September 2017

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday! We had a wonderful day yesterday as we worshipped Almighty God and thanked Him for His marvelous grace. We serve a God who speaks life to people. God came to us in our spiritual deadness when we could do nothing to save ourselves. When we were following the ways of the world and the wicked ruler of the world and were children of disobedience, God loved us and sought us. In His love, God had mercy on us and did not give us the punishment we deserved for our sinful rebellion. Instead, God by His Holy Spirit gave life to us through Jesus Christ by His grace. By His grace He saved us through faith. It is all God’s doing and none of our doing, so that we will be trophies of His grace forever and ever. None of us will ever be able to boast before God, because our salvation is totally a result of His grace and not in any way a result of kind of our work. No keeping of religious rituals, no morality in and of ourselves, no sacrificial lifestyle could ever save the “sons of disobedience.” But God in His grace and power saves those who cannot and would not save themselves! Praise His name! May our lives be a continual shining testimony to our great and gracious God who saved wretches like us!

Most of you heard that Annette’s step dad went to be with the Lord yesterday afternoon. Annette, we want you to know we are keeping your mom, you and David and your kids, and all your family in our prayers.

Ladies, remember there is a Ladies Night Out scheduled for Sunday evening, October 1st. The ladies will meet at Cheryl’s home to watch a movie together.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! I hope your week has started well as you serve the Lord wherever He has placed you. Yesterday was a good day to worship the Lord and be together as His people. We sang of His greatness and read from His Word about the greatness of God and the greatness of His salvation. We looked in Ephesians 1 and thought about all the resources God has provided us to walk with Him and live for His glory. Everything we need to live for God we already have in Christ Jesus. We just need to continually ask God for the wisdom and insight to know how to utilize and appropriate those resources. We can grow in the hope to which God has called us. We can grow in understanding the riches of being a part of His people, the church. And we can continually grow in understanding the immeasurable greatness of the power of God and how that power enables us to live victorious Christian lives!

We begin the new small intensive discipleship group for those interested this Wednesday, September 20, at 6:30 PM. There is still room for you if you are interested in being a part of this study.

September is the month we take a special offering for the ministries of the Minnesota/Wisconsin Baptist Convention. There are some offering envelopes and prayer calendars on the table in the foyer. If you would like to know more about the ministries this offering supports, go to mwbc.org and click on the link to the state mission video. (You will also see a really handsome young man related to Carla Ray in that video!)

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! I hope your day is going well. Yesterday was a good day to be together as God’s family. I hope the message encouraged you as you realize that as believers, we have everything we truly need in Jesus Christ. We have every spiritual blessing in Christ kept safe for us in the heavenly realms. God sought and chose us and made us His own because of His wonderful grace. We are holy and blameless in His sight because God views us through the lens of the blood of Jesus. He sees Jesus’ righteousness counted toward us because Jesus has taken our sin. He chose us to be adopted as His children. He purchased us from sin and death for Himself through the blood of Jesus. We have forgiveness, the putting of our sins as far as the east is from the west, through Jesus. And these things God gives lavishly to us who hear the gospel and believe it. He is not some God who gives enough just to get by, but lavishly pours out these spiritual blessings on us! How can we not seek to live every moment for this gracious God and seek through our lives to give Him continual praise? How can we not seek to share this grace with those God places in in our path?

We will begin the new small intensive discipleship group for those interested next Wednesday, September 20, at 6:30 PM. There is still room for you if you are interested in being a part of this study. We also have a men’s small group that meets on Saturday morning and a ladies group that meets this Saturday and every other Saturday. Call or email Annette Juhlin or me if you need any details about any of these small groups.

If the recent hurricanes and other natural disasters have put in you a desire to volunteer when these disasters occur, there is a disaster relief training on Monday, September 18 at Trinity Baptist in Reedsburg, Wisconsin from 5:30 PM to 9:00 PM. Contact me for more information.

We will have a pot luck luncheon this Sunday, September 17, after our morning worship. Bring enough food for you family and a little extra for any guests we will have.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Tuesday to all! I hope you had a relaxing holiday yesterday. (I know some of you even had to work on Labor day. I am sorry about that!) Sunday was a good day as we worshipped the eternal King of the universe together. He alone is the true and living God who sought us to forgive us and give us eternal life. We praise His name! I hope the message helped us to deal with the fears that all of us face from time to time. We can acknowledge our fears to God and take them to Him and He will deliver us from all our fears. The all-powerful God loves us and is watching over us as His children!

I want to remind the youth of the lock-in next Friday, September 15, here at the East Madison building. Also, the Called-Out Conference is coming up on October 13-15. This will be a time of growth and fun and I encourage our youth to go. Talk to Damon or Megan Tolhurst for details on either of these events.

There will be a short meeting for those interested in being a part of the new small intensive discipleship group this Sunday, September 10th following the morning worship. At the meeting, we will be trying to find a night that works for all who are interested in being a part of this study.

We will observe the Lord’s Supper this Sunday, September 10th during our morning worship service.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church