The majority of people in the world feel they can cash in on God's life insurance without first meeting God's requirements. These requirements are that man is to obey God's laws. God's requests begin with His commandments, statutes and judgments! The Apostle James spoke about Christian living and tried to encourage its practice. "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was" (James 1:22-24). In other words, James knew that many men and women think God only sees and hears them when they are praying! Sin nullifies the gift of eternal life insurance, unless we repent and change.

The Apostle Paul reminds us, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through [literally–in] Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 6:16- 17,20-23).

Keeping God's Sabbaths and Holy Days should be on our mind as the spring season [appointed time] begins. In the Bible the word equinox is not used. The word "turn" is, the turning of the sun from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere [called equinox]. The turn is the signal to look for when counting Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread! This signal, the new moon nearest to the Spring turn, is used to establish the new year for God's calendar. If we adhere to this principal, we keep both the 1st month feasts and the 7th month feasts at their appointed times.

The spring turn is not the sign for the first day of God's new year, but it is a sign for the beginning of spring. The spring turn begins the festival season in God's calendar. Like the day, God does not wait for the sun to start a new day. He starts a new day at sunset! Sunset, sets the precedent for a new moon to start a new month. God starts a new month with the beginning phase of the dark moon. He does not wait for the light of the young crescent moon to start a new month. Just like He does not wait for the spring turn to start a new year. The spring turn of the sun from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere–to the next spring turn– marks a complete circuit of the festival year. This is called a tropical year or circuit of growing seasons. The new moon regulates the months. The new moon nearest the spring turn begins the new calendar festival year when Passover is on or after the spring turn. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them [the objects] be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them [the objects] in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good" (Gen. 1:14- 18).

Moses was given instructions on what month and day Passover was to be observed. "And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in [between] the evening. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever (Exo.12:1-3,6,14).

In this first month, Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread are to be kept at a specific time that God appointed. Moses called this first month Abib [meaning green ears]. These green ears are a physical sign for us to know or recognize the beginning of the year. "And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came ye out in the month Abib" (Ex 13:3-4). God has set His appointed time for His appointed feast that begins with this 1st month. The first day of the month begins the count to God's Holy convocations. God begins His appointed time with Passover on the 14th of the first month and ends His appointed time with the 7th month [Tishri] on the Last Great Day. Both Passover and the Last Great Day are to stay within their seasons [appointed time]. Passover is to be on or after the spring turn. The Feast of Tabernacles, sometimes called Feast of Ingathering, is followed by the Last Great Day, ending the harvest year. "And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end [turn] of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field" (Exo. 23:16). The beginning and end Festivals of God are to stay within the window of 30 days of the seasonal turns.

God's important first day of the month Abib is for the count God's Holy Days. The 14th day of the first month [Abib] is extremely important, if you are praying to come under the protection of the blood of Christ and inherit eternal life! The seventh month is the end of the agricultural year after the crops have been gathered. This seventh month is also at the ‘turn of the year' or ‘the end of the year,' referring to the end of the agricultural season, all the crops had been gathered, picked and the plowing has started. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" (Ecc. 3:1). "Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter" (Psa. 74:17). "Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest" (Exo. 34:21). Barley and wheat has already been gathered in by June each year.

We are to keep Passover and the Feast of Ingathering at the correct appointed times. It is important for us to keep in mind when the turn of the year is! If we keep Passover a month too late in the spring, we will be keeping the Last Great Day too late in the year. Some years this could occur as late as November 1, when the rainy season has already begun.

If you always count from the new moon after the spring turn for the first day of the month, you will be keeping the Holy Days out of their proper time and season some years. Remembering there are seven leap years in a nineteen year time cycle. This is why God's calendar is based on a lunar-solar calendar (Gen. 1:14). To always keep the new moon after the spring equinox places Passover as much as forty-some days after the spring turn, and the Last Great Day [which pictures the final harvest], forty-some days after the festival turn. God says we are to keep His Holy Feast in the appointed time! "He appointed the moon for seasons [appointed time]: the sun knoweth his going down" (Psa. 104:19). "Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season [appointed times] from year to year" (Exo. 13:10).

God told Moses, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you" (Exo. 12:2). A month does not have forty-some days! "Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty): And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end [turn]of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field" (Exo. 23:15-16). "Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. In the fourteenth day of this month [within the window of 30 days], at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it" (Num. 9:2-3).

When keeping the new moon closest to the spring festival turn [if Passover is on or after the turn] for the first month of the year, it keeps the Feast of Tabernacles at the years end, festival turn. This also keeps the months of the growing and harvesting in the correct time cycle. "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night" (Deu. 16:1). "Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end [turn]" (Exo. 34:21-22).