[Biblemat] S) WHEN AN ALTAR IS HARD TO BUILD

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  Here is a study from my
files.  Use to the glory of God.

WHEN AN ALTAR IS HARD TO BUILD

     THE NEWS HIT ME HARD.  IN FACT, I WASN'T THE SAME
FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS: -- A wonderful Christian cou-
ple had lost their beautiful little girl.  She was doing great one
week but then tragically a few days later she died.  How do
you deal with that?  Even though I wasn't the one with the
immediate loss, my mind didn't want to process an answer.

     I went to the visitation and was so touched.  A collage of 
pictures of thsi little one was placed in the foyer.  One frame
said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me for of such is
the kingdom of heaven."  The other said, "Jesus loves the
little children."  It was comforting to see such innocence be-
fore me and know that Jesus' words were true.

     My greatest joy came when I was finally within sight of the
mom and dad.  There they were with smiling faces and tear
moistened eyes.  It reminded me of how Stephen's persecut-
ors saw his face as the face of an angel (Acts 6:15).  It was 
faith on display.  I told them what it did for me to see them
smiling from a distance.  The mother said, "Good.  We want
people to see what we hae in us so that maybe they will desire to have what 
we have."  The father said, "I told my wife
before we came that we had to buckle down today.  We are
Christians."  I marveled at their devotion.

     I thought of other men and women of faith who built altars
when it was hard; who worshipped when they hurt.  Abraham'
s life was characterized by altars and tents (Gen. 12:6-8; 13:3,4,18).  His 
tent demonstrated that he knew he was just
passing through this world.  His altar demonstrated his loyal-
ty and devotion to his Father in heaven.  But the day came
when he had to build the hardest altar ever.  It was the one
on which God asked him to offer his son.  My heart is ripped
out when I hear Isaac say, "My father!  Look, the fire and the
wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"  Oh, how
that had to hurt.  The text continues, "And Abraham built an
altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac
his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood."  Those had
to be the heaviest stones he had ever picked up and put into
place.  Abraham stayed devoted to God when he didn't know
when (the promises would be fulfilled), where (God was lead-
ing him), how (Sarai could have a child at such an old age) and why (God 
would ask him to offer his son).  I am sure my
friends had questions -- why their daughter left them so early
in life yet they kept walking in the steps of Abraham's faith
(Rom. 4:12).

     I remember King David as he faced the inevitable death of
his newborn son.  David pleaded with the Lord, fasted and lay
all night on the ground.  The seventh day came and David
heard whispering.  He knew what it meant.  He said to his ser-
vants, "Is the child dead?"  And they said, "He is dead" (2 Sam. 12:19).  
What will David do?  What would you do?  How
do you deal with that?  "So David arose from the ground, 
washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes and he went into the 
house of the Lord and worshipped" (2 Sam.
12:20).  It was the response of a man devoted to God and
what comfort it must have given him!

     We will never have a greater opportunity to win others to
the Lord when we are hurting.  When we continue worshipp-
ing God in such moments, people notice.  It may be the very
thing that gets them to thinking deeply about their own souls.
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were surely hurting after they had
been beaten and put in prison.  They could have moaned,
groaned and complained.  "But at midnight Paul and Silas
were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners
were listening to them" (Acts 16:25).  That kind of devotion
moved God to bring an earthquake and moved the jailer to
ask, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30).

     We sometimes think that the great examples of faith are 
found only in the Bible.  But today, I'll add the names of two
more modern day saints known by God to my list.  May God
bless them for erecting their altars (worshipping) even in
their hurt.  And my we have the faith to do the same.  --------
Jeff May in Biblical Insights, Vol. 7, No. 3, March 2007.   </HTML>
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