start Archives - God's Lily Training

Where do I start?

I had some work to do on the computer and I needed a soundtrack. I had read a blog post and they had included a download. When I tried downloading it I wanted to put it with some others from the same person. It took a bit of hunting but I found a whole host of other ones from that same person. There was plenty there to use for a soundtrack.

There was one set of sound files that stood out to me as good ones to use as a soundtrack. I started listening to them but whoa what is all that about. They were talking about the redemptive gifts seen in Romans. I have never gone through the material from that speaker on how to work out what is your gift. I have watched a few videos by this speaker on YouTube and these gave me a few clues.

I was not sure what these sound files were about from the title. It was soon obvious that they were about finding ideas about how to pray for your community and make it into all God wants it to be. Strange though they were talking about the good and bad points about these gifts.

This time there was little doubt which category I fell into. All the bad points about communities that fell into a certain category applied to me. As they were talking about how to improve communities it made sense to talk about the things that needed to be improved.

I listened to some and they sort of made sense for other people or even some places. Then there was one and it hit home and hit hard. All the negative descriptions used for places described issues that I knew I had but I did not really appreciate the reason why.

It is the way we see things that is important

The reason I could see them so clearly was that the work I was doing on the computer while I was listening was stuff that really demonstrated those negative descriptions. I could see the facts on the screen in front of me.

They were things that I had sort of noticed before. Yet somehow they seemed to be normal for me. The thing was here was someone calling them what they were negative things that needed to be overcome. They were things that I had tolerated. They were things that were just part of me, not things that needed to be challenged and overcome.

It was strange. It was as if I suddenly realised the true situation. These were not little things that could or should be tolerated these were things that I really needed to deal with so that I could do what God wanted me to do. Ouch.

In a sense, we all do this. We say well that might be something to think about later. It is not really that importunate in the greater scheme of things, is it? We go into denial and don’t take any responsibility for making things better.

This time though it was not me saying you should really do this rather than that and hearing the denial coming back Well it might be important to you but I like things as they are and I am not going to change.

Wake up then shake up

There are times when God needs to wake up His people and show them things that they had sort of overlooked. He can do this in strange ways sometimes. This is when we need to be willing to work with Him.

He has a habit of trying various ways and various people to get through to folks and guess what, we switch our hearing aid off. He is trying but we just sort of stop listening. We don’t want to listen because when we listen out for something like this it means we have to do something to improve the situation. If we don’t bother listening then we won’t know what to do differently and that is so much easier.

It can shake us up sometimes just how much of an issue He thinks something is. Yes, it is important. It so important that I need you to deal with this in order for you do do what you want me to do. Oh No, do I really have to.

Ask then receive

There was something I was struggling with and I had been asking what I should do about it. I suppose you could say that listening to those sound files was the start of an answer to prayer. The challenge is now what do I do next?

The issue is really can I do the right thing calmly without overreacting and going too far the other way. That is the challenge that lies before me. I have some praying and thinking to do about this yet.

Ditching tradition?

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I was given a reading assignment for a small group study and it really made me stop and think. I was left with a major question.

If Jesus pursued purity (aka righteousness) as given in the Old Testament and we are supposed to be like Him why do we do all that we do in our churches and in our lives?

One of the things that sparked this question was another talk I heard about Christians who had adopted a lifestyle that was based on Old Testament teaching. Another thing that sparked it was a discussion with a friend about how do we know what are good traditions worth following and which could be ditched.

Then I remembered that not all of those traditional teachings are based on accurate interpretations. I had been taught that if someone asks you to do something you must always aim to do more than asked. This was based on what Jesus said about if a Roman soldier asked you to carry his pack for a mile then you should carry it for two miles.

The original hearers would have understood something quite different from the way it is taught in many churches. They would have known that by doing that they would be causing a great problem for the soldier because by doing that the soldier risked being disciplined for taking advantage of them. There was a real sting in the tail for the Roman if you did that. The idea was not to be overly submissive and hurt yourself but to do something to upset them in the guide of doing something helpful.

Why have we been taught these traditions?

One reason is that teachers and others in authority have always done a bit of social engineering on the side. In other words, they have directed people in the way they wanted them to do and that would suit their purposes.

This was much easier in the early days of Christianity when not everyone could read. They only knew what the teachers and leaders told them. The biggest and most impactful era of changing idea was shortly after technological developments (i.e. printing) made books and pamphlets more accessible. It was not just literacy that was the issue but being able to get hold of books (including the Bible) in a language that they could read. Technology opened the door and church history changed forever as ideas spread.

Today we are coping with the impact of further technological developments. Things like vinyl records then tape cassettes then CD or DVDs then MP3s, or videos downloadable from the internet. On top of that it is so much easier to publish a paperback book than it once was then there is the whole advent of ebooks and ebook readers. You can livestream a conference so people who are thousands of miles away can still hear what the speakers say as they say it.

There are so many ways of sharing a message and so much encouragement to do it that some talk of a new dark age. This time it is a dark age because it is so easy to be blinded by the amount of information available.

How do we respond?

Well, one way is to chase after God asking Him to share what is the truth and whole truth and nothing but the truth from His perspective? We need to pray and build up a good relationship and trust that we can hear him accurately. The clearer and better the channel (i.e. the fewer of our own preconceived ideas get in the way) the better chance we have of getting it right.

There are times when it is right to ditch everything we have learnt and start from the beginning again.I have seen church leaders totally exasperated because the older members were so resoundingly taught something by one of their predecessors that they struggled to let loose of the idea. Years, possibly even decades later, that old teaching was still influencing the church. Mercifully in the example that stands out to me, it was more about the appearance of the church so in the greater scheme of things it was not as important as many other topics.

BTW just because we ditch tradition does not mean that we don’t respect the teaching of others. They are the ones who helped us reach the point where we are today. They laid the foundations of our understanding. However, there is something called the present truth. This is when people recognise a difference between the old truth and the present truth. Things have moved on. Interpretations have changed. New understandings of the same passages have arisen.

How I see church history?

I did some courses in church history courses a few years ago. It was not possible to do the full sweep of events as the only courses available covered early church history, the reformation and the modern era including the Victorian church. I was struggling to make sense of these three chunks so I asked God to help me work it out.

Shortly afterwards an understanding was downloaded into my brain that was quite different from anything that I had read. The basic idea was that the church started strong with all sorts of ideas. Then bit by bit these ideas were lost. Something happened and the idea seemed too hard to continue using so it was dropped.

This kept happening again and again until the church was little more than a shadow of what it started out as. Then came the reformation which was the turning point. After this turning point, the old ideas were added back to the church bit by bit by bit. You could almost draw it as a graph.

The interesting thing to me is that many people are concerned about the end of Christendom and recognise the need to adjust the outreach of the church to this new situation. By this they mean the end of Christianity being the state religion in large parts of Europe. The beginning of the rule of Christianity in the Roman world is usually given as the time when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. This was one of the things that happened early in church history. So the end of Christendom is taking the church back to the same situation as it found itself early in the first 3 or 4 centuries of its existence.

This view of church history also fits into the idea of looking at our Jewish roots. Especially when we remember that the things that were lost to the church are being restored and one of the things that we have lost are our Jewish roots.

In another sense, the exciting, or maybe daunting, aspect of this is that things are being restored more or less in the order of which they were lost. This means that the nearer we get to restoring the things that were lost at the beginning, the closer we are coming to the end of the world.

BTW in case, you think that this is some kind of unique perspective a few days after I had that download I heard a speaker at a conference repeat the same view of church history. They had got it from a book written by someone who led a prophetic church and again had had a download. Every so often I hear the same idea come up again as it makes sense to so many people.

Now what?

We need to do some careful investigation into the background of many of our understandings of what we do in church and as individuals. This could mean celebrating the Jewish feasts e.g. Hanukkah rather than Christmas and Passover rather than Easter. It could mean showing more respect to the Jewish dietary laws.

It could mean that examining all these issues and many more besides could bring the purity that gives the church strength. A strength that enables it to fulfil its calling and makes it into something that the Jews are jealous of.

The first step is to say Lord shine your light on me and the fellowship of Christians I belong to and show us what is there that does not please you. Show us what to do to move to a situation where we are purer and stronger. Help us become more like what you want us to be like.

The second step is to make the choice to make the changes. Remember we have the free will to do so or not and as I keep saying God respects our free will. If we are willing to do things with Him He is willing to help us do them.

A question we need to answer

The question we need to answer is “What did Jesus do that we aren’t and should be repenting of not doing?” If ever there was a question that would make most Christians go ouch it is this. After all how many of us have walked on water, raised the dead, fed 5000 people from one packed lunch or healed the sick. If that was too much then there was the simpler stuff like running the family business, discussing theology with experts and praying all night.

We are different surely

True but maybe not as different as you might think. All the things I listed above were done while Jesus was living as a man. He did not have any special privileges at this stage. This was the time when He was living as an example to us. He was showing us how to live.

Yes in the eternal scheme of things He was very different. He started differently with that complicated idea of having two fathers and a mother who married after she became pregnant. Put it like that there are people like that today. The only thing was that one Father was God and that there was no fornication involved.

I suppose He was different to many of us because He had a head start. He lived in an environment where he could develop spiritually from a young age. The Bible talks of his parents following religious practices on his behalf when he was a few days old. He lived, worked and breathed in an environment where he could grow spiritually.

My parents were good people (and still were are) when I was growing up but I did not quite have Jesus’s advantages early in life. Hold on a moment, I don’t suppose all the disciples did either. Yet we see them “doing the stuff” as well. Oops, bang goes that excuse.

Jesus was special but so are we

Once He had spent three years teaching us how to live He did do something special. Something that did give Him special rights and privileges in heaven. Something that gives us special rights and privileges to be like he used to be on earth.

Without the whole betrayal, trial, crucifixion and resurrection process we would not be able to become children of God. It is that which makes it possible to become adopted into God’s family and become co-heirs with Christ.

Of course, it has to be our choice. If we do choose to be adopted into God’s family on earth then surely we have the same relationship Jesus had to God while He was teaching and preaching. Umm, that rather demolishes the excuse of Jesus having a special relationship with God as Father to so special things. We have exactly the same special relationship.

So what are our real excuses

We humans are really good at coming up with reasons why we should not do things. Remember those teachers who did not accept our reasons for not doing homework saying that they were only excuses. Calling them excuses meant that they did not accept our reasoning for why we did not do our homework. Do any of the following things sound familiar?

Excuse one – not in my church

No one told me I could or should be doing this. After all, this does not happen in my church. Anyway, the church today is very different to what it was like shortly after Jesus left them to their own devices. There is the liturgy and the hymns and the bells. We have things much more structured and organised than they did.

Given the way the religious leaders responded to Jesus do you think that this happened when Jesus got together with other God-followers in the synagogues? He went out and “did the stuff” while in the great outdoors. He saw people in need while He was walking from place to place and worked wonders to change their lives. He went to places where people in need might gather such as the Pool of Siloam and helped those His Father told him to help in the way that He was told to help them.

These things did not just happen in the religious community centres like churches they happened outside that building. This could be the home or the workplace even on the streets. How does this compare to what we do? Personally, I say ouch and double ouch!

Excuse two – I don’t know how

There is no one to help me learn. How did Jesus learn? Doing the stuff after spending time in prayer. There are two challenges in that. How many of us spend as much time praying as Jesus did? How many of us build such a relationship with God to the point that He can tell us what to do and how to do it? There again how many of us have the personal courage to step out and to that things how God wants us to do them?

We actually have an advantage that Jesus the man did not have. We have a book we can read to find out what He did and how He did it. There are stories of people who read the Bible and then just go and do what Jesus did. People who have not picked up the excuse (or limiting belief) that they cannot do things because they are not like Jesus.

Excuse three – We are not good enough

Some of us see so many of our imperfections that we wonder what on earth God could do with our help. What is worse we behave like Adam. We move away from God because we are ashamed of who we see ourselves to be. But what did God do with Adam? He wanted to be close to him so He made a way for Adam to be covered. It took God shedding the blood of an animal so Adam was able to cover himself with its skin. If ever there was a picture of God covering our sin with blood and making us look good in his eyes by providing us with something to wear this is it.

There are times when like with Adam and Eve that our eyes are opened to what we could or should be. If we respond like Adam and Eve and shy away then how can God help us? He already knew our imperfections so it was not news to Him. Nothing has changed from His perspective.

It has from our perspective because we know what we need help with. It is our choice whether or not we receive the help we need. If we stand still and ask for help then we will get the help we need. That means that we need to trust that God is willing to help us.

He will help us as long as we are willing to work with Him. The proof that we are willing to let him comes in our repentance. In other words, we have to show that we really are willing to change. We can only change if we acknowledge what we need to change from i.e. admit how far we have fallen from His expectations. We need to take responsibility for what we have not done and then choose to do what we have not done. Once there is proof of repentance then He can restore us.

Back to the initial question i.e. What did Jesus do we are not and that we should be repenting of?

Let’s be real here Jesus walked around parts of Israel preaching and teaching. I don’t know about you but I have never been to Israel. Apart from a few holidays why whole life has been spent in the UK. That is not a problem I am one who has gone into all the world rather than staying in Israel.

I don’t go around preaching and teaching. I sit and write down the ideas I believe God has given me to share. There are things that I find easier than others and I use my gifts for God. Well, it would be a bit difficult for Jesus to sit here and type because there were no such things as computers while he was on the earth.

That is no problem either as long as I am in the right place and doing the right things according to God’s expectations of me. I am given instructions to carry out and I need to follow them. I am presented with opportunities to do things for Him and I need to take advantage of them.

Yet despite trying to do all that I still cannot get rid of that nagging feeling that there is something more. I suppose that is what Jesus meant when He said that the hungry will be fed. It is definitely what the writer of Proverbs meant when he said that it is those who have an appetite for more who will do what it takes to satisfy that appetite.

I don’t know what more looks like for you. I do have some ideas what it looks like for me. I also know that we need to be chasing after what God wants us to have. The only way we can do this is through prayer. We need His ideas for what we should be doing when we should be doing them, how we should be doing them etc.

What next?

Once you know what the target is you can work out how close you are to it. Then comes repentance and then a fresh start aiming for the target God wants you to reach. A fresh start where you learn from the mistakes of the past and follow God’s instructions more closely.

And me? I am a work in progress. I know the importance of chasing after God. Despite everything I have learnt and have done I am still hungry for more. That encourages me to chase after God and aim to be the best God-follower that I can be.

It starts with prayer

The number of times I have had an idea and then said God is this a good idea and then not brought that idea to completion has to be seen to be believed. I am a chronic start and non-finisher.

It takes discipline and organisation to start and keep going. That comes from having a plan. A plan is only possible when you know what the outcome is going to be. The issue is then how do you work out where you are going so that you can plan a route to that destination. A plan is really a way of working out how you move from one situation to another and you can only do that if you know where you are and where you are going.

The approach I have taken is to try and determine what is a godly revelation which is not and then work towards bringing the godly ones to reality. It is a question of brining to earth the things that God has foreordained and pre-planned down to earth.

Planning in heaven

The impression the Bible gives is that before the world was created a plan was put into place. An overall plan was broken down into plans for nations, businesses, regions, churches communities and of course individuals. Plans that are there waiting for us to follow.

Problem is that we humans need to find out what these plans are is we are going to work with them. We cannot do that if we are jabbering on praying for help and leaving God the opportunity to get a word in edgewise to tell us what to do. We need to open two way channels. Prayer, journalling, prophecy and worship all have something to contribute to opening and maintaining that two way channel.

The idea is that the receiving part of our channel is tuned into the plans that are already in place in heaven. It does not matter whether you think of those plans being written in scrolls as they would have been in bible days or as 3d computer generated models embedded in a video presentation. God is good at translating ideas and information into a language or format we can absorb.

Think about it. How many languages does he need to speak to communicate with everyone on earth? If He can speak to me in English rather than Swahili so I can understand Him He will speak to me in pictures if that makes it easier for me to understand.

How I have tried to do this?

I was trying to think how come I managed to open this two way channel. You see not everyone has. The only thing I could think of was that I started asking for advice and guidance.

What was that idea about knock and the door will open, seek and you will find and ask and it will be given to you. that is what I did. Starting with asking where I should go to do a degree and being guided to a specific place.

Once the door has been opened once and left ajar you (and others) can see the light behind it. That is what happened to me. Sometime later someone saw that light. They said God had a purpose for me but could not see enough to tell me what it was. I had to go away and pray to see what was behind that door.

As time went on I got into the habit of asking questions. What do you want me to do? How do I do that? The more questions I was asking the more answers I was given. Questions and answers like that are only possible in relationships. It is only those who are willing and able to learn that truly seek out the answers to their questions.

The more answers I received the easier to became to hear. It is a matter of practice. The strange thing is this developing trust or should I say opening that door wider is under my control. I can close it anytime I want. I can stop it opening wider if I fear that I am doing the wrong thing or not hearing accurately. I can say God I trust this person to share with me what is on your heart and so receive prophetic words.

How will you do it?

The first thing to remember is if you do not ask questions you will not get any answers. It helps to ask the right questions. It also helps to ask questions for the right reasons.

There are many people who ask the question how will I be able to earn enough money to support my family? That does not sound a bad question but is it as good as it sounds. Maybe a better question would be how do I serve you God i.e. be your hands and feet doing the things you want to happen in the world so that you can fulfil your promise of taking care of those who do what you want them to do.

In some situations that might be a subtle shift in emphasis. In others, it could be a dramatic change in approach. Whatever it is the focus shifts from you getting your needs met to working with God to get His needs met.

BTW just because you are serving Him does not mean that you have to go to Outer Mongolia or some such place. You might serve Him by sweeping the streets or by setting up a business or working in the local hospital or the city centre night club. You might end up a millionaire if that suits God’s purposes but if not He will always see that your needs are met.

See what I mean by the importance of asking the right questions for the right reasons. However, don’t let that put you off. You need to get started asking questions. Remember the story about the car that needed to be moved. People started pushing it but once it was moving it was so much easier to steer. In other words just get started and you can do the fine tuning as you go.

My question is what is going to be your first question?

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?

Surviving a dose of polishing

So much for good intentions. I did have a journal entry nearly written up for yesterday. The problem was that given my other commitments it had to be done by 9 am. I got a long way there by 9 am but it was not published. OK that is no problem I will do it when I get back. I will be in by 4 pm and there will be plenty of time to get it done.

Polishing is tough

Oops, I get in and the last thing I feel like doing is writing. I had faced a barrage of polishing on another piece of text that I had prepared to take out with me. Barrage? Well, when you polish items that you use to make jewellery they are often tumble polished. To do this they are put in a container and then small pieces of metal or grit are added before the container is put back in the tumble polisher. The tumble polisher then lives up to its name it turns the container so the contents tumble over and over for as long as the device is switched on. With some items it could be minutes with others it could be hours or even days. During that time the items that are being polished are hit again and again by the other bits in the container.

The thing about writing for someone else is that it has to be exactly the way they want it not how you want it. They changed the style and sometimes even the grammar to suit them. They wanted it to reach certain standards in terms of political correctness. Apparently, ways of describing situations that were once commonplace are now seen as unacceptable to the younger generation so the rest of us have to adapt to their expectations. The dictionary came out to check the meaning of one or two words to make absolutely sure that the text was accurate. One or two things I might have changed if I had given myself enough time to polish it but there seemed to be something that was changed in every sentence.

See what I mean by barrage. I was pleased that I had managed to keep my patience and not snap back and saying do it yourself. Its hard submitting to other people’s standards when you don’t have much evidence of them being a writer or having any formal qualifications in English that are equivalent or higher than those you have done. The only thing they do is read loads of fiction. Yes, that yucky stuff that wastes time and energy by writers like the Bronte sisters.

OK, you can tell I cannot abide fiction writing. It is escapism, amusement and entertainment that takes you away from the reality of life. So instead of learning how to deal with issues you run away and hide in another world. Fiction and amusement is used to help people cope with life by taking their mind off their problems because they cannot find a way to overcome their problems. Most of it is little more than a coping mechanism that fills their time and mind with nonsense. Maybe that is why I am not a fan of TV, films or theatrical productions.

What happened when later came?

Understandably given that I had come to the polishing stage of yesterday’s journal entry I just could not face finishing it. There were loads of other things on my jobs to do list demanded attention. First thing was the website that needed polishing.

This time the frustration was trying to access it. A spelling mistake made 3 or 4 months ago had caught up with me. It was one that was quite hard to spot. I had to magnify the webpage I had entered the details on to actually see it.

Once I had corrected the details the automatic system set up to restore access to the website would not work. I had tried asking for help and had no answer for 12 hours, which is quite unusual for the hosting company I use. Eventually, they sorted the issue out manually and after a short wait, I was able to access the site and get that polished.

Why didn’t the automatic system work? I suspect it was because my internet access does not have enough oomph to do some things. There is nothing I can do about that. There is supposed to be an upgraded service here but so many people wanted this service that they cannot take on any more customers. They are supposed to be making it so that they can take on more customers but currently there is no date for this to be completed.

In conclusion

I was trying hard yesterday but things just did not go to plan. What will happen to that nearly completed journal entry? Well I have an early start later in the week and having something that I can just finish off rather than having to start from scratch will make life somewhat easier.

The thing is that for all this talk of purity and improvement there is some way to go. I am struggling and trying like everyone else.

Does our experience shape our theology or should our theology shape our experience?

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I have heard people on both sides of this argument say the other approach is wrong. The issue becomes what shapes our expectations. We will only see what we expect to see. What we expect will colour our expectations of what we take in via our senses. I will explain what I mean by using one of the less contentious discussions that have arisen as a result.

What do we mean by a carpenter?

A strange question. We are told that Jesus was brought up by a carpenter so it is a question that links in with his early life experience.

One obvious answer is that a carpenter is someone who makes something out of wood. What things? Furniture, windows and door frames for houses, decorative woodwork in a house of worship. Those are not the only things made of wood that a carpenter might create but it gives a flavour of the possibilities.

The Greek word tekton is often translated as carpenter. Some say it could be translated as builder, as a tekton also worked in stone. Some describe such a person as an artisan others as a craftsman. So although he may well have made his own furniture the main way that money came to Joseph as that he used his skills on building projects.

What did Joseph help build?

I have heard it suggested that Joseph did some work on the temple in Jerusalem. For the pious Jew, this would be the job of all jobs. There again it would really depend on who wanted building work done and was willing to pay people to do it.

If Joseph had done some work on the temple was Jesus was old enough to go with him as an apprentice? Strange thought, did Jesus actually help build the temple and spend time there early in life? If he did would he have got to know the religious leaders? Was this why as a twelve year old he was so at home talking to these religious leaders?

We don’t know the answers to these questions but we can make some educated guesses. We do this by looking at the biblical account plus non-biblical evidence plus our experience of life.

Did Joseph the carpenter run his own business?

I am not sure that there is any conclusive evidence either way. What I have noticed is that people with jobs tend to see him has having a job. On the other hand, those who have businesses see Joseph as a small businessman.

It is that expectation thing again. If you live in a society where there are lots of small independent family run businesses then that is what you would expect. If your experience is that most people with these kinds of skills work for other people then that is what you would expect.

How do we deal with this situation?

You could say that it is a good thing that we don’t know for sure. If we were told for certain Joseph was a small businessman then those with jobs would feel less attached to the biblical account. If we were told for certain that Joseph had a job and was employed by others then those with a small business would feel less attached to the story.

The sad thing is that it is too easy to argue over something that in fact we do not really have the evidence to say what was the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Does it really matter?

Whatever your interpretation you need to use it wisely? If you see Joseph as a self-employed craftsman then you can use it to encourage more people to start their own business. What you cannot do is to blast people for having a job rather than building up their own business. If you see Joseph as someone employed by others then you cannot use it to blast those who have a calling to set up a business.

The problem comes when the way we interpret things according to ungodly experience. In the example, I have used it would be an extreme position to take if someone said that either running a small business or a having a job was unbiblical.

Interpretation or excuses?

There are other situations where how we interpret things leads us to finding excuses to do things that are unbiblical. Then there are situations where people so blast those who find excuses that those who really should do something dare not do it.

For example, some people who give up on marriage and get a divorce rather than look for help. Then there are other people who are in seriously abusive marriages who say divorce is wrong. They say that marriage is until death shall part and end up staying in that marriage until they are murdered. They kept their marriage vows but lost their life. For them, the idea that divorce is wrong is an excuse to stay in a situation where they could be harmed.

There are people who moan about those who have an experience that they don’t really understand and then say that their experience can be explained from the Bible. Those who have had the experience are accused of interpreting the Bible in a certain way to show that their experience is acceptable.

It is tough knowing just how much impact our interpretation has for good or ill. I suspect the majority of people would override the idea that divorce is wrong if the alternative was the death of one of the partners.

Does iron sharpen iron?

It is strange how the comments that others make force you to examine the way that you do things. They help you see your situation from another perspective. You then moderate your approach and do things that answer their criticisms.

Oh crumbs do you realise what I have just done. I have all but come full circle. Our experience of being criticised can change what we think and what we do. I think that is what it is supposed to be like as this leads to constant improvement.

This is a concentration of this idea. Don’t forget to look at our other posts to find other posts on a similar theme.

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

About Kingdom solutions

Kingdom solutions are solutions based on ancient wisdom. Writings that encourage people to look to the King of Kings for advice about everything and everything. In fact, it is hard to find any topic, even things that were unheard of when they were written, that you cannot find some kind of good idea about how to make the situation better.

The beauty of this advice is that it is tried and tested. I found where it said it was only stupid people who hired a servant and then struggled to feed themselves. Well, I don’t know many people who employ people as servants these days but I do know people who employ machines as servants. Some of them spend so much on these machines whether they are electronic gadgets or cars that they struggle to buy the things that they really need like food. Crumbs there have been times when I have been guilty of doing something very similar myself.

An example of a Kingdom solution

I was looking around for some ideas what to plant in a new garden and I got lost looking at ideas related to growing food. Ok, I was thinking ahead about the book I started on sowing a business as well so I had something of an excuse. While I was wandering around I came across a website called Foundations for Farming. The more I looked at it the more I realised that this was a kingdom solution.

It was not just the personal story of the founder that demonstrates this, but the way that he discovered this system of farming. On top of that, this system has been used to help many struggling people. In fact, it is a system that has helped a lot of people out of the captivity of poverty.

This method of farming is an adaptation of what happens in creation itself. Rather than man imposing his order on creation and doing things his way. It aims to copy the natural processes. Rather than learning from a textbook or teachers in a college, the classroom is creation itself.

Rather than ploughing the land and then sowing seed. The idea is to leave what they call God’s blanket in place and plant seeds by using an artificial animals foot. Animals make holes and seeds fall into them. The seeds then come into contact with the soil and can start growing. Rather than an animal deciding where to dig a hole it is man who decides. Man uses a hoe in the same way as the animal uses its foot.

Once this idea had been tested on the farm that he managed and was proved to work. He started with a small trial and then gradually expanded the area that used this system until it was used on the whole farm. It worked so well that that farm made a profit when others around about it were going out of business.

It was tested and tried using a kingdom principle i.e. start small so you learn how to do it well and then expand. Once it was tried and tested on that large farm it was developed into a system that could be used by small farmers. In other words, those with just a little bit of land were taught to how to grow enough food to feed themselves.

The importance of finding Kingdom solutions

The problem that many people in the kingdom have is that they believe that the only thing that they need to do is get people through the door and their job is done. They forget that one way to get people through the door is to meet their actual needs.

The king does not want to see people experiencing any kind of lack or having anything missing or incomplete. In fact, he wants his people to prosper in every area of their lives. He wants lives to change. Think about it, if people are happy and prospering then it benefits the king as well as them.

Remember the old story about the wind and sun. They had a competition as they tried to persuade a man to take his coat off. The wind blew hard and tried to separate the man from his coat by force. The man only held onto his coat tighter and tighter. The sun shone and shone. The warm and kindness soon persuaded the man to take his coat off. It was the kindness of the sun that encouraged the man to take his coat off rather than the force applied by the sun.

If you want people to do things your way then you are more likely to achieve your ends if you are kind to them. Provide them with benefits and solve their problems then they are more likely to listen to you and do things your way.

Not just that, but those who truly know this king, know that the nickname king of love is really appropriate. A love that is shown in wanting to see people escape from lack of any kind and find a way out of all forms of captivity. A love that wants to see them prospering in every way imaginable (yes not just money but family life). In other words, kingdom solutions are really the best way of helping people find their dream life.

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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