The Anabaptist Voice 02

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The Anabaptist Voice
02/18/2009

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

Dear Friends,

     Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a beautiful day again and we are enjoying the sunshine and the birds, doves and quail, that come to our back yard. Don has to occasionally go out to chase a hawk away. We have had snow on the mountains, as seen in this photo.
     Our son Jim was with us for several days. It was very nice. We do feel that the house is empty without him (here below is a photo of him from his Facebook page). He took Naomi to the naturopathic doctor again and he also took her to the physical therapy. We appreciate Jim. The doctor prescribed a new way to eat for Naomi: no flour, which means no bread, and no sugar, no milk, no rice. So what can she eat? She is already underweight. She needs to gain weight and not to lose… It will be rather difficult to cook now as we eat rice often. Does anyone have any recommendation? Do you have good recipes?
     Michi is finished with the current update to her Anabaptist Songbook. Now we are checking it for mistakes. A couple Sundays ago we sang a song called “The River” at the Vineyard church. It was new for us but we like it and wanted to learn to sing it. We found the words and the melody on the Internet and Michi was able to create the song with notes in her Finale music software. She brought along a dozen copies of the song to our Wednesday evening Bible study at Elizabeth Willott’s house so we could all sing it together.
     The Wednesday evening meeting was very interesting. Bill Swenson gave his testimony and we also discussed the teaching ‘saved by faith’. Gary Stokes talked about the death of his 86 year old mother. Our prayer time (men with men, women with women) was a blessing to us all. We do miss fellowship with brothers and sisters in the Lord since we moved from Washington State. We miss the Hutterite people.
     May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. (2 Cor 13:14)

your brother and sisters in Christ,

Don, Michi & Naomi Murphy
Tucson, AZ, phone 520-297-1639
www.AnabaptistChurch.org
"Do not store up wealth on earth… You can not serve both God and mammon.” (Mt 6:19)

The Mysteries of The Kingdom of God
by Don Murphy

Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom of God and instructed his disciples to do the same. He said to his disciples, “To you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” (Mt 13:11) The prophets of old spoke of the kingdom of God but did not fully understand it, for it was for our sake and not theirs. Even the angels longed to catch a glimpse of these things (I Peter 1:10-12).

What is a mystery?

     Mysteries are things that are not clear or perhaps not logical; things that many, if not most, people do not understand. A mystery is something that baffles understanding and cannot easily be explained.
     A mystery is a profound secret; something wholly unknown, or something kept cautiously concealed, and therefore exciting curiosity or wonder; something which has not been or can not be explained; hence, specifically, that which is beyond human comprehension.
     Paul wrote: “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” (1 Cor 2:7)
     Someone said, “If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless he would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind.”

Did Jesus explain the mysteries of the Kingdom of God to everyone?

     No, He did not explain the mysteries to everyone. The disciples asked Jesus, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
     Jesus replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you [His disciples], but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
     “This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'
     “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Mt 13:10-17)

What are some of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God?

     1. Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53-56) Do you understand this mystery?
     2. Jesus said, “A person must be born again in order to SEE the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) How is this mystery to be understood?
     3. Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) This doesn’t seem like a mystery until you think about the different ways this statement of the Lord is understood and acted upon.
     4. Jesus said, “These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:17-18) Is this a mystery?
     5. Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. (John 7:37-39) What does Jesus mean by ‘streams of living water’?
     6. Jesus said, “If you live in obedience to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) How can that be?
     7. Jesus prayed, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.” (John 17:22-23) Do you understand this mystery?

The Greatest Mystery

     The greatest mystery is God’s love for me. He made this earth for me. He made the sun, moon and stars for my benefit. My heavenly Father made the day and the night, the mountains and the ocean for my enjoyment. He made all these things for me! What a mystery! How can I return such great love?
     I have to choose between loving God and loving myself, I can not love both. My heavenly Father wants all my love and He deserves all of my love.
     But then there is the world that is so alluring, so desirable to my carnal nature. There is Satan and his evil spirits that with great power try to lure me to his kingdom, to weaken my love for God. They try to fill my mind with lies, with desires for worldly things, with darkness in my soul.
     When I take my eyes off of my loving heavenly Father and look at the delights of the world, I am like Peter when he was walking on the water to Jesus. When he took his eyes off of Jesus, he started to sink; he had to call out to the Lord to save him. (Mt 14:30)
     The devil is very powerful; he could take Jesus to the top of the mountain and to the top of the temple. (Mt 4:8) But he is a liar and a murderer. (John 8:44) He will surely cause me to live forever in the lake of fire if I go his way. (Rev 20:14)
     It is not just the devil who is my terrible enemy in this life; it is also his servants, his people who hate me. Jesus said, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:19)
     The apostle John warns us, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

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