Hey Guys,

At the 70s party we sang some worship songs that were popular in the 70s, one of them being ‘Kumbaya, My Lord’.  Being the bereans that you are, there were rightfully some questions about what Kumbaya meant.  So I thought I’d look it up and let you guys know.  At the time, it was mentioned that “kumbaya” meant “come by here.”  Via a couple internet sources, I’ve confirmed this (to some degree).  The song “Kumbaya, My Lord” was sung in the early 1900’s by former slaves and is in a creole/english dialect called Gullah.

I promised to get some notes from the teaching up here.  Sorry it took so long.
The verses we covered about being blessed(happy) are below.

Psalms 37:4-5
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

The worldly rich, who don’t use their wealth to further the Kingdom, actually blaspheme God by saying, in various ways, “I have my riches and I don’t need a relationship with the one and only true God.” In actuality, it is the Lord who has blessed those people with wealth, which they could use to positively impact the world, for the sake of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

To worship riches and/or any material object is actually allowing yourself to bow to gods who are not worthy of praise. Many people get caught up in materialism and reject the Holy Spirit by choosing to serve creation (stuff) rather than the Creator of all things (Romans 1:18-32).

How easy it is to catch yourself having a bias toward those with riches, which is more common than having a bias toward the poor.

Jame 1:5-7(NKJV)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

My question has to do with James 1:5-7. Particularly James 1:6-7. I should have brought this up last Sunday, but I wanted to think about it some more on my own. Whaddya know–still have the same questions So James says when we ask for something from God (wisdom, patience, peace, healing, etc), we have to fully believe without doubt.

Below is the translation of each name, and then below that is what they say in sequence.

Adam: (adomah) “man”

Seth: “appointed” (Genesis 4:25)

Enosh: (from root anash, “to be incurable”)
“mortal,” “frail,” “miserable”

Kenan: “sorrow,” “dirge,” “elegy”

Mahalal’el: “the Blessed God” – (mahalal) “blessed”;
(El) the name for God

Jared: (from the verb yaradh) “shall come down”

Enoch: “commencement” or “teaching”

Methusaleh: “his death shall bring” –
muth, a root that means “death”;
shalach means “bring” or “send forth”

Lamech: “desparining”
(from which we get “lament” or “lamentation”)

Noah: (derived from nacham) “comfort”
or “rest” (Genesis 5:29)

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow (but)
Adam – - Seth – - Enosh – Kenan – - – -

the blessed God shall come down teaching
Mahalal’el – - – - – - Jared – - – - – Enoch

(that His) death shall bring
- — – Methusaleh

(the) despairing rest.”
- – - Lamech – -Noah

God Bless,
Joel

Hey Guys,

Here is the chart I showed last night. I don’t know anything about the site, so obviously pray and be discerning before you just go surfing. Notice that there is quite an overlap between the birth of Mathuselah and the death of Adam.

Genesis 2:16-17 says..

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

I was asked this Sunday why we don’t take that phrase ‘you shall surely die’ literally but we take the rest of the Genesis account literally.

Hey Guys,

I was asked last week about determining the will of God, in relation to major life decisions. As the Holy Spirit tends to do in my life when I have a question, He often brings me an answer through bible teaching.

I wanted to attempt to explain in short what the Bible teaches.
God created everything.
The bad news:
All mankind, starting with Adam, has chosen to disobey God’s laws, which has separated us from fellowship with our Creator; in Biblical terms we’re dead(spiritually).