Holy Week is Here.

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Bible Fellowship (A.B.F.) geared towards people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64. We meet in the Payne Education Center in rooms 207-209 from 10:15am to 10:50. This year Easter falls about as early as it can, March 23. The last time Easter was this early was in 1913, the next time it falls on the 23rd will be in the year 2160! St. Martin's consolidated all the A.B.F.'s into one big class meeting in the Bagby Parish Hall during Lent, with members of the clergy conducting class. The next official meeting of Prime Timers is March 30. In the meantime this page will update the readings from the National Council of Churches.

Summoned to One Big Class!

All the St. Martin's A.B.F.'s are participating in a Lenten series of lectures by our clergy and others. For the first Lenten Forum it was our privilege to hear from The Rev. J. Pittman McGehee, speaking about Loneliness and Love. Last week we heard from our own Rev. John Bentley, who spoke on the subject of Suffering and Joy. The third week the subject was Death and Life from the Rev. Jerald Hyche. Note the title puts death before life. This week we heard from our Rev. F. Stuart Shelby, who spoke powerfully on Hope and the Resurrection. This week the Lenten series concluded with a talk from the Rev. Dr. Christopher Hancock on From King to Cross. Rev. Dr. Hancock contrasted the story of Jesus' last days as recounted in Matthew 20-end, to the self-indulgent Lord Byron, as recounted in Byron, The Last Journey, by Harold Nicholson.

This Lenten series was excellent, I hope you were able to attend some or all of the sessions.  

The Lesson for Sunday, March 23rd is "Fulfillment of God's Promise"

Key Verse:  2 Chronicles 6:10

Focus of the Lesson: Promises are to be kept, but many never come to fulfillment. Whose promises can we trust? God is faithful in keeping promises, as Solomon recognized and declared to the Israelites, and as Jesus' resurrection demonstrated.

The reading is 2 Chronicles 6:10, 12-17; Luke 24:44-49. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  2 Chronicles 6; Luke 24

   ¹⁰"The LORD has kept the promise he made. I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

   ¹²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. ¹³Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the center of the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. ¹⁴He said:
"O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. ¹⁵You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have fulfilled it—as it is today.

   ¹⁶"Now LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me according to my law, as you have done.' ¹⁷And now, O LORD, God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David come true.

Luke 24

   ⁴⁴He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."

   ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. ⁴⁶He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

NIV