Refill Needed

The altar of God is a place of healing, but many just see it as a place of judgment or punishment. They fear approaching a holy God, probably because they don't understand the intensity of his love, nor the extreme privilege of his grace. We need to see the altar as a place of encouragement, where we are filled with the presence of God, and celebrate his goodness, grace, and strength.

Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live. There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy. (Psalm 43:3-4)

Discouragement abounds today, making it ever so important to understand where it is we go to find our encouragement. It isn't in the rise of the stock market, or even the momentary good times we enjoy at family celebrations. It is at the altar that we are renewed and regenerated. It is there we find a lasting peace and an enduring courage for the trials ahead.

Whenever we only see the battle that makes us so weary and worn, we falter. Whenever we proclaim our woes over and over again, we falter. Both of these will drain us of hope quicker than just about anything else. God made a way for hope to be continually renewed, even when it is faltering more than a bit. It is the way of the altar. Light and truth mark that path - they show us the way into his presence, and they guide us out into our daily 'grind'.

There is a different path planned for us that we may not ever see without his light and truth guiding the way. We need those altar times in order to understand his purposes and see clearly the path he has laid out for us to follow. At the altar, we find our hearts want to be unburdened, set free from all the worries and cares of the day. How? His presence dwells there! Wherever his presence dwells, we will enjoy peace. At the altar, we welcome his presence into our lives and come to a place of peace each and every time we approach.

Praise and worship are powerful tools to use against all manner of discouragement in our lives. What are we doing when we praise God? We are using the truth we have been given to encourage our hearts. What's more is that we send our enemy packing each time we declare the name of Jesus, celebrate his goodness, and lean into his grace - all while being refilled, renewed, and regenerated at that altar. Just sayin!

Here I am

Lord, you made me understand this: You don’t really want sacrifices and grain offerings. You don’t want burnt offerings and sin offerings. So I said, “Here I am, ready to do what was written about me in the book. My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.” (Psalm 40:6-8)

At times, we might think God wants this or that from us, like an offering upon the altar of the Old Testament times. Things don't matter to God as much as our heart does. When he asked the people to bring a lamb or goat to offer in the Temple, it wasn't because he wanted the meat of the animal - he wanted to see the heart of the people - to see if they were willing to choose the best and dedicate it to God. All God asks of us is to choose him first - period. Nothing we 'bring' to him is of real or lasting value until he has our full heart!

The words, "Here I am", these are what God wants most. When the heart is behind those words, the world we live in changes. We begin to see things in a different light - his purposes become plain, his protective power is felt, and our lives take on an atmosphere of hope. When the people of old brought the sin offering, they were filled with hope that their sins would not be remembered against them. When we bring ourselves to the altar and ask God to forgive our sins, with truly contrite and open hearts, he instills a hope that we will finally live free of those things. 

Ready to do...all of life isn't about doing whatever we want to do when we want to do it. When we finally realize the sacrifice of a dedicated life means a change in the actions of that life, we are moving closer and closer to what God intends for us. Doing our 'own thing' might be okay for a while, but at some point, we will grow weary in following that path. When we place our lives on the altar of grace, we are asking God to change our priorities - to refocus our plans, so to speak. At first, this might seem a little uncomfortable because we had things 'all worked out' to be going one direction, but in time, the more we submit to his will, the easier it is to actually leave what we had 'worked out' and take on what he had planned for us from the beginning of time.

God doesn't stop teaching us as we grow in grace. In fact, his teachings become richer, more meaningful. We find ourselves actually craving the knowledge and wisdom contained within those teachings. Today it may seem like we don't really have that 'intensity' of dedication, but when we are willing to allow it to be developed within, laying down our lives upon the altar of grace, we are placing ourselves exactly where his work can begin. Just sayin!

We need logs

Our heart fire must be tended. What gets our attention gets tended - plain and simple. If we turn away from tending that spiritual fire, it is easy for it to begin to go out. Diligence must be maintained in ensuring we are consistent in tending it. Whenever we tend something, we are directing our attention toward the object we are tending - it means we narrow our focus to see just what we need to be paying attention to and then we do something about it. It is not enough to just look like we are tending our spiritual growth. We need to be actively engaged in taking care of our spiritual lives - not just passively going about life hoping God will help us to grow.

The fire must never go out, so put wood on it each morning. After this, you are to lay an animal on the altar next to the fat that you sacrifice to ask my blessing. Then send it all up in smoke to me. The altar fire must always be kept burning—it must never go out. (Leviticus 6:12-13)

 
Our heart fire must burn hot. The fire must have sufficient fuel, a "heat source", and sufficient oxygen to burn. Embers produce a heat source - fuel is another matter which requires our attention. If you have ever tried to keep a campfire or fireplace burning through the night, you know just how much wood it requires. There is quite a bit of planning which must be put into keeping the fire "hot" throughout the night hours. The store of wood has to be sufficient - it cannot be spindly branches - for those will be consumed way too quickly. Although they help stoke the fire as kindling to reignite the embers, they quickly are consumed and burn out. We need the "large logs" in order to keep the fire burning. This means we cannot expect to go through life on short bursts of "fuel" for our fire spiritually. We need to plan ahead for those larger "infusions" of life-giving fuel. It may mean we need to take time to really get into the meat of the Word, or just get time alone with God to listen attentively to what he has for us that day. 

Our heart has to be available. The altar was available to receive the sacrifices placed upon it - it had but one purpose - to receive the sacrifice. Our hearts have one purpose - to be the throne of God's grace and love in our lives. I think we often get so focused on how we dress, how our hair looks, and whether we drive the right car to make us look successful and forget all the while that the heart is really the most important part of what is "on display" in our lives. The altar stood there, ready to receive. I think this is what makes us effective in our day - to be ready to receive what God lays upon our hearts. Then we consume it fully and it becomes that sweet savor which emanates from our lives. Why would our heart have to be movable? The Israelites would stoke the coals, heap them into earthen jars, and then carry those burning hot embers to the next place they'd erect the altar. I think God looks for us to be ever ready to move when he says "move" and then to be ready to get down to business when he says to "stay". If the fire is abandoned, it will surely die out. God's fire within can be abandoned by our neglect - but if we are constantly alert to his voice, we will be ready to move when called upon and eager to "dig in" when he shows us it is time to just settle into what he has for us to do.

We have a role in keeping the fire burning in our lives - God may give the initial spark, but we tend it ever so carefully, my friends! Just sayin!

The altar fire

The fire must never go out, so put wood on it each morning. After this, you are to lay an animal on the altar next to the fat that you sacrifice to ask my blessing. Then send it all up in smoke to me. The altar fire must always be kept burning—it must never go out. (Leviticus 6:12-13) 

The Old Testament can be a bit hard to read through, especially since it seems like there are a lot of blood wars, blood sacrifices, bad things happening, and a whole lot of sinning going on! I see regular people, struggling to make a way in a regular world, and meeting with regular issues we all have to encounter. So, instead of slugging through, I look for the hidden truths and things we might otherwise overlook if we were just reading these chapters as "historical content". In the Book of Leviticus, much instruction was given to the priests on how they were to conduct their daily business in the offering of sacrifices.  In the instructions given to Moses for the priests, various sacrifices, dedicated holy days, and special feast days, we can find rich meaning pointing us toward the one who would become the ultimate blood sacrifice, making ultimate atonement once and for all for all of mankind's sins.  

As Moses is receiving some of these instructions from the Lord and passing them onto the Tribe of Levi (the Levite priests), we see the instruction to "tend the fire" of the altar - something which was never to go out. I don't know about you, but I have tended some fires in my day, and it was hard to keep it so that it never went out. You'd have to gather the wood, keep enough alongside the fire to tend it even when bad weather made it hard to do so, and then you'd have to stir the embers frequently enough to infuse the fire with that "stoking" heat it often needed to ignite afresh. I don't think this is too different from what has to happen in our own spiritual lives each and every day if we are to have a continual "burning" within our spirit which keeps us "on fire" in our relationship with Jesus.

The altar fire must never go out. It was to be tended - never left unattended. It had to be stoked - not left to burn down to ashes. It had to be able to consume what was placed upon the altar - so it had to burn hot. It had to be "mobile" or easily moved - as the Israelites were a "nomadic" people for quite a while until they settled into the land of Canaan. All of these important facts could easily be glossed over in this accounting of how the sacrifices were to be prepared and offered - but without fire, all the sacrifices would be nothing more than a rotting pile of flesh, putrid in the odor which it would give off, and festering with all manner of parasites and disease. I think this also speaks to the importance of fire - it had to be able to consume and turn what would otherwise be a rotting pile of mess into a savory delight.

God's fire must be ignited within us, but it must always be maintained. It isn't a 'purposeless' fire, though. It is the 'altar fire' - the place where our lives are transformed by the power of that fire. Just sayin!

The means and location matter

So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! (Romans 8:12-14)

Burial is the act of placing something dead into the ground. The remains have no further use - so we bury them. We need to seriously consider some of the "stuff" we actually might do well burying! There are customs of burial dating back something like 130,000 years ago, so this idea of "burying" the dead has quite a long history. One of the reasons some think burial came about was to attempt to bring "closure". It was a way of bringing an end to something. There is more to this burial thing than just the placing of someone's physical remains into a tomb or a grave. In fact, we might just find something of value in considering just what gets buried and why! We bury a whole lot of "stuff" in life. Some of us bury past hurts - trying to accomplish some type of closure to the events which have caused us such pain. The problem with burying these hurts is the "decay" they cause in their "place of burial". Others of us try to bury our failures and faults - hoping they will live unnoticed, but somehow they just keep "coming back to haunt us". There are times when we "bury" the emotional stuff we just cannot deal with right now because it is not a convenient time - but even buried emotions surface, coming back at the most inopportune times.

What we fail to recognize is the way and the where we "bury" things determines if the closure will be permanent. When we just "put things under the surface" in our lives, we might conceal them for a while, but it is more like creating a "time capsule" rather than a final disconnection with these things. Time capsules are created for the purpose of "revisiting" the items in them, are they not? They are a means of "connection" in the future with what we put there in the present. The sad thing is - we want disconnection with these things, but we deal with them in the wrong way. I think the idea of "burial" is a good illustration of how God wants us to deal with our past hurts, our present sins, and our emotional upsets. If we don't understand the principles of "burial" as he taught them, we might just be burying them in such a way that actually affords us unnecessary issues in return. If a human body is buried too near the surface, what happens with the first really good rain? Isn't it exposed again? If the human body is buried too near a source of some other resource, such as a water supply, will its decay not cause some contamination of the resource? I think the "manner" and "place" of burial is important because burial for the sake of dealing with stuff that gives us problems requires expertise we don't possess!

The "manner" and "place" in which God asks us to deal with the things that need "closure" in our lives is to take them to him and lay them at his feet. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but we don't always think something "buried out in the open" like that will work. We try our own methods of burial because they seem to at least "cover over" the thing we want closure with. The problem with this is things not dealt with out in the open often come back to cause us problems at a later time. Maybe this is why God asked his people to lay things on altars, lay hands on the sacrifices they offered, and leave them. There was always a connection and a way of showing the manner in which God deals with our "stuff" requiring closure. We put it right out there in the open - then he deals with it! The "place" God requires for burial is at his feet. If we really see the transformation which occurs on the altar, we might just reconsider our "perception" of God's methods of bringing closure. The thing on the altar is consumed - it is transformed - by the power of God. The burnt offering probably was no longer recognizable by its "features" any longer - it was transformed by the fire. God's means of dealing with our failures is not to point them out to us, but to ask us to place them on the altar, allowing him to alter them (transformation). In turn, there is closure to the influence of the failure on us - we are free to live anew. I think we might just give some thought to God's "manner" and "place" of burial in our lives. Just sayin!

Consumed, Cleansed, and Consecrated

My neighbor is getting ready to move. He has been busy cleaning out his garage and backyard shed - places where we know things 'gather', sometimes without us even noticing! He is getting it ready to be purchased - knowing the new 'owners' won't want all his excess stuff just hanging around when they take ownership. When we are bought with a price, there is an exchange of ownership. This exchange of ownership is to have an effect on us. The first thing we should notice is that there is a desire for cleansing. We want to have things in our life that are not honoring to God dealt with and removed so that we can move on. 

God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. (Romans 3:25-26)
The place of cleansing is often referred to as the altar in the scripture. The altar had various purposes in scripture, but there is a lesson to us in each purpose.

· It was a place that required something to be placed on it – an empty altar is nothing more than ornamentation. The only way something can be affected by the altar is to be placed there - for the purpose of sanctification - cleansing. There is an action of submission that must occur if something is to be 'placed' upon the altar.
· It was a place that consumed what was placed upon it – we yield or submit to the work of the altar; Christ does the work of consuming the sacrifice that is placed there. In the Old Testament, the altar sacrifices were consumed – either by the fire, or by the one tending the fire (the priest). In the case of the “spiritual altar” we are called to embrace, there is a yielding our hurts, sins, fears, failures, etc. to God, so that the fire and the one tending the fire are both able to do their work in our lives. What is touched by the fire of the altar is never the same again – even a sacrifice not fully “touched” by the fire has noticeable evidence of having been in the fire!

The altar is a place where we can yield all to God and he will take our “all”, in turn, he cleanses it. The blood of Christ has both the power to cleanse and the ability to keep us clean. When a vessel is cleansed at the end of one use it is so the vessel can be of use to transport something new. We are cleansed at the altar in order that we might be of use for another purpose – instead of responding to our sin nature, we begin responding to the Spirit of the Lord. At the altar, we find that we are changed – filled up with something that takes the place of that which was once so evident in our lives. We are filled up with the Spirit of God in the place of that sin, failure, fear, etc. To be filled implies that we receive a full compliment of what is needed. To be filled also implies that as much as can be put into our spirit is put into us until our spirit is not able to contain any more. We walk away from the altar satisfied.

A life invited to the altar is one that is tenderly transformed – we are received there in order to be transformed there. Once we are cleansed by the Spirit of God, we are also filled. In that filling comes the ability to be open to his leading and direction. Direction implies that we are willing to have the way pointed out to us – having our activities regulated in such a manner that we are energized by another. The fire has done its work. We are transformed. We have been invited to come to the altar. There we will find transformation awaits the yielded soul. The purpose is sanctification – the be in the place of cleansing. What is God asking you to lay on the altar today? What needs to be affected by his fire? What is in need of his consuming touch in your life today? Surrender it on the altar of his grace and mercy – be affected deeply by the fire of his love – never to be the same again. Just sayin!

The altar alters

In times long ago, God gave instruction to Moses to build a "traveling tabernacle", a sign of his presence with Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness and made their way into the Promised Land of Canaan.  The tabernacle was made in a particular manner, with specific instructions for its dimensions, materials for construction, and furnishings.  Each element of the instruction was with specific purpose and if you study this subject a little, you will see how each of the "things" which went into making up the tabernacle actually pointed to some aspect of God's character and/or what he would do through his Son's life given for many.  One such furnishing was the altar - a place of some pretty "gruesome" offerings.  I am kind of glad we don't offer the blood of bulls, turtle doves and the like today in our worship because this killing of the animals and consuming of their bodies on the altar is kind of gross at first glance.  It wouldn't make me want to invite someone to church with me!  In fact, I might just think they might get a little "put off" by the gruesomeness of it all!  Yet, if we look at "where" and "to what" the altar was pointing God's people, we will understand its purpose.  The altar pointed toward blood sacrifice - and that of a "perfect" lamb.  The cross would become the ultimate "altar" and Christ would be the "perfect Lamb".

Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King-God, I need your help. Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend. (Psalm 5:1-3 MSG)

I have often said it is at the altar we are altered - for the altar never left anything untouched - it could not come away from the altar the same as it was when it was taken to the altar.  The same is true of the cross - we cannot go to the cross and walk away unchanged - we are altered by it!  When we look a little bit at the altar as a "type" of what God was foreshadowing by its use, we begin to see how much God really uses the altar to do more than just receive things on the altar - at the altar things are transformed!

- The altar is a place of sacrifice.  In Old Testament times, the altar was a place for the sacrifice of animals - even grains were sacrificed.  The one bringing the offering was instructed on the purpose of each offering - each sacrifice had a meaning.  For example, the burnt offering could be cattle, sheep, goats, birds, etc.  In bringing this offering, you were not only bringing part of what you "raised" and sacrificing it upon the altar, but you were bringing the best of your flock.  If you know anything about raising animals, you know giving up the best to be slaughtered and consumed on the altar is just not something most would do.  Maybe this is why God required it - because it was contrary to what most would do!  He was showing the significance of Christ's death - it was contrary to what most would do and definitely contrary to what any COULD do!

- The altar is a place of bloodshed.  One of the things done in bringing the animals was the "shedding" of their blood.  This blood was then sprinkled upon the altar as part of the process of offering the animal.  If we stop for a moment to consider the blood, we know how important it is to life - without it circulating through our veins and arteries, we die!  Clearly, in the shedding of blood, God was pointing to the sacrificial death of his Son, Jesus.  Yet, why was the blood so important as part of the burnt offering?  The carcass of the animal was burnt upon the altar, so why sprinkle the blood there, too?  Why separate it from the carcass?  Anything "without life" is really just an object, isn't it?  It has no animation, no capacity to live or breathe or produce life any longer.  Maybe this is why God included the blood in the offering - as a means of reminding us of the life-giving blood of Christ - in giving of life, he produced the capacity for us to live again!

- The altar transformed everything placed upon it.  This is the easiest part of us understanding the altar - for all placed upon it was either burnt, producing an aromatic savor such as we might experience whenever we place meat upon a spit over an open fire today.  Even the grain offerings produced an aromatic scent which was "altered" a little by the incense added to it.  Why add incense?  Have you ever just burned grain by itself?  It isn't all that aromatic - it is rather like burning charcoal - lots of smoke, but not a very pleasant aroma.  Adding the incense insured the aroma remained pleasing to the nostrils of God.  So, even the grain was transformed by the altar - adding sweetness and savor to what would otherwise be rather pungent and unpleasant.  The altar altered all placed upon it - whether animal or grain.  It had a way of transforming it from one thing to another.  The cross of Christ is the ultimate means of transforming one thing to another - a sinner into a saint!

- The altar consumed what was placed upon it.  Some of the various offerings were to be left upon the altar until everything there was totally consumed. Others which were offered provided an allowance for the priests, to give them a means of partaking in the offering.  At first, this may not seem significant, as we may think it was just God's way of "feeding" the priests.  I would like us to consider for a moment why some were to be offered and consumed in their entirety (no portion going to the priest), while others might be shared with the priests (to provide for their needs).  Maybe the altar offerings which were totally consumed were pointing to the issue of meeting the requirements God demanded for the sinner to be made clean!  In other words, God demanded a perfect Lamb - and the Lamb had to be totally consumed - blood shed, sprinkled, body sacrificed and totally consumed.  The cross didn't leave room for "partial" sacrifice - it was all or nothing for Jesus.  In being totally consumed, he met the demands of the need for a perfect sacrifice for sin.  In so doing, he secured life for those who would forever come to the cross (God's altar).

- The altar provided a means for provision.  As I mentioned, some sacrifices were actually a means by which the priests could have their needs met. Grains, animals, and the like could become a means for the priests to "partake" of the sacrifice brought.  At the cross, we are invited to partake of what has been done on our behalf - nothing is required of us except for us to partake.  The one bringing the offering actually did the work of preparing the offering (slaughtering it and preparing it for the altar).  The altar did the work of preparing it for the priest to partake of it.  Their part was to be present - to be at the place of provision.  Our part is to partake - to be present at the cross - the place of provision.

In considering the altar, we might just see Christ's offering on our behalf in a different light.  We did not stop to consider the lamb being brought to the altar, did we?  I wonder what it thought when it was led to the slaughter?  Do you think it knew? Not likely, but trust me on this one - Jesus knew full-well what awaited him at the cross, for all presented in our Old Testament altar sacrificial system was a foreshadowing of what he would accomplish on the cross on our behalf.  Just sayin!

Bury this!

Burial:  In the simplest terms, it is the act of placing a dead person in the ground.  The remains have no further use - so we bury them.  Oh, don't turn me off yet, thinking this is going to be some morbid and disgusting topic dealing with physical death.  I want us to look at burial in the sense of some of the "stuff" we actually might do well burying!  There were customs of burial dating back something like 130,000 years ago, so this idea of "burying" the dead has quite a long history.  One of the reasons some think burial came about was to attempt to bring "closure".  It was a way of bringing an end to something.  There is more to this burial thing than just the placing of someone's physical remains into a tomb or a grave.  In fact, we might just find something of value in considering just what gets buried and why!

So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!  (Romans 8:12-14 MSG)

We bury a whole lot of "stuff" in life.  Some of us bury past hurts - trying to accomplish some type of closure to the events which have caused us such pain.  The problem with burying these hurts is the "decay" they cause in their "place of burial".  Others of us try to bury our failures and faults - hoping they will live unnoticed, but somehow they just keep "coming back to haunt us".  Still, there are times when we "bury" the emotional stuff we just cannot deal with right now because it is not a convenient time - but even buried emotions surface, coming back at the most inopportune times.

What we fail to recognize is the way we "bury" things determines if the closure will be permanent.  When we just "put things under the surface" in our lives, we might conceal them for a while, but it is more like creating a "time capsule" rather than a final disconnection with these things.  Time capsules are created for the purpose of "revisiting" the items in them, are they not?  They are a means of "connection" in the future with what we put there in the present.  The sad thing is - we want disconnection with these things, but we deal with them in the wrong way.

I think the idea of "burial" is a good illustration of how God wants us to deal with our past hurts, our present sins, and our emotional upsets.  Yet, if we don't understand the principles of "burial" as he taught them, we might just be burying them in such a way which affords us unnecessary issues in return.  If a human body is buried too near the surface, what happens with the first really good rain?  Isn't it exposed again?  If the human body is buried too near a source of some other resource, such as a water supply, will its decay not cause some contamination of the resource?  I think the "manner" and "place" of burial is important because burial for the sake of dealing with stuff which gives us problems requires expertise we don't possess!

The "manner" and "place" in which God asks us to deal with the things which we need to give "closure" to in our lives is to take them to him and lay them at his feet.  Now, this may not seem like a big deal to you, but let me assure you, we don't always think something "buried out in the open" like that will work.  So, we try our own methods of burial because they seem to at least "cover over" the thing we want closure with.  The problem with this is things not dealt with out in the open often come back to cause us problems at a later time.  Maybe this is why God asked his people to lay things on altars, lay hands on the sacrifices they offered, etc.  There was a connection, but also a way of showing the manner in which God deals with our "stuff" which needs closure.  He puts it right out there in the open - then he deals with it!  

The "place" God requires for burial is at his feet.  The "manner" he uses to deal with the thing we need closure with is "out in the open".  Now, this doesn't sound like burial to me since there is no "covering" over the stuff we need closure with, right?  Yet, if we really see the transformation which occurs on the altar, we might just reconsider our "perception" of God's methods of bringing closure.  The thing on the altar is consumed - it is transformed - by the power of God.  The burnt offering probably was no longer recognizable by its "features" any longer - it was transformed by the fire.  God's means of dealing with our failures is not to point them out to us, but to ask us to place them on the altar, allowing him to alter them (transformation).  In turn, there is closure to the influence of the failure on us - we are free to live anew.

I think we might just give some thought to God's "manner" and "place" of burial in our lives.  Just sayin!

Cookies for the King

^1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

(Romans 12:1-2 The Message)

Consecration goes beyond the surface - in fact, it embraces all of our being when it is operational in our lives.  Consecration is simply the act of setting something apart for a specific use.  When we say that the chocolate chip cookies are just for daddy because they are his favorite cookies, we have the expectation that the one receiving enjoyment out of those cookies will be daddy.  The same is true when we say we have dedicated our lives to the service of our heavenly Father - he will receive the enjoyment our dedication brings.

Grace and mercy are two very powerful forces at work in our lives.  It is the "favor" of God and the "pardon" of God that is at work in us.  The first step in dedicating our lives to his service is to yield what he already owns!  We are in a kind of "territory dispute" with God most of the time.  We want to enjoy the liberty of his grace and release of his pardon, but when it comes to actually turning over the "deed" to our lives, we hesitate.  We are called to be separated UNTO God for his special work within and through us.  What we fail to recognize is that separation is completely voluntary.

In the off chance that I am not clear here, let me explain.  God never REQUIRES our dedication.  He is honored by it, but he never compels us to serve him.  WE choose whom we will serve.  What we fail to recognize is that by dedicating ourselves to him, we are really being set apart for the most awesome enjoyment that one could ever experience.  Just like daddy may savor those chocolate chip cookies that have been "dedicated" to him, our heavenly Father will savor our dedication - giving over our "right" to hold control of our lives into his hands.

The most awesome thing happens when we finally yield the control of our lives to Jesus - we begin to bear the image of that which we yield to.  Did you ever see two totally close friends and notice how much they "resemble" each other in their habits, ideals, and even in their communication?  "Likeness" actually occurs because of the frequency of contact that they have with one another.  

When we finally desire God's enjoyment of our lives more than our own enjoyment of our sin, God is honored to take what we yield to him.  But...he only takes what is yielded (dedicated / consecrated)!  There is a practice in the Old Testament that we don't see any longer in our church services - the practice of the altar sacrifices.  That is okay, since Jesus was the perfect sacrifice!  Yet, I think there was some value in seeing how the altar affected what was dedicated to God by being placed on it!

Every gift laid at the altar is affected by the altar.  I call this the "altering" effect of the "altar".  It is like putting those chocolate chip cookies in the cookie jar for the enjoyment of one person only - each time that jar is opened, the aroma of those cookies rises.  At the altar of God's grace and mercy, there is an aroma that reaches God's nostrils and invites him to enjoy that which has been dedicated to him.  Yet, at the altar, God awakens a sense of need in us, as well.  It is at the altar that we are acknowledging our dependence upon him.

One last note - the CALLED OF God are CALLED FOR God - his enjoyment alone.  He already paid the price for our souls at the cross.  When we yield the right to govern our lives (our will), we are truly giving evidence that we are willing to have that which controls us the most affected by the altar.  Paul refers to this as having our minds renewed.  I think he might have had the picture of the altar in mind - leaving no part of our self-will untouched by the fire of the Spirit.

Invited to the Altar

^25-26God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

(Romans 3:25-26)

When we are bought with a price, there is an exchange of ownership.  This exchange of ownership is to have an effect on us.  The first thing we should notice is that there is a desire for cleansing.  We want to have things in our life that are not honoring to God dealt with and removed so that we can move on.  The place of cleansing is often referred to as the altar in the scripture.  Let’s examine the work of the altar:

• ·         It requires that we place something on it – an empty altar is nothing more than ornamentation.  The only way something can be affected by the altar is to be placed there for sanctification.  There is an action of submission that must occur.
• ·         It is a two-part process – we yield or submit to the work of the altar; Christ does the work of consuming the sacrifice that is placed there.  In the Old Testament, the altar sacrifices were consumed – either by the fire, or by the one tending the fire (the priest).  In the case of the “spiritual altar” of yielding our hurts, sins, fears, failures, etc. to God, the fire and the one tending the fire are both the same – God himself.   
• ·         What is touched by the fire is never the same again – even a sacrifice not fully “touched” by the fire had noticeable evidence of being in the fire!

The altar is then a place where we can yield all to God and he will take our “all” and cleanse it.  The blood of Christ has both the power to cleanse and the ability to keep us clean.  When a vessel is cleansed at the end of one use it is so the vessel can be of use to transport something new.  We are cleansed at the altar in order that we might be of use for another purpose – instead of responding to our sin nature, we begin responding to the Spirit of the Lord.

At the altar, we find that we are changed – filled up with something that takes the place of that which was once so evident in our lives.  We are filled up with the Spirit of God in the place of that sin, failure, fear, etc.  To be filled implies that we receive a full compliment of what is needed.  To be filled also implies that as much as can be put into our spirit is put into us until our spirit is not able to contain any more.  We walk away from the altar satisfied.

A life invited to the altar is one that is tenderly transformed – we are received there in order to be transformed there.  Once we are cleansed by the Spirit of God, we are also filled.  In that filling comes the ability to be open to his leading and direction.  Direction implies that we are willing to have the way pointed out to us – having our activities regulated in such a manner that we are energized by another.  The fire has done its work.  We are transformed.

Today’s invitation is to come to the altar.  There you will find transformation awaits the yielded soul.  The call today is to sanctification – the place of cleansing.  What is God asking you to lay on the altar today?  What needs to be affected by his fire?  What is in need of his consuming touch in your life today?  Surrender it on the altar of his grace and mercy – be affected deeply by the fire of his love – never to be the same again.

Revelation - an altar experience

God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him.

(2 Chronicles 16:9)

Sometimes we slip back into our old way of operating in life even after revelation has come.  This is usually because we do not apply ourselves to what has been revealed to us.  We "void" the revelation by not trusting in it, not being obedient to it, or simply just not fully receiving it in the first place.

God never really asks much of us when it comes to revealing himself to us.  He simply ask us to be willing to change.  This encompasses the idea of being willing to present ourselves to him, allowing him to point out where change is need, and then allowing him to ignite that change within.  Along the way, he gives us all we need to accomplish that change - we simply need to remain in the place of obedience.

When we present ourselves to God - in total commitment - we are placing our "self" on the altar and then we back away from the altar.  Too many times, we stick around the altar hoping to rescue some part of "self" back.  God only affects what we give him access to - if we give him total access, he will accomplish the purpose of the altar.

The outcome of the altar is determined by whose hands are handling the sacrifice - if our hands are all over the sacrifice, never allowing God's hands to take control, the evidence of the altar will be limited to our abilities.  If God's hands are on the sacrifice of self - we can depend on never being the same again.  Life in our own hands is a series of disasters, at best.  Life in the hands of God is victory, glory, and a thing of honor.

Some of us depend of "good philosophy" more than we depend on the Word of God - especially as it applies to placing ourselves on the altar.  Generally, a philosophy is the sum total of what you know - what is important to you.  We can go through life depending on the philosophy of life we have developed.  This leaves us short of a full revelation of truth - we have only trusted in some facts, but don't have all the facts we need to make trustworthy decisions with our lives.

Truth must be revealed - but it must also be applied if it is to affect any change in our lives.  If we are faithful to apply the revelation of truth that God gives to us, we will find God rewarding that loyalty.  Sometimes we make the revelation of God's truth so complicated - thinking it could not be simple, easily understood, or practical.  Despite our opinion of the revelation of God's truth, it is usually quite practical - God does not thrive on complicating our lives!  

One closing thought - revelation without application of what is revealed is meaningless.  Christianity is not for the weak-willed.  It takes some work on our part (paying attention, listening obediently, responding faithfully).  God is on the lookout for the one who is committed to him in this way.  In turn, he has a greater revelation of himself than we ever imagined.  Dig in and see what God has for you at the altar today.