Lyle's Blog

Two sisters.  Actually, I have three.  The youngest is close to my age and we have similar views on things.  But the older two are from two different camps.  They both are shining examples of our parents’ generous spirit and I am the benefactor of their kind hearts.  But they come from two different planets even though they share many of the same values. 

One believes most anything she hears and the other believes nothing she hears.  Their perception of the truth is determined by how much respect they have for the person speaking.  And therein lies the rub.  Both claim to be Christian.  My older sister will tend to believe anything someone says as long as they say they are a Christian.  The internet is plagued by people that “hear from God” and so it becomes very easy to be duped into spending money on garbage advice.  Sorting through it all isn’t done; it’s just all accepted. 

My other sister mistrusts everything that Christians say.  Because she lives with an atheist who doesn’t allow dissenting views in his home, she has succumbed to the continual indoctrination of leftist media and now she can’t stand opposing views.  She is of a socialist bent and believes everything she hears as long as it’s from the government or “real” news media.  As the government and media are very vocal opponents of Christianity and the moral values it supports, it’s hard to fathom why she is so adamant that her siblings are liars at worst and stupid at best.  Anything we say has to be checked on Snopes (a leftist site), or Googled to see if what we’re saying is accurate (it never is). 

I think it comes down to belief and a lack of understanding the Word of God.  I think we all tend to read the parts of the Bible we like.  Some things about God are hard to understand.  Actually, they are annoying to us.  Animal sacrifice, slaughtering thousands of your opponents, sending people to hell; it’s at best unsettling.  We question a God that isn’t a social justice warrior like so many in and out of the Church are. 

 We are told His ways are above our ways.  It’s like we don’t have the capacity to know why God does what He does and thinks what He thinks.  I mean, we’re pretty good, aren’t we?   

In the garden of Eden there were lots of trees, but only two they couldn’t eat of, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.  They ate of the first tree and sin entered the world.  I think we don’t understand how terrible sin is and how unredeemable sinners are on their own.  They were driven out of the garden so they couldn’t access the tree of life and live forever.  None of this we totally comprehend.  Eating of this one tree gives the knowledge of good and evil and eating of the other would give us the ability to live forever in that sinful state. Complex, unimaginable God thoughts. 

It’s interesting that before sin entered the world Adam and Eve didn’t know they were naked.  Small children are like that.  It’s just hard to keep clothes on them sometimes.  They’re in that innocent stage.  It isn’t until they’re older and taste of the sin laden tree that things change.  The world if you let it can burden us with sin so our best option is to protect them from the hazing as long as possible. 

I’ve been thinking of late that the best way to deal with people whether they are three or seventy years old is to do more loving than correcting.  It’s love that covers sin; we all need to be covered.   

Hard for some to believe but the Bible has instruction for everything. Success, everyone wants success. Books by the thousands have been written with the sole purpose of telling us how to accomplish that feat. Many are very good and people who have done it offer very good advice.

Following in the footsteps of others may be profitable but in the end, it’s up to you to do the work, not to mention your belief in yourself and the ability to take measured risk. Joshua 1:8 offers us a simple albeit difficult formula for personal success. From the King James: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Starting at the end of that verse we notice that we make our own selves successful. Thou shalt make, we do the work. The work is keeping the law of God continually before you. Read it out loud not once but every day. Humans seem to have short memories when it comes to things that contradict their wisdom. We wake, pray, and remind ourselves of who we are and who we are not. We’ll fish out who we are, what kind of metal we’re made of, but who we aren’t is important; we are not God.

So morning and night we read the Word of God so we may remember to keep on the straight and narrow path to success. But it’s also to help us remember who we are. The Bible makes it abundantly clear where our priorities should be. Yes, we will prosper if we obey His Word. On the other hand, we’re reminded that we are like grass or a whisp of smoke, here today and gone tomorrow.

Our greatest success is a relationship with the Creator of the universe. All of our treasures can’t be kept by a blade of grass or puff of smoke. Our biggest success is to stand before God and hearing the words well done good and faithful servant. As the verse says, we are to observe what’s going on around us. Our lives are fragile. We need a deep relationship with God. That is all we need.

Governors, mayors, and probably dog-catchers have trampled on the Bill of Rights. Power cloaked in good intentions give the one wielding the power the idea that they know what’s best for you. That’s never true.

The protests have been mild and sparse. If this continues we will have lost our country. The left scoffs at us becoming like Venezuela but we are that close. Our only defense is the second amendment. I hope we don’t have to use it. We might lose when the thugs come to the door, but if we’re dead we won’t have to attend the re-education camp. Win, win.

I have been blessed to have grown up in a family where sibling rivalry became a relic after childhood was over. Today I have two brothers and three sisters, all wonderful people who actually like me. If we’re called, we are there. Our well being is important to one another. We have different interests and aren’t close in that way but we are family and hold each other in high regard. Our parents somehow instilled in us that family was our most valuable asset and indeed it is. They prayed for us every day.

After meeting my wife and getting out in the world a little, I found few people that didn’t have warring family members. Understanding the reasons is almost impossible except to say that it is much the result of resentment over the real or perceived preferential position of one child over the other. Left unresolved, these feelings grow and a wall is erected and with the passing of time, it gets higher and higher.

I know people who haven’t spoken to their siblings in thirty years. Resentment and unforgiveness are a dirty habit that gets impossible to break. Any interaction between your brother or sister quickly escalates to the sore spots in your relationship. Many times it’s not worth the effort to attempt to reconcile. If you’re on the hated end rightfully or wrongly, it doesn’t matter. It’s not going to get better.

I’ve heard some stories from friends that are truly unbelievable. It wouldn’t be kind to share them here. From your own experience, you have plenty of examples to relate to. Things have always been this way since the fall of mankind. There’s nothing new under the sun.

Let’s travel back to Genesis chapter 37 for a moment. Joseph was a typical kid, saying whatever came into his head which made him sound like a braggart. His older siblings grew tired of his relentless “I’m special” attitude and decided to sell him into slavery which they did. The original plan was to kill him but giving him a life of a slave was deemed more satisfying retribution.

To hide their crime, they took the coat Jacob had made special for Joseph, dipped it in blood and gave it to Jacob claiming a wild beast had probably eaten Joseph. What kind of children would put their parents through such anguish? Joseph was a child (verse 30), What kind of brutes were these older siblings? Jacob would go to sleep every night with that horrible thought on his mind. He probably blamed himself for not taking better care of Joseph. Thank you, boys.

As God told Cain, sin is at the door waiting to claim its right to your actions. Somewhere between not speaking and murder, squabbling siblings settle their disputes.

We can’t make people love us. Maybe we’re not even that lovable. Maybe we’re self-centered, self-serving. Or maybe we’re the good one, the one who doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.

What Joseph’s brothers did was make Joseph humble; slavery has a way of doing that. So when Joseph answered Pharaoh concerning his dream, he said humbly, “it is not me; God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” No more reckless talk, just an answer to bring peace to the mind of Pharaoh.

If we could learn, from a young age, that a soft answer turneth away wrath, it just might solve a lot of problems. That’s what my parents had, a soft answer and encouraged us to do the same. Thank you, Mom and Dad. I wish you were here to hear those words in person.

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The New World Order isn’t taking no for an answer. The elite in society have been planning hell for a long, long time. From Jekyll Island to now, the vision has been succeeding with truly amazing ease. The population is indeed pliable, remarkably inept. Few know what’s taking place and how they’ve been groomed for the end of the age.

Donald Trump became an obstacle. To continue the journey to serfdom, the “deep state” needed another president who was easily managed, manipulated if you will, willing to surrender the protections of free men one right at a time. The endless investigations from the Russian collusion hoax, a Ukraine phone call ending in impeachment with no crime, to now investigating his handling of the corona virus pandemic demonstrates how many straws they grab at in their pursuit to remove Trump and renew their progressive campaign.

The reaction to the pandemic illustrates how far the left will go to achieve Trump’s ouster. It is my suspicion that the Democratic Party and their minions are responsible for the pandemic and how we’ve responded to it. We’ve been duped. Yes it’s of Chinese origin but as desperate as the Democrats are, it would no surprise to me if they didn’t instigate this pandemic.

Crushing the economy is viewed as a sure fire way to rid themselves of Trump. Donald Trump has undone many years of wicked regulation. Their whole purpose all along has been to control us and getting us to believe it’s for our own good. We are believers aren’t we? “They” only want good for us don’t they?

9-11, we all became suspects, equals if you will, three years old to ninety-three, we’re probably criminals. Control. Fast forward to corona. Do we all need to be “vaccinated”? And if we don’t do it will we be punished? Maybe we won’t be allowed to fly, then medical care could be denied, and so the dominos fall and we find ourselves slaves in a land that decried slavery.

Too easy. We’ve made it too easy for them. Look up, redemption is drawing near. Exciting times. The pandemic demonstrates that we are indeed ready for a one world leader. And to think the Bible tells us what’s going to happen and most are too busy to be concerned.