October 10, 2011 Monday Message:
Last week, 56-year-old Steve Jobs succumbed to persistent pancreatic cancer. His visions touched your life and my life, and made things easier, faster and more fun. I will miss most learning what this creative visionary genius thought should be our next thing.
He possessed an uncanny knack for looking into the future. He saw a need for personal computers, and started building Apple 1’s in his parents’ house. Nowadays everyone has a personal computer. Some of us have several. Computers used to run on cryptic coded instructions, but now we point and click with a mouse on a graphical user interface; Mac was first.
Steve Jobs put an entire music library in your shirt-pocket with the iPod (275 million.) The biggest check record companies receive comes from the iTunes store. The iPhone (100 million) raised the bar for what a handheld personal electronic device should do. The recent introduction of the iPad (25 million) launched a new category of “notepad” computers. Talk about successful — this past summer Apple had more cash reserves than the U.S. treasury, and Job’s personal net worth hovered around $8 billion.
Tragically, Apple’s website tells us that Jobs was a Buddhist. I can only hope that he, having been raised in a Christian nation, at some earlier time might have worked things out with Jesus.
This is why it’s so important to carry the message of salvation to our loved ones. Their days and our days are numbered, but we never know how many. Heaven is a gift from Jesus, and cannot be bought for $8 billion. No amount of success, prominence or notoriety can open the door. But Jesus is preparing a place for all who call him Lord. "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
In Christ,
Norton Lawellin
Monday, October 10, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
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
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
Monday, September 26, 2011
God is Still In Charge!
September 26, 2011 Monday Message:
I recently ordered a kit to modify an office machine. The different parts arrived in different boxes on different days. The instructions were obviously translated into English by a non-native-English-speaking person. Help!
I laid out all the parts; the first step is to determine that nothing is missing. Then I tried all the connections, fittings and snap-in parts; the second step is to determine that nothing is broken.
God has given us a “kit” for life, the Bible, and His plan is perfect. We don’t need to do any double-checking, but we can examine it as much as we feel we need to. Upon close inspection, we find that nothing is missing. Everything we need for life, both here and beyond, is included.
In Genesis, it looks like something might have been broken. But Jesus came and fixed whatever went wrong and healed the separation. If we look at today’s world, it looks like there’s a lot wrong, a lot broken. But we’re not “the world.” God looks at believers through “Jesus glasses.” Nothing looks like it’s broken; in fact, there’s no record of anything ever being broken.
That’s why, as Christians, we can use God’s Word and our faith to sidestep worry, to put anxiety on the back burner. We already know that everything will turn out OK. With the Lord as our shepherd, we shall not want. With Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we can be confident that nothing is missing and nothing is broken.
God is still in charge.
In His service,
Norton Lawellin
I recently ordered a kit to modify an office machine. The different parts arrived in different boxes on different days. The instructions were obviously translated into English by a non-native-English-speaking person. Help!
I laid out all the parts; the first step is to determine that nothing is missing. Then I tried all the connections, fittings and snap-in parts; the second step is to determine that nothing is broken.
God has given us a “kit” for life, the Bible, and His plan is perfect. We don’t need to do any double-checking, but we can examine it as much as we feel we need to. Upon close inspection, we find that nothing is missing. Everything we need for life, both here and beyond, is included.
In Genesis, it looks like something might have been broken. But Jesus came and fixed whatever went wrong and healed the separation. If we look at today’s world, it looks like there’s a lot wrong, a lot broken. But we’re not “the world.” God looks at believers through “Jesus glasses.” Nothing looks like it’s broken; in fact, there’s no record of anything ever being broken.
That’s why, as Christians, we can use God’s Word and our faith to sidestep worry, to put anxiety on the back burner. We already know that everything will turn out OK. With the Lord as our shepherd, we shall not want. With Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we can be confident that nothing is missing and nothing is broken.
God is still in charge.
In His service,
Norton Lawellin
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