Church Blog

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

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! It was great to worship with you yesterday and sing about God alone being God. “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” (Psalm 113:5-6, ESV). There is none like Him and none beside Him. We learned that God calls every one of us to talk to Him. We learned prayer is so simple that the youngest believer in Jesus can talk with God. Prayer is not just for the spiritual elite but for every child of God. God wants to answer our prayers and wants to give us good things that will help us live for His glory. We should not give up when heaven seems silent when we pray, but shamelessly persist in praying for the good things that will bring God glory. We also learned that God is in no way reluctant to answer our prayers and that there is never an inconvenient time to approach God. We learned that the best thing God can ever give us is the gift of His presence, the gift of His Holy Spirit being with us whatever we might face. What a privilege we have to talk to the Eternal God of the universe because of what Jesus has done for us! What a privilege to ask Him for anything we need to live for His glory! We have the privilege to come to God’s very throne through Jesus Christ!

We are blessed to be celebrating some weddings soon among our church family. Marriage is one of God’s great blessings! God thought of marriage when he said that a man shall leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and the two shall be one flesh. Marriages centered in Jesus Christ reflect the love Jesus has for his bride, the church. Pray for these couples as they begin their lives together in marriage, that they would always center the lives and marriages in Jesus.

Continue to pray each other as you think of one another.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy first Monday in October! The Supreme Court of the United States begins its yearly session on this first Monday every year. As for me, I am glad Almighty God is never “off session.” The Judge and Ruler of the universe is always on the throne. As a just judge, He judged us guilty as charged for our sins, but then had His only begotten Son, Jesus, pay the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross in our place. All who will accept this payment for their sins by believing in Jesus and trusting their lives to Him, are justly declared not guilty. Hallelujah! As the Chris Tomlin song says,

I’m forgiven because He was forsaken,
I’m accepted because He was condemned.
I’m alive and well,
His Spirit lives within me,
Because He died and rose again.

Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You

It’s my prayer that together in all we do, we will honor Jesus.

Love being your pastor and serving our great Savior with you!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! It was wonderful yesterday to worship and fellowship with each of you! We were reminded as we looked at the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10 that we are to place no limits on whom we will love as we love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to love and serve those like us and those unlike us. We are to love and serve our friends and our enemies. We are to love and serve those who vote like us and those who do not. We are to love and serve those who follow Jesus and love and serve those who believe something completely different. In loving our neighbor as ourselves, we are not to exclude anyone from the definition of “neighbor.” There will be someone who crosses your path this week that needs a true neighbor to love them. Be that neighbor to them!

The pot luck lunch was so wonderful yesterday. Meeting upstairs took just a little extra effort, but it was so worth it! It was good to be able to have some people stay who have difficulty with our many stairs. Thank you for loving each other and making this fellowship meal even sweeter than usual.

Love being your pastor!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! I am excited today that you and I are part of extending God’s Kingdom. We come into contact daily with those who need the love and life of Jesus, and the forgiveness He offers. Yesterday’s worship time and message reminded us that we have the privilege to share with them that His kingdom has come and they can be part of that kingdom! May God grant to all of us the boldness and wisdom to not miss those opportunities.

We missed those of you who weren’t here yesterday and pray you are doing well. As humans, sometimes sickness, family obligations or just the need for time away means we can’t gather with God’s people on a given week. However, there are some of you haven’t been here in a while and I am concerned for you. The enemy of your soul, the devil, wants you to not be among the people of God. He will try to isolate you. Sometimes the enemy wants you to feel so horrible when you mess up that you just want to avoid God’s people. Don’t let him isolate you! We all blow it and we all mess up and sin. There is God’s promise that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God’s people are not a bunch of arrived saints, but a group of struggling pilgrims that need each other to help us keep moving toward becoming like Jesus. We are here to help each other when we are doing good and when we fall. If when you fall, it causes you to avoid God’s people, the enemy has achieved his goal. Don’t let the enemy deceive you and shame you into avoiding God’s people. We need you and you need us!

I want to thank again all those who helped with the Kennedy anniversary celebration and those who helped in the church work day last weekend. You guys and gals are great!

We will have a pot luck dinner after worship next Sunday, September 25. We will be having this dinner upstairs to make it easier for those who have difficulty navigating the stairs.

Email or call me if you need prayer or ministry from me or your East Madison family. We can’t provide that needed prayer or ministry if you don’t let us know you need something.

Love being your pastor!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday afternoon to all of you! We had a great day yesterday with the East Madison family and a lot of guests. Thank you for making them feel welcomed! It is so important to help guests feel welcomed and cared for when they worship with us at East Madison. As someone said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” When people worship with us and somehow find a human connection, it helps our message that Jesus loves them become more believable. Thank you for making an extra effort to connect with our guests.

I hope you learned with me that following Jesus is a great adventure! Yes, it is sometimes hard and there are times of difficulty. But whatever it might cost us to follow Jesus, it is worth it! Can I get and “Amen”! As we follow Him, He provides His Holy Spirit as our constant companion. He provides strength and wisdom for the journey and His people to be our fellow travelers. We follow the One who loves us more than we can even comprehend or understand. We follow the One who laid His life down for us. My prayer for myself and for you is that we will “see Him more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly, day by day.”

We will be helping Kennedy school with their anniversary celebration Friday night, September 16.

Next Sunday during morning worship, we will be observing the Lord’s Supper.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor! Thank you for being a great church!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Tuesday to all of you! I hope you had a great Labor Day holiday and did not have to do much labor! Sunday was a great day to be with the people of God. We missed those who were gone! I know that the end of summer stuff and the celebrations were good for you. In our worship time, we learned that we not only need to confess and follow Jesus as Lord, but we need to understand what kind of Savior He is and what kind of people he wants us to be. Jesus is the Savior who served and suffered for his followers that they may have life. As His followers, we are to serve others and be willing to suffer for them. We are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. We are to follow the Jesus revealed in the Bible and not a false Jesus made up out of our own desires and imagination or the imaginations of others. We follow one who gave up His life as a ransom for many, and we are to have that same attitude and lifestyle. The way to real life is to lose it to Jesus and find our lives in Him.

I encourage each of you to be involved in Bible Study on Sunday morning. We have classes for all ages, from preschool to adults. Now is a good time to join one of these studies.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday morning! I hope your day has started well. It was great to be with you yesterday and worship together. We missed those of you who weren’t here and pray you also had a great day. Yesterday, we worshipped our great God and learned that He will always provide us with whatever we need to serve Him. He may not provide it until the exact right time, but He will always provide for His work. We learned that as we serve Him and share the good news of the gospel, some will not receive the gospel. We move on and share it with others because there are those who may be waiting to respond. We also learned that sometimes God will call us to some impossible task we with our strength and resources cannot accomplish. God does this to show us that when we are at the end of our strength and resources, He is there to do what He alone can do. There is nothing He cannot accomplish! He is the God of the impossible who uses imperfect vessels like us to show His mighty power.

As we seek to share the gospel with family and friends and with others, I am reminded of Paul’s burden for his fellow countrymen who had rejected the gospel. He wrote about this in Romans 9. The intensity of his burden was profound and could have been paralyzing. However, he kept praying and seeking to share the gospel with his fellow Israelites and he also took the gospel to those who were more open. Many of you have family and friends who continually seem to reject the gospel. You are intensely burdened for them. Don’t blame yourself for their rejection of the gospel. God will bless every imperfect effort you make to share His good news. Keep praying for them and sharing the gospel as you have opportunity, but don’t let your burden for them keep you from sharing with others who may be more open. God is able to open hearts and He is hearing your prayers for those you love, so don’t lose heart. Keep being faithful and see what God can do.

We pray God’s blessing for those starting back to school this week. Have a great year! May God use you to be His light and show His love to those God places in your path.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! We have a beautiful day to rejoice in the Lord! The circumstances of our lives may be difficult, but when we remember Jesus and all He has done, we can always rejoice in Him.

It was great to worship with you yesterday here at East Madison. The music helped us to focus on our great God instead of lesser things. The message out of Luke 8 reminded us that Jesus has the power to calm all our fears. Whatever your great fear may be, Jesus is greater than that fear. Jesus is greater than nature, greater than demons, greater than disease and greater than death! Jesus overcame them all and will help those of us who believe in Him overcome whatever we are facing or might face in the future. We truly are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Remember to pray for each other this week.

Love being your pastor!

Bob