HillThread ~ Supporting Missions

1 Peter 2:21
“This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.”

What does it mean to be invited into the kind of life that Christ lived?  Before your answer, read this story by Tony Campollo:

“Joe was a drunk, miraculously converted in a street outreach mission.  Before his conversion he’d gained a reputation as a derelict and dirty wino for whom there was no hope.  But following his conversion to Christ, everything changed.  Joe became the most caring person at the mission.  He spent his days there, doing whatever needed to be done.  There was never anything he was asked to do that he thought was beneath him.  Whether it was vomit left by some hungover alcoholic, of scrubbing filthy toilets, Joe did it all with a heart of gratitude.  He could be counted on to feed anyone who wandered in off the streets and help them get settled in even when they couldn’t take care of themselves.

One evening, after the mission director delivered his evangelistic message to the usual crowd of sullen men with dropped heads, one of them looked up, came down to the altar and kneeled to pray, crying out to God to help him change.  The repentant drunk kept shouting, ‘Oh God, make me like Joe!  Make me like Joe!  Make me like Joe!’  The director leaned over and said, ‘Son, wouldn’t it be better if you prayed to be made more like Jesus?’

After thinking about it for a few moments, the man looked up with an inquisitive expression and asked, ‘Is He like Joe?’

What does it mean to be invited into the kind of life that JEsus lived?

It means to love like Jesus loved.

Related Text:
John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

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.”

Romans 1:11
“The longer this waiting goes on, the deeper the ache. I so want to be there to deliver God’s gift in person and watch you grow stronger right before my eyes!”

Tamar, a gentile, married Judah’s son, Hur.  When he died leaving her childless, custom dictated that his brother, Onan, marry her to give her a child and make her part of their family.  That way, Hur’s inheritance could be passed on to her son.

However, Onan refused to do his part, and God killed him.  Onan, it seems, wanted another wife, but just for show.  He wasn’t worried about ensuring the inheritance for Judah’s son.  Onan wouldn’t carry out the duty that God had instructed to him.  (Genesis 38)

Why do you attend Christian gatherings (like church, church events, youth camps, women’s and men’s ministry weekends)?  Is it just for the fellowship and simulation of being around people you like, or is it because of what you will learn and how you will grow closer to God?  what good is it if the praise band brings you to your feet in praise to God and the pastor brings you to your knees in conviction and self-realization, yet you continue to go home every time unchanged??

At some point, the Word we hear has got to be conceived in our hearts and bring forth fruit.  At some point, we have to become so saturated with divine purpose that we begin to change how we live, how we think, and how we surrender to God instead of ourselves.  Then, not only will we be living for the Spirit, but we will also be a witness to others, imparting God’s greatness on all who take notice.

After Moses had met God at the burning bush, he sent Moses back into Egypt and brought the people back to see what he saw and to touch what he touched.  That is what we have been called to do; to be changed by God and to show others how we have been saved so that God may save them as well.  There are places that God will take us that we can go back and bring others to show and reveal his greatness!

Related Text:
Romans 12:1-2

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.

Proverbs 11:30
“The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life;
a wise person wins souls.”

God’s Word tells us to be prepared to Share Christ (1 Peter 3:15).  Witnessing to others about Jesus Christ requires wisdom, especially in three areas:

1.  Don’t assume that people understand the Gospel because you were raised in a church, and don’t think that they will catch your faith through osmosis just because you are around them.  Romans 10:14 says, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”  Share your testimony – the short version.  Forget the good advice and focus on sharing the Good News of God’s love.

2.  Be patient – sometimes you have to sow the seed and leave the rest to the Lord of the harvest.  Don’t try to corner them into a decision.  Don’t become frustrated and angry because there is no instant belief.  Share the Word, leave the door open, and trust in the One who said, “I am watching over My word to perform it.”  (Jeremiah 1:12)

3.  Be alert to opportunities that God places before you – and don’t be afraid of them.  Some people call them divine appointments, God meetings, or holy coincidences.  Whatever term you have heard most often, the fact remains that, as Christians, God uses us in the lives of others.  God’s strength and power and joy should enable us to meet the opportunities head on and do the will of our Heavenly Father.  If we cower away, we will never know how God wanted to use us.  R.A. Torrey tells of an experience that totally changed his attitude toward witnessing.  While he was eating at a restaurant with some friends, he felt that he should talk to the waiter who seemed to look very depressed.  But he shrugged the feeling off, and never said a word.  At the end of the meal, when the waiter didn’t return, he asked another employee about his whereabouts.  The manager came to their table and said, “We just found him dead in the back of the restaurant.  He has hanged himself.”

When God leads you to speak to someone about His Son, get on the ball and do it!

Related Text:
James 1:5-8

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

Romans 7:5-6
“For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.”

Living a “new life on the freedom of God” is an antidote to stress.  although obeying God usually has it’s own reward, obeying the “still, small voice of God” is especially rewarding.  You see, when God speaks to us, it is usually more like a gentle prompting than like a hammer pounding us on the noggin.  We can ignore His prompting, disobey it, argue with it, even try to postpone it.  Bu when we decide to take any of those options, we always finish up under stress.  After all, what is more stressful than knowing that things are not right between you and God?

The word obedience is a turn-off to many people.  Right away, they think of God as asking them for huge sums of money, or sending them to a mission field of horrors, or telling them to do something they really don’t want to do.  Get Real!  If we don’t listen to Him when He wants us to turn off the tv and spend 10 minutes with Him in prayer and some Bible reading, why would He send us on a mission??

Obeying God in little things – not big ones – is what lowers our stress level.  For example, when He prompts us not to say another word and we keep right on talking, that’s when arguments seem to erupt and, or course, our stress sky-rockets.

God’s word says, “If you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your god . . . you shall be above only and you shall not be beneath.” _Deuteronomy 28:1,13)  the difference between being under the situation or on top of the situation is usually found in one word – obedience.

Do what god wants you to do, and you will see your life transform before your eyes!

Related Text:
Romans 6:6
Ephesians 4 (entire chapter)
John 14:15 (you just gotta read this today)
John 15:10 (this one too!!, it’s super short, just take 10 seconds and read it)

Hebrews 10:35-36
“So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion.”

Francis Cabrini applied to join a missionary organization at the age of 18, but was rejected because she was too sickly.  She spent the next 6 years working in an orphanage only 50 miles away from her home.  Her superior said to her one day, “If you want to be part of a missionary organization, you will have to start one yourself.”  so she did.  She spent the next 8 years building foundations and planting mission’s “seeds” in Milan, Rome, and other Italian cities.

finally she was given a mission assignment to go to, of all places, New York City.

But when she arrived, she was welcomed with even more bad news.  She was told that all the plans had fallen through and that she should just go back to her home in Italy.  But she refused.  Instead, she stayed, solved problems and built schools and even an orphanage.  It didn’t matter what difficulties she faced, she believed that with God on her side, she could overcome anything.  and she did.

By the time she died at the age of 87, she had founded 70 hospitals, schools, and orphanages in America, Spain, France, England, and South America.  Her impact was incredible.  She was the Mother Teresa of her day – displaying the same compassion, grit, and leadership.

But she would have never made a difference if she had allowed her past and her disappointments hold her hostage.  Instead of lamenting the loss of her dream, and the hurts of her youth, she moved on and did hat she could where God put her.  You and I can do the same as well – if we just stick with God and trust in Him!

Related Text:
Hebrews 10:19-39

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!