NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

March 4

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 The Message

As I sit here with the month of March’s devotionals stretching before me – unwritten and largely ignored – outside my window is fifteen inches of gorgeous snow. In our community, this means the world has literally come to a standstill. Not a creature is stirring. This stillness seems to stir our inner life; the world may be silent, but my email box is full – full of regrets.

One friend tells me of her sadness over how she parented. She wishes she could get a “do over.”

Other one writes about her impending divorce. Oh how she wishes she had listened to her inner voice and never married this guy in the first place.

A stranger up in Canada writes that he has yet again broken his wife’s heart by watching porn over the internet. She’s caught him, and now he’s in big trouble.

Evidently, Tiger Woods is in rehab but rumor has it that he’s not taking it seriously. (Who dares to judge that?) Serious or not about rehab, no one can deny that Tiger’s golden life has entered a season of suffering.
The only people who don’t need a fresh start are those living in the land of denial!

Fresh starts are awesome, but if we are going to take advantage of them, we’ve got to recognize what differentiates a fresh start from a false one. Productive fresh starts occur when we begin to trust God. What are we trusting God with? We trust that God was telling us the truth when he sent his prophets to teach us that he is our friend. We trust that God is love. We trust that new life is a possibility – more than that, it is a promise from God to us. This is such good news! Certainly this is more important than getting daily updates on the state of Tiger’s marriage or whether or not John Edwards is the father of a child by a woman to whom he is not married!!

I wonder what would happen if we would turn off the tabloid chatter, and instead, take the time to study God. What if we studied God the way we obsess over our favorite celebrities, or a new love interest? What might we learn about God, ourselves and others?


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