course Archives - God's Lily Training

What is their language?

Learning a new language has never been one of my strengths. I had to learn French at school but the languages department had staffing problems. We did not have one teacher but a series and none of them picked up how much I was struggling. I just got work back covered in red ink and eventually punished for doing so badly. The teacher was amazed when I said I actually learnt something from the detention, i.e. I had finally overcome the block that had held me back for months. Not one of the series of teachers had picked it up or helped me through it.

I learnt one thing from that first year of learning French at school. Learning a language was not my strength. That was obvious two years later when I had to do German at school. I came bottom of the class. I did finally get a language qualification but only just. It was such a borderline pass that it was the medical certificate I had because I struggled with hay-fever during the examination season that made the difference.

One of the things I wanted to do at school was an English Language A level but it did not exist then. Years after I left school I found that they had started doing them so had a go. I found that easy and enjoyed it so much that I did the extra work needed to get a good result. Most of the class was doing the course over two years I did both the first and second year courses at once and I could not have got a higher grade.

These days I am having a go at learning Welsh. Goodness knows how I am massacring that beautiful language. Yet it is only by learning the language that you can truly understand the people and culture around you. How people speak reflects the things that have happened to them and their community.

The wrong way to dealing with language barriers

From I have found out from reading the information stands round about is that having two languages in use in a community can create considerable tensions. There is the story of the mine owner who banned the people who worked for him speaking a language that he could not understand. The situation escalated until he took some of his workforce to court for disobeying his instructions to only speak English at work.

The local people were unhappy with this situation, to say the least. After all this was Wales and it was quite understandable that people would want to speak Welsh. After the court case where miners were punished by the court, there was a violent protest by local people. News of this riot spread across the country especially as those on the side of the law-keepers shot and killed six people, including an innocent passerby.

OK in that situation it was as much one employer not trusting his workforce when they spoke a different language to the one he used. I wonder if he tried to learn their language or just expected them to use his. By forcing them to use his it created considerable ill will in the entire community.

A better way of dealing with language barriers

It is amazing where language barriers crop up. There is the story told by Winston Churchill of the negotiations after World War Two. The British and American delegations were normally on good terms and worked together but there came a time when this harmony came to an abrupt halt. It was resolved by someone having the sense to ask what do you think that this statement means.

The crazy thing was that they understood something very different from exactly the same words. For one to table a motion meant to accept it and for the other, it meant to reject it. Each delegation wanted the same thing but thought that the other wanted something different. The problem was the words used rather than what they wanted to happen. Find a set of words that meant the same to both delegations and peaceful working relationships were restored.

It is amazing how many times this kind of thing happens. I say this and mean this by that word. I hear you say that word and I think that you mean exactly the same thing as I do. Oops, you don’t think that it means that. How do we understand each other when that happens?

I mean if I walk into baker’s shop and ask for some buns in one part of the UK I will be offered bread but in another, I will be offered cake. Same word different meaning. We must take great care that we truly do understand what each other is saying to be able to communicate effectively.

It is not so much the words used as the thoughts behind the words that is important. Time and again we see this happening. There are times we need to stop and actually ask “What do you mean by this?” We may be surprised we may find that we mean very different things from the same word or phrase. Unless we stop and ask that question occasionally we are going to find that relationships break down unnecessarily or friendships that could be made are left unmade.

Making choices

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I was undecided about going forwards with that course. It was tempting. Should I do it or not? There was evidence on both sides.

Amongst the evidence for was the talk I listened by the lady who was trying to encourage people to join her coaching program. One of her points was that people do not like going forwards to do things because it is stretches them. In the beginning when we are being stretched it is hard to believe that we really can do something. Once we have done it a time or two it gets easier to believe that we can. What I was contemplating was definitely stretching.

I was also somewhat scared as this step forwards was somewhat risky. It would really mean walking out in faith. Was this just me not stepping out in faith or would stepping forwards be presumptuous? In other words, if I did go forwards would I just be expecting God to help me move forwards, whether or not it was the right thing to do it or not.

It was a risk and a stretch because it would take me to the limit of my financial resources and possibly beyond. It was that beyond that was scary. Was it really feasible? Those who speak about taking risks say that it is not wise to risk more than you can afford to lose.

Backwards and forwards

It was a case of God what do I do. I woke up with a dream that left me somewhat puzzled about what it meant. In fact, it was a bit scary. I went to visit a rental house that I had access to but when I got there the door was open. I walked in and shouted in case anyone was there but all I found were marks on the walls where the paint had been taken off. It was as if little people had been around spoiling it.

One of the things I decided to do was lay a fleece out and say if a certain Hebrew name of God was mentioned in the sermon that Sunday then I would go forwards. That is when things got really crazy. I did not get to church that Sunday. I tried but the car decided it was not happy being driven. Before the car went to church again it would have be checked out by a mechanic at the garage.

What was the eventual outcome?

If I had been guaranteed that I would succeed that would have been one thing. There was no guarantee well there was a money back guarantee but it was only accessible well into the future. I could get into a mess well before that was payable. The discussion group I joined made me realise that this was quite possible. I would be stepping forwards in faith expecting God to keep me safe.

After I decided not to jump in I went back to the discussion group I realised that in order to succeed you needed to have a certain type of personality. The thing is that I don’t have that kind of personality. In fact, I am more the opposite. I have a habit of shrinking when I am amongst that type of personality.

The chances of me surviving and doing well in that kind of environment was slim to nothing. That was when I realised that I had made the right choice. Phew, it was not that I had missed an opportunity but that I had managed to escape what would most probably be a disaster for someone like me.

What is right for me is not necessarily right for you?

Those with the right personality to thrive in that kind of environment could become astounding successes in that situation. Those without, like me, would wither and die. Well maybe not die a physical death but definitely, a part of them would die in an emotional sense.

One of the biggest reasons why people do not succeed is that they are doing the wrong thing for them. Yes, what they are doing could be just right for someone else but they are not designed to do that thing in that way and therefore they cannot do whatever it is well. Do what they are designed to do in the way that they are designed to do it and they will succeed.

The issue is what are you designed to do. Once you know that you can go ahead and do it. Try and do something you are not designed to do and you will struggle. Not only that but you will have less opportunity to do what you were designed to do.

Amazon and God’s Lily

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I have been looking at various possibilities in terms of making money. One obvious one given that I do loads of writing is Amazon. The thing is that as soon as you do anything connected you things outside the kingdom you end up having to do a lot of thinking. Or maybe given the reputation of Amazon in some circles, it should be heart-searching.

Let’s start by thinking about what Amazon is. It is nothing more than a huge marketplace. Going way back to medieval times here in the UK there have been marketplaces. There would be stalls set up along the street and people who had things to sell would arrange to use one of those stalls. They would wait for people from round about to walk past and buy something. There are some towns where this still happens.

To make this system to work there needed to be some people who were willing to do one of the three things that were needed. There needed to be:

People who had something to sell.
People who wanted to buy.
People who were willing to provide a place where they could meet i.e. a marketplace.

Amazon is nothing more than a huge online marketplace. It works hard to attract people to become buyers. They have used old techniques like advertising and given them a modern twist. It is one of the best customers for those who provide advertising. They have developed a variety of different new methods that other people have since copied. Things like “people who have also looked at this time have bought”.

It is one thing having visitors looking to buy things and there is a limit to what you can do yourself to provide them with something to buy. Therefore they also make quite a bit of effort into finding people willing to sell in their marketplace.

Amazon and sellers

Amazon’s efforts to attract buyers is legendary and that in itself attracts some sellers. But what do all these people sell? In the beginning it was just books then they moved into helping people self-publish both hard copy books and ebooks. These days they also make it easy for people to sell all sorts of different things that they can easily store in their warehouses.

Cast your mind back to the 19th century there were times when someone found gold. When word got out thousands more people flocked to the area to see if they could make their fortune as well. Something similar has happened with Amazon. Some people have made their fortune and others have tried following in their footsteps.

In the 19th century there were people who had a better chance of making money than the gold-prospectors. These where the people who sold them the tools they needed. Those who sold the shovel was bound to make money. The one who used the shovel to look for gold might make their fortune or they may lose everything that they had in the process.

Look at online and you will find people saying that they can give up their job and still buy the big house and flashy car because they sell stuff on Amazon. There are also people who make their money from selling courses that help you improve your ability to make money on Amazon. Then there are people who provide other services to those who sell stuff on Amazon.

Should I get involved with Amazon or not?

This is a question that has been haunting me for ages. It is really tempting to follow the crowd into the gold rush. Like everything else not everyone can reach the highest levels of success. Some will be trying to do this others will be happy climbing the foothills rather than scaling the mountains. It is possible to maintain kingdom principles and sell on Amazon. It is not necessarily easy but it is possible.

Part of my deliberations led to me thinking about where the name Amazon came from. If you think about it names carry meaning and often the ways that it has been used before influence the way it is used today. I had heard people use the word Amazon before I had heard of the Amazon website, and it was not just things related to the River Amazon.

I looked it up in the dictionary and found that it was used for a group of female warriors. The legend surrounding these women was that they used a bow and arrow and to make this easier they were willing to lose a breast. In other words they were so determined to be good fighters that they would not let anything get in their own way, not even their own bodies.

Think about that level of determination. Think about the emotional costs paid by women who have mastectomies as part of treatment for cancer. Things like concerns about physical attractiveness and losing part of what makes them a woman. It is not an easy operation to face even with modern anaesthetics that make it easier for a surgeon to take their time and do a good job. For Amazons to be so determined to be good warriors that they were willing to lose a breast was a big deal.

The reason I checked it up was really to see if there was any connection of pagan deities or anything else that seemed scriptural. The first thing that came to mind was the idea that if your eye caused you to sin then you should get rid of it as it was better to arrive in heaven maimed than not to get there at all. It is there in scripture (check Matthew 5:29, Matthew 18: 9 and Mark 9:43).

That suggests to me that that level of determination is not wrong if the outcome is a godly one. One of the problems with determination though is that we don’t just hurt ourselves but we hurt others in the process. We are not told that we can hurt others. What we are told is that we need to love others in the same way as we love ourselves.

OK that opens up a whole other can of worms about unconditional love of self and others. We can agree to allow ourselves to be hurt our determination to follow God. The question is though, is it right to hurt others in the process? I must admit I struggle with the idea that we are supposed to be so determined to follow God, that we end up hurting others. Somehow it seems as if this goes against other scriptural principles.

Amazon’s determination

There are few people who would doubt that Amazon are determined to achieve their goals. They would not have grown to the level of dominance that they have in the global economy if they had not been.

Amazon warriors were renowned for doing something that was unexpected because of their determination to be good warriors. The Amazon website has done and is doing unexpected things because of their determination to reach their goals. The way they structure the payments made to sellers encourages them to make certain choices. This includes:

To only sell ebooks through them rather than via other ebook distributors
To sell items that are within certain parameters of size and weight so that they are easy to keep in their warehouse
To sell items within certain price ranges

The term warrior seems to be appropriate as well. Warriors have a habit of coming into an area and taking it over. Ask any bookseller on the High Street and you will soon see that they are fighting Amazon for a share of book sales. These days it is not just booksellers but anyone selling items that can be stored easily in Amazon’s warehouses who sees them as “the opposition”.

So where does that leave God’s Lily?

One problem that many people have is how do you sell without using some kind of marketplace? It is the marketplace where the seller and the buyer meet. Where would they meet otherwise? OK some people go door to door trying to sell things and use other techniques that lead to them connecting with buyers. However, it is not as easy going door to door as it is to arrange to have a stall in the marketplace.

It is so much easier to use a marketplace. One of the reasons for this is that, in addition to helping to bring buyers and sellers together, they also deal with some of the practical problems related to selling. These days one of the problems with selling is dealing with the taxman.

The changes in the way that VAT is collected has made everyone who sells ebooks, software or any other automatically delivered digital product to someone in the EU is expected to be an unpaid tax collector. Fulfilling the requirements of being an unpaid tax collector is not easy from a technical and administrative point of view. In fact it is so hard that it is beyond most ordinary mortals who run an online business singled handed.

The tax authorities and politicians have told those who want to know how to comply with these rules for selling automatically delivered products is to start using a marketplace like Amazon. It is also possible to get out of this taxation nightmare if you can redesign your product or service so that it includes live and interactive content i.e. is no longer automatically delivered.

One of the things that is planned for the God’s Lily site is to offer ebooks. These of course get caught up in the nightmare of the EU Digital Services Regulations. Being an ordinary mortal trying to cope with the superhuman challenge of EU VAT means that I need to use a marketplace.

It is a question of assessing which is the best marketplace to use to start with. Once that is settled there is the question of whether I should use more than one. Until such times as the impact of the law is lessened on small traders the question is not should a marketplace be used, but which one, or ones, best deals with the issue of compliance on behalf of the seller.

The obvious one is Amazon, although there are others including Smashwords, Payhip and Selfie. All of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of Amazon is that their determination has upset some people. The very thing that has helped them grow has turned some people away from them.

Now do you see what I mean by heart-searching. Staying in touch with the world and staying pure is not easy. Important choices like what marketplaces are used need to be made prayerfully and with due consideration.

Just ebooks or is there something more?

I started writing this being reasonable certain that selling ebooks via Amazon was a good idea. As I written this and deliberated on it I still see writing and uploading Kindle books as a good idea. What I was really struggling with was whether or not I should join the gold rush of selling other things via Amazon.

The answer to that choice comes down to two things. Firstly, am I right person to do this? In other words, am I someone who has been designed by God to do this? Secondly, do I have the financial resources to get the help that I need to get started and to be able to buy the necessary inventory?

I don’t think I can answer in the affirmative to the second question so I am taking this as a reason not to go forwards. There is a saying that you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose and from that perspective the paid course I have seen offered is too much of a risk.

There again I am not sure if I am the right person. I did try and join this gold rush in the early stages and it was a very competitive male orientated group I joined. I struggled with the competitiveness. Competitions lead to me shrinking back as I struggle to believe I have a chance of doing well. The last thing that they do is encourage me to go further faster. People with that kind of competitive streak will probably do well in a marketplace like Amazon. In the end I was so discouraged that I withdrew from that program and got my money back. Of course I picked up some of the ideas of how to make a start so I could possibly do something on my own if I had the boldness to do it.

The question is still what have I been designed by God to do? Does that include include making money by finding things to sell in the Amazon marketplace? I am still thinking and thinking hard. Although some would say if you have to think that long and hard then it is not really for you.

HEEEEEEEEEEEELP Father God what do I do?

Learning is enjoyable but education can be a problem

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I took advantage of getting a copy of Teach and Grow Rich when it was offered as a free Kindle book. It looks at the things that have been sold as online courses. The author compares what he calls the publishing model where learning materials are left online for people to access and the education model where in addition to learning materials there is interaction between the learners and the course providers.

What is education?

It set me thinking what do I think education involves? The first thing that came to mind was preparing learners for assessments that proved they were worthy of being awarded a certificate because they could do certain things. Those assessments could involve practical tests or questions answered under exam conditions or gathering a portfolio of evidence or proof that they had done certain things.

I suppose that comes from working as a teacher in colleges and community settings where the aim had to be getting a qualification. The organisations I worked for had to do this so they could prove they were good enough to be given money to subsidise the service they were offering people. The learners needed the proof that came from having a certificate that said they had gone through this process when they applied for jobs.

The whole process seemed to revolve around gathering proof. Proof that demonstrated the worth of the organisation providing the education and proof of the worth of the individual who had achieved that qualification.

All too often the focus was on getting the qualification aka proof rather than on what was being learnt and how. OK, it is hard to get a qualification without circumstances that promote good quality learning but this was not the goal. The goal was the qualification, that proved the learner’s ability.

Why is proof necessary?

The reason why people want proof depends on where they fit in the system.

Those subsidising courses want proof that they have got something for their money. They like a paper trail that shows them they have got something for their money.

Those looking for employees want proof of what interview candidates can do. They look for certificates and evidence of experience. Certificates are only part of what they are looking for and the importance of their role depends on the employer. Some like to see certificates. Others prefer to train people themselves.

There are people who want to do courses to prove what they can do to others. This can be a good thing but it can become a trap. In fact, it was a trap I fell into. I kept wanting to prove that I was capable of doing things so I did course after course after course after course. The problem was I was staying in education for the wrong reasons.

OK, education was a safe environment when I was struggling to survive in difficult circumstances. I suppose it is better to hide away in a college doing course after course after course than to use one of the many other coping mechanisms I could have used instead. It was easier weaning myself off education than it would have been drink or drugs even those prescribed by a doctor.

Education to me is all about gathering proof for a variety of reasons. Not all of them were good reasons.

The difference between learning and education

For me, learning is something quite different. It is the joy of expanding your abilities so that you can do things differently. No one is checking what you are doing or how you are doing it. This makes it a joyful experience because you are doing what is right for you rather than being controlled by other people.

Learning to me is working out how to do things differently. It means improving the way I do things so that I do them more efficiently or more effectively. It is the process of becoming a more capable human being.

Unlike education where the process is controlled by the outcome, learning to me involves working out how to do what you want to do better. It includes reading, watching videos, listening to speakers and any other means of sharing information. Gathering information is not the only thing that happens as the learner has to process the information and apply it to their own lives.

The pressure of education

There is no wonder that some people are turned off by the very word education. To them, it means control and being forced to do things you are not good at because other people say that you should do them.

Believe it or not, even those who are born teachers struggle with the education system. They cannot teach what they want to teach as the organisations that control the purse strings say we want you to teach this and not that.

Their main form of control is money, i.e. do this and we will pay you, do that and we won’t pay you. For example, if central government pays all or part of the cost of providing courses then they have some control over what courses are offered to learners.

In an effort to maintain high standards they set up systems whereby teachers gain qualifications and then over time make it necessary to gain ever higher qualifications. In other words, they educate people so that they become the type of teachers they want.

They also set up inspection systems to monitor the quality of the education provided. In other words, they set standards then use them to encourage other people to reach them. Of course, not everyone agrees with all the standards that they set.

Teachers, even those who teach those just starting school, do not always have a lot of control over what they teach. They have a syllabus or curriculum to follow. You do this in year 1 and that in year 2. You look at this topic rather than that one.

See why education to me means control. There are some who say that education is one of the processes involved in changing society. What is accepted as normal in school in one generation is accepted as normal in the whole of society in the next.

Dictators and others have used education as part of the process of social engineering. It does not have to go that far as employers want schools to provide them with the sort of employees they are looking for. In years gone by those learners might have been become canon fodder or the clerks needed to run an empire.

Back to the book that started me thinking

Their idea of education was increased interaction with the learners and the materials compared to the publishing model. To be honest that is a valid distinction. A lot of what has been described as online education is little more than watching a video which is really the equivalent of reading a textbook.

In the publishing model the materials are provided for the learner but after that, they are on their own. The lack of interaction with other learners, tutors or coaches limits their learning experience. If someone is willing to learn and able to learn on their own then learning takes place.

BTW what is learning. It is something that leads to a change in behaviour i.e. you learn something and your behaviour changes as a result. I think that is what most people are looking for. It is also what most people expect to happen as a result of education.

OK, learning does happen within the education system as we know it. However, it also happens outside it. We don’t have to depend on an education system that demands proof in the form of certificates and that is controlled by others for their own purposes.

We can take control of what we learn. We can choose what we read, what we listen to and what we watch. We can choose how we respond to those things. When we do that learning can become enjoyable and the issues of control linked to education disappear.

Sound different. Many of Lily’s Jottings are different. If you want to hear more about these things sign up to receive them on your own in box.

What not to do when organising an event?

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They were disappointed. virtually no one turned up at their event. The team, some of whom had come from overseas, outnumbered those who came to join them.

What happened?

Well it was not the quality of the event. It was brilliant. Those who did attend benefited greatly from it. The problem was that the attempts to get the word out about it had not worked as well as they could have done. The thing is that publicity is a lot harder than most people believe it is.

I am going to look at what I saw from the perspective of an attender at this event to see what can be learnt from this experience. These are the challenges I faced when I looked at the announcements.

I did not know the organisers

They had suddenly popped up on a Facebook page I read regularly saying they were doing something near me. I had no idea who they were and when I asked my friends they did not either. OK that is not that surprising as I don’t live on their doorstep. There was nothing I saw that would encourage me to trust them.

Of course there were people there who did know them and did trust them and came along. However, those were relationships built up over time. That is the problem. We expect people to see what we are doing and jump at the opportunity but people are not like that.

They are cautious they take their time getting to know people. That is why web sites, and social media communities even newsletters are so important. They give people the opportunity to look around and get a better handle on who you are and what to expect before going to an event.

OK you get the brave or just plain reckless people like me turning up, but thankfully there are not many people like me.

It was a challenge getting there

I am not a city person. I visit occasionally because I have to. Cities are busy and offer too many choices too quickly when you are driving.

I have not bothered setting up the navigation capabilities on my phone and boy did I regret on my first attempt to find them. I simply never got there! I drove round for about 5 hours to do a journey that should have taken an hour each way. Oops

I did look online and get some directions but I printed them on 2 sheets and then got them muddled and by the time I asked for help I was many miles away from where I needed to be. That city was a lot bigger than I thought that it was. OK I was able to have a good look around and saw of a lot of the city so gained a better impression of what it was like.

It was hard to work out what was going to happen at the event

I had never heard of the speakers. I did not know the reputation of the place where they had come from. OK the organisers did but they did nothing to help me by reminding people about this. This did not help develop the trust factor for me either.

The thing is once we know something and have it firmly stuck in our mind we think everyone else has. But they don’t There are always new people coming along like me who need to be told for the first time. There are also people who have been around for while who need to be reminded as well. It is so easy to take things like this for granted and then get into a muddle

It was hard to work out where to go to and when

There was a Facebook event page that listed the whole as a single event. Oops it was a single event but it was divided into a number of separate parts. It would have been so much easier if they had each been listed as separate events on one Facebook page.

Nearly two weeks of events were concentrated on one Facebook post. I could not just say I was going to one event it had to be all of them. That made it hard for them to judge the response to their publicity attempts.

Once I saw how good it was I went back to the Facebook page to see if there were more opportunities to attend an event. Oh there were dates and a place but no times. Oh no, now what do I do? OK leave a comment asked for clarification of course but that is something that only those who are really keen to know more will bother to do.

What could be done better?

You will already have gathered some ideas on what not to do but here are some more tips on improving the publicity for your event.

Work out who you want to attract to you event

For anyone involved in marketing this is really basic stuff but it is surprising how few people outside the marketing world understand this basic concept. The idea is to sit down and think about who you want to attract. Are they young or old? Male or female? Do they live in your city or some miles away? How much do they know or understand about what you have to offer already?

Some say that one way to do this is to sit down and visualise who they are. Others in the business world dress up dolls to remind them who their customers are and leave the doll where they can see them. It does not really matter how you do it but somehow you have to work out who these people are. Once you do that it you can move to the next step.

Think about the needs of who you are inviting

You can probably tell that although they were pleased to see me I arrived without my needs being met. So what were my needs.

I wanted to be sure that it was worth travelling many miles to join in. What would I gain from this event? How would it help me?

Of course you will always get people who have motives that you might not expect. One of mine was to get to know people in the wider community who might be interested in what I was doing and whom at a later date would be willing to work with me.

Once I had made that decision I needed to know details like when does the event start? What about things like food and drinks so that I can plan ahead and work out what to take with me if anything. What about car parking?

Work out how you are going to communicate with them

Once you know who you want to communicate to you can work out how you are going to do it. Are you going to use Facebook or twitter or another social media website? Are you going to use primarily images or primarily text?

What about where you share your message? Have you already joined relevant Facebook groups and participated in them so that people can get to know you better? Have you set up groups or pages to help you spread the word in good time? Have you got an email list or another list of contacts you can send things to? Have been putting some effort into doing the research needed to make the contacts you need to make your event a success?

It is so easy and yet it is so hard to get absolutely right

I have been around the block a few times in terms of publicising events and it is really hard to get right. I have had my fair share of failures as well.

Good publicity is like fine wine it takes time to mature. It does not just happen

Working towards Kingdom solutions

What on earth is the difference between a messenger and an envoy? An envoy is a messenger but the word is also used for a diplomat who ranks next below an ambassador. Diplomats are people sent to foreign parts to represent the interests of the government that sent them. A messenger is someone who just communicates a message and runs errands.

We all know about unreliable people. You know, the the ones who have proved themselves to be like shifting sand. When you have reached out to them for support they have moved and you have struggled as a result. They move, they shift and simply cannot be trusted.

An example of this principle in action

The idea of falling into rouble is an interesting phrase and maybe it is better explained with an example. Suppose someone was asked to pass a message onto to you but they did not really understand the situation that they were supposed to tell you about.

They tell you part of the message but leave out some important details. You ask them about those details but they cannot answer your questions because they do not understand the situation very well. You then decide not to act on the message until you have found the answers that you need. Despite your best efforts you cannot find the answers to your questions until it is too late to act on the message.

This example is based on a real story. In that situation the person carrying the message got into trouble but so did I. I got into trouble for not trusting the person who sent the message and ignoring the way that it was delivered to me.

What a difference it would have made in that situation to have had a message that was accurate and true (that is what faithful means in this situation). What a difference it would have made if there had been an envoy who knew and understood the situation well enough to have truly represented the interests of the person sending the message.

How does this principle work in the online world?

Many centuries ago there was a wise man called Daniel who said that there would come a time when there would be so much information available that the result would be that people ended up totally confused. They would go here and there, backwards and forwards looking for a truthful message that would bring healing.

Strange thing is, that today that seems to be happening. Want to know how to change the battery on your car look on YouTube. Well, that is how I found out how to do it. Want to know more about the medical condition the doctor suggests that you have. There will be all sorts of information about it online.

How does this apply to what you eat?

Just look at the advice online about what you should eat.

Some people say that gluten is public enemy number one. Others say we should never eat any grains so no wheat, no barley no oats no rice or anything made from those things including bread, pasta, porridge and most baked goods.
Others say that sugar is public enemy number one. For them, it is not just sweets, chocolates, cake and desserts that you should avoid at all costs but you also need to cut other things out of your diet like carrots, peas, sweetcorn, parsnips and fruit. They also suggest that you should not eat any processed food as this often contains hidden sugars.
There are also advocates for the plant strong diet where you do not eat any animal products at all.

To be honest, if you excluded all that things that someone online advises you not to eat there would be nothing left to eat, well maybe a lettuce leaf or two.

There are three groups of people who are involved in this situation.

People whose health has improved because they have followed a particular diet.
People who have health problems who are willing to try changing their diet in an attempt to improve their health. They want to learn from those who have found a solution to that problem
People who are encouraging others to set up coaching businesses or write books or set up online courses to share the solutions that they have found.

Now of course not everyone involved in this has motives that are untainted by the lure of making money from this kind of activity. Some are more about helping others solve their problems while others are more about solving their own money related problems.

It is not just the arena of diet and eating where you find these three groups of people. It is just about every area of life. There are people selling information on parenting, dating, married life, divorce recovery, dating again in later life i.e. just about every stage of life. There are people who prepare and sell knitting patterns, model railway designs, or guides and instructions for just about every hobby you can think of off. Then there are guides and helps for business owners and prospective business owners not forgetting people selling tools and products that explain various tactics and strategies to businesses.

The online world and ancient wisdom

Daniel did not have clue about the online world. Even the idea of having electrical devices in the home was beyond his comprehension. Yet 25 centuries ago he suggested a time would come when people would be looking for answers and not be able to find an answer based on ancient wisdom.

Few days now pass without me hearing of yet another person who is encouraging other people to get online and share their message. With all those people encouraging others to get on and share their solution to a problem you can see why there are so many different solutions to the same problem.

How do you know what is the right solution for you? In other words, how do you know who is the reliable messenger? The problem is that it seems an unequal struggle.

All the solution providers have their own stories and stories from satisfied customers. They spend time learning persuasion and visibility techniques so that they can attract people to what they offer. They are taught ways of overcoming objections that people might have to using their methods of solving their problems. They learn strategies and tactics to get people over to their way of doing things.

See what I mean by it being a struggle to know what is the right answer for you. It is also why so many people try many different possible solutions until they find the right one for them. Those offering things are so clever and have such well-developed persuasion tactics that some of the less well-prepared seekers are little more than victims for them.

What should the response of those in the Kingdom be to this situation?

There is one an old saying that applies here i.e. if you cannot beat them join them. One reason why it is so hard for people to find Kingdom solutions is that there are so few people out there who offer them. The few that there are are so well hidden that they are hard to find. Seriously there are cook books and eating plans that are based on ancient wisdom.

This is one that I discovered a while ago (yes I have included a referral link to Amazon UK with this link). It is not always easy to spot them. In some ways that is a good thing as they then go under the radar and are not instantly rejected because they are associated with ancient wisdom.

Included in the dream of Lily’s Place is helping people tap into the riches of ancient wisdom and finding ways of sharing what they have learnt from it. The idea is to help themselves and then prepare them to help others. Some people could do this in such a way that they would provide an income for themselves and their families. Not everyone would be helping people who could pay for the help that they received. They would need to be supported by those that could generate an income so that all those who needed that kind of help could receive it.

There are loads of ideas on how to do this stored up in my head. Even some tools and helps crammed into an overburdened hard drive. It is just waiting to be set free and fly and grow into the system that the king originally wanted it to be. Want to join me on the journey? Get involved in our community. Check out the discussion forums and get on our mailing list so that we can stay in touch.

Where does the money come from to start a project?

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Money at times it can be one of the most frustrating things that we deal with. We want to do good works but they cost money. There are premises and facilities to pay for where we buy them or rent them. There are the tools that we need such as computers, toys and activities that suit the age group(s) we are working with, refreshments not forgetting books and other learning materials that help us improve our ability to serve others.

Where can the money come from? There are not that many places when you really think about it.

We can accept donations.
We can encourage people to buy things from us.
We can charge membership or subscription fees.
We can look for grants.
We can borrow money.
We can swap something else of value for money e.g. offer a voucher or future discounts in return for cash using a crowdfunding website.
We can bid for contracts that other people who have a need put out to tender.

If you can think of anything else I would love to know. You can tell me on the conversations page. There again I would be surprised if you were able to do this.

Each one of these things takes effort. Think of all the time spent asking people to donate to their cause with adverts, phone calls, standing around with collecting tins. It also takes effort to find things to sell and then to actually sell them.

Memberships and subscriptions fees are probably the easiest, once you have attracted people to your group. There is work to do attracting people to the group so that it grows even if some people leave.

Grants are not easy to find and then it takes a lot of work making applications that can beat the competition.

Borrowing money is not easy. You still need a plan that persuades the lender that there is not much of a risk lending you the money. Even then you need the gift of the gab to get through the interview. Then, of course, you have to find a way of repaying the loan.

Crowdfunding is not new it is just a new way of doing an old thing. Believe it or not, it is not that different from the adverts speculators used to put in newspapers in Victorian times. It is just using today’s’ digital technology to do what is in effect the same thing.

The one thing they all have in common is the need to persuade other people to part with money. You have to put together a good argument for them to give you money.

Contracts are not easy either. You have to be able to jump through all the hoops set by the organisation that is looking for people to do the work for them. You need to prove to them that you have all the systems in place to run an effective and efficient service before you can even think about telling them how much you will charge them for running that service.

Where has all the money gone?

Problem is that in recent years it has seemed as though there is less money that it is possible to persuade people to send your direction. There are so many more demands are being made on the money available. It could be someone in a job whose income is staying the same while the price of food and energy is going up and up. It could be a trust fund that has less money that it can give away in grants as it gives away the money it earns in interest and the interest rate is so low the funds they have to give away have dwindled to virtually nothing in comparison to what they used to be when the interest rate was higher.

There are ways around this but the top and bottom of it is that it is the survival of the fittest. Those who have the best run business or project will survive. Well, they will if they have the strong marketing, awareness raising or persuasion skills that will persuade other people to give them money.

It is possible to raise the money needed to run a project, but only with the right team with the right set of skills. It is possible if you can prove that you are able to use that money to reach the aims of the people who you want to give it to you.

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Create jobs to improve donations

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The training centre was getting a bit ragged around the edges. The boiler was getting old and was struggling to heat the entire building. The building itself was a huge old house that was once kept warm by having many open fires that were tended to by servants who carried buckets of coal all over the house. No paid servants now, just volunteers. Anyway, how could you have an open fire in a room used by guests who had no experience of tending such a fire? That was why they had started depending on the central heating that was run by the old boiler.

They knew God would provide. He always had but as the economic climate worsened the pipelines he used to supply them had become narrower or even totally blocked. Some supporters had had severe drops in income so had less to spare. All had experienced increased living costs with the price of eating and keeping warm going up and up and up. So they had less to give.

What’s worse was that people’s needs had gone up. More food banks had been set up to feed those who were struggling to feed themselves. Often people who had lost what money they had were left struggling to cope with their new reality. Many charities were struggling to meet the needs of their clients as their costs had gone up and donations had gone down. With some failing and others merging to try and keep costs to a minimum.

What now?

God has always given his people strategies to use to help them cope with whatever was going on around them. It seems as though He needs to find ways of setting up some new pipelines to direct finances to the places where He wants them to go.

The strange thing is that God has set various mechanisms in place to circulate money. He has over the centuries taught some of his people how to use those mechanisms. Trading goods and services is just one of those basic mechanisms. Growing crops and producing products that people need to make their lives comfortable are all mechanisms that God has put in place. Of course, in addition to circulating money, they also make sure the needs of people are met.

Listen to some people and you would think that capitalism is the enemy. If it was the enemy why was Jesus so involved in the business world as a young man. If business was the enemy why does the Bible contain so much good advice for those conducting business? Strange thing is that look at the principles and ideas for good practice taught to business people and you discover many of them are very closely related to biblical principles.

A cynic like me would say well of course public opinion led by the press is going to be against business if it is something that God approves of and wants to see more of. After all they seem to be against so many of the other things that the church things are right and proper in society so why not this. In other words because the world seems to be turning against it could actually be proof that God is for it and wants to use it to improve people’s lives.

Creating new supply lines

If capitalism is a mechanism that God has used in the past to supply his people what are they doing today to use that mechanism. What are they doing to set up new supply lines? Have they even thought about doing this? Do they have an idea what is involved in creating new supply lines? Do they even have any idea how to use this mechanism?

Yes they know how to ask for donations and chase after grants but have they even thought about developing a business and getting involved in trading. Or even thought about the idea that if they helped people to learn to make more money then they would have more money to give. They get the idea about helping people find a job but where are the jobs going to come from? How about encouraging those who are able to set up a business that could provide jobs? It somehow just does not seem to have dawned on people how that kind of encouragement could help both those looking for donations and those looking for jobs.