Slow Fade, Part 1– The Call

It truly is a “Slow Fade”, just as that song by Casting Crowns goes. The story of Samson was literally a slow fade into sin and finally death. You can track every decision made that led him deeper and deeper into sin and finally death but the great thing in all this is, that God was still able to use him to destroy the Philistines (read his story Judges 13-16).

His story makes me think, though. Is that really how God wanted his life to go? God gives us free will to make decisions for ourselves. We ultimately still end up doing some aspect of what we were called to do (once we are called, i.e. salvation and infilling) but how it goes down is up to us. It humbles me that God in His great sovereignty allows us to muck things up but still uses us in the capacity we were to be used! Samson was called to be a Nazarite set apart from birth to destroy the Philistines. God didn’t say how he would do it but just that he would be the one to do it!!

over the next few blogs i’m going to look deeper into Samson’s life and see where we could stop ourselves from going down the wrong road.

The Call
Judges 13:4-5
“because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used because the boy is to be…set apart to God…and he will bring deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Once we have been set apart God gives us a “call” His plan for us is set in motion. God knew the moment you would be saved and the thing He called you to even before you were a thought in your mother’s mind (Jer1:5) and under the right leadership and through personal devotion we will be able to walk in the purpose/call God has given us. I can only imagine Samson’s up-bringing. His parents probably uconstantly told him the story of his birth and the purpose God laid out for him. I mean they had to explain why he was the only one not getting his hair cut. He was the weired boy on the block with the long hair. His parents had to tell him!!!

Just like Samson, we need to have those people. Those parents who are telling us what God’s promises are for us! We need someone who is constantly affirming our walk and telling us that we are truly set apart for greatness. For Samson it was his biological parents, but for us it may not be them. It may be a leader in your church, your pastor, your mentor, but we all must have them. Without them we are liable to fall and forget what we were called for. We may cut our “hair”, our tie to God, and lose that relationship.

Tell me: Who is leading you? Who is that leader that constantly reminds you, you were made for more?