Worship at the Altar(s)

I have been thinking lately about worship and talked specifically about music in worship recently. In that post I mentioned that worship is really about how we live our lives. I traveled this weekend to a place of worship and God was working on my heart as I considered what it means to worship Him, to remember the places in my life where I felt truly alive in Him.

The Old Testament is full of stories where God's people built altars to honor what the Lord had done at that place: when God called Abram (Gen 12:1-9);at the foot of Mt. Sinai where Moses confirms his covenant with the Lord (Ex. 24); David to stop a plague in Israel (2 Sam. 24:18-25) and many other places of reverence. God actually commands the Israelites to put an altar "...wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you (Ex 20:24)." Others see the altars set up by their ancestors as reminders and worship the Lord for what he had done for them. These altars became sacred space, holy ground, reminders of the glory of God.

I had the chance to visit the camp where I was saved as a teen and worked at in college this past weekend and I couldn't help but feel like I was walking on holy ground. Camp was covered in snow and I was overwhelmed by the cleansing that God showered on me through that place. I stood and looked out from the place where I shared my testimony for the first time, where I wrote down my sins on a piece of paper and one by one threw them into the fire as a symbol of my decision to never go back to who I was before Christ was a part of my life. I glanced over the field and walked by the cabins where, as a counselor, I sang the same silly songs, played the same games, and listened to the same story  week after week as lives were transformed. Christ allowed me to be a part of the His walk in the lives of so many youth. It was an incredibly beautiful weekend.

I have had many experiences like those since then in my own life and see Christ in the lives of others and this weekend I began to think of those times and places as altars to honor what the Lord as done. They are places where many will go after me and continue to worship Him and to share in His glory, to build their own altars there. They also serve as places where I can go back and be reminded.  I believe that God delights in our worship at all times and he reminds us of the places we have been so that we can go forth with confidence in what he is able to do, so we can build more altars and worship Him at the altars of our brothers and sisters who have gone before us.

I pray that there are moments in your life where you can look back and see how the Lord has worked in your life. I also pray that he provides you with every opportunity to see his love in your life and throughout the world. If you find yourself in a dark time in your life, try to remember what God has shown you in the light. He is faithful to complete his work in you (Phil. 1:6)