Hello all. I am taking a chance at blog suicide, and moving to www.crmooney.com . For awhile, to help transition, I will be making partial posts here that will link to my new site. Thank you all so much for visiting.
- chris mooney
Head to my new blog, www.crmooney.com!
Sometimes kids have a way of wording things that is unexpectedly profound, a way of asking a common question that colors a simple thought differently than you have seen before. In October of 2005, my daughter Laila asked such a question and from that day it has changed the way we pray.
Our family supports The Voice of the Martyrs, a group that helps persecuted Christians around the globe (click the pic to get to their website). Along with that support comes a newsletter that tells of different people who are currently being jailed, beaten, or otherwise persecuted for their faith. The picture for this post is part of the cover from that October issue, and I had left it on our coffee table. My daughter saw it and asked, “Daddy, why are those people in a cage?”
Wow. It is obvious they are in prison, but in a cage? I hadn’t thought of that. So I explained to my children that not everyone is free to worship God (Jehovah) and that they are sometimes put in prison, or cages, and we started praying every night with our children for “the people in cages.”
It also inspired us to pray for them in different countries, and it got hard to tell what we had already prayed for, so I bought a world map. Now, every night, one of the kids picks a country, and we pray for the people of that country to come to know Christ, and for “the people in cages.”
This isn’t to make us out to be awesome or super spiritual. I mostly wanted to tell you so that you can see a simple way to show your kids that being a Christian is more than church on Sunday, it’s more than our own country, it’s a worldwide family.
Is there anything you do with your family that might encourage others? Let me know!
I love the disciples. At times, they remind me of me. Especially when Jesus gets done teaching, and they are still lost, and He has to explain it to them. I think they got it right near the end though.
I was reading today in Matthew 26, the last supper, and noticed something. Jesus tells the twelve that one of them will betray him, and instead of pointing fingers at who they thought may be the weakest of them, they all asked, “Who, me?”
Wow, if I could only get that one right in my life, and teach it to my kids.
God, when things go wrong, help me to see my own weakness, and the fault in me, and not to point my finger and judge other firsts.
Here is the text:
“When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, He said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’ And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, ‘Lord, is it I?’”
I got to sleep in this morning. Our company takes Martin Luther King Jr. as a holiday. I cannot simply just mentally check out for the day, I have to remember why I have the day off. not only that, I have an obligation to my children to explain to them why daddy gets the day off. So, this morning we took a half hour remembering Dr. King.
I have five kids, ages two through nine, so it wasn’t easy. For them to really understand, I walked them through how Christopher Columbus came over, and how many Europeans followed him (eventually including my Irish ancestors), then we forced them off their land for our benefit. Soon after that, we found that there were people in Africa that we could buy or steal, bring them here, and force them to work for us. many were treated worse than animals, and were bought sold, and disposed of like property.
Eventually some leaders in our country realized this was horrible, and that our founding fathers new that God created us equally, so we should treat all people that way, so we had a war. After the Civil War, the slaves were free to own property, and work for themselves, but in many ways were still treated as less than human.
They had to use different bathrooms, restaurants, and transportation. They were not allowed to have a voice in Washington DC, because they were not allowed to vote. There were many people who started to take a public stand against this treatment, including Dr. King. He took a stand, and as a minister, tried to remind people that God made us all, and we are to look at the heart of a man, and not the color of his skin.
For this, we was shot and killed: for the love and passion if a dream. He is an example to us. No, a hero. He is a beacon to show us that no matter how dark our world may seem, that one man, yes, only one, can make a difference. One can change the course of a nation, or the world, and that one could be you or me.
Also, this is a day where we can examine our own hearts. Are we treated others as we ought to? No matter their skin color, ethnicity, or religious grouping? Are we loving them as God has called us? Even to the point of laying down our pride and selfish ambitions and putting them before us? I know I still have work to do.
With that, here are a couple of videos we watched today about Dr. King. Please watch them and remeber, so we don’t walk down this road again.
Follow this Link to the History Channel’s video:
Gray Matter – David Levy, MD.
One of my favorite TV shows is House (NBC), so when Tyndale Publishers gave me the opportunity to review a book by a neurosurgeon, I couldn’t pass it up. In Gray Matter, Dr. David Levy documents his journey of adding care for the individual’s spiritual needs into his medical practice.
He begins with asking patients if he can pray with them before surgery, progresses to talking some patients through forgiveness and releasing bitterness as part of their overall health. Each Chapter recounts several surgeries with incredible detail, and how patients and colleagues react to the unexpected request from Dr. Levy to pray.
Dr. Levy also gets quite personal, sharing some of his failures, and how he coped with not being able to help everyone, despite his best efforts. His stories are filled with faith and hope and have inspired me to step out and ask those I am in contact with everyday if I can pray with them.
Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers for providing me with a complimentary ARC of Gray Matter.
Mark Your Calendars! Light the torches and gather the pitchforks!
Tuesday, June 22nd at 7pm, EST we will storm the Cybergates of Amazon.com and seek to propel Venom and Song to great heights on the Amazon Bestseller Chart!
Last year, we Blitzed for Curse of the Spider King, and the ranking went from 73,000th to 365th in one 24 hour period! And that thanks only to my generous readers, their friends and family.
This year, we are defining and actual time to shoot for. This will concentrate the effect of book purchases and hopefully launch Venom and Song into the top 100 or even better!
If you are planning to purchase Venom & Song anyway, would you please consider purchasing it from Amazon.com. It’s very important to have the purchases fall between 7-8pm on Tuesday, June 22nd. This maximizes the jump up on the Bestseller list.
Why do this?
Books that hit high on Amazon’s bestseller list get seen by a LOT more people. That exposure tends to generate LOTS more sales, which of course, starts a wonderful cycle. High purchases in the first week of release also tells Amazon that this is a book to push, so Amazon tends to include it in their eMailings, etc. And better still, the opening sales tells the publisher to plug in more marketing muscle to a book that is succeeding. So please consider joining us on June 22nd for the 2nd Annual Amazon BLITZ.
http://www.christopherhopper.com/2010/06/storm-amazon-com-with-us/trackback/
This is a re-post of an article I wrote for my new blog, www.crmooney.com
I love the story of Robin Hood. The best version I have seen (though I haven’t seen the new movie) is the cartoon. I still whistle the little ditty from the narrating rooster, lol. I love the characterization: Robin Hood as a fox standing up for the poor rabbits, the adviser to the king is a snake, Little John as a giant bear, the clumsy guards as vultures, the sheriff is a wolf, and get this, the priest is a badger. A Badger!
What’s not to like with this guy, right? He’s a handsome critter with a persuasion toward sticking up for the little guy, an incredible marksman, has a go-get-em attitude. He’s so amazing a character, that we forget he’s an outlaw in all of this. Yes, the king is away fighting a war, and his nephew is quite the tyrant, but Robin is still robbing from the rich to give to the poor. We are empathetic to his cause though, aren’t we? It’s only fair right? We want this wonder boy to come in and save the day, right the wrongs, and stick it to “the man.” We want him to break the prisoners out of jail and take back what was theirs. We stand by and root him on, “Go get ‘em Robin!”
It ends great. Robin gets the fair maiden and King Richard returns to restore order to the kingdom.
It’s a great story, but that is it. A story. The problem starts when we bring this to reality, and we make Jesus into Robin Hood.
While I do not know if he was any kind of marksman, I know Jesus was no thief. But we do expect that he will use rich people to give to the poor, and that somehow, we who do not have much to give are not expected to. We turn ourselves into spectators. Instead of getting into the action, we stand in the crowd, and cheer on Jesus and his Merry Men. We want him to be the one to take up arms against the tyrants in our lives and restore to us what we believe was wrongfully taken (relationships, money, status).
I think that God requires more than that from us. Jesus tells a story of a man in need, a man who was destitute. He was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. Even in this state, there were people that passed him on the roadside, and left him in that condition. People with status, and the ability to help him walked by in their arrogance, feeling it was beneath them to assist.
Finally there was a man who helped. His heritage was such that the Jews called his kind half-breed, and treated them such. This hurt man, under different circumstances, may have called him a dog and spat on him. He was a Samaritan, and he put aside all these differences, put the man on his donkey and took him to town to get the help he needed. And he didn’t just dump him at the ER, he paid for the expenses, and told the help that if it wasn’t enough, he would pay the rest when he came back to town.
This is what God expects from us, no matter our situation, or how people have treated us. We are not to be the victims waiting for a Robin Hood to save the day. We are to be like the Samaritan. No matter how much or how little we have. It’s high time we (mostly talking to myself here, so “high time I”) stop waiting for someone else to make a difference. We can’t think that because we do not have the resources to help everyone, that we cannot help someone.
Someone needs what you have.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
I am the king of flat tires. No, make that the Joker, because the number of them I get is truly comical. I have yet to rotate the tires on my Caravan as every few months, a tire is being replaced. The circumstances are different, and the names are changed to protect the innocent, but each time I am forced to take my nemesis head on: The Spare Tire, aka. The Donut.Regardless of the number of times I have subdued this beast, each time is an epic battle. It seems simple enough, a half twist counter-clockwise, then crank the nut clockwise until you can get the tire out. I am sure that every night, the engineer of the release mechanism under my van lets out a haughty laugh, admiring his brilliance. It never works the first time. It hardly works the fiftieth time.
After the beast has been unleashed, and properly mounted, there is still the matter of driving. It’s embarrassing. About the only thing it’s good for is, well, nothing. It impedes my speed and handcuffs my handling. The only thing on my mind is how fast can this be fixed, so I can put it back where it belongs; out of sight – out of mind.
It hurts to say, but sometimes this is how I treat my Jesus, as a “Spare Tire Jesus.”
My life is on cruise control, situation normal, and bam! Something goes wrong. Uh-oh, life can’t go on like this. I’m forced to get dirty now, to get on my knees and pray for help. It should be easy to do. Speaking with Jesus should be an every day event, not just a call I make when I need roadside assistance.
So I get my “Spare Tire Jesus” out, and install him in my life for a time. And sometimes it’s embarrassing to put Him on display for the world to see. What if people were to know that Jesus was a part of my life? Not just that, “I’m saved,” but that I truly put my trust in Him, that He is as integral to my life as having a fourth tire.
My “Spare Tire Jesus” alters the way I drive my life. He changes the direction I want to go, and how fast I can get there. This is a good thing. Jesus is meant to be more than a pull in a certain direction that hampers me getting to my destination. He is meant to be the navigator and driver. If he holds the plan for my life, it only makes sense that He knows how to get there better than I.
Well, the situation clears, now what? With my van, I put a new tire on, and pray it doesn’t happen again anytime soon. But this cannot be allowed to happen with my Jesus. Instead of being my safety net in case of emergencies, He needs to be my life. Those times when life gets a flat tire are generally the result of me not following Christ’s examples for living (Matthew 5-7) and are simply His way of saying, “Chris, you’re on the wrong path. It’s time to get it straight.”
Is Jesus your spare tire? Is He only for use in emergencies, hard to get out, and embarrassing to display as you live life? I encourage you to get out of the drives seat, climb into the trunk, hand Jesus the keys, and say, “Where you lead, I will follow.” He will take you on unbelievable adventures, and there will be no need to worry about getting a flat tire when He takes the wheel.
This is the first in a series I am titling “aka My Jesus.” Check back for new installments!
- mooney
If you surf around the blogosphere very much, you may have run into Jonathan Acuff’s blog, stuffchristianslike.net. His site is a fresh and hilarious look at things we (Christians) like that can get in the way of our relationship with God. His blog got popular enough, made it into a book: “Stuff Christians Like.“
I just finished listening to the audiobook (available at christianaudio.com) and my review is simple: Awesome!
I read quite a bit, and very few books get the five star treatment, but Acuff has earned it. His humor in essays like “Booty, God, Booty” and “Understanding how metrosexual your worship leader is” is perfect anesthetic for him to slip in honest, convicting truth. I would describe his style as Donald Miller meets Matthew Paul Turner.
This book is great for both Christians and non. It’s like Acuff is fishing on a lake, and he sends his lure down into the lake. The Christian fish can’t resist the sarcastic humor mixed with truth, so they latch on immediately. Meanwhile, the non Christian fish are laughing it up, “See, we told you this Christian gig was a trap!” Then, with masterful precision and sleight of hand, Acuff lays out the Truth like a stick of dynamite and cleans out the lake.
What are you waiting for? Go get a copy. Clicking the pic will get you there.
The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist
Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
by Jerry Bridges. A MUST read and then, DO!
