Altar

We all know that  Christian life is a life of sacrifice. we know many great men of God how they lived a sacrificial life to build the kingdom of God. There are pastors,preachers,missionaries who went to different parts of the world and preached gospel. Everyone has their own calling. Although we may not be going like them as missionaries to other parts of the world,  But as a christian, born again believer Do we live a sacrificial life.

Genesis 12: 6,7,8

⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Morehat Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring^[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent,with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lordand called on the name of the Lord.

Genesis 13:18

¹⁸ So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.

Here one common thing that we see  in all these verses is Abraham built an altar to the Lord. Wherever Abraham goes, he build an altar to the Lord. 

So when we think of Altar, It is BaliPeet. Where sacrifices are offered.
what are the things that come to our mind when we think of altar-  place, wood, livestock(animal - sheep,goats),resources,energy.time.
For Abraham it had cost him to build an altar to do the sacrifice.

How does this Altar applies to our lives today - Do we have altar in our lives.

In this New Covenant life, Altar is not about sacrificing an animal on the wood, but Altar is about presenting ourselves as pleasing sacrifice to God.

Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship

Here it says to offer ourselves as living sacrifice.

When we say ourselves - it involves our time, our energy, our habits, our thoughts, our words, our works. Offering all these as sacrifices.

Do we have a Personal Altar?

Personally,

Do we Sacrifice our pride - 

When we become a christian, as we know more about God we try to become more legalistic and try to judge others. you try to look down on others who are not so spiritual like you. there is a danger of becoming self righteous people. Recognize that we ourselves are like that before knowing Christ.

do we look down on others who are not so spiritual like you. 

do we look down on others because of pride because of their social status, or health condition. 

Probably you may know more scriptures, or you may be prayer warrior or you can sing well. but lets not look down on other brother or sister.

Do we boast anytime -  about the way we sing, about our giving, about our job, about our knowledge in scriptures.

Do we judge people because of our pride--

See this verse John 12: 47

⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸ There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.

Lay down your heart on the altar and say , Lord keep me humble all the time of my life.

Without humbleness you can never grow as a christian.

Humbleness is the first step in building a personal altar.

For Abraham , It cost him his time,money,energy - you know the bible says 318 trained men were born in his household. Today in our houses at max 5 or 6 people in house, and we say we are very busy. Inspite of so many people and so many issues to take care, Abraham's first priority is building an Altar and doing sacrifice.

do we sacrificing our time for God    -  We find time for all the things of the world. when football matches or cricket matches, people will stop all other things and watch the game. It is the priorities that we make matters.
Is God the main priority in our lives. We can learn from Jesus, even though there were many disciples and many tasks to do, he never missed His prayer time. Remember if our children never come to us to spend time with us, but are always there in the house what a sad thing it is.

Abraham did not order his servants to build the altar, but he himself built the altar. - this is a world where we delegate tasks to others ( in offices, houses wherever we are ,we try to delegate tasks).

Many times when a situation comes in our life, we ask others to pray for us or we ask pastor to pray for us.(true Pastor will pray for us, because he is our shepherd), But God brings a situation in our lives so that we come to His feet and cry unto Him and seek Him. when it comes to Godly matters, do not delegate the tasks.

do we sacrifice our tongue  for God - we have itching for our tongue to speak bad at others. some people who call themselves as believers , says Praise the Lord in church  and after going from church, they will go home and talk bad about pastor saying pastor is not good. or talk bad about other believers.  Can we sacrifice our mouth and say that my mouth and my tongue will only speak words of Grace. Can we lay our tongue, our mouth and say this tongue is for God. This tongue will speak only words of goodness, words of grace, not words of gossip but words of gospel.

James 3:6

 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

do we sacrifice our mind to God -  our mind is place where lot of thinking goes inside. It could be bad or good.

Philippians 4:8

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

when was the last time that we think of an excellent or praiseworthy thing. Anything related to God or godly matters is excellent. If a brother or sister is need and in your mind you think that you want to go and help its an excellent thing. because Jesus says if you give a cup of cold water to one of my disciples you have given it to me.

what do we think in our minds. Do we spend time to think why this person is like this, why my relatives are behaving like that, why all bad things happen to me. why things does not workout for me.  
Decision: I will sacrifice my mind to God and say my mind will think of excellent things of God. 

Family Altar

Do we have a family Altar?

some christian families, either only husband  prays or only wife  prays. They never pray together. If there is one thing missing in today's Christianity in America it is family prayer. Because of lack of family prayer there are so many divorces we see even in christian families.
last week i called my christian friend who lives in Hyderabad and was talking to him.He said I have all problems, job problems, family problems. I asked him do you pray as a family. He said with 2 kids its so difficult mama. I did not tell him that he can manage kids,otherwise i would be hypocrite. but I asked him one thing do you watch TV? max 1hr mama. then he got what i meant to say , so i did not go further.

There is preacher called  Leonard Ravenhill - after their kids go to sleep,He and his wife used to pray for hours together as a family. you know what is the result, they kids ended in the best jobs of the world. all three kids became pastors.
Its time for us to build our family altars.
Decision: I will sacrifice my demands,lay down my arguments, and  say whatever is best for family i will do it. I will build a family Altar, Like Joshua me and my family will server only the Lord.

Do we have a professional Altar?

There will come situations in office where your personal ego gets hurt.Do we try to do Tit for Tat and do we entrust the matter to God.
Do we indulge in cracking jokes on others in offices. Do we work in our office as we work unto the Lord.
Decision: I will not let my ego take over others, will not hurt other people, I will work as if I work unto the Lord.

Continuous sacrifice on the Altar:  Abraham also needs maintenance,protection, and keep sacrificing. 

Altar Call in Churches:   our pastor gives altar call after every sermon. This is not a routine thing to do. but there is a purpose. It is to sacrifice.and present ourselves as a pleasing sacrifice to God.

For Abraham, it is not a choice to build an Altar. But it is his way of life.

Church, Do we have personal altar, a family altar, a professional altar. just like Abraham , how he built altar wherever he went , let us build Altar in our lives.

Egg and Bacon Story

The Worship team sings this song When I survey the wondrous cross.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.