Lyle's Blog

I have this long-standing disagreement with my daughter over the decline in civility. She sees all the violence, crime, and other related signs of American decline and claims, it’s always having been that way. I do agree that bad deeds have always been done. What irritates me is that I am unintentionally deemed a liar. I’m not.

When we moved to Spokane, Washington in 1967, it was a quiet, if not boring stronghold of an American past. It is true that Spokane, being the only “large” city in the inland area, became a crossroads for drugs. But daily life was of an older, conservative nature, not much on the news of local violence.

Today is different. People are confrontational to law and order. Defiance of authority is everywhere. Spokane has proudly become like all American cities. It’s an uncivilized bastion of leftist stupidity, cloaked in wishful, leftist happiness.

I’m old (seventy). I remember what it was like before; before Hollywood, music, and college professors reaped their crop of dimwits, before politicians had driven the final wedge between us. The young don’t know; they weren’t there. But they will be there when the unraveling is complete and their children accept the collapse of society as normal. Then they will be the liars.

When we are born-again, our sin is removed from us as far as the east is from the west. God doesn’t see it anymore. Our sin doesn’t separate us from God anymore. God has been brought near us by the blood of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.

When a person isn’t reborn, God separates Himself from sin by banishing them forever from His sight. God wants to forget sin. Our choice is simple. Do we want to turn from our sin or do we want to keep it? Either way, God is going to forever forget sin. The question is: do we want God to forget our sin and forget us too?

The bondage of the will is a sermon John Piper delivered in a magnificent fashion.  Understanding the power of your will is an insight we all need to expose ourselves to.  We are bondservants to ourselves.

We need deliverance from ourselves.

The United States is the most powerful nation on earth; while that’s kind of true. Measured in nuclear weapons, as Donald Trump said, our button is bigger than any other button. So nuclear, we have it covered. We have an army that is well equipped, though stretched thin for the skirmishes our country seems to enjoy. We depend on the U.S. Navy to supply the materials necessary for war.

In 1956 America had 6768 ships. By 1965 we had pared this number to 880. The number dwindled to 559 by 1975, from 594 in 1987 and to 273 today.

In a major confrontation, if push comes to shove, the United States won’t any other option but nuclear. This is why we need more ships. With war being a preoccupation of nations it’s only a matter of time before we’ll be in the “big” one.

Ecclesiastes 3:8 says there’s a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. The first verse says there is a season for everything and a time for every purpose under heaven.

We have to ask ourselves “whose purpose” is it talking about. Of course, it is God who planned this world and determines when these things take place. There is a time to be born again, but the soul that sins will die. The gospel seed is sown everywhere and the time will come when it will be harvested. Then we die to ourselves and the Lord builds us up; we wept because of our sin and laughed when grace took it away.

We mourn for the lost but dance when they are found. We used to throw “stones” at those we were at odds with but Jesus changed all that in Matthew 5:44. Now we’re supposed to love and pray for those that abuse us. Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father, because they know not what they do”. So we embrace the plight of the sinner but not their sin.

We spend much time in this life “getting”, working for money and position. But there is a time to give it all up for the sake of Christ. There is a time to keep His Word close to our hearts but in due time we must cast it out on the water.

Sowing seed, watering it, and working the harvest; that’s all their is to do.