Death – Not the End!

For Saturday, May 31, 2025:

Luke 12:4 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that.”

We all need a reminder from time to time that death is not the end. If we are truly believers, we should be confident that our earthly demise is simply the start of our journey into the next reality. Jesus will personally welcome us into the life after this life where he has prepared a place for us. Believers get to spend eternity in God’s presence, a land where joy never ends.

When Paul’s life was threatened, he debated allowing himself to be killed vs fleeing to stay alive. He could make a case for either decision. If alive, he could continue evangelizing, sharing Jesus’ truth with more and more people. Then they too would be saved. But if he died, he’d fall into Jesus’ arms in the heavenly realm. Life’s burdens would end. Tough choice!

Ultimately, Paul opted for life. I believe that was the right decision. Remember, God always chooses life. We are to live as long as God wants us to live, doing the work he has given us to do. God will decide when it’s time to call us home.

Jesus preaches: “Fear not! After you’ve been killed, nothing else can hurt you!” Implied in this statement is that following our death, everything will be OK. In fact it will be far better than most people expect!

When someone dies, people often say, “They’re in a better place now.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Hypocrisy!

For Friday, May 30, 2025:

Luke 12:1b NLT, Jesus warning his disciples: “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy.”

This was a good analogy. The Hebrew people were all familiar with yeast. As they fled Egypt, God told them to make bread without yeast. It takes time for yeast to rise, and they didn’t have any extra time. When God said to get going, they needed to get going right away. Flatbread, bread with no yeast, isn’t light and fluffy, but it’s fast. When made with einkorn, it’s just as nutritious.

Jesus is comparing the false doctrine of the Pharisees to yeast. A little bit of yeast can raise a big batch of bread. A little bit of hypocrisy can grow into laws, traditions and ceremonies that overtake the fundamental religion. Suddenly, the made-up stuff is the focus, and the foundation is forgotten.

Our Savior is reminding the faithful to stick with what is true. Listen to what Jesus said; read your Bibles. Nowadays, many denominations are peddling yeast – a big show with little foundation, just like the Pharisees did. Religion with yeast may look big and fluffy and attract a lot of attention, but most of it isn’t true. Most of it isn’t required.

Don’t be taken in by a religion full of yeast!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Conspiracy!

For Thursday, May 29, 2025:

Luke 11:53-54 NLT: “As Jesus was leaving, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees became hostile and tried to provoke him with many questions. They wanted to trap him into saying something they could use against him.”

Nowadays, we hear a lot of talk about conspiracy theories as a reason for bad things happening. When we see this, realize that something didn’t just accidentally go wrong. There’s always an evil advance plan, a plot designed to bring about the desired result. Today’s scripture describes the conspiracy against God’s Son.

The religious teachers and Pharisees perceived Jesus as a threat to their established religion. Tithes regularly flowed into the Temple, but now some tithes were going to Jesus. These leaders had agreed on false teaching, but this Jesus, the new guy, was rocking the boat, attempting to get his fellow Jews back on track, believing the way God intended. Agreeing with Jesus’ teaching would have meant the Pharisees abandoned their position in the driver’s seat and openly admitted that they were wrong. Mankind doesn’t do that easily!

Rather than welcoming the Son, our scripture says the religious teachers and Pharisees were hostile toward Jesus. They tried to provoke him, to make him angry. That wasn’t in Jesus’ nature. They tried to trap him with questions designed to be used against him. And they would eventually create a scenario that would end with Jesus’ demise. That’s the conspiracy!

But it wasn’t the end! God’s vast eternal plan knew the future. When the Pharisees thought they had won, Jesus would take the sins of the world to the place of the dead. Sin was conquered! Three days later, Jesus would rise from his tomb. Death had been conquered! And in forty days, Jesus would ascend to the Father’s Kingdom to prepare for the arrival of believers! The door had been opened to eternal life!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth vs Wrong Teachers!

For Wednesday, May 28, 2025:

Luke 11:52 NLT, Jesus speaking: “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”

We are advised in James 3:1: “Not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.” The problem here was that the teachers of religion in Jesus’ day were leading people down the wrong path. If the leader doesn’t know the way to the Kingdom, it follows that those they counsel would be led astray. That explains why religious teachers would be examined more closely. Not only are they headed in the wrong direction, they’re dragging others down with them!

We have been given a textbook to use in our religion class – the Bible! We can’t go wrong teaching from the Bible, but we must also understand the times and the context. My favorite example is when Job’s wife told him he might as well curse God and then die! The Bible is truth! But at that point, Mrs. Job was fed up with God’s lack of protection, and she said horrible things. Knowing the context, I believe the Bible, but none of us should act on her advice. That would involve giving up on God, and Job’s challenge was to NOT give up on God. By the way, Job succeeded!

Jesus sees sorrow in the future of a bad religious teacher, while a good teacher, one who furthers the Kingdom, will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth!

For Tuesday, May 27, 2025:

Luke 11:45 NLT: “Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.”

Today’s message concerns truth. Jesus, being fully man but also fully God, cannot lie. When Jesus taught his disciples, everything he said was true! When he addressed a large crowd – you guessed it – all truth! And when confronted by Pharisees and teachers of the law, Jesus responded with more truth. If they were offended, they need to listen more closely and conform to what Jesus was teaching, because it’s all true!

As a Christian, truth is in your evangelistic arsenal. As you’re telling others about salvation, know that God is truth, his Son is truth and the God-inspired Bible – our owner’s manual for life – is completely true. Pray that the Holy Spirit would touch seekers’ hearts, opening their minds to be receptive to truth.

If a person won’t believe the truth, they probably still want to be in the driver’s seat. I was once leading a Bible study when one of the students spoke up, saying, “I’ve never really believed that part of the Bible.” To which I replied, “Well, you might as well go home then!” That person needs more Holy Spirit intervention! God, his Son, the Holy Spirit and the Book they inspired are 100% true. That’s the foundation needed for all further Christian learning.

Truth is God’s opinion on everything!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Wash Your Soul too!

May 26, 2025, Monday Message:

Luke 11:41 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.”

I tell my grandchildren to wash their hands before we eat. God told the Jews to wash their hands before a meal. The Pharisees called it a commandment or a law, and they came up with an elaborate ceremony ensuring its implementation. Sure, it pleases God if we don’t put germs and dirt into our God-given bodies. But God’s words weren’t about religion; they were about keeping mankind healthy!

Jesus was invited to a Pharisee home for a meal, and he skipped the hand-washing part. To say the Pharisees went nuts would be an understatement! Time for Jesus to separate man-made ceremonies from common sense!

The Pharisees washed their dishes, inside and out, but only cleaned their bodies on the outside. The inside portion, their souls, were a filthy mess. Obsessed with their concern for observing the Law, they overlooked God’s commands telling them to love their neighbors. That principle was huge with Jesus, who taught that the most important commandment was loving the Lord, and the next, like it or equal to it, is to love our neighbors. A person could perform a perfect religious ceremony that would be meaningless if they showed no compassion for their fellows.

Today is Memorial Day in the US. We remember and honor our ancestors. We remember and honor those who gave their lives so that we could live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I don’t like wars, and there are currently about 80 conflicts in our world where people are shooting at one another with real bullets! Wars are typically about power and money. And wars become good people defending themselves against evil aggression. How much better our world would be if everyone could love their neighbors like Jesus taught, rather than shooting at them!

God will eventually have his way!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Let Your Light Shine!

For Sunday, May 25, 2025:

Luke 11:33 NLT, Jesus speaking: “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.”

I don’t just want to SEE the light – I want to ENJOY the light! I want it to light up the world around me so that I can see everything! Let’s be honest. We don’t turn on a lamp to see light. We turn on the lamp because we need to see something else. I want to read my book. I want to eat my food. I don’t want to trip on the rug. Turn on the light!

Light is a great analogy for goodness. Jesus is my light, showing me the way. If I am the light, I can shine before my friends to show them the way. If my friends become light, we can share a brightly lit worship experience!

In the Bible, light is often associated with goodness, and darkness with evil. Light always wins. If light intrudes on darkness, it all becomes light. If darkness tries to encroach on light, it too will become light.

So let your light shine before the world, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven! (Matt. 5:16)

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Repent!

For Saturday, May 24, 2025:

Luke 11:32 NLT, Jesus speaking: “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.”

Q: Can confessed sins be forgiven and forgotten? A look at the people of Nineveh gives us a clear answer.

Nineveh was well out of God’s favor. They were a sinful and disobedient nation, so much so that God called Jonah to deliver this message: Repent and return or face the consequences! That nation took Jonah’s message seriously, fasted and repented and returned to the Lord! And now Jesus is praising the people of Nineveh, counting them among the faithful who can join in condemning others on judgment day. Jesus moved them from the liability column to the asset column in the Book of Life. He can do the same for each of us, and already has for many!

Christians, those of us who previously repented and returned to the Lord, are Jesus’ army. We can join the people of Nineveh, condemning the unrepentant and proclaiming Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. We can encourage others to get their lives in order, as the Day of the Lord is imminent.

Thank you, Jesus, for including us in your Kingdom!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

A Sign from God!

For Friday, May 23, 2025:

Luke 11:30 NLT, Jesus speaking: “What happened to Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. What happens to the Son of Man [Jesus] will be a sign to you people that he was sent by God.”

Here’s the short version of the sign of Jonah. God was fed up with the wickedly disobedient people of Nineveh. So God called Jonah to go there and tell the people to repent and return – or else! Jonah, fearing what those citizens would do to him, caught a boat headed in the opposite direction. God wasn’t having any of his rebellion. God made the seas rough and all the sailors feared for their lives. Jonah knew he was the source of their bad luck, and to save the others he was eventually thrown overboard, only to be swallowed up by a big fish. Three days later, the fish spit Jonah up on the beach of – (you guessed it) – Nineveh! Those people fasted and repented and earned their way back into God’s favor. That incredible journey was Jonah’s sign that he was sent by God. Lesson: If God wants you in Nineveh, you’ll soon find yourself in Nineveh, regardless of what you choose to do!

Jesus knew his future was to rise from the grave three days after the crucifixion. The Jews had never seen anything like that before. That would be Jesus’ sign that he truly was heaven-sent. Rising from the dead would be the miraculous sign that changed fence-sitters into believers. It still does today.

If you examine the evidence and listen to the eyewitness testimonies, you too will be convinced that Jesus is the Son of God. And if you believe with all your heart, you can tell others. That’s what Jesus told us to do!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

God's Channel!

For Thursday, May 22, 2025:

Luke 11:28 CJB: “Jesus said, ‘Far more blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’”

As Jesus was teaching the crowd, a woman shouted out blessings to his birth-mother. Yes, Mary was obedient and highly favored by God. But the Father is even more pleased when one of us hears him and follows his instructions. Mary is history, but we are right now! Believers represent the future of the church for our generation. That’s what Jesus was saying.

God’s instructions will be heard by those with whom he has a relationship. If someone chooses to hear nothing from God, he won’t force his message on that person. Listening for God is like adjusting a radio receiver. If someone is not tuned in to the right frequency, they’ll never hear his message! So put God on one of your mind’s “preset” buttons! Let your Bible gather no dust!

Even more important than simply hearing God’s message is giving life to those instructions – obedience. Don’t think of serving God as an obligation. Consider it an opportunity to build an ongoing relationship with your Creator.

Believers have been drafted to play for God’s team. He wants us to win souls for the “good” team, those who, at the end of life’s game, are the winners.

Batter up!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship