Heavenly Kingdom!

For Friday, August 29, 2025:

Hebrews 9:24b NIV: “Jesus entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.”

A crowd had gathered as Jesus spoke his final earthly words. He said we are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and he promised to never leave us or forsake us. The crowd looked on in amazement as he was taken up into heaven, into the eternal Kingdom, to sit at the right hand of God the Father.

In an instant, Jesus was gone, but believers are never abandoned. Our sins are forever forgiven because of Jesus’ work on the cross, and the Holy Spirit was dispatched to be our helper. We have Jesus to advocate for us in heaven, and the Holy Spirit to keep us on the right path here on earth. Because of their efforts (not because of anything we’ve done,) we have assurance of salvation.

Most religions teach about a life after this life, but Jesus is the only spiritual mentor to actually access the real eternity. He went ahead to prepare a place for us. Every believer is included. We are blessed with assurance of salvation, and you can only get that from Jesus! Tell everyone the Good News!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 For Friday, March 17, 2023:

Matthew 28:19 NLT: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s a feast day on the Christian calendar of many denominations, added in the 17^th century, although Patrick lived around 400AD. Much of what we know about him is based on legend, not fact. For example, he is said to have driven the snakes out of Ireland, but there never were many snakes in Ireland! His father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest, so it follows that Patrick would eventually become a bishop in Ireland.

At 16, Patrick was kidnapped and worked as a shepherd for six years in Gaelic Ireland, where he bonded with the Lord. He escaped, became a priest, and then remarkably, returned to Ireland to share the Good News. He’s use the shamrock – a young 3-leafed clover – to teach about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ‘Declaration,’ allegedly written by Patrick himself, says he spent many years evangelizing in the northern half of Ireland and converted thousands.

And that’s what we’re all to do: Share the Good News, thereby making disciples of all nations. St. Patrick evangelizing Northern Ireland is a good reason to remember St. Patrick’s Day! Erin go bragh!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Let there be Light!

 For Friday, October 14, 2022:

Ephesians 5:14 NLT: “The light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, 'Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

The Bible frequently describes God, Jesus and goodness as ‘light.’ Satan and all manner of evil is ‘darkness.’ It’s a good metaphor.

We all know that our God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is the creator of everything, and that Satan is a created being. So in the end, God will always have his way. In the long-running battle between light and darkness, light always wins. If darkness comes into light, it will be overtaken by the light. If light and darkness collide, light prevails.

Those living in darkness may not realize the value of light until someone shows them. Jesus called believers to teach others, to make disciples of all nations, to show them the light!

Run from darkness toward the light! It’s Christ who will always give you light!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Visionary Leadership

For Saturday, February 26, 2022

Proverbs 29:18a KJV: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Visionary leadership is sharing intuition about the future. If the leader of an organization, in this case a church, can visualize and communicate where it should be next year, in 3 years, in 5 years, then the steps to get there will make sense and may even become obvious.

Visionary leadership is peeking into the future and believing it could be so. Steve Jobs of Apple is a great example of just such a visionary. His company already had a successful iPod. He reasoned that if you could combine that with a phone and then make the whole thing go on the internet, a lot of people would want one. So far almost 3 billion iPhones have been sold!

Jesus commissioned us to make disciples of all nations, to take Christianity to the world. Calling and equipping the next generation of visionary leaders will bring us closer to that goal.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Make Disciples!

For Sunday, December 12, 2021

2 Cor. 5:18b NLT: “God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.”

Paul is reminding the Corinthians of what Jesus said believers are to do until he returns. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” This isn’t just a suggestion – it’s a command! We’ve been given hope of an eternal life with the Father, and Jesus wants us to share that hope with others!

This entails more than just signing up new members. Jesus said, “...make disciples,” which means, “teach them everything!”

Since God created each of us uniquely, we’ll look different from one another as we fulfill that call to share the Gospel. Some people are overseas missionaries. Some engage in street ministry in the worst parts of downtown. Some staff food-shelves. I knew a security guard who brought his Bible to work and left it on the corner of his desk. It was a conversation starter! Some of us keep the local church strong, so that we have a solid platform from which to send evangelists. What is your piece of this mission?

"We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’”

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

No Secrets!

For Saturday, April 10, 2021

Colossians 1:27 NLV: “God wants these great riches of the hidden truth to be made known to the people who are not Jews. The secret is this: Christ in you brings hope of all the great things to come.”

What the Bible calls a secret shouldn’t be kept a secret! Through the work of Jesus on the cross, Christians have been blessed with Assurance of Salvation, a promise of a good life after this life. A lot of non-Christians either don’t know or haven’t heard or don’t believe the Good News. But it should not be our secret! We should shout it from the mountaintops!

After lifting up the Lord with praise and worship, the next most important mission of a church should be to bring seekers to Jesus. Jesus said to “make disciples,” which is why we teach from the Bible, so everyone – even the newcomers – can learn God’s plan for the rescue of mankind, and make a decision to be a part of it.

Having Christ in us fills us with hope!

Blessings and safety to all today!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

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

Angels Open Doors!

Aug. 11, 2014 Monday Message:

Angel of the Lord, to the Apostles: “Go and stand in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new life.” Acts 5:20 GNT

Peter had been preaching in Solomon’s Portico, in the Temple, when in a jealous power struggle, the Sadducees had the Apostles arrested.

But the imprisonment didn’t last long. Overnight, an angel of the Lord opened the door, telling them to once again stand in the Temple and preach the Good News. In other words, don’t quit; go right back and keep doing the thing that got you into trouble.

Telling others the Good News isn’t a mission for only Peter; it isn’t a task for just the Apostles or for church professionals. It’s everyone’s assignment.

I have felt imprisoned and silenced, just like these Apostles, when ministry isn’t working the way I would choose; when we have lost members to backsliding or relapse.

But the Lord’s angel will open new doors for us, and we are to go back out and continue to spread the Good News, to make disciples of all nations.

We’re responsible for the effort. God is responsible for the outcome.

May God’s blessings go with you throughout your day.

Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship (JICF) meets every Sunday at 10:30am in the North end (gym) of the Oliver Ministry Building, 2647 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis. My family will be vacationing this, so Lead Pastor Michael Pilla will continue our study in Acts.