The Human Folly about God

By Rick Blumenberg @rickblumenberg

The Israelites of the Old Testament thought God was their God—like God belonged to them. Paul writes in Ephesians 3:6 that when Jesus came his good news (Gospel) was that we all belong to God because he is the God of all creation. God is not a Jewish God, nor a Christian God. He is not a Muslim God. He is just God. One of a kind. Even though he reveals himself to us in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit he is still One God and there is no other.

The Israelites were sometimes polytheists. They thought their God was the greatest God of all but they really believed the other people had gods too—just not as powerful as theirs and maybe even subject to theirs.

​They didn’t realize God was their God not because he belonged to them, but because they belonged to him. When they realized they belonged to him and related to him as such they were in a good place, but when they forgot and got the relationship backwards—thinking God belonged to them in a possessive sense—their lives got complicated and they propagated a false image of the God of all creation.

We are all children of the One True God

Because they were (children of the one true God) and they knew who God was (Creator of everything that is) they had a responsibility to share that knowledge with the rest of the world. But instead of sharing their knowledge, they clung possessively to that relationship and refused to even believe gentiles could have such a relationship, much less try to teach them about the true God, who loved them all.

A Human Folly

It would be easy to be critical of the Israelites because of their folly, but we must be careful about that. It is more helpful if we look critically at ourselves to see if we are not much like them in that respect. Perhaps it is a human folly. We find it easy to think God belongs to us rather than think we belong to God. When we do so, the fallacy expands so we think our view of God is the only correct view. We then refuse to consider and respect how others see God so we might learn something from them.

Different views are not necessarily wrong

Looking at God is a lot like looking at the world. Your view depends greatly on your point of view. People with different views see the world (and God) very differently. As an example, if we come to know God during a time of great loss and grief we may think of God primarily as the Comforter because that is how we experienced him in our time of need.

The warrior who has a foxhole conversion may see God as the Protector because he saved him or her from the enemy. Or perhaps we see God as the Supreme Warrior because we feel he helped us win the battle. In other words, our view of God may have more to do with how God revealed himself to us in our time of need rather than the totality of God’s Being.

An Incomplete View

None of these images of God are incorrect. They are merely incomplete. He is all those when needed and more. To really know God is to realize we can never know him fully and completely because God is so far more than we can even comprehend. Our glimpses of his glory when he reveals himself are only wrong, however, if we try to limit him to just our understanding.

An Incorrect View

Sometimes we have an incorrect view of God perhaps because of a misunderstanding or because we try to create him in our own image. We give him attributes that are really ours and not necessarily the good part of us. So we can have a totally false view of God. That thought is not new and could be developed to create an entirely new and different blog post.

Meanwhile, on this first day of the New Year and the last teen year of this century I share these thoughts for your consideration…reminding you that these thoughts are not necessarily gospel.

I’m Rick Blumenberg and these thoughts at this time are simply My View from here on Tanner Creek.

    

Road Warriors for God

I recently read that one need not go overseas to be a missionary. The concept was not new, but it reminded me that I have another take on that thought I’ve been meaning to write about for some time. This is it.

You also don’t have to be sent out by a mission organization to be an effective missionary for God. My last ministry position and current home church is First Church of God in St Joseph, Michigan. We have an awesome missions program that began over a hundred years ago when a group of German immigrants gathered in St Joseph and found there was no Church of God congregation. They started one and in so doing began one of the greatest home, national, and international mission organizations in the state of Michigan.

But a large amount of our missions outreach has nothing to with our mission program. We are in the unique position as a congregation to be in the communities the Whirlpool Corporation and several other world class corporations call home. Working in Whirlpool and other great companies of Southwest Michigan are a huge number of godly men and women who love the Lord and love their jobs (or at least love their families enough to do their jobs). They may be in church on Sunday morning, but on Monday they may be on their way to any continent in the world. Wherever they go in the world they take their faith with them and live it out day after day in all the places they go. Their salaries and travel expenses are paid by their employers and their primary concern is to do the work they are sent to do—selling product, training workers and leaders, solving problems, or doing a multitude of other significant tasks I can’t even comprehend.

My point is that they do it as godly men and women who love the Lord and show it in simple, but significant ways that impact the people with whom they work and interact in their travels. They may work for Whirlpool or some other corporation, but they are no less on mission for God than I was when I went to Africa as a missionary. They go as caring, considerate individuals who lavish God’s grace on the people they meet in the airports, hotels, and restaurants in addition to the places where they do the work they are sent to do.

One friend often goes to China and India. Some time ago in China, when he finished teaching a class, he had a young lady approach him who asked if he were a Christian. My friend was a bit shocked. He had been very careful to not be an evangelist for Christ, because it wasn’t allowed in China, so he couldn’t imagine what he could have said that would make her think that. He told her he was a Christian, but asked how she knew. She said something like this, “I’m a Christian too, and I thought you acted like a Christian.” Even in a normal Christian life, God’s grace shines through.

I’ve heard so many stories like this. A frustrating experience in an airport with the temptation to lose it, but by God’s grace you don’t, and God reveals himself through you to someone who really needs to see him in a practical real-life situation—and God gets the glory!

It doesn’t matter what you do. If it is a job that somehow adds to the good of society you can do it as a form of ministry that is just as significant as preaching the Gospel or “going” on mission.

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

When it is God’s Will for us to Suffer

Sometimes it is God’s will for us to suffer. I know we don’t like to hear that, but it is  true.

Peter wrote (I Peter 4:19) "So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." I believe this makes it clear that it is sometimes God's will for us to suffer. Does this mean God is a sadistic God who enjoys seeing his creation suffer? Not at all, but in the same way that we sometimes need to suffer in order to accomplish something in life there are times when God knows his will cannot be done except through suffering. The question is who will do the suffering?

I think Peter was saying if that is what God wants from us, then we should be willing to do it. It doesn't mean, however, that God asks us to suffer gratuitously, or for no reason, just for some sadistic satisfaction. When God asks us to suffer, be sure he has a reason and his grace is sufficient for us to be victorious. The gift of grace is a small price for the suffering and who knows, the accomplishments of our sufferings may eventually become the greatest joy of our lives.

Some time ago I met a gentleman who was a recent convert to Christ. He said the thing that brought him to Christ was observing a co-worker who was going through a very difficult time in life. She had such a beautiful attitude and showed such amazing grace in the midst of such a horrendous time that he finally had to ask, “How do you do it?”

She told him it was Jesus—that his grace gave her the strength she needed, not only to go through the suffering, but to do her best to be like Jesus in her attitude. It took a while for him to believe on his own, but he said there was no doubt that the way she dealt with her suffering was what brought him to Christ.

If God had something he needed you to do in order to accomplish something good for his kingdom would you be willing to do it? If so, then you are suffering according to God’s will.

If an unbeliever causes persons to suffer because they are Christians, that is probably not God’s will, but it is God’s will for us to suffer in a Christ-like way. Such suffering will provide evidence the Holy Spirit can use to touch the heart of the unbeliever and perhaps bring him or her to a personal relationship with Christ.

Remember also that Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33^(NIV)) I believe Jesus was saying we will sometimes have to suffer. However, he was assuring us we will never suffer alone as long as we trust in him. He is with us. And we will overcome through the marvelous power of the indwelling Christ.

Jesus is a perfect example—if he had not been willing to suffer for us we would not have salvation. It was God's will for Jesus to suffer in order that the world might be saved. Jesus was willing to suffer—leaving the wonders of heaven and the glorious presence of God, the Father, and coming to a primitive, poverty stricken earth in order to bring us salvation and the awesome privilege of living every moment of our lives with the living Christ indwelling us so that wherever we go and whatever we do, his wonderful presence can be revealed by his Holy Spirit living in us.

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

The god Atheists don’t believe in…

During the recent Spring floods on the Mississippi River, when they blew the levy at Bird’s Point in Southeast Missouri, I read the comments about the event. One person, who claimed to be an atheist, wrote “What good does it do to pray to god? He is the one who sent the flood?” His point was that Christians are obviously confused about their science and theology.

That’s really bad science and, if possible, even worse theology. Anyone who understands weather knows God did not send the flood. It was a major weather event and many of us think it was made worse by human intervention—but why would we blame God for that? On the other hand and contrary to our atheist or agnostic commentor, praying for the people affected by the flood makes perfect sense for those of us who believe in the Creator God who showed his love to us in Christ Jesus and continues to show it with his loving care and companionship.

It seems to me that atheists reject the same false gods that we Christians don’t believe in either. If they knew the God we know, the One who created the heavens and the earth, and who came to earth as the Creator among his creation, in order to redeem us from the sin into which we have fallen, they would find it much easier to believe in Him. If God were like how most atheist and agnostics describe him, I wouldn’t believe in him either and I certainly wouldn’t love him.

The reason Jesus came was to help us know what God is really like. Many times the Old Testament concepts people had about God were a sort of mixture of paganism and primitive thought made firm and unyielding because those same people made them into laws, and tried to force their ideas on the people around them. It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now—at least it doesn’t work to make the world a better place. But when Jesus came, we got an entirely different view of God.

Looking at Old Testament Israelites through the eyes of Jesus we can see that God’s original plan was for his people to save the world rather than conquer it, but they never seemed to understand. Jesus introduced radical new ideas like turning the other cheek and walking the second mile—ideas that were totally beyond human comprehension. If Jesus hadn’t come to demonstrate how they worked, we never would have understood them. Doing them is so much more difficult than talking about them. We needed someone, not just a teaching, but a person—Jesus, to show us how to live out such a new and different concept.

Our task as the people of God is to be Jesus to the people we meet who have never met him. We need to turn the other cheek and walk the second mile and find all sorts of ways to show people that we value them. When they grasp the fact that we really do care, we have opened the doorway of their hearts to know God, the source of all such unconditional love. We know from the Word of God that God is love. It is the nature of his being. He loves everyone, everywhere and he loves this beautiful world and universe he created. His goal is not to cast us into a devil’s hell, but to redeem us from Satan’s entrapment. He is on our side! He wants to help! That’s what Jesus came to teach us, but even the teachings of Jesus are not enough for many people—they need someone to show them how such ideas work in the everyday stress of life.

Our job is to surrender our bodies to the Spirit of God so he can reveal his unconditional love in as many ways as possible to a world of people who cannot even comprehend a God like that. However, if they can see Jesus in us, they will see God in him and by thus working together with God we can help him transform the world into a place where the unconditional love of God is shared openly across cultures and beyond human barriers, breaking down walls that divide us and helping all people on earth to live together as loving and beloved siblings in the marvelous family of God!

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

The "Jesus Way" to Salvation

Jesus outlined the way to salvation when he explained to Nicodemus why his faith was not satisfactory. It was obvious Nicodemus had never experienced a spiritual birth, and Jesus seemed to find that astonishing, that a Jew who was a significant spiritual leader had never been born of the Spirit. You may be like Nicodemus or you may know someone like him, who is an earnest seeker after salvation and genuinely wants to know God in a personal way, but they are seeking it through their natural birth rather than a spiritual one. Let me explain what I see as the “Jesus way” to salvation.

Two Births are Required—
When Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be re-born Nicodemus assumed he meant a second physical birth, and he found that to be beyond comprehension, so Jesus had to explain. “Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:5) I emphasize the “and” because I believe that is how Jesus spoke this sentence. I am convinced “born of water” was Jesus’ way of defining physical birth. I don’t believe Jesus meant baptism, although some Christians interpret it this way and they could be right. I think Jesus was saying, that being human is not enough. You are a child of God by “creation” a relationship that begins at conception, if not before. But he wanted Nicodemus (and us) to understand we must also be born “spiritually” or of the Spirit. He makes this even more clear when he went on to say, in verse six, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

You must be born again….of the Spirit”
The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus. Everyone who believes in Jesus (Verse 15) will have eternal life. This is not a general or half-hearted faith, but a confidence that Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection are all a part of God’s plan for our salvation through Christ. “The Son of Man must be lifted up.” (Verse 14) shows us the essential nature of Christ’s death for our salvation. Without it we could not have the personal relationship with God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) that God makes possible through Christ. To be born of the Spirit is to allow the Holy Spirit of God to lead us into a personal relationship with the most high God. Verses 16-18 make it clear that until we experience that personal relationship with God, we exist in a state of condemnation through unbelief. Verse 21 shows us “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light” of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, our problem is that we sometimes let the “method” get in the way. Practically every different branch of the Christian church tends to have a different method to lead people into the light of Christ. Our methods also change with the times. Some use Christian Education, or catechism, some beginning almost from birth. Others use an altar of prayer or “mourner’s bench” and there are a multitude of other ways Christians use to profess our faith in Christ. The important thing, however, is the genuineness of faith and the relationship we have with God through faith.

The methods may vary and some may be better than others and each of us may prefer our method over others, but it is not the method, but the person that is most important. We must not place our faith in the method, but in the person—Jesus Christ. That’s why I call it the “Jesus Way” to salvation. And why I believe it is the only way there is.

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

Meeting God in the “Woodshed”

Day before yesterday as my wife and I walked on the canal in Indianapolis we approached a fellow talking loudly on a cell phone. I heard some choice words that should not be spoken aloud (or even thought) anywhere, but especially not in a public place.

Sometimes my lack of wisdom is exceeded only by my unlimited stupidity and I do things without considering the full consequences. Unfortunately, that was one of those times. As we walked rapidly past him, I said, “Hey, watch your language.”

I don’t know what I thought that would accomplish, but it certainly wasn’t successful. All I did was add to the foul language in the world, acquire some new names for myself and have my ancestry questioned rather loudly. I realize now I also could easily have gained some nasty bruises if he had decided to do what he was obviously thinking.

I did not recognize my own self-righteous behavior for what it was until several hours later. About four o’clock the next morning I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so, as is my custom, if I can’t sleep, I usually pray. Eventually I came to the time in my prayers when I pray for the lost. At that time I thought of the “cursing man” (So called because we weren’t properly introduced.) but by then I was listening to God instead of being stupid, and the Lord showed me that my self-righteous attitude had interfered with what he had wanted me to do, and was thus a greater sin than that man’s inappropriate language.

I was a child of God and professed to be a “Christ-one” or a Christian, but actually, I had not behaved at all like Christ. The Bible tells us when Jesus saw someone like that he had compassion for them because he saw they were lost, like sheep without a shepherd.” By contrast, when I heard him, I felt contempt because he cared so little for those around him.

I had to spend the next few minutes confessing my sin and asking God to change my self-righteous attitude. I also asked the Lord to help me, the next time I heard something like that, to feel compassion at the moment, rather than several hours later, after I saw my sin in the light of his righteousness. Finally, I prayed for that man and all others like him— asking God to save them and draw them to himself so they could experience his love and become the people their heavenly Father created them to be.

Then I also prayed for myself and all other misguided Christians, who try to do the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing conviction by using the devils tactic of condemnation. It doesn’t work. It never has worked and never will. We cannot accomplish the purposes of God by using the methods of Satan, because God’s methods are a part of his ministry. When we use Satan’s methods we can only do Satan’s work. If we want to do God’s work, we must use God’s methods. In a situation like this, Satan’s method is condemnation and God’s method is unconditional love. I know that! But I don’t always live what I know.

The good that came out of that experience was at least two fold and I hope three. First, by God’s grace, I didn’t get beaten to a pulp and cause that poor lost soul to wind up in prison for attacking a stupid old man. Secondly, probably for the rest of my life, when I pray for the lost, I will remember that man and others like him and, with compassion for their lostness, pray for their salvation. Because, by the grace of God I now love him. And it truly is by God’s grace. Because I dislike vile language, I have never felt unconditional love for those who use it in public. I have, in fact, always felt contempt. I have been totally unaware of my garbage attitude and have always (falsely, I now realize) felt morally superior. The final good I hope will come out of this experience is that God will help me feel compassion for people like that when I hear them, rather than several hours later after he has taken me to the woodshed.

You and I both know it did absolutely no good for me to say what I said. It had the opposite effect of what I thought I wanted, which was to reduce the world of language pollution. If I had used the wisdom and grace of God to just pray silently for him as I passed by, I would not have caused him to sin by inspiring more vile language, I would not have risked the safety of myself and my wife, and I might have been an instrument used of God, in some amazing way that only He fully understands, to bless someone instead of curse them.

I am fully aware, but often forget, that condemnation is a curse far worse than vile language.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .
and that's my view, from Tanner Creek.