Freedom to Choose!

For Wednesday, January 1, 2025 New Years Day!

Genesis 1:2 NLT: “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

God had a blank slate. He could create anything he thought best in his new world. I picture the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters, excitedly saying, “C’mon, man. We’re ready to go! You just give the word, and we’ll get this thing started!”

Everything was going fine. But on the sixth day, God created mankind. In what must have been a difficult decision, he gave mankind the freedom to choose to obey God or not. That way, if mankind truly loved God, it would be real, not just a robot doing the only thing they were programmed to do. That same freedom also gave mankind the ability to make incorrect decisions, to disobey God.

But c’mon friends, we are the Christians, the ones who have chosen to play on God’s team. We’re not perfect and we’ll still make mistakes from time to time. But our heart belongs to the Lord. Think of this new year a dividing line between your old behavior and your new behavior. Make a commitment: “I can live a better life this year, a life more pleasing to God.” Look at this new year as your version of a clean slate, a fresh start!

Get as much as you can out of your gift of another year!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

New Year - New Beginning!

 For Sunday, January 1, 2023 – Happy New Year!

Matthew 3:16-17 NLT: “After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.’”

This is the beginning of a new year, so it’s appropriate to look at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Don’t you wish you’d been present that day? Obedient in his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven, like a dove, and landed right on its intended target - Jesus of Nazareth! Imagine God’s voice booming from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” Jesus’ ministry was given a jump-start, a seal of approval, from God himself!

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, hoping to change something in our lives, hoping to follow a better path. Frankly, we could make that change any day, but somehow it seems that a new year is a good time to make a fresh start. So go ahead – commit or re-commit to our Savior! New Year’s Day is a good day to lock-in our relationship with Jesus.

Jesus is, after all, God-approved!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Happy New Year!

For Saturday, December 31, 2022:

Matthew 3:11b NLT, John-the-Baptist’s prophesy about the coming Messiah: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. I baptize with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

This is the final day in our calendar year. At midnight everywhere, people will say, “Out with the old; in with the new!” It’s a time to start afresh!

A good start would be including more of Jesus in your life and in your heart. It’s a good time to commit or re-commit to believing that Jesus was who he said he was, could do what he said he could do, and to make him Lord of your life! Seek Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It’s a decision you’ll never regret.

The birth of this one humble man turned out to be so significant that we re-started our calendars with the birth of our Savior. The years after Jesus’ birth are AD, Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. Before Jesus was BC or before Christ. Secularists have changed that to “Before Common Era,” but Christians know what it really is. Without Jesus, there would be no BC or AD! Now you know what we’re really celebrating!

Happy New Year!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Happy New Year - #2

January 04, 2016 Monday Message:

“Now you must repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.” Acts 3:19

Happy New Year! Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? A resolution to change something implies that something was headed in the wrong direction, that something in your life NEEDED to change - for the better.

It’s a new year – consider it a fresh start, a re-start on our lives. We can begin the new year with a clean slate. We can learn from our past mistakes and change for the better. We can resolve to turn from our past and head in a new direction.

Our relationship with God is kind of like that. We confess our sins, but that’s not the end of it. The Hebrew word we translate as “repent,” tschuva (CHEW-vah), indicates a turn, a change of direction. Sin had been taking us farther from God, but now we turn back and resolve to live closer to God’s way. “Repent” isn’t just about being sorry for what went wrong. Repentance requires turning away from the old behavior, living our lives in a different way – a better way in the future.

If our past mistakes cause us to re-think those past decisions, and to live our lives in a better way, closer to God, are they really mistakes? Sometimes our mistake is God’s teachable moment.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) meets at 10 am every Sunday in the North end (gym) of the Oliver Ministry Building, 2647 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis. This Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, Pastor Van Dickerson speaks as Jesus teaches the Parable of the Sower, Mark 4:1-8.