You won't have to screen His call

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 2:13,14

We've all heard it lately- today's economy is a hard one to live in.  People everywhere are having trouble paying their bills, due to pay cuts or layoffs.  It's easy to get in over your head, especially when you have bills to pay.  Sometimes, unfortunately, some bills just can't get paid.  People end up getting calls from collection agencies, wondering when they're going to get paid.  Even when there's no money to give them, those calls keep coming.  

God's commandments are like that collection agency.  They tell us that we owe God for what we have or haven't done.  The pain word for this debt is sin.  We all have a huge debt with God--like a credit card bill that just won't go away.  The collection agencies are easy to pay off--pay the bill, you're done.  But God--that's not so easy.  When we try to scratch together the works in our lives as payments for our sins, God labels them for what they really are--counterfeit.  When we try to ignore the calls, to "screen" the commandments, they only keep coming, stronger and stronger.  

How scary is that debt?  More scary than any debt to American Express or the phone company.  But the beauty is that God has given us a way out of that debt.  Jesus took our sins, our debt, to the cross.  He nailed the sins there on the cross with Him.  Because He was God's own Son, He took care of those sins.  With the ink of His own precious blood, He wrote across our debt of sin, "Paid in full."  

Instead of having to screen calls from a collection agency, we're able to be forgiven.  God will never come calling for us, asking us to repay every sin that we've committed in our lives.  Instead, God sends us a different letter, one that says, "I have forgiven all your sins."  What a gift He has given to us!

We pray:  Dear Heavenly Father, we know that we carry a huge debt of sin.  We also know that there is no way to ever repay that debt to you.  Thank you for sending your Son to the cross to die for those sins.  We praise you for the gift of forgiveness that sacrifice gives us.  In Your name we pray, Amen.