The Father's Love

Sept. 2, 2019 Monday Message:

“While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20b

Monday Message comes on Tuesday this week, as I was traveling back from the South Dakota State Fair, where on Sunday morning at 11am we led a Gospel Concert for about 400 people, and I got to deliver the message! We talked about the Prodigal Son parable, but this time the emphasis was on the Father – specifically the great love the Father had for his lost son.

The Bible says, “While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him…” which tells me the father had been watching, waiting and praying for the lost son. The father never gave up on this son. And as the repentant son was making his way back home, the father ran out of the house to meet him, put a fine robe around him, and once again give him the family ring, which was a seal allowing the son to buy, sell and otherwise do business in the family name.

“Bring the fattened calf and kill it – Let’s have a feast and celebrate! For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”

Of course in this parable, the father is Our Father in Heaven, and the Prodigal could be any one of us who backslides from time to time. The point is that the Father will always welcome you back with open arms. He has SO much love for us! In the Hebrew, it’s “khesed.” The Greeks called it “agapé love” – you may have heard of that – and the King James sometimes translates it as “everlasting lovingkindness.” We don’t really have an adequate word in our language to describe just how big God’s love is for us.

So no matter what’s gone wrong in your life, it’s not only OK to come back home, but it’s the right thing to do. The Father has been watching out the window, knowing that someday you’ll be coming up that road. He’s been expecting you!

Norton Lawellin

Let’s worship together! Jesus in the City Fellowship meets next Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. This week’s message is all about Communion – see you at church!

Reciprocal Love

July 22, 2019 Monday Message

“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.” Ps. 36:5 NLT

Love should be a 2-way relationship – “Reciprocal Love.” God-the-creator loves you unconditionally, and he’s not about to change his mind – which leads us to the question, ”Do you love God as much as He loves you?” That’s kind of a rhetorical question, because as created beings, we’ll never be as good at something as the Creator. But it’s a worthy goal.

Jesus taught that we should “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” And then, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So God should be ‘first’ in your life. After that, love those around you, your neighbors. Be nice, be helpful. Do what you can to make things go better.

“Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you.” Get it? It’s “Reciprocal Love!” Ps. 36:10a

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets Sunday July 28, 2019, 10:30AM, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406. This week, Pastor Van Dickerson opens up 1 Cor. 6:13-20.

His Love Endures Forever!

July 15, 2019 Monday Message

“His love endures forever.” Ps. 136:1b

Psalm 136 is a list of God’s positive attributes, with each verse ending the same way: “His love endures forever.” Limited by mankind’s languages, it’s challenging to express exactly how much love the Lord has for us.

In the English language, we have only one word for love. “I love my car, I love my dog, I love my wife, I love my God.” We intend to state different degrees of love, but we have only the one word to express our emotions.

The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, gets us closer with “agape love,” the unconditional love a parent has for a child. The child might do something wrong from time to time, but we still love them. We still welcome them home. God still loves us even when we’re off track, and will welcome us home in spite of our transgressions.

The original language writes, “His chesed endures forever.” ‘Chesed,’ or ‘khesed,’ or sometimes just ‘hesed,’ is like extreme agape love, taken to the max! It’s an unconditional love that can never be changed, never be taken away. It’s forever love, no matter what happens. (It’s always challenging to write Hebrew words using English-language letters!) The King James version sometimes writes ‘everlasting lovingkindness,’ which always triggers my spellchecker!

God looked over his creation, and saw that it was very good. God has lots of extreme love for everything he created, and he’s not about to change his mind.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship meets Sunday July 21, 2019, 10:30AM, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406. This week, Pastor Van Dickerson opens up 1 Cor. 6.

Psalms 106 - Chesedic Love

Aug. 21, 2017 Monday Message:

“Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalms 106:1 NIV

In the Hebrew Bible, “Praise the Lord” is simply “Hallelujah.” “Hallelu” means praise or exalt – like saying “thank-you” to God for all He has done for us. “Jah” or “Yah” is God’s name. Some people translate God’s name as Jehovah or Yahweh, but the truth is that we don’t know the correct pronunciation of his name. Shout it out - Hallelu-Jah!

“His love endures forever” describes a special kind of love: chesed or khesed in Hebrew. There are many degrees of love, but the English language only gives us one word – love. When we say, “I love my car,” “I love my wife,” or “I love my God,” they have very different meanings.

Chesed love is similar to the love a parent has for their child. The child might be far from perfect, but the parent still loves the child simply because it’s a parent/child relationship. God told David that He would be a Father to David’s son Solomon. Jesus taught us to pray to “our Father in heaven.” It’s that love-of-a-child relationship that God has for his people.

Older translations of the Bible used the words “everlasting lovingkindness” to describe chesed. That’ll engage “auto-correct” or at least “spell-checker” nowadays, but it clearly describes God’s love.

All people matter to God. Therefore all people should matter to us.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship gathers next Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406, 10:30 AM. Lead Pastor Michael Pilla brings a message from God’s Word.

Sins Erased Here!

October 03, 2011 Monday Message:

There’s good news and there’s bad news! The good news is that there’s life after this life, and Christians get to live forever. After you die you will rise again, just like Jesus did! Hallelujah!

The bad news is that we then have a time of judgment, and the Bible says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) So everyone’s in trouble. Kind of – let’s look at what the Bible says.

Jesus left Christians with an advocate, someone to speak on our behalf: the Holy Spirit. At the time of judgment, it’s the Spirit’s job to remind the heavenly assembly that Christians are now wearing the white garment, covered by Jesus’ sacrifice.

God looks at us and sees only the presence of Jesus, not our sin. In fact, in the book of life where our names are written, there is no record of our sin. It’s as if our sin was written on a blackboard, but Jesus came through the room with a giant eraser and wiped it all clean. This is God’s khesed, his everlasting lovingkindness, that that pursues us all the days of our lives, so that we may dwell in the house of the Lord. (Psalm 23:6, paraphrase mine)

In His service,

Norton Lawellin

For the Lord is Good!

February 21, 2011 Monday Message:

“For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.” Psalm 100:5

We are children of God, and because we’ve been adopted into the Holy family, we should have a certain familiarity with God-the-father. God wants us to know him by his name, by his holy name. Most of you know that anytime we see “the LORD” in all-capital letters in the Bible, usually small-caps, it stands for God’s name. This occurs only in the Old Testament. The Hebrew letters correspond most closely to YHWH in our language, so some people pronounce it Yahweh or Jehovah. Unfortunately we do not know the exact pronunciation. But you can be comforted that God wants to be on a first-name basis with those made in His image.

God is good; all the time. The Bible often translates God’s “khesed” as his unfailing love, his everlasting lovingkindness, or some similar verbiage. It’s difficult to put that much love into human words. His love continues forever, and He will be faithful to generation after generation.

Being faithful is a two-way street. God will be faithful to us; but can we remain faithful to Him? Yes, it’s possible, and many remain faithful in spite of adversity. When things go wrong, God will lift us out of the mire and be our substance, our solid ground. After all, through our faith we are saved by His grace.

Norton Lawellin