The Anabaptist Voice
09/03/2008

 Warm greetings, dear friends in Christ,

       We pray you are well under the grace and love of our Lord.  In the Murphy home here in Tucson we have more peace and quiet than usual.  That is because last Sunday Naomi gave five of her six cockatiel birds, their nest box and a large cage to Terry Kroll, our dear friend from CDO church who has a bird aviary.
      The parents and their three baby birds were flying all over the house and leaving their tiny feathers and droppings all over.  Not only that, when Michi would start to cook, Harmony and Melody, the parent birds, would fly to the kitchen and expect to be fed.  And when we were at table, they wanted to eat with us.  It was fun, but it became too much.  Here is a photo of the parents sitting on Naomi with the father on top of Naomi’s head guarding his baby and the poor raggedy mother on her shoulder.
       Now Naomi has only one bird and it has clipped wings so it cannot fly.  It is so much quieter and cleaner in the house now, and healthier for us, too.  But we miss the fun with the birds.
       Our dear friend and sister in the Lord Kris Brown came to visit us on Sunday.  We had wonderful fellowship.  On Monday morning somebody knocked at our door.  It was Donna Davis, our dear friend and sister in the Lord.  She brought along her 10 year old niece Elisa who is visiting from her home in Georgia.  It was a wonderful surprise and we had a good time together.
       Donna, who has been training to be a nurse, is very helpful to Naomi.  Naomi is still in a wheelchair, her legs and arms are painful.  Donna told her to take Tylenol and set the timer for two hours and then do the exercise that her physical therapist had prescribed.  So she did.
       Naomi spent Wednesday afternoon at Donna’s house with Mary, Donna and Elisa.  She had a wonderful time there.  She needed some friends.  Thank you Donna and your family for giving fellowship and joy to her.

Cell Group Meetings

       The pastor of the CDO church that we attend has been holding weekly meetings to prepare people to host small cell groups in their homes.  The very first one was Tuesday night at the home of Ed and Maybelle Cates.  There were six people there and the interesting thing is that Don and Michi were the youngest ones there.  Ed Cates gave his testimony about his life.  When he was a young Baptist man, he met his future wife Maybelle who told him that if he wanted to date her, he had to go to her church, a small Assembly of God church, so he did and they got married.
       We are very interested in small group meetings.  Beginning in January 1979 we hosted a weekly small group meeting on Friday evenings in our home in Renton, Washington, a Seattle suburb.  Don had previously attended a year long weekly training sessions at our church, Faith Tabernacle (a large independent Pentecostal church), and was selected to be one of the home fellowship leaders.  As our group grew, two other men were later selected to be his assistant leaders.
       The weekly meetings started out rather small but grew.  For example, on 4/23/1982 in our home, we had 11 children in the children’s meeting, 15 youth in the youth meeting and 18 adults in our adult meeting.  They were not just from our church but from various churches; generally less than half of the people who came to our home meetings attended our church, Faith Tabernacle. 
       Our meetings started at 7:30 pm on Friday and usually included about 30 minutes of singing (led by a couple of guitar players), 30 minutes of Bible study (led by various members), 30 minutes of sharing, 15 minutes of prayer and an hour of fellowship.  Of course these times might vary quite a bit.  We occasionally had an outside speaker come in, including Michi’s uncle who was the Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene in Japan.  The youth and children met in different rooms.  We generally had a pot luck meal the first Saturday of each month and sometimes would go out to a restaurant together or to a park.  We took up collections to help those in our group who were in need and also we would go help someone in their home.
       The year long weekly training sessions that Don attended prior to the start of the home meetings stressed the role of the group leader.  His job was to encourage fellowship, see that the meetings started on time, ended on time, and that the sharing stayed on the subject, and to gently quiet excessive talkers.  He was to encourage the sharing by asking questions and be careful not to share more than anyone else.  We were to be as Jesus taught in Matthew 23:12, we were all brothers and sisters, all equal, a very challenging and difficult concept for most leaders.  The essence of the home meetings was to develop love and concern for each other, which we did (John 13:34-35).
 
Teaching Obedience to Jesus

       If you were to ask a number of people if they know of any church, including their own, that teaches its people how to obey the following commands of Christ, what would they answer?
            1.  Do not swear oaths.  (Mt 5:34)
            2.  Do not resist an evil man.  (Mt 5:39)
            3.  Love your enemies.  (Mt 5:44)
            4.  Do not store up wealth on earth.  (Mt 6:19)
            5.  Enter by the narrow gate.  (Mt 7:13-14)
            6.  Only those who obey Jesus will enter heaven.  (Mt 7:21-27)
            7.  Sell your possessions.  (Luke 12:33)
       Don recently asked a number of people this question.  Most would not give a direct answer but a couple said that yes most churches do teach obedience to these commands and one person said that it was impossible for him to obey these commands.
       Another way of asking this question is:  Do you know of any group of people who do not swear oaths, who do not resist evil men, who do not store up wealth on earth and who have sold their possessions?  Do you know any group of Christians who live like that?

The Reward for Following the Teachings of Jesus

       Most people would probably think that living in obedience to those teaching of Jesus listed above would be a very challenging, difficult life, a very narrow path to follow.  So why do it?  Well, the answer is that the reward for doing so is worth the effort.
       Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  (John 14:27)
       “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33)
       Peter told the Roman soldier Cornelius, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.  You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”  (Acts 10:34-36) 
       Notice Peter’s qualification for acceptance by God:  those who fear Him and do what is right.  His theology seems to be a bit different then that of many people today.

Passing on Gossip

       These days it is very popular for people to spread gossip, mostly false, about one of the presidential candidates.  It seems that people think that it is a sin to gossip about someone they know but it is ok to gossip about someone they don’t know.  A bit contradictory, and sad…  What will Jesus say?
       “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”  (John 3:36)
       “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?  So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”  (Heb 3:18-19)
       Jesus said, “Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me.  He who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him…  If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching.”  (John 14:21-24, 14:15, 15:10)
       May the Lord bless you, dear friend, and fill you with His peace.

Your Anabaptist brother and sisters in Christ,

Don, Michi and Naomi Murphy
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.