BoW Prosperity Plan

Life Mission

My life mission is to foster millions of Christians’ communion with Christ (prayer, Bible study, etc). I will do this by encouraging a serious focus on attaining devine wisdom through journaling online.

Destiny

Within 10 years, I will have created a vibrant community of over one million Christians who are actively sharing how their relationship with Christ is growing in intimacy through communion with Him and interacting with other Christians interested or experiencing the same thing. Beginning of Wisdom will become THE only blogging platform that a Christian would choose to publish on. Hundreds of thousands of Christians who were previously did not journal now journal regularly and consider their BoW journal to be their most valued earthly possession.

Area of Innovation

Quality will be the area of innovation. The site will be absolutely beautiful. It will be a place that Christians LONG to be.. not out of obligation.. not out of addiction.. but out of appreciation of beauty and out of love for Christ and other Christians.

Immutable Laws

1 – We serve Christ by investing and profiting from the talents that He has entrusted us with
2 – Ethics and integrity are the bedrock of our success, are are never to be compromised
3 – We work passionately to make a difference, but never at the expense of risking a failed household

Community

Seeking Wisdom and Guidance on BoW

[This is a transcription of an audio recorded entry]

Lord, Jesus, I come to you today in seeking of your wisdom and guidance. As you know, I was doing some reading on the internet last night, and I came across the journaling of Mark Roberts, who’s my pastor back in my teenage years, at Irvine Presbyterian Church. To sum it up, I just feel really… I guess I would say discouraged and just basically unworthy and unqualified for what I feel you are calling me in to. The scholarship that is available out there is so overwhelming. Even just looking at Mark’s work… he’s obviously devoted his life to this and has the time… has made the time to properly study and develop these ideas that he writes about. They’re lengthy and they’re well developed… I just feel like ‘who am I to even be venturing into this area when I’m doing it on such a part-time basis and I don’t have any background in this. I didn’t go to seminary… who am I that anyone is going to trust anything that I say or lend any merit or any credibility to what I write on the site. I could just really use your comfort and guidance and wisdom on this.

Michael… Beginning of Wisdom is the apt name for what you are doing. You are setting a foundation. You are not diving deep into specific topics like some of these other Bible scholars do. That’s not my intent for you. My intent for you is to set a proper foundation for others to recognize and realize and pursue further study of. The truths that you lay out on the site are not, by any means, the whole truth. There’s much more truth and these scholars that you compare yourself to are people who I’ve called to take it to the next level, so to speak.

Lord, I suppose that makes sense. So, one question I have is… the teaching material that I’m writing, is it in the right format? Would it be better for it to be in a blog form, where people can comment on it? Should it be my personal writing versus Beginning of Wisdom’s writing?

No, Michael. The writing needs to be from the perspective of Beginning of Wisdom. As I said, that ministry is meant to represent the beginning of wisdom. Fear of me is the beginning of wisdom, and you’re providing a baseline of understanding… a correct and true baseline of understanding for people to then launch from in their own studies and their own intimate prayer time with me. Keep in mind, however, that scholarship is not the point, it’s not the goal. It doesn’t matter how much you know about me; it matters that you know me, and that I know you. The relationship is what matters. The scholarship path can easily become a distraction in and of itself, even though it is done “in my name”, and is a path that I am protecting you from.

Lord, so how do I know when to stop? How do I know how far to take the teaching material?

Michael, you have the structure that I want for you in the teaching material right now. I do not mean for it to get any more extensive or exhaustive than the structure that you solidified last night. So what I want you to do is build out that structure, keeping in mind that this material is meant to be a launch pad for people’s own intimate study and prayer with me.

Thank you Lord.

Comfort and Guidance on BoW

Lord Jesus, you know why I’m here.

Yes, I do, but do you?

Well, maybe I should stop right there, then. I admit that you know far more about me than I do. You know infinitely more about where my life is headed than I do. What am I looking for? Lord, I submit to you for your comfort and guidance.

Michael, you are not special, in the sense that others are like you in many ways, many ways that you do not expect or realize.

What do you mean? What specifically is this in reference to?

Other people want communion with me more than anything. They want to feel that they are truly connected with their Creator, their Lord and Savior, but they don’t know how to get there. There is so much mis-information out there, and so many ‘perspectives’ of the truth, that it’s simply exhausting and quite confusing. These people need a way to approach me and need to be taught to approach me intimately.

The sad truth is that most people who are redeemed do not experience the restoration of the relationship with me. Your teaching will help solve that. I want relationship more than anything. The redemption wasn’t to give people a free pass because I love them, it was so that we could share an intimate loving relationship.

The website you are working on will bring awareness and will set example to others on how to approach me.

So, I have to address this, what about Brandon’s feedback yesterday. The words that came out of my mouth were that his feedback did not discourage me because I have faith in you and the direction I believe I have received from you. And that is what I would say again if I were talking with him now. But I have sensed that this is not entirely true. Although I want to believe this way and want to believe this strongly, I can feel the turmoil within.

[removed content from me intended for a potential reader]

Michael, please do not address your readers in these prayers.

Ok, Lord.

Michael, address me only. This is our intimate time. Do not qualify our communion with anyone.

I was just trying to encourage more feedback, or at least not discourage it because it causes me to work through issues with you.

I know, but just like you just did, you can address me with that information, and keep this a one-on-one dialog.

Understood. I accept your guidance on Brandon’s feedback.

Michael, you are right to expect my guidance and direction. That is the nature of our relationship, and the nature of the relationship that is available to everyone else. Brandon’s feedback, as you know, is valid. There is also purpose in the feedback for you right now.

What is that purpose, Lord?

The purpose is to create an issue for you to trust me with.

So how do I trust you with this?

That’s the wrong question.

How do I protect against people misusing the website?

You don’t. And that’s also the wrong question.

How do I protect people from being led astray?

There you go Michael. Your role is as a protector in this issue. Not a preventer. You will not be able to prevent anything. You can teach, encourage, motivate, inspire, and model, but not prevent.

Assuming that people will use the site to post content for others to read that does not come from me, this presents a real problem. Let’s assume that the enemy himself inspires a person’s writing and they present the information as coming from me.

Ok…

The question becomes, how do you protect innocent minds and hearts from accepting false teachings? Your prior question was the right direction, but this question is more pertinent.

What’s the difference?

Lay the questions side by side.

How do I protect people from being led astray?
How do you protect innocent minds and hearts from accepting false teachings?

I don’t see the difference.

The difference is in the perspective.

I still don’t get it, but I expect that you will make this make sense, as you always do, and will become another example that your wisdom is shining through these prayer sessions.

What answers would you get to the first question?

Oh, is the difference in the word astray?

Yes Michael. Keep going.

‘Astray’ is a matter of perspective. ‘False teachings’ are not. A teaching is either true or false. ‘Astray’ depends on what the intended target is?

Close.

This is so frustrating when you lead me like this, but I realize why you do it. This becomes greater evidence that our relationship is real, doesn’t it?

Yes, Michael, but it’s also the most effective way to teach you what you need to know.

So you want me to try to figure out what the remaining piece of difference between the two questions is?

Yes, Michael.

Does it have to do with your use of the words hearts and minds?

Yes, Michael.

Oh, do I need to appeal to both?

Yes. That’s it. You must appeal to both the mind and the heart when protecting my children from potentially false teaching.

So how do I do that?

The mind can be appealed with a call to study of my word. The heart can be appealed with a call to prayer.

Is the mind a doorway to the heart?

No, but it can be a gatekeeper. It’s more like a doorway keeping the heart from having its influence on your life. Your heart knows truth, my truth, when it hears it, and when it is not clouded by selfish motive (pride). My truth can only be revealed to a person when the mind is not fighting against it. The Bible appeals to the mind and heart, but once the heart has experienced connection with me, personal communion is the more personal method. Obviously it takes experience to get to the point where you know what to trust is truly from me.

Ok, so how do I put this to use? If someone is someone’s prayer journal entries, and using your assumption that the enemy is speaking to them and they are representing that it’s you, and the reader doesn’t have any basis for knowing whether the information is pertinent to them, or representative of your larger truth, how do I protect their innocent mind and heart form potentially being led astray.

You know the answer already.

Ok, so here’s my strategy:

• The commenting feature needs an introduction. Something that calls people toward a mentoring action, either for correction or for building credibility for any ideas presented in the entry.
• The sidebar needs to have some disclaimer information that scrolls with the screen so that it’s always visible, that calls the reader’s mind and heart to check the validity of the claims.

I get the sense, though, that I cannot protect people who will not heed the call to do their due diligence before accepting false teaching.

That is a good plan, and also true what you said at the end. It’s not your responsibility to keep the content true to my word, or to keep people safe from false teaching. False teaching pervades the world in many ways, this website does not and can not ensure that false teaching won’t make its way into it. However, false teaching can be reproved, based on the plan you outlined above. That’s part of the plan. That dialog, while it may get somewhat heated at times, is healthy and part of the whole point.

Ok. Is there anything you would add to the plan?

Just that:

• You should include some information within the signup process that posts will include this disclaimer
• Include that the website doesn’t condone or support the claims of its independent authors
• Force people to register in order to read others content
• Provide users with a terms of service that includes consideration for what we’ve discussed here. This TOS should not be an automatic check box type of thing

Understood. Should this be a high priority?

From a technical perspective, yes. But I still want you to focus on your teaching material. You are making good progress in this area, and there’s more to develop before I want you getting more heavy into the technical stuff.

Ok, Lord. Thank you again for your wisdom and guidance.

Another Reconfirmation on BoW Next Steps

Continued from this entry

Leveraging Lessons Learned

In a previous entry, I said: “The greatest takeaway / lesson from that experience (the seemingly wasted time of computer gaming) was the model of using positive reinforcement feedback to strengthen the bond between the user and the system.  Can this be used by God?  What would a system look like that used this model to bring people closer to Him?”

BoW Idea

A more refined / detailed catalog of resources by Christian study topic, perhaps even with a rating and commenting system like Amazon.

BoW Idea

Guide the user to explore the major concepts and point to resources and teach a strategy for learning each topic.  Guide the user to explore more detailed (more mature) concepts to ‘dig in’ to and the resources / strategy for learning.