Where do you worship God? I’m not asking for a geographic location—latitude and longitude.

I’m asking for a place in your life where you worship God.

For Isaiah, this place came when he saw and heard with a new perspective. What did he see and hear?

He saw the holiness of the LORD Almighty. When Isaiah was in the Temple in Jerusalem, he:

“saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” (Isaiah 6:1).

He heard the holiness of the LORD Almighty. Seraphim were flying above him in the Temple. They were calling to one another:

   Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;

      the whole earth is full of his glory.”

                                          (Isaiah 6:3)

At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

When you come to a place in your life where you experience the holiness of God, you are in a place of worship.

How will you respond to the holiness of God?

Isaiah said, “Woe to me! . . . I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5).

Why?

“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.”(Isaiah 6:5).

If we truly experience the holiness of God, we know we are doomed. We simply don’t measure up to the Way God expects us to live—both as an individual and as a civilization.

At this moment of despair, when Isaiah realized how much he and his civilization had failed to measure up to the holiness of God, he said: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

God touched Isaiah with his Amazing Grace.

When you are in despair because you experience the holiness of God, you can be certain that God’s Amazing Grace is speeding towards you on the wings of a seraphim!

Sometimes this Amazing Grace changes your entire life. Sometimes this Amazing Grace changes one area of your life where you are falling short of the holiness of God.

In the case of Isaiah, his personal guilt was taken away and his sin atoned for. But this Amazing Grace had not touched Isaiah’s civilization!

Indeed, God wanted Isaiah to help Israel see and hear how much Israel was failing to measure up to the holiness of God. (Isaiah 28:16-17; Amos 7:8).

Isaiah “heard the voice of the LORD saying ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’” (Isaiah 6:8).

Isaiah replied: “Here am I send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

Each of us knows individuals and civilizations who need to be told that they are failing to measure up to the holiness of God.

We don’t tell them that they are falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) in order to make them feel bad or feel worthless.

We don’t tell them that they are falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) in order to make us look holier-than-them.

We tell individuals that they are falling short of the glory of God in order to make them realize that they need to accept God’s Amazing Grace.

This Amazing Grace will empower individuals to have a faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6).

This Amazing Grace will empower individuals “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [their] God.” (Micah 6:8).

We tell civilizations that they are falling short of the glory of God in order to make them realize that they need to be touched by God’s Amazing Grace.

This Amazing Grace will empower civilizations to have a faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6).

This Amazing Grace will empower civilizations to “let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.” (Amos 5:24).

Isaiah’s task wasn’t easy. And neither is ours.

God sends us to people and civilizations who hear, but never understand; who see, but never perceive.

God sends us to people and civilizations whose hearts are calloused; whose ears are dull; and whose eyes are closed.

The most obvious example at the moment is racism and brutality.

Individuals and civilizations have heard for 500 years, but have never understood.

Individuals and civilizations have seen for 500 years, but have never perceived.

Why?

The Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of the Kingdoms of the World have combined to make our hearts calloused, our ears dull, and our eyes closed.

These are the same Powers that combined to insult, torture and crucify Jesus.

When you come to the place in your life where you experience the holiness of God, you are ready to follow the Way of Jesus that overcomes the combined Power of Money, Religion, and the Kingdoms of the World.

Do not expect quick results. God told Isaiah that he must keep declaring the Truth “[u]ntil the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged” (Isaiah 6:11).

Beware of hypocrisy.

All of us have been led astray by the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of the Kingdoms of the World.

We must each take the plank out of our own eye, before we can see clearly to remove the speck from other people’s eyes. (Matthew 7:1-5).

Beware of delay.

We have sown the wind. We are reaping the whirlwind.

We have foolishly built our lives and our civilization on the sands of racism and brutality.

When the rains come, the streams rise, and the winds blow and beat upon us, we will fall with a great crash! (Matthew 7:26-27).

Therefore, we need to come to a place of worship where we accept God’s Amazing Grace.

We need to come to a place where God’s Amazing Grace sends us forth to build lives and civilizations that hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice. (Matthew 7:24-25).

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To read about additional places of worship, please read my blogs “Places of Worship—Rainbows”, “Places of Worship—Stone Pillows”, “Places of Worship—Crossing Streams”, and “Places of Worship—Burning Bushes”.

To read more about Isaiah, please read the chapters (and related endnotes) of “Isaiah’s Vision”, “The LORD Saves Jerusalem From Assyria”, “Hezekiah Foolishly Welcomes the Babylonians”, “Jerusalem Is Destroyed By the Babylonians”, and “Hoping in the LORD Revives God’s People in Exile” in my book Healing the Promised Land, at pages 239-292, 303-312.

To read how Jesus confronted and overcame the combined Power of Money, Religion, and the Kingdoms of the World, please read my blogs “Beware the Power of Money”, “Beware the Power of the Kingdoms of the World”, “Beware the Power of Religion”, and “Jesus Climbs the Temple Mount”.