| GOD and US |
| Who's Behind GodAndUs? |
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| A Reality Check |
| People have asked, "Who is behind GodAndUs? |
| The
short answer is God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
The longer version includes thousands of people who have
touched
and influenced us in some way and it includes my wife, Wilma, and I.
My name is Tony Murphy. For almost seven years I've resisted doing an "About Us" type of page even though a close friend urged me to do so years ago. My reasoning was that the truth of who God is stands on its own and that my story didn't matter. But my story is really a story about God -- of His insertion of Himself into our lives as He pursued us with His love and for Wilma and I an ever-growing appreciation of His goodness and love. HISTORY (See THE PRESENT below) My journey with God has been quite a ride. I often reflect with amazement and appreciation for the exciting life its been. Though I grew up as a Catholic and was quite involved in Catholicism until my late 20's (for awhile I was head altar boy in our church) it wasn't until I was in my early 20's that God opened my eyes to Him so that I understood that He was love. I count that time as pivotal in my life because it was when He began working in my life drawing me to Him. It was then that I began to say "yes" to Him with, at least, some meaningful appreciation for Him. In 1971 I was baptized and became a member of the Worldwide Church of God. I was drawn to them because God seemed so much more real to me through their preaching and teaching than anything I'd known as a Catholic. I began working for the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) in 1972 in the production of the World Tomorrow television program and except for 10 years with Plain Truth Ministries (birthed by WCG -- but over the space of a few years becoming a totally separate and distinct entity), I continue to work for WCG currently as Electronic Media Producer/Director. WCG was good for me in that through it I came to know a very present, involved and real God in many ways, yet in other ways it gave a wrong and distorted view of God -- One who required all sorts of things -- for our good, I then thought -- yet as I now know I was trapped in a hyper-legalistic cult which while presenting God's reality on one hand, on the other obscured His gracious goodness by its legalism. Our core belief was that the law contained in the Old Covenant was still in force. That meant our primary identity was in keeping a 7th day sabbath, observing the Levitical holy days (most usually thought of as Jewish observances) given in Leviticus 23, refraining from eating the foods called "unclean" in Leviticus 11 (no pork or shellfish, etc.) and paying tithes. Besides that we denied the trinitarian nature of God and we had an abiding belief that we were "the one and only true church". Having begun as a Catholic, I now chuckle every time I consider that WCG was the second "one and only true church" I'd been part of. But God is on His throne. God redeems and God delivers. He didn't lead me out of WCG, but beginning in the early 1990's He converted the Worldwide Church of God. God convinced WCG leadership of His grace and opened their eyes to see our cultishness, exclusivity and legalism. In a painful process God moved us from law to grace, from cult to orthodox and from exclusivity to appreciation for all who live in relationship with Christ. This truly has been a miracle in modern church history and I'm so grateful to God that I was privileged to experience it first hand and come to know God's love and grace and the freedom of "being" in His love and grace. I pray that others (and that includes many -- if not most -- in Christendom) who are trapped in legalistic religion are so delivered. Thank you, Lord, for Your love and goodness! THE PRESENT God continues to reveal Himself and His goodness to us. In the past five years He's shown us that His trinitarian nature has deep and profound meaning -- and the implications of that nature for us are nothing short of stupendous! That we have communion and fellowship with God through Jesus. That even now, in some way, we are included with Jesus at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 2:6, Colossians 3:1), that we are adopted as God's very own children (Ephesians 1:5, John 1:12-13, Romans 8, 1 John 3:1-10)! This ever deepening understanding that God's whole purpose for us is that we be in union with Him fills us with peace, joy and excitement. WILMA is Tony's lovely wife and gal-pal, and she works for WCG as an administrative assistant. She is a great mom for our four kids and grandma for our seven grandchildren. She loves to cook and does so with great creativity frequently preparing gourmet-quality meals. TONY produces Speaking of Life and You're Included for the Worldwide Church of God. In recent years he developed and produced the Plain Truth Radio program and Christianity Without the Religion for Plain Truth Ministries. The colaborative production of Reconciliation, A Move of God done together with Curtis May of the Office of Reconciliation Ministries and presenter Neil Earle is an experience the memory of which he highly treasures. The video is about all sorts of reconciliation, but highlights racial reconciliation. Tony frequently leads worship and has spoken to congregations in the United States and New Zealand. His excitement about the Good News of Jesus Christ spills over into his worship leading and sermon messages. e-mail: Tony@GodAndUs.org |
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