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Our NorthStar Communities
NorthStar Community now meets at two locations in Virginia! Bon Air and Mechanicsville.
Walnut Grove Baptist Church, in Mechanicsville. Services and small groups continue to be an inspiration and support for those attending. |
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Mark Your Calendars!
Keep up with NorthStar happenings! Full details for every event! Calendar ... |
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Words to Ponder
7When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it.
8-11We don't want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn't think we were going to make it. We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally-not a bad idea since he's the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he'll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation-I don't want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God's deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
2 Corinthians 1:6-11, The Message |
Body, Mind,
Spirit, and SELF
Back in the fall I invited everyone who was interested in thinking about how nutrition, exercise and other disciplines could be utilized to heal our damaged brain. Using a book written by Dr. Eric Braverman, we studied how what we eat and how we use our bodies actually changes our brain chemistry - affecting our personalities, sleep habits, weight, ability to think, interpersonal relationships, feelings of depression and anxiety, and especially our tendency toward addictive and compulsive behaviors. In January, we will no longer offer this as a open group informational session. We are going to close this group down and only those interested in practicing the recommendations that we have gleaned from our research will want to participate. Together, we're going to practice, fail, try again, and continue to study study study about how God has made us in his image, and what we can do to honor this gift. Our desire is to develop our own life experiences and accompanying curriculum study guide to equip ourselves to serve our community in a holistic manner - bringing the best research regarding body, mind and spirit together to create our own basic program of healthy living that is recovery friendly. Our desire is to practice these principles in our own lives, and train ourselves for optimal recovery living. We'll keep you posted as to how the adventure is progressing. In the meantime, if you want to be part of this group, you haven't got much time. By January 17th our group will be established and we will be unable to take newcomers, because it will be too hard to keep everyone caught up. Pray for us - we're really excited about moving beyond intentions to large living! |
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Greetings, NorthStar Friends!
I love fresh starts - probably because I find myself in need of them so often. I sure wish good intentions counted for something, if so, my numbers would be awesome. Our community loves to talk; that's why I think I've learned so much in the last eleven years. That's why I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one with a large collection of good intentions and a big pile of regrets. If you can relate, perhaps you'd like to know how we're taking our good intentions and kicking them to the curb.
On a personal note, I covet your prayers all the time, but I have a very specific request that I'd like to share. I am in the midst of writing a book that tells the story (hopefully) of about thirteen different recovery ministries and the people who are passionate about sustaining them. My friend Liz Swanson and I are attempting to tell their compelling stories in a way that will encourage others to take up this cause and follow the lead of these early pioneers in the field of recovery ministry. Zondervan Publishing has awarded us a contract, and our deadline for our first draft is May. Please pray for us. The stories are so amazing, and the hand of God seems so clear to us as we listen to men and women across the country quietly go about their calling - rescuing the hopeless and helpless, bringing a message of hope that was often formed in their hearts through the firey hot furnace of personal experience. Specifically, pray with us for the vision to tell the story the way God is truly writing it - we don't want to miss the message! Pray for stamina, courage, and health. Pray that God's angel army surrounds us and protects us from the enemy. Thank you. I am deeply committed to this project because I believe it is a way to honor those in our ministry and others, who lost their battle with addiction before finding their freedom on earth. Their faces are always with me as I struggle to learn and share lessons learned that might help more find their freedom as we all gain in knowledge, experience, and most of all - trust in God's healing powers.
Blessings, t |
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NorthStar Study
Only Grace Through Love Can Overcome Our Shame
Over coffee and Christmas cookies, my friends and I were sitting around talking about life. Suddenly, one of us (who shall remain nameless but is willing to go public anonymously) said, "I am really mad about this issue. Just talking about it gets me agitated. I don't like how hard it is to think of loving others in a way that conforms to God's will. I thought that if I pleased God, my life would get easier! I was able to think of lots of things that would please God, and do  them. But trying to make myself TRUST God instead of working hard to please him - well, I'm struggling. And irritated. I guess I want to earn his blessing. I want to be able to tell whether or not I'm doing the right thing based on the results. If I do good, I want it to feel good and be successful. If I mess up, I expect to suffer and experience failure." She added a couple more cookies to her plate to ease her suffering.
My friend grew so accustomed to evaluating her spirituality in terms of right and wrong, good or bad, pleasing God or displeasing him - that she forgot to consider that trusting God might have all sorts of different outcomes. Sometimes we serve and suffer. On another day life is filled with encouragement and hope.
Sounds to me like we've added another good reason to pray - we need to ask God for clarity, and then spend time listening for his response. Just because God's will sometimes offends our sensibilities, personal conveniences and logic doesn't mean that anything is amiss. My friend might feel less frustrated if, instead of trying to measure her obedience based on the outcome of her actions, she simply released herself from the burden of judgment and instead, continues to do the next right thing - that thing that is informed by her prayers, her study of God's words, and the Spirit that dwells within her.
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We have our recovery conference out in Riverside, CA coming up at the end of Feb (22nd and 23rd) - I hope you're planning on attending. If you can't make it, maybe you'd like to sponsor someone else who wants to go but can't afford the trip. Entire trip cost, rough estimate, is around $700/person. Listen to your friends, if you hear of someone who desires to improve their serve in recovery ministry but is financially pinched, maybe you can share some frequent flier miles with them, or offer to pay for their hotel room, or conference fee...just a thought... t
The ministry of recovery is about redeeming lives. As ministers and recovery leaders, you work every day to help set people free from the the power of addictions, the pain of abuse, and the effects of wounds and losses. This is a daunting task. Because we understand this, we have designed Recovery Conference 2010 just for you.
 Set your calendars now for February 22-23, 2010, and plan to join us in Riverside, CAfor two days of great learning and networking with the top Recovery Ministry leaders in the country. To learn more, visit RecoveryConference2010. | |
| The Book Nook
Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir by Susan Isaacs
(Snark-y: [snahr-kee] adjective, snark⋅i⋅er, snark⋅i⋅est. Chiefly British Slang; testy or irritable; short. Origin: 1910-15; dial. snark to nag, find fault with (appar. identical with snark, snork to snort, snore, prob.)
Snarky...there's a word you don't hear too often - at least not when it comes to spiritual memoirs. So here's the story of a woman, Susan Isaacs, who wanted to "play her note". When she was young she knew that God was good and Jesus loved her. She had amazing conversations with God... then life got complicated - heartbreaks, heartaches, and general mayhem ensued...and it may come as no great surprise - relationship with God began to tank. And as tragic as  heartbreaks and heartaches can be, greater still became the tragedy of God's silence in it all. Wow - this is really beginning to sound depressing...what happened to snarky? Oh yeah, well, you see Susan decided the best thing to do, would be to take God to counseling - couples counseling, that is, because she and God really weren't getting along. So, with the help of her therapist, Rudy, the sessions begin and guess what? God shows up, Jesus too. As spiritual memoirs go, this one is decidedly snarky - though endearingly authentically so. Okay, there is some whining in this book - but what great book doesn't have a little whining? Susan Isaacs set out to vent her frustrations with the God she loved...she did...and He surprised her... |
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SAVE THE DATE!
Saturday, March 20th
Pierce Pettis is coming!
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| Music Notes
And now for something completely different: "The Great Divide", Stella StageCoach's debut CD release, is even more intriguing than the band's name. Brothers Matthew and Tim Morgan lead the band, which started making music to accompany film projects, and there is a theatrical air that permeates the whole recording - it sounds like it  would be fun to watch. The songs are all full of hope, contrasting the mystery and darkness of life with an assuredness that we can all be saved, that we 'have the light'. Every song is literate and beautiful, and, though each is very unique, all are very intimate stories. The arrangements are intricate but uncluttered: keys-centric, supplemented by bass and drums and all kinds of instruments that evoke a folky but timeless feel - accordions, clarinets, ukeleles, cellos, violas, and more strings (with barely a guitar to be heard). Victoria Cockrum adds backing vocals to Matthew's lead on most of the songs, and you've got to hear these two sing together, a wonderful blend of steadiness and frailty, of the familiar and the strange. 'I Can Hear the Sound' is the lead-off track - a traveling song with drums marking time to a gentle call to 'walk right through the darkness' as God carries us 'beyond what we feel'. The gentleness of the entire CD is shaken up by 'What Have I Done', whose urgent piano motif creates some discomfort, but in a good way - the narrator fears he's gone way too far 'past Heaven's gates' on the road to hell, but in his despair he still concludes 'it's not too late to turn back'. 'Paper Crown' is a sublime ode to the beauty of dreams that ends with an exquisite instrumental refrain, and the band closes with the slightly anthemic 'High Above': 'You were beside me when I thought I was alone...I won't forget You, I won't forget You....' This is a very original, very moving recording, whose beauty grows with repeated listenings. | |
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