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|
September 30, 2007 "Isaac and
Rebekah" |
The St. Martin's Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship Welcomes You!
Join us for coffee, a snack, and people seeking a better relationship with God and the Holy Spirit. We meet in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209, Sunday from 10:10 to 10:50am. Our class is studying the Book of Genesis for the next couple months, you are invited to explore with us from the very beginning!
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 framework.
Prime Timers Good News
At the beginning of our class we devote time to hear our members Good News. Presenting your news requires a $1 donation to our chicken, Henny Penny.
The chicken is on something of a diet lately and our teacher for the month, Ben Welmaker, is thinking we might have to lock the doors until someone comes up with some good news! Just kidding. To get the ball rolling Ben gave thanks for his youngest son, who is thirty-nine and single, dating a thirty-eight year old young lady!
Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael
Ben Welmaker began class with three stories, all about Abraham, the man at the center of our lesson for today. First is Abraham's trip to Egypt, second is about his nephew Lot being held captive and third is Abraham and Abimelech.
In the first story (Genesis 12:10-20) we have Abraham and Sarai heading to Egypt because of famine. Abraham is afraid of being killed because Sarai is a beautiful woman and the Egyptians might take her and have him killed! So he tells her to say that she is his sister. This ploy works and Sarai is given to the Pharaoh, while Abraham gets sheep, cattle, donkeys, servants and camels. God inflicts diseases on Pharaoh since he is sleeping with Abraham's wife and Pharaoh, upon discovering the truth, sends Abraham and Sarai on their way, with all that they acquired!
Abraham's nephew Lot was living in the doomed city of Sodom in Genesis 14:12-16 when he was captured in a skirmish among four kings against five kings. Abraham summons three hundred eighteen men born in his household (!) to go in pursuit of Lot and in fact rescue him, his possessions and the women and other people around him.
Finally, in Genesis 20:1-14 we have another story with Abraham telling his wife to say she is his sister. Abraham ventured to Gerar, where Abimelech, the king, once again took Sarah. In this story, however, God comes to Abimelech and tells him the truth about Abraham and Sarah. When Abimelech asks Abraham why he told them Sarah was his sister, Abraham replies that he saw no fear of God in the kingdom and he feared he would be killed because of his wife. Abimelech ends up bringing sheep and cattle and slave to Abraham, and returns Sarah!
These stories show Abraham as a man with faults, but also a man of faith and power. It leads up to today's reading, the story of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away. Sarah wants Hagar the slave girl and the son she bore to Abraham, Ishmael, sent away. Abraham gives Hagar and Ishmael some food and water and sends them on their way. When the water runs out, Hagar fears for the worst and puts the boy under some bushes, but God calls to Hagar and tells her not to be afraid, that Ishmael would be made into a great nation as well.
These stories bring up the question of how do we trust God when all the evidence indicates that there is no hope for us or those we love? Does God hear the cry of the marginalized and the outcasts? What good is a habitat for humanity if there is no spiritual habitat?
These are questions of faith and get back to our missions as Christians, in service to our fellow people at home, at work, at church and finally out in the world. Ben held up the service booklet from services this morning and read the new mission statement right on the front cover: To bring by the power of the Holy Spirit as many people as possible to know, love, and serve God as revealed through Jesus Christ; and to be transformed into spiritually renewed disciples of Jesus who know, love and serve one another and the world.
Ben ended class with a short prayer.
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@houston.rr.com
Abraham banishing Hagar and Ishmael, by Pieter Jozef Verhaghen, 1781, Oil on canvas, at the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
The Angel Succouring Hagar, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1732, Oil on canvas, at the Scuola di San Rocco, Venice
Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness, by Karel Dujardin, 1662, Oil on canvas, at the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota
The Lesson for Sunday, September 30th is titled "Isaac and Rebekah"
Key Verse: Genesis 24:48
Focus of the Lesson: Situations often seem challenging, but through God's creative power, the impossible becomes possible. What are some ordinary situations in which God acts? When Abraham's servant sought a wife for Isaac among family kin in Haran, he immediately recognized Rebekah as the right woman, and then blessed God for quickly leading him to her.
The reading is Genesis 24:34-40, 42-45, 48. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)
34So he said, "I am Abraham's servant. 35The LORD has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys. 36My master's wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns. 37And my master made me swear an oath, and said, 'You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, 38but go to my father's family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.'
39"Then I asked my master, 'What if the woman will not come back with me?'
40"He replied, 'The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success, so that you can get a wife for my son from my own clan and from my father's family. 41Then, when you go to my clan, you will be released from my oath even if they refuse to give her to you—you will be released from my oath.'
42"When I came to the spring today, I said, 'O LORD, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. 43See, I am standing beside this spring; if a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, "Please let me drink a little water from your jar," 44and if she says to me, "Drink, and I'll draw water for your camels too," let her be the one the LORD has chosen for my master's son.'
45"Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.'
46"She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too.' So I drank, and she watered the camels also.
47"I asked her, 'Whose daughter are you?'
"She said, 'The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.'
"Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, 48and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master's brother for his son.
NIV
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