1 Chron. 20:1-23:1, Luke 12:41-59

Thought from Today’s Old Testament Passage: “At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.” –1 Chronicles 21:28 From the whole, learn that it is not needful for meeting with God that you should be aided by persons arrayed in special robes, oxen will do as well; neither do you require a holy pavement, a threshing-floor may be holiness unto the Lord: neither do you need stained glass and vaulted roofs, the open air is better still. Do not believe for a moment that visible grandeur is necessary to the place where God will meet with you. Go to your threshing-floor and pray; aye, while the unmuzzled oxen take their rest, bow your knee and cry to the Lord of the harvest, and you shall meet with God amongst the straw and the grain. Fear not to draw nigh to God in the streets, but consecrate all space to the Lord your God. Study simplicity and plainness of worship. Remember how the Lord hated altars of brick, and how He would have His people build an altar of earth or of unhewn stone, to keep His worship simple and natural. Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), Vol. 2, p. 29