Brothers and sisters,
Happy Monday to all! Yesterday we focused on worshipping the Lord, who is our Rock and our Redeemer. Jesus our Lord never changes and His love for His children can always be depended upon. Then from 1 Corinthians 5, we looked at the sin and sickness of the church at Corinth and learned from them how to remain healthy as a church. Healthy churches confront open and flagrant sin among their members for the eternal good of those members and the church. Healthy churches realize flagrant sin unconfronted will create deep infection among the entire body of Christ. Healthy churches understand separate ways of dealing with those inside and outside the church. Believers understand that we cannot expect people outside of the church to live by Biblical standards. That would be impossible. In fact, it is impossible for believers, apart from the continual filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit. Unbelievers do not need Christian morality. They need Christ and the new birth He will give to those who believe. However, believers do expect those who claim to know Christ to always seek to follow Him and live His way. Healthy churches remain healthy by loving people within the church enough to confront them about their sin.
During the weeks between Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, we are passing out baby bottles for us to collect offerings for the CareNet Pregnancy Center of Dane County. CareNet does wonderful work of saving lives and helping women and families. Take a bottle and fill it with an offering to be returned on Fathers’ Day.
We are a part of the CarePortal network which seeks to minister to children and families in the foster care system. We need responders who can be a part of receiving email requests from CarePortal so we can effectively process these requests. If you would like to know more about being a CarePortal responder, let me know and I can pass your name and email to Alicia. Alicia can then send you a link to a video explaining more about the work of responders.
Remember to keep praying continually for each other. None of us know fully the burdens our brothers and sisters in Christ might be carrying.
Love being your pastor!
Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church