Forgiven forever!

For Tuesday, November 25, 2025:

Romans 5:1 AMP: “Since we have been justified [that is, acquitted of sin, declared blameless before God] by faith, [let us grasp the fact that] we have peace with God [and the joy of reconciliation with Him] through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed).”

Christians are saved by grace, God’s gift to us, through faith, believing in the Father and his Son, Jesus. On the cross, Jesus took away the sins of the world. Through this monumental miracle, we were given a clean slate, a fresh start, a do-over on living our lives. Prospective believers are asked to commit to a decision of believing and accepting God’s gift of reconciliation. Through Jesus, our sins are separated from us as far as the east is from the west. Our sins are at the bottom of the deepest ocean. In the book of life, the column titled “sin” will be blank. No scratch-outs; no eraser marks; just blank white space.

Believers will find that they have been redeemed, bought back from Satan. Jesus paid the price to rescue us. So now in our minds, we need to discard the image of being a perpetual sinner. We need to look, act and live out the role of someone whose sins no longer exist! Believers are holy. Believers have joined the Jesus Team!

We may not be perfect, but day by day we’ll grow closer to God. Progress, not perfection. Pray to love the Lord more today than yesterday. Accept with gratitude God’s gift of salvation and eternal life. Shout out, “Jesus, I’m with you!”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

One Perfect Sacrifice!

For Friday, September 19, 2025:

Hebrews 10:14 NLT: “By that one offering (on the cross) Jesus forever made perfect those who are being made holy.”

Believers are being radically transformed! Many were living only for the world. God had no place in their lives. But once introduced to Jesus and God’s ways, they like what they see and desire to become a part of it.

The first church, The Way, lived out Jesus’ command to love God and to love one another. This “caring for your neighbor” was a new concept for a lot of people. Most were only looking out for #1! But they liked what they saw and wanted to give it a try. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love!” The church grew by leaps and bounds!

I always say that Christianity isn’t a DO religion; it’s a DONE religion. Jesus made the ultimate one-time sacrifice to redeem believers. Jesus did it all! Nothing else is required. Once Jesus has captured your spirit, nothing can snatch you out of his hand. This scripture says that Jesus’ one sacrifice is good forever, for eternity. Believers will be reengineered into what God wants us to be. We are being made Holy! It’s all good!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Tabernacle!

For Friday, August 15, 2025

Hebrews 9:2a NLT: “There were two rooms in God’s Tabernacle.”

God gave very specific instructions about the Tabernacle, a place to worship and honor the Lord. The outer room, called the Holy Place, contained a lampstand, a table and sacred loaves of bread. Next was a heavy curtain separating the inner and outer portions. The inner space was called the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. This was thought to contain the presence of the Lord. In that room were the gold incense altar and a sizable wooden chest covered in gold known as the Ark of the Covenant. Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement. That ark itself housed a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s staff that sprouted leaves and the stone tablets of the covenant.

Priests regularly performed their religious duties in the outer chamber. But only once a year could the High Priest enter the inner sanctuary. He would always offer blood sacrifices for his sins and the sins of the people, both intentional sin and sins of ignorance. Of importance to Christians is that the Holy of Holies was not freely accessible while the Old Covenant was in place.

But Jesus brought with him a New Covenant. As he spoke, “It is finished” from the cross, the curtain was torn from top to bottom. Mankind was no longer separated from our Creator. We no longer needed a priest to intervene on our behalf. We can now pray directly to God, because our sins have been forgiven. Jesus himself was the blood offering for the sins of the world.

Try it out! Pray directly to God today. It’s OK because you are forgiven! God is always listening and wants to hear from you!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Lord's Prayer!

For Wednesday, May 14, 2025:

Luke 11:1 NLT, Disciples: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John (the Baptist) taught his disciples.”

Jesus: “When you pray, this is what you should say.” He then spoke his version of what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Our Father is in heaven by definition. The rest of us have to achieve heaven. We get there through grace, forgiveness and faith. God is also holy or hallowed by definition. We pray that his Kingdom will come, and that his desires will be executed here on earth, as they are now in heaven.

We ask prayerfully for our daily sustenance, more than just food. We pray for Jesus’ eternal intervention in our forgiveness, using our forgiveness of others as an example. (We’d better get that part right!) And since we are forgiven, please don’t tempt us any further! Deliver us out of this evil planet. Father God, yours is the only Kingdom that matters. Knowing you have all power, we glorify your holy name! In the name of your Son Jesus, the Messiah, we pray. Amen.

Over the years, the spelling and language of The Lord’s Prayer have been updated, but the meaning hasn’t changed. The version we all know was published in the Book of Common Prayer (Anglican or Episcopal) in the late 1700’s. More modern versions have been penned, but no one seems keen on changing what we already have memorized!

I don’t believe Jesus was giving us an all-inclusive prayer that we should recite verbatim. I believe he was giving us bullet points, categories to be intentionally included as our prayers rise upward.

We should pray these things because Jesus did!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

"God Trends"

For Saturday, March 15, 2025:

Leviticus 19:1, 2b NLT: The Lord said to Moses, “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

If we expect to live alongside God in heaven or on the New Earth, we need to meet his standards. We need to live in such a way that our Father in heaven can be proud of us.

Leviticus ch. 19 reads like someone expositing the 10 Commandments. We are being taught the best ways to please God and to get along with all our neighbors. God lays out these same principles in several places in the Bible. God (obviously) knows right from wrong, and he doesn’t change his mind. If worshiping idols was wrong 3,000 years ago, it’s still wrong today. Jesus stressed loving our neighbors, honesty and fairness. These things still apply nowadays. I call these principles, “God Trends.”

If a situation arises and we can’t find that exact thing in the Bible, look for a parallel. Look for the “God Trend.” Jesus’ command to love our neighbors still applies nowadays, and his Father would be pleased if we supported the Son’s “God Trends.”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Forever Holy!

For Saturday, November 30, 2024:

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NLT: “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”

As believers, we want to be kept holy, innocent and pure. Try as we might to achieve holiness, we may not succeed on our own. But Jesus comes to our rescue! His middle name is forgiveness, and he will continue to forgive us leaving us righteous and holy, prepared for him when he returns.

We will see God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God’s desire is that none would perish, and that all would repent and return. Those who believe and trust the Son will be among those rescued.

Our rescuer and his Father are faithful and will not let us down!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Holy Living!

November 18, 2024 Monday Message:

1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 NLT: “God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

Since God’s laws are now written on our hearts, we should instinctively know right from wrong. So sinning becomes intentionally rejecting God and his commandments. Bad choice!

Those who walk with the Lord daily will remain under his protection. But those filled with intentional disobedience have already rejected the Lord. Look for them in the group where Jesus says, “I never knew you!”

It’s really not so hard to walk through this life holding God’s hand. Go ahead – give it a try!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Holy - 2!

For Sunday, September 22, 2024:

Ezekiel 43:12a NLT: “This is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness!”

Holiness – conformation with God’s value system – is mandatory in a place of worship. The Bible says that leaders and teachers are held to higher standards, and all will be judged.

When we use the phrase, “a high view of the Bible,” we believe that the Bible is true and God-inspired. A high view also means that we treat the Bible’s commands as God’s instructions, and we do our best to live our lives God’s way.

Q: Does your church still need God? A large church with abundant resources will have most positions filled. We have a choir director, Bob leads a Bible study and his wife handles children’s ministry. That all sounds good, but don’t ever let God show up with nothing left for him to do. God, his Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit should have a permanent role as leader of the leaders. Pray to God and talk things over with him.

Include the Lord in your church’s planning. After all, he’s already included you in the Kingdom!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Holy!

For Saturday, September 21, 2024:

Ezekiel 43:12a NLT: “This is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness!”

God and Satan are diehard enemies, one good and one evil. God is the Creator of everything and Satan is a created being, so in the end, God will always win. My advice is to play for the winning team! Make a lifelong commitment to the good guys!

The presence of the Lord would reside in the innermost room of the Temple, IF it was kept Holy, free from sin and corruption. Nowadays we don’t have a temple. We worship God, his Son and the Holy Spirit in our churches, and just like in the Temple, God will be there IF we keep that place Holy. It goes without saying that we absolutely want God in our churches!

Regrettably, mankind doesn’t seem to be very good at keeping a place Holy. I’m always saddened and a little ‘let down’ whenever a national-level pastor fails the holiness test. Oftentimes something in their past comes back to haunt them. Of course the solution would be to be like Paul – confess the sin, repent and let the world know that you’ve made a 180º turn-around in your value system, a change for the better!

Seek the presence of the Lord in the place you worship! If he’s not there, find a different place!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Sanctified!

For Wednesday, June 12, 2024:

1 Peter 2:9 NLT: “You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

Followers of Jesus are different. They were hand-selected by God, sanctified, set apart from the general population. If you’re a part of that group, God has something special in mind for you. You have a purpose in his vast eternal plan!

Friends, our lives should be an example of living in the goodness of God. We should be doing our best to love the Lord and to love our neighbors. That’s an uncommon way for most people to live. But by living God’s way, we can teach others the goodness of God. We can lead by example! Christianity can grow through attraction!

Talk about being blessed! If you’re a believer, God called you out of the darkness (a sinful world) and into the light, a perfect world hosted by Jesus the Christ. God only wants the best for you, and he has great plans for you!

Remember to say ‘yes’ when God taps you on the shoulder!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Forever Words!

For Friday, June 7, 2024:

1 Peter 1:25 NLT: “’The word of the Lord remains forever.’ And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.”

There was old scripture and now there is new scripture. We call that the Old Testament and the New Testament. The ‘new’ begins with the arrival of Jesus. The story of Jesus is called the ‘Gospel.’ Without Jesus, there would be no Gospel, and there would be no purpose in mankind knowing about a Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Peter started by quoting Old Testament, Isaiah, who wrote down the words of our Lord, explaining that His words remain forever.

But God has given us more Holy words, more inspiration – what we call the New Testament. Peter is saying that these new words are just as Holy as the old words. Therefore the Good News contained in the Gospels will also remain forever. Jesus’ words are just as valid as the words God send down from Mt. Sinai!

Grab some Holy words that you can hang onto. Learn the truth of what the Bible says. Put the Word of the Lord in your mind when you wake up, when you’re eating lunch and as you’re drifting off to sleep. When you’ve mastered that scripture, grab another!

Immerse yourselves fully in the words of God!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Transfigured!

For Wednesday, April 26, 2023:

Matthew 17:2-3 NLT: “As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.”

The brothers John and James along with Peter accompanied Jesus up a high hill to be alone. And when you travel with Jesus, you oftentimes get to witness the unexpected! This time it was the transfiguration, Jesus emitting the light of purity and holiness. His face shone like the sun! They were joined by Elijah and Moses.

Jesus himself was transformed. It was still his face, but it now emitted light so bright that it would have been difficult to look at him. The Greek verb ‘metamorphoo’ implies a transformation, a change in form. We use this word to describe a caterpillar becoming a beautiful butterfly. There’s still only one living thing, but now it’s way different! Transfigured! Some would say, ‘way better!’

Spurgeon writes about this: “Saints long departed still alive; live in their personality; are known by their names; and enjoy near access to Christ.”

Proving once again that a good life-after-this-life awaits us!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Dogs and Pigs!

 For Thursday, February 9, 2023:

Matthew 7:6 NLT, Jesus speaking: “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.”

Gifts from God are holy, sanctified. The original language tells us to not to share holy things with dogs! Gifts from God are to be treasured, retained for a special use or purpose.

This scripture tells us that though believers are not to be judgmental of others, we should still be discerning. Christians need to clearly know good from bad and right from wrong. We should be able to spot evil from a mile away, not to criticize or judge, but to identify and thereby avoid the problem!

Our ‘pearls’ are the Good News or Gospel. Jesus uses a little humor here to make a point. It’s futile if we attempt to spread the Gospel among those with hardened hearts. Those pigs will trample our pearls and then attack us! Discerning evangelists look for prepared hearts that are ready to receive, knowing that God has already been working, paving the way for our efforts!

'Dogs and pigs’ are understood to be those hostile to the kingdom, so steer clear of them!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship