What are you?

Many followers of Jesus live in the delusion that all they need to have to be a follower of Jesus is a “salvation experience”. “I prayed the prayer and was baptized” is their claim to the right to enter heaven. The prophet Isaiah understood that the call to be a man of cleaned up lips was more than a call to reformation; it was a call to mission.

Here is Isaiah’s record of his call to mission:

“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!”” (Isaiah 6:8).

In the eyes of the Divine, you and I are either a mission field or a missionary. Which are you? – Ron Friesen

Help! I am a ruined mess!

When we have an encounter with the Holy Other, the Lord Almighty, as the prophet Isaiah calls the Divine, we soon realize that our lives are very imperfect in the Presence. It is when we cry out to God that we find the answer to our ruined lives. Isaiah describes the answer he experienced,

“Then one of the seraphim 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.” Isaiah 6:6-7

Only holy fire will purify a man and a nation of unclean lips. Bring on your holy fire, God! – Ron Friesen

Have you been ruined?

Any encounter with the living God leaves us kneeling in the dust of humiliation. Here is the ancient prophet’s description of his moment of meeting the Divine:

“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.” Isaiah 6:5

When human imperfection meets divine perfection, there is only one fitting declaration, “I am ruined.” Our best efforts to be good people fall far short when we meet Divine Holiness. Our lips are the instruments of proclamation of this imperfection. Everyday our lips proclaim our self-centered existence. We are the ones who asserting our ego: Edging God Out. When we are ready to kneel in the dust of our humiliation, we will see God for who God really is. – Ron Friesen

Who runs your life?

One of the principles known by every follower of Jesus is this: there is only room for one person to sit on the throne of our lives. Either we will put God on the throne or we will put ourselves on that throne. The prophet Isaiah understood this:

“Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God show himself holy in righteousness” (Isaiah 5:15,16).

The judgment of our lives is always meant to remind us who should be ruling our lives. Righteousness is about living in right relation to the Righteousness One. When we live lives of justice we are living out our relationship to the Just One who had been just with us. – Ron Friesen

Do you want to see God?

Are you working hard to seek God? Do you wish you could see God more clearly? The ancient prophet, Isaiah, had such a hunger as well. When we read his encounter with the Holy One, we read,

“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up…” (Isaiah 6:1).

Before we see God, some things have to die. Jesus reminds of this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone…” (John 12:24).  The reason so many followers of Jesus continue to drop away, as they did in his day, is that dying is not easy. What has to die in our lives so we can see God? – Ron Friesen

You need more than a fresh start...

When destruction is rampant, only a fresh new start will work. In the prophetic vision of Isaiah, there is a need to clear the ground and build anew. After the new construction is completed there needs to be a renewed experience of the presence of God. The prophet, Isaiah, describes it this way:

“Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain” (Isaiah 4:5,6).

This description is an echo of the Exodus story. A reconstructed life still needs to be aware that there are hazards and dangers facing it. It is tempting to think a new life is all that is necessary; this is shortsighted thinking. We need the glorious presence of God to shelter us from the pressures and storms of life. – Ron Friesen