The Foundations of Hell Were Shaken

“Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.”~~H. L. Mencken
(BrainyQuote)

Today’s word of the day, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is psychagogic, which means, “That influences the mind; persuasive, attractive.”

Today is Plan Your Epitaph Day. I don’t have a clue what my epitaph will be. In fact, people rarely use epitaphs, these days. However, whenever I even hear the word “epitaph,” I immediately think, “Confusion will be my epitaph.”

Okay, so all that stuff I wrote about our reviews and raises, over the weekend, may not be true. Our site manager met with each department, individually, yesterday, and, almost frantically, insisted that the email/memo that was posted did not apply to us. In fact, he said, the email came from the C.O.O. of CEVA Ground, which is an entirely separate entity (one that constantly “underperforms,” in my opinion). He was rather upset that someone has posted that email on the bulletin board without running it through him, first. He insisted that, should any news such as that arise, we would hear it out of his mouth before it got posted on the board. He was out for a number days, because his wife just had a baby, so I have no problem believing what he said. He knows who posted the email, as well. I asked if he knew. I did not, however, ask him to tell us who it was.

Today is Wednesday. I’m still not feeling great. However, I think it’s better. I’m low on energy, though, that’s for sure.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

(From Praying With the Psalms)

But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies.
You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations.
You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.
You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us.
You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face
at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant.
Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way;
yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground.
Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!
Psalm 44:9-26

Paul borrowed from this Psalm in Romans 8:36. “A comparison between the psalmist and Paul as they write about suffering is a dramatic example of the difference Christ has made.”

“Reinforce my conviction, Father, that nothing can separate me from your love, that there are no places where you are absent, no times when you are asleep, that you are in all times and all places for me in Jesus Christ. Amen.”

(From My Utmost For His Highest)

“The Collision of God and Sin”

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
1 Peter 2:24

In what may be my very favorite reading in this book, Chambers addresses the Cross of Christ. “The Cross of Jesus is the revelation of God’s judgment on sin.” Jesus was not a “martyr.” The Cross was not something that “happened” to Jesus. “The Cross was a superb triumph in which the foundations of hell were shaken.” Anyone who believes that Satan was rejoicing in “victory” when Jesus hung on the cross does not understand, at all, what happened. With the Cross, Jesus Christ “switched the whole of the human race back into a right relationship with God.”

The Cross was why Jesus was born. Many think he came to earth to “show us the way to God,” or to “be an example for us.” Jesus was born to die. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Jesus was “Plan A,” and there is no “Plan B.”

“The Cross is the point where God and sinful man merge with a crash and the way to life is opened–but the crash is on the heart of God.”

Father, lead me to the cross, constantly. Always draw me back to the ultimate moment of sacrifice, made that all of humanity might be drawn back into right relationship with you. Thank you for choosing me to be one of yours, and then making sure it would happen. Thank you for putting me in an environment where I would be taught the truth of Scripture and raised to love you. My gratitude can never be properly expressed. Help me to lead others to this truth, as well. Thank you for the Cross.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Grace and peace, friends.