Like Any Other Man

One of the great tragedies of the Bible is found in Judges 13-16, the story of Samson. As I've read it over the last two days part of me wonders why God's blessing was on him for so long. In many ways the leader is living like the people, and because of the part of me wonders why God used him at all. But in one way Samson remained set apart to God, and God was with him.

Samson was a Nazarite, "Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. 4 Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines." (Judges 13.3b-5). Samson was to be set apart from God from birth. But it's a vow he doesn't keep.

A dead body was unclean, and we see twice in his life Samson touches dead bodies. In Judges 14 he collects honey from the body of a lion he killed previously, and in chapter 15 he picks up a donkey's jaw bone to defeat 1,000 Philistines. Along with that Samson marries a foreign woman, spends at least one evening with a harlot, and is involved in a relationship with another foreign woman named Delilah. He lies to Delilah on several occasions, and then finally allows his vow to be broken by telling her the secret of his strength and she shaves his head.

His birth was miraculous. His mother is one of seven (that I'm aware of) women who gave birth and wasn't supposed to. (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, the wife of Menoah [Samson's mother], Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary). His strength was unchallenged. He killed a lion with his bare hands, killed 1,000 men at once, and pulled out the gates of a city and carried them to the top of a mountain. God did great things through Him. The Bible says that God allows Samson's marriage as an opportunity to strike at the Philistines. Both of the above accounts of Samson killing says that the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. I don't fully understand why, but as long as his hair was uncut, in spite of the rest of his lifestyle, God was with him.

Samson made enemies, and they sought to get rid of him. And so they use Delilah to learn the secret of his strength. After several failed attempts Samson tells her the truth and as he said, "I will become weak and be like any other man." As long as Samson remained set apart for God he was different. God was with him and he was powerful. But as soon as his hair was cut, the Spirit of God left him, and he became like any other man.

God's people are called to be holy as God is holy. We are called to be set apart. When we do, God is with us, God empowers us because He is able to. We've given Him our lives, and we're living our lives in a way that pleases Him. We live for Him not for ourselves. But when we disobey, the Spirit of God departs from us, and we become like any other man. God is what sets us apart, because with God we have real life, real meaning. But apart from Him, without Him, we are the same as the rest of the world.

Samson's story ends with him returning to God. In his final moments he calls upon God, he returns to Him, and God gives him strength and uses him in one last mighty way. When Samson stops living for himself, and gives himself fully to God, as Judges 16.30 says, "Let me die with the Philistines!", God accomplishes His greatest work in Samson's life. With his death he kills 3,000 Philistines, more than he killed in His life (Judges 16.30).

I have to wonder, what could God have done with Samson if he had lived his whole life like his final moments? If Samson's whole life had been lived fully to serve God, fully obedient to what God had said, what would God have been able to do in Israel under Samson's leadership?

We must ask that about our own lives, if we live fully set apart to God, fully obedient, what can God do in us and through us? If we give ourselves fully to the service of God, allowing ourselves to die to self-ambitions and security, what could God do?

Do you want to be a person on whom the Spirit of God comes mightily upon, or do you want to be weak like any other man?

To God alone be the Glory!

Peace be with you

Command Not Obeyed

As Israel was preparing to enter the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, God gave them a command,Deuteronomy 7.1-6, "When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you,  and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.  Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.  For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.  But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.  For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth."

Many critics of the Bible, and even some branches of Christianity, wonder how a good and loving God could order the destruction of entire nations of people. There was one Christ follower, Marcion I think, who said that the God of the Old Testament, who made commands like this, couldn't be the same God of the New Testament. But here in Deuteronomy we see why God made this command.

Israel was to be a holy people set apart for God.  It was there job to represent God to the rest of the world.  Part of the reason they were to be in Israel is because it was the crossroads of the world at the time; three continents connect there.  Israel was blessed to be a blessing to the nations.  But in order to be able to bless the rest of the world by showing them who God was, they had to keep themselves holy and focused on God.  God knew what a stubborn group of people He was dealing with in Israel.  After just a few weeks of freedom in the desert they were complaining about no food and no water, and wanted to go be slaves in Egypt again.  He knew that if they were influenced by pagan nations they would easily be led astray.  They were weak willed and God wanted to protect them.  So He makes this command.

At first the people faithfully obey.  Jericho and all of its people are destroyed followed by Ai.  But then the people make their first mistake.  The Gibeonites come and deceive the people and make peace with Israel.  It says in Joshua 9.14b, "and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord."  Now one group of people must live.  They are forced into servant hood as wood choppers and water drawers, but paganism now has a foothold among the people.

From there it gets worse.  In Joshua 15 the tribe of Judah is taking their share of the land, verse 63 says, "Now as for as the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah could not drive them out; so the Jebusites live with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day."  Pagan influence has another grip. 

Joshua 16 talks about the tribe of Ephraim, and verse 10 says, "But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites live in the midst of Ephraim to this day," grip three.  And then again with the tribe of Mannasseh, "But the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of these cities, because the Canaanites persisted in living in that land.  It came about when the sons of Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely" (Joshua 17.12-13).

Over and over the people don't obey God's command and destroy the people living in the land.  If you continue reading through the Old Testament you will see how this hurts the people of Israel.  The book of Judges is a continuous circle of the people going astray, calling out to God after trouble sets in, God sending a deliverer, and then the people go astray again.

Later the people want a king like the other nations have, and God warns them of all the things a king will do, but they persist and are given a king, and the problems begin.  They are constantly at war, prophet after prophet comes to warn the people of the destruction coming if they don't repent.  Corrupt kings follow and lead the people further astray. Eventually the people are carried off into exile beasue they fail to obey God.

What would have happened if the people had just obeyed?  How often do we find ourselves in similar situations?  God says one thing but for whatever reason we don't like it.  We don't want to wait that long, or work that hard, or go to this place, or serve in that way, and so we decide to do our thing our way.  We have free will so God allows it to happen, but usually we end up in trouble, with hardships we could have avoided.

God has our best interest at heart.  When He makes a command it is for our own good, no, for our best.  God does not want us to suffer, He wants to bless us so that we can be a blessing to others and show the world who He is.  But in order to receive His blessing we must be set apart as His holy people.

To God alone be the Glory!

Peace be with you

The Journey to New Life, Step Five: Obey

At the beginning of the journey things are easy. Spirits are high, bodies are strong and pain free. The first steps are easy. But as the journey progresses fatigue sets in. As the miles add up aches and pains start to be felt. The excitement has worn off, and sometimes we wonder why we even began the journey to begin with. But then as we round the next bend, the end is in sight, the destination we set out to reach is close at hand. It's important to finish the journey, especially this journey to new life. Because when we get to the end, we have the life that we were created for.

The final step of the journey is obedience to what Jesus says. After the previous steps this would seem like an easy one to end on, but how often do we fail to finish the journey? How often do we get so close to new life and fall short because we fail to obey?

John 11.38-41a, "So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, 'Remove the stone.' Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, 'Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.' Jesus said to her, 'Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?' So they removed the stone."

When it all comes down to it, obedience is the key to receiving new life. Yes, this is the final step of the journey seen here in John 11, but it's a crucial step. We call on Him, follow Him, hope in Him, and invite Him, but if we fail to obey Him the journey has been a waste. Obedience is the step that finally brings us to the destination.

As I think about obedience my mind goes to the last words Jesus spoke on the earth. Matthew 28.19-20, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Jesus sends His disciples into the world to make disciples by baptizing, and teaching the nations to obey all that He has commanded.

To be a disciple of Jesus means receiving new life. Jesus came to earth to give eternal life to all who would accept it. We accept it by calling on Him and following Him. To accept the gift there must be hope in the one giving it, and to receive it we must be willing to invite the giver to the place of death in our lives. But simply receiving new life is not enough. New life demands change, it implies change. When Jesus gives us new life we are to live differently, because by receiving new life from Him we become His disciples, and to be His disciple we must obey Him.

Sometimes obedience is hard. Sometimes it doesn't make sense, or it isn't the pleasant task we hope for. But if we fail to obey Jesus, then we cannot receive new life. The final step of obedience must be taken. Jesus has already done so much for us along this journey. We've called and He's answered, in His time and for His glory. We've followed and He has led the way, never leaving us. We've had hope in Him that He has affirmed and strengthened. We've invited Him and He has wept, meeting us at our point of pain and sorrow. How, here at the end, so close to the destination, could we fail to trust Him and obey Him?

God wants us to receive new life. On this journey we deepen our relationship with Jesus, we learn to trust Him, seeing that He does care, that He has our best interest at heart, that He wants good for us. It builds so that when we get to the end, tired as we may be, we are able to obey. God does not ignore the obedient.

To God alone be the glory!

Peace be with you

Joseph, the Carpenter who Raised Jesus

The last two weeks in our evening service at church we've looked at the people who were given the privilege to raise Jesus. As I was looking at their lives it's evident that they were models of God worshipers, as well as men and women and parents. Their lives and characteristics set them apart, and they were blessed with the privilege of spending years with Jesus.

Joseph is one of the famous characters in the Bible, but he is seen in only four chapters of the Bible, two in Matthew and two in Luke. Later in His ministry people identify Jesus as the son of Joseph, but tradition holds that Joseph died before Jesus began His ministry. We know that Joseph was a carpenter from Nazareth, that his father was named Jacob, and that he is a descendant of David's son Solomon, who followed his father as King.

Scripture tells us that Joseph was a righteous man. We see in scripture that he waited on, and obeyed God. We see compassion in him, and the protectiveness of a husband and father. Joseph did what few men in his position would have done. He could have had Mary stoned for adultery. But instead he risks his own reputation and standing in the community to be obedient to God. He raises a son that isn't his, he sets an example of masculinity to a young boy, and to all of us today.

It wasn't easy, I'm sure it was intimidating. There is a line in The Nativity Story Joseph and Mary are on there way to Bethlehem, they talk about how they will know when Jesus is more then just a child. As they talk Joseph says, "I wonder if I will even be able to teach Him anything."

Joseph was obediant to God. He took on a task that would be socially frowned upon, and a task that no one would feel capable of, but he was blessed greatly. This past week I realized that Joseph had more one on one time with Jesus than anyone else who ever lived. The hours they would have spent together in the carpenters shop, the son learning the skills of the trade from His father. A boy having a man pour time into His life. Jesus was fully human, and as every boy does, needed a man to help Him become a man. Joseph would have talked with Him about God, about the scriptures, about worship and righteousness.

Joseph is a model to all men. We are to be examples of righteousness in our lives. We must be willing to do the difficult thing. And when we have the opportunity, we must pour into the lives of boys. We must teach them the things of God, the things that make a man a man. We must bestow masculinity and initiate boys into manhood. Joseph did this with the human side of Jesus, and Joseph was blessed with time with God. Joseph is a model of a man and of a father.

Peace be with you

Let Me Handle it

"Come, behold the works of the LORD, who has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold." Psalm 46.8-11

This is a verse I've been reading a lot over the last few years. It's my go to verse when I visit people in the hospital. It focuses on the power of God. It tells us not to worry, and that we don't have to fight the battle because God has taken away all of our weapons. He tells us that we simply need to know that He is God, that He will be exalted. We simply need to let Him be God and lay humbly at His feet.

Why do we struggle with this? The God who spoke the universe into existence, and maintains it says, "Let me handle your problems." He says, "I want your problems. I want them so badly that I'll list my resume to you, then I'll take away all of your tools, and then at that point I'll tell you to stop and simply sit and watch me work. Just let me handle it." And we don't let Him why?

There has been an issue in my life for a few months that I've been trying to deal with. It's caused trouble in so many ways. Over the past few months I've thought of ways to deal with it, some of them would be appropriate and some probably wouldn't be. But to all of them I keep hearing God say, "Let me handle it." Why don't I let Him?

I think there's something about being a guy that makes giving up a situation difficult. It gets even harder if you're a human guy. We like control, even when we only think we have it. We as men, love to fix things, we even try to when we know that we have no idea what we're doing and have no clue where to start. We insist that we can fix it, and most of the time we end up making it worse. That's what happened with me. Right from the beginning, God said, "Don't do it, let me take care of things." I failed to listen, and I made it worse.

It wouldn't have ever become a problem if I had simply listened right at the beginning. If I had simply been obedient. Now here it is months later and I feel that I'm just now beginning to get back to the point of peace that I had before it began. The chaos, stress, and anger that has been caused could all have been avoided had I simply remembered what God said, "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

When God says, "Let me handle it" let Him handle it. Before any issue ever comes He's seen it coming for thousands of years. He's been waiting for it and is ready to deal with it. The way He'll handle it is for His glory, and if it's for His glory that means it's ultimately the best possible solution for us. Having been there and disobeying, I can tell you it isn't worth it. When God says, "Let me handle it" trust that He will, then sit back and just watch Him work.

Peace be with you