Altars

 We've all experienced how near and dear the Lord is to us in our mountaintop spiritual experiences, but how distant from us He may seem in our everyday valleys. The reality is that life, especially our spiritual life, is often a lot more about living in the valleys than it is about living on the mountaintops. But our intimacy with Him need not be affected by this reality...but too often, it is.

I think we've tied our relationship with Him to what He is and isn't doing in our lives. When His actions bring blessing and the reception of what we've asked for, we feel close to Him. Loved, accepted, BLESSED! But when He leads us out into the desert and all those outward things can be stripped away, we start to question His love and care. We don't feel blessed at all. We suspect that He's let us down, forgotten us...failed us. He's shown us a way past all this, but like so much of what He's shown us, we tend not to see it.

Many today disregard the Old Testament as not relevant to the new relationship we have in Christ as shown in the New. We do ourselves great harm in that. In Exodus 20:24, He commands the people to, "Build altars in the places where I remind you who I am, and I will come and bless you there." Altars signify and number of things; consecration, sanctification, but above all, a place of worship. A place where we can truly meet with Him. God knew what desert times lay ahead for the Israelites. All the challenges and all the time spent in dry, waterless places. He knows the same about you and me. He never promised that we wouldn't know such times. If we're truly following Him, He promises that we will. What He spoke to them, He speaks to us as well. Remember who He is, what He's done. Worship Him, and in your worship, you will encounter Him. Worship Him not as a Sunday thing, or even a devotional time thing. Worship Him as your way of life. Worship Him, as Christ said, "In spirit and in truth." Even in the most barren places of life, He will send reminders of who He is, and sometimes in the most miraculous of ways. Our degree of experiencing this will depend upon whether we see "worship" as something we do, or go to, instead of it being what gives and sustains our lives. 

The altar is becoming a lost place in the church today, and I don't mean whether we do or do not have one in the church sanctuary. The altar, His altar, is where He calls us to live, with His presence always before us. When this is our life, worship becomes our moment by moment breath. We inhale and exhale the atmosphere of heaven, even in the most mundane and barren places. What's going on within us is greater and more real than whatever might be going on around us. 

This is the life He calls us to. It's the life I want to live. Do you? Building altars all along our way of life....all pointing to Him in worship. Experiencing Him moment by moment as He comes and blesses us there. Blessing us not with the things He gives, but with the new life, the new wine He pours into us moment by moment and day by day. This is the life, the victory that overcomes the world, every desert, and all enemies. He has commanded us to build these altars. When's the last time we did? When's the last time you did?

Blessings,
Pastor O