So I Twitter. Or is it "tweet?" In any case, one of the Twitter-ers that follow is my bank ING Direct. Personally I think they have the right idea for the emerging generation. I am tired of banks that make you feel like you are intruding when you do business with them. Also, what is the deal with late fees! At one time or another most of us have bounced at least one check. Then you enter the myriad of "oops guess you suck with your money, but you agreed to let us charge you whatever we want when you messed up..." options for overdrawing your account. Why would a bank need to charge me almost $40 to get things straightened out? A simple piece of computer code could take care of that. I even loved that a friend of mine had a successful large bank who I won't defame here charge him an additional fee for each day he remained overdrawn! Well you can read the story about ING here (http://adage.com/article?article_id=142331) and its not really what I wanted to blog today, though close. But I just wanted to say that it is great when we find those people that really get what we need.
Kinda like Jesus.
You know, often we talk about our sin as a debt and use financial language to help us understand it. Perhaps because we understand financial debt. Perhaps because the Bible talks a ton about money. Perhaps because big JC himself used examples pulled from the financial world. Like Matthew 18:23-35 where Jesus tells a story about a man who is forgiven an astronomical debt. Some of us have just have a little trouble handling our money, and then there are some of us who shouldn't be allowed to see our own pay stubs. But the man in this story must have been one of the worst. He owed 10,000 talents of gold to his master (If you don't care what a talent of gold is worth, skip this part: 1 talent of gold = about 56lbs of gold. Today gold was worth $1116 per ounce or about $18k per pound. One talent of gold is worth about $1,000,000 and he owed about 10,000 times that!!! Thats like $10 billion in today's market!) This man owed a phenomenal, unpayable debt!
Yet his master forgives him of his debt! Before we leave this thought, think what would happen in our world today if someone just forgave that kind of debt. The money to make it up has to come from somewhere! We can't just think that the master in this story just said, "Ah well." This money had to be made up by someone...perhaps the master himself?
Well, this story and blog aren't really about financial debt. If you are struggling with financial debt please take care of it! I personally recommend the sound advice available at either http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/ or as I think both are stellar resources for getting out of debt. I personally have experienced the heartache and struggle with getting into debt and know the weight it lays on our shoulders. Get 'er done, and do what it takes.
However, there is a greater debt that each of us faces, that no website or financial guru can help us solve. In fact, can you imagine being under a debt that you know you will never ever be able to solve? Knowing that in fact, there is nothing that you can do to make amends? Ever? The Bible tells us that when we sin, we incur a debt that requires a great and final penalty. You could even say that the late fees are killer... *groan*. And thats for one sin! What about if we sin multiple times? I don't know about you, but I think I am only able to die once! And I don't even want to do that once! The truth is that each of us has racked up debt that is beyond belief. And our Master in heaven, the Creator of everything, the Lord of Lords, has seen our debt pile up and up over our heads. Then one day, he decided to do something about it.
He paid our debt for us.
You may think that Jesus came to give us better morals, or even to live a good example for us. And yes, it is true that he corrects religious thinking and provides us with a perfect example of what real true life should look like. Yet another purpose, perhaps almost the most vital purpose of his coming to live on earth over 2000 years ago, was to pay our debt for us. The eternal and all powerful God came to suffer and die the death that we deserved so that instead of condemning us, he could tell us, "I paid off your debt, you are free to be free now!"
So I entreat you today, believe that God came to earth after seeing your debt and seeing that you would be unable to pay it off. And loving you so much he desired that you be free from that debt, and even more free to live in his presence for the rest of eternity (which I hear is a pretty long time)! Think of it, not just no debt but a good long vacation in paradise to boot! Not even ING can offer that! So the sooner you believe, the sooner you will find total freedom!
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