Repent and Return!

August 17, 2026, Monday Message:

Acts 3:19 NLT, Peter, preaching in the Temple: “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.”

Paul is giving everyone the Cliff’s Notes condensed version of how to get right with God. You may know it as the Reader’s Digest condensed version. Friends, coming under God’s umbrella may not be as complicated as you think!

“Repent and Return.” It’s that simple. God already knows you’ve sinned and the Bible says that ALL have sinned, so that’s a pretty inclusive group! What everyone needs to do is realize what has gone wrong, repent for those actions, and then turn back to the Lord. Put God back up on his pedestal. Give him the place in your life that he should have had all along.

In the Hebrew language, the process is described as turning, like we were headed North but should have been going South. Ideally, we should be growing closer to God, but sin left us falling away. We were backsliders. NOW is the best time to turn or (re)turn to God. Closer to God is always better than farther from God.

Adam and Eve were the first to sin, to think they could be like God. They could not. They had to realize their mistake, their sin, and place themselves back under God’s care. Understand that God still loved them. While they had been sinning, God was making clothes for them.

When God’s people were still doubting, (doubting the Lord is a sin…) God sent 10 plagues, convincing Pharaoh to let God’s people go! When God’s people were afraid to trust in Yahweh, (not trusting Yahweh is a sin…) little David decided to take on the mighty Goliath. It was easier to convince God’s people to return after Goliath’s defeat!

If anyone asks you what to do to become a Christian, to square things up with the Almighty, explain “Repent and Return.” Don’t overcomplicate it. Realize that God WANTS everyone to Repent and Return!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Messiah Prophesy!

For Wednesday, November 12, 2025:

Hebrews 11:26 NLT: “Moses thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.”

A few people had questions about yesterday’s message, so let’s take another look. The question was, “How could Moses suffer for the sake of Christ since Jesus was born about 1,400 years later.” The scripture (above) was taken straight from the New Living Translation of the Bible’s New Testament.

The Message (Bible) tells the story like this: “By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. He chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. He valued suffering in the Messiah’s camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff. By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king’s blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going.”

The Classic Amplified Bible explains it this way: “[Aroused] by faith, Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life. He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).”

On the Gregorian Calendar, Jesus was born about year 4-6 BC. The birth of Jesus should be the dividing line between BC and AD, but Pope Gregory was off by a few years. Moses was born 1,400-1,600 years earlier, or counting from Creation, year 2,439.

Adam and Eve knew God. He walked with them in the Garden of Eden, along the stream. God sewed clothes for them after they sinned and realized they were naked. So mankind had known about God since their beginning. God gave them a list of “thou shalts,” and “thou shalt nots,” and filled their minds with many prophesies, including the fact that a messiah would soon be arriving. So God’s people watched and waited. They had faith. They trusted that God would do what he promised. Remember the Christmas Carol, “Come Thou long-expected Jesus?” Even though they hadn’t yet met the savior, their faith that he would be arriving soon was all that was needed.

The Hebrew people believed in a heretofore unseen Messiah! Again, the necessity of faith rears its head!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Helper!

For Wednesday, June 19, 2024:

Genesis 2:18 NLT: “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.’”

When my wife and I were expecting our third child, our firstborn wasn’t sure we needed another. “We already have a perfect family: one mother, one father, one brother, one sister.” But what does God consider the ‘perfect’ family?

God saw that it was not good for the man, Adam, to be alone, so the Creator gave him Eve. Adam already had plants and trees, wild animals, livestock and birds of the sky. He was free to name them whatever he chose. But none of these fit the job description of a ‘helper who is just right for him.’

So using one of Adam’s ribs as a model, God created Eve. I suspect Adam was grinning from ear to ear when he saw her! “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” Eve is the helper who is 'just right’ for Adam.

God explained how this all was to work: “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and those two are united into one.”

Now go forth and multiply!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Walking WITH God

March 23, 2020 Monday Message:

“Adam and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.” from Gen. 3:8

They knew that sound! Apparently God had walked in the garden before, perhaps even alongside Adam and Eve. Their creator was stirring about in the garden, and if I were Adam, this would have been something that I looked forward to. If God were walking in MY garden, I’d want to hurry up and join Him. And that’s what the couple usually did, “pre-sin.”

But not this time. The verse continues, “So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.” The difference: this is “post-sin” behavior.

So the question for us is, ‘Are you walking alongside the Lord, or is your sin keeping you separated from Him?’ Common sense would tell us that we’d be better off living in harmony with God, not hiding from Him. Fortunately God has provided a solution for our sin-problem.

Jesus is the answer. God’s Son conquered sin and death on the same day, and if we confess our sin to him and claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, we can once again live in the presence of God.

God did not design mankind to live in perpetual fear and anxiety. Rather, God gives us an open-arms invitation to come back home and walk alongside Him. I think God enjoyed his time in the garden as much as Adam and Eve did!

Norton Lawellin, Worship Pastor

Jesus in the City Fellowship.

3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406

God's Plan

Aug. 05, 2013 Monday Message:

“God said, “Let us make human beings.” (Gen 1:26a)

When God made animals, he saw to it that they could produce offspring of the same kind. (Gen. 1:24-25)

Now it was time to make human beings, and God created them in His image. (Gen. 1:27) The first human was Adam – Adam means soil or earth, so call him dirt-boy. God breathed life into the dirt.

“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone – I will make him a helper who is just right for him.” (Gen 2:18)

The helper God created was Chava, which means life. Today we call her Eve.

“Life” is a good name for Adam’s perfect mate, because now, just like the animals, they could produce offspring – new life, made in God’s image. That was God’s plan.

Then God looked over all that he had made, and saw that it was very good! (Gen. 1:31a)

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) gathers every Sunday at 10:30am in the North end (gym) of the Oliver Ministry Building, 2647 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis. Sunday, Aug. 11, Jesus talks about the Lord’s coming, and how following Jesus can cause division. Pastor Michael Pilla returns to the pulpit with Luke 12:35-59. We welcome our guests from New Hope Center this week! See U @ church!

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