I recently heard a talk by Dary Northrope, the head Pastor at the American Timberline Church in Fort Collins. For me this talk was one of the most influential talks i have heard in my life, it just completely blew me away.
It does worry me that it might have been one of those "you have to have been there" experiences, of which I do truly hope to do it some justice on this post.
It's all about you!
Who does God care for?
We are all brought up to know that God loves us. Doesn't the old childhood song tell us this:
"Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong."
God cares for one person.
Jesus came for one person.
Now, I know that God, Jesus, came for me, but He also Loves you! Strange isn't it. The thought that He came for one person, but He also came for everybody. Jesus, although died for everybody, is only interested in the individual actions and the individual heart of you and me. We see this in Matthew 28:20 "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Jesus didn't say about numbers, He never moaned about the amount of followers He had. You never hear him say "I am a little disappointed that i asked 30 people to follow me and i only got 12!" He asked for 12 and He got 12. He valued each one, and valued them individually, asking each one of them to go out.
It's not all about you!
O.K, that was another one of those magnificant change arounds that I often do. Just a moment I was saying that it is all about us, you, and now I am saying it isn't about you! What you need to realise is the fine difference between being the person it is all about and it all being about you.
Have you ever seen that person at a party, or even in a crowd, that when they are there, it is a "HERE I AM" type of person? or How often do you start telling the person in front of you a story about something that has happened to you, to then hear the person to jump in the middle of your converstation and go " Yes, I know exactly what you are talking about, this one time with me" Your friend has a story that relates to yours and the topic of your event suddenly gets dropped and is now focused on the event of your friends! We have all been in that scenario, we have all probably been that friend. Does it bother you as much as it bothers me? Of course it does, we are a society where we are now finding it more and more uncomfortable to talk to others and to relate to them. We are brought up to find mutual ground, to find some connective with the person in front of us to put us to ease in this on going distant techno - relationships world. So, instead of being a person who keeps the conversation on to themselves, try to be a "There you are" person and ask a simple question when talking with a friend....."Tell me more!" These three words could change the world.
How often have you allowed someone to talk about something you have enquired about, they often feel happy and will have a smile on there face. Tell me more.
God is interested in all of us, all of us on an individual level, we too should be this interested in others, be open to all because God is in all of us and He loves us all. Show the world this and ask the question and make a statement. Tell me more.
Become a Child and get a better view
I would like you all to get a chance and Read Luke 19. But in the meantime I will talk about it.
Zacchaeus knew Jesus was coming to his town, he wanted to see him. We all hear the expression of Christians saying "I have found Jesus" But how do you find Him?
We see in verse 3 the Zaccahaeus is short, so short that he couldn't see over the crowd that had formed. He wanted to have a clear view of this man. He then is so desperate to see him, to see Jesus, that his next actions becomes very childlike. He climbs a tree.
He runs ahead of the crowd, runs ahead of Jesus. (Like a child running ahead in excitement) How many grown men do you know that climb trees? The excitement of even seeing Jesus was so great he climbed and sat and waited for Jesus to come into sight, to walk past.
Jesus sees us differently, He has a different perspective to the rest of the world, and we see this in this story. He walks up to the tree where Zacchaeus is sitting and looks straight up at him.
WOW! That alone must have been fantastic for him. The whole imagary behind it all is just beautiful. This man was a Tax Collector (Such a bad profession in the Bible), and he was rich, which we can probably assume that he was a good Tax Collector and therefore not a popular person in his region. This man was usually looked down upon in his community, and not just because he was short! We see the in verse 7 "All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.""
And then this wonderful man, this man he was so desperate to see, comes and speaks to him, and looks up at him! Just that little verse alone could be worked and reworked in so many beautiful ways.
Strangely, there is something even more powerful that happens here, well that doesn't happens here. There is a brief moment when Jesus is inside this mans house, and they would have spoken, so much that after Jesus see him in the tree and speaks to him that in Zacchaeus house he then changes his ways, offers up his wealth and possesions to help others. To which Jesus responds with that this man and his house now has salvation! Wouldn't you have been interested in listening to the "missed" conversation.
Jesus would have been a wonderful guest, fully present and 100% into that one person, the individual infront of him. He would have asked him the question " Tell me more" and as Jesus would, He would have seen him, like he saw him up the tree.
C.S Lewis once said "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less"
So, if you are a here i am person, stop! Be like Jesus and say "There you are!" and "Tell me more!"
Monday 29 August 2011
Thursday 25 August 2011
Violence, Sex and Pornography
The final post about Samson and Judges.
What Badge are you wearing?:
How easy is it now to find something out?
Just the other day I was sitting talking to friends when we couldn't remember the opposing gang to the Jets in Westside Story. So, now we are in the awkward postition where we know the answer but it won't come to the tips of our tongues! Don't you just hate that? I was just getting my phone out to google it, when POP in my head came the word Sharks. Brilliant, we could ease the internal pain that was then floating around in our brain. But it did highlight that the access to information is far too easy sometimes. So, when Jeff Lucas started with that sentence, it reminded me of that memory with my friends.
So the question then gets raised is, is there is such a thing as too much information? And have we become an irrelevant culture because of it? Most of the information known to us can now be found on some gadget and device, when previously the lessons we learned were passed down from generation to generation. This is very clear when a lot of young people have no idea of who Hitler was, Nazis or the what the Holocaust was. If you asked a generation apart what Jews had to wear to represent themselves in the Second World war you would hear the big difference. The Yellow star of David was a badge that the Jews wore, underpressure by the Nazis, to identify them by faith. Jehovah Witnesses wore a Purple Triangle to show their objection to killing in the war. And nowadays, we have many christians wearing a little fish on their lapel or on their car, this too to represent the faith to God Jesus.
We need to look at the "information" that we have in the world and use it for the good, the good of God, rather than running away from it, running away from the world. Lets see the information, distinguish the truth and use it to prepare for what the world offers.
That is quite a statement really? Isn't it?
Billy Graham is known to have said "We are the Bibles that non-Christians are reading"
We need to remember we represent Jesus, God, for better or for worse and because of that our actions have this resounding influences on others around you. We saw in the last post about encouragement and the difference that has on people.
We are a drop in a pond that ripples outwards.
We need to remember the badge we wear will usually be through our actions, and our actions towards others.
What we play with will make a play thing of us:
In the last post we saw that Samson had told Delilah everything.
He told her his deepest and closest secret, the truth about where his power comes from. The result of this left him captured by his enemy, betrayed by the woman he loved, blinded and then mocked.
Judges 1621 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Leading to this Samson had never learnt from his actions, we read that over and over again he SAW women and took them, he then became emotionally attached to the point of anger and vengance, untill he finally got pressured into telling his deepest secrets. Samson was used to running away, unless he was against the odds, when he would fight. But other than that he was known for his sexual exploits, to the extent that it led to his enemies knowing how to use this to capture him.
In verse 25 we see Samson being put into his lowest position that he has ever been put in:25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring out Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
We need to examine this verse closely. The term here "performed" is originally used in the purpose of a sexual action. So the enemy asking to be entertained by Samson was asking for him to take part in the act that he was known for, and this case, it was sex. Samson was brought out in front of a crowd to become a sexual performer.
27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.
Samson overnight was changed to the point that he has "lost" everything. What we come to realise is that Samson was knowning for seeing things that he wanted - He had his eyes gauged out, he was known for his strength - his hair was now shaved off,He was known for mocking and teasing others - He is now being mocked and teased by others and finally he was known for his sexual exploits - He is now being sexually abused. This would have been his lowest point.
Finally seeing what you know:
Samson toward the end of the chapter Samson finally gets some clarity.
28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.
Before when we see Samson mentioning God, he just calls him God. He now loses the generic terms and actually starts talking and praying to God. We saw in a previous post that apart from this moment he had only ever prayed to God once before. So he now prays, and prays like he has never done before. With his heart. He has finally learnt to use God in the right way, he speaks to him identifing Him for who He is, the Sovereign Lord our God.
The world, like a prayer to God, doesn't need a rant, it just needs the honest truth.
Are you ready to die:
Coming to the end now, this last bit really got me thinking. Mainly because I often think about death, and not in the sense that I am obssessed with going to heaven, but the fact that with my health I have come to terms with the fact that I am going to die. Samson did something a lot of Christians don't do: he got ready to die.
Some people will say that faith is knowing that in any circumstance that God will help and that " He will do it" But in reality we don't know what God is going to do, that is the wonder of God. Faith isn't pretending that everything is OK until God resolves the issue, it is facing up to the reality of it, the reality of our mistakes.
It is not the will of God for us to die, it is His will for us to live, for us to live life. Live with the lasting breath that we did, just like Samson did.
This bit really choked me up, I have accepted my fate with God and and my health and I am ready to die, but was I living life the way God wants me to? Was I ready to live?
30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
Samson fought with all of his might, he gave God his all. The enemy would rather us look back on our sins, even worry about our future sins, this is usually why we worry about death, we worry because we do what we have learnt not to do in the other talks: deception, immorality, accusation, temptation, disappointment and anger. These are usually emotional reactions to the idea of death. We MUST then remember to live for now, live for God.
What Badge are you wearing?:
How easy is it now to find something out?
Just the other day I was sitting talking to friends when we couldn't remember the opposing gang to the Jets in Westside Story. So, now we are in the awkward postition where we know the answer but it won't come to the tips of our tongues! Don't you just hate that? I was just getting my phone out to google it, when POP in my head came the word Sharks. Brilliant, we could ease the internal pain that was then floating around in our brain. But it did highlight that the access to information is far too easy sometimes. So, when Jeff Lucas started with that sentence, it reminded me of that memory with my friends.
So the question then gets raised is, is there is such a thing as too much information? And have we become an irrelevant culture because of it? Most of the information known to us can now be found on some gadget and device, when previously the lessons we learned were passed down from generation to generation. This is very clear when a lot of young people have no idea of who Hitler was, Nazis or the what the Holocaust was. If you asked a generation apart what Jews had to wear to represent themselves in the Second World war you would hear the big difference. The Yellow star of David was a badge that the Jews wore, underpressure by the Nazis, to identify them by faith. Jehovah Witnesses wore a Purple Triangle to show their objection to killing in the war. And nowadays, we have many christians wearing a little fish on their lapel or on their car, this too to represent the faith to God Jesus.
We need to look at the "information" that we have in the world and use it for the good, the good of God, rather than running away from it, running away from the world. Lets see the information, distinguish the truth and use it to prepare for what the world offers.
That is quite a statement really? Isn't it?
Billy Graham is known to have said "We are the Bibles that non-Christians are reading"
We need to remember we represent Jesus, God, for better or for worse and because of that our actions have this resounding influences on others around you. We saw in the last post about encouragement and the difference that has on people.
We are a drop in a pond that ripples outwards.
We need to remember the badge we wear will usually be through our actions, and our actions towards others.
What we play with will make a play thing of us:
In the last post we saw that Samson had told Delilah everything.
He told her his deepest and closest secret, the truth about where his power comes from. The result of this left him captured by his enemy, betrayed by the woman he loved, blinded and then mocked.
Judges 1621 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Leading to this Samson had never learnt from his actions, we read that over and over again he SAW women and took them, he then became emotionally attached to the point of anger and vengance, untill he finally got pressured into telling his deepest secrets. Samson was used to running away, unless he was against the odds, when he would fight. But other than that he was known for his sexual exploits, to the extent that it led to his enemies knowing how to use this to capture him.
In verse 25 we see Samson being put into his lowest position that he has ever been put in:25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring out Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
We need to examine this verse closely. The term here "performed" is originally used in the purpose of a sexual action. So the enemy asking to be entertained by Samson was asking for him to take part in the act that he was known for, and this case, it was sex. Samson was brought out in front of a crowd to become a sexual performer.
27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.
Samson overnight was changed to the point that he has "lost" everything. What we come to realise is that Samson was knowning for seeing things that he wanted - He had his eyes gauged out, he was known for his strength - his hair was now shaved off,He was known for mocking and teasing others - He is now being mocked and teased by others and finally he was known for his sexual exploits - He is now being sexually abused. This would have been his lowest point.
Finally seeing what you know:
Samson toward the end of the chapter Samson finally gets some clarity.
28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.
Before when we see Samson mentioning God, he just calls him God. He now loses the generic terms and actually starts talking and praying to God. We saw in a previous post that apart from this moment he had only ever prayed to God once before. So he now prays, and prays like he has never done before. With his heart. He has finally learnt to use God in the right way, he speaks to him identifing Him for who He is, the Sovereign Lord our God.
The world, like a prayer to God, doesn't need a rant, it just needs the honest truth.
Are you ready to die:
Coming to the end now, this last bit really got me thinking. Mainly because I often think about death, and not in the sense that I am obssessed with going to heaven, but the fact that with my health I have come to terms with the fact that I am going to die. Samson did something a lot of Christians don't do: he got ready to die.
Some people will say that faith is knowing that in any circumstance that God will help and that " He will do it" But in reality we don't know what God is going to do, that is the wonder of God. Faith isn't pretending that everything is OK until God resolves the issue, it is facing up to the reality of it, the reality of our mistakes.
It is not the will of God for us to die, it is His will for us to live, for us to live life. Live with the lasting breath that we did, just like Samson did.
This bit really choked me up, I have accepted my fate with God and and my health and I am ready to die, but was I living life the way God wants me to? Was I ready to live?
30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
Samson fought with all of his might, he gave God his all. The enemy would rather us look back on our sins, even worry about our future sins, this is usually why we worry about death, we worry because we do what we have learnt not to do in the other talks: deception, immorality, accusation, temptation, disappointment and anger. These are usually emotional reactions to the idea of death. We MUST then remember to live for now, live for God.
Monday 22 August 2011
Who knows you when you're sleeping? - Samson Part 2
So continuing from part 1.
Temptation and Accusation:
We see as mentioned earlier about the general wearing down that we suffer as part of the attack, we saw it in verse 5 when the enemy pushed Delilah "by what means we may prevail" then from verses 6 - 16 we see that Delilah presses him not stop to tell her his weakness the way for the enemy to beat him. ( Look the verse up)
It is verse 16 the is of particular interest though:16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it. She "pressed him daily" and at the final point he was weaker, so much that his soul was "near death" and then she accuses him. In verse 15 " How can you say you love me"
Accusation and Temptation
We see in this theme of Samson the marriage of Sin, and how quite often we see there is more in the attack. Today we see accusation, how horrible is that, we have all been on the end of accusation. Sadly, the thing that marries up with accusation is temptation and we see that in the verses here. The moment he is accused of not loving her and he is mocking and making fun of her, he then is tempted to tell her the truth. We actually see this marriage again in Luke 4 in the temptaion of Jesus in the desert. Satan accuses Jesus of not being of God and then tempts him to turn the rock into bread.
Accusation and temptation.
Now when you are feeling bad, check yourself, are you being accused of something? Are you now under attack and being tempted?
So how do we help in this?
Encouragement:
Encouragement of doing something right . This is the best way to attack and fight back against the attack of accusation and temptation. Christian or not, how often do you see a smile come on to people's faces when you encourage them and say something nice to them. You often here that if you say good morning or smile at someone first thing in the morning that they continue to smile or are polite to others throughout the day. Spreading the love. At what cost was it to you that you encouraged someone, saying something nice doesn't cost you a thing, and you never know that you saying a word of encouragement might tip the internal war and fight that the person is going through.
So ending on verse 17 and 1817 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.So he told her everything. Why? Was it because he was weak and worn down. Realistically probably not, but what he really wants is to have that allie, the person to rely on when he is under attack. He did it because he wants to be known and really known by one person the person that he actually now thinks he can trust. Especially in times of distress.
Truth and allies
We know that this act will lead to him being arrested and then to his death. This act of him telling her everything cost him everything. But you see that she saw a change in him enough to realise that he was telling the truth you read "Delilah saw that he had told her all of his heart" She saw a change on him, so much that she knew when she didn't before. He has finally told the truth and now has the feeling of peace, this is a visible change within him.
This change of telling the truth, telling everything made him feel he had allies, this brought him peace and shows realistically the strength of encouragement that you can have when you have people who you are accountable to, people who you can stand next to and stand strong in the fight against people.
So who really knows you?
Temptation and Accusation:
We see as mentioned earlier about the general wearing down that we suffer as part of the attack, we saw it in verse 5 when the enemy pushed Delilah "by what means we may prevail" then from verses 6 - 16 we see that Delilah presses him not stop to tell her his weakness the way for the enemy to beat him. ( Look the verse up)
It is verse 16 the is of particular interest though:16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it. She "pressed him daily" and at the final point he was weaker, so much that his soul was "near death" and then she accuses him. In verse 15 " How can you say you love me"
Accusation and Temptation
We see in this theme of Samson the marriage of Sin, and how quite often we see there is more in the attack. Today we see accusation, how horrible is that, we have all been on the end of accusation. Sadly, the thing that marries up with accusation is temptation and we see that in the verses here. The moment he is accused of not loving her and he is mocking and making fun of her, he then is tempted to tell her the truth. We actually see this marriage again in Luke 4 in the temptaion of Jesus in the desert. Satan accuses Jesus of not being of God and then tempts him to turn the rock into bread.
Accusation and temptation.
Now when you are feeling bad, check yourself, are you being accused of something? Are you now under attack and being tempted?
So how do we help in this?
Encouragement:
Encouragement of doing something right . This is the best way to attack and fight back against the attack of accusation and temptation. Christian or not, how often do you see a smile come on to people's faces when you encourage them and say something nice to them. You often here that if you say good morning or smile at someone first thing in the morning that they continue to smile or are polite to others throughout the day. Spreading the love. At what cost was it to you that you encouraged someone, saying something nice doesn't cost you a thing, and you never know that you saying a word of encouragement might tip the internal war and fight that the person is going through.
So ending on verse 17 and 1817 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.So he told her everything. Why? Was it because he was weak and worn down. Realistically probably not, but what he really wants is to have that allie, the person to rely on when he is under attack. He did it because he wants to be known and really known by one person the person that he actually now thinks he can trust. Especially in times of distress.
Truth and allies
We know that this act will lead to him being arrested and then to his death. This act of him telling her everything cost him everything. But you see that she saw a change in him enough to realise that he was telling the truth you read "Delilah saw that he had told her all of his heart" She saw a change on him, so much that she knew when she didn't before. He has finally told the truth and now has the feeling of peace, this is a visible change within him.
This change of telling the truth, telling everything made him feel he had allies, this brought him peace and shows realistically the strength of encouragement that you can have when you have people who you are accountable to, people who you can stand next to and stand strong in the fight against people.
So who really knows you?
Who knows you when you're sleeping? - Samson
So I have recently published three post of two talks that I heard at the Detling Conference presented by Jeff Lucas, his and Dary Northrope's talks were brilliant throughout the week, and really hit me intellecutually and spiriturally (both which i feel have been on the weaker side recently for me). So having learnt lots from these two gentlemen I will continue to share my experiences with you, continuing with Jeff Lucas talks surrounding the book of Judges and Samson.
This talk was presented on the Wednesday; now for me, the Wednesday was the hardest day of the week, mainly because what I was listening to was hard for me to hear.
The previous talks by Jeff had almost varified a few things for me. Monday (the first blog post "As sweet as Honey") really showed me that certain lifestyles of becoming a Christian and staying a Christian can leave you vulnerable, and due to that, you (me) can make mistakes (and big ones) but God can flip any situation to good and continue to use you (me). Tuesday (the second of the Detling blog posts "Disappointment and foxes") really highlighted how my life had escalated to a negative because of the previous lesson learnt on the Monday. Wednesday, and this post for me, was God highlighting how I was attacked and what my weakness was, as you can imagine it wasn't easy for me to listen or swallow!
How often do you feel stupid because you were tempted? Are we not all better than being tempted by the easy, little things? Is that not why we all pray to God to protect us with His Armor? So how stupid are we?!
Well we're not are we: We all have a chink in our armour that makes us vulnerable, what is yours? Spiritual warfare is not a phrase and saying that you just expect to hear in church, or the fact that you have broken down that day in the car. How many times do you hear people say "My car just didn't start when I tried to go to work this morning, and then when I did get it started, I had a flat tyre - I am clearly being attacked by the enemy and trying to be broken" in reality what the person isn't telling you is that they havn't put any petrol in their car and had to top it up, and had been driving to closely to curbs when trying to park and have warn down the tyre that is now flat. In reality it isn't nice to have these things happen to you, but not necessarily due to you being "attacked" but often we jump to that conclusion, and in truth this is usually because we have been tired and forgot to fill the car up and drive more sensibily. Remember there can be at time a difference between spiritual warfare and our own mistakes - or to put it roughly "down to our stupidity". Spiritual warfare is exactly what it says on the tin! It is War! And as we have and do see war destroy peoples lives.
So, then the question you need to ask is: as part of this war, which side are you on? and who do you have on your side to help you? Church often becomes a place where you expect to have allies and people on your side to help you fight the war, but sadly they often don't stand on your side. You often hear and see church talking about the outside community and with it how we are going to spread the good word outside of the church and stretch the boundaries that the"church" has to fight the war. Now the sad truth is that we have a pastoral team in most churches to help us to fight such battles that can occur inside church, but we often don't share the truth of our battles because of fear of judgement and critisim. But the enemy, Satan, is everywhere, often looking for your/our weakness, and this includes when you feel safest, as Mondays talk showed us, Church can be just as much a vulnerable place as anywhere else.
1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we’ll kill him."
3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."
6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued." As we can see in verse 2 that the trap for Samson was set, they laid and waited for him. Satan, the enemy and your enemy will do this, your fall, which ever one you are on or will have, you need to be aware, you are probable already on it! Now in this case Samson was being attacked in several ways:
1. There was already a pre-exsisting plan of attack worked on for Samson - this would imply that they knew him, and knew him well enough to know what would help in the capture of him.
(How often do we feel blindsided when we are attacked in our spiritual warfare? This is because the enemy knows you and your weakness more than you do.)
2. The enemy also knew what Delilah's weakness was too. Hers was clearly money, and in equivalance to todays worth around 8 million pounds. So again, she was being attacked, to assist with the attack of Samson.
3. We see the weakness from the on set of the chapter, if not in the chapters before. We see his love of woman, his loneliness with the people who support him and his pride and strength. These are clearly things that will be ultimately used in his downfall.
So we need to remember that God wants us to prepare ourselves for the fight that we are or will be having!
We should also consider the mistakes that we have made before, which is often easier said than done. For Samson, it was not to live by what you see.
Standing Strong and Pushing your boundaries:
In Verse 1 we read that Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there. He hasn't learnt by his mistakes at all. His lustful ways have only got him in trouble, but he is overly confident, and is now just living by what he sees rather than living in the spirit. Not living in the spirit, and therfore not living in God, only allows you leave your faith aside, the one thing that should really help you in the spiritual battle.
Stand strong in faith and what you know is right. Doubt is a valuable weapon, one that is often used by the enemy against you and if usually the thing that is used first.
We need to also realise that sometimes pushing the boundaries isn't a good thing. Again, we see an example of this in verse 3 where Samson actually shows his strength and pride by actually extanding the city posts and gate. God gives us limits and boundaries to live and learn by. We mentioned earlier about the Christians who are always discussing the outreach into the community and not focusing on stengthening the "soliders" on the inside. This means that you only end up stretching you boundaries, your walls out, leaving more gaping holes, available for more of an attack.
Please don't get me wrong though, i am not saying that you shouldn't go out into the community, I am not saying that people shouldn't push themselves in their personal boundaries to allow growth in the Lord. That I believe is very important. What I an talking about is spreading yourself too thinly. We often hear Christians using the Phillipians 4:13 verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" This is true, when we discuss Gods strength and power, and the power of prayer. But we need to remember our limits and boundaries. I can still climb to the top of my house and jump off - Yes God has allowed me to do that, He, although powerful enough to, won't allow me to grow wings and fly around the sky to then have a safe landing!
So think about your boundaries, are you pushing the right ones? And in accordance with God?
I think this is a good place to break it for a part 2 again.
So Who Knows you?
So what is your weakness? We need to be aware of it, because this is what is going to be used for us, and a trap to be set! People don't usually fall, we slide. We see this in the continuation of the Samson story. There is a general wearing down and a systematic erosion that leads us to our fall.
This talk was presented on the Wednesday; now for me, the Wednesday was the hardest day of the week, mainly because what I was listening to was hard for me to hear.
The previous talks by Jeff had almost varified a few things for me. Monday (the first blog post "As sweet as Honey") really showed me that certain lifestyles of becoming a Christian and staying a Christian can leave you vulnerable, and due to that, you (me) can make mistakes (and big ones) but God can flip any situation to good and continue to use you (me). Tuesday (the second of the Detling blog posts "Disappointment and foxes") really highlighted how my life had escalated to a negative because of the previous lesson learnt on the Monday. Wednesday, and this post for me, was God highlighting how I was attacked and what my weakness was, as you can imagine it wasn't easy for me to listen or swallow!
How often do you feel stupid because you were tempted? Are we not all better than being tempted by the easy, little things? Is that not why we all pray to God to protect us with His Armor? So how stupid are we?!
Well we're not are we: We all have a chink in our armour that makes us vulnerable, what is yours? Spiritual warfare is not a phrase and saying that you just expect to hear in church, or the fact that you have broken down that day in the car. How many times do you hear people say "My car just didn't start when I tried to go to work this morning, and then when I did get it started, I had a flat tyre - I am clearly being attacked by the enemy and trying to be broken" in reality what the person isn't telling you is that they havn't put any petrol in their car and had to top it up, and had been driving to closely to curbs when trying to park and have warn down the tyre that is now flat. In reality it isn't nice to have these things happen to you, but not necessarily due to you being "attacked" but often we jump to that conclusion, and in truth this is usually because we have been tired and forgot to fill the car up and drive more sensibily. Remember there can be at time a difference between spiritual warfare and our own mistakes - or to put it roughly "down to our stupidity". Spiritual warfare is exactly what it says on the tin! It is War! And as we have and do see war destroy peoples lives.
So, then the question you need to ask is: as part of this war, which side are you on? and who do you have on your side to help you? Church often becomes a place where you expect to have allies and people on your side to help you fight the war, but sadly they often don't stand on your side. You often hear and see church talking about the outside community and with it how we are going to spread the good word outside of the church and stretch the boundaries that the"church" has to fight the war. Now the sad truth is that we have a pastoral team in most churches to help us to fight such battles that can occur inside church, but we often don't share the truth of our battles because of fear of judgement and critisim. But the enemy, Satan, is everywhere, often looking for your/our weakness, and this includes when you feel safest, as Mondays talk showed us, Church can be just as much a vulnerable place as anywhere else.
1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we’ll kill him."
3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."
6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued." As we can see in verse 2 that the trap for Samson was set, they laid and waited for him. Satan, the enemy and your enemy will do this, your fall, which ever one you are on or will have, you need to be aware, you are probable already on it! Now in this case Samson was being attacked in several ways:
1. There was already a pre-exsisting plan of attack worked on for Samson - this would imply that they knew him, and knew him well enough to know what would help in the capture of him.
(How often do we feel blindsided when we are attacked in our spiritual warfare? This is because the enemy knows you and your weakness more than you do.)
2. The enemy also knew what Delilah's weakness was too. Hers was clearly money, and in equivalance to todays worth around 8 million pounds. So again, she was being attacked, to assist with the attack of Samson.
3. We see the weakness from the on set of the chapter, if not in the chapters before. We see his love of woman, his loneliness with the people who support him and his pride and strength. These are clearly things that will be ultimately used in his downfall.
So we need to remember that God wants us to prepare ourselves for the fight that we are or will be having!
We should also consider the mistakes that we have made before, which is often easier said than done. For Samson, it was not to live by what you see.
Standing Strong and Pushing your boundaries:
In Verse 1 we read that Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there. He hasn't learnt by his mistakes at all. His lustful ways have only got him in trouble, but he is overly confident, and is now just living by what he sees rather than living in the spirit. Not living in the spirit, and therfore not living in God, only allows you leave your faith aside, the one thing that should really help you in the spiritual battle.
Stand strong in faith and what you know is right. Doubt is a valuable weapon, one that is often used by the enemy against you and if usually the thing that is used first.
We need to also realise that sometimes pushing the boundaries isn't a good thing. Again, we see an example of this in verse 3 where Samson actually shows his strength and pride by actually extanding the city posts and gate. God gives us limits and boundaries to live and learn by. We mentioned earlier about the Christians who are always discussing the outreach into the community and not focusing on stengthening the "soliders" on the inside. This means that you only end up stretching you boundaries, your walls out, leaving more gaping holes, available for more of an attack.
Please don't get me wrong though, i am not saying that you shouldn't go out into the community, I am not saying that people shouldn't push themselves in their personal boundaries to allow growth in the Lord. That I believe is very important. What I an talking about is spreading yourself too thinly. We often hear Christians using the Phillipians 4:13 verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" This is true, when we discuss Gods strength and power, and the power of prayer. But we need to remember our limits and boundaries. I can still climb to the top of my house and jump off - Yes God has allowed me to do that, He, although powerful enough to, won't allow me to grow wings and fly around the sky to then have a safe landing!
So think about your boundaries, are you pushing the right ones? And in accordance with God?
I think this is a good place to break it for a part 2 again.
So Who Knows you?
Temptation and Spiritual warfare:
So what is your weakness? We need to be aware of it, because this is what is going to be used for us, and a trap to be set! People don't usually fall, we slide. We see this in the continuation of the Samson story. There is a general wearing down and a systematic erosion that leads us to our fall.
Saturday 13 August 2011
Disappointment and Foxes - Samson : Part 2
So continuing with part 2 of the Session: Disappointment and Foxes - Samson
We ended that we should come back to the foxes about now.
And this is a lesson that should be reminded for all!
Living for vengance is exhausting.
Continuing with Judges 15: In verse 4 we see that Samson went out and caught 300 foxes and then tied them up. Did we see, as we have before, that the spirit came upon him in power? No. Samson was just a man, an angry man, how many of you have caught one fox, let alone 300? This would not have been easy. He then had to tie them together AND set them on fire. How much hard work?? Doesn't being angry take a lot of work and energy! This really rung through with me, I find it so difficult to let go of my anger and hurt and then to find forgiveness, I find myself exhausted going over and over the worst bits of my life, and what's worse, I find it so easy to get hurt and angry to begin with! I am constantly tired, and all I need is to forgive and I could be at rest-not just in my conscience, but physically and mentally. What about you?
We continue to see it get worse for Samson:
"13 "Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. 14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said,
"With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men."
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi."
As we can see in the above verses how Samsons original anger escalates; he has already killed his wife, his father in-law and now a 1000 men. Why? Because of anger and vengance, which is all now part of the entangled marriage between those and disappointment. The feeling of isolation has now set in .
When Nelson Mandela came out of prison he went and visited the widow of Hendrick Verwoerd, the man who had sent him there. Mandela, whilst there, stated that "the whole of the country is moving in the direction of reconciliation and nation building."
Wow! When I heard this, I thought this was amazing! How angry would you have been, how easy would you have found it to go and visit the widow of the man that sent you to prison for life, for believing in the right thing?
How about this story of the mother forgiving the murderer of her son:
"Staring into the eyes of the young man who stabbed her son to death, Dawn Eckert fought back what she described as unimaginable pain and anger.
"I forgive you for what you did," Eckert said, her hands trembling, tears rolling down her face and onto the paper as she read an impact statement in court on Tuesday. "I pray for you.
"But I would like you to know that the night you stabbed my son in the heart, you stabbed me in the heart, too.""
In either position would you be the same?
Forgiveness is not and should not be a quick thing, but it is an action that you can control. How you respond IS in your control. It is not justifying the the actions of hurt, it is not forgetting why you were hurt and it is not in anyway making the hurtful action right. But how much do you think it would help?
You hear so many people say they felt " a weight of the world lifted from their shoulders" when they have spoken to someone about what they have done wrong. Imagine what happens if you speak to God! Even if you talk to God with the mildest desire for forgiveness.
This is not something the Samson does. We saw that right at the very beginning. Remember I said that it would make the long introduction worthwhile. Samson does not talk to God, not about his hurt; he thinks he is better than that, and even more with his arrogance, that God will still help him.
Lets finish by looking at the end of the Chapter:
18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Wow, what an amazing ending: he gets to rule over the Philistines! Now, what a turn around, what a flip for good. Why? Well we need to see few final points here.
Pride comes before a fall.
We mostly all know what is about to happening in the next part of Samson's life, the famous part. So we know the fall is coming. So we need to see in this final part: his pride. He continues to be proud and arrogant. He cries out to the Lord in prayer, after he has killed so many, and been so angry and hurt, not seeking forgivness and asks the Lord, who has already blessed him with strength and power, to again help him. He calls himself a "servant" of the Lord, he spoke to the Lord like he was like Moses. He saw himself blessed by God and equal to Moses. So how does God respond? He treated him like Moses. Just as Moses commanded water from a rock under the wishes of God's instructions, he does it again for Samson. He restored his strength, now knowing our "hero" we can only guess what happened next, but his reputation was already big, remembering that he had already killed thousands of men on both sides, he was already known to be boastful to the world about what God does for him. And in the last verse we see that God, as always, flips his life to good and treats him as He treated Moses and grants him leadership of His people.
Luckily this shows, that whatever we do, as the post before shows, God will show us grace in all that we do. But I ask from this that we take a few points in the lesson.
1: As the last post states; Love each other with the heart of Christ, without internal church disappointment.
2: When you are upset of angry ask the Lord for forgiveness, even in the mildest terms, God WILL help.
3: Finally, be grateful for what you have been given by the Lord, but remeber to say thanks for all the times that He flips your situation round in your life.
We ended that we should come back to the foxes about now.
And this is a lesson that should be reminded for all!
Living for vengance is exhausting.
Continuing with Judges 15: In verse 4 we see that Samson went out and caught 300 foxes and then tied them up. Did we see, as we have before, that the spirit came upon him in power? No. Samson was just a man, an angry man, how many of you have caught one fox, let alone 300? This would not have been easy. He then had to tie them together AND set them on fire. How much hard work?? Doesn't being angry take a lot of work and energy! This really rung through with me, I find it so difficult to let go of my anger and hurt and then to find forgiveness, I find myself exhausted going over and over the worst bits of my life, and what's worse, I find it so easy to get hurt and angry to begin with! I am constantly tired, and all I need is to forgive and I could be at rest-not just in my conscience, but physically and mentally. What about you?
We continue to see it get worse for Samson:
"13 "Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. 14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said,
"With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men."
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi."
As we can see in the above verses how Samsons original anger escalates; he has already killed his wife, his father in-law and now a 1000 men. Why? Because of anger and vengance, which is all now part of the entangled marriage between those and disappointment. The feeling of isolation has now set in .
When Nelson Mandela came out of prison he went and visited the widow of Hendrick Verwoerd, the man who had sent him there. Mandela, whilst there, stated that "the whole of the country is moving in the direction of reconciliation and nation building."
Wow! When I heard this, I thought this was amazing! How angry would you have been, how easy would you have found it to go and visit the widow of the man that sent you to prison for life, for believing in the right thing?
How about this story of the mother forgiving the murderer of her son:
"Staring into the eyes of the young man who stabbed her son to death, Dawn Eckert fought back what she described as unimaginable pain and anger.
"I forgive you for what you did," Eckert said, her hands trembling, tears rolling down her face and onto the paper as she read an impact statement in court on Tuesday. "I pray for you.
"But I would like you to know that the night you stabbed my son in the heart, you stabbed me in the heart, too.""
In either position would you be the same?
Forgiveness is not and should not be a quick thing, but it is an action that you can control. How you respond IS in your control. It is not justifying the the actions of hurt, it is not forgetting why you were hurt and it is not in anyway making the hurtful action right. But how much do you think it would help?
You hear so many people say they felt " a weight of the world lifted from their shoulders" when they have spoken to someone about what they have done wrong. Imagine what happens if you speak to God! Even if you talk to God with the mildest desire for forgiveness.
This is not something the Samson does. We saw that right at the very beginning. Remember I said that it would make the long introduction worthwhile. Samson does not talk to God, not about his hurt; he thinks he is better than that, and even more with his arrogance, that God will still help him.
Lets finish by looking at the end of the Chapter:
18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Wow, what an amazing ending: he gets to rule over the Philistines! Now, what a turn around, what a flip for good. Why? Well we need to see few final points here.
Pride comes before a fall.
We mostly all know what is about to happening in the next part of Samson's life, the famous part. So we know the fall is coming. So we need to see in this final part: his pride. He continues to be proud and arrogant. He cries out to the Lord in prayer, after he has killed so many, and been so angry and hurt, not seeking forgivness and asks the Lord, who has already blessed him with strength and power, to again help him. He calls himself a "servant" of the Lord, he spoke to the Lord like he was like Moses. He saw himself blessed by God and equal to Moses. So how does God respond? He treated him like Moses. Just as Moses commanded water from a rock under the wishes of God's instructions, he does it again for Samson. He restored his strength, now knowing our "hero" we can only guess what happened next, but his reputation was already big, remembering that he had already killed thousands of men on both sides, he was already known to be boastful to the world about what God does for him. And in the last verse we see that God, as always, flips his life to good and treats him as He treated Moses and grants him leadership of His people.
Luckily this shows, that whatever we do, as the post before shows, God will show us grace in all that we do. But I ask from this that we take a few points in the lesson.
1: As the last post states; Love each other with the heart of Christ, without internal church disappointment.
2: When you are upset of angry ask the Lord for forgiveness, even in the mildest terms, God WILL help.
3: Finally, be grateful for what you have been given by the Lord, but remeber to say thanks for all the times that He flips your situation round in your life.
Disappointment and Foxes - Samson : Part 1
I thought I would carry on writing up my notes on the speakers and sessions from my week at Detling, continuing with the teaching of Judges and Samson by Jeff Lucas.
Previously we read that Samson was gifted with the Holy Spirit, which was brought upon him by God to stir amongst him. We saw that Samson was a man that, even though blessed by God with the Holy spirit time and time again, he also made mistakes over and over again, going against what we would think God wants.
Each action in the previous chapter, Samson saw what he wanted and decided to do it or take it as his own, each time using a very specific term "it was or is right for me." This term usually referred to a moment when a man felt that God was urging them to do something. It is right for me - it is right by the wishes of God.
Samson made assumptions. Don't we all? Samson was similar to the rest of us, and his assumption was that he was "holier than thou", " I am gifted by God", " I am one of God's children, chosen and blessed by the Holy spirit".
Samson was definitely blessed by God, just like many, if not all, of us are. But what a lot of people do not realise is that a blessing from God can be dangerous. Can you cope with the responsibility of being blessed by God? Can you use what God has given you without becoming arrogant and thinking the you are "special" because of it?
For someone like Samson, as we saw in chapter 13 "24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. "
The Lord blessed him and then, following the event in Chapter 14, God continued to do so by sending forth the Spirit and Power of God. But keeping this in mind, what do we know about the relationship between Samson and God?
We are aware that, although God had blessed him several times and flipped the mess that Samson was making for himself, God was very much in a relationship with Samson, but what about Samsons relationship towards God? In the entire story from Judges 13 - 16 how many times do you see Samson building on or having a relationship with God? Only twice do we even see Samson pray.
Once, before he is about to die in Chapter 16, he asks God to help and prays aloud to Him. The second time is in Chapter 15 (we will explore this further in this post) where he asks God to save him and feed his thirst. (Judges 15 v 18)
Ok, I know that up to this point I haven't really started the Judges talk, and that was a very long introduction. But hopefully you will see the relevance of it later in this post.
We begin to read Judges 15:
1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I’m going to my wife’s room." But her father would not let him go in. 2 "I was so sure you hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead."
3 Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. 6 When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion."
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, "Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you." 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam. 9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The people of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?"
"We have come to take Samson prisoner," they answered, "to do to him as he did to us."
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?" He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me." 12 They said to him, "We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines."
Samson said, "Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves."
As the story continues, we see that Samson decides, after insulting his wife and her family in the previous chapter and walking out on his marriage, that he returns some time later to his wife, only to find that she has been given to someone else. He was upset, angry and went on a vengance rampage.
Often we become disappointed with our own, people we trust, people within our community and sadly people within our church. Are you disappointed with what Samson, our hero, did? Or are you disappointed in his wife? Or the Wife's father? Does it matter? We see this disappointment in the story with Samson, not because we are disappointed with him, but his disappointment with others.
Examining the text closer we a find out a few things. He is disappointed in his wife and her family, to the point that he inacts vengance. This I will expand on in a minute. But later in verse 11 and 12, Samsons own people came to arrest him, and knowing of his great strength, they also sent 3000 men to arrest him. 3000 against 1. Not good odds for anyone. He then begs them for his own life, making them swear not to kill him. Why? Because he already expects them to. Samson again, as above, is assuming his previous disappointment is not entagled and married with assumption. We saw in the last post that sin often marries itself to other sins. Last time it was deception and immorility, this time disappointment and assumption. Samson expected his family, his people, to kill him and to let him down (though probably not in that order).
How often do we see this in our own churches? Internal anger and wounding through disappointment and assumption.
We should NOT be like this, we should be a field hospital and heal the sick within the battle and war that is raging. The church is not a trophy case of grace-it's the front line.
There is often the phrase "if you have friends like these who needs enemies" could we not translate that to "with a church like this who needs Satan"?
And sadly, within our own, how often is pain caused by upset and disappointment over such tiny things?
We should also come back to the foxes about now. And this is a lesson that should be reminded for all!But as this is long I will make it into a part 2.
Previously we read that Samson was gifted with the Holy Spirit, which was brought upon him by God to stir amongst him. We saw that Samson was a man that, even though blessed by God with the Holy spirit time and time again, he also made mistakes over and over again, going against what we would think God wants.
Each action in the previous chapter, Samson saw what he wanted and decided to do it or take it as his own, each time using a very specific term "it was or is right for me." This term usually referred to a moment when a man felt that God was urging them to do something. It is right for me - it is right by the wishes of God.
Samson made assumptions. Don't we all? Samson was similar to the rest of us, and his assumption was that he was "holier than thou", " I am gifted by God", " I am one of God's children, chosen and blessed by the Holy spirit".
Samson was definitely blessed by God, just like many, if not all, of us are. But what a lot of people do not realise is that a blessing from God can be dangerous. Can you cope with the responsibility of being blessed by God? Can you use what God has given you without becoming arrogant and thinking the you are "special" because of it?
For someone like Samson, as we saw in chapter 13 "24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. "
The Lord blessed him and then, following the event in Chapter 14, God continued to do so by sending forth the Spirit and Power of God. But keeping this in mind, what do we know about the relationship between Samson and God?
We are aware that, although God had blessed him several times and flipped the mess that Samson was making for himself, God was very much in a relationship with Samson, but what about Samsons relationship towards God? In the entire story from Judges 13 - 16 how many times do you see Samson building on or having a relationship with God? Only twice do we even see Samson pray.
Once, before he is about to die in Chapter 16, he asks God to help and prays aloud to Him. The second time is in Chapter 15 (we will explore this further in this post) where he asks God to save him and feed his thirst. (Judges 15 v 18)
Ok, I know that up to this point I haven't really started the Judges talk, and that was a very long introduction. But hopefully you will see the relevance of it later in this post.
We begin to read Judges 15:
1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I’m going to my wife’s room." But her father would not let him go in. 2 "I was so sure you hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead."
3 Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. 6 When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion."
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, "Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you." 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam. 9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The people of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?"
"We have come to take Samson prisoner," they answered, "to do to him as he did to us."
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?" He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me." 12 They said to him, "We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines."
Samson said, "Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves."
As the story continues, we see that Samson decides, after insulting his wife and her family in the previous chapter and walking out on his marriage, that he returns some time later to his wife, only to find that she has been given to someone else. He was upset, angry and went on a vengance rampage.
Often we become disappointed with our own, people we trust, people within our community and sadly people within our church. Are you disappointed with what Samson, our hero, did? Or are you disappointed in his wife? Or the Wife's father? Does it matter? We see this disappointment in the story with Samson, not because we are disappointed with him, but his disappointment with others.
Examining the text closer we a find out a few things. He is disappointed in his wife and her family, to the point that he inacts vengance. This I will expand on in a minute. But later in verse 11 and 12, Samsons own people came to arrest him, and knowing of his great strength, they also sent 3000 men to arrest him. 3000 against 1. Not good odds for anyone. He then begs them for his own life, making them swear not to kill him. Why? Because he already expects them to. Samson again, as above, is assuming his previous disappointment is not entagled and married with assumption. We saw in the last post that sin often marries itself to other sins. Last time it was deception and immorility, this time disappointment and assumption. Samson expected his family, his people, to kill him and to let him down (though probably not in that order).
How often do we see this in our own churches? Internal anger and wounding through disappointment and assumption.
We should NOT be like this, we should be a field hospital and heal the sick within the battle and war that is raging. The church is not a trophy case of grace-it's the front line.
There is often the phrase "if you have friends like these who needs enemies" could we not translate that to "with a church like this who needs Satan"?
And sadly, within our own, how often is pain caused by upset and disappointment over such tiny things?
We should also come back to the foxes about now. And this is a lesson that should be reminded for all!But as this is long I will make it into a part 2.
Friday 12 August 2011
As sweet as Honey - Samson.
I have just returned from a Christian conference at Detling showground - this year called 'People without limits', and I would advise that you all Google this and check the group out.
The week was set up with several seminars, of which I attended a few and, whilst in them, took an anormous amount of notes. One particular series that I attended was about Samson, and I thought I would share some of these on my blog (as well as the other inspiring seminars!).
I went to Detling on Monday, so missed the first seminar by Jeff Lucas on Samson (presented on the Sunday). Each session could have easily been listened to just for the day, but for me, having listened to them throughout the week made each one even more powerful, as I hope will show through within these posts.
We start with the reading from Judges 13 verses 24 and 25."24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. "
Jeff wanted us to read this first. Highlighting the use of the spirit: "the spirit of the LORD began to stir him." How many of us stir things? A cup of Tea or Coffee? Food in a saucepan? Do we all stir gently? How often is the motion of stirring seen as a gentle motion? Sadly, a lot of us have probably stirred quite quickly and viciously. This train of thought should be used when thinking of the Holy Spirit, when we ask fo it, we need to be prepared for the power and the shake that it can do.
Jeff quickly moved onto the next part of the Samson story.
Judges 14 read to the end. (This chapter will be used and broken throughout this post)
"1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."
3 His father and mother replied, "Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She’s the right one for me." 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) "
Samson, born to a nation, born strong and, as we saw, was stirred by the Holy Spirit. He clearly must know God and know him well. Isn't that why we see him normally as our hero? But he has gone down into the town, has just seen a woman, a woman who is known to be a philistine, the enemy, the oppressors, and has decided to choose this "unclean" woman to marry, against to the will of Samsons parents and God.
Now, we trust that as the Spirit is stirring in him we can also assume that God has decided that this woman is the right woman for him. But she isn't, clearly he is breaking the law, choosing a woman from the opposing side, from people who are unclean and uncircumcised. This ISN'T what God wanted.
As we continue to read:
"5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass."
The spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him and, as written above, God continues to work in Samson. Even with Samson! Now, I know that is a bit of a turn around for me, just at the top I said he was our hero, now I am saying even God can use Samson. Clearly he isn't doing what God has asked of him, he is not living to what we would see as a honest life that we would expect a "christian" to live as, in other words, a really awful sinner.
I know a lot of people will disagree and argue with this statement, but Jeff Lucas states that Church is a place of vulnerability and immorality. I heard this, and with some recent experiences really saw where he was coming from and agree with his statement. The church is full of people that say "I love you", a place where we "place hands on each other", where some "hug" each other, are close with people in a way we never are in other places in life. Yet we are warned over and over again about the intimacy between men and women, of "inappropriate" friendships, affairs and relationships are forming and coming to a head. Without sharing too much (I was caught up in something similar recently and this really hit me hard hearing Jeff say this) Samson was no different, he had been with women, he had chosen someone who was unclean, someone not suitable. We saw at the beginning of the chapter that he was just walking around, and SAW her. How many of us are guilty or just reacting on our sinful instincts?
Samson continues to move about against God. Even after God gave him the power of the Holy Spirit, he goes back to his mother and father and doesn't tell them about it. As we will see he doesn't tell his wife about it. Some may see this as a humbling feature of Samson, one of our hero's finer qualities. But when you examine the verse see what occurs.
"10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. 11 When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions. 12 "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. 13 If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let’s hear it." 14 He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet."
For three days they could not give the answer.
15 On the fourth day, they said to Samsons wife, Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your fathers household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property? 16 Then Samsons wife threw herself on him, sobbing, You hate me! You don’t really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer. I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you?" 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" "
Samson was not being humble, he started boasting, indirectly, assuming his authority over the group. Trying to allow them to think that he is more intelligent to them. He then even becomes rude to his wife "I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you?" 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast." WOW what a great husband, making his wife on her wedding day cry for then seven days and at the same time mocking and insulting her family by "promoting himself".
Birds are known to attack others birds, they pull their bodies back, bring their feet (talons) forward for an attack; this is often why we see an imprint of a bird in our windows. Even the video below will show you a bird attacking it reflection into a window.
Like the bird we often, like Samson, don't learn from our mistakes. We keeping attacking the thing that is hurting us, which is usually an action we are doing to ourselves. Especially when we are doing what everyone else is doing. We eventually get used to the idea that it is right to do. We often tell ourselves the same lie so much that we end up believing it. How often then is immorality married to deception?
The end of the chapter shows us two things:
"Samson said to them,
"If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle."
19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast. "
Reinforces the idea that he was lying to himself: He had convinced himself that he was the one who was hard done by, the one who was hurt and angry. How dare they mock and abuse him! But as we saw he had many of opportunities, but he didn't listen, how often do we all do that with God? He went to the wrong women, through lustful thoughts and actions. He was secretive to his mother and father, and also disrespected their culture and beliefs, which in turn would have gone against God's commandments. This must have been a character traight of Samson's, only knowing this by the fact that he didn't have any friends. Where does it say in this chapter that he brought his friends to the wedding? The brides family provided him "company". He continues to boast of HIS power and not of God's, he mocks the party, insults his wife.
The second point we see is that he continues to make mistakes, he's hurt from his mistakes, which blow up into worse case scenerios (for himself and God), he continues to call his wife a Heifer ( a young cow, who especially hasn't given birth, with this implying that Samson doubts that she would be able to-truly insulting her womanhood), he then goes and kills 30 people (Are these the gift of company that the grooms family gave?) and left the wedding and his marriage, and gave up on his marriage that God granted him.
Finally, coming to the end. We should at times visit our dead lions. Samson was given the power of the spirit, one that we know from the very first verse is powerful and vicious in strength, he was given this to defend himself against the lion by God. God then filled the lion with Honey. You can see this honey two ways, which i like to think God meant us to see. One, that even through death of one of God's creatures, he will flip the good back to us and make us sweet honey to feed upon. But Honey is also used several times in the bible in reference to sexuality. Keeping in mind the weakness we see in Samson and his love of women through lustful thoughts, this should have been a reminder for him to change his ways. Check the verse again, on his way to marry her he TURNED AND SAW the honey, often we need to turn and see the things that we are doing wrong, we should stay looking forward on God's path, and certainly not allow our sinful thoughts to become boastful points where we can decieve ourselves.
We also need to think about the accountability Samson had. Did anyone stop him and say, yes Samson, God has provided you with sweet honey to eat ( the power of the Holy Spirit) but stop your lustful ways. No, no one did! That is because we see that he was alone. Church is full of immorality as we said before, but it is often also filled with christians yeilding the wrong types of sword: not a sword of the word of God, but a sword of judgement. Some may even become labeling machines ready to judge, labeling you as sinners, this making it more difficult to surround Christians who are feeling isolated with understanding friends who they could be accountable to. We should all make sure that we surround ourselves with investible friends, that we feel joined in heart with. We need to endeavor towards the heart of Christ within ourselves-no one should feel isolated within our communities.
And taking the quote from alfa romeo advert:
" Without heart we would be mere machines"
The week was set up with several seminars, of which I attended a few and, whilst in them, took an anormous amount of notes. One particular series that I attended was about Samson, and I thought I would share some of these on my blog (as well as the other inspiring seminars!).
I went to Detling on Monday, so missed the first seminar by Jeff Lucas on Samson (presented on the Sunday). Each session could have easily been listened to just for the day, but for me, having listened to them throughout the week made each one even more powerful, as I hope will show through within these posts.
We start with the reading from Judges 13 verses 24 and 25."24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. "
Jeff wanted us to read this first. Highlighting the use of the spirit: "the spirit of the LORD began to stir him." How many of us stir things? A cup of Tea or Coffee? Food in a saucepan? Do we all stir gently? How often is the motion of stirring seen as a gentle motion? Sadly, a lot of us have probably stirred quite quickly and viciously. This train of thought should be used when thinking of the Holy Spirit, when we ask fo it, we need to be prepared for the power and the shake that it can do.
Jeff quickly moved onto the next part of the Samson story.
Judges 14 read to the end. (This chapter will be used and broken throughout this post)
"1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."
3 His father and mother replied, "Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She’s the right one for me." 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) "
Samson, born to a nation, born strong and, as we saw, was stirred by the Holy Spirit. He clearly must know God and know him well. Isn't that why we see him normally as our hero? But he has gone down into the town, has just seen a woman, a woman who is known to be a philistine, the enemy, the oppressors, and has decided to choose this "unclean" woman to marry, against to the will of Samsons parents and God.
Now, we trust that as the Spirit is stirring in him we can also assume that God has decided that this woman is the right woman for him. But she isn't, clearly he is breaking the law, choosing a woman from the opposing side, from people who are unclean and uncircumcised. This ISN'T what God wanted.
As you will see in the next verse, or if you know the story, you will know that God continues to use Samson. But that still doesn't mean that it was the right and correct thing to do, or that God supported it. Just becuase God uses something does not mean he mandates it, we need to remember that God will work in the mess, the mess of our lives. You see this non stop throughout the Bible. God flips things around for us time and time again. We kept mucking up - He gave us Jesus His son. In response we gave Jesus the cross - He gave us a way of Salavation. That was His ultimate flip for us, but I am sure we could if we wanted, we could think and come up with a few more.
HE WORKS IN THE MESS - THE MESS OF OUR LIVES.
"5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass."
The spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him and, as written above, God continues to work in Samson. Even with Samson! Now, I know that is a bit of a turn around for me, just at the top I said he was our hero, now I am saying even God can use Samson. Clearly he isn't doing what God has asked of him, he is not living to what we would see as a honest life that we would expect a "christian" to live as, in other words, a really awful sinner.
I know a lot of people will disagree and argue with this statement, but Jeff Lucas states that Church is a place of vulnerability and immorality. I heard this, and with some recent experiences really saw where he was coming from and agree with his statement. The church is full of people that say "I love you", a place where we "place hands on each other", where some "hug" each other, are close with people in a way we never are in other places in life. Yet we are warned over and over again about the intimacy between men and women, of "inappropriate" friendships, affairs and relationships are forming and coming to a head. Without sharing too much (I was caught up in something similar recently and this really hit me hard hearing Jeff say this) Samson was no different, he had been with women, he had chosen someone who was unclean, someone not suitable. We saw at the beginning of the chapter that he was just walking around, and SAW her. How many of us are guilty or just reacting on our sinful instincts?
Samson continues to move about against God. Even after God gave him the power of the Holy Spirit, he goes back to his mother and father and doesn't tell them about it. As we will see he doesn't tell his wife about it. Some may see this as a humbling feature of Samson, one of our hero's finer qualities. But when you examine the verse see what occurs.
"10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. 11 When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions. 12 "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. 13 If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let’s hear it." 14 He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet."
For three days they could not give the answer.
15 On the fourth day, they said to Samsons wife, Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your fathers household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property? 16 Then Samsons wife threw herself on him, sobbing, You hate me! You don’t really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer. I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you?" 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" "
Samson was not being humble, he started boasting, indirectly, assuming his authority over the group. Trying to allow them to think that he is more intelligent to them. He then even becomes rude to his wife "I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you?" 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast." WOW what a great husband, making his wife on her wedding day cry for then seven days and at the same time mocking and insulting her family by "promoting himself".
Birds are known to attack others birds, they pull their bodies back, bring their feet (talons) forward for an attack; this is often why we see an imprint of a bird in our windows. Even the video below will show you a bird attacking it reflection into a window.
Like the bird we often, like Samson, don't learn from our mistakes. We keeping attacking the thing that is hurting us, which is usually an action we are doing to ourselves. Especially when we are doing what everyone else is doing. We eventually get used to the idea that it is right to do. We often tell ourselves the same lie so much that we end up believing it. How often then is immorality married to deception?
The end of the chapter shows us two things:
"Samson said to them,
"If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle."
19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast. "
Reinforces the idea that he was lying to himself: He had convinced himself that he was the one who was hard done by, the one who was hurt and angry. How dare they mock and abuse him! But as we saw he had many of opportunities, but he didn't listen, how often do we all do that with God? He went to the wrong women, through lustful thoughts and actions. He was secretive to his mother and father, and also disrespected their culture and beliefs, which in turn would have gone against God's commandments. This must have been a character traight of Samson's, only knowing this by the fact that he didn't have any friends. Where does it say in this chapter that he brought his friends to the wedding? The brides family provided him "company". He continues to boast of HIS power and not of God's, he mocks the party, insults his wife.
The second point we see is that he continues to make mistakes, he's hurt from his mistakes, which blow up into worse case scenerios (for himself and God), he continues to call his wife a Heifer ( a young cow, who especially hasn't given birth, with this implying that Samson doubts that she would be able to-truly insulting her womanhood), he then goes and kills 30 people (Are these the gift of company that the grooms family gave?) and left the wedding and his marriage, and gave up on his marriage that God granted him.
Finally, coming to the end. We should at times visit our dead lions. Samson was given the power of the spirit, one that we know from the very first verse is powerful and vicious in strength, he was given this to defend himself against the lion by God. God then filled the lion with Honey. You can see this honey two ways, which i like to think God meant us to see. One, that even through death of one of God's creatures, he will flip the good back to us and make us sweet honey to feed upon. But Honey is also used several times in the bible in reference to sexuality. Keeping in mind the weakness we see in Samson and his love of women through lustful thoughts, this should have been a reminder for him to change his ways. Check the verse again, on his way to marry her he TURNED AND SAW the honey, often we need to turn and see the things that we are doing wrong, we should stay looking forward on God's path, and certainly not allow our sinful thoughts to become boastful points where we can decieve ourselves.
We also need to think about the accountability Samson had. Did anyone stop him and say, yes Samson, God has provided you with sweet honey to eat ( the power of the Holy Spirit) but stop your lustful ways. No, no one did! That is because we see that he was alone. Church is full of immorality as we said before, but it is often also filled with christians yeilding the wrong types of sword: not a sword of the word of God, but a sword of judgement. Some may even become labeling machines ready to judge, labeling you as sinners, this making it more difficult to surround Christians who are feeling isolated with understanding friends who they could be accountable to. We should all make sure that we surround ourselves with investible friends, that we feel joined in heart with. We need to endeavor towards the heart of Christ within ourselves-no one should feel isolated within our communities.
And taking the quote from alfa romeo advert:
" Without heart we would be mere machines"
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