Living in God's Reality

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

Paul wrote in Philippians 3 about living in the joy of God’s reality. Those aren’t Paul’s words, but my description of what he wrote. After you read this I hope you also read Philippians 3 thru 4:2.

Paul urges us to “rejoice in the Lord” then departs temporarily from this theme to talk about a way of living that steals our joy and fills us with deep anxiety. His thoughts and writings recalled his past efforts to attain salvation by what he thought were “good works”.

There’s nothing wrong with good works. The problem is if we try to use good works as our method of salvation. Paul now knew without doubt it was gained only by faith in Christ—not by any good works he had done. Some, he now realized, not only brought no salvation, they were not really good. They were instead, very bad works. In his zeal he had actually persecuted the same church he was now trying to build. Paul knew others who had tried that same futile road to heaven and he knew such behavior would only steal their joy. He didn’t want others to walk that same dead end road when such behavior would not gain salvation and could even find them fighting against God instead of serving him.

Paul knew God had a better idea. In verse seven he wrote, “…whatever was to my profit I now consider loss…compared to…knowing Christ….” He even considered them “rubbish”.

Paul did many good things. But call them “rubbish”?

Because such good works only bring despair if we depend on them for salvation. They produce joy only when done in response to loving God and loving humanity. We are all God’s people by creation. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we are all forgiven.

Paul’s former life had been lived with a wrathful view of God. Paul’s life reflected the wrath he assumed was the nature of God. When Paul met Jesus, he met God’s grace and mercy. Realizing that grace and mercy was for everyone brought Paul an indescribable joy. He had moved into the awesome light of God’s reality and found it amazing.

God’s reality is that we all are forgiven. Christ died for our sin, but too many people still live in the defeat of hopeless guilt. Mentally, even Paul hadn’t fully attained it (v. 12). Paul knew the truth of forgiveness, but he still struggled to fully grasp the limitless grace of God. Nor the fact it was for him, Paul, a middle-eastern terrorist, who had been saved from his own terror and from the terror he had dumped on the church. He now realized this forgiveness had been granted both to him and to all humanity!

Most do not grasp that God loves everyone. Paul knew his own mind still hadn’t caught up with the reality of God’s grace. In verse 16 he urged “let us live up to what we have already attained”. We are spiritual siblings of the Lord Jesus Christ because God loved us and sent Jesus to bring us all to God.

God opened the door for you to live a life of joy. That door is Jesus! An antidote for past sin, Jesus also offers faith as immunity from future sin and a welcome into God’s amazing grace.

Open yourself to the Joy-giver, Jesus. Give him past failures and claim what is already yours; a loving relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. Then God’s Holy Spirit can help you claim with heart and mind what Jesus attained for you through his death and resurrection. You too can begin to live in the joy of God’s reality. 

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

   

Chicago the new Silicon Lakeshore?

By Rick Blumenberg  / @rickblumenberg

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that Chicago has won the bid for a new digital manufacturing institute. Public and private funds will combine to make it possible and the windy lakeshore city beat out Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other equally high tech bidders. One reason they won was because Chicago exceeded the requirement of equally matching the $70 million in government funds. Private sources from the Chicago area came up with $250 million in matching funds.

Could Chicago become the new Silicon Lakeshore? Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill thinks so. He said, "We had to over-perform to make sure it was not only a good grab, but the best, so the president, the White House and everybody else can look at it with a straight face and say, 'Of course it's Illinois.'"

Some people are calling it the new Silicon Valley, but Chicago’s not a valley! What we’re talking about is the new Silicon Lakeshore—an emphasis like this will impact the entire world of Lake Michigan’s Lakeshore from Wisconsin to Southwest Michigan and radiate out into the offshore areas as well, from Rockford, to Champaign-Urbana, home of the University of Illinois, a major player in the success of the Chicago bid. And who knows, but my guess is we here in Bridgman, the City on the Lake, home of lots of Chicago lovers, may also be involved.

Exciting things are also happening in nearby South Bend, Indiana, where the University of Notre Dame is breaking new ground in the field of Nano Technology. The City of South Bend is their enthusiastic partner. Together they have created Innovation and Ignition Parks in an attempt to combine the educational expertise of the University of Notre Dame and the manufacturing expertise/abilities of South Bend area leaders to make the area a hub for nanotechnology.

“It’s off to a great start,” said Arnold Phifer, External Relations Director for Notre Dame’s Center for Nano Science and Technology.  “It is starting to spin-off companies and move some of the technologies out of the lab into Innovation Park and then ultimately to Ignition Park. Businesses who can’t afford their own labs are coming to South Bend to work at Notre Dame’s facilities.”[i]

Our economy has gone through some real struggles lately. Partly because of the economic downturn, but a great part of it is the reality of the manufacturing change from the old style hardware production to the new style Digital and Nano manufacturing. It doesn’t all have to happen on the East and West Coasts. The Midwest’s Third Coast of marvelous Lake Michigan, where those of us who know it, love to live, may well be the new happening place.

As for me I look forward to being a part of the new Silicon Lakeshore if only as an enthusiastic cheerleader.

I’m Rick Blumenberg and that’s My View from Tanner Creek—a small, but delightful tributary of beautiful Lake Michigan.

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[i] Quoted by Tony Spehar, “Is Nanotechnology still in South Bend’s Future?” ABC57 News, October 13, 2013
     

The Non-Existent Church-Science Divide

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

The recent debate between Bill Nye, “the Science Guy” and Ken Ham of the Creation Museum has created a buzz around the idea of conflict between science and religion. Sometimes this buzz includes Christianity and the Church. I am not a religionist, but I am a Christian and a churchman and I think we need to look at reality to bring this debate into focus.

While it is true religion and science often find themselves in conflict, with the Christian church and science, the divide is not nearly as great as current debate would appear. It has become more contentious recently due to some scientists who are uneducated regarding the Bible and church history and they ignore facts about Christianity and science. The truth is Christianity has done more to strengthen education, the scientific method, and the development of new and innovative advancements than any other organization on earth, including all the great universities of the world. If you think I am exaggerating, I ask you, who began and developed most of those great universities? Who has done more to develop readership and education for all people? No doubt, it is the Christian church.

Unfortunately we must admit there are people in Christianity who try to block truth and reason from Christian debate and lock theology into their current understanding. In any group or organization there are always blockheads; with small minds and timid hearts who fear new understandings of truth and reject investigative learning. However, the blockheads are greatly in the minority within Christianity and Judaism, and except for the dark ages, they have not ruled or limited the free exercise of creative thought and discovery. This may be true of other religions as well, but I do not have sufficient knowledge to say.

There are also blockheads the scientific community; perhaps they are even more prevalent there than in the church. It is certainly true in our present day. Scientists’ ignorance of the Bible and Christian history causes many to think all Christians are morons to be institutionalized or at least have their children taken from them. Those types are the ones who created the current apparent divide. The divide, however, is between those who believe in creationary evolution as opposed to creation by God.

Creationary Evolutionism is a fundamentalist religion and in order to believe it one must ignore many obvious truths and obvious holes in their theories. There has never been a clear indication of one species morphing into a totally new and different species. But creationary evolutionists refuse to admit this fact and often try to intimidate and silence legitimate scientists who admit or even embrace, the truth—that creation makes sense and does not conflict with genuine science. The fact that science cannot prove creation is not the problem. The problem is that creationary evolutionists have chosen to attack those who are people of godly faith.

In truth, there are many excellent scientists, Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and no doubt in other faiths, who believe in the Creator God and find this truth has no conflict with legitimate scientific discovery, but they often cannot publicly admit it because to do so would put their jobs and scientific careers in jeopardy.

Let me give one example of scientific failure. In early Old Testament writings (see Leviticus 13 for example). God gave directions to protect people from germs. He taught the importance of hand-washing, isolation of persons with infectious diseases, and the general importance of cleanliness, especially in person-to-person contact. Nobody knew about germs, viruses and such; no doubt the requirements seemed a foolish waste of time and money. But those who followed the regulations lived and those who didn’t died.

Thousands of years later “Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor of German extraction discovered that washing hands between patients saved lives and prevented the spread of illnesses. Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards.”[i] He didn’t know why, but convinced it was true, he required the practice in his hospital—for a while. However, the other doctors (scientists every one) refused to do something they felt wasted their time and they removed him from the hospital along with his wash basins. Blockheads, as we can see, are obviously not limited to the church.

Another and more current example is stem cell research. The greatest thing since sliced bread, all they need do was harvest stem cells from aborted babies. Maybe even create test-tube babies to provide an abundantly available stem cell supply. All manner of diseases could be eliminated! The problem, recognized quickly by Christians and other good people, was the immorality involved. Millions has been spent on infant stem cells and to quote Leslie Stall on CBS’ 60 Minutes, “They have not lived up to their predictions”. That’s putting it mildly, Leslie. There have been virtually no successes.

On the other hand, those Christian and Jewish scientists who saw the potential in stem cells, but could not stomach the moral ambiguities of infant stem cells, chose to work with adult stem cells. Significant progress indicates possible medical breakthroughs. I predict within five years there will be significant advances in ALS and Parkinson’s disease. Two different companies I’ve heard of use the patients’ own stem cells to heal diseased bodies. There is no danger of rejection and they are already proven safe in laboratory tests. They aren’t there yet, but it is really promising.

God is always on the side of truth and right. He will not bless the efforts of those who deny truth and refuse to do right. But God blesses anyone of any religion or no religion at all who genuinely seek truth and right. Even atheists who do not believe in God will find when they seek after truth and right, they will experience God’s blessing in their work and much will be accomplished. God has built that blessing into the nature of the universe and it is automatic, but those who know, serve and seek to follow God’s ways, find the blessing and the accompanying benefits exponentially greater.

There is no conflict between genuine Christianity and legitimate science. All truth is God’s truth, whether in the laboratory or the sanctuary.

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

  

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[i] Wikepedia, See Ignaz Semmelweiss