Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we worshiped the One “who with a word created sun and moon and seas and sand.” We considered from Genesis 1 God the Creator. We learned God alone created and rules all there is. We learned God is separate and above His creation. Almighty God made the universe and all that is in it for Himself and His glory. We learned from Genesis 1 that we are not to worship the creation but the Creator alone. The universe is ordered according to God’s plans and purposes. We saw that God created men, women, boys, and girls in His image, and we are to see the image of God in every man, woman, boy and girl. We are to respect that image in every person and never denigrate it in any person. God’s highest creation, mankind, must learn that operating according to God’s plans and purposes will lead to human and creation flourishing and anything that deviates from His plans and purposes will lead to human and creation’s destruction. God charged us with caring for His creation and never abusing it. God charged mankind with populating the earth with offspring. We saw that God pronounced His creation “very good.” However, we also recognize that sin entered the world through mankind’s wrong choice and sin marred creation. Sin has distorted the image of God in each of us and has separated us from fellowship with God. God the Father had to send God the Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sin so the image of God could be more fully restored in us and our fellowship with God renewed. A Savior had to save us from sin and begin to restore that image in us so creation could and will be ultimately restored.

We are considering updating the windows in the church building and are looking for estimates from responsible companies. If you have a recommendation, could you email that recommendation to me.

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 worshipped, we remembered our great, eternal God who alone will reign forever. This great and only God calls us to be in relationship with Him. We learned from John 21 how Jesus also redeems us for Himself to be on mission with Him. God does not save us just so we can simply know, love, and enjoy Him. God saves us so through us other might also know, love, and enjoy God. We are called to be on mission with Jesus. As God has blessed us, we are to be a blessing to others. We are to be rivers, not reservoirs. We are to seek to be directed by Jesus so our lives will be fruitful. While we are on mission with Jesus, we enjoy a special sense of His presence. We also learned that we can be on mission with Jesus even though we all miserably fail Him from time to time. Those failures can teach us to depend on His Holy Spirit and not ourselves. Failures teaches us to be empowered and led by His Holy Spirit. And we are not to compare ourselves to others but seek to stay focused on the specific mission that God has called us to conduct. Jesus calls us to be on mission with Him by following Him wherever He leads us.

We have received from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane county 250 N95 masks. They will be at the building for anyone who would like to pick up some of these masks.

 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 and Happy Martin Luther King Day! Dr. King helped us to understand the truth of God’s word that believers must continually seek to eradicate racism and prejudice in our own hearts and lives and seek to lessen it in the culture around us. God is no respecter of persons, and every human being from conception is created in the image of God. Anything that dehumanizes people and treats others who are different with anything less than justice and respect is an attitude that dishonors God.

Yesterday we looked from John 20 at how Thomas went from doubt to certain faith. We learned that it is not wrong to doubt. It is only wrong to not work through your doubts to certain and sure faith in Jesus. Do not stay in doubt. Do not isolate yourself from other believers when you doubt. Do not be afraid to be honest about your doubts and share them with those who can help. Thomas battled through His doubts and came to a confident faith in Jesus. A strong tradition reports that Thomas took the gospel to India and established churches there. Ultimately that tradition tells us that Thomas was martyred as he testified to Jesus’ resurrection. Thomas doubted, but he battled through those doubts to faith firm enough to lay down His life for His resurrected Savior. This is what we are to do. We are to battle through our doubts to bear witness that Jesus lives. Jesus calls us to battle through our doubts to sure confidence in Him.

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 a fitting follow up to the Christmas season yesterday to remember why Jesus came. We remembered the reason as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together. Jesus’ body was broken, and His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Then from John 20, we remembered our Savior rose physically, bodily, historically from the grave to never die again. Jesus came to rise from death so that death might be forever destroyed for all who will believe in Him. The empty tomb testifies Jesus forever conquered death and destroyed death’s power for all who will believe in Him. Are you believing now in this Jesus? Today embrace Him, trust Him, receive the forgiveness and life the risen Jesus offers you today. And as you believe, live every day in the forgiveness He gives and the assurance that death has been conquered for you!

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 and again a Happy New Year! It was great to worship yesterday our generous King Jesus, who give us grace and holds us fast. As we looked at Luke 18, we learned that whatever it cost of to follow Jesus, it is worth it. Jesus asks of us all we are and all we have. There are times when following Him is challenging. However, because of the surpassing value of Jesus, no sacrifice is too great in order to know, love and walk with Him. Do not hold on to the worthless things of this world when Christ would give you the riches of eternal life, when Jesus would adopt you as his child, and when you could know intimately the true and living God. Do not miss true fellowship with God by loving money and holding on to things, attitudes, relationships, grudges, unforgiveness, or any other thing. Whatever it might be, it is not worth it. No sacrifice is too great to make in order to follow Jesus.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper during morning worship gathering next Sunday, January 9.

I want to give a special thanks to Jim Willgrubs and David Juhlin for their study and work on the bids to replace the boilers. We will sign a contract this week and see them replaced soon.  

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! As we worshiped on the fourth Sunday of advent, the focus of worship was God’s great love for the world, the love that sent His Son Jesus for us. Then we considered from Luke 2 that God is active all around us. He is moving and working. We saw that God can move the world to see His purposes accomplished. We saw God moves the humble to provide miraculous witness to His salvation. The old man Simeon, when he saw and held Jesus, said he had seen God’s salvation! Salvation is not a religion, philosophy, or creed. Salvation is a person. Salvation is Jesus. Jesus is salvation. We are not saved by believing a religion. We are saved by believing in Jesus, by receiving and embracing Him. We saw we also need, like Simeon, to “take Jesus in our arms,” to receive Jesus, take Him into our lives. Finally, we understood that God moves His people who long for His activity to praise Him as they see Him working. Do we have eyes to see Him? Are we looking for and expecting Him to move? God is working and He is moving all around us!

There will be no Bible Study on December 26 or January 2.  We will only have morning worship on those days.

We are taking up the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions during December. 100% of this offering goes to missionaries on the field taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. When you give to the Lottie Moon offering, make your checks out to East Madison Baptist church, and use the Lottie Moon envelopes.

Our Christmas Eve service will be on Friday, December 24 at 5:00 PM.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other. 

Have a wonderful week and a Merry Christmas!

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! As we worshiped on the third Sunday of advent, we focused on the joy we have because the Lord has come. From Matthew one, we thought about how to make choices and decisions that will glorify God. We are going to have to make many choices in life. If we seek God and want to do His will, we can make good choices, even though sometimes they may be hard choices. We need to determine as best we can to do what is right, what is God’s will, in every circumstance. We need to be careful not to make hasty decision but be open to the leadership of God’s Holy Spirit. We need to be open to God revealing His purposes in those circumstances in the course of action He wants you to take. And when we know God’s will, we need to seek to obey God quickly. Determine to do what God would have you do, what is right, in every circumstance. God’s will for all is good, pleasing, and perfect.

We took some donuts to the staff at Kennedy School Friday as a token of our appreciation to them for their work. We sent this note alone with the donuts:

Kennedy Staff. We know the pressures are great on all who work with children, especially this year. We want you to know with this small token of appreciation how grateful we are for all you do. We pray God‘s richest blessings on all of you during this holiday season. Your friends at East Madison Baptist Church, Bob Ray, Pastor

We are taking up the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions during December. 100% of this offering goes to missionaries on the field taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. When you give to the Lottie Moon offering, make your checks out to East Madison Baptist church, and use the Lottie Moon envelopes.

Our Christmas Eve service will be on Friday, December 24 at 5:00 PM.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other. 

Have a wonderful week!

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we observed the second Sunday of Advent, we considered the hope we have because of Jesus. We remembered the hope we have as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper remembering our sins are forgiven and we are justified in Jesus. We found in Luke 1 the truth that if we are remembered, it ought to be from our connection to Christ Jesus. Through Mary’s eyes we saw the inherent greatness of Jesus, even while He was in her womb. We considered the uniqueness of Jesus’ birth. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, fully God and fully man. We saw the power of the first witnesses to Jesus in Elizabeth and her unborn baby, John. John jumped in praise even within Elizabeth’s womb! Elizabeth testified that Jesus was Lord even while Jesus was in Mary’s womb! Finally, we saw the beautiful song of praise Mary sang to the greatness of our God, how God brings down the rich and powerful and exalts the humble. We know Mary of Nazareth because of her great Son. May others know us today, and in the future only and because of our connection to our great and only Savior. May we continually point to how great Jesus is!

We are taking up the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions during December. 100% of this offering goes to missionaries on the field taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. When you give to the Lottie Moon offering, make your checks out to East Madison Baptist Church and use the Lottie Moon envelopes.

Our Christmas Eve service will be on Friday, December 24 at 5:00 PM.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other. 

Have a wonderful week!

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we observed the first Sunday of Advent, we worshipped by singing songs helping us to prepare our hearts for remembering Christ’s first coming and birth. Those songs reminded us of Jesus as Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. From Matthew 1, we learned from the family tree of Jesus that God always keeps every promise He makes. None of them will fail! In Christ’s first coming, God fulfilled his promise to Abraham to bless the world and to David that his descendant would reign forever. In Christ, God is fulfilling His promise that all the nations will worship him. In Christ, God fulfills His promise of grace and forgiveness working in all kinds of people. And in Christ, God will fulfill His future promise to us that Jesus will come again bodily and physically, and every eye will see Him. Jesus will completely destroy evil and rule and reign forever. 2 Corinthians 2:20 reminds us that “all the promises of God find their Yes in Christ Jesus.”  God’s grace and forgiveness are offered through Jesus. God promises you, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” If you have not turned from your sin and received this gift of God, ask Jesus to save you. This promise is one that can be yours today.

We will observe the Lord’s Supper during our morning worship service next Sunday, December 5 at 10:30 AM.

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! As we worshipped yesterday, we focused on thankfulness and our need to be thankful. From John 19, we considered Jesus willingly going to the cross for us and dying in our place. The King of kings became the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. We thought about how the true and living God of the universe is completely unique in that He entered into our suffering and suffered in our place. He understands suffering, even our suffering, from experience. We are not promised we will not suffer. Suffering is real and is a part of life. However, God the Son Himself has suffered for us and entered into our suffering. God will be with us as we face suffering in this fallen world. Jesus dying on the cross and entering our suffering to completely provide forgiveness and salvation for all who believe should receive our deepest gratitude.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Have a wonderful week!

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church