There is a War going on…

During this time of year we are always more aware of the effects of war because of soldiers away from families or remembering those who have been lost during war times.  Our girls were excited when one of their classmate’s dad was able to return for Christmas this year!
There is another costly war going on that each of us can be involved in.  Watch the video below and share ways in which you think we can decrease the deadly effects accumulating in this war.

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2007 Year-In-Review

What happened with the Moore’s in 2007?  Check out our new Page, 2007 Year in review! And our Photo Memories  of 2007 Slideshow.

Listen to Your Wife…GREAT Advice

Recently Mandy and I were asked on two separate occasions about what makes a good marriage. I answered, “Marry your friend!” for indeed, I married my friend and there is no one else in the world that I would rather spend time with. Mandy answered, “Admit your mistakes, say your sorry, and forgive”, and this is excellent advice which I have had to use often over the years.

One of the biggest struggles in marriage is the temptation to take one another for granted. You know, familiarity breeds apathy. And apathy leads to a whole host of other things. There are certain built-in needs that we have that must be met and are designed to be met from our marriage partner (if we are married). When these things aren’t being fulfilled in the marriage relationship, a spouse will go elsewhere to find it… no respect at home? - find it in your workplace… no intimacy at home? - find it in someone else who seems more interested in you… he won’t listen to you? - make a website!

Yeah, you read that right, a website… I came across a website based on one couple’s story with the stereotypical “he won’t listen to me” wives’ complaint. Read their story from Jamie’s perspective:

The idea for this site started when I shared a NPR Radio story to my husband. My background is in Art, and I didn’t have much knowledge on the subject, so it thrilled me because it gave me an opportunity to share an insightful story about HIS industry (IT).

However, from the moment that I was sharing the story, I felt a sense of skepticism in Howard’s big eyes. He didn’t believe a thing that I was saying!!! Worse was that he had the nerve to hop on to the computer in front of me and start Googling for the story. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!! When has my story become a fairy tale? Just because he has been in the industry for such a long time, it wasn’t fair for him to automatically discredit it just because it came from me! Had the story come from his friends, co-workers, or even Sports Radio he would’ve believed it!!!

When he realized that the story was true, he turned to me and added, ‘I guess you were right…’. I commented in an annoyed and sarcastic tone, ‘Do you ever believe me?. Since you need the internet to validate my story, perhaps you should go to ListenToYourWife.com.” Again Howard went to the computer and typed in listentoyourwife.com. At that time such a site did not exist. But it certainly gave us ideas.

Now that is creativity! It seems to be catching on with many women…which leads me to the point of this post:

HUSBANDS, LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE!! (I am including myself in that admonition!) Let’s listen to them so they don’t have to go to some website to share their heart or try to find connections. I would hate to stumble upon some web-post from my wife that she truly wished that I would have just dropped the newspaper/book/magazine to listen to her.

Mandy’s Mondays - Colorado Shootings and the Remedy

I had something in mind to write about today, but I decided it will wait!

My heart was struck with sadness over the newest shooting that occurred in our country yesterday! And somehow it hits closer to home for me. I am familiar with YWAM and have known and supported students who have gone on YWAM missions trips. I am a Christian, go to church and a large one at that (although not the size of New Life). I have grieved for each of the shootings that have happened in my life time, it is just when the circumstances somehow connect to things in my own life I often think it over longer and harder!

I grieve for the lives that were lost and the hundreds/thousands of people who are now affected by this violence. I am shocked by the fact that these “shootings” just continue to happen. What does it say about our society that I have to refer to this incident in terms of a chain of events that have happened over and over and over in our country. People are broken, hurting, mentally ill and desperately consumed. Our society, our culture, our country, our lives are tainted and effected by our own sin and the sin of others to the very core!

What is the answer?

As I wrestled this around in my head today here is where I found comfort:

I was listening to our ipod and David Crowder’s song Remedy came on. Take a moment and listen to the words:

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then I read in Colossians the following verses:

Colossians 1:13-14

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

He is our remedy! We are broken and used, mistreated and abused and He is the remedy! Through the power of Jesus Christ we are delivered from the domain of darkness, He is the remedy!

Jesus be the remedy! We need you in our society, in our culture, in our country, and in our lives!

A New Reason I am a Longhorn at Heart!

My Dad, my Mom, my Granddad, my Aunt, and my cousin are all alumni (or soon to be) of the University of Texas!! I grew up wearing burnt orange and watching or listening to the BIG game at Thanksgiving! That would be when UT plays Texas A & M, the biggest rival I have ever known. I told Aggie jokes when I was like two! (ok maybe not, but you get the point) Although I did not choose to go to UT I still consider myself a Longhorn since it is in my blood.

Now Brian, he is an Aggie fan. Does he have multiple relatives to list that are alumni??? No, just one his brother. But most of his family are Aggie fans completely. We enjoy a good jeering back and forth from time to time. Alan has purchased our children many A&M shirts, bibs, stuffed Reveille toys… and his parents gave Addie a sweat suit when she turned two. (That same year my Dad gave her a UT wind suite!) It has been fun to watch our kids try to figure out who to cheer for and what they think of this rivalry stuff.

This year after the BIG game I received a text message from Alan, Brian’s brother (”Ags WIN!”) That was how I found out the game results since we had Tivo-ed the game to watch the next day. But we still watched it as a family the next day and really enjoyed it (even though the wrong team won). Addie just loves to watch football! She often asks on Sunday if there is any football on Emma is not as big a fan right now.

Well the girls started getting into the team cheers and wanted us to teach them to them. And here is where I found a new reason I am a Longhorn! I submit as my evidence the following clips:

First The University of Texas:

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And now for the Texas A & M War Hymn (listen carefully)

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Did you hear it? With UT I do not have the need to edit the song in teaching my children. But not so with A&M! Now you might say that it is a “biblical” word that they use (”hell”), but I still don’t want my little girls running around singing it

So I found a new reason to kick up my heals and shout HOOK ‘ EM HORNS my blood runs burnt orange!!

(This one is for you DAD!!)

The Air We Breathe, The Theology We Teach

Culture & Theology

Culture is something always present and always changing, it is something we create, yet it daily shapes us. People who are made in the image of God interact with the world that God made and culture is what results. So where there are people there is culture and where there are fallen people there is fallen culture. Culture is like the air we breathe, we take it in and we send it out, only sending it out a little different that we received it.

Our culture, then, is a collection of ideals and beliefs, values and assumptions that make up a kind of master plan for living and interpreting the life which we collectively and individually live. We take in culture from past generations, live in it, adapt it and adapt to it, and then pass it on to generations to follow.

It is only natural that this “air we breathe” is going to affect our understanding of, belief in, and practice of theology. This is why in Franke’s definition of theology it is stated that theology is a “contextual discipline”. Not only do we receive God’s inspiration in our cultural context, but we also realize that is was given in a different ancient context. This is the hard work of the task of theology, to provide “critical and constructive reflection” so that we and others can “live as the people of God” in our immediate and global culture.

I do not think that we are ever able to completely separate our thinking or theology from the culture in which we were raised. At the same time I believe that there are some understandings of truth that can be universal to all people. However, we must be very careful to not arrogantly assume that we have the final understanding of those universal truths.

I came across an example of how the gospel so intertwined with rational thought through a modern dependency on technology and science has left many disillusioned in its aftermath. In the book titled God’s Breath: Sacred Scriptures of the World, the authors seek to return people to spiritual thinking instead of religion based on rationality. They observe, “As we arrive at the end of a century dedicated to the external world – when technology and science has made an effort to explain everything and promises to solve our problems – the gaps and weaknesses of this wholly secular endeavor are beginning to show. People are turning with new passion to what they call “spirituality.” (emphasis mine) To make it clear, I reject the philosophy of what this book offers as the answer to the current condition of humanity:

“For millennia seekers of truth have found God in a handful of sacred texts. Now God’s Breath gathers together selections from seven of the world’s major wisdom traditions. The title comes from a Zen saying, “To understand God is to listen. Listen to Jesus and Muhammad and Buddha, but don’t get caught up in the names. Listen beyond them; listen to God’s breath.” (from back cover)

However, I believe they have rightly identified the condition of our culture and are seeking to answer it from a faith voice rather than a humanistic path. I do think that we can show the Bible of the Old and New Testament as a superior document to all the others and preserve it as the document that is truly God breathed. I am not sure that this is the question that many in the emerging culture are asking though.

So here is the critical and constructive task ahead of the church. How do we answer the truth questions which are being asked in our time through the lens of post-modernity instead of the view of modernity?

I must state again that this is no easy task, because theology surrounds us daily; inside and outside of the church, theologies are spoken and lived out and are both accurate and inaccurate. Phyllis Tickle writes in God-Talk in America that “more theology is conveyed in, and probably retained from one hour of popular television, than from all the sermons that are also delivered on any given weekend in America’s synagogues, churches, and mosques.”

We need to make theology something more common in the market places, and train people how to think through a theological process or grid. I am suggesting that the task of learning and doing theology is like developing a filter through which we breathe in the air around us. We don’t live in a vacuum (although many in the church try to live in their own bubble) and we have to come to terms with the fact that our culture affects ALL areas of our life. It shapes our pace of life, our agenda for life, our priorities, our relationships, and our spirituality. This air filter that I am suggesting is a world-view that is grounded in the biblical texts, historical traditions of the church, ever adjusting to the pollutants in the spiritual air around, but allowing one to breathe and live and make a difference in their culture. Bill Romanowski says that “a worldview describes the way the world is, while also providing a model for the way the world ought to be.”(Eyes Wide Open)

I see that there are three options on how to deal with the air around us:

1. Stop breathing, otherwise known as attempting an isolation mentality. This leads to a death of suffocation and a loss of impact on those around you.

2. Breathe deep, poison and all. This also leads to a death, not from suffocation, but from deadly toxins which take your life resulting in a loss of impact on those around you.

3. Breathe deep through a filter. This is called redemptive interaction. To look into my culture, interact with it, and redeem our cultures commonality through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe this is what Jesus was speaking about when he taught us to be salt and light to the world.