“…for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” (Judges 13:5, ESV)
If you’ve been around the Old Testament much, you’ve heard of the Philistines. They were a thorn in the side of Israel off and on for a long time, sometimes for decades at once. Such was the case when Samson was born.
At that time the people of Israel had again (!) done what was evil in God’s eyes, and he had given them over to the rule of the Philistines for 40 years. It was long enough, in fact, that the people didn’t even ask God to rescue them. But God was going to do just that.
I’ve seen a lot of golfers who are kind of like the Israelites. They hit slices and fat shots and the occasional hosel-rocket as if it were the thing to do. They’ve accepted the rule of these bad shots, and while it may be that they’d rather not hit them, “Philistine” shots have become the tolerable norm.
If one of those golfers is lucky, he will one day find himself being observed by a pro, and that pro, moved with compassion and the desire that none should perish, will come along and start him on the road to recovery.
That was the role of Samson, a flawed and yet faithful man. He was not born to save Israel from the Philistines. No, his purpose was to begin to save Israel.
Many of us who are Links Players know that the S in LINKS reminds us to share Christ through the great game of golf. But we may mistakenly think that means we have to save people—and since we don’t really know how to do that, we don’t do much of anything.
I can assure you that it is not your role to save your fellow golfers, or anyone else; that’s the role of the Holy Spirit. But it could very well be your role to begin to save someone. Everyone’s salvation begins somewhere, and that could be an invitation to a Links Fellowship or an offer to play a round of golf.
Like Samson, it might just be your calling to start something. In the New Testament, Paul called this sowing, the planting of a seed. Strange, isn’t it? Our visible work in starting something for God may be to make a tiny seed invisible, digging a hole and burying it in the dirt of another’s soul.
But you know what happens to seeds. They don’t stay in the ground. With the watering of another, and the tending of a third, and the constant care of the Lord, they can sprout and grow and come to fruition. In other words, that starting something that is your role could spring to life and last for eternity. And now you know why Zechariah recorded these words of God: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin” (Zechariah 4:10, NLT).
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Lewis Greer
May 7, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.