Page 4
t
May 2010
The AC Phoenix
OU SHOULD GO TO CHURCH
The time you spend at church should draw you closer to God. So when church
is boring and frustrating for you, or when you drag yourself there out of sense
of duty rather than desire, it may be tempting to give up on church and
pursue God on your own. Doing so will cause you to miss a wealth of spiritual
practices God has designed to help you grow, however. Rather than giving up
on church, find new meaning in its spiritual practices to connect with God in
fresh ways. Then you can do more than just attend church - you can be a vital
part of the church wherever you go.
Here's how you can give church another chance:
View church not as an end, but as a means to an end. God intends for the
church to be much more than just a place you visit on weekends to check in
with Him. Church is meant to be like an embassy that helps empower you to
grow closer to Christ and serve as one of His ambassadors in the world. So
church should impact you far beyond each weekly worship service; it should
be a training ground for you to mature in your faith and a launching pad for
you to jump into every other part of your life, following where God leads you
and putting your faith into practice.
Give the quiet prelude another chance. The quiet time before each
worship service begins at your church is an opportunity to connect to God
in the silence that can help you focus well on His voice. But you can take the
listening skills you develop (during the quiet prelude and carry them over into
the rest of your life, paying close attention to the divine appointments that
God brings your way in a variety of situations. Make time regularly to tune out
distractions and tune into God's voice speaking to you.
Give singing the doxology another chance. Many generations of people have
been singing the doxology in church to praise God. But you can do much
more to praise God than simply repeating the words of this classic sung prayer.
Let the doxology motivate you to live in a way that glorifies God, as a way of
thanking Him for His greatness and reflecting His character to the world. —
DONT LEAVE YOUR LOVED ONE IN JAIL!
WE HAVE THE KEY TO SET THEM FREEi^
TIME SERVED
BONDING CO.
LIVE AGENT 24/7
A V V LOW RATES - EZ PAYMENT
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
788-5714 OR 336-442-4836
WWW.TlWIESERVEDBONDING.COM
Owner;
MeMe Penn
Let Your Choice Be
Heard
Don V Forget to Vote!
May 6^^
When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
by Andrew M. Manis, Associate Professor - Macon State College
"When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession
with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds'of Race Threats, Crimes" should
frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham,"
Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments
about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John
and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in
all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again
hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and
United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have
been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years,
conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the
right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone
was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Eord, Reagan, or either
of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But
there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill
Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted
merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties
again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven
what conservatives are always saying - that in America anything is possible,
EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school
children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate
Obama." Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long
before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole
world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all -
get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until
we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us
superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments
about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head
of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people
end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes
in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist
loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until
we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility,
build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law
Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only
to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we start "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both
civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red
and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight? Until this past
November4,1 didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American
to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white
people get over our racism problem.
But here's my three-point plan:
First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves
Built, I'm going to pray that God (and theSecret Service) will protect him and
his family from us white people.
Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying,
in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President
Obama.
Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world
once again, when white people can "inspirit and in truth" sing of our damnable
color prejudice.
"We HAVE overcome."
It takes a Village to protect our President!!! •