LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church March 27 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 “He Keeps Me Singing”, “Wonderful Words of Life” and “Open My Eyes That I May See”. The service was concluded 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 “Light of the World” and reading the scriptures from John 9:1-7. Pastor Bonnie began with asking the congregation if they ever felt like life had dealt them a bad hand. Did they ever feel like they can never get ahead of things? One step forward and two steps backwards. When they start feeling this way, do they blame God for what is happening in their lives?
In the scriptures that were read, it is about a man who was born blind and went every day to town. This particular day, Jesus was walking through the town of Jerusalem and came upon a blind man. This man has no vision, he had been blind since birth. The disciples that were with Jesus that day wanted to know whose fault it was for this man to be blind, was it his own sin or was it his parents’ sin. Jesus told them that neither of these were true.

Jesus told the disciples that this was the doing of God, so that at this time in this man’s life, God would be glorified. Jesus knowing that this man was living in darkness, and that God brought the Light of the World to this man. Jesus, is the Light of the World. The man sat there and allowed Jesus to do what He needed to do. This man was showing faith in Jesus, even though he did not know what Jesus was doing. The man sat there and allowed Jesus to take some dirt and spit in it to make mud to place it over his eyes.

Jesus then told the blind man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash off the mud from his eyes. Because this man believed in what Jesus had done to him, he went to the water and washed the mud off. When this man went to the pool of Siloam to wash the mud off, Jesus left.
Scriptures tells us that once the man washed the mud off, he was able to see. The problem with this is that the man hasn’t seen Jesus yet. He only heard Jesus’ voice, so he wouldn’t be able to recognize Jesus if he met Him later. As the story goes on, this man is brought to the Pharisees because they wanted to know what had happened.

How this blind man could see now? The man explains how Jesus took the dirt and spit into and made the mud and placed it on his eyes and told him to go to the pool of water and wash it off. The Pharisees didn’t quite believe him and call for his parents. His parents tell them that he has been blind from birth and this is a miracle.

The Pharisees are not getting anywhere with him and they throw him out of the synagogue. When Jesus hears of this, He returns to the man and asks him if he believes in the Son of Man. The blind man asks who that is so he can believe. Jesus tells him it is Him and he started to worship Him.
Pastor Bonnie asked why this story in scriptures is important to us. It is important because the blind man is all of us. We were all blind when we were living our lives in sin and didn’t believe in Jesus. When we met Jesus on our path, Jesus took the blinders off of us when we accepted Him as our personal Savior. Just as the man grows in faith in Jesus, we also do.

As we are born again, we are able to see Jesus for who He really is. Not just as a man but Jesus as the Word made flesh, He is God. When we begin to grow in our faith, many will come up against us and try to persuade us to turn from God, our faith will only grow stronger if we stand for God and seek Him in prayer and in His Word, the Bible. Our faith gets deeper only when we start to put God first in our lives and live it for Him.
Our journey moves in stages, just like the blind man, to know Jesus as the God He is. One day we will see Him face to face, just like the blind man. I once was blind, but now I see!
Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting green beans for the Food Pantry in the month of April.

We are collecting for America for Christ offering for the month of March. Coming events in the church: April 2 will be the Deacon’s and Trustee’s meetings, April 10 will be the Quarterly Business meeting after church services, April 14 will be the Maundy Thursday service at 6 p.m. and April 17 will be the Easter service. The sign-up sheet for memorial flowers for Easter Sunday is at both entrances of the church. If there is snow on the roof, do not park by the side of the church. 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 [email protected]. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Monday and Tuesday’s from 9 a.m. to noon. When there is no school due to the weather, Pastor Bonnie will not be in the office and all events of that day will be cancelled.