Welcome to the St. Martin's Adult Bible Fellowship Prime Timers Web Site!

We meet each Sunday in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209 in between the 9 and 11am services from 10:10 to 10:50. You are invited to join us! The next two weeks all the St. Martin's Adult Bible Fellowships take a break due to Christmas and New Years. We all wish you and all of yours the very best for this wonderful time of year. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! This page will be updated with readings from our study guide, "Christ, the Image of God" so come on back each week to check us out!

The Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence, by Caravaggio, 1609. Oil on canvas, Formerly at San Lorenzo, Palermo (lost)!

Walking in the Light

Pete Seale led the Prime Timers in our passage from 1 John. There is some speculation that this was written by a disciple of John, but early Christian communities cherished this letter, along with 2 and 3 John, as personal and practical guides to Christian faith. We can assume that it is an authentic communication sent by a pastor or teacher to proclaim the gospel.

Pete discussed the first part of the reading by focusing on the phrase from 1 John 1:5 "...God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." Either we walk in the light or stumble in the darkness. But who among us is perfect? While we like to think of ourselves as good people, how many times have we hurt someone, maybe with cross words or a hurtful comment? Pete, and John, remind us that our religion provides for forgiveness. If we stumble we can be forgiven, (1 John 2:1) "...we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One."

Pete concluded with this short benediction from Jude 24-25, after which he dismissed the class:  Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leaders

St. Paul from the St. Martins New Church Stained Glass Windows.

The Conversion of St. Paul, by Caravaggio around 1600. Oil on cypress wood, Odescalchi Balbi Collection, Rome

The Lesson for Sunday, December 31st is titled "Keeping the Balance"

Key Verse:  Philippians 2:3

Focus of the Lesson:  Some people avoid humility as a sign of weakness, while others embrace it to the point that they become proud of their humility! Is it possible to balance a sense of humility with an appropriate level of self-esteem. Pointing out that Jesus Christ achieved the perfect balance between humility and exaltation, Paul urges Christians to take on the mind of Christ.

The reading is Philippians 2:1-11 This text is from the New International Version^®.

   ¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

   ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
   ⁶Who, being in very nature God,
       did not consider equality with God
         something to be grasped,
   ⁷but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
   ⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
          even death on a cross!
   ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

NIV®