Lyle's Blog

Sun City, is a place of serenity of sorts, with quiet streets save for “occasional deafening sound of military jets whizzing overhead. Let’s not forget the ambulance siren announcing another resident may or may not have met their maker. It’s a great place to vacation from the frigid north country or for us “full-timers” to dwindle away our last remaining days playing games and rec center activities whilst the world continues its flight into darkness.

We should be aware of the menacing destruction around us but for now, we still have our social security and our doctors still try to fix our ailments and elongate our lives, keeping us critically ill long enough to satisfy their pocketbooks. Maybe that’s a little harsh but in the quest to save verbiage, let’s just say that most of us don’t remember or never heard of Mark Twain’s warning; yeah, it’s a warning.

Warning from Mark Twain: The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. Sadly, most never know why they are here or why it even matters to anyone.

The only reason we are here, or better said created, is to give pleasure to God. And we only know that by reading God’s Word. Jesus of course summed it up in two commandments, love your neighbor as yourself and love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is just a reminder of what we already know. Every day should start with God and end with God. That’s a balance to our life. Scurrying around in business isn’t something we have time for. The end comes quicker than we think. We always think we have another day, or hour, or minute.

No, even if we know it’s coming, it comes suddenly and without remedy.

In John, Chapter 5 is the story of the impotent man who sat by the pool waiting and hoping someone would help him into the waters when they were troubled by the angel. Seems like an odd way for people to be healed, one at a time, and only whoever could make it to the water first; so the most capable of making it on their own or someone who had help.

I can’t imagine waiting by a pool all day with virtually no chance of making it into the water. I don’t understand why God would make such an arrangement but then His ways are higher than my ways. Who am I to question this weird arrangement. The most needy and helpless person gets screwed over and it would be easy to blame it on God.

As Christians, we’re supposed to take care of one another so I think that is what God expected out of the Israelites. The man said he had no one to help him. No one. But that shouldn’t have been the case. God gave the Jews a chance to do the right thing. They failed time and time again. Why? There was no new covenant. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, it was a cut-and-dry existence. The Jews had the law but the law on its own brings death.

They couldn’t have what we have the privilege of having, a new life in Christ. It was before the cross and like the rest of the world they had to rely on the blood sacrifice of animals. They had to keep the law and mercy was at best a whimsical thought.

Being born again is something we take for granted. That is the only difference between those before the cross and we who came after. They lived by hope and promise; we live by the Revelation of Jesus Christ. We know that men are incapable of righteousness, of being holy, of pleasing God unless they’ve humbled themselves to the cross and followed Christ.

By grace are we saved and not of works (keeping the law). Before Christ, the Jews prided themselves on keeping the law and pointing out those who didn’t keep it. This was pleasing to them but not to God. Jesus had to narrow all their laws down to two: love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. I think the first command makes the second possible. Loving God is a prerequisite to loving man. Mankind as a whole are not that loveable.

Isaiah 58: 8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways are my ways, declared the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Man has excelled much since those words were penned so long ago. Today knowledge of everything has expanded to a degree the average man can’t fathom. We’re collectively getting so smart we think we know everything. Mankind is striving to rid itself of the need for God. We think we know “the way”. Man has progressed to the state that Satan found himself in before he fell from grace. Satan knew everything, built everything, and produced the music that filled the heavens, beautiful beyond comparison. In his mind, he was at first equal to God, and then as pride grew, he no longer needed God.

His thoughts were not God’s thoughts and so he wanted to go his own way. This is what tempted Adam and Eve and still tempts us today. With great pride, we trumpet our achievements and glorify and reward ourselves for what we have done.

Second Samuel 22:33 “God is my strength and power and He maketh my way perfect.” It is God who made the heavens and the earth and everything in this world. As grand as we think we are, have we created a seemingly endless universe or breathed the breath of life into a lump of dirt? Are so advanced that we think we will conquer the grave? The Bible does say that there will be a point that men will want to die but can’t. But it also says it’s only a temporary phenomenon solely for the punishment of Christ-rejecting men.

There’s a way that seems right to men but it is the way of death. We need a savior but who’s it going to be? Will we rely on ourselves? How about a scientist, or some guru, or God forbid, a politician? Isn’t that what most of us do? Haven’t we pretty much become the master controller of our lives?

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He showed us the Father and the way to Him. He’s not a liar, he doesn’t need to trick you into following him. His thoughts are the Father’s thoughts. He spent much time in prayer; he wanted to know God’s thoughts. No other name was given among men by which we can be saved. There is no other way.

The world is becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah. Sexual perversion has been inculcated in our children. The devil is the shepherd of our children. The ark is ready, and the ramp is down, waiting for the last stragglers to come onboard.

Science is the god of this world supplanting Christ. Mocking is all we hear. To be sure, darkness has long plagued this earth. But suddenly something is different. The truth worldwide cannot be found. The rich fondle holy things in blatant disrespect. The leader of the most powerful country on earth refers to God as “that thing”. Indeed the holy is profaned by all nations and sin of every sort is celebrated.

Jesus said we wouldn’t know the day or the hour. However, we will know the season, we’ll know when the figs are ripe; we’ll know when redemption is drawing nigh. The handwriting is on the wall, we see it but unlike Belshazzar, it seem all the leaders of this world continue in foolish folly.

Jesus said to not let our hearts be troubled. That’s hard because we know how perilous the times ahead will be. Our home is not here. We have a hope and peace the world doesn’t have. We have Jesus.