Begins with an ENCOUNTER.

Yes it all begins with an encounter. I've gotta keep remembering that, both in my life and in the life of others.

I feel that 3 things usually happens during an encounter, firstly, you get a revelation of God's holiness in all of His majesty. Secondly, you see the enormity of your sins against the holy God. Thirdly, most importantly, you feel God's love and forgiveness pouring into you despite the second point.

Well at least that was what happened to me. Something like that happened in Isaiah 6:1-7 too. This is the chapter in Isaiah which i read recently, i've not read the whole of Isaiah yet, just some parts here and there for reference. Okay so, this chapter is about Isaiah's commission, and it began with an encounter with God.

In verse 1, Isaiah saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Now that sounds pretty majestic to me. Let's look over to verse 2 and 3, Isaiah saw seraphs calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory." So here we see Isaiah having an vision of the Lord's holiness in His majesty.

And then in verse 5, we see the prophet crying out "Woe to me! 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." I guess it's like a spotlight shining on us, which suddenly made all our blemishes become so obvious. Isaiah saw the seraphs proclaiming "holy, holy, holy" yet he cant do that for he is a man of unclean lips!

Yet in verse 6 and 7, we see that one of the seraphs flew to Isaiah with a live coal from the altar and used it to touch his lips, saying, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Tada! His iniquities are forgiven!

Praise God for encounters, in which we can see God's grace in action and that His reality just becomes so real. I guess it changes our lives in one way or another, in a big or small way.