NO. LIVERMORE — The North Livermore Baptist Church congregation was welcomed in by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Invocation/Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymns that were sung were “O Come, All Ye Faithful”, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” and “Joy to the World”. The service ended with Communion. 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 “The Words of Christmas – The Beginning” scripture from John 1:1-4, 1 John 1:1-4. Pastor Bonnie began with how the world and Christians view the Christmas season differently. For Christians, it is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but also to thank God for His plan for our eternity with Him. The world celebrates Christmas without the true meaning of who Jesus is. The world’s plan is to overspend, party too much and look forward to another day off from work. But that is not what Jesus was born for. He was born to save us from this world.

Many know the story of Mary and Joseph and how an angel came to them individually and spoke to them about the coming child that Mary would have as a virgin. Through God’s plan they arrived in Bethlehem for the birth. Scriptures tells us who was there and who wasn’t and the importance of it all.

In the next coming weeks, we will explore, using God’s own words, to understand what the meaning of Christmas is about. This week we begin with the word “Incarnation”. What does that mean. In John 1:1 it says “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then in John 1:14, it says that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. What does all that mean? In scripture we read that the Godhead is one, meaning God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three different, but all three the same, God!

So, for Jesus to come to earth as a baby, God, through Jesus, came to earth, by putting on flesh and becoming human. Incarnation simply means “in the flesh.” God came down to earth, wearing the flesh so He could walk amongst us. Because of what God did for us through Jesus, we have hope for an eternity with Him.

Another word that is used during this season is the word “Revelation”. What does this mean? It means that God revealed Himself to us through Jesus. When something is revealed to us, it is brought into the light. God reveals many things to us about Himself: what He is like, what He wants, and what He is going to do through His Word. Jesus came to earth to reveal to us about His father, the creator of all things.

So, what should we be doing at Christmas time? We should be “celebrating” Jesus. Because of what He did, came from Heaven to earth as a human man, to experience everything we will ever experience so He could have empathy with everything we will go through. We, as Christians, should be celebrating all the love that God showed us through the birth of His Son, Jesus. If it wasn’t for the birth of Jesus, we would have no hope, no peace, no love, no joy for our future. God wants us to celebrate His Son and all that He did for us. Because of the birth, and all that Jesus did for us, He made it possible for us to have fellowship with God for an eternity. That is something to celebrate.

Announcements listed in the bulletin are that the congregation will be collecting crackers for the Food Pantry in December. Bible Study on Tuesday at 1 p.m. Dec. 17: Christmas Program in morning worship service, Dec. 24: Christmas Eve service at 4 p.m. You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Tuesday’s from 9 a.m. to noon.

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