GUARDTHEALTAR

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."