Tag: Relationship

It’s All About A Relationship

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

“Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle. The core of that lifestyle is thinking of others, as Jesus did, instead of ourselves.” —  Rick Warren.

You could make a strong case that human beings are defined by their relationships more than anything else. Relationships tell us who we are, whose we are and what is expected of us. Our relationships define where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. The company we keep is one of the most telling characteristics of who we truly are. And that includes our relationship with God.

Too often we try to define our relationship with God when in reality our relationship needs to be defined on His terms. Right now, God is actively seeking a relationship with you that is life-changing. He wants you to identify with His will and work in this world, but He wants you first to identify with Him.  He invites you to be forgiven and enjoy His life in you.  He wants to be your Father and desires that you be His child.

Relationships with people are dynamic, in that they often change with time and can grow deeper. So it is also with your relationship with Jesus. Just as God’s mercies are new every morning, your relationship with Jesus can also be new and alive every morning. The relationship becomes deeper as your love for Him increases, and as your own will decreases.

Today people want a relationship without putting in the work to make the relationship strong. In the same way, we want the benefits of a relationship with God without spending time with God. We want access to the power of God without the work and time needed to build an intimate relationship with God. A real relationship with God means getting to know God and we don’t get to know God in a day or over a weekend.

 A true relationship with God will not happen automatically. We must want it, really want it. If you want an intimate relationship with God, He must become a priority. It must be something that you are motivated to do. It will not come from a sense of obligation.

There will be times in our lives when we have a real hunger and desperation for God. There will be times when we just can’t get enough of Him. There will be times when we feel His presence in tangible ways. At times like these God will feel close and there will be the intimacy we seek. But real intimacy means we do those things even during times of trial or when bad things just keep popping up and it is a labor of love to pray, to spend time in the word, and to serve. The deepest growth in intimacy in our relationship with God comes when we worship and serve God regardless of negative circumstances.

Augustine said, “To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; To seek Him, the greatest adventure; To find Him, the greatest human achievement.”

Discussion Questions:

  1. What keeps you from having a more intimate relationship with God?
  2. What role does fear play in developing an intimate relationship with God?
  3. How can we improve our relationship with God?

Knowing God In A New Way In 2023

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

“Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.” —  2 Peter 3:18

How does getting to know God better in 2023 sound? Imagine being closer to the Creator of the universe—the one that created you.

Knowing God doesn’t mean knowing about God. It doesn’t mean accumulating a fact book in your head. To know God means I don’t just know about Him, I know Him. I’ve seen Him work in my life. I’ve built my life upon His promises, and I’ve seen time after time He is faithful to them. I’ve noticed that He never fails.

Too often we view truly knowing God as a chasm seldom crossed. We assume that “encountering or really knowing God” is reserved for those with seminary degrees. Knowing God is more than an acquisition of knowledge or information. Nor is it just a fact-finding mission.  Scripture teaches that everyone can have a true and personal knowledge of God. Knowing God is not an optional part of the Christian life; it is the Christian life.

In 2023, we want to go a little deeper into knowing God. When you want to deepen your relationship with God, you need to move beyond head knowledge to know Him well enough to seek personal encounters with Him. Daniel 11:32 (TLB) tells us, “…But the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things.”  

 John Piper said this about the subject: “But to enjoy Him, we must know him. Reasoning, thinking, knowing God is the necessary means, and delighting in, being satisfied in, enjoying and treasuring God is the ultimate end of the human soul.” J.I. Packer wrote a book entitled Knowing God. He said, “It [knowing God] is the most practical project anyone can engage in. Knowing about God is crucially important for living our lives.”

The ultimate goal of every Christian is to get to know God. Many verses in the Bible make this very clear. “And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” (John 17:3) “And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.” (1 John 5:20.)

Knowing God means encountering Him. Knowing God means communing with Him. It is getting to know Him as a loving Father. Knowing God means there is a relationship. Knowing God is the byproduct of regular, consistent time spent with Him, in His word, and in prayer. Knowing Him is when we are no longer content with learning about Him but want to really know Him.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does it mean to you to “know” God?   
  2. What can we do in the short-term to better know God? 

Encounters With God

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

“As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” – Acts 9:3-6. 

Have you ever had a personal encounter with God? Saul (Paul) certainly did. Paul experienced an encounter with God on the road to Damascus. As a zealous Jew and Pharisee, Paul had thought that God wanted him to persecute every follower of Jesus Christ, and to stop the Gospel of Christ from spreading. He was sincerely convinced that Jesus was not the true Messiah of the Jews and that Christ’s followers were all God’s enemies. It must have been a rude awakening for him to discover the truth: he discovered the truth via a personal encounter with God.   

Encountering God is not something to be feared or shied away from. It is not spooky, super spiritual, or made up by fanatics. Encounters are not for people like Paul, they are for all of us.   

God is always with us, so how do we encounter God in our day-to-day lives? There is no clear-cut answer to this question, and people have encountered God in many ways throughout the centuries. Abraham heard the voice of the Lord instructing him to leave his land and travel to a land where the Lord would lead him. Moses had a one-time, powerful encounter with the Lord on Mount Sinai.  The disciples encountered God during three years of teaching, preaching, traveling, and communing with Jesus.

Fast forward to today. God wants to reveal Himself to you so that you may encounter His love, grace, truth, and presence.  Some people encounter God in times of corporate worship, and others tune their hearts to the Lord in private times of prayer. Others encounter God in the classroom, at the supermarket, or in conferences. Or they encounter God sitting in their easy chair before a fire reading their Bible.

We cannot see the Lord with our eyes, but we can see Him with our hearts. To encounter the Lord often begins with a desire, a gift of the Holy Spirit to open our hearts. Ask God to reveal Himself to you. “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.” (Psalm 119:18).

Encountering God doesn’t have to happen on a mountaintop, in a lightning bolt, or in miraculous events. God is faithful. Open the Bible and read with expectation. Worship, pray, serve. All of these are opportunities to encounter the Lord. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to encounter the Lord as we abide with Christ. “or God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Discussion Questions:

  1. What constitutes an encounter with God to you?  
  2. What can we do in the short term to foster a more intimate relationship with God? 

Jesus Was Never Too Busy

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

“Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.” –  Matthew 9:35.

The Advent season has quite the ironic twist. It’s the time of year we most intend to reflect on our Savior’s birth, yet it’s the month we have the least time for reflection. We’re already busy, but we find ways to add holiday activities to our busy schedule: Christmas decorating, shopping, parties, traditions, crafts, events, and whatever else it takes to make it the “most wonderful time of the year.”

Our intention for these activities is to focus on the “reason for the season.” But it’s easy to lose sight of that goal. Christmas can quickly become the most stressful time of the year. And it might be the time in which we are most distracted. We live in a culture that wears busyness like a badge of honor. How do we practice the presence of the Lord in a season where there doesn’t seem to be any margin for more of God?  We want to show up for everyone in our lives, but there’s not enough time in the day.

Jesus gets it. Jesus had a full day too. Jesus was busy too. But one thing is clear: Jesus, both God and Human, didn’t handle the busyness the way most of us do.  For example, read Mark 1:21-45. In these several verses, a lot happens. Jesus is teaching in the synagogue; He heals many people, and crowds gather around Him. But it is also the pace of the events. In those verses, you’ll see the word “immediately” or words meaning the same thing used repeatedly. Reading those verses prompts you to want to catch your breath.

The bottom line is this. Jesus didn’t look at His watch until 5 pm when He could punch out and head to His car. He was busy. But His mission never ended. He believed every interaction with another human is important, powerful, and necessary. When the crowds arrived waiting to be healed, Jesus didn’t barricade the door. He continued to heal.  

When we allow ourselves to get too busy, we don’t take the time to slow down and remember our relationship with God. God wants us to spend time daily to renew our relationship with Him.  He wants to know about our failures and victories, strengths and weaknesses, and joys and disappointments. If we fail to remember Him daily, we get caught up in the distraction of pleasing other people. 

We need to worship the Lord this advent season. The Bible says that God inhabits the praise of His people. Sometimes we get so busy that it’s easy to forget that. We forget that we belong to Him and need to put Him first.

God already values us more than anything. We don’t need to earn it. So as we go about following schedules today, let’s listen for God’s voice. 

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you look at the Christmas Season and feel peace and joy for what Christ has done, or do you feel overwhelmed?
  2. When you look at your Christmas and holiday calendar, what do you need to do, and what should you eliminate to ensure you don’t miss Jesus again this year?

Midlife Blues

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” –  1 Peter 1:6-7

Can I be middle-aged already? Really? Middle age” has been described as that period of life that you never want to enter and you never want to leave. Midlife brings new insecurities and awakenings to long-dormant regrets. Many of us face empty nests and the prospect of, in effect, starting over with spouses. Many of us face the reality of aging parents and any fears or worries or responsibilities that come with that. And of course, we daily face the reality of lost youth, waning strength, and more difficult processes for maintaining health. Time moves a lot faster the older you get. Doesn’t sound all that good, does it?

Joshua 13:1 (KJV) addressed this subject: “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” The “old and stricken” is not very reassuring, but it does remind us there is a lot left to do regardless of our age. Psalm 92: 14 confirms this: “Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.” In midlife, as in every stage of life, there are things we wish we had done. Fortunately, Christ doesn’t change our past, He redeems it. He is faithful to do that. He does not judge us by our actions but by His own, freely given to us in love.

In midlife, Christ is a companion through all the worries and stresses. As we get more serious about our health each decade we don’t have the strength and energy we did at 25. But Jesus is as strong as He’s ever been, and wherever we have to go or do, He will go with us. He will never leave me or forsake me.

In midlife, we have the opportunity to transfer some of our hard-earned wisdom to those coming along behind us. There are younger people seeking their way in life that we can mentor or minister to. They will benefit from people who can share their life experiences.

If you’re reaching middle age, work to continue strengthening your relationship with Jesus. He’ll be always there, waiting for you. Imagine yourself in those days of thinning hair, stubborn paunch, creaky bones, and joints, callouses of hand, and scars of heart, walking closely with the Lord.  It will make middle age something to savor.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your fears about old age? You can get wiser as you get older. What mistakes do you recall making in your younger days? What did God teach you? What would you do differently now?

Don’t Miss Christmas – Part 2, Religious Leaders

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“He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’” – Matthew 2:4-6.

The story of Christ’s birth is full of characters who effectively missed the first Christmas. The innkeeper was one and the religious leaders were another. Matthew 2:4-6 describes the scene. Herod gathers all the leading priests and teachers and asks them where the Messiah was to be born. They tell him Bethlehem, citing Micah 5:2 which says, ”But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.”

The chief priests and scribes knew exactly where Christ was to be born. These were the theologians, the minds, the brains, the religious elite of Israel. The Jewish people had been looking for their Messiah/Deliverer for a very long time.  They were waiting eagerly to end the Roman occupation and oppression.  Yet the religious leaders could not make the effort to go to Bethlehem to see if this was truly the Messiah.

The fact is, out of the entire population of Jerusalem and Judea, only a few shepherds came to see the Messiah. And do you remember what they did? After encountering Him, they joyfully told everyone about their experience until everyone in the Judean countryside heard about the birth of the Messiah. But even then, there is no record that anyone else, including the religious leaders of the day, came to see Jesus.

They probably figured they didn’t need Him. They were self-righteous. And they were indifferent. They thought they had it all figured out. But they didn’t. And neither do we. How can we take God – the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe and put Him in our box? Do we think we have God so figured out that He becomes predictable or worse familiar to us?

Like in marriages, familiarity leads to complacency and eventually we take each other for granted. Relationships with our spouses like with God are an adventure. We seek out new things to learn of the other. We do the same with God. He is knowable to a point, but He is still God.

The Christmas story centers around this truth from John 1:14 (MSG): “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” That is the real message of Christmas. May we, in this busyness we call Christmas, not miss out on our Savior as the religious leaders did.   

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is it easy or tempting to miss Jesus during the Christmas season? Why or why not? 
  2. How does the familiarity of the Christmas story make it hard for us to be challenged by its message?
  3. What can we do this week to ensure we don’t miss Christmas?

Knowing Jesus is Not a religion, it is a Relationship.

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” – Hosea 6:6.

Knowing Jesus is not a religion, it is a relationship. Knowing God doesn’t mean knowing about God. It doesn’t mean accumulating a fact book in your head. Instead, to know God is to be brought into a relationship with Him. To know God, to be able to say, I don’t just know about Him, I know him. I’ve seen Him work in my life. I’ve built my life upon His promises, and I’ve seen time after time He is faithful to me. I’ve noticed that He never fails.

 To know God is to be brought into a relationship with God. The Bible cover to cover is about knowing God. Could you imagine being Adam looking at the One who just made you? You were just created and God looks at you and says I made you. I breathed life into you. You were made to know Me. So you stand there in awe, looking at your creator and walking side by side with Him. Then God creates Eve, and then the two of you are walking in the garden. Nothing can get to you. God is there to protect and love you, to have fellowship with you. Can you imagine? Wouldn’t you want to be in that position? What would it feel like to walk with God? What would it be like to know God in such a way? The good news is we too can know God in an intimate way.

But Adam was just the first of many who had a special connection with God. You have people like Abraham who was called a friend of God and Moses who would go up on the mountaintop and actually be with God. David wrote in Psalm 27:4: “The one thing I ask of the LORD— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.”

There’s nothing more important than getting an accurate view of God. Our hope and prayer are that God will expand our minds and enlarge our hearts as we seek Him and begin to see God as He longs to be seen.

That is our goal: to know God better. We don’t want to be satisfied in just knowing about God….we want you to really know God by having your heart completely opened: to see the world how God sees it.   

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does a life of intimate relationship with God look like? Spend a few minutes thinking about your relationship with Jesus. Reflect on Psalm 139 and Philippians 3:8. What’s your relationship with Jesus like? Is it more about facts and rules than an intimate, personal relationship?
  2. What might you be missing out on in your relationship with Jesus? What needs to change in order for you to have a more intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

How Well Do You Know God?

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

“Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel! The Lord has brought charges against you, saying: “There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery …” – Hosea 4:1-2.

How well do you know God? Is it impossible to know God too well? He is the most important person who exists. Any strength or intelligence or skill or beauty that comes from any source comes from Him. On every scale of excellence, He is infinitely greater than the best person you ever knew or ever heard of. So given that, knowing God is not a laid-back spectator sport. It will require everything in our being, our hearts, and our emotions.

For most Christians, we go through life with a sense that we know God. One of the greatest challenges we face today is a lack of understanding about who God is. You may know about God, but do you truly understand what He says about Himself—and what He wants from you? Job 36:26 seems to suggest an answer: “Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.” (Job 36:26 KJV) Hosea grabs this idea in Hosea 4: …no knowledge of God in your land…”

So how well do we know God and how well can we truly know Him? Some people believe it would be silly for people to think they can truly know God because, well, God is endless…indescribable…the Creator of all things. Scripture teaches that we can have a true and personal knowledge of God, but this does not mean we will ever understand Him exhaustively. The Bible is clear that God is ultimately incomprehensible to us; that is, we can never fully comprehend His whole being. The following passages show this: “No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.” (Isaiah 40:15). “Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness.” (Psalm 145:3)

These verses teach that not only is God’s whole being incomprehensible, but each of His attributes—His greatness, power, thoughts, ways, wisdom, and judgments—are well beyond human ability to grasp completely. God’s love, grace, justice, holiness, patience, wrath, and jealousy are continually functioning in a perfectly integrated yet infinitely complex way. But that doesn’t mean God is a passive object of study for us to try to grasp with our limited knowledge.

How well we know Him depends on our relationship with Him. From the beginning of creation, God has desired a relationship with us. To know God starts with beginning a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. God loved us first and removed every obstacle that stood between Him and us through Jesus. So, it all starts with getting to know Jesus and building the relationship from there. That’s how you get to know God.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Would you say that the purpose of life has to do with knowing God? Why or why not?
  2. Why is sincerely following a religion not the same as knowing and loving God?
  3. What areas of your life should see greater change because you know God?

The Need For Horizontal Relationships

Posted on by Northstar Devotional

“When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” – C.S. Lewis. 

Many people seem to think of Christianity solely as their own personal relationship with God. That personal relationship with God is essential in true Christianity, but it is also not the whole story. Our goal in life should be knowing Christ above everything and from there letting Jesus affect our relationships. Basically, we should work on our vertical relationship and then let the love of that relationship influence the horizontal relationships we have with those around us.

Jesus told us that the Great Commandment is that we love God. “…‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) The vertical aspect is indispensable to our faith. We must be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Knowing and loving Him is the primary goal. But Jesus also said “ a second is equally important”:“love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)  Here He reminds us that our faith is not only about our vertical relationship with God, but also very much about our horizontal relationships with others.

As we read the Bible we see God reinforcing this idea that we need horizontal relationships. Face-to-face relationships are so important that God sent Jesus to be like us, among us, as Emmanuel, God with us. And in a prophetic promise of this plan and purpose, He said through the prophet Isaiah: “I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations. You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.” (Isaiah 42:6-7)

Christians need to focus on both the vertical and the horizontal if we are to become what God intended us to be. Statistics are staggering of the number of people who don’t have someone they feel they can confide in. In other words, they don’t believe they have people they can be authentic with.

Christianity is very much about loving God — but it is also very much about loving His people. Be a blessing to somebody this week.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is everything in my horizontal life the overflow of a vibrant vertical love relationship with Jesus?
  2. What would my life and ministry look like if I focused on my vertical relationship first and then learned to adapt that relationship to my horizontal relationships?

Is It Time To Rethink The Value Of Community?

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“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” – Colossians 3:16.

There is a big difference between what we want and what we need in every aspect of life. For example, we all want friends that agree with us, share the same interests, and make us feel good. But what we need are friends that celebrate our victories, mourn our losses, and walk with us spiritually. Friends like that are not a luxury, they are a necessity. We need them because they support and motivate us to run the race that God has set before us.

God created community as a support system that helps us make and keep Christ as our first priority, protect and encourage us. People are there to fight for us…in person, on the phone, and through prayer, in good times, and in bad times.  

Maybe you are one of those people who see the value of community but don’t get involved. You have your family. You go to church. You read your Bible. And you have Christian friends that you can“hang out with” should the need arise. Those are all good things, but eventually, you will need a deep, God-centered community around you when a relationship goes sour, you are going through spiritual doubt, or when health issues sap your resolve. We need people to pray for us when we find it difficult to pray. We need people to listen to us and encourage us when we are in the valley and celebrate with us when we are on the mountaintop. We need people to pick us up when we are down.  

Maybe it is time to rethink joining a small group. One of the core values of Northstar is to foster community with others.  Community is more than just people getting to know each other and spending time together. We believe that community is – as described in Hebrews 10:24 – a group of people who “… motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”  We join up with others in community because we need intimate relationships: discussion that goes deep, friendships that reach beyond the surface, and support that can help us navigate through troubled waters.

Small groups provide a valuable opportunity to connect with other believers outside the Sunday morning worship. But extending our Sunday-morning relationships beyond our time together on Sunday morning and outside the walls of our buildings. Small groups have the potential to be a springboard for even deeper relationships. Smaller groups are a safe space for vulnerability, honesty, curiosity, support, encouragement, forgiveness, laughter, accountability, transformation, connection, and a whole host of other things that are not easy to do in a big crowd. 

We all need this type of community. Maybe it is time to rethink the need to surround yourself with people that help you live life to the fullest.

Discussion Questions:

  1.  Why do we need other people to watch over us and speak into our lives? 
  2. How might your life be different if you were a member of a small group?