The St. Martin's Adult Bible Fellowships welcome you.

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. Whatever your age, you are invited to explore the Bible with us in a course authored by the United Council of Churches.

The Prime Timers are exploring the book of Daniel.

Our course material this month is from a new unit titled "The Covenant in Exile." Our readings in April are from the Old Testament Book of Daniel, in May we will be reading from Haggai and Nehemiah on rebuilding the Temple and renewing the covenant. If you can't wait, the reading for next week is at the bottom of this page!

Daniel's Prayer for the People 

The Prime timers class always begins by asking about our members Good News. Our teacher for today, Donn Fullenweider, gave a dollar for good things happening in his life, and Anne is starting a new job tomorrow with a new law firm that happens to be in the same building she worked in before!

This is our last week with the prophet Daniel, and its appropriate that it ends with a prayer. Daniel's prayer is a basis of our Holy Eucharist, when we confess our sins to the Lord. The authors of the Book of Daniel take liberties with facts to fulfill Jeremiah's prophesy of Jerusalem's desolation lasting seventy years, but while these details are interesting, Daniel's prayer lives on. Donn asked us to consider these reasons for praying:  Grief, Longing for God, Despair, Repentance, Deep Love for others, Praise, Thanksgiving and finally Insight, Wisdom and Understanding.

When we pray we are not alone. Donn asked us to set aside time this week to consider how we pray. Do you just ask for your own needs, or do you consider others? There is a tradition of continual prayer, exemplified by "The Way of a Pilgrim:  and the Pilgrim Continues His Way" by R. M. French. The Jesus Prayer, as its called comes from a Hesychastic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and strives to provide a stillness, or clarity, from continually repeating a prayer.

Class members contributed their own experience with prayer, and its outcome. A very good explanation of the answer to your prayer could be Yes, No or Wait! Prayer is part of many Easter meditation practices, and many Yoga exercise positions can be understood as expressions of prayer or praying. ACTS is an acronym for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication.

And of course Donn concluded class with a prayer!

The Lesson for Sunday, May 4th is "The Temple Rebuilt"

Key Verse:  Haggai 1:9

Focus of the Lesson: Recovery from any kind of devastation requires rebuilding. Who determines what the priorities will be in a rebuilding process? The prophet Haggai reminded the Israelites of their first priority, to keep their covenant with God and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

The reading is Haggai 1:1-4, 7-10, 12-15. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  Haggai 1; Ezra 5

   ¹In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

   ²This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.' "

   ³Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: ⁴"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

   ⁷This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. ⁸Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. ⁹"You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. ¹⁰Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.

   ¹²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

   ¹³Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. ¹⁴So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, ¹⁵on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.

NIV