WHERE ARE THE ALTARS?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
Altars are TOOLS to come to God, a place to visit and to come with an attitude of love and respect. Repentance grows from good altars. We today have lost our fear of the altar, this is not a fear as being afraid, but a fear as in respect and awl.
America suffers, for we have not built personal altars to bear our souls before God.
Prayer in America is liken unto a spare tire in our cars --- we only get it out and use it when we have a flat?
TEXT:
Matthew 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath an ought against thee;24. Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Genesis 9:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord...
Genesis 12:7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:
and there builded he an altar unto the Lord...
Genesis 12:8 And Abraham removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Bethel,
and pitched his tent, ---- and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.
Genesis 13:18 Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre,
which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord...
Genesis 22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him, (Abraham), of, and Abraham built an altar....
Genesis 26:25 And Abraham builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord....
Genesis 13:4 And Lot also, which went with Abram, ...
Today I ponder the value of building personal altars and dwelling upon them each step of the way of life’s journey.
YOU CAN WORRY OR YOU CAN BUILD AN ALTAR, IT IS UP TO YOU?
Great men in the Bible built altars to worship, repent, pray, and give praise and offerings unto the Lord.
Genesis 9:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord...
Several years ago, my oldest son was moving out of our house, it was a sad day for Linda and I,
to see our precious son move away, he would only be about 15 miles away, and he would be moving into
the apartment over the funeral home where he was in his apprenticeship, to become a licensed funeral director.
We pondered and hoped that what we had taught him was rooted and grounded beyond the lure of the world.
We were loading his pickup truck and I ran across this old piece of a rock, I said,
"Marty throw that old dumb rock away, you don’t want to carry a dumb rock all through your life,
THROW IT AWAY."
Marty said , "Daddy, I will never throw that rock away!"
I said, "Son, that rock is worthless and throw it away.
He said, " Listen dad, that rock means a lot to me, I picked it up several years ago, when
we returned to Lee County, Virginia, when we visited where we lived when I was born and lived there."
We had moved away from there when Marty was 4 years old and began pastoring in Kentucky.
He said, " Remember on a return visit, we climbed over the fence and walked into the field, and visited
your old altar, where we used to go and pray when I was little? That rock is a piece that I broke off that
old rock where we prayed, our altar."
I remember well, on that rock, where for 7 years I prayed, I had painted a star of David, a cross and
the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost on the rock. Often I spent time sitting or laying on the "rock"
to pray and seek God. I was a school teacher then.
Before Marty’s birth I prayed there. I prayed for my children’s spouses before my children were born.
Years after we moved away, the neighbor, Hattie, called me to tell me a backslidden neighbor, named Don,
had been walking through the field and found my altar and visited there.
Building altars can have a return far down the road.
I honestly believe that those that really love God build altars.
Altars don’t have to be cut and polished, God never wanted fine altars of great worth, we don’t worship
altars, and altars can’t always be great comfort zones.
Altars are TOOLS to come to God, a place to visit and to come with an attitude of love and respect.
We today have lost our fear of the altar, this is not a fear as being afraid, but a fear as in respect and awl.
We have to few homes with altars, we scream about that kids can’t pray at school, and that no
10 Commandments can hang in our schools, but are there altars in our homes, are the Commandments
posted in every child’s bedroom? We used to sing, "IF I COULD HEAR MY MOTHER PRAY AGAIN.."
Today many kids have never heard an earnest prayer prayed by their Mother or Father.
It is more than at school, or on the wall, more than that, are they engraved in your child’s heart?
How can you honestly keep what you don’t even know? Where is your altar?
At church? Where is YOUR altar?
There was a changed man... his name was Abram, after a touch of God he became Abraham.
Abraham was changed and blessed because he built altars and he spent time on them.
Abraham laid his vision, his precious only son on the altar. Wow, what love and devotion.
Read a few of the places where Abraham built altars.
Often Abraham built an altar at a crisis point in his family or his life.
Genesis 12:7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:
and there builded he an altar unto the Lord...
Genesis 12:8 And Abraham removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Bethel, and
pitched his tent, ---- and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.
Genesis 13:18 Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is
in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord...
Genesis 13:4 And Lot also, which went with Abram, ...
Genesis 22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him, (Abraham),
of, and Abraham built an altar....
Genesis 26:25 And Abraham builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord....
We find that LOT visited his Uncle Abraham’s altars, but there is no record that
Lot ever built his own altar.
Lot is recorded visiting Abraham’s (his uncle) altar, for Abraham built altars everywhere he dwelled and
a few places he just visited. Lot is never recorded as building his own altar? Why?
We find Lot in trouble several times, that a PRAYING UNCLE Abraham went to rescue a man
satisfied to visit at another’s altar? Lot fathers his own grandchildren, yet there is no record of altars he built?
Abraham’s altars influence Lot and many generations to come.
What is the price tag of having no altars? What is the price tag of just public altars?
Seems like what you love you will put on a pedestal?
Yes, or no?
In the middle of your home I will fine displayed what is important to you?
Up high, where it is visible from all around, we will not find an altar but the TV.
One preacher calls it the Hellevision?
What you love you will find time for?? Show me where you spend your time and I will show you
what is important and what you value? Where are the altars of the Most High?
The TV is a type of altar where we worship ---SELF AND MATERIALISM!
Show me where the kids spend their time? Show me where dad goes all the time?
We can be raised in a parsonage and never know where dad’s altar is? Is your altar a bass boat?
Your job? Travel? Your family? Show me what is your altar, and I will show what you value?
For your altar is where you spend ---time---talent--- energy?
Can I tell you a real fear I see developing? Could sports arena’s become our society’s altars?
Sports is fast becoming a worship place? Kids can’t come to church on Wednesday night because
little league baseball? What are we teaching our kids?
There was a time when communities knew better than ball on church nights.
I know a Kentucky pastor that dismisses church when Kentucky plays basketball, the men will not
come, and why should he have to miss?
I can tell you many churches that either dismissed church or had big screen TV’s in the sanctuary
to watch the SUPER BOWL? IS GOD PROUD OF THIS?
We remove the altar of the Most High God and put sports in the place of prayer? But we really
touch people? How sad, this is AOK, it is a people thing?
GROW UP, ball players are being paid more in one year than we give a whole nation after a storm
destroys and kills thousands. Forgive this nation, Lord?
Sports has become an altar, where to many knees bow and voices scream? Call on sports in a crisis?
Sexual perversion, and unfaithfulness, sex out of marriage, and pornography have become a lightning rod that
demons ride into Christian homes. Where there is a God altar can this mess really exist?
Satellite dishes pull TERRIBLE sin right into our living rooms and bedrooms?
The good old VCR has become an altar in Christian bedrooms that invite and bring demon spirits into the privacy
of the inner heart, and fires are ignited and sin enters the camp and we have lost the joy of witnessing and prayer,
for sin will keep you away from God, or God will keep you away from sin.
I have read in many of the evangelical Christian homes there is pornography hidden in the house. Dusty Bible?
Dirty life’s? No altars to purge the heart of a home?
Ask Achan, ask Joshua what hidden sin will do to God’s people?
We must tear down the foreign altars that are lightning rods to demonic activity, and replace them with altars where
God’s people PRAY.
While I am addressing foreign altars, why not discuss worldly music as a lightning rod that destroys God’s effective
altars.
We sing of smut, sex, if this is wrong I don’t want to be right, we let demonic activity come in our car radio’s and
hum along with satanic messages and wonder where is the power? If we put basic garbage in the mind and heart,
basic garbage of the soul will foul the spirit man. Music is to praise God!
One of the most dangerous tools our enemy tears down altars with is anger/wrath/bitterness/unforgiveness ---
these breed spirits and attitudes that destroy our love of the altar.
Anger and bitterness become generators, they are their own little power source that keep us away from the altar.
Matthew 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath an ought
against thee; 24. Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then
come and offer thy gift.
When we see this, we cannot even offer gifts on the altar, we must go make it right, then come back to the altar.
Many keep coming to the altar with polluted gifts. If you have an ought against or know someone has an ought
against you, you may not be qualified for the rapture?
A poor relationship at the altar becomes a self-feeding cancer that grows and eats the good healthy cells at the
cost of the host. We would call this parasites, sucking the effectiveness of the altar, and leaving sick and weak
and lifeless Christianity?
We must consider our altars and evaluate.
The only real way to ALTER (CHANGE) LIFE IS ON THE ALTAR. Counseling can’t do it?
Wisdom alone can’t do it? WE MUST RETURN TO THE ALTAR?
This is a transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US Naval ship and the Canadian authorities off Newfoundland in 1995. (Unknown)
This transcript was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on Oct. 10, 1995:
US ship: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid collision.
Canadian reply: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid collision.
US ship: This is the captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert your course.
Canadian reply: No, I say again, divert your course, now, 15 degrees.
US ship: This is the aircraft carrier USS Missouri. We are a large warship of the US Navy. Divert your course NOW!
Canadian reply: We are a lighthouse, YOU ARE HEADED FOR DESTRUCTION AND DISASTER. Your call, Captain!
Well, I am determined to build more altars and leave a trail for others to follow.
I set my sail and adjust my course!
You will never arise in public beyond your private prayer closet? Hear me?
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
