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.

Rachel - Kissing AND Telling.

Genesis 29:10-11 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and Laban's sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle's sheep. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.

Tuesday night is visitation night at our church. It's where Sunday School leaders and any members of the church who like to volunteer go out and visit with people who have visited the church to welcome them and see if they have any questions and so on. It's also done every year in the children's ministry. All the Sunday School teachers will get their newly promoted roster list and start visiting the students on their roll shortly after school begins. What does this mean for me? Well, I have four children - so that means every new school year, during the months of August, September and October, I have four new Sunday School teachers show up at my house on any given Tuesday evening with no warning. And inevitably, I forget that this is the time of year it happens. Most recently, two weeks ago, on a Tuesday evening no less (should've known better), the breeze had begun to blow, so I thought it would be a great time to mow the lawn. I put on some dirty shorts and an old T-shirt, threw the hair up in a ponytail and got to work. I had already weed-whacked the bushes and mowed the lawn, I was just in the process of edging the sidewalk and blowing it off when my youngest daughter's Sunday School teacher showed up. While she was very sweet and didn't mention the sweat dripping off my eyebrows, I sure was wishing for a shower at that time.

It wasn't Tuesday night for Rachel, otherwise she may have been wiser than I. Here she comes hauling her flock up to the well - Smelly, sweaty, not quite what one would call "marriage material" at this point. And there, standing next to the well, was this man she had never seen before. A man who, upon seeing her, lifts the solid rock that is over the well, and waters her sheep for her. Two things from this - 1. What chivalry, to take that huge rock and move it with no help! 2. Now it's less work that Rachel has to do.

Jacob then went up to Rachel and kissed her - dirty, stinky face and all - and began to weep with joy. I bet Rachel's heart had to be just a pitter-pattering. This man whom she had never met, showed her affection for seemingly no reason.

What a picture of Christ! We, as sinners, were dirty and stinky. We had been torn and battered by sin and it had left it's stain on us. We felt untouchable and unapproachable. Yet Jesus gave His life for us - because He saw passed what our sin had caused us to look like. And when we decided to come to Him, He kissed our dirty faces and wept with joy because we'd finally realized we were part of His family.