Lyle's Blog

When you’re young, reflection can be the impetus for beneficial change. We can learn from our mistakes or improve our design for a better mousetrap. When we’re old and well past the time of delivering on the promise of youth, if we’re honest, we can see clearly the past, present, and future.

I’m from a small town in North Dakota. We lived in the area through elementary school. For reasons our young minds didn’t understand, we were leaving it all, and our family was thrust into the big city of Seattle. The move changed everything. Children adapt pretty well; after all, play is simple, it’s just accessorized with more tools. We lived in the “country” for the first couple of years and then found ourselves in the bedroom community of Renton.

Once in a while, I’ll check back in on Wahpeton, my hometown. The local news stories are about the tornado drill the city had planned, local athletic games, and hometown stuff. The prom had happened, and in that copy were some prom pictures. I’m not interested in proms (I never had a girlfriend and for sure didn’t know how to dance), I wanted to see the “cream of the crop” of young people coming out of Wahpeton.

Wahpeton’s population has remained stable over the years. The State School of Science keeps it alive. The good news, it’s alive! The prom pictures paint a picture of an America we had in 1959. No tattoos, piercings in annoying places, and smiles that looked like real smiles, eyes full of the future. Perhaps, Wahpeton is one of the flickers of light that has kept the hand of God at bay.

Hope is not lost if you look into the eyes of those who have it. Believe it or not, you can get hope digitally. Wahpeton, try some, you’ll like it!

Easter is just ” around the corner”. For some, it’s eggs and a great dinner; for others, it’s remembering the price paid for our salvation and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The question for many is, do we need saving? I meet people that are kind, generous, and wonderful souls. There are those born with huge abnormalities and a lack of understanding of fundamental things. I’ve seen the girl with two heads, children with Down Syndrome; you get the picture. Lots of nice, innocent people who don’t know or even care to know of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says those whose names aren’t found in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Some claim to understand God. I don’t. Yes, we see him in Jesus Christ, but God’s ways are above our ways. Do we really think that we can understand anything much about the One who put the universe together?

Through Christ, we can know the love of God, but not the mind of God. Our minds cannot conceive of what God will do for us because we love Him. We have no idea. We’re looking through a glass darkly. When we step off the ark, which is Jesus Christ, we shall see Him as He is.

The question is, do we really believe that the majority of the world will be cast into the Lake of Fire? I we did, wouldn’t we be diligent and serious about spreading the gospel? Was Jesus really who He said He was?

Noah was a man of exceptional ability and belief in God. Imagine spending decades building an ark just because God said so. It was a dirty, somewhat discouraging task. Just staying alive in those days must have seemed hopeless. Noah and his family were the only ones on earth God deemed worth saving. The Bible says that Noah found favor with God because he was righteous. Noah found grace. God gave mankind a second chance because one man and his family were worth saving.

When Noah left the ark, he built a vineyard for himself. It takes three years to get a crop of grapes and make your first cup of wine. Noah tended those grapes for three years, crushed them, and made his first of too many cups of wine. He became drunk, shed his clothes, and subsequently passed out in his tent. I witnessed this activity many times while serving in the military.

You could say that Noah had never tasted wine before and was therefore not aware of how it would affect him. Having lived among the most unsavory men before the flood, I’m sure he was aware of what wine could do. They looked foolish and stupid; their drive to drink to intoxication was impossible to understand. It wasn’t until the crucible of living in the ark that he seemed to understand being driven to drink.

I think Noah had that vineyard in mind the whole time he was on the ark. Noah knew wine numbed the mind, and he needed some of that numbness as soon as possible. After three years he was so ready, ready to destress after a hundred years of an ark-centered life. Growing a vineyard from scratch to grape takes three years. He knew that fact. He had no Holy Spirit to comfort him, no personal relationship with Jesus, that is, someone who could relate to life on earth. His flesh desired relief, if just for a little while, just divorce himself for a few hours from the reality of his dutiful service.

Noah was a righteous man, but he was still a man, just like us. No matter how “holy” we get, how much we get our act together, we’re still sinners saved by grace, just like Noah. For us, the ark’s been built. All we have to do is invite our neighbors to come aboard. On this ark, there’ll be singing, dancing, joy unspeakable and full of glory. And the wine? It’ll be new wine. It won’t numb our minds; it will glorify our lives. Cheers!

Christians are familiar with the words that describe the moment when all mankind is confronted with the power of Christ’s appearance. Bowing the head, bending the knee, and confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord over all, happens on judgment day, the end of everything earthly.

Til that day it’s all voluntary. We can choose to acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of our lives. However, other gods aren’t quite so congenial or willing to let the inhabitants of this earth be so dismissive of their authority. The chief rival for the all-powerful god is none other than, Allah and his sidekick Muhammad. Depending on which sect of Islam you live under, there are varying degrees of patience given to unbelievers they proselytize.

Allah, the obvious leader in the “other god race”, is not so lenient awaiting you to bend your knee, bow your head, and confess that Allah is god. We see this exhibited in the United Kingdom. Muhammad has become the most popular name given to children. Most of the important cities have Muslim mayors even though Muslims make up just 6.5 % of the population. Muslim rape gangs take advantage of young girls and are protected from “discrimination” by the government. Indeed, Great Britain has committed cultural suicide, all to satisfy “woke” soulless evil men submitting to Allah, the woke god.

In the United States Muslims represent a little over one percent of the population. So we are ten years behind Britain in Islamic occupation but we are well on our way in our willful rejection of Jesus Christ. Our constitution was created out of allegiance to Christ. People moved to America for religious freedom which is contrary to Islamic teaching. Our constitution is incompatible with the teachings of Islam as it is based on Christian values. After a little research, it becomes apparent that Allah is taking over the world.

X (formerly Twitter) is a great place to monitor world events. Freely posting videos is great, although one is always confronted with scenes you didn’t want to admit happened. In a country where we pursue happiness, we often ignore the danger which may undermine that privilege.

Bangladesh, 91% Muslim, pretty well describes life when Allah is your “best” choice in gods. Imagine an eleven-year-old Hindu girl (child) being ridiculed, taunted, and pushed around by followers of the all-powerful and gracious Allah. After their fun and games, they took her to the river a few steps away and drowned her.

Jesus stands at the door and knocks; it’s up to you to let Him in. Allah? He’ll knock your door down and make you wish you were his follower. He demands you to bow your head, bend your knee, and shout, “Allah hu Akbar”, Allah is great. If we are Christian we are to refuse and therefore accept the punishments of this menacing monster.

The children of Israel didn’t bend, they didn’t bow, they didn’t burn. We must preach the gospel even to evil, unsavory Islamic tyrants. There’s plenty of history showing God not protecting His children from harm. We must be willing to pay the price of carrying the cross of Jesus Christ. Allah is not a god of love; he is a god of submission. Our God is a god of love, not willing that any should perish, but come to repentance. Our choice, a god of fear or a god of love.

Our church is closing in late April. We received an email informing us all that financially the church can no longer continue. We had the dreaded sermon on tithing a couple of months ago. This resulted in our pastor telling us the following week offerings were way up. Apparently, this did not continue. Our pastor also told us he and his wife were going to Greece for two weeks.

Pastor has said he wants to retire so, he’s been interviewing a possible replacement over the past year, even having one deliver the message once. Just a couple months ago he said he interviewed another pastor but to no avail.

What puzzles us is simply this, if the ship is sinking (this had to be known some time ago), why is a replacement being sought for a new pastor? Perhaps it was hard to accept the reality of the situation. Our pastor, through no fault of his own, lost his last church to the whims of Methodist corporate meddling. The pain of our church passing from the scene must be somewhat disheartening. Maybe it’s not so much retirement he wanted, but a desire not to be at the helm when the ship goes under.

We can’t know the hearts and minds of people placed in a tight place. What would I do? I can pretend to know and radically espouse it, but heroes are made in a moment, not before the event. So let’s not judge; that, after all, is the prerogative of God. Grace and mercy are what we say we’re about. Can we practice what we preach?