Before the Altar....where are we when we worship part 4)

When I bring just myself to the altar, when I say, “Here I am, Lord”, God will cause me to flourish, sometimes physically, always spiritually. He will cause me to flourish in His church (Psalm 92:13,14) but His altar, His church is not just where I sit on Sundays. It is everywhere I walk. And He will cause me, and those that follow Him, to prosper. What can I possibly do to give the Lord His due? He saved me, He took me from sin and blessed me over and over. His love never ends. There is nothing I wouldn’t bring to Him, all is due Him. Yes, all He wants is me and my heart. (Psalm 116:12-14,17) While I may stumble God allows me into His righteousness. There is nothing I can do to give Him His due, except to praise Him. I will gladly do that and I will gladly worship Him in that manner. (Psalm 122:1)  I go before the altar with everything I have –I will dispose of things that keep me from Him and enjoy the love and mercy He shows me when I worship from my heart. (Psalm 138:12). Praising Him is always a priority, part of the very fiber of worship and of the very being and soul of me because He is God. And I will sing and enjoy Him and obey Him without working to earn His love but I will bask in Him listening to what makes Him pleased and smiling rather than what makes me feel good.  (Ecclesiastes 5:1,2)

Before the altar...where am I when I worship (part 3)

When I purify my worship God sanctifies my altar (Exodus 29:43; Exodus 30:19-21). God wants our reverence (Exodus 34:8) He gave the Israelites instructions in worshiping from their heart and that applies to His people today (I Chronicles 16:29; 2 Kings 7:36). At one time, God’s people were unable to approach God because His glory was in the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:34,35) Even Aaron in Leviticus 16:2 and the priests in David’s time in I Kings 8:31. Now because of Christ I and others that are God’s people in Christ can go boldly before His throne. (Hebrews 4:16) In fact we as His people are asked to come before Him if we are going to follow Him. (Leviticus 10:3) So that we can do this, Jesus sits at God’s right hand and provides the way for us to come before God.

 

But what can I bring to the table of the Lord that He has  not already provided? (Nehemiah 10:39) Do I bring my best, as God asks? Or am I desiring that God be impressed with my works rather than to praise Him for what He has done in me? Do I give “reverence” at His holy table? (Psalm 5:7) Do I declare Him and praise Him in His house (Psalm 22:22)? If I go before His altar, all of me  must be clean, particularly my soul. All of me must be cleansed. (Psalm 24:3-6). My mind must be cleared of what the world would use to take me away from God. God wants me to be 100% His, mind, heart, soul and body, Much as Christ was His. (Luke 2:52) It comes to the point where I share the Psalmists’ sentiment, “I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord:That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth”. (Psalm 26:6-8) and one thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek after, and that is that “I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” (Psalm 27:4)

Before the altar (where are we when we worship) (part 2)

God wants priority when we worship. (Exodus 20:24-26) He wants us to make a pure altar, not combined with anything, not mixed with what we would call beautiful or with what we would call correctly sung or written. He wants the purity. God knows that all He created has intrinsic beauty, and that is what He wants us to bring to the altar. He wants us to worship Him and only Him and not the aspects as we perceive Him. By the same token, since Christ came, we are all able to come before Him (Exodus 24:1-2) and not be represented before God by anyone but Jesus. Ministers, preachers, and others of leadership are not representatives of God but merely guides, and God is the one that allows us to be His royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9). Prior to Christ, prior to all those that profess Him, God was still gracious and promised to commune with Him after having built a sanctuary. That indicates a desire for Him to be with us throughout time with a God! We wear special clothing as mentioned in Matthew 22;10-11 and Exodus  28:34-35.

 

Before the altar,,,,where do we worship, part 1

Where was Moses when he truly worshipped God? God brought him to a place in Exodus 3:56 in which Moses couldn’t look at God for the purity, strength, and love of God in all His divinity. In Exodus 5:1 again seeing Moses worshipping God, but this time his worship is in the presence of Pharaoh by acknowledging that God is Who He says He is. And that it is time for Pharaoh to let His people go….so that they can witness the kindness and mercy of God. And in Exodus 15:2ff, Moses and the people sing the praises of God because of what He brought them through and where He was going to take them based on the past promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that were fulfilled. True worship of God is the acknowledgement of God in all of His holiness and praising Him for what He does in our lives. But more than that, when we acknowledge God in our lives especially to those who may not know Him we are indeed worshipping and actually acknowledging His mercy and kindness as well as the divinity in which He reigns. While Moses still revered God in Exodus 15, he is nonetheless joyous rather than afraid. He has seen the burning bush, he has seen his hand turn from leprous to normal, he has seen a staff turn to a snake and back and he knows God can take him anywhere. Where am I in this milieu? Am I happy to be God’s child? Am I grateful for where He has brought me, through surgeries, a controlling mother, broken hearts through loss, and job changes, am I able to go to Him and say “Praise You”? Do I go before Him, purified and strengthened in worship, no matter in the collective worship (Exodus 19:10-13)or personal worship. God is merciful (Exodus 19:20-24). He knows that in my humanness I will delight in Him even if I am in sin. I love God and that is all He wants from me is my heat.