May 2021

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we brought praise to our great God and thought about what it truly means to be free. John 8 teaches us true freedom comes to those whose embrace and believe in Jesus. Real freedom enables us to know and follow Jesus. If we do not know Jesus, we might think we are free but, in reality, we are slaves to sin. It dominates us and controls us. If we want to be free today, we must abide in Jesus’ word so we will know the truth that sets us free. Faith in Christ continually frees us from the enslavement of sin. Faith in Christ transfers us into the family of God. Faith in Christ enables us to live without ever really dying. Believe in Jesus and let the Son of God set you free and you will be free indeed.

Put Sunday evening, June 6, on your calendar.  We will be having a church picnic on the grounds starting at 6:00 PM.  We will not share food but ask you to bring food for your family. I am looking forward to getting together with all of you on that evening. Plan on being here with us on that Sunday evening.

During the weeks between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we are participating with CareNet Pregnancy Center of Dane County in the Baby Bottle Campaign to help support this wonderful ministry. Baby bottles are available for you to take. We ask you use these to collect an offering for this ministry, which we shall take to them after Father’s Day.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we had a beautiful day to worship in our parking lot. As we sang praise to the Lord, we considered the high price paid for our redemption by our Savior. We then remembered Him as we took the Lord’s Supper together. We saw from John 8 how Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel and the world. If you want a Savior, a Messiah, a Lord, a Leader, One who is the Light of the world, look to Jesus. Jesus “has delivered us (those who believe) from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  Do not miss Jesus by being distracted by anything else. Jesus provides light, life, and direction for all who will follow Him.

Today, May 17, is a special day for me. On this day 41 years ago, Carla and I were married. I thank God when I was young and inexperienced, that His Holy Spirit led me to Carla. I knew God had given me a jewel but did not know just how blest I was on that day. Carla is a wonderful wife who sees me at my worst and still loves me. I do not know of anyone who could have been a better mother to our children and grandmother to our granddaughters. Carla is a fantastic partner in ministry! Carla has a huge heart for hurting people and has invested her life in seeking to help them and point them to Jesus. God truly blessed me with a wife of beauty and noble character, and I wanted, like the husband of the Proverbs 31 woman, to rise and honor her today.

Put Sunday evening, June 6, on your calendar.  We will be having a church picnic on the grounds starting at 6:00 PM.  We will not share food but ask you to bring food for your family. I am looking forward to getting together with all of you on that evening. Plan on being here with us on that Sunday evening.

During the weeks between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we are participating with CareNet Pregnancy Center of Dane County in the Baby Bottle Campaign to help support this wonderful ministry. Baby bottles are available for you to take. We ask you to use these to collect an offering for this ministry, which we shall take to them after Father’s Day.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! I want to thank Mark Millman for preaching for me yesterday. Mark is a good friend to East Madison and works hard all over the state to see places where new outreaches can start and to encourage pastors and church planters. Also, thank you Pete for helping everything to run smoothly with worship team members and myself being gone. I also want to wish all the moms a belated “Happy Mother’s Day.”  I hope each of you had a great day. I know for some, Mother’s Day can hold sadness because of the loss of a mom, because some want or wanted to be a mom but that has not happened, or some other very personal reasons. I hope each of you that might be in that situation felt a special sense of God’s loving presence.

We will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper during our worship time next Sunday morning, May 16, 2021. Hopefully, we will be able to meet outside in our parking lot.

During the weeks between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we are participating with CareNet Pregnancy Center of Dane County in the Baby Bottle Campaign to help support this wonderful ministry. Baby bottles will be available next Sunday for you to take. We ask you use these to collect on offering which we shall take to them after Father’s Day. Also, if you would like to pick up a baby bottle before then to start, just stop by the church building during the week.

We will be concluding our virtual Bible Study of the book of Galatians this Wednesday, May 12^th at 6:30 PM. We will be studying Galatians 6.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we worshipped our great God and Savior and realized eternity itself will not exhaust the worship He deserves. We thought from John 8 about how we should respond to those “guilty as charged” by looking at how Jesus responds to the guilty. We saw that Jesus refuses to join the self-righteous crowd seeking to humiliate those deserving condemnation. We also observed Jesus challenges self-righteous condemners with their own sinful lives. We noticed Jesus affirms the dignity of those who have sinned by refusing to condemn and offering forgiveness and a new start. WE ARE TO BE LIKE JESUS, knowing that every single one of us is “guilty as charged” before the Holy God of the universe. Jesus can say to us as the “guilty as charged” that we are not condemned, and we too can turn our backs on sin and seek to sin no more. Why can Jesus say this to us? Because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, dying on the cross in our place, so that we, and every sinner who will look to Him, could be justly forgiven. Jesus withholds condemnation guilty sinners deserve so they might receive His just forgiveness and be saved from sin.

We will be continuing our virtual Bible Study of the book of Galatians this Wednesday, May 5^th at 6:30 PM. We will be studying Galatians 5. If you would like to be part of this study, let me know so I can add you to the email list to send you the weekly link.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church