July 2018

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! We had a great day yesterday worshiping and thinking about Jesus coming again. It was wonderful to see so many guests and how you graciously welcomed them. It was amazing to me how God works the worship songs picked out by Pete with the message. Pete and I do not choreograph these things but oftentimes it seems God does! 2 Peter 3 reminds us that, yes, Jesus is coming again! We wait for Jesus’ coming as we remember God’s great acts in creating the world and in His act of bringing a worldwide just judgment on the world in the flood of Noah’s day. We wait for Jesus’ coming knowing He delays because the God of eternity does not view time as we view time. A day to Him is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. We wait for His coming knowing that Jesus delays His return to give people opportunity to repent and believe in Him and be saved. God has no pleasure in punishing sinners but desires to saves sinners if they will believe in Jesus. Because Jesus will come back, we are diligent to seek to live every moment in ways that honor our great God by spreading the gospel and serving others. And finally because Jesus will come back, we seek to continually grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ that we might always live in awe of His greatness. We seek to keep growing so we will not be carried away by the false teachings and false teachers who distort and twist His Word. Christ Jesus physically, bodily, literally and absolutely is coming again to make everything new! Live in that sure hope today! Though the world mocks this blessed hope we have, we stand on its certainty!

I am on the faculty and community engagement team at Kennedy School. They are having a meet-and-greet on August 13 at the Kingston Onyx Park at the end of Vernon Ave so that parents new to that neighborhood can meet the Kennedy teachers and faculty. They asked me if our folks would be willing to donate some snack food for this outreach and I assured them we would love to do that. Could you bring purchased snack foods (nothing homemade) like chips, cookies, trail mix, popcorn to the church by August 12th to help? We will then get it to the Kennedy team for that community outreach.

We will be having the Lord’s Supper next Sunday, July 29th. On August 5 we will have a pot luck following the morning worship.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Worship is always wonderful as we together adore God our Savior. We thought about God’s greatness and of the great hope we have in the One who truly is mighty to save! From 2 Peter 2 we looked at how to recognize false teachers and their false teachings. Specifically these teachings are not just areas of disagreement among believers, but “destructive heresies.” These “destructive heresies” are teachings that turn us away from who Jesus truly is and from the salvation found only by faith in Him. Anything that leads us away from God’s salvation through Jesus Christ is a destructive heresy. Peter instructs us that there will always be false teachers among his people. These false teachers are those who claim Christ and superficially look like they follow Jesus. But they teach a different Jesus than the Jesus revealed in the Bible and they teach a different salvation than a salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone. We are as believers to beware of their influence. We are also to be aware of the sure judgment that comes upon anyone who leads people away from Jesus. We are to look closely at their character and the lives they live. Do they deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Jesus or are they living lives of self-indulgence and greed? We are also to see the results of their false teaching. Do they encourage people to trust only in Christ and continually turn from sin? Or do they falsely teach that you can embrace Jesus while still embracing your sin? Do they promise freedom but does their false teaching ultimately lead to enslavement to sin? Learn to recognize those who teach a Jesus that is different from Jesus Christ, the true Savior who is mighty to save.

We want to pray for those effected by the fire and explosion in Sun Prairie last week. Connie Boss and those who live in the apartment complex where she lives had to be evacuated from their apartments for one night because of the explosion. Here is a link sent to us by Mark Millman for those who want to know how to help financially also: https://www.channel3000.com/news/bank-sets-up-sun-prairie-disaster-relief-fund-for-community/767115087

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday was a great day as we worshipped together. It was good to have all the members of the worship team together. I thank God for all of the members of our worship team. They love the Lord and weekly put in a lot of work to help us adore our awesome God, who deserves all our praise! It was good to continue our journey through God’s perfect word as we looked at Scripture given to us in Peter’s letters. We looked at how believers are to continually build their lives on the perfect treasure of the Bible, God’s Word. We saw that we do this first of all by continually reminding ourselves of foundational gospel truth. Secondly, we do this by understanding the historical nature and foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our faith is based on actual historical events and not man-invented myths. Finally from 2 Peter 1, we saw that believers build their lives on understanding the sure inspiration and trustworthiness of God’s perfect Word. In spite of all the attacks on the Bible, God’s Word has stood and will stand all the attacks against it as it reveals the only Savior and hope of the world, Jesus Christ. Build your lives upon Jesus Christ, who is Truth itself, and upon the Bible that reveals Jesus to us.

Please keep Barb in your prayers this week. Barb was very sick and was not getting better and we prayed for her yesterday in our service and invited you to pray for her. She sent me a text later in the day telling me that she was better and thinks she turned a corner. Thank you God for hearing the prayers of your people! Also pray for Connie. Connie was exercising and fell and dislocated her shoulder. They put the shoulder back in place but she remains in a lot of pain. We want you ladies to know we love you and are praying for you!

We will be having a house prayer meeting at the Juhlin’s this Wednesday night, July 11, 2018 at 7:00 PM. Hope you can come!

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! We had a great day of worship and fellowship yesterday. We sang some great hymns reminding us that it is well with the souls of everyone who believes and that everyone who believes has victory in Jesus. We learned from looking at 2 Peter 1 that believers possess everything we need to live victorious lives. In our salvation God has provided everything we need for life and godliness. Not only that, but God provides us in Jesus with the energy and motivation to keep striving to grow closer to Jesus and more productive in our service to Him. We learned that as we grow, our fruitfulness for Jesus and confidence in Him will also grow stronger. We have everything we need to live for Him already provided for us. Daily we can appropriate what God has given us in Jesus to grow closer to and more fruitful for Him.

We will have our business meeting this Sunday evening, July 8 at 6:00 PM.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church