“Here I Am. Send Me”

August 6, 2015

“Here I Am. Send Me”

It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. . . Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

Isaiah 6:1, 5

Earlier this summer, I was in Daytona Beach for a church conference at Bethune-Cookman University. Daytona Beach is also the home of NASCAR and the site of the annual Daytona 500. Each day I drove past the Daytona International Speedway. Tourists and race fans can tour the track, and even pay to be given a ride around the track, although I suspect the speeds never exceed those on I-95 which is just a short distance away. Even so, I think it would be exhilarating to drive the famed tri-oval at seventy or eighty miles an hour. The professional drivers average closer to two-hundred miles an hour on each lap. That is definitely exhilarating, and probably what Isaiah was feeling when he experienced God’s presence filling the Temple.

I believe God’s desire to reveal himself to us greatly exceeds our desire to experience God’s presence. Why is that? Think of all the examples of mortal humans encountering the Divine presence. Most cowered in fear. Some were rendered speechless or blind; others fell over as though they were dead. That’s hardly an inviting experience. Even so, the scriptures suggest that God wants us to know Him; He wants us to experience His presence.

I love Brennan Manning’s affirmation that God loves us completely and unconditionally, just as we are; because none of us are as we should be. While that is an accurate affirmation of God’s marvelous grace, we must guard against being glib and treating God too familiarly. Today we may not be as we should be, but nevertheless, we are going on to perfection. Our goal is for Christ to be fully formed in us so that the life of Christ becomes visible in our mortal flesh. To this end, it is our ambition to experience the transforming presence of God in our lives.

It has also been my experience that we do not need to fear an encounter with God’s presence. God is so gracious and only reveals that which we can appreciate at any given time. While our weakness and our sin will be fully illuminated by God’s presence, our hearts will be so moved by His Divine favor that we will respond as did Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.