Summary: I remember Bible stories like many people remember fairy tales from when they were a kid. One Bible story sticks out to me because it parallels my life. It’s about the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah saw God sitting on an ethereal throne surrounded by angels. Isaiah knew that his end was near because he was an unholy man in the presence of the most holy God. He said, “It’s doomsday! I’m as good as dead!” But then one of the angels touched the prophet with a flaming piece of coal from the altar. The angel said, “Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out.” The altar is an image of the cross on which Jesus paid the penalty for sin. The coal was God’s presence touching Isaiah. It led to an immediate and radical life change. My story is similar. It was “doomsday” for me, just as for Isaiah, but God showed me my sin. The guilt I felt was the scouring agent God used to radically change my life. After Isaiah encountered God and was cleansed he said, “Here I am, send me.” And, I did the same. When you’ve been cleansed by God, forgiven, made new, there is nothing more exciting. If you’ve had that experience, won’t you also say, “send me” and tell your world God’s good news?
