Who's First?

For Saturday, May 23, 2026:

Colossians 1:18 NLT: “Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, firstborn over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.”

The Bible says that the church is the bride of Christ, making Jesus the head of the church. Without Jesus, there would be no reason for any church to exist. Mankind could have just stayed with Synagogues. It’s important that we understand the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Under the Old Covenant, mankind was expected to conform to God’s commandments, sometimes called the Law of Moses since God sent most of the commandments through his servant Moses. The grading scale was tough: Live life 100% right, pass; miss one, fail. Any sin disqualified a person from accessibility to heaven.

God’s desire, though, is that none would perish, so he gave us a chance to repent and return. We call this the New Covenant. God’s Son Jesus died to atone for the sins of the world. In other words, He gave us a second chance, a do-over! Forgiven believers, those who would put their faith in Jesus, are given an opportunity to see heaven from the inside!

Abbott and Costello asked, “Who’s on first?” The answer should always be, “Jesus!” He’s responsible for creation, the forgiver of mankind’s sins and head of the church! Jesus is first in everything!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Made in His Image!

For Thursday, January 2, 2025:

Genesis 1:27 NLT: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

God was binge-creating, to use a modern term. For a while there he created one thing after another – light and darkness, dry land and oceans, plants, birds, fish, animals, and finally mankind! He could have just made another variation of the zebra. (I guessed that was the last animal created since its name begins with ‘Z’.) (Pun! – Adam actually gave the animals names! But we digress…)

God is a spirit-being, and we, having been created in his image, are also spirit beings, living in borrowed bodies. We were created to be top-of-the-food-chain here on earth. We were given brains, intelligence and reasoning. God wants to be companions with us, to walk alongside us. He didn’t want to hang with a bunch of dorks!

In God’s infinite wisdom, he must have known that we would let him down from time to time. So he also planted in us the concepts of repentance, forgiveness, second-chances, do-overs and most of all true love for God and our fellows.

Created in God’s image, we stand with the best!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

God's Desire!

For Sunday January 14, 2024:

2 Peter 3:9b NLT: “The Lord is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”

As a child, I attended my parent’s church, which displayed a painting that depicted a very tall God standing above a miserable sinner on his knees. God was pointing down toward the fires of hell, inasmuch as saying, “Get down there! That’s where you belong!” Nothing could be further from the truth!

Mankind has been trying to figure out God and religion for thousands of years. Many still get a lot of it wrong! In the back of our minds, we have the Hebrew/Jewish model, whereby we were given God’s laws, God’s commandments, and a pass/fail system for seeing heaven from the inside. That system ignored mankind’s propensity to fall off the straight and narrow path. It ignored repentance, our ability to come to the realization that sinning is wrong and our desire to set things right with the Lord. It ignored teshuvah, “repent and return.” In that old system, mankind was set up for failure, not success!

But let’s not forget God’s desire, that all would repent and return and that none would be lost. This principle is so important that I’m going to go out on a limb and call it the prime directive! It’s the foundation of the New Covenant, the New Deal. It’s about kindness, forgiveness and loving your neighbor. Our God is a God of do-overs, of keep trying until you get it right! He sent Jesus to teach us about this new plan for salvation.

Consequently, churches of the New Covenant will look different. Rather than containing only pious, holier-than-thou souls, a New Covenant church will be filled with reformed sinners, those with changed minds, changed hearts and changed lives – those who have repented and returned.

That’s what a church should look like nowadays! There’s plenty of room to accommodate even more penitent sinners!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Hypocrites - Not!

For Saturday, November 11, 2023:

Matthew 23:27-28 NLT, Jesus speaking: “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Jesus had no time for hypocrites. In Greek, it’s “hypokritai,” describing an actor, someone pretending to be something they are not. But Jesus said to let your “yes” mean yes, and your “no” to mean no. In other words, honesty is always best. And don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought!

I believe the Pharisees didn’t understand the call of their mission. Rigid enforcement of “the law” had become their goal, rather than offering forgiveness, restoration and reconciliation like Jesus did. They purported to do the Lord’s work, but had lost sight of the target. Jesus likened them to “a whitewashed tomb, which outwardly appears beautiful, but within is full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.”

Read your Bibles – Jesus always gave sinners a chance to straighten things out, no matter the error. He’s known for offering second chances and do-overs to the repentant. And that’s still true nowadays!

There’s a time in each of our lives “before” Jesus, and a time after Jesus. Jesus told us to take a “Mulligan” on the first part. Go through the radical transformation Jesus offers on that dividing line in our lives. We may make more mistakes and need more forgiveness, but now we have a heavenly solution!

Blessings!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Second Chance!

For Friday, July 28, 2023:

Romans 3:20 NLT: “No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the Law commands. The Law simply shows us how sinful we are.”

The first step in solving any problem is clearly identifying and defining the problem. This problem was that mankind wasn’t making it into heaven. In spite of having been given the law and diligently studying it, that wasn’t enough. Remember that God uses a rigid pass/fail system: get 100% right, pass; miss one, fail. There was no provision for a do-over or a re-start.

This situation displeased God and frustrated mankind. The solution, of course, was that God sent his Son Jesus. Jesus taught, he healed, but his ultimate mission was the rescue of mankind. He took the sins of the world to the place of the dead, giving us a fresh start toward our heavenly goal. For those of us who believe, Jesus would go ahead and prepare a place for us.

It’s a good thing we have the Law. That way we know how we should live after we’ve been saved!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Psalms 103 - A Second Chance!

July 31, 2017 Monday Message:

“Praise the Lord, O my soul.” Psalms 103:1a

The Bible teaches us that the Lord is slow to anger, and always ready to forgive those who repent and return. At church, we’ve been saying that our God is a God of second chances, and our religion is all about forgiveness, and Jesus is about love. As long as you’re sorry and desire another chance to get life right, God will grant you a “do-over.”

“Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” v13

God does not forgive our sin only to keep bringing it up from time to time. No, once forgiven, it is put away forever. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Don’t think He’s referring to a place; it’s a metaphor, saying, “If I go east and you go west, we’ll NEVER meet up! We’ll just keep getting farther apart!” And if that wasn’t enough, God also describes our past confessed sins as being at the bottom of the deepest ocean – a place where no one could ever go.

“From everlasting to everlasting, the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children.” v17

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship gathers next Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. Pastor Michael Pilla teaches from God’s word.