The Anabaptist Voice

       Are you blessed by the Lord during this special time? We pray you are well under the wings of our loving Father who loves us so much that He gave His only Son to save us.
       We learned that the north side of United States is quite cold. Here we have some snow on top of the highest mountains but down here it is like shown in this photo.
       At Christmas, we think of what Jesus has done for us and told us: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) We want to show Him our thanksgiving by following Jesus.
       We are all fine. Don has recovered from his cold. Michi and Naomi are well. Naomi has been enjoying the physical therapy. Yesterday she did therapy on their Wii Fit system. (We have purchased a Wii Fit for our home.) Naomi is invited to go to Donna and Mary’s house this afternoon.
       This weekend we are happily expecting Patrick and his family and David to be with us. We pray the weather is fine for them to fly here, Patrick from Winnipeg and David from Seattle.
       Last Sunday we attended the Vineyard church service where Ketti McCormick and Sushma Hobson shared about an experience they had at another church. Ketti is blind so Sushma took her to this special meeting. They had us say a prayer that they learned there, which we have included below.
       We are thinking about Jesus, who obeyed the Father and came to the earth to free us and show us the way to the Father and enable us by the Holy Spirit to live a holy life pleasing to the Father. This song that we sing reminds us of that great event.

1. A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth,
     The guilt of all men bearing;
     And laden with the sins of earth,
     None else the burden sharing!
     Goes patient on, grows weak and faint,
     To slaughter led without complaint,
     That spotless life to offer;
     Bears shame, and stripes, and wounds and death,
     Anguish and mockery, and saith,
     "Willingly this I suffer."
2. This Lamb is Christ, the soul's great Friend,
     The Lamb of God, our Saviour;
     Him God the Father chose to send
     To gain for us His favour.
    "Go forth, My Son," the Father said,
     "And free men from the fear of death,
     From guilt and condemnation.
     The wrath and stripes are hard to bear,
     But by Thy Passion men shall share
     The Fruit of Thy salvation."
3. "Yea, Father, yea, most willingly
     I'll bear what you commanded;
     My will conforms to Thy decree,
      I do what Thou demanded."
     O wondrous Love, what have you done!
     Father offers up His Son!
     The Son, content, descending!
     O Love, how strong Thou art to save!
     Thou laid Him down within the grave
     Whose word the mountains rending.
            (Anabaptist song Ein Lämmlein geht)

Apollo 8

Forty years ago today Don played a minor role in a great historical event. On Dec 24, 1968, the Apollo 8 spaceship with three astronauts, William Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman, aboard made the first manned space flight to the moon. They didn’t land there, just circled it. (Apollo 11 made the first moon landing the next summer. Here are Apollo 8 photos of the earth and the moon.)
Apollo 8 Earth.jpg That evening, as families finished their Christmas Eve dinners, the astronauts pointed their camera out the window and beamed home a grainy, gray view of the alien world they were circling. Everywhere on the planet, viewers tuned in, making up what was then the largest TV audience in history. The astronauts had been instructed to do whatever they felt was appropriate to mark the moment so they took turns reading aloud to their earth bound audience the first ten verses from the book of Genesis in the Bible. When they finished, Borman, as the skipper, concluded the broadcast: "And from the crew of Apollo 8," he said, "we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

Apollo 8 Moon2.jpg The crew circled the moon 10 times over the next 20 hours. On their final orbit, once again alone behind the moon, the crew re-lit the engine that was their only ticket home. If it had failed to burn, they would have been stranded forever in lunar orbit. The flight controllers — to say nothing of the families — waited anxiously for the astronauts to emerge from radio blackout. When they did, it was Lovell's voice that broke the silence.

"Houston, Apollo 8," he said. "Please be informed that there is a Santa Claus.” And in 1968, at last there was.

This event is of special interest to Don as he was a technician at the Apollo ground station on the island of Antigua, British West Indies, where they received the audio, video and telemetry data from the Apollo spaceship and passed it on to the Apollo headquarters at NASA in Houston, Texas. Michi remembers that Don took a sleeping bag to work because he had to be there 24 hours a day for a week during the mission.

May God the Father grant you peace, love and faith, dear friend, and grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. (Eph 6:23-24)

your brother and sisters in Christ,

Don, Michi & Naomi Murphy
Tucson, AZ phone 520-297-1639
www.AnabaptistChurch.org
"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)

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Jesus Came To Set Us Free

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (Luke 6:37-38)

“I say to you that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it on the day of judgment, for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)

“And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.” (James 3:4-6)

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’” (Galatians 3:13)

It is our birthright to break all of this stuff – Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – we have the power to break every curse that is spoken against us and that we have spoken over ourselves and that has come back to us because of retribution.

Repeat this prayer to break the curse of words and be set free:

     - In the name of Jesus
     - I break every curse of words against me
     - I take every word captive that has been spoken over me
     - That I spoke over myself
     - And I break the power of every curse from hell
     - I cancel every assignment of darkness
     - I cast them to the ground
     - And I call a blessing to follow me in their place
     - I take back every curse
     - I have spoken against another
     - I cast those words down to the ground
     - I return a blessing on those with whom I have cursed
     - Jesus took my cursing
     - So I could live in blessing

AMEN!

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