March 2017

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! I hope your Monday is going well. We had a wonderful day of study, worship, and family fellowship yesterday. We learned to be anticipating our Lord’s coming by working hard now at what He has called us to do. We are to be on mission with Jesus as He seeks and saves the lost. He has entrusted to us the valuable treasure of His gospel which we are to share and not hide. There are hurting and ruined people around us whom our Lord is seeking and we can be faithful servants through whom He works to help them. My prayer is that all of us would pray that we as individuals and we as Jesus’ church at East Madison could be those vessels.

I think our family meeting helped us to see how God might want to work through us to expand His Kingdom. I hope you will be looking forward to the events we will plan and which are soon coming because of it.

I wanted to remind you again of the two special event on the week preceding Easter. We will have a presentation from “Jews for Jesus” called, “Christ in the Passover” on Tuesday night, April 11, at 7:00 PM. On Friday night April 14, we will have a joint Good Friday service with Sovereign Joy here at East Madison also at 7:00 PM. I hope you are planning to be part of these special events that will help us focus on the importance of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday and happy first day of spring to all! We have a beautiful day today and we can rejoice in the Lord! Of course, even if it was a lousy day, we can still rejoice in the Lord!

We had a wonderful day yesterday as we shared in the Lord’s Supper and worshipped together. We had a lot of guests and we thank God for them. I hope each of you got to meet some of our guests. (It was pretty hard to meet them all!) When guests come, each of us need to go out of our way to welcome them. I want to thank you all for doing your best to welcome our guests. I also hope the message was helpful to you as we learned that just a Jesus walked toward difficulties and faced them, so we need to walk toward difficult challenges in our lives and not away from them. God can and will help us face those difficult things and use them in our lives for our good and His glory.

This Sunday, March 26 there is a pot luck luncheon and family meeting for all at East Madison. We will hear David Juhlin’s report on his recent mission trip. We will talk about some ideas we want to do this summer and ideas of things that will enable us to better disciple and reach people with the message of Jesus. God might have given you a brilliant idea of something East Madison needs to do! Please be praying for this family meeting and stay to be a part of it.

Also, we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus’ resurrection soon. We will have two special event on the week preceding Easter. We will have a presentation from “Jews for Jesus” called, “Christ in the Passover” on Tuesday night, April 11, at 7:00 PM. On Friday night April 14, we will have a joint Good Friday service with Sovereign Joy here at East Madison also at 7:00 PM. I hope you are planning to be part of these special events that will help us focus on the importance of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Hope this snowy Monday has gone well for all of you. It was wonderful to worship together and to witness Emily confessing her faith in Jesus through believers’ baptism. Even though the water was a little cold, seeing this baptism warmed hearts. Emily’s faith in Jesus was not something new, but something she possessed for a while. However, she wanted to take the step of believers’ baptism, the step that is recognized across the world as identifying you as a follower of Jesus. If some of you have never taken that step in your faith journey, consider it seriously. It is a confession of your faith in Jesus and an identifying that you have died to your old life without Christ and you possess new life in Him. Those who truly have believed in Jesus and seek to follow Him as Lord need to be baptized as a confession of their faith.

I hope yesterday’s message helped us to see that Jesus is worth following whatever it might cost us. There is nothing in our lives that should keep us for following Jesus. We can’t receive Him if we are holding on to something else. Let go of anything in your lives that hinders you from loving, following, and living for Jesus.

Ladies, plan to join the fun and fellowship at “Fired Up Pottery” Saturday, March 18 at 12:30. There’s something for everyone’s budget. Most people spend between $18 to $39 a person, but they do have pottery starting at $5. Even if you don’t want to spend any money, come for the fellowship. The address is: 4112 Monona Dr., Madison, WI 53716.

We will be having the Lord’s Supper this Sunday during the morning worship gathering at 10:30 AM. Every believer in Jesus, in humility because of our unworthiness, should take this supper. Taking the supper calls for a willingness to confess any known sin, but it does not call for morbid introspection. Don’t fear taking the supper because you have a vague fear that you might have some unknown sin in your life. Don’t let the devil’s accusation of past confessed sin keep you from taking the supper. If you ask God to reveal sin you need to confess, confess it if something comes to your mind, and join us in taking the Lord’s Supper. If nothing comes to your mind, move on and join us in taking the supper. None of us are worthy, but we can take the supper because Jesus’ blood alone has made us worthy. The supper reminds us of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for our sin. Taking the supper reminds us that we are all a part of His body and we need each other.

Sunday, March 26 there is a pot luck luncheon and family meeting for all at East Madison. We will hear David Juhlin’s report on his recent mission trip. We will talk about some ideas we want to do this summer and ideas of things that will enable us to better disciple and reach people with the message of Jesus. God might have given you a brilliant idea of something East Madison needs to do! I hope you will be praying for this family meeting and stay to be a part of it.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday the message from Luke 18 encouraged us to pray, pray, pray. We learned that we need to keep praying and trusting God even when it seems like nothing is happening and there is great delay in our prayers being answered. God will answer the cries of His children for justice. He will hear and answer those who approach Him in humility and love when the time is right. We want God to be on our schedule, but we must learn to be on His schedule and trust Him when He delays answering us. Even though it does not seem like it, those delays are for our good to make us more like Jesus. As the hymn says,

“Have faith in God,
He’s on His throne.
Have faith in God,
He watches o’er His own.
He will not fail,
He must prevail.
Have Faith in God,
Have faith in God!
(B.B. McKinney)

We want congratulate Bart and Lauren Schlueter on the birth of their daughter, Ava Clare Schlueter, who was born today at 12:53 PM. AND, we want to congratulate Donald and Deanna Smith on the birth of their grandson! Congratulations also to mom and dad, Jay and Cassie! We thank Almighty God for these children and pray for God’s blessings on these two families. We love babies at East Madison!

I want to remind you that this Sunday, March 12, is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. Turn your clocks forward (Spring forward!) before you go to bed on Saturday night or you will be late for worship on Sunday. (I don’t know why they call it “Daylight Savings Time.” It does not seem like we save any time but just simply re-appropriate it!)

Ladies, remember that there is a Ladies fellowship time on Saturday, March 18. Details will be shared next Sunday and next week in this email.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church