Isaiah 6:1-8
In
the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim.
Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his
feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the
foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the
house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew
to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the
altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips;
your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah’s Commission from
the Lord. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who
will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (ESV)
In a few short weeks, we are going to
be setting out on an amazing journey. We
have agreed to go on mission with Designs for Hope to a place most of us have
never been to minister to people who we not only have never met, but who are
also of another culture - speaking another language - and who are in every way
possible different from you and from me.
It will be both a physical journey and a spiritual journey and I can
assure you that if you pour yourself into this effort, you will be forever
changed for the good as a result. Our physical journey will not begin until
midnight on July 12th; however, let there be no mistaking the truth: Your spiritual journey begins right now.
The very first step on that journey is
to ask yourself this important question: Are you really ready and willing to go
and be used by God on this trip? It has
always amazed me that God chooses to fulfill his purposes through human
agents. The God of the Universe who
created everything through his Word is capable of accomplishing anything
through his Word. Yet, despite that
omnipotence, it has always been his good pleasure to use mankind, like he did
with Isaiah in the scripture above, to work out his will on earth.
Just like in Isaiah's day, God is still
asking the question: Whom shall I send and who will go for me. I believe that each and every one of us are
together on this trip because we have received a calling from God the same as
Isaiah. Perhaps our calling is not to go
into a lifetime of prophetic ministry, but he has called us to mission
nonetheless. By signing up to go on this
mission trip, you have responded in like kind to Isaiah, saying "Here am
I; send me." So today you need to
ask yourself that very important question again (stated more simply this time):
"Did I really mean that?" When
you signed up for this trip were you saying to God, "Here am I; send
me"? If so, then you have agreed to
become an Ambassador of Christ to Uganda for approximately 1 week. How seriously will you take that
responsibility? In the coming days,
these devotionals will speak more to the significance of that
responsibility. For now, however, suffice
it to say that if you really did mean it and you really take that
responsibility seriously, then together we need to prepare for this amazing
journey.
The purpose of these devotionals is to
get you to think and meditate on important aspects of the trip that we are
about to take. Hopefully, they have been
crafted in such a way as to prepare you for events to come.
For today, however, I would ask that
you focus your quiet time on those five words spoken by Isaiah and presumed by
each of us going on this trip: "Here and I; send me." Do you truly believe that God has called you
to this mission? Are you willing to do
what God wants you to do - starting with preparing yourself over the next few
weeks spiritually and emotionally through these devotionals and/or other means?
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