I love the book of Hebrews. It is because I had an excellent professor who taught the class, Willard Black, at San Jose Bible College. That very good school has since moved to the Sacramento area in California and is called William Jessup University. It was the spring quarter in 1971. I would leave at the end of that quarter to serve for a summer on an Indian Reservation in Washington State. Dr. Hammond was the missions professor and had served in Japan for many years. He was also inspiring so here we are, four days to launch!
Hebrews 9:9-10
“According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.”
Think of all of the places missionaries are going today that are under a yoke of legalism serving a vengeful god. They live in fear. They are bound to beads and chants and required to pray at certain times. If they are women, they have no idea of equality in the sight of God. They are valuable and loved. They are trapped.
Hebrews 9:25-26
“Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Done – once and for all. The Hebrews were bound to traditions that were external where the gospel of Jesus Christ is written on our hearts. It is portable and always with us. Not in a building nor in Mecca or another “holy place”. Everyday is a pilgrimage. So here I go. I can hardly sleep. Please pray for good connections and ease of travel. Thank you all again!