Reflections

            An altar is a place of encounter, meeting or communication with God. It is just like a telephone handset; if nonfunctional there is no way you call the police or 911 if there is an intruder at your gate. As the Israelites moved into the Promised Land, God directed Moses to convey certain foundational messages to them so that it may he well with them, and that they may increase mightily as they observe and do them. One of the injunctions is about spiritual responsibility in the family that is building a strong family altar. God said to them,
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). (Emphasis is mine).
Spiritual headship in the family is so important, but sadly it is often overlooked. It forms a solid foundation and determines the things that happen in our families - to our marriages, our spouses and children. It indeed determines our values. Today, the civil polity is not too concerned about God or godly values in families or for our children. In some societies, Bible study or Bible knowledge has never been a part life and in others it has been deleted from the Public-school curriculum. While some communities are still struggling to legislate against smoking, alcohol use and similar vices that are known to be dangerous to health and cause the loss of precious lives, God and his Word are rejected and excommunicated from our public lives. We are also guilty of consciously or unconsciously doing the same in our families. Sometimes ago I spoke to a woman who told me of her resolve to regularly send her children to church so that her children will learn godly values. A couple of months earlier when I had a talk with her about going to church, she expressed a nonchalant attitude, but I thank God that she has now realized its importance for her children.
Building a family altar is a task each one has to undertake because it strengthens and sustains the foundation and gates of a family. We must ask ourselves, how important is a family altar to us? Have you set up a spiritual altar in your family? Is your family altar lying in ruins? Many years ago, my mother went to be with the Lord, but as long as I live, I will never forget how she used to gather us all her kids to pray in the morning hours after my father leaves for work. I vividly remember how she would kneel down and cry and pray audibly to God while we all obediently knelt down with her as silent participants. She kept the family altar alive. God wants spiritual headship of parents, especially the men who are the heads of the families to keep the family altar alive because God wants to raise a future generation that will excel and take possession of their gates until His return. These days we see that families are falling apart. Children are falling under negative and destructive influences and many are becoming godless mainly because their family altars are broken. God placed this responsibility on the stewards whom we call parents. Though Eli served as a priest, he was indifferent about his family altar, and as a result terrible thing happened. The Ark of God was taken away by the Philistines and severe judgment came upon his family. His ministry and his posterity was cut short (1 Samuel 2:22-33; 1 Samuel 3: 18; 4: 12-18).
We need to learn from the patriarchs how our blessings can be appropriated through our family altars. Again, what is an altar? It is simply the place where offerings are made to God. It speaks of the diverse offerings, the devotions to prayer, fellowship, worship, meditation in the Word of God and righteous living. Through the New Covenant, the Lord Jesus provided for us wonderful covenant promises in the same way God made with Abraham. Covenant promises consolidate and facilitate an unhindered flow of his blessings.
Let us briefly look at the lives of the patriarchs. Abraham regularly raised altars to God, but there is no record of Lot, Abraham's nephew ever raising an altar for God. Lot accompanied Abraham on his journey when he obeyed God's call to leave his home. He knew what was right, but would not do it. Abraham was a father to him in every way, he lived with Abraham, he saw the hand of God on him but Lot chose to do his own thing. That is like what Judas’ behavior with the Lord Jesus. Lot became surrounded by evil and was overcome because his spiritual gates were broken into by the enemy. Abraham triumphed over every opposition that came his way. It is a miracle that an individual, Abraham went after four nations and defeated them (Genesis 14). The parental responsibility of upholding the family altar is so important to God that He emphasized it with strong words when He spoke about father Abraham,
“For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” (Genesis 18:19). In other words, the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham is linked with upholding the family altar. With regard to our gates, we must choose whether we want to live like Abraham or like Lot.
In the time of severe famine, you may call it recession, Isaac took hold of God’s covenant promise and built altars for the Lord. That was a clear definition of his values and what we see is the overflowing blessings of God in his life at a time of severe recession (Genesis 26:24-25).
Jacob was a man who would raise an altar for God at every stage of his life and this brought untold blessings to him. The hate towards him and the prowling danger of destruction against him and his family was removed. God replaced the imminent calamity and disgrace with grace, favor and love. This part of Jacob's life story is paralleled only with the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. When Jacob arrived in Canaan, the first thing he did was to erect an altar, a symbol of his dedication to his God. It is a powerful thing when God is in the first place in your life. A family altar is all about having God as the head and ruler over our families.
It is a common thing that after God blesses people and they are well fed and have become fat, they begin to relax and withdraw from their devotion that was not the case with the patriarchs. The more they were blessed, the more their devotion grew (Genesis 35:1-7). There are many things that can kill or paralyze a family altar and destroy the gates here are three of them:
Excuses
An excuse is a reason given to explain one's conduct, omission or commission. It can be so rational or reasonable. It can also be another deceitful way of believing a lie. Disobedience often carries excuses. Excuses will keep you bound in self-deception and make you feel you are being smart in deceiving others when you are actually deceiving yourself. Adam, Saul made excuses to God to cover up their sin. Do you have a seemingly good excuse to explain away why your family altar is broken and your gates are overthrown? Have you exonerating yourself from this responsibility?
Greed
Many people blame greed for the economic woes of their nations. Economics teaches that human wants are insatiable. Unfortunately, most people do not know the difference between their wants and needs. There are people whose appetite for wealth has grown, not as a result of their needs, but because of the pressures around them, some of which are self-induced. Their pursuit of wealth has therefore choked their devotion to God. We may give it a nice name but it is still greed as long as it leads to the abandoning of your family altar.
Spiritual Slumber
Lack of spiritual focus, lack of commitment and laziness can easily creep into a person’s life. You can work only when you are awake and not when you are asleep. Some people are more committed and effective at their jobs more than they are devoted to God and His house. This is the primary reason why accountability is a necessity in the house of God. Neglecting to order your family in righteousness and bringing up your children in the way of the Lord from the time they are born amounts to abandoning your family altar. If you wait till your children are five years before you begin to teach them you are probably running the risk of losing them, you must catch them early. If God does not occupy His rightful place in our families the world and the god of this world will make inroads into our children’s lives. The main reason why the devil seeks to destroy the family altar is for him to set up another altar. If the enemy is able to achieve that, he will possess your gates and stop the flow of your blessings like in the days of Gideon. He stood up against the evil altars, tore them down and established new altars for God (Judges 6).
That is why the Bible tells us not to copy the behavior and customs of this world, but to let God transform us into a new person by changing the way we think (Romans 12:2). It is nice to listen to preachers on television or online, but every family must be planted in a local church. "Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God" (Psalm 92:13). The simplest way I can illustrate this is that although you sometimes snack on some cookies or chips or popcorn during your leisure or relaxation, but those are not your normal and proper meals. Snack on preachers on TV, but you must go to church and be committed to a church. You belong to the family of God, you are in God’s army, and soldiers do not locate themselves wherever they chose or fight alone but they belong to and embedded in a military unit.
The focus of parents should not only be their children’s academic or career success. We must equally seek the spiritual progress of our children. In my opinion, the greatest investment you can ever make for your children is spiritual especially prayers and godly values. Worldly investment can be lost, but heavenly investment will never depreciate and will always be safe.
Countless believers work so hard to invest for their future and for those of their children, but fail to realize is that if they live too long in this world, they can’t hit 200 years. However, when they die, they have thousands of years in eternity, yet they make little or no effort to invest in eternity. You don’t want to live as very wealthy CEO in this world and when you pass on to the next life you are demoted to live like a servant because you did not invest anything in eternity.
Regardless of the fact that there is no poverty in heaven or the afterlife, but there are ranks and rewards. How would you feel if you were a captain or a brigadier in the military and you are demoted to a corporal? That is the kind of thing that will happen in eternity. You might have held very high position on earth, but if you don’t make the appropriate investment for eternity you will get there to discover that the person who was a sergeant is now in a better position equivalent to something like a captain or even higher, but you who used to be a General on earth is now in a position that is identical to that of a private. That is because that person worked for it as you worked for yours on earth.
Earth is a place of preparation and investment for the next inevitable plain of existence. The interesting and fearful thing is that nobody can delay or evade it. That is why the Bible tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). On earth is someone who is frustrated or can’t handle a bad situation may decide to take his or her life. They think it is an easy way out, but in eternity you can’t die, you can’t take your own life.
The Lord Jesus gave us a peep into eternity through the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The Bible says, “But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate. “The shift took place right at the rich man’s gate (Luke 16:19- 31). Do not let a negative change happen at your gate because there is no altar. Nonetheless if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, God will add ALL other things to us.