Build an altar?

[pearly163]

I didn't have an answer to offer either so I had a look at what some websites said about building alters. There were many different ideas about this subject.

I found one which seemed the best idea about being an alter, I will quote from it below. Hope it helps.

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After Gideon talked to the Lord face to face, he built an altar to Him. Look at Romans 12:1. It tells us to do the same thing with our own bodies.

After we meet face to face with the Lord, we will want to build an altar to the Lord and offer ourselves as a sacrifice to Him. But it is obvious that there are many Christians who are not dead to self. Maybe it is because they are not meeting with the Lord like they should. They forfeit spiritual success.

There is a positive and a negative side to righteousness. Gideon not only build an altar to the Lord, but he also tore down the altar to Baal. Many Christians say that they have offered themselves as a sacrifice to the Lord, but it is obvious that they are not dead to self because there is too much of Baal still left in their life.

We need more Christians who take the time to find out exactly what God wants them to do. Some don't want to know. It may involve study or work or moving or a change of plans. But we will never be spiritually successful until we find God's will for our life.

We may not be sure of what God wants, but if we want to find His will -- to the point of talking to Him, and building an altar to Him and tearing down the altar of Baal -- He will show us His will. Romans 12:2b says, "But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

[oldzimm]

A ministry organization I receive feeds from on FB wrote this:

"We have no idea what worship really is. If we want to worship, we write a song. In the Bible, they built an altar." -Damon Thompson

After recovering from feeling floored, I then began pondering what "building an altar" might be? (I mean, it is not as if we can pile stones on top of each other and sacrifice a lamb on it or whatever else might have been done with the altar.)

Thoughts?

In the Old Testament people built alters to sacrifice things to God during their worship. Today, probably in most churches you will see an alter with a cross on or above it. This (in my opinion) represents the ultimate sacrifice, when Jesus (the lamb of God) sacrificed himself for our sins. So the alters we see in churches now a days are symbols of the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

[other one]

We have a bench at the front of our sanctuary that we call an alter. We use it to go to and pray. All the alters I'm familiar with today are places to pray.

[Openly Curious]

It's when we "yield" the throne room of "our hearts," over to the lordship of Christ making him Lord over our lives accepting his sacrifice on the cross, his death burial and resurrection. When we do this Christ comes into our hearts taking his rightful place on the throne of our hearts as King. Our hearts now surrendered to the Lord becomes the temple of God as we have been bought back with a price and Christ paid that ransom price by the work done on the cross. Since we yielded our lives to the Lord we no longer are our own we belong to God we are "HIS TEMPLE".

The Lord gave us grace through faith it was given to us freely and as far as God is concerned we owe him "nothing" in return for his grace it is a free gift. Thus it is out of extreme gratitude that we willingly lay down our lives on the altar of our own hearts concencrating our lives on the altar becoming "living sacrifices."

Apostle Paul in (Romans 12) speaking to the believers says, "I BESEECH" you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your "bodies" a living sacrifice, holy, "acceptable" unto God, which is your "reasonable" service. Paul was earnestly trying to get across to the believers there in Rome just what it was to present themselves (their bodies the temple of God) before the Lord in a way that would please him while living out their lives on this earth as a "living" sacrifice in his sight.

You can read Paul in (Romans 12.....) begin to teach what christian conduct was and how we should walk before the Lord in a manner that was right in every day life and Paul makes it clear about what our christian conduct should be in this world and before others. Paul said, "we needed to present our bodies holy, and acceptable to God" then he says, "which is your reasonable service" that we needed to get rid of our own thoughts replacing them with the truths and knowledge found in scripture. Letting the scripture mold us letting it teach us about God and we want remain in the dark with our own thoughts .

Our own bodies the temple of God that we are to offer on the altar of our hearts on a daily basis as we are to die daily to our own will and live our lives in a way that pleases God. Inside of our hearts is a throne and a altar for God to sit on the throne of our hearts then we must offer ourselves as a living sacrifice on the altar that Christ may rule. There are untold blessing that flow from the throne of God. A lot of praise and worship as the angels of God around his throne crying holy, holy, holy we are to speak in our hearts psalms and hymns making melody in our hearts to the Lord. All believers can hum a tune to a song or a hymn in their hearts that maybe they've heard before like "Amazing Grace" for an example and when this happens praise and worship comes out of our hearts to the Lord who is in his temple our bodies as also are told that out of your belly shall flow rivers of "living" waters.