Reading is the Key

by Rick Blumenberg / @RickBlumenberg

One day that stands out in my memory is the first time I went to a library. I’m not sure how old I was, perhaps second or third grade. My parents both loved to read and they not only made sure we had an education, but passed the love of reading to all their children. Partly because it was in the days before television we were all avid readers as soon as we learned.

We had a library in our home. It wasn’t large as I think of it now, but it was significant for a family of our economic level. We lived out in the country in Southeast Missouri and there was a library in nearby Charleston, the county seat. The first time I remember going to that library I was astounded that so many books were all in one place and that we could take them home to read for ourselves! To me it was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The thing I like best about books, magazines and newspapers is that with the ability to read one can literally travel the globe and visit places we could never otherwise go because of time and cost and other such mundane limitations.

It was probably with this in mind that I wrote the simple poem below. I call it

The Key

By Rick Blumenberg

Read my child

     And none can make you poor

For reading books shall be your key

     To the strong unyielding door.

With a book and time to read it

     The whole earth you can roam,

And where others cannot travel

     You will be at home.

Read my child

     And travel far upon the deep,

Walk abroad on distant shores

     While others are asleep!

A book shall be your barque

     To sail the distant seas

And reading be your shining wing

     To soar upon the breeze.

I'm Rick Blumenberg and that's 
My View from Tanner Creek.
    

Two Families

By Rick Blumenberg / @RickBlumenberg

This blog was originally posted as "Functional and Dysfunctional Families" but I really didn't like the title, so I've changed it. If you read it previously all that has changed is the title.
Recently a TV host called Thanksgiving “the most dysfunctional family holiday”. I assume he meant his own family, and projected that to others. On the other hand, it does seem many non-church families are dysfunctional. I don’t suggest church families are perfect, but the Bible, the church and her various groups (children, youth, men, ladies, mother’s, marriage, etc.) all work individually and collectively to strengthen families. No other organization in the world does as much to enhance family life as God’s church.

Years ago an unchurched young man came to church with one of our youth. Musically inclined, he played guitar with the youth and soon accepted Christ as Savior. He was so excited about what he had found he inspired our entire congregation, writing Gospel songs and performing them with a band he created for youth events.

But his mom was worried. She thought our church too extreme and might be a cult. She made him stop coming to church. I didn’t hear from him for months, but heard he was in a band and into drugs. When I saw his mother at a mall I asked how he was doing. Tears came to her eyes as she replied,

“Not good at all. I so wish he was back in your church.”

Godly families are made strong and loving by God Himself, God’s Word, and God’s church. God really cares about us and our families. (God loves families so much he designed the church on the family model!)

Every family has a Heavenly Father who loves them supremely. Every child has an Elder Brother, Jesus, who looks out for them. Every family has God’s Spirit to lead, guide, encourage, teach, and love them unconditionally. And the church, the “Bride of Christ” is a loving mother. This spiritual family doesn’t compete with our earthly families but helps us be strong, functional families that bless each other and our various communities.

In spite of all the family help in the church, sometime we need extra help to be strong, healthy families. Psychological and counseling centers can really help in those situations, but even there most of the good ones are grounded in the Word of God and grow out of God’s church—either an extension of the church or a godly counselor who is part of a church.

It’s also a great family blessing when extended families are rooted in the church. I’m blessed to have that kind of family. My wife and I each came from multi-generational church-grounded families. Can you imagine what a blessing that is to us and our progeny? My Mom’s family, the Aringtons, have had family reunions since before 1869—we’re not sure when they began. This family has produced a multitude of minister’s and innumerable powerful lay leaders in the Church of God and several other churches. The Aringtons are about as “functional” as a family can be, not because they are all perfect people, but because they are rooted and grounded in God and his church. Whatever the name of the church they attend, they are usually highly involved and add to the richness and blessing of their congregation.

Do we have dysfunctional families in the church? Sure. (And we’re looking for more). All families have problems we don’t want—divorces, troubled children, alcoholics, recreational drugs—you name it, we probably have it or have had it in our families. But when we have problems we usually get our lives straightened out because our families and our churches love us and pray for us. God’s church impacts the family in powerful ways and I thank God for both—the church and the family—two of God’s greatest earthly blessings.

Of course, there are functional families outside the church, but percentage-wise there are fewer because it is so difficult without the help of God and his church.

The biggest difference between churched and unchurched families is that church families know God is on our side, not because we’re Christians—he loves us all. The difference is that we know He is pulling for us, we know he knows how to help, and we welcome his help.

I'm Rick Blumenberg and that's
My View from Tanner Creek.
   

Alzheimer’s and Sin

By Rick Blumenberg / @RickBlumenberg

I hate Alzheimer’s disease with a passion. I have seen its destruction in my own family—people I love. But Alzheimer’s has no feeling or compassion for these very special people. It destroys their lives and those of us who love them can only watch. We show love and compassion. We try to help, but the destruction continues and we can only suffer with those who personally endure it.

This may be how God feels about sin. Please go back and read the above paragraph again, but substitute sin in place of “Alzheimer’s” or “Alzheimer’s disease”. Don’t proceed through this article until you do.

God hates sin because it destroys the sinning person and sometimes the innocent suffer even more. Examples include rape, child and spousal abuse, robbery, murder and an unlimited number of other sins.

The biggest difference between sin and Alzheimer’s is that one has no cure. Hopefully there will someday be a cure for Alzheimer’s, but presently nothing really helps. Sin is different. God has a remedy available to everyone by Jesus Christ in his death on the cross.

Some believe God killed Jesus with the cross. Others think it was the Jews and others blame the Romans, but the real culprit is sin. In II Corinthians 5:21 Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Since we know that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are one, this could actually read “God made himself who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

We can’t blame God for Jesus’ death on the cross because Jesus, who is God, died intentionally to cure sin’s malady. But we can thank God for coming to earth as Jesus, who was fully man, but was also fully God.

So it was sin that killed Jesus’ on the cross and that’s why God hates sin. It destroys everything it touches. It destroyed the human body of Jesus when he took responsibility for our sin even though he had never sinned. Our sin destroyed him, rather than his own because he was sinless. When God sees sin destroy Jesus or us he hates it because it destroys a person God loves—you, me, Jesus, and everyone else.

If you read the first verse of John’s Gospel, but instead of reading “the Word” (meaning Jesus) actually read "Jesus" and it is more clear. Read it like this: “In the beginning was Jesus and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.” So in other words, when Jesus went to the cross it was not God sending him to the cross for execution. It was God going to the cross in the person of Jesus to die for us and for our salvation. If Jesus had been a mere human—even a sinless one—he could have given his life for one other person who had sinned, but only one. Since he was God, his death is sufficient to cure sin for the whole world. No one needs to die because of sin if we accept the remedy God provides.

When by faith in Christ, we accept his death on the cross for our own sin we are cured of sin’s malady, restored to spiritual health and given eternal life—not physically of course—we will all die a physical death, but we can live forever with God because of what he did on the cross through Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

And the cure is available for the asking. When we ask forgiveness for sin against God we are already forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross and this cures our sin just as our forgiveness heals a wrong someone does to us.

The truth is awesome! If only everyone knew it.

I’m Rick Blumenberg and that’s My View from Tanner Creek.