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May 20, 2007 "Living in Our New
Home" |
Welcome to the St. Martin's Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship!
Our class meets in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209, Sunday from 10:10 to 10:50am. Prime Timers is geared towards people aged fifty to sixty-four, but we always welcome new members and whatever your age you are invited!
Ben Welmaker is our teacher during May. We are exploring the Book of Revelation.
Food for the Chicken
The Prime Timers set aside time at the start of class to hear members Good News. It only costs a dollar! Currently when the "nest" gets big enough we are donating money to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Today it was Caroline Maryan's happy job to report that their son Andrew was accepted into George Mason University, where he will be on the Golf team playing NCAA Division One Golf!
The Eternal Home
We are nearing the end of our journey through the Book of Revelation, just two more Sundays and we begin our new Summer quarter, titled "Committed to Doing Right." Ben Welmaker, our teacher for May, is helping us better understand the sometimes overwhelming imagery we find in Revelation. Ben sees Revelation as kind of a final summation of the Bible, and is providing readings from the Old Testament to back up this idea. Ben had us read these passages and I present them here for you. Ben used the New International Version, NIV.
Isaiah 65:17
"Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind."
Isaiah 66:22
"As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before
me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descendants endure."
Galatians 4:26
But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
Hebrews 11:10 and 16
10For he was looking forward to the city with
foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 12:22
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city
of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of
angels in joyful assembly,
Hebrews 13:14
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the
city that is to come.
Now read again the first two verses in Revelation 21:
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
The prophets envisioned God creating things anew into what God desired from the beginning. We have hope for an otherworldly life with God in a new community.
The absence of the Sea suggests an absence of danger, chaos and hostile powers in God's creation. The new community will be the new Jerusalem.
Leviticus 26:11-12
I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you.
12I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be
my people.
Ezekiel 37:27
My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they
will be my people.
Zechariah 8:8
"I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my
people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God."
Isaiah 25:8
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove the disgrace of his people
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.
Now read Revelation 21:3-4:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
This is the promise that God has made to his people throughout history. It speaks to a place where there is no sorrow, the sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more.
Isaiah 55:1
"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
(continued on the next column)
Prime Timers Contact names and numbers
Mentor
Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org
Leaders
Anne Berry
832/251-8868 H
atberry@proctor-law.com
Max Kech
713/802-0690 H
maxkech2003@yahoo.com
Marty Smith
713/464-6737 H
martys@houston.rr.com
Teachers
Richard Cruse
Chris Hershberger
Pete Seale
Ben Welmaker
bhwjr@flash.net
Outreach (inviting and welcoming new members)
Anne Berry
832/251-8868 H
atberry@proctor-law.com
Elizabeth Sleeper
jsleeperjr@houston.rr.com
Caring (prayers, follow-up w/class members who have been ill or have other needs)
Max Kech
713/802-0690 H
maxkech2003@yahoo.com
This is a Ground Sloth, a heavy, slow moving mammal that roamed the mountains of Utah 11,000-14,000 years ago. Got your attention? Today's "Sin of the Week" is Sloth!
And now Revelation 21:5-6:
5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am
making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these
words are trustworthy and true."
What God says is true and we should build our lives around what God
says and not what they hear in the world.
6He said to me: "It is done. I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is
thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the
water of life.
2 Corinthians 6:18
Romans 8:15-17
Galatians 3:26-29
And from our reading, Revelation 21:7:
He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God
and he will be my son.
This is a statement of hope for those who are faithful and follow
the ways set out by God and not the ways of the world in which we
live.
Consider this from C.S. Lewis:
"If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the
most for the present world were just those who thought the most of
the next. The apostles themselves, who set afoot the
conversion of the Roman Empire, the English Evangelicals who
abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely
because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since
Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they
have become so ineffective in this."
This brings us to the Seven Christian Habits, today we considered
number two and three (see below). Ben asked us what it means to have
"daily personal prayer." Does grace at the dinner table count? If
you thought of "something that might count" are you missing the
point?
And now our last passage, Revelation 21:8:
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the
sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and
all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
This is the second death."
This is a great transition into our "Sin of the Week!" Today its
sloth. The counterbalancing virtue could be zeal or integrity.
While the word sloth conjures up an immediate sense of disgust (or
the children's bedrooms), try this: uneasiness of the mind
being a progenitor of restlessness and instability. Or, failure to
love God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's soul.
Its not really laziness. Its a failure to meet our responsibilities.
A man who works eighty hours a week while his family languishes at
home. He is too selfish to love and nurture others. What is so
important to this man that he abandons his sons and daughters?
Ben then concluded with a short prayer, and believe it or not,
finished this lesson in time to let us all out early to be in the
St. Martin's Annual Photograph!
"I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty."
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to
fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry,
"Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our
spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are
children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,
if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share
in his glory.
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves
with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor
free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If
you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise.
Seven Christian Habits:
2. Daily personal prayer and weekly worship of God in His Church by which I receive the renewal of my emotional-spiritual energy which I need to live my life.
3. Regular study of the Bible to understand how God has related to His people and what His will has been.
4. Adjusting my will to the will of God for me as revealed in Scripture, prayer, worship and my relationship with Him.
5. Service (which is ministry, which is love, which is doing good to God, others and self):
a. At home to family and friends.
b. At work to co-workers.
c. At Church.
d. In the world, especially by leading others to God in Christ.
6. Fellowship (renewing relationship) with Christian people.
7. Stewardship of my resources:
a. Of my relationships.
b. Of my time and talent.
c. Of my money, giving to God and His work my tithe (as I
calculate it).
The Lesson for Sunday, May 20th is titled "Living in Our New Home"
Key Verse: Revelation 22:5
Focus of the Lesson: People long for true peace, wholeness, and safety in their lives. Will this ever be possible? Revelation 21 says that those who dwell in God's new Jerusalem will experience these things, because God and the Lamb will be permanently in their midst.
The reading is Revelation 21:9-10; 21:22-22:5. This text is from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
Background Scripture: Revelation 21:9-22:5
9Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ 10And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.
22I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Revelation 22:1-5
1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.
NRSV
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