Value System!

For Tuesday, August 26, 2025:

Mark 14:1b NLT: “The leading priests and the teachers of religious law were still looking for an opportunity to capture Jesus secretly and kill him.”

It was two days before Pasach, the Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The men behind the conspiracy against Jesus were priests and Jewish teachers of religious law. They should have known better.

On one hand, their religious beliefs taught that murder is wrong. Their parents and schools taught that murder is wrong. They teach others their deep-rooted moral belief that murder is wrong. And here they all are, plotting a murder, in direct conflict with their own value system, their own beliefs. Listen to this: Anyone who is doing what they would counsel others to NOT do is caught up in a big mental mess. In this case, perpetuating their religion had taken precedence over the religion’s fundamental principles, and that’s backwards. The priests believed Jesus was threatening their religion, and suddenly, plotting a murder became acceptable to them. They were wrong.

The priests and religious teachers didn’t want this event to happen on a holy day. The people might rebel! This tells us that, deep down, they knew the whole affair was wrong. If this secret were exposed, people could lose confidence in their religion.

With Jesus, God gave us the New Covenant. Believers have God’s Laws written on their hearts. In other words, God gave us a conscience. We should instinctively know right from wrong. So when a question arises, we should ask ourselves, “Is this good, is this right, is it fair, is it honest – should we be doing this thing?” With our God-inspired internal value system, we already know the right answer!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Convictions!

Monday Message, October 19, 2020: 

1 Thessalonians 1:5a GNT: “We brought the Good News (Gospel) to you, not with words only, but also with power and the Holy Spirit, and with complete conviction of its truth.”

When people truly believe in something, others tend to get involved too. That can be bad or good. Hitler drew a crowd, convinced them he had a better plan for the world and got millions to sign up. That was bad. Jesus preached the Gospel of forgiveness and the love of the Father, and commissioned us to sign up the world. That’s Good News! 

There are certain non-negotiable points in Christianity, including the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth of Christ, Jesus taking the sin of the world upon himself, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and the imminent personal return of our Savior.

You could visit almost any major denomination and they would agree on these points. Successful churches adhere to these principles rigorously, and in their own way, each of them succeeds in convincing sinners to turn back to God. When people hold deep-rooted convictions, others want to sign-up, to become a part of that action. 

God tells us that our belief, our conviction honors His plan. And His plan is for us to have hope!

Blessings and safety all week, 

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

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

Apostle's Creed Unlocked - 1

March 07, 2011 Monday Message:

“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” Beginning of Apostle’s Creed

I’ve recently been asked several questions about The Apostle’s Creed. Perhaps we should park here for the next few weeks.

Of course the common myth is that the Apostles themselves authored this Creed. You’d think that from the name. But the first mention of The Apostle’s Creed is 400 years after Jesus, and that wasn’t the form we know today. We know of a version close to what we use nowadays from c. 700 A.D.

The original thinking was that an apostle had, at some time, stated the principles set forth in this creed. Another tradition is that each of the 12 apostles spoke a portion. What we translate as “creed” is actually “symbol” in Latin. So this creed is our symbol of what Christians believe, based on what the apostles taught.

While The Apostle’s Creed includes many basic truths that express what Christians should believe, it is not an exhaustive list. The divine nature of Jesus and the Holy Spirit is not clarified, nor is the fact that our salvation comes to us by the grace of God because of our faith in what God can do, key points in Reformed Theology.

“I believe in God,” should be different than believing in an earthly entity. What we’re saying is that God IS! God is who he says he is, did the things he claims to have done, and in the future will do what has been prophesied in scripture. God is the creator of all things, the giver of life and our assurance of salvation in His heavenly kingdom. God is God, and we are not. This is an unchanging, non-negotiable reality. There’s a lot in this first sentence.

Next week we’ll look at Jesus in the Creed, and the Holy Spirit the following week.

May God bless each of you on your walk with the Him!

Norton Lawellin