Purpose

Hello, and welcome to the Arrow Up blog. Arrow Up, or AU for short, is a blog devoted to encouraging and teaching Christian teens around the world to stand up for what they believe and draw closer to the Creator of the Universe. We the authors, Ben and Jayan, are just average teens from the USA trying to “run the race” (Hebrews 12:1). This blog is a way for us to share our discoveries from the word of God and other sources, and to hopefully help other teens in their Christian walk.

In this article, we hope to clarify what this blog is about, and to tell you more about our vision and mission.

The first question in the Westminster Larger Catechism is this: “What is the chief and highest end of man?” The answer is what we want to do with this blog: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”

The name “Arrow Up” is an analogy of what we should be to the world. Instead of wanting to get all the praise for what we do and have others look up to us, we should be “arrows” that point the world to Christ. Now I’m pretty sure that we won’t be reaching the whole world with this blog alone, but if everyone works together with us, the sky is the limit to what we can do.

Matthew 5:14-17 says that we are the light of the world. As Christians, our “chief and highest end” is to glorify God is everything we do. If we do this, then we are letting the light of Jesus shine through us and reach the darkness of this world. There is a great article on this over at The Rebelution. It is titled “A Shining Salty City on a Stand” and it covers the fact that we need to be salt and light to this decaying world. Glorifying God in all we do isn’t optional – it’s essential. The Bible says in Matthew 5:16 that we should let our light shine in front of all men. Even if we aren’t proclaiming the good news every minute of the day, we can set good examples for everyone we come in contact with by living according to the principles of the Bible.

I’m sure most of you know that good works won’t get you to heaven. Just “doing more good than bad” in our life isn’t good enough to get God to let us into heaven. Romans 3:23 says that everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. That means that no matter what we do, we can’t get into heaven because we have all sinned. The only way we can get to heaven is by accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts and believing that he died on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. If you have done that, does that mean that you don’t have to do any good works? Not at all! We should be constantly doing good works because we have been saved by Jesus Christ and are so thankful to him! Let me tell you a little story to help illustrate this fact.

There was a man who had been sentenced to death in a seaside city for breaking the law. He was put into the upper story of a prison with a single barred window to the outside world. He was held there for months, awaiting the day appointed for his death. The only way he could go free from his prison was to pay a very large amount of money to the city – money which he didn’t have. He had no family, no friends, no connections. Every day he would look out the window of his top story dungeon, and see people playing volleyball and going swimming at the beach, just a few hundred yards away. He would hear them laughing and playing, and he would be filled with an overwhelming desire to be free and to be able to run and jump and laugh along with them. But he knew that he would never be able to do that, and was constantly thrown into a deep state of despair. As the day of his execution drew closer and closer, he longed more and more to be outside his prison – he drove himself almost mad just thinking about it. Finally, the black day dawned. As he was just being lead off to the execution room, a man he had never seen before rushed in and stopped the guards. He reached for his wallet, drew out the entire amount of money that was needed, and payed the man’s fine in full. Stunned, the now free man fell to his knees and thanked his savior with his whole heart plus some. He couldn’t believe that someone he had never seen before would step in, pay the price for him to be set free, and ask nothing in turn for it. Running around the city, he was filled with the sense of freedom he had been wishing for for the last terrible months. Through the next years, he never forgot the man who had paid his fine, and was constantly thanking him for what he had done.

Though that story is fictitious, it illustrates vividly what we should be like as Christians. We have been saved by grace, through Jesus Christ. If it wasn’t for him, we would have no choice but to suffer in Hell for the rest of eternity. Now isn’t that something to be thankful for? Just that thought should make us want to do good works to please God. We should be kind because He wants us to be kind, patient because He wants us to be patient, and loving because He wants us to be loving. These things are the fruit of the Spirit, and you can read the whole list in Galatians 2:22-23.

If we do good works for the Lord, not only will He be pleased, but other people will notice us and wonder why we do what we do. This is a great way to start conversations about Christ and share your faith with people you know. On the other hand, if we profess to be Christian, but act just like the world, then we aren’t painting a very good picture of our sovereign, wise, and good God. Instead of drawing people closer to Him, they will be repulsed by what they see in us.

In conclusion I want to share this blog’s theme verse with you. You can find it in 1 Corinthians 10:31, and it says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That pretty much sums up our whole purpose here at ArrowUp. So what are you waiting for? Start living for the glory of God! And if you do that, you will become an arrow that points to no other than Himself.

~Jayan and Ben