GUARD YOUR ALTAR
Fretwell@aol.com (Fretwell@aol.com)
Sun, 9 Mar 1997 11:55:47 -0500 (EST)
Here is one I may have submitted earlier. If so, it will do no harm to read
it again. :-)
GUARD THE ALTAR
Genesis 15 tells of Abram being told to put five creatures on the altar,
which would serve as a binding covenant between him and the God of Heaven.
He obeyed, dividing the carcases, as instructed.
For the remainder of the day, Abraham guarded the sacrifice against
vultures. He didn't allow anything to molest any part of the sacrifice.
It was a tedious job, and required constant watchfulness on his part,
but he completed the day, and when it was evening, God showed up and walked
through the midst of the sacrifice. At the same time, the Lord revealed to
Abram that he would, indeed, have a son, and that in the fourth generation
his posterity would go into Egypt for four generations-- eight generations in
all.
Successfuly guarding the altar brought Abram into a deeper relationship
with God.
It will for us too, if we know what a vulture looks like, so we will
know what to guard against. If you can recognize them, you can keep them
away.
What do they look like? How will we know them when we see them?
Well, finding fault with our Church leaders will do a lot of damage to
our consecration to God.
Listening to, and spreading gossip will tear huge hunks of sacrifice off
our altar. We will never be what we could have been if we had recognized and
driven that vulture off before it could do damage to our soul.
Contributing to disunity in the home, the church or the community can
leave us with the "mark of Cain" in our foreheads.
You get the idea. We must carefully guard our relationship to God.
There are MANY things which are too dangerous for us to allow even close to
our commitment to God.
"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of
life."