Church Blog

Brothers and sisters,

Happy rainy Monday to all! I hope everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day yesterday. I hope that as we celebrate the first coming of Jesus, we can remember that he came to give us life and life to the full. He came to free us from oppressive religion so that we might love Him and others. We could not gain our forgiveness and be right with God by any religious observance, but we are forgiven and right with God by faith in Jesus Christ. He has paid for our forgiveness and He gives it to all who believe in Him. Remember the love He has for you when He feels far away. Remember also that just because His presence seems far away, He is always near to His children! Remember Romans 8:31: “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

This Sunday, December 4, will be a special day. Forrest and Becky Bohlen will be with us sharing about international missions. Forrest and Becky served in Venezuela and in Chile with the International Mission Board (IMB) and recently retired from the IMB. They are still seeking to work with Hispanics in Wisconsin. Don’t miss hearing their stories this Sunday in morning worship.

Remember, also, we will be having a pot luck dinner after worship this Sunday, December 4.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! I hope your week has gotten off to a great start. If for some reason it has not gotten off to a good start, rejoice in the Lord anyway! He is our joy, strength and song. As we learned about yesterday, all of us have been blessed by Him and all of us can continually thank Him. We don’t necessarily have to thank him for bad circumstances, but we can thank Him that He will bring good for His children even in the worst of circumstances. We can thank Him that through His blood He has reconciled us to Himself and to one another, so that there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for we are all one in Christ.” As believers we seek to live in that reconciliation and seek continually to make that reconciliation between all men and women who are in Christ more and more of a reality in our world. We seek to recognize our own prejudices and ask God to give us eyes to see all people as He sees them-men, women and children for whom Christ died to forgive, save and give eternal life.

We rejoice in the 21 shoe boxes that were made and delivered for Operation Christmas Child. Pray for these gifts to provide a strong witness to the gospel as they go all over the world.

Sunday, November 27 during morning worship we will begin our observance of Advent and also will be observing the Lord’s Supper.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! It was wonderful to be with all of you yesterday as we worshipped as a church family! Our great God loves us and the best thing we can do in life is to turn from ourselves to Him and discover the life we were created to have. Repentance is not a negative thing, but a wonderful thing. We turn away from our self and find life in the One who created us to love Him and love others. The tragedies of life should cause us to think of our own mortality and of our own need to turn to God. God can stop judging us when we believe in Jesus because Jesus has already been judged in our place and has paid the debt for our sin.

Last night celebrating Thanksgiving as a church family was fun! I want to thank everyone who prepared food and worked so hard so that we could have such an enjoyable evening.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! I hope your work week has started well. Yesterday we learned that we should all live looking for the Lord to return. Jesus tells us in Luke 12 to be watchful, alert, and faithful until He returns. We are to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth until He comes again. We are to seek to influence our communities toward justice and righteousness until He returns. But we are also to remember that all the wrongs will not be corrected and all the injustices will not be righted until Jesus comes again. Paul reminded Titus that the second coming was not something for the believer to fear, but a “blessed hope.” “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:11-13 (NIV). We can pray with the early church, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”

Tomorrow is election day. I would in no way presume to tell you how to vote. I will encourage you to pray, educate yourself as best you can about the issues and those running, and vote your conscience. Make the best choice that you can make as you cast your ballot. I want to thank Pete for his song yesterday that reminded us that God is forever and always on His throne and in control. Remember Steven Curtis Chapman’s words whatever the election results.

But there’s only one who’s making promises that He won’t break
And He is on the throne.

He is faithful and true,
everything He says He’ll do,
And everything we go through,
He will go with us.
All the kingdoms of man
are in the palm of His hand
So I will not fear, I’ll say it loud and clear, so my own heart can hear it
God is on the throne.

I will, however, presume to tell you that God’s Word teaches us that after this election is done and even before, every believer is commanded to pray for those in authority over us. “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness,” (1 Timothy 2:1-2, NIV). Christians are to continually pray for whoever will be elected. I will also tell you that if you hold anger, hatred, and bitterness toward those you did not vote for or for those who did not support your candidates or issues, you are sinning. God commands us to love even our enemies. His word tells us that man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Our world does not need any more angry and bitter people, but Christians who love even those with whom they may disagree. Let’s be those whose lives are characterized by God’s radical love.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we had a wonderful day of worship, food and fellowship. We gathered and sang praises to God and worshipped Him with His Word. We looked at how materialism robs us of the abundant life that God wants to give us. It robs us by stealing from us the joy of the now. It robs us of the joy of helping others with the blessings God has entrusted to us. Materialism robs us of preparing for eternity. Materialism robs us of making Jesus and His kingdom our chief desire. Materialism promises much but delivers very little. Don’t build your life upon wanting more and more money and things. Invest in eternity by seeking first God’s Kingdom and using what He has entrusted to you to help others and extend His kingdom.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving as the family of God on Sunday, November 13 at 6:00 PM. Bring family, friends and neighbors! There is a sign-up sheet in the foyer with a list of the things we need for the meal. All who were at the pot luck yesterday know how wonderful an average meal is at East Madison. Think about how great this Thanksgiving feast will be on November 13!

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24, NIV). Remember that we have to choose joy. We can rejoice in the day the Lord has given us no matter how difficult the circumstances. Focus on His presence with you and His love for you. Focus on the truth that as a believer He is working in your life to conform you to the image of His Son, to make you in your character like Jesus.

Yesterday we learned to seek to avoid hypocrisy. We learned that hypocrisy was more than just having inconsistencies from time to time in our lives. Even though believers are redeemed, we are still weak human beings and we will fail to follow the Lord as we should from time to time. We often forget that we not only need Jesus to save us from our sin generally, but we need Him every day to save us from our sin and ourselves. We need a Savior every single day! We also need each other! We need to be transparent with each other when we are being inconsistent so we can help each other be more consistent in following Jesus. Therefore, hypocrisy, in its rawest form, is acting like we believe something but never truly practicing what we say we believe. Hypocrisy is acting like we don’t have inconsistencies. It is acting like we have it together and hiding our struggles from others. We are to avoid hypocrisy because Jesus told us everything hidden will ultimately be revealed. We avoid hypocrisy because we must care more about God’s opinion of us than people’s opinions of us. We avoid hypocrisy because it leads to self-righteousness which causes us to think we do not need Jesus to rescue us from sin. We don’t want to act like we are followers of Jesus. We want to truly know Jesus and follow Him!

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! I pray your day is going well and you will have a great week! It is my prayer that we will walk with Jesus and thus see the world as He sees it! When we open our lives to Jesus, He enables us to see things as they really are. If we close our lives to Jesus, we can never see the world as it is. Our vision will always be tainted because, as Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Also, if there is a blockage in our lives which impedes our walk with God, it will also taint our seeing the world as it really is. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:29-32 to remind believers: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Living a life practicing the truths from these verses enables us to see from God’s perspective.

I am glad to be part of God’s family and share joys and burdens. We got to share a wonderful joy as we witnessed Ben and Abby become husband and wife this weekend. We also shared some burdens in knowing that Jean had to be taken to the hospital. Also, if that wasn’t enough for one family, Patti also had to be taken to the hospital this morning. Pray for Jean and Patti. Pray also for Barb and the rest of the family during this time. I will update you as I have new information. I am glad that we can share burdens and pray and care for one another as God’s family.

We will be observing the Lord’s Supper this coming Sunday, October 22, during our morning worship.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday! It was great to worship with you yesterday and sing about God alone being God. “Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” (Psalm 113:5-6, ESV). There is none like Him and none beside Him. We learned that God calls every one of us to talk to Him. We learned prayer is so simple that the youngest believer in Jesus can talk with God. Prayer is not just for the spiritual elite but for every child of God. God wants to answer our prayers and wants to give us good things that will help us live for His glory. We should not give up when heaven seems silent when we pray, but shamelessly persist in praying for the good things that will bring God glory. We also learned that God is in no way reluctant to answer our prayers and that there is never an inconvenient time to approach God. We learned that the best thing God can ever give us is the gift of His presence, the gift of His Holy Spirit being with us whatever we might face. What a privilege we have to talk to the Eternal God of the universe because of what Jesus has done for us! What a privilege to ask Him for anything we need to live for His glory! We have the privilege to come to God’s very throne through Jesus Christ!

We are blessed to be celebrating some weddings soon among our church family. Marriage is one of God’s great blessings! God thought of marriage when he said that a man shall leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and the two shall be one flesh. Marriages centered in Jesus Christ reflect the love Jesus has for his bride, the church. Pray for these couples as they begin their lives together in marriage, that they would always center the lives and marriages in Jesus.

Continue to pray each other as you think of one another.

Love being your pastor!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy first Monday in October! The Supreme Court of the United States begins its yearly session on this first Monday every year. As for me, I am glad Almighty God is never “off session.” The Judge and Ruler of the universe is always on the throne. As a just judge, He judged us guilty as charged for our sins, but then had His only begotten Son, Jesus, pay the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross in our place. All who will accept this payment for their sins by believing in Jesus and trusting their lives to Him, are justly declared not guilty. Hallelujah! As the Chris Tomlin song says,

I’m forgiven because He was forsaken,
I’m accepted because He was condemned.
I’m alive and well,
His Spirit lives within me,
Because He died and rose again.

Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You

It’s my prayer that together in all we do, we will honor Jesus.

Love being your pastor and serving our great Savior with you!

Bob

Brothers and sisters,

Happy Monday to all! It was wonderful yesterday to worship and fellowship with each of you! We were reminded as we looked at the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10 that we are to place no limits on whom we will love as we love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to love and serve those like us and those unlike us. We are to love and serve our friends and our enemies. We are to love and serve those who vote like us and those who do not. We are to love and serve those who follow Jesus and love and serve those who believe something completely different. In loving our neighbor as ourselves, we are not to exclude anyone from the definition of “neighbor.” There will be someone who crosses your path this week that needs a true neighbor to love them. Be that neighbor to them!

The pot luck lunch was so wonderful yesterday. Meeting upstairs took just a little extra effort, but it was so worth it! It was good to be able to have some people stay who have difficulty with our many stairs. Thank you for loving each other and making this fellowship meal even sweeter than usual.

Love being your pastor!
Bob