{"id":2122,"date":"2015-07-02T17:01:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T23:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=2122"},"modified":"2015-07-02T17:05:09","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T23:05:09","slug":"the-altar-builder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=2122","title":{"rendered":"The Altar Builder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-07-01<\/a>I had a rough night of sleep last night with a lot of coughing and restlessness. When I took my bandage off my incision I did notice some discoloration on my eyelid that the doctor had warned me about. This morning, I made a visiting to my Chiropractor and he counted about 18-20 small stitches that were needed to my head closed up.<\/p>\n

This morning, I attended the memorial service for Bob Odell. The Odell’s and Kercher’s attended church together for a number of years and my father-in-law and brother-in-law served on the Church Board with Bob in the past. It was a great tribute to a faithful follower of the Lord, who made an impact on many. Bob’s daughter Dawn did an excellent job not only sharing about her dad’s life but sharing the spiritual challenge for the day. Our prayers continue to be with Mary and the family as they make this adjustment to the loss of a loved one.<\/p>\n

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 “<\/sup>The Lord<\/span> appeared to Abram and said, \u201cI will give this land to your descendants.\u201d So Abram built an altar there to the Lord<\/span>, who had appeared to him.\u00a0<\/span> Then he traveled from Shechem to the mountain east of Bethel and set up his tent there.<\/span>…There Abram built another altar to the Lord<\/span> and worshiped him.”<\/span>\u00a0 <\/em>Genesis 12:6-8 (NCV)<\/p>\n

“Altars”<\/em> become important places and symbols in scripture. They are places of worship, places that establish and mark a covenant or a point of consecration.<\/p>\n

When the Lord called Abraham and gave him His promise regarding his future and his descendants, Abraham responds by building an altar. It is here, he worships the Lord who has given him a promise that is beyond his comprehension. As he worships Abraham makes himself available and expresses his trust in the Lord. Scripture simply says of Abraham,\u00a0 “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.<\/em>“<\/em> (Genesis 15:6)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

We see Abraham traveling to Shechem and there he builds another altar. We don’t have insight as to the reason or motivation for this place, but it represented another point remembrance, consistent trust and worship as the Lord was directing and providing for Abraham on this faith-walk, this journey to a place “the Lord would show him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The other significant altar in Abraham’s life takes place many years later. Isaac is born and the Lord calls Abraham and Isaac to take a hike to the top of Mount Moriah. There an altar is built and as Abraham prepares to offer his own son as a sacrifice the Lord steps in and provides a substitute. Abraham is preparing to sacrifice, the representation of a promise fulfilled and a future, but God steps in and provides. We read, “<\/em>The angel said, \u201cDon\u2019t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you trust God and that you have not kept your son, your only son, from me.\u201d…\u00a0<\/sup>So Abraham named that place The Lord<\/span> Provides. Even today people say, \u201cOn the mountain of the Lord<\/span> it will be provided.\u201d<\/span><\/em> (Genesis 22:13,14)<\/span><\/p>\n

We find at some altars, when we are willing to lay down that which we want to hold on, God provides. <\/em>The provision of a substitute is the message of the gospel in a picture. Christ the Lamb of God as our substitute before the Lord.<\/p>\n

I have always like the insight of Pastor Jack Hayford. In speaking of altars he observes, “Altars represent the occasion and place where we have had a personal encounter with God. We may not always be able to make a physical altar, but there can be one established in our hearts….There is a place<\/strong> of \u201caltaring\u201d and a price<\/strong> of altering. Altars have a price–God intends that something be \u201caltered\u201d in us when we come to altars. To receive the promise means we make way for the transformation.”\u00a0 (http:\/\/www.jackhayford.org\/teaching\/articles\/a-time-of-altars\/<\/a>)<\/em><\/address>\n

Altars are places of sacrifice. They are places of surrender. They are places of submission, worship and trust. After Abraham returned from his “fateful”<\/em> sojourn to Egypt he returned to the first altar he built. Sometimes we need to return to those places to refocus and reclaim God’s promise for our life and set our lives aright once again.<\/p>\n

As the “Father of Faith”<\/em> Abraham was a builder of altars. In our lives of faith, there are those “altar building”<\/em> moments when there is change, consecration, dedication and laying hold of God’s promises for our life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a rough night of sleep last night with a lot of coughing and restlessness. When I took my bandage off my incision I did notice some discoloration on my eyelid that the doctor had warned me about. This morning, I made a visiting to my Chiropractor and he counted about 18-20 small stitches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2126,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions\/2126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}