Privilege of Slavery

Previously one received some bad news. In order to get out of debt one has to lower ones' standard of living. That is a difficult pill to swallow. It goes against almost everything one is taught.
The encouraging passage is 1 John 2:15-17, (Message Bible) specifically verse 17, “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world - wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important - has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. (17) The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out - but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.”

One was asked to ask the question, “How much am I truly willing to sacrifice to Obey God?” Follow that with this question, “How big a sacrifice is lowering my standard of living compared to the sacrifice of the Cross, or the martyrdom of believers everyday around the world?”

MORE BAD NEWS:
Other than God and I, there are very few in your cheering section that want, hope, and pray fervently that you will be successful in becoming debt free!
But, remember Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Changes in attitudes, lead to changes in behavior.
Recognize this; slavers (creditors) are NOT your friends. Slavers are your enemies! Slavers worship money. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Slavers want two things from a person. They want one’s money, and they want one’s lifetime enslavement.

Why? Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Satan wants you enslaved. He knows that while one is serving him as a debt slave, one has extreme difficulty serving God.

One has to recognize the slavers as enemies, and start despising them. As soon as one declares one’s self for God, and determines to become free from debt, a new war starts. One has taken ‘spiritual’ warfare to a new level. What was an ‘idealistic’ spiritual battle becomes a very real material battle, the battle for the money entrusted to one’s care. Do not be deceived for a moment. Satan will use every trick in the book, from seduction to outright physical attacks to keep one enslaved. One is instantly swamped with ‘free offers’ to become a slave. One may suffer physical injury, theft, vandalism, or ‘natural disasters’, like floods and tornadoes in order to stop one from becoming debt free. How often does one take the spiritual battle into the material world? Doesn’t it make sense that Satan does not want it there? Instead of an ‘idealistic’ spiritual battle, one suddenly, possibly for the first time has an actual, material battle against a known enemy. It is like fighting terrorists, when they’re hiding, it ‘feels’ distant and one lowers one’s guard. Once the terrorist attack in the open, one can actually fight them, and SEE victory!
Consider that over 95% of Americans are in debt. It is an epidemic of sin. Satan does not have to work as hard if one is already in his chains.
Okay, I’m being melodramatic. Or am I?
Has one really considered some of the things that one is in debt for?
Think about this for a minute:

ONE IS PAYING FOR THE PRIVLEGE OF BEING A SLAVE!
One goes to a slaver (creditor) and buys a car on credit with 0% down.
Who owns the car? The slaver does.
Who pays for the loan? The slave does.
Who pays the interest on the loan? The slave does.
Who pays for the slaver’s interest in the car (insurance)? The slave does, if the slave does not do it voluntarily, the slaver adds the cost to the debt. (I know it happen to me!)
Who pays for 100% of the upkeep of the car? The slave does.
Who pays for all expenses related to the car? The slave does.
If the car is dispossessed or repossessed and resold, who pays for the difference in value? The slave does. (I know it happened to me!)
If the car is destroyed by an accident who is paid first? The slaver gets their money first.
If the insurance does not cover the amount owed on the car, who pays the difference? The slave does.
So, for the privilege of driving a car that is not owned, the slave has to pay the slaver; principle, interest, insurance, maintenance and upkeep, and for loss.
THE SLAVE is responsible for EVERY expense related to the car! THE SLAVER risks nothing and gets everything!
It reminds one of the t-shirt, “I’m with STUPID”. Who is impressed? God?
The slaver owns the slave, and the REALLY stupid part is, once one FINALLY gets to the point where one actually owns the car, the slaver will convince the free that they need to go back into slavery by getting a NEW car!

SLAVERS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS - THEY WANT YOU ENSLAVED FOR LIFE

Romans 12:1, 2, (Message Bible), “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

Change the way you think about the slavers! Be "changed from the inside out".