Welcome to the Prime Timers A.B.F!

Class is held each Sunday from 10:10 am until 10:50 on the second floor of the Payne Education Center, Room 210-212. This quarter's theme is Called to be God's People and we invite you to come join us.

Caroline and Skip Maryan are hosting the Prime Timers Christmas Party. You don't have to wear a hat to come!

The Prime Timers Christmas Party is This Friday!

I hope you've got your invitations already because the Prime Timers Christmas Party is this Friday at 7 pm. Skip and Caroline Maryan are hosting. To get to the Maryans from the church you go west on Woodway to Chimney Rock, turn right and then make a left two blocks later onto Bayou Glen Road. Bayou Glen ends at Green Tree Road. The Maryans are to the right at 6007. There is still time to sign up to provide refreshments, just call Caroline. 

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Co-Leaders

Fred Wright (with the tie) talks with Nancy Akers (l) and Anne Berry.

Dorothy Green (l) is a volunteer in the new Church Docent Guild tour program.  She keeps things together with those index cards she is showing to Grace Moore.

Abraham

It was back to Genesis this week as our journey shifted to "The Call to Follow God". Skip described the first 11 verses as "poetical", more to be treated like poetry than absolute fact. At the twelfth verse the story becomes historical, i.e. you can visit where the events took place. For context, he pointed out that the Bible was written by and for people who simply assumed that God existed. The idea of "proving" that God exists is more of a modern concept. It was over a thousand years later, for instance, that the philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas argued his five-fold proof for the existence of God.

The most interesting character in this reading was Abram, later to be renamed Abraham by God. Abraham appears not only in the Old Testament and the Torah, he is also a central figure in the Koran! It is one of the great ironies that three religions purporting to be the one true religion all have this man, and his story, in common.

The Old Testament has many stories, many with the theme of 1) The Call of God, 2) The Response, 3) Faith and 4) Action.

The Lesson for this Sunday, December 12 is titled "Leadership Qualities"

Key Verse:  1 Samuel 16:7

Focus of the Lesson:  People choose leaders for a variety of reasons. What makes a leader faithful? The story of David shows that God calls leaders based on inward qualities, not external ones.

The reading is 1 Samuel 16:1-4b, 6-13. This text is from the New International Version.

1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me."
The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD .' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."
4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"

6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD ."
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"
"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."
Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.