16/08/09

Make Me a altar and I will come unto thee and bless thee

Exodus 20:24,25,26 - An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.


Like in an office we need a table to work or do transactions across, so also to do any communication or transactions with the Lord we need an altar. That is the reason from early mankind, man has been making altars for worship. It is only when the Lord sees an altar made according to his specifications; He assures us that He will come and bless us. Otherwise He may come or may not come, but here, there is and assurance that He will surely come and bless.

An altar desired by the Lord is not what we make with elaborate decoration and place statues on. In fact according to Commandments we are not allowed to make statues or images for worship.

Just to explain to you. When my daughter was very small I use to take her everyday during her prayer time, morning and night to a picture frame of Jesus and placing her hand on it I would make her say her prayers. This was when she was smaller than three years. Now when we pray we just hold hands and close our eyes; because she knows that God is not in any picture, in any statue or any object. She even tells her granny (who still does it) that God is in our hearts. Pictures and statues are not for worship; they are for remembrance when we are very weak and spiritually blind. So sticking to them shows ones level of spiritual maturity.

One can make an altar for remembrance like Jacob did, for a promise and worship at the altar but not to the altar. The altar which the Lord loves and wants is which He has given us; ourselves. That does not mean we are an altar the way we are, but it means we are an altar the way God created us.

When God created man there was no sin in man, so to be a perfect altar we need to clean ourselves of all impurities.

The nakedness which the Lord does not like to see at the altar is the desires of our flesh. When we come before the Lord we are to come in holiness, separated from worldly and evil things. Like Jesus says to enter the Kingdom of Heaven we need to come as a child, innocent of the world. It is not that we will be totally free from our nakedness, but we are not to show it in the presence of the Lord. It does not mean only during prayer time, but every time we need the Lord. If at any stage you think you can do without God, then you can risk exhibiting the nakedness of ones inner man (soul).


[ Prayer Starter ]

Father God, we thank You for making us your altar. Lord help us bring ourselves as a living perfect altar for You to come and bless us. Help us clean ourselves and bring ourselves to the mold You created us, which You have shown us in Jesus...

We make this prayer in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]

Exodus 5:7-10
7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
8 Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 34:14-17
14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

Matthew 18:3
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.


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