"Jubilee Cards" about Freedom
Minute-a-day stretching exercises that combine the Freedom Declaration with reminders, verses, and prayers
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 pick up your phone in the morning.
Or do them on your phone 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 impose it on 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 declaration, a reminder, a verse, and a prayer
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The Freedom Declaration sets the tone for our day, linking us to the resurrection
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Each reminder reinforces our identity and our role in the freedom campaign
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Each verse tells us something about God setting the world free
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Each prayer relates to the verse
Jubilee Cards (default wording)
Put your name in the blanks below, or use the JUMP button at the top of this page for instructions about printing your full set of 50 cards, with or without customization. Note: the full set includes the seasonal icons and omits the words in black bold print below--more visual appeal.
Sundays
Card 15
Freedom Declaration: This is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus, and to live like it matters.
Reminder: We see ourselves in Christ as activists proclaiming a new era of freedom.
Verse: Good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed. This means you, ________.
Adapted from The Message paraphrase of Luke 4.18-19
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for declaring God’s freedom on earth. Help us spread the news and set others free.
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Mondays
Card 16
Freedom Declaration: This is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus, and to live like it matters.
Reminder: We see ourselves in Christ as activists proclaiming a new era of freedom.
Verse: 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.
Adapted from The Message paraphrase of John 10.18
Prayer: Thank you that you freely laid down your life for ours. Keep us talking till everyone knows that.
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Tuesdays
Card 17
Freedom Declaration: This is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus, and to live like it matters.
Reminder: We see ourselves in Christ as activists proclaiming a new era of freedom.
Verse: I died on Passover, ________. Everyone marked with the blood of the Passover Lamb is safe and free.
Adapted from The Message paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 5:7
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for dying as our Passover Lamb. We will live this day celebrating our freedom.
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Wednesdays
Card 18
Freedom Declaration: This is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus, and to live like it matters.
Reminder: We see ourselves in Christ as activists proclaiming a new era of freedom.
Verse: God untied the death ropes and raised me up. Death was no match for me, ______, and it never will be.
Adapted from The Message paraphrase of Acts 2.24
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for defeating death when you raised Jesus. Let us live fearlessly and free today.
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Thursdays
Card 19
Freedom Declaration: This is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus, and to live like it matters.
Reminder: We see ourselves in Christ as activists proclaiming a new era of freedom.
Verse: Never fear death, ________. I came to set everybody free from slavery to that fear.
Adapted from The Message paraphrase of Hebrews 2:15
Prayer: Thank you for setting us free from the fear of death. Help us help others find that freedom.
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Fridays
Card 20
Freedom Declaration: This is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus, and to live like it matters.
Reminder: We see ourselves in Christ as activists proclaiming a new era of freedom.
Verse: I have set you all free to live a free life, _______. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
Adapted from The Message paraphrase of Galatians 5.1
Prayer: Thank you for liberating us. Let us never slip back into living as slaves of anything. We are free!
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Saturdays
Card 21
Freedom Declaration: This is a day to remember the resurrection of Jesus, and to live like it matters.
Reminder: We see ourselves in Christ as activists proclaiming a new era of freedom.
Verse: ________, if you keep following my teaching, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Adapted from The Message paraphrase of John 8.31-32
Prayer: We will follow your teaching today, Lord. We know it will set us free.
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? If God bails his people out like that no matter what their enemies do to them, why should we let our pains and worries dominate our lives? He said we do not have to, so why do we do it? We forget what his resurrection 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.
Isn't it dangerous to add any words of our own into a Scripture verse?
The biblical warning on this point, Revelation 22.18, is about adding or deleting things that change the meaning. The intention of these adjustments of the wording on the cards is to bring the truth of the Scripture home to you in order to move you to act on it.
That truth is already there in the Scripture, and we do not intend to change any of it or add to it. We do not think we have; however, you be the judge. If you think this version of the Jubilee Cards is "putting words into God's mouth" that should not be there, then ignore our version and print the verse from the translation you prefer.
By the way, the bigger danger about Scripture and change is that we will read Scripture but not change our view of ourselves to SYNC with it. In that case we are hearers but not doers (James 1.22). Use whatever form of these SYNC verses best motivates you to get on with the doing of the Word.
Where can I see the full set of 50 Jubilee Cards?
The full set has seven verses on each of SYNC's seven themes plus a 50th "Jubilee Verse". The page is under construction; expected completion in mid to late April.
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 life-bringers, fruitful branches, etc. depending which SYNC season we are in, but we do not see those roles as things we have to try harder to do.
Forcing ourselves to play those roles 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. And that’s what the cards help us do.
Simplest workout technique: 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 hectically 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 be a life-bringer (or whichever word was on today’s card). If you have some mistakes to confess, you can pray, “I’m sorry, Lord. I only made that mistake because I forgot who I was. 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.