Space Invaders

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

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Oh, yes it does. And we are so glad that you have joined us today on The Masculine Journey. And we have to tell you that our fearless leader has grabbed his gear and he's off on a quest. And his two sons. It is so neat that every year he takes his sons, and now that they're adults that's even neater in my opinion, on a great adventure.

And so they had never been to Niagara Falls and they are actually made of the misting, you know, like Bruce Almighty. I think they have one of those broccabella hats on. I'm pretty sure I can picture Sam with that. Anyway, they are on their annual adventure and I just think it's beyond cool that he lives this message in so many different, beautiful ways. Andy on the other hand is a complete slacker. He's not with us. And as Corn would say, he's the slacker.

And we don't know exactly just, oh. And David, another slacker, what can we say? Well, he's kind of the super slacker. Yeah.

He's taken it to a whole other arena. And Chuck, we would point out there's, but the rest of us are here on a very exciting topic today. So I'm hoping you can relate to something we were relating to on Thursday mornings.

Actually, the Christian Businessmen's Committee meets in Mocksville and Harold and Kenny and I are all part of that. And that's kind of where this topic started out. And I had hoped for my quiet time one morning last week. And my wife came in, usually she's the one that goes to bed about the time I'm getting up.

But this morning she chose to get up about the time I did. And I'm supposed to get with God. And I got highly offended. I'm like, you don't understand, this is my time with God.

Not you. And she invaded my space is what had happened. And it was just totally disruptive. And I got, you know, let's see, you can imagine, I don't know if you can relate, but the good news is my friend Harold has too experienced the idea of space invasion. And so with that, Harold actually wrote a little something for us to, you know, really take in the whole idea.

So Harold, go ahead. Well, I'd have to admit that my sweetheart and I have experienced what you just described between you and your sweetheart. My wife typically gets up when it's dark outside and it's actually a.m. Typically for me, if it's dark outside, it's p.m., not a.m.

Right. But I have a time or two gotten up too early and gone in and been guilty of invading her invading her space, which I get told in no uncertain terms that I'm treading on ground that doesn't belong to me. That's where I'm taking on Mr. T. It's like I pity the fool. So I'm familiar with that. And I'm also familiar with it from my standpoint, because my favorite spot to do the morning devotional after I'm up and it's light outside is in our sunroom, which is right off the kitchen. Unfortunately for me, by the time I get there and I'm going to do my thing, she's through and she's now into her daytime routine, which includes the radio or the TV or the radio and the TV.

So that invades my space. So one morning when I was doing a devo on the Bible that I do, I wrote the following because it was on this topic of distractions. I am not a believer in multitasking as being able to simultaneously devote attention to more than one thing.

I do think that some people are more adept at rapidly shifting focus between tasks, but that is still one per instant. At this moment, I am having multiple distractions. Jan's radio preacher that I can't get away from, friends on the deck, dogs barking. The talking is the most difficult for me to ignore except for my 85-pound dog that just invited himself into my lap. And music is my go-to when needing to concentrate.

I use earphones with music when studying for exams and solving difficult programming bugs. My point? It takes effort to get the world out of primacy and put godly thoughts there. Not all distractions are bad.

The rins make me feel God smiling on me and thus aid my doing as Paul directed to think on things that are good. And I had a post on a different day different day that had to do with being offended. That fits in with the subject as well. I'm not going to read the part where I went into a rant about application developers being sloppy and creating problems for me. But you just mentioned that on the side for your application developers out there. Well, you know, I'm sorry for being so picky, but it's a very timely lesson reinforcement for me about being offended because that kind of sloppy development is highly offensive to me after all my years of writing computer programs and designing. To be easily offended ought to be accompanied by also being easy to forgive and go forward. Who do I think I am that I should be held in such high esteem as to not suffer offense? Pride is often at the root of offense. Keep self and proper perspective and avoid taking offense, especially when it's done in ignorance or innocence. And oftentimes we fail to give people the benefit of the doubt and ascribe motives that they really don't have.

Right. And so, you know, the more I've thought about this topic and with your help Harold, actually, and all these guys, which they have clips to illustrate all these ideas that are going to be beautiful in two cases, and we may not get to one of them till after ours, there are actually space invasions that became disruptions. But King David in the 119th Psalm, he rose the bar to a place that I can never get to. He says, great peace have they that love thy law and nothing, nothing shall offend them. And, you know, as I've memorized that verse and thought about that verse and taken that verse in my heart, it really helps me to understand that if I'm beginning to feel offended or beginning to see something as a great disruption, that actually it's like a check engine light being a Christian car guy that I am. It's a check engine light flashing in my head saying, you're not at this moment where you ought to be with the Lord. In other words, if you are in a position to see where God has you in this moment, you wouldn't be where you are. In other words, you've taken and put yourself at the wheel again, Robby. You know, it's like wrong driver alert.

I need something that shows me at the wheel again. You know, it's kind of the idea of the thing. And so, you know, with that in mind, I'd love Rodney's take on this. And so, you know, he's got a clip for us. I want him to be able to go first as far as the clips, you know, since Sam's not here and he doesn't, you know, highly value the outlaw, Josie Wales and things as I do. And so you do.

Yes, I absolutely do. I've watched it many, many times, but go ahead. Well, we're going to get away from outlaw Josie Wales, unfortunately. I know it's sad, but this time we're going to go with independence day. And you know, the disruption, the space invasion is actually aliens coming to earth. It is. It's beautiful.

It's great thinking. So you've got, this is the point in the movie where Jeff Goldblum kind of gets to the point where he figures out what's going on and his, I don't know what, what the relationship is, but his wife is some kind of aid to the president of the United States. And she knows that her husband has figured out what's going on here. They're planning an attack. It's a coordinated attack from the enemy on earth and a literal space invasion, a space invasion. This is, this is real life aliens folks.

Don't go to sleep on this one. So the aliens are invading and he's, he's able to show the president, yes, you need your here's, here's information. That's leading to something that's more than the disruption that's already happened.

They're here, but they're here to attack. So he's got to go out, you know, soon after that and start coordinating around the world, but it allows this kind of disruption, clarifies the disruption that's already happening. And I think if you just play the clip, you can also a hilarious part of the clip is the president doesn't have time to be disrupted by this idea that the world's fixed.

The president doesn't have time to be disrupted by this idea that the world's fixed. All right, go ahead. Okay. Let's say that you want to coordinate with spaceships on different sides of the earth. I couldn't send a direct signal, right? You're talking about line of sight. Yeah, that's right.

Exactly. However the earth prevents it. You'd need satellites to relay that signal in order to reach each ship. Well, I found a signal hidden inside our own satellite system. Excuse me, Mr. President. They're starting.

They're using our own satellites against us. And the clock is ticking. And there's like 27 seconds there, 27 minutes. I mean, on the, I think the clock that he shows that this is counting down, maybe it's even 27 hours.

I forget, but it's just a little flash on there. But this, when you start thinking of disruption, where I went first is where I'm going to end up in this part of the talk. But when I thought of disruption, I first went to the disruption that's going to come. But then you go back to Jesus' birth, which we often use the invasion of Normandy as the contrast of our own, something we've known about, we've seen movies about. And we can say that is an invasion that happened with Jesus coming to earth. Major disruption to Satan and his plan, right? Great plan for those who believe in Christ. But that is a very good disruption that happened that as time goes on, right, we have all these disruptions that happen in our lives.

There are small ones, there's bigger ones, but nothing is going to even compare to the disruption of Jesus Christ on his second coming. And that's where I really want to go into. Yeah, don't we all? But we have more on that whole topic. We're going to dig into the idea of disruption and space invasion, but also, you know, the hope that that's involved for you personally is you get offended. It's like God's giving us a warning so we could get in on TuneIn to WGOD.

And that's his radio station. We'll be right back with more Masculine Journey. How did God remind you who you were at boot camp?

Oh, in so many different ways from beginning to end. You better expect God to show up because He's going to show up. If you give Him the time, He's going to show up big at this boot camp. It's so important to me that I'm going to drive 550 miles to get there. You can spend three days laughing with your brothers and fishing, shooting.

It don't get no better than that. And then you're given time to spend time with God and He will talk to you with the brothers, friends, the things that you're taught and the things that you think about. Just amazing experience all the way around. It is a tight bond of men. Everybody's the same. And each and every time that I've come to boot camp, I've learned something different.

And not one man that's ever been there neglects not to take time out to talk with the sheriff. It's serious business. And you need to come one time to break bread with the men and fellowship, fill the atmosphere, hear the people pray, and get down to earth about what's going on in your life to get real.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. It's happening, folks. Space invasion. Maybe you were wondering what that noise was, but yes, you wanted to get to your quiet time, but God had other plans, literally a space invasion. And if you've had that happen, you know that it's highly disruptive.

But what else might be going on? And the idea of that, right, is if we would have you and we would love to have you come to our boot camp, which is coming up November 16th, the week before Thanksgiving, you would attend the talk that we call the poser. And the poser is something we all experience, unfortunately, often when you get a chance to see yourself behind your own mask. Why are you pointing at Rodney as the poser? Because Rodney keeps pushing the mic away, and I was trying to go back to his clip, but I couldn't do that if he obviously is trying to share the time. But anyway, the idea is that when we look at that clip that we just played, right, here's the president.

Now he thinks he's a big deal, right? I don't have time for this. Yeah, I've got aliens invading. What are you doing in my Oval Office? Right, right. There's no pride there, right? And he's fixing to get a good whiff of his inner cesspool, like what you got here now. And it's an opportunity for you to see that obviously pride has slipped in somehow, as Harold pointed out in his clip. But also, when you think about all the posing that's going on in that little scene right there, right? Those are all opportunities for people to get down to what really is important here, right?

Yeah. So there you've got even the guy who's found all this out, he doesn't even want to share it. He's just ready to walk out and leave, and the wife has to basically scream at him. He doesn't believe anybody that wants to hear anything he has to say. No, I don't have anything to say here.

I've got the secret key to everything, and I'm not even going to share it because I'm not worthy to do that. Right, so it's exactly like the quintessential poser clip. We always show at boot camp, we hate that you guys are missing it. But hopefully this time we're coming, and hopefully we'll be able to see Mr. Morelli, right? And Mr. Morelli being the over the top poser like the president is here, but unfortunately it's Mitch who is hiding. He's checked out.

They both were. He's checked out, right? He doesn't think he's got anything anybody, nothing to offer the world, and hiding is just as big as a mask, if not bigger, right? And so it's a beautiful idea of here comes this disruption. In this case, real life space invaders are going to help these two actually begin to find themselves, right? And so what we think is a horrible situation, i.e. my wife invading my space, is actually an opportunity for me to get a good whiff of like, well, what's important here? Like, what does God, if God is really the point here, how does he like your little attitude right here, Robby? What do you think about that? Like, whoa, well, that's the opportunity. Right, Jim?

Jim, loving on your wife is the biggie. And I'm really glad you went back to hear his clip because before the break, I wanted to disrupt his talking, but you disrupted my disruption. But there really is- I'm disrupted. There really is a close connection between the outlaw Josie Wales and Independence Day. There has to be.

The final great battle both took place in the great state of Texas. Naturally. So they're connected. There you go. Squirrel.

Absolutely. So my clip is from a movie called Falling Down. And Michael Douglas here, you'll hear his voice, is a man who is the guy that has been checked out his whole life, right? And he's been hiding. I mean, he's been upset at this and upset, but he's been keeping it down under the covers. And it's been boiling down in there. And the warrior that's under there has been wanting to get out bad.

And so what happens in this movie is he begins to overflow, but not quite inappropriate measures. And it's comical to some extent, but how many times have you seen that guy who never said anything you thought was the happiest person in the world, and all of a sudden he wants breakfast? Yes, sir. Hi. I'd like some breakfast. We stopped serving breakfast. I know you stopped serving breakfast, Rick. Sheila told me you stopped serving breakfast. Why am I calling you by your first names?

I don't even know who you are. I still call my boss Mr. and I've worked for him for seven and a half years, but I walk in here all of a sudden total strange and I'm calling you Rick and Sheila like we're in some kind of AA meeting. I don't want to be your buddy, Rick. I just want a little breakfast.

Oh, you can call me Miss Folsom if you want to. Sheila, we stopped serving breakfast at 11 30. Rick, have you ever heard the expression, the customer is always right? Yeah. Yeah, well, here I am, the customer.

That's not our policy. You have to order something from the lunch menu. I don't want lunch.

I want breakfast. Yeah. Well, hey, I'm really sorry. Yeah.

Well, hey, I'm really sorry too. Get organized. Calm down. Just calm down everybody. Sit down. Sit down over there. Hey, mister, where are you going?

No, no, no, no. You sit down there and you finish your lunch. Come on, everybody. Just, just relax and take it easy. Come on. Let's eat your lunch. Please eat your lunch.

You all need your vitamins, A's and B's. It's an accident. It's an accident. It's an accident that the trigger it's sensitive. It's okay. It's all right.

It's just it's a sensitive trigger. Rick, could I have my breakfast, please? Yes, sir. Sheila. Yeah, we know you've all felt like that at one point in time.

Another, at least I have. I can tell you, I can tell you, I can tell you, but it's the interesting thing. They really look at these disruptions.

Is there God sent to, to show us that we're not being who we, who God made us to be right. Whether that's standing up for something that actually isn't right, because it was 11 31. You couldn't see on the guy's watch. Like they showed, you know, when he started this shenanigans, he looks at his watch, it's 11 31.

When they tell him they can't have breakfast 11 to after 11 30. So, you know, interestingly, I, I, this morning in a passage that I read, and I've been rereading it several times here recently is the passing of the mantle from Elijah to Alicia, however you want to call their names. That's often been argued upon, but we're going with my version.

All right. So it's interesting that Elijah goes up in the chariot fire, right? And Alicia says, Oh, father, father.

It was fascinating. He calls him father. You don't hear that a lot in the Old Testament, but he says it twice.

Abba Abba. He says the horses and the chariots of Israel. Then something very interesting happens because he's now seeing a look at something that rarely anybody, has anybody here seen the chariot of fire? Sorry.

Not lately. The next thing he does is he rips his clothes. He tears them off.

And that's the deal. Like he, once he got a look at himself, he wasn't too happy. With what he was wearing, because he'd get it.

Once you get as good sniff of that, what you're wearing is the mass that you're wearing, right? And he ripped it right off. And then he put on a mantle. And the mantle that he was putting on was Elijah's. Well, you study that mantle carefully.

And interestingly, the first two letters in that word mantle, they make up the word red. You know, like blood. Just saying. It's really a beautiful thing when you think about it. When I get a good look at the mask that I'm wearing, if I could rip off my mask for a moment and put on Jesus's blood, then guess what?

I can stand even when that guy won't give me breakfast. Whatever the situation may be. But in order to get there, I have to take a deep dive into my humility, into like who I really am, in order to need that mantle of Jesus's blood. And interestingly, you know what happens then? He crosses the Jordan. And interestingly, you know what happens then?

He crosses the Jordan on dry ground, right? That on the other side of repentance, you know. And you might wonder, like, did Elisha need baptizing at this point in time? I think it's a beautiful picture, something to think about, process in your own mind. As we think about this, we're going to go to after hours here in a bit, and we're going to discuss it even further and deeper, because I think everybody sitting here at this table at one time or another has gotten greatly offended at something that they shouldn't have, okay? And did we use that opportunity, you know, to truly see that we have a mask on, right?

And the best example ever was Peter, right? He's at the fire, right? Aren't you, hey, weren't you the guy?

Like, no, oh, oh. The pose is revealed, right? And man, he is completely disrupted, and his space has been invaded.

But the best thing that ever happened to Peter is he got a good look at who he wasn't without Christ, right? And we all have that opportunity, and I can just tell you, by coming to boot camp, right? It's your opportunity, November 16th through 19th, by coming to boot camp, if there was no other talk there, which there's tons of them, then this talk right here on the poser, it can make such a huge impact in your life. And we go into great detail, don't we, Jim, on what all is involved once you realize here's a disruption, now what?

Right, Jim? That's right, and often the disruptions are, well, almost always are God getting our attention. Real quick, yesterday I was watching the news and getting bent out of shape and ran like Harold does to music, and I started listening to the Messiah, heard the first two parts, and I was weeping the whole time recognizing that, you know, the government is going to rest on his shoulders, not ours, and we don't have to worry about that. I like that. It was a good disruption.

Yeah, it really is, it really is. So, once again, yeah Kenny, go ahead. Well, I love the point you're making that these destructions are to get our attention, because God wants to bring us back to the intimacy, and that's one thing I loved about the Masculine Journey, y'all got into that orphan spirit that we all had to battle, because Satan's always trying to pull us away from our Heavenly Father. And this group here has helped me to refocus in and get my mask and all my posing off and really let God get to my heart, because that's where the healing is going to begin, and only He can do that. Only He can give that to us. Yeah, and the neat thing about boot camp is you get to share it with people that are trying, like you, to get to be authentic, and it's a safe place to take your mask off. And so, as again, November 16th through the 19th, go to masculinejourney.org. I want to see you there. This is the Truth Network.