Restoration!

April 20, 2026, Monday Message:

John 14:23 NLT, Jesus speaking: “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”

As his ministry wraps up, Jesus wants to reassure the believers of what’s coming next. First off, there IS life after this life. Death is not the end! Jesus said so, so we know it’s true!

As Christians, we talk of dying and going to heaven, but my Bible says that’s kind of temporary. At the end of this age, God will create the New Heaven and the New Earth. By then, mankind will have really messed up the planet, and God will be the restorer, putting things back to the way they were designed. I’m thinking “Garden of Eden” specs, but only God knows what needs to be done.

The fully restored New Earth isn’t for all mankind. It’s a sanctuary for believers only. Everyone who lives here will have the same God. There will be no false gods. Mankind will all be on the same page, so to speak. There are no more wars. Everyone will love their neighbor. We will know shalom, the peace of God that surpasses our current understanding.

Jesus says, “We will come and make our home with them.” In other words, we’re not going somewhere to live with God. God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is going to walk the earth alongside us! God has it all planned, and it will be marvelous, beyond all expectations!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Trinity Explained!

For Tuesday, March 17, 2026:

Genesis 1:26 NLT: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings [mankind] in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’”

Notice the intentional use of plurals in this scripture: “Let US make humans in OUR image, to be like US.” Is there more than one God? No. Can God be revealed to us in more than one form? Yes. Is God omnipresent, able to be in more than one place at the same time? Yes!

  Saint Patrick, traditionally credited with evangelizing Ireland, used the shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity. A shamrock looks like a 3-leaf clover, only larger. The three leaves represent Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But there’s only one plant, only one root system. The three leaves are anchored together: shared value system, same love for mankind, same desire that everyone would repent and return.

Patrick could have held resentment for Ireland. After all, as a young man, he was captured and forced to work there as a slave. But he escaped, became a priest, and returned to work where he knew people sorely needed Jesus. Forgiveness is always best. He’s now known as the patron saint of Ireland.

Today is March 17, St. Patrick’s Day (feast), the supposed day of his death. Much more than just another Irish holiday, let us celebrate the Good News, convincingly taught to a pagan population. Well done, Patrick!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Faith = Good Idea!

For Wednesday, October 22, 2025:

Hebrews 11:1 TLB: “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.”

What is faith? Good question! Habakkuk 2:4b says that the righteous will live (eternally) by faith. So faith in Holy things assures us of residence in the forever Heavenly Kingdom.

Faith includes believing that God-the-Father loves us, and that he sent his Son to redeem us. The faithful believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and that all His promises (prophecies) are true. We believe through faith that Jesus can and will do what He said He will do. We believe that God-the-Father, Jesus-his-Son and the Holy Spirit are one God. Believers have no doubt that all of God’s promises will come to fruition. He is, after all, God!

Faithful believers know that Jesus preceded the bulk of mankind into the life after this life, to prepare our forever residence. The believer-filled church is the bride of Christ, and we will be honored to attend the wedding banquet in Heaven’s Great Hall!

Jesus is offering us a gift we cannot repay, residence in an unseen reality for an unending length of time. Our faith tells us that it will be the best thing ever! Sounds good to me! Does it sound good to you?

Pastor Norton Lawellin
Jesus In the City Fellowship
 

Omnipresent!

For Thursday, August 14, 2025:

John 12:44-45: Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me.”

Omnipresence is a challenging concept for some individuals to grasp. That God could be on the throne of heaven, Jesus could walk on earth alongside mankind with the mobile Holy Spirit on the bench, waiting to be called into action seems unbelievable. But it’s true. Our God, the Creator of the universe, isn’t limited by human constraints. Time and location cannot put chains on our God! He can be in more than one place at the same time. Omnipresent. But they’re all the same God!

Every word Jesus spoke was true, and this is no exception. He said, “I and the Father are One.” Hearing this, our opinion of the Son should go up considerably! This spirit-being, living within believers, is actually God himself. We are indwelt by a version of our Creator! Believers belong to Jesus; believers belong to God!

By definition, God and the Holy Spirit cannot be seen by human eyes. Jesus was sent to give us a glimpse into heavenly standards. His truth, honesty and love for God and his neighbors were unequaled. Our biggest challenge is to imitate the Savior.

When in doubt, do what Jesus did!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Messiah!

For Tuesday, June 24, 2025:

John 10:24b-25 NLT: Q: “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name.”

Who Jesus is and who sent him seems obvious to us. If he’s fulfilling the job description of the Messiah, that must be who he is. Call him God’s Son, God’s right-hand man or Moshiach – it’s all the same thing! If you examine the miracles, the healings, the kindness and teaching above expectations, Jesus is indeed God’s man for the mission!

You must have a teachable mind to recognize Jesus. People whose minds are closed to new ideas will keep asking for more evidence. They can never be sure. They ask for more and more proof when there’s already plenty!

Jesus says that we need to be like sheep. Sheep know the master’s voice and follow him. Jesus watches out for the sheep, granting them eternal life! They will never perish! If these sheep belong to Jesus and the Father, no one can snatch them from his hand. No one!

Jesus wraps up his comments with the bold statement, “The Father and I are one.”

In a few sentences, Jesus just summarized Christian doctrine. He was sent by the Father, and through his taking away of our sins, he grants believers eternal life. We are saved by grace through Jesus, the Messiah. Though we have experienced God in three different forms, there is in reality only one God. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

So stay close to Jesus, your ticket to the hereafter. Love God and love your neighbor, but don’t forget to include Jesus!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Heavenly Words!

For Sunday, April 6, 2025:

John 14:24b NLT, Jesus speaking: “Remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.”

In John ch. 14, Jesus has been leaving urgent last-minute instructions for the believers. Before going to the cross, he claims the ultimate authority for his words, telling the believers that what he speaks is actually from Father God! Now are you listening? Now are you paying attention?

In the believer’s mind at the time, this might have made a difference. But to us nowadays, with the completed Bible in hand, we know that Jesus and the Father are one. Their thoughts are the same, and they’re pulling in the same direction. And when the Holy Spirit, our comforter and advocate, joins us on the planet, it will be more of the same. Those three are one! C’mon, Pentecost!

When the words are from Our Father in Heaven, we should listen up! We should be obedient!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

One God!

For Friday, March 28, 2025:

John 14:9b NLT, Jesus speaking: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”

It’s sometimes challenging to explain a God that we cannot see. And the concept of a triune God, one God known to us in three different forms, isn’t clearly laid out in one place in our Bibles. This scripture is Jesus’ explanation of the concept.

Previously, Jesus had said (John 10:30), “The Father and I are one.” That statement almost got him killed; people were picking up stones. (You, a mere man, claiming to be God! Blasphemy!) Jesus explained, “If I do the Father’s work, believe in the evidence. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” The miracles, knowledge and sinless nature of Jesus all point to him being heaven-sent.

I’m convinced, and I hope you are too! I believe the primary mission of Jesus coming to earth was to solve mankind’s sin problem. God’s desire is for all to repent and return. God wouldn’t have launched a rescue mission if we didn’t need rescuing! Jesus said that believers are now separated from their sins “as far as the east is from the west.”

Thank you, our one God, for our redemption. God is good!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

One God!

For Sunday, December 8, 2024:

Deuteronomy 5:6-7 NLT, Moses quoting what God had told him as God spoke from within the fire: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me.”

Mankind was made to worship. As strange as it might seem, rather than getting in the driver’s seat ourselves, mankind is more comfortable serving a higher power, a super-being, a creator of some sort. Having someone else in charge gives us someone to blame when things go wrong!

In a way, God is acquiescing to the mistaken beliefs of mankind. He said, “You must not have any other god,” but in fact there are no other gods. Our God, Yahweh, is the one supreme being, known to us in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But that’s just one God! Anything else is simply a fictitious imagined deity, not any kind of real god.

Remember that when Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the commandments from the real God, these people were building a golden calf!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

One God!

For Sunday, April 7, 2024:

Colossians 1:15a NLT: “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.”

So people have been after you to sign up for the Jesus team. Why should anyone do that? Paul answers that common question with authority. “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.” Paul is, after all, the one who had a (violent) encounter with the Savior on the road to Damascus. He got his theology straightened out in a hurry on that day, and has been teaching people the truth ever since.

In John 14:9, Jesus explains who he is to Philip. “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”

We get a little more detail in John 10:28-30: “I give my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Jesus had claimed to be the spitting image of God. He claimed to be the source of eternal life. His religious opponents kept asking the question, “Who is this guy?,” but they didn’t like his answer. “I and the Father are one.” In the past, Jesus performed miracles and healed people, clearly power from heaven. But this, “claiming to be one with God,” seemed like blasphemy, a scriptural untruth. His opponents picked up stones!

The truth is that if you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. Those were words straight from Jesus’ mouth, and God cannot lie! Do you believe? You should! This is a key plank in Christian theology. One of the mysteries of Christian faith is the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are differences in how we perceive them, but deep down they’re all the same: God!

If you know Jesus, you know the Father!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Only God!

For Tuesday, August 29, 2023:

Psalm 77:13 NLT: “O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you?”

2K years ago, believers didn’t know what we now know. At that time, believers lived amongst people who believed in many gods. There was a god for favorable weather and a good harvest; a god for rain and a god for sunshine. None of these “extra” gods exist. The psalmist asks the rhetorical question, “Is there any god as mighty as you?” In fact there are no other gods.

Jesus prayed only to his Father in heaven, and taught believers to do the same. Since Jesus took away the sins of the world, we can approach Father God directly. God wants to hear from us. God desires a relationship with us in. As we became believers, we were adopted into the Holy Family. We became children of God.

Praying to our Father is family business.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

One God!

For Wednesday, August 2, 2023:

Romans 3:29-30 NLT: “After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.”

Jesus came to earth through Jews, and God’s Law was given through Jews. The next step should be for them to get the whole world on board, because there is only one God and he’s for all residents of our planet. He is OUR God too!

God’s gift to us is grace, undeserved favor. Mankind has been sinning for generations, and yet God loves us so much that he sent his Son to begin our redemption. God wants all believers to join him in the life after this life. He wants us to see heaven from the inside!

Our part of our rescue is faith – faith in who Jesus was, and that he will do what he promised. Our faith lets us receive God’s free gift of grace, and that gift is our salvation!

Faith lets us join the throng of believers!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Only One God!

For Thursday, June 15, 2023:

1 Chronicles 17:20 NLT, David praying: “O Lord, there is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you!”

God hand-picked David to lead the people of Israel. Even when David strayed off the straight and narrow, he gave us a beautiful example of repenting and returning to the Lord. David was forgiven and welcomed back.

God doesn’t just forgive sin. When we repent and return, any record of that sin is blotted out, as if at the bottom of the deepest ocean, as far as the east is from the west. Forgiven and forgotten.

In David’s time, people worshiped many gods, false gods. But in David’s mind, his God, the God of Israel, was the top God. In a way he was right, but he didn’t have all the theology yet. Jesus would teach that there really is only one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Creator of everything deserves to be our only God!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship