The Anabaptist Voice
07/16/2008
Dear ,
We pray you are
well and joyful under the love of our Heavenly Father. We just returned from a wonderful time at the
James Valley Hutterite colony in Manitoba, Canada, with our son Patrick and his family. Our son David who lives in Seattle and son
Jim who lives in Vancouver, BC, came also for a visit. We missed our oldest son Michael and his
family but we had a wonderful time together.
In the evenings people in the colony would come to visit with us so we
had many spiritual discussions. We also
visited four other nearby Hutterite colonies.
Our grandson Titus had an early 5th birthday party so that he
could celebrate with us. He is a happy,
well-behaved boy and his sister Elizabeth Michiko is two years old and very
sweet, as you can see in this photo of her and her grandmother Michi.
We went to visit the kindergarten
in the community that children attend from the age of three to the age of
five. They sang many songs for us and it
was wonderful, as you can see in this photo of the children singing. That is Titus with his back to us on the left
and our son David watching. Here is a
song they sang that we would like to share with you.
Be careful little
eyes what you see,
Be careful
little eyes what you see,
There’s a Father up above
Who is looking down in love
So be careful little eyes what you
see.
Be careful little mouth what you
say,
Be careful little mouth what you
say,
There’s a Father up above
Who is looking down in love
So be careful little mouth what you
say.
Be careful little ears what you hear,
Be careful little ears what you hear,
There’s a Father up above
Who is looking down in love
So be careful little ears what you
hear.
Be careful little hands what you do,
Be careful little hands what you do,
There’s a Father up above
Who is looking down in love
So be careful little hands what you
do.
Be careful little feet where you go,
Be careful little feet where you go,
There’s a Father up above
Who is looking down in love
So be careful little feet where you
go.
We had
wonderful fellowship with the communal Hutterite people, they are living as
described in Acts 2:44-47 and Acts 4:32-5:11.
It is nice to see how people work together and share their lives
together. The James Valley colony has
131 people living there.
Michi went one afternoon to the
kitchen basement to join the ladies who were cleaning fresh strawberries from
the garden. They sang hymns while they
were cleaning. She remembered the
Washington colonies where they too sang hymns while they were working together
cleaning the chickens that they butchered.
It is wonderful to see them working together and enjoying the time.
The weather in Canada is much
cooler than here in Tucson, about 30 degrees.
It was rather a shock to us so we were happy to get back to the 100+
degree temperatures here in Tucson.
Their lawns are so green and the
flowers around the houses are so beautiful.
This too was a special gift from God Almighty.
We are grateful to Krista Robertson
who drove us to the airport in Tucson and picked us up when we returned.
While we were at the James Valley
Hutterite colony we got to spend time with two Korean couples who were also
visiting. One is the pastor of a
Mennonite church in Ontario and the other couple live near them in a small
community. The James Valley pastor sent
Pat, Don and one of the Korean couples who are computer experts to visit three
nearby Hutterite colonies to discuss their usage of the Internet. Hutterite colonies were traditional farming
communities but things are slowly changing.
One of the colonies that they visited gets half of its income from its
manufacturing plant where they make plastic frames for ceiling fans. Their Internet is limited to accessing a ‘white
list’ of web sites, those sites on the approved list. Another colony has their Internet controlled
by a ‘black list’, a list of web sites that they can not access. Hutterites are concerned about the
pornography on the Internet. They do not
have television in their homes either.
Here are some of the thoughts that
came to us as we compared the spiritual life of the Hutterites with that of the
evangelicals:
A Requirement for Eternal Life
Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you
will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:3)
Eternal Life is Knowing God like a Child
Knows His Father
Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
The apostle John wrote: “We know that we
have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him’, but does not
do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His
word, God's love is truly made complete in him.” (1 John 2:3-5)
Eternal Life is the Reward for Obeying
God like a Child Obeys His Father
Jesus said, “Not everyone who says
to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven. Many
will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and
in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never
knew you.’”
(Mt 7:21-23)
Jesus said, “Enter through the
narrow gate. For wide is the gate and
broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road
that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Mt
7:13-14)
The Parable of the Sower – Producing the
Fruits of the Spirit
Four types of people hear the Good
News but only one type produces fruit for eternal life. Jesus said, “Some
people, like seed sown on good soil, hear the Word, accept it, and produce a
crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” (Mk 4:20)
Fruits of the Spirit for Eternal Life
The apostle Paul wrote: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control.” (Gal 5:22-23)
An Actual Example of Fruit
A disciple of Jesus in Tucson
named Arron Grottolo wrote to us this week:
“I am doing a death vigil for a dying man at the Heartland Hospice. We are not supposed to bring religion up to
the dying unless they bring it up first.
Yesterday after 5 days of not talking to the dying person because he is
semi comatose and can't talk, I thought what the heck there is no one around,
I'm going for it. I called his name and
began to tell him about Jesus and how to call upon His name and how God wanted
to save him. I gave him the plan of
salvation and began to sing about Jesus.
Well the dying man tried to sit up.
He began to moan and was visible affected by what I did. I do not know what happened with him but I do
know he was moving and moaning and looking for over an hour. I do not know what to think. I just Know the Name of Jesus stirred him
like I had not seen the previous 5 days.
When I first talked to the dying man, I said, ‘Dennis, it is ok for you
to leave now. Make sure you are right
with God before you go. God does not
want you to be lost. Neither do I.’
That’s when I began to talk about Jesus and salvation. He died the next morning.”
We pray, dear
brothers and sisters in Christ,, that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened in order that we may know
the hope to which He has called us, the riches of His glorious inheritance in
the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. (Eph. 1:18-19)
Let us try to follow the Lord in
love.
your Anabaptist brother
and sisters in Christ,
Don, Michi & Naomi Murphy
Tucson, AZ phone 520-297-1639
www.AnabaptistChurch.org
Jesus said, "Do not resist an evil man." (Mt 5:39) He means do not resist evil with evil but
respond with love, the Calvary type of love that Jesus demonstrated with His
death on the cross.