Last Sunday was the day before Memorial Day in the U.S. as well as Pentecost Sunday. For Christians, every Sunday is memorial day, as we join together to celebrate the Lord's Supper.
It was an encouraging time of meeting for the Augusta Church! We had several sisters from the Atlanta and Columbia churches come join our agape feast. In celebration of Pentecost and in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 14:27, a brother said a prayer of thanksgiving for the Holy Spirit in Russian and his wife translated. Another brother prayed for our enemies and that they would see that violent actions perpetuated against innocents in God's isn't pleasing to God and would turn from doing evil in the name of that which is good.
We continued with The Lord's Supper and discussed Psalm 95 and the author of Hebrews speaking directly to portions of this psalm in chapters 3 and 4 by arguing that returning to the old covenant won't bring the rest that God promised his people.
In using this psalm to point to the author's time (and beyond), the author says:
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God's people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.
For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart. No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens — Jesus the Son of God — let us hold fast to the confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time. (Hebrews 4:8-16, HCSB)
Jesus, the one true high priest, is the reason we have hope to someday enter the rest God promised to the Israelites so long ago. As long as we hold on to what we believed when we first chose to follow Christ and be baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, we can enter the true promised land, the new Jerusalem!