Hello! Today the Wolfe’s hosted church, Justin read the story, and Simeon preached the sermon.

First we read about Hannah giving her son, Samuel to God so Samuel could do work for Him.

Simeon continued preaching from The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight and talked about some of the characters in the Gospel story.

First We talked about John the Baptist first – what do people know about John?

• He’s Jesus’ cousin
• A prophet (the first in a long time)
• An odd character — he ate crickets and wore camel hair
• He baptizes people
• He also baptized Jesus

Tracy then read Matthew 3 out loud and we talked about why God has prophets. The Prophets declare God’s will to the people and frequently warn them and call them to repent. What is John the Baptists message?

• That things are about to change
• Repent — he is the prophet of repentance
• Which means people should change their ways

Then we talked about Jesus’ disciple, Peter. What do people know about Peter? Before Jesus’ resurrection Peter is great but flawed:

• When Jesus was betrayed, Peter cut off the ear of a soldier
• But then he betrayed Jesus at the trial
• Peter walked on water, but took his eyes off Jesus and fell
• His name was Simon, but Jesus named him Peter when he confessed Jesus – but right after that he rebuked Jesus
• His character seems kind of impulsive

We read some passages about Peter

• Mary read Luke 5:1-11
• April read Matthew 16:13-20
• Jude read John 21:3-19
• Eliza and I split reading Acts 2:1-24

We had a discussion after all those readings – Peter’s conversion process is a long one of growth by being with Jesus. McKnight says that we can also be shaped by the stories of the Gospel.