Love and Mercy!

For Saturday, October 5, 2024:

Hosea 6:6 NLT: “I want you to show love and mercy, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me, your God, more than I want burnt offerings.”

About 800 years before Jesus, we find the Prophet Hosea, the first of the minor prophets. From the text, it seems as if the Lord is preparing to abandon the Old Covenant and launch the New Covenant under his Son Jesus. According to God’s inspired words through the prophet, our love for God and our neighbors should take precedence over animal sacrifices, and that’s exactly what Jesus taught! Nothing is more important than loving our Creator God, and right after that comes kindness to our fellows. Everything else is secondary.

This has actually been God’s directive from the beginning. It was mankind’s worship style that emphasized ceremony and ritual rather than absolute love for the Most High. It’s high time we get back to the basics. It’s high time we focus on the Lord rather than mankind’s style of worship!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Know God!

October 26, 2020 

Romans 1:20 NLT: “Ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

God is not hiding! He wants everyone to know all that he does for us. Everyone should already know, since God has written these things on our hearts! 

Unfortunately, some people resist knowing God. An inherent narcissistic quality drives many to vain and selfish ends, rendering them unwilling to “let go and let God!” Their lives are a lot more difficult than they would have to be!

While someone might survive this life not knowing God, that plan won’t work when you get to the next reality. Your ticket to heaven doesn’t depend on how good you are. It depends on the work Jesus did on the cross, taking the sin of the world to the place of the dead, and dressing believers in garments of white, ready to see heaven from the inside, and that gives us hope! 

Blessings to all this week!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

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