August 12, 2021
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An Altar in Your Home
In 1982 I attended a church in North Little Rock, Arkansas; the Associate Pastor Larry Tedder was teaching on prayer and the family altar. This teaching changed my life.
‘Altar’ in the Hebrew: “mizbe’ah,” “mizbeach” (pronounced miz-bay’-akh). It means “an altar”, from a word meaning, “to slay.” The Greek: “thusiasterion,” (pronounced thoo-see-as-tay’-ree-on) meaning a place of sacrifice, i.e., an altar. Larry’s teaching so impacted my life that praying and spending time with my heavenly Father at an altar became the foundation of my life and ministry. You don’t have to have an altar; you can pray anywhere. For me, the altar is a place where I must physically lay things down and visibly be reminded daily not to pick them back up! Once you lay something or someone down, looking at that altar daily where it lays will help you to not pick things back up once you have laid them down.
Everything in my life has been birthed out in prayer. In the process I discovered what it means to have an intimate relationship with my Heavenly Father, and you can too. I have learned that nothing happens until you pray! With permission I have used excerpts from Larry Tedder’s book: Family Altar for Your Home. During this teaching, a retired craftsman in the church began making and selling family altars as a hobby and I purchased one. That altar is now in my Secret Place (prayer closet) where I spend time with my Heavenly Father daily. It is 15” x 4’ with folding legs that are 18” tall. I have a large walk-in closet and I created a section of the closet for the altar. This is where I spend precious intimate time with our Lord. I have seen many prayers answered and miracles through prayers that have gone up to the Father at that altar. I want to encourage you to have someone make you a family prayer altar. It is one of my most prized possessions. Th
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. (Matthew 6:5-7 NLT)
Nothing you do is more important to God than spending time in His presence and building an intimate relationship with Him. Nothing! I am tired of being a Martha and always doing, doing, doing! But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40-42 NLT) I have so, desired to be a Mary. (Luke 10:39) Over the last 4-5 years I can tell you have gone from being a Martha to being a Mary and sitting at the feet of Jesus and doing the greater thing – ‘receiving from Him.’ I desire to know My Lord and Savior as written by Paul in Philippians 3:10“…it is my determined purpose that I may know Him!” How about you?
