You may notice the title says an alter call, and not an altar call. If you are a church going person, you might be familiar with an altar call. This is when the preacher asks the listeners to come down to the altar and make some type of commitment.
Let’s define the two terms:
- an altar is a place that has been separated and made holy to offer sacrifices (in modern days the sacrifice of prayer, fasting and giving of time are all sacrifices) to God. This is not specifical to the Jedeo-Christian religion but most if not, all religions have an altar.
- The term alter means to change in some way.
This post is a call to alter the altar. I don’t know the background of the reader right now, but it could be that you have an altar that you go to, maybe even in your own home; often these are called a shrine. I am not talking about these in this post. To a Christian, an altar can simply be a place a prayer. But I want to talk about a specific type of altar. This is the family altar.
The family altar is a place that the man of the family should lead his family to, so that they can worship the only true God. This should be a place of reading the Bible, singing praises to God, and praying to God.
How should this altar be altered? first, it should be erected in every Christian home (which sadly, most lack), second, it should not be put down for anything. Third, it should be a time – not for getting to know your family (though that will issue) – for worshiping God as a family.
How is the altar in your life? Do you have a private place to worship God? do you know the one true God? Click here to learn more of him.
My family have had a time of corporate worship every day this year – although two of them had to be done through facetime because I was at work. I want this to be just as true at then end of this year as at the beginning. Yesterday I went off to work at 5 AM. My daughter had a stomach bug the night before and I had caught it. After driving the 45 minutes to work, and walking as fast as I could stomach through the blistering cold rain, I promptly went to the bathroom and lost the coffee I had just drank. at my first break I usually Facetime my wife and we have our family altar time. this did not happen for multiple reasons. The kids were asleep by the time my lunch time arrived – thou I was in no place to eat it – so we didn’t have our time of worship then either. Finally at 9:30 that night before the kids were put down to sleep we were able to Facetime. I would be home by midnight to pray in person with my wife, but the children – who are both under 3 years would have missed that time to praise God.
Few things I do every day are as important to me as our family altar time. By God’s grace, it cannot be missed…
I end with this hymn.
E. A. Hoffman
Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest,
And have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul.
If there is no place in your life, or in the life of your family that you can call an altar, then how can you be blest and have that peace and sweet rest the hymnist speaks of. May God give us strength to continue in the pursuit of him.
S.T.
I Thessalonians5:24
"Faithful is he..."
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