Talked with Norm, Velma and Vivian yesterday, all are doing well and Viv and Norm are making good strides in their recovery.

Carla was called into the store today, one of the clerks was ill; it will set her back on burning the garden debris that we haven’t composted, but we will have time.

Hard to believe that a quarter of the year has passed and we are into the second quarter, time is indeed traveling faster than it used to........

Judges 16:15-17 And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

¹⁶ And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

¹⁷ That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

Three times before Delilah asked Samson the reason for his great strength and each time he gave her false information – and each time she did what he said would incapacitate him.

Then she woke him up with the declaration that the Philistines were coming.  Three times.

She continued to tempt him and he eventually gave her the truth, his strength was due to his hair never being cut.

Why didn’t Samson see this coming, maybe the first time might have been a coincidence but the second and third time?

How foolish could he be?

He was blessed by God, yet, he yielded to the pressures of Delilah and gave away the secret – and he suffered, gravely, for it.

Three times he was warned, four times he yielded and the last was his undoing.

We see it in the news today; an excellent example is a young man who has great gifts with a football.  He was an incredible college quarterback and was drafted number one by an NFL team.

There were signs of his personal problems, but those were overlooked in hopes he could turn a failing club around.

He was warned that he needed to concentrate on football; it was far different in the pros than in college.

He didn’t listen and instead partied and created problems for himself and others.

He was warned, he promised not to continue, and then turned around and partied.  At one point he tried to get friends who had been at a party and filmed him to lie and say it was from much earlier days.

He was warned multiple times, he lied and he continued to party even though he knew it would affect his status as a professional player.

I heard person after person that watched this debacle say, ‘well he is a young man, and still learning.’  He was 22 years old and far past being a young man – young men his age are holding down jobs, raising families, fighting in uniform.

It wasn’t his age that was a problem, it was his attitude and where his heart really was/is.

He was fired from the job, and is being investigated for domestic violence by a police agency and the NFL, who has made it a crusade to punish domestic abusers – it is clear to all players that it will not be tolerated. 

Why?  How foolish could he be?  He is young and may yet turn himself around, there are people that want to help him, yet he continues to party, knowing that his chances of getting another job is in jeopardy and he may never play another game.

But these two men are not alone in yielding to the siren call of sin – we all do it.

We all put our lives in jeopardy – and our spiritual lives suffer. 

What is my Delilah, what has God warned me over and over to forgo, so that I will not fall into similar traps of satan and lose my chances to better serve Him?

As I look back over the years, I find I have done the same thing – God warned me, yet, I did what I wanted to do, and I failed Him and I suffered the consequences.

Even today, I must check daily to make sure I am on the same road that God wants me on.  That I am not listening to a siren call to sin, He is there to forgive me, but how much better is it that I don’t require that constant forgiveness and focus on serving Him?

Where does my heart lie?  Is it with my siren?

 And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

Or, is it with God?

Mathew 22:36-38  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

³⁸ This is the first and great commandment.

Later, Art :-)