Back in the day when I was a junk food loving kid, when not only colored TV’s but color itself was newly invented, before Netflix and even tivo, if you watched TV or sports you were forced against your will to endure commercials. No pausing, no skipping, or fast forward, it was awful. Among the most common of these commercials were McDonald’s. Of all the advertisers on TV at the time, their commercials were the worst! (or the best depending on how you look at it) Their “food” was advertised extremely well. Their burgers looked so big, juicy, and delicious you would willingly give up a kidney just to try a single bite knowing and really believing it would totally be worth it. It didn’t matter if you were eating dinner that very second, when you saw their commercials you instantly became hungrier than you ever remembered being in your entire life. Shortly after being compelled by your taste buds to drive to their “restaurant” you found yourself ordering exactly what you had just had the privilege of witnessing. You were preparing for heaven in food form. You were preparing to get exactly what you had just seen. Your taste buds were uttering their last words because they realized they were about self destruct due to the over stimulation from an overload of tastiness. You were prepared to slip into delicious food coma and you were prepared to embrace it.

One of the greasy acne faced teenager served up your meal and you were mere seconds away. You could see the light at the end of the tunnel and you were just about to experience pure joy in food form. Then it happened…

Reality hit you square in the face like when you walk into a glass door at the mall because you tried to “push” the door when it clearly says “pull”. Staring right back at you with just as much confusion is a paper thin piece of what you suppose is the hamburger portion of your hamburger although it looks more like a buffalo chip than a burger. It looks more like it’s fresh from the prairie than fresh from the grill. To add to your confusion, that buffalo chip is slapped between two buns that look like they were just wrung out from your great grandma’s clothes wringer and the entire burger looks thin enough you could fold it up in your wallet and not even notice it was there. 90% of the sauce was splattered on the box or wrapper as opposed to on the burger itself and the pickles you asked for? They aren’t even there, and a whopping 7% of the slice of cheese is actually on your burger with the rest melted on your wrapper. You tally this all together and a debate begins in your head as to whether or not the wrapper and box the burger came in would actually be more delicious because it surly looks that way. Then, you looked at the other side of your tray hoping for redemption but all you see is a side of mashed potatoes in a vertical box that you have to use your imagination just to wrap your head around the thought that at one point they may have actually been crispy french fries.

Then, at that moment you realize something. You just got worked. You were played like a fiddle and lied to. You were fooled into thinking the exact opposite of the truth was the truth. The commercial had you believing McDonald’s actually made quality food. They had you believing all the top athletes at the time really enjoyed McDonald’s and endorsed them because their food was good rather than because they were being paid an obscene amount of money to help perpetuate a lie. They had you believing that you were about to enjoy the best meal of your life. The bottom line is this: They had you believing their lies when in reality their commercials had more bullcrap in them than a Texas rodeo. Nothing they said was the truth. Down to their drink machine that was out of ice when you tried to fill your drink up. Wow… didn’t I just sum up way too much of what we see every single day on facebook and instagram? Did that not just sum up a vast majority of the world?

So what does this experience which I’m sure you can all relate to have to do with the Gospel? Well… actually quite a bit. Not only the Gospel but everyday life.

The adversary is serving up buffalo chip patties with sides of mashed potatoes cleverly disguised as juicy, and delicious Hamburgers and fries every single day to millions of people and guess what, people are eating it up like there’s no tomorrow. The funny thing is, most people eating this up every day don’t even realize or even care that they are doing it and some may not even realize it!

They don’t look for the truth or care to look into it themselves. They simply accept the “advertisement” for what it pretends to be not knowing or caring it’s not true. The adversary is a liar. He’s nothing more than a complete fraud. He’s got nothing more than your pure and utter destruction on his “to-do” list every single second of every single day and he’s not lazy nor is he complacent. He takes no days off, nor is he any respecter of persons. He has no morals, no guideline, no compass or conscious, and no line he won’t cross. He is going down and bringing everyone he possibly can with him. He knows his time is about up and he’s trying to disguise his nose dive with both engines on fire as a fun and harmless skydiving adrenaline rush and inviting all to join him. The reality is, he doesn’t even have a parachute, and neither do those who are with him.

The fact is we all know how this will end. The fact is, we’ve ALWAYS known how this will end. But yet, just like the McDonalds commercials which contain as much truth as the Sahara contains frostbite people always seem to lose sight of these truths and start to believe otherwise. Not only that… they are actually full heartedly convinced of untruth. They are convinced the exact opposite of truth is the real truth.

Think about it… Satan is not merely selling buffalo chips as hamburgers, oh no… he’s doing much more than that. He’s more than just bent, or slightly tweaked the truth like in advertisements today… he’s flat out warped, manipulated, hidden, disguised, disfigured and mutilated the truth and altered the very perception and reception of truth to the point he’s painted it as the exact opposite of what it is. Do you fully understand this!! He’s altered the world’s view on marriage, on justice, on mercy, on religion, on everything you can possibly imagine and he’s having tremendous success! He is selling black as white, up as down, and left as right. He’s not only doing but actually succeeding in selling evil as good, and good as evil, bond as free and free as bonded. He has manipulated it so well that the world and even some of us are actually confusing complete opposites with each other!

I am absolutely fed up with this because I can see how it’s working! I know how he’s working and it makes me angry because it used to work on me! In my opinion this single tactic of opposites and the specific direction he attacks with it is MORE effective than pornography, drugs, and alcohol COMBINED! I say that because it doesn’t only affect those who struggle or battle any of those things… it affects every single one of us every single day of our lives! From what I can see, he is combining his forces like NEVER BEFORE to go after the very heart of our army. He in his absolute fury is attacking the strongest part of us! He is attacking not only each of us, he is attacking our very future… he is attacking our YOUTH!

What am I talking about? What is he trying to confuse you about? He is going after your SELF WORTH.

(To be continued in Part 2 of 3: The Truth)