Archive for August, 2008

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Sounding Off 8.27.2008

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Much to the chagrin of a media completely in love with Obama, McCain is slightly ahead in polls during the Democratic convention, when every headline is either praising or discussing Obama or trying to find something to dig up to criticize John McCain about. That doesn’t bode well for the Democrats.

By the way, this whole criticism of McCain and his number of houses seems fairly petty. Is this the best they can come up with? Sad. And hypocritical considering how many in the Democratic party (Obama included) are sitting pretty high on the hog financially. For the Democrats to point it out, even hypocritically, isn’t surprising, though. For die hard socialists, class warfare is like candy.

Again, as I keep pointing out, with Obama it seems we’ll get more of the same, only a lot more, which I guess is his idea of “change”, a push for a greater socialist agenda and hardline Democratic principles like babies even if they survive the first attempt at , I mean, abortion, all without any room for compromise. In fact, the demonization of the Republican party has begun and will see its normal level … maybe the highest it has ever been.

All in the name of hope and change, right?

For the Republicans, Lieberman will speak at their convention. Lieberman is a great case study in one of the major differences in the two parties. Lieberman agress with 80-90% of the Democratic platform but disagrees on ONE point: he supports the war in Iraq and paints it in a positive light. He was demonized by the Democratic party and even KICKED OUT, not allowed to run as a Democrat. He still won as an independent (the elitist Dems keep getting their kicked by the will of the actual people they claim to represent … which they are seeking to circumvent, as discussed below), and while Lieberman disagrees with much of the Republican platform, he is asked to be a part of their convention.

The Republican party, for all its failings, especially in the last 6 years, at least allows for dissenting opinions. The Democrats cannot abide any disagreement.

Random Obama point (related to above): Ironic to me that the Democratic party (and now its top dog) supports and encourages a bill that would remove the secrecy of ballots for those in a union. In other words, a party based on the term “democracy” is siding with unions who are pushing an oppressive agenda where they can control the votes of its members, thereby increasing their political influence and lobbying capability by taking away the right of an individual to vote his or her conscience in secret.

I wonder if this will include all the dudes that keep voting Democrat … maybe only if they used to be in a union.

Peace.

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Evangelism Apart from Persecution

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Another concept that needs to be addressed is evangelism apart from persecution. This is expressed when people preach Christ in such a way as to skip being ostracized or persecuted, usually by allowing believing in Christ to exist with believing or practicing other religions or doctrines that teaches Christ incorrectly.

People justify this by pointing to some common truth in these other religions or attempting to avoid physical harm, even unto death.

First of all, any doctrine that does not preach that Christ is the only way is a lie. One of the main ways to get around persecution is to compromise on this. Because very few will persecute you if you say you believe in God. But when you make it clear that Jesus is the only way, persecuters come out of the woodwork.

Just think of the reaction Jesus got when He expressed His existence as the Son of God.

“The world will hate you. Look at how they treat Me. Are you better than Me?”

Second, to try and dodge the violence of this world by marginalizing full commitment to Christ as the only way is to dodge the call of God. The scripture says you were called to suffer persecution, are blessed by it. Fully commiting to Christ will set you apart, by design (light of the world and city on a hill and all that), and being set apart makes you a target. Just ask the Jews over the last three thousand years.

Your wearing of that target on your back is how you carry your cross. “Any who does not pick up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.”

To call people to Christ without the resulting persecution, even unto death, is not really the gospel, and based on the above statement, we have to question whether anyone led to believe this way is even saved.

This problem is pronouced among those who have a heart for the Muslim nations. The violence of Islam towards those who convert to any other religion, especially Christianity, ensures that death is a real possibility in many Muslim countries and cultures.

But we have a whole New Testament written under the same reality, where an early Church “joyfully accepted the confiscation of their goods” and endured imprisonment, torture, and even death. Revelation says to one assembly, “be faithful unto death and you will receive the crown of life.” Every apostle but John died from preaching the gospel, and John went through his own stuff …

Since we, as Americans, do not live in such personal constant danger for full commitment to Christ (beyond family and cultural pressures and mockery), does not give us the right to expect the same life of others in the world. For many in the world, being a Christian is also choosing great persecution and death. We must be realistic about that if we are to bring the gospel to the world.

Another part of this discussion, in conclusion, is the reality that if we are called to preach the gospel in these dangerous areas, we are also called to the same reality of persecution and death. To dodge that danger minimized the authority of the gospel’s ability to change man.

Good news, though, in every case where Christianity was heavily persecuted and the Church bore under it, the gospel spread like wildfire … because it made it real.

Peace.

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Quotes of the Week 8.23.2008

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Haven’t done this in a while, especially since what I’ve been reading hasn’t lent itself to just quoting … mostly the Bible and fictional novels … but I’ve been reading the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series this last week, and it’s been enjoyable.  I’ve always heard good things about it, and few books make me laugh just out loud like these do.  While told from a very atheistic perspective, the satire is really good and he makes fun of just about everyone, which is always refreshing to me.

Anyway, here goes some quotes for you.

From The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses.

To explain – since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation – every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake.

The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife.

Trin Tragula – for that was his name – was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.

And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectrographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake.

“Have some sense of proportion!” she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.

And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex – just to show her.

And into one end he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.

To Trin Tragula’s horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.

And one more from Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

The major problem – one of the major problems, for there are several – one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get eople to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.  To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job.  To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

And so this is the situation we find: a succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they very rarely notice that they’re not.

And somewhere in the shadows behind them – who?

Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to do it can be allowed to?

Might share some more next week.  One particularly good one too long to include here.

Peace.

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Fantasy Band

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

Okay, so we were having a discussion at lunch here about who would be in your fantasy band. Here are the rules:
Vocalist, 2 guitarist, bassist, drums, and keys is the limit. You can simplify three piece if you like. They can be alive or dead and any era or style. You mix in. No wrong answers here! Oh, and maybe give them a band name just for fun.
You can be in it if you’d like, too. But I don’t know if I could hang with the guys I picked!

My fantasy band:

Vocals: Chris Cornell
Guitar1: Ty Tabor
Guitar2: Eric Clapton
Bassist: Stu Hamm
Drums: John Bonham
Keys: Ray Manzarek

Band Name:
Faceless

Any more?

Peace.

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Evangelism Apart from the Church

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

Evangelism is a touchy subject for many.  Differing gospels and methods vie for attention.  We have our own ideas of outreach, and I believe many of them are valid.  We don’t want to set up some sort of formula, but we can address some concepts that are concerning and their relation to scripture.

One of them that has become a concern to me of late is evangelism apart from the Church.  Under this concept are several methods, but the heart behind these methods is that, through our outreach, the Church will somehow be an obstacle to an unbeliever coming to know Christ.

The more I think about this, the bigger problem it becomes to me.

If true, then there is something deeply wrong with the Church or our fellowships if they stand in the way of someone coming to Christ.  This makes correcting the Church of utmost importance.

If our fellowships are where they should be as viable expressions of God’s love (yes, some actually are), then what Christ are we trying to win them to apart from His Body?

Two scriptures.  First, Jesus says the Kingdom is like a treasure in a field where a man sold all he had to buy the field so he could have the treasure.  He didn’t separate the treasure from the field or buy the treasure and put it in another field.  They were inseparable.  The man made a full commitment to BOTH.  To call a person to one without the other is a dangerous gospel.

Second 1 Corinthians 14 describes an unbeliever in the midst of a meeting where everyone is prophesying (speaking the word of God by the Spirit).  That unbeliever bows to his knees and acknowledges the one true God.  There is great power in the testimony of the Church in relation to conversion.

You are not called to Christ alone apart from the Church.  You are called to the Head and the Body.  Separating the Head from the Body ends life and is also separating the Christ from His Bride and God hates divorce.  We must be clear to unbelievers that these things are inseparable or we’re misrepresenting the Truth.

Peace.

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New Perspective on Discipleship

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

Often when a child misbehaves, there is a fundamental misunderstanding within the mind of the little one.  He is crying out for attention or isn’t secure in the love of others, etc.

We’ve been having some interesting discussions within our house church community about the necessity for believers to truly feel and understand the depth of God’s love and the state of their forgiveness.

First (and I might one day write a book on this subject), we don’t have a SON mentality with God.  We have a SERVANT mentality.

The prodigal son returned (repented) with this thought: I’ll be my father’s servant.  But the father treated him as a son, showering love out of great compassion.  The prodigal in no way earned that response from the father; it always existed and was only revealed upon repentance.

Many come to God with the same thought and never realize the true gift.  You cannot love God as a Father if you think like a servant.

Jesus also says, “he who is forgiven much loves much.”

We need to be humbled by the mercy within God’s great forgiveness.  Ironically, we too often actually take pride in the forgiveness of God by thinking we’ve somehow earned it or deserved it.  As a result, we don’t see the deep mercy within His forgiveness and don’t love God for that mercy as we should (an insidious plant of pride by the enemy).

Why is this important?  “If you love me, keep my commandments.”  True love of God obeys Him.

The end result of being secure in a Father’s love and humbled by the mercy of His forgiveness is a joyful love that is compelled to obey.

So often our discipleship consists of sitting in a class and telling people how they should live or, more commonly, disputable theological concepts that are more divisive than loving.

Lost is a training/renewing of mind that says, “I am a son, not a servant.  I have been completely forgiven by mercy alone and restored to sonship, possessing all that my Father owns by an inheritance that is sure and secure.”

Then teaching how one should live will bear fruit because it is done from this empowering perspective of a son becoming like his Father, not a servant that just receives orders and can never realize a full inheritance.

How do you train someone to believe such things?  First, you continually point to Christ and hearing from the Spirit of God and the testimony of Jesus, because the Spirit will speak the truth to them of their true identity.  Second, you must surround them with a community of believers, commonly called the Church, that lives this way and exemplifies the truths of the Kingdom in practical and observable ways.

This is how you raise a son of God.  Too often our lack of relationship and community, replaced and ursurped by structure and man’s tradition, creates servants to said structures instead of free sons dedicated to the Father and all His other children.

Peace.

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The Guitar Hero Generation

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Time to rant a little about a current pet peeve.

I like video games.  I really do.  My house family can attest to this.  Marvel Ultimate Alliance roared in the living room many a night.  Wolverine is the coolest.  Of course this can take up too much time and take away from community, but video games are not inherently bad.

But as a musician, the idea of spending good money to get a fake guitar and other parephenalia to simulate playing the guitar makes no sense to me.

I mean, you could actually take that money, buy a little guitar, and learn to play an instrument instead of pushing some colored buttons and pretending you’re a musician when you’re actually not.

As I’ve ranted about this to others, I get the same response: but Guitar Hero is really fun.

So is actually playing an instrument.

The problem is we have a generation that prefers the independence inherent within the fascimile.  Why actually learn to play an instrument when you can spend hours learning how to push buttons and sound better than you actually are?

This goes further than just a dumb video game.  We also sit and watch reality shows about others living their lives (mostly pathetic) and getting all into their drama and then we’re afraid to answer the door when a neighbor knocks and tries to get to know us (they might steal our Guitar Hero!).

We see it in our Christianity, as well.  We attach ourselves to nice prepackaged ministries or ministers that require very little commitment or effort on our part but allow us to feel we’re more spiritual than we are by mere association.

Ah, but there’s a silver lining.  All this fantasy has awoken a desire in some for reality.  In the midst of an entertainment and fantasy culture, we find those few who cry against the false and want the true way.  Even fewer are willing to apply the sacrifice, commitment, even scorn, that it takes, but those who do so find more life than they every could have dreamed.

I’m glad I know a few of those.  Praise the Lord.

Peace.

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Sounding Off — Solving the Energy “Crisis”

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

I’m only using the word “crisis” because it seems a popular thing to do.  As I’ve said before, I honestly don’t think this is much of a crisis, but there are some issues I’ll time some time to address for fun.

So here’s my plan.  Pick it apart as you feel is prudent.  I feel this plan will help win the presidency for either presidential candidate who wishes to use it.  Of course, parts of it I see as impossible for Democrats to sign off on and still retain the support of those extreme environmentalist groups, but I guess we’re supposed to have “hope.”

We have 70 million barrels of oil in the US reserve.  First, we sell 7 million barrels a year, for ten years, at half the market price but only to oil companies that distribute those resources in the US.

The revenue the US gets from the sale of such oil goes 100% into research and development of alternative energy solutions.

Next, open up domestic and offshore drilling.  Not everywhere, but primarily in areas of the largest reserves.  Those should take priority.  This will give some immediate relief, but is more part of the long term solution.

After this, repeal tax breaks on oil companies.  They don’t need those. 

Cut the gas tax by half.

In five years, if it seems like oil will still be a long term need, the US can buy back oil for the same rate to refill reserve (if my plan works, it should actually be a lower price).

While the repeal of oil tax breaks doesn’t encourage lower prices, cutting the gas tax and increasing the supply by opening up the reserve absolutely will.  And new drilling will almost immediately increase the supply, as well, and flood the market within five years.

If research and development bears fruit (and I believe it will … too many good ideas for one not to take off), then new types of fuel and energy will also decrease demand and cause competition (also lowering prices).  Consumers win in this scenario with more options and lower prices.

And that’s pretty much it.

McCain or Obama … you’re welcome.

Peace.

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Random Thoughts

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

The wedding hall will be filled … the question is, will you attend or are you too busy? Just saying you believe isn’t actually attending …

Jesus had to clean the temple out before he could teach in it.

If you are truly God’s son, you will be man’s servant. If you choose to be a man’s son, you will only be God’s servant.

Peace.

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Mooney Report LXXXVII

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Greetings to all from Atlanta, Georgia!!

I realized the other day that it had been a while since a Mooney Report!  I know that many of you have just been lost without a random update from us, so please forgive me.  Hopefully this will be enough for you.

I’ll start with personal stuff.  Becca and I are doing well.  We’re still living in the suburb of Lawrenceville in a house we share with another couple and a young man, Jason, who moved in this last spring.  He is 19 and a missionary kid, musician, and his parents have a house church in Paris.  It has been great having him around and he’s fitting right into the community.

Since we’re trying to cut back financially, Becca and I have gone out to eat less and sat on the porch having coffee together and just talking instead.  While we still go out every now and then, this has been awesome.  We put the kids down and then just sit outside in the night air, have coffee, and talk about things, really connect. 

Becca is teaching at Siemens.  She taught two classes in the spring, but they cut back to just one on Thursday nights.  This has given us some extra cash and allowed Becca to do something professionally with a skill she didn’t use much in Korea … her German proficiency.  Pray she’ll be able to continue doing those types of things.

I’m still at Faith Academy.  I still enjoy it, although enrollment is down.  Some of you ICS peeps know what I’m talking about.  For private schools, enrollment can be an issue.  In the spring I was asked to give a short gospel message after an extra credit event at our school, captive audience type of thing.  We had 20 professions of faith, although I always question those types of numbers since I don’t know most of the kids that just checked a box.  But it did give me some more relationship opportunities with some of the students, which I appreciated.

Becca is trying to juggle two kids and house church stuff and everything else in the world and find time for herself.  The teaching at Siemens helps, but she also struggles to find time to be creative with stamping and cards and scrapbooking type stuff.  Some of the Mooney family ladies have gotten together to scrapbook every now and then, and that has been good for Becca.  Good friend Laura Beth came into town, as well, and they scrapbooked (is that a word?) themselves into exhaustion … literally.  They both were dead the next day.

Micah is growing like a weed … he’s getting so tall … where did he get that from?  We are finalizing the potty training.  He’s doing well, but still lacks the motivation to initiate times on his own.  We still have to encourage him often and just take him to the potty with us. 

Micah is also becoming more and more verbal and more and more like a little boy.  For recent pics, go to his blog and look.  He is awesome.

Since we’ve decided not to have cable in our home (great decision), we rent/borrow seasons of TV we want to watch.  I have introduced Micah to such classics as Flash Gordon, the Superfriends, and Buck Rogers.  Our housemate Jason has all the seasons of Scrubs on DVD, and after a couple days of getting hooked on that show again, Micah said the other morning, “Daddy, I want to watch more Scrubs.”  The education has begun.

He also knows his letters and can write a M and a C fairly well.  He loves to have table time with Mommy and do just about everything and anything I do.  That is a powerful responsibility.

Elisha is also growing leaps and bounds.  She’s thinner than Micah was, but they look very similar.  She started crawling about 6 months and then went straight to standing and cruising around furniture and stuff.  She wants to be big and independent.  I didn’t think it was possible, but she might be more verbal than Micah.  She already says several words and uses signs every now and then.

Elisha doesn’t laugh as much as Micah did at that age.  She definitely has her own personality.  She’s a thinker and always looks like she’s figuring everything out.  Micah used to figure stuff out pretty quick, he’d just be way more lighthearted about it.  Elisha can be very serious.  Micah is the only one that can REALLY make her belly laugh.  It is awesome.

They are in love, too.  Elisha loves to be with her big brother and Micah LOVES his little sister.  They like to be together and do awesome sleeping in the same room.  Check out Elisha’s blog, as well.

Micah’s main adjustment has been time with Mommy, but table time with her has helped him in that area.  He will also be going back to pre-school soon, so that will get him some different and healthy attention.

We’ve had some cool visits from Korea folk … the Flemings and their little one, Faith, were here twice (we’re an awesome halfway spot between DC and Dallas, TX).  As I mentioned earlier, a pregnant Laura Beth flew down to hang with Becca for a few days, and Rob and Amy Ellis made their way through town as they finish training to go overseas.

I’m still looking to self-publish my book soon, but I got sidetracked with songwriting.  Beginning in January, I really focused on getting demos of most of the songs I’ve written.  This led to more songwriting.  I’m currently trying to send off some of those songs to sell them.  This is a long, slow process, and rejection isn’t fun for anyone, especially when it’s something you’ve created, but I really feel like I need to be dedicated to this.

We bought a new computer in the spring, as well, and the hard drive crashed in May.  I just got it back last week.  That has been a major factor for finishing the book to get it self-published.  I need to finalize the cover artwork and do one final edit on the text.  Christmas?

Community living has been going really well.  It helps that we all have similar schedules, so we get to eat a couple meals a week together and hang in the evenings or on the weekend, watching movies or reading or whatever.  We’re about to sign a lease for another year at our current location.  Still praying about it, but I think we will.

House Church stuff has been going well.  The Friday night meeting that used to be at Alice Trammell’s house moved to our home on Friday nights.  We’re still praying and fasting for more community with that group, but it has come a long way over the last couple years.

We’ve established a monthly corporate meeting among three house churches, with a couple peripherals showing up every now and then.  That has been a big vision for me, and it has really come to fruition.  One of the negatives about house churches is how cliquish and self-absorbed they can be.  We are really challenging people to have a more community mindset than a meeting mindset.  It is still a work in progress, but it has come far.

There are some adjustments and changes coming for our community soon, all for the better, I feel, but it will be a challenge. 

So pray as your led for the following: the challenge of building true relationship and community (BEing the Church) and songwriting and book stuff.

Also pray for Becca and I as we are continually challenged with being missionaries in our HOME country.  God told me before we left Korea that we would need to live a simpler, missionary life in our home country.  This is very difficult.  We are under constant emotional, spiritual, and financial stress for one reason or another.  God loves to use fire to bring out the tested.  Pray that we will stay strong in our calling and not get discouraged. 

Check out the new blog while you’re here.  Not a big change, but an important foundational step for things to come.

We love you all and would love to hear from each of you!

Britt, Becca, Micah, and Elisha, Missionaries to America and the World

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