We had a great worship gathering this past week! It was amazing for several reasons. First, the Holy Spirit bless us with His presence, which meant that our corporate worship, teaching, and time of prayer testified to the greatness of Jesus in a dynamic way. Secondly, the place was packed! We were blessed to have families from out of town (including Sterling’s father, Chris’ family, and Angela’s family!) worship with us. Is it so amazing to see the people of our community excited to bring friends and family to our service. Finally, we had baptisms directly following the service. It was a time to celebrate the grace of God in our community as Sterling, Udit, Angela, Henry, and Emmie followed Jesus in baptism. We had over 50 people come to worship with us on the shore of the James as we sang and glorified Jesus. It was cool to see people stop on the bridge to watch the picture of the gospel seen in baptism.
It was a wonderful day at Aletheia yesterday as we gathered as a community to worship Jesus. I noticed yesterday for the first time since we began meeting weekly to worship Christ together that our baby church is beginning to mature. I am beginning to see the same faces week after week as people begin to really grasp the concept of covenant life. I am also beginning to hear, as I speak to people within the congregation, a deep desire to see their friends and neighbors connect to Christ and His community. It is such a joy and an honor to be one of many that lead Aletheia in becoming more like Jesus. 
As I studied for this message, I was gripped with the reality that every portion of Scripture is either pointing forward, pointing back, or focused on Jesus and the redemptive work of God. The Old Covenant worship practices are laced with a redemptive foreshadowing for the work of Christ and are alway beckoning us back to a cross centered and gospel saturated view of life. Keilan and the band did a great job of focusing our heart toward Christ through music and responding to Christ’s words in repentance, adoration, and praise. John challenged us in light of the New Covenant work of Jesus to enter in to the presence of God daily. Ashton shared about our global mission trip to Brasil and her heart to return and see the gospel take root in that country. She called us to take a missionary posture with our friends, family, and coworkers for the sake of Christ. It was a great day.