Judges 13:24 – And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.

Judges 13:25 – And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Hello readers, hope you’re having a great end of year. And with the end of year it’s worth asking the question… were you an “at times” Christian this year? I’ve done quite a few blogs on Samson. He’s so relevant to us today because of the times he lived in, and also how we lived. A childless couple in a wicked and rebellious nation had a son who was a promised deliverer. God wants to use you to be a deliverer, but in order to be a deliverer, you have to be saved and right with God yourself. The problem is, Samson needed deliverance from himself, and so do we. We need deliverance from being at times Christians.

Hopefully looking back God has been able to use you to make a difference in someone else’s life. There’s no greater calling than the call to serve God, to be able to be used by God to make a difference, to shine as a light, to fight the fight of faith. Really, at the end of the year the only thing that matters, the only redemptive qualities, lie in when I obeyed God or told someone the gospel or honored and glorified his Son with my life. But how few and far between was that? Did I just jam that in around another life I had just like Samson did? Samson had a double mind, and a double life. He is like us, a Christian at times, but like the world the rest of the time. We, like Samson, have so great an opportunity, so great a chance to shine, and yet truth be told, we spend most of that opportunity and ability in spurning the grace and longsuffering extended to us.

How longsuffering God was with Samson! How much grace he bestowed on this boy. We’re all nothing if not for the grace and longsuffering of God. Samson didn’t just need it, so do we. We’re not as different to Samson as you think. We rue his lost potential, but is it so different of us? All that potential we had this year to obey God and honor him with our lives… and was it just another year of wasting our life consuming on all the world has to offer and feeding that insatiable appetite our flesh has. Will your life be a what could have been just like Samson? Samson had massive failures, and so do we. Perhaps we resonate so much better with Bible characters like this guy, because we are more like him than like a Daniel or a Joseph or a Job.

Samson was an at times Christian. The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan the Bible says. So at times old Samson is a shining light, at times he’s obeying God, at times he’s telling others the gospel, at times he’s living by faith. It’s pretty easy being a Christian at church, or when you’re around certain people, but how consistent is your life in all seasons, in all places, around all people? Because when this young boy left the camp of Dan, what was moving him wasn’t the Spirit of God. If you’re a different person in different circumstances, in different places, around different people, you have a heart problem, just like Samson did. You’re an at times Christian.

Samson had an “I” problem  and an “eye” problem. We share both these problems. His life wasn’t surrendered to God’s will, because he had a pretty strong will of his own. A will that wasn’t based on pleasing and honoring and obeying God, but a will that was set on pleasing and gratifying himself. His fleshly appetite and desires seemed to control his life a lot more than the Spirit of God led him. Jesus came into the world and he said things like… I must be about my Father’s business, not my will by thy will O God, he said he always did those things that pleased his Father. See, in the “I” issue, we are a lot more like Samson than Jesus Christ… and look where the “I” problem takes you. Samson’s life didn’t have to go this way, there was a better way, and there is a better way for all of us.

Samson’s eyes got him in trouble as well. One part of the Bible that has resonated with me recently is “eyes full of adultery, that cannot cease from sin”. We can have quite hungrily adulterous and lustful eyes. What David saw got him in trouble, and how many people have gotten into sin like both he and Samson because of what they saw. Of course we know that  the Bible says that unto the pure all things are pure… so really the eye problem is just a heart problem. If you didn’t have a heart full of adultery and lust, you wouldn’t have eyes that were full of adultery either. Because we have lust and adultery in our hearts, therefore we have eyes full of lust and adultery as well. Samson had that problem, he saw some choice women, and that’s what controlled what he did next, not the word of God. He had no intention of honoring God.

We read that Samson was blessed by God. How blessed we are. Do we deserve and merit it? Not a bit. What did we do with all the blessings God has given us this year? Oh we complain a lot, but most of us reading this would have a pretty good deal. There are people out there who don’t have a good deal who have a much better heart attitude, who put us to shame who have been so blessed.

Samson did pretty well when he was in the camp of Dan, they were his tribe. But when he left the camp, Samson was quite a different person. How many children are raised in godly homes, but they get out a bit, they get a taste of what the world has to offer, they develop an appetite for sin, and there’s no going back.

At times Christianity is not real Christianity. It’s pretty damning for myself to look back at my year, and my life, and how at times I really am. The reason why we aren’t salt and light, the reason why all this is so dead is because we really are just like Samson, we’re just interested in me, myself and I, our hearts aren’t turned towards God and honoring him and pleasing him with our lives and submitting to his will for our lives… no not at all. That’s all death, a life of lust, bitterness, envy, rebellion, pride, disobedience and sin… is death. You think it’s death to surrender to God, but really it’s death living for yourself, you’ll be without purpose, fulfillment, and true joy, happiness and peace.

We sometimes wonder why things aren’t happening in our lives, maybe it’s just down to the fundamental lack of honoring God with where we are at in life. God’s word is a lot more relevant to our lives when it is our life. It doesn’t matter what we profess or say, what matters is our heart, and what’s really going on. Anyone can say they’re a Christian, anyone can claim the name of Jesus Christ, but our actions prove or disprove all that quite readily. The Bible says Abraham’s faith was justified by his works. God told him to go and offer his son on an altar at Mount Moriah, and Abraham did it. What he did just proved the faith he had in God’s word was legit.

You see in Samson’s life a man torn between the pull of the world, it’s acceptance, it’s desires, it’s pleasure… and God’s call on his life. Even when he did right, it seemed to be selfishly motivated. We may condemn his selfishness when we read his life, but how many things… even the “good” things we do, how many of those things are really selfishly motivated? Samson won a miraculous victory with a jawbone against a thousand Philistines and instantly he goes to how good am I mode. It’s damning when we truly judge our own lives, let alone God judges us. There are going to be a lot of Christians who’s lives burn up at judgment, not their souls, but their life’s works. What’s going to remain of your life in the burning fire of the truth and judgment and light of God’s gaze that was truly based on faith and belief and trust in his word? A lot my life is burning up before my eyes already, when is enough enough for us all?

We have gotta watch out for at times Christianity. This at times stuff is a joke, and you see how Samson ruined his life by trying to have a bit of world and a bit of God. A bit of Christianity and a bit of living for yourself, pleasing for yourself, making allowances, indulging yourself in disobedience and rebellion and your ways and philosophies and dreams and so on. If you’re at times, then trouble is coming. You can’t serve two masters, you can’t love the world and love God… it just doesn’t work. The problem was never God in Samson’s life, the problem was Samson’s heart. That’s what needed fixing and changing, and that’s the same for us. Create in me a clean heart O God, David said. He knew his heart was the problem with that Bathsheba sin. We need a new heart, and only God can give you that, we need to stop with the self help and self improvement, and pray like David did to God in acknowledgement of sin, in acknowledgement of truth, and in repentance and faith.

From his potential, to his opportunity, to his ability to serve God, Samson is a picture of us. We have such immense ability to serve God and be used by him and for him, to make a difference in these dark times we live in. However, most of his life is a failure and waste and what could have been, often just like us as well. Learn from his life, he lived in a bad time like we do, the nation itself was in apostasy, everyone was doing what they thought was right according to them, everyone had their own truth and their own idea of God. Samson shouldn’t have been at times, he should have been all the time… and so should we. The Holy Spirit of God moves upon the reading of God’s word today, and he’s telling us to go all the way, don’t just settle for being an at times Christian.

Blog Bible Christ Christian Faith God Gospel Holy Spirit Jesus KJV Salvation Saved Truth