Monday, August 11, 2008

Debt

How do you feel when someone contacts you concerning something they believe you owe them?

Have you ever had someone try to collect a debt from you even though you didn't honestly owe it?

When someone does something to another person that is in any way 'not right', in a sense a debt takes place. When someone violates another person's freedoms, takes something that does not belong to them from another, or in some other way uses 'fear', 'false' or 'force' (three key weapons in counterfeit forms of government) in interpersonal relationships, a debt is incurred. Some people can be very vocal about it. "I'll get 'even'" is an expression used when someone has incurred a debt and the other person wants to be 'paid', even if it means lowering themselves to where the offender has 'dropped'. Other sinners just 'hold' the debt inside of themselves until the quantity gets so much that either they 'explode' or 'die' (mentally, emotionally, spiritually or even physically) trying to hold on to it.

In any event, sin - which is described above - creates debt. When I 'sin' against God I should have to 'pay'. Trouble is, the wages of sin is 'death' - end of living. If God made me 'pay up', there would be 'nothing' left. God knows that. That is one reason He offered to 'pay the debt' for me, in my behalf, by me accepting Jesus' death in place of me dying. Praise God! I accept that.

When Jesus gave the disciples a 'model' prayer He included 'forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors'. There are two aspects here. I am to ask God for forgiveness: give me release for (or in place of) the debt I owe to Him because of sin (which He does by accepting Jesus' death in my behalf).

There is, however, a condition added: "As we forgive our debtors" . When someone else 'sins' against us - does, says or even insinuates something against us which creates a debt to us - God will only be able to give us His kind of freedom (peace) from our debt to Him as we give the other person freedom for (in place of holding them in bondage to the debt) their debt to us.

What happens if a person holds on to a debt caused by another person's actions instead of giving freedom for (forgiving) the debt? For one thing the person who won't forgive has a big job of debt collecting and debt management on their hands. They are also having to make decisions (judgment) as to how much 'debt' should be collected, 'interest' accrued and all that kind of bookkeeping 'stuff'. This produces another problem. In economics who decides what is of what value? The debt for one sin may be valued at one 'price' by one 'sinner' while another price may be affixed to it by another 'accountant'. That can cause a lot of problems along the way.

Another difficulty that arises, and often is even more of a problem, and that is the means of 'paying the debt'. If death were the result of every 'sin' there would be no one around. Us sinners have developed a quite complex system of 'debt' collection and 'payment' probably as big and varied as the international monetary system in our world - maybe even more complex.

Then a third challenge often develops. The person who has become a 'debt collecter' often gets tired of carrying around their 'burden' of keeping track of how much they are owed, and sooner or later come to the place where instead of only collecting debt from the original person, they start attempting to collect from others as well. This can happen if someone comes in contact with them who might 'look' like the original debter, or if an incident occurs that may remind them of the original 'debt' occurance. I wonder sometimes if some debt collectors just get so tired of carrying their burden that they start collecting from anyone who will give them the 'time' to do so.

Problem with all of the above is that none of the 'payment' plans work on a permanent basis. It seems that there is always some kind of a residual amount left over even when someone has supposedly met the debtor's payment demands. And usually the debt does not stay at one level either. That means that unless the bookkeeping on both sides were to synchronize then the results never agree either. That can be a real problem as well.

God knew all of this even before 'sin' raised its ugly head, so to speak. That is why when Jesus came He shared with His family what God's plan was for handling the debts incurred by 'sin'.

Matthew 18 includes a parable Jesus shared on the subject of forgiveness. If anyone is interested I can share more detail, but the bottom line , or the end of the story, is that the only way a person can be freed from debt collection and all of its headaches is to give complete freedom to the one who owes for, (forgive) in exchange for, the debt.

When we release others from all debts they owe to us because of sin then we are given freedom by God for all we owe Him (because Jesus has already died in our place). How is that for a way to pay debts? Pretty wonderful, I say.

And let me assure you that the JOY and PEACE you will experience when all debts are canceled comes literally from 'out of this world' . That is part of what God means when He says "peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

We no longer have fear, for perfect love casts out fear.

We no longer carry the heaviness of the 'debt collection' stuff around with us - and to me that means I am now free to experience the JOY of the Lord, which is my strength.

Wow! What a wonderful God we serve.

May the Prince of Peace fill you with all JOY and PEACE in believing, so you may abound in HOPE through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Bringer of Peace


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