Hill Thread

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 8:35, 38-39
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 4:16-19 (The Message)
13-16This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved
17-18God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day-our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life-fear of death, fear of judgment- it is a sign of a person not yet fully formed in love.
19We, though, are going to love-love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

Related Text:
Deuteronomy 7:7-11
John 3:16-19
Romans 5:8-11
Ephesians 2:4-10

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Unconditional love is the way God loves you and me. God’s love isn’t based on grades, personality, looks, money, past actions, present actions, future actions, friendships, athletic performance, business ethics, or anything.

READ it right there in one of the related texts, Deut. 7:7-8 (It says God loves us because He loves us. Wow, wrap your head around that. The reason the Bible gives for God loving us is that it’s because He loves us!)

If God loved you for what you did, that would be called conditional love. But God’s love is unconditional because His love has no strings attached. Sure there are things that you and I do that God doesn’t like, but He will never keep His love from us!

NOTHING you or I do will permanently separate us from God’s love. Believe it or not, there is no language that is too bad, no action that’s too evil, and no thought that’s too wild to stop God from loving you! Wow, doesn’t that make you feel all warm and cozy, and want to crawl up in the lap of our Heavenly Father!

NOW WRAP YOUR HEAD AROUND THIS.

God shows us unconditional love! Got it.

Reread Romans 8:35, 38-39 from the perspective of YOU showing God unconditional love. (I know, did your mind just get blown!?!?)

Nothing that we go through, nothing that happens to us, no amount of pain we experience should cause us to stop loving God.

God loves us no matter what. Now throw that amazing love right back at Him, and love God no matter what you are going through.

Persevere!

Our k-5th grade RA boys got up early this past Saturday morning and took some time to cut bed sheets into 3-inch bandages to be sent to the Baptist Medical Centre in Ghana, West Africa.  We were able to collect a few thousand feet of bandages to be sent!  Our prayer is that God will bless this effort and that those who need these bandages may find quick and safe healing from our Father.  Find out more about the Ghana Bandage Project.

Hill Thread will be participating in the 10 Day Give this year for the first time.  We are super excited and can’t wait for October 1.  Make sure you sign up and partner with this great act of service.

“The 10 Day Give is a challenge that is designed to help us get our minds off of ourselves and start thinking about how we can help others.

The thing is, I think most people really want to make other people’s lives better, but with everything going on all around us all hours of the day, we just don’t get a chance. This is an opportunity to choose, on purpose, to give of ourselves. There really are hundreds of opportunities that we overlook each day. My goal is to just grab hold of one of them each day.

For some people that means giving money, for others time is far more precious than money, and for others it may mean their expertise in an area. But, no matter who you are, we all have something to give.

It could be taking someone out to lunch, it could be babysitting for an overworked mom, it can as simple as giving your precious time by taking your mom to the park to talk. There are no rules, no judges, and no right or wrong ways of completing the challenge.

But, I encourage you to sign up for the challenge and decide to give whatever you can – it’s only for 10 days. And who knows, maybe it will become a habit.

So, why not decide to take 10 days to give something to a different person, each day. It doesn’t matter what the gift is, how much it costs, who it is given to, or how it is given. The point is to just to give – on purpose. We hope you decide to join us.”

Job 19:1-7 Job’s reply to his friend Bildad
1 Then Job answered:
2 How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
3 You have humiliated me ten times now,
and you mistreat me without shame.
4 Even if it is true that I have sinned,
my mistake concerns only me.
5 If you really want to appear superior to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in His net.
7 I cry out: Violence! but get no response;
I call for help, but there is no justice.

Job 27:1-6
1 Job continued his discourse, saying:
2 As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,
and the Almighty who has made me bitter,
3 as long as my breath is still in me
and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not speak unjustly,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
5 I will never affirm that you are right.
I will maintain my integrity until I die.
6 I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go.
My conscience will not accuse as long as I live!

Related Text:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Matthew 6:25-34

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Instead

God heard the prayers of Job thousands of years ago. And He hears your prayers today! While God doesn’t always choose to answer your prayers the way you hope or expect, rest assured that He hears them. In Luke 18:1-11, Jesus explained the need to pray consistently and to keep praying until an answer comes.(even if it’s not the answer you were looking for, it can still be an answer) So next time you feel like worrying about something, try giving that worry up to God by praying about it instead! See, it’s that easy.

Ezra 1:1-7
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
” ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Anyone of his people among you-may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”
5 Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites-everyone whose heart God had moved-prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. 6 All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings. 7 Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.

Related Text:
2 Chronicles 36:22-23
Jeremiah 25:11-12
Jeremiah 29:l10-14

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The Low Down

When the possibility of returning home and rebuilding the temple came around, the Iaraelites needed help with the finances and with the physical workload. They needed both money and manpower, not just one or the other.

When you think of contributing to a task, it’s easy to think of just donating money or just praying, and letting others foot the bill or do the work. But there are instances where God can use more than your prayers and more than your financial contributions. He can use you, your physical skills and talents and your time, to help get the job done. There are ministries all over, in and outside of your church, that need prayer, finances and physical aid to be built, to grow, and to make an impact for God.

Make a contribution this week. Fins a ministry to get involved in at your church. Find a place to serve. Your contribution may not seem like much to you, but it may be a treasure to another!

James 2:15-16
15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”-but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

Okay, so this clip is some rediculous super hero movie.  But hey, if there really was a Waffler, I bet he would definitely show up to Waffle Fest ’09!  In fact, I think the rumor is that the Waffler will make an appearance.  Must be tough to squeeze in time between all of the crime fighting.  Come out to catch a glimpse of Waffler, eat all of the waffles your gut can handle, and have a great time worshiping God, who loves us so much that He gave up His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins!  2 day event, Saturday, October 10, 2009 @ 7pm and Sunday, October 11, 2009 @ 9am.  For more information, go to FBC Frisco’s Student Ministry Page.  Waffle Fest ’09 is a FREE EVENT!

I would like to send out a big Thank You to Pete at Bible Money Matters for allowing me to guest post an article about missions yesterday on his website www.biblemoneymatters.com.  Here’s a short summary about Pete’s passion . . .

“Hi, I’m Pete, and Bible Money Matters is my faith and finance blog where I’ll be chronicling my wife and my path towards becoming financially independent.

As of a year or two ago we were blessed to be able to become debt-free except the mortgage.  We love being debt free, and like to live by this verse:

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Proverbs 22:7

We don’t ever want to be servant to the lender again.   We are now working our way towards building a nice nest egg for our future, and hope you’ll join us on that journey.

Bible Money Matters was launched around the 1st of February 2008 as a place for me to put down my thoughts on matters of my Christian faith and how it affects my finances.  Many people believe that faith and finances should be wholly separate, but I believe they are inextricably bound.  The bible has over 2300 verses on money, and it is clear to me that our money needs to be informed by our faith.”

Want to learn a little more about Pete and Bible Money Matters?  Read these interviews he did with some other blogs!

• Lending Club Blog: Interview Part 1 and Part 2
• Studenomics.com: Personal Finance Blogger Interview
• Ask Mr. Credit Card Interview: Interview With Peter Anderson
• Interview with TheDebtHawk.com: Interview with Peter from Bible Money Matters