jubilee

2013

then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts(for you alone know the human heart), (2 Chr 6:30)

Our God, the awesome Creator wants to be in relationship with us. He wants to hear our problems and issues, he wants to hear our joys and your sorrows, he wants to hear when things go well and when things go bad. He wants to know when we have behaved badly (sinned) He basically wants to hear from us all the time.
If we are living our lives to glorify His name then we don’t move away from Him, so the goal is to stay in this state of glorifying God all the time. Situations come, situations go, ever changing but our God is unchanging and is there forevermore, our only example of perfection to which we aim.

The Lord knows us and knows our hearts, a famous Christian writer and speaker tells of the time he was wooing his wife, before he asked her to marry him he laid out his entire past, every sin he had ever committed, how he’d behaved badly in situations, the whole enchilada of a confession. He then asked her to marry him and she agreed. Some time later he thought about it and realised he had never been fully honest with God, he was a pastor. He had not opened up and admitted to everything he had done. When he did, he moved to a new place, he became a new creation, because in bearing his soul and seeking forgiveness, and, in accepting that forgiveness he was renovated, renewed into a new person. The Lord knew what was in his heart and waited till the moment that he came clean with everything to create in him a new heart, a new way of living.

I call this “livin’ in personal jubilee”, (theologians feel free to comment on my wrongness below) and sometimes “livin’ in jubilee” (again comment away)

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8)

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal 5:1)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal 5:22-23)

I aim to glorify God in my everyday life, worship for me is not just an organised religious service, it is a way of life.

The rewards for living in this state of praise, of worship, of prayer, of singing, of joy are tremendous, each day brings a new aspect, it is like exploring the T.A.R.D.I.S, a new nook, a new room to be found, a new expression comes across my mind, a new thought.

When I was a student of economics and came across the pyramid of enlightenment I thought it odd that as you climbed up the ladder of “success” the room got smaller, and now I know something Maslow didn’t – it is an upside down shape, but it’s no pyramid, you can jump to the exponentially greater level by simply asking Jesus into your life and in the process of bringing everything that is past to the Cross and asking for forgiveness and accepting it. God forgives and then forgets, so all that is past is gone, eradicated, blown out of existence and you become a new creation.

There are no downsides to it, I always thought looking in from the outside at my Christian schoolchums who weren’t allowed to do a long list of things. How hard it must be to follow all those rules, and getting into terrible trouble if you slip up. As an adult I saw these stern people who judged me for what I was, why would I want to be one of them. Even when I attended church it was hard to try to keep to the rules, everyone had a pet hate, people hid the fact that they swore, or socially drank or whatever.

And now, what rule book! It is just an incredibly different way of living. I have spent a number of months trying to give voice to what it is, these are just a few descriptions I have come up with:

Complete freedom, financial, relational, emotional, anything is possible

Running without getting tired

Diving underwater, kicking off and being amazed at the power of the kick

Walking on air, just millimetres off the surface of the ground no matter how hard or stony the ground

Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a state of perfection, it is a state of moving forward, towards perfection that is the Lord. It is not a hermit, pious state, it is getting out in the world sharing the joy with everyone, not necessarily by speaking. In this state there is no bitterness, no offence, no worry. It’s wonderful.