August 2016

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

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