October 2023

Early voting is now underway for the Nov. 7 general election. Voters will decide the fate of 14 proposed amendments, including measures to provide property tax relief and raise the homestead exemption to $100,000.

Following last week’s loss in Monahans, the Fort Stockton Panthers bounced back with a 38-21 victory over the visiting Mountain View Lobos this past Friday. “I really liked the response they had from the loss last week following with a good week at practice,” said head coach Jeremy Hickman.

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The month of October brings to mind that famous old Peanuts cartoon of Lucy and Charlie Brown. Lucy is holding the football, and she tells Charlie Brown to kick it. As Charlie Brown goes running up to kick the football, Lucy pulls it out of the way at the last minute. Charlie Brown then ends up on his back. The worst part of this is that Lucy plays the same trick on Charlie Brown year, after year, after year. I always felt so awful for Charlie Brown. I kept asking myself why he hadn’t learned that Lucy was going to trick him?

It was a term I heard my father frequently use. Over the years his job put him in charge of a large number of men and it was very important because it had to do with national security. Many times they would assign new men to be trained in that special field. Those particular jobs required teamwork and each person had to be very dedicated to do his part. I have seen my dad unofficially advise men at our home that they needed to consider moving or transferring to another group as this one was very intense and required a lot of dedication and commitment. A few transferred, others received a court martial for dereliction of duty. Those situations reminded me of something in the Bible. It is one thing to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior but totally another to live in a way that honors Him. Many start with Christ but quickly abandon or slowly drift away, (2 Timothy 4:10, Revelation 2:4&5). So many things can cause someone to depart from the Christian way. We are warned and told to watch out for this danger in the Christian life, (2 Peter 2:20-22, Matthew 5:13, 1Timothy 6:9&10). If we have drifted or abandoned there is hope, we can return. God is willing to accept us back if we repent and ask Him, (James 4:8-10, 1 John 1:9, Revelation 3:2&3, Malachi 3:7).