The Flint Hills Union

07/06/2025

Pastor Rick Warren
Is Your Way Working?

“When [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’” Luke 5:4-5 (NIV)

In Luke 5, we read about Simon Peter admitting his failure to Jesus. He was a professional fisherman—and a good one. It was how he made his living. So imagine how hard it must have been for Peter to confess to Jesus, “We’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything” (Luke 5:5 NIV).

But sometimes, even the pros fish all night and catch nothing.

Does your life sometimes feel that way? Sometimes your best isn’t good enough, and sometimes you face situations out of your control. You can’t control the economy. You can’t control the weather. You can’t control a lot of things that affect your life.

So what do you do when you keep trying hard in your work but just don’t have much to show for it?

First, you need to get Jesus in your boat. In other words, let him be the center of your career or whatever you do each day to provide, care, or serve. Then, once you’ve asked Jesus to come into your boat, you need to admit your way isn’t working and let him take over. The Bible has a name for “admitting your way isn’t working.” It’s called confession, and it can be tough.

Why is it so hard for you to admit your way isn’t working? Here are a few reasons:

Pride. You don’t want anybody to think you can’t handle it. Instead, you try to look like you’re in charge and like you’ve got it all together. You want to be able to handle everything by yourself, even if it means working 12 hours a day.

Stubbornness. You’re unwilling to change the way you do things. Did you know the greatest enemy of tomorrow’s success is yesterday’s success?

Fear. You can’t admit you’ve fished all night and caught nothing. You’re afraid people will think less of you. You’re afraid to let Jesus into your boat because he might steer it in a direction you don’t want to go.

It’s time to confess that your way isn’t working. Let go of your pride, stubbornness, and fear. Then see how Jesus can take your boat and fill your nets to overflowing.
Talk It Over

Do you struggle most with pride, stubbornness, or fear? Why?

In what aspect of your life do you feel like your best just isn’t good enough? Spend some time confessing to God that your way isn’t working.

What’s one practical step you can take to start following God’s way instead of your own way?


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07/06/2025

A Seat at the Table
By A Country Pastor
There’s a small story in the Bible that doesn’t get much airtime. It’s not flashy. It’s not quoted in songs or printed on bumper stickers. But it carries more grace than most of us are ready to reckon with. It’s the story of Mephibosheth—Jonathan’s son, Saul’s grandson, a man who was dropped as a child and left crippled. He spent years in hiding, living in a dry and forgotten place called Lo-debar—a name that literally means “no pasture.” A place with no growth. No promise. No hope. But one day, everything changed. Not because Mephibosheth did something impressive. Not because he pulled himself up by the bootstraps. But because King David remembered a promise—a covenant he made with Mephibosheth’s father, Jonathan. “Is there anyone left,” David asked, “that I might show kindness to for Jonathan’s sake?” And they found him—this broken man in a broken place—and they brought him trembling before the king. And what did David do? He didn’t condemn him. He didn’t send him away. He didn’t make him prove himself. He restored everything that had been lost. And then he said something that changed Mephibosheth’s life forever: “You shall always eat at my table.” That’s not just restoration. That’s adoption. That’s not just mercy. That’s family.
When Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal Son, He was tapping into that same deep river of grace. A son who had lost everything. Who had fallen. Who came home expecting scraps and got a feast instead. The table, again, becomes the place of return. Of welcome. Of healing. And then Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, gathered His disciples around a table. Not to teach them power. Not to give them rules. But to give them Himself. Bread broken. Wine poured. Love made visible. A seat for each one—even for the one who would betray Him. And in that Last Supper, we glimpse the future Isaiah saw: “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples… He will remove the shroud that covers all nations… He will wipe away every tear.” The table, in Scripture, is where the Kingdom breaks in. Where walls fall. Where hunger meets hope. Where the forgotten are remembered. Where the broken are healed. Where the far-off are brought near.
And now we come to our own tables. This week, across the country, folks will pull up lawn chairs, paper plates stacked with hot dogs and potato salad. We’ll give thanks for freedom, for family, for fireworks and front porches. And that’s a good thing. But if we listen closely, there’s a holy ache woven into the celebration. Because not everyone is truly at the table. There are still too many Mephibosheths left in Lo-debar. The poor. The refugee. The neighbor trapped by addiction. The child in foster care. The elder on the edge of eviction. The veteran no one called back. The worker with no health insurance. The mother living out of her car. They are not at the table. Not really. And what’s worse, this administration has made it its purpose to divide this United States of America, to draw lines instead of setting places, to lift up the powerful and cast out the vulnerable. It governs by cruelty—by intentional exclusion, by rewarding dominance and punishing compassion. That is the opposite of what David did. That is the antithesis of God. Where David remembered a promise and offered restoration, this leadership breaks covenant and hardens hearts. Where David brought the outcast to the table, this movement builds walls and sharpens rhetoric. It does not reflect the Kingdom. It reflects fear posing as strength.
And if our celebration of this nation causes us to forget them, then we’ve turned the feast into a farce. Because the true power of a table is not in what’s served—it’s in who’s welcomed. God’s dream, from Genesis to Revelation, is of a table that keeps growing, keeps expanding, keeps making room. A table where the poor are lifted up, the low are honored, the lost are found. A table where your seat is never earned, but always given—not because of status or strength, but because God remembers His covenant of love.
So this week, when you gather, remember Mephibosheth. Remember that healing doesn’t come from spectacle or strength—it comes from kindness. From invitation. From presence. And maybe—just maybe—set an extra plate. Not just on your picnic table, but in your heart, in your neighborhood, in your voting, in your prayers. Because the King is still saying: “Bring them to the table.” And grace is still making room.

07/06/2025

THE SOUNDS OF FREEDOM (revised-original June 2022)
By Van Yandell
Galatians 5: 1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of bo***ge.”
Out for my morning hike, I passed by an office building. There was a sloped area along the road and it was grown up with grass and small trees. Realizing I was hearing a sound that was unusual, I stopped and looked into the brushy area but saw no sign of life.
It sounded small; possibly like a chipmunk or maybe even an armadillo; but nothing! Starting up my walk, the sound started again. What could that sound possibly be?
Finally, realizing there was a flagpole in the yard of the building, the sound was obviously the American flag blowing in the breeze. My heart almost exploded; what a beautiful sound the flag was making and I did not recognize it! The sounds of freedom at times fall on deaf ears.
We fail to stop and say “Thank you Lord for this great country and allowing me to be here, a citizen of the great United States of America.” Freedom and being an American are among our greatest blessings.
Those sounds of freedom are all around us and we rarely notice. The sound of cars and trucks on our many highways is a sound of freedom. People in many parts of the world must have government permits to travel, even within their own country, and those are often denied. Americans have the freedom to come and go, when and where we please. Travel is restricted in many communist countries.
Even at the current cost of gasoline, we have the freedom to buy the product and travel as we please. In most European countries, gas is now over seven U.S. dollars per gallon. With a passport we can travel to most any country with few restrictions. Many countries will not allow their citizens to leave without extreme vetting and investigating into their purpose.
Closely related to the travel restrictions are right of assembly freedoms. Communist governments are so oppressive of their citizens to assemble is banned. The governments live in constant fear of a revolt. They know they have to intimidate citizens to “keep them in line.”
An example of oppression is the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 in Beijing, China. The student led protests demanding democracy and an end to communism resulted in numerous deaths. Numbers of casualties were estimated from in the hundreds to the thousands.
The military was called to suppress the protestors and that they did. When people experience communism first hand, they quickly decide they don’t want it. Everything is for the government hierarchy and citizens are considered less than human and valued only for the work they do.
A saying we have heard in the last few years is, “You can vote your way into socialism but you have to fight your way out.” The purveyors make it sound good for the masses but people that live under such systems do not verify that.
Printing presses running are a sound of freedom. Freedom of the press is precious and must be preserved even though it has been perverted by the politically corrupt. A free press is essential to a republic in that the people have a “right to know.”
The sound of children pledging allegiance to the flag is a sound of freedom. The sounds of a high school football game or the academic team competing with other schools teams are sounds of freedom. The clip-clop of an Amish buggy is a sound of freedom.
The sound of the Star Spangled Banner playing at a veteran activity is a sound of freedom. The veterans have paid a very high price for our freedoms of speech, the press, assembly, and many others. They deserve the best of everything this country has to offer; without them, there would be no country.
There are 172 national cemeteries with an undetermined number of graves because the number changes daily. In Arlington National Cemetery alone there are over 400,000 graves. The sound of silence in these is a sound of freedom that is deafening.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” This statement by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1, tells us of a purpose of Christ’s crucifixion. By His sacrificial death, mankind has freedom from the “yoke of sin” the world had previously experienced.
From the writing of the Ten Commandments until Christ’s resurrection, the Jewish people had lived under the burden of being human but being expected to adhere to those commandments of God. Their atonement/redemption came by offering a blood sacrifice on the altar (Hebrews 9: 22). The laws for offering the sacrifice are stated in Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament.
For a period of a little over 1500 years, they were trapped in this bo***ge of sin. Being human, the same as we are, there was no way they could ever offer enough blood sacrifices to atone for their human sinful nature.
Then came Christ Jesus! The sounds of the Roman soldier’s hammer driving the nails into our Jesus’ hands and feet were sounds of the freedom He offered us by bleeding, suffering and dying for our sins. The sound of the stone being rolled away to allow Him to exit the tomb, resurrected and alive, was a sound of freedom.
Have we as a people, both Americans and Christians, tuned out those sounds and taken what we have for granted? Obviously, it was not granted easily. The prices paid were enormous. We think of the dead military men and women but they had families; mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers that also suffered immeasurably at their loss.
Their sacrifice set us free from an oppressive government. It is for freedom from sin that Christ has set us free. Only by forgiveness of sin based on His cleansing blood (1 John 1: 9) may we be saved. The suffering of Jesus is unimaginable in today’s world of medicines/painkillers.
Are there words to express how precious freedom is? If there are, I do not know them. These great treasures of being an American as well as salvation through a crucified and resurrected Christ Jesus are priceless. Don’t take them lightly.
As you go through the day, the week and the year, listen for the sounds. The flapping of the flag on a breezy morning really caught my attention and I pray those sounds will command your attention.
Abraham Lincoln said "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves". The church is built on Christ the Solid Rock of freedom and our steadfastness to the Gospel will keep that freedom alive.
Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary. His email is [email protected]

07/06/2025

Accepting S*x as Part of Dating
Speaking Truth by Clint Decker

Clay Center, Kansas – Allie Volpe, a reporter with Vox, tells the story of Matt and Aloria. The two began dating and soon started sleeping together most nights. Then after a couple of years they talked and decided they were committed for the long-haul, so a decision was made to move in together. Then a year later, Matt proposed and soon Matt and Aloria were married.

Volpe begins her article with this story, highlighting how the young couple illustrates a new normal in dating. She states, “A 2021 analysis of National Survey of Family Growth data found that among those aged 18 to 44 who married between 2015 and 2019, 76 percent of couples cohabitated first; that was true of just 11 percent of marriages between 1965 and 1974.” Today, nearly 80% of young people are choosing to live together with someone before marriage. And also growing, is the number of couples avoiding marriage, and just choosing to live together.

Is all this just the changing of the times, similar to how technological developments, music tastes, or clothing styles change? Is that all this is? Do the older generations need to accept that s*x and cohabitation are the new standard practices of dating? Do grandparents need to recognize that marriage was preferred for them, but for the up-and-coming generation, living together is the superior option? Or is there something more going on?

S*x outside of marriage and co-habitation are moral issues, unlike musical tastes and clothing styles, and the normalization of this is alarming and dangerous. God says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the s*xually immoral and adulterous.” (Hebrews 13:4) This is not about the views of the church or grandparents, this is ultimately a spiritual issue about what God has to say. He clearly says that s*x outside of marriage is dishonoring to Him and the institution of marriage He created. He speaks very directly saying that those who persist in being s*xually immoral will face His judgement. These are not meant to be harsh words, but instead a firm and loving warning.

God is not forcing anyone to do anything, because He created us with a sense of self-determination, where we can make our own choices. But God also recognizes the law of unintended consequences, where we do not know, what we do not know. Due to His all-knowing power, He can see into the future and knows the implications of our future actions. Therefore, out of love, He warns about the danger ahead. He sees the chance for an unplanned pregnancy. He sees the possibility of a s*xually transmitted disease. He sees the risk of your boyfriend or girlfriend that you have given yourself to, just walking away. He sees the impact of the second, third or fourth person that you have given your body and soul to through s*xual in*******se. He sees the likelihood of children being raised by unmarried parents, or multiple stepdads and moms or future boyfriends and girlfriends that come and go, affecting your children’s development with a lack of stability or prospects of abuse.

The Scripture says, “Surely there is not a righteous [a perfect] man on earth who does good and never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20) If you have fallen short of God’s standard you are not the only who has failed. We are all guilty. If you have failed in the area of s*xual sin, God opens His arms wide and says, “Come unto me.” He demonstrates this through Jesus, His beloved Son when He died and rose again. In Jesus, you can find freedom and sufficiency. He invites you to find everything you need in Him. Come to Jesus and find new life today.

A prayer for you – Lord God, I pray especially for the young in our nation. I pray for those who are choosing to not get married, but live with their boyfriends or girlfriends. Give them ears to hear your council. Draw them by your Spirit to trust in you and follow in your ways. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Clint Decker is President of Great Awakenings. Please share your comment at [email protected] and follow his blog at clintdecker.blogspot.com.

07/04/2025

Happy Fourth of July! Our office is closed today and reopens Monday. We'll also be taking a break from social media, aside from what's already pre-programmed our our Facebook groups (Junction City Underground, Junction City Union Local News, JC Union Classifieds). Real-time posts will resume on Sunday!

07/04/2025

Freedom Fest Veterans ceremony

07/04/2025

07/04/2025

Freedom Fest Parade

07/04/2025

JCPD Report of major incidents, occurrences, and crimes occurring during the 24-hour period on on 3 RD day of July 2025.

During the day tour of duty: 38 Calls for Service were answered, 16 Citations were issued, and 02 Arrests were made.

25-14428 NON-INJURY ACCIDENT: 1247 hours, 2617 Deerfield Boulevard

25-14429 UNLAWFUL RESTRAINT and DOMESTIC BATTERY: at 1342 hours, at 310 S Hammons Drive, the below subject was arrested on the listed charges.
ARRESTED: JOSE OSORIO GRANADENO, 22YOA, WM, JUNCTION CITY

25-14429 CRIMINAL DEPRIVATION OF PROPERTY and DOMESTIC BATTERY: at
1342 hours, at 310 S Hammons Drive, the below subject was arrested on the listed charges.
ARRESTED: KAIONIA CHANNELL, 25YOA, BF, JUNCTION CITY

25-14441 NON-INJURY ACCIDENT: At 1727 hours, 200 N Adam St.

During the night tour of duty: 63 Calls for Service were answered, 09 Citations were
issued, and 01 Arrests were made.

25-14460 DOMESTIC BATTERY, CRIMINAL TRESPASS: At 2155 hours at 433 W 14 th St the following subject was arrested on the above charge:
ARRESTED: HERBERT DEVAN FISHER SR, 67 YOA, B/M (JC)

07/04/2025

An editorial cartoon from 10 years ago ...

07/04/2025