Andrew Murray
And God Created Woman
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Mysteries of the Kingdom of God
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The Anabaptist Voice
11/19/2008
The Good News from the Kingdom of God is the Love, Peace, and Joy for all
Kingdom citizens.
Warm greetings to you, ,
We are having beautiful warm weather, and we pray you are enjoying the
weather our Heavenly Father is giving you where you are. Five year old Titus
told us over the phone that he would bring the snow when he comes to visit us at
the end of December. It sounds like he is enjoying the snow. We enjoy going
out for a walk in the warm sunshine.
We are all fine. Don’
s
heart has been well for many months and we are grateful. Naomi is doing better
as her ulcer has been healed. We did not remember, but Don was looking back in
the newsletters and noticed that Naomi also had an ulcer on 1995 caused by the
medications she has been taking.
Mike’s 16 year old daughter Eryn likes to swim and is a member of her
high school girls’ swimming team. This past weekend they swam in competition
with other high school teams at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way,
Washington. She was a top-10 qualifier in both the 50 and 100 free swims and
anchors the top-seeded Titans’ 200-yard free relay team. Eryn also qualified
for the state meet in the 50 and 100 yard free style events. Her relay team won
first place this past weekend. David and Jim went to watch the event. Here is
a photo of Eryn swimming that appeared in the local newspaper. Does she look
like her grandmother?
Michi is struggling with the songbook. Somehow she was having so many
problems recently with the computer program Finale she uses to compose the
songbook. Previously Michi had been able to put two songs on the same page, but
now she was having difficulty doing that. She asked the Wednesday evening
fellowship ladies to pray for her and God answered their prayers. Praise God!
So God used Don to fix the problem. Don is a computer programmer and God could
use him to fix this problem for Michi. Michi is so grateful that God does
wonders. She prays that she can be a channel to do what God wants her to do.
Michi found out that Elizabeth from the Wednesday night fellowship also
knows about Finale, the computer program Michi uses, and she tried to help
also. What wonder! What love of our God!
Thank you, thank you, Jesus!
On Sunday morning, we left for the Vineyard church about 9:20. On the
way, at the first signal light, we had to wait for a long time, as we were
turning left. The second light was also red. Just before we got to the third
signal light, it turned to yellow and Don had to stop. So he asked us, “Can I
complain to God?” Michi told him with a smile, “You are to thank the Lord.”
Then Naomi started to sing, “Thank you, thank you, Jesus.” Don joined Naomi and
they sang whole-heartedly with joy. Michi was laughing so hard that she could
not sing. We think there are possibly 20 or so signal lights from our place to
the church. When one of them just turned red before us, Don would start
singing, “Thank you, thank you, Jesus” and Michi and Naomi would join in. It
was a joyful trip.
Before we left the house, Don had asked the Lord to get us to the church
by 9:55, five minutes before the worship begins. We stopped at many signal
lights, yet we got there 11 minutes before. Our Heavenly Father takes good care
of us. Do you think our Heavenly Father was happy with us?
We were blessed at the church, learning more of what God wants us to
understand and do. The sermon was a continuation on the subject of
righteousness. In the Old Testament the 600+ laws of God were to be obeyed. In
the New Testament, the Lord Jesus started something new; He mentions an Old
Testament law and then goes into a new meaning for it. For example, the Old
Testament law said “Do not kill” and Jesus taught us that to get at the root of
that problem a person could not be angry with someone, could not even call
someone bad names. Jesus was helping us to get at the root of the problem of
evil in our life.
You must be perfect!
Jesus told his followers that they must become perfect (Mt 5:48). The
Greek word used, ‘teleios’, could also be translated as complete or mature. The
lifetime goal of a Christian is to become perfect in God’s eyes, acceptable for
His kingdom.
The holy apostle Paul wrote, “I want to
know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in
his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to
the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or
have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which
Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have
taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God
has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:10-14)
Don had an interesting talk on Sunday with Henry Wurz, the Sunday school
teacher at the Wilson Siding Hutterite colony in Alberta. Henry told about how
he teaches his young people that becoming spiritually mature is a long process.
He uses the story of the creation of the world to teach that God does things
step by step. Another example is the birth of a child, it takes nine months for
the child to develop and be born, followed by 20 years or so before they are
physically mature. In the same way a person does not become instantly
spiritually mature when they are born again, it is a life time process. If a
person stops growing spiritually, they become stunted and will eventually fall
away.
We saw two examples of this in our daily 5 pm church service this week
where we are going through the gospel of Matthew, chapters 26 and 27. Two of
the apostles who had been with Jesus for several years, Peter and Judas,
sinned. Peter managed to come back but not Judas.
The newspaper had a story about the Jonestown massacre that occurred 30
years ago. Jim Jones had been a famous and popular Christian preacher with many
followers. He and about a thousand of his followers moved to South America to
start a Christian community there. However Jones was in the process of falling
away and began abusing his people. When a crises came, he got most all of his
followers to drink a poison drink, with about 900 dying.
The Obedience of Love
(From the devotional book Daily in His Presence by Andrew Murray for November
17)
“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
John 14:15
The Father loved His Son with a wonderful, everlasting love. The Father
gave His Son all that He was and had. The Son responded to this love by giving
His Father all. Cost what it might. He kept the Father’s commands and abided
in His love.
Christ, in His great love to us, sacrificed all: His life and death were
wholly at our disposal. All He asks from us is that we, out of love, should
keep His commands. “If you love me, you will obey
what I command.” These words lose their power because Christians believe
it is impossible to always keep His commands. Yet our Lord really meant it, for
in the last night with His disciples He promised them that the power of the
Spirit would enable them to live a life of obedience.
But what becomes of man’s sinful nature? The Holy Spirit is the power of
God what works within us, both to will and to do, and so prevents the flesh from
gaining the upper hand (see Philippians 2:13; Hebrews 12:20-21).
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my
teaching… and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John
14:23). “He who loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21).
These are no mere idle words. Believe it, and the Holy Spirit will give you the
power to abide in the love of Jesus and to keep His commands with great joy.
Pray: “Lord, I do love You and it is my greatest desire to obey Your
commands. Please help me to do Your will.”
The holy apostle Peter warns us, “The end of
all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you
can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a
multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:7-8)
We pray that out of His glorious riches the
Lord God may strengthen you, dear friend,
with power through his Spirit in your inner being, with Christ dwelling in your
hearts through faith. (Eph. 3:16-17)
Your Anabaptist brother and sisters in Christ,
Don, Michi and Naomi Murphy
Tucson, Arizona, phone 520-297-1639
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)