August 2019

Sister and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! We had a good day yesterday focusing on the grace, mercy, love and faithfulness of Almighty God. From Matthew 15, we learned Jesus shows Himself to be the Savior of even those who may seem far away. Who do you think is far away from God?  Do you consider certain groups of people to far from God and beyond the love and salvation offered through Christ Jesus?   No persons and no groups are beyond the love of God.  In fact, they may be closer than the nice people you know, the people who are just like you and me. Will we desire for God to help us know how to go to those people who desperately need Jesus?  God calls us to go to those people to share the gospel message of life and deliverance.  God calls us to bring wholeness and blessings to those whom we may have ignored in the past. Jesus shows Himself to be the Savior of even those who may seem far away.

We will be starting a membership class on September 8.  This class is designed to help understand what church membership at East Madison is about.  It will last four to five weeks and be held during our Bible Study times on Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  Adults and older youth are invited to join us.  The class is for those new to East Madison or those who simply want to explore what we are all about.  I will be teaching the class so feel free to contact me with any question about the class.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all!  We had a great day together as we worshipped our great God and gathered at the Lord’s table to remember Jesus.  The worship team helped us to prepare to come to the Lord’s table as they introduced us to the original song written by Ron Roberts, “Lord, To Your Table, I come.”    We learned from Matthew 15 about the difference between ritualistic and real religion.  Real religion, true faith in Jesus, places God’s Word above human traditions.  Real religion focuses on the internal above the external.  Jesus did not come to give us ritualistic but real religion and true faith.  Jesus provides us with His Holy Spirit who enables us to obey God and love others, even when they do not love us. Jesus came to provide us with a true relationship to God that changes us from self-centered persons to people that lead lives of loving God supremely and loving our neighbors as ourselves. True faith in Jesus changes us from the inside out and rejects false and shallow traditions. 

We will have a potluck dinner after worship next Sunday, August 25^th.  Bring enough food for your family and a little extra for the guests who attend worship that day.

We will be starting a membership class on September 8.  This class is designed to help understand what church membership at East Madison is about.  It will last four to five weeks and be held during our Bible Study times on Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  Adults and older youth are invited to join us.  The class is for those new to East Madison or those who simply want to explore what we are all about.  I will be teaching the class so feel free to contact me with any question about the class.

We have a new childcare signup sheet for the next three months and we need some volunteers.  All our childcare workers need to have had a background check on file with EMBC.  The safety of our children is of primary concern to us. If you can help us out, please let me know.  If you haven’t yet had a background check on file with EMBC, we can work on getting that done if you would like to help. 

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Sunday and happy Lord’s Day to all!  Believers all over the world will meet today at different times and places celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  Thus, we call this day the “Lord’s Day.”  Jesus is the One who died in our place and the One who conquered death never to die again.  Jesus our Lord gives to all who believe in Him eternal life.  He alone is worthy of all our worship and we lay our lives down in surrender to Him. 

As we looked at Matthew 14, we considered the two great miracles of that chapter, the feeding of the 5000+ and Jesus walking on water.  We learned Jesus gives His children impossible tasks to show He is God of the impossible.  It is a false teaching that God will not give us more than we can bear.  God often gives us more than we can bear to cause us to depend on His presence and power.  There is nothing He cannot enable us to do or bear!  God wants us to see that His strength is enough even when our strength is gone.  We saw that Jesus gives His children impossible tasks to show He is God of the impossible.  We learned that Jesus often puts us in overwhelming circumstances so His children will know His presence and power.  Is there some impossible thing in your life that you cannot do on your own, but you know needs to be done?  You have tried repeatedly to do this impossible thing, to break some habit or addiction, to accomplish some task that you believe God wants you to do? If there is something like that that you cannot and have not accomplished, Jesus is able to do that if you will just rely and turn to Him. 

Next Sunday, August 11, Dr. Leo Endel, Executive Director of the Minnesota/Wisconsin Baptist Convention and Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Rochester, Minnesota, will be preaching in our worship gathering.  Leo is a great friend of mine and Leo is an excellent teacher and preacher of the Word of God.  I am excited that he will be with us. 

We will be starting a membership class on September 8.  This class is designed to help understand what church membership at East Madison is about.  It will last four to five weeks and be held during our Bible Study times on Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  Adults and older youth are invited to join us.  The class is for those new to East Madison or those who simply want to explore what we are all about.  I will be teaching the class so feel free to contact me with any question about the class.

We have a new childcare signup sheet for the next three months and we need some volunteers.  All our childcare workers need to have had a background check on file with EMBC.  The safety of our children is of primary concern to us. If you can help us out, please let me know.  If you haven’t yet had a background check on file with EMBC, we can work on getting that done if you would like to help. 

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church