Brothers and sisters,
Happy Monday to all! Yesterday was a wonderful day as we celebrated the greatness of our God together. We were reminded as we worshipped of our commitment to God and to each other in the reading of the church covenant as we welcomed Kathy McElmurry as a member of East Madison. We remembered Jesus sacrifice for us reconciling us to holy God and making us one with other believers, and we remembered His living presence with us, as we observed the Lord’s Supper together. We thought from Matthew 20 about the dangers of comparing what God does in our lives with what He does in the lives of others. We learned that we follow Jesus because of a gracious and pursuing God who saves us and calls us to the privilege of working with Him in carrying out His mission of reconciliation. We learned this pursuing God always gives us more than we ask, think or even imagine. We learned that we should never think that God loves us more if things go well in our lives or that He loves us less if things are not going well. God loves us always (the cross proves this!) and His plan for us is a one-of-a-kind plan where He brings about glory to Himself and ultimate good for us. We are not to compare ourselves to other believers whom God also lavishes grace upon but in different ways. We were encouraged to remember that God deals with each of us from grace and His grace toward us is always lavish and extensive.
We will have our annual East Madison Baptist Church Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday evening, November 17 at 6:00 PM. There is a sign-up sheet in the foyer listing the things we need for the dinner.
Love being your pastor!
Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church