Beach of a Thousand Wonders

This week Marlene and I are at Cannon Beach Conference Center in Oregon. You couldn’t be much closer to the Pacific Ocean than we are. As I look out my window, I can see the waves rolling onto the beach about 40 yards away. I can see a large flock of seagulls on the sand along with a few hearty souls who are taking a morning walk. I can’t see anyone in the water at the moment. Yesterday we were warned not to venture far out because the rip tides have been very strong this summer. Today the skies are overcast, the temperature is 61, heading for a high of 65. Yesterday things cleared off and we had a glorious, sunny day.

I am preaching through the life of Samson and finding it a challenging study. By comparison, when I did Elijah last year, he was easier because the trajectory of his life, though far from perfect, was always toward God. You really couldn’t say that about Samson. He made one foolish mistake after another, and yet he ended up as a hero of faith in Hebrews 11:32. This morning I’m beginning our study of Samson’s downward spiral from Judges 14.