Living Hope!

For Thursday, January 21, 2021

1 Peter 1:3 CEV: “Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death, he has given us new life and a hope that lives on.”

All God's goodness to us begins with His mercy, and by accepting God's mercy, we have hope!

Spurgeon writes, “No other attribute could have helped us had mercy been refused. As we are by nature, justice condemns us, holiness frowns upon us, power crushes us, truth confirms the threatening of the law, and wrath fulfills it. It is from the mercy of our God that all our hopes begin.”

We are born again to a living hope because we have eternal life in a Savior who has conquered death himself. Hope lives because it is based upon an incorruptible inheritance that can never fade away, because it is reserved for us in heaven.

Other hopes fade like withering flowers, but the living hope given by Jesus is forever!

Blessings and safety today!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Living Hope!

January 11, 2021 Monday Message:

1 Peter 1:3-4 GNT: “Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope, and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.”

Basic Christianity is pretty simple. It appears that God, in His mercy, has done all the heavy lifting! Through no effort of our own, other than believing that Jesus is our Redeemer, we are reborn, adopted into God's Holy Family. Jesus is our “living hope,” because he conquered death himself. This Good News, reserved for all believers, is kept safe for us in heaven. God is in control of everything!

Our “living hope” is imperishable. Spurgeon writes, “Other hopes fade like withering flowers. The hopes of the rich, the boasts of the proud, all these will die out as a candle when it flickers in the socket... The only imperishable hope is that which climbs above the stars, and fixes itself upon the throne of God and the person of Jesus Christ.”

We not only have hope; we have LIVING HOPE!

Blessings and safety to all this week!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Living Hope!

For Sunday, November 15, 2020 

1 Peter 1:3 ESV: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

We have hope while we’re alive because of the promise of what happens when we move on to the next reality. Believers are reborn into the Holy Family and get to see heaven from the inside. It will be magnificent! 

Jesus’ resurrection is our guarantee that this promise will be fulfilled. As someone who carried the sin of the world to the place of the dead, and then himself rose from the dead, it’s clear that Jesus has power over all creation and that he can do what he said he could do, and that gives us hope, a living hope!

Blessings to all this Sabbath! 

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

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