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.

Probably partially because most people have no clue what it means, as well as its popularity at christian camps, it has come to be used sarcastically to ridicule Christians.  A ridicule probably well deserved for not knowing what we are singing.  Stupid on my part, as I approved of the song based on a sense of nostalgia rather than knowledge.  That being said, I can see nothing wrong with the song itself, so go now and sing kumbaya ’til your heart is content.  However, if you are gathered with two or more for the purpose of singing songs to Jesus, it is pretty pointless.

For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
Matt 18:20(NLT)

JF

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.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.

Psalms 1:1
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

Jeremiah 27:7
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.

Psalms 84:5
Blessed [is] the man whose strength [is] in You,
Whose heart [is] set on pilgrimage.

Psalms 65:4
Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple.

Matt 5:7
Blessed [are] the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

The word study I suggested for you guys is in the hebrew scriptures H835, and in the greek text G3107.  Just in case you’re unfamiliar with it, you can use a Strong’s concordance to do this study.  If you don’t have one handy, the website www.blb.org has a Strong’s concordance built in.

Lord Bless you guys,

Joel

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. Some may not reach out to the rich and show favoritism toward the poor, when in reality we all desperately need Jesus. The Lord commands us, as His followers, to love others, whether rich or poor. What a challenge! We are to treat each other equally and share our faith with whomever the Lord leads us to, no matter their social class, etc…

King Jesus Himself stated:

Luke 4:18-19(NKJV)

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Concerning Equality of Believers:

Galatians 3:28(NKJV)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither

male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So how can we possibly love God and love others, (produce Godly works of love – “fruit of the Spirit”) to be obedient to what the Lord has commanded us to do? Daily prayer, spending time in the Word, fellowship/serving with other believers, and the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit give us the ingredients we need to keep us in communion with God and enable us to follow Him. It’s really cool to understand that we can have an ongoing all-day/all-life relationship with the Lord Jesus. He loves to hear from His children and wants us to seek His will in everyday decisions, no matter how small.

God’s Spirit working through us gives us a heart for reaching others with the Good News of the cross and gives us the power to love. Aside from the help of the Holy Spirit, we are powerless. This love relationship we have with the King helps us grow and become more and more of who He created us to be, as He conforms us, His people, more and more into His image. How awesome!

BG

Joel brings up a good point to this thought – this is a promise from the Lord; in that we should ask for wisdom. No doubt (no pun intended), having the faith behind the prayer is often the most difficult part of prayer. In Mark chapter 9, Jesus is speaking to a father who has a demon possessed son. The father brings his son to Jesus, why, because the disciples could do nothing for him! Interesting! But even more interesting, Jesus then goes on to tell the father, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The father, being flat out honest with Jesus says “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Wow! This man just comes right out in speaking what the Lord already knew in him to be true…he struggles with doubt. Is he chastised for it? Does Jesus just do away with the request? No!

Again, I believe that knowledge and understanding of God is progressive. Your faith in the Lord today, compared to 2 years ago, compared to what it may be 2 years from now…should demonstrate a line of progression. Does it mean that 2 years from now we will have it all figured out – not likely…ok, definitely not! Does God realize this – absolutely! One thing that I can assure you in your walk with the Lord, and that Romans 10:17 reminds us in saying, “So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God.” The more time we spend in the Word and seeing the Lord for who He really is, the more we begin to look like the disciple that Jesus would have us to be. The disciple who follows after Jesus need look no further then the time that Jesus spent before the Father in the garden of Gethsemane; “Abba, Father, all things are possible with You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:36). I don’t know about you guys, but in the flesh I can certainly come up with an agenda to place before the Lord. Bottom line, am I submitted to Him as Lord over all areas of my life – that my petition to Him should be for His will, and not my way to be done?  The no-brainer to this should be that in His response to our prayers, He does know best. Whether we choose to recognize that in His response or not will determine how much we are really looking to the Lord for the answer.

Just more food for thought -

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. Then–this is what confuses me–he says we shouldn’t think we’ll receive anything from the Lord. I’m not sure how to be so faithful in my prayer, but not expect God to do anything. And I know I can’t will God to do anything, it’s not up to me, it’s all up to His will. I get that part (even though I always have to remind myself of it!) It seems like as I’m praying, I might keep in the back of my mind “not to think I’ll reveive anything from the Lord” even if I’m trying to convince myself that I’m also coming to the Lord without any doubt.

The verses in question…

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. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

Check it out in the NLT, I think it is a little clearer.

Jame 1:5-7(NLT)
If you need wisdom-if you want to know what God wants you to do-ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

I think the key phrase here is “let not that man”(NKJV) or “people like that“(NLT). I think the point is, that those people who ask with a doubtful mind should not expect to receive anything. I think the hardest part of this is asking without having a doubtful mind. But the context of this scripture is in specifically asking for wisdom… something that James 1:5 makes clear is in the Lord’s will. Since we have a promise(John 14:14) that if we ask for anything in His name(nature) He’ll give it to us, we can ask for wisdom with full assurance that He will grant us that request.

Hopefully this provides some clarification…

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

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. Mathuselah was Noah’s grandfather, so the actual creation account could have been given to Noah second hand from grandpa.

I pray that the Lord will bless you guys,

Joel

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. It’s a good question that I didn’t have a complete answer to, so I’ll try to elaborate here.

The answer is that we should take it literally, and here are some reasons why.

1) Just reading the passage in context, it would be incredible to think that the author of this section of Genesis would have written the phrases contained in 2:16 and then forgotten to off Adam and Eve when they ate the fruit a couple of hundred words later. The more likely scenario is that the author wasn’t describing an immediate physical death on consumption of the forbidden fruit. He was describing the wage of sin, in this case eating the fruit that he was commanded not to.

2) Notice also that it says ‘surely you will die’ or ‘you shall surely die’. The 2 Hebrew words translated here ‘surely you will die’ are 2 versions of the same word(muth). My understanding is that it could be strictly translated ‘dying you shall die’ which to me kind of implies that when they committed the sin, they would start dying until they actually died. God created everything perfectly and eternally, meaning we weren’t designed to die. We die because we sin. So the original sin is what kicked off this process of death that we see in the world.

3) It was at this point that God left the garden, and also left close intimate fellowship with Adam and Eve. This is the Biblical concept of spiritual death, or separation from God. If we reach physical death while still in the state of spiritual death, we will continue to be separated from God for eternity, which is what Hell is.

4) The phrase ‘in the day that’, uses the root word ‘yom’ in a context that can be used for either a literal day, or an age. That being said, the author may have been describing a new age which now includes death. This is in contrast to how ‘yom’ is used in the creation account with a number(1st, 2nd, etc) and/or evening and morning which always, in scripture, refers to one 24 hour day.

So just to sum it up, at the point when they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve died spiritually, began to die physically, and also kick off an age that now includes death. In my mind at least, this explanation satisfies both the events described, and a consistent literal interpretation of the passages.

Let me know when you see me if you need further clarification.

God Bless,

Joel

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. Not by any planning of my own, but a day or so after I was asked this question I just happen to hear the below teaching from Gayle Erwin.

I hope this teaching blesses and frees you like it does me.BTW.. if you have not read The Jesus Style, I can not recommend that book more highly to you.God Bless,

Joel

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). If we die(physically) in that condition, we will continue in our death(spiritually) forever, commonly referred to as hell. God doesn’t want any of us to be cast into hell, so knowing that we would sin, He designed into His creation a plan for restoring our relationship with Him. A part of that plan, was that His law would require that the wages of sin to be death, so in order for us to be made righteous and to live in fellowship with that Holy God, someone had to die in our place.

The Good News:
So what sense does it make for death to be the penalty for sin? Because Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.(John 15:13). He designed the whole plan, so that He could show us how much He loves us, by stepping into history so that He could live a perfect sinless life, and die the death we earned for our sins, so that we can have a restored relationship with Him. He condescended into His creation, lived as a man, suffered torture and a horrible death on a cross, just to give us the option to be His children again. Given this incredible thing that He has done for you, just to prove how much He loves you and wants to have a relationship with you, don’t reject His offer. All you have to do to receive this free gift of forgiveness is believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Acknowledge that you are a sinner, pray and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, ask Him to come into your heart and to show you His will for your life. It really is that simple to start your relationship with Jesus. Please consider this and do it. There is nothing and no one that Jesus will not forgive, if you call out to Him. If you’ve made a recent decision to give your life to Jesus, let me encourage you to read the bible often. Start with the gospel of John. Pray often, and look for a church that teaches the Bible. Many do not, so this may take some searching.

If you have chosen not to give your life to Jesus, please think about these things and take the time to read the verses I’ve linked to. If you are skeptical, just pray something like this. God, if you exist please reveal yourself to me. Show me what is true and show me your will for my life. God is faithful to answer.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

God Bless,

Joel