Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Tuesday to all! I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday and thought about someone you knew who sacrificed his or her life in the service of our country. I think of one young man whose funeral I officiated at in 2012 who was killed in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, we looked at John 9 and the amazing miracle of Jesus healing a man blind from birth. We learned that though we like to access blame and figure out the causes for such things, God wants our focus to be on what His grace can do to help alleviate suffering in such cases.  We learned there is a difference between man’s religion and God’s grace.  Religion will never save you. You will never find life, peace, hope, joy in religion. Man’s religions focuses on the cause of suffering. Man’s religions focuses on tradition. Man’s religions focuses on the miniscule. Man’s religions focuses on the system. However, God’s grace focuses on relieving suffering. God grace focuses on people. God’s grace focuses on the big picture. God’s grace focuses on Jesus. Man’s religion will only burden you and weigh you down. If you are bankrupt because of man’s religion today, hear the invitation of Jesus this morning. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV.) Jesus comes to us to give true sight and real life to all who embrace Him. Embrace Jesus today!

Remember that next Sunday, June 6, we will be moving the start time of our morning worship services to 9:00 AM. We will conduct services through the summer in our parking lot whenever the weather allows us to do that. Also, next Sunday evening, June 6, 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 and use 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! 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

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we looked at John 7 and Jesus’ great invitation: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  Jesus is the one who quenches the thirsting of our souls. Coming to Him is the way to find true and ultimate satisfaction in life. Jesus saves and forgives us, and Jesus provides all who believe with His Holy Spirit to strengthen, comfort, guide, empower, protect, and sustain us. The Holy Spirit will never leave or forsake those who believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit provides a never exhaustible source of life to those who will accept Jesus’ offer and come to Him. Jesus invites those thirsty for true life to quench that thirst through Him.

We hope to be able to meet outside beginning next Sunday, May 2. Watch for details in Saturday’s worship order email.

We will be continuing our virtual Bible Study of the book of Galatians this Wednesday, April 28^th at 6:30 PM. We will be studying Galatians 3 and 4. 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

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday in worship we worked our way through Psalm 107 and confessed together how we can cry to the Lord in our trouble, and He ultimately delivers us from our distress. The message from John 7 helped us to learn that nearness to the truth of God does not ensure understanding of the truth of God. We learned that speculations about the truth of God does not lead to acceptance of the truth of God. We also learned that religious elitism leads us away from God’s truth. The way to know truth is to believe in Jesus and be willing to do God’s will. If that is true in our lives, we will continually grow in understanding God’s truth and God’s ways. We will continually grow nearer to Jesus Himself. We saw that any person willing to do God’s will increasingly understands the truth of God found in Jesus Christ.

We will be continuing our virtual Bible Study of the book of Galatians this Wednesday, April 21st at 6:30 PM. We will be studying Galatians 3. 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.

Here is a link one of my favorite worship hymns at this time, “The King In All His Beauty”: https://youtu.be/odKxftGhVRE. I hope you enjoy it also.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we worshipped and celebrated the Lord’s Supper, we considered our Savior and the price paid for our salvation and for us to live in community with Him and one another. Then from John 6:60-71, we thought about following Jesus when it is unpopular to follow Him. We thought about following Him at the times we struggle understanding His instructions and His ways. We thought about continuing to follow Jesus even when someone we know turns their backs on Jesus and no longer follows Him. We confess with Peter that Jesus alone has words of eternal life. So, whatever comes our way in the days ahead, no matter how much we might be ridiculed, mocked, opposed or misunderstood, we will follow Jesus. If we want God’s life, real and eternal life, we follow Jesus no matter what comes our way.

We will be continuing our virtual Bible Study of the book of Galatians this Wednesday, April 7 at 6:30 PM. We will be studying Galatians 2. 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

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! What a fantastic Resurrection Sunday we celebrated yesterday! How wonderful it was to sing praises to the risen Christ! How wonderful it was to read from the Scripture about this most important event in history remembering Jesus’ complete victory over death! How wonderful it was to witness George Linde and Lauri Skille confess Jesus as Lord in baptism! The message from 1 Corinthians 15 reminded us of the continual hope we have because of the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It may have looked bad on that Friday afternoon almost 2000 years ago after Jesus was crucified and buried in a borrowed tomb. But now on that following first resurrection Sunday, Jesus broke the chains of death over mankind by rising physically and bodily from the grave never to die again. Jesus ripped the gates of death off its hinges so that all who believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection provides the sure foundation for our faith.

We will be beginning a new virtual Bible Study of the book of Galatians this Wednesday, April 7 at 6:30 PM. If you did not join us for the last virtual study and 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. 

We will have our annual business meeting on Sunday April 11 right after our morning worship. We will provide a zoom link for all who want to join us virtually on that day so we can receive your feedback.  

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! We had a great day worshipping yesterday! It was wonderful to hear from Dave Germann the special, “Glorious Day.” Also, his testimony was so encouraging about how one of East Madison’s early members who is now with the Lord, Peggy Blum, witnessed to him as a young man and planted the seeds of the gospel in his life. As we worshipped through Scripture readings, songs, and the proclamation of God’s Word, we thought about the triumphal entry of Jesus. We considered that we, along with believers from every age, need to boldly proclaim Jesus as King, Savior and Lord. There will be those who will seek to silence us by mockery, intimidation, economic pressures, and, sometimes, even persecution. We must pray for boldness so that these things would never stop us in proclaiming Jesus as King, Savior and Lord to our generation.

We will be having a Good Friday service this Friday evening, April 2 at 6:30 PM. We will be gathering physically and virtually. I will send out the worship order and link for this later this week.

We are looking forward to celebrating Resurrection Sunday by seeing George Linde and Laurie Skille confess their faith through believers’ baptism this Easter Sunday, April 4. What a great way to proclaim the truth of Jesus’ resurrection!

We will be beginning a new virtual Bible Study of the book of Galatians on Wednesday, April 7 at 6:30 PM. If you did not join us for the last virtual study and 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.

We will have our annual business meeting on Sunday April 11 right after out morning worship. We will provide a zoom link for all who want to join us virtually on that day so we can receive your feedback.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church