Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday was a great day to worship our God, the One from whom all blessings flow, as is every day! We looked at the human tendency to look with nostalgia on the good old days. The problem is that the good old days were often not that good at all.  We tend to remember the good things and forget the struggles of the past.  The writer to the Hebrews in Hebrews 9 was confronting some who wanted to go back to the ritual and religion of the of the old covenant.  Hebrews 9 revealed that the old covenant was completely fulfilled in Jesus! The way of Jesus is superior to the old, and every other belief system. The way of Jesus replaces the old covenant. Jesus now has brought complete and total forgiveness for those who believe. Those who believe have unlimited access to Holy God through Jesus Christ right now. And one day, Jesus will appear. Jesus will come back physically and bodily to bring the fullness of salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for Him. Complete forgiveness for sin and free access to Almighty God comes in and through Jesus Christ alone. Believe in Him. Trust your life to Him and live every day in His presence and for His glory.

If you are interested in either a short-term small group Bible study at the church building with appropriate social distancing and masking, or a short-term virtual Bible study, send me an email this week with your interest and preference.

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days.  God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we worshipped our great God and learned from Hebrews 8 that we are under a new and better covenant through Jesus Christ. The old covenant revealed to us that we could never achieve God’s favor through performance.  The old covenant revealed we could not keep God’s law because of our innate sinful nature. The old covenant revealed that the animal sacrifices of the old covenant could not provide for complete forgiveness.  The old covenant revealed those imperfect priests of the old covenant could not bring Holy God and sinful men together. However, there is a new and perfect covenant!  The new covenant reveals what we could not do for ourselves, Jesus does for us! The death of Jesus in our place on the cross provides complete, total, and forever forgiveness. As our risen and perfect forever High Priest, Jesus completely bridges the gap between sinful man and Holy God.  Some people see Christianity like the Pharisees and scribes saw Judaism in the time of Jesus. They see it as toilsome, burdensome, and joyless.  They see it as a list of rules for you to keep to hopefully make you right with God. But that kind of Christianity is not real and will never work. All our rule-keeping will not make you or me right with God. God’s Spirit and Jesus’ church do not invite you to toilsome and burdensome religion. Today, God’s Spirit and God’ church are not inviting people to follow Christ to do something for Him. God’s Spirit and God’s church invite you to come to Christ because Jesus has done everything for you!

If you are interested in either a short-term small group Bible study at the church building with appropriate social distancing and masking, or a short-term virtual Bible study, send me an email with your interest and preference.

We are receiving during September the State Missions Offering.  I believe in the work we do to advance God’s Kingdom in Wisconsin and Minnesota through this offering.  If you  want to learn more about this, go to  https://www.mwbc.org/state-missions-offering/ and watch the video on that page. Offering envelopes are available at our worship gatherings or you can write a check and designate it to “State Missions.”

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days.  God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we worshipped together by reading God’s Word and singing praises to Almighty God. We worshipped together by sharing the Lord’s Supper to remember the price Jesus paid for our forgiveness and salvation.  We worshipped together by hearing about Jesus as our forever perfect Mediator and High Priest. What a great Savior and forever High Priest we have! We have a perfect High Priest who offered the perfect sacrifice of Himself so that all who believe can be counted perfect through Him. There is none like Him. Jesus is better than all others. Jesus is superior to the Old Testament religion of Israel. Jesus is superior to all other religious systems and all other priestly castes. Jesus is better, greater, and higher. Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus can save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. This should cause us to believe in Jesus following Him as Lord and then seek to draw near to God daily through Him. Jesus Christ alone makes possible the reconciliation of sinful man and Holy God.  

I mentioned yesterday that we are talking up during September the State Missions Offering.  I believe in the work we do to advance God’s Kingdom in Wisconsin and Minnesota through this offering.  If you  want to learn more about this, go to  https://www.mwbc.org/state-missions-offering/ and watch the video on that page.

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days.  God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Tuesday to all! I hope all of you had a great Labor Day weekend. It was kind of a bummer that we did not get to meet Sunday because of the weather. I also know there were glitches with the livestream.  I know the video without glitches is posted on our YouTube channel. (The direct link to Sunday’s video is: https://youtu.be/Wpzy7oYeQgA.) 

Even when we meet virtually, we can still worship! One of the songs Pete led us in reminded us that God never changes and is forever faithful to those who believe in Jesus. The message from the final paragraph of Hebrews 6 reminded us that God always keeps His promises. God’s character will not allow Him to do otherwise. Numbers 23:19 tells us, “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change His mind.  Does He speak and then not act?  Does He promise and not fulfill?” What God speaks, He does! What He promises, He fulfills! God’s promises to forgive our sins, give us eternal life in Jesus, to never leave those who believe, and every other promise God has made to us will be without fail kept! You can depend on God to keep His promises to His people.  His promises are sure.  If you have never had anyone keep their promises to you before, God will without fail keep everyone of His promises to you. You can trust Him. He will not fail you. God’s promises to those who believe in Jesus provide us with a continual, sure, and steadfast hope.  

We are still planning on meeting in the parking lot through the month of September. HOWEVER, BEGINNING THIS SUNDAY, SEPETMBER 13^TH, WE WILL CHANGE THE TIME FOR SUNDAY WORSHIP BACK TO 10:30 AM. Also, we have rescheduled observing the Lord’s Supper for this upcoming Sunday, September 13, during our morning worship at 10:30 AM.

The goal of leadership is to try to begin meeting indoors in October. However, that is not firm as we seek to be flexible in dealing with Covid 19. Whenever we begin to meet indoors, we will still have to practice social distancing, no hugging or touching, and the wearing of masks while indoors for the foreseeable future. We would appreciate any suggestions or feedback you might like to share on these issues. Also, we ask you to be patient with leadership as we try to proceed in a wise and God-honoring way.

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days.  God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

All,

Due to the rain and wind, there will be no parking lot service this week – we will be live streaming only at https://youtu.be/CTsxAUXc-n4

Also there will be no prayer time this evening.

Hopefully we will be back in the parking lot next week!

tombobray@gmail.com	Mon, Aug 31, 2:29 PM (10 days ago)
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Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all!   Yesterday was great worshipping the eternal God and singing about the hope we have in Jesus and what He has done.  That hope is certain!  We thought from Hebrews 5 and 6 about our need to continually grow as believers.  Continued growth enables us to fully embrace hope every day of our lives.  Growth is a sign of life and health.  If there is no growth, something is seriously diseased in our spiritual lives.  Also, sometimes no growth is a sign of no real spiritual life.  Believers are to seek to grow. We grow as we put into practice what God teaches us.  We grow as we build on the fundamental truths of faith in Jesus.  We grow making sure we have truly put our faith in Jesus.  We grow as we ask God to increase our hunger for Him, His Word, and His glory.  Growing enables us to continually live in His hope no matter the circumstances of our lives.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper next Sunday, September 6, during our morning worship at 9:00 AM.

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days.  God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

We provide an offering box for you to deposit your offerings when we meet in the parking lot. If you would like, you can mail offering checks to the church address at the Milwaukee Street address below. Also, you can give your offerings online at the embclife.org website by clicking the “Give Online” tab on the homepage or you can click this link directly:  https://give.idonate.com/east-madison-baptist-church/give

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we had a wonderful day of worship.  We considered from Hebrews 2 Jesus as not only the Son of God, but also the Son of Man.  It was necessary for the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and King of the universe to become a man so that we would be saved. God the Son became the Son of Man.  Jesus took on flesh because it was necessary for Him to be made a sacrifice for our sins.  Without this great condescension of the Son of God, we could not have been saved. Hebrews 2:10 reminds us: “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation (Jesus) perfect through suffering.”  Jesus could not have become our Savior without His sacrificial death on the cross. Then we sang about this from the song written by Damon Tolhurst and Ron Roberts, “The Enigmatic Christ.”

His countenance is brilliant white, but He put on flesh like mine
Not to hide within His radiance, but so His Light would shine
We are not of human kin, yet He is Brother now to me
Through the Father God, Who made us all to be.

He is Lord, He is the Christ, and yet He’d be our Sacrifice.
Perfect Man and Holy Son came down from God to make us one
Not to be just God and King, but even Shepherd of the lost:
For every rescued soul  He paid the cost.

He came to us with empty hands, no treasure stored on earth.
But what He came to offer us is a gift beyond all worth.
He waged the war on evil,  yet He had no armory.
His weapon was His life,  laid down for me.

He had no sin or shame to shun,  no bondage to release,
Yet in our place He suffered all:  His grief has bought our peace.
He had no rank or status, and He claimed no earthly throne;
But by His death the Crown is His alone.

What a Savior we have, One who suffered for us in our place and One who runs to help us when we cry out to Him when we are tempted and suffer!

We want to congratulate Jessica Pokrandt and Sean Bull as they became husband and wife yesterday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Sean Bull had a beautiful wedding in the midst of social distancing, crowd limitations and Covid 19.  God worked His wonderful miracle of making a family yesterday. 

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! It was good to be able to take the Lord’s Supper yesterday during our time of worship.  We are all part of the one body of Christ which He bought with His own blood.  We remember Jesus as we take the Supper and worship the One who has made us into the one family of God.  The message from Hebrews 1 encouraged each of us to gain a greater understanding of Jesus our Savior. Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord whom we follow created, sustains, redeems, and rules the universe. Jesus will reign forever and ever, and every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  We must always be growing in our understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is.  We learned that God’s revelation in and through Jesus brings to fulfillment all His promises in the old covenant. God’s new covenant in His Son Jesus is final and complete. 

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! We worshipped the true and living God who alone deserves from all living creatures praise and worship.  We began our journey through the letter to the Hebrews by looking at an overview of the book and its main themes.  We saw so clearly that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is greater than any created being or any created thing.  Christ Jesus is greater than all including angels, prophets, and priests.  Christ is greater than the old covenant and any other religion.  Christ is the final and full provider for the salvation of the world. Because Jesus is greater than anyone or anything else, no force in all the universe should hinder us from receiving the forgiveness Jesus has provided and spending our lives following Him.

We will again meet in the parking lot next Sunday, July 5, 2020 at 9:00 AM.  We will be observing the Lord’s Supper during our time of worship. We will provide individually wrapped juice and wafers for all celebrating with us.  For those of you who cannot join us physically, we encourage you to watch the livestream or the recorded video and get some crackers and juice and join with us virtually in celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  We also want you to know how much we miss you and look forward to when you will be able to worship with us physically.

We began meeting for prayer time Sunday night’s at 6:30 PM in our parking lot.  We had a wonderful time last night praying.  We hope maybe some more of you will join us in the future.

I want to recommend a website for those of you with children or grandchildren who are looking for resources to teach them of Jesus’ love and God’s truth.  The website is the work of one of my lifetime friends, Charlie Bancroft.  It is called Valued by God (https://www.valuedbygod.com/) and it reaches out to children and to those with special needs.  It has all kinds of resources to help children know the love of Jesus and understand His ways.  You can also download the app for your phone or tablet.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church