Restoration!

April 20, 2026, Monday Message:

John 14:23 NLT, Jesus speaking: “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”

As his ministry wraps up, Jesus wants to reassure the believers of what’s coming next. First off, there IS life after this life. Death is not the end! Jesus said so, so we know it’s true!

As Christians, we talk of dying and going to heaven, but my Bible says that’s kind of temporary. At the end of this age, God will create the New Heaven and the New Earth. By then, mankind will have really messed up the planet, and God will be the restorer, putting things back to the way they were designed. I’m thinking “Garden of Eden” specs, but only God knows what needs to be done.

The fully restored New Earth isn’t for all mankind. It’s a sanctuary for believers only. Everyone who lives here will have the same God. There will be no false gods. Mankind will all be on the same page, so to speak. There are no more wars. Everyone will love their neighbor. We will know shalom, the peace of God that surpasses our current understanding.

Jesus says, “We will come and make our home with them.” In other words, we’re not going somewhere to live with God. God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is going to walk the earth alongside us! God has it all planned, and it will be marvelous, beyond all expectations!

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

New Earth!

For Friday, April 4, 2025:

John 14:23 NLT, Jesus speaking: “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”

If we please Jesus, the Father will also be pleased. Remember, they are of one mind, really just one God. The acknowledgment of our relationship with God is our obedience. When the angel told Mary she’d be delivering a savior into the world, she replied, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” That’s obedience! When Abraham set out to offer little Isaac as a sacrifice to the Lord, that was absolute obedience. (Thankfully, God stopped the sacrifice – the scenario was only a test of Abraham’s devotion and obedience.)

We often speak of going to heaven when we die. We teach only two choices, heaven or hell. Christians choose heaven, but that’s not our final destination. The Bible promises the “New Earth,” fully restored and perfect in every way. I believe God will restore the Earth to “Garden-of-Eden” specs, and the Bible says that the New Earth will be our forever home. Jesus preparing a place for believers includes restoring mankind’s home, planet Earth.

Jesus says that he and the Father will walk among us, and that’s where I want to be. What an awesome community! We may not even have to fill out “change-of-address” forms!

If it’s good enough for Jesus and the Father, it’s good enough for me!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Only God is God!

For Friday, August 18, 2023:

Romans 5:13 NLT: “Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.”

Adam and Eve had it made. Life was simple. Since there were no laws yet, they couldn’t sin. Everything they needed was provided in the Garden of Eden. All they had to do was talk with God when he came to visit, name a few animals and go forth and multiply. Simple, right?

Just one thing: Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Which is to say, leave that knowledge to God. Let God be God, and Adam and Eve could be favored created beings. But don’t confuse the two job descriptions.

It stands to reason that the serpent Satan would tempt the couple with that one thing God said to not do. “You could be like God!” And it’s this juxtaposition of job descriptions that caused all the trouble. We would do well to remember that nowadays. God is God, and we are not!

“God so loved the world” that he brought forgiveness and reconciliation to mankind. Jesus was the answer! Still is!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Good vs Evil

 April 25, 2022 Monday Message:

1 Cor. 15:56 NLT: “Sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.”

Consider, if you will, life in the Garden of Eden before mankind’s fall. Right and wrong had not yet been defined, so Adam and Eve just enjoyed life with an “anything goes” attitude. But then they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and now having that knowledge, they were expected to pursue the good and avoid the evil. You see, evil was only sin when defined as such by God. Turns out Adam and Eve weren’t very good at avoiding sin. Turns out they should have left that knowledge to God!

God, who knows everything and can see into the future, knew this problem was on the way. He had already formulated a plan to send a Messiah from heaven to redeem mankind. After all, God loves us unconditionally! In his vast eternal plan, we’re worth saving!

"Thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57)

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

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