September Message From Pastor

 Let us let us come near to God, then, with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been made clean from a guilty conscience, and bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise. Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing, instead, let us encourage one another, even more since you see that the day of the Lord is coming near. 

(Heb 10:23–24 TEV).

It’s September!  Each of us knows what comes next. We celebrate Labor Day as usual, but most importantly we will soon feel the change of the weather: shorter days, longer nights, and less warmth before daylight saving time officially ends on November 3, 2024. We will then get ready for some clothing appropriate for the cooler weather, and soon our summer attire will be only a memory. Those outfits will be shoved in closets until the next cycle of the seasons. Each of us has a different preference of season. While some of us favor summer, countless people cherish winter and thrive through it and a handful loves spring and fall. Yet the combination of four seasons makes up the year. A year includes all four seasons. No matter how much the seasons change, alternate or, occasionally do not yield to the expectations, (too much heat, cold, less flowers, less rain, less colors in the fall etc.), a year remains as the “Year!”

Ethiopians have a good proverb for this: “ላለፈው ክረምት ቤት አይሠራም” meaning, no one builds a hut for the winter of the last year. That is the message of the Book of Hebrews! (We will be journeying through the book of Hebrews in this new month of September and will hear more about this great and resourceful of book faith!). The Book of Hebrews calls on the messianic Jews and all of us to not turn from Christ to the old way of life, but fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, who is the culmination, better and greater than all the angels, patriarchs, matriarchs, priests, and prophets before him. The author encourages us to cling to Jesus with perseverance. The author establishes the theme of the supremacy of Jesus throughout the book. 

Jesus is superior to the Angels, Moses, Aron, and the OT priestly ministry. He is superior to the angels because he is the Divine King (Heb 1:4, 6, 8). While Moses was the servant of God, Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Heb 3:3–4).  Jesus is greater than Jeshua, all the Judges, and liberators of the OT because he has given greater rest to the people of God. To the high priests through the line of Aron and King David, Jesus is sinless and came through the order of Melchizedek, the king of Salem and Righteousness (Heb 7:26–28).   

Therefore, as the year caps all the seasons, Paul said Christ Jesus is the culmination of the law and the promises, “that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4-11). As it encouraged its first audience of messianic Christians to not return to temple sacrifices and practices but press on and persevere, the book of Hebrews calls us to hold on and rely on Christ Jesus and to not turn away from the faith as we persevere through our 21st century hurdles against the church and our faith (Heb 4:14, 10:23). And the way we do this is by spurring/stimulating one another, by actively demonstrating faith, love, service, obedience, harmony, justice, and thanksgiving with/to one another (Heb 10:24). And since Jesus is one of us, though we fail, we must not hesitate to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16). 

Come let’s go! 

Pastor Owar