Claiming God's Promise

The Easter message our pastor gave at church this week was: "Claim God's promises," reminding us to claim the Easter promise of resurrection and eternal life. The Hebrew Scriptures message came from Isaiah 65, which the lay liturgist read with the passion of a gourmet chef reading a recipe for macaroni and cheese. After all, we've heard this same passage read dozens if not hundreds of times during our lives. My husband whispered: "How long ago was that written? And it still hasn't happened!"

So I reminded Mark of Psalm 90:4: "For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night." And 2 Peter 3:8-9 "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (No, I didn't remember these verses word-for-word on the spot, but now I can look them up and make sure I quote them correctly!

While the liturgirst was reading the passage from Isaiah, I thought about the promise in the book I read recently: Vision: A Personal Call to Create a New World by Ken Carey. I count myself among those who believe that God continues to speak to us, just as the Divine Consciousness has spoken and revealed itself to people throughout history. Carey is one of God's modern-day prophets, who has delivered messages that speak to my heart, and may speak to yours. Here are some of the words that came through Carey:

"My teachings have required time, time to gradually infiltrate the stubborn age-old patterns of human hatred and fear, time to gradually prepare human consciousness, that in this age of collective awakening, the greatest number of people might choose the ways of love," (p. 27).

And then: "My Presence is re-organizing every human being, every human activity. The Earth is shifting from a hell ruled by fear, to a heaven ruled by love,".

Hearing God's promises renewed in a current book awakens hope in my soul, and stirs feelings of excitement in my heart when I hear the old words of Isaiah, keeping in mind that Jerusalem symbolizes a Dwelling Place of Peace. Now I can read this passage with the thrill of knowing these things will come to pass, perhaps even in my lifetime!

Isaiah 65:17-25 (New International Version)

 ¹⁷ "Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.

¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.

¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.

²⁰ "Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
he who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere youth;
he who fails to reach ^[a] a hundred
will be considered accursed.

²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the works of their hands.

²³ They will not toil in vain
or bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.

²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but dust will be the serpent's food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,"
says the LORD.