NORTH LIVERMORE — At the August 21 North Livermore Baptist Church 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 were “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”, “What if it Were Today?” and “It is Well with My Soul”. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist each week. Janet Diaz is the pianist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

The sermon, titled “My New Body” and reading the scriptures from 1 Corinthians 15:35-52. Pastor Bonnie started out by saying that it seems that many have a love/hate relationship with their bodies. If many of us could, there would be something we would change about ourselves.

There will be a day, when Jesus comes back for His Church and the dead will rise from their graves that we will all get a new body, a perfect body that we can only get from Jesus. The best part of it, is that in our scripture today, it says our new bodies will be just like Jesus. After Jesus died and was resurrected, in His resurrected body, He was still able to eat with the disciples, be touched by the disciples, He had a physical body of flesh and bone, He was also recognizable by His disciples, He could appear and disappear, and He could pass through locked doors. All this is scriptural through the gospels of Matthew, Luke and John. Our new bodies will be just like Jesus.

What about those who have passed away now? Scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:8, that to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord. So, when we pass from this world into Heaven (only way to Heaven is through acceptance and faith in Jesus Christ) we will be in a state of pre-resurrection. Our bodies will be transformed spiritually by Jesus that we will think and act like Jesus. And then when Jesus comes back for His Church, Jesus will complete the work of transformation and restoration in our bodies by physically giving each one of us a new body. A body that will be sin free, a perfect body that can be in His presence.

The scripture talks about how a seed when planted is so different from the actual grown plant. Just like a plant that has grown, there is new life in the plant from the seed. Just like people, we have a sinful body here on earth, and when we grow in our faith with Jesus, we mature, and our bodies change over time. When it is completed, when we meet Jesus face to face, we will have our new spiritual bodies. Our bodies here on earth are perishable, but our new bodies that Jesus will give us will never perish, for they will eternally live on. Our bodies will be glorious, God created each of us in His image and even said we were “very good” went he was finished making us. Our bodies here on earth are weak and frail. We get sick, we break bones, we get tired, etc., but our new bodies will be powerful. Our structure of our bodies will definitely be changed. Here on earth our bodies are made to survive on earth, but not in Heaven. Our earthly bodies will not suit us for a life in eternity. We will get a resurrected body, or a spiritual body to live forever with. It will be a life that is perfect in every way.

A question that is asked a lot is will others recognize me in Heaven? The answer is yes, remember the disciples? They remembered Jesus when they saw Him after He came out of the tomb, even though His body had changed to a spiritual body. Scripture tells us that we will be like Jesus when we reach Heaven, this would include being able to recognize each other and to know one another. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus was talking with Moses and Elijah and the disciples knew who they were even though they had never met them before.

For those who have died before Jesus returns, their souls will receive a pre-resurrected body in Heaven and when they are raised from the dead when Jesus comes for His Church, they will receive an eternal spiritual body to live eternity through with. Jesus is coming back again, and when He returns, we will receive a resurrected body that is imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual, uniquely designed by God for our life in a sinless eternity. In all ways, we will have a body just like Jesus, except for one thing, His will have the scars that we gave Him on the cross from our sins. Jesus was willing to be scarred, so we could live without scars for eternity.

Announcements listed in the bulletin were that the congregation will be collecting peanut butter for the Food Pantry in the month of August. Bible Study is Tuesday at 1 p.m. Coming Events: September 18 – Church Barbecue. 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 from 9 a.m. to noon.

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