Where Are The Altars?

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.