Sacrificial Giving!

For Wednesday, July 23, 2025:

Mark 12:44 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Most gave a tiny part of their surplus, but this widow, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

How much should we donate to our home church? The Old Testament teaches that the first 10% of everything already belongs to the Lord. That’s a good starting point.

The New Testament teaches us about sacrificial giving. People sold their land or their animals and donated the proceeds to the church. On the Day of Pentecost, 3,000 new believers came on board. Most were from out of town and would require food and housing right from the start. The first church, The Way, took care of them. Jesus and many others taught that the Kingdom was at hand; heaven was quite close. And those living in God’s Kingdom would have no need for worldly assets.

So what does God want? Many Christians are blessed with abundance, enabling them to help others. God wants each of us to be successful. Prospective Christians should be able to look at the flock and say, “They’re doin’ OK. They’re having fun. Life for them seems to be good. I want to become part of it!”

It’s good to save for when you can no longer work, and it’s good to have a rainy day fund. But it’s bad to hoard money, to become a miser. A delicate balance is required. It would be easy to prioritize money over God, and that would be wrong.

My advice is to pray about the matter, and then follow through with what God puts on your conscience!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

World Peace?

July 21, 2014 Monday Message:

Jesus: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Matt. 10:34b ESV

If you’re in the business of making new Christians – and we all should be – you might step on a few toes as you lead people to the Lord. Jesus did.

But Jesus did not want us to hold back, to make a wimpy presentation on his behalf. Rather, we are told to go boldly.

We are filled, and often re-filled with the Holy Spirit. This protects us and fills us with courage to speak up, even when it’s not popular.

Generally, non-believers feel threatened by Christianity. It was so even during Jesus’ time. If the Old-Testament prophecies were all fulfilled through Jesus, the Temple leaders would no longer have power over the people. They took Jesus and his followers to be a threat to their authority.

The Romans thought they were above everyone else, and their leader, Caesar, claimed to be Lord. This new Christian sect claimed that Jesus was Lord, flying in the face of the Roman government.

If the world could all be Christian and live by the Acts 2 church model, we would truly love our neighbors and know peace. But that hasn’t happened, and so we have wars and rumors of war, and it will be that way until Jesus returns.

We could pray for world peace, or we could pray, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Norton Lawellin

Let’s worship together! Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) meets every Sunday, at 10:30am, in the North end (gym) of the Oliver Ministry Building, 2647 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis. This week, I’ll wrap up Acts 4 - the believers were of one mind, which gave them power to change the world!

Truth is a Person

July 23, 2012 Monday Message:

Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” John 14:6

As Acts 2 closes, we witness the love, willingness to give and sharing spirit of the new believers. “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” Acts 2:44-45

Acts 4 visits this again: “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” Acts 4:34-35

Ananias and Sapphira had joined the church, and like the others, chose to sell property to support the cause. But Ananias conspired with his wife to hold back a portion of the funds for themselves, while still pretending to give the entire amount. When confronted, they fell down and died!

As church members, it’s important for us to fully understand their situation. Ananias and Sapphira could have sold the property or not sold the property, and either choice would have been OK. Once they had the money, they could have given or not given, and that too would have been OK. And once they decided to give, the amount could have been large or small; none of these things were the issue.

The problem was the lie. Ananias and Sapphira purported to do the same as the others, to donate the full amount, while in fact they underhandedly conspired to do otherwise and deceive the flock.

God did not tolerate deceit in the early church, and the same type of behavior saddens him nowadays. When Jesus returns for his time of judgment, each of us will be accountable for any schemes, deceit and tomfoolery we may have perpetrated while in His service.

Truth is a person, the person who came to rescue us!

Norton Lawellin