An Invitation to the MBN

I am inviting you and your household to become members of the Moon Beam Network. You’ll be getting Happy Aloha Friday messages, usually every week, and I thought I should let you in on how and why I send them. The attachment to this letter is a Moon Beam Network certificate. Everybody who gets an Aloha Friday Message is a member of the Moon Beam Network. The MBN is a large circle of friends who take the time and care to pray for, about, and with each other.

When we pray FOR each other, we act as intercessors, “in-the-place-of” praying. It’s making a prayer on behalf of someone else rather than on behalf of ourselves.

When we pray ABOUT each other, we’re making prayers that are intended to be blessings. We ask God for this favor or that outcome for one another. I might pray about your health or you might pray about me to find strength in a trial.

When we pray WITH each other, ah, there’s a power in that. Usually this is focused on something outside of both of us, like the people who are suffering in Southeast Asia, or a child who has been kidnapped.

When you get the Message, it will look like it’s addressed only to you; you won’t see a group of names. I send BCC copies to the Moon Beam Network Members. I do that to protect everyone’s identity. You’ve doubtless received e-mails with hundreds of other people’s e-mail addresses in the header part of the message. When I send you a Message, none of the other people who are receiving the same Message will know that anyone else is getting it. You must never feel like you are obligated to respond to these messages. They are sent to you just so that you can receive them. If you want to write back, I will be delighted to hear from you; however, the message I send is for you and God to interpret and use.

Anyway, welcome to the MBN, and if ever you want to stop receiving those Aloha Friday Messages, just click on the Reply link of the Message you receive and let me know.

You’ll be receiving your first Message soon. You will want to make sure that the e-mail address ctodd@hawaii.rr.com is in your address book. Occasionally you will also receive mailings from Champion3R@aol.com, alohafriday.org@gmail.com, or chickotiii@gmail.com. Those are other e-mail addresses and sometimes I will just send a document as an attachment. Usually the subject line will have the words “ALOHA FRIDAY” on those messages. Please add these e-mail addresses to your address book as well. You should begin to receive two messages per week.

  • Aloha Fridays: usually the words “Aloha Friday” appear in the subject line. This is a weekly scripture study, frequently – but not always – based on a key verse from the following Sunday’s readings. There are links in each message that will show you the scripture passages cited. If you follow those links, you can see the passage in more than one translation. There are also frequent links to words in Greek and/or Hebrew. These help us get “behind” the readings and broaden our understanding of what the author had in mind. Sometimes there are music links marked like this (↔ Music Link) that take you to hymns or other, usually spiritual music. The intention of being on the mailing list is that you will forward the message – or at least the online link to the blog – to other persons.
  • Terrific Tuesdays: These are often light, sometimes humorous, sometimes thought-provoking, and/or sometimes also scriptural. Intended to be a little something to brighten your day, these are sort of a potpourri of stories, pictures, and PowerPoint presentations. They are also intended for sharing.
  • Look for the line Share-A-Prayer – usually toward the end of the post. These are special prayer requests sent to the MBN for our participation.
  • You can also use the Subscribe link in the right-hand column of the home page. If you subscribe via the webpage, you will receive an email from the site in the afternoon. If you subscribe via email, your copy of the post should be in your mailbox first thing Friday morning. The online subscription option looks like this, but without the little red line:

In 2010, a friend and MBN member offered to design and host a blog site for the MBN. It was a remarkable offer; first, because of the generosity, and secondly for the beautiful way it was set up. All of the Aloha Friday Messages have been posted there. You can see any of them by going to

http://aloha-friday.org

Take a few moments to explore our home on the WWW. It has been such a blessing to many!!

In addition, take a look at the home page and see how it relates to the following image:

Make it a wonderful day, my friend! Oh! And the reason we call it the Moon Beam Network? Whenever you see the moon in the sky, or a picture of the moon in a book, a magazine, on TV, or ANYwhere, you just stop for a few seconds and think about everyone who’s in the MBN. Did you know that you could stand two people nearly halfway around the earth from each other, and for a specified time they could both be looking up at the moon? Think about it. I checked it out with some earth-astronomy experts. You could have one person standing in [1] Shanghai, China; another on [2] Cerro Sombrero in Tierra del Fuego, Chile; another in [3] Hellnar, Iceland; [4] one in Kansas City, Kansas; and another in [5] Lihuʽe, HI and they could all see the moon at the same time! So, when I say it is entirely possible to be looking at the moon at the same time as someone else in the MBN… Well, you get the idea! We could be 3,000 or 4,000 miles apart and still both can be looking at the same moon at the same time. That’s pretty cool, eh? It’s a LOVE thing.

Now, check out this snapshot:

   Just in case you don’t have a picture of the moon, here’s one I took in Maui. I have this photo over my desk here in Kapaʽa. What do you think the chances are that two people could be looking at identical pictures of the moon? Put this up where you can see it easily at work and at home and the likelihood that we will see it at the same time is surprisingly high.

Also, in case the attached Certificate doesn’t print well, here is the text of the Moon Beam Network prayer:

Father, I take a moment to remember everyone in the Moon Beam Network. Watch over them all. Bless them. Protect them. Guide them. Direct them. Keep them all safe from any harm or danger in body, mind, and spirit. See to their temporal needs and continue to call them all to a deeper spiritual awareness of and commitment to you. Give them your Light. Bless everyone who prays for us and everyone who asks for our prayers. Bless all of us with the will to do small things with great love which we share among all of the members of the Moon Beam Network. Likewise bless everyone I have ever loved and everyone who has ever loved me, and anyone who has ever loved them, for the Love we have comes from You through Your Son Jesus the Christ by the ministry of The Holy Spirit. AMEN. You’ll find that prayer on the certificate which you can print out as a separate page if you wish.

First the prayer states we are praying for everyone in the MBN. At the very least, that is everyone on the list of names to whom I send the Friday messages. But also, it includes the person to whom those messages are forwarded. I really encourage people to do that. The prayer continues by requesting God’s generous benevolence on each person. God is Light, God is Truth, God is Love, so when we ask God to share his light with others, we share in all that He is and all that He created us to be.

When we ask Him to bless everyone who prays for us and everyone who asks for our prayers, even if we don’t know what those prayers are or who requested our prayers, HE knows and He knows we are asking for His blessing on others as an act of faith and love. As part of that love we ask to be mindful that the little things we do, the tiny steps we take, to bring The Kingdom into this sinful World and take us incrementally closer to Home.

The instrument of this blessing of prayer for others is the love we share among all the MBN members. Even if you never say the prayer yourself, many others are praying it on your behalf. When you pray it, you are interceding on their behalf. Finally we ask God to multiply the prayer through love. Everyone I love, everyone who loves me (even the ones I don’t know about), and anyone who has every loved any of those people – all of them are included in the blessing we request from God. And that blessing is conferred on all of those people because the love in which, and through which, we pray comes from God through Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Belovéd!

I am a member of the Moon Beam Network. Every hour of every day, I am loved and prayed for by hundreds of other members. Every time we see the moon, we remember the whole network, even those persons we do not know, and we lovingly remember them in prayer.

Father, I take a moment to remember everyone in the Moon Beam Network. Watch over them all. Bless them. Protect them. Guide them. Direct them. Keep them all safe from any harm or danger in body, mind, and spirit. See to their temporal needs and continue to call them all to a deeper spiritual awareness of and commitment to you. Give them your Light. Bless everyone who prays for us and everyone who asks for our prayers. Bless all of us with the will to do small things with great love which we share among all of the members of the Moon Beam Network. Likewise bless everyone I have ever loved and everyone who has ever loved me, and anyone who has ever loved them, for the Love we have comes from You through Your Son Jesus the Christ by the ministry of The Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —

at your service, Belovéd!

 

 

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