LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church Dec. 5 service, the congregation was welcomed by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. Pastor Bonnie began telling the congregation that we are in the Advent season. The Call to Worship was read and the Invocation/Lord’s Prayer was recited. The hymns that were sung were “O Come, All Ye Faithful”, “Angels, We Have Heard on High”, “That Beautiful Name”. The service was concluded with communion. Linda Lyman is the organist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.
Pastor Bonnie explain about the Advent wreath and lit the first candle of hope and then the candle of peace for the second week of Advent.
The sermon, titled “Peace in the Storm” and reading the scripture from John 14:27. Pastor Bonnie stated how when we wake up each morning, the news, the papers, the radio, even social media there is so much bad news about the world and how we can get unsettled in our thinking that we wonder if there is ever going to be peace on earth. As she went on, she explained that Jesus told us in His Word, that we won’t find peace in this world but only in Him. So, what is peace?
Peace is a contentment in our spirit that allows us as Christians to go about our lives without any turmoil in our hearts or in our minds. It doesn’t mean that there is peace in our lives with everything going on around us, but in our faith, we have found the true peace. That peace only comes from Jesus Christ. Sometimes the world tries and offers us some kind of peace, but Jesus says “I do not give to you as the world gives” because we will never find true peace in the things of this world. Jesus tells us to not let our hearts be troubled because He is the source of the true peace that we all long for.
Pastor Bonnie went on using the scriptures from Psalm 23 where God tells us about true peace in His Son, Jesus Christ. God wants us to have peace in this broken, unstable world and for us to seek Him to find it. Only through Jesus will that peace ever come true. We need to have a deep commitment and personal relationship with Jesus for us to have the true peace in our lives. We know that when Jesus came to earth to be born, live, died on a cross, and resurrected, Jesus overcame death so we can overcome death through Him. Jesus defeated death, so we can live eternally with Him as long as we accept Jesus as our personal Savior and live our lives for Him.
Some questions that we ask are what does peace do for us? Peace through Jesus gives us security in our hearts and minds that He is in control, and we do not have to worry. Jesus tells us not to fear that He has everything under control. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have trials and hardships, but we don’t need to fret over it, as Jesus walks with us through it. Another question we ask ourselves is how do we get peace? We get peace through the relationship with Jesus and through prayers. When we give everything over to Him, we don’t have anything to worry about. When we don’t worry about our situations, we can see all the blessings that God is giving us. We won’t be able to find outer peace in our lives if we don’t have inner peace. Peace comes from inside of us because it comes from God. If you have a personal relationship with Him, you already have the peace God gives.
We need to be still and meditate on God’s Word and to listen to God when He speaks. God is always listening to His children and always there with the answers. Once people realize that you can’t find peace in this world and the only place for peace is from God Himself, they will have true peace.
Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting Cereal for the Food Pantry in the month of December. Bible Study begins at 1 p.m. every Tuesday. There will be a Christmas program during the morning worship service on December 19. The Christmas Eve service will begin 6 p.m. on December 24. 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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