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

Judgement Day!

For Wednesday, July 31, 2024:

2 Peter 2:4 NLT: “God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in chains and gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment.”

Surprisingly, there are bad angels. Some wish they were as powerful as God. They are not. Some think they can out-guess God’s vast eternal plan. They can not. Understanding this is simple: Angels are created beings, and God is the Creator. God can always create another angel, but angels can never create another God! Apparently they’re not smart enough to understand the futility of their efforts. They wind up joining Satan’s minions, awaiting judgement day, which will come. Count on it!

Judgement day will also come for mankind. Understand that good and evil cannot coexist. That’s why accepting the forgiveness offered by Jesus is so important. Believers were not always innocent (all have sinned…), but their sin has now been taken away by the work Jesus accomplished on the cross. Believers are separated from sin as far as the East is from the West. Sin is taken to the bottom of the deepest ocean, leaving believer’s souls suitable for residence in the eternal Kingdom. God is good! His desire is that none would perish, but that all would repent and return, joining him above!

Your choices are heaven or a lake of fire. The best decision is self-evident!

Blessings!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Judgement!

For Friday, June 14, 2024:

1 Peter 2:12 NLT: “Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.”

God is honorable, and if we’re “people of God,” we should be just as honorable as our our leader. Someday we will have to answer as to how we lived our lives here on earth. It’s called judgement. I hear people speak of dying and going to heaven. But they tend to leave out the judgement part.

Everyone will have to account their time spent here on earth. We’re here for a limited amount of time, and God wants us to make the most out of every minute! Time is passing by, each moment never to be seen again. God has a purpose in setting us down here, and life’s better if you’re in the game!

Ask yourself, “What would God have me do today?”

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Judgement!

For Thursday, May 16, 2024:

Matthew 23:33 NLT, Jesus speaking to teachers of religion and Pharisees: “Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?”

Hell represents perpetual misery. I’ve heard people about to do something wrong jokingly say: One more thing won’t matter. I’m already headed for hell!

Of course it DOES matter. That would be the perfect time to turn one’s life around and pray for mercy and forgiveness. You can’t do anything so bad that Jesus won’t offer forgiveness, pull you out of the fire and allow you a second-chance reboot!

Jesus poses a good question: “How will you escape the judgment of hell?” Choosing heaven or hell is an irreversible monumental decision. Once you’re committed to an eternal path, there’s no going back, no do-overs. If you’ve been dancing with the devil, you’re no longer welcome in heaven! But if your dance card is filled with Jesus, there won’t be room for Satan!

Choose wisely while there’s still time. Claim Jesus as savior of your soul. That’s the only way to stay out of the lake of fire!

If you have a better plan, I’d like to hear it!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Son of God!

For Sunday, February 26, 2023:

Matthew 8:29 NLT: “The demon-possessed men began screaming at Jesus, ‘Why are you interfering with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?’”

It seems that Satan, his demons and these demon-possessed men all knew who Jesus is: The Son of God! Those demons are fearing punishment, and fearing for their very existence. The men they possessed would violently appear in the cemetery, and no one could pass through the area. But Jesus did!

Jesus allowed the demons to leave the men and occupy a herd of pigs, who plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.

The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men and the pigs. The entire town came out to meet Jesus, but surprisingly begged him to go away and leave them alone. They feared his power. They feared his sense of justice. They feared judgement. Who was this ‘Jesus’ that even the demons would obey him?

Imagine the Son of God coming to visit, and being asked to leave. The townspeople didn’t know what the demons did, that Jesus was God’s own Son. Who do you say he is?

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Called to Serve!

For Tuesday, October 4, 2022:

Judges 4:5 NLT: “Deborah would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment.”

God had chosen to speak through Deborah, well-known as a prophetess. Therefore her words were known for truth; the people of Israel trusted what she said. So she was also called as a judge.

A female from a male-dominated society seems an unlikely choice for a prophet or a judge. Yet Deborah was God’s choice, and Israel had confidence in her judgements. When called to serve, Deborah said, “Yes!” It might have been far easier to turn down the commission, but that was not God’s plan.

Each of us may be called to serve, sometimes in an unlikely situation, and we too need to be prepared to say, “Yes!” God knows what he’s doing!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Judgement!

For Saturday, September 10, 2022:

Psalm 62:12b NLT: “Surely, O God, you repay all people according to what they have done.”

David was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel while he was still a little shepherd-boy. Many years would pass before the death of Saul, before David could claim his position. Back then, disagreements between individuals were often settled by fighting, and many who wanted the kingdom for themselves made very real threats against David’s life. The future king David was forced to flee and hide, rather than be killed.

David’s loyalty to God Almighty was repeatedly tested, but David never flinched. God was his unchanging rock, the solid foundation upon which all things were created. He waited quietly for the Lord, knowing that in God’s time he would ascent to his calling, to lead the nation of Israel.

Almost an afterthought, David comments that surely God will repay people according to what they have done. God is fair and just, in addition to his being holy and righteous.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Psalm 58 - Everything's Gonna Be All Right

August 22, 2016 Monday Message:

“People will say, ‘There IS a reward for the righteous.’” Psalms 58:11a

Jesus loves me, this I know. God loves me, and will not forsake me. Expect a lot of love from a big God.

In Psalm 58, the Bible is telling us that – in the end, eventually - the steadfast will see things play out just as they expect, just as they have been told. God is honest, just and true to his word. Therefore sinners will receive the punishment they deserve, and the righteous will receive the reward they deserve. God really only has one way of doing it.

Evil is like poison. God needs to weed it out before it spreads and poisons all the good stuff around it, ruining everything. Remember, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through his Son Jesus Christ.

Everything will be all right in the end; if it’s not all right, it’s not the end. That’s what the Bible says.

People will say, “There IS a God who judges what happens on earth.” Psalms 58:11b

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) meets at the Akina Church, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30am. This Sunday, August 28, 2016, Pastor Retha Dowells open up Philippians Ch. 4.