Tag: altar

About Our Sacrifices

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, Sacrifice, WorshipLeave a comment

DATE POSTED Monday, 2022-04-04
WRITTEN AT: Astatula, FL

SCRIPTURE FROM: Numbers 28:1-4
TRANSLATION: New Living Translation (NLT)

BIBLE TEXT: 1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Give these instructions to the people of Israel: The offerings you present as special gifts are a pleasing aroma to me; they are my food. See to it that they are brought at the appointed times and offered according to my instructions.
3 “Say to the people: This is the special gift you must present to the Lord as your daily burnt offering. You must offer two one-year-old male lambs with no defects. 4 Sacrifice one lamb in the morning and the other in the evening.

APPLICATION: Have you ever attended a church that still practices burning the sacrifices called for in God’s orders to Moses? For most of us, we would probably stay far enough away from such a church, for we might consider this sacrificing gory, or the smell too potent to be anywhere near to, and we might even want to question God’s sense of smell! So what might this whole practice be all about? I believe that when the people laid an animal on the fire – its flesh and all it’s inner parts, it represents us laying our lives bare before God and sacrificing everything we might consider ‘good’ in this life, as we ask God to accept us just as we are without one plea. Surely there is nothing sweeter to God than when we empty ourselves on the altar of sacrifice, and ask God to fill us with more of Himself to fill the emptiness and void left by the world. Here are two reasons, why this might be a sweet aroma to God:
-*- First, because it sets us free. God knows that sin is only pleasurable for a season (Hebrews 11:25). Consequently, whenever He smells the burning of the flesh, it’s sweet to Him because He knows the one making such an offering is set free. “To be carnally, or fleshly, minded is death,” Paul writes. “But to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (see Romans 8:6). Do you want to really live, to have abundant peace? Then put your flesh on the altar and be set free.
-*- Secondly, putting my flesh on the altar not only sets me free, but it lets me see. It lets me see God. Moses was one who desperately desired to see God. “If Your Presence doesn’t go with me,” he said, “I don’t want to go on this journey”. In other words, “I don’t want Your hand. I want Your face. I don’t want something from You, Lord. I just want You.”
Friends, whether or not you are aware of it, what we all crave is the face of God. We often think, however, that we want His hand, as is evidenced by our prayers. “Give me this, Lord. Touch that. Anoint the other. Open this door. Make it happen. My business is in trouble. My kids need Your touch. I’m not feeling very well,” we pray. We seek what God gives rather than who He is. And the problem is, once we get whatever is in His hand, it’s not enough. It doesn’t do what we thought it would do—be it in ministry, family, or any other arena. There’s something even more important than anointing. It’s called the presence of God.
Second Chronicles 7 says that when the presence of God filled the temple, the priests couldn’t even stand in ministry because of it. “Lord,” we say, “we want Your presence, Your chabod in our congregation and in our families.”
“Are you sure?” asks God, “because no one can see My face and live. You’ve got to die” (see Exodus 33:20).
Therefore, to the degree we die to ourselves is the degree to which we will experience God’s glory and presence, the degree to which we will see His face.
This was important for the Israelites as they practiced animal sacrifices, and it is even more important for us as we practice emptying ourselves, or sacrificing our sin, so that God may fill us afresh with Himself.

BLESSING(S) NOTED: May the sacrifice of ourselves, and our eternal praise be a sweet aroma to God, and perhaps even a blessing to us.

PRAYER: You sacrificed it all for us dear Lord Jesus, and we thank You from the very bottom of our hearts for that. May our ongoing sacrifices to You each day, in response to all that You bless us with, be a sweet aroma, and pleasing to You, oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Please be so prominent in our lives, that Your light will be evident in every phase of our lives, and may others desire union with our Lord, the King of all kings, and Lord of all lords. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog might indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

Be a Godly Example and receive His Blessings

On By Ed AlgreenIn A Lamp unto My Path, Bible Believing, Bold Confidence, Christian, Faith, Follow Jesus, Forgiveness, Getting Along, God Cares For Us, God’s Word, Healing, Helper, Honesty, Hope, Humility, Imitator of Christ, Listen to the Word of God, Love your Neighbor, Obedience, Our Help comes from God, Pleasing to God, Righteousness, Victorious LifeLeave a comment

Scripture: Genesis 13

OBSERVATION (What is God saying here?)

14 After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west.15 I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession.16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!17 Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.”18 So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. There he built another altar to the Lord.  Gen 13:14-18 (NLT)

APPLICATION (How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

In an earlier chapter we saw where Noah pleased God when he created an altar and gave a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God. In turn, he was blessed with a lot more than he thought he would have just coming out of the ark. In this passage we see where Abram was very open in being a peace maker. He was the key leader in this whole journey with Lot, yet when strife broke out, Abram was the one willing to step back and give Lot first preference in whichever land he wanted to settle on with his family, herds and belongings, and Abram settled for whatever was left. Although not specifically said in the passage, it is evident that this peaceful act, this display of family love and devotion, pleased God very much. In fact, so much so, that He met with Abram and showed him everything that would really belong to him. Abram, being the Godly man that he was, settled in and immediately built an altar to the Lord. Today it almost seems to be more important that we strive to be the revenger, the better man, the victor, the winner, to look bigger in the eyes of onlookers or those we try to impress, instead of being the peacemaker like Abram. I don’t believe that it ever hurts to eat ‘humble pie’ and always please God with our actions. This helps us be a much ‘bigger’ person in the eyes of our beholders, as they will realize that it must have been the power of God working in and through us, to face possible condemnation, possible defeat in the eyes of those looking for a fight, but to look and act more like God in what He would do in the same circumstance. In our passage today God has shown yet another example of what it means to represent Him and act in a Christian manner in our everyday lives. As we study His Word we will find more and more ways to look more like Him in all that we do and say instead of jumping in with both feet and doing what self, or the world promotes. Let’s be God-followers, even if it means eating the ‘humble pie’ like Abram did! In all circumstances let us be good examples of God in word and deed.

PRAYER (With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Your Word is filled with examples of how we should act and what it really means to represent You well while blessed to be here on this earth. Thank You for the example of Abram in this passage today. Today we are faced with equally as important decisions and/or challenges. May I not act in haste and respond in a manner outside of Your will or Your character. May I continue to represent You well in the good times, but may I also learn to represent You even more when old Satan rears his ugly head and tries to bring out the worst in me. May the worst in me be cleansed by You and replaced with qualities pleasing to You so that I may respond to life’s circumstances in a Godly fashion. It’s You I live for and You that I desire to please in all that I say or do, but I need Your constant touch on my life. Please continue to teach me Your ways and give me strength each day to be victorious in being Your representative in all things and in all ways.

Dt 11:22: (The Blessings of Obedience) – 22 “Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.

God is still God!

On By Ed AlgreenIn A Lamp unto My Path, Allegiance to the Lamb, Bible Believing, Born Again, Christian, Eternal Life, Faith, Follow Jesus, God Cares For Us, God our Helper, God our Provider, God Reigns, God’s Word, Heaven, Listen to the Word of God, Righteousness, Things Eternal, Victorious Life, Worry no moreLeave a comment

SCRIPTURE Studied: Genesis 12

OBSERVATION (What is God saying here?)

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants. ” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.8 After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord.9 Then Abram continued traveling south by stages toward the Negev. 10 At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner. Gen 12:7-10 (NLT)

APPLICATION (How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

At the beginning of this chapter it is so amazing to see God at work in Abram’s life, and also Abram being so obedient to leave his hometown and all the people that he knew, to move to a foreign land far away. In these verses, it is also interesting to note that during Abram’s journey everything was not rosy, no, everything did not go without a hitch and/or challenges. In fact, while passing through Canaan there was a great famine that hit the area. Now in a perfect world, most of us would say that if this was a journey destined by God, led and directed by Him, then why would there be obstacles. Friends this is the same way it is today. Just because we surrender our hearts to the Lord, we are not exempted from all the trials and tribulations of this world – at least as long as we live in this world! Often challenges will come our way – the question, or challenge for us is to determine is, which way will we go? A life totally surrendered to God will always do like Abram did, we will wait for further instructions, while during the interim challenge, looking to God for direction and depending on Him for strength to overcome. I believe that often our faith is determined by how we handle trials, not just on how well we do during the times of blessings and riches. God is still God during the highs, and during the lows of our lives. We must insure that our faith holds strong daily, because we don’t know what may be in store for us each day. Let’s think in terms of a partnership, we don’t jump ship on our partner on a day when things are rough, nor do we when our partnership celebrates its highs. A true partnership stays in tact during both good and bad times. So should our relationship with God. What are you facing today? Trust only in God and never lean on your own understanding, for only He knows what lies ahead for us. I love the words of that gospel song “God of the Mountain”, listen to it and be blessed as you reflect on the words of this Bible passage.

PRAYER (With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Like in the case of Abram, You bless me beyond measure each day oh God, and this morning I want to say thank You with all of my heart. Please forgive me when I worry about the challenges I see in life from the small perspective of my personal abilities. Please help me to stay so focused on You that I will always look through Your eyes and therefore face life’s challenges with the benefit of Your unlimited power and Your everlasting love for me. I believe that as I place my faith totally in You, I will always receive Your protection and You will bring me through life’s challenges in ways that will bring You glory. I know that this may not always come in the way that I may personally desire, but Lord I pray that You will help me to hide behind the cross and allow Your glory to shine through in all that I do or say. Self is insignificant in the whole scheme of things, for only those things that are done for Christ will last. May Your love shine through in all that is done in Your name this Christmas time! Thank You for sending Your Son as a babe, so that we may ultimately be re-born into life with You, and accepted into Your kingdom!