Tag Thanksgiving

Wednesday Worship: Jesus Paid It All

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Opening Reflection

Hebrews 10 invites us to stand before the cross with clear eyes and a quieted heart. It reminds us that the law was never the destination. It was only the shadow of a greater reality yet to be revealed. The sacrifices of the Old Testament expose sin, but they never erase it. They bring people near, but they can not make them clean.

Christ, nevertheless, offered one sacrifice for sins for all time—and then He sat down. His work was finished. His offering was done. His blood accomplished what the law never could. It cleansed the conscience. It perfected those who draw near.

This is the truth that the beloved hymn Jesus Paid It All proclaims with such simplicity and power. Every believer confesses this. They have discovered that their hope does not rest in their own efforts. Instead, it rests in the finished work of Christ.

Scripture Anchor: Hebrews 10:12–14 (ESV)

“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Devotional

Hebrews 10 opens with a sobering reminder: the law was never meant to be the final answer. It was a shadow—a silhouette cast by something greater that had not yet appeared. The sacrifices of the Old Testament exposed sin, but they never erased it. They brought people near, but did not make them clean.

If the blood of bulls and goats had truly cleansed the conscience, the offerings would have stopped. But they didn’t. Year after year, the priests stood—always standing, always sacrificing—because the work was never finished. The very repetition of the sacrifices was proof of their insufficiency.

Hebrews 10:12 interrupts with the gospel in a single sentence. Christ offered one sacrifice for sins for all time. Then He sat down. The priests stood because their work was never done. Christ sat down because His work was finished.

This is the heart of the chapter: we do nothing because Jesus has done everything.

His sacrifice is not one more offering in a long line of attempts. It is the final offering. It is the perfect offering. It is the once-for-all offering. It actually cleanses the conscience and perfects those who draw near. The blood of Christ does what the law could never do—it makes us clean, whole, forgiven, and welcomed.

And this is where the hymn Jesus Paid It All becomes more than a song. It becomes a confession of faith that rises straight out of Hebrews 10. The hymn writer understood what the writer of Hebrews proclaimed. Our efforts and our striving cannot make us presentable before God. Our spiritual disciplines and attempts to “be better” are insufficient. None of these can make us presentable before God. They are good, but they are not atoning. They are helpful, but they are not saving.

We do not approach God because we have prayed enough. We do not approach God because we have behaved well enough. We do not approach God because we have avoided sin long enough. We approach God because Jesus paid it all.

And that changes everything.

Have you ever hesitated to come to God because you felt unworthy? Have you ever tried to “clean yourself up” before praying again? Have you ever believed the lie that you need a streak of good days before God will welcome you?

Hebrews 10 dismantles that lie. The hymn reinforces it. The cross settles it.

Your confidence before God is not rooted in your performance—it is rooted in Christ’s finished work. His sacrifice is not fragile. His blood is not temporary. His cleansing is not conditional. You are invited to draw near, not because you are worthy, but because He is.

So take a moment and ask yourself: Where am I still trying to offer God my own sacrifices?

  • My discipline
  • My consistency
  • My ministry
  • My moral effort
  • My attempts to “make up” for my failures

All of these things matter—but none of them save.

You are a son. You are a daughter. Not by your offerings, but by His.

And that is why generations have sung, and will continue to sing, that simple, liberating truth: Jesus paid it all. Not some. Not most. Not the part you can’t fix. All.

Hymn: Jesus Paid It All

Words: Elvina M. Hall (1865)
Music: John T. Grape (1868)

Verse 1
I hear the Savior say,
Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.

Refrain
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Verse 2
Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

Refrain
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Verse 3
For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

Refrain
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Verse 4
And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
My lips shall still repeat.

Refrain
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Jesus Paid It All: take time to meditate upon this great hymn as you are reminded as to how great a love the Lord has bestowed upon us, sinners as we are.

About the Hymnwriter

Elvina M. Hall wrote the words to Jesus Paid It All. She was sitting in the choir loft of Monument Street Methodist Church in Baltimore. As she listened to the sermon, the lines began forming in her heart—a simple, profound declaration of Christ’s sufficiency. John T. Grape, the church organist, later composed the tune that carried her words into the worship of generations.

The hymn endures because its message is timeless: Christ has done what we could never do. His sacrifice is enough.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your once-for-all sacrifice. Thank You that You have done what the law could never do. Thank You that we can draw near with confidence, not because of our worthiness, but because of Your finished work. Teach us to rest in the truth that You paid it all. Amen.

Benediction

May the God who perfected you through the sacrifice of His Son fill you with confidence. May He also fill you with peace and joy as you draw near to Him. Walk in the freedom of the cross. Know that Jesus paid it all. Nothing can be added to His finished work.

A Reflection on Thanksgiving

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

🍂 A Thanksgiving Reflection 🍂

Now that the turkey has been carved and the last slice of pie has been served, let’s pause together and remember the blessings we’ve enjoyed this past year.

I want to take a moment to thank each of you—my faithful readers and supporters—for walking this journey with me. Your encouragement, your comments, and simply your presence here have been a gift I don’t take lightly.

Thanksgiving is more than a holiday; it’s a reminder that gratitude turns ordinary days into extraordinary ones. As we look back on the year behind us, may we carry forward hearts full of thankfulness, and may we look ahead with hope and prayer for continued blessings in the year to come.

From my heart to yours: may peace, joy, and abundance overflow in your homes and lives.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends. 🦃✨

The Mayflower Compact and the Roots of Economic Freedom and Private Property |

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The Pilgrims after arriving in Plymouth set up a colony and enacted for the first time a COMMUNAL living arraignment which they soon abandoned because of it’s failure to provide for the needs of the colonists. Instead they replaced the communal concept with that of private property and individual industry and it was from this model that abundance and wealth abounded!

Communism has failed along with socialism because it replaces the individual with a collective and substitutes the wants and desires of the individual with the needs of the collective. There is no incentive to achieve because there is no room for advancement of one’s state. All are equal and all are unhappy!

I am afraid too many have never learned this lesson from history and are doomed to repeat it!

Arriving in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in November 1620, the Pilgrims brought with them the economic assumptions present within their own religious congregation, which sometimes conflicted with those of hierarchical English society.

Jim Otteson, visiting scholar at the Feulner Institute’s Simon Center for American Studies at Heritage, emphasizes the religious dimension to their social and economic thinking.

“The fact that the Pilgrims wrote an agreement and voluntarily signed it,” Otteson declares, “presupposes that they saw themselves as morally equal. They signed it as peers and equals, and did not ask the king for permission to do so.”

Those religious believers, he says, perceived one another as made in the image of God. That belief created a social equality among their party and established the fertile soil for economic liberty in New England.

Samuel Gregg, visiting scholar at the Simon Center for American Studies, identifies several assumptions that guided the Pilgrims about private property and economic liberty, and influenced the British colonies and later the United States.

Preeminent in the Pilgrims’ economic worldview was the concept of private property. Unlike their Jamestown counterparts in 1607, the community did not undertake the disastrous and utopian approach of collectivization—that is, the idea that their property would be held in common by the entire community. 

Instead, the passengers embarked on the understanding that they would have the right to own and develop their property, for their own good and that of the community.

The Mayflower Compact and the Roots of Economic Freedom and Private Property | The Heritage Foundation

Thanksgiving and Leftovers

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

A Turkey.

Image via Wikipedia

Ah those wonderful Thanksgiving dinner leftovers!  They are just as good the day after as the day of, at least in my opinion.  I can eat turkey sandwiches for a week after Thanksgiving and not tire of them.  It is the week after Thanksgiving.  Many have left the warm confines of their homes and ventured out into the wild world of Black Friday.  Some were out at midnight for those specially advertised sales.  Others have been waiting in line since way before daylight.

But not me; nope  I have made it a rule for myself to do everything possible to never even leave home on the day after Thanksgiving.  If at all possible I’m staying in, watching movies and yes, eating on those delectable Thanksgiving leftovers.  I might even watch the news to see how shoppers have fared on their day-after excursions.  Some of the stories are tragic and others just plain old funny.  On either end of the stick I’m glad that I’m not one of the stories.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have anything against those who enjoy the Black Friday experience – To each his own.  I really hope they find what they are looking for and have a wonderful time in the process.  Folks it just isn’t my cup of tea and I don’t think you’ll ever find me out in the crowd.  If you need me, I’ll probably be right here at home.

The word “leftovers” often doesn’t get the right rating.  A lot of people snarl their nose at leftovers.  In the Bible there were two times when a miracle of Jesus produced leftovers.  Once He had fed five thousand people with a few fish and a few loaves of bread and on another occasion the number was three thousand with the same menu.  Each time there was more leftovers than what He originally started with.  You know what; I think I might have liked to have tried those Heavenly leftovers.

In Nehemiah 12:46 we read, “For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.”  The people were remembering how it had been during the days of David and Asaph.  The offices of the singers were very important to these men in the worship of God.  After their thanksgiving celebration the people of Israel under Nehemiah’s direction were trying to duplicate that so as to re-establish the wonderful worship of days gone by.  In a sense they were making trying to stretch the leftovers of their own worship for the coming days.  I believe that was a good thing.

When we have an unusually good time of worship with our Lord we want to bask in the leftovers of that experience, and we should.  That wonderful feeling of worship and closeness to God is something we want to last on and on.  It makes us to want to stretch that experience until the next one.  It’s a Heavenly leftover that we can always look forward to.

I pray that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.  I sincerely hope that things went well for you and you made memories that will serve as pleasant leftovers for a long time to come.  We should want those kinds of leftovers.  We need to cherish those times and remember them in our hearts.  We never know when tragedy may strike and take away some of those family members we love.  But we can always relive those good times in our minds.

It’s the same with our spiritual thanksgiving.  Those times well spent with our Lord serve as pleasant memories that can encourage us in days to come.  Hold fast to them.  Never forget them.  Keep them close to your heart.  Then draw from them as the need arises.  Of course there will be new experiences in the Lord.  We’ll have more good times to come.  But never forget them and always give thanks.

Jerry D. Ousley is the Author of five books, “Soul Challenge”, “Soul Journey” “Ordeal” “The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional” and his first novel “The Shoe Tree.”  Listen to the daily broadcast Spirit Bread.  Find out more by visiting www.spiritbread.com

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com

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Hallmark Encouraging people to Give Thanks this Thanksgiving

Allen Frederick 1 Comment

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KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 8, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ — Thanksgiving can be a perfect time to reconnect with friends and loved ones. With nearly 240 Thanksgiving cards available this season, Hallmark is encouraging people to pause and give thanks to their loved ones. According to Hallmark Research, more than 70 percent of Thanksgiving cards are mailed, the highest percentage for any season.  

“Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude and reflecting on our blessings,” said Kristi Stanley, Hallmark Editorial Director.

For ease and convenience, there are Postage-Paid Greetings available this Thanksgiving in many different designs and messages. Just sign, seal and send.  The postage is treated like a Forever stamp, and its value will always be equal to the price of a standard First-Class stamp, regardless of when it’s mailed.

“Our postage paid cards give consumers an easy way to reconnect with friends and family from across the miles,” said Stanley. “Even if they can’t be together at Thanksgiving, a card is a wonderful way for them to tell someone how much they’re loved and appreciated.”

Like the idea of sharing gratitude in Thanksgiving cards, but not sure what to say?  Use these thought starters for a truly personal Thanksgiving greeting:It’s friends like you that … The only thing better than turkey and pumpkin pie is … The guys have football, but we have … It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without …

Thanksgiving Cards, including Postage-Paid Greetings, are available at Hallmark Gold Crown​® stores and participating Hallmark retailers nationwide. Use the store locator on Hallmark.com to find the nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store.  Postage-paid card prices begin at $2.50.

Hallmark makes the world a more caring place by helping people express what’s in their hearts and spend time together – a privilege few other companies in the world enjoy. Hallmark greeting cards and other products are found in more than 40,000 retail outlets in the U.S., including the network of flagship Hallmark Gold Crown® stores. The brand also reaches people online at Hallmark.com and on television through Hallmark Hall of Fame​ original movies and cable’s top-rated Hallmark Channel. Worldwide, Hallmark offers products in more than 30 languages available in 100 countries. This privately held company is based in Kansas City, Mo., and is led by the third generation of the founding Hall family. Visit http://corporate.hallmark.com for more details.

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