NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

February 8

Scripture focus: Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you. 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 MSG

One of the unexpected blessings that we have as a result of creating a website is our own “worldwide web” of people connections. Each morning I crawl out of bed, grab a cup of caffeine and eagerly head to my home office. I punch up my NSC blog and fire up my email. I always have a message or two or twenty from Brazil, the UK, India or Indiana. I love the interaction! Consistently, these messages are cries for help or frustration. People watch our shows, read our blog, whatever, and they for some reason feel compelled to write and share with us their personal story. I’d love to report that these are happy stories that go like this – “I once was lost, then I was found and now I’m fine.” It’s not like that. But that doesn’t mean the news is all bad. In fact, I love how people are willing to confess the truth about their messy lives – loving God and having secret sins that leave them filled with shame. When people get real about their situation, it is often at that very moment that they see God and his grace in new and transforming ways! Here are a few preapproved-for-anonymously-sharing messages from this past week...

“I have a lot of secret sins. I wish you’d stop talking about sharing our secrets and confessing. This makes me feel uncomfortable. My secrets don’t hurt anyone, why do you keep harping on this? In my community, I am a well known, influential person. If I shared my secret life, my reputation would be tarnished. Are you freaking crazy? There is nothing wrong with having a little privacy. Oh, and by the way, I’m an elder in my church – so don’t think I’m not religious. I normally love your content and quote you often. But this time you’ve gone too far. No one really lives like this.”

“I would love to think that I could be forgiven for my sins. But you don’t understand – my sins are really really bad. A just God would never forgive me – I can’t forgive myself and don’t think I deserve forgiveness.”
More messages tomorrow, and then we’ll discuss ‘em.

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