NorthStar Church Blog

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)

RAISING KIDS IN A SIN-SOAKED WORLD

Being a mom is one of my most treasured titles. Having the responsibility to teach two little growing girls about Jesus is something that I do not take lightly. When they were young, it seemed easy. It was all picture books, Bible stories, and coloring sheets. Now, as they have entered their teens, helping them chase after Jesus looks drastically different. It has now become more intentional conversations about how the world says one thing, but we believe another. It’s telling them, “I don’t know how to explain to you that bad things happen to good people. I don’t know how to explain to you why cancer can come back. I don’t understand why people are trafficked. I don’t understand how drugs can be so prevalent, how so many inappropriate things can just be looming outside our four walls.”

When you truly look at the state of the world we are raising our children in, it’s heartbreaking. I miss my childhood days when we fearlessly stayed outside playing capture the flag until the street lights came on and it was time for dinner. I miss the days when we could ride our bikes to school and didn’t fear locking the door right behind us. Now, I find myself constantly trying to lock out and block out the world. From the internet to social media, video games, and books, the world is chasing after our time, our minds, and our souls, and it is saturated in sin.

I want better for my children, for my future grandchildren, and for your children. In order for us to change the community around us, God tells us to train up our own children. Help set their firm foundation in Him. Lead by example; let them see us searching for the answers to life’s problems in the Bible. Let them hear us praying for help, guidance, and protection. Show them what it looks like to exude kindness to others, to be intently present. Show them how to be the light in the middle of the darkness.

If we want to change the current state of our world, a great place to start is by showing our kids how to be like Jesus in our community.

I pray, as you take on this Monday and start your week, that you think about your community. That you pray intently for God to give you wisdom on how you can make an impact and change the story.

Kelly Skelton is a Georgia native, raised in the south on Jesus, Georgia football and sweet tea.  She is her husbands’ biggest fan and her two daughters’ loudest cheerleaders.  She recently published her first children’s book titled, But God Had a Plan.  She stays active in the Dallas area as a  photographer, videographer, writer, and middle school teacher.

⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

Genesis 22:8 (ESV)

THE BETTER ISAAC

Our country is filled with some incredible signs. Many people will hike up Mount Lee to get close to the Hollywood sign. Anybody traveling through Chicago will take a detour to be photographed in front of the Wrigley Field sign. Then there is the world-renowned sign right in our backyard… the Varsity V sign. Each of these signs are iconic and tell a story, but the story isn’t about the sign. You visit the Hollywood sign to commemorate your trip out to L.A. You take a picture in front of Wrigley Field to show that you saw the Cubs play ball. You take picture of the Varsity V because you have been inspired by some of the kindest words you’ll ever hear, “What’ll you have?”

Now let me ask you. What makes these signs so special? Is it the branding or graphic design? Is it the location? Is it the lighting at these locations? No! The sign gains its significance from the object that it points to.

Throughout the Old Testament there are many examples of great people, but time and time again their main role was to be a sign pointing to the Messiah that was to come! We can easily get caught up in the faith walked out by these Old Testament heroes, but if you were to interview them today, they would all say that it wasn’t about them. They were just here to point to Jesus.

The story of Abraham and Isaac is one of the clearest examples of an Old Testament story foreshadowing what was to come. Let’s review!

In this story we see a father being willing to sacrifice his only son whom he loves. This son was the fulfillment to a long-awaited promise. We see the son being willing to carry the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain. The son is then willing placed on the wood without a fight in full submission. There is a confidence that the son will be raised from the dead after the sacrifice. We even see that on the third day the son is delivered.

Now let me ask you… as you read that paragraph did you read that through the lens of Abraham and Isaac, or God the Father and God the Son? If you did the former, go back and read it again! The story of Abraham and Isaac was meant to be a sign for us to see the fulfillment of the sacrifice that would come through Jesus.

Jesus is the lamb provided on our behalf! It was our sin that caused him to come to this world. It was our sin that placed the cross on his back. It was our sin that caused him to be sacrificed. But it was our God who willingly came. It was our God who willing bore the cross. It was our God who gave of His life to be delivered on the third day.

If you have never trusted in God before, cry out to Him today! He is the One who can meet your sin with His love, mercy, and grace! He has already willingly given Himself and defeated sin and death so that you can have right relationships with Him. All you have to do is believe and trust in Him!

Sellers Hickman serves as College Pastor at NorthStar Church and loves cheering on his Ole Miss Rebels. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Dallas, Ga. with their one year old, Emery. He also serves as the chaplain for the KSU Men’s Basketball team.

¹⁵And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, ¹⁸ and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” ¹⁹ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Genesis 22:15-19 (ESV)

WHEN OBEDIENCE LEADS TO BLESSING

I vividly remember one day in the fifth grade when our teacher passed out our pre-test to see what we knew about the subject. She asked everyone to put their pencil down and to look at her as she began to tell us about good test-taking strategies. She made sure to remind us to read all the questions and then to begin answering them. Now, I was a fast test-taker and loved to finish first so that I could take a five-minute nap with my head down, so I began to frantically answer every question. I probably worked for 20 minutes or so and then arrived at the last question, which said something along the lines of “When you read question 20, please ignore questions 1-19 by leaving them blank so that I know you listened to my instructions. If questions 1-19 have no pencil marks, then you can have one piece of candy at recess.”

I failed my test miserably that day and learned a valuable lesson: listen to the person who is giving the instructions. Abraham knew that lesson as well from all of his conversations with God.

Because Abraham was willing to obey the Lord’s command, even when it did not make sense, he was blessed. Abraham’s offspring would be multiplied, not just to the number of stars (Genesis 15), but now also to the sand of the seashore. They wouldn’t just be great in number, but in possessions as well. These descendants would be so great that they would bless every nation of the world… all because of the immediate obedience of Abraham.

This has been the story of Abraham all throughout Genesis. He rarely knew WHAT he was being called to or HOW he would accomplish it, but he always knew WHO was calling him. His obedience did not come from a fully fleshed out plan, but it was fueled by trusting in the one who had called him.

Maybe you feel called to something that doesn’t make sense yet. Are you trusting in the One who called you or are you trusting in your ability to come up with a foolproof plan? I don’t want you to hear that planning is bad. We see many examples in Scripture where a great plan is made while dependence on the Lord is present. My favorite example of balancing faith and planning is the story of Nehemiah. He is in exile serving under King Artaxerxes and begins to pray that the Lord would grant him favor with the king so that he could return to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. While he is praying and seeking the Lord, he was preparing what he needed to rebuild the wall. Nehemiah prayed and planned.

I think each of us are wired to lean one way or the other. For the person reading this who leans toward trusting God but being passive in your walk… God can provide, but Abraham still had to walk to the mountain and build the altar. Faith is active. We should not be passive in the way that we walk in obedience to God’s Word just because we believe that God will work it all out. He will, but that doesn’t mean that we get the free pass on being faithful.

For the person reading this who leans toward trying to do everything yourself and then adds God into the plans that you’ve already made… He wants to be included from the beginning. You’ve probably heard it said, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” I want to present an alternative to that. Planning without God makes you the god of your planning. You may be the best long-term planner on the earth today, but without God it is meaningless. Trust God with your plans early.

Sellers Hickman serves as College Pastor at NorthStar Church and loves cheering on his Ole Miss Rebels. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Dallas, Ga. with their one year old, Emery. He also serves as the chaplain for the KSU Men’s Basketball team.

⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” ¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Genesis 22:7-14 (ESV)

THE LORD WILL PROVIDE

We have finally arrived at the climax of the story. They finally make it up the mountain. Abraham begins to prepare the altar for the sacrifice and begins tying up Isaac. Remember, Abraham is old! We don’t know the exact age that this moment happens, but most scholars believe that Abraham is anywhere from 116-134 years old, and that Isaac is anywhere from 16-34 years old.

If we were taking bets, I would put all my money on Isaac to win in a wrestling match. How did he get overpowered by his dad? He didn’t! Isaac willingly was bound and placed on the altar. Why? Because of the faith of the man that had raised him! Abraham had so much confidence that the Lord would provide that it overflowed into Isaac. I’m sure growing up there were many moments when Abraham set the example of trusting the Lord with full confidence.

In Hebrews 11:17-19 we see Abraham’s thought process when it says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.” Abraham had so much faith in God that he trusted that if he plunged the knife into his son, that God would raise Isaac from the dead.

How is this possible? Because Abraham had confidence in the God who promised him a son. Because Abraham had confidence in the God whose character was proven to him time and time again. The command given to him seemed to contradict God’s character and promise, so he believed that God was going to do the impossible! Abraham knew that anything was possible with God and that it was impossible for God to break his promise.

A few months ago, my family was hit with an incredibly difficult moment where my wife’s younger brother had a stroke at the age of 26. I remember driving to Myrtle Beach not knowing what would come of it and trying to comfort Hannah. Those next few days we lived in the ICU and we genuinely did not know what would come of all of this. Would he talk again? Would he walk again? What would his life look like?

I lived with my AirPods in those days to have worship music on so that I could be reminded to cry out to God as much as possible. That week, Passion dropped their latest album and the song that I began to play over and over was “The Lord Will Provide.” If you have not heard that song, please go listen to it. There is nothing crazy deep theologically, the melody is simple, but the truth of the song is the same lesson we learn in our passage today… the Lord will provide. He’s got this! He sees you. He is Jehovah Jireh, which means “the Lord will provide.”

In your marriage, the Lord will provide. In your finances, the Lord will provide. In your health, the Lord will provide. Trust in Jehovah Jireh today to see you through whatever you’re walking through. If he did it for Abraham, he’ll do it for you!

Sellers Hickman serves as College Pastor at NorthStar Church and loves cheering on his Ole Miss Rebels. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Dallas, Ga. with their one year old, Emery. He also serves as the chaplain for the KSU Men’s Basketball team.

¹ After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” ³ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” ⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. ⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Genesis 22:1-8 (ESV)

WHEN GOD COMES KNOCKING

When I was younger, I was not one to take punishments well. The Hickman household is full of funny stories about my escape attempts when the wooden spanking spoon came out. We always laugh at the time I bolted outside and ran laps around the house trying to avoid my dad (well, most of us laugh). I could be pretty stubborn, and I remember one time my dad had asked me to take out the trash or clean my room, and when he came to check I still hadn’t done it. He checked again thirty minutes later, and it still wasn’t done so he asked me why I hadn’t done it yet. I told him “I didn’t feel like it.” Not a great idea! He responded as calmly as he could, saying, “I didn’t ask if you felt like doing it. I told you to do it, now get up or I’ll get the spoon.”

In our family obedience was a big deal! I hope that it was in yours as well. Today, we’ll look at the obedience of Abraham and how God values obedience from us.

If you read verse two out loud, it doesn’t seem to roll off the tongue. This verse is written as it is spoken. It’s slow and repeats itself to draw emphasis to what is happening for Abraham. God is asking him to sacrifice his son. But not just his son, his only son. But not just his only son, the son whom he loves.

Abraham responds immediately, “Here I am.” This is one of the qualities that I love most about Abraham (and truly one of my favorite themes that is highlighted throughout the Old Testament). He followed God’s devastating command with immediate obedience in verse three. The very next morning he woke up early and headed for the mountain. This wasn’t a mountain that was just around the corner either. It was a three-day journey!

I wonder how sleepless he was the night before leaving. I wonder how much of the journey was filled with tears about what was ahead. I wonder how Abraham felt when Isaac asked where the lamb was. Based on verse two, and all that we have walked through in our Abraham series, we know that Isaac was the greatest love of his life. In the Bible it took 22 chapters for the word “love” to be used, and it was to describe the love this father had for his son. And here he is looking to sacrifice the son before a holy God.

We know that Abraham loved Isaac, but his obedience to God trumped any feelings that he had.

This is hard to do. We live in a world where feelings drive a lot of our decisions. Whether it is stress eating, road rage, or isolating yourself from others, we can see the effects of our feelings pretty quickly. And feelings are not bad! God created us to have these feelings, but they never get the final say.

Maybe your feelings have driven a lot of your decisions lately when it comes to your walk with the Lord. I want to challenge you. Will you walk in obedience to what God’s Word says this week and fight the feelings that have been driving you to choose your plans or your own way of living?

Sellers Hickman serves as College Pastor at NorthStar Church and loves cheering on his Ole Miss Rebels. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Dallas, Ga. with their one year old, Emery. He also serves as the chaplain for the KSU Men’s Basketball team.

 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Genesis 22:1 (ESV)

WHEN GOD COMES KNOCKING

There are two types of people in the world: those who love to celebrate Halloween, and the rest of us! Maybe your family was the type that decorated the whole house and bought out all of Walmart’s candy aisle (full-size bars, of course). That was not my family! We had a strict rule that all the lights in the front of the house had to be off and you were not allowed to walk by the front windows on Halloween night. Now, in reality, we were normally coming back late from our church’s fall festival; but after we got home, we did not want to be bothered.

If that doesn’t resonate, picture this. You just got home from a long day at work, you’re excited to pull into your neighborhood and kick your feet up on the couch, and you see a 19-year-old kid walking up to the door two houses down from you with an iPad, looking to sell you the latest pest control, doorbell, or technology that Mrs. Johnson from down the street just installed as well.

I think we can all agree on this: when we want to be comfortable, the last thing we want is for somebody to knock on the door. In this passage today, God comes knocking again in Abraham’s life. So far, God has asked Abraham to leave his home, his family, and his plan for his life. It seems like every time God came knocking, he asked Abraham to leave something that he loved to seek after God through doing the impossible.

Personally, I think I would be a little leery to answer the door when God knocked. This was not the case for Abraham. Why? He had seen God’s faithfulness time and time again.

In this passage, God knocks on the door with another impossible situation. God tests Abraham with the very thing he loved most – the son that he had been promised!

I love the fact that the word “tested” is used here. Sometimes I think believers early in their walk with the Lord feel like their lives will become easier and filled with less complications because of trusting in Jesus. There are two types of tests we can receive from God: Tests that grow our faith and tests that reveal our faith. This test was the former. In our Abraham series we have seen God’s slow, step-by-step, building of Abraham’s faith. His faith was grown through hearing from God. His faith was grown through waiting on a child. His faith was grown through hardships and mistakes. His faith was grown through the joy of the promise of a son coming to be.

Abraham didn’t just arrive as a man of faith but was grown through 25+ years of leaning on God and trusting His words. See, God was never interested in taking Abraham somewhere, but instead making him into someone. Our passage today shows the results of who God had made him to be.

And we get to see the fruit of Abraham’s faith in the back half of this verse: “Here I am.” This is not just a friendly “hello” or “peek-a-boo” with the Lord, but a statement of surrender. He is essentially saying, “I’m here God. How can I serve and glorify you”?

So let me leave you with this question. If the Lord were to knock on your door today, what would your response be? Here I am, or nobody’s home? Will you allow God to do the slow, faith-building process that Abraham walked through in your own life?

Sellers Hickman serves as College Pastor at NorthStar Church and loves cheering on his Ole Miss Rebels. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Dallas, Ga. with their one year old, Emery. He also serves as the chaplain for the KSU Men’s Basketball team.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

CONFESSIONS OF A PLANNER

I love a good plan, and the farther out into the future I can put plans down, the better. I kid you not, I have things on my calendar for NEXT July at this very moment.  I realize this is where people split into one of two camps. You’re either with me screaming, “Amen these are my people” or scratching your head wondering how on earth its possible to live in such a suffocating manner. 

Regardless of which camp you find yourself in, one thing is true: God is a planner and His plans are not only guaranteed to work out, they are always good! 
 
Mark Batterson, one of my favorite Christian authors said in his book The Circle Maker, that we should “plan like it depends on us but pray like it depends on God.” I found a lot of comfort in that line of thinking because it allows me to map things out as I feel and believe they should go, but it also forces me to plan with hands open, holding loosely to the things on my schedule. It’s not an easy thing to do, living life knowing all that prep work could be for not; but I don’t believe any of it is ever wasted! Even if it is just the experience we gain from the preparation, God grows us in the process. 
 

The older I have gotten the more I have realized that it is a huge relief, a weight lifted, that while God wants to use me to work out His Kingdom plans, in the end I’m really not needed. It’s a matter of “get to” versus “have to.” If God can speak creation into existence, hold the Earth and the planets in place, cause the rising and falling of the sun, and tell the ocean where to stop, am I really so arrogant to believe that he NEEDS me and my five-year plan laid out in a color-coded Excel spreadsheet to work out other Kingdom matters? I think not. 
 
Praise God that I get to be part of His plan. Praise God that I get to be a tool in His hands. Praise God that I get to see Him do the impossible and watch miracles unfold in real time. But most of all Praise God that it’s not up to me and my planning. Praise the one who knows us, sees us, values us, loves us and holds all the plans down to the smallest detail in his hands – plans that are so good, and infinitely better than anything we could imagine, and give us a future and a hope!  

Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.

And I will lead the blind
    in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
    and I do not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16 (ESV)

WHEN THINGS DON’T GO AS PLANNED

I had it all mapped out. First, I would knock out my core classes, then dive into the major requirements that were needed to apply for pharmacy school. By Junior Year, I would apply and be accepted to an in-state pharmacy school. In five years, one more in undergraduate and four of graduate, I would earn my PharmD and have a career that I loved that would provide a steady solid income for my one-day, would-be family.  Then classes started and I found out very quickly that things can look great on paper but go very differently in reality. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was in WAY over my head. I dropped all my classes and went back to the drawing board. It was a difficult time of disappointment watching the dreams and plans I had for my life dissolve, having no clue what to do next.  

At this point in my life I was not walking with the Lord. I was on my schedule, my way, chasing down my dreams. I had a salvation experience with Jesus several years earlier, but without any Christian community to disciple me I quickly fell away from the tiny understanding of faith that I had and turned to the world for advice. 
 
I was walking blind as a bat through the darkness, fumbling my way as best as I could toward what I thought was a good and noble plan.  And while there was absolutely nothing fundamentally wrong with what I had mapped out for my life there was one BIG problem- it was my plan and not God’s. It would take more than a decade for me to come around and finally be walking in the plan he created for my life.  
 
Through many ups and downs, attempts and failures I learned both what it meant to let Christ be my guide and how to hold my plans loosely.  
 
I realized that my plans seem good, but His plans are great! Good is the enemy of great!! How often do we miss out on God’s best because we are content in our good enough? 
 
Life rarely, if ever, goes as planned and weathering disappointments is part of the deal. Looking back, I am so thankful that the Lord didn’t forsake me, that he was willing to lead me in my blindness, turning the dark to light and the rough ground to the level places I stand on today! 

Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.