The Anabaptist Voice 04

       How are you? We pray you are well. Springtime here is so beautiful with all kinds of flowers that God put on for us to enjoy. We enjoy going for a walk. However it is getting rather hot these days with temperature in 80s.
       We had a surprise call from Steve Clark, Don’s nephew who lives in Ohio. His mother died last month. He was in Phoenix and came to visit us on the 11^th. We have not seen him for so many years. It was a joy to have him.
       We became friends with Kerene Grbac, who used to go to CDO church where we use to attend and now she goes to the New Life Bible Fellowship church that we now attend. We knew her face and smiled to each other for last several years, but now we became true friends. She is gifted with music and very intelligent. She spent Sunday afternoon with us and attended our church service.
       Naomi goes to the Arts for All day sessions for the disabled on Mondays and Thursdays. She is enjoying that. She also goes to the physical therapy a couple times a week, so she has been quite busy. While she is at home, she makes lunch for us and we like that. She is an excellent cook. She made a birthday cake for her Mom, also. And it was a brand new recipe. We appreciate her.
Birthday Girl        Sunday was Michi’s birthday. She received phone calls from all four of her sons, and it was a great joy for her. Her grandchildren also called and sang Happy Birthday to her. She is blessed to have wonderful children and grandchildren. She received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from David, too. She was looking at every flower and thinking how the God Almighty made them for her to enjoy. She remembers when she was very young and did not yet know God exists; she was looking at a rose in the garden, and thinking to herself how she could draw such beautiful thing. While she was staring at the flower, she realized that the rose was alive and that meant there is a God who created…
       Last Sunday after the morning church service, as usual the message is given that whoever needs prayer, please go to the side door, and they will be prayed for. The Lord whispered in Michi’s heart that she should go there and give her testimony to someone. So she went and found just one lady there. Michi said to her, “The Lord told me to come and give my testimony to you, so here I am.” She asked Michi to sit down and so Michi gave her testimony to the woman. The next day Michi spoke with the lady on the phone. She told Michi that her testimony was an encouragement for her. She was having a difficult day. She had to go to a funeral for her friend’s son who was 18 years old who died from an overdose of drugs. She said that she shared Michi’s testimony with a couple of friends and they too were encouraged. It is amazing what God can do.

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
“Christ in you, your hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

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The 7^th IF

By Don Murphy

       The sermon at the church that we attended Sunday morning was on the six IFs in the apostle John’s letter (1 John 1:5-2:2):

       This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
       If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
       My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

       The preacher did not continue on to the 7^th IF which immediately follows the above verse but instead he focused on these six IFs which are about sinning and so the whole sermon Sunday morning was on that subject. The subject of sinning seems to be a common topic among most preachers. But in all my 73 years, I have never heard one of them preach on the 7th IF which is in the very next verses (1 John 2:3-5):

The 7^th IF

       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. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him.

       The apostle John is repeating the teachings of Jesus about the need to obey His commands. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command… Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him… If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me… If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.” (John 14:15, 21, 23, 24, 15:10)

Why?

       Why do most preachers like to preach that everyone is a sinner but they do not like to preach on obeying the commands of Jesus? In the Great Commission, the Lord Jesus told His ministers to teach their people to obey all of His commands (Mt 28:20). Why do only the Anabaptists teach their people to obey all of the commands of Jesus? Why did the preacher not include the 7^th IF in his sermon last Sunday?
       This seems to be the dividing line between the Anabaptists and the other Christian religions: teaching obedience to the commands of Jesus so that a person can live a holy life. Most preachers tend to teach that everyone is a sinner and will remain so all of their lives. That is why the Catholics require their people to regularly confess their sins to a priest and the Protestants teach their people their sins are forgiven because of Christ’s death on the cross. They do not teach their people that they should and can live a sin-free life, a holy life.

To be a Christian is to Live a Holy Life

       Claus Felbinger was an Anabaptist (Hutterite) missionary arrested and beheaded in Bavaria in 1560 for preaching the Good News about Jesus. Before his death, he wrote to the authorities about this subject of holy living. He said that if a person thinks that he cannot possibly live a sin-free life, then he is saying that the devil is stronger than God. (His letter is in the book "Brotherly Community - the highest Command of Love".)

Peter Riedemann was also an Anabaptist missionary in the 16^th century who was arrested several times and spent nearly nine years in prison. During his third imprisonment he wrote the Hutterite Confession of Faith in which he covered many subjects in the 170 pages of his writing. He addressed the question of what sin is.

“Sin is actually disobedience or refusing to obey God (Gen. 3:6), and from this all other wrongs grow as branches from a tree (Rom. 5:12-14). Evil has now taken the upper hand in the world (Rom. 3:23) and still increases daily. Sinners go from one wrongdoing to another (2 Tim. 3:1-7), because they have yielded and committed their members to serve sin (John 8:39-44, Rom. l 6:19). All wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17), as John says, but disobedience is the mother of all sin. Just as from obedience all the righteousness of God comes through Christ, so all sin and unrighteousness (Rom. 5:16-19) comes from disobedience to God’s command.”

Peter Riedemann writes: “This Spirit of Christ, promised and given to all believers, makes them free from the law or power of sin and grafts them into Christ (Joel 2:27-29; Acts 2:14-21; Rom. 8:1-10) He makes them one with Him in mind, in His very character and nature, so that they become one plant and organism with Him (1 Cor. 2:10-16; 2 Peter 1:2-4). Christ is the root or stem; we are the branches. As He Himself says, “I am the true vine, and you are the branches.” (John 15:1-6) Thus we are one substance and essence with Him, truly one bread and body (1 Cor 10:14-21). He is the head, and we are all members, belonging one to another (Rom. 12:1-5; 1 Cor. 12:20-27)… Thus each person becomes one with God and God one with that person, as a father is one with his son.”

The Apostle John’s Teaching on Holiness (1 John 3:3-10)

       Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
       Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness… No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
       Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil… No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

To live in obedience to the teachings and commands of Jesus is to live a holy life and to show our love for Him. That is the highest command: to love God with all of our heart, soul and strength. The commands of Jesus are for the purpose of showing us how to love God. To see what His commands are, start with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7. There are about two dozen commands of Jesus there. To show Jesus that you love Him (John 14:15), learn these commands and then continue on through the gospels.

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