, being grateful or just enjoying his presence and this is how we absorb our spiritual n...
It was to my great happiness that I spent the last week of July in Colorado. It seems that whenever people get together at funerals, there are a number of people that say, “we need to get together sometime just for fun, not for a funeral.” Well, that’s exactly what we four brothers did. There were five of us originally but the oldest died a few years back. We said the same thing while we were in the hospital saying goodbye to our older brother. Well, we finally did it. We got together just for fun. We missed our sister of course who couldn’t ma...
Freedom. Yep, that word sure sounds good, doesn't it? Of course, freedom can mean different things to different people. Here we are, in the last of the summer months, the children are still out of school and free from classes and homework, but not for long. For the most part, family vacations are over and parents will have also lost their freedom from the daily grind of work. However, we're not free from our responsibilities to our children or spouses, and others in our care. We are free to go wherever we wish, in our free time but if we are...
Deloris Esther Omoth, 93, of Williston, formerly of New Rockford, passed away peacefully on July 21, at Bethel Lutheran Nursing Home in Williston. The funeral service was held July 27 at First Lutheran Church, New Rockford with the burial at the Prairie Home Cemetery, New Rockford. Pastor Mindy Meier officiated with special music provided by Debbie Omoth and Mary Ellen Rue. Casket bearers were Dale Hogan, Mike Hogan, Kevin Omoth, Jim Omoth, Ken Erman and Eric Longnecker. Ushers were Roger L...
Ross Joseph Watson, 90, Fargo, N.D., died Thursday, July 11, 2019 at Bethany Retirement Living on 42nd street in Fargo. Ross (Jack) was born on July 22, 1928 to Charles and Hettie Watson. Ross grew up on the family farm in Maxbass, N.D. with his four siblings: Dorothy, Charles Jr., Ronnie and Connie. He graduated from Maxbass High School in 1946 where he excelled in athletics. Ross continued his studies at the Gayle Institute in Minneapolis focusing on telegraphy. He began his career working...
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...
