Sisters and brothers,
Happy Easter Monday to all! Jesus is risen! Jesus is risen indeed! It was a wonderful weekend of worship as we worshiped together on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. We considered that Jesus was a different kind of King. Jesus was the King who died for His subjects. Jesus gave His life so we could be forgiven and live eternally with Him. Then yesterday, as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus and His conquering death forever, we looked at the apostle Thomas from John 20. Thomas was known as “doubting Thomas.” Thomas’ voicing his doubts to his fellow apostles gave us one more convincing proof that Jesus physically and bodily rose from the grave. We learned that it is not wrong to doubt. It is only wrong to not work through our doubts. We are not to stay in doubt. When we doubt, we need to be careful not to isolate ourselves from other believers. Other believers can help us work through our doubts and all the difficulties of life. We are not to be afraid to be honest about our doubts. We need to share them with those who can help us work through them. We also need to be a church where people can ask challenging questions when they doubt. We never want to be place where people are told to not ask challenging questions. Also, we should realize we can trust the witnesses of God’s Word. It is reliable and true. Jesus calls us to battle through our doubts to sure confidence in Him as the resurrected Lord.
If you have not given to the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions, you still have a few weeks. You can make your check out to East Madison and put it in the Annie Armstrong envelops and drop it in the offering plate. We will forward all that is given to Annie Armstrong on to where it needs to go.
On Thursday, May 1, East Madison will host the spring meeting of the Greater Wisconsin Baptist Association from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM. You are invited to come and join this meeting. There are a couple of special reasons you might like to attend this meeting. Dr. Leo Endel, the Executive Director for the Minnesota/Wisconsin Baptist Convention will be with us. Leo is retiring at the end of June after serving the MWBC for more than 23 years. Many of you know Leo and might want to see him at this meeting. Also, a representative of Alliance Defending Freedom will talk to us about making sure a church’s by-laws and constitution protect churches from liability. The schedule is as follows:
9:00 AM Refreshments and Networking
10:00 AM GWBA Spring Meeting
12:00 PM Lunch
1:00 PM Dismiss
Remember to keep praying continually for each other. None of us know fully the burdens our brothers and sisters in Christ might be carrying.
Love being your pastor!
Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church