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Happy Monday, May 16, church

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Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all of you! It was a wonderful day yesterday as we worshipped and studied together. It is always good just be around you people! I hope those who needed words of affirmation and encouragement found them as we learned that in Jesus we are loved and accepted. Knowing we are accepted and affirmed in Jesus helps us when we are rejected by people who ought to affirm and encourage us but who don’t. Knowing we are accepted and affirmed in Jesus gives us the courage to live out the purposes God has for each of us whatever He might lead us to do and wherever He might lead us to go.

The summer holds adventure for many of us. As the East Madison family we will be seeing people on our property on Tuesday evening beginning June 14 as the “Let’s Eat Out” food trucks are here from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm. Some of you will have graduations to celebrate. Others will have summer trips to look forward to this summer. I have heard some even have weddings that they are planning. Some of you have all of the above! I am excited to see how God works in each of our lives this summer!

Praying each of you has a great week.

Love being your pastor,

Pastor Bob

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Pastor’s Monday email for May 9

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Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday afternoon to the church dispersed! We gather to worship on Sunday and we are the church gathered. But we are as much the church when we are dispersed throughout Madison on Monday morning. As the church dispersed we are the presence of Jesus, who lives in everyone who believes, to those who surround us. Never forget God wants to work through you this day wherever you might be and whoever you might be with.

We had a great day as we studied God’s Word in Bible Study at 9:30 AM and as we gathered to worship Jesus by singing His praises and listening to His Word proclaimed at 10:30 AM. I hope you are part of both of these Sunday morning events. We missed those who could not be with us yesterday and we pray you are doing well. The sermon dealt with the passage in Luke 4 about Jesus and how he overcame temptation. I hope you learned things that will help you whenever you are tempted to believe the devil’s lies about the shortcuts he offers us. When Jesus saves us, He gives us His Spirit and His Word and we can overcome temptations that come our way. But the thing that I am most grateful for as I think about this is that Jesus overcame temptation! He was in all ways tempted like every one of us, but completely resisted temptation and was without sin. He overcome every temptation! Because He overcame every temptation, Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins and can completely save those of us who have fallen to temptations who will come to God through Him! You and I do not and will not overcome every temptation, but because Jesus did, we are forgiven, we are saved! I say, “Thank you Lord for saving a wretch like me!”

I am grateful for those who serve us weekly. We have Bible Study leaders and small group leaders who prepare and work hard to help us learn God’s truth and become more like Jesus. We have people who work continually with our children and youth to show them the love of Jesus and lead them to follow Him. We have ushers who weekly welcome people, help people who need their help during our services, and lead us in the giving of our offerings to God. We have a praise team who work hard and weekly give of themselves to help us adore our great God. We have people who help us to be on mission with God in Madison and around the world. I want to say to all of you who serve, “Thank you!” I love serving the Lord with you! God calling me to be your pastor is a great privilege and I pray that I will never take it for granted.

Have a great week brothers and sisters,

Pastor Bob

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Happy May Monday church!

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Brothers and sisters,
Happy Monday to all! I pray you are starting your week well.

As we worshipped yesterday and shared the Lord’s Supper, we remembered the great price paid for our salvation. Our salvation was bought at a high price, a price sufficient to save all who will believe. No other sacrifice is needed for anyone to find forgiveness, salvation and life. Nor will any other sacrifice be offered. Anyone who will turn from themselves and turn to Jesus as Lord and Leader of their life will be forgiven and given eternal life. There is no sin any of us have committed that cannot be forgiven because Jesus’ sacrifice is greater than our sin! Jesus has paid the penalty for your sins, my sins and the sins of the whole world. In Him there is complete forgiveness. However, if you will not believe in Jesus, where will you go to be forgiven? You cannot undo your sin. You might wish you could go back and change what you did, but that is impossible. Outside of him there is no place true forgiveness can be found. As the old hymn says:

“What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
(Robert Lowry)

We have in Jesus been given such a great forgiveness and salvation! Let us live in the assurance of that salvation this week.

We have a wonderful opportunity to meet our neighbors this summer. Beginning Tuesday, June 14, the “Let’s Eat Out” food carts will be setting up on our property and selling food and providing events for our neighborhood. They will be on our property every Tuesday evening for eight weeks. They will be here from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM. I hope you might plan on being here as many Tuesdays as you can this summer to meet those who come to eat. It will be tempting to get your food and eat only with people you know. I want to encourage you to seek to meet someone new every time you come and build new friendships. We want our community to know East Madison is here for them and cares about them. Maybe God will use these Tuesdays to introduce us to a person or persons whom He will touch. I am very excited about this opportunity!

Love being your pastor,
Pastor Bob

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Good Monday Morning church!

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Brothers and sisters,
This beautiful weather today makes it a wonderful way to start a week! I hope everyone will be able to enjoy it.

We had a great day worshipping as God’s children together yesterday. I pray the message from Luke 2 was an encouragement to you. I want all of you to know that God cares about families and he cares specifically about you and your family. I realize sometimes when we hear about how families are supposed to work, we can get fixated on how we have blown it as a husband, wife, parent or child. When you are feeling accused because of past failure, remember that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus! We can’t undo the sins and mistakes we have made. However, we can move on and know the Lord forgives. He removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. As Corrie Ten Boom said, “He casts our sins in the deepest part of the sea and puts a sign out that says, “No fishing!” Also remember God can work in spite of our failures. He can restore and rebuild! Our focus should never be on the past but the future. God will help us to do better as we turn to Him now and in the future. God restores, rebuilds and makes new. God answers our prayers and he can move in the lives of those we pray for even if they seems far away from Him.

Have a great week.

Pastor Bob

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Hello from your pastor

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Brothers and sisters,
Hope your week has started well. Yesterday was a wonderful day of worship and friendship. Being together to honor Jesus, the One who loves us and saves us from ourselves and our sin, truly helps us to live as we should live. There is truly something special about gathering together to worship Jesus. We remember that we together serve the God of the universe who is always at work around us if we have eyes to see it. We remember that there is nothing that God is not able to accomplish! There is no promise He is unable to keep!

As many of you know we cooperate with the Southern Wisconsin Baptist Association. Southern Wisconsin Baptist Association, led by Mark Millman, seeks to help churches reach those who needs Jesus and seeks to help churches start churches that will reach others with the gospel. If you want to know what other believers in our area are doing to reach their communities, you can take a look the their website. Their website address is https://www.wisconsinbaptist.org/. Also, there is a place on the website to sign up for the monthly newsletter that will keep you informed of opportunities to serve and to pray.

I am so grateful that we serve One who is greater than us. In my weakness, He is strong. He is greater than my times of doubt and depression. He is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!” Remember, He loves you and is able to help you this day!

Love being your pastor! Have a great week!

Pastor Bob

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The Most Influential Person in Your Life

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Who influences you the most? Paul David Tripp says that you are. “No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. You’re in an unending conversation with yourself. You’re talking to yourself all the time; interpreting, organizing, and analyzing what’s going on inside you and around you…You are constantly involved in an internal conversation that greatly influences the things you decide, say, and do. What do you regularly tell yourself about yourself, God, and your circumstances? Do your words to you encourage faith, hope, and courage or do they stimulate doubt, discouragement, and fear? Do you remind yourself that God is near, or do you reason within yourself–given your circumstances–that he must be different?…Here’s the question: how faith-driven and Christ-centered is the conversation that you have with you everyday.”

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More of How to Feast on the Word

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Here’s another way to feast upon the word of God, and fight the fight for faith.

Memorize the word. Why memorize when we have easy access to a copy of the Bible? Jesus’ example in Matthew 4:1-11 offers the best answer. When Satan drew near to tempt him, what did Jesus do? He fought back by recalling from memory specific verses to combat the devil in this fight for faith. Just look at how many times we read the words, “it is written.” Like Jesus in the wilderness, and just like Adam and Eve in the Garden, we also hear some form of the serpent’s question, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’ (Gen. 3:1)?” So we’d better be able to recall what God has said–from memory, because the temptations are the toughest when we don’t have a copy of the Bible around.

For instance, what will you do when you’re on your way to work and temptations arise to doubt God? You’ve finished your devotions, said “goodbye” to your family, and are driving in your car. Then the enemy comes near to whisper into your ears, “Does God really have your best interests at heart? How could he let something like this happen to you?” You pull an arrow out of your quiver that reads,

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

And you let it fly.

But then he comes back with, “Are you sure that God loves you? Why should he? Didn’t you fail him this morning?” And so you grab another titanium arrow that reads,

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1Jn. 4:10).

And still another one that reads,

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.8:38-39).

And you keep firing away, arrow after arrow–withstanding the attacks of the enemy. As you do so, they leave an aroma of God’s faithfulness, of his worthiness, of his goodness that penetrates your very soul. The Holy Spirit takes those verses, and calms your soul. He builds you up, or convicts you of unbelief. He encourages you to endure and to carry on.

When you do this, you’re fighting the fight for faith. You’re waging war against unbelief. And through it all, you are feeding your soul with the word of God.

 

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How to Feast on the Word

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Jesus said, “But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God'” (Matt. 4:4). Our souls need the words of God. They are as necessary to our spiritual life as food is to our physical life. Here are some ways to feed your souls upon the word of God.

  1. Hear the word. There are different ways to hear the word, such as listening to an online sermon or podcast. These are good, but God’s primary tool for getting the word into the ears of his people is preaching. When we gather together for worship, we come to hear what God has said in his word. We come with a sense of expectancy to understand Christ through the word of God.
  2. Read the word. In response to the question, “how often should I read the Bible?” British preacher John Blanchard said, “How often do we face problems, temptation, and pressure? Every day! Then how often do we need instruction, guidance, and greater encouragement? Every day!…an even greater issue [is], how often do we need to see God’s face, hear his voice, feel his touch, know his power? The answer to all these questions is the same: every day!” And I would add, how often do we need to trust God? Every day. How does God cultivate faith within our souls? “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom.10:17).
  3. Meditate on the word. Meditation may have gained popularity as a Far Eastern concept, but it is a thoroughly biblical one as well. The Psalmist says, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands” (Ps.143:5). And again, “On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate” (Ps.145:5). Biblical meditation is thinking deeply over the truths of the Bible. It involves taking a verse or an idea you’ve read or are memorizing, and mulling it over in your mind. Taking it in hand, and turning it one way, and then another, in order to extract spiritual truth from it. Biblical meditation isn’t an attempt to empty your minds, but instead to fill your mind with God’s word. Donald Whitney compares hearing God’s word to dipping a tea bag into hot water. But “meditation [on the other hand]…is like immersing the bag completely and letting it steep until all the rich tea flavor has been extracted and the hot water is thoroughly tinctured reddish brown.” When you hear the word, you get it one time; but when you meditate, you let the word soak into your mind.

Feast your souls on the table God has spread out before you. Hear, read, and think deeply about what God has said.

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Fighting for Faith by Praying Scripture

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The word of God is an incredible aid in prayer. There are several reasons for praying through the Scriptures. Here a few.

It’s biblical. Jesus did it. While on the cross, he prayed Psalm 22. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matt. 27:46)? And so did the early church. “And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’ (Acts 4:24-26). That comes directly from Psalm 2.

Praying Scripture helps to direct your train of thought. All of us struggle with maintaining our train of thought when praying. What do you do when this happens? Too often we’’ll probably give up after a while. But if you’re using the word as your guide in prayer, then you have an answer for this problem. If you loose track of what you’re praying about, or get distracted, just return to the Scriptures and pick right back up again. Simply go right back to the next verse, and start praying again.

It allows God to direct our prayers. Perhaps he has more insight into what we need than we do? Instead of going to God with a list of things to pray about, maybe sometimes it would be wise to talk about the things he wants to talk to you about. If you do, you’ll probably find that along the way he ends up addressing the very concerns that were on your mind to begin with.

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Fighting for Faith

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The fight for faith is different than a fight for the faith. The fight for faith occurs within your own soul on a daily basis. Ours is a spiritual struggle–a fight for faith. This is different than fighting for the faith, i.e. defending the truth of the gospel against false teachers or the world. There is a different, more deadly fight. This fight takes place within our own souls. It’s a daily struggle within our own souls to trust in God and to believe his promises in the moment of temptation. It is a fight for faith. Scripture speaks of this fight:

  • “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you” (Jms. 4:1)?
  • “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Rom. 7:21-23).
  • “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1Pe. 2:11).

We are fighting for faith on a regular basis. In other words, we are fighting to obey the command of Proverbs, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (3:5).

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