Assurance of Salvation!

For Thursday, September 3, 2026:

Romans 9:30 NLT: “What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.”

The last sentence of today’s scripture says it all. Gentiles are made right with God through faith.

Followers of other religions try to please the Lord by doing specific things, thereby earning heaven points. For example, if you do something nice for someone, you earn heaven points. But when driving home from church, someone cuts you off in traffic, and you shake your fist at them. Now you lose heaven points. Q: How do you know when you have enough heaven points to see heaven from the inside? Or how do you know if you’ve lost enough points to be disqualified?

Last week, I was preparing to sing ‘Blessed Assurance.’ I explained how Christians have ‘Assurance of Salvation,’ something no other religion has. God wanted us to stop trying to earn our way into heaven. If we each claim Jesus as Lord of our Lives, we will be redeemed, end of story. Our salvation is by grace, a free, undeserved gift from above. Our faith, our eternal belief in the Son of God, locks in our life after this life.

So Christianity is pretty simple. Place Jesus at the top of your agenda and put your faith in his promises. Claim Assurance of Salvation just like the song says!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Love & Mercy!

For Saturday, August 22, 2026:

Romans 9:16 NLT, Paul testifying to the church in Rome: “So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.”

God is good. God looked at mankind, his creation, and declared it to be very good. Not that WE were particularly good, but that his act of creation was very good. God loves us and he’s not about to change his mind. God is merciful, loving us in spite of our shortcomings.

If we could earn our way into the Kingdom, no one would make it because the Bible says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, his goals for mankind. We are saved by grace, undeserved favor. Our faith in God’s sovereignty includes us among the faithful.

But make no mistake. Salvation is a gift from the Almighty. Unlike other religions, we can’t work for God’s acceptance. We can’t earn his love. Our God has chosen us! He’s a merciful God, and believers are the beneficiaries of his kindness and love!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Flip the Script!

August 3, 2026, Monday Message:

Luke 6:21 NLT: “God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied.

God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.”

In this scripture, Jesus continues teaching the Beatitudes, truth about life after this life. He says that those who are loyal to God’s Son will experience a much better life in the next reality. This always reminds me of Jesus saying the first will be last and the last will be first. So if you are hungry in this life, your plate will be full in the next. If life has you down and depressed, laughter will fill your Kingdom days. As a general rule, bad stuff will be corrected and only goodness will survive in God’s Kingdom.

A reservation in the Kingdom is the result of God’s kindness, undeserved favor from above. This gift of grace is given to those with unflinching allegiance to the Son. We’re saved through our faith.

In the next reality that we call Heaven, God flips the scene. Those who were persecuted on this planet will receive God’s best in his Kingdom. Rescued Christian believers will be free of Satan, his demons and sin’s temptations. The Lord’s Prayer asks him to, “Deliver us from evil.”

In the life after this life, believers will have been delivered!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Healing Restoration!

Daily message of hope...
For Sunday, July 26, 2026:

Luke 6:19 NLT: “Everyone tried to touch Jesus, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.”

Word was out about Jesus! Not everyone knew all the details, but if you needed healing, Jesus was the man. People would come not only to hear him speak, but for healing. If they didn’t personally need healing, they wanted to witness others receive Jesus’ divine touch. There were plenty who had been healed by the Son, but even more who served as witnesses to the healing events.

Healing restoration seemed to flow out from Jesus. Here, people were trying to touch him. Another Bible account describes a woman who wanted only to touch the hem of his garment. They were fully restored, as are we all, by our faith and the grace of God Almighty.

This is basic Christianity 101. God’s desire is that everyone would repent and return. Jesus was here to pay the penalty for mankind’s sins. Sinless individuals get to spend eternity in the Father’s Kingdom of heaven. It’s all a gift from above, dependent upon our faith in God’s ability to get it done!

Pastor Norton Lawellin
The Father’s House
Jesus In the City Fellowship
Truth & Freedom Church

Paid In Advance!

For Thursday, July 16, 2026:

Colossians 1:29 NLT, Paul speaking: “That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.”

After meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul was thoroughly convinced. He threw himself into evangelism, telling everyone the Good News and planting new churches wherever God sent him.

But Paul doesn’t think he can do it all by himself. He knows that Christ is working through him to complete heaven’s mission. We also have a divine helper, the Holy Spirit, to be our advocate as we share with others the truth about God, his Son, sin, forgiveness and redemption. Since the Holy Spirit is working alongside us, we’re responsible for the effort, not the outcome. God’s in charge of that!

Paul is working hard to hold up his end of the partnership, as should we. We’ve all been assigned the task of making disciples of all nations. Half-measures won’t get us 50% of the way to the Kingdom! In fact, all-out effort only works when combined with an unshakable belief that Jesus is God’s Son and that his words are the truth. It’s our faith in the Risen Savior that lets us see heaven from the inside!

When I worked in sales, the letters ‘PIA’ on an invoice stood for ‘Paid in Advance!’ There is an invoice due for your sins and my sins, but it’s marked ‘PIA.” Jesus, through his death on the cross, paid the price to redeem mankind from our sin problem. He took those sins to the place of the dead and left them there, never to haunt us again.

Make a decision today to accept Jesus’ gift of forgiveness. Yes, it’s undeserved, but God sometimes does us a solid. Accept the gift with gratitude and a smile!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Faith!

For Friday, July 10, 2026:

John 16:1 NLT, Jesus speaking: “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith.”

Believers are saved by grace through faith. Grace is undeserved favor, a gift from our Creator. Faith is a perpetual belief that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that he can and will do everything he said. He warned the faithful about imminent persecution. Life wasn’t going to be easy. But Jesus always spoke the truth. Being God, one-third of the Holy Trinity, he could not do otherwise.

When others come down on believers, we could easily become discouraged. Jesus is trying to prevent that. When bad things happen to good people, believers don’t give up. We know that this is “prophecy playing out, just as Jesus told us.”

Our reward comes in the life after this life. When we die and stand before judgment, Jesus has our sins covered. He went ahead to prepare a place for us in his Father’s Kingdom.

So in a weak moment, don’t abandon your eternal gift. Ill-treatment on earth is for just a brief moment, but your heavenly residence is forever. Stick with Jesus!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Logic?

For Tuesday, June 30, 2026:

Romans 8:32 NLT: “Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”

Paul is asking the Romans to use logic to project their salvation. It’s a look into the future. It involves following a scenario through to its logical conclusion, though it may not have happened yet. It’s like an ‘if then’ line of computer code. ‘If’ the operator chooses this command, ‘then’ a specific thing happens.

Does our God love us? Yes! Has our God provided for us? Yes! Did God arrange for our sins to be forgiven? Yes! Is God’s desire for believers to join him in his eternal Kingdom? It hasn’t happened yet, but logic tells us that the answer would be a resounding yes!

God gave up the earthly life of his Son to rescue mankind. So it would behove us to be good stewards of his grace, that undeserved gift freely given to us. The love of the Father should be reciprocal!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Peace with God!

For Wednesday, May 27, 2026:

Colossians 1:20b NLT: “God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.”

Sin and God’s goodness cannot coexist. But God’s desire is that everyone would repent and return. He wants us all to join him in the hereafter. Therefore, sin needs to be removed, blotted out from Heaven’s Book of Life registry. What could possibly pay the penalty for the sin of the world?

God, who has all resources at his command, knew that the earthly sacrifice of his Son was the only thing that could satisfy the debt. So Jesus went to the work of substitutionary atonement, paying for the trespasses of mankind through the ages. Past sins, present sins, and even future sins were paid for. Believers in Jesus have been granted special grace. When heaven looks up our name in the Book of Life, the column marked “sin” will be blank. No scratch-outs; no erasure marks; simply blank white space, as if we had never sinned. That’s how thorough Jesus’ forgiveness is!

As believers, we’ll be a part of the heavenly group only present because of the Son. “I’m with that guy sitting just to the right of the Father. He said he’d prepare a place for me in his Father’s Kingdom.”

And heaven will reply, “We’ve been expecting you!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Come Quickly, Lord Jesus!

For Tuesday, May 19, 2026:

Revelation 22:20 NLT: “He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon!’ Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”

In the language Jesus spoke, the word was “maranatha,” “surely I will come quickly.” Jesus said he would return, and as the Bible wraps up, his promise is once again confirmed. No longer just prophecy, Jesus’ return will put the End Times scenario in motion right before our eyes!

Those who have read Christian theology clearly understand that life is better when Jesus is with us. So Christians pray, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!” Please don’t let too much time pass. We need you, and we need you now! There’s always an implied urgency in these prayers. “Come quickly, the sooner the better!”

As we strive to make disciples of all nations, God has started the End Times countdown. It will progress at His pace. God’s timing is always perfect!

Revelation concludes, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all of God’s holy people. Amen!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

I Am the Way!

For Thursday, March 5, 2026:

John 14:4-5 NLT, Jesus: “You know the way to where I am going.”

Thomas: “No, we don’t know, Lord. We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Thomas is sometimes called “Doubting Thomas.” I wonder how someone could live with Jesus during his three years of ministry and not “get it?” The disciples all took meals together. They traveled everywhere together. Shouldn’t it have been obvious to Thomas by this time that Jesus is the Son of God?

But we need to be forgiving, gentle in our criticism of his apparent ignorance. The disciples – all of them – were witnessing things no one had seen before! Jesus, of course, knows it all. He had come from heaven. John tells us that Jesus was even present during creation. But most of the Hebrews were still trying to decide if there even is a life after this life. Jesus, as we well know, was certain of it! In his mind, he can remember the heavenly Kingdom. He’s already planning to prepare a place for all who will be joining him there.

Friends, if you know Jesus, you already know the way. We are saved by grace through faith, our unwavering belief that Jesus is who he said he was, and that he can do what he said he can do. His promises are always good, and his word is always truth. If Jesus promised that we will join him in the life after this life, don’t plan on being dead for too long! Remember, even Jesus himself walked away from the grave after only three days!

Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that when we die, our soul, our eternal essence, would be, “Absent from the body; present with the Lord!” Count on it!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Grace = Free Gift!

For Sunday, February 8, 2026:

Hebrews 13:9b NLT: “Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.”

The Old Testament contains some dietary instructions. Certain animals can transmit various diseases, and God, who always looks out for us, wanted us to remain alive and healthy. But our meat-packing and inspection methods have so much improved that those kinds of diseases have long since vanished. And friends, dietary choice is not a redeeming ordinance. You’re not disqualified from heaven for eating a pig! That would imply that we could earn our way into heaven by doing something or not doing something, and that’s simply not true.

Our hope for our eternal future is God’s grace. It’s a gift. All we need to do is accept it. Our faith in forgiveness, Jesus taking away our sins, is our ticket to the hereafter. We are saved by grace through faith, not by obeying rules. But having said that, Christians strive to conform to God’s rules out of gratitude for all that Jesus did for us!

Salvation is God’s gift to those who place their faith, hope and trust in his Son!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

1-on-1 with Jesus!

 For Friday, February 6, 2026:

Luke 3:8 NLT, John the Baptist speaking: Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.”

 How you live and what you do will be signs that you have discarded your sinful ways and repented and returned to the Lord. God has stretched out the hand of forgiveness. All we have to do is grab on and decide that God’s way is the better way.

 People tend to make excuses for not doing the right things. In those days before Jesus, the excuses ranged from, “I was born Hebrew,” to “I’m in the Synagogue every Sabbath.” Those are good things, but they won’t open heaven’s gates. Salvation is a contract between you and God. It’s dependent on your heartfelt belief, your faith in the Father and his Son. We are saved by grace through faith.

 When evangelizing, people tell me, “When I was young, I went to Sunday School; My mom was a Baptist; My wife attends a church; and We’re pledging members.” All good things, but they won’t get you into heaven. Assurance of Salvation is a 1-on-1 deal with Jesus, putting your faith, hope and trust in God’s Son.

 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” The way to heavenly eternity, and everything he speaks is truth about the life after this life. “No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Pastor Norton Lawellin
Jesus In the City Fellowship
The Father’s House
Truth and Freedom Church

Goodbye Law!

For Friday, January 30, 2026:

Romans 6:15 NLT: “Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!”

The Law enters people into a contest. Can we do enough good to outweigh the bad? Can we do enough good to qualify for heaven? Christianity doesn’t work like that. We are no longer under the Law.

Believers are living under grace. Our salvation is God’s free gift to us. His desire is to include us in his eternal heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, if we confess our wrongdoings and declare allegiance to the Son who took away our sin, we will be fully forgiven. Heaven won’t be filled with perfect people. Heaven will be filled with forgiven people. “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” God’s love and grace bring us home. Jesus said so!

I work with church musicians, and our goal is to bring our best to the Lord and the other believers. Mistakes will happen from time to time, but if everyone is doing their best, I can’t complain. I encourage grace for one another, and forgiveness. That’s what Jesus would do! God wants our love and offers us grace, undeserved favor, and forgiveness.

Pray and thank God for his grace and forgiveness, and always do your best for the Lord!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Miraculous Signs!

For Sunday, January 25, 2026:

Mark 16:17a,18 NLT, Jesus speaking: “These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

These are some of Jesus’ last words, his final instructions before ascending back to the Father. He first gave us our “Priesthood of all believers” doctrine, saying, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” This isn’t optional. Every Christian is to help make new Christians. Each of us will have a different portion of that task using our God-given gifts and talents. But encouraging others in their faith should be top-of-mind for all of us.

You should be aware that there’s a supernatural spirit-world operating alongside life on Earth as we know it. A lot of it is not good. Satan and his demons reside in the spirit dimension. Our goal is to settle in the Father’s heavenly Kingdom. Satan’s goal is to derail us, to keep our souls for himself. Obviously, God’s way is the better choice.

Jesus doesn’t throw us to the wolves. He leaves believers with his power and authority to deal with evil. We can bring back to life the victims of premature death. We can lay hands on our fellows and, in Jesus’ name, cure any sickness or disease. We can cast out demons, the source of much of the world’s trouble. Cast out the demons first, because they might be the root cause of the illnesses. That’s what Jesus did!

We are saved by grace through faith. Faith is the cornerstone of our salvation. Take a high view of the Bible. Every God-inspired word is truth, and every incident happened just the way the Bible says. Pray, do things in Jesus’ name, and repent of nonconforming scenarios. Know that this life is temporary, and have confidence that Jesus is preparing an eternal place for you. If you’re with Jesus, life couldn’t be better!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Jesus' Heavenly Plan!

January 5, 2026, Monday Message:

John 16:1 NLT, Jesus speaking: “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith.”

The New Covenant gives us God on speed-dial. Direct access! Under the Old Covenant, the general public didn’t know a lot about God. They only knew theology the priests chose to teach. God bless the priests, but some would repeat rumors, theories and traditions. They were no longer speaking for the Lord. They were no longer speaking truth!

Christians have been given Assurance of Salvation. We are saved by grace through faith. Grace means that our salvation is a free, undeserved gift from above. Our faith is in Jesus, believing he is who he said he was, and that he can do what he said he can do. Jesus’ primary mission in coming to earth was the rescue of mankind, reconciling our relationship with the Father, and believers put their faith in Jesus’ promise.

So believers’ assurance comes not from any priest or rabbi. Our assurance is not from any church, denomination, synagogue or temple. Our salvation deal is authored and guaranteed by Jesus, God’s own Son. Bypass any middlemen. Lock in your eternal destination today. At the pearly gates, Jesus said we should use his name!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Change!

December 29, 2025, Monday Message:

Romans 6:1 NLT: “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!”

A change of heart on our part would be evidence of our gratitude for God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation. The Lord’s efforts are effective and efficient. He doesn’t seem to waste his time doing needless stuff. So God planned to rescue those who need rescuing. (Friends, that’s all of us!) A Savior wouldn’t have been sent unless people needed saving.

Being born again implies a second chance to get things right, to prioritize the Lord in our lives. We should learn from our past mistakes. The Bible word translated ‘repent’ means to change, like a change of direction. “We were going north, but God showed us that we should have been traveling south!” Radical transformation should be the result of God’s gift, God’s grace. Continued sinning should be out of the question.

God’s gift should bring about positive change!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Name of Jesus!

For Sunday, December 21, 2025:

Luke 2:21 NLT: “Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.”

Translated into the English language as “Jesus,” the name was originally “Yeshua” which means "Yahweh is salvation" or “God is salvation.” Angels are obedient, messengers sent by God himself. (Any who aren’t obedient don’t last long!) So Gabriel was just repeating the Lord’s instructions. God is sending His Son, confirming His intention to rescue mankind, to grant us salvation. God loves us, and his intention is that all would repent and return. God, who is omniscient, knew that Jesus would be persecuted and eventually crucified. The sins of the world would be placed on an otherwise sinless Jesus, who would leave our sins in the place of the dead. Forgiveness would be an important part of mankind’s restoration and our reconciliation with Heaven. So it appears that God, with his infinite wisdom, had this all planned out well in advance of its implementation.

Our Holy Family, Mary, Joseph and now their baby, consisted of loyal, obedient Jews. So eight days after Jesus’ birth, they found themselves in a Synagogue, in front of a Rabbi, to offer thank-you sacrifices for a successful childbirth and a healthy baby boy. Firstborn males were always dedicated to the Lord. While I’m not sure they understood the significance of all these events, I’m pretty sure they knew this baby was special. Mary was mentally piecing this puzzle together and kept these godly things in her heart.

As believers nowadays, we get more than glimpses of a scenario in motion. With our Bibles, we can read the “Jesus story” all the way to its conclusion. We know that, in the end, God wins, and we are the beneficiaries of His grace. Believers will be adopted into Jesus’ Holy Family, and have the right to call God, “Our Father!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church