Walking Into 2015




In 2015 we walk into a new year and even though we may not feel the newness of it there definitely will be changes in all of our lives. Some feel there is no difference and that life just carries on in the same rut. According to the Bible, years each have their own weight in history and each one is distinct in purpose and duration.
Biblical history tells us important things occurred during special appointed years. There was an appointed time for Issac to be born. Ge 18:14. God prepared Joseph through divine revelation in a dream about the seven years of famine that would come to Egypt. Ge 41:50. In the Bible there are appointed Jubilee years which occur every seven years. Le 25:11. There are years of release. De 31:10. There is a set year for the Lord to visit nations. Isa 23:17. There was a year for the children of Israel to be set free from Babylon. Jer 29:10. There was a year for Jerusalem to be destroyed. Da 9:2. God has prepared certain happenings for appointed years and He has not changed that habit pattern. Da 11:27; Hab 2:3.
Just as God has a plan for appointed events on earth He has a plan for all the years of our lives on earth. This was brought home to me when our son passed away. Many years ago he asked God to allow him to raise his daughter as he was a single dad. She turned 18 in September and he passed away a few days before Thanksgiving. Just as he asked God he was able to raise his daughter and see her safely independent.
Sometimes God extends our years. When Hezekiah in the Bible was deadly sick he sought the Lord for an extension of his life. God replied with adding fifteen years to his life. 2Ki 20:6. I stood on that Scripture many years ago when I pleaded with God to extend my life while sick with a deadly disease. He added much more than fifteen years to my life. I do believe there is an appointed day and year for each person to live, but I also see in Scripture that God sometimes adds years.
There was an appointed day and year for Jesus to come to earth as a babe. Lu 1:30-32; Mt 2:1. There is an acceptable year of the Lord for captives to be set free. Lu 4:18,19. There is a hour, day, month and year for a third of mankind to be destroyed. Re 9:15. In the Bible we see that God controls the years of each person with purpose although sometimes we don’t understand yet we must trust Him.
Some years seem to fly by while others are so filled with happenings and challenges the year seems to have been lengthened. As we step into 2015 our son Nathan has left us to take up residence in Heaven. His leaving has left a huge hole in our family, one that only God can fill. I know others who have lost dear loved ones and their lives will also be forever changed and their year will be different. It is a bittersweet change, sweet for those who have gone to Heaven and difficult for those left on earth. The sweetest part for us is that we have one of our eighteen children safely back home. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ec 12:7.
Some have added new children to their families either by birth or adoption and their lives will take on a new direction. Our papers for little Samuel’s adoption had been sitting waiting for months for a court date and I sent out a call for prayer. The next day we received a call from the lawyer’s office that Samuel’s court date would be Christmas Eve day. We had our Christmas miracle and Samuel became part of our family.
What has God appointed for the year 2015? It benefits us to search the Scriptures and linger on them to prepare our hearts for things that are coming. I don’t know if Christ will return in 2015, but I do know that the Word of God tells us to keep our lamps burning with the Spirit of God infusing us as we await His return.
Some say that Jesus will return in 2015 based upon the biblical calendar and data from NASA. There is a rare string of lunar and solar eclipses that are falling on God’s annual holy days. We have already had one blood moon which is a Biblical prediction of signs in the heaven’s of His soon return. Jesus promised to signal His second coming with signs in the heavens. Joel 2:31; Lu 21:25-28.
In the New Testament, Jesus is quoted as saying, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light … And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Mt 24:29-30. Earth is not having one blood moon, but four consecutive blood moons that coincide with God’s holy days of Passover in the spring and the autumn’s Feast of Tabernacles between 2014 and 2015.
The last time that four blood red moons occurred together was in 1967 and 1968 and it was tied to the Six Day War when Jerusalem was recaptured by Israel.
A blood moon is a full lunar eclipse. Four of them in a roll is called a Tetrad. Important historical happenings have occurred when four blood moons or a Tetrad occurs. Over the last 500 years this has only happened where they have coincided with Jewish Holy Day three times. It happened in 1493-1494 when Spain fell and the Jews were expelled, and Columbus discovered America. It happened in 1949 and 1950 when Israel was declared a nation. And with the Six Day War in Israel when Jerusalem was regained during 1967-1968.
NASA predicted the four blood moons that began on April 15, 2014 on the Passover. The second came October 8, 2014 on the Feast of Tabernacles. There will be a solar eclipse March 20, 2015 in between the blood moons. The third blood moon will occur April 4, 2015 on the Passover . The fourth blood moon will occur September 28, 2015 on the Feast of Tabernacles. They fell on the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles in 2014 and again on the same holidays in 2015. Another point to remember is every time these have occurred the Jews have been involved. Also something significant happened. Last Thanksgiving Hanukkah occurred on Thanksgiving for the first time in history and it won’t happen again.
These signs are significant enough to make us sit up and watch closer as we pray. The Bible tells us when we see these signs happening we should lift up our eyes for our Redemption draws nigh. Lu 21:28; Ac 2:17-21; Rev 6:12-17.
We are living in exciting times upon earth. Rejoice! The year 2015 will bring significant change on earth and we will be a part of this historical happening. God has a plan for each of us during these times. The key is to set your eyes like flint upon Jesus and follow Him because we were born on earth for such a time as this. Es 4:14; Isa 50:7.