Gender Confusion!

For Thursday, March 19, 2026:

Genesis 1:27b NLT: “Male and female He created them.”

Mankind was never androgynous. God created both men and women. They are distinctly different, separate. Male and female didn’t evolve from some non-sexual being. Think about it – how could they have reproduced? Besides, that philosophy would contradict the Bible. “Male and female He created them.”

Gender confusion – there’s a lot of it in today’s society. We never used to see it, but today, it’s prevalent. In our effort to love the sinner but hate the sin, gender confusion has made its way into the mainstream. As I was growing up, we never heard about same sex relationships. Nowadays, many gays and lesbians are “out,” accepted by many as an alternate lifestyle. A few years ago, I heard a news story about people transitioning from one sex to the other. Now there are thousands! Surgeons can alter the body, but not the DNA. So even fully transitioned individuals will continue to test as their sex at birth. This is a worst-case scenario of our culture’s depravity, the amount and the degree of gender confusion today.

In God’s creative mind, the differences between men and women are not accidents. The differences are good and meaningful; different functions, different job descriptions. Ever wonder which is superior, the man or the woman? According to God, a man is absolutely superior at being a man. A woman is absolutely superior at being a woman. But when a man tries to be a woman or a woman tries to be a man, you have something inferior.

God commanded, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Every living thing that He created obeyed. Blades of grass, plants and trees dropped seeds to multiply. Animals, both cold and warm-blooded, multiplied. Mankind was told to multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion. Believers go with God’s plan. Non-believers muck it up.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

I Am the Way!

For Thursday, March 27, 2025:

John 14:6 NLT, Jesus speaking: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

In our Bibles, we can read the complete account of Jesus rescuing mankind by sacrificing himself for our sins. But the followers of Jesus were living inside that story, hearing everything for the first time. Theology that we take for granted was new to them. Consequently, there was some doubt and a lot of questions!

The biggest question concerned their spiritual mentor dying and going somewhere else. Heaven? Q: Jesus had raised others from the dead, so why wouldn’t he rescue himself? A: What was happening was all part of God’s vast eternal plan to rescue mankind. Jesus would take the sins of the world to the place of the dead. Mankind would therefore be left without sin, eligible to spend the hereafter in the Lord’s presence. You see, God loves us and God is good. His desire is that everyone would repent and return.

Doubting Thomas asked, “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

To which Jesus answered, “I am the way,” the way to the Father, the way to heaven and to life after this life. Just stick with Jesus. “I am the truth.” Every word Jesus ever spoke was true, so we have every expectation that this also is true. “I am the life.” Most people look upon death as a sad thing, as the end of our time on earth. But Christians, those who trust Jesus, see death as a transition to eternity in God’s presence, and that’s a good thing!

I’m looking forward to the place Jesus is preparing for me. What about you?

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Middle Ground - 2

August 15, 2011 Monday Message:

Most people don’t really welcome change — change in our lives, our personal and family situations, and for our discussion, change in our churches and our ministries. Things may not have always been the way they are now, but that situation changed quite some time ago and we’ve grown accustomed to the new status quo. We’re comfortable with the way things are. We don’t want to step out of our comfort zone and once again endure change.

But life’s journey is a series of God-directed transitions. Bert and Ernie teach a Sesame Street skit where they begin right “here” and need to get over “there.” The problem is that when they get “there,” that place becomes the new “here,” and “there” is a different place, another journey. In a weird Muppet way, you can’t get “there” from “here” — they’re trapped in perpetual transition. When Bert and Ernie think they’ve achieved their destination, they discover that someone has set a new, higher goal.

God is always taking us from “here” to “there.” Sometimes we resist the change, sometimes we drag our feet, but eventually we go in God’s direction. The Israelites didn’t like being slaves to the Egyptians, and constantly complained about the hard work. But after God and Moses told Pharaoh to, “Let My people go,” (quite a project!) the people persistently resisted the once-welcomed change. “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” Exodus 16:3 NLT Manna, schmana.

If our focus is only on the transition, we might never take the first step out of our Egypt. Therefore the first step in our transitional journey is understanding why our present situation is unacceptable, how bad it would be to stay where we are. Equipped with a bleak picture of the present, it becomes unthinkable that we would not begin our journey through the Red Sea, into the new frontier that God has waiting for us.

Last week’s question: Why did the Israelites take such a convoluted route out of Egypt? Because “…they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” God knows best. Exodus 13:17b NLT

We’ll conclude our “Middle Ground” discussion next week.

Keep moving forward!

Norton Lawellin

Middle Ground - 1

August 08, 2011 Monday Message:

It’s a long journey from “Let My people go,” to the land of milk and honey. Our lives are often challenging as God-directed change takes us from point ‘A’ to point ‘B.’

We’re usually fairly certain of our point of origin, the place where our transition begins. But our destination is more vague, not always obvious at first. The Jews kept trying to camp in the desert; God kept telling them, “Not yet, I’ll let you know when to stop.”

Today, flying time between Cairo and Jerusalem is 32 minutes. You can drive it in about 6 hours. How long should their journey have taken walking, or with donkeys? A week? A month? Why was the destination not achieved for 40 years? We don’t know, but God has his reasons.

God has a plan, and He’s never wrong. God may be taking you to a new or different ministry, a new congregation, a new city or a new country. To what is God calling you? That’s your new home, your Israel.

Sometimes the move isn’t geographic – it’s a change in moral character, a change in lifestyle, eliminating a shortcoming or rebuilding a relationship. Maybe God wants you to make a change in how you’re living. Have you left your Egypt yet?

Whatever our life-changing event, oftentimes we’ve left point ’A’ but have not yet arrived at point ‘B.’ Were in transition, somewhere on the road, in the “Middle Ground.” We’ll explore “middle ground” further in the next couple of weeks.

Keep moving forward!

Norton Lawellin