November 2021

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we observed the first Sunday of Advent, we worshipped by singing songs helping us to prepare our hearts for remembering Christ’s first coming and birth. Those songs reminded us of Jesus as Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. From Matthew 1, we learned from the family tree of Jesus that God always keeps every promise He makes. None of them will fail! In Christ’s first coming, God fulfilled his promise to Abraham to bless the world and to David that his descendant would reign forever. In Christ, God is fulfilling His promise that all the nations will worship him. In Christ, God fulfills His promise of grace and forgiveness working in all kinds of people. And in Christ, God will fulfill His future promise to us that Jesus will come again bodily and physically, and every eye will see Him. Jesus will completely destroy evil and rule and reign forever. 2 Corinthians 2:20 reminds us that “all the promises of God find their Yes in Christ Jesus.”  God’s grace and forgiveness are offered through Jesus. God promises you, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” If you have not turned from your sin and received this gift of God, ask Jesus to save you. This promise is one that can be yours today.

We will observe the Lord’s Supper during our morning worship service next Sunday, December 5 at 10:30 AM.

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! As we worshipped yesterday, we focused on thankfulness and our need to be thankful. From John 19, we considered Jesus willingly going to the cross for us and dying in our place. The King of kings became the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. We thought about how the true and living God of the universe is completely unique in that He entered into our suffering and suffered in our place. He understands suffering, even our suffering, from experience. We are not promised we will not suffer. Suffering is real and is a part of life. However, God the Son Himself has suffered for us and entered into our suffering. God will be with us as we face suffering in this fallen world. Jesus dying on the cross and entering our suffering to completely provide forgiveness and salvation for all who believe should receive our deepest gratitude.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Have a wonderful week!

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we worshipped, we thought about the greatness of God’s love for us. We sang the song “What Love My God” written by Jonny Robinson, Rich Thompson, and Michael Farren. Notice how powerful these words are:

     What love my God could hold You to the tree
     To bear that overwhelming debt for me
     The Son of heaven leaves the Father’s side
     The Healer bleeds the Life was made to die

     What love my God, so gracious and extreme
     Was strong enough to come and fight for me
     To go through hell and down into the grave
     And raise me up to see You face to face
     You raise me up to see You face to face

Then, in John 18 and 19 we looked at the record of the most famous trial in history, the trial of Jesus before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Though Pilate was the one seemingly controlling the verdict that would be given, the truth is that the One on trial was actually in charge of all that was happening. The sovereign Ruler of the universe was, through this the greatest injustice in the history of the world, bringing about the triumph of love, justice, and righteousness. What Jesus’ enemies saw as His being cursed, His greatest humiliation and defeat, was actually the triumph of God! Christ Jesus Himself became a curse for us to free us from the curse of sin. On that day as Jesus, the King of the Universe, was being tried and crucified, Jesus was providing a just salvation for all who would look to the Him and receive what He was doing for them. From this passage of Scripture, we see Jesus, the King of the universe, becoming the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Have a wonderful week!

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper, we thought about how Jesus saves us from our sin, our deadness, and our condemnation. Outside of Jesus we are not going to be condemned, but are already condemned and need to be rescued. We needed a Rescuer, a Redeemer, to save us. Jesus is the one who rescues us from sin and its eternal consequences. Jesus going to the cross to die in our place and rising from the dead made a way for us to be rescued. Taking the Lord’ Supper together helps us to regularly remember this.

We then considered from John 18 how we can handle the crises all of us will face in life. We contrasted the way Jesus handle the crisis of His arrest with how Peter handled the crisis of Jesus’ arrest. We can do what Peter did and react emotionally in our own strength. But that only leads to cowardice and failure. Or we can do what Jesus did. We can trust God whatever comes knowing He is directing our steps. We need to learn from the old spiritual we sometimes still sing, “I am weak but Thou art strong, Jesus keep me from all wrong.”  We need to pray, “Lord, I can’t do this on my own. I am weak. I need your Holy Spirit to empower me to live for your glory. I need your Holy Spirit to help me to trust you when an unexpected crisis comes, and I want to react instead of waiting on you to lead me. Help me walk close with You that my life may bring glory to Your name.” Believers can weather any crisis when we remember God knows a crisis is coming and we trust Him to calmly lead us through whatever we face.

I want to thank everyone who donated to and participated in the “Trunk or Treat” outreach on Saturday. It was a tremendous success, and it was a lot of fun! We had a number of children and families come from the neighborhood and from outside the neighborhood. Also, we learned from this first “Trunk or Treat” how to improve on future events. I want to give a special thanks to Grace Donaldson who coordinated the event.

Do not forget to turn your clocks back an hour before you go to be on Saturday evening as Daylight Savings Time ends.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor,

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church