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WHEN AN ALTAR IS
HARD TO BUILD
THE NEWS HIT ME
HARD. IN FACT, I WASN'T THE SAME FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS: A wonderful
Christian couple had lost their beautiful little girl. She was doing
great one week but then tragically a few days later she died. How do you
deal with that? Even though I wasn't the one with the immediate loss, my
mind didn't want to process an answer.
I went to the visitation and was so touched. A collage of pictures
of this little one was placed in the foyer. One frame said, "Suffer the
little children to come unto Me for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
The other said, "Jesus loves the little children." It was comforting to
see such innocence before me and know that Jesus' words were true.
My greatest joy came when I was finally within sight of the mom and
dad. There they were with smiling faces and tear moistened eyes. It
reminded me of how Stephen's persecutors saw his face as the face of an
angel (Acts 6:15). It was faith on display. I told them what it
did for me to see them smiling from a distance. The mother said, "Good.
We want people to see what we have in us so that maybe they will desire
to have what we have." The father said, "I told my wife before we came
that we had to buckle down today. We are Christians." I marveled at
their devotion.
I thought of other men and women of faith who built altars when it
was hard; who worshipped when they hurt. Abraham's life was
characterized by altars and tents (Gen. 12:6-8; 13:3,4,18). His
tent demonstrated that he knew he was just passing through this world.
His altar demonstrated his loyalty and devotion to his Father in heaven.
But the day came when he had to build the hardest altar ever. It was the
one on which God asked him to offer his son. My heart is ripped out when
I hear Isaac say, "My father! Look, the fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Oh, how that had to hurt. The
text continues, "And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood
in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the
wood." Those had to be the heaviest stones he had ever picked up and
put into place. Abraham stayed devoted to God when he didn't know when
(the promises would be fulfilled), where (God was leading him), how
(Sarai could have a child at such an old age) and why (God would ask him
to offer his son). I am sure my friends had questions -- why their
daughter left them so early in life yet they kept walking in the steps
of Abraham's faith (Rom. 4:12).
I remember King David as he faced the inevitable death of his
newborn son. David pleaded with the Lord, fasted and lay all night on
the ground. The seventh day came and David heard whispering. He knew
what it meant. He said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" And they
said, "He is dead" (2 Sam. 12:19). What will David do? What would
you do? How do you deal with that? "So David arose from the ground,
washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes and he went into
the house of the Lord and worshipped" (2 Sam. 12:20). It was the
response of a man devoted to God and what comfort it must have given
him!
We will never have a greater opportunity to win others to the Lord
when we are hurting. When we continue worshipping God in such moments,
people notice. It may be the very
thing that gets them to thinking deeply about their own souls. In
Acts 16, Paul and Silas were surely hurting after they had been
beaten and put in prison. They could have moaned,
groaned and complained. "But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them"
(Acts 16:25). That kind of devotion moved God to bring an earthquake
and moved the jailer to ask, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
(Acts 16:30).
We sometimes think that the great examples of faith are found only
in the Bible. But today, I'll add the names of two more modern day
saints known by God to my list. May God bless them for erecting their
altars (worshipping) even in their hurt. And may we have the faith to do
the same.
--Jeff May in Biblical Insights, Vol. 7, No. 3, March 2007.
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