"Jubilee Cards" about Freedom
One-minute exercises to make your day
The set of 50 Jubilee Cards puts SYNC content at your fingertips in a form you can use for a quick exercise routine. If you print a copy, you can do the exercise to set the tone for your day before you even pick up your phone in the morning. Don't let the first thing on your phone set the tone!
An alternative time to use the Jubilee Cards is whenever you can seize a window of opportunity--at the breakfast table, in personal devotions, in a one-minute pause before you get in your car, or in many other settings alone or with friends.
The cards help you exercise your right to declare what kind of a day you are going to have instead of letting your circumstances control you. Let the cards remind you who you are--a free citizen of God's kingdom. Let them renew your commitment and your confidence.
Using a Jubilee Card to set the tone for your day is like humming an old favorite song, moving with its rhythm. And you go dancing out into your day, knowing you are a freedom agent and recruiter, part of God's campaign to free the world from itself and all its chains. Repeat the one-minute stretches later in the day as needed in order to refocus. The truth in the cards is working for you even on days when it seems everything is going against you.
Each card has a verse, a prayer of response, and the Freedom Declaration. Together these give us a daily dose of God's freedom.
Seven Bible verses about freedom
Here is what we call the "Freedom Declaration" of Jesus. It sets the tempo of the Freedom Rhythm.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come. Luke 4.18-19
That is the first verse in the set of seven "Freedom Verses" on the Jubilee Cards. The "Freedom Declaration" on each card is a reminder that Jesus was killed for making this declaration. Only the Messiah could make it, and he was condemned to death as a false messiah. But God the Father raised him from death to show that he was the true Messiah.
The other six verses on these Jubilee Cards are snippets from all over the Bible that show the God of the Bible as a promoter of freedom, with King Jesus leading the charge for a new era of freedom for the world.
God's freedom rhythm is not monotonous. It is complex and vibrant. It takes some time to get our minds around it, but that doesn't matter. We can love it before we understand it all if we move with the parts we understand, and the Jubilee Cards get us started.
How hard is a Jubilee "workout"?
It is actually very relaxing. In about a minute the workout helps us get the truth about ourselves and our role in God's campaign onto our minds. We see ourselves as freedom activists, but we do not see that role as something we have to try harder to do.
Forcing ourselves to become freedom activists is as impossible as forcing ourselves to go to sleep. The harder we try to sleep, the more awake we stay. We have to relax.
It is the same with “seeing ourselves in Christ.” We just relax and welcome the identity that God is giving us. He turns us into freedom activists. The cards help us relax so he can get on with that mysterious, amazing process.
Simple workout technique in the morning: pick up one Jubilee Card from the stack. As you start to glance down, say to the card, "Make my day." Then read it.
Stay alert but relaxed during the day: always be watching for opportunities to connect, heal, or bless people, and keep asking God for more. The more blessing you get to deliver, the better you feel at the end of the day. "It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20.35)
Remember, however, this is not a project you design or a contest in which you compete. This is God's campaign. Don't work frantically and don't get stressed out. You are not alone, not for a minute.
Decompress in the evening: Thank God for who you get to be in Christ and for any chances you had today to experience authentic freedom, talk about it, or help anyone else discover more of it. If you have some mistakes to confess, you can pray, “I’m sorry, Lord. I only made that mistake because I forgot I was a freedom activist. Thank you for who I am by your grace, and let me live tomorrow more like the real me.”
Don’t make the Jubilee Cards a burden, and don’t worry if you miss a day or two. You are not trying to score any points or prove anything with your exercising. You are trying to develop a new way of seeing yourself in Christ. Your aim is slow permanent change of your outlook on life.
Jubilee Cards for Freedom Season
Sunday
Jubilee Card 15
God's Word
God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me . . . to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s time to shine!”
Luke 4.18-19, The Message
Our Response
Thank you, Jesus, for issuing the Freedom Declaration. Help us spread the news and set others free.
Make your day with this Freedom Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as an activist for the risen Messiah's new era of freedom.
I see this day as a day to live free and to help others discover new freedom.
Monday
Jubilee Card 16
God's Word
No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again.
John 10.18, The Message
Our Response
Thank you that you freely laid down your life to bring in a new era of human freedom. Keep us talking till everyone knows that.
Make your day with this Freedom Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as an activist for the risen Messiah's new era of freedom.
I see this day as a day to live free and to help others discover new freedom.
Tuesday
Jubilee Card 17
God's Word
The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal.
1 Corinthians 5.7, The Message
Our Response
Thank you, Jesus, for dying as our Passover Lamb. We will live this day celebrating our freedom.
Make your day with this Freedom Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as an activist for the risen Messiah's new era of freedom.
I see this day as a day to live free and to help others discover new freedom.
Wednesday
Jubilee Card 18
God's Word
You pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him.
Acts 2.24, The Message
Our Response
Thank you, Father, for defeating death when you raised Jesus. Let us live fearlessly and free today.
Make your day with this Freedom Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as an activist for the risen Messiah's new era of freedom.
I see this day as a day to live free and to help others discover new freedom.
Thursday
Jubilee Card 19
God's Word
By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
Hebrews 2.15, The Message
Our Response
Thank you for setting us free from the fear of death. Help us help others find that freedom.
Make your day with this Freedom Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as an activist for the risen Messiah's new era of freedom.
I see this day as a day to live free and to help others discover new freedom.
Friday
Jubilee Card 20
God's Word
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
Galatians 5.1, The Message
Our Response
Thank you for liberating us. Let us never slip back into living as slaves of anything. We are free!
Make your day with this Freedom Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as an activist for the risen Messiah's new era of freedom.
I see this day as a day to live free and to help others discover new freedom.
Saturday
Jubilee Card 21
God's Word
If you stick with this, living out what I tell you . . . you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.
John 8.31-32, The Message
Our Response
We will follow your teaching today, Lord. We know it will set us free.
Make your day with this Freedom Declaration:
I see myself in Christ as an activist for the risen Messiah's new era of freedom.
I see this day as a day to live free and to help others discover new freedom.
FAQs on personal use of Jubilee Cards
What is the point of making the "Freedom Declaration" on the card?
A reality check. Plenty of pains and complications in life make it seem that we are trapped and will never get out, but things are not what they seem. The reality is that heaven's power is coming to earth through Jesus. He has issued an official Freedom Declaration (Luke 4.18-21), and his resurrection proves that the declaration is still in force.
To keep us positive. If Jesus has defeated death, what do we have to worry about? The worst our enemies can do (kill us) is only a temporary setback. And, if we handle our ordeals like Jesus handled his, God can flip even our setbacks so they propel his campaign forward instead of setting it back at all! Our fears only get to us when we forget what the resurrection of Jesus means. The Declaration reminds us.
To break our chains. We do not get totally instantly freed from our chains. Memories, addictions, abusers, and oppressors may still be there after we start seeing ourselves in Christ. But the more we focus on the resurrection as our liberation, the more we experience the freedom God meant for us. The Declaration focuses us.
Where can I see the full set of 50 Jubilee Cards?