Children of God!

For Friday, May 15, 2026:

Romans 8:23b NLT: “We believers wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.”

As believers leave this life to be with the Father, every problem gets solved. Everything that was wrong is made right. Sickness and disease are the result of sin, and there is no sin around the Father. Cancer is only in the past tense. Hearts that were failing are made strong again. Each believer will be restored to better than original specs, the way we were designed from the beginning. A glorified body is part of our reward.

Of course bodies may not be required as our spirits settle in with God, his Son and the angels. After all, God is a spirit-being. But being “God,” he could take on a bodily form if he chose to. He did walk in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, and that would have required a body! Either way, we’ll be adopted into the Holy Family with all the rights and privileges of a natural-born son or daughter.

This is all a part of why believers have perpetual hope for a glorious eternity in the presence of the Lord! The future looks bright!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Reward!

For Tuesday, September 10, 2024:

1 John 2:24-25 NLT: “You must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.”

In computer code, there’s an operation called “if, then.” IF we make a certain choice, THEN happens. For example, if we pick “quit,” then that program stops running and is no longer active. It disappears from our screens until the next time we choose to launch it.

Donkeys love carrots. The “Carrot On a Stick” saying shows the rider holding a carrot on a stick just out of the donkey’s reach, motivating it to move forward. “Eternal Life in the presence of the Lord” is mankind’s carrot. That’s our motivation, our reward. Let’s be honest – no one would pursue all this “religion” stuff if there was no reward at the end.

But there IS a reward! The God who loves us wants us to all be together in his Kingdom. Souls go to heaven until Jesus returns, when they’re given glorified bodies to fight for the “Jesus Team.” Eventually God removes sin, creating the New Heaven and the New Earth. Just so you know, faithful mankind’s final destination isn’t heaven; it’s the New Earth, where God will live among us!

Pursue the carrot!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

God's Realm!

For Tuesday, April 25, 2023:

1 John 3:2 NLT: “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”

At the rapture and the second coming of Jesus, everything will change. Believers will then be going to live in God’s realm. The Father is spirit, and we’ll be given new glorified bodies to live alongside our maker. We don’t know exactly how Jesus will look, but we will be like him, made suitable for spending eternity with our Lord.

The best news is that the Father wants to include us. His desire is that none would perish, and that all would repent and return. Our savior, Jesus, has already gone ahead to prepare our place in the hereafter.

Doesn’t it feel great to be included?

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Glorified!

For Sunday, January 30, 2022

1 Cor. 15:43 NLT: “Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.”

Mankind is destined to die once, and then it’s up to God. There’s the judgment, but believers know that Jesus has taken away our sin, so he has that covered. Believers are on their way to paradise!

When we die, we may be sick, decrepit and full of angry, sinful thoughts. We surely don’t want that body resurrected! God has a better plan – a new, glorified body, something suitable for the next reality! We don’t know exactly how that will look, but let me assure you that the resurrected body will be far better than the one what went into the grave. God knows what he’s doing!

See – we have hope!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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