Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! As we worshipped together, we considered the advent theme of love and remembered the Lord Jesus’ great love for us as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper. We looked at responses people make to Jesus from the story of the Wise Men in Matthew 2. Jesus can be met in three ways. Jesus is sometimes met with secret or open hostility, as Herod met Jesus. At other times, Jesus is meet with apathy and indifference, as the religious scholars met Jesus. However, the way to respond to Jesus is to respond to Him like the Wise Men. Fall before Jesus and worship Him as King and Lord. Give your life to Him, worshipping, adoring, and praising Him and then spend the rest of your life following Him wherever He leads. I pray this is how you and I will respond to Him today.

This year, we will send a YouTube link for worship on Christmas Eve. You will hear Christmas carols, Scripture readings, special music, a harpist, a short message, and Christmas greetings from church family.  We want to thank Pete Pokrandt for coordinating the videoing of all who participated and Jessica Pokrandt Bull, who edited it and put it all together. 

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Wishing all of you a very “Merry Christmas!”

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! It was great to worship with all of you as we thought about the advent themes of joy and hope. We rejoiced in the truth that the Lord has come, and earth truly can receive her King. We considered from Isaiah 9 about how every human being needs hope and how hope is necessary, especially in the darkest of time. Hope is the expectation and confident assurance that things will get better. Jesus provides the ultimate hope in that we know things will get better and stay better through Him. Do you need hope today? Do you need to regain a desire for something good in the future, and a biblical hope that is a confident expectation of that? Jesus is that hope for you if you are looking for hope in life. Jesus is the Hope of the world. Is Jesus the Hope of your life? He can be and He wants to be if you will simply turn from yourself and believe, trust Him with your life. Is there some seeming hopeless situation or problem that you see no answer to or solution for? Jesus wants to give you hope specifically in that situation. He wants you to know He can work in any situation and bring good out of bad if you will trust in Him. You can trust Him today no matter what you are going through. Jesus is God’s just and forever King who rules the world in righteousness and gives hope to all who look to Him. No matter how dark it gets, in Jesus there is hope. Hold on to the hope of Jesus! 

We will observe the Lord’s Supper during morning worship on December 20. If you are worshipping virtually, you will need a cracker and some juice for each person in your home who is participating. Also, if you would like to stop by the building and pick up the pre-packaged elements during office hours, let me know and I can put them out for you.

During December we take up the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. This offering is unique from other mission offerings in that 100% of gifts provide for missionaries all over the world. It is a valuable part of Southern Baptists’ 175-year history of reaching the nations with the gospel and vital to reaching the vision of a multitude from every language, people, tribe and nation knowing and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ.

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 sang some wonderful Christmas carols that focused on the peace Jesus brings to those who know Him.  We considered from Luke 1 and the event of the angel announcing to Mary her part in the birth of the Savior how great our Savior is. We looked at the inherent greatness of Jesus, in that He is great in and of Himself whether people accept His greatness or reject it. We considered the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ in that Jesus has the greatest name, the name before which every knee will bow. We thought about the Lord Jesus’ greatness in that He is the one and only Son of God from forever to forever and has an eternal relationship with God the Father. We also considered Jesus has the greatest throne and heritage and Jesus fulfills all the promises the Word of God made about the Messiah. We thought about the greatness of Jesus’ miraculous conception with God as His Father and the human Mary as His mother. As we thought about these things, we realized we are not to reduce Christmas to merely presents and family and food. We are not to reduce Christmas to the to the birth of a child, or the birth of someone who made a huge impact on the world. We are to celebrate and remember this Christmas and every Christmas is about the Great One of the universe, the very Son of God Himself, becoming Emmanuel, God with us, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus came to save us from our sin! The story of Christmas forever remains the story of the greatness of the only One providing salvation to the world, Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us.

During December we take up the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. This offering is unique from other mission offerings in that 100% of gifts provide for missionaries all over the world. It is a valuable part of Southern Baptists’ 175-year history of reaching the nations with the gospel and vital to reaching the vision of a multitude from every language, people, tribe and nation knowing and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 7:9).

Here is a link to a wonderful new song that looks at the events surrounding Jesus’ birth and reminds us of this: “Do Not Fear.”  https://youtu.be/8YC7drPwWf4.  I pray it encourages you as it did me.

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! Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. We worshipped by singing songs of hope. Hope is knowing that all God has promised will be given. We finished up the book of Hebrews by looking at the gift of leaders from Hebrews 13. All of us have been greatly impacted by God-given leaders. There are men and women who have motivated and helped us to know, love and follow Jesus. They are not extraordinary men or women. They are simply men and women who surrendered to God and through whom God worked. We learned that everyone of us can be that kind of influential leader to someone or some ones. We all want God’s help to follow this kind of God-given leadership. We all need to submit to and pray for God-given leadership. We know that every believer and their leaders share the burdens and blessings of serving God together. We are also aware that God will provide everything we need to do His will and bring glory to His name. God-given faithful leaders help us to know God more intimately and live for the glory of God.

During the Christmas season we take up the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. You ask, “What is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering?” The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is an annual offering collected by believers around the world to support international missions. The offering was officially named in 1918 by Woman’s Missionary Union in honor of the missionary to China who urged churches to start it and give sacrificially. This offering is unique from other mission offerings in that 100% of gifts provide for missionaries all over the world. It is a valuable part of Southern Baptists’ 175-year history of reaching the nations with the gospel and vital to reaching the vision of a multitude from every language, people, tribe and nation knowing and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 7:9). There are prayer guides and special Lottie Moon offering envelopes at the church building. Also, here is a link to the daily prayer guides for international missions that you can use to pray this week: LMCO Week of Prayer for International Missions – International Mission Board (imb.org)

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

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Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! As we worshipped yesterday, we focused on how great God is and how great is His redeeming love for us. We considered from 1 Thessalonians 5 and Ephesians 5 how to live a life of true thankfulness, especially in this crazy year of 2020. We need to seek to be truly thankful at this time of year and all the time and not just go through the motions of being thankful without real gratitude. Thankfulness does not mean we deny our pain or minimize the bad stuff we are going through. It does not mean that we do not recognize evil as evil. But in the realities of life, we can give thinks even as we grieve and mourn and weep. This happens at the funeral of every believer that we know and love. We grieve because of the separation we will have to endure, but not as those with no hope. We know there is resurrection in Jesus. We know it is better to be away from the body and present with the Lord. So even during sorrow and pain we can give thanks. We are not denying the difficulties but knowing God works even during our pain. We weep and give thanks at the same time because in everything, everything, everything, God is working for our ultimate good and His glory. There can be weeping, grieving, struggling and thankfulness all at the same time. In Jesus we can truly give thanks in everything because God is using the good and the bad to make His people more and more and more like Jesus. God is working in everything to bring glory to His name. Believers filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit remain thankful knowing God is working out everything for His glory and our ultimate good.

If you miss our Sunday services and would like to watch them or perhaps share them with someone you know, you can find video of the services at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church

Sisters and brothers,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday as we met virtually and physically, we worshipped Jesus, our Rock and our Redeemer. We thought from Hebrews 13 about how to live out our faith because Jesus has changed us. What a difference Jesus makes in our lives when we believe! Jesus is our life. Jesus has changed our hearts and caused us to want to live for Him. Because of what Jesus has done, we are to keep loving each other as members together of the family of God. We also are to keep loving even people we do not know well by using our homes as tools to welcome others. We are to keep loving others by reaching out to those in prisons and otherwise confined. We are to love those closest to us by protecting our marriages and by seeking contentment by refusing to love money. We are to seek to completely identify with Jesus, whether He is popular or rejected in our culture, because Jesus provides us with an eternal city and makes us His own to live for Him and live for eternal values. We gladly accept the mockery that belongs to those who follow Jesus. Believers seek to totally identify with Jesus and live for His glory.

Please join me in praying for an end to this plague of Covid 19. Pray for those who are sick from this virus and those families who have lost loved ones. Pray for God to use this so people would understand how brief life can be and how salvation, forgiveness and eternal life are only found in Jesus. Pray for God’s people to shine forth Jesus in this dark time we are in today. Pray for the leaders of our city, state, and nation to work together to do things that will help in these times of crisis.

If you miss our Sunday services and would like to watch them or perhaps share them with someone you know, you can find video of the services at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw.

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! It was wonderful to worship in the parking lot together yesterday and think of the sacrifice Jesus made for us to be saved from sin. Because we are saved from sin by Jesus’ sacrifice, we can know and love the God who created and redeems us. We shared the Lord’s Supper, communion, together.  This reminds us that we are part of one another and need each other. We then looked at Hebrews 12 and considered living out the gospel. There is nothing more destructive to Christian witness than Christians who do not seek to live out their faith. When we claim Christ, but are unloving, untruthful, immoral, unforgiving, ungracious, etc., we hinder others from believing in Jesus. If people look at us but do not see anything that looks like Jesus, they may be hindered from knowing Jesus. So, we must seek always to live out our faith. We must live out the truth of the gospel of Jesus by avoiding destructive and sinful behaviors. We seek to live the truth of the gospel of Jesus by showing people that holy God is near and approachable through Jesus Christ. We want to live out the truth of the gospel of Jesus by heeding His call for us to come to Him and to ultimate reality. We are not fools who turn down His gracious invitation to forgiveness and life. We live out the truth of the gospel so that others may come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus today. May this song remind you to ever keep your eyes on Him: https://youtu.be/F2tKVqZZiI4

If you miss our Sunday services and would like to watch them or perhaps share them with someone you know, you can find video of the services at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw.

Please join me in continuing to pray for our city, state, and nation. God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

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! Yesterday we consider from God’s Word how to handle the difficult things all of us will face in life and the difficulties we will face as followers of Jesus. Everything that happens in your life can make us bitter or better. Some of the godliest people I have known have been people in life that had suffered the worst of tragedies and circumstances. They grew in and through those tragedies and circumstances. What could have made them bitter and self-absorbed, made them better and Christ-centered. Jesus said in the world his followers would have tribulations. Sometimes those hardships, those tribulations and persecutions will be extremely horrific and tragic. Hebrews 12 gives us truth that will enable us to handle the tragedies, tribulations and trials that come our way. It teaches us to accept the hardships of life as God’s way to teach and train. Hebrews 12 teaches us to help and encourage others in difficulties who are discouraged and weak. Together, we are part of Jesus church that overcomes! Hebrews 12 teaches us to stay focused on Jesus no matter what your circumstances. Accept every difficulty of life as a way to glorify God and grow closer to Him.

If you miss our Sunday services and would like to watch them or perhaps share them with someone you know, you can find video of the services at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw.

We provide multiple ways for you to give to support the Lord’s work through East Madison. Every Sunday morning, an offering box is provided for you to be able to deposit your offerings. If you would like, 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

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days. God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

Here is a link to a song from Emu Music, “Hallelujah.”  I hope it encourages you as it did me:  https://youtu.be/zMuWbTwKknc

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 as we worshipped together, we thought about examples of overcoming faith from Hebrews 11. We saw people of faith who did not see complete fulfillment of God’s promises in their lifetimes but knew God would come through and fulfill his promises. We saw people of faith who stood in faith amid angry opposition. We saw people of faith doing seemingly impossible things in impossible situations. We saw people of faith conquer and overcome God’s enemies. We saw people of faith endure horrific and unspeakable treatment because they would not deny their faith. Finally, we saw the people of faith of the Old Testament wait for God’s ultimate best, which is Jesus, and then all God’s people waiting until every enemy is destroyed under Jesus’ feet. Through these examples, we see that men and women’s imperfect faith in a perfect God enables them to overcome in life and in death.

Remember to turn your clocks back this Saturday night as daylight savings time ends at 2:00 AM, Sunday, November 1^st.

If you miss our Sunday services and would like to watch them or perhaps share them with someone you know, you can find video of the services at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw.

We provide multiple ways for you to give to support the Lord’s work through East Madison. Every Sunday morning, an offering box is provided for you to be able to deposit your offerings. If you would like, 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

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days. God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

Here is a link to a song that I hope would encourage all of you, “Jesus, Your Mercy”:  https://youtu.be/HpQZREWhgXg.

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 together yesterday both virtually and in person. We looked at the first part of Hebrews 11, the faith chapter of the Bible, to consider what faith is and what it is not. Faith is more than wishful thinking or hoping for the best. Faith is not some kind of “blind leap” into irrationality or something that has no evidence whatsoever. Faith is not closing your minds to natural law and science. It is not becoming an unthinking and irrational person. Biblical faith is trusting the one who made the laws by which all the universe operates and is governed. Biblical, saving faith is believing and trusting in God who has come to us and revealed Himself to us. Saving faith believes in the power of God’s Word. Saving faith worships, walks, and works for God. Saving faith stakes it very reputation, life, and future on God direction. Saving faith believes in real and full life beyond this earthly existence. Saving faith honors God and receives His approval. Saving faith is finding life in Jesus who made the universe, loving Him and living for Him.Saving faith trusts in the living God and acts upon the certainty of His Word.

The Minnesota/Wisconsin Baptist convention annual meeting will be held virtually this Friday, October 23, 20 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.  If you would like to be a part of this annual meeting, use this link this Friday: https://www.mwbc.org/annual-meeting/.

If you miss our Sunday services and would like to watch them or perhaps share them with someone you know, you can find video of the services at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rJ-oFvSS-9W-iWf6Wcvnw.

We provide multiple ways for you to give to support the Lord’s work through East Madison.  Every Sunday morning, an offering box is provided for you to be able to deposit your offerings. If you would like, 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

Please join me in praying for our city, state, and nation during these difficult days. God’s people need to intensely seek His help, His justice, His mercy, and His peace in these times.

Remember to keep praying continually for each other.

Love being your pastor!

Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church