NO. LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church August 8 service the congregation was welcomed by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Call to Worship was read and the Invocation/Lord’s Prayer was recited.

The hymns that were sung was “In My Heart There Rings a Melody”, “Grace Greater than Our Sin”, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. We concluded the service with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist and Janet Diaz is the pianist each week.

The sermon, titled “The Three C’s”, and reading the scripture from 1 Timothy 1:15-17. Pastor Bonnie began the service with talking about the three biggest symbols of the Christian faith. She explained how the cradle is the symbol for Christmas, the cross is the symbol for Easter, but what is the third symbol? The crown, representing eternity as Jesus is King.

It seems that as we live in this world, many people have moved away from the true meaning of the cradle, the cross, and the crown. Each of these represent a part of the life of Jesus Christ and what He is to His children. Each of these symbols represent Jesus in His second coming.

The cradle represents God sending Himself to earth as a baby to save the world from sin. John 3:16-17 tells us that Jesus came to save the world, not to condemn it. Even the angels told the shepherds to go to the baby lying in the manger. The manger, or cradle was made of wood, giving people a glimpse in the future of the baby.

As a baby, Jesus came, not only as one hundred percent man, He was also one hundred percent God. He came to earth as an eternal being and still is today. Jesus came to earth to fulfill God’s purpose for Him, to save this world and to bring hope to all of us.

The cross represents the main part of the story. The baby in the cradle, manger, grew up to become the sacrifice for all of our sins. The cross is where He took our sins and died for them. When Jesus yelled out “It is finished” He had paid our debt to God for our sinful lives. Jesus always knew that He was coming from Heaven to earth as a baby to die upon a cross for all of us, He was born to die

Reading in scriptures, Jesus had asked God to take the cup from Him. He knew what was about to happen. Jesus knew that He needed to complete God’s Will for His life and that was settled on the cross. Jesus went to the cross because He knew none of us could pay the debt of our own sins, so He took it all on Himself to do it. His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection on the third day, brings us to Jesus being on the right hand of His Father. He was brought back to Heaven and in His rightful place as King.

Along with the title of king, comes a crown. We see earthly kings wear them and they do nothing for our eternal life. The crown Jesus wears shows us that the cross didn’t end His life, it was only the beginning of an eternal life for us, God’s children. Jesus conquered the grave and because He did, someday every knee will bow to the King. In the New Testament, Paul describes Jesus as the eternal King, He is without a beginning and without an end, He is and will be always, King.

God reigns in this world and hopefully in the hearts and souls of people on this earth. There will be a day when Jesus comes back for His Church and only those who have accepted the baby in the cradle, the One who died on a cross for our sins, and the One who reigns as King, will join Him in the air to begin our life with Him.

For those who believe and have left this world now, have begun their life with Jesus and all those who have gone before them, as we know as Christians, our eternal life began the second we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We may have a personal death here on earth, we know that our spiritual life continues on in Heaven with Jesus.

Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting Crackers for the Food Pantry in the month of August. If anyone would like to become a member or be baptized should see Pastor Bonnie. We are collecting donations for the backpacks/school supplies for the local schools.

Pastor Bonnie will not be in her office until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, August 10. The Advisory Board will be meeting August 15th after the morning service. The AA meetings are held on Friday nights at the church.

For information, check out our website at northlivermorebaptistchurch.org. You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Monday and Tuesday’s from 9 a.m. to noon.

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