The Anabaptist Voice
05/13/2009

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.  We pray that you are in good health and are enjoying the beautiful creations that our Heavenly Father has made for us.
       We are doing well under the wonderful love and grace of our Heavenly Father.   Sunday was Mother’s Day and  Michi was so blessed by her daughter and four sons.  She received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her son David.  All four of our sons called their mother and so Mother’s Day was a blessed day for her.
       While Michi was listening to the Mother's Day sermon Sunday morning at the Baptist church, she started to think about her mother’s life and faith.  Michi’s grandfather was raised a Buddhist in Japan, converted in 1905 at the age of 30 to Christianity and became a Christian minister.  Michi’s father, also a Christian minister, died when she was nine and her youngest brother  was two years old.  Her mother never married again.  Someone asked her, “How can you take care of your four children?” She answered, “God will provide for us.”   Here is what Michi’s mother wrote about one incident.

Testimony: “a Grace of God” by Hideko Koyama 12/24/1961

       At the end of 1959, my younger sister, Masako Kida, the wife of the Nazarene Church Superintendent Ross Aishin Kida, wrote a letter to me:
       “We are invited to attend the 15^th Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene next June in the United States, and also we will be visiting other locations.  While we are gone, please come and stay in our home in Tokyo to help care for the family.”
       My second son Kinji had just finished university and had a job with the Japan Atomic Power Research in Ibaragi-ken, and he was ready to go there. His trip was about the same time as mine, so we could travel together.  In the train, I recalled how God took care of him.  When he was to enter high school, he needed to buy textbooks but we did not have money for that.  So I prayed about it.
       The next morning a stranger came to visit us and said, “I wanted to buy a present for you, but I could not.  Here is the money instead.  Please take it.”  The amount was a little over the expense for the textbooks! We were so happy and thanked the Lord.
       So I told Kinji, “God has given you the money for the textbooks.  Let us trust Him that He will take care of you so that you can graduate.”  God helped him through the university and so I was traveling with him as he was going to work at his new job.  We were so grateful to God.
       Michi has three brothers and all graduated from the university.  Her older brother is a retired civil court judge who received a special honor from the emperor of Japan for his work.  Her younger brother Kinji became a scientist and worked for the Japan Atomic Power Research in Austria for many years.  He is now working at the Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Japan Institute of International Affairs.  Her youngest brother Yo-chan worked at a publishing company and became the chief editor.  Michi has a Japanese dictionary with his name written on it as the editor.
       All these things her brothers achieved because her mother was depending on our heavenly Father.  But there is a greater achievement waiting for them:  a complete commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
       When our daughter Naomi was two years old she got very sick and 3/4^th of her brain was damaged.  Michi wrote to her mother and told her about it.  Her mother wrote back to her with this Bible verse:
       Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk on my high places.  (Hab. 3:17-19)
       Naomi is doing well.  Here is a photo of her.  She has special gifts from our Heavenly Father and she can do many things, including playing the melody harp at our daily 5 pm family church service.   Praise God.  He is wonderful and He wants us to learn to love as He does.
       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

Jesus said, "Do not store up wealth on earth…  You can not serve both God and mammon.”

----------------------------------------

What is Love?
by Don Murphy 5/11/09

 

       The Lord has been speaking to me quite a bit recently about the nature of love.  We’ve been blessed to read about it this week in the writings of the apostle Paul during our daily family Bible study and I’ve been reading about it recently in the writings of 16^th century leaders such as  Michael Sattler (d. 1527), Jacob Hutter (d. 1536), Ulrich Stadler (d. 1540), and Peter Riedemann (d. 1556). 
       It seems that the Lord God is trying to teach me more about love so that I can live more fully a life of love.  He seems to think that I need to develop a better understanding of what love is.
       Love is mentioned hundreds of times in the New Testament.  The Greek words translated as love are agape, phila and eros, each with a slightly different meaning.  Agape is unconditional, unselfish love, phila is brotherly love and eros is selfish love.

God is Love

       “God is [agape] love, and those who live in [agape] love live in God and God lives in them.”  (1 John 4:16)  This Bible verse is an important verse to reflect on and make it true in our lives.
       One of the reasons that Jesus came to earth was to preach and teach us about agape love.  He said that we are to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind and we are to love our neighbor as we love our self.  (Luke 10:27)
       It seems clear to me that all of the teachings and commands that Christ gave, all 125 or so commands listed in the four gospels, are designed to show us how to obey this need to love God and our fellow man.

Loving God above all Things

     An example would be His teaching on possessions.  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.  No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and Money.”  (Mt 6:19, 24)  This is quite a challenge for us as we still need to live in this world.  Jesus knew this so He gave His people more instructions on dealing with finances (Mt 6:19, 19:21, Mk 10:21, Luke 12:33, 14:33, 18:22, Acts 2:44-47, 4:32-5:11) because it not only can separate a man from his heavenly Father but also from his brothers on earth.  The desire for material possessions (Greek pleonexia) is condemned a number of times in the New Testament.  Paul calls it idolatry.  (Col 3:5)
       The apostle John wrote:  “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”  (1 John 3:16-18)

Love your Neighbor as yourself

       Jesus said that we are to love one another to the same extent that He loves us so that the world will know that we are His disciples.  (John 13:34-35)
       The apostle Paul taught us something about what love is between people:  "Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."  (1 Cor 13:4-7)
       Paul also wrote:  “As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  (Col 3:12-14)
       Paul teaches us:  “Be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  (Phil 2:2-4)
       The apostle Paul is a good teacher for helping us to learn to love one another as Christ loves us.  So I need to review these teachings frequently and seek God’s grace to live accordingly.
 
Father God, I pray in the Name of Jesus for the power and grace to commit myself to live a life of love this day, in humility considering others better than myself.  Thank you, Lord!

Home