Spiritual Sacrifices

Posted on by korgrocker

“You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.”
1 Peter 2:4-5 NLT

The Jewish religion was based on the sacrifice of animals and other items on the altars located firstly in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. Sacrifices were typically for an offering for sin, such as we read in Exodus 29:36a, “Each day you must sacrifice a young bull as a sin offering to purify them, making them right with the Lord … ”. But Jesus became an eternal sacrifice for all sins and His death on Calvary sealed the New Covenant between God and man. The prophet Jeremiah foretold of the New Covenant, as we read in Jeremiah 31:33, ““But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people””.

Just as the Old Testament priests were responsible for offering up sacrifices to God, we pilgrims of the new Covenant “offer spiritual sacrifices that please God”. So what are these “sacrifices”? One go-to Scripture is in Romans 12:1, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him”. Then we have the sacrifice of praise, as we read in Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name”. In the Old Testament, incense was offered up as a sacrifice, and this is often associated with prayer. We read in Psalm 141:2, “Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering”. 

We pilgrims offer up sacrifices to God that consist of our prayers, praises, worship, our bodies – in fact everything we do we can turn into a sacrifice to God, as we do it in His name. That is what a living sacrifice is all about. We lay ourselves willingly on the altar before Him, remembering the words of the old hymn, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee“.

Dear Lord. We offer up our sacrifices of praise today in deep gratitude for Your grace and love. Amen.

Holy Days

Posted on by korgrocker

“In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable.”
Romans 14:5 NLT

In many ways this verse today is very applicable to Western cultures. For example, our retail industry demands a 7-day working week, with shop assistants, delivery drivers and others having to work on a Sunday, which is considered by many people to be a “holy day”. In the Western Isles in Scotland, Sunday is still considered to be a day of rest, a Sabbath, and in recent years there have been protests and much opposition to anything considered to be “work”. It is only in the latter half of the twentieth century that shops, for example, have been allowed to open here in the UK, and Sabbath principles are still clinging on with restrictions on the sales of certain items. Traditional Presbyterianism has demanded that the Biblical principle of a day of rest is followed strictly. 

Our society has become a 24/7 merry-go-round of work, more work, little play and even less of a focus on having a “holy day”. Global communications and universal internet availability facilitate remote working for the white-collar professions. Economic demands encroach into what should be leisure time. But right at the beginning of time as we know it, God set an example for mankind to follow. We read in Genesis 2:2-3, “On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation”. By convention, God followers, whether Jewish or Christian, have encouraged the implementation of a “holy day”. The Jewish sabbath. The Christian Sunday. God’s blueprint for mankind followed – until recently that is. In the secular West, a “holy day” has been displaced to become a leisure day, for golf, gardening or some other pastime like shopping or visiting friends or relatives. Human beings, like God, need to rest from labour. We know that working 7-day weeks will wear us down quite quickly, leading to burn out and ill health.

But is it necessary to have a “holy day”? Shouldn’t everyday be dedicated to God? That is right, of course, but a day spent in fellowship with other Christians, corporately worshipping our Heavenly Father, is a time when our spirits are recharged and refilled once again with the Holy Spirit. A time when we take time out from the mundane and briefly look upwards into Heavenly places. A time when we look over the parapets of Heaven and get a glimpse of the Glory lands beyond. A time when we receive some dimly-lit ideas, even visions, of what eternal life will be like. A time when we hear a preacher explore the Word and sing spiritual psalms and songs together. A time when the Holy Spirit has room to minister God’s love and grace amongst us. And as the sun sets on a holy day we look into the week, refreshed and re-equipped to make a difference in our jobs, our schools, our families, and our communities. 

Father God. We thank You for Your example of taking a day of rest and the opportunity of spending it in worship to You. May we turn our pews into altars of praise and worship to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Measuring Stick (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then I was given a measuring stick, and I was told, “Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers. But do not measure the outer courtyard, for it has been turned over to the nations. They will trample the holy city for 42 months.”
Revelation‬ ‭11:1-2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We spend a second day musing over these two verses in Revelation. John was out and about in his vision with a “measuring stick”. Looking over the Church and assessing its spiritual health and well being. If he was roaming over our increasingly secular Western societies, would he find a Church full of life and vigour impacting the very fabric of our culture, or would he find a sick and anaemic group of Christians huddled together in ever-reducing numbers, holding onto the remnants of their faith like drowning men clutch a straw. If John’s measuring stick was able to assess the quality of the worship of God in the Church, would he have found the worshippers going through liturgical motions or was there a meaningful connection with God? Spirit to spirit. Would he have found worshippers more concerned with the flowers on the altar rather than the praise and worship of our loving Heavenly Father? 

Having looked for fruit in the Church, John moves on to measure the altar. When someone mentions the word “altar” a picture emerges in our minds of an ornate, cloth covered table located right at the front of a church building. The church-goers treat it with respect and often go through a process of genuflection, as though publicly declaring that God is somehow located there. But the altar is a place of consecration and it is where we meet God, declaring anew our faith in, and love for, Him. A place where we confess our sins but it needn’t be a physical place or object; for most people it is in their hearts, a place of spiritual significance in the lives of every pilgrim. It’s a place where we pause in our worldly, work-a-day thoughts and prayerfully lift our spirits into His presence. So what would John have measured here?

We consecrate our lives to the worship of God, sacrificing the other less important issues on our altars. On the altar in the Old Testament Temple, a painful and final act took place – an animal was killed as part of an expression of the covenant between God and His people. The sacrifice cost something. And the worship of God in our lives today is also a costly act. It costs us our time. It may cost us financially. But above all, it costs us our independence. A pilgrim sacrifices his or her worldly and sinful ways on God’s altar, expressing our allegiance to our loving Heavenly Father. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” And amazingly, as Jesus said to His disciples in John 8:32, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Sacrificing ourselves on God’s altar frees us from a life of sin and death – true freedom indeed. We now have the freedom to do what we should, not stuck in a life enslaved to the devil’s ways.

The next task John had to do was to count the number of worshippers. Why should that matter? In our times of dwindling church congregations, we try and rationalise events by saying it is all about quality not quantity. But deep down we mourn the loss of our friends who move on to, at best, another church, or, as so many do, fall away from the faith into more secular activities. So why count the worshippers? Perhaps God is asking John to make sure that no-one is missing. I’m reminded of Jesus’s parable about the Lost Sheep, where He diligently searched for the one that was lost. It is reassuring to know that God wants no-one to be missed when it is the Time of the End.

Finally in these two verses, John is told not to bother with the outer courtyard. When thinking of this, I pictured a place full of spiritual tourists, people with no idea of who God is and with no appreciation of the awesomeness and majesty of God. On a recent visit to Salisbury Cathedral, I was touched spiritually when a member of the cathedral’s clergy asked everyone to be respectful while he offered up the morning prayers to God, joining in if they wished. But sadly, most ignored the moment, instead continuing to wander around chatting and commenting on the artefacts on display. They were the tramplers, visitors to the outer courtyards of the Church, and John was told the trampling would continue to do so for forty two months, three and a half years. The mention of the trampling of the Holy City was perhaps a reference to the verses from the prophet Daniel. We read in Daniel 7:25, “He will defy the Most High and oppress the holy people of the Most High. He will try to change their sacred festivals and laws, and they will be placed under his control for a time, times, and half a time“. And Daniel 12:7, “The man dressed in linen, who was standing above the river, raised both his hands toward heaven and took a solemn oath by the One who lives forever, saying, “It will go on for a time, times, and half a time. When the shattering of the holy people has finally come to an end, all these things will have happened.”” Perhaps God’s people were to be persecuted for forty two months by the Gentiles, the unbelievers, present on the periphery of the Church. 

At a time like this, having read of such events, we pilgrims can only shudder, fascinated yet appalled by the implication behind John’s vision. And we do what the Psalmists did. We pour out our concerns before God. I turned to Psalm 7 this morning and read, “I come to you for protection, O Lord my God. Save me from my persecutors—rescue me! God is my shield, saving those whose hearts are true and right. I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.” (‭‭Psalms‬ ‭7:1, 10, 17). A couple of pages further on we read, “But the Lord reigns forever, executing judgment from his throne. He will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness. The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.” (‭‭Psalms‬ ‭9:7-10). The Psalms are full of the musings and cries, the prayers and praises, of pilgrims just like us. God’s love just pours from every page, an unstoppable tide of His grace and mercy. And we can’t leave this moment without reading Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!” And somehow, as we put our future in God’s hands, we receive the strength we need. 

Dear Lord God. We once again express our gratitude that You are our loving Heavenly Father, who cares for us. Amen.

The Gold Altar

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. And the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. I heard the size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops.”
Revelation‬ ‭9:13-16‬ ‭NLT

A speaking altar. John’s vision clearly described it as being made of gold, with four horns, and positioned right there in God’s presence. There must have been something sacred and holy about it. And a voice came from it with an instruction that became the second terror, or woe. But what was the significance of the altar? To answer that question we have to look back into the Old Testament, where altar-building instructions can be found.

In Exodus 30, God gave Moses a blueprint for the golden altar, that was to be used for burning incense. We read, “Then make another altar of acacia wood for burning incense. Make it 18 inches square and 36 inches high, with horns at the corners carved from the same piece of wood as the altar itself. Overlay the top, sides, and horns of the altar with pure gold, and run a gold moulding around the entire altar.” (‭‭Exodus‬ ‭30:1-3). God continued with instructions about what the altar was to be used for. “Every morning when Aaron maintains the lamps, he must burn fragrant incense on the altar. And each evening when he lights the lamps, he must again burn incense in the Lord’s presence. This must be done from generation to generation. Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing its horns with blood from the offering made to purify the people from their sin. This will be a regular, annual event from generation to generation, for this is the Lord’s most holy altar.” (‭‭Exodus‬ ‭30:7-8, 10‬ ‭NLT).

So the golden altar in John’s vision was probably the same as the altar we read about in Revelation 8, “Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.” (‭‭Revelation‬ ‭8:3-4‬ ‭NLT). Some theologians think that the golden altar with its horns was a “type” of Christ because His prayers of intercession are constantly rising up to God like incense.

 Altars played a very important role in ancient Jewish worship. But what about today, in our Western churches? Pilgrims from a Catholic or Anglican background, and visitors to churches in these denominations, will be aware of a cloth covered table located at the front of a church building. The decorations and ornaments are beautifully ornate, with extensive use of gold and even precious stones, and someone like myself, brought up in an Anglican Church, feel a sense of reverence when approaching this object, what is referred to as an “altar”. From an early age I grew up with the thought that somehow God lives there. In Anglican liturgy it is at the altar that the priest undertakes various duties during a church service, with congregants looking on. Bodily responses such as genuflection or bowing are performed when passing in front of the altar, reflecting the reverence and awe afforded to this item of furniture.

A modern application of an altar is in the wayside shrines that crop up today. Perhaps where some unfortunate person was killed in a road accident, or, as in my local community, where a young man, apparently high on drugs, committed suicide. The person’s loved ones have erected an “altar” in their memory and regularly place flowers there. Another example of this is with the inclusion of plaques of remembrance being affixed to park benches. But an altar is nothing more than a place of consecration. A place where a memory can be immortalised.

But whatever our liturgy or upbringing, is an altar of any real relevance in our pilgrim lives? I would suggest there is great importance in an altar, but a personal one. In Jewish worship it was on the altar that animals were sacrificed as an act of worship to God. But in a personal way we develop an altar to commemorate our commitment to God. In my morning prayer walks, I have way points where I pause to offer up to God thanks and praise for something or someone in my life that has been significant. We all need something to associate our loving Heavenly Father and our relationships with Him. so we develop our own personal altars, where we praise and worship our God. Where we offer up our thanks with grateful hearts for His provision. Where we pray for petitionary prayers for our loved ones and even national issues. In our hearts we have a ready made home for our altars, a place far more precious than any cloth covered man-made edifice located at the front of a dusty old mausoleum.

Dear Father. Where else can we find You than on the altars of our hearts. We praise and thank You for dwelling there by Your Holy Spirit. We pray that You never leave us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.