Children of God

July 29, 2019 Monday Message

“To all who received Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12

You’ve accepted Jesus; you’re a believer now; you’re a member of the Holy family! So let me ask, “Are you one of His good kids, or are you the one who gets sent to the principal’s office?” A growing church will have some of each, with the “good” group steadily increasing.

But a growing, evangelizing church will be constantly adding newcomers who aren’t yet up-to-speed on how Jesus said we should live our lives. They will, over time, break their old habits and lose their old ways. Eventually they’ll join the “good” group, with newer converts taking their place.

There’s a mistaken notion that potential Christians need to clean up their lives and then come to church. Backwards! They first need a come-to-Jesus moment! Then their lives will improve and their behavior will change out of gratitude for what Jesus did for them – rescuing them from eternal damnation.

Another thought: I’m perpetually amazed that in our next life we can live in the presence of God for “eternity,” and we don’t even know how long eternity is! But God knows, and he wants us there for all of it! That’s God’s love for us!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets Sunday Aug. 4, 2019, 10:30AM, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406. Founding Pastor Michael Pilla returns to the pulpit.

Reciprocal Love

July 22, 2019 Monday Message

“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.” Ps. 36:5 NLT

Love should be a 2-way relationship – “Reciprocal Love.” God-the-creator loves you unconditionally, and he’s not about to change his mind – which leads us to the question, ”Do you love God as much as He loves you?” That’s kind of a rhetorical question, because as created beings, we’ll never be as good at something as the Creator. But it’s a worthy goal.

Jesus taught that we should “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” And then, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So God should be ‘first’ in your life. After that, love those around you, your neighbors. Be nice, be helpful. Do what you can to make things go better.

“Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you.” Get it? It’s “Reciprocal Love!” Ps. 36:10a

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets Sunday July 28, 2019, 10:30AM, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406. This week, Pastor Van Dickerson opens up 1 Cor. 6:13-20.

His Love Endures Forever!

July 15, 2019 Monday Message

“His love endures forever.” Ps. 136:1b

Psalm 136 is a list of God’s positive attributes, with each verse ending the same way: “His love endures forever.” Limited by mankind’s languages, it’s challenging to express exactly how much love the Lord has for us.

In the English language, we have only one word for love. “I love my car, I love my dog, I love my wife, I love my God.” We intend to state different degrees of love, but we have only the one word to express our emotions.

The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, gets us closer with “agape love,” the unconditional love a parent has for a child. The child might do something wrong from time to time, but we still love them. We still welcome them home. God still loves us even when we’re off track, and will welcome us home in spite of our transgressions.

The original language writes, “His chesed endures forever.” ‘Chesed,’ or ‘khesed,’ or sometimes just ‘hesed,’ is like extreme agape love, taken to the max! It’s an unconditional love that can never be changed, never be taken away. It’s forever love, no matter what happens. (It’s always challenging to write Hebrew words using English-language letters!) The King James version sometimes writes ‘everlasting lovingkindness,’ which always triggers my spellchecker!

God looked over his creation, and saw that it was very good. God has lots of extreme love for everything he created, and he’s not about to change his mind.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets Sunday July 21, 2019, 10:30AM, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406. This week, Pastor Van Dickerson opens up 1 Cor. 6.

Return, then Repent?

July 8, 2019 Monday Message

“Return, then Repent!”

As we talk about evangelizing, the words ‘Repent and Return’ roll off our lips. “Repent of your sins, and return to Jesus!” But that’s backwards. Kinda…

God repeatedly shows everlasting lovingkindness for everything he created (khesed), and he’s full of grace and forgiveness. God’s desire is that even the worst scoundrel among us would return. God didn’t make any junk, but some of us got off track. Once back in the flock, the misfit will see the sinful nature of his errant ways – he will want to change, to eliminate the sin from his life out of gratitude for what God and Jesus have done for him.

Our piscatorial Christian friends say, “You catch ‘em; we’ll clean ‘em!” Jesus himself told Simon-Peter and Andrew that they would become “fishers of men,” and isn’t that what Jesus commanded us ALL to do?

So “Repent and Return” or “Return and Repent.” Either way works for me. We shouldn’t delay assurance of salvation while awaiting repentance. The most important thing is that everybody hears the Good News about forgiveness and eternal life in the presence of the Father - available because of Jesus!

Norton Lawellin

Let’s worship together! Jesus in the City Fellowship meets Sunday July 14, 2019, 10:30AM, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406. This week, Paul counsels the Corinthians to not tolerate overt evil within their congregation. (1 Cor. 5) I’ll see you at church!

Only Jesus!

July 1, 2019 Monday Message

Many churches, congregations and individual Christians get off track when they start following a human leader rather than simply following Jesus. The Corinthian congregation had divided itself, some following Paul, some following Apollos and some following Simon-Peter and the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

Paul wrote his first Epistle to the Corinthians to set things straight. His simplified plan for church and worship is this:

#1 Believe only what is written, and in Paul’s day, that meant the Torah, the Old Testament. (The New Testament had not yet been compiled.)

and #2 Worship ONLY at the church of Jesus. It’s great to have leaders like Paul and Peter, but we should not worship them; rather, imitate them as they worship Jesus the Christ.

This is another instance where the basics of Christianity, the redeeming ordinances, are fairly simple. Mankind writes book after book attempting to explain the whole Christianity thing, but it doesn't have to be that complicated. I believe God made his redemption plan simple so that ALL of us could “get it!”

So follow what is written and worship only at the church of Jesus. Simple, right? See you at church!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets Sunday July 7, 2019, 10:30AM, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406. Evangelist Wendy calls everyone to commit or re-commit themselves to Jesus. (John 3:16)