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November 4, 2007 "Joseph's Dream" |
Welcome to the St. Martin's Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship!
Come on down to the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209, after the 9am Sunday Service, from 10:10 to 10:50am. We are studying the Book of Genesis for the next couple months, and you are invited to explore with us! Wait until next week, though, as there are no ABF classes this week. St. Martin's is wrapping up Stewardship Season with a Victory Jazz Brunch this week from 10:00am to 12:30pm in the Bagby Parish Hall.
The St. Martin's Adult Bible Fellowships (ABF's) are following a course of study based on the work of the Committee on the Uniform Series, also known as the International Lessons. Bible students around the world are using this same framework, and so can you!
Prime Timers Good News
At the beginning of our class we spend time hearing our members Good News. Presenting this news requires a $1 donation to our Good News chicken, Henny Penny. Currently we are donating this money to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia, a Christian partnership between North Americans and Bolivians for the benefit of children in need.
Today Richard blessed his grandchildren, who are moving to Colorado. Sounds like Richard has a nice new vacation home! Lynne came to class with Egyptian theme jewelry to remind us that her daughter is leaving for a visit to Cairo, Egypt!
Esau and Jacob Reconciled
Our teacher for October is Richard Cruse. He is taking us on a journey through the stories of the Patriarchs in the Book of Genesis. The story so far of the twin brothers Esau and Jacob gets resolved in our reading, but Richard took the time to bring everyone up to date. Esau the hairy outdoorsman, who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew and Jacob the crafty farmer who fell in love with Rachel, only to end up married to the older Leah! Twenty years passed since Jacob, with the help of his mother Rebekah, stole a blessing from father Isaac and left for Rebekah's brother Labans'. Jacob stayed busy, creating the twelve tribes of Israel with Rachel, Leah and an assortment of maids. Just before beginning his journey home Jacob sends a peace offering ahead to Esau, and later that night wrestles with a man, and when neither prevails Jacob is renamed Israel (Genesis 32:28) "...for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed."
Now he is headed home, he's wealthy but he's worried about what his brother Esau will do when they meet. Jacob divides his family into several groups, with the maidservants in front, Leah next and finally the beloved Rachel. Esau comes with four hundred men, but rather than a murderous rage he embraces Jacob, they kiss and weep. Esau is successful just as Jacob, who insists Esau keep the peace offering.
This story shows us how families can get bent all out of shape and yet come together in the end. How often have you built up a potential confrontation in your mind, only to have it turn into something else entirely?
Peace be with you!
Prime Timers Contact names and numbers
Mentor
Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org
Leaders
Anne Berry
832/251-8868 H
anne.berry@comcast.net
Max Kech
713/802-0690 H
maxkech2003@yahoo.com
Marty Smith
713/464-6737 H
martys47@comcast.net
Teachers
Richard Cruse
Pete Seale
Ben Welmaker
bhwjr@flash.net
Outreach (inviting and welcoming new members)
Anne Berry
832/251-8868 H
anne.berry@comcast.net
Elizabeth Sleeper
jsleeperjr@comcast.net
Richard Cruse is our teacher for the month of October.
Joseph Receives His Father and Brothers in Egypt, by Salomon de Bray, 1655, Oil on canvas, in a Private collection.
The Lesson for Sunday, November 4th is titled "Joseph's Dream"
Key Verse: Genesis 37:5
Focus of the Lesson: Ordinary people are sometimes called to do extraordinary things. How do others feel when such people begin to reveal their sense of calling? Joseph announced his dreams of greatness to his family and, understandably, he was met with anger and jealousy--a jealousy that led to Joseph's being taken to Egypt.
The reading is Genesis 37:5-11, 19-21, 23-24a, 28. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)
Background Scripture: Genesis 37
5Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: 7We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."
8His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
10When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" 11His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
19"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. 20"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."
21When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said.
23So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing- 24and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
28So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
NIV
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