About

My name is Angela Baker Mooney and I am happily married to Jeff Mooney and the mother of four wonderful children:  Jonathan 15, Rebekah 13, Karis 11 and Sarah 2.  I am a pastor’s wife who has been blessed this past year with an awesome group of ladies in an accountability group.  They have inspired me to develop a blog for us to communicate more frequently.  My sole purpose is for us to encourage each other in our relationships with Christ.

My relationship with Christ began when I was 13 years old.  It was at that time that I realized that, though I was a “good little girl,” I deserved to go to hell.  I remember the preacher was preaching from Acts 10.  If you are unfamiliar with this passage, let me briefly explain.  Cornelius was a really good citizen.  He had a great reputation; he was religious too.  However, he was not so good that he did not need to hear about Jesus and indeed not so good that he did not need Jesus to pay for his sins.  So I learned that day that no matter how good I could be….make good grades, make good choices, please my parents and teachers, I could NEVER please God on my own.

I knew that I had to follow Jesus and that he would take care of me.  So, as best as a 13 year old could understand, I publicly committed myself to follow Jesus.  In Southern Baptist life following Jesus also required that I repeat a prayer, but it’s important for me to point out the prayer did NOT save me.  How do I know?  Because now, as a 40 year old who has had some great opportunities for studying the Bible under some godly teachers, I understand that salvation comes “by grace and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works (even the work of saying a prayer) so that no one may boast.” Eph 2:8-9

It is more correct to say that God captured my heart that day and gave me His Spirit so that I could understand Him.

And it was only the beginning of a journey.    As time has passed and I have gotten to study and learn more about God, I have grown so much in my love for Him especially as I have come to realize what He really did for me. I can also see that all the seeds of full rebellion (described in Romans 1) that were present in my rotten, self-intoxicated heart, would have come to fruition if God had not mercifully intervened.

The first day of my new life I did not completely understand how costly it was to bring me to salvation.  Jesus had to go to the cross to pay for my sins through God the Father.  In other words he had to take the punishment that would have taken me an eternity in hell to work off.  The weight of that is astounding.

I also did not understand that day what exactly a life taken over by Him would look like.  I lived in the deep south where church is a part of our culture.  Because of that, most “good” people went to church but since “good” does not equal “saved,” there were plenty of people around who still thought like the world though claiming to be followers of Jesus.  It was confusing.  So, I tried to think like that too and it was truly frustrating.

Well, I bumped along for a few years and then went to college.  As we all know, those are some serious days of decision-making.  Choosing a career, choosing a spouse, even choosing friends (who influence greatly) was crucial.  I began to feel even more frustrated until I realized what was happening.  I was trying to live with two different worldviews.  This realization came slowly as I was discipled through a Baptist Student Union.  When I finally embraced my identity in Christ, decision-making became more Kingdom of Heaven focused.  I was still trying to be “Angela-focused.”  So, college was a definite turning point in my life….one where God used Clete Sipes, our BSU director, to show me the right path.  I am grateful.

Christ continues to change me, to mold me, to chip away the self-centeredness that wars for control of my life. I can honestly say that I desire for Christ to be set on display in every area of my life, but I know that I still fail to please Him many times.  The hope that I live by is that He will bring to completion the good work that He began in me!  Phil 1:6

To His Name be glory forever!