Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 1 - 12 of 12
According to multiple websites, the average “holiday season sales” (a.k.a. Christmas) has increased every year since 2008, with Americans spending an average of $997.73 each Christmas. For some, this may be just a drop in the bucket, while others go in debt, and still others (like me) refuse to spend so much. (sorry family). Christmas may be an expensive holiday in 2024, but in order for Christmas to happen in the first place, a steeper price had to be paid. Three individuals specifically had a price to pay: Mary, Joseph and...
One of my favorite seasons is quickly approaching-- the fall season. Fall brings so many wonderful aromas and colorful tree leaves, fun events such as county and state fairs along with fair food, Deutschesfest, apple cider, homemade apple strudel, and sporting events like football and volleyball. This is also a time of season when things start to change. The weather gets cooler, tree leaves start to change in color and begin to fall from their branches. We put away the shorts and t-shirts and don our warmer outerwear. Typical...
School is just around the corner. For some, this will be the first year in a long line of many, while for others this will be the last one… at least that they planned on having. Then there are those of us out living in the “real world” who understand that the learning really never stops, and often times have to take “continuing ed” credits, to keep us going. A clear testimony that there is always something more to learn. Continued education shows up in just about every walk of life or profession whether it’s to teach in sc...
Greetings and God’s peace to you all from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, Several years ago now a survey was taken about, “Why don’t people get to know their neighbors anymore (in the United States)? It was stated then, that a third of the population knew their neighbor’s names and interacted with them socially at least once a week. The decline in interaction amongst people being neighborly could have resulted in several of these possibilities; urbanization, technology, busy lifestyles, safety concerns, communi...
A favorite pastime of my wife and I is to go thrift shopping and bargain hunting. Whether we are on vacation, or in the city running errands, we try to stop. Why? We enjoy the hunt; we enjoy the anticipation; we enjoy the thrill of walking away with a “treasure” someone else didn’t want! People have left thrift stores with famous works of art, valuable card collections, or even just a missing piece to the dinnerware or golf bag. They’ve left stores with a cartful of items they got 90% off of. Wherever they shop, the goal is...
This is February, also known as ‘Love-you-wary’. This is the month when we think about love and the ones we love. This can be a great time for some people, but also it can be a very sad time for others. I know that Valentine’s Day is one day of this month, but what if we spent the rest of this month getting to know the one who loved us first. I am talking about Jesus, the one who gave His life for us, even when we did not ask Him to. The Bible says that God demonstrated His love for us, even while we were still sinners. His l...
Note: This is Part 2 of a sermon from July 4, 2021 and is slightly adapted from the original. Second, Jesus has a higher labor and livelihood of His own that He calls us to share in. This is shown to us by Jesus’ interruption of Simon’s work to teach the Word of God, and by His calling of Simon (and James and John) to “catch men.” The Gospel says, “On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on [Jesus] to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen...
Note: This is Part 1 of a sermon from July 4, 2021 and is slightly adapted from the original. Part 2 will be in next week’s issue of The Record-Times. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! Today’s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11) is the miraculous catch of fish and the calling of Peter, James, and John as “fishers of men.” It’s not a sermon or a parable but a history, so it does not teach us directly by words of instruction but indirectly by words of example. It has much to teach us, but the main...
On Good Friday and Easter, or more appropriately, Resurrection Sunday, Christians celebrate the death and victory over it, of our Savior, Jesus Christ by rising from the dead. Some of the physically observable events surrounding His death are truly astounding. The gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, tell us darkness covered the whole land from noon to 3 pm. The original Greek, from which our English translations are taken, leaves no doubt. This darkness covered the whole world. Later historians verified this worldwide lack of...
What is the purpose of a Christian worship service? It must seem a curious thing to see otherwise intelligent people foregoing the entertainment available on any given Sunday to gather with other like minded individuals for worship. The highest purpose of Christian worship is to receive the gifts God has promised in His Word to all who worship Him in Spirit and Truth. These gifts are received by faith which is one of the gifts given by God. Not earned, not worked or sacrificed for, but received from God. The worship service...
Isaiah 59:1-2 is an interesting text that fits the day in which we live. It goes like this: “Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden his face from you, that He will not hear.” We live in a changing world. Each generation witnesses’ changes that would astound their ancestors. I asked a farmer years ago, what was the biggest change in agriculture in his lifetime? He didn’t have to think...
Our trust in a lot of things has gotten shaken over the last year. Misinformation, disinformation, lies and half-truths seem to be the norm anymore. When what we thought was solid belief comes into doubt, it rocks us to the core and we start doubting…everything. This applies to our faith. If I can’t trust what my eyes are seeing and my ears are hearing, how can I trust what I can’t see and hear? Does God really exist? Is His Word really true? Have I believed a lie this whole...
