Come visit with us in St. Martin's parlor, maybe you will find a home!

Prime Timers, a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, also known as an ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship), is for people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64. We meet in the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15am to 11:00, where we are following a course of study from the United Council of Churches titled The New Testament Community. You are invited to join us as we explore a new unit entitled "Human Commitment" with readings from the Old Testament.

The Houston Marathon had Great Weather!

Marathoners head past St. Martin's on a picture perfect day!

A stretcher at the ready, just in case.

A message from the church to the Houston Marathoners!

In case you didn't make it to church today, this was the scene along Woodway. A beautiful morning, almost too hot for a Marathon, but simply gorgeous for everyone else.

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 worthy charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Former Prime Timer Max Kech stopped by today to tell the class about her visit to the Mission. She also told of her son bringing a co-worker looking for a church home, to St. Martin's. George is a growing a vegetable garden and found some starter mulch that had his yellow squash and carrots showing sprouts in four days!

Joshua Leads Israel

Donn Fullenweider taught class today. He began by reciting Psalm 142:

   ¹I cry aloud to the LORD;
    I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.

   ²I pour out my complaint before him;
     before him I tell my trouble.

   ³When my spirit grows faint within me,
     it is you who know my way.
     In the path where I walk
     men have hidden a snare for me.

   ⁴Look to my right and see;
     no one is concerned for me.
     I have no refuge;
     no one cares for my life.

   ⁵I cry to you, O LORD;
     I say, "You are my refuge,
     my portion in the land of the living."

   ⁶Listen to my cry,
     for I am in desperate need;
     rescue me from those who pursue me,
     for they are too strong for me.

   ⁷Set me free from my prison,
     that I may praise your name.
     Then the righteous will gather about me
     because of your goodness to me.

Crossing the Jordan, the event in chronicled in our reading from Joshua 3, is one of the major metaphors in Christianity. As Joshua leads Israel across the Jordan, with the Ark of the Covenant at the head of the charge, God causes the river to stop and grow dry so that the people could cross. Talk about a psychological advantage over the enemy! Negro spirituals repeatedly mention the river. "Deep River" includes the words, "My home is over Jordan." "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" says, "I looked over Jordan and what did I see / coming for to carry me home?" "Roll, Jordan, Roll" proclaims, "I want to go to heaven when I die, / to hear Jordan roll." The Jordan is also in Charles Tindley's famous hymn, "Stand By Me."

The NBC television series "Crossing Jordan" has a lead character named Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, although the show is about the forensic work of coroners examining murder victims!

Donn read this passage from Deuteronomy 4:21-24, where Moses, about to die, gives a last speech to the Israelites:  "²¹The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance. ²²I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. ²³Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. ²⁴For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."

Everyone knows how the Israelites crossed the river Jordan and reached Jericho, where the "walls came tumbling down." In his book "How to Read the Bible" biblical scholar and Harvard professor James Kugel mentions that there is no archeological evidence of destruction in Jericho at the time of the Israelite conquest. Of course this doesn't mean that something will not be found in the future, but destruction leaves very distinctive clues.

Donn concluded class with a short benediction:  Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

The Lesson for Sunday, February 1st,  is "A Shunammite Woman Helps"

Key Verse:  2 Kings 4:9-10

Focus of the Lesson: Some people make commitments that do not seem to benefit them. What kind of person will commit freely without requiring anything in return? The Shunammite woman was glad to serve Elisha without reward, but she received one anyway.

The reading is 2 Kings 4:8-17. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

   ⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. ⁹She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. ¹⁰Let's make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us."

   ¹¹One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. ¹²He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him. ¹³Elisha said to him, "Tell her, 'You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?' "
She replied, "I have a home among my own people."

   ¹⁴"What can be done for her?" Elisha asked.
   Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old."

   ¹⁵Then Elisha said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶"About this time next year," Elisha said, "you will hold a son in your arms."
"No, my lord," she objected. "Don't mislead your servant, O man of God!"

   ¹⁷But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

NIV