Church Blog

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

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