One Sabbath I went to the synagogue as usual and began to teach. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled up. The Pharisees and legal experts watched me carefully to see if I would heal the man’s hand on the Sabbath. If I did, they would have a basis for leveling a charge against me. I knew all along what they were scheming, so I said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here and stand where everyone can see you.”

Then I turned to those who were anxiously watching and posed this question: “If your only donkey, ox, or sheep should fall into a pit, would you not get it out without delay, even though it was the Sabbath? Of course you would! Surely this man is of greater value than a donkey or sheep!”

“I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good [as I intend to do] or to do harm [as your view of the Sabbath would lead you to do] – to restore this man’s hand or leave it withered as it is?” Dead silence filled the room.

I was deeply distressed by their indifference to human distress. Looking around the room at each of them in anger, I said to the man, “Stretch out your withered hand” (and act beyond what the crippled man could do). The man stretched out his right hand, and at once it was fully restored, as sound as the other.

(from Jesus, in His Own Words, by Robert H. Mounce)

I love this story. Partly because of the state of my own right hand – while my hand is not useless, my use of it is somewhat limited and it shows the scars of a car accident from over over 20 years ago, and I literally cannot “stretch out” my right hand.

But there are some important things to take away from this story.

• The Lord is not terribly interested in what is legal – or with what is proper or technically correct. We see this again and again in Scripture. He blatantly disregards some aspects of the law (Sabbath rules, death penalties, uncleanliness), and highly intensifies the standards for others (lust, divorce, anger, love, sacrifice). What we find consistently is that He ignores the ritualistic outer expressions of the law, and focuses in on what is going on inside us.
• The Lord is looking to heal and restore us. We see this everywhere in the gospels. Absolute, complete, full restoration. And not only physically, but He constantly forgave sins and breathed new life into desperate, impossible situations. And sometimes, as with Lazarus, He waits an impossibly long time to respond. Why is that?
• The Lord is waiting for the moment of His greatest glory. We can cry out to the Lord, beg and plead with Him, and it may seem like He ignores us. It may take days, weeks, months, or years. At times, we may even completely give up hope. And at other times, something has died and has already been placed in the grave. But He is looking for His glory to be revealed in the healing and restoration. This is so that when we look back, we will have no choice but to say – “it was the Lord.”

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:1-3, NASB)

Many times, there is little reason for us to understand why things happen the way they do… and we can only trust that the Lord was seeking His glory to be revealed.

The next day John the Baptist was standing outdoors with two of his disciples, and I walked by. “Look!” he exclaimed. “There is the Lamb of God!” When John’s disciples heard him say that, they left him and came to me.

I turned and saw that they were following me, so I asked, “What do you want?”

“Rabbi,” they said (the word means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

I answered, “Come along and you will see.”

(from Jesus, in His Own Words, by Robert H. Mounce)

Sometimes, we are desperate to know what Jesus is up to and what it is we are supposed to do. We want to know where things are going, and we want to know how to get there. We ask God for these kinds of answers all the time – about personal choices, about the way out of a crisis we are facing, etc.

John’s followers had been looking for the Messiah. John preached Christ, and was preparing the way for Him, and his followers must have had an intense amount of expectation of what this would have looked like. So when they asked “where are you staying?” it signified that they were looking for the path, the goal, the direction. They also had an expectation of the kind of dwelling the Lord had – they probably figured it would be impressive, and that it would represent power and authority.

It’s also like the rich man that said, “what else must I do?” We want specifics from God. We want a list of steps to take. We want to know how things will turn out. And most of the time, we want to know the steps we need to take to get there.

But Jesus rarely provides the kinds of answers we’re looking for. He says, “Come along and you will see.” He didn’t invalidate their desire at all – neither their desire to be where He was going, nor their desire to know more about Him. But they had the wrong question. The question isn’t, “How will this turn out?” or “What must I do?” In fact, there really doesn’t need to be much of a question, at all. The response to seeing Christ, to wanting to see more of Him and experience His fullness, is simply to go along with Him. If we dwell in His presence, we will go where He is going. We will experience His power and grace in ways far beyond and far different from our expectations.

Yet, remember what He told His disciples – “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23, NASB) The disciples didn’t know of the cross as an instrument of redemption. They knew of the cross as a death sentence. As an instrument of torture for the worst criminals. Christ tells us that following Him – committing our lives to Him and seeking after Him daily – will daily lead us directly through death.

And what we find in those moments of death is more of Him.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
     I fear no evil, for You are with me;
     Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
     You have anointed my head with oil;
     My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
     And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23:4-6, NASB)

He is with us in those times of death, and He anoints us even in the moments of our greatest struggles and our darkest places.

But we do not always know the exact destination, and He will not tell us the path for us to get there on our own. He wants us to follow Him there – and in the following, we can be sure that He is with us on the journey. What an amazing Lord, to treat us so gently, and to provide such a measure of Himself – His comfort and strength – in times of our greatest suffering, all so that we will see Him more clearly!

We’re here to have a feast tonight – Hurrah! Hurrah!
We’re here to eat and drink of Christ – Hurrah! Hurrah!
We’re going to open up our mouths
And let the living Christ come out
And we’ll all be satisfied by the Lord in His house
For we know each member

Has a portion of this Christ – Hurrah! Hurrah!
And when we come together, we’ll display, display
The depths and riches of this Christ
The newness which is in His life
And we’ll all be built up into the house of God

It is absolutely awesome to see the life of Christ growing in our kids – without Sunday school, without programs, without making them sit through 3-hour meetings (yes, our meetings regularly go that long), but simply by being around people who are devoted to pursuing Christ and sharing Him with each other. I often feel like they understand more of Christ at six years old than I did at thirty.

You can download it from the iTunes AppStore now!

Life in Gainesville is really pretty great. The kids are in a great charter school – eighteen students per grade, and these teachers are amazing. Life here is generally slower than in the Atlanta suburbs – people actually go the speed limit for the most part, especially in those flashing-yellow-light school zones.  The weather is awesome, though I’m sure I’ll be complaining come summertime.

All of that is like extra icing on the cake, though. What has made this time really amazing is what we’ve been doing with the church here. It’s hard to look back and see a night and day difference from where the community is now versus where it started, but there’s something that has grown among us that none of us would deny.

One of the benefits to how this group has been planted is that with most of us having moved here for this, we have far fewer ties to distract us from community life. While it’s important to be able to guide people out of those distractions and into a focus on the church body, I’m also learning that it is far more important to begin with a group that is absolutely and entirely singularly focused on Christ, and the sense that the church is his physical expression on the earth, and worthy of our full attention. Once you have that established, guiding newcomers into an appropriate focus on community life is far easier to do.

The other thing that has been very sweet is meeting, and being in community with, many different people with similar stories. How they came to Christ, but also how they struggled with the institutional church and how they came to a realization that they would have to leave institutions behind, but also making the decision to leave family and friends behind to pursue it. Nearly everything we’ve felt or had to deal with along the way is mirrored in other people here.

What we’ve found most encouraging, though, is the fierceness and intentionality of sharing a revelation of Christ that is going on here. As I’ve stated before, we’re being planted by leaders for whom this is not a new experience – they understand the necessity of a mind-blowing revelation of Christ, and they know how to share it. We are incredibly blessed to have these leaders among us. While the sacrifices of moving here were – and still are – very great, the blessings that we have experienced have made it worth doing ten times over.

I moved everything for a few reasons.  First of all, the name showmethemooneys.com was originally imagined as a multi-family site, focusing primarily on my siblings and I, sharing family news, etc.  I probably had that idea a couple of years too soon, because nobody was interested in blogging at the time, and by the time they got interested, I had already taken this blog on as purely mine.  Which is fine.  I’ll resurrect showmethemooneys.com if/when Amy decides to blog (the name was her idea, after all).  The name makes sense as a family update site, which I’ve never really put a lot of effort into that.  In the meantime, all the old links should still work.

The reason I moved the blog now was because Blogger was removing FTP publishing, which I had been using for nearly five years to publish my blog to my own domain.  I didn’t want to move to a blogspot domain, and then move again.  I had already been considering re-purposing this blog a bit, as well as making the jump to WordPress.  I figured that now is as good time as any, and it was actually far easier than I had feared, thanks to the amazing tools and plugins available for WordPress.

As far as shifting the purpose of the blog, I intend to post less frequently about politics.  I haven’t posted much here about politics in the past year mainly because Facebook and Twitter both provide a better way for me to make smaller comments.  I might make longer comments on here from time to time, but it’ll be far less often.  My viewpoint on politics haven’t shifted, but perhaps my priorities have.  If you want to hear my thoughts on politics, Facebook is probably your best bet (www.facebook.com/derekmooney/).

The reason to re-purpose this blog is because I intend to post far more frequently about what’s been happening with us here in Gainesville, Florida, and our experiences with Frank Viola, Milt Rodriguez, and the rest of the amazing people God has led here to be a part of this.  The past six months have been nothing like we expected, and everything we imagined.  I’ll post more about that later on, but for now, suffice it to say that a new purpose for the blog deserved a new name, and a new look.

I even seriously considered cleaning some old posts out, moving them to another archive blog, etc.  I decided against it.  I’m still proud of most of what I’ve written, even if I look back now and see some misguided priorities here and there.  No matter, that’s the story of my life.  In some ways, the blog is as much an archive of my life for others to read down the road, for better or for worse.

A couple of technical things:

• If you’re subscribed via a feedreader, please update your feed settings to pull from feeds.feedburner.com/derekmooney.  The old feed link will work for awhile, but at some point I plan to try to redirect it and eventually shut it down.
• I installed an iPhone plugin, so give it a try.  The wpTouch plugin is really nifty.
• I do plan on updating the theme at some point.  It’s somewhat low on my list of priorities right now.
• I’m going to be working on a blogroll – if you’d like me to add your blog/website to the links section, add me to yours (please link to www.derekmooney.com, with either my name as the title, or “Dig in Deep”), and leave a comment with a link to your blog.

You have said You are the Vine, Lord,
And that I’m a branch in Thee,
But I do not know the reason
Why I should so barren be.

Bearing fruit is my deep longing,
More Your life to manifest,
To Your throne to bring more glory,
That Your will may be expressed.

But I fail to understand, Lord,
What it means – “abide in me,”
For the more I seek “abiding,”
More I feel I’m not in Thee.

How I feel I’m not abiding;
Though I pray and strongly will,
Yet from me You seem so distant
And my life is barren still.

Yet You are the Vine, You said it.
And I am a branch in Thee;
When I take You as my Savior,
Then this fact is wrought in me.

Now I’m in You and I need not
Seek into Yourself to come,
For I’m joined to You already,
With Your flesh and bones I’m one.

Not to “go in” is the secret,
But that I’m “already in!”
That I ne’er may leave I’d ask You,
Not how I may get within.

I am in, already in You!
What a place to which I’m brought!
There’s no need for prayer or struggling,
God Himself the work has wrought.

Since I’m in, why ask to enter;
O how ignorant I’ve been!
Now with praise and much rejoicing
For Your Word, I dwell therein.

Now in You I rest completely,
With myself I gladly part;
You are life and You are power,
All in all to me Thou art.

One of the things that is so striking about this song, to me, is how honest it is about struggling to feel like God is present. Which is something most Christians struggle with, if they’re honest with themselves.

But the response is so full of truth, yet in all my life it lacked power – I am already in Christ, and He is already in me. I’ve heard this probably a million times, but I’ve never been able to rest in it. God’s presence has always been a pursuit, whether something I was supposed to attain through Bible study and prayer, or by attending (or creating) a stirring worship experience, or by seeking His presence through intimate worship. All of those approaches miss the point. We are in Him. He is in us. There is no work for us to do to attain it. We can simply rest in Him. When we gather, we are giving expression to that reality. What a blessing!

First, I’ll get the easy stuff out of the way. I am not changing jobs. I’ve been working at home for the past few months again, and I will be working at home from Gainesville, as well. Hearing that, people then ask why we’re moving to Gainesville. I usually give them the “short” answer – there is a church group starting there that we strongly feel called to be a part of. The frequent follow-up question is whether I’m going to be on staff at this church. Let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.

God has been pulling us away from institutional Christianity for a few years. If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ve seen the process somewhat. It started when we began to feel that there was “more” to church than what we were experiencing, and left the church we had been a part of for five years (and the denomination that I had been a part of my entire life).

Part of that process put us into a house church. If you’re interested, you can read a good recap of my journey up to that point. While it was far more relational, and was a step along the journey God had in mind for us, He was also leading us to something far more organic than what we were experiencing there.

What do I mean by organic? There are many ways to describe that. One way to say it is this:

[It is a] church that is born out of spiritual life instead of being constructed by human institutions and held together by religious programs. Organic church life is a grassroots experience that is marked by face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings (as opposed to pastor-to-pew services), nonhierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional Leader and Head of the gathering. (see “What is an ‘Organic’ church?” at housechurchresource.org)

The other key to an organic church is that of apostolic leadership. This style of leadership functions by providing a glorious revelation of Christ as a foundation, assisting the church in growing into every-member functioning, and watching out for problems that will inevitably arise. Apostolic leadership instructs the church in how to live by divine life, how to experience the fellowship of the divine community, and prepares and equips others for apostolic work. These principles are not based on modern or ancient ideals of leadership, but on the foundation of how Christ trained the apostles and how they trained their successors to spread and express the Kingdom of God.

Many house churches lack a commitment to organic church life. Fewer still have any kind of apostolic leadership or even a desire for one.

One of the problems we have run into is that we feel very isolated when it comes to our view of the church. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining when I say this, but our efforts to share with others what God has revealed to us has largely fallen on deaf ears. I now realize that this is because we are sharing from a theoretical and intellectual perspective rather than from a perspective based on experience. Basically, we cannot create something that we have not yet experienced.

Which leaves us only one choice: to go somewhere to experience it.

The church group in Gainesville is being started by Frank Viola along with some of his other co-workers. Frank Viola is the author of many books on organic church life, including Reimagining Church and From Eternity to Here, among others, as well as a new book coming out later this year that takes the theology of his existing books and describes more practical examples.

We met Frank personally late last year, and as we were sharing our struggles and thoughts, he invited us to come and be a part of this group in Gainesville, FL. There are several people moving to Gainesville from around the country, some of whom we have already met, who have had experience with organic churches. Some of them have been involved with planting and equipping organic churches around the country.

We initially resisted, not even really taking it seriously. Moving to be a part of a “house church” sounds a little crazy. I also had my jaw surgery and that kept us from really thinking about it much.

But God didn’t leave it alone, and He seemed to close pretty much all the other doors. Nobody we knew was really interested in the kind of thing that God had laid on our hearts. Even the group that would have represented the best fit here wasn’t going to work, for a couple of reasons. And as our interactions with Frank and others increased, and we understood more of what God designed the church to be, we yearned more for an opportunity to experience it.

From a practical perspective, why move? We love this house. We like the area. Our kids were in a great private school. All of our close family is nearby. We have lots of friends in the area. We have a lot of history here. Things are comfortable, and for the most part, things are great.

But staying comfortable is not a reason to resist God’s call.

We are moving to experience the very thing that God has revealed to us and laid on our hearts. It is not something we can initiate without having first experienced it.

Furthermore, we are not starting something new with our peers, trying to figure this out as we go. We are entering into this with mentors, who have done this before, many times, and who understand the glories and riches of a Christ expressed through divine life. We may be losing proximity to family and friends, but we will be gaining spiritual fathers and mothers, who understand our desire for a church free from religion, free from clergy, free from institutionalism, free from denominationalism, free from legalism, free from pentecostalism, free from evangelicalism, free from passivity, free from treating church like a business, and free from anything other than Christ and Him alone.

And as much as we wish we could experience that here, it has become increasingly clear that we will not have that opportunity.

Sometimes it takes great pain to follow God’s call. It was difficult for Israel to leave Egypt. It was difficult for Israel to leave the wilderness and enter into Canaan. It was difficult for Israel to leave the comforts of Babylon and return to rebuild Jerusalem. But God had a destination in mind for them.

He has a destination in mind for all of us, as well, one that would not just turn us from stones into living stones, but to take these living stones and through divine life form a house within which he can dwell.

How long we will be in Gainesville, and where we will go from there, only God knows. We do know, however, that during our time there we will be trained and equipped, prepared for whatever God calls us to do and wherever He calls us to go.

1) If Eternity is the first book of yours that someone has read, which of your other three books (Untold Story, Pagan Christianity, Reimagining Church) would you recommend they read second?

It all depends. If they were someone who was open to the idea that church as we know isn’t “it,” and they felt that there must be more, I would give them “Reimagining Church” probably. If they didn’t feel that way, I’d give them “The Untold Story of the New Testament Church.”

Untold Story is a book I’m in the middle of now – I’ll review it when I’m finished with it, but it is a retelling of the book of Acts, weaving in details from the other letters in the New Testament along with other historical information. It paints a very clear picture of the founding of the New Testament church, and particularly of Paul’s ministry.

2) How long have the central ideas expressed in Eternity been a clear focus for you? Was it revealed to you through a process of searching, or as a simple moment of discovery?

Both. There was an initial crisis in April of 1992. I had the “general outline” in my mind and heart, you might say. But since then, it’s been an ever-expanding revelation within me, and many details of that outline have been filled in. That still goes on today. The Eternal Purpose cannot be exhausted.

I’m also going to highly recommend listening to Viola’s talk at George Fox Seminary that he gave earlier this year. It’s also available as a podcast on iTunes. I can’t stress enough how much you should listen to this – if you’re not really a book reader, listen to this talk. It does a better job of explaining all of this than I can summarize here.

OTHER BLOGS PARTICIPATING IN THE “FROM ETERNITY TO HERE” BLOG CIRCUIT

Today (June 9th), the following blogs are discussing Frank Viola’s new bestselling book “From Eternity to Here” (David C. Cook, 2009). The book just hit the May CBA Bestseller List. Some are posting Q & A with Frank; others are posting full reviews of the book. To read more reviews and order a copy at a 33% discount, go to Amazon.com:

For more resources, such as downloadable audios, the free Discussion Guide, the Facebook Group page, etc. go to the official website: http://www.FromEternitytoHere.org/

Enjoy the reviews and the Q and A:
—–
Out of Ur – http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2009/05/viola.html
Shapevine – http://www.Shapevine.com/ (June newsletter)
Brian Eberly – http://www.brianeberly.com/
DashHouse.com – http://www.DashHouse.com/
Greg Boyd – http://www.gregboyd.org/blog/
Vision Advance – http://vision2advance.blogspot.com/
David Flowers – http://ddflowers.wordpress.com
Kingdom Grace – http://kingdomgrace.wordpress.com
Captain’s Blog – http://www.captainestes.blogspot.com/
Christine Sine – http://godspace.wordpress.com
Darin Hufford – The Free Believers Network – http://www.freebelievers.com/
Zoecarnate – http://zoecarnate.wordpress.com/
Church Planting Novice – http://www.churchplantingnovice.wordpress.com/
Staying Focused – http://kimmartinezstayingfocused.wordpress.com/
Take Your Vitamin Z – http://www.takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com/
Jeff Goins – http://jeffgoins.myadventures.org/
Bunny Trails – http://bunny-trails.blogspot.com/
Matt Cleaver – http://mattcleaver.com/
Jason T. Berggren – http://blog.jasonberggren.com/
Simple Church – http://www.simplechurchjournal.com/
Emerging from Montana – http://wordofmouthministries.blogspot.com/
Parable Life – http://www.theparablelife.blogspot.com/
Oikos Australia – http://www.oikos.org.au/blog/
West Coast Witness – http://www.WestCoastWitness.com/
Keith Giles – http://www.Keith.Giles.com/
Consuming Worship – http://www.consumingworship.org/
Tasha Via – http://www.tashavia.blogspot.com/
Andrew Courtright – http://www.andrewcourtright.blogspot.com/
ShowMeTheMooneys! – http://www.showmethemooneys.com/
Leaving Salem, Blog of Ronnie McBrayer – http://leavingsalem.wordpress.com/
Jason Coker – http://pastoralia.missionaltribe.org/
From Knowledge to Wisdom – http://isthistheway.typepad.com/
Home Brewed Christianity – http://www.homebrewedchristianity.com/
Dispossessed – http://kblog.kevinjbowman.com/
Dandelion Seeds – http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dandelionseeds
David Brodsky’s Blog- “Flip the tape Deck” – http://flipthetapedeck.blogspot.com/
Chaordic Journey – http://jeffrhodes.wordpress.com/
Renee Martin – http://www.reneemartinmusic.com/profiles/blog/list
Bob Kuhn – http://organicchurchnola.wordpress.com/
Living with Freaks: http://www.livingwithfreaks.com/
Real Worship – http://therealworshipleader.com/
Fervent Worship – http://ferventworship.blogspot.com/
Julie Ferwerda Blog – http://www.JulieFerwerda.com/ / http://www.OneMillionArrows.com/
What’s With Christina?! – http://w2christina.blogspot.com/
Irreligious Canuck – http://www.irreligiouscanuck.com/
This day on the journey – http://guychmieleski.blogspot.com/
Live and Move: Thoughts on Authentic Christianity – http://liveandmove.blogspot.com/
Spiritual Journey With God – http://www.elvineve.blogspot.com/
Dries Conje – http://www.echurch.co.za/ / http://www.thejesusfeed.com/ / http://www.bookdisciple.com/
Journey with Others – http://journeywithothers.blogspot.com/
On Now to the Third Level – http://www.080808onnowto.blogspot.com/
Christine Moers – http://www.welcometomybrain.net/
Breaking Point – http://marybethstockdale.wordpress.com/
Hand to the Plough – http://www.handtotheplough.com.au/
Jon Reid – http://jonreid.blogs.com/oneanother/welcome-pilgrim.html
Weblight – http://www.blog.worldwidewebservices.se/
D. L. Webster – http://gzmproductions.com/dlwebster
Searching for the Whole-Hearted Life – http://wholeheartedlife.blogspot.com/

(Note: While the links are to Amazon, Viola really wants everyone to order from Parable.com or purchase the book at Lifeway as the book is getting started. He explained why he’s requesting that on his blog. Basically, Parable/Lifeway is promoting the book and selling it at a really good price, and the more they sell the more attention they’ll give the books, and the more people will hear this message. You can buy the book from Parable right now for less than $10.)

While Viola’s other books that I’ve read focus on church practice and tradition, this book is different because it focuses on purpose – God’s purpose in all of creation, humanity, and the church. The book is split into three parts, focusing on three “stories” that are interwoven throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The first story is that of God seeking a bride for his Son.

The second story is that of God seeking a dwelling place.

The third story is that of God creating a new species to fully reveal Christ.

While these aspects of scripture aren’t generally new to many Christians, the depth and intensity of them as God’s central purpose is largely lost in modern Christianity. Churches focus primarily on other “things.” These things include evangelism, charismatic gifts, theology, eschatology, etc. These things are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but the pursuit of them as central obscures from us the reasons why God embarked on this whole creation thing to begin with, as well as why he chose to send his Son and establish the ekklesia on earth.

What Viola’s book does is help us realign our perspectives back onto God’s central purposes. And by doing so, helps us to regain a new focus on Christ as not just the center, but as the fullness.

One of the best chapters of the book is the afterword, “One Man’s Journey Into Deep Ecclesiology.” In it, Viola shares his personal history of going through spiritual “things,” and finding that they do not satisfy. To Viola, “Deep Ecclesiology” leads ultimately to Christ, and to a revelation of Him that changes the entire way we view the ekklesia. The afterword wraps up the information of the book and presents it as a heartfelt pleading to discover Christ in a new way.

In some ways, this book would be the best book to read first of any of Viola’s books, as it shares his heart and lays a foundation for why we should question historical church practices, and why we should restore New Testament practices – because of how they either interfere with or focus on God’s eternal purposes for the ekklesia. I believe that those who read this book first would feel less threatened by Viola’s other books as they would better understand the heart behind them.