Follow the Shepherd

For Friday, July 17, 2020.

Psalm 23:3a ESV: “He (the Lord) leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”

When we became believers, we were adopted into the Holy Family. The Bible says we became children of God. Therefore we want our actions to reflect well upon the Kingdom. Simplified, stop doin’ all that bad stuff you used to do!

You don’t need to know HOW to walk a path of righteousness; you only need to know where the Shepherd is! Follow Jesus – do what he does. He’ll show you the green pastures, the still waters and the righteous path. God showed these things to David, and he will show them to you. Use the Good Shepherd as your spiritual guide.

Sidebar – I hate it when clergy do something bad, and it gets publicized. I want to say, “Get off my side! What you’re doing doesn’t reflect well on the church!” His “name’s sake” needs to be honored!

I used to see people wearing little bracelets inscribed WWJD – “What Would Jesus Do?” Run any situation through your “Jesus filter” – Is this good, right, fair, honest? Should we be doing this thing? WWJD? Remember, you’re representing the Holy Family now!

Blessings to all this week!

Pastor Norton

Jesus in the City Fellowship

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

Psalm 23

Monday Message for July 13, 2020.

Psalm 23:1 ESV: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Since we’re looking for signs of “hope” in the midst of the pandemic, Psalm 23 is an obvious choice. David, worship leader first and king second, was having a good day, perhaps a good month or a good year! It seem that there was always something going wrong in David’s life, but God always kept him safe, and David was grateful. As a worship leader, David authored hundreds of prayers and songs as tributes to God. Psalm 23 is one of them.

Psalm 23 is the best-known of all the psalms; it’s recited at most funerals. Psalm 23 begins with one bold statement, and then five more verses giving us detail pertaining to that initial statement.

It begins, “The Lord.” In the original language, this is God’s name. We all have names like Bob and Jim and Mary and Martha and Yahweh – get it? Actually all that’s written is an abbreviation of God’s name. Copyists did this out of fear that if they wrote the name incorrectly, they could die, and the tradition continues to this day – Some Jews always write “G-d,” never fully spelling out the name of the Lord.

So who is your leader, your mentor? Who do you respect, look up to? Who rescues you when it looks as if all is lost? David writes, “The LORD is my shepherd!” He’s watched others try a variety of spiritual leaders, and none of them seemed to work out. David has prospered by being perpetually faithful to the one true God.

This Psalm was David’s statement, but he intended it to be for the entire congregation. “Say it with me – The LORD is OUR shepherd!” In the midst of a bunch of false gods, the LORD keeps rising to the top. Jesus taught that we are to love the Lord and love our neighbors; this is loving the Lord.

Time after time the Lord has come through for David, and he wants us all to benefit from what he has learned. “With the LORD as my shepherd, I don’t need any other shepherds!”

I’ll continue with the rest of Psalm 23 this week in the Daily Messages, available on my personal Facebook page, the JesusInTheCityFellowship.org web site, or the Blogspot link, and I’d encourage you to check it out. Psalm 23 is awesome – don’t miss it!

Blessings as we begin this new week!

Pastor Norton

Jesus in the City Fellowship

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

Serve the Lord - Gideon and You

October 01, 2012 Monday Message:

YHWH: “Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it.” Judges 6:25b NLT

Sometimes God wants us to take action. Even though Gideon loved the Lord, followed the law and brought sacrifices, there was more work to be done.

God had promised Gideon victory over the Midianites. “I will be with you,” said the Lord, “and you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” Judges 6:16

But God also commands us to not worship idols, hence the instruction to “pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it.”

Gideon built a new altar on that site and gave a sacrifice to honor God. The people of the town were unhappy about this, and wanted Gideon to die for what he had done. Eventually it was decided to leave vengeance to Baal, who, since he doesn’t exist, did nothing. And after that, Gideon was known as “Jerub-baal,” which means, “Let Baal defend himself.”

Of course the big picture isn’t about any single incident. Gideon’s trend was simply to serve the Lord, through love, sacrifices, tearing down idols and building a new altar for the Lord – whatever God needed. There were no job-description or geographic restrictions on Gideon’s ministry.

Now put yourself in Gideon’s shoes. You already love the Lord and try to honor his commandments; but maybe there’s more to do. It may be something new for you, different from what you have been doing. Talk it over with God, and see what he needs you to do next.

Norton Lawellin

This coming Sunday is the day we’ve all been eagerly anticipating - Jesus in the City Fellowship and Familia de Fe (Spanish language) will be worshiping together, in the main sanctuary of the Oliver Ministry Building, 27^th Street & Bloomington Avenue, 10:30am. Pastor Michael Pilla teaching, Pastor Walter Chuquimia translating. Potluck follows in the gym – bring something to share!

We’re working on special music for this service – it should be awesome! See you at church!

For the Lord is Good!

February 21, 2011 Monday Message:

“For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.” Psalm 100:5

We are children of God, and because we’ve been adopted into the Holy family, we should have a certain familiarity with God-the-father. God wants us to know him by his name, by his holy name. Most of you know that anytime we see “the LORD” in all-capital letters in the Bible, usually small-caps, it stands for God’s name. This occurs only in the Old Testament. The Hebrew letters correspond most closely to YHWH in our language, so some people pronounce it Yahweh or Jehovah. Unfortunately we do not know the exact pronunciation. But you can be comforted that God wants to be on a first-name basis with those made in His image.

God is good; all the time. The Bible often translates God’s “khesed” as his unfailing love, his everlasting lovingkindness, or some similar verbiage. It’s difficult to put that much love into human words. His love continues forever, and He will be faithful to generation after generation.

Being faithful is a two-way street. God will be faithful to us; but can we remain faithful to Him? Yes, it’s possible, and many remain faithful in spite of adversity. When things go wrong, God will lift us out of the mire and be our substance, our solid ground. After all, through our faith we are saved by His grace.

Norton Lawellin