March 19 Service: Pastor Bonnie Higgins welcomed parishioners at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Invocation/Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymns that were sung were “Footsteps of Jesus”, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”, and “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.
The sermon, titled “God’s Thoughts” and reading the scripture from Isaiah 55:8-9. Pastor Bonnie started asking if anyone prayed to God for something and it wasn’t answered the way they thought it would be answered. We, as humans, have tunneled vision and only see what is in front of us and not how the future plays out. We all go through storms, sorrows, and situations in our lives and that is when we reach out to God for answers.
God tells us that His thoughts are so much better than our thoughts, since He sees the future and knows what is best for us. When we pray for something specific, we actually limit God. God has so many things much bigger for us if we leave it open for His vision and not our own. We need to learn to let God open the doors for us and not try to open doors that shouldn’t be opened. We need to leave our plans that we have in our minds and leave it for God to make the plans. When we leave God out of our plans, they never go the way we want them to. When we take God out of plans, God never gets glorified. Too many times we try to shape God into someone we want Him to be and not let Him be who He is, God. The God who does have all the answers for His children and in us relying on His timing of everything, God will be glorified.
In the book “Experiencing God”, it tells us to look back at our lives and learn to connect the spiritual markers, the things that happened in our lives, and to see how God orchestrated things in our lives to where we are today. God has always had a plan for our lives and we can’t overthrow God’s plans for us. His plan will always prevail.
Even though we will go through trials and tribulations in our lives, as Christians, we know that God has already worked it out in our lives and that we don’t walk through them alone. Jesus will always be with us. Sometimes we don’t understand why things happen, we need to just trust in God because His ways are better than our ways. All we need to do as Christians is to trust in God’s wisdom and not on ourselves, trust in God’s love for us, and to trust in God’s promises in His Word. God’s way is always better than ours!
Announcements listed in the bulletin are that the congregation will be collecting Canned Fruit for the Food Pantry in the month of March. Bible Study is at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. March 26 will be a “Fellowship” Brunch after church service. Will be collecting for the America for Christ offering. The AA meetings are held on Friday nights at the church. Do not park around the church when there is snow on the roof and if School is canceled in the area, Pastor Bonnie will not be in the office and all events canceled.
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 9:00 a.m. to noon.
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