LIVERMORE – At the October 17 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 was “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”, “His Name is Wonderful”, “Spirit Song”. The service was concluded with “Go Now in Peace”. 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 “Experiencing God in Your Life” and reading the scripture from John 4:23-24. Pastor Bonnie began the service asking the congregation if they have ever been excited to meet someone that they looked up to. She explained how we get excited and get so nervous that it is hard to speak or even sleep. She went on to say that is the way we should feel about God. How can we not get excited about worshiping God? We should be encountering God every day in so many ways in our lives.
When we want to encounter God, we should look upward. When our lives seem to go crazy, we should look towards God and find Him in the midst of it. We need to remember that God is with His children and will never leave them, no matter what is happening. Another way to encounter God is to look inward. Too many times we feel that everyone else needs God but ourselves. When you hear a sermon and think it is about others and not yourself, you need to check yourself and realize you need God too. For people to encounter God in their lives, you must have a personal relationship with Him. We also need to look outward. We need to look around and see God in everything. We need to open our eyes and hear what God is saying to us and not the world. We need to continue to ask God what He wants from us.
For us to encounter God in our lives, we need to worship Him. When we sing hymns, we should be singing to God and not just sing about God. For each of us to experience God in our lives, we need to hunger for Him. To worship God, we need to be heart to heart with God. The only way to God’s heart is through His Son, Jesus. We cannot worship God, without Jesus. If you aren’t seeking Him in your life, you will not find Him. Sometimes when we want to experience Him, God will change our directions in our lives. We must be willing to change to whatever God has for us. As God’s children, we need to ask God “show me your ways” for us to experience Him in all aspects of our lives.
God doesn’t want us to just go through the motions of worshiping Him, but He wants us to feel Him when we worship Him. We need the connection to God to really experience God in our lives.
Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting Pie Crusts for the Food Pantry in the month of October towards the Thanksgiving baskets. Bible Study begins at 1:00 p.m. every Tuesday. After the service on October 17th was the Quarterly Business meeting. The ABCOM Annual Meeting, will be virtual this year and that is on October 21 & 22. 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.