Faith & Trust!

For Friday, May 31, 2024:

1 Peter 1:9 NLT: “The reward for trusting him (Jesus Christ) will be the salvation of your souls.”

"You love Jesus even though you have never seen him. We can’t see him now, but we trust him; and we rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.” This is what we call, “faith.”

Though we have never seen Jesus, we believe the legendary stories and the testimonies of eyewitnesses. We believe the truth contained in our Bibles. Satan will attempt to divert your attention from our savior, but persevere. Never falter. It’s worth it! Our reward will be the salvation of our souls!

As I’ve said before, there are only two destinations for us in the life after this life – the lake of fire or paradise. Jesus said he was going to paradise, so I’m sticking with Jesus!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Blessed Assurance!

For Thursday, May 30, 2024:

1 Peter 1:3b-4 NLT: “Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.”

God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – has adopted believers into the Holy Family and prepared a special gift for each of them. You can’t buy this gift or earn it; it’s simply benevolence in motion. We call it grace, undeserved favor. The prize is eternity in the presence of God Almighty!

There are only two destinations for life after this life; paradise or the lake of fire. By our earthly decisions we are allowed to choose! Choose wisely!

Paul calls it our inheritance. I call it Assurance of Salvation. It’s a guarantee, a promise that if we claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, he will prepare our place in heaven.

That’s why we sing the hymn, “Blessed Assurance!”

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Irrevocable Decision!

For Wednesday, May 29, 2024:

Ephesians 6:24 NIV: “May God’s grace be eternally upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As Paul is concluding this epistle, he prays grace and peace to all the believers. Paul’s hope is that the principles of Christianity would settle in and become second nature to those who believe.

I believe there is a turning point inside each of us when not believing isn’t an option. At that point, you could say that person is “all in.” They have nothing else on their agenda that could be more important than believing in Jesus. Backsliding is no longer an option!

Paul was like that. Being called out on the road to Damascus by Jesus himself was life-changing for Paul. God had shown himself, Paul believed what he had seen and his mind was permanently engraved with the Gospel. There was no going back!

Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Share the Gospel!

For Tuesday, May 28, 2024:

Ephesians 6:19 TLB, Paul writing: “Pray for me, too, and ask God to give me the right words as I boldly tell others about the Lord and as I explain to them that his salvation is for the Gentiles too.”

Paul is writing this from prison. He is in chains, yet his prayer is for sharing the Gospel. That’s his primary goal, his ultimate purpose. Remember that Jesus himself commissioned Paul to share the Good News with Gentiles.

We’d expect Paul to be praying for freedom, and perhaps he did at another time, but right now his prayer is for success in explaining the Gospel to the unchurched. That’s trickier than you might suspect. As believers, we tend to use church-like words and church-like phrases, sayings that are meaningless to the unbeliever. When someone first asked if I had “Jesus in my heart,” I had no idea what they were talking about! We not only need to carry the message, but we need to teach it in a way that everyone can understand.

Since believers are all assigned the task of sharing the Good News with all nations, we need to make sure they understand the truth!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Memorial Day!

May 27, 2024 Monday Message:

Ephesians 6:13 NLT: “Put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.”

There is an ongoing battle for your soul, your spirit, your eternal essence. Thankfully, God has provided a path to victory. Put on the full armor of God as your defense. Put Jesus in your heart. Fill yourself with the Holy Spirit. Think of adding the Holy Spirit to your body’s defense as similar to filling your car with more gas. Every once in a while you need to pause, go back to your Bible and say, “Fill ‘er up!” It never hurts to top off your Holy Spirit tank!

Since good and evil cannot coexist, the best way to fight evil is to fill yourself with more good! Commit or re-commit yourself to Jesus, and pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, your defender and advocate. Do it today! With the Holy Spirit watching out for your soul, you’ll be fine. When the battle ends, you’ll still be standing!

In the US, today is Memorial Day, a national holiday honoring the military personnel who lost their lives defending our nation. Without their efforts, our lives today would be far different. Our military protects us from human aggression, and the Holy Spirit protects us from spiritual aggression.

We would do well to remember both!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Demons!

For Sunday, May 26, 2024

Ephesians 6:12 NLT: “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

We cannot see God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, and yet that three-in-one God is the foundation of our religion. If you need evidence of a Creator God, just look around you! It’s springtime, and seemingly everything has turned green. God knew just how much to tilt the earth on its perpetual journey around the sun, so we have four seasons every year! It’s perfect! The earth itself spins, giving us day and night every 24 hours. It too is perfect!

Q: So what happened to Satan and his minions, his demons and his evil spirits? A: They are still present nowadays, providing an unending measure of misery. Even though – like God – we cannot see them, they are still hard at work. So we need to guard against their evil agenda. Put on the armor of God!

Jesus called us to the ‘priesthood of all believers,’ and the first thing a priest should do is cast out all the demons! Good and evil cannot coexist, so it you’re praying for Jesus’ intervention, you first need to remove all the evil.

With evil out of the way, deliverance becomes more likely!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Equalizer!

 For Saturday, May 25, 2024:

Ephesians 6:9 NLT: “Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.”

The Bible says to do your work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Here on the earth we have masters and slaves. Nowadays we call them bosses and employees. But the ultimate boss, the ultimate master is our Father in heaven. He is the great equalizer, and the final word on everything!

The Bible teaches that after Jesus, “there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This has been the goal for 2,000 years, but apparently mankind is not very good at it. People are separated, and in a way judged by each other, by their financial success and racial heritage.

There’d be fewer problems in the world if everyone lived Jesus’ way!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Family!

For Friday, May 24, 2024:

Ephesians 6:3 NLT: “If you honor your father and mother, ‘things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.’”

This is the first commandment with a promise. According to God, honoring your father and mother is not only the right thing to do, but it reenforces the natural order of life, God’s plan. The saddest funerals are when a child has died and his parents are among the mourners. God’s natural order and simple logic should have us expecting children to outlive their parents!

Progeny are given the spirit of independence to leave home, select a mate and start a new family. But an important thing, according to this commandment, is to also not forget the old family. We can glean a great deal of wisdom from their experience of living a long life. I wish I had appreciated what good people my parents were when they were still alive.

I have become a fan of the extended family, several generations living under one roof. One of our daughters and her son have lived with us from time to time. Life seems better when they are here. If they have traveled away, I feel like something is missing!

Honoring your parents is a lot like loving your neighbors. We need to be kind and helpful. We need to be available to do the next right thing. Honoring parents can be a lot of work! Are you up for the task?

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Wives and Husbands!

For Thursday, May 23, 2024:

Ephesians 5:21 NLT: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

This scripture is explained in the next two sections. For women, v22-24 apply. For men, it’s v25-28. We can get in a lot of trouble – especially nowadays – if we read one part but not the other!

The Message states it like this: “Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.”

Husbands should love their wives like Christ loves the church, and Christ gave up his life to redeem believers! Do you love your husband or wife enough to die for them?

It’s a privilege to have God pair you up with a mate, so love, respect and value God’s choice! If God didn’t assign you a partner, he must have other things planned for your life! Have fun discovering your purpose!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Father God!

For Wednesday, May 22, 2024:

Ephesians 5:20 NLT: “Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul is encouraging believers to live in the light where everything is visible. His analogy is also practical. Light is good; darkness might not be so good! Activities of which you can be proud are displayed in the light for everyone to see! Iffy, questionable activities take place in the dark where illicit acts can be easily hidden.

God will give us provision to ensure our survival. We will have everything we need, not everything we want! We are to pray to God the Father in the name of his Son Jesus. I always begin public prayers with “Father God,” and end with “In Jesus’ name we pray.” But if you’re in a hurry or frustrated and mistakenly pray directly to Jesus, God is smart enough to figure it out! It’s hard to pray incorrectly!

Our triune God created everything. Thankfully He shares with us. Our planet stays alive because the sun keeps shining and the earth keeps spinning. God provides us with necessities we don’t even know we need!

God is good!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Called!

For Tuesday, May 21, 2024:

Ephesians 5:8 NLT: “Once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!”

"All you have to do is change everything!” Does that sound simple to you, or quite complicated? When a person becomes a Christian, a radical transformation should take place. Rather than sin, the Christian now takes the high road. Rather than living in darkness, Christians now live in the light! An observer who knew the old person might not recognize the new person! That’s OK!

The change we see isn’t just for the sake of change. It’s a change for the better. Because our sins have been forgiven and we have an inside track to the hereafter, there should be more joy on our faces! By loving one another, everyone will know that we are Christians!

Jesus didn’t forgive you so you could mope around being earnestly pious. Jump for joy! The Bible says that we should share the Good News with everyone, that we should make disciples of all nations. In other words, teach Jesus’ redeeming truth to those who don’t look like you and don’t speak like you.

The Bible speaks of the “priesthood of all believers,” a priest simply being a religious leader or teacher. In the Old Testament, priests followed in the tradition of the tribe of Levi or the priest Melchizedek. Christians follow Jesus. You’re a priest, a Christian leader, if Jesus says you are. Churches don’t make pastors; Jesus ordains Christian leaders!

Are you called?

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Idols!

May 20, 2024 Monday Message:

Ephesians 5:5 NLT: “For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God”

Paul is teaching a huge perspective on theology. But it’s really quite simple. Christians should endeavor to be more like Jesus. Therefore no immorality, nothing impure and no greed should exist in the church. If immorality gets in the way of loving the Lord, then it would appear that person must love the immorality more than he loves the Lord, and something that occupies God’s rightful first place is an idol! As members of the Holy Family, idols should not be an option!

In Jesus’ day, when many people didn’t know the truth of the real God, people were still searching for something to worship. They would invent a god for good weather, bountiful crops – even a god of sexual pleasure. They would make up an image to represent that false god and manufacture multiple copies of the image which could be bought, sold and traded. Apparently god could come from Hallmark! Pagans would buy the images representing their god, and keep them in their homes. Their god became a statuette that could sit on their mantle keeping watch over the entire household. Totally incorrect, and yet somehow convenient!

Nowadays many things can divert our focus from God. Cell phones may top the list, especially among upcoming generations. The internet, sports, jobs and money can all take more of our time than we devote to God. We need to exert extra effort to keep God in first place!

Give God a little extra time today!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Neighbors!

For Sunday, May 19, 2024:

Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT: “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, telling everyone to be nice, treat others kindly and to live harmoniously. We would be wise to appropriate his teaching for the entire world!

Paul is following Jesus’ example, who was following his Father’s example. Did you ever stop and think – pretend with me for just a minute – what the world would be like if everyone followed Jesus’ example? Everyone would get along. Everyone would be nice, kind and considerate. There would be no more disagreements between countries. Wars would vanish!

There is enough food in the world for everyone, but we can’t seem to work out the logistics. In the US, food spoils daily and we simply throw it away. We have more. In other countries, children are dying for a lack of nutrition. We know that we need to get food to those who desperately need it. But various laws, countries and border lines prevent this from happening! As a human race, we could do better!

We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, so let’s define neighbor. The category is broader than it first appears. I believe that anyone you interact with is considered your neighbor and should be treated fairly and honestly. That’s what Jesus would do!

Jesus did a lot of favors for people he just met!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Forgive!

For Saturday, May 18, 2024:

Ephesians 4:32 NLT: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Our forgiveness of others should be a mirror image of the forgiveness Jesus shows towards us. It’s amazing the way God forgives us. Therefore it would be shameful to withhold forgiveness from those who have wronged us.

God’s forgiveness fully restores us with the Father, proving He still loves us and considers us adopted into the Holy Family. This is one more proof of assurance of salvation. God loves us both in this life and the next!

The Lord’s Prayer always comes to mind as we look at forgiveness. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We will be forgiven in a similar measure to how we forgive others! So be nice! Your place in eternity depends on it!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth!

For Friday, May 17, 2024:

Ephesians 4:25 NLT: “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

Do you represent honesty and truth to all you meet? For Christians, truth should be a way of life. Living the other way is simply not an option.

Truth can be difficult to find nowadays. You can look for it in churches, but there are so many! How do you discern which is truthful? Yes, it DOES matter! Why would people reading the same Bible and worshiping the same Savior require so many different denominations? Can’t they all just get along?

I believe that heaven looks at everyone attempting to worship Jesus and lines them up on a little judgement scale. “These people got this thing right; Those other people got a different thing right.” Q: Which is heaven’s truth? A: The one closest to the Bible!

God’s standards have not changed, so get in step with the Lord!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Judgement!

For Thursday, May 16, 2024:

Matthew 23:33 NLT, Jesus speaking to teachers of religion and Pharisees: “Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?”

Hell represents perpetual misery. I’ve heard people about to do something wrong jokingly say: One more thing won’t matter. I’m already headed for hell!

Of course it DOES matter. That would be the perfect time to turn one’s life around and pray for mercy and forgiveness. You can’t do anything so bad that Jesus won’t offer forgiveness, pull you out of the fire and allow you a second-chance reboot!

Jesus poses a good question: “How will you escape the judgment of hell?” Choosing heaven or hell is an irreversible monumental decision. Once you’re committed to an eternal path, there’s no going back, no do-overs. If you’ve been dancing with the devil, you’re no longer welcome in heaven! But if your dance card is filled with Jesus, there won’t be room for Satan!

Choose wisely while there’s still time. Claim Jesus as savior of your soul. That’s the only way to stay out of the lake of fire!

If you have a better plan, I’d like to hear it!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Hypocrites!

For Wednesday, May 15, 2024:

Matthew 23:23 NLT, Jesus speaking: “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”

God has shown us his truths. They’re not going to change: justice, mercy and faith top the list. These values should lead our agenda as we live each day. Putting our “things–to–do” list in the proper order requires knowing the Son of God and using our God given brains!

In today’s scripture, Jesus is addressing people who have this principle all wrong. Unfortunately, these are the religious teachers and leaders of the day. Jesus calls them all “Hypocrites,” someone pretending to be something they are not. Greek would use this same word for “actor,” someone playing a part unrelated to their actual life. The big downfall here is insincerity, using “made-up” values in the wrong order to teach religion to others! One translation calls these false teachers, “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

To fulfill their purpose, actors need an audience, and these hypocrite teachers of religion are no exception. They try to do good things, not for the “good” in it, but to impress others, so others can see just how good they are!

Worship the Lord because he is good, not to please others!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Fire from Heaven!

For Tuesday, May 14, 2024:

Ephesians 4:25b NLT: “Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.”

Truth is conforming to fact, to actuality. Truth is valuable; lies are worthless! Eyewitnesses verify the truth of the Bible.

On Mt. Carmel, Elijah said to the people of Israel, “How long will you waver between two opinions?” Elijah, one man, was working for the true God. 450 were working for Baal, and 400 for Asherah, false gods! Kind of lop-sided, wouldn’t you say? The deck was stacked against Elijah!

Elijah challenged the groups to sacrifice a bull and place it on their altar. We’ll see which one God chooses! The prophets of Baal went first, dancing around their altar from sunrise until noon. Nothing happened. They regrouped and continued until evening. Still nothing happened.

Next Elijah prepared his altar: a stone base piled high with wood, and pieces of his bull on top. Finally, just to be more dramatic, he had his oppressors pour 12 big jars of water onto everything. Then he prayed to the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Everyone’s jaws dropped when fire fell from the sky, igniting the burnt sacrifice! Elijah and his God were vindicated that day, victorious! All the people were convinced because they had seen truth with their own eyes! (I Kings 18)

Some churches avoid controversy by steering clear of biblical truths. The hot topics today seem to be sexual identity and abortion. We can choose to hide from these topics, or we could choose to teach the entire Bible. God’s value system isn’t about to change!

Choose a pastor and a church where you can learn truth! See you in church!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship