PAID- Payment in Full

"You be quiet or I'll stamp your forehead with this "PAID" stamp!"

  Those were the harsh words I was cruelly subjected to a few weeks ago!

  To be fair, I probably deserved it.

  When I see my name next to the "Office" section in our work rosta I let out a small chuckle. I tend to cause a bit of chaos when let lose amongst our office staff. My humour, comments and little anecdotes tend to get one of two reactions.

   This was the worser of the two.

"You be quiet or I'll stamp your forehead with this "PAID" stamp!"

                                        (I think they were joking!)


    At first I was taken aback. I didn't want a massive red "PAID" insignia on my forehead! I like my forehead as it is, thank you very much!

    And what on earth would people think! Would they think that I was a slave? Or maybe I had owed money to a bailiff? Perhaps it was punishment for a crime- like the 'P' mark for Pirates. (Actually I wouldn't really mind if they thought I was a pirate!)

   But then, as the office atmosphere started to cool down, I pondered more. Perhaps I should have a paid mark on my forehead. After all, its true....

   To borrow some words from a popular Christian song: I owed a debt I could not pay, he paid a debt he did not owe, I needed someone to wash my sins away.

   Check my records. Please do. According to scripture:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?... Who can bring any charge against God's elect?

   My debt is paid. My records are clean. My ransom, my debts, my sins: they are all paid for! In letters ten feet high: PAID!

   The King of Glory descended to earth and lived as a man. He suffered and died, being separated from His Eternal Father.  He did all of this to pay the price for my sins. My clean slate was achieved through the shedding of God's blood. Truly my paid stamp is stained red.

   Perhaps I should walk around stamped "PAID". Because my debts are gone. They have been paid. My slavery is over. The ransom is paid. I am truly free from sin, through Christ. And I should want to tell others. How can I but proclaim and declare what a great God I have?

   Yes, Lord, stamp me PAID