Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! I hope your week has gotten off to a good start. My week has stated well. I met this morning with some leaders of Kennedy School and others from the community to see how we might partner with Kennedy to impact our community. I am excited about the possibilities.

It was wonderful to worship with all of you and celebrate the Lord’s Supper yesterday. We were reminded of the high price Jesus paid for our salvation. We were encouraged to hear well His Word and seek to be doers of His word. The Word of God deeply implanted in us will continually change us. If you could not be here, we missed you! Remember, you can hear the message at embclife.org if you missed it and would like to hear it.

I want to thank Damon, Megan, and Cheryl for conducting the youth lock-in. I heard from many that they had a wonderful time. Thank you, youth leaders, for investing in eternity by investing in these young people.

I want to thank all of you for supporting the “Let’s Eat Out” that was held on our property this summer. You came and met people and spent time with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Hopefully, we can have more and more community events on this property as we seek to be salt and light in East Madison.

Have a great week! Below is some information and some prayer requests for missionaries we support.

Love being your pastor!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! It was wonderful worshiping with all of you who were here yesterday at East Madison. We missed those who were away. We sang “Hope Has Come,” and were reminded that hope is here because of our Savior’s love for sinners and His willingness to forgive any, every and all sin. Jesus can, He will forgive the most blatant sinner who turns from his or her sin to Him. Jesus forgave the sinful woman who came to him in faith after a lifetime of bad choices. Jesus forgave a murderer like Karla Faye Tucker and replaced her hate with love. Jesus can and will forgive any who come to Him in repentant faith. Jesus will put our “sins so far from us that even God Himself cannot find them.”

“Let’s Eat Out” has been extended for one week. If you can, come and eat with us and meet our neighbors tomorrow night, August 9, from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper this Sunday, August 14, during our morning worship service.

Some person or some people around us this week are in need of the love of God. Be looking for them with me. Ask God’s Spirit to use us to share His love with them when they come our way.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! Whether your week has gotten off to a good start or whether it has been a rocky day, we can choose to rejoice because we with imperfect faith are serving a perfect Savior. Our faith at times might be as small as a speck of dust but if that faith is in Jesus, we can see mountains move! The just God who declares “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” also declares to those who believe in Jesus, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” If your imperfect faith is in the perfect sacrifice of the perfect Savior Jesus, you can rejoice in that you have peace with God! Can I get an “Amen” for that good news!

Have a great week!

I really love being your pastor. You are a blessing to me!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! I hope your Monday is going well. It was good yesterday to worship with the family of God at East Madison and learn how Jesus is working among every group in society from top to bottom. God was among us, even answering our prayers as we met! It was also fun just watching people interact after the service was over and enjoying being together.

We are missing those of you away for activities, vacations and health reasons. All of you are being prayed for this week. Remember your brothers and sisters love you! It is good being able to get away from routine and spending time in special activities, enjoying beauty and possibly catching up with family. I hope all of you have that opportunity this summer. It is also good to come back together and be with God’s people. Carla and I worshipped with my sister and her husband, my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and Carla’s parents while we were in Oklahoma. That was special! But there is also something special about worshiping with our church family, with people whom we know and love and serve God with week by week. Yesterday was sweet!

We have two more Tuesday’s for “Let’s Eat Out.” Let’s make the best of them inviting and meeting neighbors.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor,
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday morning! I hope you are having a great Monday. Yesterday we met and it was wonderful to have been together and worshipped the God of justice, mercy, love and forgiveness. It was wonderful to worship the One who gave His life for our salvation. We took His supper together remembering that and remembering we are one in Him.

We talked about some things believers can do in response to last week’s horrible tragedies in our country that claimed the lives of seven people. We can grieve with those family members and friends who have suffered these horrible losses. We can seek to listen to those who have different experiences and perspectives than we have. We can, we must, pray that God would intervene and use us to be instruments of His justice, forgiveness and peace to others around us.

The message reminded us that when we truly believe in Jesus, He changes us and makes us different. He enables us hear His Word and empowers us to put it into practice. Those who simply hear the Word of Jesus but do not trust in Him and who do not put into practice what Jesus says simply delude themselves. We learned that what we do today is what we really believe and everything else is just religious talk.

I forgot to announce that next week, July 17, Kevin Phillips will be bring the message from Psalm 63.

Remember “Let’s Eat Out” Tuesday night on the church property from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor,
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating the United States’ Independence Day yesterday. I pray God would be gracious to this nation. May the church as God’s people humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways. May God’s people stop throwing stones at those who are already condemned because they do not know Jesus. Many of them have never even truly heard the good news of forgiveness in Christ. May we be continually telling them the good news that Jesus died to forgive sin, Jesus rose again and lives, Jesus loves, and Jesus will forgive, redeem, rescue and save anyone who will call on His name.

Sunday was a wonderful day as we worshipped together and were challenged by Tim Craig. The good news of the resurrection of Jesus is the best news the world has ever received! We need to be continually telling the story of Jesus’ resurrection and the story of how He changed each of us. We as individuals walking with Jesus together and sharing this good news can make a huge impact!

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor,
Bob

Brothers and sisters,
Happy Monday! I pray your day is going well.

I hope yesterday’s message reminded us that people are important to God. God cares when people are hurting, lonely, needy and unhealthy. He came to save and help people. Just as people are important to God, so should they be to us. When they weep, we need to learn to weep with them. I pray His mercy and love for others would be flowing like a mighty river through us.

I forgot to publicly wish all the fathers out there a “Happy Father’s Day” yesterday. I hope it was a great day for all you men. Other than loving God supremely, there is no responsibility more important for men with families than the responsibility of loving their wives as Christ loves His church and raising their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Have a great week!
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

I pray your day is going well. We had a wonderful day of worship and fellowship yesterday. Remembering the high price paid for our forgiveness as we took the Lord’s Supper together, celebrating the graduations of Grace, Myra and Nathan, and adoring our great God was a great way to start a week!

I hope the message was encouraging. Risking all we are and have for Jesus is a risk worth taking! We are called to be people of courage and not people who play life safe. We are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. We are called to lose our lives to Him and thus find real, eternal and abundant life. This doesn’t have to done in spectacular ways, but done daily in small ways as we follow Jesus.

Remember to be praying for the opportunity we have as the Let’s Eat Out food truck come to our property beginning a week from tomorrow, June 14. They will be here from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM on Tuesday evenings for eight weeks. I shared with a lady in our neighborhood this morning and also with a girl who cut my hair last week who grew up in our neighborhood about the Let’s Eat Out food trucks. Both responded positively when I shared this with them. Bring a blanket and some lawn chairs, buy some food and eat, and meet some of those who will be here. Ask God to give you opportunities to bring glory to Him and share His love through this.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor,

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

I hope everyone had a pleasant Memorial Day yesterday as we remembered the sacrifice of those who have died in defending our country and securing our political freedom.

As we begin a new week, remember that the way of Jesus is the way of grace and forgiveness. No one deserves forgiveness. But Jesus bought it for us with His blood and we are forgiven in and through Him. Following Him is a life of joy as I tried to emphasize in Sunday’s message.

As I thought about my sermon Sunday, a phrase came to my mind that I heard in my younger days. Did I “overcook my grits?” In emphasizing joy, did I make it seem like there would never be times of distress and despair and, yes, even depression in the Christian life? If that seemed to be the case as you listened, I want to correct the idea that the Christian life never has those kind of times.

In Scripture, in Christian experience and even in my own life, there are times of despair and depression. Sometimes they are extremely intense and dark. The Psalmist asked himself the question, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” There are very difficult and despairing times in all of our lives. It is not healthy to deny the pain of those times. It is not wrong to go through such times. If this is such a time of your life when you just can’t seem to find joy, I hope you will remember a couple things. First of all, God is present to help you. Even though you may feel like He is far away, He is not. He is close to His children even when they might not sense His presence. He is your “refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.” Don’t give into the despair but remember He cares and He loves you. When the Psalmist asked himself, “Why are you so downcast, O my soul?”, he answers his own question by saying, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” Despair won’t last forever. God wants to bring you through it. Secondly, remember to reach out to your brothers and sisters so you don’t have to face the despair alone. Maybe they have gone through something similar and can share with you how God helped them. Maybe they can just weep with you and pray with you. Don’t let the enemy of your soul isolate you. God’s Holy Spirit and His people are there to help.

I am not seeking to give simplistic answers to what may be a very difficult struggle you are dealing with today. This is not an exhaustive list of things you might need to do if this is you, but just a couple of ideas. I am sure that none of us needs to face despair alone.

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor,
Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! It was a beautiful day yesterday as we worshipped together and learned better how to love Jesus and support each other in following Him. I pray that you were encouraged by the message that Jesus loves and calls the unworthy, the unhealthy, the unable and the unpopular to find life in Him. Those who think they have it all together don’t need much help. But those of us who know we are a mess and need a Savior understand that we are the ones Jesus came to save, support and help.

As I was thinking about the four friends who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus to forgive and heal, I had an idea that might appeal to some of you. Maybe you have a person or some people on your heart that especially need a touch from the Lord. Maybe they seem particularly far from Him and in ways seem unreachable. If you have such a person on your heart, why don’t you enlist three other friends to covenant with you to take this person to Jesus? Ask them to pray with you for this person. Ask them to seek creative ways to somehow put this person or these people at the feet of Jesus. Maybe the four of you together praying and seeking God for this person or persons will be the team that God uses to introduce them to the One who can forgive and help them. Don’t carry the burden alone. Find three others to carry it with you. Paul told the Galatians: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ,” (Galatians 6:2, NIV).

Have a great week!

Love being your pastor,
Pastor Bob