I’ve been following some of the principles of more efficient time management for awhile now, but until this morning, they just hadn’t been brought together.

Last weekend I joined several of my close friends and family on the last Sabbath of Indiana family camp. While my wife and I had only been able to make it for one day, several of our friends and family members had been there for the days prior. During those days, they’d each been inspired on the topic of time management and scheduling. As a result, upon their return home, they began putting the principles into practice and working to set themselves and their homes on schedule. Their enthusiasm planted seeds of inspiration in my heart also.

A few months ago, my dear wife had put a lot of thought and energy into a schedule for our family which we then proceeded to follow faithfully for about 2-3 days. A busy school life and the slant towards unpredictability that newlyweds are often prone too was set against us and, though we recognized the definite importance, we let our schedule slide.

How many of you have experienced that before? Why is it that time management seems so difficult?

Several years ago (and a few of you faithful readers may recall this) I put a lot of energy into a “mastery of time management”. I had good intentions and did make apparent progress, but I was lacking a few critical ingredients.

As a Christian I now understand it my God-given responsibility to be a good steward of the time and energy He’s given me. To experience continual success, as a husband and as a businessman, I must be a master of the time God has allotted me and not a servant to it.

It’s quite a challenge. It can and must be done, though.

Here’s an outline of the schedule that I’ve set this morning.

4:00 AM – Arise and shine. Get up and begin my morning prayer and study time.

5:00 AM – Prayer and study ends. Go for a short walk. Return and plan the remainder of the morning.

5:30 AM – For the next 2 hours, my time is spent between answering emails, blogging, and working on side projects. Over the next few weeks, I will continue to focus on improving how this particular block of time is spent.

7:30 AM – Walk with my wife.

8:00 AM – Breakfast and preparation for work. Leave around 8:40.

9:00 AM – After prayer, work begins at our office in Jasper, Indiana.

—

Getting up at 4 AM can be a challenge my friends. Some of you have tried it and, like me, after a good night’s rest, wouldn’t ever think of starting your day another way. Even with good intentions, though, and a recognition of the potential that the early morning offers, it’s not an easy thing.

Each night before going to bed, I pray that God would wake me up the next day and, very importantly, that He would give me the desire to get up. The warmth of bed is inviting when your eyes first open, especially on these cold fall and winter mornings. If I don’t get up immediately, my eyes will close and I will sleep.

God has never let me down. He always seems to know exactly how much sleep I need. Since I began the habit 2 years ago, even on days when I had early morning appointments, I have never had to use an alarm clock. There’s something jarring and unhealthy about the alarm clock suddenly pulling us out of restful sleep into a state of unhappy alertness. In my study of the Scriptures I found testimonies of others that relied on God to wake them up morning by morning (Isaiah 50:4) and I decided to exercise that same faith and rely on God to wake me up. Alarm clock free for all this time, I get much better sleep and no longer dread the early morning hours. Try it and see for yourself.

And with that, I’m off to start on my next morning project. I’ll continue to keep you posted on my progress with scheduling and I look forward to hearing your personal reports as well.

Have a wonderful new day,

Jonathan Wold

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working together to bring consistency to our life. While we continue to be flexible, we tend towards a bedtime of no later than 10:30 and, ideally, closer to 9:30.

With my work as a partner in a development and niche marketing company, several side projects, work in my local church, and a family of my own, finding time for blogging, etc., unless I have control over my time, is impossible.

Here’s how a typical day will go.

I wake up, without an alarm clock, around 5-6 AM. I get up, drink a full glass of water, and then go into our guest room/office and spend time in Bible study, inspirational reading, and prayer. 45 minutes or so later, I close my time in prayer and then begin tackling the day. I’ll divide my time between answering emails, blogging, and working on side projects. This will typically go on until it’s time to eat and get ready for work. Depending on our schedule that morning, I’ll eat breakfast with my sweet wife, spend a bit of time together, and then off I go to work.

On some mornings, I’ll tune in to a message on audioverse.org while washing the dishes or doing some other general cleaning around the house. My wife takes excellent care of our home and helping out every now and then when things get backed up is the least I can do.

So, is it worth it?

Yes! A thousand times over, yes!

That extra time in the morning makes all the difference my friends.

In just the past few weeks, as I’ve had the extra time, I’ve been able to learn more, to move forward on my side projects, and be better prepared for the day’s work.

If you are already an early riser, I encourage you to keep it up. I’d love to hear your personal experiences.

If you’re not yet, how about giving it a try? It’s not an easy thing if you’re unused to it. I know what it’s like to be up till 2 AM and sleep till noon. It’s a hard cycle to break and for some it’s easy to decide that “Well, I’m just not a morning person”. It’s a habit, though, and like any other habit, old ones can be broken and new ones formed.

As I grow older and responsibilities increase the desire to have a mastery of my time and health continues to grow stronger. And as I am learning to control my time and keep priorities straight (God, family, work, ministry, side projects), I’ve been blessed with good health and success in the work that I take on.

I have much to learn and I look forward to more trials and a greater depth of experience.

Have a wonderful new day my friends.

Jonathan Wold

Using the design work of another has been a “no no” in my mind for a long time. Why? Well, why not just do it myself?

And that’s what I’d done.

The previous design of this blog had been put together by yours truly and it had taken me quite some time. I worked hard at it and had some positive feedback.

Design isn’t my strength, though. God has given me talents and abilities in other areas and rather than letting pride hold me back, I’ve stepped forward to make the most of the talents that God has blessed others with. If I had the time, I’d be interesting in learning more and putting the energy into an original design. The time I do have, though, needs to be focused on using the gifts I already have, working to improve and sharpen them.

I finished a book by Ben Carson this morning entitled “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story“. I highly recommend it.

In it, Ben talks about the importance of “THINKing BIG”. He encourages us to begin with determination and the full use of the gifts God has given us, then to go on for training and a sharpening of our skills. Look at the obstacles in life as hurdles, not barriers. Each hurdle conquered prepares us for the next.

In our business, we encourage each other to focus on our talents and work towards mastery. Making the decision to use an existing WordPress theme helped me clear up the block my “old design” was giving me and focus on writing once again. I was reminded to practice what I preach.

Have a wonderful rest of the day,

Jonathan Wold

It’s over 2 months since my last update and as there has been no lack of progress in my life by any stretch of the imagination, I’ve finally been impressed and blessed with the time to sit down, start typing, and share.

The following is an outline and summary of the events of the past 2 months:

• Relocated From Woodburn, IN (Near Fort Wayne) down to Jasper, IN – This included not only a move of nearly all my earthly possessions, but also a relocation of what was once my business office in Woodburn to an entirely new business venture. I made the move along with my dear younger brother, Joshua, who works full time with me and the rest of the team in our Jasper office.
• Started A New Business – As this has occupied the majority of the past 2 months, a paragraph will hardly do it justice, but I will give a brief sense of things and look forward to sharing more details over the next few weeks. Through circumstances that Providence along could arrange, my brother and I met and made the decision to go into business with two bright and God-fearing young men, Nick Johnson and Gunnar Bruun. Nick and myself have both been blessed with several years of experience in web development and, when we met, we were both running successful businesses. Gunnar, Nick’s brother-in-law, was working with him full time as Joshua, my brother, was working with me. God led in our lives and the four of us made the decision to go into business together. The day after our arrival, we started work on one of the biggest projects we’d, individually, ever done. We’ve been blessed with tremendous success as we’ve moved forward and finished project after project and, though some of the days are long and our brains feel like they’ve run a half-marathon, we unanimously agree that we all love our jobs.
• Trained For, Ran, And Completed A Half-Marathon – On Sunday, October 7, the four of us, along with several other members of Nick’s family, ran and completed (in good time) a half-marathon in Evansville, Indiana. Joshua and I, along with Caleb, Nick’s younger brother, had opportunity to train for just over 3 weeks prior to the run. Prior to our training, none of us had spent much time running. We went from having never run more than a few miles at a time to being able to do easily do 8 at a time and, ultimately, the 13.1 miles of the half-marathon. We attribute the success as a blessing from God and a reward for the lifestyle choices we’ve made. All of us are vegetarians and seek to be faithful in caring for the bodies God has given us. I’m looking forward to running again :).
• Baptized – At 21 years old, though expressing a desire to follow Christ and seeking to do so with all my heart, I had never yet been baptized. On September 28, 2007, at just past 11:30 at night, I made the decision to commit my heart and my life fully to Christ and was baptized in a lake by Jeff Johnson, Nick’s father. I’ve never been happier. God has called me and has drawn me closer to Him all throughout my years and has blessed me and given me a happiness beyond expression. The decision to be baptized is a simple following in the footsteps of my Savior, a public expression of my commitment to Him. A few short weeks later, my brother Joshua, 20 years old, also made the decision to be baptized and, on a beautiful Sabbath afternoon, he committed his life fully to Christ.
• Attended Family Campmeeting – Earlier this year, two of my younger brothers, Joshua and Josiah, attended the Oklahoma Family Campmeeting. They were greatly blessed by it and, when it came time for the Indiana Family Campmeeting, Joshua and I, Caleb, Nick, Sabra (Nick’s wife), and Noah (Nick’s son), drove up to Timber Ridge for the 4 day meeting. We were greatly blessed by it and highly recommend it. I was encouraged and inspired by the testimonies and, since campmeeting, God has used the things I’ve been blessed to learn to call me up still higher in my walk with Him.
• Blessed With Ministry – A few months back, after reading Escape to God and being greatly blessed by it, I was impressed to share it, along with The Great Controversy through my personal website. You can read the offer on my list of Books That Have Changed My Life. Over the past few weeks a few requests came in, which I happily sent out. On Monday of this week, though, what began as a tiny trickle of requests began to grow into a bubbling stream. As of this morning, I’ve received over 200 requests for books from all across the United States. I’ve contacted the publisher of Escape to God and, Lord willing, I’ll be buying out their inventory of hardcover copies to fulfill the requests received thus far as well as the requests that continue to pour in. It may, at first, seem like a great expense. But in the light of the way that God has used the books to be a blessing to me and, in the light of eternity, sharing these books with all who will read them, no matter what it costs me, is the very least I can do. Both books have played a pivotal role in my life and have been a powerful influence for good. I am honored to be blessed with such an opportunity.
• And Much More.. – It’s the little things that count most of all. I have been so greatly blessed these past few weeks and months. There have been trials and great challenges, but through them all, as I’ve looked to God for strength, He’s heard my prayers and has helped me through. I can’t see what the future holds, but I trust God to take me through it and, come what may, I will continue to exercise faith in Him, knowing that He will lead me along the very best way.

It’s now time to eat and go to work. I thank each of you for your support and encouragement throughout the times I’ve been blessed to know you. For those I’ve yet to meet, I look forward to meeting you :).

May your days be richly blessed and may you be a blessing to others,

-Jonathan Wold

About a week or so ago, I was working on a WordPress project that called for an above average contact form. It needed to give visitors the ability to upload photos, receive auto responses and notifications, have built in spam blocking, and track submissions in the WordPress database.

After a bit of looking, I found cForms II, a WordPress contact form plugin developed by Oliver.

I began working with the plugin and was very quickly satisfied that I’d found a winner.

Now, in setting up this plugin, I made a mistake and was reminded of an important lesson, which became the inspiration behind this entry.

The contact form for this particular project was being used as an extensive questionnaire. As such, we decided to split it up over multiple pages to encourage people to make it all the way through. I came up with a way to do it, but it wasn’t working quite as nicely as I wanted it too.

So, I went over to the cForms II support forum and posted my challenge to see if anyone had any ideas or suggestions.

Oliver replied, letting me know that my request, though possible, was outside the scope of what cForms was meant to do. He also (and this is where the lesson comes in) pointed out the trend that people, developers especially, who’d been using and benefiting from the cForms plugin, had taken to the habit of removing credit for the work.

..And that’s what I had done.

Without even thinking it through, I had chosen to remove the credit link back to cForms from the client’s site. This seemed natural to me. The option was there; Oliver had been nice enough to provide an easy way to add or remove his credit link, and without stopping to think, I’d taken it off.

Now, sure, it’s all open source, we’re more than entitled to add or remove credits as we see fit, right?

Well, we certainly have that choice.. but is it fair?

In my case, there is no excuse. I’m a full-time web developer. I get paid for the work I do and I benefit directly from the work of guys like Oliver who’ve put their time and energy into developing a solid product. If it weren’t for him and guys like him, I’d have had to go and build the same thing from scratch.

Which brings me to the lesson that this served to remind me of, “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” Luke 6:31 As a Christian, no matter what I’m doing, whether it be work or play, I’m to treat others as I would be treated.

Now, being thus convicted, I began to give the situation some thought and was blessed with an idea. In my redesign of JonathanWold.com, I had finished up the work by adding a colophon. Traditionally, colophons were used in print media to provide details about the publication of the book. In the web, we’ve begun using it to provide details about what goes on “behind the scenes” of a website.

I’ve decided to start making the addition of a colophon a habit, in which I’ll provide a list of the resources and technologies used in the architecture and design of a website.

So, a big thanks to Oliver for his work on the cForms II plugin and for being very professional about the entire situation. It was a timely lesson for me to be reminded of and I thank you for it my friend :).

And finally, last but most important, I give full credit for my work, the good work I’ve done, to God. Were it not for Him, my conscience would have never been pricked and my sense of integrity would be non-existant. The things I’ve been blessed to learn and the people I’ve been blessed to meet, have all come as a direct result of His hand in my life. The mistakes I’ve made I take full credit for, but the lessons I’ve learned from them and the victories I’ve gained by applying each lesson learned, all are due to a God who’s been forever patient with me and never given up.

Have a wonderful day my friends. Remember, give the credit where and to whom it’s due.

Until next time,

-Jonathan Wold

P.S. Credit for the awesome illustration up top goes to my brother Joshua, who, in addition to his work with me and the rest of the team, does freelance illustration on the side.

Just a little over a month ago, on July 10, 2007, an overwhelming growth in business led to our move from a bedroom office in our tiny home to a full sized studio in the nearby town of Woodburn, Indiana. My good friend Christopher Jones was staying with my family at the time and he was here to help with the transition.

We moved into the new office in record time and, after a few short days delay, were setup and running happily on a 16MBs Cable Internet line, courtesy of our friends at Comcast. This may not seem like a big deal, unless you knew that we’d been running the entire web development business on a dial-up line from home : ).

Here’s a few quick pictures of the office:

It’s hard to believe that was barely a month ago..

Our good friend Chris headed back home a few days after the move and we were back to work. Over the next few weeks, Joshua and I continued working like crazy, taking on and finishing WordPress projects as fast as we were able.

Despite our best efforts, though, we just weren’t able to catch up on things. Project demands continued to pile up and I knew that something had to give.

While attending HostingCon with my good friend Travis Walker, I became excited about the possibility of launching a WordPress hosting solution. The market was ready for it and my experience with hosting, along with a lot of experience on the WordPress platform, seemed to be a perfect match. I began sketching out ideas and putting together a product lineup.. then I stopped to think.

God began to speak to my heart and asked if this was really what I wanted to do. I stopped and thought about it. The money would be good. I already had several amazing opportunities just waiting for me to open the doors. The work, though hard, would be straightforward and I knew that with the right team, it would be a solid success.

But I kept thinking about it.. and then realized that, no, this isn’t really what I want to be doing. Taking on WordPress hosting, or hosting of any kind, requires a serious commitment of time and effort. I’m afraid of neither, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that setting aside the next few years of my life to pull off the kind of success that I saw possible, well.. my heart just couldn’t be in it.

So, I decided to scale back my operations and return to private web development. That meant closing the doors on a few larger opportunities and continuing to work on smaller scale projects with new and, especially, existing clients.

Not long after that, God began awakening in my heart a desire to get back to my roots in niche marketing. Being in private web development, though the pay not being nearly as good as it could have been, allowed me the time to start building up some of my old niche marketing projects as well as focus on new ones.

And then, 2 weeks ago, life began taking a turn.

I’d been praying for some time that God would open and close the doors for me on the opportunities He’d have me let go or pursue. During the first weekend of August, my brother and a good friend of ours made our way down to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend ASI (Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries). That Sabbath night, I met Jared Thurmon, the founder of PresenTruth.com. We began talking and I became excited as he shared his vision for the project that the Lord had given him. Another visitor stopped by his booth and began to talk. I stepped away and promised to return later that evening. As I began to walk away, I was suddenly impressed, distinctly, that I needed to go back. I asked God why, but He offered no explanation, just a further impression that I needed to return.

After a quick stop at another booth, I returned. Jared and I started talking again, and then another young man (whom I’ll introduce later) came by.

Over the course of the next few days, this young man and I began talking over the phone and ideas began to spark. Just under 2 weeks after our meeting, Joshua and I drove down to Southern Indiana to visit with this young man and his family. A few days after that, we made the decision to pack up and move south to relocate and work in a new office.

In just around 2 weeks, we’ll be finalizing the move and business over the next few weeks, months, and years, will take a very dramatic turn for the better.

How can I be so sure?

Well, while many of the details are yet to be worked out, I have absolute confidence in a single fact, and that is this: God has brought us together.

God heard my cry for help and, as I’ve been willing to put my best into the work before me, He has greatly blessed. Everything about this move and transition in business made a perfect and beautiful sense in a way that only God could arrange. I’m eagerly looking forward to this next step in my life and I’m looking forward to continually sharing how God has lead.

May your days be richly blessed my friends. Until next time,

-Jonathan Wold

Growing up, I’ve always enjoyed reading. My busy life (often too busy) over the past few years, though, has put a sharp limit on the amount of reading I’ve been able to do.

Nevertheless, God has blessed me with a few exceptions. As I’ve gotten on a more regular sleep schedule, I’ve been able to have more time for reading, both in the early mornings and in the evenings, and in that time I’ve started to catch up on a lot of the time that I’ve missed over the past few years.

Of all the books I’ve read, there are a few that hold a special place in my heart. These are the ones that have had some of the greatest impact on who I am and how I live my life each day.

And so, after finishing another and thanking God for it, I was impressed to make a bold offer here on my website. As these are books that have been an immeasurable blessing to me, I want them to be a blessing to you too.

If you’ll commit to reading them and sharing the books with others if they’ve been a blessing to you, I’m willing to send you any or all of the books on my list, free of charge.

Take a look at the list and read my brief testimony for each on my new free books (with a catch) page.

May your day be richly blessed my friends! :)

-Jonathan Wold

I’ve had many ups and downs in my life. As I began work as a freelance web developer in early 2007, I was slowly but surely making my way back up, along a new path, from the most serious “down” I’d yet experienced.

During my stay as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic in early 2007, as I had been blessed with time, I began learning more and more about the world of professional web development. Through personal projects and helping friends, I began to put into practice the things I’d learned and putting my many years of earlier experience to good use.

My efforts were not in vain. God greatly blessed me and with each new project I would learn new things and strengthen still further the knowledge and experience I had. Soon there was nothing within my areas of expertise that I wasn’t able to tackle. As I had practiced a careful balance of my time, asking God each and every day for His guidance and direction, and as I was blessed with patient friends who were willing to help me and teach me new things and through a God-given desire for mastery of my field, I pressed forward.

Suddenly my financial situation, though still daunting, was beginning to look a whole lot brighter. I was blessed to meet and make some awesome new friends. I had a steady stream of new requests for work and a just as steady stream of happy clients (I was also very blessed with patient clients during my work overloads). Everything seemed to be going great.

But something wasn’t quite right..

In the midst of all this success, a slow and subtle change had begun to take place in my life. As the demands of the business grew, I found less and less time for personal Bible study and prayer.

I rationalized that all these demands on my time were a blessing from God and decided that He’d understand if I didn’t have as much time to spend with Him anymore. I reasoned that He would bless me and strengthen me nonetheless. Thus, satisfied with own explanation, I plunged my energy into work still further, rarely paying heed as the time flew by.

Then, it began to happen. Slowly but surely, as I spent less and less time with God, a change began to take place in the way I would act and think. Little by little, almost imperceptibly, I began ascribing some of the credit for my success to myself, to my hard work and my ability to learn.

That’s where I went wrong..

In those moments, subconscious as they may have been (I wasn’t yet at a point where I’d have taken credit “outloud”), I failed to realize that it is too God alone that honor and glory is due for the talents and abilities He has blessed me with.

I failed to realize that my success had been directly proportionate to the time I’d spent each day with God. There had been days in my past when, after choosing to start the day with God through prayer and study, no matter what the cost, the hours would go by and sometimes leave me with as little as a single hour in which to work. But what an hour it would be! I have never had a day where, when deciding to spend that extra time with God, that I have suffered any loss. Quite to the contrary, those days have been the most productive days as my mind has been quickened and my ability to grasp and understand the technical challenges presented me has been deepened.

In the recent weeks of “busyness”, I had forgotten that God is a God who knows no failure and when you work with Him, there need never be a mistake made. I took the weight of responsibility upon my own shoulders and began looking to myself to solve the problems that would perplex me.

And then Sabbath morning, July 21st, a video that my little brother was watching caught my interest and I went to my room, opened my Bible, and began to read the story of King Solomon.

He started out very humbly. His ascension to the throne after his father’s death and the turmoil that came with it, combined to help him realize the great weight of responsibility that now rested upon his shoulders. With an entire nation waiting to see what he would do next, he recognized his helpless and presented his case to God in prayer. He asked for wisdom to discern between right and wrong and God wondrously granted him his request. God blessed Solomon far above and beyond what the young king had ever asked or dreamed of. His kingdom grew strong and became one of the wealthiest kingdoms that ever existed. All seemed well.

Then, a change began to take place. Slowly but surely as he grew older and his wealth and fame increased, he began to depart from God. His success, which in the beginning he had recognized as being completely from God, he began to ascribe, bit by bit, to himself. The praise of other men began to get to his head and before he knew what had happened, he was living in idolatry, in sharp disobedience to God’s law.

But, God never gave up on him and though it took many years and there were severe consequences to follow, Solomon turned back to God and his life was changed from being a curse in his idolatry to a blessing in his repentance and his desire to warn future generations.

One of the many great blessings of the Bible is that we can see the results of choices made by character after character and, by God’s grace, we can learn from them.

My situation was nothing compared to what Solomon went through. I’m not “famous”, I’m certainly not “wealthy” in the things of this world, and my tiny virtual empire isn’t even a drop in the bucket to what Solomon had. Yet there is still a lot I can learn from his experience.

In order to be truly successful, I must put God first and last and best in everything, each and every day. God has blessed me so much.. I can trace His help back to my days of learning CSS and the desire that He gave me for mastery. I can recall challenges that would come up that had no seeming solution which would then lead me to ask God for help. He never failed me. Sometimes the answer would come within moments through a flash of inspiration, other times I would be blessed with the answer through a friend. In every case, no matter how challenging the problem, God always blessed me with a solution.

I don’t know what the next few weeks and months will bring, but I am beginning to realize now, more fully than ever, that I dare not go forward without God. I wouldn’t be where I am today without His help and if He’s brought me safely thus far, I know that He can lead me on.

May your day be richly blessed,

-Jonathan Wold

P.S. I’ll be attending HostingCon 2007 up in Chicago this week. If any of you are planning to be there, drop me an email or a comment. I’d love to meet you :).

In the far more important realm of understanding God’s Word, I’ve seen the principle of “gaining treasure to share with others” yield the greatest reward. There is a great responsibility in sharing truths gleaned from the Scriptures as, in our human weakness, we must be sure that we aren’t imparting our understanding of the Scriptures but rather the plain truths revealed in the Scriptures themselves. It is with that in mind that I’ve taken up this project and as I continue to keep that uppermost in my mind I have no doubt that He will continue to bless the project.

And so, the first Scripture theme that I’ll be studying out and planning to share each and every morning is “Proverbs“. Starting with Chapter 1 and Verse 1, I’ll make my way through each and every verse, connecting scripture with scripture, sharing some of my own notes as a fellow student, and ending each morning with a call to action.

I encourage each of you to check it out. Your comments and feedback are warmly welcomed : ).

Have a wonderful new day my friends,

-Jonathan

Update: My younger brother and co-developer Joshua Wold has joined me this morning on ScriptureStart.com with the start of a morning theme on John 17.

Not long after the launch of Content Heroes back in May of 2006 (my last update), I began slowly but surely taking back up the art of freelance web work. While the launch was met with relative success and positive feedback from all my customers, the next few phases of the business didn’t pan out as I had planned them too and inevitably the project gave way to higher priorities in my life.

In the Summer of 2006, I was converted. It began, among many other things, by the reading of an old book entitled The Great Controversy. After finishing that book, I had a desire to begin taking up the study of the Bible. I’d “read” the Bible all my life, grasping at little bits here and there and generally reading it to satisfy the claims of a convicted conscious. But it wasn’t until the events that transpired during the Spring and Summer of 2006 that I truly began to take a genuine interest in the reading and understanding of God’s Word.

My experience began rather simply. After being inspired by a short story, my younger brother Joshua and I agreed to put the Bible to a test. We each selected a small book of the Bible, he Ephesians and I, Colossians. We committed to reading the book of our choosing for a set number of times each day for a period of two weeks. He chose 7 times a day and I chose 3.

2 weeks later, something completely new began to take place in my life. I always began each reading with a simple prayer, asking for God’s blessing on the reading. Sometimes I wouldn’t be able to begin my reading until well into the late evening and at other times it’d be so late that my eyes would barely stay open. But I stuck to it. As I did so, slowly but surely it began having an effect on my mind. I began thinking about the book of Colossians. I began talking about it. The verses would be on my mind throughout the day and, though I can’t fully explain it, the effect it had on me began to be marked.

At the end of 2 weeks, it was time to choose the next course of action. Joshua and I were excited with our progress and eager to continue. He stuck with Ephesians and I chose to bring a 2nd book into my reading, 2nd Timothy. But, after having already grown fond of Colossians, I wasn’t willing to give it up. I decided to read both. 2nd Timothy 3 times a day and Colossians, once.

2 1/2 months later, I was reading 7 small books of the Bible each and every day. That was unheard of for me. Several months prior I would have never imagined it possible. But not only was I doing it, I wanted to do it. With each reading I was constantly searching for a deeper understanding. I began marking my Bible and noting the connections between all the different verses, chapters, and books. It became a delight to search out the treasures hidden within each book and as I faithfully kept up the search, God richly blessed me.

Finally, at the end of the last 2 weeks, I was ready to move on. I’d exercised and acquired discipline during those 2 1/2 months and I was now I had a hungering and a thirsting for more. I had a desire to read the rest of the Bible. I decided to go through the New Testament. A month later, that was finished. For the first time in my life I’d read through the entire New Testament.
Now, that done, I was eager and excited to tackle the Old Testament. I made my way through somewhere around the pace of 10-14 pages a day. Another 2 1/2 months or so later, right near the end of November, 2006, I had finished the Old Testament and a second reading through of the New.

Somewhere during that time, a change took place in my heart. It’s a change that I can’t explain nor will I ever be able to pinpoint exactly. But I recognized something different in my life. For the first time I began to understand God’s love for me. I began to understand the great sacrifice of my Saviour and of all those in the faith who have gone before me, following in His footsteps. Such thoughts would bring tears to my eyes as I realized what a mess I had become.

Yes, I was a mess. Up till that point in my life, self had been the ruling agency. There had been a battle, to be sure. The principles I learned from childhood kept me through my life of independence. I strove to be absolutely honest in all I said and did. I strove to be faithful to my religious convictions (not working on the Sabbath, etc). And while the battles were fierce at times, for the most part I remained faithful.

But the problem was “self”. For those of you who’ve faithfully followed the events of past few years of my life, a number of illustrations may present themselves. My work on the “Startup Blog” several years back became, sadly, while a wonderful learning experience, an overwhelming example of my immaturity and lack of responsibility. My work on the Youthcove.com community, while marked with great success and an amazing range of blessings and positive experiences, also served to show forth my immaturity and inability to manage. My writing style on this very blog and my contributions to internet marketing, showed, though perhaps not openly, a desire for recognition, for respect, for fame. It may be said that these are all normal and even to be admired. I would agree that they are normal; they are a part of our fallen human nature. But as a child of God, there is no place for a desire to be recognized, a desire for the respect of my fellow man.

My problem was my selfishness and God worked wondrously in me to bring me to a point where I could see that problem and begin looking up for the solution.

Back in 2005, I had been blessed with a great deal of financial success. My experience in internet marketing was very real and the financial blessings that accompanied them only served to increase my confidence in my ability to succeed. At a certain point in my experience, I was making more money on a monthly basis through a small number of my websites than the average American’s monthly salary. Everything seemed to be looking up. Consequently, I began lax in my “money management”. I’d been wisely counseled on a number of occasions to become more responsible with my income, to which my reply in thought and even voiced was, “I don’t need to budget, I’ll just make more money.”

Thankfully, all this came to a crashing halt right around February of 2006. Through a powerful series of circumstances, my income was almost entirely cut off. On top of that, because of my poor management ability, I had acquired a considerable sum of credit card debt, all under the pretense that I would quite easily “pay it off later.” Suddenly I was left with no income, a large share of monthly expenses, and a much larger debt over my shoulders.

God knew just what I needed to wake up.

Thankfully, I did so. The road to maturity has been long and very hard and I’ve still a long ways to go, but God is good and infinitely patient and thankfully I am making steady progress.

I took up the art of “freelance” work in the Summer of 2006 and began, once again, gaining and improving my talents in the web development industry. I took up CSS and the basics of PHP, while working to improve my ability with Photoshop. Acting on a strong conviction, I purchased licenses for all the software in my possession and discarded the items obtained illegally in the past. This came at a time when money was very tight, but God greatly blessed and with each commitment, projects came through to pay for my purchases.

Since then, I’ve gained a strong desire for mastery of the web development industry and having been steadily bending my energies towards gaining experience and practical knowledge. It is my desire to put my absolute best into my work, regardless of the client or the size of the project. The experiences have been difficult at times but I am thankful for each and every one. The work has been blessed and continues to grow strongly up to this very day. As the Lord blesses me with more time I’m looking forward to improving my abilities still further.

And thus began my new life. Internet business took a side for awhile as I had much to unlearn and relearn before taking it back up again. I’ve continued to work on a few small “niche marketing” projects here and there and the work has been a rewarding experience and marked with small successes. I don’t know what God has in store for me in the future but I have no doubt that I’ve been blessed with knowledge and experience in “internet business” for a reason and it is my sincere desire to use all that I’ve been blessed with to His honour and glory.

Which brings me to today. Just a few days over a month ago, I landed in Santo Domingo to begin a 2 3/4 month volunteer project. I’ve been working very hard here to acquire and master the Spanish language (absolute immersion does wonders!) and have been growing in my desire with each day to take up work in the medical field to minister to the physical needs of those I come in contact with and, in so doing, have a chance to minister to their spiritual needs as well. My faith is grounded on Sola Scriptura, and, though yet an imperfect faith, I strive earnestly each day for a more thorough and solid understanding of the Bible. It is my desire to share the blessings that I’ve been given with others. God has given me a peace within my heart that passes all understanding and even though life now is more difficult than it’s ever been before, I take comfort in knowing that God is leading and I go forward with an energy that outstrides anything in my past.

In the posts to come, I look forward to sharing more with each of you, my dear readers. The focus of this web journal, as I see it thus far, will be to take up again my work in “internet business” and continue, once again, to share the things I’ve learned with others and help in everyway I can to encourage each of you in your work.

By God’s grace, my faith will shine through in my work, and there may be a point where some of you may take offense. This I cannot avoid, as my faith is what inspires me to put my very best into every venture I undertake. But it is very important to me that each of you know right from the very beginning that I have an absolute respect for your individuality in religion. You are accountable to God alone for your faith and while I will be completely happy to share with you the things I’ve learned upon your request or answer any questions you may have, I completely respect your choice and will do nothing, by God’s grace, to ever infringe on it.

I thank you for your interest and a heartfelt and sincere thanks to all of you who have kept me in your prayers. I look forward to making this blog of humble service to each of you in your work and encouraging you in every way possible. Put your very best into all that you do : ).
-Jonathan Wold