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Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: I went to a different church and the preacher’s Bible was different from mine? Why are some Bibles different from others? Which version is actually the Word of God? A: The full theological answer to the question, “What is the word of God?” would be this: the word of God consists of those writings which were set down by holy men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21), being perfect and without error in their original manuscripts (2 Timothy 3:16-17). This seems strai...
I have often spoken of my love for sports, High school sports especially. Last Friday night’s game with High Plains is one of the reasons. Sixty minutes of football and the score is only one point difference. The game has all the excitement wanted, or needed. Neither team would quit, watching boys turn into young men with their effort and work. I just enjoy it. In this game, a decision to kick a one-point PAT rather than go to a two-point PAT was the difference in the game. And, that happened in the first minute of the game. Who knew that it w...
I am so frustrated! We ordered a new refrigerator and cook stove this spring. As with everything right now, there was a wait, which wasn’t a big deal to me at the time. Well, my appliances went to the shipper at the beginning of July and are still sitting waiting to be shipped. The shipper said things are “backed up” because of the WooFlu, and they are waiting on dates from dispatch. I ordered and received my furnace in the same month, so I’m having a bit of trouble understanding this. I filled out their online forms, set email inquire...
Over the years, the Superior Chamber of Commerce has coordinated a number of late summer, early fall activities. There have been parades, car shows, watermelon feeds, barbecues, free movies, both professional and amateur entertainment, dunk tanks, water fights and at least once a magician’s show, This year the chamber hit it over the top with the portable water park. I didn’t know such existed but it was the kind of activity the late summer event has long needed. For the youngsters returning to school it was a fitting way to end the summer and...
For the past two weeks, students have been returning to their classrooms and getting acquainted with their teacher or teachers. Recently a post on social media asked people to name their kindergarten or first grade teachers. I’m sure they were great teachers but I can’t remember their names. When my parents decided to move back to the farm in Jewell County, I attended a one- room country school, Oak Creek. I remember most of those great teachers including Jeaniece (Morris) Montgomery who helped me so much as I came from a class of 60, to the...
God, I’m so grateful that we can come before Your throne to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. My heart is so broken for the situation in Afghanistan…I’ve struggled for words. The news…the photos and video footage…all just glimpses into the horrible truth that lies there. I’m just so grateful when there’s nothing else I can do that I can come to You in prayer for this situation. Please God, be extra close to the women, children, all those individuals who helped our military, all those who converted to Christianity, all those...
Q: I’m on the board of a small church and we can’t seem to make ends meet with our budget. We are thinking of asking our pastor to take a pay cut. Is this the right response to our situation? A: The most important thing to remember is that neither the pastor nor the board are the enemy. This financial challenge can be met by coming together and bringing the wisdom and grace of God to bear. There is a good and godly solution to every hardship God’s people are faced with (Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 10:13)! A good place to start is with the Bibli...
The renewed pandemic of COVID-19 has many, many people upset, and I understand it. More tests, more vaccines, more masks ? ? ? Well folks, we have an answer if you are among those worried and upset. And . . . this came direct from that great state of Wisconsin, so it has to be true. I tried it the other day as I wasn’t feeling the best, and I got results. It went something like this: Take a can of beer, any beer, pour some into a glass. Smell it. Taste it. If you can smell and taste it, you don’t have COVID. However, I wasn’t sure as I still ha...
Now that the pool is closed, you would think I wouldn’t be so busy. Well think again. This summer, Jacob bit off a little more than he could chew by taking on four yards to mow along with our two yards that he is supposed to mow. With school and football practice, he is falling behind, and guess who is taking up the slack. You guessed it, me. Thankfully, my friends have a riding lawn mower they have allowed me to use. Jacob has been offered to use it as well but prefers to use our push mower. Weird, right? I hate borrowing things, especially l...
In my first weeks with The Express, Howard Crilly, the retired editor and publisher, graciously accompanied me on my rounds throughout the paper’s circulation area. He introduced me to the people I needed to know and filled me on their likes and dislikes. Frequently, I heard favorable comments about the editorials previously published in The Express. After each of those comments, Howard would say he expected the editorials to be much the same under the new editor. And many were for they were written by a syndicated editorial writer. From a c...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: What’s wrong with believing that everyone goes to heaven or a “better place”? Isn’t that better than teaching about hell? A: Our culture constantly bombards us with the message that the most important thing in life is to be happy and comfortable. Does that idea hold up to scrutiny? Which is better: being uncomfortable for a moment and blessed for all eternity or being comfortable for a lifetime and in torment forever? If you have a question that you would like a Biblical answer to you can sen...
Losing something becomes more common the older a person gets. Losing one’s cell phone or reading glasses becomes a weekly or sometimes daily happening. It’s getting to where I would like to drop the word “losing,” and start using the word “misplaced.” Eventually the item which mysteriously disappeared turns up. It may be found within minutes, hours, days or even longer. Sometimes finding the lost humbles one’s self, like locating the glasses on top of your head. There are those times when the worst happens, like the panicky time when a child...
Blue . . . Whatever happened to the color of the sky . . . blue? ? ? You know, as in the old beer commercial . . . “the land of Sky Blue Waters.” This past weekend seemed to be the first time our sky here in southcentral Nebraska has been blue. Much of the summer it has been “gray,” as in a smoke-gray color. I understand it came from those forest fires in Canada, mostly. Maybe some from the forest fires in California. Our skies last week and it seems into this week, however, are blue, and I like that. I’m looking forward, again, to those Sat... Full story
The pool is closed for the season. The last days are always bitter-sweet. On the one hand, I’m glad it’s over. It can be a frustrating job. On the other, I am going to miss my guards and my pool rats. Some are off to college, and I will only see them here and there over the next few years. It’s fun to watch them grow. I love watching the kids learn to swim. At the beginning of the year, a few wouldn’t leave the three-foot area and, by the end of the season, they were going off the diving board. Sunday, I went grocery shopping. I didn’t...
The quick passage of the Union Pacific’s Big Boy Locomotive through Nuckolls County illustrated how times have changed. Big Boy is one of the 25 largest steam locomotives ever built and the last one in operating condition. Built to haul loads over the western mountains during World War II, the locomotive pulled a token few cars this week when it clipped the northeastern corner of Nuckolls County as part of a goodwill tour. For those of us who like steam locomotives, we consider ourselves privileged when we have opportunities to see the r...
Monday afternoon the temperature gauge inched up towards the high 90s with predictions of reaching up into the 100s. Guess we could say it’s a typical Kansas-Nebraska August day for sure. It was so hot an egg could be fried on the sidewalk. It was as hot as a pistol! It was as hot as a fire cracker! It was roasting hot! I’m sure there are many more sayings that relate to a hot day. A radio announcer suggested with the swimming pools closing with the beginning of school, it would be a good day to hit the pool. I remember as a youth going to the...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q:If you tithe are you more apt to go to heaven? A.: Bible verses such as Habakkuk 2:4, John 3:36, Romans 4:5, Romans 6:23, Romans 11:6, and Galatians 2:21 (to name just a few) all make it very clear that eternal life in heaven is offered by God to all as a completely free gift. There is nothing we must do to qualify for this gift and indeed nothing we could do to earn it even if we wanted to (Isaiah 64:6). All we have to do is accept eternal life as a gift from God by trusting in Jesus. Giving...
With school starting soon, or maybe already has started, I’m going to share a couple of comments that my sister-in-law recently shared with me. * Teacher: How old is your father? Kid: He is six years old. Teacher: How is this possible? Kid: He became father only when I was born. * Teacher: Maria go to the map and find North America. Maria: Here it is. Teacher: Correct. Now, Class, who discovered America? Class: Maria. * Teacher: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water? Donald: H I J K L M N O. Teacher: What are you talking about? D...
Much comes to mind as I sit here trying to think of what to write about this week. The problem is I’d get in trouble for publishing three-quarters of it, and my editor would have to remove the other quarter! LOL! I’ve been trying to eat healthier and cut back on carbs and sugar. I think it is making me surly, more so than usual. Carbs are my favorite food group, pasta, potatoes, tablespoons of sugar straight from the bowl! LOL! My favorite meal is Lucky Charms. I haven’t had Lucky Charms in over a month! On the bright side, I’ve lost a few pou...
This spring and summer, people in America are ready to burst out, make a break for it and get away. Much like a caged bird, Americans were confined long enough following the COVID-19 scare and lockdown, and are ready to get out of the cage. When trying to make reservations at hotels while forming trip plans, it seemed rooms were all booked for months ahead and the prices had risen. If a person was looking to purchase recreational vehicles they were selling like hot cakes. If a person was fortunate enough to have or purchase a camper, making res...
It took 21 years but Friday I finally made it to Deshler and the Spring Creek Model Trains store. I had planned to attend their spring toy show but a family conflict took me south to Osborne on show day. As a youngster, I enjoyed playing with a Lionel model train and dreamed of expanding the train layout to circle the basement of my family's home on Blauvelt's Hill. I studied the toy catalogs and designed the layout I wanted to build when I got sufficient money together. Of course, there had to...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: Some Bible passages tell us to ‘pester’ God with our prayers, others say that we should avoid vain repetition and just have faith; what gives? How often should we ask God for what we want? A: First let me say that it’s normal to see a tension between different Bible passages that address a given topic. If I tell one person to drive west to get to Mankato, then tell another to drive east to get to the same place, it can seem like a contradiction. Until I tell you that the first person lives...
August . . . Always a special month to me as birthdays abound; wedding anniversaries seem abundant, and . . . football season gets all that much closer. I learned from the comic section of today’s paper that in August there are no national holidays . . . so we have to make our own holidays. It is fortunate that we do have the religious holiday of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can add that to our personal holidays. I start the month with my own birthday and 55 never looked so good. Of course I have to look back at that age w...
I’m always joking that I will drive a car until the tires fall off. Well, folks, I almost did that very thing. I knew the tires were fairly worn but was hoping to get through a few more months before I had to replace them. We took the car in for an oil change and the attendant in the pit noticed that I had wires showing on one of them. Talk about embarrassing. I have been doing the maintenance on my vehicles for 20 years. In the last couple of years, I have become lazy. Having a car that doesn’t burn oil and a check engine light isn’t stuck...
A question asked on social media yesterday, was “ What is a word you most associate with your mother?” It didn’t take me long to come up with my word associated with my mother. It would be “Horses”! She grew up with horses. Her father, Henry Heskett, was a true cowboy of the western plains of Kansas. He broke horses, was a horse trader, and liked to ride them. When my parents, sister and I, moved off the farm near Burr Oak to Stockton,Kan., the “horse fever” really hit Mother. Dad must have eventually caught it as he too became active in the...
