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A friend of mine in Nashville
started a ministry a few years back called the Samson Society. It is essentially a place where men come and
get honest with one another. To form
the kind of brotherhood that King David had with his comrades in arms. Bottom line… we all want to be like
David. Bottom bottom line… we’re way
more like Samson.
The account of Samson in Judges
13-16 screams out to the isolationist.
His ministry and his lonely wanderings in enemy territory are seen side
by side. No one in the three chapters
devoted to his life are mentioned by name, save his parents and the woman who
would do him in. Where were his friends? Who cared about what was going on in his
life?
Samson’s life is so relevant for
men today. He avoided intimate
relationships with other men of his faith so that he could hide his secret
sexual life. He was going to prostitutes
in Gaza and carrying on with woman that were forbidden to the children of
Israel. So it is with men today.
The internet has opened a
floodgate of pornography to the average man.
It is his secret world, shameful and hidden from view. Just as Samson Judged Israel for twenty years
(15:20) before the wheels came off in his life, so the Christian man can carry
on his office as a “good Christian” for some time before he acknowledges the
hole that has been growing.
Brother Samson is a call to
honesty. Our secrets will kill us. We must stop asking God for private answers
to our secret sins and turn to trust the body of Christ because in the end,
even if Samson had cried out for help, no one would have heard him who would
have cared.
“And Samson grasped the two
middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the
one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, "Let me die with the
Philistines!" And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the
lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his
death were more than those whom he killed in his life.” Judges 16:29-30
Brother
Samson
How does a young man look so old
Born of promise, born to be bold
Was it strength that destroyed you?
Deliverer of Israel
All alone when you failed
All alone in Your vengeance
Brother Samson, can you erase
Years of wandering lonely ways
Was it just to hard to trust them?
Do you still pray alone
Private prayers for a secret hole
Ah, you thought you knew so well
What you needed before you fell
The pridefulness of youth
From the whore’s house to the gates
Filled with the Spirit and filled with rage
No guilt subdued you
Brother Samson did you cry
Out for help when they brought you down
Or did you know no one would hear you
So much time now just to think
What if’s and shoulda’s and coulda beens
But nobody here cares
Another young man looking old
Born of promise but losing hope
Trusting Christ but not the church again
Another secret sin another prayer
He wants to speak but doesn’t dare
This proud man is broken
Brother Samson can’t you see
The person broken here is me
In the dark did you find the answer
I’m reaching out now to Christ’s bride
If he can trust her so can I
Broken men of God rise up again
‘Cause you’re not alone
Broken Samson rise again
‘Cause you’re not alone
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