Chuck Foreman – Teaching Pastor

I am becoming increasingly convinced that God’s design for us and our world is that He has always intended to be king of His creation and set up His kingdom in it— “on earth as it is in heaven.” It is by faith in Jesus that we enter into “eternal life” or better translated, “the life of the eternal age.” This does not refer to a deathless spirit existence that begins when we die physically and go to heaven. Our deathless life begins when we begin keeping his word and become His followers by faith demonstrated in deed. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” (John 8:51) If you have become a follower of Jesus Christ, you have already entered into the life of the eternal age. We are already in the age on earth where Christ is King and in the process of restoring life on earth to the goodness God pronounced upon it at creation. Right now He is doing this through his People on earth, who do good eagerly, realizing that a life of good deeds and generosity is exactly what everyone of us was designed for (Titus 2:14; Ephesians 2:10).

This foundational understanding is important if we are ever to comprehend why we are here and what we are to be up to in this life—which mergers into eternity in heaven or when Jesus returns to restore all things (whichever comes first for us) and literally bring heaven to earth, having destroyed completely the devil’s work and having undone the curse, liberating even Creation itself from its bondage to decay (Acts 3:21; Revelation 21:1-5; 22:3; 1 John 3:8; Romans 8:19-23). 

This matters because it helps us understand why God is so concerned with our lives now and how we live. He wants to set us free from anything that keeps us in bondage to other masters besides Him. He does not want us to miss out on the good life He intended for us from the beginning. He wants us to be free to serve Him and experience what Jesus called “life to the full” (John 10:10).  Jesus said,

“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  (John 8:34-36)

One of our more “acceptable sins” is the love of things and money. It has become part of our contemporary cultural and certain parts of our economy flourish because of this sin in each of us. God is not against things and money, but when we go into debt to acquire what we cannot afford, this gets his attention. He’s concerned about this because debt is a type of bondage that sucks the joy and the ability to function like members of His kingdom right out of us. We are working to satisfy our creditors rather than to earn a satisfying living. We can no longer afford to be generous. We are consumed with anxiety rather than peace. We haven’t the emotional energy left to be rich in good deeds. We have become pathetic servants to our own greed and the lust of our fleshly eyes.

Holy Debt Pit! Who can liberate us from such bondage? Jesus can, indeed! He’s given us principles to live by and wisdom and creativity to help us help ourselves and each other climb out of the debt pit. We are determined to do this at FCC. No More Bondage to debt! We want to be free indeed—and we will be if we learn and practice the steps to Financial Freedom. Let’s do this together!