For Saturday, November 16, 2024:

1 Thessalonians 4:1 NLT: “We urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more.”

Paul is encouraging the Thessalonian church: We have taught you to live in God’s ways, according to his commandments, according to his value system. We know that you are already living that way, but can you go a step further? Can you prioritize God even more in your lives? When God looks down from heaven upon the Thessalonian church, don’t you all want him to have a smile on his face? And when God looks down on each of our churches, aren’t we also looking for that smile of approval?

Can we all love the Lord a little more each day? More time and stronger devotion? And certainly we can do a better job of loving our neighbors, of taking care of the needy, the sick, the orphaned and the widowed. We should be the hands and feet that pour God’s mercy into the world. Friends, this kind of help and love has to come from the church. We cannot count on the government for benevolence, and we cannot legislate virtue. Only from God and his church can come these planks in our moral platform.

God’s will is for us to be holy!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Friend of God!

For Saturday, March 16, 2024:

Isaiah 10:1 NLT, speaking as a prophet of the Lord: “What sorrow awaits the unjust judges and those who issue unfair laws.”

Jesus taught that we should be kind and help widows and orphans. At that time, people were living in a very misogynistic society. Women and children without a patriarch were at a supreme disadvantage. God is on that same page, because his Prophet Isaiah was teaching those things 700 years before Jesus! Isaiah said, “Unjust judges prey on widows and take advantage of orphans.” Woe to them!

Our God is always fair, honest and kind to the downtrodden. God is “just.” When you meet someone as honorable as God, you want to become their friend, to spend time with them. You eagerly look forward to your next encounter, and thoughts of your God fill your heart with joy!

God has thousands of cattle on thousands of hills, and he wants to share that abundance with believers. That way we can help the widows and orphans. We can be benevolent. The problem is that humans tend to be selfish and not share their wealth, which bothers God a lot! That’s why it’s easier to push a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven.

My father taught me to run decisions through his little test: “Is it good? Is it right? Is it fair? Is it honest? Should we be doing this thing?”

If we want to be a friend of God, we need to act like a friend of God!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship