Sisters and brothers,
Happy Monday to all! It was wonderful to be worshipping physically with you yesterday! Gathering and praising God together with you and being able to proclaim His word to you personally lifted my spirit immensely. I hope those of you who joined us by Youtube.com on livestream or watched the service later were also blessed. (Here is a link to the EMBC YouTube channel where you can watch yesterday’s service or tune into to watch next week’s livestream: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw). In the message, we learned from Mark 12 and John 13 that Christianity is all about relationships. God sent Jesus to earth and to the cross for us to mend our broken relationship with Him. God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. As we respond to the love of God, each of us seeks to love God back with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We seek to love Him supremely above everything and everyone else. Then as we love God supremely, we love our brothers and sisters in Christ as Jesus has loved us and live in community with them so the world will see us this and know that we are Jesus’ disciples. Finally, because we love God supremely and live in community with each other, we are also filled with love for our neighbors. Who is our neighbor? Our neighbors are anyone whom God places in our paths whose need we can meet in Jesus’ name. All around us are our neighbors who need to know the love of God and be drawn into these relationships. Following Jesus is all about our relationships: with God, each other and those whose needs we can meet in Jesus’ name.
We will continue meeting this Sunday, June 14, in our parking lot at 10:30 AM. (I think yesterday went well except I need to remember to put sunscreen on the top of my head.) We ask that you bring lawn chairs for the members of your family to sit. We will continue to practice social distancing as we meet outside. We will also provide virtual worship and provide a live feed to our services. In case of inclement weather, we will only live stream our services. If you have a fever and/or other symptoms of being ill or have been in contact with a person who has tested positive for Covid 19, we ask that you stay home and worship with us virtually. Also, we support anyone who feels like you need to stay home to protect your health. Please pray for me and the church council as we continue to adapt to this changing crisis and work out details.
I want to thank you for your faithfulness in giving to the Lord during these difficult times. We are receiving offerings in a few ways. We provide an offering box for you to deposit your offerings when we meet in the parking lot. You can mail offering checks to the church address at the Milwaukee Street address below. Also, you can give your offerings online at the embclife.org website by clicking the “Give Online” tab on the homepage or you can click this link directly: https://give.idonate.com/east-madison-baptist-church/give
Remember to keep praying continually for each other.
Love being your pastor!
Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church