Christianity and the Scarlet Letter

In English we have started reading The Scarlet Letter; when we were doing the pre reading stuff in class my English teacher brought up the elements of the Christian movement of Martin Luther and specifically a guy named John Calvin. John Calvin was the founder of Calvinism and the specific belief of pre-destination, my teacher who knows that I am a United Methodist and petty familiar with John Wesley; she told me that Wesley took this idea. I am kind of puzzled because I thought that Wesley taught that Christians were saved by Grace, but then how does pre-destination come into play? One point my teacher brought up was that pre-destination does not really mean what we think it is, that pre-destination is simply that God knows in advance who will accept Grace. Potentially all people could be saved by Grace, so how does God already know who will accept it? This is some deep theology that I'm contemplating, and possibly more to come; I'll let you know how the rest of the book goes.

Awesomeness

http://www.umportal.org/main/article.asp?id=4476

I read this in the UMR newsletter today; it was pretty great.

I Want Out

Today I recieved my second six weeks grade for my AP English class; this is the hardest class that I have, and I made a horrible grade (still passing, but not good). I have a total of 3 AP classes and 3 pre-AP classes this year and I have an A in all of them except english. I don't understand why I cannot make an A in this class.

My teacher makes me think at a level where it is conflicting with my Christian beliefs and it just makes me feel bad to be in this class; I really think getting out would make me feel so much better and I would be in a much better mood.

My first blog

I decided to creat this blog in hopes of relaxing my mind, using it to control the busyness in which I function. I don't know why, but this school year has been really hard for me. To start off I am taking 3 pre-AP and 3 AP classes at school (yes there is a ton of homework), I also participate in stu co, NHS, and I am a class officer. I also am super active within the connection of my church; this doesn't bother me, I love it.

Right now as all of the things mentioned above intertwine, I just can't help but being tired all of the time, even with +8 hours of sleep every night I jsut can't seem rested, so maybe writing my thoughts down will help...

If it doesn't, it's still cool; I have a blog.