The Anabaptist Voice 10

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The Anabaptist Voice
10/08/2008

Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God: Love, Joy and Peace in Jesus.

Dear friends,

       We pray you are well under the grace of our Heavenly Father. Our son Jim left last Friday for Vancouver, BC. Before he left, he took Naomi to a naturopath doctor. He also fixed the showerhead in Naomi’s bathroom for us. Thank you, Lord, for what he has done, and also we thank you, Jim.
      Jim has just received a contract from McGraw-Hill, a big book publisher, for the new book that he is writing, Inner Excellence. He is to finish writing it by March 15th, 2009. Thank you Lord. Now we ask the Lord to write through him so that the book will be powerful with the Spirit of God. We pray also for Jim to work diligently and be done before March 15th. Thank you, Lord.
       We have new guests staying in our home. Our Heavenly Father knew this, so He told us to prepare by fixing the bathroom showerhead. It is wonderful to live under the love of our Heavenly Father who knows and prepares us.
     Last Friday we invited Tony and Kris Brown (photo) to move in with us while they are waiting for their apartment to become available, which may be a week or two. Tony is unemployed but looking for a job, he works in road construction and is taking correspondence courses at a Bible college. Kris is attending college to get a master’s degree in social work and part of her training is to work three days a week as an unpaid intern learning to provide services for elderly people. We celebrated her 34th birthday yesterday. Kris is the one who took Naomi bowling a couple weeks ago. We are blessed to have them here, as you can see in this photo of Naomi and Kris.
       Don’s brother Joe Breidenbach is still in the Mayo Clinic hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, recovering from his open heart surgery on Sept 30th. He went into atrial fibrillation yesterday and they're hoping that he will come out of it soon. They don't know when he can return to Washington, might be days, might be longer.

Monday Morning Prayer Meetings

      Don and Tony attended the 6:30 am CDO church men’s prayer meeting at the Coco’s Restaurant with seven other men. It was Joe Shanton’s turn to bring the message which he based on the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 9:1-7 about the man born blind. The disciples asked Jesus who had sinned, the man or his parents, that he was born blind. Jesus said that neither sinned, the man was born blind so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. Then Jesus healed the man and he could see.
       Joe’s talk was very inspiring and we think that this is how the Lord Jesus wants His church to function, various men taking turns preaching, as we see in 1 Cor 14:26.
       Michi and Naomi attended the 9 am Monday morning ladies prayer meeting at Linda Dowdle’s home. They too were blessed and came home joyful.

Tuesday Evening CDO Church Cell Group Meeting

       Don and Michi attended the monthly cell group meeting at the home of our friends Ed and Maybelle Cates. Nine other people were there but Naomi was not feeling too well, so she stayed home. Two couples shared their experience of what God has been doing in their lives. Betty Hansen told of her amazing experience of receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Betty and her husband Orville will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary next summer. Mike Brown told of his spiritual life and how he and his wife Lupe were water baptized just two and a half years ago while working in California.
       It was a wonderful evening for everyone. Both Ed and Maybelle, who are in their 70s, had been sick but the Lord God gave them energy to host the meeting. We had an excellent snack of peach pie made by Maybelle from peaches she had canned.

The Lord’s Teaching on Personal Finances

       Jesus created quite a revolution when He came to earth, but not the revolution His Jewish followers desired. They wanted freedom from the Roman oppression but Jesus brought them freedom from the oppression of mammonism. The ‘Irresistible Revolution’ that Jesus led caused His followers to be labeled ‘radicals’ because they were so out of step with the common life of the Jews and the Romans.
       The disciples were taught that they should not have private possessions, that they were to love each other as they loved themselves which required owning all possessions in common. This was a popular theme of Jesus as we can see in Mt 6:19-34, Mt 19:21, Luke 12:33, Luke 14:33, etc. The result was that the followers of Jesus were united with all possessions in common as shown in Acts 2:44-47 and Acts 4:32-5:11.
       Jesus told His followers, “Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” (Luke 12:33) “No one can be my disciple unless he parts with [Greek apotassomai] all of his possessions [Greek huparchonta].” (Luke 14:33) Should Christians today be expected to obey these commands?
       May the Lord bless you, dear friends, and fill you with His peace.

Your Anabaptist brother and sisters in Christ,

Don, Michi and Naomi Murphy
phone 520-297-1639
www.AnabaptistChurch.org

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LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER
by Peter Riedemann (c. 1540)
16^th century Anabaptist leader

Whoever loves God should love his brother too; for whoever says he loves God and does not love his brother is a liar; for how can he love God, whom he cannot see, if he does not love his brother, whom he sees. So the man of God should also have brotherly love, as it is written, "Love one another with brotherly affection and each serve the other.” Christ gave us this command. Finally, when he wanted to leave the world and return to the Father, he said to his disciples, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. If you have love for one another, men will know you are my disciples."

But brotherly love implies that we lay our lives down for each other, just as Christ did for all of us, and gave us an example to follow in his footsteps. So I should not live for myself alone, but live to serve my brothers - not seek my prosperity and betterment, but theirs, my whole life long; also, I should take care not to let my brother be grieved or weakened by my work or words. For when my word has grieved a brother, I have lacked love. Whoever does not love his brother is still in death and darkness, as John writes. "Anyone who does not love his brother is a murderer, and we know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Whoever loves his brother, however, penetrates through from death to life, for he loves his brethren. So let us love everyone - not with words and with our tongues, but in deed and truth. For if someone who has the goods of this world sees his brother in want and does not share with him, how can God's love abide in him?
Brotherly love should come wholeheartedly from pure hearts and not be tainted but remain pure. God the Lord knows what is in man; he searches the heart and mind. Thus neither outward show nor hypocrisy means anything to him, no matter how fine they seem, for God is not deceived. He wants a sincere, renewed heart. As it is written, "A broken and contrite heart you will not despise.” God wants to be praised in spirit, heart, and conscience. As he is a spirit, he does not look for outward ceremony which is not founded in the heart. That is an abomination to him however fine and good it seems. What comes from the heart in faith, however, and is carried out in deed is a pleasing and fragrant offering to his glory.

Love your neighbor as yourself. This is the second commandment and is like the first. On these two depend all the law and the prophets. Indeed, the law: you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not defame, you shall not covet, and all other commandments, however many there may be, are fulfilled in the saying, "Love your neighbor as yourself.” But love of one's neighbor, as Christ himself teaches, consists in this: what you would like men to do to you, do to them first – then you will fulfill God's law. Now, no one desires evil to befall him; he desires good from all, therefore, in obedience, we should first show men love, loyalty, and goodness, then they will not speak against the praise of God. In this way we gladly make ourselves of service to all men for Christ's sake, that his name may be praised through us, also by unbelievers, for when they see how we serve they will have no ground for blasphemy. Such love flows from brotherly love, as Peter shows us when he says, "Supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with modesty, modesty with godliness, godliness with brotherly love, and brotherly love with the love of all. If these things are in you, you will not be lazy or unfruitful in the knowledge of God and of Christ.” It follows that every human being who is born of God is inclined to show his neighbor love, loyalty, and all that is good spontaneously and without end.

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