"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.." Isaiah 6:8

The sixth chapter of Isaiah has been used by the Spirit of God to call untold numbers - including me - to the world's mission fields. I still recall the three-point sermon (KJV) used by missionaries in their chal­lenges to obey the Great Commission: "Woe, Lo, and Go."

Isaiah had been given a glimpse of the indescribable holiness of the Lord. God was seated upon a throne, angelic beings were crying "Holy, holy, holy" and the temple shook and filled with the glory of God. That's when Isaiah cried, "Woe is me!" and confessed the uncleanness of his life. Touching Isaiah's lips with a live coal, God's angel uttered the "Lo" and pro­nounced him cleansed.

Only then did the prophet hear clearly God's searching call "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah's answer was instantaneous: "Here am I; send me." The Lord's reply was also without pause: "Go and tell... "

Why do so few Christians ever carry a mission­ary heart for the lost of the world? Years of observation have caused me to see it's because our glimpse of the Lord is more a glance than the long look that awes us with His holiness and stabs us with our own filthiness.

That alone brings true repentance and a cleansing that both thrills and chills. We thrill at God becoming so real in our own lives. But we chill over the faces of earth's billions who walk blind, lost and hopeless—faces that the Lord makes real to those He owns and whom He expects to answer His "Who will go?" with "Here am I—send me!"

My prayer: "Open my blind eyes to Your awesome holiness, oh Lord God. Empty my soul from the pursuits of self and fill my ears with Your challenge to make the world's lost souls my new pursuit. Give me a missionary heart!"

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras