Come visit with us in St. Martin's parlor, maybe you will find a home!

Prime Timers, a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, also known as an ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship), is for people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64. We meet in the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15am to 11:00, where we are following a course of study from the United Council of Churches titled The New Testament Community. You are invited to join us as we explore a new unit entitled "Human Commitment" with readings from the Old Testament.

The Houston Marathon had Great Weather!

Marathoners head past St. Martin's on a picture perfect day!

A stretcher at the ready, just in case.

A message from the church to the Houston Marathoners!

In case you didn't make it to church today, this was the scene along Woodway. A beautiful morning, almost too hot for a Marathon, but simply gorgeous for everyone else.

Prime Timers Celebrate Good News!

We celebrate our members Good News at Prime Timers with a $1 contribution to Henny Penny, our Good News chicken. Periodically Henny donates the money she collects to a worthy charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Former Prime Timer Max Kech stopped by today to tell the class about her visit to the Mission. She also told of her son bringing a co-worker looking for a church home, to St. Martin's. George is a growing a vegetable garden and found some starter mulch that had his yellow squash and carrots showing sprouts in four days!

Joshua Leads Israel

Donn Fullenweider taught class today. He began by reciting Psalm 142:

   ¹I cry aloud to the LORD;
    I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.

   ²I pour out my complaint before him;
     before him I tell my trouble.

   ³When my spirit grows faint within me,
     it is you who know my way.
     In the path where I walk
     men have hidden a snare for me.

   ⁴Look to my right and see;
     no one is concerned for me.
     I have no refuge;
     no one cares for my life.

   ⁵I cry to you, O LORD;
     I say, "You are my refuge,
     my portion in the land of the living."

   ⁶Listen to my cry,
     for I am in desperate need;
     rescue me from those who pursue me,
     for they are too strong for me.

   ⁷Set me free from my prison,
     that I may praise your name.
     Then the righteous will gather about me
     because of your goodness to me.

Crossing the Jordan, the event in chronicled in our reading from Joshua 3, is one of the major metaphors in Christianity. As Joshua leads Israel across the Jordan, with the Ark of the Covenant at the head of the charge, God causes the river to stop and grow dry so that the people could cross. Talk about a psychological advantage over the enemy! Negro spirituals repeatedly mention the river. "Deep River" includes the words, "My home is over Jordan." "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" says, "I looked over Jordan and what did I see / coming for to carry me home?" "Roll, Jordan, Roll" proclaims, "I want to go to heaven when I die, / to hear Jordan roll." The Jordan is also in Charles Tindley's famous hymn, "Stand By Me."

The NBC television series "Crossing Jordan" has a lead character named Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, although the show is about the forensic work of coroners examining murder victims!

Donn read this passage from Deuteronomy 4:21-24, where Moses, about to die, gives a last speech to the Israelites:  "²¹The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance. ²²I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. ²³Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. ²⁴For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."

Everyone knows how the Israelites crossed the river Jordan and reached Jericho, where the "walls came tumbling down." In his book "How to Read the Bible" biblical scholar and Harvard professor James Kugel mentions that there is no archeological evidence of destruction in Jericho at the time of the Israelite conquest. Of course this doesn't mean that something will not be found in the future, but destruction leaves very distinctive clues.

Donn concluded class with a short benediction:  Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

The Lesson for Sunday, January 25th,  is "Samson's Mother Prepares for His Birth"

Key Verse:  Judges 13:5

Focus of the Lesson: Promise and commitment may arise our of great disappointment. How are people challenged to make new commitments? God sent an angel to prepare Samson's mother for his coming birth.

The reading is Judges 13:1-13, 24. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  Judges 13

   ¹Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

   ²A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. ³The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. ⁴Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, ⁵because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

   ⁶Then the woman went to her husband and told him, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. ⁷But he said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.' "

   ⁸Then Manoah prayed to the LORD : "O LORD, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born."

   ⁹God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. ¹⁰The woman hurried to tell her husband, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other day!"

   ¹¹Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, "Are you the one who talked to my wife?"
   "I am," he said.

   ¹²So Manoah asked him, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?"

   ¹³The angel of the LORD answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her.

   ²⁴The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him,

NIV