Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Articles written by Jeff Halvorson


Sorted by date  Results 1 - 25 of 45

  • Sermonette: Dec. 25, 2023

    Pr. Jeff Halvorson|Dec 25, 2023

    Greetings Brothers and Sisters In Christ. We continue with our Advent story this week. Last week we discussed the four outer candles on our Advent wreath. This week we focus on the center candle, the Jesus candle. The four outer candles, Hope, Peace, Joy and Love are fine all by themselves, each representing great and beautiful attributes. But in the center, the Jesus candle puts them all together. In our Christian lives, none of the other four candles matter if we don’t have Jesus at our center. Jesus is the “Reason for the Season.” As Chris...

  • Sermonette: Dec. 18, 2023

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Dec 18, 2023

    Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ. We continue with our Advent story this week. Let’s take a closer look at the Advent wreath. As I mentioned last week, our wreath has five candles; four on the outside and one in the middle. The outer candles are either purple or blue and many churches have three of those and a fourth one that is pink. There is a center candle that is white and is called the Jesus candle. The four outer ones are Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The Hope candle is not the word hope we use in everyday conversation. I hope I g...

  • Sermonette: Dec. 11, 2023

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Dec 11, 2023

    With two exceptions, my weekly sermons are based on scripture. The exceptions are Advent and Lent. The ways in which we celebrate these two holiday seasons are based on tradition. Advent is the beginning of our church calendar year. We use this season to prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Lent is the time leading up to Holy Week, when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday. You will not find mention of these two seasons in scripture. However, both of these events hold an important part in our church...

  • Sermonette: August 28, 2023

    Jeff Halvorson, Sheyenne Oberon Area Ministries|Aug 28, 2023

    Greetings dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Wow. The summer is just about over. The kids are back in school, all the way from kindergarten to college. Locally, baseball is done and football and volleyball are the sports of the season. The family summer vacations are just memories now, though I imagine there are still a few weeks left for those who have lake cabins. I'm writing this on Monday to make sure it gets to the Transcript in time to make this edition. The weatherman says the temperature may get into the 90's a few days this week. My...

  • Sermonette

    Jeff Halvorson, Sheyenne Oberon Area Ministries|Aug 21, 2023

    Greetings dear brothers and sisters in Christ. This won't come as very much of a surprise to those who know me but I enjoy sports. I enjoy watching them at almost every level. One of my favorite sports is college football. When I lived in Colorado, I had season tickets to University of Colorado football. Never missed a game. If there was no home game, I watched them on television. Basketball also, although it wasn't very often, they were televised. I really enjoy watching our local students play. I enjoy going to the volleyball matches and...

  • Sermonette: August 14, 2023

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Aug 14, 2023

    I hear from time to time that surely, with all the strife currently happening, the world must soon be coming to an end. There have been, from time to time, people who have predicted the actual day the world was ending. Judgment Day! Christ's second coming! Yep, they knew the actual day it was going to happen. Well, those days have come and gone and we are still here. Our earth has not ceased to exist. Early on when the coronavirus was spreading like wildfire, I had an acquaintance tell me that this pandemic was predicted in the book of Revelati...

  • Sermonette: August 7, 2023

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson, Sheyenne Oberon Area Ministers|Aug 7, 2023

    I remarked the other day that when I was young, I would hear “old” people talk about how fast time went the older they got. I thought that was pretty silly. Time was time, it didn't change speed. Now, being that I am included in that “old fogy” group, I do indeed understand that time goes by more quickly the older I get. Now here we are nearing the end of summer. How did that happen so quickly? Seems like just last week seed was going in the ground and now it is time for harvest. Teams involved in fall sports are practicing and the summer...

  • Sermonette: March 27, 2023

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Mar 27, 2023

    On a long car trip comes the question from a child in the back seat, “Are we there yet?” Many of us around here these days look at the calendar, think about spring and ask, “Are we there yet?” We have received so much snow this year. It started early and it is still here. The calendar says it is spring but our streets and yards and fields sure don't look like it. Even the 10-day weather forecast says it isn't Spring yet. I am hoping that forecast is wrong. I want a change in our weather patterns. This is a season of change; a season of transit...

  • Sermonette: March 20, 2023

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Mar 20, 2023

    Peace and Grace to you, brothers and sisters in Christ. For those people who work a Monday to Friday job, Wednesday is often called “hump day.” The meaning being that once we get past Wednesday, we’re over the hump and the weekend is almost here. In many of our professional sports, approximately halfway through their seasons they have an all-star break of a few days and play an all-star game before getting back to their regular season schedule. In college basketball, the regular season is over, conference tourneys have been played, and “Marc...

  • Sermonette: March 13, 2023

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Mar 13, 2023

    Peace. We use that word quite often. My first encounter with that word came about as I was growing up. This was in the 1960s. We were indeed in turbulent times. The conflict in Vietnam was going strong with no signs of letting up and the number of casualties were growing. It was during this time, and I have no idea exactly when or where it came about, but giving the “peace sign” to others came to be the thing to do. We did this by making what looked like the letter V with our index and middle fingers. As I recall, and admittedly my memory isn...

  • Sermonette: March 6, 2023

    Jeff Halvorson|Mar 6, 2023

    Greetings dear friends in Christ. This story is well known. Joseph is his father's favorite. He is spoiled and rubs it in to his older brothers. They are working with the family flocks while Joseph wears fancy clothes and jewelry, gifts from his father. Naturally they are resentful and as things progress, they at first choose to kill him but end up opting to sell him into slavery to a passing caravan on its way to Egypt. There, Joseph climbs the ladder of success and becomes a trusted employee of the Pharoah. He was second in command with only...

  • Sermonette: August 29, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Aug 29, 2022

    Greetings dear friends in Christ. I think that for many, if not most, August is not a month where we look both backward and forward. January 1, New Year's Day would seem more appropriate for that kind of thing. With the beginning of a new year, we think of resolutions to make and eventually break. After all, nobody actually keeps a New Year's resolution. Maybe, as individuals we might use a birthday or anniversary as a time of reflection. But August? The end of August? Why would we choose now for that type of thinking? I'm thinking it is a grea...

  • Sermonette: August 22, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Aug 22, 2022

    Do not fear. Fear Not. Do not be afraid. All these commands are found in the bible. The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a young Jewish virgin girl, and announced that she was to become the mother of our Savior. He tells her to not be afraid. It is certainly understandable that when all of a sudden, an archangel from God appears and starts talking to us, who wouldn’t be afraid? Joseph is visited by an angel in a dream and is told that he is not to be afraid to continue his betrothal to Mary even though she is with child. She had not been u...

  • Sermonette: August 15, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Aug 15, 2022

    Follow is an appropriate word for today. For most of the summer it has been an appropriate word for those who have to drive on Highway 281 between Sheyenne and New Rockford. I would imagine that like me, it is getting very tiresome for all of us sitting in our vehicles waiting for that pilot car with the sign on the back that says “Follow Me.” I recall times when I had friends or family visiting when I was living in Minneapolis or Denver and we would be going out to eat or to a ball game or whatever. There were too many of us to go in one car...

  • Sermonette: August 8, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Aug 8, 2022

    August is here. Where did the summer go? It seems like we just celebrated the fourth with picnics and parades and related festivities. Family and school reunions have come and gone with only memories remaining. August is one of the several transition months we have here in North Dakota. Of course, many of the northern tier states and several others in the upper Great Plains experience the changes of the four very different seasons. We start out August with hot and sometimes humid weather. We will end the month thinking about the first frost...

  • Sermonette: March 28, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Mar 28, 2022

    Is spring finally here? It sure looks like it. I walked to work today and didn't have to worry about slipping on the ice. It was a beautiful morning. We had so much ice this year and let's throw in wind as well. Nothing like a strong wind blowing snow over the ice to polish it up nice and shiny and slippery. I had a meeting with a family at the funeral home early this afternoon. Sometime between my walk to the office in the morning and my afternoon drive to New Rockford to the funeral home, it got quite windy, cold and even a drop a two of...

  • Sermonette: March 21, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Mar 21, 2022

    Why? So often this is a question asked by children of their parents. They see something they are not familiar with so it stands to reason that they would ask why. Even everyday occurrences, things that are so common to us we don't even notice them, can be a wonderment to little ones. Sometimes they don't know why there are rules or why they are forbidden to do some things. “Come inside, it's starting to rain,” says mom. Do we have to? Why? “Because you will get wet.” So? We get wet when we take a bath. Why can't we get wet in the rain? “Your c...

  • Sermonette: March 14, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Mar 14, 2022

    If you were to think of a single word, one which would sum up the Lent season, what would it be? Sadness? Worry? Death? Suffering? Jesus? Cross? There are any number of words that come to mind. And most likely, they would all be correct to some extent. Certainly all the ones I just listed would qualify. But the one I've come up with, the one word that to me signifies this season on our church calendar is Forgiveness. It is indeed a difficult concept to truly understand. In other religions of the world, they don't have a God that will forgive a...

  • Sermonette: March 7, 2022

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Mar 7, 2022

    This week begins the portion of the church calendar that separates Christianity from all other religions, Easter. As a prelude, a time for preparation, for nearly all Christian denominations to observe the season of Lent. The season of Lent lasts for 40 days and begins on Ash Wednesday. But if you were to count the actual days on your calendar from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday you would find there are 44 days. The answer to this is that as Sunday is a day of worship, it is not counted as a day of preparation. So, taking the days of this...

  • Sermonette: Nov. 29, 2021

    Pr. Jeff Halvorson|Nov 29, 2021

    Grace and Peace to you from God our Father. Amen. It seems like everybody says this at least once every day. Where has the time gone? I know I do. It seems to me we were just complaining about how hot it was outside and now, here we are making plans for Thanksgiving, and Christmas is right around the corner. This week’s message is a prayer. We all know what the holiday of Thanksgiving is for. It is pretty much self-explanatory. We are to be thankful for the many blessings we receive; both physical and spiritual. So, rather than go through a b...

  • Sermonette: Nov. 22, 2021

    Pr. Jeff Halvorson|Nov 22, 2021

    Grace and Peace to you from God our Father. Amen. Last week I talked about the bible. I enjoy reading the bible and do so every day. It's not just because I'm “in the business” and reading it is part of my job. I read the bible before I started in parish ministry. Why? Well, for a number of reasons. One is that even though the New Testament was written approximately 2,000 years ago, and the Old Testament long before that, some of it reads as if it were written to us just yesterday. Take the apostle Paul's letters to the churches he helped get s...

  • Sermonette: Nov. 15, 2021

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Nov 15, 2021

    Grace and Peace to you from God our Father. Amen. The Bible. I'm sure the vast majority of homes in the area have at least one. That's good. Unfortunately, in too many homes, we're not quite sure where it is. If asked, is your answer some place in the bookcase, or maybe in a drawer somewhere? Here is another question. Did you receive one as a gift many years ago, and it still has that “new car” smell and not even the title page has been read? I wish there weren't so many people who would agree with those answers. However, the good news is that...

  • Sermonette: Nov. 8, 2021

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Nov 8, 2021

    Grace and Peace to you from God our Father. Amen. It is getting to be about that time of year. Halloween is over and retail outfits, big and small alike, are skimming over Thanksgiving and marching right into the Christmas season. It seems a shame, but if I were in retail, it is likely I would be doing the same thing. After all, how hard it must be to put a really big sales push into a season in which we are to be thankful for what we already have. Along with this season comes the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the Christmas season....

  • Sermonette: Nov. 1, 2021

    Pastor Jeff Halvorson|Nov 1, 2021

    Change, transition, whatever name you wish to put on it, we are experiencing it right now. I've been known to repeat this a number of times so bear with me if you have heard me say this before. When I was young, I would hear grown-ups say that the older they got, the faster time went by. I would think to myself, how dumb is that? It made no sense to me at all. Time did not go fast. It went too slow. The things I wanted to happen took forever to get here. However, now as I get older, I am finding that the grown-ups knew what they were talking...

  • Sermonette: August 30, 2021

    Pr. Jeff Halvorson|Aug 30, 2021

    Greetings dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Beginnings. Something new, or perhaps returning to something, to again begin anew… a new city, new job, new school, or a new baby in the house. Even in rural communities such as ours, where things never seem to change, there is usually something new. Of course the biggest thing that is new now is that once again, we are saying good bye to summer vacation and school has started. For some, it truly is a new beginning. The kindergarten children, the first graders, and perhaps the freshmen are all e...

Page Down