Samson is in many ways every Sunday School boy’s hero. He has superhuman strength. He doesn’t have to worry about haircuts. And he goes around killing bad guys with a jawbone, tearing gates off cities, and setting wild animals on fire. What preteen or early teenage boy wouldn’t love this guy?
Sometimes getting a little offensive is the godly thing to do.
“That last song you guys sang,” Jesus asked, “Do you really believe it?”
Hiding from the consequences of our sin seems to be our knee jerk reaction, but it does not work.
We can either worship Jesus as God or with that crowd we must pick up the stones. There is no other choice. Which do you believe? Is Jesus God or is He a blasphemer?
Jesus said “I am the Good Shepherd” Not “a” good shepherd, “the” Good Shepherd.
The man Jesus had healed had just been grilled by the religious leaders and mocked for his ignorance. His own parents refused to back him up and he most likely had just been kicked out of the synagogue. But this man when being questioned said, “I might not know all about that. All I know is that I once was blind but now I see.”
My head says “yes” to these I am statements of Jesus, but does my life really back that up? Is Jesus my bread of Life? Or do I look to other sources for my provision? Is he the light through which I see my world? Or is he merely a tack on, an afterthought to my life?
Religion has received a bad rap over the past few decades, but even those of us who try our hardest to distance ourselves from being “religious” still tend to be very religious.
Thirst is just a fact of life. Just like hunger, it comes and goes. When I satisfy the need, it goes away… for a time. This is true now, it was true two thousand years ago and it will be true into the future for as long as people inhabit the earth. So when Jesus spoke about drinking water that will take away your thirst forever, it almost seems impossible to imagine.
