Back to normal

Pastor Jim was back at church this week after been gone a month. He might have been back last week come to think of it but I was in Portland so missed church. He seems so refreshed. Back to his passionate self which it seemed he had lost a bit of after the board denied purchase (again) of new property. He was back east on a personal retreat and spent some time with his family in FL. Anyway...today's sermon was amazing. So amazing that I actually ordered a copy of the audio! I want to share the scripture he focused on today.

Isaiah 6:1-15

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another;

Holy, Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'

He said, 'Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might nsee with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'

Then I said, 'For how long, O Lord?' and He answered:

'Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."


So what does this all mean you ask? Isaiah is speaking of when he saw the Lord. He was the keeper of history and he knew that those that saw the Lord only saw him in death or near death. When he saw Him, he yelled out "I am ruined" for he knew he was a dead man! The seraphs are firey angelic beings and in this passage they covered their eyes (so they would not see the Lord) and their feet (to come to Him without protection like Moses coming to the burning bush without shoes). Isaiah feared for his life because when he saw the Lord, he saw all of his sin and the sin of those around him and knew himself to be unclean. But the Lord did not strike him down. The seraphs took the coal of fire and touched his lips and told him he was forgiven. So here's the clincher...when the Lord asked "Whom will I send?" Isaiah stepped forward and said "Here am I, send me." He did not know for what, where or how long! He simply stepped forward and said, If you need me, I am here. Work through me, I will do whatever you ask. How amazing is that?

In these days that follow, our government, our world are going to go through some huge changes. The presidential elect has a few items on his agenda that concern me a great deal. I will pray for our country. I will pray for our continued alliance with God's chosen people. I will pray our country does not allow progression of abortion laws to bring us into a massacre of innocence. I will pray for God to work through our new president and perhaps see the error of some of his opinions; for his own soul and the soul of this country. I will pray.

I will also listen for God to ask "who will I send" and for ME to reply "Here am I, send me."