Friday, November 7, 2008

Samson - Disney Goes Religious?

Judges 14:10-15 Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. When he appeared, he was given thirty companions."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. 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."He replied,"Out of the eater, something to eat;out of the strong, something sweet." For three days they could not give the answer.On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"

Did you ever see the Disney movie "The Little Mermaid"? I just love that movie. The music is so good and I have so many good memories of watching it. Do you remember the part where she is in her cove looking at all her treasures and rehashing what her father said about never being allowed to go to the surface because it was not a good place. Ariel's reflection is this, "I just don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things, could be bad."

I think that this is how we like to look at our country. How can a nation like America, that does such wonderful things, be bad? We send men who give their lives to help downtrodden countries - we form organizations that collect food and send it to those who have none - we sponsor research endeavors to solve disease problems like HIV and AIDS - we offer miracles to young children who are dying of Leukemia. We sponsor telethons to collect for fighting MS - we walk millions of miles to spread awareness of breast cancer - we spend millions of dollars of our hard earned money to save the rain forest and the whales. Yet, in this same country, 90,427 women were raped last year, 16,929 people were murdered, and 1,210,000 million unborn babies were killed at the choice of their parent.

These are big numbers to look at, but it really comes down to one thing - the individual. Overall, we are wonderful - but it only takes one wrong choice to make us seem bad. Samson is making bad choices. He has broken his vow by eating from a carcass, and now he is mocking that fact by making a riddle out of it. Samson is a good guy - we know he is, because God chose him. But he's not sharing God with his actions - making it look like he's not a good guy.

Can people look at us and see the good? Or do they see the sin - the bad stuff - that is weighing us down because we won't turn it over to Jesus.

5 comments:

Montee said...

Dorothy, thanks for visiting my blog! I feel so much better than I did Wednesday. I prayed and talked with God. He has made me feel more at ease. My mother and I discuss quite a bit that this election result is in God's plan. We have also discussed that we could be in the "End Times" and may be about to witness something wonderful. I know people across the country are feeling this way. I will just keep my God near to me. My new theme song is "Onward Christian Soldiers." I believe that Christians are about to go through some hard times but we have the Almighty who is the most powerful. Come visit me again. I am not always so sad and negative on my blog.

Greg C said...

I am so proud of myself (I know I shouldn't boast but is boasting about the word of God bad? I just don't know) Anyway since I just finished reading the Old Testament, I actually knew the answer to the riddle.

It is so sad that people look at our nation and only see the bad things when there are so many good things going on. I have been struggling with this whole thing for the past few days and I have come to this conclusion. I think we as a nation are heading down the wrong path and it is a path that will soon destroy us. However we can save ourselves by accepting Jesus as our savior so we shoudn't dwell on the bad times ahead. I also feel that God doesn't want us to give up so I am going to keep pressing toward making this world a better place to live in.

Kelly said...

Wow - after reading Greg's comments above...I can't beat that. So I'll just say Amen!

And my daughters love the little mermaid!

Luanne said...

How do we start a revival in our country--we start with revival in our own heart--one person at a time!

I pray that as christians we don't get bogged down or overwhelmed--and then don't go out into the real world and love and speak truth like Jesus.

Thanks for the post to get me thinking!

sailorcross said...

First--a good job to Greg on finishing reading the Old Testament!!

Now, as I was reading this the words of this song came to my mind:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face.
And the things of this world
will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

And this is what we need to do--Turn our eyes to Jesus, focus on Him, as Luanne said--each person individually--follow what He is telling us to do, and the "things" of this world won't seem nearly as overwhelming.

I'm so glad I decided to use this morning to read your Samson series as my devotion time. This has been most inspiring for me, particularly on this day!!

Thank you, Dorothy, for uplifting and encouraging me!!

Beth