I have grown up with the concept of business. At 10-years-old, my younger brother and I baked (with some of mom’s help) and sold banana breads (as well as blueberry, pumpkin, and zucchini) door-to-door. We also had a “distributor”, Grandma, who worked at a large office building with many of our subsequently happy customers.

At 16, I began an active pursuit in a growing area of interest, web development. By 18, I had written an article for a local newspaper and landed one of my first web development projects – I barely knew what I was doing and $600 seemed like a lot of money.

I continued my “career” in web development, constantly adding new skillsets and stretching myself from project to project. My maturing talent for writing and my desire to communicate as effectively as possible played a critical role in my success.

Today, at age 24, I have continued in the web development industry – and I am greatly enjoying it. My abilities have increased exponentially, as has my realization that there is so much more to know. The scale of the projects I work on has also increased greatly in size and complexity as well as in influence and impact.

I share all that for a reason. I have been in the business I am now, working with three of my closest friends, for almost four years. We have enjoyed a lot of success, especially by the standards of those on the outside looking in – yet we are keenly aware that its not yet what it could be.

Something hasn’t been what it could be. A lot of the “pieces” have been in place – the talent, the passion, the determination, the sticktoitiveness (its a word) – the components were in place, yet the success seemed to be more of occasional bursts than the desirable (and essential) steady stream.

I’ve had time for reflection these past few weeks. I’ve also taken the time (though I haven’t “had it”) to read. The reflection and reading, combined with a host of leading circumstances, have drawn me to a conclusion that my lack of success to the degree that I know God has given me the capability of has been through no fault but that of my own.

Tonight, that came to a head as I realized that somewhere along the line, I’m not sure where, I had lost sight of the nobility of business. I always knew that business was a part of who I am – yet I often wrestled with it. Being in web development means that I am often working with “intangibles”. You can’t “touch” a website. You can’t pick it up and turn it over in your hand. Consequently, for a time, I had allowed myself to put less of a value on the work that I do and that, in turn, consciously and subconsciously, impacted my ability to sell and deliver on my work.

No longer. Business is a noble profession that, I am realizing increasingly, is under heavy attack. When was the last time you watched a movie where the business man was the good guy? When you think of large, highly successful businesses – do you think of them as honest, full of integrity, and fully deserving of their success? I didn’t, and most people don’t. It wasn’t a conscious idea in my mind – yet it was an idea. That idea, the concept that business is something less than noble is a major inhibitor to success in business.

Think of it. We consider the hard-working American and the labor that he or she produces with his or her own two hands as “noble” – and rightly so! When, though, did that hard-working American become limited to the factories, fields, and mechanic shops? What about the men and women who build the businesses that employ many of these hard-working noblemen? Are the owners any less noble? Without a conscious consideration, I found myself thinking those thoughts and, subsequently, thinking less about the importance and nobility of my own work as a businessman.

That is changing, though. I am realizing that I have not valued the opportunities of business as I should. God has given me two eyes to see, hands to work, ears to listen, a mouth to speak, and a mind to think. He has given me the ability to work with those hands, to work hard and to do work that will bless others and be a blessing to me and my family in return.

The past 3 1/2 years of business have been the best and most challenging years of my life. I’ve undergone a lot of character development and as I have experienced those fires of growth and made choices for good, I have noticed and am continuing to notice a corollary increase in business success.

Business is noble. If you are working, you are in business, and I applaud and encourage you for that decision you made. Now, take a sanctified pride in your work. God has given you the ability to work – Do it with all your might. Put your heart into everything you do and focus on blessing those you work with – be they your drive-through customers, your lawn owners, your consulting clients, your large businesses, your government, your church, whomever – focus on blessing your customers.

I am excited to be in business. I am looking forward to what this year brings as I continue to grow, by God’s grace, in favor with God and man.

Jonathan Wold

P.S. The thrust of these thoughts came after reading the first chapter of Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Thanks to Joshua for pointing me in the book’s direction.

God has been doing amazing things in my life these past few weeks. He always has been – I’ve just been starting to pay closer attention lately. He’s been teaching me so much about the Christian experience and what it really means to know Him and to walk with Him. I love Him more and more each day.

Near the end of last week I was given an opportunity to test my growing experience when the front headlamp on the driver’s side of our HHR gave out. Several weeks prior, my younger brother (who is quite mechanical adept) showed me how to change the rear lamp and, armed with that experience, I was able to approach my task with at least a foundational experience.

I looked up the replacement bulb in my owner’s manual, purchased the bulb at our local Walmart, and set out to perform the task.

I started with the owner’s manual. It offered me the following instructions with the accompanying photo:

I turned the wheel and started on the fasteners. Realizing quickly that they weren’t coming out with my fingers, I grabbed a pair of flat and long nosed pliers and tried again. Have you tried to pulling out those fasteners before? They’re like a thick porcupine quill – they don’t want to come out. I called my friend Nick Johnson and asked for his advice. He suggested I just use force to tear them out and get replacements later. One of the fasteners was a bolt instead of a “quill” and it came it much easier.

After removing four of the fasteners, I attempted to “access the wheel well”. The accessing process, which they suggest rather simply in the manual, didn’t turn out to be so simple for me. After a few minutes of evaluating the plastic covering and realizing that I surely wasn’t going to remove the whole thing (I had noticed quite a few more fasteners), I decided to try and hold the plastic cover open far enough to squeeze my hand through. Success!

I’m now about 20-30 minutes into the process. In about an hour, my wife will need to take the vehicle and leave for class. Our son is sleeping peacefully, though nearing his awake time, and Joslyn is working hard on homework. Its cold outside, though not unbearable, and through the entire process, I have been talking with God.

So far, everything is OK. Its taking longer than I’d expected, but that’s alright. I feel for the lightbulb and, after a bit of hand manuevering, I secure it and attempt to pull it out. It doesn’t give (I had forgotten about step 4). After a few moments I attempt to rotate it – success! I pull it out down far enough so I can look at it through the opening.

I used my free hand and a few well placed bites to remove the new lightbulb from its package – taking care that I don’t damage it in the process. As I held the new bulb in my hand, I noticed a red ring around the base which the old bulb did not have. The color difference triggered a thought and, in hindsight, I see that God was putting a mark for my attention. I ascribed the difference to the fact that it was new and moved on.

Freeing the old bulb from its “socket” was a bit difficult. I didn’t know how the release worked and I experimented until I found the right place to squeeze. I put the new bulb in and, feeling success near, I worked the bulb back up to the lamp and pushed it in.

Thirty minutes later I was still trying to push it in. Try as I might, it wouldn’t go! I could see the bulb clearly through the lamp, but it wasn’t holding in place. I thought of leaving it there, but diligence would not allow. I knew God wanted me to do this right and I asked Him and continued to ask Him for the answer.

Over an hour had passed since I began the task and I was still working on changing that light bulb.

“Lord, what should I do?” I asked, and asked again. A thought was impressed to my mind “Go look at the other bulb.” I looked, and gathered some hints. The bulb was facing a certain way and, sure enough, my bulb was not far enough in. I went back at it and still, no success. I would push at it, turn it, twist it, re-angle it, and it just wouldn’t go all the way. It would get close and that closeness would seem so promising, yet it just wasn’t going.

“What should I do Lord?” I asked again, then again. Another thought was impressed to my mind, “Go take the other bulb out.” The thought had occurred to me earlier and I had ignored it – I wasn’t eager to repeat the fastener removal process again. This time, though, I decided to give it a try. I made my way over and, moving on the experience gained from the last panel, I removed the second panel much easier. I discovered that I only needed to undo three fasteners and not four. I accessed the light bulb, pulled it out, and successfully put it back in. It worked beautifully.

I went back to my new bulb and tried it again, armed with the confidence of success on the other bulb. It didn’t work. I went back inside the house, referred to the manual again, and noticed the direction in step 4 to turn it counter-clockwise. I had been trying that – at least I was attempting the right thing.

Joslyn came out with Jaiden in her arms, reminding me sweetly that she had to leave soon. I smiled and thanked her and assured her I was close.

“Lord, I don’t know what to do here.. I know You have the answer. Show me what to do.” I asked and kept asking, the smile still on my face. A thought came to me. I pulled the new bulb out and replaced it with the old bulb and attempted to put it back in. It went in!

I pulled the two bulbs out and examined them closely, looking for a difference. They were manufactured by a different company and, for a moment, I thought that I would have to find a new bulb somewhere else. An impression seemed to say “Keep looking”.

Then, I saw the red ring around the new bulb. I pulled it up and examined it more closely, realizing that the amount of space it occupied had been preventing the bulb from sliding in place. It moved to the touch! I pulled at it and, sure enough, it slide off.

I laughed and smiled, thanked the Lord, and quickly finished the installation, heading back into the house just in time to take Jaiden and successfully see Joslyn off to class.

Through the experience, I learned again that God cares about every single part of my day, however great or small. He wants to help me with all the details and He wants to work in me to solve the problems I face with a smile on my face, no matter how long it takes or how seemingly difficult the task.

Today has been a good day and, as God blesses me with another day, I look forward to getting to know Him more, growing in patience, and increasing my mechanical abilities.

Jonathan Wold

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 :).