There’s a lot of things happening around the world right now that can be very unsettling and troubling. I don’t have to go down the list of things that we hear happening in the news, talk radio and continual conversations. The events unfolding around us provide and empowering choice. We can focus on the chaos or focus on Christ. There’s a great verse that has four encouraging thoughts to help us regain a Biblical perspective instead of an ever-changing emotional perspective.

Archer County first responders sprung into action and provided mutual aid to the city of Jacksboro and Jack County after a suspected tornado caused significant damage to the town Monday, March 21. No fatalities and only minor injuries had been reported as of Tuesday morning.

The Lakeside City city council approved a peddler ordinance during its meeting Tuesday, March 22, in an effort to cutdown on unpermitted solicitors. The ordinance will allow for the city to require peddlers to obtain a permit from city hall and for the city to issue tickets to those who refuse to do so after a first warning.

Over 1,000 acres were burned in a fire that started in the northwestern portion of Archer County and quickly spread into southern Wichita County Sunday, March 20. Bowman Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jesse Pope said the department initially fought the fire off Wells Road on Thursday with that fire burning roughly 97 acres.

Holliday ISD superintendent Cody Carroll provided an update on where the facilities committee is at with a plan for needed updates in a potential facilities bond to the school board Monday, March 21. The superintendent said the facilities committee will meet Monday, March 28, to finalize a recommendation.

A potentially very dangerous war for us all has again begun in our world. It begs the question; what are the causes of wars? There are actually two causes of war, the external and the internal. The external causes of war, according to an elder statesman, are three: “to keep, to add, and to recover.” Putin certainly thinks he is accomplishing some of these. It’s Putin’s war. He is the aggressor. Of the internal causes of war St. James in his New Testament letter and the Word of God, gives us the deepest explanation. He writes: “Where do wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain: you fight and wage war” (James 3:1-2). Wars come from pride, egoism and selfishness (Hosea 10:9-15). Every macrocosmic war has its origin in the microcosmic wars going on inside millions and millions of individual people. That is where we all come in as contributing to wars and where we can also come in to contribute to their ending. The civil war going on inside every man and woman is between what he/she thinks he /she is and what he/she actually is, between the way God made us and the way we make of ourselves, between the moral law that ought to govern our lives and the self-centeredness and selfishness that actually determines our actions. When civil wars are waged in the minds of so many of us they produce a pervasive climate of anxiety, fear, distrust, anger, covetousness, avarice and greed. Multiply individual internal strife by the millions, and there you have the genesis of war. These attitudes eclipse God in human hearts. God is forgotten.

After finishing second in district the previous three years, Archer City Head Track and Field coach Donny Gray has his sights set on taking home a district crown. “My ultimate goal is to compete for a district championship,” Gray said.

In his first season as head coach, Archer City’s Zac Dunnam is teaching the Wildcats how fun the game of baseball can be. While a deep postseason run that ends in Austin is always the ultimate goal, the Archer City skipper hopes to have a little fun along the way.