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Q: What’s the point of going to church just to get a lecture from a pastor who’s just as much a sinner as I am? A: Friend, your question makes me wonder if you haven’t spent time sitting under some unhealthy teaching. If this is so, it saddens me; because, as a pastor and a Christian, I want people to know the life-changing power contained in Christ, the gospel, and the Bible. There is certainly no value in forcing yourself to sit through a lecture you are not getting any benefit from. However, there can be great value in sitting under the teac...
“Technology” and “Paperless Society.” Remember those two ideas that were so popular about 25 years ago? As technology in the forms of computers and social media came into being, the population was being sold on the virtues of a “paperless society.” I really wonder if that paperless idea ever came into being. I’ve read where the production of the common 8 1/2 x 11 paper has grown beyond expectations 25 years ago. It seems “everyone wants a copy” of most everything sent paperless. I’m guessing government regulations also play into this growth in...
When I was in grade school, I often went for rides with my grandfathers. This time of year Grandfather Wrench was scouting for wild plums ripe for the picking. I think he had homemade plum butter at every meal. For breakfast he spread plum butter and Real Roast smooth peanut butter on the toast he ate with his oatmeal and coffee. For dinner and supper, he spread the plum butter on fresh white bread so thick it dripped off. If pancakes were on the menu, he spread plumb butter on the cakes. I don’t remember if he liked Grandmother’s plum but...
Q: Does God love Satan? A: Wow, what a good question! And it may surprise you to know just how important and relevant the answer can be to our lives, behavior and choices. This concept lies at the heart of why evil and good are allowed to coexist in this world for the time being. Satan is the self-declared enemy of God (Isaiah 14:13-14; Revelation 12:7-12), He stole the world God created, kidnapped the human race, turned us away from God, and is holding humanity hostage against God’s will. Every tragedy, atrocity, sorrow and suffering in this w...
Rains . . . August . . . The two words just don’t go together here in south-central Nebraska. But then, Sunday morning, while in church in Deweese, the rain came. While being grateful for an inch of rain (more or less, depending on where you live) in August, I was reminded of a thought an “old” farmer taught me many years ago. “An inch of rain in August just doesn’t last as long as an inch of rain in April or November.” Thankful to receive the rain, but ‘mud-puddles’ were few on Monday morning. A O I confess that I don’t watch a lot of the nati...
Most earnest seamstress women and those that do the necessary stitch work probably have a fabricated tomato pincushion included in their sewing basket. As I again take out my tomato pincushion where all my stick pins and needles stick out making for an easy find, memories of these pincushions comes to mind. I received my tomato pincushion 60 years ago when my mother and I were gathering all my required items needed to take home economics class in high school and learn to sew. Though I never fully understood the importance of this unusual...
Elsewhere in this newspaper is a story written by Kerma Crouse about the Webber Community Picnic held in the Frank Herrmann Memorial Park. I wish we had a dozen freelance reporters like Kerma. She roams the area on her own schedule, finding and exploring topics which interest her and then writing a story about her discovery. We have shared a number of her stories with Kansas Positive Press and were told they are among that publication’s most popular stories apparently because the stir the readers’ memories. This week’s story stirred my memor...
Q: Does the Bible mention anything about the LGBTQ movement? It must not, or churches would agree on that subject. A: It would be great if all churches who claim to be Christian agreed to live by what is clearly taught in the Bible. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. The Bible predicted that both individuals and churches would sometimes walk away from the truth (I Timothy 4:1-2; II Timothy 3:1-5; Revelation 3:1-5; etc.). An important part of the Christian journey is learning to identify those who do so and avoid following their...
In the past few years, and especially in recent months I’ve been reading and hearing more and more about “A I.” “A I” = “Artificial Intelligence. I think we all are aware of it, even if we don’t call it by that name. It’s in our computers and when the computer corrects our bad English spelling and usage . . . that’s A I. When a farmer uses any of multiple programs to operate tractors, irrigation systems, fertilizer applications . . . that’s A I. A lot of people are getting worried that A I might just be able to control us humans more than we...
When I was young, my parents had an antique beer stein that sat on the fireplace mantle. At one time it had a pewter lid but that had broken off years before. Instead of holding beer it held pennies. Whenever a penny was found it would be deposited in the stein. Every once in a while the stein would come off the mantle and my brother and I would count out the pennies with help from a parent. First they would be counted into stacks of five and arranged in rows of ten. Each row was then carefully inserted into a paper penny wrapper and set...
It’s Olympic time! I enjoy watching the trained and dedicated athletes from all over the world come together to complete for medals. Most of the athletes begin their training at an early age. It makes me think of what we had as youth that would have aided us in our athletic training years ago. As a child, our playground equipment was made out of metal and wood. We had what was called a “merry-go-round.” It had a round metal platform where we’d stand and hang on to metal pipe like handles. When we’d climb on and get in position to take a ride, s...
I don’t know the validity of the study but earlier this week, the editor’s email contained a report on the most dangerous time of the day to drive in Nebraska. According to the report, the most dangerous time is between 4 and 4:59 p.m. These days I generally am working in the office at that time of day and not out driving. However, when I attended Pleasant Valley School a few decades ago, that was the time I was on the road riding my pony home from school. Of course, my school was in Kansas and the study was based on Nebraska data but my route...
When I was growing up, we had two horses. Our first horse, Nickel, was a light-colored palomino (early corn color). She was given to us for free because her owner was being transferred to Germany. She was 16-years-old and blind in one eye (supposedly from running into a barbed wire fence). Nickel was well-trained and her blind eye was never an issue. I could jump on her with only a halter on her-no lead rope. I would then lean forward and tug on one side of the halter or the other to steer her. Our second horse, Viceroy (named for the...
Q: How can people really have free will if God knows everything and is all-powerful? A: An important question! Are human beings morally independent? Can we make choices and are we accountable and responsible for those choices? No one talks about punishing computers for following their programing, but the whole concept of crime and punishment rests upon the idea that people are able to make decisions, can learn from their decisions and ought to be punished when their decisions are wrong. But is free will a reality and how does it line up with...
Smoke and dust . . . I was impressed when I was much younger when I read about how the ‘dust storms’ of the 1930s in the mid-west (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc.) reached the eastern states of the U. S. I believe some of the dust even reached Europe. Also included was reading about how the smoke from the great Chicago fire of 1871 reached England. Well, this international trade of dust and dirt continues. Remember last year with the smoke coming down from the forest fires in Canada? Well, that smoke this year is combined with smoke from fires in...
Having attended the annual Jewell County Threshing Bee and Antique Tractor Show last weekend and seeing the demonstrations of the way things were done years ago, made me realize again how much time and labor went into work that was done back then. Some of the things noticed were the way rope was made mostly by hand, and the labor it took to place the logs just right on the saw mill so the blade could cut them. There was a blacksmith that worked hard forging the metal into needed tools and in mending wagon wheels. Grinding of wheat was mostly do...
The Blauvelts lost a friend we called Blackie between 3 and 5 Sunday afternoon. Blackie was a member of a spring litter of kittens delivered by the mother cat who claims our neighborhood. I'm not sure where her father, Mr. Gray, calls home, but he is a regular visitor and apparently a good friend of Mrs. Cat and her youngsters. Earlier this year, Mrs. Cat got shut in our garage overnight and the kittens apparently had a scary time being alone. About noon the next day Blackie was found high in a...
Q: What should Christians make of near-death experiences? A: The Bible lays out a careful balance between subjective experiences and the objective truths of God. Whether we’re talking about near-death experiences, visions or something else, we must make sure we have the right understanding of what happened. Passages such as II Corinthians 11:14-15, I John 4:1, and I Thessalonians 5:21 warn us to test our experiences for conformity to the truth. Now, I don’t want to minimize the value of spiritual experiences. They are an important part of the...
Being a farm wife, I usually started the summer cay by picking the fresh garden vegetables for lunch, and killing 2 or 3 chickens to fry. We had a wire snare I used to snatch one of their legs if I could get close enough. Grandma Shute had a dog that would catch and bring her a chicken. I was not that lucky. Edward’s mom tried to teach me to kill them by holding back the wings and legs, draping their neck over the old stump and giving a big chop with the little axe. Trouble was they would always lift up their head and look at me when it was t...
Reading . . . Some people do not like to do more than necessary, but some of us enjoy the pastime. Of course, you have to be a little careful of what you choose to read. I receive several magazines a month and I admit I don’t read them ‘cover to cover.’ But, I always look them over and try to pick out what I think I’ll enjoy the most, or what might benefit me the most. Last week I received the current copies of “NEBRASKAland” and “The American Legion.” From the American Legion magazine one of the items I sometimes enjoy is the final page. It...
When I started the “journalist” thing, back in 2019, I hadn’t even gotten my bearings before COVID-19 came and we were all placed in lockdown. Honestly, I wasn’t scared of the virus. I was more terrified of losing my job and not being able to pay the bills. Thankfully with some help from a few good friends and a lot of creativity, I never missed a day. Wednesday was my last day I run my route, and I was not looking forward to saying goodbye to all the friends I’ve made along the way, Shea, Josh, Rhonda, Michael, Brenda, Linda, Nancy, Allen…far...
It was almost 150 years ago that our earliest pioneers faced one of the worst years on their prairie farms when swarms of grasshoppers invaded the land devouring everything in sight. It was at the end of July 1874. For the previous two years there had been good wheat crops and 1874 was no exception. The wheat had just been harvested and the corn fields were promising a good crop. A Jewell County settler, Joel Green, who had a farm west of Burr Oak, on July 21 began to notice swarms of grasshoppers arriving in his fields. Two days later, he...
I’m naturally curious and one of the reasons I decided on a newspaper career was the opportunities the work provided to feed my curiosity. Over the years I have been privileged to get a close up view of many things. For example, once when the natural gas pipeline company serving Superior was replacing a section of the line, the foreman invited me to observe the procedure. In preparation he provided me with the procedure manual that described the work to be done. I read the manual and reported to the job site at the designated time. When I a...
Q: What does a good Christian look like? How do they act? How do I become one? A: This is a wonderful question and one that I hope every sincere Christian asks themselves frequently. For the purpose of this article, I think I can boil the answer down to two basic ideas: to be a good Christian means growing in Christian character (Colossians 2:6-7; Colossians 3:12-15) within a Christian Community (Hebrews 10:25; Ephesians 4:13). The word “Christian” literally means a little Christ (a model or imitation of Jesus). It it’s simplest sense, being...
I’ve admitted in the past that I’m a slow learner, but I just read something a week or so ago that made me think a little about the well-being of so many Nebraskans. Consider the following: • I don’t have exact figures, but a large percentage of Nebraskans are either farmers or working in, or own, an ag related business. • Although farming is a highly risky business, farmers, and those working with them, seem more ‘well-balanced’ than many people working in other professions. • Small town ‘values’ and cultures often follow citizens who were r...
