Spiritual Offerings

​​​​​​​“May you accept my prayer like incense, my uplifted hands like the evening offering!”  Psalms 141:2 NLT

Sacrifice was a daily part of life in Jerusalem.  Each morning and afternoon a whole bull was burned on the altar for a “continual burnt offering.”  The time of the evening sacrifice was 3 pm, the exact time of Jesus’ death on the cross.   Likewise, twice a day a priest, designated for the job by lot, went into the temple to burn incense on the golden altar of incense before the Holy of Holies.  Typically the worshippers in the temple area prayed at this hour.  It was this event Luke refers to when John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, saw the angel and was informed of John’s pending birth and ministry. (Luke 1)

The Psalmist, King David, was the only man in the Old Testament who truly lived as a New Testament believer.  David’s Tabernacle was used for worship during his reign, even while the commanded sacrifices where taking place in the Tabernacle of Moses.   David’s Tabernacle is where singing, praise and worship went on around the clock.  It was an open tent with the presence of God available to all the worshippers, unlike the closed and divided Tabernacle God had Moses build. These two Tabernacles stood as stark contrast between Old Testament legalistic worship and New Testament spiritual worship.  It was David’s Tabernacle, not the Tabernacle of Moses, which Jesus came to rebuild and establish.  (Amos 9:11 and Acts 15:16)  It was also David’s Tabernacle that was associated with the salvation of the Gentiles.

David knew God did not want empty ritual.  He knew God wanted spiritual worship.  This was the gist of the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well.  She asked “WHERE should we worship?”  Jesus instructed her on HOW to worship.  Legalism requires ritual, ceremony and often – the right place.  Legalism limits worship.  Grace personalizes it.  David is asking God to set aside the rituals of sacrifice and incense and accept his personal response to God as true worship.

In applying today’s scripture it is important to note a couple of things.  First the Evening Sacrifice was a whole burnt offering and it stood for entire consecration to God.  In some offerings the priest got the best portion as payment for his service and the person offering the sacrifice got a portion back to eat.  Not so with the burnt offering.  It was totally given to God. Man received no direct physical benefit.   It would be somewhat akin to taking a church offering today (Let’s say $1000) and the whole church going to the parking lot and burning it before the Lord.  I can hear the protests now.  "Why this waste? We could have used that money for ...."  It reminds me of the woman who pours the box of expensive ointment on Jesus' feet.  Judas wanted to know why she had wasted it and not sold it an gave an offering.  Is anything consecrated to the Lord really wasted?  Money?  Time? A life?

When David made this request he was making a statement of total consecration. His raised hands before the Lord indicated surrender, devotion, love, longing for God and more.

In several places the Bible uses incense as a symbol of prayer ascending before God.  It was this regular twice-daily temple ritual David was referring to when he wrote this. Without becoming legalistic about it, perhaps our prayer lives should take on more consistency and structure. 

Peter reminds us “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. I Peter 2:5

At the end of the day two things that will impact the world for Jesus Christ:  Dedicated prayer and consecrated, sacrificial living.  It is in this way the Tabernacle of David and this Psalm is connected with World Missions and the salvation of the Gentiles.


By Steve Highlander

Keys to Transforming Your Life

​​​​​​​“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  Romans 12:2

The importance of understanding this scripture cannot be overstated.  Here Paul gives us the key to true lasting change in our lives, resulting in the fulfillment our God given destinies.

Paul often used contrasting words to emphasize a point.  Here he uses the words CONFORMED and TRANSFORMED.  Conformation uses external pressure to change the outward appearance of something.  For instance I can take blue modeling clay and make a vase by applying technique and pressure.  I can reshape that same clay into an elephant if I want.  However it will ALWAYS be blue modeling clay.  The nature of it can not be changed by external pressure.

Today many people are conformed by the external pressure the world, or even the church, puts on them.  We call it “peer pressure.”  External pressure shaping an external response without any change of nature.  This is religion at its worst.  Many people who have conformed to external religious requirements, however moral or good, have never experienced a change of nature and, because of this, struggle with conformity all their lives.

In contrast to this Paul uses the word TRANSFORMED.  To transform something means to change its nature, not just its external appearance.  It is the Greek word we get metamorphosis from.  A worm “morphs” into a butterfly.  They are not two different creatures, but certainly not the same either.  The nature has been changed.  Likewise spiritual transformation changes the believer.  We are in many ways the same person, but with whole different thoughts and actions.

We know how conformation happens.  But how are we TRANSFORMED?  Paul tells us it is “by the renewing of our minds.”  Our basic belief systems dictate our thinking and thus our outward actions and reactions.  When you change what you believe you automatically impact the way you act. 

To try to serve God without transformation is to fail miserably.  It is only as we are transformed that we have the spiritual wherewithal to find and fulfill our spiritual destinies.

By Steve Highlander

Faith Requires that God Speak First

​​​​​​​“All he does is just and good, and all his commandments are trustworthy. They are forever true, to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity.”  Psalms 111:7-8

The Christian life has a sure foundation:  The Word of God.  Without this there is no basis for faith, because the Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” 

It is no wonder there is such an attack on the validity of the Bible today.  To destroy the authority of the word of God is to rob people of the only thing that can produce faith and thus the only thing that can please God.  In Hebrews 11:6 we are told, “…but without faith it is impossible to please God.” 

Religious effort that is not based in and on faith does not please God.  Jesus said, “Many shall come to me in that day and say, ‘Lord, Lord haven’t we done a lot of stuff in your name.’”  And Jesus’ reply was, “depart from me you workers of iniquity (self will) for I never knew you.”  Paul tells us, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”  Honestly, satan could care less how religiously active people are as long as they don’t believe the Bible is true and act on it.

It was said of Abraham, the father of faith, “Abraham BELIEVED God and it was counted to him for righteousness.” Elsewhere we are told Abraham believed God and “went out, not knowing where he was going.” In the Christian life we find this progression regarding God’s word: 1. We hear, 2. We believe, 3. We obey, 4. The word produces fruit in our lives. 

In this Psalm we are once again assured that the ways and words of God are both true and righteous.  The Psalmist goes on to encourage our obedience, faithfulness and integrity in applying it to our lives. This brings to mind Jesus’ parable of the two men who build houses, one on sand and the other on a rock.  The moral was that we were to be doers of the word and not just hearers.

God’s word is a solid rock on which to build our lives.  The opposite is seen all around us in the destruction and corruption in the lives of people who want to rob the scriptures of their authority and power.  


By Steve Highlander