Year 2009 will be The ACCEPTABLE year of the Lord

Amidst gloom and doom predictions about 2009, I heard good news at my church service today that I believe will set the tone for next year.

The message today is that year 2009 will be the Acceptable Year of the Lord!

Jesus, in Luke 4:18 -20 was asked to read the scripture. It "happened" to be a passage from the book of prophet Isaiah. He read:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me,
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the Acceptable year of the Lord."

Then he closed the book and said to all in the synagogue "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

In hebrew, "Acceptable" is the word "Ratson" which means Delight, Favour and Acceptable.

In Greek, it is the word "Dektos" which denotes the most blessed time where salvation and the free favours of God profusely abound.

For 2009 to be The Acceptable Year of the Lord means that it will be year filled with Delight, favour and acceptance where salvation and free favours of God profusely abound. My family and I said "Amen" to this!

The question is, why is 2009 the acceptable year of the Lord, when it has been written 2000 years ago. My pastor explained that the passage that Jesus read out in Luke was taken from the book of Isaiah Chapter 61, which took its context from the previous passage Chapter 60. Going back to Isaiah 60, the context described was one where "darkness cover all the earth, and deep darkness over the people..." - the same context today (2008) of doom and gloom that surround the world with the financial meltdown and economies of the world brought into deep recession (often compared to the great depression in the 1930s) and lifes of many are affected as jobs are lost. Hence, the acceptable year described in Isaiah 61 is for 2009!

Year 2009 may not be so bad afterall if we believe in our hearts what God wills for us...Delight, Favour, Acceptable and the year will be one where the free favours of God PROFUSELY abound!

I will this to all believers and to me and my household. Afterall, the scripture is fulfilled in our hearing - have you heard?