Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
In the beginning, it was safe to ignore Kanye West and his growing bromance with President Trump. After all, West is a performer, which makes it easy to discount his political talk, and he is married to a Kardashian, which, well, enough said.
Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.
A Prayer for Righteousness
By Pete Briscoe
In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality – Proverbs 12:20
Elementary school was a difficult time for me; I was picked on quite a bit. One afternoon as I waited for the bus, a classmate ridiculed me relentlessly. My anger was building slowly; but when he said something about my mother, I walked over and kicked his kneecap. And he crumpled to the ground.
I boarded my bus feeling ashamed. All the way home my conscience told me, That was wrong. I got off the bus at home and waited for the school to call my parents, but the phone didn’t ring.
While it appeared I’d gotten away with injuring that kid, condemnation ran through my thoughts: Not only was that wrong, but you are wrong. Even at such a young age, I resisted turning to God because of my self-condemnation. Surely He wanted nothing to do with such a naughty kid.
Isn’t it heartbreaking how our conscience – something hardwired within all of humanity by our Creator – can be twisted in such as way as to distance us from Him?
Some of you are still struggling with your little judge. He’s reminding you of what you did in college. He tells you how you messed up your first marriage. The Evil One – our accuser – has hijacked your conscience, and you’re desperate to know if he can be silenced.
Yes, there is a way to clear our conscience before God – but there is only one way.
I know what you might be thinking: Jesus came to forgive our sins. This is enough. We can live with the guilt if we are forgiven.
But there is so much more to our life in Christ than this, friends!
“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ… cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death…” (Hebrews 9:14)
He wants you to be free – free from not only the acts of death, but also the guilt that results. I don’t know what guilt you live with, but I do know Jesus can silence it. All you have to do is ask Him.
Jesus, knowing You forgive all my sins was enough. But there is more? Praises to You! Yes, I want to be free from guilt and shame! Yes, I long for this abundant life! Amen.
Which do you imagine is the more difficult task: governing Illinois or completing a home remodeling job.
Here’s a link to the editorial at the Chicago Tribune.
By Rick Warren — October 16, 2018
”Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? . . . So let people see God in and through your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20 The Message).
So in light of what Jesus has done for us, how should we respond? We must be grateful. One way we can show our gratitude to God is by making our lives count.
You can’t really understand the grace of God and the price he paid to make it available to you while living how you want to live, ignoring the commands of Jesus, or wasting your life on things that don’t matter. The Bible says it this way: “Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? . . . So let people see God in and through your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20 The Message).
After the failed assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan, I remember him saying, “I have a new sense that I was spared for a purpose and that all my time belonged to God after that.”
We all should have the same sense of purpose. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we were spared for a reason: to make a difference with our lives. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so we could go on living any way we like. He made us for a purpose—and he redeemed us for a purpose, too. He wants us to fulfill that purpose.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (NIV). You were given spiritual gifts, abilities, education, and relationships for a reason—to help other people and tell them about Jesus.
God saved you so he can use you.
Have you trusted Jesus for your salvation?
The Bible says we can only get to heaven by trusting in God through his Son, Jesus Christ. And we don’t have to earn God’s love or work our way into heaven. The Bible says, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).
If you haven’t trusted in Jesus and committed to following him, why wait any longer? If you’re ready to step across that line and make a decision to believe in Jesus Christ and follow him, pray this prayer:
“Dear Jesus, you have promised that if I believe in you, everything I’ve ever done wrong will be forgiven, I will learn the purpose of my life, and you will accept me into your eternal home in heaven one day.
“I confess my sin, and I believe that you are my Savior. You have promised that if I confess my sin and trust you, I will be saved. I trust you when you say that salvation comes by grace, through faith, and not by anything I do. I receive you into my life as my Lord. Today I’m turning over every part of my life to your management. You have the right to call the shots in my life.
“Jesus, I want to relax in your love. Thank you that I don’t have to earn it or work for it. I want to use the rest of my life to serve you instead of serving myself. I humbly commit my life to you and ask you to save me and accept me into your family. In your name I pray. Amen.”
If you just prayed to accept Jesus, please email me at Rick@PastorRick.com and let me know about it. I’d like to send you some free materials to help you start your journey with Jesus.
Red Sox ace Chris Sale was released from the hospital Monday and will rejoin the team in Houston before Game 3 of the AL Championship Series.
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Here are excerpts from Saluki football head coach Nick Hill‘s weekly press conference held Monday afternoon at Saluki Stadium. Southern Illinois hosts Indiana State on Homecoming on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The contest will be televised on ESPN+.
On the significance of Homecoming.
The football game is what brings everybody together. I know what it means to go out there and play well and give them something to celebrate on Saturday. We’re excited for the opportunity to go out there and do it against a good football team in Indiana State. It’s a team that’s improving, stuck to their plan and gotten better. That’s evident watching them on film. It’s a great challenge in front of us. We have a lot of things to keep correcting. We have to get back to playing the football we know we can play.
On the team’s lengthy injury list.
I’ve always said that nobody cares. Indiana State doesn’t. It’s all about results. This game is going to create injuries. We probably have more than most, but that’s our job, that’s what we get paid to do, is to get the next guy coached up and go out there and give us a chance to win. That’s what we’ll continue to do, with a good attitude, great body language, come out and practice and coach, and do everything in our power. We’ll get a couple guys back, we’ll lose a couple more, but we’ll line up on Saturday with the confidence with the guys we have to go out and play well.
On the defense’s inability to stop the run at Illinois State.
You turn on the film and there’s opportunities to get stops. We’re fitting power and two guys fit outside the puller, and (the running back) hits inside and you’re going to get beat. Not all of it was just physically getting manhandled up there. We had guys that physically won one-on-ones, but it takes all 11 guys in the right spot. Missed tackles, some inexperience, (knowing) when to fit double pullers, (Illinois State) created some problems. I definitely don’t think up front we have to recruit better. We feel like we have some good players, a lot of them.
On winning.
You have to make things happen. You can’t sit back and hope it to happen. You have to be the aggressor and go and attack to finish the ballgame. Winning starts to steamroll and breeds success. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a lot of them that have went our way. You got to get one to get the next one, and then you start to learn how to win and what it feels like to win. You gotta find a way at some point to say, enough’s enough, and go out there and do it. Everybody has a hand in it. We have to coach better in the second half, we have to coach better late in practices. We have to focus for an entire 60 minutes.
On the talent level on defense.
I don’t think we’ve lined up against anybody that has more superior athletes than us. You’re not going to find better athletes than some of the guys we just named off — Anthony Knighton, Jordan Berner, Jeremy Chinn, Madre Harper. They’re as good as anybody. We have to coach them better and put them in better spots, and at the end of the day, we have to make some plays. We have to tackle better, we didn’t tackle good in space, we mis-fit some things, and when we did fit it up right, we had trouble getting (the running back) down.
On Sam Straub’s running ability versus Illinois State.
I thought Sam did his best job of taking care of the football. His 49 yards rushing, all of them were passes called. I think four of them were first-down runs, which we emphasized him doing. For him to take the next step, it’s what he’s got to continue to do. If it doesn’t feel good, something’s not there, pull it down. He’s an athletic kid and tough to bring down. Picking up four or five yards is a positive play.
On the offense’s performance the last two weeks.
Any time you have 200 yards of offense in back-to-back weeks, there’s a lot of things you can look at to do better, starting with me. Nobody’s happy in that room. Your job as an offense is to score points — we scored three points, we didn’t put it in the end zone. We could sit here all day and talk about things we could do better.
On how the team handles adversity.
You can’t feel sorry for yourself. That’s what this game will teach you. It will humble you really quick. It’s easy to talk about in the offseason, about how football teaches you about life, there’s no greater sport. When you’re in it, and you’re 1-5, it doesn’t feel good, then you really learn those lessons. It’s our job as coaches to be those mentors, be honest with (the players). They’re not the only ones who have that gut-wrenching feel. The coaches are right there with them. You have to keep the core, fundamental things of your program at the forefront. You have to keep challenging them as men. You’re going to win with class, you’re going to lose with class. You’re still going to sit in the first three rows, still going to be respectful. We’re going to lift hard, we’re going to practice hard, we’re going to run on and off the field. We’re going to have a great attitude and body language on the sideline. It’s our job as coaches to mentor that. If you see somebody slipping in that area or feeling sorry for themselves, it’s your job to get them out of that.
On the team’s effort at Illinois State.
There wasn’t anyone who traveled last week who wasn’t in it to win it and didn’t compete until the very end. Madre Harper on the last touchdown passed up two guys to tackle (the ball carrier) and roll him into the end zone. If I would have seen him jogging after that guy on a 49-yard touchdown run because he doesn’t really feel like going to get him because we’re down by 35, but he didn’t. He chases him down, you play to the whistle, you keep competing. That’s we all have to do and the only way it’s going to get better. If we want to flip it around and finish this season strong, we have one choice and it’s to keep working with a good attitude.
On the team’s depleted running back corps.
We went into the (Illinois State) game with three backs — Perk (Chris Perkins), D.J. (Davis) and Tremayne (Lee), who is a freshman who has continually gotten better. He’s gotten stronger and lost 10 pounds, which we challenged him to do. He’s done a great job on the scout team. We used one game last week and we’ll probably use those three other games at some point and still let him redshirt.
Anthony Iapoce will become the Cubs’ third hitting coach in three seasons, but he has an advantage his predecessors didn’t.
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.
Jhoulys Chacin combined with four relievers on a five-hitter, Orlando Arcia hit a two-run homer and the Brewers beat the Dodgers 4-0 on Monday to take a 2-1 lead in the NL Championship Series
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.
Add Illinois to the list of states battling a polio-like condition.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
Billionaire Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker has portrayed himself as a champion of working families and received substantial support from organized labor, but he used nonunion workers to remodel his Gold Coast mansion
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.
