Chris Boggess – NorthStar Church Blog

Digging Deeper – 24 Hours

Chris Boggess on February 13, 2026

³¹And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, ³²and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. ³³And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴“Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” ³⁵But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. ³⁶And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

³⁸And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. ³⁹And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.

⁴⁰Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. ⁴¹And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

⁴²And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, ⁴³but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” ⁴⁴And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Luke 4:31-44

24 HOURS

Looking back at the passage we have spent this week on, the thing that strikes me is that Luke relates these events as occurring in the course of one day, one 24-hour cycle. The Sabbath ended at sundown, and maybe that is why the wave of people who needed healing started to come out of the woodwork. Jesus ends the Sabbath and goes straight to work. The work that he starts at sundown apparently does not end until the same sun rises. Jesus pours into the people who need him, and then in the morning he takes time to fill back up by spending solitary time with his Father.

I also love that the passage ends with Jesus saying he will keep preaching the good news he brought into the world.

How will you spend this day? Some of you may be reading this in the morning, some in the evening, and some at various times throughout the day. Whenever you are reading this, think about your next twenty-four hours. Will you let the day carry you like the current of a river, taking you wherever it will? Or will you go into this day with intent? I pray that it will be the latter. I pray that you will do everything today as an act of worship, acknowledging how much God has done in your life and making all that you do a chance to honor him with how you live. I pray that you will serve people around you even when it is inconvenient or difficult. I pray that you will spread the good news of Jesus to everyone you meet.

Take a moment and pray those prayers with me, and then go out into your day!

Chris Boggess is the Care + Family Pastor at NorthStar Church. He grew up in St. Albans, West Virginia, and still cheers for the Mountaineers. He and his wife, Heather, have two grown children and one granddaughter.

Digging Deeper – Service Worship

Chris Boggess on February 12, 2026

And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. ³⁹And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.

Luke 4:38-39

SERVICE WORSHIP

Today, we are still in Simon’s house. We saw the healing of his mother-in-law and how we all need healing from Jesus. Today, let’s take a look at her response to Jesus’ healing.

The fever left her, and “immediately she rose and began to serve them.” Her response to the gift of healing is to serve. And she is not serving because she has to; she is serving as a reaction to God moving in her life. In other words, it is service as an act of worship.

So often, we view worship as something we do. We are singing, we are raising our hands, we are bowing down on our knees. But what defines worship is not the act we are undertaking, but the One the act is directed toward. The “guest” in Simon’s house makes her lowly acts of service into worship. It reminds me of what Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23: “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

We do not serve because God needs our service. God does not “need” anything from us (C.S. Lewis quote incoming!).

“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense his own already. It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’ It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

When we act in reaction to what God is doing by offering what we are doing back to him, that is worship. It is not what we are giving God out of our supply, but what we are giving back to him out of what he has supplied us with.

Take a moment and think about how you can worship God today by serving. Whether it is working as if you are working for Jesus, or serving someone else, as Jesus told us:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” (Matthew 25:34-40)

Digging Deeper – In Need of Healing

Chris Boggess on February 11, 2026

Luke 4:38-39

IN NEED OF HEALING

In the city of Capernaum, there is a ruin of an eight-sided chapel that marks the traditional site of the home of Simon Peter. Octagonal buildings were often used in the early church to mark sacred or historically significant sites in Christianity. Eight was meant to reference the resurrection of Jesus on the “eighth” day of the week, a new day of worship for Christians. This octagon marks the traditional ancient home of one of the giants of the early church, but not on the day that Jesus comes to the house.

On that day, Jesus is not coming to see a spiritual leader, but a lowly fisherman. Though Simon will prove to be one of Jesus’ strongest supporters and a dear friend, at this point he is not yet a disciple. Jesus is not going to the house of a friend; he is going to a home where sickness dwells. He comes because people “appealed to him on her behalf.” I think this is a beautiful thing.

Jesus comes to the sick woman and “rebukes” the fever, and it leaves her. Matthew describes the scene this way: “But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her” (Matthew 8:15).

There are two things in this account that I think we all need. First, we need people interceding with God on our behalf. Prayer has power. So often we pray for ourselves, but praying for others, or having others pray for us, I believe is especially powerful. It embodies the commandment to “Love the Lord your God” because we acknowledge that he must act in our lives. It also represents the command to “love our neighbor as ourselves,” because in interceding for someone else, we turn the prayer outward.

Second, we need healing. You may not have a fever right now, but I do not think it would take you very long to think of things in your life that you need God to heal. H. A. Ironside said it like this: “We are all distracted and disturbed by existing conditions. What a blessed thing it is when Jesus comes to the bedside, when Jesus draws near, when he rebukes the fever, and when he touches the hand, the fever dies away.”

Take a moment and pray for someone else who needs the Lord’s healing. Think about what you need God to heal in your life, and find someone to pray for you.

Digging Deeper – Demons in Church

Chris Boggess on February 10, 2026

And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴“Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” ³⁵But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. ³⁶And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

Luke 4:33-36

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Matthew 16:15-17

DEMONS IN CHURCH

So, how lax do your synagogue standards have to be to let a man who has a demon into your Sabbath gathering? I mean, didn’t they notice before Jesus showed up? The demon in their midst was good at hiding, but when Jesus came around, the demons could not help but acknowledge who he was.

When the demon, through the man he indwells, shouts out who Jesus is, Jesus responds by telling him to “Be silent and come out!” Jesus does not want the demon even to speak about him.

This contrasts with the conversation later in Jesus’ ministry with Peter in Matthew’s Gospel. When Peter rightly calls Jesus the “Son of the living God,” Jesus calls him “blessed” and tells him that this is a spiritual revelation, not of the flesh.

So, the demon and Peter both have a spiritual revelation of who Jesus is, and both of them verbalize that revelation. So why is one silenced and the other blessed? I know some of you are saying, “One of them is a demon, Chris, duh!” But I think it is more than that. I think that is what makes the demon a demon in the first place.

A demon is a spirit that knows exactly who Jesus is and yet, even with that knowledge, refuses to submit to his rule. I know it sounds wild that they would see the truth of who Jesus is to the point that they shout it out, but do not live in accordance with his ways.

Wait.

We see this all the time in church. Maybe we are even guilty of it. We know exactly who he is, but we do not submit to his rule. Jesus said it this way: “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Jesus also quotes Isaiah, saying, “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Matthew 15:8).

We cannot just acknowledge who he is; we have to submit to him. When we are obedient, it shows that we trust him. We trust that he is good and that his ways are right.

Take a moment and examine your heart. Where in your life do you need to submit to Jesus? Ask him to show you.

Chris Boggess is the Next Generation/Family Pastor at NorthStar Church. He grew up in St. Albans, West Virginia, and still cheers for the Mountaineers. He and his wife, Heather, have two grown children and one granddaughter.

Digging Deeper – Cease

Chris Boggess on February 9, 2026

And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, ³²and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.

Luke 4:31-32 (NLT)

CEASE

The first part of Luke chapter 4 addresses Jesus’ visit to his hometown of Nazareth. He ends up frustrated by their reception and responds with that famous quote: “But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown” (Luke 4:24). The reception was so bad that it nearly ended with Jesus being killed.

As we continue to read, we see that, starting in verse 31, it is a week later and Jesus has traveled about 16 miles, as the crow flies, to Capernaum. This little seaside village will be a “base of operations” for Jesus.

We are told that he is in Capernaum on the Sabbath. We are so used to the idea of a weekend in our culture that we read right over the Sabbath. We do not understand how unique this was in the ancient world. No society before them had anything like it. No god had ever asked his people to stop and rest one day in seven.

The word “Sabbath” is often translated “to rest,” but a better translation would be “to cease.” God wanted his people to stop striving, pushing, gaining, and struggling for a day. The creation account in Genesis revolves around the idea that God created for six days, then he ceased for a day, modeling what he wants from his people.

The Jews of Jesus’ day took this “ceasing” seriously. How many times does Jesus get accused of violating the Sabbath rest? At least six. And when he is accused, he does not just blow it off; he defends himself, because the Sabbath is serious for him too.

In her book Holy Days, Lis Harris recounts spending Shabbat (Sabbath) with a Hasidic family and asks why God cares that they rest. Her host, Moishe, responds, “What happens when we stop working and controlling nature? When we don’t operate machines or pick flowers or pluck fish from the sea? When we cease interfering in the world, we are acknowledging that it is God’s world.”

When was the last time you stopped? We are not under the covenant that commands us to keep the Sabbath, but maybe we all need to take some time to cease and to acknowledge the One who created all that we enjoy. Take a moment now, look at your calendar, and make some time for Sabbath.

Digging Deeper – Never Stop Praying

Chris Boggess on November 28, 2025

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. ²“There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. ³A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ ⁴The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, ⁵but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!'”

⁶Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. ⁷Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Luke 18:1-8 (NLT)

Always be joyful. ¹⁷Never stop praying. ¹⁸Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT)

NEVER STOP PRAYING

We have plenty to pray for! When the Bible says, “Pray continually,” we might initially push back against the idea. “How can I pray all the time?” you may ask. I would answer, “Look around you.” There are unlimited prayer needs.

We live in a world full of injustice, sin, cruelty, and idolatry, maybe more so than ever before. I think there is so much of it that we face every day that we become overwhelmed. We get numb. We shut down and focus on our own little sphere, and we pray for the ones we know and see every day. We pray for ourselves and our tribe.

But isolated in our bubble is not who God calls his people to be. He names us a “kingdom of priests.” We are priests to the world, meaning we are an example of how God wants people to live on earth, but we are also representatives of the people to God. We have a whole world to pray for.

But even if you are praying only for your little spot on the globe, there is no end of things to pray for. We are powerless little things in a big world. When we pray in a way that reflects that, we tap into God’s power. Like C. S. Lewis said, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

Pray in a way that changes you. Pray in a way that changes your family. Pray and intercede for a world that is sorely in need of a savior. You will never run out of things to pray for. But we have to cultivate that constant readiness to pray. Like an Old West gunfighter with his Colt on his hip, be ready to draw on prayer at a moment’s notice. Keep your eyes open and your heart seeking what God wants.

I know people who set alarms on their phones to remind them to stop and pray. I know others who write prayers on their bathroom mirrors to start their mornings or tape them to their dashboard so they remember to pray in traffic. For most of us, taking time away from the radio and the drivers around us and taking time to pray instead might be the best idea.

Take time now to pray for your prayer life. Ask God to bring prayer to mind as you go through your day. Ask God to make your heart more prayer-focused and less complaint-focused as you turn over to him the things beyond your control, acknowledging his power in this world.

Digging Deeper – Remember Who You Were

Chris Boggess on November 27, 2025

“True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt. ¹⁸Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command.

Deuteronomy 24:17-18 (NLT)

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)

REMEMBER WHO YOU WERE

I remember hearing someone say, “Goldfish only have a 3-second memory.” The statement encourages the hearer to move on past failures and forget about them. But the big problem is that the statement is not true. Thousands of studies show that goldfish actually have excellent memories. They can learn tasks and repeat them weeks and months later, something that I often find difficult. I try to remember what I changed my password to last week, but a goldfish would probably remember.

God wants his people to remember things. When he brings his people out of Egypt and begins to give them the commandments to live by, he keeps sprinkling throughout the commands the reminder that they were once in bondage, that they were enslaved, that they were foreigners. God even institutes a celebration to commemorate the release from Egypt (Passover, Leviticus 23). But God doesn’t tell them to remember only the release from bondage; he wants them to remember that he sustained them even in difficult circumstances.

Remembering is a part of thanksgiving. God wants us to remember not just the blessings but the hardships. The times when we question if God is even there. When I look back on those times with hindsight, I can see God at work. But if you are in that kind of place right now, I pray that God will begin to show you, in your memories, how he has brought you through other hardships, to remind you that he is with you in this one.

On the same note, if we don’t take time to remember who we are and what God has done, we can fall back into bad habits and ungratefulness. George Santayana warned, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” When we look back with thanksgiving on what God has brought us through, we are more likely to lean on him in the present. We are more likely to trust him with our future.

Remembering the hardships we endured cultivates empathy and mercy for others. Looking back on those bad things gives us insight into who we are. I love the C. S. Lewis quote: “You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much, are what make us perfect.” I don’t like the blows of the chisel when they are happening, but that doesn’t mean I can’t look back and appreciate what they’ve brought to my life.

Take a moment. Take a couple of breaths and think back. Thank God for the undeserved blessings he has bestowed on you. Give thanks to God for the times that he brought you through hardship. Let your past with God change your attitude in the present and your hope for the future.

Digging Deeper – God Gives Different Answers

Chris Boggess on November 26, 2025

“For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.”

Psalm 84:11 (NLT)

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. ²This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. ³So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

John 11:1-3; 21-22; 32 (NLT)

GOD GIVES DIFFERENT ANSWERS

I don’t know about you, but when I ask for something in prayer, I usually have a pretty good idea of what that answer will look like. My brain has already done the hard work for God and worked out all the details. There is no need for God to do anything but act. What I fail to take into account is that God is not trying to tell the world (and me) the story of “Chris.” God is telling his own story by how he works in the world and in our lives.

Take the story of Lazarus’s resurrection. Mary and her sister Martha knew exactly how God should work in their brother’s sickness. They had seen the formula time and again in Jesus’s ministry: Jesus shows up, and the sick are healed. The problem for them is that Jesus is telling a bigger story.

I love that when we read the two sisters’ greeting to Jesus, they use the same phrase: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” I think they had said this to each other repeatedly in the days after Lazarus’s death. It seems like a practiced statement. Mary, the emotionally passionate of the two sisters, throws herself at Jesus’s feet in despair and anguish. But Martha, who gets labeled as the less spiritual sister because of the Luke 10:38–42 account (take a second and flip over to it if you don’t know what I am talking about), seems to imply in her greeting that she knows Jesus has something in mind: “I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” And Jesus tells her what he is about to do, though she doesn’t quite understand the scope of his word in the moment.

When we pray, we must do so with the understanding that the story being told in our lives is God’s, not ours. When we get a different answer than we expected, when we wait and wait for God to move, or when we get a firm no from God, we have to trust that God is doing something to further his own story, and we can trust that the story is good.

Take a moment now and pray. Ask God to use you to tell his story. Ask him to do the things in your life that will bring him glory, because that is a prayer we can trust he will always answer with a “yes.”

Digging Deeper – Fruit in Season

Chris Boggess on November 25, 2025

“But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.”

Luke 1:20 (NLT)

Oh, the joys of those who do not
    follow the advice of the wicked,
    or stand around with sinners,
    or join in with mockers.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
    bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
    and they prosper in all they do.

Psalm 1:1-3 (NLT)

FRUIT IN SEASON

There is a tree that grows in the desert in Israel that is known as the acacia. These are trees with deep roots that grow near desert waterways known as wadis. Most of the time, acacia trees look dead. Anyone passing by would see a lifeless tree, a gnarled stick coming up from the rocks and sand of the desert floor. They can stand seemingly dormant for many years. Then the rains come to the highlands, and water rushes suddenly down the wadi where the tree grows. And it comes to life! Leaves sprout, and the tree that seemed lifeless becomes the picture of health and vigor.

When we read Psalm 1, we might read “bearing fruit each season” as representing a specific cycle of renewal and flourishing. We think of Georgia seasons, with predictable cycles. But for the acacia tree, the season is when the water comes, and that is when God sends the rain. Some acacia trees spend years waiting for the water to flow, and the seeds can wait for centuries.

God’s answers to our prayers will happen “at the proper time.” We like things to happen in our time. If Google gave us answers “at the proper time,” no one would use it. God is not Google. Sometimes we have to wait.

While the tree waits, it sends its roots deeper, because when the water comes, it is often a full-on flood, washing everything in its path away. The deep roots sustain it in the dry times, seeking the water deep beneath the surface. And they anchor it when the rain comes rushing so it can hold its ground.

So while you wait for God’s timing, live out verse 2 of the psalm: “But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.” Sink your roots deep in God’s word. Those roots will sustain you while you wait for answers from God. And those roots that you sink deep into Scripture will anchor you when God answers.

Take some time today to open up and meditate on God’s word. Sink your roots deep while you wait for God’s season.

Digging Deeper – Taking No for an Answer

Chris Boggess on November 24, 2025

“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”

James 4:1-4 (NLT)

“And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.”

1 John 5:14-15 (NLT)

TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER

The first recorded use of the phrase “Don’t take no for an answer” was in the book My Early Life by Winston Churchill, published in 1930. But the sentiment behind the phrase is as old as humanity. The Bible barely gets three chapters in before we find Adam and Eve deciding that they won’t take no for an answer. And this is where the problem lies. Sometimes “no” is the best answer.

There is a strange book by Flann O’Brien called The Third Policeman. Brian O’Nolan actually wrote the book, but that isn’t important here. The book is odd, but it does have a few interesting conversations. One of them is with a character who has decided that “No is a better word than yes.” The man had looked at his life, weighed his sins, and realized that his “yesses” had led to them. He decided that if he wanted to avoid sin, he must always answer “no.” Since he couldn’t know the outcome of saying yes, he avoided the consequences by always saying no.

I would agree with him that many of my past sins were the result of a “yes” that should have been a “no.” However, some of the greatest joys in my life have come from “yesses.” I said “yes” on my wedding day, and that continues to pay off in my favor. I said “yes” to the offer of salvation and will have eternity to appreciate the outcome of that “yes.” The problem is not the answer I give but my finite wisdom that informs it.

God, however, sees all the proper outcomes, so we can trust that he not only knows what the result of his “yes” or “no” will be, but also sees the heart that is asking and our motives. With those two things in mind, we can trust our loving Father to give us the right answer, as we see him do over and over again in Scripture. Then we can trust and take “no” for an answer.

Take a few moments today, pray, and ask God to give you the peace to take no for an answer from him. Ask him to show you clearly the places where your heart needs to change. Ask him to renew your trust that he is doing the right thing, and ask him to guide you to the right thing too.