Before the altar Prat 8

When am I cut off from His worship? When do I stop receiving His blessings? (Joel 1:16). Could it be when I show dissension? Could it be when I don't give Him what He desires or wants me to give Him? (Micah 4:2; Zechariah 7:2). Obviously it's not when I use things in the temple that I am told by law they are forbidden to touch, such as the shew bread that David ate when he was hungry. (Matthew 12:4) What behaviour takes me from God and makes my worship vain? And what does God deem appropriate behavior? (1 Timothy 3:15) As High Priest, Jesus allows us into a one-on-one communication with God. (Hebrews 10:21) and as a Christian I only have one High Priest that I need to follow. There are two ways to look at observance of God's Word. One is according to word-for-word. The other is the overall theme of peace and understanding as well as acting and being God's child. The two basic commands were 1) love the LORD your God with all your body, soul, mind, and heart and 2) love your neighbor as yourself. How hard that is depends on whether I want to add my prejudices to the letter of the law. If my focus is on Jesus, though, then if someone else is concerned about how I conduct my life, that is his or her difficulty and I am not responsible for how that person thinks. If I am focusing on Jesus, chances are I will do as He says and love God above all else and then love my neighbor. That leaves no room for sinful behavior. If I conduct my life differently from the way other people do, but am not engaged in sin, is it wrong? Not according to God and Jesus. I am God's child and He is my only judge.

Who seems to get the blessing? Who does God grant His blessing upon? Hebrews 7:9 says that the blessing from God are bestowed on the lesser. This is no more evident than in the High Priest, Jesus (Hebrews 8). He was not rich, in fact he was ridiculed and despised of men and by hanging on the cross became the lowliest of the low, yet God bestowed upon Him. Because of Him, me and you and you and you and all those who put Him on and die to self, have salvation and a new and eternal life. If I walk with Him, and stay the course, I have a seat at the foot of the right hand of the Father. Look at Jacob, taking Esau's birthright (Genesis 27:37) The lesser getting the blessing. Jacob was born a little later than Esau. And Jacob was the one Isaac blessed first. But Jacob was also a thief and a liar. And he wrestled with God, and he understood that God was the one and only God. The least shall be first.

Who gets the blessing? Who does His will? If I am leading those about me to seek not His will but to look for that which they can get out of a service then I am misleading those around me and I am accountable. (Isaiah 9:15,16) If what I seek is a service that has pep, that has umph, that has sugar-coating, rip-roaring, tear-jerking messages with a preacher that won't quit, I may or may not be looking for ways to please God. How will I know whether I am pleasing God? Do I understand why and where God needs me? Do I understand that God is in all of history? (Isaiah 36:15-21) Do I understand God's great power? (Isaiah 37:10,23) Do I understand that I cannot hide from him? (Isaiah 40:27; Isaiah 45:9) Is what I am doing a mockery to Him? Do I delude myself in thinking that what I do is pleasing to Him, when I am not tending to His people, not tending to keep His message alive, not tending to His purpose for me and others? (Isaiah 52:5; Isaiah 65:7; Jeremiah 4:10; Jeremiah 17:15) Where is my belief? (Jeremiah 20:7) Does my worship represent an expression of me to God or does my worship display recognition of the glory of God? In 2 Chronicles 5:1, the priests couldn't even stand to minister because God's glory was so wonderful and God had basically displayed Himself. Sometimes during singing, I stop and listen and I can hear resonance of voices of the congregation from singing, and I feel His pleasure and glory. When I go before God's altar, and am with Him praying and allowing Him to communicate with me, I am His princess. (2 Chronicles 22:12) If I walk and talk with Him and worship only Him all for Him and not for me, then His temple will be built within me. (2 Chronicles 24:13) And if I allow idols to take over the worship of God, if I allow myself to be more concerned with what I am getting out of service and presentation of God rather than seeing and being with God Himself, my temple will eventually be destroyed. (2 Chronicles 33:2; 2 Chronicles 36:9) And it will take a renewal of my faith, a return to find and rebuild and restructure my life to fit God's desires and will for me. (Ezra 5:18,15; Ezra 7:20,23; Nehemiah 6:10) In the days of the nation of Israel after the Babylonian invasion, the temple was destroyed, but that was the physical temple. God could never be destroyed. And the proof of that was the constant rebuilding of the temple. This is true with me. While I may destroy my life with my idols, while I may allow things to take my focus from God, while my worship may turn to that which entertains me rather than that which uplifts and nurtures my spirit and teaches me to commune with God, which I begin to see that I have done wrong, God will take me and remold and rebuild within me a heart after His heart. It brings tears to my eyes to remember not the times before I put on Christ in baptism but those times after that I have chosen to stray and follow my intentions rather than God's. It brings tears to my eyes because God has never ceased to take me back and to continue to do so. (Psalm 42:4; Psalm 52:8). I know brethren that are so hurt that they feel that God could never take them back. This is not true. God has an altar that, when we sacrifice that which would take me away from Him so that we can be with Him,, He shines His Glory upon all of us. And the angels rejoice. It is in those times that I most appreciate my brethren, when we stand before His altar, and worship the King, sacrificing our selfish desires and all our lusts so that we can be purified by His Spirit. (Psalm 55:14; Ecclesiastes 5:1; Isaiah 2:3)