Here’s a question presented to me on Facebook:

Allow me to play devil’s advocate as I really don’t know who’s right here. I guess being against SOPA and PIPA could also mean you want to continue to let China steal our copyrights, patents, and intellecutal property then sell it back to …us at half price? Are Google and other companies against this because of freedom of speech or because they don’t want to interrupt the revenue they receive from this piracy and be required to enforce these rules? Is corporate greed found in favoring or opposing these rules. Just wanted to offer up an alternative view….

 

Great thoughts. Here’s what I see as the real issue:

Media companies refuse to adjust their business models for the times. They want to remain the gatekeepers of content and distribution like “the good old days”. They want to put the burden (price) of their own stubbornness on everyone else. In essence, they’re saying: “We refuse to invest in keeping our businesses up to date and competitive, so everyone else is going to have to be guilty until proven innocent.” And in an effort to get their way, they care not what it does to everyone else.

Further, the method they want to use is quit nuclear. Let’s look at some history:

In 1992, they wanted Congress to prevent the making and free distribution of mixtapes. Instead, Congress said that sharing for free is legally fine, and sharing for money was not. This made the media companies furious, as they pay those Congresspeople well to not do such things. Fail.

Next, the media companies tried to prevent your hardware from being able to copy things. That didn’t work because it is the very nature of digital things to move bits around. Fail again.

Then, they took YouTube and Napster to court. While they did ok, they discovered that the burden of proof is quite expensive, and the PR is not so good. Fail.

Now, they’re saying, “Fine! If we can’t be the controllers of content, then no one else gets to be either!” So what we really have on our hands is a very unruly child who doesn’t understand the current world and how to live in it telling the rest of us how to live in it.

The best way to fight piracy is offer something that pirates can’t. Offer an experience that pirates can’t even hope to replicate. Better yet, harness the freemium model (let priacy do your selling for you). In truth, it’s what we already have, they just haven’t figured it out yet.

The days of cowering before corporations because they’ve had their business model defeated are over. As for one, I will not let them break the best (and deepest) thing about this world – sharing with one another, and creating new content on top of old – simply because time has passed some old guys up, and they’re crying about it. They can suck it up like the rest of us and figure out life as it comes.

Background 

This week, a 120-year old tradition came to an end. Dublin Dr Pepper will no longer be sold from the Dublin, Texas, plant.

As a Dublin resident, and a huge fan of Dublin Dr Pepper (I can barely drink any other soda anymore), I’ve been very interested in the outcome of this particular squabble. That outcome came suddenly on January 11 at 5pm, as we all found out that corporate Dr Pepper decided to eliminate the Dublin Dr Pepper line.

The deeper I dig, the more vague the truth becomes. While the lawsuit from corporate claimed that Dublin Dr Pepper was breaking their territorial agreement,  the case is far more sordid than that. There’s evidence that the contract in question was broken by corporate itself. Not only broken, but the broken state was promoted by corporate Dr Pepper. Ugh.

Unfortunately, corporate Dr Pepper was never concerned about clearing the air and proving themselves to be right (and helping to establish case law when it comes to gray areas like this). They were simply concerned with eliminating Dublin from the equation all together for whatever reason. And at this point it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. The fallout is more distrust, more anger, and the resurrection of  the all-too-familiar phrase “corporate greed”. Like we needed any more of that in the world.

I’ve been vocal on Twitter on Dublin Dr Pepper’s side of the argument, as I believe it to be authentically caught in the middle of disorganized corporate corruption, even if at some fault itself. The way that this resolved was such that Dublin did not have its day in court and Dr Pepper was not interested in pursuing the truth, as evidenced by offering the settlement to begin with. Dublin was left with the choice of a long court battle with an opponent who was not interested in the truth, but simply in winning (corporate has taken Dublin to court before and lost, so there is history in that as well), or getting at least something out of the deal. The something seemed wiser, especially since a long court battled would have ended all the jobs, not just 14.

And killing off the Dublin brand completely? Was that the appropriate business reaction even if there were contract violations afoot? Hardly. Especially since Dublin was constantly praised by corporate as one of the best faces on the company, and the best tasting version of the drink.

I was not privy to any conversations between the two sides, so I can’t know exactly what was said, or how things went down. But I have seen how Dr Pepper has reacted to the public outcry. The classic, “Be quiet and let the storm pass” reaction tells me that Dr Pepper is in a whole lot of hurt when it comes to understanding how business works in the world of free information. It also tells me that they have something to hide. They think they’re still in control of their image!

As of this writing, they still haven’t responded to the public outcry.

And the outcry has been enormous. Twitter was all lit up over it, and most called for boycotting Dr Pepper until they brought back the Dublin version of Dr Pepper. The Dr Pepper facebook page was deluged with negative comments, and it appeared that Dr Pepper at one point was trying to delete them as fast as they could.

Here’s one of my favorite tweets: “Dr Pepper, the makers of New Coke would like to thank you for taking the number one position on the list of soda PR disasters.” And another joked, “DrPepper closes @DublinDrPepper. In other news, George Lucas cancels #CloneWars since it’s more popular than the prequels. #saveddp”

But most of them looked like these:

“My big decision today? I’m done with @DrPepper and @DrPepperSnapple products. Their behavior towards Dublin Dr Pepper was shameful.”

“Boycotting @drpepper for being shady crooks who disrespect history and small business. “

“Shame on @drpepper for forcing @DublinDrPepper to shut down! Now I’m a Former Pepper! #boycottdrpepper”

And there have been a LOT of #boycottdrpepper tweets.

This got me thinking: how can we show the actual effect of the boycott? Is there something we can do to help Dublin and show disdain for corporate greed at the same time?

I think there is.

Here’s The Big Idea

Why not calculate how much money you would have spent on Dr Pepper products in 2012, and send that amount to the Dublin Economic Development Corporation? For instance, if you would have purchased one six pack of cans a week ($2.50 or so) for the whole year, that would be a total of $130. If you drank one Dublin Dr Pepper can ($.50) every two weeks, that would be $13. Or, let’s say you bought a 6-pack of glass bottles ($5) every month. That would be $60.

Just send that entire amount to the EDC so they can help our local businesses survive while we regroup. And we are regrouping! But it will take us some time.

If you start doing that, I’ll post the results here, and we’ll be able to not only measure the power of the people, but we’ll help a small farm town who took an extra hit during the worst drought Texas has ever seen.

So, if you really want to put your money where your boycott mouth is, then send what would’ve been your Dr Pepper money to:

Dublin Economic Development Corporation
111 South Patrick
Dublin, Texas 76446

(UPDATE 1   1/13/12 10:20pm  - it has been suggested that you use the earmark “The Ferris Fund” ;o)

(UPDATE 2   1/14/12 10:20pm – the city of Dublin also sells Dublin Dollars. This is money that can only be used in Dublin. So if you actullay want to purchase something that you can get some use out of, buy some Dublin Dollars, and then come visit us to spend them! Doing business with us is better, because we get to meet you!)

And remember, you’ll get no return on your money, other than the warm fuzzy feeling in your heart to replace the disgust you have with Dr Pepper!

I’m just suggesting this as a positive way to react to the situation, and to do something rather than just sit and fume.

And if you think you would regret sending the money a week from now – don’t do it! Maybe you should wait a week to see if you still want to help. But if you do, we will be extremely thankful for your donation, as we know it’s tight for everybody right now. The money will not be wasted!

Sometimes, it costs more to do nothing and feel helpless.

Thanks in advance to anyone brave enough to trust a stranger asking for money. :^)

And Old Doc’s is still open, if you want to see where all the fuss – and 120 years of history – took place!

Perhaps your trouble with God is that He’s just not real to you.

You’re not alone. We are creatures of sense, nonsense, and evidence. There is a deep instinctual need to not be fooled, a survival mechanism turned into a trophy. In cave man days, being fooled by your environment could mean death. For modern man, it demonstrates that you are smarter than everyone else, and not one of the herd (you know – “those people”).

This is why when we see people praising God in the scriptures, they are reciting all that He has done for them. This is the evidence. It is the reminder that sense is quite often discussed as nonsense for testing purposes. Words have power, and declaring what God has done for you to this point goes a long way towards changing your thinking.

Ultimately, though, God is made real through demonstration. People demonstrating to you, you demonstrating to others. Revelations come to those who are in situations that require demonstrations. So if you’re wanting to hear God, then you need to put yourself in a place where to obey Him is risky. God is not insurance, he is assurance. There is a great difference.

Once when my wife and I were deciding whether or not to have another child, I remember telling God, “Show me the money, and I’ll show you the kid.” His answer was clear: “Show me the kid, and I’ll show you the money.” He has been consistent in this lesson, that provision for obedience comes after the first step made in faith.

Same for seeing the reality of God. Saying to yourself, “If He was more real, it would be easier to obey,” is the same thing as me, the kid and the money. The answer is that as you obey, He reveals more and more of Himself to you. He becomes more and more real.

You don’t need to hear God to give your stuff to the poor. You don’t need to hear His voice to know to stay connected to a local church body. You don’t need special orders just for you to clean a neighbor’s house, or to help widows and orphans. There are so many standing orders from God. All of them are invitations to find Him. He seems to be hidden to you, right? That’s because He’ standing where He wants to meet with you, and it’s not in your current location. You need to be about finding Him. It is an exercise in being sensitive to people’s needs. Where there is need, God will be there, and His voice will be clear.

This is why it says in Matthew 6 to seek first the kingdom, and all your worldly needs will be met as well.

If you want God to be real to you, go where He is so you can see Him. He is somewhere close by, waiting for you. If you want Him, He’s available. But on His terms, not yours.

I have a meeting today down out Old Doc’s Soda Shop, which is the store at the Dublin Dr Pepper plant in town. That’s always a treat for me. Dublin Dr Pepper is not only my favorite soda, but it changed my life.

No really!

I used to be a city boy, into the instant microwavable city life. I started off life in a Coke family, ended up getting married to a Pepsi wife (and converting, as Pepsi tasted more syrupy to me), and that was about the end of it. A pinnacle meal would’ve been Pizza Hut with said choice beverage.

On my second visit through Dublin, we managed to be coming through during business hours, and I finally got to get a good taste of Dr Pepper made the old fashioned way. I was hooked! I bought a month’s worth of the stuff and headed home.

Dublin Dr pepper is made with real Imperial sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. So all that month, my HFCS intake was limited to whatever was in the other foods I was eating at the time. At the time, that was just about everything I ate, but not in the amounts that you find in soda. So my HFCS intake was cut in half quite suddenly by my Dr Pepper binge.

The first thing I noticed something was off was when I went to have a bowl of one of my most traditional meals – Wolf Brand Chili. For some reason, it tasted horrible to me. And some other foods weren’t tasting right, either. I finally traced it back to the Dr Pepper – a simple reduction of nasty stuff in my diet made me aware of the taste of nasty stuff. I was beginning to be able to taste the junk in my junk food.

This was a problem for me, because I was a very picky eater of processed foods, and I loved the junk. The alternatives to my diet were neither cheap nor plentiful. Sure, I could replace my fishsticks with excellent seafood, but I didn’t have the money for that. So fish dropped out of my diet for awhile. And I couldn’t live off of my Mexican food TV dinners, or my two-dollar frozen pizzas anymore, because I was starting to taste the titanium in them. (No really – titanium is listed on the label. Go look through your frozen foods section). And I’ve never liked fruits and vegetables. My only vegetable intake over the years has been salsa, ketchup, pizza sauce, and spaghetti sauce. And the only thing close to fruit intake has been fruit juice. No kidding.

So I was in a bind. I couldn’t continue to eat the bad stuff, and I didn’t have a good alternative for it. And on top of all that, I hate trying new foods, because 7/8 of the time, I don’t like what other people like. I’ve heard, “You don’t like this? It’s incredible! What’s wrong with you?” about as many times as I’d like to hear it in my lifetime. There was both a physical displeasure on my tongue, and a social displeasure of being different So trying new things was no fun.

But because of the healthier path I inadvertently started on at Old Doc’s, I’m slowly trying better foods and climbing out of my processed food dungeon. I’m drinking local raw milk (licensed by the state, you frowning detractors!), I’ve found an apple that I like (Honey Crisp – when in season), I’ve eliminated HFCS from my diet as best as I can (and I’ve noticed the market has shifted to saying “No HFCS!” on the labels, so I’m not alone in that, though some of those labels are outright lies), I eat locally grown grass-fed beef (a vegetarian I will never be), and I’m trying a few other things here and there. It’s not possible for me to drop everything and become a crunchy foodie, or I would. I would love to live off the land. It’s just not in my taste buds – yet.

(It’s not just taste – textures are a big problem for me as well.)

But you know what? I’m trying. I’m doing what I can do. And you should as well. And if you don’t know where to start, I know this great soda shop…

When I stopped blogging oh-so-many months ago, it was in an effort to get more important things done. One of which was to focus on the last trimester, birth, and introduction of our fifth child. As the months of no-writing-time ticked by, I began to worry that I might never get back to it.

As you can see, I have returned.

As you can also see, on the internet, time is meaningless. You can read the last entry that I wrote and this one back to back. and if this is your first visit here, you will have indication of the time between this post and the last post. Time travel does exist!

Anyway, the direction of my life has once again put writing on the radar. Not just for me, but for others as well. We’ll talk about that some other time.

This delay-of-game naturally made me think of the laws of gravity. Of course.

The more dense something is, the more gravity it has. (No, not dense like dumb, but dense as in chocked full of compacted atomic goodness.) In this case, if you’re filling up your life with things that have nothing to do with what you’ve been designed to do, then you’re going to attract more things that have nothing to do with what you’re designed to do. Conversely, if you maximize what you’re good at doing, and minimize the distractions, you will attract more ability to do what you’re good at doing.

Of course, other cosmic events around you (and outside of your control) are constantly fighting you. If a black hole opens up shop next door, you’re going to lose some matter and energy to it. This is why you need to be super careful about who your friends are, and why. If a supernova goes off in your part of the galaxy, it might be that you get blown to bits, and you have to start over acquiring mass like you did at the beginning.

But if you have decided that – no matter what the circumstances – you are going to head in such-and-so direction, then it’s a matter of pointing in that direction and making a move.

Since we have been programmed to be still and try to look like everyone else, we find it very difficult to even want to make a move. Moving will cause failure, failure will cause pain, and we’re trying to avoid both failure and pain at all costs. Or so we’ve been told.

But here’s the secret of the black hole: it’s heavy enough to continue attracting things without any further effort.

Let’s say this gravitational singularity started out as a star. It’s moving through space like everything else. One day, it collapses into itself. All of the matter that was a giant ball of glowing gas is now packed into an area the size of a football field. This thing is heavy!

At this point, it no longer matters if this once-upon-a-time star is moving or not. It is attracting things to itself. It now has a gravitational field that few things can escape.

Same for you. There is effort in acquiring the people, equipment, and ideas to do what you have been made to do. But at some point, it can all implode for the better.

But no one tells you that. We’re told to avoid pain, to avoid movement, to avoid everything, because it my cause everything to explode. But, you must go through the same exercises to make implosion happen. And you won’t really know which one you’re going to get:

The risk is explosion – nothing works, and you have to start over with burn marks and scars, making you less attractive, and less able (so goes the thinking).

The goal is implosion – You can’t help but attract the right kind of people, talent, and assets to keep doing what you’re wired to do.

We know what explosion looks like – the bright shining star who is one day glowing super bright, and the next is covered in scandal, and then the next is out of the public eye for good. The investor who is rich on paper one day, and bankrupt the next. The nation that was once the lighthouse of freedom that has turned into a police state (a lack of freedom) for the sake of “security” (maintaining a freedom that no longer exists).

But we also know what implosion looks like – a collapsed Apple Computer that ends up surpassing Microsoft in profits. A collapsed U2 that comes back from inter-band issues and is still generating new material and touring all these years later. The bankrupt Walt Disney who builds Disneyland.

The main problem is that implosion has no formula: “If you will get this many people around you selling this many things, you’ll implode.”  Or, “If you’ll declare bankruptcy and initiate the implosion yourself, it will happen faster.” Nope. It’s different for everyone, hence the adventure. As Seth Godin says, “Art is the act of navigating without a map.”

All I can tell you is this: amass mass. Spend time on the direction you want to go. Spend money on what you’re trying to do. Spend relationship energy on those who can help you. Earn the trust of those who you need to believe in what you’re doing. Burn bad reviews and negative comments as fuel for your engine – extracting the truth that makes you better, and the motivation to prove the lies to be incorrect.

If you need better relationships, perhaps your old way of relating needs to collapse into a new way, so that the right kind of people are attracted into orbit.

If your business needs sales, maybe it needs to collapse in some way first, to attract customers, or suppliers, or some other ingredient that’s missing.

If your spiritual life is lacking, maybe your religion should collapse out of the way so that you can see God.

Don’t fear the failure. Pain is not optional in this world. But there is a difference between failing to become a gravitational force today, and being a failure for all time. There is a difference between the pain of becoming a mighty force in your universe, and the pain of being in the wrong place at the wrong time all the time.

For a human, collecting mass, creating gravity, and altering the course of the universe around you is part calling, and part choice.

As Switchfoot would say, I dare you to move.

I am a very jovial person. I laugh a lot, mostly when others aren’t. Small things make me smile. Seemingly insignificant things make me thankful. I see the best in people when others don’t. In general, that’s how I am.

But I do have a side that involves frustration, anger, and sadness. My lows are just as distant from center as my highs are. If I can be ridiculously happy, I can also be ridiculously sad. I can be as mournful as a I can be joyful.

But I don’t resent it. A full life requires full emotion. I have to receive the bad just as I receive the good. It’s not my favorite arrangement (it’s not Heaven), but that’s what makes this life this life.

In this regard, I have come to appreciate mourning. In its proper place, mourning is what allows us to break through. It is, ultimately, how humans say goodbye. That may sound obvious to you, but I think we don’t recognize it enough.

I am at one of those breakthrough doorways right now. I can see the goodness on the other side. I can almost taste the sweet fruit of doing what’s right. And yet, like an ungrateful child, I want to stay in the toy store just a little longer, play in the mud for a few more minutes, or have one more bowl of ice cream. For some reason to the Now Man, it’s not enough to have enjoyed a given stage. I feel like that if I’m not exhausted of something (aka gorged on it), then I’m going to miss out by not getting more.

We have this built in attachment mechanism. Since we know instinctively that life can turn on us at any moment, we try to stay where its safe, warm, and dry. But this argues with the very nature of our dynamic existence. So how do we make our attachment mechanism release the current scenario so we can get to enjoying the next?

We mourn.

Maybe in little ways like a droopy day. Maybe in big ways like weeping for hours on end. Often, we try to soften the mourning with food, fellowship, and distraction. What we really should be doing is learning how we mourn, so we know how to use it to our advantage, helping us move more quickly from one stage to the next.

I would like to say that eventually we’ll learn not to mourn. That, too, would deny the construct of our existence. Letting go and mourning is part of the deal. And there’s no textbook definition of the time or intensity of it. It is for you and I to explore, to learn, to appreciate.

I am no expert at this. I don’t want to mourn any more than the next guy.

What I do want is the wisdom to know how to embrace mourning at the right time, without getting captured by it.

After a famine of a summer, business is picking up again. And it’s not just a trickle, but a tsunami. It’s a little intimidating, honestly.

(Of course, there seems to be a deeper depression in front of us, but it remains to be seen how it will play out. So there might be more famine, who knows.)

In the meantime, while I love to meditate on how God works in our lives, I’m also fully aware of the little daily life things. For instance, I have half of a garage to take down. I have chickens that need attention (and some that need cooking). I have a pole barn that needs to be moved. There is a spring garden to plan for. There are car parts to be fixed. There is a leak in the roof that has a simple but inaccessible fix. And there are rocks to be moved. And the new firewood racks to be rigged (“built” is too gracious a word).

In all of this work, I can quickly get overwhelmed.

Truth is, in those moments, I see no joy in the work. The actual few seconds it takes to lift a rock and move it seem wasted. Isn’t there something more funner to be doing?

But when I think about why I’m here (for someone else), and how I got here (not in my own power), it dawns on me: I have the authority and approval to do what needs to be done.

So I look at the wave of work coming, and instead of thinking, “Aw, nuts,” I’m beginning to think, “Awwwwwww, yeah! Where’s my surfboard?”

In a discussion forum, I made statement about engaging the Scripture through the Spirit. I was asked what the means, to which I replied:

The best earthly analogy is sitting in your Father’s lap, and letting him read to you. When you read the Scripture while in the presence of God, He explains passages to you heart to heart, so that your flesh can’t filter it into a flawed state. And he doesn’t just speak to the history and circumstances of the people you’re reading about, but how the passage applies directly to you now, and how it applies to your future.

This is what Hebrews talks about when describing how no longer will a man say to his neighbor, “Know the Lord!”, but God will teach each man Himself.

If you have never experienced this, I would recommend dropping everything and fasting and praying until it happens.

Also, when people find it difficult to read the Scripture, they probably haven’t experienced this. It’s difficult to want to study the Bible as a textbook. It’s not difficult to want to engage the God of eternity.

The next questions that followed were:

Are you saying that information is conveyed to a person that is separate from or in addition to the words of the text itself? How would you know that the source is God and not something else? Exactly how does one do it? How do you know you’re doing it?

 

These are great questions. But my answers ended up being too long to post in the forum that was already pushing a lot of long posts. So I decided to answer here, thinking that some of my regular readers would also want to know.

1. How would you know that the source is God and not something else?
This is the question I hear most often from most Christians, in the form of “How do I know when God speaks?”

How do we know that the Bible is of God? Is it all academic? Is it provable in court? No – wherever there are words of God to be believed, faith must come first. Only then belief has a clear path.

So this question needs to be applied to everything – how do I know this congregation, preacher, group of elders are assembled by God? Or is this just a civic organization that sprinkles Jesus on whatever they do?

More importantly, though, Jesus says, “My sheep know my voice.”

His voice never counters what is in the Scripture, but explains it to a point that is obviously not written.

For instance: at one point I was out of work. For a long time. I thought God was telling me to start my own business. I worked on it for 6 months, until I was at my breaking point. I was ready to give up, convinced that I had misheard God. I went to church on a Wednesday night, and the preaching was about Abraham escaping the famine in the promised land by going to Egypt, where he ends up having trouble with the King liking his wife, Sarah. The preacher made the remark that Abraham should’ve stayed in the Promised Land – because provision is always attached to the promise.

I went home determined to stick it out. Within a week, I had someone contact me from England, and that account lasted three years. I had heard the voice of God correctly. And, He spoke to me again through Scripture (via preaching) to tell me what to do next: stay in the promised land. Do not flee from where he had led me. Provision is attached to the promise.

All this from a passage about Abraham, and the Spirit applied it to me.

That time it was through a preacher, which still happens for sure. But I no longer have to rely on others to hear and interpret for me. I’m just as much of a priest as the preacher. This relationship is available to all believers, as part of the abundant life that God talks promises.

(Aside: Since then, every account I’ve tried to sell on my own has failed. God brings me customers, I don’t have to go find them. The ones I try to make happen proactively never work out.)

2. Are you saying that information is conveyed to a person that is separate from or in addition to the words of the text itself?
God rarely does simple things. Look at nature. Learn about the cells in your body (they are micro cities!). Everything is always more than it seems. Even the text.

Scripture says we hardly have anything in written form when it comes to Jesus. What he did on earth could not be contained in many books. The same thing is true about the rest of Scripture as well. How much of the daily life of Ruth is written down? Much less the places where Scripture says, “If you want to know more about this man, is it not written down in the history books?” – which we don’t have copies of.

That means that we only have a scaffolding in the text – an incomplete picture. The purpose of the scaffold is to allow us to climb to different levels at different times, and see God from different perspectives. The words, like the Word Himself, point to God. They are not God.

(God’s breath and God are two different things. Feel free to breathe in the breath of God at every opportunity, as long as it’s a part of the relationship process, and not the totality of the relationship.)

Example: when we read, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” do we stop at the words? If we do, we’re left with this idea of, “Do you think happy thoughts about them like you do about yourself?” But if we climb a little higher and let God explain what He means (as He does throughout the entire Bible) we learn that love is better translated “serve” or “take care of”. So, do you take care of your neighbor as you do yourself?

But then, God draws you higher: He might bring a person to mind, and tell you how to best serve them – something you didn’t know about the person at all. God is saying, “Love is taking pumpkin bread to that person, because that’s what their grandmother (who just died) used to do for them. It’s a comfort flavor that they need right now.” This person never told you that, but now, simply because you were reading Scripture, you now have an opportunity to obey what you just read.

God said nothing beyond the text. He explained it on a level that you were incapable of knowing on your own. The Spirit is our teacher, so that’s what we should expect of Him: teaching!

Some have focused on church history, the original Greek and the original Hebrew to the point of knowing noting about God. It’s all academic knowledge with no application.

Read the flight manual all you want, but until you climb in the cockpit and fly for yourself, it’s just head knowledge.

3. Exactly how does one do it? How do you know you’re doing it?

There is no “exact” because God refuses to be kept in a checklist. The process begins with faith.

When I began thinking that hearing God was super important, I took on a drastic approach, as I tend to do. I said, “OK, God. I have no clue what thoughts are mine, and what thoughts are yours. So I’m going to obey everything I think that is you. So please make sure that I don’t follow me.”

He honored that, and over the next few years, He refined my hearing. He purposely gave me scenarios that sounded odd, just to teach me the sound of His voice.

One time, I heard him say, “Want to see where your next house will be? Exit here.” I obeyed, and started driving through the neighborhoods I exited to.

I didn’t see my house. I went home disappointed.

Two years later, I was living in that neighborhood.

It is up to the Shepherd to teach the sheep the sound of His voice. But by nature of the Shepherd-sheep relationship, it happens naturally. Unless the sheep are paying attention to something else.

You know you’re doing it because He teaches you His voice, because amazing insight about passages come into your mind, and because amazing applications manifest themselves. God will make sure that the definition of “amazing” means “I know it was God” for you. (everyone is a little different in this regard, to His glory.)

If you will say, “God, I’m going to open the Scriptures. Amaze me. Teach me your voice.” He will do it.

And most likely, the first thing His voice will encourage you to do is to be patient in seeking Him.

It’s finally done! I can’t believe it! My book: [Expletive Deleted] – A Christian Man’s Guide To Getting Off The Pornography Carousel is done!

You can head on over to http://www.hopecanyon.org and and purchase it. All of the proceeds go to develop a facility for single moms called Hope Canyon. The goal of Hope Canyon is to help single moms get on their own two feet, and  leave government assistance behind. And all you have to do to help is buy a book! Isn’t that easy?

The book completely destroys the Christian myth that feeling guilty and fleeing is the best defense against pornography. In spite of our accountability groups and heavy-handed website guardian tools, some 70% of Christian men and 40% of Christian women are still addicted to pornography! My book explains why, and what to do about it. Whether you’ve struggled with addiction, or just wondered how to help a love one who is trapped, this book explains what you need to know about the mechanics of the enemy’s most effective weapon against us.

Please check it out today! http://www.hopecanyon.org

And tell everyone you know!

I’m editing page 60 out of 80 in the soon-to-be-released book. I’m hoping to announce it this weekend or next. Stay tuned!