At the Altar

I do not want to be like the drunk man who one dark night stumbled into a well, gave his life to Jesus before morning came, was rescued, and then forever was leading his old drinking buddies to the well where he pushed them over the edge and into the well.  I am not sure about practicing that kind of evangelism even though I have a strong affinity for the power of kneeling down at an altar.  I have a lot of altars in my spiritual history.  

I knelt at the Hebardville Church for baptism.  The Alamo Church had one where I knelt at least a hundred times during my high school years.  One afternoon during a revival at Asbury College, I knelt and experienced the sweeping power of the Holy Spirit in my heart in a way never before known.  There have, of course, been other altars, but these are the most memorable.  There is something about kneeling at an altar that not only puts our body in a different position, but our heart as well.  Kneeling provides a different perspective for all but the most hardened souls.  

To kneel gives perspective to the Creator-creature relationship, to the God-human relationship, and to the Savior-sinner relationship.  It is a moment of knowing that the power lies not in the one kneeling, but in the One before whom we kneel.  When Isaiah experienced his great moment with the Lord, it was from the altar that came the blotting out of his sin and it was from that same altar that he went when he heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  (Isaiah 6:8)