Thinking About Grace...Part 6
Dave Ramsey would hate me.
Well, maybe "hate" is too strong a word for a man who has never met me. We'll save that word for the people who know me. But Mr. Ramsey, a budgeting and financial guru, wouldn't like the way I manage my money because I have way too many of those instruments of the devil, credit cards. And Ramsey advocates cutting up those plastic friends.
Now, to be fair, his position is not a bad one: far too many people in our culture use credit cards as a crutch, a way to dig deeper into debt, and if there's one thing Dave Ramsey hates more than credit cards, it's debt.
But I use credit cards differently. I don't have a single card that doesn't give me some advantage. This one gets me Disney points which is earning lots of meals and souvenirs right now ahead of our trip in June. This other one earns me points and free rooms at a hotel chain we frequent. And one of my favorites gives me cash back to use on iTunes. I also don't pay any annual fees on my credit cards.
And I pay them off every month. I can count on one hand the number of times in my life I haven't done that. For me, it's a matter of convenience.
But do you know the real reason I use credit cards? It's to experience grace.
You see, credit cards (and other billing industries) give you what is called a "grace period." It's the time between when you make the purchase and when you actually have to pay for it. It's convenient for me to be able to make one payment in the month and organize my budget around that. And in the meantime, I live in grace.
Remember....grace is getting what you don't deserve. And a "grace period" is a slice of time in which you should have paid for something but haven't yet. Someone else paid for you, and you then agree to pay it back at the appropriate time. (And if you don't, then they slap you with a big penalty...which is another reason Dave Ramsey doesn't like them.)
It's grace...but it's still worldly grace. It may be as close to the Gospel as the world gets, but it's still not the Gospel.
Because when God gives me grace, through the cross of Jesus and him paying the penalty for my sin (and it was a big whopping penalty), I don't have to pay it back. I can't pay it back. There are not enough "good works" in the world for me to do or that I would be able to do to pay Jesus back for what he did for me. And that's real grace, really getting what I don't deserve.
So, for now, I'm living in the grace period. Between the time when Jesus paid my debt and when he comes to collect...only, when HE comes to collect, I get all the benefits...life everlasting, full salvation, healing and eternal hope. Now, that's an awesome benefit plan!
Well, maybe "hate" is too strong a word for a man who has never met me. We'll save that word for the people who know me. But Mr. Ramsey, a budgeting and financial guru, wouldn't like the way I manage my money because I have way too many of those instruments of the devil, credit cards. And Ramsey advocates cutting up those plastic friends.
Now, to be fair, his position is not a bad one: far too many people in our culture use credit cards as a crutch, a way to dig deeper into debt, and if there's one thing Dave Ramsey hates more than credit cards, it's debt.
But I use credit cards differently. I don't have a single card that doesn't give me some advantage. This one gets me Disney points which is earning lots of meals and souvenirs right now ahead of our trip in June. This other one earns me points and free rooms at a hotel chain we frequent. And one of my favorites gives me cash back to use on iTunes. I also don't pay any annual fees on my credit cards.
And I pay them off every month. I can count on one hand the number of times in my life I haven't done that. For me, it's a matter of convenience.
But do you know the real reason I use credit cards? It's to experience grace.
You see, credit cards (and other billing industries) give you what is called a "grace period." It's the time between when you make the purchase and when you actually have to pay for it. It's convenient for me to be able to make one payment in the month and organize my budget around that. And in the meantime, I live in grace.
Remember....grace is getting what you don't deserve. And a "grace period" is a slice of time in which you should have paid for something but haven't yet. Someone else paid for you, and you then agree to pay it back at the appropriate time. (And if you don't, then they slap you with a big penalty...which is another reason Dave Ramsey doesn't like them.)
It's grace...but it's still worldly grace. It may be as close to the Gospel as the world gets, but it's still not the Gospel.
Because when God gives me grace, through the cross of Jesus and him paying the penalty for my sin (and it was a big whopping penalty), I don't have to pay it back. I can't pay it back. There are not enough "good works" in the world for me to do or that I would be able to do to pay Jesus back for what he did for me. And that's real grace, really getting what I don't deserve.
So, for now, I'm living in the grace period. Between the time when Jesus paid my debt and when he comes to collect...only, when HE comes to collect, I get all the benefits...life everlasting, full salvation, healing and eternal hope. Now, that's an awesome benefit plan!
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