“The concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fifty years, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.” Wikepedia

In August of this year I will have been a follower of Jesus for 50 turbulent years. I first came to faith through the example of the life of a bunch of young Christians who were…different…there’s no other way to put it. The way they were was a mystery to me, and I wanted what they had.

Fifty years later I’m glad I took that decision, although my 9 year-old self could never have imagined where the journey of following Jesus would take me. It has been an adventure, with spells on the mountain top and long periods in the deepest and darkest of valleys. God has been with me through it all, as he promised he would be, of that I am certain

I was speaking at church this last Sunday from the Bible passage Romans 8: 1-17. I happened to mention that this year marked my 50th anniversary of becoming a Christian and that this passage contained many of the reasons why, after all these years, I’m still a Christian.

After the service a visitor to the church came to tell me that he believed I should receive this year as a jubilee gift from God, a time for many of my turbulent years to be ‘put right’.

I’ve been given many prophecies over the years; some have been whacky, some have been spot-on and some have been painful-but-true revelations of the way things really are. I really hope that this is one of the ‘spot-on’ variety: freedom from ‘slavery’, debts cancelled and a special experience of God’s mercies…who wouldn’t want this? Whether it happens or not won’t make an ounce of difference to my love for Jesus and my desire to carry on the journey with him, but the man said, “Receive it!”, so I’m happy to wait with bated breath and open hands. God has been extraordinarily generous at other times, so why not.

So…hit that reset button!