Lyle's Blog

Seventy.  I will be seventy years old in a couple months.  Celebrate your birthday, isn’t that what you are supposed to do?  My kids live a thousand miles away.  They’d like me to go there but my kids live hundreds of miles apart; can’t be in two places at once.  How do you choose?

Birthday parties are for other people.  I’ve always downplayed my birthday because my wife, being born right after Christmas, has always hated hers.  So I don’t like to acknowledge mine much.  I’m not sure anyone even cares about this seventieth birthday anyway.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m glad I’ve made it this far and am in pretty good health but I just don’t feel like celebrating.

If the next ten years are as spiritually productive as the last ten, then I’d just as soon pass on the birthday.  Seventy is too old to start saying “you’re going to do something worthwhile”.  If I haven’t done anything worthwhile by now, what makes me think that this next decade is the one that I’ll finally do something of lasting value.

Am I finally at the point where I can admit that most of my time has been spent in vanity.  It’s only now that I realize what wisdom is, that being the winning of souls for Jesus Christ.  The Bible says to work while it is still day, praise God while you’re still alive because the day comes all too quickly when there is no light left.

Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.  That little plague hung in my mother’s house years ago.  It’s just of late that it’s message is hitting me so hard.

My wife and I are older (the sixties) and as is common friends, relations, and others die on a regular basis.  It’s sobering and makes one think about what’s truly important.  I’ve discovered there’s not much that merits my attention anymore.  I concentrate on eternity and what I can take with me and realize all I have is my will.

My wife’s best friend is in the last stage of cancer; maybe just hours.  It’s tough losing anyone but best friends?  Where do you get another?  Maybe there’s another spirit out there that’s akin to yours but time is short and passes quickly.   Usually, it takes years to run into that one person.  My wife and I are best friends but her “other” best friend is a precious soul of rare kindness.  She is someone that by happenstance my wife came to know.  There are other friends and they are great people.  Each friend is so appreciated.  But her best friend is one who is gentle in their approach, kind in every conversation, as close to your heart as one can get.

That kind of love is hard to find and will be terribly missed.  Knowing she is in the hands of Christ is our only comfort.  In the end,  you only have Jesus and He is enough.  But, it still hurts.

A millennial wins a political seat in Pennsylvania, Hillary still ranting, children protesting at school, Nancy Pelosi spouting the same, lame droning about nothing, is just a sample of the lunatic left coming unhinged.  With no desire to get to the heart of the problems we face, they continue pushing for tyrannical control of our lives.

The Democrats and the associated haters-of-America club are determined to return us to those thrilling years of yesteryear, of an Obama America where we had to pay for our white privilege.  That is why good economic news doesn’t have as much of an impact as it should.

You see the millennial mush heads want everything to be for non-profit, for the common good, from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.  MMM; wonder where they got that line.  As stupid and naive as this thought is, it has wide acceptance in the minds of our young.  What they want to achieve is a world of benevolence without God.  They want the glory for the goodness of man.

To say this will not end well doesn’t need to be said as this is the same old, tired story of the last generation.  No ethics, accountability, or morals will produce serfdom.  Their blind obedience to socialist dogma portends a bleak future in the end.

I recognize this generation as the “last”, meaning I know that once Israel became a nation after two thousand years, things were going to change rapidly.  God said He would make a short work of the end time.  I’m also sure that to Christians it won’t be short enough.

Donald Trump, like other presidents, was put into office by God to accomplish certain things.  One:  to give the Church the freedom to preach the gospel to the whole world.  Two: to recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel; Three: to allow the United States to prosper; Four: to give America one more chance to repent.  The gospel will be preached to the whole world and then the end will come.  Jerusalem will be the centre of the world and nations will be driven to deal with it.  America has evangelized more of the world by far than any other nation so God will give us one more chance to repent.  America and the world must prosper for a short time because life will be like the days of Noah, eating, drinking, getting married, in other words, a day like any other.

The world must become just like the days of Noah and Sodom.  Godless, violent, and deserving of total judgement.  We have just a short time to do what He has called us to do.

The eleventh chapter of John tells the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead.  I’ve listened to testimonies of people that have been raised from the dead.  These are true stories with doctors many times bearing witness to the fact.  Jesus had heard that Lazarus was in dire straits and on the verge of death and yet He waited till Lazarus died to show up.  Yes, Jesus could have healed him but He wanted to exibit the power of God.

Doctors today can measure brain function and a myriad of other things and can declare with accuracy when someone has passed.  Two thousand years ago none of this was true, so to prove Lazarus was dead Jesus waited until the body decayed enough to start stinking.  There was no question that Lazarus was dead.  Nobody could quip that he was just in a coma or something else.  No, he was dead and Jesus raised him up.  Jesus performed this miracle so his disciples might believe who He was by seeing the glory of God.  God is the life-giver; that is His glory.

The disciples didn’t want Jesus to go because the Jews were intent on stoning Jesus.  It was dangerous.  But Jesus knew His appointed time to die wasn’t yet, let alone by stoning so they went to Mary’s house.  After the miracle, many came to see the man raised from the dead.  But they chose to not believe.  Oh, they couldn’t deny what had happened but believing Jesus was the Messiah wasn’t in their best interest.  Preserving the old covenant was important because that’s where their power came from.  Men explain away miracles because it doesn’t fit their lifestyle to believe in God.

The story of a rich man dying and suffering in the flames whilst he saw Lazarus being comforted by Abraham reflects what is common to man, that being unbelief.  The rich man wanted someone to go back and warn his brothers about what lies beyond death.  What was he told?  Even if one came back from the dead they would not believe.  There is more to belief than just knowing the facts.  Accepting that Jesus is the only way to God can only happen by choice.  Choose this day whom you will serve.  Our natural tendency is to serve ourselves.  Denying our diety is the hardest thing to do.  Not my will but Yours be done.  My will is my enemy.  It’s what keeps me from doing all the God desires.

Everyone is upset about school shootings.  Rightly so you say.  Really?  I think that what goes around comes around.

We’ve aborted sixty million children who had no voice.  As the instruments of death were ripping them apart, their screams were silent and unheard by this nation.  Someone heard; that someone was God.

What you sow is what you reap.  We’ve demoted unborn to a valueless commodity.  Expendable.  Now we are surprised and shocked that youth is turning upon itself.  School killings are the legacy of an abortion loving society.  Youth killing youth is the ultimate late-term abortion.

Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.  Some of the most horrendous killings have happened without the use of a gun.  We have a society that has exalted wickedness above righteousness.  We could blame the politicians but the majority of us voted them into office.  We don’t have to listen or watch the filth the entertainment industry produces, but we do.  I know, we just watch and listen to the “good” stuff.  The whole of society including much of the churched give a collective ho-hum and just accept that these evil people have a right to do what they do.

The Bible tells us that in the end the whole world will be filled with violence just like the days of Noah.  Violence is all around us.   We’re still eating and drinking, getting married, taking and giving, all the while unaware that God is angry and that it is only His Word that keeps judgement at bay.  If we believed and like Noah knew God, we would pray, seek His face, and intercede for the lost.

We’ve heard.  We know.  We have no excuse.