A sort of beginning, I suppose.

Well, I've decided to join the blogging world. With sentences and punctuation and stuff. Instead of just my poems that don't make actual sense to other people, or even myself at time. Of course I'll keep doing that on my other blog, but I want to try actually blogging on this one. If that makes any sense. I don't know why really, to be honest.

Partly because I know other people who do.

Partly because poems are hard to write all the time.

Partly because it seems like it might be nice to just write about my life sometimes.

I guess it's kind of weird that I say I'm "joining" the realm of blogging when I've had two blogs for quite some time now. But I always used this one for my "theology" and the other one for my "poetry," so I guess I'm joining in a more abstract sense, maybe?

I don't really know if I've ever really understood blog form for sure. Who is the audience?
Is it the blog, like a diary?
Is it myself, like a sort of reflection?
Is it whoever might read this, like an open letter?
I'm not trying to ask a deep question here, I can honestly just never tell how a blog is supposed to be written. I don't think there are any rigid rules, but there always seems to be some set of unwritten rules for everything. I guess right now I'm kind of writing with a blog expert as my potential audience, since I'm asking all these questions and whatnot.

so this is the new year

and i have some resolutions.

i will read the entire bible.

i will write in this blog, not just my other one where i hide things in poems.

i will continue to write in my other blog, the one where i hide things in poems.

i will get back in and stay in shape.

i will [finally] go through the necessary process to join a church.

The Key

After reading 1st John, it appears to me that the key to life is love. Love for God and love for one another. From what I understand, there is nothing greater.

Brotherhood

After reading Hebrews 2, I couldn't leave these things unsaid.

I don't know if this is deep at all, or just exciting to me.

But in Hebrews it talks about Christ.

It talks about how He is the one over everything.

How God crowned Him with glory and honor

and put everything under His feet.

That's exciting, Jesus is Lord.

But I find the next part even more exciting.

Jesus Christ is a brother to us humans.

God made Him a little lower than the angels

so He could taste death for His brothers.

The one who makes us holy

is from our very own family.

Jesus

is

not

ashamed

to

call

us

brothers.

He joined us so He could save us.

He joined us so He could lead us.

He joined us because He loves us.

Open Letter

An open letter to the world around me,

I am sorry for being so judgmental. I am sorry for assuming things about you based on how you dress or look or where you're from or what music you listen to or what grades you get or anything else. I really shouldn't do that, and I am really honestly trying to work on it right now. Please understand that I want to love you. I just don't always do that as well as I would like to. Please understand that I will continue to struggle with this, I'm sure, but that I want so badly to just love you unconditionally. Whoever you are. I love you.

-Andrew Carl Archer

Inspiration

Jude 1:24-25
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

The entire book of Jude (although only one chapter) is a great reminder to stay firmly rooted in our faith. It's a reminder to not follow fleshly desires, but rather to follow through faith alone. To gather all of our strength from the Holy Spirit and prayer and to trust in God's sovereign power above all else. There are people who love dissension, strife, drama. People who live for their own desires. People who don't follow God. But when we truly follow Him in faith, then we have true joy. He is the one who carries us to glory, the one who forgives our sins, and the one who supplies all of our hearts' joy. There is no one like our God. There never was and there never will be one who is like Him. May our hearts echo Jude's closing words now and forevermore. Praise be to our great God.

Distance

I feel like I've been totally separated from the youth group lately. And I know that I just moved up to the college group, so that's inevitable. But I just feel like I haven't even seen a lot of people in weeks. I'll take the blame. I definitely haven't been trying to get more involved or anything. But it's partially because of how dead the group has felt lately. I feel like the year ended in a total routine way. And I feel like church has been like that in general for a while now. People go, they sit and listen, they talk a little, and they leave. That's all I've seen forever now. It's really starting to get discouraging. There are bright spots here and there, but on the overall, everything is boring and the same week in and week out. I'm tired of "building a foundation" so we can eventually go deeper. I'm tired of "before you get the rest, you have to get this." I'm pretty sure those of us who have heard the basis for a while understand it about as well as we're ever going to and it's not helping to hear it over and over again. It's truth, and it's amazing truth, but it's the same truth that I heard last week and the week before that, and you get the idea. I want to know more about love, I want to know more about peace, I want to know more about promises, I want to know more about God. I get grace, I get TULIP, I get calvinism as much as I'm going to I'm pretty sure. And hearing the same old isn't adding anything. I want to grow.

This is venting, but it's not exaggeration.