All On The Altar

But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay
For the favor He shows, and the joy He bestows
Are for them who will trust and obey

 

— Trust and Obey

 

This article will have minimum commenting.  The thought here is to provide some Scripture, some definitions and simply let those who know Christ to sit and ponder their ways.

 

“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?  So he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  Luke 10:25-27

 

“Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one.  And you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, with all your soul, exceedingly in every way.  And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  Deuteronomy 6:4-9

 

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  Galatians 2:20

 

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things are so.”  Acts 17:11

 

“For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  Psalms 51:16-17

 

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  Matthew 5:8

 

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  Psalms 51:10

 

“For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”  Romans 8:5

 

“Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear Jehovah and depart from evil.”  Proverbs 3:5-7

 

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves dig through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not dig through and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21

 

“No one is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.  It is not possible to serve God and mammon.”  Matthew 6:24

 

mam’mon, n.  Riches; wealth, or the god of riches.

 

rich’es, n. sing and pl.

 

1. Wealth; opulence; affluence; possessions of land, goods, or money in abundance.

 

Riches do not consist in having more gold and silver, but in having more in proportion than our neighbors. –Locke

 

2. Splendid or sumptuous appearance.

 

The Riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold. — Milton

 

3. The pearl, flower, or cream of anything. (Obs.)

 

wealth (welth), n.

 

1. Prosperity; external happiness. (Obs.)

 

2. Riches; large possessions of money, goods, or land; that abundance of worldly goods which exceeds the possessions of the greater part of the community; affluence; opulence; profusion; abundance.

 

Each day new wealth with their care provides. — Dryden

 

Again the feast, the speech, the glee,

The shade of passing thought, the wealth

Of words and wit. –Tennyson

 

3. In political economy, all and only such objects as both have utility and can be appropriated in exclusive possession, and therefore exchanged.  Political economists consider labor as the only source of wealth; and political economy treats largely of the means of promoting the increase of national wealth, and of removing obstructions to its development.

 

Definitions from: Webster’s University Dictionary, 1943

 

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is evident that we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.  But those who purpose to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all evils, for which some being greedy, have strayed from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.  But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”  1st Timothy 6:6-11

 

“Observe the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?”  Matthew 6:26

 

“I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”  Psalms 37:25

 

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.  Everywhere and in everything I am taught both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to lack.”  Philippians 4:11-12

 

“He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”  Revelation 22:11

 

“The soul who sins shall die.  The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.  The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.  But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has done, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall live life; he shall not die.  None of the transgressions which he has done shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.  Do I delight with pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Jehovah, and not that he should turn back from his ways and live?  But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live?  All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the treachery of his unfaithfulness, and the sin which he has sinned, in them he shall die.  Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair.  When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is for the iniquity which he has done that he dies.  Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he has done, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive.  Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he has done, he shall live life; he shall not die.”  Ezekiel 18:20-28

 

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death.”  Proverbs 16:25

 

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is for every man.  For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”  Ecclesiastes 12:13:14

 

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men that is required for us to be saved.”  Acts 4:12

 

“Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” J ohn 14:6

 

“What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Let it not be! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  Or do you not know that as many of us as were immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through immersion into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be nullified, that we should no longer serve sin.  For he who has died has been justified from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives unto God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:1-11