Questions for Reflection - Glimpses "Not Just a Glimpse, How About a Vision?"

Exodus 33:12–23; Isaiah 6:1–8; Revelation 4

1. When have you prayed, "God, just let me have a glimpse of you right now?" What happened?
2. What thoughts do you have about God when you stare up into the night time sky?
3. Why do you think God answers Moses with the warning that any who see God will die?
4. Why is God's holiness considered by some to be threatening, even "traumatic"? Why and how are we tempted to re-define what holiness is?
5. Read Isaiah 6: 1-8. How does God resolve the problem of being in God's holy presence? How is God's grace depicted?
6. How is the cross of Jesus like the coal brought to Isaiah's lips?
7. Read and re-read Revelation 4: 1-11. Try to "see" it more than explain it, like looking up at the heavens on a starry night. Let this vision be what you "see" when you pray, and come into worship.

Further Reading: "Handling the Trauma of Holiness: The Key to Authentic Worship of the Living God" by Darrell Johnson in Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden, pp. 57-60. Intervarsity Press, 2007.