Priests, Christians and Incense

Nicole Ramirez said:

What do you know about scriptures and the burning of incense? Incense can be burnt as an offering right? I would like to grasp, learn, fathom about this, for I know of no christian that burns incense, yet I see it in the stores for sale. Thank you. Shalom

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Incense is a tradition among all of the original apostolic Churches. It is symbolic of the prayers of the saints. The incense of the liturgy is a reflection of the liturgy of heaven.

Rev 8:3 - And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer itwith the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

If you are serious with your question you can ask in The Ancient Way, since this place can be toxic to anything traditional:
The Ancient Way - Eastern Orthodox

Nicole Ramirez said:

What do you know about scriptures and the burning of incense? Incense can be burnt as an offering right? I would like to grasp, learn, fathom about this, for I know of no christian that burns incense, yet I see it in the stores for sale. Thank you. Shalom

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There are also non-Christian non-Jewish uses for incense. Some think it covers the smell of marijuana. It may repel mosquitoes. It has aesthetic uses too. It has non-Christian religious use among peoples in China, India, Japan, the Arabs.

It had a great deal of use among the Jews. It is from them that Christians inherit the use.

The incense you see in stores would most likely be for non-Christian non-Jewish purposes. If you are looking for a Christian use of incense look to Orthodox or Catholic liturgical practice. Catholics use incense from time to time. My parish did so every week since Easter, but does not use it every week through the year. Orthodox use may vary. I'm not sure either use incense outside of a liturgical setting. Do ask more in OBOB and/or TAW forums.

Nicole Ramirez said:

Thank you for responding. I will pray about whether to burn the incense or not. God Bless/ Shalom. ~ Side Note. Is your avatar a hebrew letter? It just got my attention, and I know I have seen it before, just don't know where. Photography by Nicole N’s albums | Flickr

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It's actually Arabic, the letter 'n' pronounced 'nun' or 'noon'. So it's close to Hebrew. The ISIS folks would spray paint this letter on Christian homes before ransacking them. I took it up as a badge of honor because of that. See #WeAreN

As to personal use of incense, I have never been around it outside of liturgical use. Not sure about using it privately outside of a liturgy. Within an appropriate liturgy or benediction no problem. Outside of that I just don't know.

We use incense when doing our morning and evening prayers. We usually use small quick lighting charcoal briquettes which we put lumps of incense on during prayers. We also use charcoal powder sometimes, which doesn't produce the smoke the briquettes do when lighting. The charcoal is made from vine branches which are reduced to charcoal after pruning then ground to fine powder.
Eastern Orthodox bookstores will generally stock both briquettes and incense.

This is an example of an Orthodox icon corner and you can see a small hand censor on the right side of the cabinet