Clean House!

For Saturday, September 19, 2026:

Luke 6:41 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?”

This example is an analogy. There’s really nothing in our eye! I find it interesting how various writers translate the passage.

“It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.” (MSG) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and fail to notice the plank in your own?” (PHILLIPS) “Perhaps you want to tell a friend about his little mistake. If you want to tell him, first remember your own bigger mistakes.” (EASY)

Jesus is giving a humorous example of how we tend to be more tolerant of our own sins than we are of other’s sins. He designed it to get a laugh. Picture this in your mind’s eye: You trying to locate a speck of sawdust in your brother’s or sister’s eye while a giant log sticks out of your own? How long is your log? How big around? Can you even see through the log? How egregious is your sin? That’s the real question!

Before calling someone else’s house filthy, make sure your own house has been cleaned. Forgiveness from Jesus can do the cleaning!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Great Exchange!

For Friday, January 9, 2026:

Romans 6:6 NLT: “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.”

Believers are forever with Jesus. Let me explain. As Jesus died on the cross, the sins of the world were heaped upon him. That includes your sin and my sin. And those sins went away with Jesus to the place of the dead. He rose three days later, coming back without those sins. So this resurrected Jesus is without sin, just as He always was. And He is our friend, just as He always was.

Our sinful nature died with Christ. He carried our sins away, thereby leaving us clean and forgiven. This is called the Great Exchange, Jesus taking our sins away and leaving us pure, suitable for residence in God’s forever kingdom of Heaven. Because of Jesus’ mission, sin has lost its power over believers. Believers are no longer slaves to Satan or his Demons. Mission accomplished!

Sin died so that believers might have eternal life!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Better Life!

 

For Tuesday, December 2, 2025:

Hebrews 12:1a NLT: “Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.”

Just one simple point today. God didn’t accept believers because we suddenly became perfect. God welcomes us because we’re friends of his Son. Jesus opened the door for believers to spend eternity with the Heavenly Father. And out of gratitude for what Jesus did for us, we do our best to live His way, to not sin, to conform to God’s directions for our lives.

There’s a fishing joke about new believers. “You catch ‘em and we’ll clean ‘em!” Devotion to Jesus comes first. Clean-up may be gradual, may take a little more time. We will nonetheless get cleaned. And because of that, our lives will be better.

With Jesus, everything is better!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Walls Torn Down!

For Wednesday, October 1, 2025:

Hebrews 10:21-22 NLT: “Since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”

God desires to live among the people he created. The Bible says that God loves us! The problem arises that there can be no sin in the presence of the Lord. By definition, sin and God don’t go together. What to do?

The presence of the Lord was in a special inner room, the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place. The entrance was covered by a large, very heavy curtain. Mankind could visit the Temple where God was exalted, but we had separate spaces.

Enter Jesus. After Jesus, everything is different. After Jesus, everything is better! As he died on the cross, Jesus took the sins of the world to the place of the dead and left them there. Mankind had been forgiven, redeemed, purchased back from Satan’s pawn shop, Jesus himself being the ultimate sacrifice for the world’s sins. And since mankind was no longer carrying a sin-burden, there was no longer a need for separation from God. The giant curtain was torn from top to bottom, a sign that God was doing the tearing! There was now nothing separating the creation, mankind, from our Creator God. He says our sins are forgiven and forgotten, and God is never wrong!

If we’re expecting company, my wife wants our place to look nice, so I go outside to mow the lawn and straighten up the yard. I work hard. Then I hear, “You’ll need a shower before they get here!” We want to look our best when meeting someone for the first time! Fortunately, we have Jesus to clean us up before we meet the Father!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Clean vs Unclean!

For Sunday, March 9, 2025:

Leviticus 11:1, 2b NLT: Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Of all the land animals, these are the ones you may use for food.”

In this chapter, God defines the land animals, birds and fish suitable for food. God must have known this was coming when he designed the animals. Any animal with completely split hooves and chews the cud is good for food. Jews call this “kosher.’ Other animals were considered unclean. Birds are OK, but not those who clean up dead carcasses, like vultures. Fish are good, but not the bottom-feeders that keep the water clean. Vultures and bottom-feeders eat garbage, so they are garbage!

Back then, no one had refrigerators to keep food fresh or stoves to fully cook the meat. There were no professional meat inspectors. So God instituted these rules to protect his people, to keep them safe and alive. Once again God was watching out for his people, protecting them, even when they didn’t yet understand the need.

In the New Covenant, Jesus declares us clean or unclean not by what goes into our bodies, but by what comes out of our mouths!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship