Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday and happy first day of spring to all! We have a beautiful day today and we can rejoice in the Lord! Of course, even if it was a lousy day, we can still rejoice in the Lord!

We had a wonderful day yesterday as we shared in the Lord’s Supper and worshipped together. We had a lot of guests and we thank God for them. I hope each of you got to meet some of our guests. (It was pretty hard to meet them all!) When guests come, each of us need to go out of our way to welcome them. I want to thank you all for doing your best to welcome our guests. I also hope the message was helpful to you as we learned that just a Jesus walked toward difficulties and faced them, so we need to walk toward difficult challenges in our lives and not away from them. God can and will help us face those difficult things and use them in our lives for our good and His glory.

This Sunday, March 26 there is a pot luck luncheon and family meeting for all at East Madison. We will hear David Juhlin’s report on his recent mission trip. We will talk about some ideas we want to do this summer and ideas of things that will enable us to better disciple and reach people with the message of Jesus. God might have given you a brilliant idea of something East Madison needs to do! Please be praying for this family meeting and stay to be a part of it.

Also, we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus’ resurrection soon. We will have two special event on the week preceding Easter. We will have a presentation from “Jews for Jesus” called, “Christ in the Passover” on Tuesday night, April 11, at 7:00 PM. On Friday night April 14, we will have a joint Good Friday service with Sovereign Joy here at East Madison also at 7:00 PM. I hope you are planning to be part of these special events that will help us focus on the importance of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Hope this snowy Monday has gone well for all of you. It was wonderful to worship together and to witness Emily confessing her faith in Jesus through believers’ baptism. Even though the water was a little cold, seeing this baptism warmed hearts. Emily’s faith in Jesus was not something new, but something she possessed for a while. However, she wanted to take the step of believers’ baptism, the step that is recognized across the world as identifying you as a follower of Jesus. If some of you have never taken that step in your faith journey, consider it seriously. It is a confession of your faith in Jesus and an identifying that you have died to your old life without Christ and you possess new life in Him. Those who truly have believed in Jesus and seek to follow Him as Lord need to be baptized as a confession of their faith.

I hope yesterday’s message helped us to see that Jesus is worth following whatever it might cost us. There is nothing in our lives that should keep us for following Jesus. We can’t receive Him if we are holding on to something else. Let go of anything in your lives that hinders you from loving, following, and living for Jesus.

Ladies, plan to join the fun and fellowship at “Fired Up Pottery” Saturday, March 18 at 12:30. There’s something for everyone’s budget. Most people spend between $18 to $39 a person, but they do have pottery starting at $5. Even if you don’t want to spend any money, come for the fellowship. The address is: 4112 Monona Dr., Madison, WI 53716.

We will be having the Lord’s Supper this Sunday during the morning worship gathering at 10:30 AM. Every believer in Jesus, in humility because of our unworthiness, should take this supper. Taking the supper calls for a willingness to confess any known sin, but it does not call for morbid introspection. Don’t fear taking the supper because you have a vague fear that you might have some unknown sin in your life. Don’t let the devil’s accusation of past confessed sin keep you from taking the supper. If you ask God to reveal sin you need to confess, confess it if something comes to your mind, and join us in taking the Lord’s Supper. If nothing comes to your mind, move on and join us in taking the supper. None of us are worthy, but we can take the supper because Jesus’ blood alone has made us worthy. The supper reminds us of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for our sin. Taking the supper reminds us that we are all a part of His body and we need each other.

Sunday, March 26 there is a pot luck luncheon and family meeting for all at East Madison. We will hear David Juhlin’s report on his recent mission trip. We will talk about some ideas we want to do this summer and ideas of things that will enable us to better disciple and reach people with the message of Jesus. God might have given you a brilliant idea of something East Madison needs to do! I hope you will be praying for this family meeting and stay to be a part of it.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday the message from Luke 18 encouraged us to pray, pray, pray. We learned that we need to keep praying and trusting God even when it seems like nothing is happening and there is great delay in our prayers being answered. God will answer the cries of His children for justice. He will hear and answer those who approach Him in humility and love when the time is right. We want God to be on our schedule, but we must learn to be on His schedule and trust Him when He delays answering us. Even though it does not seem like it, those delays are for our good to make us more like Jesus. As the hymn says,

“Have faith in God,
He’s on His throne.
Have faith in God,
He watches o’er His own.
He will not fail,
He must prevail.
Have Faith in God,
Have faith in God!
(B.B. McKinney)

We want congratulate Bart and Lauren Schlueter on the birth of their daughter, Ava Clare Schlueter, who was born today at 12:53 PM. AND, we want to congratulate Donald and Deanna Smith on the birth of their grandson! Congratulations also to mom and dad, Jay and Cassie! We thank Almighty God for these children and pray for God’s blessings on these two families. We love babies at East Madison!

I want to remind you that this Sunday, March 12, is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. Turn your clocks forward (Spring forward!) before you go to bed on Saturday night or you will be late for worship on Sunday. (I don’t know why they call it “Daylight Savings Time.” It does not seem like we save any time but just simply re-appropriate it!)

Ladies, remember that there is a Ladies fellowship time on Saturday, March 18. Details will be shared next Sunday and next week in this email.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Pray your week has started well. It was wonderful to worship with you yesterday. It was glorious as we sang together “Be Unto Your Name.”

We are a moment, You are forever
Lord of the Ages, God before time
We are a vapor, You are eternal
Love everlasting, reigning on high

Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain
Highest praises, honor and glory
Be unto Your name, be unto Your name

We are the broken, You are the healer
Jesus, Redeemer, Mighty to save
You are the love song we’ll sing forever
Bowing before You, blessing Your name

Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain
Highest praises, honor and glory
Be unto Your name, be unto Your name

Be unto Your name…
(Written by Robin Mark, from “Revival in Belfast.”)

We know we are part of His present Kingdom on the earth as His children and His church. We are part of its advancement to the ends of the earth. We know one day we will experience the fullness of the Kingdom when our King Jesus returns personally and bodily for every eye to see and for every knee to bow before and confess that He alone is Lord. With the saints of all ages we pray, “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!”

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! It was great to be with you yesterday as we worshipped together and then shared a meal. We learned that as believers we experience freedom as we walk in forgiveness. Forgiveness is something that God will empower every believer to do. Forgiveness is a requirement for the believer and not an option. Forgiveness is an expectation and not anything extraordinary for followers of Jesus. We also learned that forgiveness is an act of obedience and not an emotion. As we obey God by choosing to forgive, we believe that God will help our emotions follow our obedience. Finally we learned that forgiveness is offered in faith and not capitulation. We do not forgive because what was done to us is okay. We forgive on the same basis that we are forgiven. Jesus, by the shedding of His blood, has paid for the sin of the one who wronged us just as that blood pays the penalty for our sins. Don’t place yourself in the prison of unforgiveness but live in the freedom of forgiveness.

Please keep David Juhlin, Hoyt Lovelace and the other members of their team in prayer as they are on their mission trip. We also thank God for Kelsey Pokrandt’s successful arthroscopic knee surgery this morning. Pete has emailed us an told us that it sounds like the procedure went very well. As of the writing of this email, she is in recovery.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! As we worshiped yesterday by the singing of praises, reading of the Word, sharing the Lord’s Supper, and hearing God’s Word taught and proclaimed, we remembered the extreme price paid for us to be saved. There are many who ask why Christians believe that Jesus is the only way. Could there not be another way for people to be saved? This is a good question, one that Jesus Himself asked in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” He intensely prayed essentially this same prayer three times. The answer that came was that it was not possible for people to be saved in any other way than His bloody death on the cross. People could not be forgiven and know God except by the cross. People could not escape an eternity exposed to God’s wrath against sin except by the cross. In the cross, Jesus completely and fully absorbed the wrath of God against us because of our sinful rebellion. Now because of the cross we can be justly forgiven and know, love, serve, worship, and glorify Almighty God. Salvation is ours for the taking if we will turn from sin by believing in Jesus.

I am sure many of you thought of family and friends who have not yet believed in Jesus as you listened to the sermon from Luke about Lazarus and the rich man. You are burdened for them and concerned for them and want them to believe. Remember this: God loves them more than you do and He wants them to believe and be saved. Do not be discouraged because they have not yet believed. Pray for them because God is working in their lives to bring them to faith. Even if they seem far from God, even if they seem uninterested in the gospel, God’s Spirit can move in their lives and show them their need for Jesus. He answers the prayers of His children so keep praying for those family and friends.

Speaking of prayer, I wanted to encourage some of you to come to the prayer time we have on Sunday evenings. We meet at 6:00 PM and share a few minutes about concerns, then we spend the majority of the next hour praying for those concerns and other things that God brings to our minds. Sometimes there are some longer periods of silence as we all silently pray together. No one is asked to pray aloud. You can pray silently with us without uttering a sound. Praying for almost an hour may seem like a long period of time, but truly the hours seems to pass very quickly. Sometimes it has been hard for me to want to go to prayer. I have wanted to watch the end of a Packer game from time to time to be real honest with you. However, there has never been a time after I went that I regretted going and praying with my brothers and sisters at East Madison. Join us and give it a chance and see what you think. No one can come every week so don’t feel bad if you have to miss from time to time. For the next couple of weeks, we will especially be praying for David Juhlin and Hoyt Lovelace and the other men who are going with him on this mission trip across the world.

We will have a pot luck dinner after worship next Sunday, February 19. Bring enough food for your family and a little extra for our guests.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! I pray that all of us are living in the forgiveness found in Jesus. We learned yesterday that no believer needs to be afraid of truth because all truth is God’s truth. We learned that Christ’s disciples seek to continually understand and live by God’s Word while falsely holy people distort and misuse the Word of God. We don’t have to hide anything as believers. We can be transparent with God, ourselves, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the world. We can acknowledge where we are struggling and failing as believers, knowing that God forgives those who openly acknowledge and confess sin. When we seek to honestly deal with our sins and not hide them, God will forgive and help us. There is no sin that is greater than the sacrifice of Jesus to pay for that sin. As believers all of us know we have not yet arrived so we do not have to pretend that we have it all together. But those who are falsely holy people seek to justify themselves by distorting and misusing God’s Word. They misuse and distort the Word of God and refuse to call sin what God calls sin. They look down on others and justify themselves in the eyes of men. But God knows their heart and because they are not honest about their sins before Him, their sins remain unforgiven. We learned that we could live in the forgiveness that God provides in Jesus. When Satan accuses us by reminding us of the sins of our past, we remember that Jesus has forgiven those who believe and gives them a clean slate and a brand new start. We praise Almighty God for the forgiveness that is ours in Jesus! We praise Almighty God for the wonderful Savior we serve!

I mentioned a website last week that would enable you to pray for your neighbors. The web address is pray4everyhome.com. You can go to that website and sign up and they will send you the names of five of your neighbors every day so you can pray for them. After you get signed up and they start sending you the names of five neighbors, you pray for them and click on the link that keeps track of your praying. I encourage you to use this tool to pray for your neighbors who need Jesus.

Remember we will be observing the Lord’s Supper in our morning worship next Sunday, February 12.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! I hope your week has started well. It was wonderful worshipping with you yesterday our great Savior God who searches for the lost and rejoices when they are found! Christianity is the only belief in all the world where God is searching for those who are lost, who rebel against Him, and willfully spurn Him. He wants them to come home to Him, to find life in Him, and to rejoin the family. He is searching for them and longing for their return. He is calling them to “Come home.” When any lost and rebellious son or daughter comes to their senses and starts toward Him, He runs to them, embraces them, cover them with His love, and throw a party! There is none like Him! I pray that each of us would be filled with His compassionate, searching love for the lost.

We will have short meeting this Sunday, February 5, following morning worship to discuss the plan the church council decided upon for staffing child care. We asked all who work in this area or who are concerned about us having quality child care to stay for this short meeting. I also want to thank all those who work in our child care now and willingly love these children in Jesus’ name.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy icy Monday to all! I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. It was great worshiping and rejoicing with you yesterday and remembering that we are invited to God’s great party. We are invited to the be part of His Kingdom! We are unworthy even for the invitation, but He still invites us! He invites many to this party whom we can invite, people who are poor, crippled, lame and blind who will be honored guests at His party. We can live our lives continually grateful for this wonderful invitation and privilege of being a part of the great Kingdom of God, serving our great King Jesus!

We remember today Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was a courageous man of God who knew that the injustices and evils of racial discrimination must be opposed. He knew our country, which was founded on the principle that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,” had yet to live up to that principle. He courageously and non-violently fought for this country to live up to this principle. He was jailed many times in his life for his stand for this principle and against the evils of racial discrimination. In fact, he was assassinated while continuing to fight for racial justice. May his example inspire all of us to courageously stand against injustices and for those who are oppressed. May it inspire us to never give up or give in to the evil and injustice that surrounds us even today.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday and Happy New Year to all! Since this is my first “Happy Monday” email of the year, I pray that all of us will grow more in love with Jesus this year, that we will walk with Him, love Him, and seek to bring glory to His name. I pray that our love for one another would grow so the world would know that we are Jesus’ disciples. Finally, I pray our love and compassion for the lost and needy world that we live in will exponentially increase! We are part of Jesus’ unconquerable church and Jesus will lead us to total victory, so we can risk and try and move out in faith in 2017! This is going to be a great year!

Ladies, put noon, Saturday, January 21st on your calendar! The ladies will meet at The Great Dane in Fitchburg (2980 Cahill, Main, Fitchburg, Wisconsin 53711.) Plan on coming and invite a friend!

It would be a good time to start coming to Bible Study on Sunday morning. Jason Donaldson does an excellent job in teaching the Scriptures for adults. You will learn if you attend on 9:30 AM on Sunday morning. We also have Bible Study classes for children and youth that have excellent teachers who love children and youth and teach God’s Word. Also, if you are not in a small group, think about starting to attend one this new year. We have men’s groups that meet on Tuesday evening and Saturday mornings. There are ladies groups that meet on Monday evening and Saturday morning. We also have a ladies group that meets during the day on the weekdays. If you need any information on these, contact me.

Love being your pastor! Let me know if you need something. Looking forward to our next time together!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church