House of the Lord!

For Friday, June 12, 2026:

Psalm 23:6 NKJV: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

David showed confidence and trust in the Lord. He was a man after God’s own heart, but he was far from perfect. But despite his missteps, he always trusted God to be loving and forgiving. He would rise out of all the turmoil as a loyal supporter of God Almighty. That’s called faith!

Most believers are a lot like David. We will not live perfect lives, but on the cross Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of the world – your sins and mine. Believers all need to accept that free gift with open arms and a smile. God doesn’t want a bunch of sullen souls in his Kingdom. The Father’s love should elicit joy from everyone!

God’s goodness and mercy will follow us throughout this life, and follow us into the next as we take our place in his Kingdom. We’re enjoying a better life now that we’re adopted into the Holy Family, and it will be the best life ever when we move into the house of the Lord. Start filling out change-of-address forms today!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

The great I AM!

For Sunday, December 14, 2025:

Exodus 3:14 NLT: “God replied to Moses, ‘I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.’”

God was calling Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. At this point, God appeared as a burning bush that did not consume itself, so Moses had a fair question: “Who should I say sent me?”

God’s answer can seem a bit confusing, a little strange: “Tell them I AM has sent me to you.” This speaks to the eternal nature of God.

It’s not, “God WAS great, but he ran out of gas.” It’s not, “God is increasing, just now coming into his own.” Nor is it, “God has been coasting, but will soon achieve greatness.” The fact is that the goodness and strength of God are perpetual. Our Creator was, is and always will be the greatest of all time.

Furthermore, God’s timing is always perfect. He was at the end of his rope with Pharaoh. He knew just the right time to put Moses in motion. And as a solution to mankind’s sin predicament, he sent Jesus to Earth without a specific timetable. Jesus took ALL the sins of the world to the place of the dead. Offenses of past sins, present sins and even future sins not yet committed would be resolved through faith in God’s Son!

Our God is a really good God with kind of a strange name. I love it!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Let Your Light Shine!

For Sunday, May 25, 2025:

Luke 11:33 NLT, Jesus speaking: “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.”

I don’t just want to SEE the light – I want to ENJOY the light! I want it to light up the world around me so that I can see everything! Let’s be honest. We don’t turn on a lamp to see light. We turn on the lamp because we need to see something else. I want to read my book. I want to eat my food. I don’t want to trip on the rug. Turn on the light!

Light is a great analogy for goodness. Jesus is my light, showing me the way. If I am the light, I can shine before my friends to show them the way. If my friends become light, we can share a brightly lit worship experience!

In the Bible, light is often associated with goodness, and darkness with evil. Light always wins. If light intrudes on darkness, it all becomes light. If darkness tries to encroach on light, it too will become light.

So let your light shine before the world, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven! (Matt. 5:16)

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Priesthood of All Believers!

For Saturday, March 29, 2025:

John 14:12 NLT, Jesus speaking: “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

Jesus wants to leave unflinching believers in his wake. The fact that he will be returning to the Father shouldn’t end the goodness he brought to earth. He is anointing believers, authorizing them and leaving them with the power to continue his good works.

In Matthew 10:8, Jesus tells those being sent on his behalf to, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons.” These instructions aren’t just for pastors; they are for all believers! This is basic Christianity. We should also be able to explain mankind’s sin problem, and Jesus paying the penalty for those sins. We should make disciples of people from all nations. And when the candidate is convinced, we should be able to baptize them!

I once attended a church supper, and everyone was waiting for the Pastor to say grace, to pray over the food and the event. The Pastor joked, “Were you waiting for a ‘professional prayer?’ Any one of you could have done this!”

Jesus, give us the courage to step out and do the good works you have assigned to all believers. Amen!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Sacrificial Giving!

For Sunday, March 23, 2025:

Leviticus 27:30 NLT: The Lord said to Moses, “One-tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.”

It takes money to keep a church running. I once worked for a church with a tall sanctuary. Its walls were mostly big windows, composed of multiple small pieces of colored, single-pane glass. Paying the winter bills for heat was always a challenge! I remember leading second-effort financial campaigns, having to ask for a smidge more to bail us out of debt! The congregation always came through for us!

In Leviticus ch. 27, the Lord speaks to Moses about sacrificial giving, over and above the 10% tithe that already belongs to God. Nowadays, people can donate money, but 3,000 years ago they donated “stuff:” livestock, grain and produce, real estate and even humans who became Temple workers. Money is easier. No one has to herd a heifer to the priest!

With most churches, you can donate on their website. There’s often a QR code. Sometimes you can pay with Venmo or PayPal. Visa and Master Card are options, although it’s best to settle up with them right away. Don’t ever enter Satan’s hell of late fees, penalties and interest.

God has been very good to Christians, sending his Son Jesus to blot out our sins and to rescue us from eternal damnation. Jesus even said that he would go to God’s house ahead of us and prepare a place for believers. I hope you’re “in!” If not, today is the best day to claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

An understanding of God’s goodness opens our wallets!

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

Miracles!

For Tuesday, July 09, 2024:

Luke 4:24 NLT, Jesus speaking: “I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.”

People remember things. They remember the past. They remember what you used to be like. The citizens of Nazareth may have heard stories of Jesus’ healings and miracles, but on his home turf, Jesus was known as Joseph’s son. Period. Nothing would convince this rambunctious crowd that Jesus was the Son of God!

"If that’s who you claim to be, let’s see some ‘God stuff!’ C’mon, show us a miracle! Heal somebody!”

As we study our Bibles, you may have noticed that Jesus never performs a miracle just because someone wants to see it. Miracles are not for show. Miracles are purposeful, helping those with no other way out of their predicament. Miracles are benevolent, furthering goodness on our planet.

How fickle are these listeners! Because Jesus wouldn’t perform a miracle right then and there, the crowd decided to push him off a cliff! But the crowd did not succeed. Jesus passed right through them and went on his way.

Now THAT’s a miracle!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Spirit-Filled!

For Friday, December 1, 2023:

Revelation 19:11 NLT: “I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war.”

“Faithful and True” sounds like a good way to describe Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God can only speak the truth. His unconditional love for us is never-ending. We should be proud to be one of His children. But there are those who are not.

Evil beings think they should be in the driver’s seat of life. They aren’t content to let God do the driving. And just as we proselytize for Jesus, Satan and his minions are recruiting for the dark side. Kinda sounds like a Star Wars episode, except this is real – eternal life versus eternal condemnation, and our souls are the pawns on this chess board!

There’s constant spiritual warfare, a big battle in the next realm. And believe it or not, they’re waging war over your soul! That’s why, before Jesus would get anyone’s life back on track, he’d cast out the demons. We need to shuck off the demons in our lives. All of them.

The next step is to fill yourself with goodness. Ask Jesus into your heart. Ask God’s Holy spirit to live inside you. Holiness and evil cannot exist in the same place, so get closer to God. Curl up and sit right on your Father’s lap.

The presence of the Lord will displace your demons!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

P.S. The good guy is always the one on the white horse!

Think!

For Thursday, September 7, 2023:

Romans 8:5 NLT: “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.”

God has given us better topics to fill our minds. His agenda is fed to us by the Holy Spirit! If we need to clean out our minds, it’s not easy. But I believe there’s a limit to the number of things we can keep top-of-mind. Therefore begin filling your mind with the good stuff, Godly stuff. Read your Bibles daily. Serve others and put their needs on your hearts. Hang out with “church people.” If we immerse ourselves in goodness, the bad stuff will fall by the wayside!

Ask yourself, “What do I think?”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Kindness of God!

July 17, 2023 Monday Message:

Romans 2:4 NLT: “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”

The Bible tells us that ALL have sinned. But God, who is kind, tolerant and patient with us, gives us chance after chance to repent and return. It’s up to each of us to choose to live God’s way. But it’s a choice we have to make. We can choose to accept God or reject him. God designed mankind with the freedom to choose.

Paul is seeking a sign of gratitude from the Roman believers. God is so good, continually offering opportunities for us to join with the faithful, continually offering us hope when we don’t deserve it.

And if God’s kindness is intended to turn believers from their sin, we should start seeing less sin among the believers. Out of gratitude for what God has given us – forgiveness and a reservation in eternity – we give back. We do good works and financially support our home church. We sacrificially give to rescue people from natural disasters and other violent tragedies.

Christians should look and act like they’re God’s people, grateful people!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Saved!

For Wednesday, July 12, 2023:

Titus 3:4-5 NLT: “When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”

Paul is clearly stating an important plank in our religious platform. We should all keep this principle front-of-mind. The God-trend reveals kindness and love, not vengeance and punishment. We were offered a rescue opportunity because God loves everything that he created. When creation was complete and God looked over the whole package, he declared it all to be “very good!”

God, through his Son Jesus, is granting us a mid-life re-start. The Lord is willing to let us take a Mulligan on the first part of our lives, wash away all our sins and start over once again – clean and fresh! He’s even willing to continue the forgiveness should we get off track again, as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus!

We have been given the gift of a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. Your church may call it Baptism by Fire. It’s the kind of life God intended for you!

God chose to redeem us not because we are so good, but because HE is so good!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship