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And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him (Matthew 4:18-20). Imagine with me that you are in Galilee and you are a fisherman by trade. You are Jewish and know the Old Testament very well, likely having committed most or even all of it to memory. From your studies, you know that God is going to send a Savior into the world, and you know from reading the Old Testament prophets that He will be showing up someday soon.

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‘E-van'ge-lism’: the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness. To evangelize was the last commandment that Jesus gave before his departure. Go ye into all the world,  and teach them to observe all the things that Jesus had taught over the last three years. I have felt that evangelizing is a weak area with many Anabaptist-type churches. Yes, there are individuals who are active in local ministries, thank God. And many support foreign missions. But to be active in local outreach has never been very strong.

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As our world becomes more and more selfish and godless, it becomes harder and harder to stay focused on eternity and the return of Jesus Christ. Dads, moms and single adults are to the point of wanting to give up.  They feel frustrated with Americanized Christianity. While we point our fingers at them, they point their fingers at us – it's the same blame game that started in the Garden of Eden and is now devouring our government and news media. Some shout: we need another reformation! Others, are just going through the motions, hoping that somehow things will make a turn for the better or Jesus comes back and removes us from the chaos.

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Why do you call your paper the Amish Voice? You know that some of the things you are trying to preach aren’t in the Old Order Amish beliefs! The main thing I have an issue with is this new belief of knowing one is saved! We read a lot of die Hoffnung and know that we have to “Keep on in die Hoffnung (hope)!”

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First Peter 4:17: For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? Judgment and suffering go hand in hand according to the will of God. First Peter 4:19 says: Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.What is the house of God? Is 1 Peter 4:17 saying that God is mad at the church and is going to judge us because we failed in some area in our lives? No! Judgment begins because we are His children! First Corinthians 3:16: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? When we are born again (or born from above or born of the Spirit), we have the Holy Spirit in us. We also still have that which fights the Holy Spirit within us; it is called the flesh or sin nature. This is what has to be judged because our sin nature does not choose God or His ways. The first Adam represents this.

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Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483. He was born on St. Martin’s Day, and so his parents named him Martin. Hans Luther, Martin’s father, was a miner. Hans and his wife, Margarete, were able to send Martin to school. Hans had high hopes for Martin and was pleased that he was studying to become a lawyer. On July 2, 1505, Martin Luther was returning to the University of Erfurt when he was caught in a thunderstorm. You will remember that Saul of Tarsus had a sudden change of heart due to divine intervention, and so it was with Martin Luther. A bolt of lightning hit the ground near where Luther was, knocking him to the ground. Afraid, Luther called out to St. Anne, saying that if he would be kept safe through the storm, he would become a monk.

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This is a poem, written by Esther Keim, after her miscarriage on Valentine’s Day, 1996. Writing this poem helped a lot with the emotional healing of the heart.

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I am shocked at the manner in which many Anabaptist churches are dealing with sexual abuse and the perpetrators. I do not wish to point fingers at any particular church or church group.  I do not wish to stir up strife.  I do not wish to see divisions among people and church groups.  I do not wish to make people angry at God or the church. But I am saddened and concerned.  Very concerned. Concerned enough to write this.

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Dear Writers of the Amish Voice, growing up in the Amish, I was always taught that the only way to heaven was through Jesus Christ and being born of the Spirit; I was taught that the ordinances of the church were simply a helpful set of guidelines – not the way to heaven.  It sounds like the writers of your magazine grew up in churches that are different and not familiar to me. Look around yourself.  God has an ordinance in everything from the sun, moon, and stars to the seasons; the list could go on and on.

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Dear Friends, We are sending a donation to you. We have been on your mailing list for a couple of years, and we greatly enjoy reading the Amish Voice. It is always packed full of the truth. It brings great joy to our hearts when we see our people come to the truth, understand salvation, and be free from the stronghold of religious deception and traditions.

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The Bible clearly warns, “Today, if you can hear his voice, do not harden your heart as they did in the days of provocation.” (see Hebrews 3:7-8) In other words, do not ask as Israel once did in her unbelief, “Can God furnish a table in this wilderness?” (see Psalm 78:19). Do not question the Lord’s integrity or his commitment to you, even though you find yourself constantly battling in your mind. God told you that he would raise you up to be a testimony. He told you that he has allowed certain things in your life but that all things work together for good because you love him and are called according to his purpose.

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If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. (1 Corinthians 16:22) I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to love the Lord Jesus. Everyone wants to be loved, and Dwight L. Moody once said that if you can convince a man that you love him, you will win a friend for life. Think about it. If you can convince a man you care for his soul, he will be open and honest with you, but in no other way will he do so. If you are in business and you demonstrate that you genuinely love your customers, they will be loyal to your business. If you show love to your children, they will readily want to listen to you and obey you – little convincing with a stick will be needed. If you genuinely love your spouse, he or she will be delighted to be in your presence, and will be your best friend forever.

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We do not like the word “suffering.” There are some who do not believe that a Christian should suffer in any form. They say: if we suffer, we do not have enough faith — that it is not God’s fault, it’s our fault. This is not true teaching. Let’s see what the Bible says about this. Let’s start with Romans 8:16-18: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

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Which of Jesus’ commandments do you think is the most disobeyed, neglected, and ignored today? I once heard Brother Zac Poonen, a wise and gifted Bible scholar, say that he believed the most neglected commandment is the one that says to “Fear not.” When Brother Zac made this statement, he supported it by saying that the words “Fear not” are found in Scripture 144 times. Now, when talking about fear, he is not referring to the fear of God; this is a completely different kind of fear. The fear he was talking about, and the fear we will look at in this article, is the fear that involves things such as worry, anxiety, fret, etc.

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My name is Fred A. Krueger, and I am eighty years old. In 2008, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had three lumps that formed on the right side of my neck, and I also had a larger lump appear in the clavicle area several months later. This lump was removed on July 14, 2008 and was later evaluated and diagnosed as being Hodgins Lymphoma of a multi-cellular type. My surgeon gave the opinion that my cancer was at least stage two or three and said that I would have a port surgically inserted into my body for chemotherapy treatments. He recommended me to an oncologist, who ordered blood tests, a CT scan, and a PET scan. He said he wanted to stage the cancer.

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There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Silence is golden.”  But is it always?  Is there ever a time when silence is not a good option? Silence may be golden in some cases,  but I question whether our silence on sexual abuse in our churches has done anything other than cultivate more abuse. Most of us would like to think that we are pretty good—that this kind of stuff doesn’t happen all that often.  Yet many of us personally know people who have either been abused or who have abused.

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October 31, 1517. What is so special about this date? Why should we care about the Protestant Reformation? How sad it is that so many Christians can talk about politics, sports, music, romance fiction books, work, and so much more, yet do not know much about Martin Luther, John Knox, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and others whom God has used to bring a group of people or even an entire nation back to His Word.

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Please do not send the “Amish Voice” to this address. We have the Holy Bible for our TRUE guidance. We can go to church and hear the Word preached by servants ordained by God. Why don’t you send these things to unbelievers? Why the name “Amish Voice”? I am under the assumption (I may be wrong) that the folks doing this are not Old Order Amish and use modern conveniences. Why are people led away from denying themselves these things? It happens with people that say, “Oh, yes, we can serve God and have worldly things as long as our heart is right.”

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Hello. Thank you for reaching out to our spiritual needs. May God continue to bless your efforts. I used to think that a submissive wife would quietly go along with what her husband decided, showing little emotion, etc. I have come to realize that most men do not actually want passive, unemotional wives, but a wife who can voice her concern and disagreement in a calm, kind voice—no pouting, etc. And, most importantly, have a smile and a spark (even if he is rather dull). Encouraging, praising, and continually surprising him in little ways.

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Hello. Thank you for reaching out to our spiritual needs. May God continue to bless your efforts. I used to think that a submissive wife would quietly go along with what her husband decided, showing little emotion, etc. I have come to realize that most men do not actually want passive, unemotional wives, but a wife who can voice her concern and disagreement in a calm, kind voice—no pouting, etc. And, most importantly, have a smile and a spark (even if he is rather dull). Encouraging, praising, and continually surprising him in little ways. We Amish tend to shy away from flattery, praise, etc., but it is so upbuilding. Encourage the men to express love, too. Too many of us go through life taking our loved ones for granted and harboring grudges. After they are gone, we are filled with regret. A quote I read somewhere: “The best way to get praise is to die.”

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Jakob Amman, born Feb 12, 1644, started a move called Amish. He started out good, but began to lord over the people and exalt himself. When he did that, the Holy Spirit was no longer welcome and had to leave. 300 years later I was born into this deception called Amish. Today there are many different kind of Amish that do not fellowship with each other, because of one man turning away from the Name of Jesus and going into his own name and his own righteousness. Many innocent people have been born into this deep, deep rooted deception as I was in 1944.

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Question: When someone leaves the Amish 2 Thessalonians 3:6 is used to tell them that they are making a wrong decision by leaving. How do you explain this?

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If we don’t allow the cross to work in our lives, the foreskin of our heart remains. This causes us not to see or understand God’s ways. We then keep eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we stay in our worldly wisdom. Let me explain. Under the Abrahamic covenant, every male child had to be circumcised on the eighth day. Why the eighth day? Eight represents new beginning. This represents the new covenant, which is the circumcision of the heart. Genesis 17:14 says, The uncircumcised man child whose flesh of the foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

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Yes, we do need that saving faith and understanding that we are washed in the blood and have our sins forgiven through our Lord Jesus Christ—to have our hearts renewed in Him daily and to feel the joy of the Holy Spirit! Faith and works go together—like a rowboat needs oars to paddle downstream. Our plain way of living will not and cannot earn us brownie points to heaven, but it does keep me close to God! The confusion of the world is mind-boggling. How can the internet, TV, and cell phones be part of a peaceful life in all godliness (I Timothy 2:2)? What a wonderful world this would be if  people would spend half as much time with their Bibles as with their cell phones.

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Dear Friends, we have been receiving your little publication, The Amish Voice, for about  a year. With a sad heart, we have taken note of the scornful title and misleading articles that are published. I have resisted the urging of my dear wife to send this notice much earlier, but it has gotten to the point that I can no longer disregard this misleading material coming into our home, and I feel sure that I will be successful in finding other materials to use to start a fire. So I request the removal of my name from your mailing list once and for all.

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What is the source of our justification? Romans 8:6 says: For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. We can know whether we are living in the Old or the New Covenant by whether we are walking in life and peace. In the Old Covenant, the continual focus was; Do this, don’t do that, and you will be accepted by God. This is called the “spirit of bondage” leading to  fear (Romans 8:15). Fear, insecurity, condemnation, and discouragement are the fruits of trying to find acceptance with God with our own performance. No matter how sincere or diligent we are, this mindset will always lead to death. Our good will never out-weigh our bad. Any righteous works we do to make ourselves acceptable to God will always be repulsive to Him (Isaiah 64:6).

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We like to think of ourselves as wise. We like to think that we follow what is good and right. However, if we try to determine right and wrong based upon our feelings or our society, then we are foolish in God’s eyes. God has told us what true wisdom is. It is to fear Him (to reverence, respect Him; to submit to Him, realizing that He is in charge and His ways and Word are right). To understand is to know Him. Many people know about Him, yet do not know Him. To know Him, though, is to love Him — to love what He loves and to hate what He hates. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding (Proverbs 9:10). The fear of the Lord is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13).

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Is it God’s will for churches to create rules and standards? I wonder if I am incredibly brave for asking this question. Maybe I am incredibly crazy. Or perhaps, I am a little bit of both. I have actually thought a lot about questions regarding the church and making rules. I finally felt that I should take an honest look and try my best to find the answer. Many of you have encouraged me and blessed me for searching. May we continue to be gracious toward each other, even if our opinions differ!

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The following article was written by a Miskito Indian, living in the deepest jungles of Nicaragua.  She shared how the Lord gave her a clear message in the middle of the night. Even though she has never met a single Amish person in her life, she said, “the Lord made it very clear to me—print and mail it out to Amish people.” Eli and Leah Lee, former Amish missionaries in Nicaragua, hand delivered the article to our ministry and asked if we would include it in the Amish Voice.   

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Jesus told this parable: When thou art bidden [invited] of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. (Luke 14:8-10)

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