Adán y Eva estaban felices en el jardín que Dios había creado para ellos. Sus vidas eran bendecidas con alimento delicioso sano y nutritivo que Dios había designado para que ellos lo comieran. Estaban rodeados de belleza y tenían un trabajo importante y agradable cuidando del jardín y de los animales. En medio del jardín había dos árboles: el árbol de la vida y el árbol del conocimiento del bien y el mal. Dios le dijo a Adán que podían comer del árbol de la vida, mas no del árbol del conocimiento del bien y el mal. Pero Andan y Eva se dejaron convencer de Satanás y desobedecieron a Dios comiendo del fruto del árbol del conocimiento del bien y del mal, por lo que Dios los obligó a abandonar el jardín.
Discusión:
Explique a sus hijos que Satanás, cuyo nombre significa adversario, era un ángel que se volvió malvado y se rebeló contra Dios. Es llamado “serpiente” varias veces en la Biblia.
Señale que Satanás engañó a Eva. Explica lo que significa engañar.
Pregunte a sus hijos cómo se sintieron Adán y Eva después de haber desobedecido a Dios.
Muestre cómo las vidas de Adán y Eva fueron peores después de desobedecer a Dios.
Discuta cómo la obediencia lleva a bendiciones y la desobediencia a maldiciones.
Memorizar y revisar:
Génesis 1:27 “Y creó Dios al hombre a su imagen, a imagen de Dios lo creó; varón y hembra los creó”.
¡Más que hacer!
Estas actividades son opcionales, pero algunos niños pueden encontrarlas agradables.
Hagan un dibujo del Jardín del Edén y hablen sobre los elementos del dibujo.
Juegue con sus hijos al juego de “Verdadero o Falso”. Haga una declaración sobre algún punto cubierto en la lección y pregúnteles si es verdadero o falso.
Algunos ejemplos son:
Verdadero o Falso: Los seres humanos son primos lejanos de los simios.
Verdadero o Falso: Solo un hombre y una mujer pueden formar una familia.
Verdadero o Falso: Hombres y mujeres son iguales; su género no importa.
Verdadero o Falso: Dios hizo a la mujer a partir del hombre.
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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020
Est. reading time: 1 min. 30 sec.
Mr. Paul Kearns, an area pastor in New Zealand, introduced himself by relating to the students his experience as a Living University student at the regional Church office in Adelaide, Australia.
He said his experience was, “one of the greatest periods in my life.” With the LU motto of “Recapturing True Values” in mind, Mr. Kearns redefined dating, courtship, attraction, and engagement.
Dating, Mr. Kearns explained, is not “a dirty word”…
but a “non-romantic opportunity to serve somebody of the opposite sex.” Through dating widely and avoiding pairing off, young men and women serve each other and learn.
In today’s world, courtship is an old-fashioned, meaningless term.
Courting occurs when two people date exclusively towards engagement. This stage requires maturity to cope with the emotions that accompany it. Mr. Kearns shared a piece of advice he had received from Mr. Bruce Tyler, “The right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing.”
Mr. Kearns asked, “Should there be attraction in dating?”
Attraction, the force by which one object attracts another, is a physical pull in the world around us. For us, attraction should not be the motivator in dating; serving should be. In courtship, while attraction is good, there should be more that attracts us than looks.
Mr. Kearns concluded with the term, engagement.
This stage should not be a “cooling off period” in which we re-evaluate the deal—it is a formal decision to marry and a stage of relationship God treats seriously.
By redefining these terms, by God’s standards and not our society’s, Mr. Kearns hoped to help the students recapture true values in their relationships.
This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts.
https://www.lcgeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/crew-xCmvrpzctaQ-unsplash.jpg10011500lcgadminhttps://www.lcgeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/logo_basic-website-300x94.pnglcgadmin2020-10-21 17:28:332020-10-21 17:28:36Forum Summary: “Dating, Courting, Attraction, and Engagement”
View our map on places that the Apostle Paul traveled to so he could preach the gospel, and click on the brown location symbols to learn more about each city!
Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020
Est. reading time: 1 min. 17 sec.
“How much have you exercised creativity in your life?” Mr. Jonathan McNair asked in today’s assembly.
We watched a YouTube video of Ben Folds, singer-songwriter and record producer, build an orchestral piece in ten minutes inspired by a random sentence in a brochure. This is the ability of a single individual working with 120 musicians to create unified, harmonious sound out of practically nothing.
Mr. McNair then took us to Genesis 1. The creativity of God uses elements of design, power, beauty, and sound mechanics. God constructed the systems of our world through His creative genius—from vast environments and specific ecosystems, to different animal species and their complex social behaviors. But as we saw in the Folds’ video, we have inside us this desire to create.
“Have you asked God to help you develop your creativity? If you haven’t, you need to ask—not just for playing video games or entertainment but for a productive, creative skill God can leverage in your life in service to others and for your own good.” Mr. McNair said emphatically, “It doesn’t happen magically.”
He gave three principles to apply to develop this:
Use proven patterns
Get the little things right
Work in harmony with others.
If we live a life of creativity, we exercise a quality of God Himself—a quality placed in us for the very purpose of creation.
This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts
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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020
Est. reading time: 1 min. 36 sec.
Mr. Michael DeSimone, Manager of Broadcast and Digital Media for Tomorrow’s World, gave the first Forum after the students returned from the Feast. He presented four major steps to stand out to employers and “get the job”.
The first is preparation. “Put it on paper” Mr. DeSimone said. Write down your skills and your professional goals—who you want to work for and how much you aim to make. Without this preparation, people follow “a recipe for failure.”
The second step is securing the interview. A resume only places you in a stack of applications. You can gain recognition through several well-timed “connections.” Only 1–2 % of applicants make a follow-up call after sending their resume. But this one small bold step increases your chances of a job offer from one out of 254 resumes sent to one out of only 15 resumes sent. “You have to stand out to get the job.”
The third step is mastering the interview. Practice interviewing; understand the company for which you want to work. Mr. DeSimone also stressed the importance of the first two minutes of the interview; in that time, the hirer can see how you will fit into company culture over the next decade. Your body language, eye contact, and manners all influence their first impressions.
The final step is negotiating compensation. Our speaker emphasized there should be no money-talk until the position is yours. “You need leverage in negotiation.”
The initiative is the job-seeker’s—the onus is not on the hiring manager to drive the process. Waiting for somebody else’s initiation is, Mr. DeSimone says, “a sure way to not get the job.” Mastering these steps will make you stand out from the other candidates and help you get the job.
This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts
https://www.lcgeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/sebastian-herrmann-NbtIDoFKGO8-unsplash.jpg10001500lcgadminhttps://www.lcgeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/logo_basic-website-300x94.pnglcgadmin2020-10-14 17:05:292020-10-14 17:05:32Forum Summary: Initiative and ‘Getting the Job’
Many professing Christians believe that the God family is made up of three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but what is the true nature of God? Who does the Hebrew word ‘Elohim’ refer to? Is the God of the Bible actually this Trinitarian god?
Author: Mr. Kenneth Frank | Faculty in Theology, Living Education
Estimated reading time: 7 min., 19 sec.
Did you know that God offers to fulfill our needs abundantly if only we were so faith-filled as to ask for and expect them?
Sometimes Christians hesitate to ask for the big things, thinking it would be presumptuous or selfish to do so. Nonetheless, God challenges us to think big and pray big! He assures us He will supply our needs according to His will. This Digging Deeper focuses on a verse that has the potential to change our thinking about asking God for large blessings – and expecting to receive them!
Our focus verse in this article is: “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10 KJV). This command is not as strange as it may sound. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones in their The Pulpit Commentary cite an earlier source: “The figure in the text is explained in Thomson’s ‘Land and the Book.’ ‘It is said to have been a custom in Persia, that when the king wishes to do a visitor especial honour, he desires him to open his mouth wide, and the king then crams it full of sweetmeats, and sometimes even with jewels. And to this day it is a mark of politeness in Orientals to tear off the daintiest bits of meat for a guest, and either lay them before him, or put them in his mouth'” (Bible Analyzer 5.4.1.22).
If they only had obeyed…
As the first part of this verse indicates, reference is made to Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. God laments that His nation had stopped listening to Him; consequently, He gave them up to their sinful desires. How different things would have been if only they had hearkened to and obeyed Him (vv. 11-13). He next explains how enriched their lives would have been if only they had been faithful. God would have defended them from enemies and provided them the choicest wheat and honey to satisfy their desires (vv. 14-16).
What is notable about the opening of this psalm is that it makes reference to the Feast of Trumpets (v. 3) and probably the Feast of Tabernacles when it refers to “our solemn feast day,” according to The Ultimate Cross References Treasury (e-Sword 12.1). The NIV Study Bible describes this psalm as: “A festival song. It was probably composed for use at both the New Year festival (the first day of the [seventh] month, ‘New Moon’) and the beginning of Tabernacles (the 15th day of the month, full moon) … As memorials of God’s saving acts, Israel’s annual religious festivals called the nation to celebration, remembrance and recommitment (see Ps 95)” (Tecarta Bible App). These festivals reminded Israel of God’s Torah, i.e., His law (teaching, or instruction) that related to the steps in God’s plan of salvation. The Churches of God will soon be observing the Feast of Tabernacles so this psalm is relevant for our spiritual preparation for this joyous occasion.
Like Baby Birds
Verse 10 includes a colorful metaphor, as explained by Joseph S. Exell in his The Biblical Illustrator: “The psalmist had probably often noticed how the young birds open their mouths wide for the food which they know the parent bird will give them, and for which, therefore, they wait with such eager expectancy. And he points to this familiar fact, and bids his countrymen in like manner expect blessing from God, for God will not disappoint them” (e-Sword 12.1). Notice that we are to expect God’s blessing! Exell goes on to explain that the condition for receiving from God is: “‘Open thy mouth wide’ … The picture is one of simple dependence and trust. Proud self-sufficiency shuts out the fulness of God. The first step to strength is to realize our own helplessness, simply to ‘open the mouth wide,’ that God may fill it” (Ibid.). These are the prerequisites for such in-filling.
Albert Barnes in his Notes on the Bible adds his perspective: “The meaning here is, ‘I can amply supply all your needs. You need not go to other gods – the gods of other lands – as if there were any deficiency in my power or resources; as if I were not able to meet your necessities. All your needs I can meet. Ask what you need – what you will; come to me and make any request with reference to yourselves as individuals or as a nation – to this life or the life to come – and you will find in me all abundant supply for all your needs, and a willingness to bless you commensurate with my resources’” (e-Sword 12.1). Notice that Barnes makes the point that these requested blessings are not just for this life but even for our lives in the world to come.
Barnes continues in his Notes on the Bible with an application for today: “What is here said of the Hebrews may be said of the people of God at all times. There is not a want of our nature – of our bodies or our souls; a want pertaining to this life or the life to come – to ourselves, to our families, to our friends, to the church, or to our country – which God is not able to meet; and there is not a real necessity in any of these respects which he is not willing to meet” (e-Sword 12.1). Here Barnes expands our requests to include those for loved ones, acquaintances, associates, fellow Christians, and our nation. The nations of the world truly need the prayers of God’s people!
If We Bodly Ask
We need not be shy in asking boldly with anticipation. Adam Clarke in his Commentary on the Bible exhorts: “Let thy desires be ever so extensive, I will gratify them if thou wilt be faithful to me. Thou shalt lack no manner of thing that is good” (e-Sword 12.1). Do we crave God’s truth? This verse shows that the more morally hungry we are the better fed we shall be. Joseph S. Exell’s The Bible Illustrator explains that such a request implies health: “The body without appetite for food is diseased; the intellect without appetite for truth is diseased; and the soul without appetite for righteousness is diseased” (Ibid.). If we do not crave God’s provision, we are unhealthy in some way. We must recognize our needs for God’s intervention and meet God’s requirement. Exell then presents the conditions for such filling: “Proud self-sufficiency shuts out the fulness of God. The first step to strength is to realize our own helplessness, simply to ‘open the mouth wide,’ that God may fill it” (Ibid.).
In his The Pulpit Commentary Joseph S. Exell notes that some never open their mouths at all, others open their mouths but not wide. He then presents the conditions for being fed by God: “There must be:
1. A mouth to open; that is, power to believe. Now, we all have that, and use it every day about other things.
2. Need of God’s blessing. Unquestionably there is that.
3. Sense of this need. Consciousness of it, and distress because of it. Hunger after God’s blessing.
4. Will to believe. Trust is more a matter of the will than of the reason. ‘I will trust, and not be afraid.’ Refuse to doubt, resolve to believe” (Bible Analyzer 5.4.1.22).
Expecting to be filled
During the autumn festivals, God’s people have the prospect of being very well fed by God through His ministers in sermonettes, sermons, and Bible studies. However, what we have read in this study explains the conditions for such in-filling. We must humbly recognize our need for God’s provision, ask Him in believing prayer for it, and expect that He shall fill it as He has promised, according to His will and timetable. We must open our mouths like baby birds expecting our parents to feed us. However, to be very well fed, we must open them wide!
Kenneth Frank was born and raised in New Jersey, USA, and attended Ambassador College, graduating in 1973. He served in the Canadian ministry from 1973-1999, after which he returned to the USA to pastor churches in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina for 15 years. Having earned a BA degree from Ambassador College he later earned a MA degree from Grand Canyon University before being assigned to the Charlotte office to teach at Living University, now Living Education. Currently, he teaches the Survey of the Bible course to the on-campus students and writes the Digging Deeper column for our online Bible study program. He is married, has four children, and seven grandchildren.
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“12 percent of your Living Education experience is already behind you.” Mr. John Strain, the Charlotte congregation pastor, spoke to us on September 22, prior to the Feast break.
This program is only 9 months long; it is a brief chance to accomplish something good. But do we know what we’re trying to accomplish? “Could you tell me why you’re here?” Mr. Strain asked. More importantly, how will we know if we’ve met our goal? Our speaker told us to make our goals measurable. Whether on paper or in a Word document, we need to have a model by which we measure our progress.
Laying a foundation
This program is unlike Ambassador College: church resources and size don’t allow for it. But Living Ed gives us the same opportunity to build a solid foundation. Mr. Strain told us to build that foundation by learning doctrine, exercising communication skills, building lifelong friendships, and doing jobs that support the Work. He said that this is “the most concentrated period of time you will have in your life to study the Bible.” The foundation we build here will be the frame for everything we undertake in the future.
This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts
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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Ed Charlotte 2020
Estimated reading time: 3 min.
Mr. Peter Nathan began the forum by asking, “What’s your worldview?” Inspired by Dr. Meredith’s article Satan’s Alternative Universe, Mr. Nathan created a presentation that broke down what an alternative universe is—a worldview.
Your worldview shapes your vision—like glasses. It is your perception of reality—literally, “the way you interpret the world.” Interpretation occurs every day in ways we take for granted. We interpret people’s body language. We examine our own conflicted feelings to discover why we feel so hurt or happy. If we apply meaning to anything, we’re using interpretation.
Dr. Meredith wrote about the countless alternative interpretations we encounter in the world. But these different worldviews don’t simply involve things we can see—they involve perspectives we can’t see.
A college student combats alternative worldviews regularly. We have to manage ourselves around the various filters (or lack thereof) of our peers, and we are, essentially, every professor’s captive audience in the classroom. We are solidifying our interpretations of reality while being fed the worldviews of those around us. How do students navigate tests, essays, projects, and discussions that require them to regurgitate their professors’ views?
Interpreting the Interpretations
Before coming to Living Education, I attended a State University of New York. I had two professors who strongly contended that gender is a societal constraint. One professor insisted that the existence of hermaphroditic, intersex genetics prove, beyond a doubt, that gender is a continuous spectrum. The other professor taught literature, and she vehemently said that people who believe there are only male and female genders constantly oversimplify things into extremes and refuse to see any complexity in life.
I could have disproved these teachers’ incorrect perceptions—if they would have listened to God’s interpretation of reality. But I had to sit in class respectfully and swallow my frustration—and I couldn’t ignore their worldview. I really gained a better understanding of how and why they see the world as they do.
Ignoring or avoiding the various worldviews we face is not helpful; we need to understand others’ interpretations to better serve them now and later. But with that said, I want to achieve that balance of seeing the perspectives of others and understanding where they come from while intensely analyzing their worldview for truths and flaws—interpreting their interpretation.
Have you ever thought about the phrase, “That’s open to interpretation”? Can you imagine Christ ever saying that? Or would He respond with the right interpretation? What are our thoughts when we hear somebody use that phrase?
Is Anything in Life “Open to Interpretation”?
Mr. Nathan pointed out that God provides “a perspective for interpreting every subject matter.” 2 Peter 1:20 says that “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation….” Yes, we are human, so we all see the world through different eyes, but isn’t there a correct interpretation for which we all strive? This applies not only to interpreting the Bible, but also to analyzing the worldviews of our friends, family members, and college professors.
If we don’t actively analyze the interpretations around us, and if we don’t take the time to learn God’s interpretation of things, we risk making the alternative universes of the world our own. It’s worth considering how we interpret the world—and the worldviews—around us.
Juliette McNair is a student at Living Education Charlotte. She works in the Editorial Department transcribing sermons and proofreading transcripts. She also assists Living Education by writing Second Thoughts essays and Forum/Assembly Summaries for the website. Juliette recently graduated from SUNY Cobleskill in Upstate New York with an A.A.S in Horticulture, a B.T in Plant Science, and a minor in English with a writing focus. She loves playing soccer on the beach, getting up early to watch the sunrise, and playing piano with the lights out.
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