From the Home Place

April 19, 2026

Good morning friends! I pray that this day will be special for you, and for those who gather with you to worship the living God. May I visit with you about that place within your place of worship called the altar. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram, who will later be called Abraham to move his family to a new land, a land which is to be God’s gift to Abraham’s family for generations to come.

As Abram is traveling south to go to “the promised land,” he stops, pitches his tent and then the Bible tells us that Abram, “built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 12:8) For centuries, the altar has been that place where people offer personal sacrifices and call “upon the name of the Lord.” In the Old Testament people usually offered an animal as a blood sacrifice “to the Lord.”

On this Sunday, as you go to worship the Lord, may I encourage you to make your “sacrifice to the Lord.” As Christ followers we first made our sacrifice “to the Lord” at the moment we were what the Bible calls “born again.” At that moment, with repentant hearts, we were declared righteous by the Holy God because of faith in the “sacrifice” of Jesus Christ upon the altar of the Cross of Calvary.

So, if that explains where you are spiritually, today, I encourage to go the altar once again to make your sacrifice “to the Lord” and to “call upon the name of the Lord.” That is, don’t go to church just for your personal pleasure, go there to give your life in service to the Lord for the Lord. Let “the joy of the Lord” flow through your life so that others will be able to see God’s goodness. Stand and sing praises to the Lord, so that others will sense His presence. Pray humbly to the Lord so that others may realize the holiness of the Lord.

As you prepare to go to church, and while you are at church, please pray for your Pastor as he stands at the altar of your church. His role is to bring you into the presence of the Lord through the proclamation of God’s word, and there you get to bring your sacrifice “to the Lord.” Bring all the Lord has blessed you with to the altar and present it before Him as your sacrifice. Bring your finances, the things God has given you, the people God has given you, the life God has given you, bring it all to the altar and give your “sacrifice to the Lord, for the Lord!”

Today, as you sing, as you pray, as you listen to the sermon, do all as unto the Lord God Himself, for His glory and for the good of those around you. Be the kind of worshiper that encourages others to live lives “to the Lord, for the Lord.” Allow me to say it this way, “Our worship isn’t about we, it’s about He!” Yet, as we gather at the altar, giving our personal life to Him, for Him, others then find themselves in the presence of the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ! The One who gave His life as a sacrifice for all. Should we sacrifice anything less than our all for Him as well? We sacrifice not to purchase our redemption, Jesus did that; we sacrifice our life as proof of our redemption.

Joining you at the altar of sacrifice, Neal