Pace Hartfield is the Worship Pastor at Fellowship Church

This is a great article by Pace Hartfield



The "Altar-ed" Life
I am studying Old Testament worship this morning and I had a thought. Have we eliminated the idea of the altar and sacrifice in the Church? Within the context of the old covenant the very thought of worshiping God involved sacrifice. Worship was costly. Worship required sacrifice to stay in relationship with a Holy God and although we now have a more superior way of worship in the new covenant, I sometimes wonder if we have missed it.
Every step of the way to relationship with God in the Old Testament required thought of sacrifice. Even if it were a small sacrifice, one had to bring it to God. You walked with your sacrifice. You would smell and hear sacrifice. The entire worship experience involved sacrifice. It involved the altar. Without the altar there was no place for the blood to be shed. The altar was the place where the divine transaction took place. It's where man's sins where covered temporarily by the innocent blood of the sacrifice and on that altar relationship with God was "altar-ed."
Today we have a totally different mindset as we go to worship God. Instead of walking into the Church with sacrifice on our minds, we walk into Church thinking about ourselves. We come into a worship experience with a consumerist mindset. We rate our experience with God based on whether or not we liked the music or the message. And the ironic thing about all of this is that the worship experience shouldn't be about us. Ours worship is for God's consumption, not ours. He is the consumer, not us. And as for rating the service- if anybody should be doing the rating it's Him.
Now I realize that because of Christ's work on the cross one sacrifice has been made for all and that the sacrifice of blood is no longer required. Christ blood doesn't cover our sin, it washes our sins away. Praise God! But let's not miss it here. Our worship should still be costly. Romans 12 tells us that our very lives are to be presented to God as "living sacrifices."
When we remove the cost of worship we remove the altar in worship. When we remove the altar in worship we remove the ability to be "altar-ed."
So what does the altar look like in a New Testament Church service

Dream! Dream! Dream!

I know the plans that I have for you, says the lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

No one can lay a hand on our dreams!
E. Y Lucas

May Your Dreams Come True.......May Happy hours and sweetest flowers be strewn along Life's way for you, UnceasinglyAnd may the light of love burn bright As God's own starsWhich shine for you, Unchangingly!

No person has the right to rain on your dreams.
Marian Wright Edelman

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain

My Love Life

Don't get excited! We're not going there! I have just been thinking of how blessed I am that my very "crazy life" is so filled with love. Even when I feel not so lovable, I do know my God loves me, alot! I really don't even question that anymore. I have a wonderful husband of 36 years who loves loving me. Those years haven't all been easy, but our marriage has grown stronger through each trial and each joy and the love has grown sweeter. I know we have something special! I have 4 wonderful children that I know love me. Motherhood isn't easy but nothing has brought more joy to my life, 4 kids that I am so proud of, as different as night and day, living in four different states (that's hard on a mom). 2 sons in law and a daughter in law who I love just as much as my own, 8 beautiful granddaughters and one prince of a grandson, how wonderful it is to be a grammy! Their hugs and kisses and "I love yous" bring sunshine to any cloudy day. They are the colors in my rainbow! Thank you God for such love as this! I am so blessed!