August 2021

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! As people of the risen King, together we worshipped our risen Lord yesterday. We took the supper of the Lord to remember the price paid by our Lord that provided forgiveness and eternal life for all who will believe. We looked at John 13 and considered the truth that the people of God should be characterized by complete humility and a willingness to serve others, even in the most menial of ways. Jesus washed the dirty and nasty feet of the apostles. This was a task reserved for the very lowest of society. Jesus’ apostles did not want to perform this task for Jesus or one another. However, Jesus willingly served them by washing their feet. Jesus calls us to serve others in this same way. Jesus told us that serving others in even the most menial of task was the way to be truly blessed. The way to real happiness, the way to real greatness, is not through self-indulgence and opulent living. The way to real happiness and real greatness is the way of service in Jesus’ name to others. Serving others in Jesus’ name flows from our understanding of who we are as we belong to Jesus Christ. Serving others in Jesus’ name will not always be understood even by those closest to us. Serving others in Jesus’ name requires us to serve those who will never appreciate or reciprocate our service. Serving others in Jesus’ name connects us with Jesus as Lord and teacher and leads to happiness. Believers seek to emulate Jesus’ example of continually serving others.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we worshiped from reading God’s Word from Isaiah 25-26, we sang about the more than 10,000 reason we have to praise our great God. We looked at Jesus’ final public sermon from John 12 and learned that accepting Jesus and His Words provide the only avenue to know the truth of God and eternal life. We learned exposure to God’s truth in Jesus without embracing Jesus as truth ultimately will blind you to truth. We learned intellectual acceptance to God’s truth in Jesus without embracing and confessing Jesus as truth keeps you living in fear. We considered rejection of Jesus as God’s truth means rejection of the true and living God. Finally, we saw this great good news, that embracing Jesus as God’s Truth provides forever fellowship with the eternal triune God of the universe. We learned that anyone who will, can believe in Jesus and receive His promise of eternal life.

Congratulations to Michael Manders and Dave and Sue Germann on the recent births of their grandsons!

Put Sunday, August 29, on your calendar. We will be having a church-wide fellowship on that day. It is likely we will be having another Sunday evening picnic at 6:00 PM. Details will come later.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! It was great to be with all of you yesterday to worship our Lord, who is always good to us and greater than we can imagine. From John 12, we thought about Jesus’ coming glorification through His crucifixion in our place and His resurrection to never die again. By His crucifixion, Jesus was the seed that fell to the ground and died for us. That seed of Jesus’ crucifixion bears the fruit of eternal life for men, women, boys, and girls from every tribe, language, people, and nation who will receive and follow Him. We learned Jesus calls us to find real life by dying to ourselves, following Him, and living for the glory of God. Just as Jesus died in our place, so we die to ourselves and live for Him. We seek for the mission of our lives to be bringing glory to God just as this was the mission of Jesus’ life. Real life is not found inwardly by looking inside ourselves, but outwardly by dying to ourselves and finding life in living for Jesus.

I want to thank Jason Donaldson for preaching when I was gone last week. If you missed last week, you should look on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw) and listen to Jason’s insightful message from God’s Word.

Put Sunday, August 29, on your calendar. We will be having a church-wide fellowship on that day. It is likely we will be having another Sunday evening picnic at 6:00 PM. Details will come later.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church