Gratitude

by Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

Heavenly Father, as you know, I have been serving you now for more than fifty-five years and I just want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart for every year you've given me. I suppose, in the back of my mind I have always thought I had given those years to you, but today as I consider them, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness because I know that by comparison I have given you nothing at all. I have only received.

I received the privilege of being a part of creation's most powerful army—the Army of the Lord. There I learned to use your holy weapons of love, compassion, gentleness, kindness, self-control, to name only a few, weapons to be used against those spiritual enemies that war against our souls. I am amazed at how effective they are, but also at how difficult it has been and sometimes still is to learn to, and remember to, use them.

You, Lord, have given me strength in my times of weakness, wisdom in my perplexity, guidance when I had lost, or was about to lose, my way, and through it all a sense of joy at being a beloved child of God. You never made me feel guilty for being less than perfect and you taught me that when guilt and condemnation were heaped upon me it was the enemy, not You, who dumped on me, and it was you, Lord, not the enemy, who restored me to confidence and joy in your Holy Spirit.

This is not to say it has always been easy. There were times when I felt like quitting, but acting on those feelings was never a real consideration. Even in the difficult times I knew you were with me and that made it all, not only worthwhile, but the source of a great satisfaction. To be a servant of the most high God, the only true and living God, makes any hardship insignificant.

These many years of serving you Lord, have been to me, a blessing beyond words. In the distant past I thought my service was my gift to you, but through the years I have learned that my service was really your gift to me. You didn’t need me. You could have done it all without me, but you gave me the gift of your marvelous Presence, allowing me to serve with you and thus have a significance far beyond my own ordinary abilities.

I can only ask that for all the remainder of my life, whether it be lengthy or brief, that I might have the high privilege of serving you God, in every moment that I know, with every breath that I breath, and with every ounce of my strength. If I can do so, that will be my inexpressible joy. 

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

Birthday on Tower Hill

by Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

Last month we celebrated Carol’s birthday.

If I told you which one, Carol would not divorce me, because we don’t believe in divorce, but she would definitely kill me. Let’s just say, we’ve been around a while but we try to keep in shape with regular walks through the woods of Lake Michigan sand dunes and along the shore from Weko Beach near our Bridgman home south to the Warren Dunes Beach or sometimes north toward the Cook Nuclear Plant.

One of the great fun challenges of Carol’s life is climbing Tower Hill, the highest dune in Warren Dunes State Park. The challenge isn’t to do it—we’ve been doing it for years, sometimes several times a year—but she is determined to keep on doing it for many years to come.

The dune reaches 240 feet above Lake Michigan and it is pure sand, so climbing it isn’t easy, but the view is absolutely marvelous. A few years ago we climbed it on our anniversary and at our fiftieth anniversary celebration held last year there at the park, some of our more adventuresome family members climbed it that day, so they know what a challenge it is.

Local legend has it that the Wright Brothers wanted to use Tower Hill to get their first plane in the air, but the powers that be wouldn’t allow it so they went to the Atlantic Seaboard instead and Southwest Michigan lost a heritage of aviation history. According to Wikipedia, Octave Chanute did gliding experiments from Lake Michigan dunes in 1896 and he advised the Wright Brothers to go elsewhere because too many reporters who had followed him had turned the area into a circus like atmosphere that would interfere with their work.

Anyway, this year on her birthday Carol wanted to take our annual walk to Warren Dunes beach to climb Tower Hill. When we do this we prepare a picnic lunch to eat on top of the dune and plan for it to take about five hours because it includes walking five miles and climbing this monster dune that overlooks Lake Michigan, eating a picnic lunch under the shade of a scrubby tree at the top and then walking back home again. If the sun is hot and the lake water isn’t too cold, we sometimes take a swim or two on the way down and back.

After we climbed the dune, we came down a few feet from the top and sat under a shade tree where we ate our picnic lunch as we looked out over the lake and felt superior to all those who were struggling to make it to the top. One baby-boomerish gentleman who passed our picnic spot on his way up stopped a moment when we offered words of encouragement. He commented that he was impressed we could climb it and when Carol told him we lived five miles away and at least once a year we walk to Warren Dunes and climb to the top of the dune he was more than a little amazed. At first I thought he was thinking we looked too old to do it—and then I realized he was amazed that anybody would walk five miles!

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

The Day of Miracles

by Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

If any one of us were to see a person whom we knew to be both blind and mute, healed so he was able to see and speak, we would be amazed, even though, if it happened today, it would be by the power of that same Jesus of whom scripture speaks. To read about such a happening almost 2,000 years ago just isn't as remarkable as if we were to see it with our own eyes. The people of that day were no different than us, except that it was possibly even more astounding to them—after all most of them had never see a miracle—while to us miracles are common, everyday occurrences.

For instance, it is common for us to see people speeding around in automobiles, racing across the water in powerful speedboats or even out of them, (not merely walking on the water, but skimming on top of it at break-neck speed), and we don't even think about the miracle of flight because we are so thoroughly accustomed to seeing airplanes flying that none of us doubt there are people in them, flying over our heads.

If you went to any modern hospital, with proper clearance to enter the operating rooms, you would see miracles of surgery taking place every day. Doctors routinely remove infected tonsils and appendixes, as well as repairing other organs and in so doing, restore people to health. If most of you reading this lived under similar conditions as the people of Jesus' day, some would be blind, others would be deaf, possibly some would be mute, others lame, and probably some would not even be alive, but most of you are relatively healthy! If you think Jesus had nothing to do with this—that these are merely the miracles of modern medicine—you couldn't possibly be more wrong. The problem is not that we no longer experience miracles, but that miracles have become so commonplace we forget to thank God for them.

It was not Jesus' plan to stay forever on this planet healing sickness and diseases and casting out demons. Neither was it his plan to simply go away and leave us hopelessly in our pain and suffering. It is his plan—always has been, always will be—that every living person should throw off the bondage of Satan, bind him securely with the power of self-sacrificing love, and work together with the Lord Jesus Christ to set the human race free to be the people of God.

God is fulfilling this plan by giving unique abilities to men and women. It is our responsibility to use and develop those spiritual gifts and special abilities to do God's work. Some have the gift/discipline of healing through medicine. Some heal through prayer. Some do both, and both are gifts of God, given in different ways for us to use and thus accomplish the marvelous work of God.

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

More Heavenly applause—when Nancy got home!

by Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

I thought it was interesting that about the same time I was posting "The Applause of Heaven" to my blog, Nancy Barker, one of the great saints from First Church of God in St Joseph, MI, went home to Glory.

In Psalm 116:15 we're told "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints". So I believe this is another time when the applause of heaven breaks out—when one of the saints finishes their time on planet earth and goes home to the eternal family.

I think when Nancy got home the applause must have been deafening. We're sure going to miss her, but I know there is a multitude that Nancy helped to get safely home and when she arrived I think they were all there to greet her.

Nancy loved Jesus with a joyful exuberance that was contageous. During years of battling cancer, she never lost her joy. And even while she struggled with her own cancer, she was helping others to deal with theirs.

My best memory of Nancy will always be when she told us at prayer meeting one night about meeting this really neat young lady who worked at the mall. As I remember the way Nancy told it, the young lady was reading a new age book and Nancy said, "That won't do you any good. You need to know Jesus." The young lady looked up, closed the book and said, "Well why don't you tell me about him." All of you who know Nancy know how quickly she did just that.

That night at prayer meeting Nancy told us about this meeting and we prayed for a young lady named Ann Drea. Within a year, she was a member of that prayer meeting and soon became a prayer warrior like Nancy. Now, several years later, her son and husband are also mature, committed Christians and their family is an amazing blessing to our church and to everyone they meet, exuding the love of God just like Nancy did. Ann Drea now leads that Wednesday night prayer meeting, and her husband and son are also active, vibrant, Christians.

As long as Nancy's converts are alive and serving the Lord, she will still be around. And all of us who knew her are better because of her presence in our lives. Earth is richer because she lived and especially because she lived for Jesus, and heaven is richer because she died—but she didn’t really die. She just laid aside her worn out, cancer riddled body and put on a new, celestial body that will never know decay. She is probably sitting now at the feet of Jesus and still praying for the salvation of everyone still on earth.

Nancy also left a wonderful personal family and there again—as long as you all are alive, Nancy will still be with us, and then someday, when each of you are through with earthly life Nancy will be there to greet you when you cross over. More than anything else she wants all her siblings, her two “wonderful” sons and all her family to join her on the other side. I know it is difficult to say goodbye, but I hope you’re all making plans now to join her when your time on earth is done.

All of us who knew Nancy miss her greatly already, but we wouldn’t wish her back. She’s earned her promotion—no one deserves it more.

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