Annoucement: Blog Closed & Moved

I would like to take this opportunity to announce the close of this blog and the introduction of my new website and blog.
If you have been reading my blogs you may have noticed a progression over time.

The first blog that I started I kept from March 2003 to September 2004. It wasn't necessarily public, but just something I shared with family and friends. Back then I tended to write about the everyday things that were happening in my life, mostly whatever project was distracting me at the time - playing and recording music, writing novels, and marathon training.

It was at the end of the September of 2004 that I began to have a spiritual awakening which lead to my being born again in 2005. During this time I didn't really keep a blog, save for a few scattered entries.

When I picked up blogging again in August 2005, the subjects I would write about reflected this change in my life. I occasional still spoke of the everyday things of life but began focusing more in more on what I was reading and learning in Scripture through the Holy Spirit.

At that time I will still active within the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, the religion I was born and raised in. Because I had been tipped off that the congregation elders were monitoring my blog to make sure my views were invariance with the official teachings of the Watchtower's governing body I tended to censor myself somewhat and to be careful at how I worded things.

Despite my care, eventually my blog did become part of the evidence that lead to a judicial committee (religious tribunal) being brought against me. Incidentally, it was the statement from the February 26, 2006 entry Rock or Sand? that was seemed to be the problem:

"We recognize that the brotherhood that we love so much does not belong to a legal body or any men taking the lead among us; but rather it belongs to Christ who is the head of the congregation."

After being disfellowshipped from the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Spring of 2006 I had more freedom to express myself and the things I was learning. Since then began to write less and less about the everyday things of my life and more about Bible topics of Christian spirituality.

Now as I look back that the older parts of this blog I don't feel that it really represents where I am right now so much as the path I've taken. At first I thought about closing and removing this blog entirely. However I discussed this with a friend and they suggested that I keep it as perhaps some may benefit from reading through this progression. I'm inclined to agree.

For what it is worth while I will no longer be posting anything new to this blog I will be leaving it up. Additionally, I have added most of the contents of my previous blog that has been off line for some time. (All entries prior to August 2005)

I plan to continue blogging at my new home at anthonymathenia.com. It will continue the general format of the last few months - though with less focus on my personal life, unless it specifically relates to my discipleship and life in Christ.

Yours in Christ,


Anthony