Λειτουργία — Worship

As the door of the year AD 2008 closes, and that of the year AD 2009 opens, the Lord finds me with Him in the apostle’s letter to the Hebrews, cover to cover. In the twelfth chapter we find what describes heavenly worship…

What you have come to is nothing known to the senses.
Hebrews 12:18a

What you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a “first-born son” and a citizen of Heaven. You have come to God Himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator who brings a new Covenant and a Blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s. Make sure that you never refuse to listen when He speaks.
Hebrews 12:22-25a

We have been given possession of an unshakable Kingdom. Let us therefore hold on to the grace that we have been given and use it to worship God in a way that He finds acceptable, in reverence and fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29

…and in the thirteenth chapter, how we are to walk in the presence of Jesus, our great High Priest…

Continue to love each other like brothers, and always remember to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Keep in mind those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; and those who are being badly treated, since you too are in the one Body. Marriage is to be honored by all, and marriages are to be kept undefiled, because fornicators and adulterers will come under God’s judgment. Put greed out of your lives and be content with whatever you have; God Himself has said, “I will not fail you or desert you,” and so we can say with confidence: With the Lord to help me, I fear nothing: what can man do to me?
Hebrews 13:1-6

Remember your leaders who preached the Word of God to you, and as you reflect on the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be forever.
Hebrews 13:7-8

…and finally, in the apostle’s own words, my prayer for the new year.

I pray that the God of peace, who brought our Lord Jesus back from the dead to become the great Shepherd of the sheep by the Blood that sealed an eternal Covenant, may make [us] ready to do His will in any kind of good action; and turn us all into whatever is acceptable to Himself through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21