Forgive!

For Saturday, May 18, 2024:

Ephesians 4:32 NLT: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Our forgiveness of others should be a mirror image of the forgiveness Jesus shows towards us. It’s amazing the way God forgives us. Therefore it would be shameful to withhold forgiveness from those who have wronged us.

God’s forgiveness fully restores us with the Father, proving He still loves us and considers us adopted into the Holy Family. This is one more proof of assurance of salvation. God loves us both in this life and the next!

The Lord’s Prayer always comes to mind as we look at forgiveness. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We will be forgiven in a similar measure to how we forgive others! So be nice! Your place in eternity depends on it!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Forgive!

For Friday, April 19, 2024:

Colossians 3:13 NLT: “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”

We all say the Lord’s Prayer from time to time. But rather than just reciting words we have memorized, I would encourage us all to examine those words more closely. Take it apart line by line.

The Lord’s Prayer, from Matthew 6, asks God to: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” So as much as we want God to forgive our sins, we too need to forgive others. Paul is reinforcing God’s command in this letter.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t get mad; I get even!” They think it sounds cool. They think it makes them sound tough. It does neither.

In your mind, flip the script. What if the Lord said to you, “I’m gonna get even!” None of us would stand a chance! God does not judge us vindictively. Thankfully he’s a God of love, mercy and forgiveness. Without God’s grace we wouldn’t stand a chance!

So forgive others as God forgives you. That’s what Jesus did! He even forgave those who put him on a cross!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Our Father!

For Thursday, January 26, 2023:

Matthew 6:9 NIV, Jesus speaking: “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’”

Jesus is teaching about prayer. He has told everyone to get right to the point and to cut the fat out of our prayers. We can’t inform God of anything he doesn’t already know, but our Father indeed desires a relationship with his children, so pray and pray often. Wanting to make this clear, Jesus left us with an example of what a prayer should include. We call it “The Lord’s Prayer!”

I don’t believe it was ever intended that we should ‘word-for-word’ memorize Jesus’ example, but there’s nothing wrong with repeating his words either. But Jesus left it with us as a model. ‘Include these things when you pray,’ or ‘Therefore you should pray like this.’ In other words, Jesus meant for us to not pray ‘this,’ but rather to pray LIKE this!

We pray to our Father in heaven, in Jesus’ name. Jesus is the one who granted us direct access to the throne of God. Jesus bypassed the Priests and Pharisees, who weren’t getting the job done right. “Hallowed be your name,” means holy, sanctified, and at the very least honored.

My mother pretended there were light bulbs in heaven that lit up when someone was praying. Some never lit up, and some only once a day. Mom said hers would be flashing all the time! She often prayed short little prayers!

So let your light shine, this time into heaven!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Our Father!

For Sunday, June 20, 2021

Matthew 6:9 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.”

Nowadays praying to God is second nature for some of us; for others, not so much. The Apostles would see Jesus praying to the Lord, but didn’t fully understand. At the time, people would come before a priest at the Temple, and the priest would then carry their petitions before the Lord. People just didn’t pray to God directly, so this was new.

The Apostles conjectured that if their mentor Jesus prayed, it must be a good thing to do. They wanted in on it! “Master, teach us to pray!” Jesus tells them to think of God as a good father – that kind of relationship.

Prayer can be private; prayer needn’t be complicated. Eugene Peterson write in the Message Bible, “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply: Our Father in heaven...”

Having the best Father ever gives us hope!

Happy Father’s Day!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Forgiven!

For Thursday, December 31, 2020

Matthew 18:21-22 NLT: “Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?'”

“'No, not seven times,' Jesus replied, 'but seventy times seven!'”

These words point to God's perpetual forgiveness. We are to live that same way. If someone offends us, then repents and asks for forgiveness, Jesus says that we are to offer forgiveness. Seven times you could count on your fingers, but 70 X 7 is too big a number to keep track of in our heads, the point being that we should concentrate on forgiving and stop counting! God in heaven has forgiven all of mankind's sins. How wrong it would be for us to deny our fellows a similar forgiveness for much lesser matters.

The Lord's Prayer teaches, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The CEV simplifies it: “Forgive us for doing wrong, as we forgive others.”

Knowing we are forgiven gives us assurance of salvation, a life after this life in the presence of the Father. We have hope!

Blessings - stay safe – Happy New Year!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

"More God!"

Nov. 18, 2019 Monday Message:

“This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown (from heaven) down to the earth with all his angels.” Rev. 12:9 NLT

In case you don’t know, Satan is an angel gone bad, a fallen angel. And sort of like the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which states (simplified) that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, there can be no evil in the presence of God – only good stuff. Therefore Satan and his supporters were cast down to earth. The bad news is that now WE have to contend with them.

Some people try to tough it out, to do battle with the devil. Oftentimes they don’t win.

I believe a better solution is, “More God!” When the Hebrew people wandered in the desert, a cloud would follow them around and from time to time descend on the tabernacle. This was the divine presence of God, the Shekina, a visible sign that God-the-Creator was still caring for His people.

As we witness revival from time to time, the prayer has always been that God would show up – praying for more God rather than praying for less evil.

Jesus taught us to pray that the Kingdom of Heaven, where God is in charge, would also come to earth. Pray that God would make “up there” come “down here.” Pray for “More God!”

Norton Lawellin

Let’s worship together! Jesus in the City Fellowship meets next Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. We’ll talk about Thanksgiving and the goodness of God. See you at church!

On Forgiveness...

Oct. 22, 2018 Monday Message:

On Forgiveness…

Mankind is plagued with a sinful nature, and the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. But it also says that if you repent and return to the Lord, you will be forgiven.

Consider Saul of Tarsus – we know him as Saint Paul. Trained as a Pharisee, he formed a posse to capture the new Christians, bring them in chains to the Temple for trial, sometimes resulting in their execution. Saul wrote, “When the believers were put to death, I cast my vote against them.” He put to death many, many Christians. Simply put, he murdered God’s Children.

And yet God forgave him. God got Saul’s attention on the road to Damascus, and then sent him on a mission for Christ, to deliver the Good News to the Gentile nations. God saw through what Saul WAS, and focused on what he could BECOME if he was forgiven! Turns out that the “forgiven Saul” was far more useful for Kingdom-building.

Of course the lesson here is that if Saul could be forgiven for murdering God’s children, then we should likewise forgive all manner of sin against us. Jesus said that our sins will be forgiven AS WE FORGIVE others. Don’t hang onto anger, frustration, and resentments - just let God work it out. Don’t let someone who sins against you control how you feel today. Divorce yourself from the whole matter.

Let go and let God. Smile!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets next Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. Pastor Michael Pilla continues teaching from Micah.