The NorthWord
NorthWord is a daily Christian podcast from St. John's Fort Smith in collaboration with the Anglican Family. Hosted by Father Aaron from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.
Here's how it works: Every Sunday we release the full sermon preached that morning. Then Monday through Saturday, you get 3-5 minute daily reflections based on that sermon - one thought you can actually use each day. Every Wednesday we explore the rhythm of Jesus' life and how his followers have lived it out for 2,000 years.
Whether you're Pentecostal, Orthodox, Baptist, Catholic, or just curious about faith - this is for you. Ancient faith. Real life. No fluff.
The Word. The North. Your Week.
Follow @StJohnsFortSmith and @TheAnglicanFamily
Episodes
157 episodes
Strive Until You Become
The striving life isn't a burden. It's the most beautiful thing a human being can do.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theang...
The Prize Is Not Achievement
The goal of striving isn't performance. It's transformation. And the two could not be more different.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: https://www.you...
The Difference Between Effort and Grace
Striving isn't earning. It's receiving and then responding to what you've been given.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theang...
One Step Further
The gap between seeking and striving is one decision. And you can make it today.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theanglican...
Spectators vs. Participants
Jesus doesn't answer the question you ask. He answers the question you should have asked. And it's about you.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: https:/...
Sunday Sermon: Dual Citizenship
Everyone has the choice between living a life of the flesh or the spirit.Drawing on Romans 8, this sermon explores what Paul means by the Flesh and the Spirit, and what it means for Christians to live according to the Flesh or the Spirit...
Disciples Are Always Being Formed
You don't graduate from discipleship. You never stop being a student. And that's not a burden — it's the point.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: https...
The Purpose of Difficulty
Hardship isn't punishment for what you did. It's preparation for who you're becoming.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theanglica...
Even If You Know Better
You know exactly what you should do. Knowing isn't the problem. The problem is that knowing isn't the same as doing.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on YouTube: http...
Two Kinds of Discipline
Being disciplined from outside yourself is one thing. Learning self-discipline from within is another. And you need both.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Watch on ...
The Day My Father Slapped Me
One moment of correction shaped my entire life. This is the story of why the hardest thing a parent can do is sometimes the most loving.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Wa...
Sunday Sermon: The Wrong Burdens
Everyone has to carry a burden, but which one will you choose?Drawing from Matthew 11, this is an honest sermon on the burdens we carry, the freedom we chase, and the one yoke that's actually light — an invitation to trade self-rescue fo...
You Can't Love Alone
A rerun of one of our older shows!Proximity isn't community. Attendance isn't belonging. Why our calling to love is impossible without the community God gave us. Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these sh...
What Rises from the Death
When the old self dies, something new can be born. But you have to be willing to wait in the grave for a while.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey! Watch on YouTube: https...
The Old Self Has to Go
You're not being asked to hate yourself. You're being asked to recognize that the version of you that ran your life is already dying.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey!Wa...
The Cost of Becoming
Dying to yourself isn't suffering for its own sake. It's the price of becoming who you're actually meant to be.Text Us directly by clicking 'Text Us' at the top of these show notes to share your journey! Watch on YouTube:
You Don't Have to Become Dead
You keep going back to the same thing, and you're not trying hard enough — you've already died to it in baptism. The question isn't whether you can become dead to sin; it's whether you'll live like you already are.Text Us directly by cli...
You Cannot Hold Yourself
Grace reigns — but our capacity to stay in it requires structure, relationship, and the willingness to be truly known. A challenge to move beyond a comfortable, private Christianity and into the kind of accountability that keeps the conscience ...
When Identity Becomes a Cage
There is a particular trap that catches faithful, long-serving people: the moment a role shifts from something we do into something we are. A reflection on the difference between holding important work with open hands versus clenched fists, and...
The Four Stages
Most people don’t lose the fight at the moment of the act — they lose it in the quiet moments just before, when they’re still telling themselves they haven’t decided anything yet. Walk through the four stages from temptation to habit, and disco...
Desire Is Not Destiny
Following Christ doesn’t make the pull of the old nature disappear — it means that pull no longer has the final word. A reflection on what it looks like to carry two natures, and why the presence of temptation is not a sign of failure.Te...
Grace That Floods
One man’s sin introduced a condition that infected all of humanity but Christ’s response was never meant to be a one-for-one remedy. Explore how the overflow of grace doesn’t just forgive the debt but clears the record entirely, placing us at a...
Stop. Stay. See.
Three small words — stop, stay, see — offer a practical framework for making the most important decisions from a place of faith rather than fear. The week closes with a grounded, actionable challenge drawn from Paul, Jesus, and James: how to st...
Running vs. Transitioning
There is a profound difference between escaping a season before God's work is complete and leaving because that work is genuinely finished. A careful and honest exploration of when to stay, when to go, and how to tell the difference — including...
Equipped for Your Exact Season
God doesn't remove the hardship — He equips you for it, with blessings precisely matched to the burdens you are carrying right now. A close look at Ephesians 1 reveals a stunning one-to-one inventory of divine provision: forgiveness for your fa...