The Anabaptist Voice 05

We are having beautiful sunny days and beautiful flowers are all over, so we go for a walk and enjoy the beautiful creation of our Heavenly Father. We also enjoy the doves feeding in our back yard.
     Naomi has finished her spring semester at the nearby Pima Community College. She studied writing and drawing and enjoyed the classes. She is now writing a story about her adventures at the college.
     May 8^th was Mother’s day. Michi had forgotten, until her sons started calling and told her, “Happy Mother’s Day.” Every one of our sons called, and she was blessed. She is grateful that God gave her wonderful children.
     We have a Bible study every day at 5 pm. For our opening song, Naomi plays the melody harp that was given to her by our dear friend, Marlene Lambeth. We are currently reading through the gospel of Luke and sharing what we learn. This daily Bible study brings us closer to each other and also closer to our Heavenly Father. Don and Michi are both reading a book called “Abiding in Christ” by Andrew Murray. We are learning more and more about the wonderful love of God.
     While Michi was sorting out our belongings, getting ready for our move (which is not yet scheduled), she found a notebook written by her father in 1932. It was his Bible college notebook about how to do the mission work individually. It is written in Japanese, and she is translating it into English for her children.
     Naomi was still having problems with ‘pink eye’, a contagious eye infection, and so on Sunday we had our Sunday morning church at home again. She is getting better and went to Arts For All on Monday and Tuesday.

a brother and sisters in Christ,

Don, Michi, Naomi Murphy
Tucson, AZ
www.AnabaptistChurch.org

"This is how we love God - by obeying His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? He who honors Jesus as the Son of God." (1 John 5:3-5)

Full Time Christian
Don Murphy 05/17/2011

     I was raised in the Roman Catholic religion, attended daily Mass and Catholic school. I was an altar boy at Mass until the priest molested me and I changed to singing in the church choir. I was taught and firmly believed that the Catholic religion was the right one and all others were false.
    But I didn’t think about it much. The Catholic religion is nowhere near as strict as the Hutterite religion so I had a lot of freedom do what I pleased.
     All this changed, when in 1975 at the age of 38, I was born again in a Seattle hospital where I was suffering from an injured back. A co-worker came to visit and helped open my heart to the Lord Jesus and suddenly everything changed for me and I was full of joy.
     I continued in the Catholic Church and began reading the Bible for the first time. Then one day in 1978 while in an assembly praising God in song with up-lifted hands, a heavy weight was suddenly lifted off of my shoulders and I knew immediately that it was the Roman Catholic bondage which I was so used to that I did not realize it was there. So I was free to leave the Catholic church.
     One day in 1982 again while in an assembly praising God in song with up-lifted hands, I heard the Lord speak to me, telling me to become a ‘full time Christian’. I was a bit shocked as I thought that I was doing pretty good, being a church elder, home fellowship leader and a Bible study leader. This led me to begin studying the lifestyle of the early church and learned that they were baptized in the Holy Spirit pacifists who lived in community with all things in common. Since they were taught by the apostles who were taught by the Lord Jesus and by his Holy Spirit, I realized that this was the lifestyle of a ‘full time Christian’. Brotherly community is the highest command of love.
     I visited many Hutterite colonies because they were living the lifestyle described in Acts 2 and 4. I eventually helped start an ‘English’ Hutterite colony in 1990, the Fan Lake Brethren, in northeastern Washington State. Many people came and left so after 14 years of trying we closed the colony and went to live in Arizona.
     Just as I used to think that the Catholic Church was the true way to heaven, I thought that living in a Hutterite colony would make me a ‘full time Christian’. In other words, I thought that the outward life, the following of the teachings and commands of Christ, the loving of God above all things and loving my neighbor as myself was what was required for salvation.
     Now, May 17^th, 2011, at the age of 74, I still believe that the correct outward life as taught in the New Testament is required for salvation; but now, today, I see that there is more than that. To be a ‘full time Christian’, a person must be intimate with Jesus, become His little lamb (John 10:14) and be totally surrendered to Him. This is only possible by being immersed (baptized) in the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11, Acts 1:8). We must abide in Him so that our inner life is as holy as our outward life (Matthew 23:27-28). Without holiness no one will see God (Hebrews 12:14).

The Vine and the Branches John 15:1-6

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful... Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and me in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

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