Difference between Anabaptists and Evangelicals
Mysteries of the Kingdom of God
Anabaptist
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April 2001
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Sermons by Eli Hofer
03/14/01
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The Writings of Ulrich Stadler
Volume 1
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Volume 4
Anabaptist
Voice
07/04/2007
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ, dear friend. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with many spiritual blessing in Christ. He
chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His
sight. Having believed, we are marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy
Spirit—to the praise of His glory. (Eph 1:1-6)
Warm greetings to you from the desert of southern Arizona where it is a bit
warm. Now is the time of the year when people harvest the fruit from the giant
saguaro cactus. Here is a photo of one near our public library and below is a
close-up of the fruit.
We pray every one of you is well under the wonderful grace of our Heavenly
Father. Today, the temperature is expected to go up to 112! We are glad that
our air-conditioning is working. Don had trouble with his heart again last
night. He is a little weak today, but he is OK. Praise God.
Michi had an interesting experience the other
morning. She woke up about 3 am and realized that she had not yet received last
month’s issue of a Japanese Christian magazine that her brother had subscribed
for her. She was concerned and could not sleep for a while, thinking what to
do. Then the Lord whispered in her heart, “Don’t you trust Me?” So, she gave
the problem to the Lord and went back to sleep. Guess what? The same day, the
magazine arrived. What joy! Our Lord is wonderful.
Last Sunday Michi called our dear friend Hyeok
Flynt in Oklahoma to see if she was ok with all that rain they’re getting
there. She said that the rain wasn’t a problem, even though it has been raining
every day. Hyeok is a widow with seven children, three are teenagers, the
youngest is 12. We know Hyeok and the children as we used to live together at
Fan Lake, when her husband Michael was still alive. They were a happy family
and every child was bright, sweet and loving. Now they are going through a
challenging time without their father who died in an accident three years ago.
Please remember them in your prayers.
Michi and Naomi went to the Monday morning worship time at Linda Dowdle’s house
where the meeting began with remembering people who are in need. During the
meeting, Michi must have been burdened with Hyeok and her children without
recognizing it. They sang a song titled, “I will arise and go to Jesus.” Michi
never sang this song before, but one of lines was “Come, ye weary,
heavy-laden”. That brought tears to her eyes. She did not realize how much
pain she had for Hyeok and her children. She loves them.
Naomi is doing well. She is busy working on writing a children’s story as part
of her writing correspondence course, and she is enjoying it. She still is
going to physical therapy twice a week. In our weekly Saturday evening singing
in our home, one of the songs that we sang was written by Naomi, with the
refrain based on Psalm 116:
Lead Me, Lord
1. Lead me, Lord, in the way of righteousness,
And keep me on the straight and narrow path.
Refrain: You make known to me the path of life,
In Thy presence, there is fullness of joy.
2. Hear me, Lord, in my songs of joyfulness,
That I may be devout and follow you.
3. You, O Lord, are my strength and righteousness,
One and only Lord and helper too.
4. My hope, Lord, is in you, my righteousness,
Light of my path way and shelter too.
5. Keep me, Lord, on the path of righteousness,
You are my God, I praise and worship You.
Weighing the Prophetic
Nick Osborne, pastor of a church in Vancouver, BC, wrote a short message on
‘Weighing the Prophetic’ which we received in his “The
Contemplative Charismatic” postings. Just that same day, Saturday morning,
Don had experienced a need to do that. He attended the weekly 6 am Saturday
morning Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship (FGBMFI) prayer breakfast with 14
men. After the hour long prayer time when each man prays in turn, one of the
men, a former pastor, got his guitar and announced that the Lord had given him a
list of songs to sing. But it turned out that no one knew some of them except
him. So he was really doing a performance, and between songs he would preach a
bit.
Afterwards Don spoke with the man who usually brings his keyboard to the meeting
and leads us in song. He said that he felt that the Lord didn't want him to
bring his keyboard that day. So what do we make of that? It seems that the
Lord arranged that singing that morning, perhaps to test our patience and love?
To teach us about listening to the wrong spirit? The apostle John wrote, “Dear
friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the
world.” (1 John 4:1)
CDO Sunday Morning Church Service
Due to the coming Fourth of July celebration, the 10:15 am church service began
with the pastor asking those who had served in the US military to stand. We did
not stand nor join in the singing of “God bless America, My home sweet home"
because we identify with the apostle Peter who said that we are aliens and
strangers in this world (1 Peter 1:1, 2:11) and with James who wrote: “You
adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred
toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of
God.” (James 4:4)
Don had served four years in the US Air Force and knows full well that the
military is an unchristian place to be. Their purpose is to harm others,
completely contrary to the teachings of Christ. The early church took the
teachings of Jesus and the apostles very seriously. Guided by the Holy Spirit,
they were strong pacifists. They did not identify with any earthly nation but
rather claimed citizenship in heaven, considering themselves as strangers and
aliens on the earth (Heb 11:13-16 and 1 Peter 2:11). They believed that the
governments were given by God and therefore to be obeyed when it did not
conflict with obeying God (Acts 4:19; Rom 13:1-6 and I Peter 2:13-14). However,
Christians could not be judges or soldiers as this would place them in positions
where they may be responsible for taking someone’s life.
That patriotic spirit that was allowed into the CDO Sunday morning meeting
seemed to inhibit the singing during the worship service. However, the sermon,
based on Mark chapter 1, was very good, a good teaching on the authority of
Jesus in giving us direction, doctrine, authority over demons and authority over
disease. He was teaching Jesus! Listen to HIM! (Mt 17:5)
The CDO bi-weekly Monday 6:30 am men’s prayer breakfast was attended by six men,
including the pastor, the new youth pastor and the former youth pastor. Larry
Barbier led the meeting and gave a d
evotional
that was a blessing to us all.
Chess Players
On Tuesday, Matthew Hils, the grandson of a friend from the CDO church, called
and asked Don if he wants to play a game of chess with him over the Internet.
He showed Don how to do it and they played a game. It turns out that Matthew
was in a near by coffee shop so Don invited him and Amanda, his young
bride-to-be, to come over and play chess in our home. We had a delightful
time. They stayed for evening church and supper with us. After supper Don
showed Matthew how to play a Japanese game called ‘GO’ which was very popular in
Japan.
May the God of hope fill you, dear friend, with all joy and peace as you trust
in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
(Rom 15:13)
your brother and sisters in Christ,
Don, Michi & Naomi Murphy
Tucson, AZ 85742-4526
Phone 520-297-1639
www.AnabaptistChurch.org
“We pray that the eyes of our hearts will always be open to understand the hope
to which the Lord God has called us, the riches of His glorious inheritance for
the saints, His incomparably great power for us who believe. “(Eph 1:18-19)