PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 310: Altar Building, Part 3
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 310
: Altar Building, Part 3
Satan hates the family altar. He will use “good” things to stop you doing it in your home. But if you press through, you will become a nation-changing and world-changing family.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! We are continuing to talk about altar building. There is so much more to share with you. Here is a quote before we start.
This is from James Alexander:
“The daily regular and solemn reading of God’s holy Word by a parent before his children is one of the most powerful agencies of a Christian life. We are prone to undervalue this cause. It is a constant dropping, but it wears its mark into the rock.
“The family thus trained cannot be ignorant of the Word. The whole Scriptures come repeatedly before the mind. The most heedless child must observe and retain some portion of the sacred oracles. The most forgetful must treasure up some passages for life. No one part of juvenile education is more important. To deny such a source of influence to the youthful mind is an injustice, at the thought of which, a professor of Christianity may well tremble.”
All right, ladies. We are up to point number four.
No. 4. WE DON’T BUILD AN ALTAR UNTO OURSELVES BUT UNTO THE LORD
Genesis 8:20: “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD.”
Genesis 12:7-8, 13, 18: “Abram builded he an altar unto the LORD.” So, we continue, ladies, with nearly every Scripture talking about altars. It says” “And they builded an altar unto the Lord.”
I think this is a most amazing point. We’re not building this altar. We’re not making this time and place each day to gather for ourselves. Ultimately, we are the ones who get blessed, but our aim is that it’s for the Lord. It’s unto the Lord. That’s what the patriarchs did. They didn’t do it for themselves. They did it unto the Lord.
Then we read in Deuteronomy 27:6: “Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God.” Did you get that? It’s not our altar. It’s God’s altar. I think that makes such a difference. Don’t you? When we’re building this altar in our family, when we’re establishing this habit of coming together each day to read God’s Word, and when we realize that we’re doing it unto the Lord, well, not a moment, not a moment is wasted. It’s unto the Lord. It’s in His presence. I trust that blesses you.
No. 5. WHEN WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO THE LORD, HE WILL COME TO US
Oh, I love this passage. Let’s go to Exodus 20:24: God is speaking: “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.”
Oh, isn’t that wonderful? You couldn’t get anything better than that, could you? God says, “When you make an altar unto Me, I will come unto thee.” That’s not all. “And I will bless thee.” What a wonderful promise! Who wouldn’t want to make a family altar? This is so amazing!
We need to give this vision to our children. When we’re drawing them together, it’s not, “OK, children, we’re having Bible reading now.” Oh no! “Children! Let’s come together! We’re going to meet with the Lord! And guess what, children? God has promised that when we come, He’s going to come to us. He’s going to bless us! Isn’t that wonderful?”
Oh, that carries onto the next point, number six.
No. 6. WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO MEET WITH GOD
Yes. That was why the early patriarchs built altars. Let’s read these Scriptures.
Genesis 12:7: “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.”
Genesis 35:7: Talking of Jacob, “And he built there an altar, and called the place El Bethel: because there God appeared unto him.” That word “appeared” means “to be visited, to be seen, to show.”
As we come each day, each morning and evening, when we come to hear God’s Word, we can believe that He will reveal Himself to us. He reveals Himself through His Word. He shows Himself to us through His Word. This is how we get to know Him, through His Word. We will never understand and know everything about God, but He has chosen to reveal something of who He is, so we can know something of Him. Because He is God, we can never comprehend all of Him, but we can know Him. He will reveal Himself to us.
Let’s look at some more Scriptures. We see that God promised to reveal Himself at the brass altar. Exodus 29:42: “This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.” Whenever you read that phrase, “before the Lord,” in the King James Bible, it means literally, “In the presence of the Lord.”
“Where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory.” That was in the outer court, where they came to do the sacrifices. God said, “When you come to this altar, I will meet with you.” Oh, I love that! And God’s Word, we can take every word. It’s not in vain.
We can claim that promise. When we come together, we can come to the Lord, and say, “Thank You, Lord. We have come here to meet with You. You have promised to meet with us. Show Yourself to us today.” You can encourage your children. “Dear children, when Daddy reads the Word of God this morning, or this evening, listen with all your heart. Because it’s not just Daddy reading. These are the Words of God. And God wants to speak to you. Listen! Listen to God speaking.”
At the end of your reading, you can ask your children, “Children, what did God say to you?” Because God speaks to children and you will be amazed at what they will say, at what God spoke to them in their hearts. This is how you’re teaching your children how to hear God. This is something we must do, mothers. We must teach our children how to hear from God.
There are many Christians who are adults. Maybe they are in middle age. Maybe they’re even older, and they still do not know how to hear from God personally. They come to church on Sunday. They listen to the sermon and that’s what they hear. They haven’t learned to hear personally.
We must all get into the habit, every time the Word of God is read, every time it is spoken in our family devotions, we open our inner ears. We say, “God, I’m listening. I’m here to meet with you. Please meet with me. Show Yourself to me. Speak to me.” So, as we come in faith, and listen, we will hear God speaking to our hearts. And our children will too. Teach them. Remind them to keep listening, and to keep hearing what God will say to them.
Then we go to Exodus 30:6, 36: two times. This is at the altar of incense, where they had to burn the incense which speaks of prayer and praise and worship. Two times it says: “where I will meet with thee.” It’s in our times of prayer and worship that God wants to meet with us. He’s promised to meet with us as we spend time in prayer.
Of course, we pray on our own, in our personal times with the Lord, but there’s something about family prayer and corporate prayer. There is such power in corporate prayer when more people are praying together. I am amazed at how often I hear God speak to me during corporate prayer, because the more who are praying, it seems that more of the presence of God is in our midst. God’s promised to meet with us.
Do you remember the time when God came to Zacharias to tell him that he would have a child? In Luke 1:8-13, you can read it there. It says: “And the whole multitude of the people were praying without,” that means outside in the courtyard, the outer court. “At the time of incense.” Zacharias was a priest, and it was his season of duty to light the incense. So, he was there, at the altar of incense.
“And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.” And then the angel spoke to him, these words that God was going to give them a child, even though Elizabeth was in her old age. That happened. God does speak.
Even in the most mundane times, we can hear God speaking to us. You can hear Him speaking to you as you’re doing the dishes and vacuuming the floor, just in your daily duties in the household. I remember one time when I was a young mother in New Zealand. I had just come home from getting the groceries. I was walking over the threshold of the door. There I was. I’d just arrived home. And I wasn’t even thinking about anything. And God spoke to me!
It just came other of the blue! I heard these words: “Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if all your thoughts are about yourself?” Wow! God arrested me. I have never forgotten those words. I learned that I have to give room in my mind and in my heart for others. We cannot think of ourselves all the time. If you’re thinking of yourself, and you’re filled with self-pity, you have no room for God to speak to you about others, of people who He wants you to speak to, to minister to, to bless.
So, God gave me that word in the most mundane place. But God specifically comes in the places where He has said He will come, in the place of prayer and worship, that is, the altar of incense. We read how He came to Zacharias there too.
In Exodus 25:20-22, it also speaks of how He will meet. He was speaking to Moses, and how “I will meet with you between the cherubim in the holy of holies.” Now I have to confess, I don’t quite understand that Scripture in its context because God was speaking to Moses. Only Aaron the High Priest was allowed in the Holy of Holies. Whether God spoke to him from there because that was where God was dwelling, between the cherubim, in the holy of holies. Maybe He spoke to him from there, wherever Moses was.
But the wonderful thing is, of course, that now we have access through the death of Jesus and His blood that was shed. When Jesus died upon the cross, that curtain that separated the holy of holies was torn from the top to the bottom. Now we are blessed to have access into the throne room of God, where God says, that in this place, in the holy of holies, in the throne room of God, He will meet with us. Isn’t that so amazing?
Yes. So, that’s what happens when we make an altar. He has promised to meet with us. Don’t forget to share these beautiful truths with your children so they also know and understand.
No. 7. WE BUILD AN ALTAR TO CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD
That’s what the patriarchs did. We see that in Genesis 12:8, and again in Genesis 13:4: “There, Abraham called on the Name of the Lord.”
Genesis 26:25: “Isaac, and he builded an altar there and called upon the Name of the Lord.” The patriarchs called upon the Lord.
What does that word “call” mean? The Hebrew is qara, and it means “to call out, to cry out, to cry for help, to utter a loud sound.” So, the patriarchs did not only pray at their altars, but they called upon the Lord. There are many types of praying. We can pray, we can intercede, we can supplicate, we can give thanks, we can pray in many, many different ways, and in many, many different positions. But there is also calling upon the Lord. That is different from just praying.
Sometimes we pray. Yes, we’re talking to the Lord, and we’re praying. But there are times when we’re desperate. We’re desperate because of something that is happening in our own life, or in the lives of our children. We have to call upon the Lord. We cry out to Him. There are times when things are happening in our nation, even as they are at the moment. If we’re burdened enough, we won’t be just praying. We’ll be calling upon the Lord, crying out, even using a loud voice. That is part of calling upon the Lord.
Now, maybe you’ve never done that. Oh, you’ve prayed lots of times, of course. But have you ever really cried out to the Lord? That’s what the patriarchs did at their altars. Yes, at our altars, we will pray. What we do every day, at our altar, we will read the Word, and then we pray. We get everyone to pray. Everyone has a turn. I believe that is important, because this is where our children learn to pray. They learn to pray by praying.
Often, we have families come our table. It’s devotion time, and it’s time to pray. Because they are a Christian family, we just expect their children will be able to pray. So, we’re going around the table. It comes to their turn. They’re silent. Often we just have to move on, because they’re not used to praying. They’re not praying in their own homes. This is where children really learn to pray. So, I encourage you to do that with your children.
PRAYER BOXES
I think I have mentioned many times about our prayer boxes. I wonder, how many of you actually have prayer boxes? Or have you listened to me talk about them, and never done it? Well, ladies, perhaps I can remind you again. Because I have to confess, I find one of the greatest blessings in our prayer times is our prayer boxes, because especially for little children, they often don’t know what to pray about. Their prayers are very generic. “Lord God, please give us a good day. Help me.” And so on.
But we’ve got to expand their prayer life, and give them a vision of the needs to pray for. So we have our FAMILY BOX of everybody in our family. We have our PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS PRAYER BOX. Do you remember when we did the podcast about praying for Eritrea? Anybody praying for Eritrea? Who’s remembering?
Have you done something to help you to remember to pray for this poor downcast country which is governed by a total dictatorship? There is no freedom of speech. There is nothing. There is much persecution. Oh, we must keep praying for them and for so many countries where Christians are being very, very persecuted, and martyred for their faith.
We have our ISRAEL PRYAER BOX, and our NATION CHANGING PRAYER BOX, and our WORLD CHANGING PRAYER BOX, and our SALVATION AND HEALING PRAYER BOX, and our ABOVE RUBIES PRAYER BOX. So it goes, on and on. Well, you can have the prayer boxes you want, and the subjects you want in your family. You will find it’s such a blessing.
We usually only use box each time. You can change the boxes for each time, but they will help you. If you need any help, if you need any, “What do I write on my prayer card?” or for Israel, or for the persecuted church, just email me, and I’ll send you some ideas to help you get going, because we do need encouraging in praying for all these issues. Not only just our own little needs, but the needs of this nation, and the needs of the world!
Oh, lovely ladies, are you praying for our nation? Are you burdened? Are you burdened? I have to tell you, I’m burdened. This nation is going down the tubes. Now you see what’s happening at all these universities. All these young people rising up, standing for Hamas, and becoming Hamas themselves, and chanting, “We are Hamas!” They don’t even know what they’re talking about.
Hamas is one of the most violent terrorist groups in the world. The actions, what they did on October 7 to the Israelis can hardly be spoken or written. It was so horrific, so horrific. If you’re not devastated by it, you don’t know what happened. It was horrific. In fact, I was reading even this morning in Genesis. Let me go to it here. When God saw that evil in the land, Genesis 6, yes, here it is. Genesis 6:11: “The earth also was corrupt before God. And the earth was filled with violence.”
Ladies, do you know what that word “violence” is in the Hebrew? Do you want to know? It’s the word hamas. The exact word hamas. It means “violence.” When God saw such violence, that’s when He brought the flood upon the earth, to destroy it. Now we have our own young people in this nation rising up, not only standing for Hamas and their violence, but becoming violent themselves, speaking, “We are Hamas!” Now they’re becoming more and more violent.
Are you praying? No, not just praying. Are you crying out to the Lord? Every Christian family should be crying out to God. Oh, that the evil and the deception in this land will be exposed, and that God will, in His sovereignty bring us back to righteousness and bring a mighty revival! Ladies, we can see this happen if God’s people, and every God-fearing home in the country would begin to cry out to God. Oh, please be one of those families, and encourage others to be those families, because praying families are nation-changing families. Praying families are world-changing families.
Norman Williams, who wrote a book called The Family Altar, says in this book:
“God didn’t make the course and destiny of nations and of individuals dependent on the decisions of Congresses and Parliaments. Not did He lay this power in the hands of rulers and kings. But God placed it in the praying family. That is why the devil cannot ruin nations of men until he has destroyed the homes of prayer. That is why satan hates the family altar.”
And truly, ladies, that’s why satan does everything in his power to stop us having our family altar, because he doesn’t want us praying. I tell you, when every God-fearing family in this nation begins to pray, we will see mighty things happening. But there are very few families praying. Even though they go to church on Sunday, even though they say they’re Christian. And Satan’s very, very happy, because he knows he can have his way. But my, when families get praying, look out!
Let’s go over to Leviticus 26:6. We see a powerful Scripture here: “And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.”
What a powerful promise! You see, our greatest weapon against our enemies, and the works of satan, is prayer. That is our greatest weapon! We’re not fighting against flesh and blood; we’re fighting against these evil principalities and powers. And what does it say here? “That five of you can chase a hundred.” Just a little family, with three children, that’s five, can chase a hundred enemies as they begin to pray together.
And what else does it say? “A hundred of you.” Wow! Just 25 families with only three each can put 10,000 to flight. How many does it say? I’ll bet it’s 1,000. No, 10,000 to flight! Wow! That’s amazing! What about families with six, seven, eight, nine, ten children? Some have got 12, 14 children. You’ve got a prayer meeting right there! Wow! As you gather your children to pray and to cry out to God for this nation, and against the evil that is happening in this nation, we can put 10,000 enemies to flight! Oh, my.
How true are these words from this writing. No wonder Satan hates the family altar. And no wonder he will try to stop you. So, don’t let him. Oh, yes, it’s amazing. Even just legitimate things. You see, the enemy knows that some evil thing will never stop you from having the family altar. Oh, my! You’ll have nothing to do with that.
But he’s so subtle. He will use good things. Did you know that? Yes, he can get you doing very good things, but they can take the time at that family altar. So, Satan’s just as happy because you’re not praying. We have to watch out for his ways, don’t we?
No. 8. WE ESTABLISH A FAMLY ALTAR TO READ GOD’S WORD
Because at the altar, we pray, we read the Word, and we worship. Of course, we’ve got Scriptures for everything. We read this in Exodus 24:4: “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Verse 7: “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.” They were all saying, “Amen.” “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” And so, Moses builded an altar and read the words of the Lord to the people.
We go over to the New Testament. It reiterates it in Hebrews 9:19-20: “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book,” that was the Book of the Law, the Word of the Lord, “and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.”
Of course, we are going to read the Word at our family altar. Deuteronomy 27:1-10, you can read the whole passage later. It says there: “Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God.” There they read the Word of the Lord. We just read Joshua 8, where he read all that Moses commanded. That might have taken them a few days. It might have taken them a whole week actually. Reading every day for a week, you can read the whole of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.
Let’s value the Word, and let’s make the Word of God BIG in the eyes of our children, that it’s never a bore. Never something, “Oh, we have to do this.” No! This is the most exciting time of the day! We are coming to hear God speak to us! Oh, that should be our personal attitude. When they see our excitement, and our longing to hear what God is going to say, our children will catch that. They will have the attitude that we have. It should always be an attitude of expectancy, believing that God is going to speak to us.
Now, you may be saying, “Well, where do I read in the Bible? I don’t know where to read.” Of course, that can be the most difficult thing for husbands who have never been brought up with the family altar or family devotions. There have been decades who have lost this in Christian homes. It’s time to get it back.
But it’s not easy when a husband doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He thinks, “Help!” A man doesn’t want to do something unless he feels confident and knows what he’s doing. He thinks, “Where will I read?” Well, let me tell you. In our home, we have done different things, and we have different seasons. Sometimes we will read through a book, and read through a chapter each time.
When our children were teens, for a while we would read a chapter of Proverbs every day because it was so practical for their lives. If it was the fifth day of the month, we would read Proverbs 5. If it was the 25th day, it was Proverbs 25. Because there are 31 days in the month, and 31 days in Proverbs. That’s a great thing to do.
But mostly now we read The Daily Light on the Daily Path. It is only the Word of God, but it is Scriptures put together on a certain theme for the morning and for the evening. It’s not many Scriptures, because you’ve got the morning and evening on one page! So, it’s not going to be too much, is it? But there it is. This becomes such a blessing for maybe a husband who thinks, “What will I do? I don’t know what I’m doing!”
If you get this book, all you have to do is go to the date. Every day my husband says, “OK, everybody! What’s the date?” We tell him the day, and he looks up the day. There it is! There’s the reading.
When he reads, of course, he doesn’t just read in a boring voice. He reads the Word, and he asks questions all the way through to keep everyone on their toes, because even in a short reading, it’s so easy to get into a dream. I’m trying to listen to every word, and I can still get into a little dream! You begin thinking about something, and away you are, off in fairyland. It is important for the husband, or whoever’s doing the reading, to ask questions.
Sometimes my husband will stop in the middle of a Scripture and say, “Who can finish it?” Or maybe he will read the wrong word, or read the opposite word from what it says. If none of us say anything, why, he knows we’re not listening. He will have to say, “Hey! What did I read?” He will have to read it again, and we’re listening this time. We’ll say, “Oh no! No! No! Not that word!”
It’s quite fun, because then you learn what is the real word. You say the Scripture over together out loud, and you get to know it. This particular Daily Light on the Daily Path has been around for 150 years. You can get them in different versions, any way you like. But in this particular one I put together, because at the beginning of every month, I give an idea for families of how they can keep it exciting, keep their children on their toes, keep them listening. It gives you that.
It’s available through www.aboverubies.org if you want to order that. Some have their own ways of doing it, but this is a great help if you don’t really know what to do. We’ve been doing it for years and we use it all the time. We love it!
I think our time has gone again, so we will continue next week.
“Dear Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that Your Word is true from the beginning, and from the beginning Your Word is true. It is true for all generations. We thank You that Your Word is up to date, right up to this moment. We thank You, Lord God, that every Word you speak is life to us. Lord God,
“I pray that Your Word will become life to every precious family who is listening today, and who establish their gathering of their children together. Lord, I pray that You’ll give them that excitement, Lord, as they come together to hear what You are going to say to them. I ask this in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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