Andrew Murray
And God Created Woman
Difference between Anabaptists and Evangelicals
Mysteries of the Kingdom of God
Anabaptist
Voice
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Sermons by Eli Hofer
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The Writings of Ulrich Stadler
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The Anabaptist Voice
04/02/2008
Warm greetings to you, dear friend.
Are you well with
our Heavenly Father’s love and grace? This morning Michi thought, “God made
this banana for us to enjoy. Did I ever tell that to our children?” Actually,
she never thoug
ht
of such things until she was way over 70. Everything is provided for us. He
created all things for us to enjoy… Our God is wonderful.
The weather here
in southern Arizona is beautiful, 45 to 80 degrees. The flowers are coming out
slowly and we are enjoying them and enjoying going for a walk in the evening.
Here is
a photo
of our front yard.
Our David is still in China, teaching a class for Microsoft there. He
will be leaving China on Friday, going to Japan to visit relatives. We
pray he is protected, blessed and enjoys the time overseas.
We heard from our dear old friend Darnell Pribis. We used to live together at
the Fan Lake Brethren community in Washington state. She had asked us to pray
for her father, and we have been lifting him up to our heavenly Father. It
sounds like He is responding to the prayers of many. It is wonderful
to know that God loves us and takes care of us.
Friday, March 28th
Friday was Naomi’s birthday. We celebrated by going out to lunch at the
Coco’s Bakery.
Her brothers called and sang “Happy Birthday” for her. The next day they called
Don also on his
birthday. Naomi baked a wonderful pie for her Dad’s birthday. Little Titus and
Elizabeth sang “Happy Birthday” to Aunt Naomi and Grandpa over the telephone and
also sent birthday cards. We are all blessed with a happy family. Naomi
received a wonderful birthday present from Kathy Beattie. The birthday cards
from the church members are wonderful, too. We are loved.
Naomi is busy with her five cockatiel chicks. They
are doing well and she is trying to tame them. She holds the birds, one at a
time, for 15 minutes and talks to the birds gently. Michi heard Don telling a
bird, “You’d better behave, otherwise I will spank you.” Naomi said, “Go
ahead. I
would like to see you spank that bird.” I
t
was just in fun.
Naomi is going twice weekly to physical therapy, including therapy in a
pool. The county provides her free transportation
to and from therapy and her doctor’s visits. She enjoys the friendliness of the
therapy workers and the van drivers. Here are photos of us at the restaurant
for Naomi’s birthday, a photo of her five baby cockatiels and a photo of her
feeding their parents.
Reformation
The Reformation in Don’s life began when he was born again in 1975.
Shortly thereafter the Lord revealed to Don that one of the purposes of the
crucifixion of Christ was to show the born again Christians that they too must
die to their old self and live only for the Lord God, they must love God with
all their heart soul, mind and strength and love their neighbor as themselves.
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God lives in him.”
(1 John 4:16) In Don’s old life, he had served four years in the US military
followed by two years as a city police officer. One of the reasons that Don
left the police force was because his wife Michi objected to Don coming home a
couple times with blood on his clothes. The blood was from people who resisted
arrest and had to be subdued, which Don did with his blackjack. He used to be
proud of that blood covered blackjack.
However, after he was born again he came to realize that the use of force
was not God’s way for His children. They were to follow the example of Jesus
and respond to evil with love, the Calvary-like love shown by Jesus. At that
time Don was working in Seattle as an engineer on the Boeing AWACS program, a
flying radar site for the military. He realized that a born again child of God
could not be involved in any aspect of war and killing so he got transferred to
the commercial aircraft side of Boeing.
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God lives in him.”
(1 John 4:16)
Saturday, March 29th, 6 am
Saturday was quite a day for Don. Not only was it his 71st
birthday but also he was threatened with bodily harm by a man at the 6 am FGBMFI
prayer meeting! And after the 10 am prayer meeting at the Canyon Del Oro
Assembly of God church, the pastor and the others present sang ‘Happy Birthday’
to Don!
The 6 am FGBMFI prayer meeting in the Denny’s Restaurant in east Tucson,
about 35 minutes from our home, started as usual with each man taking his turn
to pray. And, as usual, a couple of the man prayed for our troops in Iraq and
for the political situation in America. When it was Don’s turn to pray, he was
second from the last, he prayed that America would cease its evil war in the
Middle East and take down the evil wall that they have built up between the
United States and Mexico and allow the poor Mexicans to come to the United
States for work. Don was interrupted in his prayer by one of the men who
objected to his prayer and several others agreed with him. Four weeks earlier
the man who objected to Don’s prayer for peace threatened to stop coming to the
FGBMFI prayer meetings if Don continued such prayers.
After the prayer time, we sang and then had breakfast. After eating the
man across from Don stood up and began to speak very angrily to Don about his
prayer. He threatened to beat up Don and then walked out of the meeting. Some
of the men at the meeting knew this man but it was the first time that Don had
met him in the three and half years that Don has been attending this weekly
Saturday morning FGBMFI prayer meeting.
Don had brought along a copy of the Mennonite Weekly Review newspaper
that he had just received to give it to a man sitting next to him who was raised
a Mennonite. However the man refused it, saying those people advocate peace.
He then proceeded for twenty minutes trying to convince Don that physical
violence is sometimes necessary since we live in an evil world. He was
obviously very upset with Don’s prayer and beliefs about peace.
The meeting was over and on the way out Don stopped to say goodbye to two
of the men who were still there talking. They wanted Don to sit with them while
they tried to tell him how wrong he was and how he was causing division in the
group by his prayers. They talked for about 45 minutes and finally Don said
that the basic difference between them and him was that they supported war and
Don supported peace. They said that they would bring up the subject next week
with the idea of making Don stop.
What really amazed Don was the anger that arose in several of the men
because of Don’s prayer. One threatened to beat him up, another was so angry
that he was incoherent at times. What is the cause of this anger? What spirit
motivated it?
Don has been attending this weekly 6 am Saturday morning FGBMFI prayer
meeting for about three years and it is usually a blessing to be with these men
who love the Lord and want to serve Him. Each man bares his heart in his prayer
and we get to know each other quite intimately. So it was rather shocking to
observe the spirit of anger that was aroused.
This situation reminds us of the problems that Jesus had. A number of
times the Jewish leaders got angry at what Jesus had to say and eventually did
kill Him. He even had problems with Jews who believed in Him as we read in John
8:31-59. He told this group of believers that if they would live according to
His teachings they would know the truth and the truth would set them free.
Well, they didn’t like to hear this and got so angry with Jesus that they picked
up stones to stone Him.
When Don got home he received an email from one of the men at the FGBMFI
meeting which encouraged him greatly. This man was an American soldier in the
Middle East and understands the reaction of the people there to the invasion by
America that professes to be a Christian nation.
Saturday, March 29th, 10 am
The 10 am CDO prayer meeting began with the leader bringing up the
subject that war and killing was sometimes permissible by God for Christians.
This was also amazing as it was a continuation of the discussions at the earlier
FGBMFI prayer meeting which none present knew about. So Don told them about
what happened earlier. They talked for about an hour and a half. Afterwards
Don encountered the CDO pastor in the entry way of the church where a food bank
was in operation (giving away free food). Don jokingly told him that he was
supposed to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Don because it was his birthday, which he
and the others did. J
Sunday, March 30th
Sunday was also quite an unusual day. At the start of the 9 am Sunday
school class at the CDO church Don noticed that his friend Ed Cates was walking
with a cane so he asked him about it and Ed said that his heart was racing all
morning. Don called Ken Hinson and they prayed with Ed, that his heart would
return to normal and it did! Praise the Lord! During the main CDO church
service the pastor asked Ed to give a testimony about his healing.
Monday, March 31
Michi and Naomi went as usual to the weekly worship meeting at Linda
Dowdle’s home where about 25 women meet for about three hours to sing and read
passages from the Bible. One of the subjects read about in the Bible spoke
strongly to Michi as she thought of her husband’s tribulations on Saturday at
the FGBMFI prayer meeting. They read about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who
chose the fiery furnace rather than to worship a false god. These three men
told the king, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from
the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going
to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." (Daniel
3:17-18)
We are to grow in trusting the Lord no matter what the conditions might
be. We are to follow our Almighty God, as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did.
We are not to worship false gods, we are not to give our allegiance to any power
other than our Almighty God. We are to be humble and loving like Jesus who
showed us the way to heaven. We are to always praise God, because He knows
everything and He loves us.
We pray that out of His glorious riches the
Lord God may strengthen you, dear friend,
with power through his Spirit in your inner being, with Christ dwelling in your
hearts through faith. (Eph. 3:16-17)
Your brother and sisters in Christ,
Don, Michi and Naomi Murphy
Tucson, AZ phone 520-297-1639
www.AnabaptistChurch.org
"This is how we love God - by obeying His commands. And His commands are not
burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory
that has overcome the world - our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world?
He who honors Jesus as the Son of God." (1 John 5:3-5)