"The
Glorious New Creation"
International
Sunday School Lesson for Sunday June 23, 2013
Scripture
Text: Isaiah 65:17-21, 23-25
Purpose:
To celebrate in worship God's
plan for the redemption of all creation and the ways God works beyond
what we can see
Isaiah
65:17-21, 23-25 (CEB)
17
Look! I’m creating a new heaven and a new earth:
past
events won’t be remembered;
they
won’t come to mind.
18
Be glad and rejoice forever
in
what I’m creating,
because
I’m creating Jerusalem as a joy
and
her people as a source of gladness.
19
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad about my people.
No
one will ever hear the sound of weeping or crying in it again.
20
No more will babies live only a few days,
or
the old fail to live out their days.
The
one who dies at a hundred will be like a young person,
and
the one falling short of a hundred will seem cursed.
21
They will build houses and live in them;
they
will plant vineyards and eat their fruit........
23
They won’t labor in vain,
nor
bear children to a world of horrors,
because
they will be people blessed by the Lord,
they
along with their descendants.
24
Before they call, I will answer;
while
they are still speaking, I will hear.
25
Wolf and lamb will graze together,
and
the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but
the snake—its food will be dust.
They
won’t hurt or destroy at any place on my holy mountain,
says
the Lord.
My
Thoughts by Burgess Walter
What
makes you happier, anticipating what you want or actually getting
what you want? A recent study from the University of Missouri
(1)finds that the anticipating can actually produce more of a high
than getting the item we dream about.
I
know from first hand experience having owned both a boat and an
airplane, the constant longing produces a greater high than actually
owning. Owning produces more expense and eventually you can not wait
to get rid of these burdensome toys.
Isaiah
paints a picture that is completely different from what we might
experience in real life. Isaiah paints a picture when history will
end, as we know it, and will never be remembered. Isaiah promises a
new beginning and new life, one where untimely death or illness will
not exist. A lifetime with no weeping or crying. A lifetime to enjoy
our home with generations of our family.
In
this new creation the old curse put on man and women in Genesis will
be removed, we will no longer have to work the ground to eat or women
to bear children in pain. God will anticipate our needs and supply
them before we even ask. It appears that the whole world will become
“vegans” and live off the land as originally planned for the
Garden of Eden, there will be no more slaughtering of animals.
I
guess the good news for all of the pet lovers is that there will be
animals in this new creation, but wolf and lamb, cats and dogs will
all get along. Only the poor serpent will live on the dust.
All
of this is something we look forward to with great anticipation, it
is our hope that someday, wrongs will be righted, and we will exist
in a sin free environment like God originally intended. Wiping away
the past is Gods way of redeeming us, that is the good news, the sad
news is that only those that have been redeemed by the “blood of
the lamb” get to enjoy this new creation, everyone else will be
part of the wiping away of the past.
Go
ahead and anticipate, it is good for you. Obtaining this new
creation will be nothing like getting that thing that you have
coveted, while here on earth. This prize is well worth getting and
does not come with heavy maintenance or credit card payments. This
bill was paid on the “Old Rugged Cross” some 2000 years ago, and
has been sealed by the Holy Spirit, God wants you to live with this
hope in your life. Enjoy
(1)chron.com/business/article/Wanting-things-will-make-you-happier-than-buying-4595947.php?cmpid=businesshcat
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