NO. LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church September 5 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 “Revive Us Again”, “We’re Marching to Zion”, “Freely, Freely” concluding the worship service with Communion. Four new members were given the right hand of fellowship after the Communion service. Linda Lyman is the organist and Janet Diaz is the pianist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

The sermon, titled “When You Want to Give Up”, and reading the scripture from 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10.  Pastor Bonnie began with asking the congregation if they sometimes feel like giving up, especially in the world we live in now.  You can’t turn on the television or read a newspaper without feeling of defeat.  She went on to tell the congregation about Paul from the scriptures. Paul had dealt with being betrayed, beaten, stoned, whipped, and other horrible things.  Through it all, Paul never gave up on Jesus to bring him hope.  Paul trusted in Jesus, knowing He would always be there for him.

In the scriptures read, Paul tells us how to maintain our hope in Jesus during these difficult times when we want to give up.  The first thing that Paul tells us is to take heart and not give up.  As we look around ourselves, we see many going through hard times and yet they carry on like they are doing fine.  These people have taken God at His word and continued on knowing that God had a plan for them.  The second thing is that we should maintain hope in the midst of suffering.  No matter what is happening, Jesus died to save us in all walks of life.  He is there in the valleys as well as on the mountain tops.  Thirdly, when we are in the hard times, God can use these times to renew us and prepare us for the glory of eternity.  As we go through the hard times, we get closer to God and look forward to being in Heaven with Him.

Even though times are hard for us now, we need to stay focused on eternity.  We can see all around us and we are discouraged, but our hope is in what we don’t see, our eternity.  We shouldn’t be looking at this life we are living now, as we should be looking at what is to come in our trust and hope in Jesus as He brings us all home with Him. We, as Christians, know that this world, this life is only temporary, and our future with Jesus is for eternity.  That is what we should be focused on.  We know that our home is in Heaven, not this world.

All of our sufferings here on earth, prepares us for a life with Jesus. As others sees us go through the valleys, we are the examples for non-believers to see how God makes a difference in our lives.  Jesus has gone to prepare a place for His children, where we won’t worry about what we are going to eat, where we will sleep, or what we will wear.  God has taken care of all of it.  We can live now in this temporary home, because of what we have to look forward to, which is promised by God.

In our life here on earth, we should do everything to please God, for one day we will all appear before the judgment seat of Jesus.  We will all stand before Jesus and be accountable for everything we did here on earth.  Once we are with Jesus for eternity, we don’t have to worry ever again about pain, suffering, sin, sorrow, and especially Satan.  These things will never be part of our lives with us in Heaven.

The greatest part of Heaven is who will be there.  We know Jesus will be there and our loved ones that have accepted Jesus as their personal Savior will also be there.  We will be re-united with family and friends.  Hopefully, you know Jesus as your personal Savior! Time is running out!

Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting Canned Pasta for the Food Pantry in the month of September.  Our fall programs will begin October 3rd more information to come.  In coming events – Sept. 11th Deacons and Trustees meetings. Sept. 18th will be a gospel concert featuring Randy and Holly Sadler at 4:00 p.m. Pastor Bonnie will be out of the office Monday, Sept. 6 because of the holiday.  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 9:00 a.m. to noon.

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