Use Your Head!

For Tuesday, October 21, 2025:

John 14:26 NLT, Jesus speaking: “When the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

The human brain is a miracle of God’s creation skill. Troves of valuable information are retained inside our heads. That’s long-term memory. Surprisingly, I can remember a lot of things I learned as a youth or in elementary or secondary school.

We also garner information on a need-to-know basis. Short-term memory. We remember everything we need to, now, but discard the data a short time later. Since I work with church musicians, I’ll use them as an example. Songs are typically assigned about a week in advance. I can look over the music and listen to examples of others performing the selection, but that’s a small part of the big picture. The most effective rehearsal is the one closest to the performance. It’s the rehearsal right before the church service that locks everything in place. That way, the details and any changes are fresh in our minds. Consequently, the best we ever do is when that music is performed for the congregation right after our rehearsal. Top of mind! But by Monday afternoon, I might not even remember the name of the song!

Back to today’s scripture… In Jesus’ absence, the Holy Spirit will (re-)teach us what we may have forgotten, reminding us of what Jesus said. That’s why it’s important to stake out our relationship with the Holy Spirit. He empowers us for service and connects us with spiritual gifts. While there is some denominational disagreement as to how best to connect with our Paraclete, there is no disagreement that we need to cultivate this relationship. The Holy Spirit can move Jesus’ teaching from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. As a believer, you’ll need this knowledge for quite some time!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Use Your Head!

For Tuesday, September 30, 2025:

John 14:9 NLT: Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”

 God designed mankind with brains and the ability to think things through to their logical conclusion, and he expects us to do just that. In this example, Philip had traveled with Jesus, ate meals with him, and observed miracle after miracle as Jesus ministered to the Hebrew people. From everything Philip saw, Jesus’ identity should have been obvious.

 But sometimes we want reassurance, verification that our conclusion is correct. Jesus couldn’t have been clearer in his answer: “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father!”

 Q: Why should we read our Bibles and attend Bible studies with others? A: To learn as much as we can about the Father and the Son. We want to familiarize ourselves with their similar traits and trends. And when our eyes have been opened as to who Jesus is, we can share that Good News with others, something we are all called to do.

 Do you believe Jesus is the Son of the Most High? Not just because the Bible says so (and the Bible is always right!) But because you’ve arrived at your answer through critical examination of the evidence, all of which points to the only possible conclusion: Jesus is Lord!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Made in His Image!

For Thursday, January 2, 2025:

Genesis 1:27 NLT: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

God was binge-creating, to use a modern term. For a while there he created one thing after another – light and darkness, dry land and oceans, plants, birds, fish, animals, and finally mankind! He could have just made another variation of the zebra. (I guessed that was the last animal created since its name begins with ‘Z’.) (Pun! – Adam actually gave the animals names! But we digress…)

God is a spirit-being, and we, having been created in his image, are also spirit beings, living in borrowed bodies. We were created to be top-of-the-food-chain here on earth. We were given brains, intelligence and reasoning. God wants to be companions with us, to walk alongside us. He didn’t want to hang with a bunch of dorks!

In God’s infinite wisdom, he must have known that we would let him down from time to time. So he also planted in us the concepts of repentance, forgiveness, second-chances, do-overs and most of all true love for God and our fellows.

Created in God’s image, we stand with the best!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

God-given Instinct!

For Friday, November 29, 2024:

1 Thessalonians 5:21b-22 NLT: “Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.”

As a person becomes a loyal believer, a follower of Jesus and the New Covenant, we can easily separate life into two categories: things we should do, and things we shouldn’t do. With the New Covenant, Jesus taught that these laws are written on our hearts. Therefore we don’t need long lists of rules, lists of commandments, because we should instinctively know right from wrong.

And if we know what to do, we also know what NOT to do! God gave us intelligence and a gift of discernment. He gave us brains and expects us to use them! We need to slow down and lose our knee-jerk reactions to life’s problems. Take a minute and ask yourself if your reaction is good, right, fair and honest. Ask yourself, “Should I be doing this?”

Many bad decisions are put in motion when we don’t take the time to stop and think things through, to use the minds our Creator put in our heads!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Think!

For Saturday, August 20, 2022:

Luke 10:27 NLT: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind - and love your neighbor as yourself.”

God gave every human a brain, to think, to reason and to figure things out. When we enter church, we shouldn’t check our brains at the door! Don’t merely listen to God’s Word. We should use our minds to think about what is being read and come to fully understand it. Then we should make a personal plan to put God’s instructions to work in our lives.

Ask yourself, if I truly love the Lord, how can I show that? If I truly love my neighbor, how can I put that in motion? Use your mind – figure out the best way to personally fulfill God’s commands. We do these things because that’s what Jesus did!

When Jesus said, “Do this and you will live,” he was speaking of eternal life!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship, 3249 30th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406