Happy Monday, October 22, 2018 church!

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we sang praise to our Redeemer because of His deep love for us. We looked in Daniel 9 at the prayer of Daniel and thought about how his prayer should enlighten our prayer life. We looked at how our reading of the Bible should help us learn to understand better the mind of God and the things that glorify God for which we need to pray. We thought about always approaching God realizing His greatness. God is not our “good buddy” but the One who loves us more than any other and the One who alone is the awesome Creator, Ruler, and Redeemer of the universe. We can boldly ask for His help but should never approach Him with anything less than utmost reverence and respect. We thought about approaching God by confessing our own personal sinfulness and the corporate sinfulness of His people. We will not be sinless as we approach God and so we must always approach Him recognizing that it is not by our own merit that we come to God but by Jesus’ merit. We in humility seek to continually confess and forsake personal and corporate sin. We also remembered that as we pray we appeal to God on the basis of His character and compassion and honor. Our first concern should not be the alleviation of some difficulty but the glory of God. Finally we saw that God answers our prayers on the basis of His love. There is no lack of willingness on the part of God to answer prayers. God longs to hear and respond to those who pray to Him by and through the merit of Jesus, the One He sent to save us from our sin.

We will have our annual East Madison Thanksgiving Celebration on Sunday evening, November 11, 2018 at 6:00 PM. There is a sign-up sheet for the food items we need for this celebration on the table in the foyer.

Pray for each other. There are now and always those among us who are dealing with difficult circumstances personally or in their families, so we need to continually hold each other up in prayer.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church