“Now these altars in the wilderness
Tell the story of His faithfulness.”
(“This Is Our God”, Phil Wickham)
Piles of stones heaped up to form an altar where sacrifices could be burned. A legacy of God’s involvement in an individual’s life that is meaningless without context. A lasting tribute to a moment when God stepped into a situation and transformed it.
The Bible is full of these stories, carefully recorded so that we can see examples of God’s faithfulness, provision and help.
Abram building an altar after God spoke to him, promising him offspring when he and his wife could not have children. (Gen 12:7)
Abraham building an altar on which his promised son would be sacrificed and then seeing God’s provision of a ram instead. (Gen 22:9 ff)
Isaac building an altar after encountering God. (Gen 35:1)
Moses building altars in the wilderness to remember God’s commands. (Deut 27:1-5)
Joshua commanding his men to take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan to mark the miracle of this river parting to allow the Israelites to cross over into the Promised Land. (Josh 4:5-7)
Altars are everywhere as we read, visible reminders of what God has done.
I write to create an altar, a testimony of God’s faithfulness to us in modern times.
The photographs, Bible verses and signs in our church building act as altars. They don’t look like a traditional altar, but they are there to remind us. We record events and share photographs not simply to act as evidence of what we do, but to remind ourselves and tell others of what God has done for us.
You may look at these photos and see a newly painted community hall and pretty new blinds, and move on to the next post in your feed without much thought.
But the words here say, “Stop a moment! Look! Listen!”
“The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” (Psalm 126:3)
Because we didn’t do this.
God did this by providing money from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust so that our building could be refreshed so we can continue serving the community, so that we can continue to be with God in the community and with God for the community.
Stop and think about that! Don’t take it for granted. We could not continue without God’s provision, help and support. We’re so grateful for the people who help us. We’re so grateful for the professionals from Three Diamonds and Martin’s Blinds who came and did the work for us. We are so grateful for every church member who has worked hard in putting up scaffolding, taking it down, preparing the room for painting, cleaning up after painting… the list is endless. But most of all we know God is the ultimate giver of all good things (James 1:17) and we want to acknowledge that.
You may see a clean room. We see a miracle and build an altar. We know the room will get dirty again and we’ll need other miracles of provision in other areas. But we know God is faithful. Our altars remind us of this fact
