Before the altar, part 15

What God is trying to tell me with the altar, what He is trying to teach me is that it is true that the place is important, as it resembles "Heaven on earth". (Psalm 5:7; Ephesians 2:21; Ephesians 3:17) Since God dwells in me and in His earthly physical temple as well and because He dwells on His throne in heaven, it is my goal to maintain that purity of spirit, maintain the reverence He deserves. (Psalm 11:4; Psalm 65:4; Habakkuk 2:20) Otherwise, my worship is such a special place. It is a blessed place (Exodus 40:9; Leviticus 8:10,11) and it represents that place that Jesus has gone up to heaven to prepare for me. (John 14:2)

What a sacred place His place of worship is, from the beginning of time! How sanctified those who were called to be His priests! (1 Chronicles 23:32) How specific the design of His building was as shown in 1 Kings 8:8; Exodus 38:24) and the ceremony to be carried on within it, as laid out in Leviticus 14:13. How specific the behavior was to be when one was of the order of Levi, as outlined in 2 Chronicles 29:5 and 2 Chronicles 30:7. And how specific the behavior was among those numbered in His! (2 Chronicles 35:5; Ezra 9:8). God's place is, always has been and always will be a holy place. Psalm 24:3 asks, "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place?" Psalm 24:4 answers by saying those with clean hands and a pure heart. Psalm 46:4 describes the place as the city through which a river runs through. And Psalm 68:17 says that God keeps up His holy place, describing it as a sanctuary, with tens of thousands and thousands of thousands of His chariots. He has legions upon legions to keep up His place. Are any of us truly worthy, in and of ourselves? No. God's place is so holy and so protected that there is no passport that would bring us there, except that of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because God's place is the place of everlasting peace, and in order to do that, He must keep order. HE must keep order, no one else has that responsibility because no one else is worthy of it. We are all capable of doing anything at any time. So even if His physical place is destroyed and burned to the floor, the Spiritual realm goes ever on. Why then was it important for the people of Israel to rebuild their city and their Temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Assyrians? It is a reminder of the power and presence of God. This is why assembling with one another today is important. We will not forget Jesus broke the bread and passed the cup and said eat and drink this and think of me if in memoriam we do it together and for the united purpose that we believe Jesus came, Jesus died, Jesus was buried, and Jesus arose. But it also involves humility and contriteness, as in Isaiah 57:15, of a heart that desires not to ride with one's own legions, but with the one that could have called 10,000 angels, as the hymn says. God has sanctioned that there is a portion of His land that His children on earth will live in and on. And those places are sacred and shall be treated as such. And one who is not contrite and humbled before Him cannot enter in the Spiritual realm. As Jesus said in Matt 23:25, the cup must be cleaned from inside out, not just the outside, as the Pharisees were wont to do. That is the only way for anyone to enter heaven.

Before the altar part 14

When I come before the altar with my own intentions, and have put my traditions and my rules and regulations according to what I wish to see, I am as bad as an infidel, as loathsome a creature as if I never knew God. I defile the purpose of my God to live in peace with mankind. This is what people did to Stephen, as because of their traditions and vehement application of such they stoned him to death. (Acts 6:13). And this is what the people did in Acts 21:28 to Paul because they didn't want to hear his preaching. When it comes to the point that I am not willing to even listen to the teaching of a preacher, then I have effectively become close-minded and ineffective. Just because I receive the message of what others may speak doesn't mean I agree with it. It is just that all have a free will and the right to express this. No, once I become close-minded to someone, how can I expect him or her to open up to me? I remember a time when I was passionate about being right, a time when I would throw away letters if the person writing me told me that they wanted to do something other than what I was doing as a Christian, and I would never talk to those people again, at least not for a long time. How childish of me! Christ listened to everyone, and He presented His view to everyone. And if there were those that accepted him, fine and all the better. But it is not love to cut someone off because of a disagreement of viewpoints. (Hebrews 9:12,25) If I even try to live by traditions, I might as well say that the sacrifice of small goats and sheep will save me. In reality I know the truth. Only the blood of Christ saves me. Not all people look at being a Christian from this angle. Some are not aware of the truth of the statement that Christ and only Christ saves me. But does that mean I should not listen to what they wish to say?