Happy New Year!

For Thursday, January 1, 2026:

Luke 2:7 NLT: “Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.”

I’ll go out on a limb and say that Jesus’ arrival was the most important event to happen on earth – EVER! Prophets had been expecting a Messiah, and Jesus was “it!” By forgiving sins and thereby securing believers’ eternal destination, the arrival of Jesus affected countless people. Millions were rescued from Satan. There are currently 2.6 billion Christian believers, the largest religion in the world, and about 1/3 of the earth’s population. All this from a baby born over 2k years ago!

The birth of Jesus inspired the world to adjust their calendars. Jesus’ arrival would be year zero. Pope Gregory started counting forward from the birth of our Savior. It’s currently 2026 years later. Happy New Year! These years are known as AD, Anno Domini in Latin, which means "in the year of the Lord.” Past events count backwards from Jesus’ birthday, like negative numbers, abbreviated as BC or Before Christ.

There has been a trend in non-believing scientific groups to call our current years CE or Current Era. Before Jesus, the dates are BCE, Before Current Era. These titles were made up just so that non-believers could deny the importance of Jesus. But the dividing line of “eras” is still His birth. Each time you write 2026 on a check or on an important document, you’re acknowledging Jesus coming to earth to redeem mankind. It’s real; it actually happened.

The Bible is truth! Jesus is salvation!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

God's Children's Calendar!

For Friday, September 13, 2024:

1 John 2:29 NLT: “Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children.”

Today is Friday the 13^th. Superstitious people expect bad luck on this day; they fear that things will go wrong. That’s called “triskaidekaphobia.”

But to believers (followers of Jesus,) it’s just another day on the Gregorian calendar, put into effect by Pope Gregory XIII in October of 1582. At that time, the calendar we now know replaced the older Julian calendar. With that change, the days shifted, the numbers shifted, and Friday the 13^th moved on the physical calendar. Therefore the date we curiously note has no real significance.

Interestingly, Pope Gregory got the starting date wrong. He was trying to establish date “zero” as the birth of Jesus. Historians now believe that Jesus was born +/- 4-6 BC, probably in the fall.

So no matter what we choose to name it, this is the day the Lord made; let us rejoice and be glad in it! Praise our God who is holy, his Son who is holy, and cast superstition to the wind. After all, we’re blessed; we’re children of God! Believers have been accepted into the Holy Family! Hallelujah!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Prince of Peace!

For Friday, March 15, 2024:

Isaiah 9:6 NLT, speaking as a prophet of the Lord: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor (or Wonderful, Counselor), Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah isn’t all gloom and doom. He speaks of the Lord enlarging the nation of Israel, and its people celebrating, full of joy, like at harvest time. God will bring the Israelites out of slavery and lift burdens from them. The Lord will cause other nation’s aggression to cease.

Verse 5 is one of my favorites: “The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire.” In other words, wars will end; violence will cease. People will no longer have to live in perpetual fear.

I pray that wars could end. If Russia would just go home, Ukraine could start rebuilding! If Hamas would release the hostages, Israel would lose motivation to continue the fighting. Israel wants to eliminate Hamas, who attacked Israel, killed over 1,100, wounded another 3,400, and captured about 240 hostages, with 130 individuals still being held prisoner. Most Palestinians don’t like Hamas either. Hamas is the reason Israel attacked Gaza resulting in the death of over 31,000, mostly innocent civilians. The rest of the world has condemned all the fighting and killing.

Jesus arrived to shine a light into a dark world. The Bible says that in the end, governments will bow down to Jesus, not the other way around! “Everlasting Father” describes Jesus. The Good News is that he is eternal! He’s also the “Prince of Peace,” Prince of a joyful world!

We should all put our faith, hope and trust in the Prince of Peace!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Wise Men!

December 27, 2021 Monday Message

Matthew 2:11 NLT: “The wise men entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

These “Wise Men,” these seekers of truth, apparently traveled quite a ways to worship Jesus, whose name means, “the Lord saves.” They asked Herod, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?” Herod immediately perceived this as a threat. The bad thing about being king is that someone is always after your job. Kings seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time defending the throne, rather than enjoying their royal position.

These wise men “entered the house” where the family was staying, so this was well past the time of Jesus’ birth, some say as much as two years later. It’s safe to say that the wise men never met the shepherds! After the wise men left their gifts, they returned home by another route.

Apparently Herod was still stewing about the birth of the “king of the Jews!” He thought killing all the Hebrew baby boys would eliminate the “king” competition. But an angel appeared to Joseph, directing his family to Egypt for safety. With the gifts of the Magi, the family had resources to fund this journey until they could return to Israel.

The whole ‘birth of Jesus’ scenario is a series of events that could not have happened if God was not a part of it, always sending angels at just the right moment. Knowing God is “in” it means we should want to learn all we can about these things. That’s why we make such a big deal out of celebrating the birth of Jesus the Christ, who brought newfound hope to all of mankind!

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship, 3249 30th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406

Shepherds

Dec. 16, 2019 Monday Message:

“The night of Jesus’ birth, there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.” Luke 2:8 NLT

Do you wish you could have been a shepherd back at the time of Jesus’ birth? Probably not! It was tough work. Think of roughing it, camping outdoors perpetually. The sheep were constantly being moved to fresh pasture. So the shepherds didn’t have a house, and often not even a tent. They just lived and slept out in the open. It was dusty and dirty, there were no showers and sanitation was a myth. It got cold at night, and sometimes the best solution was to huddle-in with the sheep. After all, sheep are already wearing a wool blanket! But then soon, the shepherds would smell just like their sheep, which explains why they were social outcasts when they ventured into town. No one wanted to be around them. And since they were known for their barbarism and shenanigans, shepherds could not even be called as witnesses.

But for some reason that only God knows, angels appeared to the shepherds announcing the birth of the Son of God: “The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Luke 2:11-12

The shepherds decided to go into town and check it out. And sure enough, there was baby Jesus, lying in the manger! The shepherds told everyone about the angels. They were all amazed, and Mary treasured all that had happened. Everything turned out just as the angels foretold!

We know now that God was breaking into our world to rescue mankind from our sin problem. And amazingly, the shepherds found themselves in the same room with their Creator! Now do you wish you could have been a shepherd that night?

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets next Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. Founding Pastor Michael Pilla teaches from Luke 2 - the birth of Jesus.