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Thank You God for this timely video!
O God, may people forget the channel and see only You.
May His beauty rest upon me
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
While on the train back home from teaching tuition, I was reading a book about the wonder of worship. I thank God that when I asked for his word to be made real and true to me once more, he answered my prayer. Interestingly, it is always on long train rides back home when God speaks.
I was reading a segment on how God is to be worshipped. In the light of my recent situation of a loss of joy in my heart, there was the realisation of the relevance of this section for my current state. I finally understood the reason for the loss of joy. I was lacking in joy because I was seeking to find joy with my own means and in my own ways. The book, then, taught me to return to the place where joy can be found, which is back to the place of the altar.
As one think of the word ‘altar’, it is easy to think of idol-worship. But the bible has recorded many instances of altar-building unto the Lord:
Genesis 8:20 – ‘Then Noah built an altar to the Lord…’
Genesis 12:7 – ‘And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.’
Genesis 35:7 - ‘And (Jacob) built an altar there, and called the place El-Bethel because there God had revealed Himself to him, when he fled from his brother’
Noah, Abraham and Jacob all built altars unto the Lord. There has to be some significance of what an altar meant apart from its physical state. In fact, God instructed his people to build an altar in Exodus 20:24-26 – ‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. And if you make an altar of stone for Me you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, that you nakedness may not be exposed on it.’
I realised that there is great significance of an altar beyond the physical. The building of the altar was a symbol of worship to God. When Noah built an altar, he worshipped God for God has saved him and kept him from the flood. When Abraham built an altar, he worshipped God forGod has promised Abraham a land for his descendents. When Jacob built an altar, he worshipped God for God has revealed Himself to Jacob.
I realised how wonderful this place of the altar was. It was the place where God is worshipped for who he is. That is why an altar is to be built ‘in every place where I cause My name to be remembered’. It is the place where we bow down and lay ourselves before God so that His glory is revealed and His name is lifted high.
At the place of the altar where God is worshipped is the place of submission. When Abraham built the altar, it became the place of God’s priority (as David McKee puts it, God’s awful priority). We see later that Abraham was willing to put God’s priority first even at the expanse of killing his own son. At the altar, there was no longer ‘I am’ on man’s part, but be ‘be thou’ for God. There was the recognition of the priority of God.
This so applies to my current situation! I realised how stiff-necked and stubborn I am in my own ways! O how I need to return to the altar of God, to this place of submission to God and cry out for God to do to me as a potter with the clay. I need to say once more “not my will, but Yours be done.” and return to the place of submission where God becomes all in all.
The altar where God is worshipped is also the place of confidence and trust. As my christian life tosses and meanders like a river with much inconsistency, there is this assurance of God that is needed, that He has won the final victory. There is always this fear that in no time I will return to a wayward life and live life yet again as a defeated christian. But I have learnt that at the altar, ‘a man in a tent in the will of God is more secured than a man in a mansion in Egypt outside of God’s will.’ I often neglect this very truth that God is ultimate security, that I can trust Him because of who He is and I can have the peace and confidence forevermore. I can trust God that I will no fall back into sin and live a defeated life anymore because God is My Strength and he makes me run and not grow weary and sin no longer has dominion over me and I can live victoriously in Christ!
Finally, in reflecting how an altar is to be built, 1) it shall not be build of cut stones or with wielding of tools upon it and 2) there shall not be steps for men to go up to the altar. Not to build of cut stones and without any tools is not to have human work glorified on it. No attempt of human polish or human cleverness shall be on the altar for no flesh will dare to glory in the place of God. There shall be no steps to it because it is a reminder that no man is to climb up to God, but it is God who comes down to man in his grace.
Today, I realised this significance of building an altar before the Lord. Reading Exodus 40 of how the glory of God filled the tabernacle after all the construction was completed, I suddenly saw the need for us as christians to ‘built an altar’ for God today. There is a need to build an altar in our church, to build an altar in our homes, to build an altar everywhere where God’s name can be glorified.
As I ponder over how I should serve in my worship ministry, I finally saw what God wanted me to do. He doesn’t want me to improve my singing. He doesn’t want be to learn how to appear on stage. But He wants me to be still, to bow before His throne today and built an altar in the church, that he may be truly worshipped as the God of gods and the King of kings.
The word ‘worship’ literally means bow or serve. It gives us a picture of a lowly servant prostrating before a king with knees bended and face hidden.
Do we have the same picture when we come before the Lord of the most high, the King above all Kings? Pause and take a moment here to reflect upon how you have been coming before God. Have you been coming before him with reverence or before him in flippancy?
Psalms 2:11 says ‘Worship the Lord with reverence, Ands rejoice with trembling.’
This should be the manner in which we should worship. The Lord of the most high and King above all Kings deserve much more than earthly kings. If we could come before earthly men in reverence, how much more we should approach our God with reverence, fear and trembling.
Now spend some time to pray. If you have not been coming before God in an appropriate manner, do pray for a repentant heart, ask God for forgiveness. Next, ask God for the constant effort to come before him in reverence each time we come together to worship him.
John 4:23, 24 – ‘But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’
In this passage, there are two key elements of worship stated in this verse. There are spirit and truth. These are the two elements that true worshipers of God cannot do without during worship. This is the means of worship.
God is spirit and we can only worship him in our spirit. Our worship must spring forth from the innermost depth of our being just as Psalms 103:1 puts it: ‘Praise the Lord, O my soul, let all that is within me praise His holy name.’ The only way we can reach God is through our innermost being, the indwelling holy spirit.
We ought to worship him also in truth. Our God is a God of truth. When we come before him, we ought to come before him as we really are, with true sincerity and hiding nothing from him. This is how we should worship our Lord.
Spend some time now to ponder over how you worship God. Do you worship with mere externalities (e.g raising of hands, closing of eyes, singing of songs) or do you worship God from your innermost being, the spirit that is in you? Do you come to worship God thinking he is someone you could please with outward action or do you come in truth, as you are, an unworthy sinner before a Holy God? Spend some time to pray for this aspect of worship in your life.
Finally and most importantly, we need to recognise our object of worship. This is what that differentiates our worship from all other religions. In Acts 17:23, Paul rebuked the Men of Athens because they worshiped AN UNKNOWN GOD in ignorance though they were extremely religious. From this, we see that being very religious or even reverent do not really matter if we have the wrong object of worship.
Therefore, it is imperative to know who we really worship. We worship the God who made the world and all things in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, the one who gives to all life and breath (Acts 17:24, 25). Only then, our worship can be truly meaningful and purposeful.
Romans 12:1 sums up worship very beautifully. ‘I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.’
Very often, we do have misconceptions that worship is all about singing praise and worship songs. But actually, singing praise and worship songs are just one of the many forms of worship. Our lives, presented to God, are already worship in his eyes.
Spend some time now to pray. Focus your attention upon God. Spend some time now to worship him and praise him, simply for who he is and what he has done for us.
