Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! We sought to “Behold Our God” and worship Him alone yesterday as we met. Then from James 5, we looked at how believers should patiently deal with injustice. Injustice is something that we do need to stand against so that it might be corrected. But we need to stand against it in the right way. We stand against it in love and in truth. We do not use evil, violence, or unjust means to correct injustice. We stand against it, not truly for ourselves, but for those around us who come after us. We stand against it in nonviolence and love, even praying for those who commit injustice. We make sure we are not part of injustice. We refuse to hoard wealth and blessing God has given to us. We stand against injustice by justly paying for service and those who work for us. We stand against injustice by using God’s blessings, not mainly for our comfort, ease, and pleasure, but for the good of others. Finally, we realize that all the injustices of this life will not be corrected until God’s great day of judgment when every wrong will be righted. Believers patiently wait for the just God of the universe to right every wrong at the soon return of Christ.

The Easter season is a time when many people are more open to invitations to come to church. Also, most studies reveal people are more likely to come to worship when a friend invites them. Who could you pray for and invite to church this Easter season?

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! We worshipped yesterday through singing and Scripture reading, through offerings, celebrating the Lord’s Supper, hearing the Word of God taught and proclaimed, and obeying God in whatever He communicated to us by His Spirit through the Word. From the last section of James 4, we learned that success in life comes only when we acknowledge that our lives are in God’s hands, that we are here to serve him, and that we must submit ourselves and ambitions to serve Jesus Christ. We learned that planning our lives without seeking God’s direction and will is the height of arrogance. As we plan our lives seeking God’s will, we need to ask ourselves some questions. First, we ask ourselves if we have considered how short life truly is. Second, we ask ourselves if we have considered our responsibility to our fellow man. And finally, we ask ourselves if we have considered success in life comes only when we submit our lives and ambitions to Jesus Christ. If we will submit to Jesus Christ and His plan for us, we will find life, joy, peace, purpose, and success. God’s people humbly acknowledge that our lives and future are all in God’s hands. And God’s people humbly and willingly submit to Him.

We will have a potluck luncheon following our morning worship next Sunday, March 12. Bring enough food for you family and a little extra for any quest we might have.

Remember to move your clocks forward an hour on Saturday evening before bed. Daylight savings time start next Sunday, March 12.

Please keep praying for Kathy McElmurry;

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 our glorious Christ who took our sin upon Himself and gives His righteousness to all who believe. We looked at James 4 and thought about ruthlessly dealing with our personal sins. Our sins and selfishness bring confusion and disorder among the church, the people of God. But if God’s people will humbly submit to God and daily turn from our sin and selfishness, God’s unity and oneness can prevail. If we submit to God and resist the devil and the sin and selfishness he wants in our lives, the devil will flee from us. We can truly be the people of peace and the peacemakers that God intends. We will be ready and available for God to use us for His glory.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper in our morning worship next Sunday, March 5.

I want to encourage you to see the movie “Jesus Revolution.” It is a telling of the Jesus Movement revival of the 1970’s. Carla and I saw it Saturday and were inspired and encouraged. Here is a link to a review of the movie. “Jesus Revolution” is a well-told true story starring Kelsey Grammer (denisonforum.org).

Please keep praying for Kathy McElmurry’s recovery.

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 praised our great and faithful God, the only God and Ruler of all there is. Then from James 3, we learned the difference between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom. Earthly wisdom centers around me-my comfort, my pleasures, and getting what I want. Earthly wisdom is manipulative and desires for me and my team to win and you and your team to lose. Heavenly wisdom centers around glorifying God, bringing His people together, and building up others. The question for all of us is: which wisdom is guiding us? All of us can sometimes see both in our lives. We can be like Peter who one moment boldly confesses faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Then in the next moment when Jesus tells the apostles He will face the cross, we can have a worldly wisdom which does not deny self or accept hardships and sacrifice. The worldly wisdom does not understand suffering is a part of following Jesus. All of us need to lose our own personal agendas, deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus. Heavenly wisdom glorifies God, brings His people together, and builds others up. Which wisdom, Godly or earthly, is guiding you today?

Please keep praying for Kathy McElmurry; 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! As we worshipped together, we adored and praised our great God. He alone is God and there is none other in all the universe who deserves our praise. Then from James 3, we saw the power of our words. Our tongues, our words, without the help of God’s Spirit, can bring great ruin and destruction. Our words can be extremely hypocritical. But there is an answer for us to have words of life and encouragement. It is Christ in us. It is daily being filled with God’s Holy Spirit and filling ourselves continually with God’s Word. Our words and speech are powerful. They do not have to be destructive or hypocritical. Within ourselves, we will never be able to be consistent in our words. But, by the power of Jesus who lives in every believer, our speech can be affirming, encouraging, and life giving. We can keep the pesky little tongue under control through Jesus’ power in us. The words of believers controlled by God’s Spirit bring praise to God and encouragement and strength to others.

Please keep praying for Kathy McElmurry as she recovers from her stroke. Kathy is now in a rehab center close to her home in Aberdeen, SD.

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! We had a wonderful day of worship together as we sang about the great faithfulness of our Lord Jesus, who is our Rock and our Redeemer. Then as we continued to look in James 2, James confronted us with the relationship of faith and works. In this section, James is not asking if we are saved by faith. James knows that faith in Jesus alone saves. But James is asking, “What kind of faith saves?” Claims to faith in Jesus need to be backed by an ever-changing life. Faith in Jesus can’t be seen, but the evidence of a changed and caring life can be seen. We must back up our claims to faith by walking with Jesus and loving and caring for others. True faith in Jesus changes lives. False faith produces only words and never a changed life. True faith reveals itself in good works. False faith is as dead as a corpse in a coffin. True faith in Jesus reveals itself by actively loving God and serving others.

Please keep praying for Kathy McElmurry as she recovers from her stroke. Kathy is now in a rehab center close to her home in Aberdeen, SD.

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 celebrated the Lord’s Supper and considered all that Jesus did for us as He died on the cross and rose again so we could have forgiveness and eternal life. Then, as we studied James 2 yesterday, we saw that God is no respecter of persons. A person’s outward beauty, wealth, race, social standing, or fame holds no sway in how God looks at people. We also should see people as God sees them, without being a respecter of person and without being influenced by beauty, wealth, race, social standing, or fame. God does not see the way people see. We look at the outward and seek to determine their potential. We are like Samuel the prophet looking for a new king for Israel. “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7.) And since we cannot see anyone’s heart, we are to not ever look at a person’s beauty, wealth, race, social standing, or fame in determining how we treat them. We are to treat each person we see as a reflection of the image of God and as one for whom Christ died and whom without Him will perish. Therefore, believers seek to recognize the image of God in every person. Believers seek to keep the royal law that loves and is merciful to all around us no matter their social or economic status. We all know how short all of us fall from living this way. We thank God that through Jesus our sins are forgiven and can keep on being forgiven. We also know that by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, we can love more purely and live more and more like God wants us to live. Believers in Jesus seek to see every person as made in the image of God and loved by Him.

We will have a potluck luncheon after worship next Sunday, February 5, 2023. Bring enough food for your family and a little extra for guests who might join us.

Continue to pray for Kathy as she recovers and is in rehab.

Below is information and prayer requests for missionaries we support. 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 and thought about God’s amazing love that Charles Wesley wrote about.

“And can it be that I should gain an int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me!”

Then, as we investigated James 1, we thought about the problem of self-deception. We learned not to be deceived by certain things. We learned God never seek for us to fail and do evil. We learned every good and perfect gift comes from the God. We learned man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires. We learned we were to obey God’s Word and not just listen to it.Believers always seek to know and walk in the truth and be freed from self-deception.

Continue to pray for Kathy as she recovers and is in rehab.

We will observe the Lord’s Supper in our worship service next Sunday morning.

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! I hope you have had a good day today remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. as he led in the struggle against the evils of racism and segregation and fought for the ideas of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. Every person has been given inalienable rights by Almighty God because he or she has been created in the image of God.

Yesterday we worshipped our risen King Jesus who is the fount of every blessing. Then we worshipped by looking at James 1 to think about how we are to face the many trials and difficulties that will come our way in this life. We are to joyfully face the trials that come to us. We are with faith to ask God for wisdom as we face these trials. We are to face the trials of wealth and poverty with humility and confidence of what we have in Christ. We know that our poverty in this life will not hinder God grace toward us or His working in our lives. Neither will our wealth in this life give us any more access to God’s grace or aid God in working in our lives. Rich and poor, all of us, stand before God in need of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. Then we saw that we will be blessed as we stand firm in God’s grace during the trials and difficulties of life. God uses the various difficulties and trials every believer faces to grow and mature us as followers of Jesus.

The ladies will have brunch this Saturday, January 21st, at Buck and Honey’s Restaurant, 800 W Broadway, Monona, WI 53713, at 11:00 AM.

The January 8 service which we were unable to livestream is now available on our YouTube channel. Here is the link to that service: https://youtu.be/PKWQ7_7cJ5w

Continue to keep praying for Kathy McElmurry as she recovers from a stroke.

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 as we worshipped, we sang about the grace and nearness of Almighty God to us through Jesus. Then from Lamentations 3:21-26, we remembered the love, mercy, and utter faithfulness of God toward His children. We serve a God who always keeps His Word and promises. Our God is a faithful God. Because God is faithful, believers know He will be with us in all the circumstances of life. We might not understand all we go through and why at times life can be sorrowful and difficult. There are times when we might not sense His presence. However, we must remember He is always present with His children. Times of sorrow and difficulty will never have to be met without His presence. And all those tough times, God will use to make us more like Jesus. In the middle of life’s most difficult and painful places, remember where hope is found. In the middle of life’s most difficult and painful places, remember God’s love for His children never ceases. In the middle of life’s most difficult and painful places, remember God’s mercies never end and are new every morning. Every day of life, remember God is faithful. We can always find hope in the mercy and utter faithfulness of the Lord.

I know you all have been praying for Kathy McElmurry as she recovers from a serious stroke. I talked to her brother Brian this morning and he told me he saw her over the weekend. She seemed to get a little stronger and communicate more clearly each day he was there. She is on a feeding tube and as soon as they can remove that tube, she will go to a rehab facility. It does look like recovery might take a while. Keep Kathy in your prayers. I will try to update you as I receive updates on her condition.

The ladies will have a brunch fellowship on Saturday, January 21^st, at Buck and Honey’s Restaurant, 800 W Broadway, Monona, WI 53713, at 11:00 AM.

We apologize for not having a livestream during yesterday’s worship service. We recorded the service and hope to have it up sometime this week.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other. 

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church