Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Tuesday to all! We know many were not able to gather with us Sunday because of the extreme weather. We missed you but we never want you to endanger yourselves in extreme conditions. The message focused on another of the reasons Jesus came, to give us abundant life. He does not give us just enough life to make it, but He grants to us life to the full as we walk with Him and serve Him daily. There is no better life than knowing, loving, and serving Jesus! There is no better life than being a part of His family!

Remember the special events of this week. On December 24, we will have a Christmas Eve service at 5:00 PM. We will have only a worship service on Christmas Day at 10:30 AM with no Sunday School.

On January 1st, there will also be only a worship service at 10:30 AM and no Sunday School. Carla and I will be gone to Oklahoma to visit her parents and other family. Jason Donaldson will be preaching the message that morning. Because of the holidays and the fact that we will be gone, there will be no Pastor’s email the next two Mondays.

Carla and I want to wish every one of you a “Merry Christmas!” We pray you have a wonderful time this season with those you love. We pray for safety for those who are traveling. Most of all, we pray you would experience the presence of Jesus as we celebrate His first coming. We love you all!

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy snowy Monday to all! We had a wonderful day worshipping our Lord and remembering the reasons Jesus came. Yesterday’s message was entitled, “Jesus Did Not Come to Save You From Hell.” It reminded us that Jesus came to save us from something and for someone. He came to save us from sin-its presence, its power and its ultimate penalty of death and the second death which separates us from the goodness of God forever. The angel told Joseph that Jesus would save His people from their sins. All of us need to be saved from sin and freed from its power. We need that initially and we need that daily. We learned that sin is progressive, sin enslaves and sin always leads to death. Jesus came to save us from sin. Jesus also came to save us for Himself, that we might know, love, live for and serve Him. When we come to trust in Jesus and confess Him as Lord, we confess that we are no longer our own king, but Jesus is the King, Ruler, Boss, and Lord of our lives. We are subjects of the King of kings and Lord of Lord and are a part of His forever kingdom. We do not live any longer for our own agendas, but we live for Jesus’ agenda and for His purposes. To know, love, and serve Jesus is what eternal life is all about!

We missed those of you who were not here because of the snow storm. We want you to know that we do not want you to endanger your health when the roads and sidewalks might be hazardous. On those days of snow and ice and other weather events, please do not take chances that might endanger your health to be here. We also want you to know that if you need something during those times, please let us know so we can help you. We are family and we watch out for each other!

I hope you are having joy as we approach the celebration of the first coming of Jesus. Don’t get so busy in the season that you miss the joy of celebrating it.

Remember the special events of the season. On December 24, we will have a Christmas Eve service at 5:00 PM. We will have only a worship service on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day at 10:30 AM with no Sunday School on those days.

Love being your pastor!

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! The first snow of the season was beautiful! Yesterday was a wonderful day to be with the family of God and see beyond Madison to the ends of the earth. Forrest Bohlen helped us see how God is a work in South America and around the world. God’s children join Him in taking the good news to the ends of the earth by praying, giving and going. I hope you took one of the “2016 Week of Prayer for International Missions” guides and will use it to pray for those international missionaries we support. (I used it today to pray for the Copland family serving in Verona, Italy.) Also, be praying about what God would have you give to the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions. 100% of this offering goes to support more than 3,600 missionaries and their outreaches that takes the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Christmas time will give all of us opportunity to share the gospel if we will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leadership and the people we are around. I hope we will all pray that God would empower us to take advantage of the opportunities to share Jesus during this season. Also, remember to invite people to worship with East Madison this season. Many people are more open to attending worship, especially on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Our Christmas Eve service will be at 5:00 PM and our Christmas Day service will be at our regular worship time of 10:30 AM.

Love being your pastor!

Brothers and sisters,

Happy rainy Monday to all! I hope everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day yesterday. I hope that as we celebrate the first coming of Jesus, we can remember that he came to give us life and life to the full. He came to free us from oppressive religion so that we might love Him and others. We could not gain our forgiveness and be right with God by any religious observance, but we are forgiven and right with God by faith in Jesus Christ. He has paid for our forgiveness and He gives it to all who believe in Him. Remember the love He has for you when He feels far away. Remember also that just because His presence seems far away, He is always near to His children! Remember Romans 8:31: “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

This Sunday, December 4, will be a special day. Forrest and Becky Bohlen will be with us sharing about international missions. Forrest and Becky served in Venezuela and in Chile with the International Mission Board (IMB) and recently retired from the IMB. They are still seeking to work with Hispanics in Wisconsin. Don’t miss hearing their stories this Sunday in morning worship.

Remember, also, we will be having a pot luck dinner after worship this Sunday, December 4.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! I hope your week has gotten off to a great start. If for some reason it has not gotten off to a good start, rejoice in the Lord anyway! He is our joy, strength and song. As we learned about yesterday, all of us have been blessed by Him and all of us can continually thank Him. We don’t necessarily have to thank him for bad circumstances, but we can thank Him that He will bring good for His children even in the worst of circumstances. We can thank Him that through His blood He has reconciled us to Himself and to one another, so that there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for we are all one in Christ.” As believers we seek to live in that reconciliation and seek continually to make that reconciliation between all men and women who are in Christ more and more of a reality in our world. We seek to recognize our own prejudices and ask God to give us eyes to see all people as He sees them-men, women and children for whom Christ died to forgive, save and give eternal life.

We rejoice in the 21 shoe boxes that were made and delivered for Operation Christmas Child. Pray for these gifts to provide a strong witness to the gospel as they go all over the world.

Sunday, November 27 during morning worship we will begin our observance of Advent and also will be observing the Lord’s Supper.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! It was wonderful to be with all of you yesterday as we worshipped as a church family! Our great God loves us and the best thing we can do in life is to turn from ourselves to Him and discover the life we were created to have. Repentance is not a negative thing, but a wonderful thing. We turn away from our self and find life in the One who created us to love Him and love others. The tragedies of life should cause us to think of our own mortality and of our own need to turn to God. God can stop judging us when we believe in Jesus because Jesus has already been judged in our place and has paid the debt for our sin.

Last night celebrating Thanksgiving as a church family was fun! I want to thank everyone who prepared food and worked so hard so that we could have such an enjoyable evening.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! I hope your work week has started well. Yesterday we learned that we should all live looking for the Lord to return. Jesus tells us in Luke 12 to be watchful, alert, and faithful until He returns. We are to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth until He comes again. We are to seek to influence our communities toward justice and righteousness until He returns. But we are also to remember that all the wrongs will not be corrected and all the injustices will not be righted until Jesus comes again. Paul reminded Titus that the second coming was not something for the believer to fear, but a “blessed hope.” “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:11-13 (NIV). We can pray with the early church, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”

Tomorrow is election day. I would in no way presume to tell you how to vote. I will encourage you to pray, educate yourself as best you can about the issues and those running, and vote your conscience. Make the best choice that you can make as you cast your ballot. I want to thank Pete for his song yesterday that reminded us that God is forever and always on His throne and in control. Remember Steven Curtis Chapman’s words whatever the election results.

But there’s only one who’s making promises that He won’t break
And He is on the throne.

He is faithful and true,
everything He says He’ll do,
And everything we go through,
He will go with us.
All the kingdoms of man
are in the palm of His hand
So I will not fear, I’ll say it loud and clear, so my own heart can hear it
God is on the throne.

I will, however, presume to tell you that God’s Word teaches us that after this election is done and even before, every believer is commanded to pray for those in authority over us. “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness,” (1 Timothy 2:1-2, NIV). Christians are to continually pray for whoever will be elected. I will also tell you that if you hold anger, hatred, and bitterness toward those you did not vote for or for those who did not support your candidates or issues, you are sinning. God commands us to love even our enemies. His word tells us that man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Our world does not need any more angry and bitter people, but Christians who love even those with whom they may disagree. Let’s be those whose lives are characterized by God’s radical love.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we had a wonderful day of worship, food and fellowship. We gathered and sang praises to God and worshipped Him with His Word. We looked at how materialism robs us of the abundant life that God wants to give us. It robs us by stealing from us the joy of the now. It robs us of the joy of helping others with the blessings God has entrusted to us. Materialism robs us of preparing for eternity. Materialism robs us of making Jesus and His kingdom our chief desire. Materialism promises much but delivers very little. Don’t build your life upon wanting more and more money and things. Invest in eternity by seeking first God’s Kingdom and using what He has entrusted to you to help others and extend His kingdom.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving as the family of God on Sunday, November 13 at 6:00 PM. Bring family, friends and neighbors! There is a sign-up sheet in the foyer with a list of the things we need for the meal. All who were at the pot luck yesterday know how wonderful an average meal is at East Madison. Think about how great this Thanksgiving feast will be on November 13!

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24, NIV). Remember that we have to choose joy. We can rejoice in the day the Lord has given us no matter how difficult the circumstances. Focus on His presence with you and His love for you. Focus on the truth that as a believer He is working in your life to conform you to the image of His Son, to make you in your character like Jesus.

Yesterday we learned to seek to avoid hypocrisy. We learned that hypocrisy was more than just having inconsistencies from time to time in our lives. Even though believers are redeemed, we are still weak human beings and we will fail to follow the Lord as we should from time to time. We often forget that we not only need Jesus to save us from our sin generally, but we need Him every day to save us from our sin and ourselves. We need a Savior every single day! We also need each other! We need to be transparent with each other when we are being inconsistent so we can help each other be more consistent in following Jesus. Therefore, hypocrisy, in its rawest form, is acting like we believe something but never truly practicing what we say we believe. Hypocrisy is acting like we don’t have inconsistencies. It is acting like we have it together and hiding our struggles from others. We are to avoid hypocrisy because Jesus told us everything hidden will ultimately be revealed. We avoid hypocrisy because we must care more about God’s opinion of us than people’s opinions of us. We avoid hypocrisy because it leads to self-righteousness which causes us to think we do not need Jesus to rescue us from sin. We don’t want to act like we are followers of Jesus. We want to truly know Jesus and follow Him!

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! I pray your day is going well and you will have a great week! It is my prayer that we will walk with Jesus and thus see the world as He sees it! When we open our lives to Jesus, He enables us to see things as they really are. If we close our lives to Jesus, we can never see the world as it is. Our vision will always be tainted because, as Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Also, if there is a blockage in our lives which impedes our walk with God, it will also taint our seeing the world as it really is. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:29-32 to remind believers: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Living a life practicing the truths from these verses enables us to see from God’s perspective.

I am glad to be part of God’s family and share joys and burdens. We got to share a wonderful joy as we witnessed Ben and Abby become husband and wife this weekend. We also shared some burdens in knowing that Jean had to be taken to the hospital. Also, if that wasn’t enough for one family, Patti also had to be taken to the hospital this morning. Pray for Jean and Patti. Pray also for Barb and the rest of the family during this time. I will update you as I have new information. I am glad that we can share burdens and pray and care for one another as God’s family.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper this coming Sunday, October 22, during our morning worship.

Love being your pastor!

Bob