Thank God

I was changing a flourescent tube at work today and a jolt of eletricity went right thru me then the MCB tripped

Building an Altar

AWESOME IN THIS PLACE
As I come into Your presence
Past the gates of praise
Into Your sanctuary
Till we're standing face to face
I look upon Your countenance
I see the fullness of Your grace
And I can only bow down and say

You are awesome in this place
Mighty God
You are awesome in this place
Abba Father;
You are worthy of all praise
To You our lives we raise
You are awesome in this place
Mighty God
_____________________________________________________________________________________

What is the signifance of the the altar call?
In that we have to look at the O.T and we'll see in what circumstances do people build an altar before the Lord.

People build an altar of:
.acknowledging God's sovereignity (pre,mid post war) 1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
7 When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me."

11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."

13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."

14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"

15 "But Lord , [a] " Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."

16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

17 Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."
And the LORD said, "I will wait until you return."

19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah [b] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. 21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"

23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."

24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25 That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. [c] Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole [d] beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of [e] altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second [f] bull as a burnt offering."

27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!

29 They asked each other, "Who did this?"
When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."

30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."



.Praise and Thanksgiving ; (Leviticus 7:13-15) 13 Along with his fellowship offering of thanksgiving he is to present an offering with cakes of bread made with yeast. 14 He is to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the LORD; it belongs to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the fellowship offerings. 15 The meat of his fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; he must leave none of it till morning.


.Sacrifice ; (Genesis 22:1-19)
1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.

12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram [a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring [b] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba



.to enter into God's presence or after having an encounter with the Lord and establishing a place of God's residence ;
(Exodus 30:1-6) 1 "Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. 2 It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high [a] —its horns of one piece with it. 3 Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. 4 Make two gold rings for the altar below the molding—two on opposite sides—to hold the poles used to carry it. 5 Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 6 Put the altar in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the Testimony—before the atonement cover that is over the Testimony—where I will meet with you.

(Genesis 12:7-9)7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring [a] I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. 9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

(Exodus 20:24,25) 24 " 'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, [a] your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.







.Atonement of sins and consecration of one's self ; (Exodus 29:35-37)
35 "Do for Aaron and his sons everything I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. 36 Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. 37 For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.

(Exodus 29:44)"So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

What is the one common thing involved as a sacrifice at each of these altars?
sacrifices of blood of animals right?
Each one of us can enter into God's presence with confidence as we have the very blood of the lamb shed on us,clothing us with His righteousness and cleansing us with His blood. And because we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, We can build our altars and appreciate God for sending His only son for us.By His blood,we become God's children,By His blood we can be a carrier of God's presence and by His blood we can claim God's promises and inheritance.There is power in His blood to cleanse, to heal and to set free.When Jesus died, His blood was shed to cleanse us and cover us, the stripes He took was to heal us and when He rose again He conquered death and sin,setting us free from the bondage of sin. To sin is to deny the power of Christ's death on the cross putting to death of our sinful nature which is in the flesh and the power of His blood that was shed.It is when we confess our sins and our need of Him,He says He is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,that being our very need of God and accepting the power of the blood with faith and entering into God's throne of Grace,we have an identity to which His Holy Spirit enables us to be God's children. The Holy Spirit enables us to please the Father as He is the helper as Jesus put it... Jesus being in the very nature fully man and fully God is our mediator who intercedes on our behalf

(Romans 8:31-34) 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely[a] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
(Job 16;20)20 My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;

(Hebrews 7:24-26) 26Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.


(Hebrew 4:15)15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

Wondered why God doesn't want the altar's stones to be cut? our efforts to make the altar presentable isn't necessary.What is necessary is offering then ourselves as living sacrifices because we are His sheep that the shepherd laid down His life for,so now spotless and without blemish not by our own efforts by the blood of the Jesus that has made us Holy
(Romans 12:1) 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

We can now build our altars and present ourselves to God by the blood of Jesus the sacrificial lamb,of Him who also intercedes for us and enter boldly into His presence because the price had been paid and God's wrath satisfied by His one and only son who being in the very nature God chose to die and having recounciled us with God.And having been given the promised Holy Spirit we can worship God in Spirit and and truth.

Ill Never Get Over You (getting Over Me)

I hear you're taking the town again
Havin' a good time
With all your good-time friends
I don't think that you think of me
You're on your own now
And I'm alone and free

I know that I should get on with my life
But a life lived without you
Could never be right

Chorus:
As long as the stars shine down
>From the heavens
Long as the rivers run
To the sea
I'll never get over you
Getting over me


I try to smile so the hurt won't show
Tell everybody
That I was glad to see you go
But the tears just won't go away
(Won't go away..)
Loneliness found me
Looks like it's here to stay

I know that I oughta find someone new
But all I find is myself
Always thinkin' of you

Chorus

Oh!
No matter what I do
Each night's a lifetime to live through
I can't go on like this
(I need your touch)
You're the only one I'll ever love)
Oh, oh.. ah....

Ooh.....
Ooh.....
Ooh.....

And as
Long as the stars shine down
From the heavens
Long as the rivers run
To the sea
I'll never get over you
Getting over me

I'll never get over you
Getting over
Never get over you...
Getting over
I'll never get over you
Getting over me