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| Volume 18 Number 3 March 2016 | Page 11 |
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| Volume 18 Number 3 March 2016 | Page 11 |
Thomas Baxley
Samson loved to flirt with danger, and he loved to play with fire; eventually he got burned. Samson loved a woman named Delilah, and the Philistines offered to pay her a great price to discover the secret of his strength and how they could overcome him (Judges 16:4ff). Samson would tell her various things, and then the Philistines would come to capture him. He would break his bonds and defeat his would-be captors, only to repeat the same scenario several times. Samson thought he could handle it; Samson thought he was in control.
Samson was toying with sin, and then, it was time for sin to toy with Samson. He finally broke down and told Delilah the truth about his strength; she shaved his head and the Philistines captured him. When the time came for Samson to pay up, he found it was much more than for which he bargained. He lost his strength, his eyes, his freedom and his honor, all in a flash. Samson was the strongest man who ever lived, yet all his strength was not enough. Sin still got the best of him.
[Editor’s Note: How close dare we allow ourselves to come to sin? What is worth risking being overcome by sin (Matthew 16:26)? The wages of sin is terminal (Romans 6:23). ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
The Far Country Will Teach
You More Than You Want to Know
Thomas Baxley
Luke 15 tells the story of a young man who approached his father and demanded his inheritance. The son left his father’s house and traveled to a far country where he squandered his inheritance with loose living. Doubtless, the young man thought he knew it all already, but the sad truth is that he learned far more in that far country than he ever wanted to know. He learned what it meant to be in need (14). He learned what it meant to be hungry (15). He learned all about shame and guilt, too. He was embarrassed to return to his father’s house, but he decided to go anyway to be made a servant even though he was a son (17-19). The truth of the matter is that sin is a master teacher, but it specializes in heartache and despair. Education is important, but the price of this school is far too high.