I remember my first altar experience. Indiana Jones and his leading lady in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark were closing their eyes around the lost ark which to me looked like an altar. All kinds of bad things were happening in that scene, so I assumed altars were bad things. 

Fast forward to the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe where Azlan offered himself as a sacrifice on the stone table. He evetually resurrected, and returned to help win the battle against the White Queen. Again, an altar seemed pretty bad to me. 

This concept was reinforced when I began reading my Bible, and stumbled across Abraham laying his only son, Isaac, on the altar as a sacrifice to God. What is happening??? Altars are some pretty scary places where bad things happen. 

Every christian ,at some point, reads about altars in the Bible; you would have to because they are mentioned over 400 times! Cain and Abel bring their offerings to the Lord on an altar. Noah builds an altar of praise after he and his family leave the ark post the disastrous flood. SO MANY ALTARS! In America, we do not just see altars along the side of the rode for people to offer sacrifices or to worship God. Honestly, if anyone was sacrificing on an altar, things would go south very quickly. 

I thank God almost every day that we no longer live under this old covenant law in the Old Testament. I would hate to think how many birds, lambs, ewes, bulls, etc. I would have to sacrifice on a daily basis to attone for my sins, and yes even though I am a Christian I still make mistakes. The beauty in it all is that we have a loving and forgiving God who knows that we are still learning to be like Him on a daily basis. So no sacrifices are being made in America (we hope!).  The question: Are there any altars in America, if they were primarily used for sacrifice a long time ago? Yes. Let's start with the definition of altar according to the Oxford Dictionary.

The Oxford Dictionary alludes to the altar being utilized in communion services. If this is the case, then almost every church has an altar for when Communion is served. If you are unaware of the tradition, the following section will describe to you it's origin, and even if you do understand read it anyway!

The first communion table or altar for Jesus was nothing special physically (not yet), but a place were a tradition was set into motion. He was eating his last meal with His disciples before his crucifixtion, and wanted to give them a reminder of what He was about to do. He illustrated that the bread was for His body which would be broken for you. He also took the cup and illustrated that it symbolized His blood to be poured out for you. Jesus wants us to come to the communion table to remember that His body was broken and His blood was spilled for us. It is a somber reflective period in a service, and should not be taken lightly. So now we have established one type of altar. 

Are there any other altars besides the communion table? 

According to Oxford dictionary an altar is also a table focused on religious rituals like sacrifice or offerings to a deity. So what are some things we can offer to God? We have already established that sacrifices were for the old covenant relationship with God prior to Jesus' death and resurrection.  In Baptist churches, the pastor usually offers an altar call. The altar in which they are referring to tend to be the steps leading up to the stage. 

Many pastors have talked with hurting people, unsaved people, grieving people, angry people, and happy people on those steps-the altar. Those who go down to the altar are spiritually and mentally laying down their sin or burdens or joy. It is a public setting, but a private intercession with the Lord. When one goes to the altar to lay down a burden like unforgiveness or sexual sin, the idea is to acknowledge the sin, ask for forgiveness from the Lord, and the LEAVE IT ON THE ALTAR. You are forgiven. It is time to move forward in love and mercy. It is not a place to lay it down and then pick it back up when you walk back to your seat. 

Going to the altar at church to "surrender all" has become a traditional part of a baptist service. However, some folks have a hard time going down in front of the church. They are too afraid of what people will think of them. Isn't this so sad? We can't even grow in Christ without fearing others judgement. 

My father was paralyzed from the neck down due to an injury sustained by a drunk driver. He was a giant among men in Aerospace Engineering, not to mention that he was six and a half feet tall! As a quadriplegic, he was told the life expectancy would be 10 years due to all of the problems that come along with not moving around physically. As a quadriplegic, your body cannot really function the way that it needs to, so it must work much harder to accomplish it's goals. On top of those problems, the amount of medication to suppress the pain, neuropathy, etc is astronomical. The liver is really put to the test in a paralyzed person.  

He had periods of serious struggle and periods of joy throughout those ten years. After about six years, his  body started to struggle more consistently. The hospital stays were more frequent. The medication kept increasing. The pain relief methods were not working as well as they used to; he was becoming desensitized to them. There were so many times that we thought, "He is not going to make it through this one." He kept proving us wrong. I would love to tell you that his faith was strong throughout all of this, but it would be untrue. He struggled A LOT!

These decisions landed him back in the hospital with the social workers determining that he could not be alone with his caregiver any longer. Hospice was involved at this point, and we knew that his battle was nearing it's end. The only two choices were to bring him back home with me to Indiana, or put him into a home. He chose to come home under Hospice care with me as his primary care giver. 

It was such a blessing to be with him and care for him till he passed, but 

IT WAS SO HARD!

I will not go into details, but there were lots of sleepless nights, tears, irritation, and depression. There were also sentimental conversations, precious moments, hugs, and tears of love. After he passed away a month later(during year 10), I struggled so much with his previous caregiver. I was SO ANGRY with her inability to care for him in a way that could have prolonged his life. He missed out on so much joy and opportunity with family. The constant pain medication given to him destroyed his body's ability to manage it anymore. I cannot prove anything, but I truly believe that with better and appropriate care he could have lived a longer, healthier life. 

It was on my mission trip to Honduras that all of these emotions came to a breaking point. I realized during one of our nightly devotions that I could not be fully utilized by God if I did not TRULY AND REALLY forgive her. I was carrying around this heavy burden and weight. It needed to be released, and I needed to forgive her the way that Christ forgave me. I was living in the sin of ~un-forgiveness. I decided that the next morning we would head down to the pier over Lago de Yahoa at our hotel at sunrise. I was not going to leave until I worked through all of this with the Lord and forgave her. I did not want to go back home to Indiana carrying this anymore. 

After about two hours of prayer, worship, discussion, and a little Jericho Marching (see Honduras Day One blog), I finally relinquished the sin and the burden over to the Lord. I explain to you the huge weight that was lifted off of my heart and shoulders. I never really understood the impact that this sin of un-forgiveness was having on me physically and mentally. I took the stairs down to the rocks below the pier and set up a small stone altar. I did this as a promise between the Lord and myself that I would be leaving "her" the un-forgiveness here in Honduras at this altar. It was a physical marking of my repentance and God's forgiveness. I was not taking this with me back to Indiana. I was leaving it behind and not looking back. 

Altars have lots of significance in our lives. We go to the communion table or altar to remember Christ's sacrifice for us. We go to the altar at church when we are dealing with something or praying for someone. It is a place to go before the Lord to lay the burden at the feet of Christ. You can build an altar to the Lord anywhere, much like I did in Honduras, when you are dealing with something that needs to be released. Altars are still utilized today, and I would challenge you to not worry so much about what other people think. Your fellow christian friends should come alongside your sin or burden and cry with you. We are called to support and encourage one another in our suffering. 

So let's normalize repentance and building altars. Let's normalize leaving behind the sin and looking forward to what God has planned for us to do without that burden anymore. 

Be like Jacob and make the promise. Build the altar.