Love Your Neighbor!

For Wednesday, May 6, 2026:

John 15:12 NLT, Jesus speaking: “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.”

Life was not easy 2K years ago. If you wanted to eat, you had to grow food. If you wanted meat, you or someone you knew well needed to butcher an animal, no small task. You could perhaps barter for food by trading your skill, but there was no Cub, Rainbow, Hy-Vee or Aldi. Consequently, the standard modus operandi was to selfishly look out for #1. (or #1’s family.) Daily living became competitive!

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” He continued, “The second is like the first: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus was setting forth a new paradigm for how to live one’s life. He was teaching mankind to be less competitive in daily living.

Be nice. Be kind, be helpful. Share what you have with others who don’t have anything. Do the next right thing. These commands all fit with Jesus’ goal.

You can see it play out after the Pentecost celebration following Jesus’ ascension. On Pentecost, thousands pilgrimaged to Jerusalem for the celebration. Simon Peter got up on his soap box and said essentially the same things that got Jesus killed. This time, the crowd listened and asked, “What should we do?”

Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” 3,000 new believers were added to their group that day. Wow! Imagine 3K new members all showing up at your church on the same day! That’s a big problem, but a good problem to have! These newbies didn’t have any place to live, didn’t have more than a day’s food, and didn’t have jobs in Jerusalem. Yeah, big problem. Let’s see how it played out.

Acts 2 concludes, “All the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity — all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”

Jesus wants us to love our neighbors. It worked out on the first Pentecost, and it can still work out today. Decide today to live Jesus’ way!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Temptations!

For Wednesday, April 15, 2026:

Luke 4:1b-2a NLT: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days.”

This was a major event in Jesus’ life. He must have talked about it, retold the story many times. He had not yet called the 12, and yet they write about it.

It’s the classic battle between good and evil. Satan’s goal is to derail anything God is for. Truth and honesty are prime targets. Lust and greed are high on Satan’s list. He offers authority and influence, worthless because Jesus already has those traits. In the end, Jesus refuses each of Satan’s offers, countering with scripture: “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”

Satan should have just given up. Was God’s Son ever going to oppose his Father? I think not! And yet Satan has to try. It’s in his job description! Jesus refuses Satan’s offers, and that fits his job description. Our job as Christians is to do what Jesus did. Be nice, be kind, love our neighbors, and most of all love the Lord and all that he stands for!

Many temptations will confront us in this life, and our job is to reject Satan and side with Jesus. He was heaven-sent to deal with mankind’s sin issues. He carried away our sins, leaving believers unblemished, spotless in God’s eyes, and eligible for residence in God’s eternal heavenly Kingdom!

Keep your eyes on the prize!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Move that Mounain!

For Sunday, April 12, 2026:

Mark 11:22-23 NLT: Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.”

All believers have supernatural powers. Most never use them. The question becomes one of motivation. Why do we want to move the mountain into the sea? What is the purpose? Perhaps it’s a metaphor for other things.

We are called to heal the sick. Stopping the growth of cancer might be the mountain we’re sent to move. Raising the dead would certainly qualify, but we can’t override God’s decision to call a person home. Many Christians have never seen a demon, but if you have, it’s scary. Not casting them out would not be an option. Getting that job done would be monumental.

Jesus told us to love the Lord and love our neighbors. Loving your neighbor might involve moving a mountain. We should do whatever is needed to make their lives better. Then, because we’re following Jesus’ instructions, our lives will be better!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Humble!

For Sunday, March 22, 2026:

1 Samuel 16:6 NLT: Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!”

Playing a guessing game with God is not fun. God, as you know, already has all the answers! Put yourself in Samuel’s shoes. You meet one of Jesse’s sons, Eliab, and ask, “Is this the one?”

The Bible doesn’t tell us what made Eliab attractive. Was he the tallest? The oldest? The best-looking? Hair most like John, Paul, George and Ringo? “No,” said God. “He’s not the one,” with no further explanation given.

What about the next sons, Abinadab and Shimea, and four more, as all of Jesse’s sons were presented. “The Lord has not chosen any of these.”

So Samuel asked, “Are these all the sons you have?”

There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.” Logic would expect God’s choice to be the eldest, the one who has lived long enough to have gained the wisdom of the world. Last place would go to the kid looking after a few sheep.

God explains: “People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God doesn’t desire words from your mouth or actions only designed to impress others. God wants to know what’s truly in your heart. Do you honestly love the Lord and love your neighbor? Are you willing to go where God sends you, and willing to do what he sends you to do? How is your heart, really?

God says that we must come to him like little children, innocent, with open minds. Humble is the word of the day. If you think you have it all together, you probably don’t. If you think you’re the pièce de résistance, your mind is already made up and God probably can’t help you. “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.”

Selecting the next leader for the Promised Land requires a great deal of discernment. God knows what he’s doing. Remember, the first will be last, and the last will be first.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & 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

Compassion!

For Wednesday, January 14, 2026:

Hebrews 13:2 NLT: “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!”

How we live our lives on earth is (among other things) a test of our compassion. I hope everyone reading this gets at least 50% on this test. 80 or 90% would be better. Only Jesus scores 100%!

Most of the civil laws and rules to which we conform are manmade laws, not God’s laws. Other than God giving the Promised Land to His Chosen People, I don’t believe he drew any lines on a map. We’re all citizens of planet Earth, and our Creator wants us all to get along. Historically, mankind hasn’t been very good at it!

Jesus said we should love the Lord and love our neighbors. God is always first. Our neighbors could be next door, in our city, state or country, or the country across the ocean. God created a lot of people to populate the planet!

Even when a man-made law is violated, we need to remember that the perpetrator is still one of God’s creations. The ones who appear wrong to us were still made in God’s image, and should be treated with love, kindness and respect.

I remember a scene from a movie. As a couple of religious types walked down the street, they encountered a falling-down drunk begging for food. His clothes were torn, he was dirty, and intoxicated beyond belief. One of the religious leaders commented as they passed, “That man is a disgrace. He needs to get his life together.”

The other replied, “Perhaps the Lord’s testing your compassion!” Guilty!

Dear Lord, please give us more compassion than criticism, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Reciprocal Love!

For Thursday, December 4, 2025

Romans 5:5b NLT: “We know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

Love is reciprocal. Bi-directional. God loves us so much that it becomes easy to love him back. So put the Lord up on a pedestal and add worship to your lives in abundance!

God’s timing is always perfect. When mankind was floundering, he sent Jesus to rescue us. Now that Jesus has returned to the Father, the Holy Spirit has been sent to be our helper and our advocate. As children of God, Heaven is where we belong. Eventually. God is trying to make it easy for us to come home. The Holy Spirit will guide us. Home is where when you go there, theyhave to let you in!

 When we become believers, we’re adopted into the family of God. We receive the rights, privileges and benefits of being a family member. We can inherit salvation! As we transition from this life to the next, Jesus will be there to welcome us with open arms. Jesus is the light of the world, and we should always pursue light, not darkness.

I wish churches would teach more about the Holy Spirit. He’s one-third of the Trinity, but seems to be on the short end of receiving screen time. Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations, but I don’t think I could ever do that on my own. The Earth is just too big! But a team with each member possessing different God-given gifts and talents can bring Jesus’ goal into focus.

Can you heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons? By yourself, no. With the Holy Spirit, maybe, if it fits with God’s purpose and timetable. For example, if someone is dying because God is calling them home, we should leave well enough alone. But if someone is dying because demons are disrupting things, we should cast out the demon(s) and heal the illness. God’s way is always the right way! The Holy Spirit will help!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He’s already loving you back!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

New Heaven – New Earth!

 For Saturday, November 8, 2025:

Luke 21:33 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.”

Jesus is teaching about the eternal nature of God and his commandments. The next reality will be different from anything that we now know. Heaven will be replaced by the New Heaven, which will have more residents than ever before. Those who believe in God’s Son will now be included. Having been adopted into the Holy Family, Heaven is their birthright – temporarily. The New Earth will also be completely rebuilt, put back to God’s original specifications for our planet. It’ll be like the beautiful Garden of Eden everywhere. Evil will be sent into the lake of fire, so, lacking anything evil, the New Earth will be a suitable home for all believers. And God can once again live among his people.

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Nothing else comes close. As we walk our Christian path, we constantly need the words and advice of Jesus and his Father. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, so the Bible’s messages will still be relevant in the next reality. We may no longer need a hard copy, because the New Covenant states that God’s words are written on our hearts! That’s great! Impossible for us to misplace God’s instructions!

If we love the Lord in this life, we shouldn’t have to learn anything new for the next! Believers are good to go!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

More Faith!

For Tuesday, October 28, 2025:

Hebrews 11:6b NLT: “Anyone who wants to come to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

Today’s scripture honors “faith.” Christians repeatedly proclaim that we are saved by grace (undeserved favor from God) through faith (believing that God can and will do what he says.)

Abel and Cain both brought thanksgiving sacrifices to the Lord. Abel’s sacrifice was closer to what God had asked them to do, so his faith appeared to be greater. Enoch’s faith was so great that he was taken up to heaven – without dying! “He disappeared, because God took him.” Long before this incident, he was known as a man who pleased God.

We will see varying degrees of faith within our Christian communities, all the way from Cain to Enoch. If you’re Cain, you need to step it up a good bit. If you’re Enoch, continue your obedient love for the Father, but still seek an increase. You can never have too much faith!

Remember that God rewards those who sincerely seek him. Love the Lord and graciously accept your prize as he ends your journey!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Instinctively Right!

For Tuesday, September 23, 2025:

Hebrews 10:16 NLT: “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”

The New Covenant represents a better deal for mankind. God’s desire is that none would be lost and that all would repent and return. So instead of having to read God’s Laws and try to memorize them, his commands have been permanently placed within us as instinct. No longer can we say, I didn’t know about that rule or I don‘t understand that policy. Now we intuitively know right from wrong. Thank you, Jesus!

This applies regardless of whether the person is a believer. For example, we have civil laws saying that murder is wrong, but we don’t need those laws to teach us. The Bible teaches us! Everyone from the priest to the prisoner in solitary already knows that we shouldn’t murder one another. It’s written on our hearts. We should love God, be kind to our parents; we shouldn’t steal, lie or covet what isn’t ours. Everyone already knows. Our minds have been pre-programmed to do the right thing!

God wisely put every inhabitant of Earth on the same page, giving us a uniform code of conduct. We all have the same rules, the same behavior standards. If a behavior is wrong in Washington, D.C., it’s wrong in Los Angeles. If a sin is wrong in Kansas City, It’s wrong in Moscow too. God has codified His value system and written it on mankind’s hearts. So we already know the right way to live our lives – God’s way!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Love!

For Sunday, September 14, 2025:

John 13:34-35 NLT: “Now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Apparently, the first Believers, Paleo-Christianity, took these words seriously. It was said about them, “Behold, how they love one another."

Jesus was reminding his followers of a Godly command that had been around for quite some time. Jesus wanted these thoughts front-of-mind. When asked the most important commandment, he had answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” [Mark 12:30] The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” [Mark 12:31] “There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus didn’t just make up these words. He was quoting Old Testament Scripture. Deuteronomy 6:5: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Leviticus 19:18b “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

To keep things simple (KISS), I usually condense this teaching to “Love the Lord and love your neighbor.” That includes being nice, being helpful and being kind. It might involve solving a problem that wasn’t yours in the first place. Christians do the right things for the right reasons without being asked. We are servants to our sisters and brothers. Onlookers will say, “Look at those Christians! They seem to love everyone!”

Being kind to your neighbor is a good way to live. That’s what Jesus did!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Presence of Jesus!

For Saturday, August 30, 2025:

Mark 14:7 NLT, Jesus speaking: “You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to. But you will not always have me.”

Jesus knew his time on our planet was limited. And his point is that if you have the opportunity to speak with the Son of God, or perhaps sit down and take a meal with him, to always exploit that event. You may never get another chance.

Remember when Martha remained in the kitchen while her sister Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. If the Master is teaching, you’d better take a chair and listen!

In fact we all need to be intentional about learning. Knowledge about God, Jesus, heaven and the Kingdom is gained bit by bit. So we all need to read our Bibles, listen to sermons, and fact-check the sermon against what the Bible says. Truth is God’s opinion on everything!

We are to love the Lord and love our neighbors, but loving our neighbors never takes precedence over loving the Lord!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Independence Day!

For Friday, July 4, 2025:

Mark 12:17 NLT: “Jesus said, ‘Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.’”

In this scenario, Jesus was being questioned by people who wanted to arrest him, both Pharisees and supporters of Herod. The Roman Empire leader at the time, Tiberius Caesar, claimed to be god, so Herod’s people had no time for Jesus, while the Pharisees already knew the real God. They didn’t grasp the Son-of-God concept and certainly not the Holy Trinity. Furthermore, Jesus’ preaching was drawing people and their tithes away from Synagogues.

Suffice it to say that while Jesus was extremely popular with his followers, there was much opposition to what he was doing. His critics threw out a trick question, designed as a trap. “Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” If Jesus supported Caesar, the Pharisees would be angry. They believed all allegiance should go to God Almighty. But it was illegal to not pay taxes to Caesar. Either answer would be incorrect to some of the crowd, resulting in Jesus’ arrest.

Jesus replied, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” He set out a principle that we practice today in the United States – separation of church and state. We want believers to love Jesus with all their heart, not just because it’s a government edict. It’s Biblical to support the church. We also need roads, schools, police and fire departments for our safety and armies for defense, and those services aren’t free. So taxation is a necessary part of living together as a society. Jesus approved both. He was not arrested that day.

Today is July 4^th, Independence Day in the US. We celebrate separating ourselves from the United Kingdom. We still pay taxes, but now to our own governments. We still tithe and sometimes give sacrificially to our own churches, not to a government-mandated church.

In the land of the free and the home of the brave, we enjoy the freedom to worship as we choose. God bless America!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Beware Greed!

For Tuesday, June 10, 2025:

Luke 12:15 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

Our God, Jehovah Jireh, is a God of provision. He gives us all we need for the work he has given us to do. He will not send us on a mission without equipping us for that mission. I thank the Lord that he set me down in the US, a land of abundance. I have everything I need, and most of what I want.

But not everyone is as blessed. One of our African readers sent me a picture of a young boy with what could only be described as a bowl of mush. The boy had a big smile, grinning ear to ear, happy that he had something to eat today. I don’t know if he had anything to eat yesterday.

Mankind’s tendency is to want just a little bit more. OK – show of hands – How many want to keep up with the Joneses? (Nowadays it might be keeping up with the Kardashians!) That’s not a good thing. Here, Jesus is counseling his followers to not be greedy, to be content with what they have been given. On judgment day, it won’t matter if you drove a Kia or a Cadillac. Either way, you can’t take it with you!

Amassing earthly stuff won’t get you any heaven points. Loving the Lord and loving your neighbor will help with that. That’s what Jesus said to do!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship