The Family Altar

Our theme is Your Family and God. We are thinking not simply of your family, but of your family—and God. It is one thing to rear a family. It is quite another to bring God into that family. It is one thing to make a home. It is quite another to make that home a Christian home. The chief task then for every Christian parent is not simply to make a home—anyone can do that—but to make that home a Christian home. We are concerned with the how of this task, how to bring God into the home, or how to bring together your family—and God.

To accomplish this task is not always as easy as it may sound. For so often we find that although there may be much Christian influence around the home, there may be little in the home. And although we as parents may even regularly take our children to church, and find ourselves engaged in much church activity—meetings to go to, societies to attend—yet so little of the content of these church activities finds its way into our homes. In church we talk about Jesus, but seldom at home, and then only in hushed tones as if the topic somehow didn’t belong in the home. In church we believe the Bible is the Word of God, but in our homes when everyday problems arise, we seldom think of looking in its pages for the word from God. We search the Scriptures to find what God said to Elijah and Jeremiah and Daniel to meet the problems of their day, but it never occurs to us to search the same Scriptures to see what God says to us to meet the problems of our day. What about little Willie’s behavior, meeting the family budget, our quick tempers, and family quarrels? Does God say anything about these things, or did people not face such problems in Bible times? Well, if He does say anything about them, in most cases it does not matter, because we do not take the trouble to find out.

By studying the Bible in the church we may get our dispensations all right, but by neglecting the same Bible in our homes our dispositions are all wrong. In our prayer meetings we learn all about prayer—there is this kind of prayer, and there is that kind of prayer. But in our homes we just do not pray. Ask the question in your Sunday school class, your circle, or even in your prayer meeting—How many homes presented here have a regular family altar? It would be amazing to know how many couples there are who go to prayer meetings together, but have never knelt and prayed together. Or how many husbands and wives believe that prayer changes things, but in their homes they do not pray, and conditions remain unchanged.

You see, we are perhaps getting our families into the church, but are we getting the church into our families?

Many years ago, God spoke to a group of families and said: “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). Collectively these people were called Israel, but really they were just twelve big family clans, all related to one another through inter-marriage—probably not unlike the church to which you belong. To these families God said “Make Me a sanctuary.” Why did He want them to do that? In order that He might “dwell among them.”

For Israel this dwelling place of God was a tabernacle. It was there the glory of God was revealed to them. It was there that confessions were made, that sin was judged, that decisions were made, and that victories were won. It was there that the families of Israel met with God. All of this—because they made a place for God to dwell among them.

Certainly of all the places on the face of the earth the home no less than the church should be “a place where God dwells.” In the days of His flesh, the Lord Jesus said: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Does this wonderful promise apply only to the church? Or does it apply also to the home?

Well, what about it, Mother, Dad? Does God dwell in your home? Is His Son in your midst? In your home do you gather together in His name? When the problems arise does He speak to you through His Word? Is your home a place where Dad and Mother and the children meet with God? Do you have a regular place and time when the family gathers together and takes time to pray?

Or are you like millions of other mothers and dads? “Well, we just do not have time. We are all so busy, we just cannot seem to get the family together long enough for family prayers.” If this is your excuse, then may we say something especially for you? We will say it softly so that no one else will hear it, and yet just loud enough so that you will be sure to hear it. If your family is too busy to pray together, then your family is too busy. If you do not have time for a family altar, may God help you to make time. If you think you are so busy that you cannot afford the time for a family altar, then look around you at the homes that have gone shipwreck—families that have been too busy to pray together. See the soaring divorce rates. Many of them could have been avoided if the parents had not been too busy to pray together. Notice the broken homes they leave in their wake, homes where parents could not stay together because they could not pray together.

Take a trip to the nearest orphanage and look at the boys and girls who live there. Most of them had parents who were too busy to pray, they did not have time for a family altar, now they do not even have a family. Go to any juvenile court and hear the stories told. They call them “delinquents”—which may usually defined as “children from homes where there were no family altars.” Many of them come from good, prosperous homes. Their parents could afford to feed them and clothe them. They just did not have time to pray for them and with them.

You say you are too busy to have a family altar in your home? Then, parent, you are just too busy. If you cannot afford the time to have a family altar, God help you to see that you cannot afford not to take the time.

Do not leave God outside your home. Bring Him in. Build a sanctuary that He may dwell among you. Begin a family altar today. Set aside a regular time when your family gathers together in the name of Jesus Christ. Mother, open the Bible and read from it. Dad, let those children hear you pray for them. Are you bearing heavy burdens? Then at your family altar “cast your burdens upon the Lord.” Do you have needs in your home? At your family altar “tell them to Jesus.” Is there a cold atmosphere in your home because ungodly influences have crept in despite your best efforts? Then light the fire in a family altar, and you will find that when Christ comes into a home other things will soon disappear.

But we can hear some dads, and a few moms too saying: “But I do not know how to pray.” Don’t you? Do you know how to talk? Just talk to God. Prayer is just talking to God—a two-way conversation. You talk and He listens. Then He talks awhile and you listen. Just as simple as that.

I once knew a truck driver dad. He could not pray. That is, he was not much at “saying prayers.” But he could surely talk to God. He had never had a lesson in grammar, and so when he would start to pray he would get his “Thees” where his “Thous” should have been, until after a while he would stop using them altogether. Then he would go on in his simple way, “Dear God, thank You for this,” and “Dear God, we need that,” and “Dear God, help me to do something else.” Not very high sounding prayers but the remarkable thing about those prayers was that God apparently answered them. When the rent would come due he would tell God about it, and somehow the money would come in to pay the rent. When his little Willie needed a pair of shoes this dad would tell God: “God, Willie needs a pair of shoes.” And do you know, it would not be long before Willie would have the shoes he needed. All day long this dad would go about his job, driving his truck. And the mom would see to her housework and family needs. And just as with any other family each day would bring its new problems. But then when evening came and the dishes were cleared up, this dad would gather his family in the living room. Mom would open and read from the Bible, and then they would all kneel and the dad would begin to tell God all the problems of the day. He did not know much, he had never been to school. But he knew God. And there were a lot of things they did not have in the home, but they never lacked love, or peace, or harmony, or the many other things that make for home happiness. This was a family, you see, that knew God. How did they get to know Him so well? The same way you get to know anyone—by talking to Him. They had a family altar, and every night they talked to God. And the more they talked to Him the better they got to know Him. Their home, you see, was a sanctuary, a place where God dwelt among them.

Mother, Dad, God’s plan for your home is that it should be a beautiful sacred place—a place where family ties are strong, where love prevails because prayer avails, a place where husband and wife, whether married five months or fifty years, are still in love; where parents look upon their parenthood not as a martyrdom but as a ministry, where children are not endured but enjoyed as “children which the Lord hath graciously given.” He wants your home to be a place where peace and harmony are the rule because Christ is the Ruler, where the parents live for the children, and the children live for the parents, and where all live for God.

This, friends, is the Bible concept God’s concept of the Christian home—not just four walls, furnishings, and a family. But all of this—and God. That is, God not outside, but inside the home. Not just on Sunday, but seven days a week. And then not in terms of a wife’s religion, or a child’s Sunday school, but in terms of an every-member experience and devotion to God and to His Son Jesus Christ. A home where there is Bible reading and Christ-centered conversation, not simply in the church, but in the home; not by some pastor, but by the parents.

This is God’s pattern for the Christian home. It is possible only in a home that houses a family—and God. It cannot be built unless He builds it. A home that meets God’s pattern, that honors God’s Son, that obeys God’s Word, and therefore enjoys God’s blessing is the home that God desires your home to be. It can be and will be if and when God builds your home. But to build your home He must have a place in your home. A family altar, where your family regularly meets with God, will bring God into your home. Do not let your home be without God, because your family is without an altar.

If you have not already done so, why not do it today? Build Him a sanctuary that He may dwell among you. Start a family altar where you and your family gather together in Jesus’ name. Bring together your family—and God.