Hill Thread

Luke 6:32-36
32″If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

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What does it all mean?!?!
There has to be more to our faith than friendliness, politeness, and even kindness. True love is loving a person after they have hurt you. True love makes you stand out!

In October 2006, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a man stormed into an Amish school and killed several girls. You probably heard about it on the news. The day after the shootings, many Amish people visited the shooter’s family to say that they had forgiven him. That sort of forgiveness is incomprehensible to the world; because of it, people have even accused the families of the girls as being bad parents, of not dealing properly with their anger, and of living in denial. It is just this sort of love that is crazy to the world: true love, a kind found nowhere but through Jesus Christ.

~Francis Chan
Crazy Love

Joshua 24:14-21
14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”
19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.”

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Here the Deal
Before he died, Joshua challenged the Israelites to turn from their idols and love God alone. This farewell address was more like a pep talk than a goodbye. He tries to get them pumped up and energized for serving God and God alone. Doesn’t it seem strange to think that the Israelites struggled with worshiping other gods after all that they had seen God do for them?

Do you ever act like the Israelites? The answer is most undoubtedly yes – we all do. We have all at some time in our lives forgotten what all God has done for us. Or we have pushed it to the back of our mind for a time. There is a point in our lives when God is not the complete focus of our lives. We are just like the Israelites. But we must never forget everything that God has done for us. Every time He has rescued us. Every time He has comforted us, or given us peace and joy.

One thing we have in common, God sent Jesus to die in our place to pay for our sin and offer us a relationship with Him and entry into eternal life in Heaven. What more could He do? God gave us the best of His love. And I am sure that if all 568 members today were to post a story of what God has done for them personally, we would have 568 unique and amazing stories of His love and His forgiveness, and His power and wisdom. But with all of this, unfaithfulness still finds a way to creep into our lives. It creeps in when we turn our backs on Him by giving other things in our lives priority over God and our relationship with Him.

Don’t allow today to end without taking a reflective journey of your own faith and commitment to God. God has proven Himself to be faithful over and over. Can you truthfully say what the Israelites told Joshua, “We will worship the Lord”?

Joshua 11:15-23

15 As the LORD commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.

16 So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, 17 from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and struck them down, putting them to death. 18 Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. 19 Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. 20 For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

21 At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. 22 No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive. 23 So Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions.
Then the land had rest from war.

Related Text:
Deuteronomy 7
Deuteronomy 9:1-6
Joshua 7-10

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Take a Crack At It

The Israelites went through a lot of pain, suffering, wandering, and disobedience before reaching the Promise Land. God proved Himself faithful by fulfilling His promise to the Israelites. He brought them into their inheritance. God is Faithful!

So here’s an exercise that you can do on your own. Write it down in a notebook, or journal, or on scratch paper; but take some time to do it.

1. Does God’s faithfulness mean anything to you?

2. If yes, describe what it means.

3. Can God rely on your faithfulness and obedience?

Joshua 6:1-5
1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.”

Joshua 6:20-25
20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it-men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” 23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house. 25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho-and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

Related Text:
Numbers 10:1-10
Judges 7:1-22
Matthew 1:1-6

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Here’s the Deal
This story of how God wanted Israel to attack Jericho reveals to us that God’s plans aren’t always the same as our plans. He doesn’t do everything the same way that we would do things.

Imagine the Israelite military headquarters with all of their military leaders assembled together, coming up with the strategy that will surely overcome Jericho. They are reviewing their plans to make sure they get it right; each officer knows his job and knows how to lead his division against the city. Then Joshua enters the tent telling everyone to scrap their plans and all of their logic and attack strategy. Instead, Joshua explains how they are going to conquer the city by marching around the perimeter, playing their trumpets, and shouting loudly until the city walls crumble.

Can you imagine the response of the military leaders and officers as they listen to this new plan. It must have sounded crazy. And it does seem a little bit ridiculous compared to what the normal plan of attack against a walled city would be, but the main factor here is God. The marching and trumpet playing and shouting wasn’t the plan of the people, it was God’s plan. All that was needed was obedience.

When God is in control of your life, you may find that His ways and plans are different from yours. Next time you are face to face with a problem or a situation that doesn’t make any sense to you, ask God for some direction. Pray that God will reveal some of His plans and intentions to you. Pray to understand God’s vision and scope of the situation and be willing and obedient to His call. Don’t hesitate, even if it sounds crazy. With God, even crazy works!

Joshua 2:1-6
1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)

Joshua 2:22-24
22 When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. 23 Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. 24 They said to Joshua, “The LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”

Related Text:
Matthew 1:1-6
Hebrews 11:31
James 2:25

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Just a Thought
If God us willing to use a prostitute to help others, don’t you think He is willing to use you as well to make an impact for His Kingdom? And, as judgmental as that sentence may sound, it is not intended to be. Everyone is aware of how society views prostitution. But God, the Creator of everything, the God Most High, He used Rahab despite her sin.

Don’t get caught up in a spiral of self pity or an attitude of worthlessness. God can use you, all you have to be is willing. I encourage everyone to read the related text in today’s scripture. It’s pretty short, but it really makes an impact. In Matthew, you will read how Rahab is in the genealogy of Jesus!

Joshua 1:1-9
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates-all the Hittite country-to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Related Text:
Deuteronomy 11:22-25
Psalm 1
Psalm 19
Psalm 119
1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Hebrews 3:1-6

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Courageous

It’s an easy choice to be a coward and hide your feelings and beliefs and just go along with the crowd. But being courageous is tough. Courageous people stand their ground and accept comments directed at them, they don’t run. They are willing to say “no” when everyone else is saying “yes”, they are willing to make decisions based on what they believe, not what they are pressured into.

Courageous people aren’t afraid of the jeers, laughter, or put-downs that they might receive for acting on their beliefs. Being courageous doesn’t mean that you enjoy the attacks, but rather, you aren’t afraid of them. It doesn’t mean that you go looking to cause trouble or ruffle feathers, or nit-pick your friends, neighbors, or co-workers actions. But at some point, a courageous person won’t let the status-quo take over their life. They will stop going through the motions.

Being a follower of Jesus takes courage. It took courage in the days and years that followed His death and resurrection, and it takes courage today. If being courageous doesn’t describe you, then evaluate your life today, as you go through your routine, and see if there are places where you can stand up for your faith and not slip back and hide in the shadows.

Numbers 25:1-5
1 While Israel was staying in Acacia Grove, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. 2 The women invited them to the sacrifices for their gods, and the people ate and bowed in worship to their gods. 3 So Israel aligned itself with Baal of Peor, and the LORD’s anger burned against Israel. 4 The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD so that His burning anger may turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses told Israel’s judges, “Kill each of the men who aligned themselves with Baal of Peor.”

1 Corinthians 6:18-20
18 Flee from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body,” but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Related Text:
Deuteronomy 4:1-4
Joshua 22:16-20
Psalm 106:28-31
Hosea 9:10
1 Corinthians 10:1-8

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We Decide

Do I love God enough to be obedient to His commands for my life? That’s what each of us must ask ourselves, probably daily.

1 John 5:3-4 – “3 For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden, 4 because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.”

John 14:15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

We are faced with temptations all the time, and we have the choice to obey God and follow His commands or to fall to the temptations. No matter how we want to spin it to make ourselves feel a little better about sinning, we always have a way out of the temptation before we sin. God promises us that He provides a way out of the temptation.

1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so that you are able to bear it.”

When we are faced with the temptation of sexual acts outside of marriage and our sinful nature screams to sin, remember 1 Corinthians 6:20. “for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”

Memorize it, ask God to help you understand that you were bought and the price paid for you was the greatest price in history; Jesus.

Numbers 24:1-9
1 Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as at other times, but turned his face toward the desert. 2 When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him 3 and he uttered his oracle:
“The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
4 the oracle of one who hears the words of God,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
5 “How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
your dwelling places, O Israel!
6 “Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the LORD,
like cedars beside the waters.
7 Water will flow from their buckets;
their seed will have abundant water.
“Their king will be greater than Agag;
their kingdom will be exalted.
8 “God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox.
They devour hostile nations
and break their bones in pieces;
with their arrows they pierce them.
9 Like a lion they crouch and lie down,
like a lioness-who dares to rouse them?
“May those who bless you be blessed
and those who curse you be cursed!”

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Trust and Focus

The word “oracle” might seem strange to you. You might not hear it that often, especially in today’s speech. A word that might be a little more familiar to you is “prophesy”. The term oracle of prophesy is used to describe a vision, a truth, a burden, or a word from God that is spoken by a person called an oracle or a prophet. Prophets were messengers who were authorized to speak for God. Prophesies are the descriptions of what is to happen in the future.

Biblical prophesies have been coming true for thousands of years. When you think of prophesies, you might think of the book Revelation, which is the last book in the Bible. When you read prophesies, you can be confident that God is unfolding history in His timing and He will fulfill all prophesies. This is great news for those who believe God and trust in His word and His ways. So when you read this scripture today, don’t get bogged down in the confusing names and don’t be bored just because it’s in the Old Testament. Instead, go re-read the scripture, it will only take like 45 seconds, and praise God for His blessings and His care.