Lyle's Blog

Mathew 16:35 “For whosoever will save his life will lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.”

We build our lives pursuing the dreams and goals of pre-grave achievements. Living requires physical effort to support our family and our existence but I think most of our time is spent on overachievement in this life that we cannot keep. Being dead to sin and alive to Christ (Romans 6:11) is a command that’s extremely difficult to obey. Taking a moment to decide what’s most valuable is time well spent.

Matthew 16:26 “For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The only thing you have that’s of any value to God is your soul. Everything else you leave behind, and you will stand in judgment alone. The precious blood of Christ was payment for our souls. We have nothing to offer God in exchange for our souls. All souls belong to God and those not purchased by Christ have no value to the Creator.

1st Kings 15:5 Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” We see here that a man can live a “perfect” life in pursuit of God but still falter in the most wicked way. Murdering Uriah so David could take his wife was evil. David was blinded by lust and probably would have failed if he hadn’t been confronted with what would be the most obvious of sins. David had broken two of the Ten Commandments. He knew the law; he knew better. We must confront ourselves with our tendency to wander from the safety of the cross.

God is interested in repentance. You can achieve great things in your life, you may get immense accolades from your peers but still sin in the most basic ways. The key is repentance. David sinned boldly in the face of God’s Word. Real repentance reminds us that what you have power over will evaporate when the power of the grave takes you.

It’s difficult for a powerful or rich man to humble himself. Most of those that read this are rich in comparison to the rest of the world. So we can’t exempt ourselves from the trappings of wealth. Usually, power and riches aren’t brought about by meek people. I’m not saying we should be powerless but that our power be derived from submitting to the Holy Spirit. It’s the difference between letting God bless you or letting you bless you.

Well done thou good and faithful servant. Those are the words we should strive to hear from God. We strive to be faithful humble servants of God our whole lives. We want him to be proud of what he purchased. Being a humble servant in the work of Christ is the only way to please God.

John 19:1-12 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe. And said, Hail, King of the Jews and they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.

Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him and crucify him for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law and by our law, he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; And went again unto the judgment hall and saith to Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.

Then saith Pilate unto him, speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above; therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him but the Jews cried out saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.

Luke 4:5-7 And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, all this power will I give thee and the glory of them; for that is delivered unto me and whomsoever I will I give it, if thou therefore, bow down and worship me, all shall be thine.

Luke 3:22 But Herod the tetrarch being reproved by him (John) for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife and for all the evils which Herod had done. Added yet this above all, that he shut him in prison.

As demonstrated in the confrontation between the devil and Jesus, Satan gives power to whom he wants and the “only” thing he requires is worship, bowing to the law of rebellion. Political leaders are given their positions by being subservient to Satan. This is why America was founded on the idea that people should have the most power over their lives. When we realize that politicians’ main gig is to satisfy their constituents, we can better understand the problems with pure democracy. Politicians will submit to the rants and railings of sinful men. In a democracy the people are greater sinners than the leaders.

Even though the politician can look at the law and knows in his heart that a person is innocent, if the mob that supports him gets violent, then it’s better to cater to the mob than to exact justice. This is where America is today. We have joined the rest of the world in suppressing freedom for the benefit of the evil mob.

The mob always becomes very proficient in crushing dissent. Only a scant few will stand up to this final assault on man’s freedom. What we must remember, and is very hard to swallow, is that this power has been given to them by Satan. We must come to grips with Jesus’s warning. In this world, we will suffer persecution. If the world hated Jesus, it will hate us believers. If we point out wrongdoing by the State, we are the enemies of the state.

We’re always trying to elect someone to “save” us. There is only one Savior but a corrupt man elects corrupt leaders. We’ve accepted Christ as our Savior and like the children of Israel we’ve crossed the river but now find ourselves wandering in the desert for our whole lives. Along our journey, there are a lot of voices questioning our allegiance to a God who defines love differently than the world. The promised land isn’t anywhere on this earth.

So the question is, should we vote if we’re given the opportunity? How do we participate in democracy or should we. I look at it this way. Yes we should, however, we’ve always voted for the “lesser of two evils”. I only support those who most align themselves to the Bible, unashamed to stand with Christ. Will they win? Not usually but sometimes. God knows how you vote. Are you voting for your physical needs or the freedom to preach the gospel? Saving people and nations from their sins is the only thing that’s important. Instead of fishing (voting) for fish (the things of this world) let’s become fishers of men (the only valuable commodity in God’s eyes.