You Owe Nothing....Except

Everything has a cost, right?  Brad is working on the shelves with my dad and just one board was like $30....crazy....then, I just had a chance to see one of my cousins and we were talking about the price we pay in life for some of our past sins....regrets and shame can really keep us stuck in places.  Even when people do something nice for us, we often feel like we should try to repay them in some way....like we owe them.  Sometimes, when we do something nice....we hope the person will repay us :P  Everything in life can start to be measured on some kind of ledger or give us this extreme feeling of STICKER SHOCK!  We get so used to the overwhelming feeling of OWING SO MUCH that we can't even believe it when something is completely free....we even go so far as to wonder if the free thing is just a cheap piece of junk and we doubt whether we should even ascribe it any value at all.

It's true....we cannot pay for everything we have ever done, things we want....or, more importantly, NEED...and we can't repay others for all joys with which they have blessed us.

BUT, the price for us to live in freedom has been paid...not for us to keep accumulating debt....but, for that huge load to no longer have power over us.  I love God's institution of the year of jubilee in the Old Testament....a time when everything was forgiven and there was great celebration.  A time to remind "owners" that they really are just managers and that God owns everything.  Sometimes, we need to remember this is exactly what Christ has done for us.

If we get that....then we have to decide what our new life in Christ will look like according to God's Word.....that is where every Christian is on a journey....Christ picked you up and is giving you a ride home.  In a way, I think we are all artists with Christ....what we create - our testimony - with Him might be totally unique to someone else's experience.  Yet, in it, we find JOY and a complete reason to celebrate.

Don't let Satan overwhelm you by whispering to you all the debt you owe...if you are in Christ, you owe NOTHING...except...

Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to

LOVE

one another

for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8