Stay Awake: God vs. gods.

A community of uniquely called, gifted, and placed needy men and women living their lives where they are…

Blessing God, loving the lost world and each other and frustrating the hell out of the devil…Advances the kingdom of God!

This is real, even on what seems to be the billionth Wednesday of your life. My circumstances, feelings, tiredness, or desire level don't affect the plan of God. I don't throw a wrench in it. Sigh. Glad about that.

And whether I feel like I'm in it or not, there is a battle over all of this. The enemy is hell bent on you and I coasting, zoning out and wasting our lives. Mission accomplished is his hellish hope. There are battles that rage, whether acknowledged or not, that are aimed at our destruction. I'm a sucker to ignore this reality. And, lick lick, many times I'm a sucker. STAY AWAKE Damon. You're not a tootsie pop. You're a co-heir with big brother to the FULLNESS OF GOD!

And so, over the next several weeks let's notice what some of these battles are. Today: God vs. gods.

"God damn it, I said shut up"….we’ll hear in a movie. God I love this car. Thank God I got these earrings for my birthday. Oh my God, he looks so good. In science class, God is mocked and laughed at. On the american dollar bill it says "In God We Trust". What a joke. He is either reduced to an expletive or He doesn’t exist at all. And in my heart.......?

What gods take the place of God in your life? Anything that takes a place of priority, preeminence, and passion in place of God. We have gotten so comfortable and we begin to COAST/ZONE/WASTE our life...and the enemy isn’t apologizing. Licking his chops. Hates us. STAY AWAKE.

Perhaps my favorite DCTalk song is called "What Have We Become". It is a rousing verse that depicts the battle in our hearts between our desire for God and all the other competing gods that rage for our attention. The lyrics are a strong picture of the back and forth push and pull of acknowledging our hunger for God waning and the lies that contribute to that waning. Here are a few lines.

What have we become? A self indulgent people, what have we become? Tell me where are the righteous ones? What have we become? In a world degenerating, what have we become?

(I sense a hunger for God and how it exposes our appetite to feed self....and then come all the lies of little "g" gods...)

Speak your mind, look out for yourself The answer to it all is a life of wealth Grab all you can cause you live just once You got the right to do whatever you want Don't worry about others or where you came from It ain't what you were, it's what you have become.

(And in the song as you actually listen to it, there is strong crescendo coming in the face of all these lies to the climax of the song that literally scream these words....)

What about love? What about GOD? What about holiness? What about mercy Compassion and selflessness?

When I become aware that you and I are being suckered by the enemy into lesser living than what Papa has called us into, I want to scream at the top of my lungs to the devil and to my own needy heart...WHAT ABOUT GOD??????? I envision myself screaming this while jumping up and down and stomping my feet on the ground as I do it. Not casual. God is not casual.

This feels like the smelling salts of spiritual reality. And I need them quite a bit. WAKE UP Damon! STAY AWAKE!

What about God? What about God the...Inviter, Lover, Artist, Creator, Joy giver, Sustainer, Poet, Powerful one, Character giver, Comforter, Thirst quencher, Filler, Father, Your God. He is all this and more and He invites us to new, real life again today. Blown away.

I acknowledge that my little "g" gods are strong.

I declare that my BIG "G" God is STRONGER. Not because of anything about me.

STAY AWAKE!

There's more.