I meant to say – again, good stuff. It’ll keep me thinking for a while.

My knee jerk reaction is that when we show people who God is only in relation to what He can do for us, then we reduce Him. I think that ideally, we try to participate in revealing God to people – His majesty, his holiness, His glory, His love, His grace. Even non Christians, if they are somewhat well adjusted, react to a revelation of the size of the universe with a sense of awe, humility, and insignificance.

I think Isaiah’s first reaction to seeing God was awe, followed by a realization of who he was by contrast: “Woe is me! I am ruined!” God gives grace to the humble, and He did so here. Isaiah’s response to having seen God, then having received grace from this God, was to say “Here am I, send me!” God had only said “who shall I send?” He hadn’t said what He wanted to send anyone to actually do, but Isaiah didn’t wait to hear what the assignment was, because it didn’t matter. His response was just “I have seen You. I have received undeserved Grace from You, which means I get to live for You, so it doesn’t matter what you need me to do, just send me, because nothing else matters.”

I think that – again, ideally – our goal is to facilitate (if you’ll forgive me for using that word) that kind of defining moment for people, to be used by God to reveal Him to others, not so much for what He can give them, but in terms of Who He is.

But you’re right. The Gospel that was preached to me as a child was that I’ve got either Heaven or Hell waiting for me, and only Jesus can get me out of Hell and into Heaven. It wasn’t until later in life that I went from thinking of God as my divine fire insurance to humbly realizing that God is glorious, and His glory doesn’t depend on whether or not He’s delivering me from Hell. The fact that I get to behold Him and live for Him at all is an infinitely undeserved mercy and joy.