Exodus 3:4 "...And Moses said, 'Here I am.'"

Prime Timers, a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, also known as an A.B.F. (Adult Bible Fellowship), is for people in the Prime of Life, age 50 and beyond. Class meets in the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15 am to 11:00. We are following a course of study from the United Council of Churches titled Call Sealed with a Promise. You are invited to join our group as we begin a new unit titled "Called Out of Egypt" and spend some time with us studying the Old Testament.

Marketplace at St. Martin's Episcopal Church!

Here are Prime Timers Donn, Maria, cast member Carol, Lynn, cast member Larry and Marty at St. Martin's big August event, Marketplace, with the Activity center transformed into an authentic Judean market!

Prime Timers Celebrate Good News!

We celebrate our members Good News at Prime Timers with a $1 contribution to Henny Penny, our Good News chicken. Periodically Henny donates the money she collects to a charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia.  Anne brought news of her "grandbaby" beginning classes at San Marcos this fall. Lynn is very happy that her son Andrew is engaged to his A&M fiancé.

Epicure Cafe

The Prime Timers monthly dinner get together will be Tuesday, September 22, at 6:30pm at the Epicure Cafe, 2005C West Gray, Houston 77019, (713) 520-6174. Click on the name above for their web site and to check out the menu. This looks like another nice dinner, why don't your join us?

God Calls for Obedience

Donn Fullenweider led the Prime Timers on our second to last class with the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. This book is the last book of the Torah, and ancient scholars attributed it to Moses. Modern scholars believe it was put together in the seventh century BC by several authors. The "original" Deuteronomy is thought to be the core of laws, while another author put together the history of Israel from many stories collected from various sources. King Josiah discovered the Torah through his High Priest Hilkiah, who found it in the treasure room of the temple. Josiah had the laws read to his people and was praised for his piety by the prophetess Huldah, who made the prophecy that all involved would die without having to see God's judgment on Judah for the sins they had committed in prior generations!

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is an important part of morning and evening prayer in the Jewish faith. The Shema originally was Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." It was expanded to include verses five to nine, Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and then also Numbers 15:37-41. The fifth verse of our reading uses four important and difficult words:  love, heart, soul and might/strength. The love here means something like loyalty. In the hands of Jesus Deuteronomy 6:5 becomes the first and greatest Commandment.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Mark 12:29-31 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'There is no commandment greater than these."

Luke 10:27 He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

The word "heart" in the Hebrew sense, refers to the place of thought and will, not the emotional place we think of today. Soul in the Deuteronomistic sense has two parts, first it is the thing that makes us (and animals) distinct from plants. Second your soul, or nephesh in Hebrew, indicates individuality, the thing that makes you distinct from everyone else.

Might translates in Hebrew to "muchness, force, abundance, exceedingly." So what is being commanded is complete loyalty to God, a loyalty of thought and action that might require hard work.

As further meditation on this, Donn read this from Proverbs 2:1-11:

¹My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,

²turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,

³and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,

⁴and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,

⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷He holds victory in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

⁸for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.

⁹Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.

Donn asked the class are laws a burden or a gift. Marty suggested that this might be connected to wisdom. As a young person laws are a burden, restricting your activities and complicating your life. When you leave home for the first time, going to college for instance, it is a liberating but dangerous time as you begin to test limits. As you get older laws become gifts as you realize the wisdom behind them. This applies to secular laws as well as the laws of God.

Anne mentioned C. S. Lewis book "The Four Loves" describing "Need-Love" the most powerful, how you approach God most closely when your are least like God! Then Liking, Affection and Friendship.

Elizabeth described a wonderful moment at a family reunion when two of her grandchildren, from different families and cities and ages, walked out hand in hand. Elizabeth is the organizer in her family, these moments make it all worthwhile!

Donn concluded class with this short benediction:  "We hear your call, O God, and ask that you send us forth empowered by your Spirit to live and serve as your covenant people."

The Lesson for Sunday, August 30th,  is "God Calls for Decision"

Key Verse:  Deuteronomy 30:6

Focus of the Lesson: People want to experience a satisfying life, to attain joy and prosperity. How do we get what we want out of life? Moses claimed that God wants us to love God so much that we want nothing more than to obey God.

The reading is Deuteronomy 30:1-10. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

   ¹When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, ²and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, ³then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. ⁴Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. ⁵He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. ⁶The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. ⁷The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. ⁸You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. ⁹Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, ¹⁰if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

   ¹¹Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹²It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" ¹³Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" ¹⁴No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

   ¹⁵See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. ¹⁶For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

   ¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

   ¹⁹This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

NIV