May 2019

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Tuesday to all! Today is a special day for me in that it is my Dad’s birthday.  I thank God for a father who sought to teach me to love Jesus and live for him.  My dad was a flawed man, but He knew a perfect Savior and trusted in Him.   I miss him still even after 15 years. 

Sunday we had a wonderful day of worship as we sang to our great God and Savior and thought about His love and mercy.  We want it to be said of us that the Lord is our passion!  We thought about our willingness to follow Jesus and be on mission with him.  We considered from 1 Corinthians 9 what it meant to be all things to all men and women that we might save some.   We asked ourselves if we are willing to make sacrifices, forgo rights, give up preferences, and discipline ourselves for the cause of the gospel?  What will we do so others might know our Savior who loves us and them enough to sacrifice His life on the cross for their salvation and forgiveness? How far are you and I willing to go in sharing our lives so others might come to know Christ? Will we be part of His church on mission with Jesus so that the “Lamb that was slain will receive the reward of His suffering?” These are questions with which we must continually evaluate ourselves so we remain on mission with Jesus. 

Remember we have a Pot Luck luncheon after worship this Sunday, June 2.  Bring enough food for your family and a little extra for any guests who are with us.

We will be recognizing our graduating high school seniors on Sunday, June 9. We will also have the Lord’s Supper on that morning.

Love being your pastor! 

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all!  Yesterday, we learned we are on a covert mission behind enemy lines as we carry out the Great Commission.  We are to continue to spread the good news that Jesus saves.  Jesus tells us that until the end comes, we are on mission with Him, waging war behind enemy lines.  We are not unaware of the dangers of the mission and know its reality.  We are constantly on guard against the internal enemy of fear of people and fear itself and know fear to be a liar!  We know there are distractors possibly even from those closest to us who want to keep us from being on mission with Jesus.  We also know others will be supporters and family to us who are on mission with Jesus.  Jesus’ presence in our lives provides courage and power to faithfully carry out His mission until He returns!  Stay on mission with Jesus.  The enemy is already defeated. Jesus has already secured victory!

Our next Pot Luck luncheon will be after worship on Sunday, June 2.

Love being your pastor! 

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all!  We worshipped God together as the East Madison family and sang of His continual greatness yesterday.  We looked at Matthew 9 and 10 and realized every believer is called to be on mission with Jesus.  We are called to spread the good news with a needy world of the forgiveness and salvation God has provided through Jesus.  We thought about how urgent this call is to us as we considered how many people around us are in great despair.  We looked at how the Lord equips us with His power and authority to be on mission with Him.  We also thought about how we need to seek to be strategic as we carry out the call of God to take the gospel to Madison and the world.  Finally, we realized the Lord informed us that many will reject the forgiveness and salvation offered to them.  Though this may temporarily discourages us, we must not stay there.  The rejection of some should push us on the share with  others who will receive the good news of Jesus.  Then, without any kind of prearrangement between Pete and I, God’s Spirit led the worship team to close us with a couple of songs that called us to continually offer our lives to God to use for His mission and His purposes.  May each of our lives truly be a continual offering to God! 

Our next Pot Luck luncheon will be after worship on Sunday, June 2.

Love being your pastor! 

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all!   We had a great day of worship yesterday as we took the Lord’s Supper together and remembered the sacrifice Jesus made for us to be justified before a holy God.  We remembered that by faith in this sacrifice we are united to Jesus and to one another.  We then from Matthew 9 considered whether we really believed God could help us in whatever circumstances we were facing, or if we just said we believed.  We learned that we could look to Jesus to work in any situation when others had failed us.  We learned that we can looked to Jesus to help as we understand who He truly is:  the one and only Savior and Messiah.  We learned that we can look to Jesus for those we love even if they can’t or will not look to Him themselves.  Your prayers for those who won’t or can’t look to Jesus make a difference! We learned that that we can look to Jesus for help in our impossible situations because Jesus cares for us.  Yesterday I closed the message with a story about my Dad.  My Dad was six years old when his mother died from breast cancer.  As a child the only thing he later remembered about his mom’s funeral was one of the songs that was sung, “God will Take Care of You.”  The testimony of my Dad’s life was that that God  had always taken care of him.   Many of us can also share that same testimony and proclaim that God will always take care of all who look to Him.

Our next Pot Luck luncheon will be after worship on Sunday, June 2.

Love being your pastor!    

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church