The Altar

I remember at Bible College a missionary came to class one day to bring God's Word to the students. He brought the well known text from Romans 12:1-2, challenging us to bring our lives as living sacrifices to God. That morning, this teacher, brought the text to life by adding the illustration of the priest placing the sacrifice on the altar under the levitical law. The priest, he said, placed the offering up onto the altar, the fire blazing in all it's power and heat. The offering would begin to get consumed by the flames, but as it got hotter, all the fat, the rubbish, would come out and cause the sacrifice to begin to slip of the altar. The priest would then reach down and with his two big tongs or forks he would push the animal back into the centre of the fire keeping it in the midst of the heat.
This offering is like our lives as living sacrifices. We get on the altar but when it gets hot and painful and all the impurity comes out we begin to slip off. We need some big forks to keep us at the centre of the altar allowing ourselves to be offered fully to God. These two forks, explained this inspiring missionary, are Discipline and Obedience. When we feel ourselves slipping of the Altar, as living sacrifices, we must get our lives back into a place of being disciplines and obedient.

Recently I have talked to a lot of people about the Altar of Romans 12, this week I climbed on to it. It is not nice and I want to get off but I am trying to be disciplined and obedient.

It hurts