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.