HillThread ~ Supporting Missions

Ruth 2:1-3
1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

Ruth 2:8-12
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me-a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband-how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Related Text:
Leviticus 25:25-27, 49-50
Psalm 91
Jeremiah 32:6-14

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Gleaning was the term used when someone would go behind the harvesters and gather the food that was left on the ground. There would always be some grains left from the harvesting process, and the poor would go behind and “glean” what was left. This is what Ruth found herself doing in the field of Boaz. During Old Testament times, they made it a law that poor people and visiting travelers had the right to glean the fallen food and grains.

God always wanted provisions made for those who were less fortunate or who didn’t have the availability to buy or own. God has given you many abilities that you could share with people in need. I challenge you to make a list of all of your hobbies, your talents, your gifts, and anything else that God has gifted you with talent or ability, or passion for. Look at your list, pray over it, ask God to help you identify those things that you can distribute to others to help those in their time of great need. To those that may not be as fortunate as you. Ask God for some ideas on how to take what He has given you and bless others!

Ruth 1:1-8
1 In the days when the judges ruled, [a] there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.

Ruth 1:16-17
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

Ruth 1:22
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Related Text:
2 Samuel 3:14-16
Proverbs 20:6
1 Corinthians 13

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Think About It

God rewards our faithfulness. He rewards our obedience and our love. But we have to be aware, we have to be looking for it. I’s not going to show up in our mail box with a giant tag on it that says, “This is God’s reward for serving on that mission trip back in the summer of 2009.”

When our relationship with God is close and tight, when we are in tune with God and His plans and His will, we will be better able to understand what He is doing in our lives. When we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. We will be more able to discern His movement and we will be more able to recognize His blessings.

Praise God today for His blessings in your life. Praise Him when He gives you rewards. Then use them to bless others as well!

Judges 16:23-30
23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain.”

25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
When they stood him among the pillars, 26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” 27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

Related Text:
Psalm 3
Isaiah 1
Isaiah 24
Jeremiah 5:7-9, 29
Hebrews 11:32-34

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Who He Wants

Samson is written about in the Bible more than any of the other judges, but he was the least likely of all the judges to be morally qualified for his leadership position. Also, he was the only judge who didn’t bring the Israelites any lasting relief from their painful and oppressed condition.

So why does Samson get so much attention? Bible scholars are unclear as to why there is so much more information about Samson than the other judges in Israel’s past. But what is clear is very comforting.

It’s good to know that God uses people even if they don’t have it all together. Now, that’s not an excuse to live however we want and sit back and wait for God to do something, but it is very comforting and exciting to know that God can use us even though we stumble, and mess up, and sin.

We’re not perfect, but God can still do great things for the Kingdom through our lives. What He needs from us is obedience and willingness to serve.

Honduras, Central America June 2009 – Changing their lives and ours.

Judges 16:15-21
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.
17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. [a] And his strength left him.
20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison.

Related Text:
Numbers 6:2-21
Numbers 30:1-2
Proverbs 11:13
Proverbs 20:19
Ecclesiastes 5:4-6
Luke 12:47-48

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The Rundown

Delilah manipulated Samson with one of the oldest lines in the book , “If you love me, you will . . .” This devious tactic has causes much pain throughout history.

Unfortunately, the line often does the job for the manipulator and gives them success in their intentions. But the person who gives in usually loses. In Samson’s case, he lost big time. The same thing can happen to any of us; love is a powerful thing, and people’s misuse of love can be devastating. When you hear someting like, “If you really love me, you’ll . . . steal for me . . . have sex with me . . . take me to this party . . . get stoned with me . . . buy me this . . .” then you desperately need to re-evaluate your relationship with that person.

True love for another person doesn’t pursue selfish advantage. Quite the opposite, true love is serving one another. Jesus says that there is no greater show of love than when a person gives up his life for another.

Evaluate your relationships. Are you seeking selfish gain? Is someone using you? Don’t be the victim or the aggressor. Instead, serve one another in love. – Galatians 5:13

Judges 16:4-9
4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
7 Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”
8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

Related Text:
Judges 14-15
Proverbs 5
2 Timothy 2:20-23

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Making the Decision

Samson is known for being a man with great and unique abilities. Why God chose to bless his strength by the length of his hair is a wild mystery. But it’s not unique that God chooses to work in any way necessary, even if that way seems strange at the time – it’s seen several times throughout the Bible. The most simple answer about Samson’s strength and not having his hair cut might just be that it was symbol of His obedience to God.

As you read today, and will read tomorrow, Samson spent time with and confided in the wrong person. Delilah broke his trust, she was paid off by the Philistine leaders, and it eventually resulted in Samson losing his hair, his strength, and his leadership.

Samson’s life can provide a powerful learning example of leadership, obedience, and influence. God blessed him with many gifts which had a potential for greatness. Although God blessed him, Samson made wrong decisions, and allowed himself to be in situations where he was influenced by people who pulled him away from God.

This event in Samson’s life begs the question: Do I have people in my life who pull me away from God, who have a negative influence on me? Do I allow myself to get into situations where I will be disobedient to God?

Inevitably, a common response always arises when people start asking “are your friends bad influences, are they even Christians?” The response goes something like, “I’m friends with them so I can be a witness to them.” Which is GREAT, but, we’re human right? We stumble and sin right? It’s very possible that we sometimes use this “witness” response as an excuse to never change our behavior or never change who we hang out with or where we spend our time. In No Way am I saying we cannot have non-Christian friends. This isn’t one of those talks and I’m not your mom. What I am saying is that, we need to guard ourselves against temptations that will put us in a place where we are disobedient to God and distant from Him. This might mean we have to mix up how long, and where and when we hang out with people who have a tendency to carry us away from God. This might not be something you want to address, but if our goal is obedience to God, it’s a decision that we will eventually have to make if we are ever going to make an impact for the Kingdom.

Judges 13:1-5
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Judges 13:24-25
24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 15:20
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Related Text:
Genesis 15:21-24
Numbers 6:1-21
Judges 14-15
Luke 1

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Digging Deeper

When an angel appeared to Samson’s mother and told her she was going to have a special son, it wasn’t the last time God used this technique to announce a unique birth. Hundreds of years later, an angel of the Lord visited Zechariah and told him that he and his wife Elizabeth were going to have a son and that they should name him John (John the Baptist). Around this same time, an angel of the Lord also visited a virgin named Mary, and told her that she too would have a very special child and that she was to name Him Jesus. He will be unlike anyone the world has ever seen.

Luke 1:30-32
“30But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.”

Has God talked to you lately? Some Christians get distraught from time to time because they don’t feel or hear God talking to them or they feel that God can’t use them. Not everyone will be met by an angel of the Lord who gives us a birth announcement, but God still speaks to us all, and He can use us all. We must present ourselves to Him as willing servants.

One very real way God speaks to us is through His word, the Bible. These words of God span time and distance and reach into our hearts. Please take your person time of Bible reading and Bible study seriously. Don’t put it on the back-burner, don’t just skim over it, don’t fill your life with distractions to the point where you can’t hear God.

John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.”

Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Judges 4:1-9
1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading [a] Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’ ”
8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
9 “Very well,” Deborah said, “I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman.”

Judges 4:14-21
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my Lord , come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.
19 “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say ‘No.’ ”
21 But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

Related Text:
Judges 3:12-30
Judges 5:13-31
1 Samuel 12:8-11
Hebrews 11:32-34

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Weird or What?

Deborah was a woman judge who is best known for leading a victorious battle over Sisera. Prior to this battle, she was confident that God had already planned and prepared the victory. And she instructed the military leaders on how to go about obtaining God’s victory over the enemy.

During Old Testament times, judges were very different from today’s court judges. Old Testament Judges were appointed by God as leaders over Israel after Israel entered the Promised Land. They weren’t kings. But they helped lead Israel by creating laws, judging disputes, and providing spiritual and military leadership.

Even though Israel had several different judges over the years, they experienced similar results during their time as judge. These can be seen in 5 stages.

Stage 1: SIN – when the Israelites returned to worshiping idols and turned away from God.

Stage 2: OPPRESSION – because of their sin, God allowed surrounding nations to rule over the Israelites.

Stage 3: REPENT – because of the oppression and pain, the Israelites would repent and turn back to God.

Stage 4: SAVED – after they repented, God would provide a judge to save them from the foreign ruling nations.

Stage 5: PEACE – then there was a time of peace when the Israelites would worship God and stay out of trouble.

Are there any destructive cycles in your life that begin with sin? If so, ask God for help in avoiding them or for help in breaking the cycle altogether. Seek out friends who are believers who can help to hold you accountable as you take on this sin that has a hold of you.

1 Timothy 6:6-14
6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Related Text:
1 John 2:4-6
Matthew 16:24-26

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Obsess Much?

People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another. Obsessed people believe that Jesus talked about money and the poor so often because it was very important to Him. Obsessed people are more concerned with obeying God than doing what is expected or following the status quo. A person who is obsessed with Jesus will do things that don’t always make sense in terms of success or wealth on this earth.