Lyle's Blog

On a silent night two thousand years ago God quietly entered the world He created in the same way all of us had to; He was born a helpless baby. After He accomplished His purpose (paying the price for the debt of sin on the cross) He quietly asks men to come to Him, to take their burden away, to be forgiven for violating His creation. Just like the quiet way He entered the world, He quietly knocks on the door of your heart.

You can’t make people love you, neither can He. Gently persuasion, asking, pleading, watching for you to come to Him, that’s His way. I hope everyone who reads this is ready for His return. He promised to return and He will. This world has less attraction every day. It’s not home anymore. Come while He is still whispering quietly in your ear. Merry Christmas. Make it merry with the assurance of His promises being kept.

Two thousand years is a long time, at least from our perspective; after all we’re “lucky” if we live a hundred years. So twenty hundred year lifetimes back to back might as well be eternity. If Christ came to save us why hasn’t he returned like he promised? When He created the universe, the earth, its furnishings, and lastly us,; He knew the beginning from the end.

God was perfect; there is none to question His authority, justice, and mercy. This is His creation and scripture tells us that all things were created by Him and for His pleasure. If I were God I might choose to do things differently, but like all men I am deeply flawed and this world would have self-destructed long ago if I were at the helm. God in His kindness and mercy has given man plenty of time; over and over men have chosen their way and we behold the destruction of our choices every day. That is because we are slaves to sin, we can’t help ourselves, and that’s why we need a savior.

We are born dead in our trespasses, our sin controls us, our nature determines our hopeless state. But two thousand years ago Christ came to free us from the power and penalty of sin. We need to be born again because our bodies are alive but our spirits are dead. God longs to communicate with us and that is accomplished only in the spirit. He wants to occupy our hearts, to be closer than a brother. He loves us and more than anything else wants us to love Him.

This planet has rejected Him and being the creator of it all He has every right to destroy it. But He loved us and love is a decision to do the right thing. Being a loving and merciful God, He provided a way that we could be redeemed. And who could pay the price for that redemption but God himself? So in the frailty of a baby, presented to the poorest of men, he presented His sacrifice to Himself. If man would accept His sacrifice as payment for their personal sin, God would forgive them and accept them as His children. We have a choice to make; will we pay for our sin ourselves or allow Christ to stand in our place?

I pray you have chosen the latter. That is the only thing that can put the merry in Christmas. I praise God for saving this wretched man from bondage and letting me bask in the wonders of his grace. Merry Christmas and may you be blessed by Him this coming year.

Winston: ? – 1984 A dreary life ends, apathy, complacency, a worthless expenditure of time, born of parents who took no stand, spineless concubines of the state, succored on the government handouts, molded with their children in cookie shapes, soulless remnants of a glorious free land forever banished to history, the price paid for their squandered inheritance ridiculed and disdained. Do we really want to be Winston? Is there no fight in us? The few will fight, suffer and be hated for standing by the helpless fools who trust in the promise of the politician’s hopeless change. Do the people ruling us really have our best interests at heart? Do “one size fits all” laws really work for men that breathe free air? Aren’t we all cloaked in the wishful dreams of politicians who pander to the lusts of evil constituents? We are no longer on the slippery slope; we have arrived at the bottom of the hill, flying off the cliff, nervous about landing in the dark canyon below.

Years ago I pulled a month of guard duty in the Army. Being a good guard is hard work, at least for me. No it’s not physical work; it’s mental. Staying alert was difficult. Staring out into oblivion is boring. These days I’m watching current events; guarding your future is anything but boring. Life is changing at a continually more rapid pace and all that was stable or predictable is not. Good is being called evil and vice-versa. That which was common sense is deemed prejudiced. So I’m watching. It’s as though we find ourselves in the “Twilight Zone”, an alien to the circumstance we thought we knew so well. Everything is known; what we assumed was private is not. Cyberspace holds our thoughts in a cloud. Do we even know what personal information the internet is spreading globally about us. We search for things on the web and we find an ad for that thing we looked for two days ago. There is a war going on and the spoils are the information each one of us hold dear. “They” know who we are, where we are, our likes, dislikes, our politics, our dreams; in short everything. With the advent of a one-payer healthcare system we will be held accountable for all our thoughts and habits. The system will dictate we further conform or lose the “privilege” of coverage. Like Winston in 1984 we will comply completely with the state’s dictates; and those that don’t will be re-educated and when graduated, find the cold comfort of a bullet in the brain. My watching continues.