NorthStar Church Blog

Begin Your Spiritual Journey This Easter!

At NorthStar we’re getting to the heart of the message of Jesus. Not what religion or any person says about Jesus, but what Jesus said about whom He was and why He was here. We’ve cut out the trappings of modern religion and will be exploring the roots of a movement that began with just a handful of humble fishermen, following their Messiah. Come experience faith as you always knew it could be!

Invite a friend and join us on Sunday, April 8 at 10:00am.

In the last part of the “Hearts on Fire” series, our pastor spoke on a topic that tends to sneak up on us and which most of us are guilty of at one time or another- “Thou shall not covet”….or in other words, “Don’t be jealous!”

According to Proverbs 14:30, “Jealousy is like bone cancer.” It has a tendency to eat us alive and destroy our joy. It’s one of those things that if we’re not actively guarding ourselves against, it will seep into the cracks of our hearts and destroy us from the inside out. God knows that jealousy can do that to us, and that’s why He made it a commandment, but we all know how easy it is to slip into!

In order to combat the poisonous feeling of jealousy, we need to do several things, the first of which is to recognize our uniqueness. Since the root of jealousy is insecurity, we need to remember that we are all created in God’s image and have unique gifts. Our security is in Christ, not in anything we own or possess. We need to resist comparing ourselves to others, since this can only lead to 2 things…Pride or Discouragement. Lastly, we need to rejoice in what we have. We are all a “10” in some area, and we need to be responsible with that gift. Nothing we have is from us, so there is no reason to be prideful, and often times what we don’t have is withheld from us for a reason.

Ultimately, our feelings follow our actions…so go ahead and send that congratulations card, give the guy who got the promotion a pat on the back, and soon you will find yourself genuinely rejoicing in the triumphs of others!

Greed can be a difficult area to gauge. Greed tends to hide itself behind such things as being careful, saving or planning for the future. To determine if you’re a greedy person, ask yourself the following questions. Do I constantly worry about money? Do I enjoy giving? Am I reluctant to share? Do I quibble over insignificant amounts of money? Do I keep score, knowing exactly who owes me what? If any of these things are true, then you’re probably struggling with greed.

People tend to believe that if only they had a little more, then they could give; they could be more generous with their money, their time and their possessions. However, Greed is not a financial issue, it is a heart issue. Whether wealthy or poor, one can be greedy. In Luke 12:15 Jesus warns us to, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus tells us to be on guard as greed is one of those subtle things that hides behind positive virtues and is easy to dismiss as something positive.

Greedy people think their lives consist of what they own. Greedy people are very particular about their possessions and are defined by their possessions. The very nature of greed is that things are more important than people and relationships. The more we have, the more we worry. We worry about protecting our possessions.

The driving force behind greed is fear. The fear of “what if” plays relentlessly in a greedy person’s mind. What if the stock market crashes? What if I don’t get my fair share? What if I lose my job? Instead of trusting in God, the greedy person’s trust lies in money. A greedy person doesn’t trust that God will take care of them at the level they want to be taken care of. Without that trust, there’s always another “what if” about to happen and greed begins to invade their hearts.

Greedy people believe that everything they have is a result of their hard work. They believe that they’ve earned it on their own. They don’t stop to about think where their gifts, talents, opportunities, resources, health come from. They don’t stop to think about why God has entrusted and blessed them with all they have.

Money is a tool and a test. We are to decide if we are going to be rich in this life or the next. Money is a tool by which we do good towards other people and fund God’s kingdom. With money and the things that God has entrusted to us, we must choose to help God fulfill His Will, we must help others.

The solution for greed is generosity. We must be generous toward our fellow man and toward God and His work.

A second area which can cause our hearts to burn is anger. Anger is one of the many emotions that God has given us. Anger in itself is not wrong. However, what we choose to do with that emotion can be wrong. Any number of things can cause us to get angry. At the root of all anger is the feeling that we did not get something we either wanted or felt that we deserved. Whether from a spouse, a child, a parent, an employer, or even God, we become disappointed when we’re not given that thing we feel we deserve. This disappointment generally displays itself as anger.

However, inside every angry person is a person who’s been hurt. Hurt because we didn’t get something we wanted or because something of value has been taken away from us. Because of this many people spend their entire lives feeling as if they’re owed something, always expecting some type of retribution for having been wronged in someway.

We typically respond to anger in one of 2 ways: we spew or we stew. The spewer is the person with the short fuse and a hot temper. They are often full of rage and ready to explode. They leave no doubt on how they feel. Generally anyone around a spewer suffers. “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.”
-Proverbs 29:11

Stewers are people who suppress their anger and keep it hidden inside. It’s difficult to tell when a stewer is angry. Their heart is on fire, it’s burning inside; yet they remain calm. Despite their calm demeanor, stewers keep a mental log of every time someone has done something wrong to them, oftentimes holding grudges and looking to even the score.

Knowing that anger is a choice can help us to learn how to deal with it. So how do we manage anger? How do we keep from spewing or stewing?

The first way is to look to God and not others for our self worth. When we depend on others to make us feel better about ourselves we will always be left unsatisfied. People were never designed to give one another their self worth. Our value and self esteem come only from God and through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Secondly, stop and think before reacting. According to James 1:19-20, “…You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” In anger we say things that are hurtful, things we later regret, in order to hurt someone as much as we ourselves are hurting. Instead, stop, set a timer and wait. If you’re a spewer, take the time to calm down and think through your words. In this way you avoid saying something you might have said in anger. If you’re a stewer set the timer and when it goes off, say something. Don’t keep it inside.

Lastly, learn to be patient. We live our lives on the edge of insanity. We have so much crammed in with no space to allow for patience. We have to build some margin in our lives. Consider our day to day schedules and revise them. Leave room so that we’re not stressed out. Temper and stress go hand in hand. As we make an effort to lighten the load we carry, the stress we feel will lighten and our fuses won’t seem quite so short. When we’re not already running late, that guy in front of us going way too slow isn’t quite as stressful. When we’ve got some time before the kids have to leave for school, their spilled juice isn’t such a huge ordeal. As well, give one another room to grow. We are all imperfect people. We must give each other the grace that we will make mistakes. We must learn to be patient.

Our situation explains our behavior, but it does not excuse it. We don’t have to be perfect, none of us are, but we can choose to be different. We can be a person who owns up to our mistakes, a person who thinks before reacting and a person that others want to model their life after. Instead of living life as an excuse or in anger, shouldn’t we live our lives as an example of what God can do when we choose to yield our lives to Him?

The first area we touched on in this series was guilt. Pastor Roscoe discussed five ways to get off the guilt trip. The first step in dealing with guilt is to clean out our closets. We have to ask ourselves, What have I been Guilty about? What have I regretted in my life? What have I never confessed to another person? We normally attempt to hide our guilt and hope that it never comes out. Regret is made up of things we’ve never done or things we wish we hadn’t done. Bring out that thing that you most wish you could forget and really begin to look at it!

Once we’ve spent the time examining ourselves, our first reaction is to begin blaming someone else. However, to get our hearts in the proper condition, we must stop the blame game. Stop blaming our parents, our lack of education, genetics, or finances on the present state of our heart. It’s alluring to be the victim. However, our life should be a statement of our faith and the God we believe in versus one big excuse. Take responsibility, as the blame is within.

Next let God cleanse us. Many times we feel so dirty and worthless because of the guilt. We must confess our sin and let God do the deep cleaning. Confession, however, is linked to change. Once we’ve asked for forgiveness we must begin to change the way we live. We cannot mix guilt and that extraordinary life.

The fourth thing we need to do is tell a Christian friend who loves us and will pray for us. We share our guilt with a friend because of accountability. It’s harder to continue making the same mistakes when we have someone to answer to. Some of the things that are so destructive to us and make us feel so guilty, find their power in secrecy. In confession, we also realize we’re not alone. Others struggle with the same issues.

Lastly, accept God’s forgiveness. If we’re still feeling guilty after confessing and asking for forgiveness, we have to recognize the difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is to correct us, condemnation makes us feel worthless. Conviction comes from God, condemnation comes from the devil. Every time we feel worthless, every time we’re brought back to that place of guilt, remember the cross. Jesus would not have gone through all He did, if He didn’t think we were worth it! God has forgiven us; we must accept that forgiveness, forgive ourselves and focus on the change we need to make.

We all have things we want to forget. Things we wish we could undo. However, we don’t want to keep chugging along stuck in the past. Allow God to flow through our hearts by getting rid of the guilt.

We’ve finished our second series of the New Year, Hearts on Fire . For the past four weeks we’ve looked at several things that can cause us to have massive heart failure, the things that cause our hearts to burn within. Pastor Roscoe discussed how guilt, anger, greed and jealousy will keep us from living that extraordinary life through Christ.

During this series we learned that life can be really hard on our hearts. Things such as hurts, regrets, and loss weigh heavy on our hearts. Over time these things begin to add up and clog our arteries. They begin to clog and block out God’s Love. So, how do we prevent this burning? We must take the time to bring our hurts to the surface and deal with them.

Our hearts determine the course of our lives. Thus, it is extremely vital that we take care of it! The next several posts will recap the 4 main areas discussed in this series: Guilt, Anger, Greed and Jealousy.

The next 6 week session of Growth Groups are about to begin. It’s not too late to sign up and begin attending the weekly gatherings. Share in food and fellowship. Learn about and grow closer in your relationship to God. There have been a number of individuals who, because of obligations at work or home, are unable to continue attending a Growth Group. However, shortly after they stop, they begin looking for ways to get back into their group or they seek out a GG on another night. Each has said they felt, “disconnected” and “out of the loop”. Others have commented that they feel closer to God and spend more time in His word when attending Growth Group regularly!

Find that connection, attend a Growth Group!