HillThread ~ Supporting Missions

Judges 7:17
“Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.”

Effective leaders understand that caring about workers is even more important than caring about work. They understand that happy people who feel cared about by the person leading them are more productive. Three things set effective leaders apart:

1. They are facilitators. They realize that nobody is ever what they ought to be until they are first doing what they ought to be doing ant that they way to accomplish their own goals is to help others reach theirs.

2. They are courteous. They never look down or talk down. They don’t have one set of manners for the important people and another set for the less important. To them, everyone is important because everyone has God-given potential. Servant-hearted leaders work hard to bring it out in the people they are leading.

3. Effective leaders are decisive. Joshua’s challenge cut to the chase: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) No waffling allowed! People need direction; therefore the good leader has to be decisive. Leaders are generally remembered for one of two thing: the problems they caused through indecision, or the problems they solved through clear direction. The effective leader sometimes has to go out on a limb, because that’s where the fruit is.

Think about this prayer:

“Lord, it is not easy being in the spotlight. It is lonely and scary and often the last place I want to be. This task is so far beyond me that there is nothing I can do but throw myself on You, asking for your strength and wisdom. Help me to exercise my authority with grace. Keep me strong. Give me courage and confidence. My desire is to lead with Your heart: give me the love it takes to lead well. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Related Text:
John 15

Exodus 33:14
“God said, “My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end.”

Knowing when to say “when” can save your life. Self-deceit is the hallmark of a person experiencing “The Martyr Syndrome.” This is a person who believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have to be involved in everything at their church and serve in every capacity. This just cannot be done, eventually you will succumb to stress and resentment.

If you’re going to survive, you’ve got to discover your own pace – not be driven by what people may or may not expect of you. Look out! Fatigue is dangerous; when it walks in, faith walks out. Furthermore, when we’ve burned out, we’re attacked by old enemies we’ve already conquered.

The person who is experiencing “The Martyr Syndrome” more often than not begins to forget why they are serving in the first place. They forget that Jesus is their focal point, and they get wrapped up in the “job” instead of being wrapped up in the one who died for them.

Step back, take a look at why you do what you do, and ask God to help you decide how to make the best impact for Him. Sometimes, doing more doesn’t do any good.

Nurtured and rested people are much more effective in every area. Their relationships with God are stronger; their families are happier; their health is better; they live longer than the martyrs. Why? Because they’ve truly found the place of rest.

Related Text:
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

We can see further than we can go because we are finite person working with an infinite God. Because His Spirit resides in each of us that belong to Him, there is more potential inside us that we have the life-span to realize. When we lay down our heads for the last time, we will still be dreaming dreams that we have never personally fulfilled.

So, does that mean we are failures? No!! There are things that we were meant to only begin or continue. Like an athlete handing the baton to the next runner, we can tell our successors to continue in the work of Jesus.

Like Moses, we stand atop the mountain we see the land we may never personally enter, for our vision will always show us more road than we can travel in a lifetime. Because of this, it is so important for us to communicate and be in relationships with other Christians. We cannot live this life alone, we need help. We are supposed to be a community of believers.

Psalm 119:18
“Open my eyes that I may see
wonderful things in your law.”

Here are four ways to come to God’s Word with open eyes.

1.  Come Humbly:  ”Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2)  What’s more helpless than a baby?  What’s more needy, or dependent?  That’s how we should approach the Bible, like babies going after a bottle.  Forget asking if you’ve read your Bible today . .  ask how much you’ve been in it?  How many times have you turned to God’s words to sustain you today?  To give you answers you needed?  To give you hope and joy?  How many times have you recalled memorized scripture from days gone by?  Crave God’s word as a baby craves life-giving milk.

2.  Come Hungry:  ”For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”  (Psalm 107:9)  What we hunger for determines what satisfies our hunger.  Accept no substitutions!  Refused to be satisfied with the junk food of television, movies, music, and consuming when you can sit at God’s table with the One who loves you so much.

3.  Come Persistently:  Ask more from each verse.  Paul speaks of the manifold wisdom of God” in Ephesians 3:10.  The word manifold means that each verse is like a diamond – every angle brings us another beam of light.  Martin Luther said, “Study your bible like you pick apples.  First, shake the tree, then shake the limbs, then shake the branches, then shake the twigs, then look under every leaf.  Don’t just read passages that are familiar and comfortable to you.  Dive into God’s word and soak it all up.

4.  Come Openly:  Don’t read the Bible to try and pinpoint what’s wrong with your neighbor.  Personalize what you read.  Ask God to help you understand and apply His truths to your life.  Don’t just read it and change nothing, allow God to change whatever needs it.

Come with open eyes and an open heart and experience God’s living Word!

Related Text:
Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Proverbs 8:12
“I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment.
I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.”

No matter how great our cause, when we push ourselves beyond the limits designed for us by God, we suffer the same results as those who burn out in any other pursuit.  Those of us who are classic work-a-holics must learn how to make stress work for us instead of against us.

Here are a few insights learned from experience:

1.  Many people don’t know how to handle life any other way than being under a constant blanket of stress.  (When our only tool is a hammer, we tend to see every problem as a nail.)  You need to acknowledge that stress is like emotional adrenaline to you – which is why you keep creating it and even craving it (as crazy as that sounds).

2.  When you sit in a chair and you hear the legs begin to crack, common sense tells you that if you don’t take your weight off of the chair, you’re going to be on the floor pretty quickly with a big thud.  Use your common sense to heed the telltale signs of your health cracking and the stress taking over so you don’t begin to crack yourself.  When we crack under the pressure, we greatly diminish what we can do for God or anyone else.

3.  Learn prudence.  The word prudence means “careful management”.  A prudent person becomes a better manager of their time, their energy, and their God-given gifts.

4.  Identify your stressors.  I know a lot of mine, have you identified yours?  Change the ones you can, and start accepting the ones you can’t – such as other people.  Learn to adapt to any stressor that can’t be changed so that the stress they create motivates you instead of burying you.

5.  Most importantly, spend more time with Jesus, who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

Related Text:
Proverbs 8:1-14

John 11:1-3
“Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick.’”

Mary and Martha sent someone to Jesus on behalf of Lazarus and. because they showed faith by making the journey to Jesus, Jesus responded.  The miracle wouldn’t unfold for several days, but the timer was set by God right when the appeal was made.

Do you ever wonder where your prayers go when they leave your lips?

“…there was silence in heaven and another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden pan with the prayers of all God’s people.  The angel put this off God’s people.”  (Revelation 8:1-4)

Why was there silence in heaven?  Because heaven pauses to hear the prayer of people like you and me: “the prayers of all God’s people” went up to God.  The awesome truth about prayer is that our words don’t stop until they reach God.

Jesus is our way to God.  He communicates to the Lord on our behalf.  ”For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.”  (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

Take note that the friend who went to Jesus on behalf of Lazarus said, “Master, the one You love so very much is sick.”  He didn’t base his appeal on the imperfect of of the one in need (Lazarus), but on the perfect love of the Savior.  The friend didn’t say, “The one who loves you is sick.”  Instead, he said, “the one You love is sick.”  There is a huge difference there.  None of us can love Jesus more than He loves us!

The power of prayer doesn’t depend on the virtue of the one who prays, but on the unchanging love of the One who hears.  Aren’t you glad??  It means that we may be deeply flawed; we may not understand the mystery of prayer, but prayer doesn’t depend on our perfection, but on God’s love.

So pray with confidence when you pray, and believe that your words are heard by God, who loves you so very much.

Related Text:
John 11:1-44 (Yea, it’s 44 verses, but it’s the story of Jesus raising Lazarus.  It’s amazing!)

Proverbs 3:27-28
“Never walk away from someone who deserves help;
your hand is God’s hand for that person.
Don’t tell your neighbor “Maybe some other time”
or “Try me tomorrow”
when the money’s right there in your pocket.”

Beware of the someday trap – you know, the way we all rationalize our inactivity by thinking “Someday when I have more money or someday when I have the time or someday when I’m through with school.”  This is the trap that Solomon describes in Proverbs 3:27-28.  It’s a very easy trap to fall into because it’s so easy to believe that we really would love to serve or to help, but we just don’t have the resources.  God will provide the resources, what He needs is a willing heart.

God pours his blessings into pipes, not pots. (if you don’t understand that saying, message me and I’ll explain it.)  As long as we constantly dwell on what we don’t have instead of what we do have, we will never feel that we have enough to give to others.

don’t wait until you can afford a “big” gift.  Instead, do what you can with what you have now.  Take a box of groceries to a needy family.  Turn the clutter in your cupboard into the answer to somebody’s prayer. (do you realize, no matter where you live, that your town has a hungry family in need of help?)  Better still, give away something you really want to keep.  Generosity develops character, crucifies self-centeredness, and helps us become more like Jesus.

Instead of measuring your generosity with that of your peers, measure it by the Macedonian church – the most impoverished church in it’s location.  ”Though desperately poor . . . they gave . . . far more than they could afford! – pleading for the privilege of helping out . . . this was totally spontaneous . . . and caught us completely off guard.  What explains is was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us.  The other giving simply followed out of the purposes of God working in their lives.”  (2 Corinthians 8:3-5)

Walk toward those who need help and offer your hand.  Always be moving toward generosity and remember that God have us such a great gift, and Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice for us.

Related Text:
2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Matthew 25:25
“I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.”

Jesus’ parable to His disciples about the talents (the money given for investment purposes from a master to his servants) teaches us that the one who risks will be rewarded; but the one who plays it safe will lose. Jesus was not just talking about “the sweet by and by” here. He wasn’t just giving a story for story’s sake. He was pinpointing our lives. This principle applies to our lives here and now. Many failures usually precede any success. If we let the fear of failure keep us from taking risks, we will never do anything significant. Walking by faith involves taking risks and making mistakes, and learning along the way.

One day, a ceramics teacher divided her class into 2 groups. The first group was graded on the number of pieces they produced during the class (50 for an A, 40 for a B, 30 for a C, and so on) but the second group was graded on quality and only had to produce one piece. It had to be perfect to get an A. The results weren’t what you would imagine. The group that was graded on quantity began working at breakneck speed. At first the pieces were sloppy and ugly, but by the end of the class, they first group was producing excellent artwork. They were getting practice, turning out so many pieces. But the second group sat around trying to think about how to start and wondering where the inspiration would come from. The second group failed to finish their piece and had nothing to show for their effort, while the first group not only got an A, but were producing amazing peces by the end of the class. UNLESS we overcome our fear of making mistakes, we will never make a difference.

Faith means following God to the very edge, trusting Him that when we do, He will either put a solid foundation underneath our feat, or He will teach us to fly!

Related Text:
Matthew 25:14-30 (entire talent parable)

2 Peter 1:5-9
“So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Lord Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.”

Learning to control your impulsive reactions instead of “mouthing off” with the first thing that pops into your head takes great restraint: “Patience is better than strength.  Controlling your temper is better than capturing a city.  (Proverbs 16:32)  Learn to respond with wisdom, instead of reacting with anger.  The difference between responding and reacting is subtle, but crucial.

For instance, if your boss fires you and your first reaction is to take a swing at him, take 10, go for a walk, and realize you have a better long-term options than getting an assault charge.  If you can rely on God to keep your head above water during the flood, you might be able to negotiate severance pay, a letter of recommendation, or even a referral for your next job.  And if you want to be a learner instead of a loser, find out why it happened and what you need to do different next time.  Take the time to learn ad make the necessary changes.  There’s wisdom in every crisis – ask God for His wisdom, even if the situation makes you feel like your world is falling apart.  Be patient and remember that faith in our Savior is the bridge that will take you from where you are right now to where you need to be.

Don’t overreact to a crisis.  Instead, trust that God is working on angles you haven’t even considered:  ”13 Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.  14 Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous.  Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

Exercise self control in any crisis by learning to see beyond the eclipse of the present situation.  The sun will shine gain.  God has promised it, so you can count on it!

Hebrews 12:1-2
“1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

A study of the lives of Bible heroes reveals two commonalities:  they struggled with failure, and they refused to let any single experience distort their view of themselves.  These characteristics are common not only to Bile heroes, but to many visionaries.

The Emperor Ferdinand told Mozart that his opera, The Marriage of Figaro, was “far too noisy”.  Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime, yet his smallest one today will sell for millions.  Einstein’s teacher told him he would never mount to anything.  (Bet his teacher wants that one back??)  They succeeded because they refused to be limited by the opinions of others.

Author Leo Buscaglia was a great admirer of television cooking expert Julia child.  He wrote, “I just love her attitude.  She says, ‘Tonight, we’re going to make a souffle.’ Then  she beats this, whisks that, drops stuff on the floor, and does all of these wonderfully human things.  The she throws it into the oven and chats with you while it’s baking.  Finally, she says, ‘Now it’s ready.’ But when she opens the oven, the souffle just falls flat as a pancake.  but does she panic or burst into tears?  No!  She just smiles and says, ‘Well, you can’t win them all.  Bon appetite!’”

Our greatest regrets may be over the things we haven’t done, rather than the things we have done, because mistakes are redeemable while lost opportunities are lost.

Get on with it – the reward is worth running the race!
Look to God for encouragement and for the strength to persevere.  Keep the joy.  Love God and love others!

Related Text:
Hebrews 12 (entire chapter)