Between the Altar and the Door

A few days ago, after watching a couple of NewSongCafe videos, I ended up surfing YouTube for Christian- and Worship-related material. I stumbled across a preview video for Casting Crown's album, The Altar and the Door, where Mark Hall talked about the songs, their meanings and the focus and calling of the band.

Something he said really affected me:

[The song] "The Altar and the Door" draws a picture of the frustrating journey we have of working things out of our Bible and into our lives. So to me, the altar represents those times where everything is black and white and everything makes total sense and you know the direction you're supposed to go and you know how you're supposed to live and it's all just perfect. And then you get up from the altar and you go out the door and by the time you're out of that door, it's as though everything just sort of leaks out.

The song "Slow Fade" deals with that fall because no one really falls. You know, you're not doing awesome one day coming out of a revival in your life and the next day you just crash. It never happens that way. It's always a slow series of small compromises that end up to the point where you're in a place that you thought you'd never be, doing something you thought you'd never do and totally rationalizing all of it, because your mind and your spirit have slowly changed to where you didn't notice it.

People never crumble in a day. It's always a slow fade.

- Mark Hall of Casting Crowns

I find that to be true. Nobody is ever saved and then commits murder the following day. As we live our lives, we still commit sins that we thought we were incapable of committing because we make compromises here and there and we allow ourselves to be lenient towards sin. As we compromise, our tolerance for sin grows. No one ever wakes up and decides to be a serial killer. It always starts off small.

But praise God for giving us His living Word. As we spend time in His Word and commune with Him daily, He has the power to change us, to cause us to grow in holiness and righteousness and to be sanctified from the ways of this world.

Time spent with the Lord is as good as it gets. Don't allow yourself to spend time with the Lord at the altar in a church but neglect Him when you're out that door. We all need to be in the Word at all times so that we don't compromise and fade and slide into sin.