October 2021

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we worshiped and gave our Savior praise. We learned as we praised Him that His mercy is more. Matt Papa and Matt Boswell wrote, and we sang: His mercy is more, His mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn, our sins they are many, His mercy is more. Then, from John 17, we got to listen to the prayer of our Savior on the night before He was crucified. We also realized Jesus’ prayers for us are not just something that happened “way-back-when” either. Hebrews 7:25 tells us Jesus is praying for us even now. “Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because He always lives to intercede for them.”  We also can pray to God the Father for the things that Jesus prayed for us. Believers can pray like Jesus for the Father to be glorified. Believers can pray like Jesus for God’s protection for ourselves as we carry out Jesus’ mission. Believers can pray like Jesus for themselves to be completely set apart for God’s purposes. Believers can pray, like Jesus, for us to be truly unified with all who name the name of Jesus. And we can live with thankfulness knowing Jesus wants us to be with Him and see Him in all His glory. Believers seek to pray like Jesus.

We apologize for not being able to livestream yesterday’s service. Pete worked on it yesterday afternoon and believes he has solved the problems and it will be ready to go next week. Here is a link to the recording of yesterday’s service: https://youtu.be/mhLEd8vrFvE

We will be reaching out to our neighbors this Saturday, October 30 at 3:00-4:00 PM with a “Trunk or Treat” event. Invite children you know in your neighborhood to come to this event. If you have candy and treats for the event, you can bring them by the church building. For more information and to sign-up to help, contact Grace Donaldson at goodgracious73@gmail.com.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper next Sunday morning, October 31, 2021, during our morning worship gathering.

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! It was wonderful to be able to still worship outside together on a beautiful fall day yesterday. As we look at John 16:16-33, we saw how Jesus transforms the sorrows and tragedies of the lives of those who believe into triumphs. We learned how the greatest injustice anyone ever faced in history was the crucifixion of Jesus. However now that injustice has been transformed by God into the very thing that provides for our justification, forgiveness, and redemption. We should always remember Jesus transforms sorrow into never ending joy. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection transforms every need we have by unleashing the resources of heaven to meet those needs. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection even transforms our failures into peace and victory. If God can take this greatest injustice and transform it in triumph, He can take my and your greatest sorrows, tragedies, and yes, even failures and transform them into triumph. Jesus Christ transforms the tragedies of life into triumphs.

A few weeks ago during our Sunday morning worship gathering, we prayed for Theresa’s brother who was in the hospital with complications from Covid.  Theresa informed me that her brother died last week.  The funeral was last weekend. Please keep Theresa and her family in your prayers during this heartbreaking time.

We have restarted weekly Bible Study on Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM. I want to encourage each of you to be part of one of these small group Bible studies if possible. There is a new class for adults and teenagers that gives a general overview of God’s Word and gives overviews of specific books of the Bible. David Juhlin will be teaching this class. Also, Jason Donaldson’s class for adults and teenagers continues in depth teaching looking at the book of Daniel. There are also classes for grade school children and preschool.

We will be reaching out to our neighbors on October 30 at 3:00 PM with a “Trunk or Treat” event. We will ask people to dress in costume and hand out candy and treats to the children of our neighborhood. We will need a lot of cars, people, and treats to pull this off, so we ask all of you to be involved. You can start now by bringing your candy and treats to the church building in preparation for this even. For more information and to sign-up to help, contact Grace.

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 worship with you yesterday as we praised the matchless name of Jesus and offered our lives as offerings to Him. It was also wonderful to hear a couple of reports from you of how God was working in your lives. In the message from John 16 we considered the wonderful advantage we have in Jesus providing for every believer His Holy Spirit. Even though we long to see Jesus face-to-face, until He comes we have the presence of His Holy Spirit always with us who believe. Yes, it is to our advantage and the advantage of all the people of God throughout the world that Jesus was crucified, buried, risen, ascended to heaven, and glorified. Now Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding, praying, for us. Jesus sent us His Holy Spirit after He was glorified to be ever-present with us who believe as we take the good news of Jesus to others. As we share the good news of Jesus, God’s Spirit also works in the hearts of unbelievers to show them their need for a Savior. God’s Spirit also guides God’s people to increasing understanding of God’s truth. God’s indwelling Spirit glorifies God and guides God’s people into increasing intimacy with God.

We will restart Sunday morning Bible studies for all age groups next Sunday morning, October 17, at 9:30 AM. I want to encourage each of you to be part of one of these small group Bible studies. There will be a new class for adults that gives a general overview of God’s Word and gives overviews of specific books of the Bible. David Juhlin will be teaching this class. Also, Jason Donaldson’s class will continue in depth teaching on one book of the Bible at a time. There will also be classes for grade school children and preschool.

We will be reaching out to our neighbors on October 30 at 3:00 PM with a “Trunk or Treat” event. We will ask people to dress in costume and hand out candy and treats to the children of our neighborhood. We will need lots of cars, people, and treats to pull this off, so we ask all of you to be involved. You can start now by bringing your candy and treats to the church building in preparation for this even. For more information and to sign-up to help, contact Grace.

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! It was wonderful yesterday to worship with you as we praised our incomparably great God. There is none like Him and He alone is worthy of all praise! Then from John 15, we thought about facing the opposition of the world’s system. Jesus does not promise us acceptance but warns us of rejection. Jesus does not tell us we will be at peace with the world but warns of persecution from the world. Jesus told us that just as the world hated Him without a cause, it will hate us because we belong to Him. Jesus warned this would happen, so we would not be surprised when it does happen. Because the world does not see its need for forgiveness for sins, or for its need to be rescued from its sin and condemnation, it will oppose us. How are we to respond to this opposition? Are we to close ourselves off from the world and live in isolation? Absolutely not! We are to march into the hatred of the world with the love and good news of Jesus. We are to know the Holy Spirit of God is with us always to enable us to bear witness to Jesus. We are to recognize the Holy Spirit Himself will work in the lives of unbelievers to verify our witness and convince unbelievers they need to be saved. Believers are to return love for hate, blessings for curses, and good for evil as we take the good news that Jesus saves to a hostile world. We are to realize and go forward into the world knowing this timeless truth: God’s Spirit goes with us in Jesus’ love to bear witness to the good news that Jesus saves.

We will restart Sunday morning Bible studies on Sunday morning, October 17, at 9:30 AM. There will be a new class for adults that gives a general overview of God’s Word and gives overviews of specific books of the Bible. David Juhlin will be teaching this class. Also, Jason Donaldson’s class will continue in depth teaching on one book of the Bible at a time. There will also be classes for grade school children and preschool.

We will be reaching out to our neighbors on October 30 at 3:00 PM with a “Trunk or Treat” event. We will ask people to dress in costume and hand out candy and treats to the children of our neighborhood. We will need lots of cars, people, and treats to pull this off, so we ask all of you to be involved. You can start now by bringing your candy and treats to the church building in preparation for this event. For more information and to sign-up to help, contact Grace.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church