N is for Not White

This comes from two situations this week.  The happier one is where my friend made me read aloud to her Huckleberry Finn.  It's one of my favorite books.  It's so non-racist in a still-racist mentality.  So annoying however, is the use of the n-word.  I know it was an okay word when Mark Twain lived, but it's like I read the word and I'm stabbed in the heart.

Also, on facebook, I'm in a Calvinist discussion group.  The question was, "Is interracial marriage a sin?"  Why would anyone ask this?  How do supposed Christians think that this is addressed in the Bible?  The Bible is clear that from one man, God created all the people groups.  Ergo, there is no such thing as race.  We are all brown people and nobody is white.

This prejudice just comes from the Darwin era when Christians rejected the Bible's teachings to be relevant, and people were sacrificed in the process for centuries to come.

M is for Monastery

Yep, I'm talking about the place in Conyers where I love to walk.  I even love to meditate there.  It's a place I go to and forget that I'm in Conyers.  It's so peaceful and the Lord really does move there. 

I've seen the monks do vespers from time to time.  Last time I even crawled into the nave and sang with them.  The thing I really love about Catholics is their art and their meditation techniques.  I do disagree that monastic living should be 24/7.  It should be once a week.  That's why God created the Sabbath.  However, I do like that they allow the public to come and retreat, that there is always a place to go for free and just work on homework or read or pray.  I'm so thankful for the monastery.

L is for Longing

This is just from a week of missing old friends from old colleges and wanting to see them.  This is also for the friends I see now but still want something more.  I want to stay at Trinity EPC forever but I also want to move when I finish at Clayton.  But I don't want to leave my youth group, and I'd have nowhere to go anyway.  But for now, I'm more content than I've been in the past two years. 

It just goes to show you that this world will never give me anything that satisfies me more than God.  God created nothing nor can there be anything more satisfying than him.  And I won't be satisfied until Christ finally comes.  But I still await what he has to bring me in the next year or two.

K is for Kindness

J is for Joy

Every time I leave Shepherd's Staff on Thursday nights, I feel like praising the Lord.  This week, Hope Community Fellowship, our neighbors-to-be, led the Bible study.  There were more young people.  There was lasagna and cheesecake.  Some hipster guy led the devotion.

And when I got there I mentioned to the other Megan that I can't figure out where to go to get a local internship so I don't have to keep driving to Atlanta.  She gave me a brilliant idea that I hope to try out tomorrow.  If it goes anywhere I'll elaborate.

I is for India

Another post inspired by Challies.  He wrote about Gandhi's line about how Gandhi likes Jesus, just not Christians because we are not like Jesus.  Liberals love this line and even more naive believers.  I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking that we need to stop using this phrase.

I'll be the first to tell you, the church is full of hypocrites and I'm one of them.  If you say you aren't a hypocrite, then you are even more hypocritical.  Every Christian is a sinner, and every Christian is going to do something that embarrasses Christ, who's name we carry.  That doesn't make it alright.  That's just the way it is.

Equally, Gandhi must have had some kind of ego to believe that he was above this problem.  Has he never lied or used anybody?  Has he never gone against what he believed?  Gandhi lived under the delusion that all men had something good in them and that Jesus was just another man.  Nobody was ever kind enough to tell him that we are woefully sinful and have no hope outside of Jesus who must wash our sins for us to even want to follow his teachings.  But either way, please stop quoting him.  I love Jesus, therefore, how dare I not live his Christians who he died to save?

H is for Heresies

Yep, my favorite topic.  I love polemicism.  This one started as I was reading this book by Larry Crabb called "Connections."  It's a must read.  It's about how ministers can connect with people on deeper levels than just hi-how-are-you, or try to understand the person without trying to have the right answers.  I might have to read this book a few times.

I was sitting next to my friend who said, "That kind of looks like Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People."  Then I started running my mouth about how I have that book but couldn't finish it because it was so positive and I need Jesus.  Then I started talking about Joel Osteen.  Then I started talking about Oprah.

If you can say you have no problem with Oprah then you have to do some soul checking.  She is like the number one New Age guru these days.  Turns out that Osteen is teaming up with her.  But this is why you need people like me who will find a booger in every bush.  If you tolerate small heresies, then you won't notice the big ones when Oprah shows up.  You'll be totally blinded by the blatant blasphemies of Rob Bell that should be obvious.  This is why we need picky polemicists like me.