Proper altars?

[Ghostjunkie]

So, I have an altar in my room set up for prayer. It holds my bible, has a couple incense holders (purely decorative), a few unrelated things below, and a tapestry of an angel above. I am thinking I need to remove the unrelated items to properly sanctify it, but I want to know if there is anything I am missing when it comes to "proper" altar dos/dont's. I am also somewhat curious about the tapestry above it. It was a gift long ago from a friend. I guess it is from some anime, but I never knew what, so it has no other meaning to me--to me it is just a picture of an angel. Any tips?

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Any tips?

Start today going thru all Scripture
and see what God says about altars.

Pray constantly to the Father for Him to reveal His Plan and His Purpose in Christ Jesus.

This is very important, as idolatry has infiltrated most of the religious groups everywhere on earth.

 

[Albion]

It's really just a book (Bible) stand, so unless there is something obviously immoral or unChristian about the decor, I would have to answer "no problem."

 

[Dixibehr50]

Start today going thru all Scripture
and see what God says about altars.

Pray constantly to the Father for Him to reveal His Plan and His Purpose in Christ Jesus.

This is very important, as idolatry has infiltrated most of the religious groups everywhere on earth.

Even classical protestants.

 

[☦Marius☦]

So, I have an altar in my room set up for prayer. It holds my bible, has a couple incense holders (purely decorative), a few unrelated things below, and a tapestry of an angel above. I am thinking I need to remove the unrelated items to properly sanctify it, but I want to know if there is anything I am missing when it comes to "proper" altar dos/dont's. I am also somewhat curious about the tapestry above it. It was a gift long ago from a friend. I guess it is from some anime, but I never knew what, so it has no other meaning to me--to me it is just a picture of an angel. Any tips?

I have iconography and a prayer book, as well as a monastic synaxerion. That way I'll always have some psalms or prayers to read throughout the day. What kind of incense do you use?

 

[Dixibehr50]

So, I have an altar in my room set up for prayer. It holds my bible, has a couple incense holders (purely decorative), a few unrelated things below, and a tapestry of an angel above. I am thinking I need to remove the unrelated items to properly sanctify it, but I want to know if there is anything I am missing when it comes to "proper" altar dos/dont's. I am also somewhat curious about the tapestry above it. It was a gift long ago from a friend. I guess it is from some anime, but I never knew what, so it has no other meaning to me--to me it is just a picture of an angel. Any tips?

If these help you pray, don't worry.

 

[Tigger45]

We have 3 candles. One each representing the light of Christ in my wife and I and the third one representing Christ Himself. Incense holder, the Apostles creed framed. Holy water and basil blessed from our local Orthodox parish. A crucifix from my late uncle’s funeral and several icons, Christ the pantocator, the Theotokos with the Christ child, Sts Anthony the great and Michael the archangel. And the altar situated so we’re facing east as a preference.

What I think is important is to personalize it to reflect your faith journey.

 

[Tolworth John]

So, I have an altar in my room set up for prayer. It holds my bible, has a couple incense holders (purely decorative), a few unrelated things below, and a tapestry of an angel above. I am thinking I need to remove the unrelated items to properly sanctify it, but I want to know if there is anything I am missing when it comes to "proper" altar dos/dont's. I am also somewhat curious about the tapestry above it. It was a gift long ago from a friend. I guess it is from some anime, but I never knew what, so it has no other meaning to me--to me it is just a picture of an angel. Any tips?

Why?
An alter is a place for making sacrifices.
What are you planning on sacrificing on your alter?

How do you understand 1Cor 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price.

You feel a need to use an alter to help you worship God.
Doesn't the Spirit aid you in prayer and worship?

 

[Dixibehr50]

Why?
An alter is a place for making sacrifices.
What are you planning on sacrificing on your alter?

How do you understand 1Cor 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price.

You feel a need to use an alter to help you worship God.
Doesn't the Spirit aid you in prayer and worship?

There is no such thing as "an alter", since that is a verb.

The word you're looking for is "altar".

You might want to read the opening verses of Psalm 141 and ponder them.

And how do you know that the Spirit didn't tell this person to set up this altar?

Doesn't the Spirit tell you to mind your own business?

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

So, I have an altar in my room set up for prayer.

Since it came up in the last few posts, where did you get the idea an altar was being requested by Yahuweh the Creator ?

 

[Ghostjunkie]

Sigh, I didn't want to get semantic here, I was feeling pretty anti-semantic, but "altar" might not be the correct word. Shrine? Prayer corner? Whatever people want to call it. There is really no need to get super pedantic about it.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Sigh, I didn't want to get semantic here, I was feeling pretty anti-semantic, but "altar" might not be the correct word. Shrine? Prayer corner? Whatever people want to call it. There is really no need to get super pedantic about it.

I don't remember now, did you want to seek what the Creator says about this, or did you get this idea from men and just thought it would help somehow ?

 

[Albion]

Sigh, I didn't want to get semantic here, I was feeling pretty anti-semantic, but "altar" might not be the correct word. Shrine? Prayer corner? Whatever people want to call it. There is really no need to get super pedantic about it.

I like your reply, but if you didn't think it was some kind of altar, or even anything special (as you said)...

I cannot see any reason to worry about its existence or the layout violating some sacred meaning, etc. etc..

 

[GodLovesCats]

Everything at the altar should be meaningful to you. If you don't care about pictures of angels, don't have any. But a gift from your friend is to be kept, so you should not take it down. All items need to be related to Christianity.

 

[Tolworth John]

There is no such thing as "an alter", since that is a verb.

The word you're looking for is "altar".

You might want to read the opening verses of Psalm 141 and ponder them.

And how do you know that the Spirit didn't tell this person to set up this altar?

Doesn't the Spirit tell you to mind your own business?

Post on a public forum and everyone is welcome to express there view, no matter how un gramatical.

There is also the issue of clarifing what someone has posted.
Did they mean that, where they aware of what it means.
An alter is suposed to be holy. Is a what the poster discribes a 'holy' place of worship.

 

[GodLovesCats]

There is no such thing as "an alter" since that is a verb.

Have you ever heard of typos? I bet you made them yourself; everyone does. Clearly this is one of them. There are Christian ways to correct people when they make mistakes.

 

[Albion]

Have you ever heard of typos? I bet you made them yourself; everyone does. Clearly this is one of them..

FWIW, the same "typo" three times in one short post is not a typo.

 

[Dixibehr50]

Post on a public forum and everyone is welcome to express there view, no matter how un gramatical.

There is also the issue of clarifing what someone has posted.
Did they mean that, where they aware of what it means.
An alter is suposed to be holy. Is a what the poster discribes a 'holy' place of worship.

Wrong.

An ALTAR is supposed to be holy.

 

[Jonaitis]

So, I have an altar in my room set up for prayer. It holds my bible, has a couple incense holders (purely decorative), a few unrelated things below, and a tapestry of an angel above. I am thinking I need to remove the unrelated items to properly sanctify it, but I want to know if there is anything I am missing when it comes to "proper" altar dos/dont's. I am also somewhat curious about the tapestry above it. It was a gift long ago from a friend. I guess it is from some anime, but I never knew what, so it has no other meaning to me--to me it is just a picture of an angel. Any tips?

I have a bookshelf too, it holds about any and everything.

 

[Tolworth John]

Wrong.

An ALTAR is supposed to be holy.

I'll run the risk of being banned.

This little correspondence shows the shallowness of certain orthodox spiritual practices.
In the OT God gave very presice instructions how to make an alter.
Yet here the orthodox think an alter can be knocked up with a few unknown items, a picture of a japanese cartoon angel and that is acceptable.

Fortunetly as the spirit of God lives in us we don't need things like alters to help us pray, the spirit does that.