NO. LIVERMORE — The congregation was welcomed in by Pastor Bonnie Higgins on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Call to Worship, Invocation/Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymns that were sung were “Jesus is Coming Again”, “What a Day That Will Be” and “What if it Were Today?”. The service ended with Communion. Linda Lyman is the organist, Janet Diaz is the pianist, and Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

The sermon, “God’s Plan in the Cross” using the scriptures from Mark 9:30-32. Pastor Bonnie started with that this was the second time in scriptures that Jesus told the disciples about His upcoming death and resurrection. This is where Jesus begins His long journey to the cross. Jesus’ prophecy of His death and resurrection surrounding the cross, shows God’s children how important it is to us and that the cross is the center of who God is.

Scriptures state that Judas, the Sanhedrin, the Romans, and even Pilate handed Jesus over to someone else. So, who really turned Jesus over for His violent and suffering death on the cross and who orchestrated the resurrection? It was God the Father, He handed over His Son to die for each of us on the cross. It was God’s plan from the beginning.

God’s plan in the cross seems foolish to those who have no faith in Him. So many people don’t understand how God works. God always works for the good toward those who follow Jesus. We know that His plan is the best plan and the only plan for our salvation through what Jesus did on the cross.

The cross shows us the love that God has for all of us. Knowing that our sin had separated us from God and His Heaven, the cross brings us closer to God and His saving grace of the people. God shows His love to us by offering a way for our sins to be forgiven, and that was at the cross and by Jesus and only Jesus could do it. The cross also shows us the power of God. Not only did God show us His power on the cross by dying for our salvation, God shows us His power in the resurrection.

If Jesus never died on the cross, we would never see how God resurrected Him from the tomb. Jesus lives today from the resurrection so we can look forward to eternal life also with Him. The cross is the power of God for salvation. The cross also shows us God’s plan for us. His plan was created before the beginning of time here on earth. God had always had a plan to redeem mankind when they choose sin over Him. There is only one way to Heaven, that is through the cross and Jesus Christ.

The concept of salvation through the cross of Jesus takes away all thought of doing good works in salvation. It is not what you do to save yourself; it is all what Jesus did on the cross. Too many people think because they are a good, giving, loving, charitable, they feel they deserve to go to Heaven. The cross tells us a different story. Jesus came to die on the cross to pay for our sins.

This is the central message of Christianity. We can’t omit the message of the cross without taking away what Jesus does for us. The message of the cross should bring us all to faith in Him. Without the cross, Jesus couldn’t have birth faith for us. The power of the cross; we can know that our sins are forgiven, that we are right with God, that we have a home in Heaven, we have victory over Satan, we have peace with God, that same peace in our lives in the face of death, all this because of the cross.

Announcements: We will be collecting canned corn for the Food Pantry in November. Bible Study –
Tuesday at 1 p.m.