July 2021

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we worshipped, we praised our great redeemer God. We realized in our praise that no one can compare with the greatness of our God. We then looked at the triumphal entry of Jesus in John 12 as He moved to the ultimate purpose of His mission: to die on the cross in our place taking our punishment and then conquer death by rising again. We thought from John 12 about how God is always revealing Himself to us through His Word. We always want to be growing in our seeing our great God as He truly is. We want to make sure we see God clearly and that our sins and prejudices don’t give us a distorted understanding of who God truly is. We don’t want our cultural lenses or wrong expectations to blur our understanding of who God truly is. We always want to keep reading and studying God’s Word so our understanding of God will become clearer and clearer all throughout our lives. We want to always be seeking to understand God more fully so we will always be walking with Him.

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 took time in our worship to share in the Lord’s Supper. In preparing to take the supper, we examined our lives and asked the Lord to reveal anything not pleasing to Him so we might confess and forsake those things. We then examined in John 12 one of the most beautiful demonstrations of love for Jesus in God’s Word when Mary anointed Jesus at Bethany. Mary, motivated by love for Jesus, used her most valuable possession, a vial of ointment worth a year’s wages, a possession that provided for her future, and spent it all on Jesus. She held nothing back in showing her love. We saw the chief priests and Judas Iscariot motivated by hatred and greed whose lives came to tragedy and nothing. However, Mary’s act of love and devotion toward her Savior will be remembered and honored forever. We learned that we as believers should always seek to be growing more and more in love with Jesus so we might follow her wonderful example.

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 our great God, who has no equals and no rivals. We considered the wonderful mercy of our glorious Christ. With Matt Papa and Matt Boswell, we:

“Praise the Lord, His mercy is more.
Stronger than darkness, new ev’ry morn.
Our sins they are many; His mercy is more.

Then from John 11, we saw God works even through any who oppose His Kingdom to provide salvation to any and all who will believe. Jesus causes division when people refuse to believe. The solutions of those who oppose Jesus are to reduce Him to just some teacher or some good man or to seek to get rid of Jesus. But that will never work. We saw leaders seek to end the life of the innocent Jesus to save their political and religious influence and power. However, in spite of what they thought they had power to do, they could not take Jesus’ life from Him. Jesus’ life was not taken! Jesus’ life was freely given so we could be saved. God the Father sent the Son to die in our places so our sins could be forgiven. It was the loving Father’s gift to sinful man. Jesus, God the Son, then willingly laid down His life so our sins could be forgiven and so those who believe can receive eternal life, the life of being with God now and forever. Jesus, then, took His life up again and we raised to never die again. Jesus was stronger than sin, death, and the grave. And yes, Jesus is “mighty to save” any and all who will believe and embrace Him.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper during our morning worship next Sunday, July 18, 2021.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church