On Being Christ-like

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

The goal of most Christ-followers is to become like Jesus. In reality we cannot “become” like Jesus by our own efforts, we must be “made” like Jesus—a work only God can accomplish. But God only does it with our cooperation and with the full Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—fully involved.

Now the fact that God only does it with our cooperation doesn’t mean that until we cooperate there is nothing God can do but wait for us to act, or to open ourselves to the guidance and/or direction of God. The Bible (Rev. 13:8) speaks of “the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world”. This tells us God planned our salvation before the first human was created.

So before human creation, God, through his Son Jesus Christ made provision for our redemption. God knows how difficult earthly life can be; a place where we battle with Satan to avoid his dominion in our lives and over our world. God knows we are not adequate for such a life in our own limited strength. But He also knows Christ can make us more than adequate by defeating sin and death and hell through His life, death and resurrection.

The next step in this amazing process is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 16:7 (vv. 5-15 for context) “It is better for you that I go away” because “I will send him [the Comforter] to you”. Later in that same passage, he said, when “…the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth.” (v. 13) So for us to become Christ-like people we need to cooperate with the Spirit of God so he can work freely in our lives. Jesus also said (John 16:15) “All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” This helps us understand that the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Not two Spirits, but One. So when we speak of God, that word encompasses the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who while being revealed to us as three persons in the God-head or Trinity, is only one God.

At the top of this post you see one of my views of Tanner Creek, the stream that runs past our house and from which I chose a title for my blog. When I look at the creek through the culvert under our driveway it reminds me of looking at life through the eyes of God’s Spirit. When we do that the Spirit makes life become progressively more vibrant and more alive in Christ.

The primary work of the Holy Spirit is here on earth. He is Helper, Comforter, and the Spirit of Truth who guides us into all truth. These are only three descriptions that so inadequately portray God’s Spirit. There are many more excellent words, but even all together there are never enough words to fully describe him. Understand, however, that the primary work of God’s Spirit is to glorify God by making we who are human progressively more like Jesus. The glory of a human being is to be like Jesus. This is a work of God in us. As long as we give full cooperation, God’s Spirit will continue to work in us to make us more and more Christ-like so we can bless the world around us with the Spirit and person of Christ. What an awesome privilege we are given—to live as a temple for the Living God.

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

     

Dad’s Moonlight Prayer

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

It was a warm summer night on our family farm in Southeast Missouri. I was in my middle teens and our home was small with no place to be alone. It was late in the evening, about ten, and before I went to bed I went outside into the moonlight. It was quiet except for the croaking of the frogs, the chirping of the crickets and an occasional hoot of an owl. In the distance I could hear the sound of a foghorn from a riverboat pushing barges down the Mississippi River just a few miles away. 

I thought I was alone, but instead, I happened upon my father as he knelt in prayer beside an old wash kettle that lay upside down there among the clutter of the back yard.

I have many pictures of Dad in my mind, working on the farm as he drove the tractor, milked the cow, or fed the pigs. Often he could be seen walking along the edge of a field with hoe in hand as he chopped down the many weeds or clumps of Johnson grass that had somehow escaped the plow. I can also see him leading singing, or Wednesday night Bible study at Pulltight Church, or preaching to a small congregation from the Word at the Mounds congregation.

They are pleasant pictures because he was a good father. But the best picture of all and the one that most influences my own life is the memory of seeing him talking to our heavenly Father that night in the moonlight.

He was a great man of prayer with a gift of evangelism. His example and heritage of faith lives on in the lives of his descendants and many others here on earth and in a multitude of those redeemed to whom he witnessed and won, and who’ve gone on to rejoice with him in the Presence of the Most High God, our Heavenly Father.

On this Father’s Day weekend I have good memories of Roy Blumenberg, my earthly father, whose example still helps me to love my Heavenly Father even more.

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

     

Choose Your Brain Talk

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

Your brain talk is your destiny. Change your brain talk—change your destiny!

Most of us don’t think about what we tell our brains. Maybe we think it doesn’t matter. Maybe we don’t realize we even have the ability to talk to our brains, but we do and the way we do impacts our lives tremendously.

The brain is amazing. Even an unintelligent person has an amazing brain with the ability to manage bodily functions and teach ourselves about new things we face every day. But the brain is a servant rather than a master. Or, perhaps we should call it a servant-leader. The point is, our brains do what we tell them to do. If I tell my brain I am a dummy and especially if I really believe it, my brain will obediently work hard to help me be dumb. If I tell my brain I am fat, my brain will help me be overweight. My brain is my servant and I need to understand that. If I don’t understand it I may inadvertently use my own brain for personal defeat.

On the other hand….

What if I understand the power of my brain to help me be the person I want to be? What if I say to my brain, “Sure, I have done dumb things in the past, but I am an intelligent person with abilities I have never taken time to fully develop. I want to do better in the future and develop the ability to…..(put your own word in here).” Then subconsciously my brain takes charge of helping me reach my goal.

Before Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, he asked what, on the surface, may seem to be a foolish question. He asked, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6b^NIV) Of course he wanted to get well!

Not necessarily. The man gave Jesus an excuse about why he couldn’t be healed, but he didn’t say he wanted to get well. Our brains know the difference between what we say we want and what we really want. Perhaps the man did not want to get well. Perhaps he was comfortable in his affliction and didn’t want to change. Jesus wanted to know, however, what he really wanted.

A few years ago a parishioner asked me to pray for him to quit smoking. I thought that would be good, so I agreed. A few weeks later he asked me to stop praying that he quit smoking. When I asked why, he said, “I think you need to pray I’ll want to quit smoking.” I realized this was genuine wisdom. I assumed he wanted to quit, but he had the maturity and insight to know he did not. He knew he would never be successful unless he really wanted to do so.

The brain is not a magician. It cannot snap my finger and make something happen overnight, but it is really good at helping me learn habits and behaviors that help me reach my goals. If I tell my brain what I want to accomplish, it helps me do it.

Years ago I cut a tendon in my right hand. Until it was repaired I could move my thumb right and left, but not up and down. Carol took me to the emergency room and the doctor reattached the two ends of the tendon and I eventually regained full use. As the doctor was working on my thumb I ask him, “Doctor, do you think I will be able to play the piano after this?”

He quickly answered, “Of course.”

To which I replied, “That’s wonderful because I couldn’t play before this happened.” I thought it was a good joke and appropriate for the occasion, but my surgeon was not amused.

My point is, the brain is not a miracle worker. It won’t help me do something I’m not suited for or be a replacement for skill development through practice. But it can be a great help.

I thank God for his healing power and I thank God for the medical profession, but I also thank God for innate abilities to heal and help ourselves through this magnificent organ we call the brain.

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

    

Take Jesus to the Marketplace

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

Recently I heard an advertisement that said, “We put our customers first because we don’t have shareholders.” Now I have nothing against privately owned businesses, but having stockholders should not mean we treat customers or clients any differently. Jesus Christ didn’t call we who are believers and followers of him to just come to church on Sunday morning. He called us to take our faith into the marketplace, the home, the school and neighborhood and anywhere else we go. If the Christian faith doesn’t work in the marketplace it isn’t worth having.

If we go somewhere that serving Christ is out of place, we need to quietly, but genuinely serve Christ whole-heartedly anyway and pray for opportunities to impact the situation with the love of God. Some of Jesus’ greatest criticism came from those who didn’t want him to associate with “sinners”, but he didn’t let that slow him down a bit. So we need to be in the marketplace, but it should influence how we do business and if our faith is real it will impact how we relate to all the people we meet.

Those businesses led by committed Christians or any other honest person are able to serve both clients and shareholders equally well. We don’t need to choose one over the other. If customers are served well, but the stockholders lose money the customers will lose in the long run. A business must be profitable if it is to survive and reasonable profits are not the least immoral or unchristian. The majority of those stockholders are probably not wealthy businessmen or women and most are not billionaires. They are just working people in all sorts of occupations who have invested their savings and/or their retirement income in a business. Most of them want the company to serve their clients well at a reasonable price so the company will be both long-lasting and profitable.

When Jesus was here in the flesh he never played one group against another, but was emphatic about all of us seeing the value of all people. He is still here today through his Spirit and he lives in the hearts and lives of billions of people who carry his Presence and his values into their daily lives. His message hasn’t changed—people matter! All people—rich and poor, educated and illiterate, red, yellow, black and white. We are all people to him and he loves us every one.

Wherever we go on Monday morning, whether into the kitchen or washroom to prepare food for the family or wash their clothes, or off to Wall Street type areas to run a public or private company, Jesus wants to go with us and work through us to impact the world with the love of God. He can only do that when we give him hands, feet, brains and skills to meet the needs of those around us. Whether we teach school (at home or in the schoolroom) run a business or purchase from one, he can impact the world through us in positive ways if we’ll genuinely give him our lives and follow his lead.

God loves clients and stockholders, as well as all other kinds of people, and thankfully he sent Jesus to save us all and Jesus sent his Spirit to live in us so we can be Jesus wherever we go.

Go! Be Jesus! Change the world for good!

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