Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
The promise that North Gate Church makes is not the promise of an organization to a people, but it is a promise of a people to a people. Meaning, when someone chooses to enter into the community of believers called North Gate Church, they are making a promise to that community with the understanding that the community is making that promise to them. What is that promise?
helping you to find true north.
Like the effect of the earth’s magnetic field on a compass, the invisible force of our culture will point us toward north, attempting to orient our lives and determine our destination. The problem is that this magnetic north will fail to lead us to True North. Magnetic north changes. It has changed up to 600 miles since first located in 1831.* Swaying to and fro, if we follow the pull of this world, we will find ourselves missing our destiny, if even by a few degrees. Finding True North is finding Jesus Christ. North Gate Church helps one another to find and follow Jesus Christ.
In the first verse of chapter 2 of Hebrews, the author mentions drifting away from the message of Christ Jesus. This “drifting” is the Greek word pararreō.* According to scholars, it means to “flow by” or “slip away from.”* According to Ray Stedman, pararreō, “describes that carelessness of mind which, perhaps occupied by other things, is not aware it is losing ground. Plato used it of something slipping away from the memory, and Plutarch of a ring slipping from a finger.”*
The imagery of water moving tells us that the default of the flesh is to drift away; to make no effort is to move in the wrong direction.* This means that one does not necessarily have to do something wrong to drift away, but that one must merely fail to put in the effort to stay moored to Christ.*
The author of Hebrews presents the cure for this dangerous drifting: pay attention.*
It’s easy to accept the directions or the currents handed to us. Without much thought, we can look at the compass that this world hands us and move in the direction dictated by it’s sway. It can feel that all is well. Following the current of this world will feel effortless and unencumbered. It might even feel at times that we are headed in the right direction. However, sadly and fatally, we will find ourselves amiss. “How did I get here?” we will ask ourselves.
What’s our part? What can we do? Pay attention. Where is God? What is His will? Am I engaged in following Christ?
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to look around you to see if you have drifted. Perhaps God wants you to re-engage your effort to follow Him intentionally. Maybe today God wants you to follow and find True North.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!
*Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews (Heb 2:1–4). IVP Academic.
Grindheim, S. (2023). The Letter to the Hebrews (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 136–143). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 47–49). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (p. 83–89). Zondervan Publishing House.
https://climate.nasa.gov/explore/ask-nasa-climate/3104/flip-flop-why-variations-in-earths-magnetic-field-arent-causing-todays-climate-change/