The Best and Worst Part About Modern Society is Information

We are in amazing times. Some say they believe we’re in the Biblical end times. Others think we’re on the verge of some sort of spiritual awakening. Still others say we’re learning that all of it is wrong. Who’s correct?

The reality is this: nobody is correct. If you believe that a Biblical worldview is the correct one, then you also must understand that we are meant to know certain things but that we’re incapable of understanding the big picture in our current forms. It is possible that when those saved by the Blood of Yeshua are translated into our new forms, that then we’ll gain the ability to understand the big picture, but nobody will know for sure until we’re there.

There is also plenty of “evidence” out there that points to an awakening of sorts. This could be in the form of revelation regarding ancient knowledge, a return of those who “seeded” us (if you believe in panspermia), or even a scientific melding into the spiritual world where all of some become “enlightened” in some way. This new age model often forms around the concepts of transhumanism and combines mysticism with scientific advancements.

Then, there are those who believe it’s all just a big accident. Life has no meaning other than what we do while we’re here and the memories that may or may not be passed down through generations. This worldview, despite protests by its believers, really does fall into line with the transhumanism concept other than a focus on pure science rather than any form of spiritualism.

We know for certain that the Biblical worldview is the correct one, but I’m not here to convince you of that in this article. Instead, I want to warn you about the component of modern society that is currently being used for and against us: information.

Knowledge Shall Be Increased

One of the most compelling arguments for today being the beginning (or even middle) of the Biblical end times is the increase of knowledge. Yes, human knowledge has been increasing for longer than history records, but few would argue that today’s increase is exponential in comparison with just a decade ago. The Internet and other technological advancements in communication and collaboration have eliminated many of the barriers that kept knowledge lower until recently.

Let’s look at the prophetic telling of knowledge in the Book of Daniel:

Daniel 12:4 (KJV)

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

We will discuss the book that was shut up until the time of the end in a future article, but for now let’s focus on the last half of the verse. There are many interpretations for many running to and fro as well as knowledge being increased, but with the latter it certainly seems possible that we’re living in those times. If “many shall run to and fro” refers to the rise of travel both locally as well as across the world, then that would fit into today’s time as well.

Whether this is the Biblical end times or if it’s in the distant future, we won’t know until things start really shaking up (literally), but one thing is absolutely certain: this rise in communication technology has allowed for the best and worst parts of society to flourish.

The best part is that we’re now able to do so much more with the Word of God than any time in the past. A decade ago, sharing the Gospel with someone outside of the area, let alone in a different country, meant getting out and participating in missions or writing books. Today, anyone can share the Gospel. We can discuss it. We can debate it. The Internet has given us a venue to spread the Word.

The worst part is that there is so much evil and misleading information available that the opposite effect is happening as well. More people are falling away from the faith every day because of things they read, videos they watch, or discussions they have online. For every excellent sermon posted on YouTube, there are dozens of videos that deny God’s existence or spread information about false religions. For every blog about the Gospel, there are thousands of secular blogs that deny the Gospel.

A perfect example of the disparity between good and bad online is Reddit. The 9th most popular site in the United States is divided into subreddits that users can follow. They share links, have discussions, and promote agendas in a bulk format every day. The Christianity subreddit is able to boast having over 90,000 followers. On the other hand, the Atheism subreddit has over 2 million.

This isn’t a call for more Christians to participate in spreading the Gospel online. That is a concept that we have promoted before, but it’s simply not for everyone and that’s not the important message of this article. The real message is this: be careful. Parts of the truth are online but many more parts of the great deceptions are online as well. It’s easy to be swayed by the wrong messages or guided in the wrong directions.

If you use technology to gain a better understanding of faith, you must wear the Armor of God. Pray and be discerning of what you learn. Many things that seem to be promoting a good message are designed to mislead you down a false path.

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The Power of Music is Being Best Used by the Enemy

The satanic, pagan influence on many of our most popular modern musicians is well documented. We’ll touch on them, though there are plenty of more comprehensive references. Here, we want to discuss the subtle strategy the adversary is using, why it’s working, and how to fight it.

It’s important to understand that the massive push that is occurring today goes far beyond the evils that have been perpetrated in the recent past. There has always been music with sinful messaging, even satanic roots. This was punctuated in America and across the world with the rise of rock n’ roll, rap, heavy metal, and other forms of modern music that have been popular for over 50 years. Without doing a study, we can say that the “evil” songs were easier to spot and avoid than they are today.

Keep in mind that music is a tool for good and evil. No type of music is inherently evil. There are plenty of examples of when any type of music was used to promote the Kingdom of God or to share the message of the Gospel. It’s not the type that matters. It’s what the artist does with it.

The Power of Music Itself

Every ancient culture embraced music in some form. Scientists have demonstrated how dramatic of an effect it can have on the listener, both consciously and subliminally. The Bible speaks of

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Romans 6:23 – ‘wages of sin’

Romans 6:23 (KJV)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Bible is loaded with verses that are vague and up for interpretation. Others are extremely straightforward. This particular verse is as black and white as it gets.

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Speculation About Ancient Human Skull in Israel Points to Unscientific Method of Modern Science

What does an ancient human skull found in a cave in Israel tell us about the past? It all depends on which perspective you take and whether you want to follow sound scientific practices or manipulated conclusions from circular reasoning.

Modern science can give us a tremendous view of the past. With nearly every discovery, we can see God’s work at play in molding the planets and the stars, the oceans and the lands, the people and the other wonderful creatures. Unfortunately, scientists often distort the findings to fit in with their secular worldview. The most recent case comes to us from a study published in the scientific journal, Nature, titled Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans.

First, watch the way that it is being reported. Then, let’s discuss the conclusions.

This is an important discovery, one that clearly points to a Biblical worldview of the roots of man from the garden of Eden working its way from what is now Africa into what is now the Middle East. It jives with the story of the great flood, stories from the life of Adam through Joshua, and a centralized end point of ancient man in the region along the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa up through modern day Turkey.

Of course, that’s not what the scientists doing the research concluded.

“The is the first evidence that shows that, indeed, there was a large wave of African migrants coming out of East Africa and inhabiting the Eastern Mediterranean region,” said Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University.

One of the biggest problems with modern science is that our society blindly accepts their conclusions. They know, right?

Proper scientific method that we all learn in high school tells us that the conclusions of the research are completely unscientific. We know a few things that are truly observable through:

• Humans very likely started in Africa and Neanderthals were in the Middle East.


• Humans and Neanderthals interbred to form the basis for Europeans. Today, everyone other than purely African people have at least a little Neanderthal DNA.


• A human skull fragment was found in Israel.

Given this information, it is obtuse to draw the conclusion that this represents a large wave of African migrants inhabiting the Eastern Mediterranean region. One skull fragment does not tell us that there was a large migration. One skull fragment does not tell us that it was a migration at all. Modern science must establish hypotheses based upon observable facts, but it almost always extrapolates too much.

This wouldn’t be a bad thing if it extrapolated based upon the Bible. We are told the general story of everything that happened from creation through the rise of the Greeks within the Old Testament. Every scientific and archeological discovery in the region supports this general story, but a culture that utilizes far more distant time frames to explain the discoveries has generated the faulty conclusions that scientists present to us today.

The evidence tells two different stories depending on the observer’s worldview. It’s unfortunate that most have pushed aside the obvious and verifiable conclusions in order to perpetuate the paradigm of secularism.

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Isaiah 41:10 – ‘right hand of my righteousness’

Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

This is one of the most oft-quoted verses of the Old Testament. It is one that offers encouragement, asks us to have faith in our Father, and lets us know that we’re not in this alone. Is there a deeper, prophetic meaning?

We know from many verses that Yeshua is said to sit on God’s right hand. Perhaps the most compelling of these verses is in Romans:

Romans 8:34 (KJV)

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

It would appear that the verses are parallel to the point that Isaiah, which was written several centuries before Yeshua walked the earth, is a prophetic telling of the coming Messiah. More importantly, it speaks in present tense and corroborates what Yeshua said of His presence, that He has been with us from the beginning.

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Reaching Nations Means Reaching Individuals (and visa versa)

At the end of the Book of Matthew, Yeshua tells His disciples to “teach all nations” to observe the things He commanded them. Spreading the Gospel is one of our most important tasks, but it’s often hard to know where to start.

I’ve been asked why we put so much effort into maintaining this website. We have no true “ministry” in the purest sense of the word. We have no church building. We correspond with people through email and on social media rather than face-to-face or over the phone. There are a few reasons for this, most notably that we do not have the resources to make it happen. If and when that time comes, we know the Lord will provide. In the meantime, we put our efforts into getting the word out through articles, videos, and Christian social media.

We do not have a large audience. Our readership is in the hundreds per day rather than the thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands held by many of the popular Christian websites. That’s perfectly fine and does not diminish from our efforts. You see, we believe that the goal of reaching the nations can only be accomplished by reaching the individuals. If everything we do for the digital presence of Judeo Christian Church ends up reaching a single person in a meaningful way that points them in the right direction towards their salvation, then every bit of the thousands of hours of effort were completely worth it.

This isn’t to downplay the role of the preachers, teachers, pastors, and scholars in the real world or on the internet who are able to reach the masses. There’s a place for everyone as we discussed in an article titled, Witnesses, Educators, and Defenders: The Modern Warriors for the Faith. The thing that we hope to highlight with this article is that the task that Yeshua put before us all is not one that should overwhelm anyone. If God chooses to use you to reach a single person with the Gospel and that’s all you are called to do, then that calling is every bit as important as the message on Sunday delivered by a mega-church pastor. In fact, it may be more important.

Nations are the People

The geopolitical organization of the world is always on the forefront of news, but does it really matter? Was Yeshua talking about reaching the president in some distant country when He told His disciples to teach all nations?

It’s the people of the world who make up the nations of the world. The governments are there to set the environment, but they are not the nations. The nations are the people within them. To reach the nations, you must be able to reach the people themselves. It doesn’t have to be written in their constitution. It has to be written on the hearts of the people.

People are the Nations

God’s judgments usually come in the form of judging nations at different levels. Yes, there are individual judgments, but a look at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of the wickedness of a nation compelling the judgment of all of the people other than the select few who were allowed to escape. Throughout the Bible, God judges Israel, Egypt, and many other nations. That doesn’t mean that everyone who was in the nations were all evil. It means that the nations and/or their leaders were evil.

This is an important thing to understand because we often use the fairness of our modern mindset to declare individuality over nationhood. The Bible shows that it’s not always like that. While no human is completely innocent, there are those who are much less guilty than their countrymen who faced punishment. Conversely, there were very evil people throughout history who continued through the blessings that were bestowed on a nation.

Look at how God blessed and cursed the chosen people. When Joshua was leading the campaigns against the cities and nations in Canaan, it took the action of one individual to nearly destroy the nation.

Joshua 7:1 (KJV)

But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.

During the times when the nation was blessed and prospering, it wasn’t that everyone was doing the good works of the Lord constantly. They were blessed for His sake and as long as they did not commit a major trespass the way that Achan did, they were allowed to continue in their blessings.

What’s the point of all this? If you can understand that God will call you to do wonderful things at different degrees and that those different things have an impact on yourself as well as others’ lives, then it’s easier to listen for the calling and act on it when the opportunities arise.

The Butterfly Effect

First and foremost, please do not watch the movie The Butterfly Effect. It was pretty darn awful.

With that out of the way, let’s discuss the importance of reaching those individuals. The concept behind the butterfly effect is that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world could be the catalyst that causes a hurricane elsewhere. Technically, the concept is not correct, but the point that it can make on our spiritual journey is real.

Let’s play a quick game of “what if”. What if someone had reached Adolf Hitler as a youth with a message of salvation that took him down the road to becoming a true believer in Jesus Christ? Some would say that he was a well-versed religious man, but his actions clearly demonstrate that he was not guided by the true meaning of the Bible. Let’s try another one that is less dramatic. What if someone you speak to is able to find Yeshua and follow His path? Later in life, when things are going badly, they might be having suicidal thoughts that are extinguished by the Holy Spirit, something that would not have happened had you not had the conversation with them years before.

We do not know the needs of people. We do not know the effects that our actions can have on someone today, let alone years down the road. If you truly want to participate in reaching the nations, start with the people. One conversation can change the course of history.

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Matthew 28:19 – ‘teach all nations’

Matthew 28:19 (KVJ)

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

In the final command from Yeshua to his disciples in the Book of Matthew, we hear what he wants them to do. It’s a bold command, one that would require a lifetime of service to accomplish. That’s exactly what we need to be doing today as well.

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John 3:16 – ‘everlasting life’

John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It doesn’t matter what the Pope says. It doesn’t matter what Rick Warren says. It doesn’t matter what Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, or anyone else says. There is only one path to salvation and the most well-known Bible verse in modern times is pretty darn clear about it.

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Pray for Those Affected by Boko Haram

The coverage of the atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram has been shockingly low. Africa has always received limited mainstream press coverage from the west, but the threat of Boko Haram to the people of Nigeria and beyond is catastrophic and deserves more attention.

When violence in France took dozens of lives, thousands were being taken at the same time under a variation of the same Islamic flag, but you didn’t see world leaders flocking to Nigeria to show solidarity the way they did in Paris. Instead, it was given scant press. Is it that western culture simply doesn’t care as much about African lives as it does about European lives? Could it be that we’ve just become numb to the wars, oppression, and genocide that takes place in the continent? Is it so far detached from western culture that the ratings on coverage is simply too low for television?

Print and internet journalists and bloggers are starting to pay more attention. Here is a sampling of the stories that have been posted to Twitter in the last couple of hours alone:

Boko Haram Releases Shocking Images of Child Soldier Training Camp: http://t.co/3AOb1heCgd.

— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) January 27, 2015

With U.S.-Nigeria Relations ‘at a Low Point,’ Kerry Puts Conditions on Aid to Fight Boko Haram http://t.co/nvtf65otH2 #tcot

— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) January 27, 2015

Boko Haram has put Maiduguri "under siege," cutting routes, squeezing into "very tight corner" http://t.co/5k1RIcc8wu http://ift.tt/1Bictyr

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) January 27, 2015

After fleeing Boko Haram, many in Nigeria without documents to vote http://t.co/F2fIlb4Plv

— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) January 27, 2015

What gave rise to Boko Haram – Washington Post http://t.co/infIsQAsQo

— Blogs of War (@BlogsofWar) January 27, 2015

Nigeria Loses City Of 100,000 to Boko Haram. (Obama admin vetoes Israeli sale of attack helos to Nigeria) http://t.co/jokr1eImea

— IPayMyJizyaWith.357 (@robfit) January 27, 2015

Nigeria fights to recapture key town from Boko Haram
http://t.co/KfonHvvLEf http://ift.tt/1Bictyy

— HuffPost BlackVoices (@blackvoices) January 27, 2015

As Christians, we must also focus out attention in the way of prayer for those who are being hurt by a group that is similar and potentially more dangerous than ISIS. They are training children to become murders. It’s the type of indoctrination that makes our western problems seem insignificant.

Pray for the children. Pray for the victims. Pray for success to those who would oppose Boko Haram. Pray for our leaders to step up and at least match the engagement with this evil entity to the engagement we are having with ISIS, though even that level of engagement is too low.

Pray for the people of Nigeria who are suffering beyond our western understanding. Pray that they may find the Lord and stay true to His teachings. It’s easy to be a Christian in the west. In Nigeria, being a Christian has a high cost. Pray that they persevere through the tribulations.

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Exodus 20:8 – ‘the sabbath day’

Exodus 20:8 (KJV)

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

This is something that should not require a reminder since it happens every seven days, but the Lord knew it would become a challenge for His people. It did, and today the holy sabbath is not honored by the majority of people. Even those who go to church rarely do this simple commandment. We have found that when we remember and honor the sabbath, we are rejuvenated, fulfilled, and prepared for the week ahead.

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Proverbs 4:18 – ‘path of the just’

Proverbs 4:18 (KJV)

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

The simple but important lessons found in the early parts of Proverbs plays almost like Shakespearean words of wisdom. They are, of course, more inspired and more important. They also have much better advice.

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Jude 1:21 – ‘in the love of God’

Jude 1:21 (KJV)

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

For such a short verse, it says so much about what we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to do it. It’s easy to love Yeshua. Those who read the Bible and who have followed the life of Jesus Christ are compelled to love the Son of God, even if only for the amazing things He did and the messages He delivered.

Yeshua’s hope was that we would love His Father. More than that, the wording of this verse is interesting in that we are to keep ourselves in the love of God while looking for mercy from the Messiah. This is important to understand, because it means more than just being grateful or thanking our Father. It’s about living out lives within the love that the Father shines on us. Leave the shadows. Bask in His love. Be ready for Yeshua’s judgment by doing what He asks in order to receive His mercy.

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Yemen’s Fall Points to Obama’s Incompetence in Foreign Relations

For nearly 60 years, the United States has had two presidents who have understood how to properly handle foreign relations: John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Arguments can be made that Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton were decent at it. All others have failed, but nobody has failed as badly as our current president.

Barack Obama has established the worst set of foreign relations policies the country has ever seen. George W. Bush was pretty bad, but even his foreign policy debacles do not compare to Obama’s.

The most recent glaring example is Yemen. Just over three months after the president declared that the country was an example of his administrations foreign relations success, the President of Yemen has resigned under pressure from forces allied with Iran.

In a public statement about ISIS, the President said, “This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us while supporting partners on the front lines is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”

They are not the first to feel the sting of being one of Obama’s “supporting partners” over the years. We’ve done such a good job at not engaging the enemies that overtly threaten us that they are now emboldened by the president’s lack of conviction. The red line for Syria. The call for pre-1967 borders. The list of minor gaffs is long. The list of major ones is, unfortunately, even longer.

We don’t normally outright insult politicians, but this is different. George W. Bush made us look too aggressive at times, but at least we were considered to be strong. Today, our foreign policy makes us look idiotic, but weak at the same time.

Here’s the video that describes it all:

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My friends may be enjoying #NADA2015 without me, but my daughter cheered me up with a hat.

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Jeremiah 23:5 – ‘a King shall reign and prosper’

Jeremiah 23:5 (KJV)

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

A good chunk of the prophecy we find in the Old Testament points to the first and second coming of Yeshua. Jeremiah is one of the most important of the Prophets in that he declared God’s message for every generation. Some of what he discussed was for his age. Others, including this very clear reference to Yeshua, was designed to speak to Jews and the world as verification of our Lord, Savior, and Messiah.

Jews still see it as the first coming. Christians know it pertains to His second coming.

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If a Social Media Company Doesn’t Offer Both Sides of the Posting Coin, Run Away

It’s hard to pick a better Joker from the Batman movies. The original Jack Nicholson version was dark and funny and had the psychopathic flare that only Jack can bring to the table. Heath Ledger’s Joker brought critical acclaim and an Oscar win because of the raw grittiness in the way he threw himself into the role.

We shouldn’t choose. We shouldn’t have to. Both performances can thrive on their own merits and be watched for generations to come.

The same sort of toss-up applies to Facebook and Twitter posting, particularly when it comes to advertising for business. Everyone knows about the public posting component. These are the posts that appear on the Facebook pages or Twitter profiles of the business and fill the news feeds and timelines of the business’ followers. The unpublished side, known to some as “dark posts”, are usually not known by the business community and often ignored by marketing companies.

If a social media company isn’t taking advantage of both of them, you should run away and pretend like they don’t exist. Both are extremely important to the success of a business’ social media presence. If anything, the dark posts are even more important than the public posts. Let’s define them, then go into why they’re both so important.

Public Posts

Not much to say here since you all already know what they are. If you post to your “wall” on Facebook or to your Twitter profile, you’re posting publicly. These posts appear whenever anyone visits your page or profile. They also appear on the Facebook news feeds and Twitter timelines of those who are following you (though your actual reach with advertising on either platform is normally pretty abysmal, even embarrassing).

Dark Posts

These are the unpublished posts on Facebook and Twitter. They’re the ads that don’t appear on your page or profile, but fill the news feeds and timelines of the audiences you select. They aren’t bound by time – they run until you replace them or tell them to stop.

Dark posts are avoided by many companies for three reasons:

1. They aren’t automated. You can’t schedule them with Buffer or Hootsuite, for example, and an API feed doesn’t work. This makes them non-scalable, which means that only nimble companies like the automotive social media folks, our friends at Dealer Authority, have the ability to manage them for their clients.


2. They aren’t popular. For whatever reason, both Facebook and Twitter have done terrible jobs at letting businesses know the power of dark posts. This is good for those who are taking advantage of them because the competition in most industries is minimal. Of course, that also means social media companies can get away with not selling them because few businesses are asking about them.


3. They aren’t profitable… for the social media company. Unlike Google PPC where even small businesses can have monthly budgets in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, social media dark post advertising is usually in the hundreds or thousands per month. Those charging a percentage can’t make much money and those charging a flat often have to overcharge to make them worthwhile.

The thing is that these types of posts have the strongest ROI, higher than with public posts. For this reason, social media companies must offer them if their goal is to truly help their clients.

Why You Need Both

By themselves, neither is exceptionally effective. Sure, you can get incredible branding and exposure through a public posting strategy with a small advertising budget and you can get great traffic to your website through a dark posting campaign with a slightly higher budget, but it’s in the combination of both types of posting that a proper strategy can be delivered.

Get the buzz with public posts. Get the traffic with dark posts. It’s not a hard concept to understand, but it’s strangely a hard service (for some) to deliver.

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At the Risk of Sounding Harsh, Let the Church Buildings Go

If you were to ask someone to show you a church in modern times, they would take you online or drive you to see a building. If you were to ask the same question of the early Christians, they would have pointed at each other. They were the Church.

This is not a call to desecrate, insult, or condemn those who have glorious church buildings where a congregation meets on Sundays, where weddings are often held throughout the week, and where people gather to discuss the needs of the community. It’s no secret that we intend to build our ministry without a physical building for the sake of expanded outreach and breaking down the bounds of distance by using the internet, but this isn’t about us, either. This is in response to a story on Religion News titled, “Why Christians should ditch monuments in favor of messages“.

According to Tom Ehrich:

A congregation that nurtures strong personal relationships, a compelling sense of mission and a deep desire to sing, pray and learn can meet anywhere.

A congregation that exists to keep a building open, on the other hand, is doomed. Budget talk will dominate community life. The slow decay of beloved space will strain loyalty. Prospective members will flee from capital campaigns.

The buildings were always intended to be symbolic. They were intended to provide a safe haven for worship and to act as a common ground where blood would not be shed, even between enemies. Throughout the world, they act as beacons of hope and a sign of Yeshua’s presence within a community. Unfortunately, they’ve also become a drain through which finances that could go to charitable works and outreach fall to the needs of the physical world.

The majority of Christians need a place to worship. The true Church has always wanted to congregate together, to pray together, and to hear the Word of God as a group rather than separated. However, modern society has put so much emphasis towards the aesthetics that the message often suffers as a result.

This is not intended to insult anyone nor is it intended to draw criticism or debate about the concept of virtual churches. We know that ours will not be a popular ministry and we understand that there are distinct disadvantages to being virtual. That’s a different discussion. Instead, let’s focus on the idea that if the physical building that holds the congregation becomes the central need for money and work, at what point can the good works be delivered to the rest of the community or the world?

Every dollar spent on repairing a parking lot at the church could feed hungry people. Every minute of work spent painting a room within a church could be spent sharing the Gospel with someone who desperately needs to hear it. Every meeting held to discuss the needs of the building could be used to plan outreach to the community.

We are not here to condemn those who put effort into making their church beautiful. We just wish that more effort was used to glorify God, not a physical building of this world.

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Philippians 2:13 – ‘God which worketh in you”

Philippians 2:13 (KJV)

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The verses preceding this beautiful and simple verse tell the story of the humility of Yeshua. Though He was divine, he acted as a servant for His Father’s sake. We, too, must understand that our cares and worries are nothing compared to how we serve the Lord and He works in the world through us.

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The Real Reason New England Must Be Punished for #DeflateGate

Whether or not you believe that the deflated balls used by the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game is worth punishment or not relies on two factors: whether you have a passionate feeling (positive or negative) about the team and whether you believe in following rules strictly. Neither of these should have as much impact on the final resolution as one other major factor.

Personally, I’m a fan of the team and specifically of Tom Brady. He has to be in the discussion as a top 3 quarterback of all time based upon his longevity of success; this would be his 4th Super Bowl victory out of 6 appearances spread across 14 years if they win. I’m not a fan of Bill Belichick for the same reason that they should be punished for their actions.

He’s a verified cheater.

If Seattle on the other side of the matchup had been accused of these activities, there wouldn’t really be a question. They, too, have had recent success with last year’s championship. However, they have never been proven to be cheaters while Belichick and his Patriots have. You can say that they paid for their crime and that the two should not be related, but I disagree. If you cheat once, you had better not get caught cheating a second time. To me, two incidents establishes a trend that cannot be allowed to continue.

Some may also argue that Belichick didn’t know about it. In fact, it’s more likely that Brady himself would be involved rather than Belichick by sheer history and proximity. It’s the quarterback who has his hands on the balls and his voice in the ear of the ball-handling personnel. Even Super Bowl quarterback Brad Johnson admits to paying for balls to be tampered with for Super Bowl XXXVII.

The difference here is that Brady is not a confirmed cheater. Belichick is and as such, he has to be held responsible for any infractions that anyone in his organization perpetrates.

In reality, the inflation of the balls had zero impact on the game. In reality, the fact that it’s likely true has ball boys across the country wondering what they’re quarterbacks are going to say next year. You see, this is probably pretty common, an unspoken infraction that’s simply considered to be part of the game by NFL insiders. Now, it has been officially spoken and people will be watching for it now that the cat’s out of the bag.

The New England Patriots put a target on their backs when they were caught videotaping defensive signals in 2007. That was cheating. The “harshest” punishment allowable was levied, though it amounted to very little when you consider what was potentially gained – three Super Bowl victories.

Thanks to the two incidences, NFL fans have been forever robbed of the knowledge of whether or not they witnessed true greatness or if they watched cheaters get away with defiling the game. Each incident by itself can be forgiving. Putting them together under the same regime taints the teams entire legacy.

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Chief Cochran is the Victim, NOT the Perpetrator of Discrimination

Discrimination is a dangerous word to throw around. It is often hard to prove but is easy to condemn without evidence. Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran was not fired because he discriminated against people. He was fired because he was discriminated against.

That is the way society is today. The anti-religious and anti-Christian movements have made cowards of officials and Chief Cochran is the latest well-publicized victim of this cowardice.

We do not approve of discrimination. Race, creed, sex, age, sexual preference, and religion are often cited as the hotspots of workplace discrimination and in all of those cases, we believe that in most circumstances there is no room for anyone to be denied a position or released from one due to their beliefs or background.

There are exceptions, particularly with non-profits and organizations that are designed to serve specific demographics. Few would make a fuss if CAIR declined interviewing an atheist who wanted to join their legal department, for example. In governmental and public service roles such as a fire department, discrimination is unacceptable. However, it’s definitely debatable whether publishing one’s religious views is, by itself, discrimination.

It should be noted that the findings of the investigation into Cochran’s professional activities were exceptionally clear that he had not discriminated against anyone as Chief. In fact, he initiated discipline against department personnel who took a picture in front of Chick-fil-A in support of the CEO’s stance against homosexuality:

He (Union President Steven Borders) cited to an example wherein firefighters were disciplined for expressing support of Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s stance on homosexuality. In that case, during the height of the controversy, a squad of AFRD firefighters took a group picture showing them in uniform at one of Cathy’s restaurants. One of the firefighters then posted the picture on Facebook expressing support for Cathy’s religious beliefs and his opinion of homosexuality and gay marriage. When a citizen complained, Chief Cochran directed the captain of the squad to initiate an OPS complaint. The complaint was sustained for a work rule violation and the firefighters were given thirty day suspensions.

Regardless of the reason that the City of Atlanta gives for the firing, this comes down to discrimination. It’s not necessarily that anyone in the Mayor’s office believes that Cochran should be fired for his beliefs. They fired him because he wrote about it and distributed it. Authorized or not, the book created an environment that “appalled” some people. Unfortunately, being appalled by someone’s beliefs is not grounds for termination if those beliefs do not interfere with the workplace or the delivery of the service.

Chief Cochran should have been disciplined for not getting authorization to note his position, for starting a private enterprise in the form of book sales without getting permission, and for distributing the book to three people who did not ask for a copy. This discipline should have fallen well-short of termination.

At the end of the day, the Chief was fired for expressing his beliefs. Ask yourself this: had Cochran written a book saying that he was gay and this made some of his employees “appalled” by his beliefs, would there be any chance that he would get fired over it?

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2 Thessalonians 3:5 – ‘patient waiting for Christ’

2 Thessalonians 3:5 (KJV)

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

This is a very straightforward verse, but with a subtle undertone that must be understood. We are flawed creatures who cannot do well nor even have faith in God without God’s intervention. In verse 2 and 3, it is clear that men have no faith but the Lord is faithful. That is why He directs our hearts to love Him and gives us patience to carry on until Christ’s return. Even faith requires what God has put in our hearts.

This should be comforting, especially to those who are unsure whether or not they truly have faith. The faith we have is not our own but given to us by God. If it is given to us by Him, we can be certain it will be true.

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It may be time for a haircut.

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Open Your Mind About the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Deception

The pre-tribulation rapture theory that the majority of Christian churches around the world promote is very clearly false. Unfortunately, its popularity has helped to maintain the belief despite knowledge being increased and truth becoming more apparent.

Our Lord said that we are not appointed to wrath. This is one of the most common points of evidence that pre-tribulation rapture preachers use when promoting the concept that the church will be taken away before the Great Tribulation. One must understand the difference between tribulation and wrath in order to fully grasp why believers in Yeshua will not face wrath but will face tribulation.

That is a study in itself that we will tackle in the future. For now, I would like to focus on one key point that scares me as much as anything else when it comes to the deception of a pre-tribulation rapture. I was listening to a noted Bible scholar, one who speaks at various conferences and has a popular website. He reaches tens of thousands of believers and those seeking truth every month.

He was discussing a separate topic in an interview when it shifted to his opinion of the rapture. He said that he believed in the rapture because if it wasn’t true, then most of the teaching that he had heard and the teachers he had followed would be incorrect if there was no pre-tribulation rapture. It struck me because he was knowledgeable enough to call it into question but hesitant because of his history as a Christian.

This is dangerous. We cannot allow teachings, however prevalent in the modern church, to guide us in the wrong direction if the Bible states otherwise. I am not going to use this article to try to convince you about the truth regarding the rapture. Instead, I simply want to point out things that you should know in your heart so that you may decide to search the scriptures and research the history of the rapture on your own. We will cover it in more detail in the future, but for now, all I want you to do is open your mind to the possibilities that many of your church leaders have been deceived and therefore you have been deceived.

• Satan’s Goal: There is nothing that the adversary can do to you if you wear the full Armor of God. His only method for stealing away as many souls as possible is to make them believe that they do not need to wear their armor. A pre-tribulation rapture theory can convince people that they are not going to face the great trials that are coming, so when they do come, their armor is absent.


• Flinstones Vitamin Preaching: A friend who tried to hire me to promote Son of God told me that the world was not ready for three-inch needle of Biblical doctrine plunged into their body to deliver the Word of God. He said we needed to ease the world into believing by giving them movies like Son of God that acted like Flinstones Vitamins to get them heading in the right direction. It was a long debate and obviously I passed on the lucrative project, but it points to the concept that many hold: if you give the people some Biblical truth that they can stomach, they’re more likely to come for more. This concept is what makes many preachers who are aware of the pre-tribulation deception to continue the preaching in hopes that they can eventually dive deeper into less popular doctrines.


• The Cool Kids Club: Privately, I was told that if you’re a Bible scholar with ambitions of speaking at conferences and selling books, that you had to promote a pre-tribulation rapture. Those who do not embrace the teaching will not be allowed into the club. As much as we’d all like to believe that the truth should always guide us, I’ve seen very intelligent and moving preachers embrace the doctrine in order to keep their club membership and continue to be invited to these conferences. Similar to Flinstones vitamins, they feel that anything they can do to get people to believe Yeshua is our Lord and Savior is fine as long as it does not blaspheme Him. This is dangerous, of course, because when people are left unaware, they are unprepared.


• Satan’s Tool: The scariest part about the pre-tribulation rapture is that it promotes the concept that people will be given a second chance to repent and make things right in their lives. They are told that the righteous will be taken away and that they will then have seven years to find their faith and redeem their soul. I admit that when I believed in a pre-tribulation rapture, this concept had me practically wishing that I wasn’t rapture so I could be a “warrior of faith” during the tribulation itself, earning my redemption. This concept is going to leave many people confused and force them to believe other deceptions when the tribulation starts without a rapture.

If you understand the reasons why a pre-tribulation rapture is preached, you can research it yourself to discover the truth that the Bible teaches.

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How my most recent diet attempt met its untimely demise.

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You know you're in a #hipster-friendly office when you see this in the breakroom.

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We're officially a family of potential baristas.

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Over Half of Internet Users Over 65 Use Facebook

The trends have been pointing to older generations jumping on Facebook for a while. Now, the latest numbers from Pew show that over half of internet users over 65 use Facebook.

Overall, Facebook’s growth slowed but engagement levels increased. On other networks such as Twitter and Pinterest, the number of users rose more dramatically but engagement decreased. While some say this is due to fatigue and accounts going dormant, we speculate that the users are getting more efficient at using the networks. The can be seen in the dramatic rise of adults using multiple networks – 52% in 2014 versus 42% the year before.

The most important finding of the study surrounds the rise in Facebook engagement. 70% of users access the site daily. That’s huge. That means that once Facebook gets its hooks into users, they tend to crave it in much the same way that people watch television daily. This is a sharp contrast to recent speculation that Facebook is suffering from being antiquated and too “uncool” for younger users.

That may be the case, but as they get older and are forced to expand their social circles through work and adult groups, it’s likely that they will be forced to come back to the “old person’s social network” if they want to engage with their adult peers.

There are definitely some gems in the exhaustive study, but overall it’s not really anything new. Facebook is huge. We knew that already.

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Is there a Prophecy of Yeshua in the Generations of Adam from Genesis Chapter 5?

We often explore clear prophecies from both the Old and New Testament. Most come from the Prophets themselves, as well as from Moses, Daniel, and later from Jesus Christ Himself.

There are those who look deeper into the structure and form of the text to look for hidden prophecies and messages from our Father. One such instance is in the Book of Genesis in chapter 5 when the generations of Adam are discussed. Here’s how it breaks down:

1. Adam


2. Seth


3. Enosh


4. Keinan


5. Mahalalel


6. Yared


7. Enoch


8. M’thushelach


9. Lamech


10. No’ah

When translated into English using the roots of the names, here is how the message would play out:

“Man appointed mortal sorrow. The Blessed God shall come down teaching His death shall bring the despairing comfort.”

Here is an excerpt from a great video from Jewish Eyes.

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An Interesting Commentary on Daniel’s 70 Weeks

We try to keep a very closed mind when it comes to scripture. It makes it challenging but it’s necessary because there are so many bad commentaries out there that twist and manipulate the Word of God in ways that simply shouldn’t be done. In this case, we’re open to the ideas found in the video below.

It shows a slightly alternative view to what many commentators use as their understanding of Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks.

This cannot be stressed enough: do your research in prayer and by following the Holy Spirit. Take nothing as gospel except for the Gospel. There are many bad teachings out there. Hopefully, this short one falls under the category of being a good one. We have not vetted the person who made the video nor checked the dates and facts referenced. It’s just a quick urging in this direction. From there, you must make your own choices about its validity.

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‘While You Were Away’ Will Make Twitter More Important for Business

Twitter was tiny. Then it was huge. Then it was irrelevant. Now, it’s on the verge of landing somewhere in between “huge” and “irrelevant” with the rollout of their “While you were away” feature.

Businesses have had a love/hate relationship with Twitter since its birth. It can be a tremendous communication tool, of course. That hasn’t changed. However, it seemed to only be of true benefit for big companies. Local businesses outside of real-time floaters like food trucks or music bands had a hard time generating a true return on investment.

The problem has been that for a local business to have any chance of getting noticed on Twitter and generating proactive benefit, a lot of time was necessary. Unfortunately, the return did not always justify the time spent. What’s worse is that it became painful for some who were finding that the positive things they tried to do went nowhere while anything negative about them that went out on Twitter seemed to go viral.

Bad news flourished. Good news got buried.

That’s in the process of changing. “While you were away” will bring real ROI for local businesses.

Start Paying Attention to Twitter Now

One of the most appealing aspects of Facebook is its extremely intuitive algorithm. Most people take for granted the amazing complexity and uncanny accuracy of the algorithm that powers the news feed.

On the other hand, Twitter has always maintained strength in real-time exploits. See what’s happening now… and now… and now again. This meant that local businesses would have to Tweet several times a day in order to get any traction, plus engage in conversations, plus monitor for mentions, plus several other little annoying activities that made it more cost- and ROI-effective to simply maintain a basic presence and monitor briefly every day.

The new feature means that quality could trump quantity, or rather add to it. On Facebook, it’s better to post less and make it meaningful. Posting too much can hurt. With the new Twitter, it will likely make sense to focus on quality first but with the understanding that quantity will still help. In essence, “While you were away” means that you want to do whatever you can to generate some sort of interactions on some of your Tweets. If you do, your Tweets from minutes, hours, or even days ago have an opportunity to be seen by your audience in ways that were impossible in the chronological-only world of old Twitter.

Quality is new Twitter’s best friend.

Here are a few anticipatory best practices. We can’t be definitive at this point because the feature is still limited, but we can anticipate some things that you’ll want to do to bump up your Twitter quality.

• Include images whenever appropriate. By keeping them the proper size (2-to-1 ratio) and compelling, you’ll get more attention while it’s live, giving it more potential engagement and increasing its chances of being seen by people when they log into Twitter next time.


• Post often but spread it out so as to not get unfollowed. Every guru has an opinion about frequency. I like to keep at least an hour between standard Tweets (not including @replies).


• Do not ask for retweets. Here’s the thing. It works. Unfortunately. Then again, panhandling at the subway station can work as well, but it’s not something that you want to do for a living. Rely on your content. They’ll retweet it if they love it.


• Retweet and favorite others’ posts aggressively. I’m a little worried about using the word “aggressively” in this best practice because it can definitely be taken too far, but helping others will encourage them to help you. Don’t do it randomly, though. Whatever you retweet will appear on your Twitter profile. Be selective and only retweet the best content from good sources. That doesn’t necessarily mean big sources. A Ford dealer will probably notice if you retweet them. Ford corporate most likely will not.


• Use hashtags, but don’t overdo it. Reading these, one would think that it’s written by Goldilocks. Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right. That’s really what you want to do with Twitter – find the sweet spot for all activities.

I hate to admit it, but I lost love for Twitter over the last couple of years. The love is getting renewed. Twitter is going to be effective for small businesses once again if they do it right.

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Getting More People to Like Your Facebook Page is 99% Worthless

Someday, I will have the opportunity to prove to a client or prospect beyond any reasonable doubt that this is true. In the meantime, I will continue to write about it in hopes that the facts will win out.

To prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, I would have to take a page that has zero fans and send massive engagement and traffic with a small budget. Then, we’d need to look at the statistics to show that a page that starts off with zero likes can have more than just paid reach. It can have more organic reach than pages that have tons of likes.

We do have examples, not to the extreme of having zero fans, but by demonstrating that through strong content and proper use of advertising we can get strong organic reach. Here’s a quick one that’s pretty clear:

As you can see, this page has 2,458 people liking it. However, you’ll see that the small budget, in this case around $15, was able to get it good paid exposure. More importantly, it generated more organic reach than the number of people who like the page.

Now, let’s look at a different page. It has nearly 8 times as many likes, but the reach is minimal.

The gap is crystal clear. Facebook has been pulling back on organic reach for some time. While many will say that it’s all about greed and the bottom line to force pages to use money to get exposure, it’s more likely about what the users want. When they see page posts on their news feeds, they are much less likely to engage with those posts than the posts of their friends and family. Still, they’re a business, so the reduction of organic reach and the rise of sponsoring posts is the end result.

You’ll notice that I said that page likes are 99% worthless. There’s one minor benefit. Some would call it credibility. Others would call it ego. Either way, having a page that people are liking gives a psychological boost to the page to let people demonstrate how popular their page really is. While likes are infinitesimal in importance compared to reach, it’s still a benefit.

Focus on content. Put a budget behind it. Give your page real reach rather than the artificial benefits associated with page popularity.

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The Challenge of Running a Secular Business Guided by Faith

Before I began my current path in business, I worked for a company that maintained faith within the workplace. We would start our monthly meetings with the local pastor saying a prayer over the team and asking for guidance to fall upon the business and the staff. It’s not a common scene today as fear has filled business owners across America that they could find themselves in court over such activities.

This wasn’t the 60s. It wasn’t the 80s. It wasn’t even the 90s. This was 2007. I wasn’t working at a Christian bookstore, a faith-based charity, or an activist agency. I was working at a car dealership. Today, we see secularism dominating business to the point that discussion of religion is often against company policy and the thought of openly discussing faith is taboo, but it wasn’t so long ago that these types of practices were much less risky and much more accepted.

Now, I own my own business. We are a secular business and we follow the law of the land that says we cannot make hiring decisions based upon faith. We don’t ask. We’re not allowed. Thankfully, we’ve been blessed with great people, some of whom outwardly confess their belief in Yeshua as Lord and Savior.

Maintaining a separation of faith and business is a very thin line. We do not instigate religious principles into our business at a company level, though some of us have prayed together. Still, it’s challenging to tiptoe through, feeling pulled from one direction to let the Holy Spirit guide our decisions for the business while trying to avoid any practices that can get us in trouble with the law. Here are some things that I’ve learned in the first year as a business owner that may help others facing similar challenges.

Seek by Demonstration

While the law may prevent me from overtly “intimidating” anyone on my team who is not a follower of Christ, it does not prevent me from expressing my faith publicly as an individual. Even before I started my business, I was open and proud of my faith and published as much on this blog, other blogs, and through my social media profiles.

By demonstrating my faith outwardly, which we should be willing to do regardless of whether we own a business or not, it allows others to gain an understanding of me and to feel comfortable with approaching me about my faith. For some, this has translated into partners, team members, and even clients acknowledging that they know of my faith and willing to discuss it with me. For others, particular a couple of competitors and others in my industry, it has turned into debates and condemnation.

You have to be willing to accept both. The good will come with bad. The positives will have negatives attached to them. A bold willingness to take criticism is necessary if you want to know where others stand. It can be risky. It can cost you some business. It also opens the doors to find other brothers and sisters in Christ while enabling opportunities to have discussions with those who have not found Him yet.

Pray Privately

We are commanded to pray, to give blessing and to worship our Father. We are also told that our Father knows our needs before we ever need to utter them. Still, it’s important to gain guidance through prayer in our private as well as our business lives.

Pray for your company. Pray for your team. Pray for your competition. Most importantly, pray in gratitude and humility to the Lord who has made all things possible for you. Through the good times, we can see the glory of God. Through the rough times, we are challenged with tribulations to remain faithful and stay the course.

Pray Together

Whether you read the Bible or listen to scientific studies, both have shown the tremendous power of prayer, particularly when done as a group. When you’ve identified those within your company who share your faith, be willing to pray with them, to pray about them, and to ask them for their prayers on behalf of those things important to you and of mutual importance as well.

On one hand, we promote the idea of being careful in a secular world, but this is only a mild warning. Boldly professing your faith with your team and having a willingness to pray with them can be dangerous, but if you’re going to face troubles, I’d rather face the troubles of men wanting to take down my business because of my faith rather than the consequences of hiding from it behind the facade of political correctness.

Obey the 4th Commandment

This is arguably the most important yet most underutilized aspect of applying faith to business. In America, so many businesses operate on the Sabbath. This is clearly against the Commandments of our Lord.

Now is not the time to discuss whether Sabbath is on Saturday or Sunday, though we’ve gone pretty in-depth about that in the past. It’s also a debate that is challenging to have with your team even if you do know the truth, so we’ve instituted a weekends-off mentality. I still remember the time when we had an employee break this Commandment and do work for a client on the Sabbath. It was a terrible mistake and it will haunt me for as long as I own this business.

Your business should never force others or you to choose between honoring the day of rest or doing work. If it does, you are in the wrong business. It has become too acceptable in America and around the world to disobey this Commandment. The only way to keep a clear conscience and truly operate your business with faith is to hold strictly to this Commandment. Your team will appreciate it, even if they are not yet believers.

Not All is Fair in Business

It is in our hearts to know right from wrong. This is one of the greatest gifts that the Lord gave to us. We no longer have to be told the Torah in order to understand the basic laws of life (though it’s still a very idea to read it as well).

Some businesses keep such a separation of business and faith that they’re willing to do wrong for the sake of competitive advantage. These unscrupulous activities that we know in our hearts to be wrong must be avoided. It’s easy to do things for the sake of success that go against operating a business guided by our faith, but if success comes at a price that goes against the teachings of the Bible, it’s a price that is too high to pay.

Detach from the World

Someday, I hope to be able to dedicate my life to ministry. I know that all will be provided for me if I let true faith guide all that I do, but it’s so hard to let go of this world and pursue a righteous path when family needs, bills, and temptation keep us so entrenched in it all.

Remember that a business, no matter how beneficial it might be for you or others, is still a business of this world. Never let that get in the way of your salvation and never let it hinder others from finding theirs.

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We Don’t Know Who to Support Yet, but it’s Definitely Not Jeb Bush

The media is already putting Jeb Bush as the most likely GOP presidential candidate for 2016. They’re comparing him to his brother and father, but that’s not really the case. The best two people to compare to Jeb Bush are Mitt Romney and Bob Dole. If Bush is the candidate, he will meet the same results as these two fellow moderates.

The GOP does not need to cater to the middle. They do not need to ride on the coattails of a known entity. If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that the polarizing candidates perform better. It also shows us that a relatively unknown entity like Barack Obama in 2007 can galvanize his party better than someone who is familiar, even if only by name.

We’re not too worried, yet. It’s still very early and we’re hoping that someone will step up and represent the conservative side of the Republican party. That’s the only way to achieve victory. Obama was vulnerable and we put up a weak, moderate candidate. Bill Clinton was vulnerable when he was trying to get re-elected and we did the same thing. On the other side of the fence, George W. Bush was vulnerable and the Democrats put up a career, known entity who was moderate.

If we look at the winners of every presidential election since Carter, we’ll see that the winner from either party was the one who fought on the fringe rather than migrated towards the middle with the only exceptions being the ones who were going up against weaker moderates.

• Carter: Newcomer. Very liberal. Campaigned door-to-door.


• Reagan 1: Bold. Aggressive. Very conservative.


• Reagan 2: Still bold. More aggressive. Conservative but with an uncanny ability to reach across the aisle.


• GHW Bush: Rode on Reagan’s coattails.


• Clinton 1: New. Fresh. Perceived to be very liberal.


• Clinton 2: Not so new. Not very fresh. Less liberal than his base expected. Dole, unfortunately, was completely uninspiring.


• GW Bush 1: Youthful conservative. Perceived to be very conservative.


• GW Bush 2: Not so youthful. Not nearly as conservative as promised. Fortunately, Kerry was weak and the war on terror had people concerned.


• Obama 1: Very new. Very fresh. Very liberal.


• Obama 2: The newness and the freshness didn’t accomplish anything. More liberal than expected. Unfortunately, Romney was not up to the task.

Jeb Bush is not a conservative. He’s not fresh. He’s not riding on popular coattails and the issue of war is something that will not help him. He possesses none of the traits of a presidential winner. Jeb Bush would lose to any Democrat. If he were to somehow win, he would not be a very good president.

It’s hard to be so critical of the early frontrunner before he’s even officially declared, but everyone knows it’s coming. We have to put up a much stronger candidate or we could see the end of the party by 2018.

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Building Up a Blog with Social Promotion

There are two major components to a good blog. Sure, there are plenty of other components such as design, site speed, consistency, purpose, niche relations… actually, there are so many that I could write a full-length article just listing the different components, let alone going into detail about them. Still, there are two primary components that can overcome poor performance on all of the other areas.

Great content. Great promotion. That’s it. If your content is strong and you’re able to promote your site properly and gain credibility on social media and search, you’re blog will grow and be successful.

The content part is actually easier. If you’re a good writer, strong at making videos, a great photographer, or a combination of all three, you can put together great content. You’ll need passion to do it, perseverance to stick with it, and time to stay consistent, but strong content can keep people coming back to your site.

Early promotion is what gets them there in the first place. Just like a tree falling in an empty forest, a blog with great content that nobody is seeing will not be able to grow simply on the merits of your Pulitzer-quality works. You have to have promotions to make it work.

By “promotions”, I’m not necessarily talking about paid promotions. Those help, particularly on Facebook and other social media sites, but you have to be able to get the right people seeing your content so that it has the opportunity to get noticed, shared, and eventually trusted. There are other ways to promote other than social media, but I’m writing this assuming you have little or no budget, in which case good ol’ free social media is the way to go.

First and foremost, many who read this will say that they are already promoting their blog. They’re sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, and every other social media site and that should be enough, right? If you’re very popular on social media, it might be, but it will probably take more than that. If you’re doing it in an automated way such as having it share directly through a WordPress plugin or RSS service, you’re completely doing it wrong.

Let’s look at how to do it right.

Post By Hand

Stop feeding an automated posting solution. It saves you minutes (maybe even seconds) versus hand-crafting your posts on social media. If you don’t have time to write up an appropriate title and description as well as sharing the right image, you don’t have time for promotion and you probably don’t have time to blog in the first place.

Us the Right Tools

Take advantage of every possible advantage that you can. If you’re going to be posting it to your personal social media profiles, use the right tools. For Facebook, the right tool is Facebook. Don’t post through Hootsuite or any of the common posting tools. Using the Facebook interface is better because it gives you an algorithmic advantage over the API posting services. The same thing holds true for LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

For Twitter and Google+, using a tool like Buffer is fine.

Take Advantage of Platform Strengths

Do each individually and make sure to take advantage of the platform’s individual strengths:

• Facebook: Post the link directly on Facebook.com. Pick out the right thumbnail and make sure it renders properly as a full image rather than a partial image. You may even want to upload a fresh image, particularly if there’s text involved. For maximum quality and space management, use images that are 1200×628 in aspect ratio and at least 600 pixels wide. Fix the title and link description if necessary. Keep the post text short but important. Some say to leave the link itself in the post text but I disagree. It makes it look sloppy.


• Twitter: Whenever possible (which is just about every time) be sure to include an image in your Tweet. The exception is if you have an extremely long title or a ton of hashtags that take up a lot of the necessary character room. Images should be 2×1 ratio and over 500 pixels wide. Use hashtags when appropriate but don’t overdo it. Mention people of note if you believe they will be truly interested, particularly if they’re the subject.


• Google+ and LinkedIn: Pretty much just like Facebook, but craft the text portion to match the network.


• Pinterest: Make sure the image selected is large enough to fill an entire Pin properly. Make the description a full paragraph when necessary and include the right hashtags.


• Tumblr: If you have an interesting image, that is much easier to promote on Tumblr than a link. If you use the Tumblr browser addon, you’ll be able to share as an image from the page directly, select the right one, and hand-craft the description. Doing it this way will make the image clickable to your website. Tags are extremely important on Tumblr. Make sure they’re relevant but don’t be shy with them, either.

Build Branded Pages and Profiles

It can become a chore to build up additional profiles beyond your personal ones, but it’s worth it long-term if you’re committed. Be warned – if you can’t manage them and keep them robust, they’ll become more of a detriment than benefit.

Don’t duplicate your efforts from your personal account. Say things in different ways. Post at different times. Divide and conquer using your two sets.

Share Other Works

The biggest mistake I see people make with their branded accounts is that they’re all about the blog itself. You’ll build an audience for them much faster if you diversify with content from places other than your own blog.

This is hard for some to grasp. Most major blog pages and profiles do not do this. They can afford to not do it. Until you build something as big as Mashable, there’s no reason to mimic them. Build an audience with tons of relevant content even if not all of it is helping to promote your own site.

Final Note

All of this is much easier with money behind it. Facebook and Twitter have great and inexpensive advertising models. You don’t have to spend a ton. A few bucks consistently utilized for promotions can help take your blog higher much more quickly than trying to build it through strictly organic promotions.

If you care about your blog and the content you post, you’ll put in the effort to get people to see it and love it.

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