A few days ago, I was at a joint conference where more than 12,000 of our church leaders gathered to worship and be empowered by God's presence. One of the highlights of the event was worshipping God with all the delegates.
As we worshipped God, I couldn't help but imagine God's presence coming down to that massive arena, which was being filled with His praises the way that the prophet Isaiah describes in a vision he shares in Isaiah 6:1-6.
The scripture tells us that God's presence was so majestic that the angels could not help but sing ""Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" A train of a robe filling the temple and a voice that could shake the foundations of the earth. How can a man respond to such beauty?
The Bible tells us that Isaiah responded in verse 5 by saying, "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." As Isaiah is saying this in his vision, God, in the light of His grace and mercy, has an angel take a coal and declares him clean.
What amazes me most about this scripture is God's next response after Isaiah is made clean, asking boldly, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" As God asks, Isaiah responds, "Here I am, send me!"
How do we respond to God redeeming us from our sins and transgressions? Do we sit back and relax in the convenience of finally being free from eternal damnation and being assured of life eternal? Or do we respond to God's call of going and proclaiming freedom and reconciliation to others as well?
Imagine if you were given the miracle cure to cancer and then handed an unlimited supply of the medication. Wouldn't you want to share that cure with the whole world? In the same way, God has given us a cure for a sickness even greater than cancer. He has handed us the cure to sin, and He has given it in unlimited portions.
God does not simply set us free for the sake of setting us free. He sets us free from our sins so that we may go out in boldness, as Isaiah did, proclaiming the redemption and forgiveness that is in Christ. To sit back and enjoy God's redemption without sharing it with others would be the most selfish thing we could ever do in this life.
In fact, to evangelize and do good works out of any other motivation will be in vain. Only the grace and forgiveness of God can drive us to love others through our actions and to work for the ministry of reconciliation.
As God has set you free from sin, whatever your past may have been like, my hope and prayer is that you take that reconciliation and pass it on to others who also need God's reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."
