Genesis is the bedrock, the foundation for the rest of the Bible!  The great themes, ideas, teachings, and history of the world are rooted in Genesis! Origin of humanity, sin, murder, war, civilization, cities, sacrifices to God, gods, the flood, human migration, Abraham father of the semitic peoples, the rift between Jews and Arabs, ….
Doubt it? Here is a test.  List all the ideas found in Genesis 1 alone:  I will start you off: Here are my “observations”,
Chapter 1, Verse 1: Creation, time, the material world is real not imagined (Hinduism), God exists, God has creative power, God has power over creation, God was before creation, the universe had a beginning/is not eternal, there are heavens plural, earth is singular,  Now you do verse 2-31.
Listen to Genesis 1 in Hebrew: Key words: Elohim= God (plural); ha-aretz = the earth
 http://www.zalag.net/OTstudies/Hebrew%20audio/01%20torah/gen01.mp3
Read along (use cursor to translate words, and click for Strong's definition) 
 http://study.interlinearbible.org/genesis/1.htm

 
 
 
Have you ever wondered how Adam and Eve could have populated the world? Or Noah. If the flood killed everyone how could the world be repopulated so fast? Read this and keep in mind, the Bible says they lived way past 99 years back then, they were just getting started! Adam had his firstborn at 130 and lived another 800 years! Go forth and multiply!

Monday, September 21, 2009 Israel Today Staff
 A 99-year-old Jerusalem resident passed away last week, leaving behind an estimated 1,400 direct descendants.
Israel's Ynet news portal reports that Rachel Krishevsky lived most of her life near Jerusalem's Mahane Yehudah open air market. She and her husband, who were married in 1929, took seriously the biblical commandment to "be fruitful and multiply," and had 11 children.
Krishevsky instilled in her own children that same duty to lovingly raise as many children as possible, and each of them were blessed with large families, totaling more than 150 grandchildren for the couple.
Those grandchildren when on to have some 1,000 offspring, who in turn have provided at least several hundred great-great-grandchildren.
Family members said they were not sure exactly how many direct descendants Rachel had, but noted with pride that she had remained close to all of them up until the end of her life.
 
 
Look at this Chart This is a model of the system that has produced unprecedented wealth in the past few centuries, even with a 600% increase in population. Notice, there are only two outputs required from you and I, the Human Capital. 
They are:
C. People with better diets are more productive and generate more goods and services, increasing wealth.
H. Improved human capital (physical, mental, spiritual) produces more people able to apply themselves to generating new technologies and effectively using existing ones.
WHATS SO BAD ABOUT SIN?
The economic system is just part of creation, designed and built by God.
Sin is bad, because it takes you out of the game.
Sin is breaking the God designed system for personal benefit.
Sin, no matter what kind, sucks up resources and doesn't give back corresponding benefits. Sin sucks.
Sin is selfishness. It makes you a drag on the system, leaching out energy and only giving back waste. Sin is a drag.
Sin is a waste. Sin wastes you. You become waste…and a healthy system must eliminate waste. God designed the system, and ultimately, He will fix it. When things have gone so bad, that the good, productive people can no longer carry the system, He will purge it. That is called Judgment. Cleaning the human waste out the system so it can work again.
WHO'S MEAN NOW?
Is God mean for judging, or for executing His judgment?
Or, is it us who are mean, the sinners, the wasters?
It is mean of us, when we make others carry our load. Its thievery.
It is mean of us, when we take and don't give back. Its stealing.
It is us when we break the system God designed. Its sin.

Here is how Jesus (half) brother James put it:
James 5:1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. NIV

Fits rich America in the last 10-15 years, and today, pretty well I would say.
"Rapid and extravagant resource use (with corresponding waste production) is so profitable for some people that they can avoid or remain in denial about most of these negative symptoms for a very long time. In fact, their “success” makes it highly improbable that they will ever be willing to acknowledge the unsustainability of their way of life. This is the prosperity dysfunction." Quoting McClaren
"Tracing the emergence of this model of growth…it is worth noting that many of the key ideas that lead to its emergence (like scientific rationalism, risk assessment, individual rights, and progress) had distinctive roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition." i.e. a system seeking to work on God's model (of course imperfectly since it was conceived by humans with selfish natures built in, original sin. A Darwinist might say "survival of the fittest", but I would say its more like "survival of me and mine")

James, (half) brother of Jesus, put it this way. James 1:1-6 NIV
1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.[a] 6You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.

Why did James say "weep and wail"? Not because of our pending pain, that would be more selfishness. No, he meant we should "repent". We need to have a change of heart, deep sorrow for the damage we have caused, and the good we could have done.

I have read that if American Christians would have tithed 10% we could have wiped out world hunger in a few years. What did we do instead? McMansions. Hummers. Vacations. Weep and Wail. Too late! Because we didn't use the excess resources entrusted to us God just took them back! Instead, we lived excessively. We wouldn't give just 10% (Evangelicals give 2.5% on average) so God took back 50-75% or our wealth in the blink of an eye. We were using it selfishly, not deploying it for His purposes. It was always His, just entrusted to us for a little while. We didn't listen to His heart, we listened to our appetites. We have "fattened" ourselves, and slaughter day has begun. Weep and Wail. Repent and turn around. The world doesn't have a better way. Communists in Washington don't have a better way. Fat Cat Republicans don't have a better way. All human, selfish, systems end in a "day of slaughter". Weep and Wail.

Time for us to turn to a little Rabbi from Galilee named Jesus. He alone has word that bring life, real living, not prosperity.
John 6:98-69 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." 

 
Post Title. 09/17/2009
 
September 6th we had Nashville Country Christian artist Greg McDougal. Greg called me 10pm Saturday night and said, "John, something happened and I don't have a place to sing tomorrow." I said, "Its our first Sunday in Princeton. We don't have any money and may only have ten folks." Greg said, "I'm doing this for the Lord and not the money." So, we had a great time. He shared his life story, trials and misspent days, and songs. It was truly moving. We had 21 folks, yet he sold $500 of CDs and got a large love offering. When I handed it to him he teared up and said, "When the Lord says to do something, you just can't question Him. You just never know what He is going to do."
 
 
SORRY LORD!
You don't ever know what the Lord will do when you are faithful. I didn't promote the first Sunday in Princeton. I thought it "wise" to just start small and get the feel for it. Little did I know the Lord had Greg planned for that Sunday. We should of had a full house. It was that good!
My lesson? Work the plan, only faster! The Lord is ready to do great things in Princeton.

What do I mean? Last Sunday we had Nashville Country Christian artist Greg McDougal. Greg called me 10pm Saturday night and said, "John, something happened and I don't have a place to sing tomorrow." I said, "Its our first Sunday in Princeton. We don't have any money and may only have ten folks." Greg said, "I'm doing this for the Lord and not the money." So, we had a great time. He shared his life story, trials and misspent days, and songs. It was truly moving. We had 21 folks, yet he sold $500 of CDs and got a large love offering. When I handed it to him he teared up and said, "When the Lord says to do something, you just can't question Him. You just never know what He is going to do." 
 
First Post! 09/11/2009
 
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