On March 15 the Kansas Department of Transportation planned to close a portion of U.S. 281 in Russell County to through traffic, weather permitting.

BEING A NATHAN. While the gift of prophecy no longer exists, we can still be like Nathen the prophet in the way that God used him in the life of King David. After God made David the king of Israel and had "given him rest from all his enemies all around" (2 Sam. 7:1), David experienced a good dose of guilt. He told Nathan, "I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains" (v. 2). David understood how wrong it was for his house to be far more glorious than that of God's house. What I find interesting though is Nathan's response, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you" (v. 3). Nathan served David well by encouraging him to follow hard after all that God was leading him to do. True Christians today also need to encourage others to walk with God and to do all that He commands them to do. Later, David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, her husband. God was obviously angry at his sin. In response, knowing the spiritual tenderness of David's heart, "the LORD sent Nathan to David" (2 Sam. 12:1). Nathan proceeded to tell David a story of a poor man's only lamb being stolen by a rich man. David, being enraged at the atrocity, was totally humbled when Nathan told him, "You are the man!" (12:7). Somehow, David foolishly thought he had hidden his sin. But no sin is hidden from God! David's response? "So David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the LORD'" (12:13). True Christians not only need to encourage fellow saints to follow hard after God, but we also need to be willing to humbly rebuke the sin of those He loves. Interestingly, David's son, Solomon, wrote, "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed" (Prov. 27:5). The Lord saves us to serve Him by serving those for whom He died. That service includes both giving spiritual encouragement as well as humble, loving, spiritual rebuke. May our prayer be, "Lord, make me a Nathan."

Sometimes we get so caught up in ourselves that we forget how big God is and how small we are. Sometimes we need to be reminded that the world does not revolve around “ME.” That may not be the popular view in a world that says, “I did it my way,” but it is truth.

No services were held at Cedar Christian Church on Sunday. The March 7th services were held by Robert Virgil, Norton, and Ila Virgil accompanied the hymns.

The Stockton Public Library Board met on Monday, March 8th and released the February statistics as follows: Patrons Using Library—1,006, Library Materials Checked Out—776, Adults Utilizing Library—479, Children Utilizing Library—297, Interlibrary Loans Sent— 54, Interlibrary Loans Received—55, Story Time/ Out Reach Programs Served—76 Children and 40 Adults, Computer Users—121, Newspaper Readers—103, Reference Requests—51, Computer Training Of Patrons —6, New Cards—2, total e-Book Circulation for January—86.

The Stockton Fire Department was called out to 20 and J Terrace at approximately 5:15 p.m. on Sunday, March 14th for a grass and milo stubble fire. The cause of the fire was a burnt wire from a transformer. The fire crew worked for about a half hour at the scene with the damage held to less than half an acre. Even with the rains over the past weekend, it is still very dry on the surface, and a county burn ban is in effect on a week-to-week basis.

Hello from Topeka. Praise the Lord for the rain. While it was quite a bit, we should never discourage precipitation in our area. The rain will bring along the wheat crop and give some muchneeded sub soil moisture to the soon-to-be spring planted crops. It was good to be home the first of last week as bills went from one house of origin to the other. Now we are in a short second half of the session.

Co. B, 111th Illinois Infantry Regiment Co.

The Kansas Department of Transportation planned to begin work on a shoulder improvement project along a portion of U.S. 281/24 near Osborne the week of March 15, weather permitting.

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture provides technical and financial assistance to help Kansas farmers and livestock producers recover from damages brought on by winter storms Uri and Viola. Agricultural producers are encouraged to contact their local USDA Service Center to learn about the programs available to help them recover from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses.