Andrew Murray
And God Created Woman
Difference between Anabaptists and Evangelicals
Kingdom
Mysteries
Part 1
Part 2
Anabaptist
Voice
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Sermons by Eli Hofer
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The Writings of Ulrich Stadler
Volume 1
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The Anabaptist Voice
02/25/2009
Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God: Love, Joy and Peace in
Jesus.
Dear friends,
We pray everything is well with you under the
wonderful care and grace of our Heavenly Father. We are blessed here in
southern Arizona with beautiful warm days. We have our doors open all day long
and get to feel the warm fresh air. The gardeners came on Tuesday to trim the
plants and remove the weeds so now our yard looks a bit bare. We plan to go to
a nursery and get more plants. Here is a photo taken from our kitchen window of
the gardeners at work. They did not speak English so Don had to speak to them
in his poor Spanish.
Last Sunday we
went for the first time to the nearby Calvary Chapel of Oro Valley. As Don was
coming back from taking our son Jim to the airport last Wednesday, he listened
on the car radio to a sermon by the pastor of the church and was impressed.
Since we couldn’t go to the Vineyard church on Sunday we went to hear this man
preach. After the church, we went to the Chinese buffet restaurant where we met
a couple from Minnesota, Jim and Marge Mazzoni and their friend Barbara. Marge
runs a medical billing service that has been using our medical billing software
for the past 15 years so it was good to meet them. They are down here on
vacation and heading for Mexico. It was a pleasant time together. Here is a
photo of us at the restaurant.
We want to thank the many people who tried to help us with what we can
cook for Naomi because of her new diet. It is rather difficult. What she
likes, she cannot eat. It is difficult not being able to have milk, rice, sugar
and flour… The naturopathic doctor had recommended that Naomi take their ‘First
Line Therapy’ which includes a diet which we are slowing beginning to
understand. Michi took Naomi to her primary doctor on Tuesday because she had
been complaining about a bad backache for a few days. They found that her pain
was caused by a urine tract infection and proscribed a medicine for it.
We had a very unusual visit on Tuesday by three young Mormon missionary
ladies, about college age, who came to our house with the hope of converting us
to their religion. For the first time, we felt comfortable talking with Mormon
missionaries because they stressed the love of Jesus more than anything else.
That made us feel close to them. One of them was a Chinese who had spent three
years in Japan. She could speak fluent Japanese, and it was fun for Michi to
talk with her in Japanese. They seemed to imply that Mormon men had a special
authority from God that other men do not have but they couldn’t explain it so
they plan to come back with a Mormon priest who can explain it.
The Mormon missionaries tried to claim that the Lord God had restored His
church on earth through Joseph Smith but Don explained to them that the Mormon
church does not teach their people to live according to the teachings and
commands of Jesus, such as “Do not resist an evil man”, “Love your enemies”, “Do
not store up wealth on earth” as taught by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount.
Don read to them that last part of that Sermon where Jesus said that those who
do not obey these commands are wicked people.
These young women were very serious and so it was a blessing to share
with them. Each of them told us about their born again experience and their
efforts at missionary work. We spent a couple hours talking with them. Don
gave booklets that he wrote to two of the women and last week’s newsletter to
the third. They are not allowed to read such things without approval of their
missionary leader which they said that they would try to obtain.
A Most Unusual Bible Teaching
We are reading through the Gospel of John in our daily 5 pm church
service and read a very interesting teaching of Jesus. In John 8:31-32 Jesus
said to the Jews who believed in Him that if they would live according to His
teachings, if they would obey His commands, then they are truly His people and
they will know the truth and the truth will set them free. These believers
responded that they are already free but Jesus told them that those who commit
sins are slaves of sin and have the devil as their father! This is amazing, how
can children of the devil be believers in Jesus? Well, as we read in Matthew
7:21-27, there are believers who even do miracles in the name of Jesus but are
not willing to obey His commands so Jesus says that they are not His people.
The apostle John writes, “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.” (1
John 2:3-4)
A Most Unusual Book
Don is reading a book titled “A Change of Allegiance” by Dean Taylor in
which he describes his journey as a young American soldier in Germany from being
willing to kill for his country to being willing to die for his Lord God. He
was in the U.S. Army when he began to try to understand what a Christian should
do with the orders of Jesus to love your enemies. Is it all right for a
Christian to go to war? Does a Christian have an obligation to defend his
country?
As he and his wife searched the Scriptures and Church history, they came
to the startling discovery that the Christian Church originally was uniformly
opposed to Christians going to war or joining the military.
In his book, Dean Taylor takes the reader on a moving journey through the
Scriptures, Christian history, and his own life’s story as he demonstrates the
incompatibility of Christianity and war. He challenges Christians to consider
where their allegiance truly lies since a Christian can not serve two lords.
A Most Unusual Church
If we are born again children of God, disciples of the Lord Jesus, and if
we accept the Bible as a guide for our lives, then it follows that for the sake
of our salvation we should be in a Bible believing church, one that is patterned
after the church described in the New Testament.
Many churches claim to be Bible believing churches but they are not all
the same, most ignore one or more of the features given in the Bible. Therefore
it is important that we list all
of the characteristics of the true New Testament church so that we can identify
it properly. We will try to do that and you can tell us if we left anything
out.
1. Submitted to Jesus. A church
that obeys the Great Commission, which is to make disciples and teach them to
obey all of the commands of Jesus.
2. Believers. A church with born
again, baptized in the Holy Spirit people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who try to live in obedience to all of His commands and teachings,
all of them.
3. Pentecostal people. This is
first characteristic of the church given in the book of Acts. "And they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:4)
4. Charismatic leaders. "And he
gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ " (Eph 4:11-13)
5. Community of goods. This is
the second characteristic of the church given in the book of Acts. "And all
that believed were together, and had all things common" (Acts 2:44)
6. Pacifism. "But I say unto
you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other also." (Mt 5:39)
7. Oaths. The Lord forbid the
swearing of oaths (Mt 5:34). The apostle James wrote that the swearing of oaths
leads to condemnation. (James 5:12)
8. Head covering. The apostle
Paul taught that women should wear a head covering. (I Cor 11:5-6)
9. Praise. The church of God
consists of people who praise Him. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren;
in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee... By him therefore let
us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our
lips giving thanks to his name." (Heb 2:12, 13:15)
Is this a complete picture of the Church described in the New Testament?
Does it describe the Church that you want to be part of?
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)
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