Lyle's Blog

In January 1974 I bought a new car for $4475. Today a car of similar value would run ten times that price. I bought a 635-square-foot two-bedroom house with a full basement for $12,600. Today? Realtor.com says the estimated value today of that same house is $294,000. That’s over twenty-three times what I paid in 1972, and it’s fifty-two years older. Since 2007 the property (wealth) taxes collected amount to $26,725.

I remember the payment (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) was $106 then. The taxes per month now are more than my house payment was then. Housing makes up a major part of our cost of living; as I noted, transportation ranks high too. Twenty-three times the average wage in 1972 ($3.88 hourly) would be $90.40/hr today. A forty-hour work week at today’s average wages ($59,384/2080hrs) delivers $28.55/hr. today.

To sum it up, a person would need to earn three times what they’re making today to live as well as they would have in 1972. This results from the government trying to “help” us live better lives by stealing our money and deciding how it should be spent. The War on Poverty, Medicare, Medicaid, and all the rest of the “cradle to grave” government care has been a total disaster and will self-destruct. As we witness the impending collapse of everything we need to know who is to blame and not fall into the trap of succumbing to tyranny without a fight.

Our government is largely comprised of thieves, some well-meaning, but nonetheless, thieves. They squander our money and therefore our future and we’re naive if we think this will end well with the “soft landing” they preach.

The wealth (asset) tax is coming as the tyranny in Washington needs more of your funds to finalize its grip on power. Your only power is your money, the only thing that allows you to be free. You should love your money more than the blob we call government. Choose your enemies wisely; it’s government.

When Satan was thrown out of heaven he took with him the total knowledge of God, who God was, what it meant to be a god, and understanding that counterfeiting God was the avenue he would take to achieve the worship of man. He had inside knowledge of the workings of the Godhead and after the creation of man knew exactly how to entice man to question the right of God to dictate how one should live their life. Hence, the little or lesser god phenomenon sprung up in the historical record of mankind.

So over time, there have been many pretenders to the throne that only God himself occupies. When Jesus Christ appeared on earth it became apparent that someone more powerful with total authority had appeared on the scene. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the nail in the coffin of lesser gods. He conquered that enemy of life, death.

The Bible tells us Jesus is the only name by which God will save us. Many copycats are in abundant supply. It’s still tempting, as it has always been, to add or subtract from Jesus Christ. Many things can be learned in the story of the good Samaritan. Samaritans didn’t have their religious teaching exactly correct but in telling this parable Jesus was teaching the fundamentals of pleasing God and being saved from His wrath. Loving him with all your heart, and soul, and loving your fellowmen as much as you love yourself.

Our most valuable commodity is time. If we claim to be followers of Christ we have to ask the question, how much time do we spend with God and how much time do we spend helping those who need help? And further, how much time is spent on ourselves? It is said that one can determine much about that by seeing how one spends their money. Money and time are interchangeable. Some of us have a lot of extra time, and some have more money than we need to sustain ourselves. I find it easy to spend on things “I need” and put on the back burner the needs of others. It’s a natural part of our nature and that is the very thing Satan uses to hinder the will of God. It is only through sacrificial giving of our time and money that we demonstrate we are Christians.

To whom much is given, much is required. We have been given Christ and all the benefits of redemption. Should we give any less?

The mark of intelligent people is their willingness to learn from history. What we witness is a total abandonment of this desire by most people in the hopes that the present generation will be the one to right the ship named Utopia.

Let’s take a moment to consider Adam and Eve. Those two people are the only ones with no connection to the past, and no way to weigh the consequences of their decisions. They have no history, nothing making them responsible for their decisions; at least that would seem reasonable to us.

But God isn’t obligated to think like we think. We’re told that His ways are above our ways. So in the eyes of God, sin is sin whether we know better or not. It is disobedience and He can’t abide that. It’s not a stretch to assume that the thoughts of the Creator are the only thoughts that matter. We are at best peons, slaves to the dictates of God. Loving God requires not only our submission to Him but submission to the creation. meaning God told us how to make the best of our lives after being driven out of Eden.

The Ten Commandments are a recipe for living a life of peace with our fellow man. It starts out with adherence to the worship of the one true God, and one could say that is the emphasis of the Ten Commandments. The gods of this world have different mandates and strife within a population is much less if everyone submits to one authority (one god).

The disadvantage to living under the gods of this world, whether political or spiritual, is that your worth is determined by the god himself and therefore your usefulness is determined by the whims and desires of that god.

God is different from the little gods of this world. Why? We are made in the image of God. However, we create the gods of this world and give them power over our lives. God created us and gave us control over our lives. In God’s economy, we choose to worship or not. Our selection of which god we will follow dictates our destiny. Our God is eternal, His promises are eternal, and His rule extends beyond our life on earth.

God’s not impressed with our excuses and indeed we use the same excuses Adam did. That woman you gave me made me do it is still a common refrain from the lips of men. Men are stronger physically than women and yet, for the most part, exhibit that strength in violence of one sort or another. It very well may be that Adam was the first abusive husband. Life went from glorious to extremely hard. That had to take a toll on Adam’s wellbeing, his attitude had to reflect his rage after leaving Eden and all because this dumb woman just had to taste that fruit, disobey God, and then offer some to him so he would be culpable. If only God hadn’t given him Eve! Sound like today? We’re always looking for someone else to blame.

God didn’t give Adam or Eve a break because they had no history to learn from. That’s His way and we can’t argue with God although we often do. I think it’s common to think to ourselves, a good God would do this or that, if I were God I’d do things this way because, after all, I am good, I am righteous; God is too “cruel” for my taste.

Our viewpoint taints our perception of what a “good and loving” God is. The end of it is simply that we must come to terms with the fact that God is an all-consuming fire and not some feel-good grantor of wishes. We are saved by grace; grace is given to us only because God is tied to His Word and our believing Him.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was willing to make a fool of himself in front of the whole world. Why? He did that one thing that melts God’s heart; Noah believed what God said. Noah was a sinner, and Adam was a sinner; the difference is one believed God and the other didn’t.

If you love God you will keep HIs commandments. That’s it, believe God means what He says, there’s no chance that He’s different today than He was when Adam and Eve were formed. Mercy is giving us a chance to repent and get off the road of excuses for not believing Him.