Hey everyone whats up! Some of you i have talked to lately and some of you i havent, so anyways i hope everyone is doing good! write me back and let me know how things are going. I just decided to start this little thing, its just a little devotional thing....maybe i can start writing them about once a week or something. This one is different than most of them will be though, its kinda long (sorry). But anyways i just thought i would say hi, and let all of you know i still love you!!! Check this out if you got time...you never know, you might get something out of it! one more thing, if you want me to e-mail you the weekly devotions, just let me know and ill be glad to put you on the list. (e-mail to Motoguy20@aol.com)
9-13-99
Hey I am just sitting here watching the mtv video awards and thought I would do a little of my pointless writing. Tonight I went to Paradigm in lubbock, and really had a great time. The dude talking spoke from the 6th chapter of Isaiah. It was pretty shocking when he announced that he would be would be discussing this, because that same day and the day before, I had been studying and doing a lot of thinking about the same story. There are a lot of cool things to be learned from this little passage thrown in the middle of the old testament. I guess God just wanted to point out a few more things out to me that I guess I missed. Remember while reading this that this really did happen! The cool thing about it is that once long ago this happened. It is real, don't look at it as a fairy tale or something. Before you read this, I want to encourage you to say a brief prayer really fast asking God to speak to you through this story of Isaiah. Focus on what he has to tell you during this time.
The story is about an experience Isaiah had once. Here it is starting Isaiah 6:1…. "In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a 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 sounds of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am a man of unclean lips, and I live with 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 liips; 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!"
The first thing to notice is that Isaiah was in God's presence! That is just so amazing when you think about it. He was actually in the presence of God! He could see God with his own eyes! I was once in the presence of Vanilla Ice and almost freaked out, and he's not even cool!!!!!!!!!! Isnt it funny how sometimes we freeze up when we meet someone of 'importance' or so we think. Like when some hot guy or girl comes up and approaches you, of course this happens everyday, ( yeah right), but anyways this person just comes up to you and he/she is just ….well fill in the blank….just really cool and amazing ok that's the important thing. sometimes you might just freeze up, there is no telling what might come out of your mouth if anything…probably something like "how are up?" that awesome combination of 'how are you' and 'whats up' when you don't know which one to say….yeah laugh now, but I know its happened to everyone. well this is way way way bigger than any person coming up to us ok….this is God himself right there in front of Isaiah, the sole creator of the everything (ricky martin and britney spears got crap on their face compared to this…I mean its God!!…wow) … Well anyways not only was God there, also seraphs are flying around. Now these things are cool! Picture this, Isaiah standing in the temple and these flying creatures with 6 wings come whizzing in the room repeating the same thing over and over and over. They are saying "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighy, the whole earth is full of his glory." Right off the bat Isaiah knows something is up….at the sound of their voices, the place rumbled and filled with smoke! Im glad Isaiah didn't do what I probably would have done in this situation…..run like the wind! So anyways its pretty safe to say that these seraphs had it goin on. How could you not with 6 wings??
Now we can learn a lot from these sinless creatures called Seraphs. With 2 wings they covered their face. Whats important about this? The fact that they, being the sinless creatures that they are, still dare NOT to look at the face of God. These things cared about one thing, and that's praising God!! They show complete reverence to Him. This really shows the humility that these guys had. With 2 more wings they covered their feet. This shows modesty…they dare not draw any attention to themselves by their own bodies. They realize that they are nothing and He is everything and worthy of their praises. Now they have 2 wings left to just do whatever, you know swat flies, go get you a coke, wave at their buddy across the room, or whatever. The wings show readiness though. They keep these 2 wings available just incase God calls them to go. So the 3 important things to remember from these angels are: 1. humility- being humble and realizing the greatness and holiness of God 2. modesty- bringing no attention to themselves; laying self down for God 3. readiness- willing to go wherever God leads We should see God as these Seraphs did, and treat him with the utmost respect and reverence that they did! Remember these angels and what they stood for when you go into the presence of God.
Ok there is also some cool things to point out about Isaiah himself. . When he sees these seraphs and recognized that God is actually there with him, and he sees the room trembling by the mere presence of God, he automatically starts thinking "oooooops I don't think I belong here. Here are all of you holy and perfect beings, and here is nasty, dirty, retarded me, something is definately not right" Now a little background on Isaiah before you go off thinking he was some bad guy or something….this brother was actually the most righteous man around at the time according to his peers. He was a good guy, and was really respected for his faith in God, yet he still has sin and says here "I am a man of unclean lips, and I live with people of unclean lips" hes not some horrible guy by any means, but this just shows us how no matter what we do or how good we are, we are still sinful and unworthy! Isaiah had done, as many of us do at times, just kinda lost focus of God and started trying to handle things on his own. He was crediting King Uzziah, (homeboy that kicked the bucket in the 1st verse), and drawing attention away from God. Anyways moving on, so Isaiah has confessed sin to the Lord. Instantly one of the Seraphs come up to him with a hot coal carried by some tongs and touches him on the lips (the place from which he confessed his sin). As soon as the coal touches his lips, Isaiah is forgiven, he is free, he is no longer burdened and weighted down by this sin!!!!! Isnt that just amazing?? It was that simple, he just had to repent of that sin and ask God for help and boom its done! There is a funny side I just cant help but think about. I always thought this was just too funny…you got this angel flying around with 6 wings and when it goes to ease Isaiah's pain and show him the forgiveness and grace given to him by God, it grabs some tongs first!!! I just wonder if the dude had to go look for them, of if his angel get-up had some pockets for the tongs….i mean surely its not an everyday thing flying around picking up hot coals right? Or maybe the previous time God told him to grab the hot coal, he didn't use tongs and singed his wing or something, so now this seraph got it figured out, and look out, he's on the move with the tongs!! But ok anyways you got the picture of this angel strolling up to Isaiah with some tongs trying right?! There is no point to that little thought, it was free. But the point to the thing is Gods Grace! Isaiah didn't get caught up on the mistakes he had been making. He asked God for his Grace and forgiveness, and God was very pleased to cleanse him of that sin. God loves us to ask him for help! He loves us to come to him saying "God, ive been wrong and living in sin, I need help pulling out of this and you are the only one that can do that, so please help me God." Ok back to Isaiah, now, without this sin as a burden, Isaiah is ready to move on! How many times do we get caught up on our past, thinking we are unworthy to be in Gods presence?? Have you ever just really had a rotten day and maybe just a bad attitude all day long or something, and at the end of the day we feel like embarrassed to pray to God, or maybe guilty of the way we lived our life that day? (Coby has!!!!!) Well there is a problem with that…I dont care if your past is pretty clean or if is disgustingly nasty, we are all unworthy to be in Gods presence. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ( romans 3:23) so we just have to learn to accept God's Grace. Lamentations 3:23 assures us of this grace by saying that God renews this compassion and mercy for us every morning. If we don't do a good job of living for the Lord one day, try harder the next day, let yesterday go….that's all you can do right? confess the sin and work on correcting them, but do not get entangled with the burden of sin. Ok back to Isaiah sorry, he is probably beaming by now! I can just see that big coolaid smile on his face from being free and pure before Holy God, at the same time tears are flowing from his eyes, his jaw is right down there with his doc martins, and his eyes wide open as he is still in total amazement of God, the only thing he can think about is "oooooh I cant wait to tell my buds about this one!" Hes ready to rock now!
(still awake?? Almost done!) ***challenge*** But wait….Isaiah has recognized Gods presence 1st of all, then he repented, now he is free and doing great, but that's not the end of the story!!! This is the cool part. After the angel touches the coal to his mouth and he is shown forgiveness, God says "Whom shall I send?" And get this, Isaiah boldly says "here I am God, send me!" I don't think he could have said this without getting rid of the sin in his life just previous to that. Sin is the only thing that stands in the way of us and God. Until we can truly get rid of this sin and seek Gods forgiveness, we can not whole-heartedly follow Him. This sin creates a barrier that just causes chaos in our walk with him. Am I saying to simply quit sinning and everything will be ok? I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately its not, We are sinful creatures by birth! We have sinned and will keep sinning, but the important thing is to get this sin in the right perspective. We have to learn how to move on like Isaiah did, forgive ourselves and accept Gods forgiveness. Not to take sin lightly, but to control it, instead of it controlling us. Once we are able to come before God with a pure heart, we are able to say "send me" like Isaiah did. He didn't know what was in store for him. He didn't say "God here I am, send me if its something I want to do" he didn't say "here I am God, send me if no one else would go" and he didn't say "here I am God, tell me first what it is, and then ill make my final decision" he simply, but so couragously said "Send me". No if, ands, or buts about it. When we become Christians, God asks to answer as Isaiah did. He asks us to follow His lead and go willingly! We should desire for God to use us! We should just wait at all times and be prepared for God to ask the question "whom shall I send?" and when that question is asked (which it already has been if you are a Christian), we should be ready to say "Here ya go God, Send Me, I may not be much of anything, but with you I know I can do whatever it is you are calling me to do, use me in whatever way you want, you know best and have promised to be with me till the end and never forsake me" so who will go???????? Will you answer God with an honest, pure, bold statement? …."Send me!" Let this statement flow through your mind day in and day out. Ok I just want to end with this truth. There is no greater privilage in the world than being a servant to God.
***Prayer:*** Thanks God for this awesome story you have given us in the book of Isaiah. Thank you for the courage shown by Isaiah. I pray that I can totally lay myself down before you. I want none of 'me' standing in the way of your works. I want total surrender to your will for my life God. Take the driver's seat in my life Lord. Take me wherever you want me, and teach me what to be doing. Its all in your hands now God. Thank you for the awesome grace that I so don't deserve. I pray that I answer to your call at all times and simply say "send me". Reveal yourself to me God. Reveal your will and desires you have for me, and let me be guided by you and only you. You have promised to prosper me and not harm me, therefor I totally trust in you God. Forgive me for the sin in my life. Tell me the areas that I am disobedient to you. I pray that I can get a hold on this sin, and a control over it God, so that nothing stands in the way of me and you. Thank you for the many blessings you have given me and shown me Lord. I just long to see you God. I love you and give all honor and praise to you, for without you I am nothing but with you I am great. For it is only through your one and only son Jesus Christ in which I come to you God, Amen.
Hey thanks for reading, hope you got as much out of this as I did! Write back and tell me what you think….i might just post these little devotional things up on my web page, just let me know which one is easier….i don't care…anyways I love yall! Stay tuned for more crazy thoughts from coby…..write me and let me know what you think…..(also remember that ill shorten them up, this thing was long huh??)
Walk the Walk,
Coby <><
