Do What's Right!

For Tuesday, February 24, 2026:

Romans 7:15-17 NLT: “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”

Have you ever found yourself in a similar predicament? You’ve been introduced to Jesus, you believe, and want to live your life his way. And yet you find yourself slipping back into your old, sinful behavior. In spite or your best intentions, the author of sin makes sin look attractive and drags you down into the muck once again. You don’t want to do wrong. You swore you’d never do those bad things again. And yet here we find ourselves!

The author of this Epistle is as human as we are. “I want to do what is right, but instead I do what I hate.” Fortunately, there is no limit to God’s love. If our heartfelt desire is to do the right thing, we can confess, repent and return to the Lord as often as need be. God offers forgiveness in abundance, free to all who confess and plead for redemption.

I believe that the longer we’re believers, the fewer encounters we’ll have with sin. We will become better people, more acceptable in the eyes of the Lord. He’ll need to forgive us less often because we’ll have a firmer grip on living according to God’s instructions.

When in doubt, just do what Jesus did!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Second-Chances!

For Tuesday, December 31, 2024 New Years Eve!

Genesis 3:21 NLT: “The Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.”

 Genesis 3 – God had barely finished creation when the train went off the tracks! Only one thing God commanded the couple to do – just one thing! Don’t eat fruit from the tree of life. But the serpent, master of temptation, told Eve, “Your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Now who wouldn’t want to be “like” God?

 Eve fell into the serpent’s trap, and brought her husband along too. But this New Year’s Eve, as people are making resolutions to do better in the coming year, I want to look at God’s reaction to this whole mess. Let’s consider the character trends of God.

 God made them new clothes from animal skins, much better than the fig-leaf apparatus they had rigged for themselves. After this initial sin, the first disobedience to God’s instructions, God’s initial reaction was to be loving, forgiving and caring. Second chances and do-overs fit with God’s character. And that goes for all of us, not just Adam and Eve! If we confess our sins and admit we have been wrong, God will forgive us and grant us a fresh start in life.

 Draw a line in the sand separating the old you from the new you, and take a Mulligan on the old you. Our God is a God of second chances!

Pastor Norton Lawellin
Jesus In the City Fellowship

Holy!

For Saturday, September 21, 2024:

Ezekiel 43:12a NLT: “This is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness!”

God and Satan are diehard enemies, one good and one evil. God is the Creator of everything and Satan is a created being, so in the end, God will always win. My advice is to play for the winning team! Make a lifelong commitment to the good guys!

The presence of the Lord would reside in the innermost room of the Temple, IF it was kept Holy, free from sin and corruption. Nowadays we don’t have a temple. We worship God, his Son and the Holy Spirit in our churches, and just like in the Temple, God will be there IF we keep that place Holy. It goes without saying that we absolutely want God in our churches!

Regrettably, mankind doesn’t seem to be very good at keeping a place Holy. I’m always saddened and a little ‘let down’ whenever a national-level pastor fails the holiness test. Oftentimes something in their past comes back to haunt them. Of course the solution would be to be like Paul – confess the sin, repent and let the world know that you’ve made a 180º turn-around in your value system, a change for the better!

Seek the presence of the Lord in the place you worship! If he’s not there, find a different place!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Storehouse of Forgiveness!

For Tuesday, August 20, 2024:

1 John 1:9 NLT: “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. If we confess those sins and claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are offered forgiveness. But we don’t then instantly become perfect. Even the Apostle Paul was challenged. He said that in spite of knowing what he should do, he found himself thinking and doing things he shouldn’t do. He constantly fought a kind of tug-of-war between good and evil, between Heaven and the world.

This teaches us that repentance is more than a single event. We don’t just confess once and expect that everything is A-OK, because we know that our sin-problem is ongoing. And if our sins are ongoing, our confession and repentance need to be ongoing as well.

Thankfully, God has a storehouse of forgiveness, enough to cover all who confess, repent, and claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Talk to God today. He’s waiting to hear from you!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Second Coming!

For Sunday, June 2, 2024:

1 Peter 1:13b NLT, Peter writing to believers: “Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.”

As believers, we have hope. Jesus said he would return! We call this the second coming. Everyone on earth will see him arrive on the white horse in the sky. I don’t know if that’s factual or simply a metaphor, but I DO know that he’s coming again.

Our hope is the promise of eternal salvation, of eternal life in the presence of God himself! Don’t believe in false gods based on the weather, and don’t put your faith in the Roman government. Time after time they will fail you.

As believers, our faith is in Jesus Christ, the Messiah sent to earth to effect our rescue. God is reaching out his hand to everyone who will call Jesus “Lord!”

Some people have no hope. They’ve lived a bad life with no regard for our Creator God. Their fate will not be pleasant. There’s still time for them to confess sin and turn 180º, a complete directional shift in their lifestyle. But a time is coming soon when it will be too late to reorient one’s life.

Don’t be left behind!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Reconciliation!

December 4, 2023 Monday Message:

Romans 16:26 NLT, Paul concluding his letter to the Roman church: “Now as the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message (the Gospel) is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him.”

We know that the Messiah came through the Jews, but redemption is truly for all people. ALL! The Messiah, the Rescuer, our Savior came to help you and to help me, and that’s Good News! Don’t ever think you don’t deserve being rescued, because God has forgiven you, loves you unconditionally, and has qualified you to take up residence in the heavenly hereafter, and God is always right! His Son Jesus went ahead to prepare your place in eternity!

Forgiveness and reconciliation follow confession, whereby we acknowledge our own sin. That not only works with God; it works with humans too. Pretend that someone offended you, and you’re still holding a grudge. The relationship will remain in that damaged state until one of you makes a move. But if that person comes to you and says, “I’m really sorry; please forgive me,” of course you’ll forgive them. That’s what Jesus said to do. And now the ball is rolling toward rebuilding the relationship, reconciliation.

God’s desire is that everyone would repent and return. He doesn’t want to lose a single soul. Believers are the ones who say “yes” to Jesus. They’ll get to see heaven from the inside!

Have a blessed week as you serve!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Love and Forgiveness!

For Saturday, July 8, 2023:

James 5:16 NLT: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

The Bible says that all have sinned, so we all have a little confessing to do. We are to confess to God and to our fellows. Today’s question looks at the other side: What should our response be when someone in our fellowship confesses?

We are to pray that they would be healed, that they would be protected from Satan and that they would be empowered to turn their life around, doing a 180 away from sin and coming back closer to God. Follow Jesus’ doctrine of ‘loving your neighbor.’ Help your fellow heal and reconcile. Jesus oftentimes declined to condemn the sinner, simply telling them to go and sin no more.

Read your Bibles – Jesus never sought revenge or punishment. In fact that was the root of his disagreement with the Pharisees. They knew all of God’s Commandments, and their mission had become enforcement, catching someone making a mistake. Jesus didn’t have much time for the Pharisees.

Jesus’ mission was love and forgiveness!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Repent!

For Friday, May 5, 2023:

Luke 18:14 NLT, Jesus speaking: “I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The recurring theme here is that the last will be first, and the first will be last. This is serious, because we’re talking about our permanent destination in the hereafter. Jesus is comparing a confident Pharisee with a repentant tax collector.

In Jesus’ parable, the Pharisee doesn’t acknowledge that he is a sinner, so he’s not the least bit repentant. (He’s wrong – the Bible says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory!) Whereas the tax collector confesses his wrongs and begs for forgiveness. Jesus tells us that the repentant tax collector will come out on top!

Think about it: The Pharisee was exalting himself, telling God how good he was, while the tax collector was confessing before God just how bad he was. God, through his Son Jesus, can forgive any sin if we confess!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Mission Trip!

February 20, 2023 Monday Message:

Matthew 8:4 NLT: “Then Jesus said to the leper he had just healed, ‘Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.’”

Compare Jesus coming to earth to walk alongside mankind with going on a mission trip. You can do a lot of good, helpful things along the way, but there’s usually a primary mission, the main thing. Jesus healing the leper was good, but that’s wasn’t his primary mission, so don’t tell everybody. Don’t make a big deal out of it.

While on earth, Jesus straightened out misguided teaching of God’s commands. He healed those who needed healing. He could explain Torah with divine inspiration. But I believe that Jesus’ main thing, his primary purpose was to redeem mankind. Jesus was to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world – past sin, present sin and even future sins not yet committed. If a person would confess sinfulness and claim Jesus’ gift of grace as their own, they would be forgiven through their faith in God’s Son. The redeemed person would be given a ticket to heaven, an irrevocable promise of eternity in the presence of the Lord!

Jesus said no one can come to the Father except through him. If we choose Jesus, we become beneficiaries of his earthly mission. God’s desire is that none would perish and that all would return. Jesus went on a mission trip to make that possible!

Mission accomplished!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship