Peace with God!

For Wednesday, May 27, 2026:

Colossians 1:20b NLT: “God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.”

Sin and God’s goodness cannot coexist. But God’s desire is that everyone would repent and return. He wants us all to join him in the hereafter. Therefore, sin needs to be removed, blotted out from Heaven’s Book of Life registry. What could possibly pay the penalty for the sin of the world?

God, who has all resources at his command, knew that the earthly sacrifice of his Son was the only thing that could satisfy the debt. So Jesus went to the work of substitutionary atonement, paying for the trespasses of mankind through the ages. Past sins, present sins, and even future sins were paid for. Believers in Jesus have been granted special grace. When heaven looks up our name in the Book of Life, the column marked “sin” will be blank. No scratch-outs; no erasure marks; simply blank white space, as if we had never sinned. That’s how thorough Jesus’ forgiveness is!

As believers, we’ll be a part of the heavenly group only present because of the Son. “I’m with that guy sitting just to the right of the Father. He said he’d prepare a place for me in his Father’s Kingdom.”

And heaven will reply, “We’ve been expecting you!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Creation, Condensed Version!

For Friday, March 20, 2026:

Genesis 1:31 NLT: “Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!”

God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – created the planet Earth, made light and darkness, separated land and water, grew vegetation, put the stars, moon and sun in the sky, gave us fish and birds, next land animals, and finally male and female human beings. That all took six days, and God rested on the seventh, designating it as Holy. After each day, God declared his creation “good,” but in its entirety, following the sixth day, God declared everything to be “VERY good!”

We have been given the privilege of living in that well-designed world. At one time, it was all very good. Unfortunately, mankind has done a lot to make that not so. Sin, lust and corruption have tarnished God’s creation. Satan and his demons have done all they can to derail the project. Right now, the world we live in is a big mess!

The Good News is that God promised to fix everything! He sent his Son, our Savior Jesus to take away the sins of the world. He’ll restore the earth to be the New Earth, just the way it was originally designed. He’ll splash total forgiveness on loyal believers so they can join him in the hereafter. God’s desire is for all to repent and return. You and I can sign up for that program!

Let’s all join God’s eternal heavenly Kingdom, where there’s no sin, no sickness or disease, where people love God and love their neighbors. What God wants turns out to be a very good way for us to live! Hallelujah!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Compassion!

For Wednesday, January 14, 2026:

Hebrews 13:2 NLT: “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!”

How we live our lives on earth is (among other things) a test of our compassion. I hope everyone reading this gets at least 50% on this test. 80 or 90% would be better. Only Jesus scores 100%!

Most of the civil laws and rules to which we conform are manmade laws, not God’s laws. Other than God giving the Promised Land to His Chosen People, I don’t believe he drew any lines on a map. We’re all citizens of planet Earth, and our Creator wants us all to get along. Historically, mankind hasn’t been very good at it!

Jesus said we should love the Lord and love our neighbors. God is always first. Our neighbors could be next door, in our city, state or country, or the country across the ocean. God created a lot of people to populate the planet!

Even when a man-made law is violated, we need to remember that the perpetrator is still one of God’s creations. The ones who appear wrong to us were still made in God’s image, and should be treated with love, kindness and respect.

I remember a scene from a movie. As a couple of religious types walked down the street, they encountered a falling-down drunk begging for food. His clothes were torn, he was dirty, and intoxicated beyond belief. One of the religious leaders commented as they passed, “That man is a disgrace. He needs to get his life together.”

The other replied, “Perhaps the Lord’s testing your compassion!” Guilty!

Dear Lord, please give us more compassion than criticism, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Awesome God

April 27, 2020 Monday Message:

“In the beginning, God created…” Gen. 1:1a NLT

We’ve heard these words hundreds of times; they’re so familiar that they just roll off the tongue. But today I want us all to truly appreciate what God did, and to understand the colossal magnitude and magnificence of creation.

God created mankind in His image; both domestic and wild animals; birds, plants and trees; water and dry land; day and night; in short, God created our planet Earth and everything on it. Big job, but God got it done!

Our planet is one of a group that orbits around the sun. There are between 100-400 billion stars (suns) just in our Milky Way galaxy, and Lord knows how many galaxies! To work properly, everything has to be balanced, exactly the right distance from all the other bodies, and orbiting at precisely the right speed.

The universe is an incredible design. Astrophysicists try to figure out creation, and they assemble all their knowledge until they hit a brick wall. The “Big Bang Theory” is their best answer, but somebody had to set it in motion, had to know just how ‘big’ the ‘bang’ needed to be, and first create the ‘space’ into which to build all this. The best answer seems to be Intelligent Design.

Incredibly, here we all are. Humans. David asks, “Who am I that You (God) are mindful of me?” The great big God of the universe knows how many hairs are on your head, which makes it too easy for us to overlook his majesty. Listen to this: Your personal God, the One who walks through life alongside you, is incredibly intelligent, incredibly powerful, and is remarkable at keeping track of little details. Our God is an Awesome God!

This sums it up: “Before God there was nothing. After God there is everything!” And it’s the God of ‘everything’ that we worship!

God’s blessings for you and your loved ones – stay safe!

Norton Lawellin, Worship Pastor

Jesus in the City Fellowship.

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

Intelligent Design!

March 9, 2020 Monday Message:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

Intelligent Design vs Incredible Coincidence? What do you think?

In spite of a lot of deep space exploration, we have discovered no other planet suitable for human life. There is nothing else out there, no other home for us. If the earth were any closer to the sun, we would burn up. If we were farther away, everything would freeze. Where we are is perfect. No planet is like ours!

In addition to our planet earth, we have also been given a moon! The moon keeps our oceans alive. The daily tides are not too big, not too small – in a word, perfect. If the moon were larger, tides would be like perpetual tsunami. And without tides, the ocean would stagnate and die. The way tides are is perfect, and it’s because of the moon.

Do all planets have water? Most don’t, but ours does. With most substances, the solid form is more dense than the liquid form, but water is the exception. The solid form is lighter – ice floats, right? This is why lakes freeze from the top down, ice on top, liquid underneath, so fresh-water aquatic creatures can survive.

Vegetation uses our carbon dioxide as part of photosynthesis, and in turn gives us oxygen, which mankind needs to survive. There always seems to be enough oxygen to go around – I’d say God has our back on this one. The ratio seems to be ideal.

For life as we know it to come into existence, far too many things have to be exactly right for me to believe it’s a coincidence. I’m sticking with Intelligent Design!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets next Sunday, March 15, 2020, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. Pastor Michael Pilla opens up Luke 6.