Love!

For Saturday, February 14, 2026:

John 13:34-35 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

"They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” We’ve all heard the song. Loving one another seems like a good idea, but did you realize that this is a command issued by the one who saves us?

2K years ago, the prevailing attitude was to look out for #1. But the followers of Jesus were different. They looked out for each other. They were kind to their neighbors, even to those who weren’t following the Messiah. This command of Jesus was a new and innovative way of living. It was more gentle and helpful to others. It was doing the next right thing. People liked what they saw and wanted to join. This helped the early church grow through attraction.

The government at the time was the Roman Empire. Rome did nothing to help the people. Citizens had to help each other. The Roman army had two things on its agenda: keeping peace in the region and loyalty to Caesar. Christians were pretty quiet about their dislike for Caesar, and exceeded expectations for keeping peace. So for the most part, the army left Christians alone. Their love for one another meant that they did not fuel conflict in Israel.

So do what Jesus did. Be nice, be kind, be helpful and do the next right thing. These aren’t just good ideas. These are commands from the mouth of Jesus. Out of love for what Jesus did for mankind, we should obey, keeping his commands high on our agenda. In the end, it works out better for everyone. If we love our neighbors, they’re more likely to love us in return!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

God's Rescue Plan!

For Saturday, December 27, 2025:

Luke 2:38 NLT: “Anna, a prophet, came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.”

Anna had the right idea. While everyone else was fussing over baby Jesus, Anna’s prayers were to thank the Lord for sending a rescuer to Jerusalem. Their Holy City was under Roman siege, and the Roman army thought Caesar was a god. Followers of the true God know better. Yes, Jesus Son-of-God had arrived, and that’s one piece in God’s masterplan. And with God in charge, mankind’s rescue was never in doubt.

To God, the biggest problem wasn’t the Romans. It was sin, so God went after the biggest problem first. While the people would pray, “Rescue us from the Romans,” Jesus and Father God would answer, “Your sins are forgiven!” Forget the Romans for a minute. They have long since fallen from power, but Jesus taking mankind’s sins to the place of the dead still matters to us 2,000 years later, and has eternal ramifications.

With mankind’s sin problem out of the way, believers could spend eternity in God’s hereafter, Heaven. Our friend Jesus said he would prepare a place for all believers. He’ll meet us with open arms!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Money Trap!

For Thursday, October 9, 2025:

Luke 20:21-22 NLT, question asked of Jesus: “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

This whole incident was a trap. The religious leaders were upset that people were leaving the Temple to follow Jesus. Their tithes went with them! So now we know the real reason! This was about power and money. If you want to get to the bottom of a situation, just follow the money! Those religious leaders hoped to trick Jesus into dissing Caesar. Then the Romans would kill him, and they wouldn’t need to do the nasty deed themselves.

God and Jesus had for years taught that killing was wrong, was a sin. And arranging for someone’s death was as bad as killing them yourself. The Messiah came to earth through the Hebrew people, who should have loved him. But now their religious leaders felt a need to eliminate Jesus. The love of money can cause people to do strange things. The bad guys’ actions violated their own value system.

As you might expect, Jesus came up with the perfect answer. There’s plenty of money to go around. It takes money to set up governments and maintain cities and protect them, so Caesar needs some money. God already has thousands of cattle on thousands of hills, so he’s OK, but he wants us to be a part of things. He wants us to have some skin in the game. Jesus simply answered, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

That’s what we all should do, remembering that the first portion already belongs to God!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Plotting to Kill!

July 7, 2025, Monday Message:

John 11:48 NLT, Jewish High Council discussing Jesus: “If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.”

Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, brought him back to life! Jesus made quite a show of the whole thing. After being informed of Lazarus’ illness, Jesus tarried for two more days, I believe to make a point and to better show God’s glory! When Jesus finally arrived, he was cautioned not to open the tomb. Lazarus had been dead for four days and the smell would be horrible. Throwing caution to the wind, Jesus ordered the tomb opened and commanded, “Lazarus, come out!” As Lazarus exited the grave, his body appeared bound up for the hereafter. So Jesus commanded, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Now this isn’t something you see every day, someone four days dead walking out of a tomb! So everybody was talking about it, shouting the news and exalting the heavenly powers of Jesus of Nazareth. Some people began shifting their allegiance from the Temple to Jesus and his radical ministry. And as I’ve said before, when people leave the Temple, their tithes go with them!

Note that the High Council didn’t say that Jesus had done anything wrong. Only that if they allowed Jesus to continue, they feared that they’d be out of business! Jews had a special deal with Rome. If they kept peace in their region, Rome would allow their religion to continue. This was a unique concession on the part of Rome, since their Caesar wanted to be thought of as a god. But somehow the Jews were allowed to have their own God! The Council feared that the success of Jesus would threaten their sweetheart deal!

The high priest Caiaphas counseled the others: “It’s better that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.” So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus’ death. This was a sad time in the Jewish religion, where the leadership got so off track that they would consider murder. Little did they know that they were plotting the murder of the Son of God!

In fact, they were doing exactly what God wanted. As Jesus died, he would take the sins of the world to the place of the dead, thereby cleansing mankind and making them suitable for spending eternity alongside God Almighty! Heaven awaits!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Independence Day!

For Friday, July 4, 2025:

Mark 12:17 NLT: “Jesus said, ‘Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.’”

In this scenario, Jesus was being questioned by people who wanted to arrest him, both Pharisees and supporters of Herod. The Roman Empire leader at the time, Tiberius Caesar, claimed to be god, so Herod’s people had no time for Jesus, while the Pharisees already knew the real God. They didn’t grasp the Son-of-God concept and certainly not the Holy Trinity. Furthermore, Jesus’ preaching was drawing people and their tithes away from Synagogues.

Suffice it to say that while Jesus was extremely popular with his followers, there was much opposition to what he was doing. His critics threw out a trick question, designed as a trap. “Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” If Jesus supported Caesar, the Pharisees would be angry. They believed all allegiance should go to God Almighty. But it was illegal to not pay taxes to Caesar. Either answer would be incorrect to some of the crowd, resulting in Jesus’ arrest.

Jesus replied, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” He set out a principle that we practice today in the United States – separation of church and state. We want believers to love Jesus with all their heart, not just because it’s a government edict. It’s Biblical to support the church. We also need roads, schools, police and fire departments for our safety and armies for defense, and those services aren’t free. So taxation is a necessary part of living together as a society. Jesus approved both. He was not arrested that day.

Today is July 4^th, Independence Day in the US. We celebrate separating ourselves from the United Kingdom. We still pay taxes, but now to our own governments. We still tithe and sometimes give sacrificially to our own churches, not to a government-mandated church.

In the land of the free and the home of the brave, we enjoy the freedom to worship as we choose. God bless America!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Muckety-mucks!

For Friday, February 16, 2024:

Mark 12:13 NLT: “They sent to Him (Jesus) some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.”

Public opinion favored Jesus. People had seen the miracles and witnessed the healings. His popularity was unquestioned, which angered the Pharisees, the muckety-mucks of the Jewish religion, and the Herodians, the muckety-mucks of the government. These two groups formed an unlikely alliance for the sole purpose of quashing Jesus’ progress. They questioned Jesus, hoping for a slip of the tongue that would convict him either of blasphemy or disloyalty to Herod. The test question was, “Shall we pay, or shall we not pay taxes to Caesar?”

Jesus examined a denarius and inquired as to the image on the coin. It was Caesar. He answered. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The critics marveled at Jesus’ answer!

Jesus is saying that it takes both. There are practical needs for life on earth like roads, police and armies – things totally separate from any religious obligation. And our tithing to God is separate from any government, as it should be.

Trying to catch Jesus in a misstatement is always a bad idea. He always has a perfect answer!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Palms Away!

March 30, 2015 Monday Message:

“They took palm branches and went out to meet him shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!’” John 12:13 NIV

Last Sunday, most of our churches celebrated Palm Sunday. Let’s take a second look at the first Palm Sunday.

In 538BC, the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild the Temple. They used palm branches in the rededication, and the palm became a symbol, a type of logo, for the Hebrew people, the Jewish religion and the Temple.

Minted coins were to feature the image of Caesar, but twice, during wars against Rome, Israel minted coins featuring palms. Waving a palm branch at a Centurion was highly confrontational, and would surely get you arrested.

God had promised the Israelites a Messiah for quite some time, and many believed that Jesus was the anointed one. But they were expecting a Messiah who would liberate them from Rome. They hadn’t considered that the Messiah would rescue them from sin and open the doors of heaven.

So on that day, Jesus rode in to Jerusalem, and out came the palm branches and bright clothes to line the street, as would be done for a king. The crowd shouted, “Blessed is the King of Israel!” They honored Jesus, not Caesar, as King of the Jews.

Some things are not Caesar’s.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) gathers at 10 a.m. every Sunday in the North end (gym) of the Oliver Ministry Building, 2647 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis. This week, April 5, Pastor Michael Pilla teaches about the empty tomb.