Tag Archive | altar

Cost

Jul12

“However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”
2 Samuel 24:24 NASB

What are you willing to sacrifice to God? What have you placed on the altar of God?
Your Sunday morning in church? What about the rest of the week?
Your mornings, or a designated time each day, to prayer and Bible reading?
Your time to serve others? In and outside the church.
To praying for and sharing the gospel with your neighbor?
How much are you willing to used by God?

Jesus gave His life.

🌹saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.” And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
Luke 9:22‭-‬23 NASB

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

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What is Your Sacrifice?

Oct31

A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” Mark 12:42‭-‬44 NASB/Luke 21:3-4 NASB

This woman parted with all she had. Her livelihood was placed on the altar. She gave all she had for the glory of God.

How could she do that? She trusted in God to be her Jehovah-jireh – the Lord will provide.

🌹 What are you willing to lay on the altar for the glory of God? This woman gave her all.

And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” Luke 18:29‭-‬30 NASB

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Elijah, Prophet of God

Oct8

Elijah, a prophet sent by God, to warn and restore the Isaraelites devotion to God instead of Baal. In 1 Kings 18 is the testimony of the two altars where the priests of Baal, 450, and Elijah, the lone prophet of God, met to sacrifice to their respective God/god to reveal who was truly God.

One of my favorite stories. You should read if you are not familiar with it.

After this event . . .

Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”
1 Kings 19:1‭-‬4 NASB

This great revelation of God in Elijah’s life, to see the power and faithfulness of God, was overshadowed by fear of what Jezebel promised to do to him.

Haven’t we been there? We let the events of the world, the fear for our own livelihood overshadow the work of God and the Holy Spirit through us. God calls all His children to be the voice piece of His gospel. When called we must stand firm in the hope and power of our God.

Well, God also will not allow us to wallow long in our disobedience- running from His calling to share the gospel – before He gets our attention.

Through an angel God provided Elijah with the necessary strength to go on a journey to meet with God.

Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 19:9 NASB

Have you heard this before? A simple question. “What are you doing here?”

Elijah had his excuse all ready:

He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
1 Kings 19:10 NASB

He wasn’t really listening to God. His fear for his life was greater than his fear of God.

But God was about to get his attention.

So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.
1 Kings 19:11‭-‬12 NASB

God sent a mighty wind, an earthquake and fire. When God had Elijah’s attention He then spoke in a gentle whisper (blowing).

Aren’t we just like Elijah? Look around you.  Are you living in fear or in the safety of your obedience to God?

🌹Is He trying to get our attention so we can hear His gentle whisper?

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Focus + Perspective = Praise

Jan7

Genesis 13

Abram trusted God.

How would you have handled the situation of quarreling when the means of taking care of your possessions comes in direct conflict with another taking care of their possessions?

Abram and Lot ran into this. The land could not sustain them both and their possessions. Quarreling ensued. Abram being the older and leader could have taken what he wanted but instead gave Lot the choice to choose land that he wanted. Lot chose the best of the land – plenty of water and fields to eat from.

Abram resided in the land of Canaan. There he built an altar to the Lord. Abram chose to end the quarreling that would bring bitterness and dissension between Lot and himself. Then he chose to build that altar. Where was Abram’s focus? God!

FOCUS on God gives a whole new

PERSPECTIVE: godly; looking through God’s eyes.

I suppose with the right FOCUS and a godly PERSPECTIVE praise comes easy. To our God, Jesus Christ be the glory!

But I enter your house by the abundance of Your faithful love; I bow down toward Your holy temple in reverential awe of You. – Psalm 5:7

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

What Is Your Altar?

May19

stone-altar   

The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Witness; “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.” — Joshua 22:34

What is our witness today that the Lord is God? Altars were built to God many times in the Old Testament — by Abraham, Joshua, Jacob — and for many different reasons and purposes. In this particular scripture the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad built an altar as a witness that the Lord is God.

Visiting Mt. Rushmore brought first to mind idols. Then I heard and read the speech by President Coolidge and realized that this monument is an altar of sorts to remind us of our country’s history, the sacrifices made, the people who worked to make America the land of the free. The monument is not to be worshipped but to be used to remember what America was, is and can become. A remembrance of hope.

It really got me thinking about what altars are in my life that remind me that the Lord is God. As I see the deterioration of mankind, falling away from the beliefs of God, from truly seeking the Lord who is God, I wonder if we should build some altars as a witness that the Lord is God. An altar of witness of the work of God in me —  from who I was to whom I have become to whom God is molding me to be. The hope that is found in Him. What is your altar of witness?

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon