Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
For millions of evangelical Christians, President Donald Trump‘s announcement Monday night was the vision they held in their heads as they stepped into the polling booth almost two years ago: a Republican president, filling the Supreme Court with more conservative justices who might drastically curtail access to legal abortion and advance other conservative Christian priorities.
Here’s a link to the editorial at the Chicago Tribune.
| “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” |
| Jeremiah 2:13 (Read all of Jeremiah 2:13) New International Version |
By Rick Warren
“Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life” (Proverbs 4:23 NCV).
This explains how affairs happen.
First, you begin by accepting sinful thoughts into your mind. “What would it be like to have sex with that person? Is it so wrong?” You start having doubts, and you start fantasizing in your mind. You begin to think it’s harmless.
But it’s not. Your thoughts produce feelings. And feelings inevitably lead to actions.
You then move into emotional, non-physical involvement. That’s when you start flirting. You start making gestures and comments, subtly or not-so-subtly saying, “I’m available.” Next comes the physical involvement. And finally, you rationalize your actions: “Everybody is doing it. It’s no big deal. We’re both adults.”
Your sinful actions started when you accepted sinful thoughts into your mind.
The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 2:22 how to manage our thoughts before they ever head down this path: “Turn your back on the turbulent desires of youth and give your positive attention to goodness, faith, love and peace” (Phillips).
The Bible tells us to turn away from lustful thoughts and turn instead toward something positive. That two-step process is how you break a temptation before it ever gets started. You’re thinking wrong long before you’re acting wrong. You stop the cycle by turning your back on those sinful thoughts and turning toward goodness, integrity, love, and peace.
You’re not an innocent bystander to sexual sin. You have a choice.
The article, System Split Analysis, written on June 29 was one of the best pieces of journalism that has come from The Southern Illinoisan. The Southern took a complex issue with several “characters” involved and laid it out in an understandable way.
Here’s a link to the editorial at Southern Illinoisan.
Almost immediately after news broke June 27 that Justice Anthony Kennedy was retiring from the Supreme Court, liberals and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine (but I repeat myself) began warning President Trump not to nominate an “activist judge” who would overturn “precedent.”
Here’s a link to the editorial at FOX News.
Here’s a link to the column at FOX News.
| “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” |
| Matthew 7:24-25 (Read all of Matthew 7:24-25) New International Version |
The latest plan to ease Illinois’ teacher shortage aims to make it easier for out-of-state and retired teachers to get into Illinois classrooms.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
By Rick Warren
“How can [anyone] stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9 NIV).
The Bible says, “How can [anyone] stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9 NIV). To be sexually pure in the 21st century (or any other century for that matter), you’ll need a standard to live by. You can either build your standard by yourself or choose God’s standard. You must decide whether God knows more about your life than you do.
God says several things in his Word that aren’t popular — particularly when it comes to sex. Why does he say those things? He knows more about sex than you do. He also understands the implications far better than you do. You have to decide: “God, when I don’t understand it, when I don’t like it, and when it’s not popular, I’m going to do what your Word says, regardless of what I think or what my friends think.”
Until you’re willing to make that kind of commitment, you may as well close up your Bible and go back to bed. Without that commitment, you’re not ready to be pure in an impure world. You can only be pure by following God’s standard.
God thought up sex. It was his idea, but he did put a few parameters around it. His standard has never changed. It’s very clear regardless of opinion polls or anything else.
Sex is far more than physical. It’s a spiritual act with physical, social, legal, and emotional consequences. If sex were just physical, it’d be like a handshake. It wouldn’t matter who you had sex with. But sex is more than physical.
The Bible makes it clear that sex is exclusively reserved for a husband and a wife who are committed to one another in a marriage. Anything outside of that, like sex before marriage and sex outside of marriage, will have profound consequences on your emotions and your spiritual life, and it may even physically harm you.
God’s standards are in your best interest. If you want to live by them — and avoid all the negative consequences that come from living outside of them — it starts with a commitment.
With controversies over the separation of families and zero-tolerance of immigration law violations at the border still in the headlines, immigration advocates and a few Democrats in Congress are calling for the dissolution of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
Here’s a link to the editorial at FOX News.
