The 30-Second Writer: On Reclaiming Time and Publishing on Your Terms

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When the next book came up, IBP was not interested in that one, the cartoon books.
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And so I said, okay, I will publish those elsewhere, but I want to do it now.
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And the only way to do it quickly and to make sure it was done was to do that on my own.
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So I independently published.
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Hi friends, this is Read and Write with Natasha Podcast.
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My name is Natasha Times and I'm an author and a journalist.
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In this channel, I talk about the writing life, review books, and interview items.
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Hope you enjoy the journey.
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Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Read and Write with Natasha.
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I have today with me Dr.
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Gerald Robison, who has pastored churches on three continents and trained more than 1,200 Bible teachers in over 25 countries.
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He's also a prolific author of books, including Cat and Dog Theology, 30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life and Making Your Life Count for Zero, among many others.
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All right.
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Dr.
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G, as like people call you, welcome to the podcast.
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And I'm so excited to talk to you today, specifically about your latest book, which is 30 seconds that can change your life.
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So, how can I change my life in 30 seconds?
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Well, hello, Natasha.
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It's great to be with you.
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30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life was a result of a time when I had tongue cancer.
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We thought there was a day that I would cease to live.
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And I had perfect peace about that.
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But I began to think as that day approached, how can I use what little time I have left and use it to the most to be most effective, most fruitful, with what I wanted to do with my life.
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I didn't have enough time to plan for big things, large goals, long-term events.
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So I began to gauge my life.
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And my wife asked me, What do you want for a Christmas gift this year?
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And I said, I want a lifetime countdown watch.
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And she said, What is that?
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And I said, I set it for the date that we might think might be my last.
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And it counts down from now until then.
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Tell me how many, how many years, weeks, months, whatever I may have left.
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And she said, That sounds so morbid.
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Yeah.
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And I said, Well, to you it might, but to me, it's teaching me to count my days and to make them effective.
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How much time do I have left?
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What can I do with the time I have?
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And I began to focus on that.
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And so, not knowing that I didn't have long periods of time, I began to look at the very small moments of time, time that I was absolutely wasting.
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My wife and I enjoy watching television together.
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But obviously, even now, with streaming TV and channels that you pay for, they like to throw commercials in there.
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And when they do, that's time that it's usually something I do not want, something I'm not interested in, and they will show the same commercial over and over.
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And I noticed I'm just sitting there.
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I am wasting my time.
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I could be doing something, but surely there's not something significant you can do in 30 seconds.
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But I discovered that there was.
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I began to look throughout my life and throughout my day, throughout my home.
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What can I do significantly in 30 seconds in the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the master closet, in the garage.
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What can I do at work at my desk?
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If I've got 30 seconds, why waste it?
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I found that we I have so many small things that I could do that they they tend to buzz around you like gnats in the summertime.
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They prevent you from doing big things because you're always swatching at these gnats or mosquitoes.
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So I learned to squash those with the time I have.
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I look for moments that I could do something, but I choose not to because it might take too long.
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For instance, I will hear the mailman come.
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Well, I hear his truck come down the street, and I think, oh no, I can't quit what I'm doing and go get the mail.
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Why?
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Because it takes too long.
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And one day I bought a stopwatch and I timed it.
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My office is upstairs in my home, and I timed it.
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How long does it take me to get from my desk to the stairs, down the stairs, to the front door, out the front door, and just thinking about me made me think that takes a long time until I measured it.
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It was 30 seconds.
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I had put off something I could do for fear that it would take too long.
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And I could have done it and moved on with the rest of my day and accomplished other things.
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So in doing this, I I've learned to use what I call the unused moments of life.
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And all of us have that.
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And almost all of us think I don't have enough time.
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I've discovered that I do have enough time.
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It's just found in the time I'm not using.
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Fascinating.
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Can you give me more examples?
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So you mentioned the commercial time you do something, like swatting the flies.
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Okay.
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What give me examples of lost time and what do you do in these lost time moments?
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Okay.
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Everyday life is filled with it.
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Um my wife wanted me to, well, we we had letters, like uh the great big letters that spelled joy on the front of our house at Christmas.
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And I needed to take those down in January.
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And so I got a ladder and I set it up and I climbed up the ladder and I had a screwdriver, and I thought, this would be a lot faster if I used my electric screwdriver.
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Why don't I go get it?
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Well, it takes too long.
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So I sat there struggling with that handheld screwdriver, trying to undo those screws out of a brick wall, and I finally gave up.
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I timed it.
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It took me like 25 seconds to get down off the ladder, go around the corner, into the garage, get my screwdriver, my electric one, and come back.
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And I would have wasted more and more time hand unscrewing those things than just taking 25 or 30 seconds to go get a tool that would make it incredibly fast.
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So I learned to acquire time.
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Now, I I've discovered that we use a lot of phrases like, I'm going to save time by doing this.
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I found that you cannot save time.
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You can use it more effectively and more efficiently, but you can't save it.
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At the end of the day, you do not get a bucket of unused time that you get to carry over to tomorrow.
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So, how can I use my time most effectively, most efficiently to get the most dumb, to get the most accomplished and the most fruit made in my life?
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So I've learned really to quit use to quit not using time, time that's vacant.
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When my wife goes into the grocery store, I might wait in the car.
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She might be in there 15 minutes.
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What can I do with that 15 minutes in my car when I'm waiting in line at the drive-thru window?
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Is there anything significant I can accomplish while I'm doing nothing more than waiting?
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Uh while I'm waiting in line at the bank, waiting my turn to get to the tell it.
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Is there anything I can do with the time while I'm in line?
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So I began listing those.
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In this book, I listed 30 uh in every chapter.
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There's 30 things you can do in 30 seconds in different episodes or occasions of life.
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It was an eye-opener to me, and it released me to accomplish more things by using those unused moments.
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And so my goal is not to get people to use my list as a checklist and say, can I do this in my closet?
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Can I do this and this?
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No, it's to realize.
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I want to encourage them to understand and realize they have unused moments that they could put into practice.
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And it can change their life because they will find they are accomplishing more.
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Their life and their time is more effective and more fruitful.
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Almost everybody complains, I don't have enough time.
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But nobody has more time than you.
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We all have the same amount of time.
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Twour hours in a day.
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Why is it some people can uh seemingly accomplish more than we do in the same amount of time?
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I just try to help them understand and get that done.
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Okay, so give us an example of what would you do while you're waiting for your wife at the grocery store or if you're waiting at the bank online.
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Just what what would you do?
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Just give me a few examples.
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Okay, first I I have a to-do list.
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I have one every day.
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When you and I finish chatting, I have two things I have to go do.
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I will carry that list with me.
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Oftentimes, if my wife is in the grocery store, there's a stream of other stores nearby.
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I can go there.
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If I'm staying in the car, I have 30 things you can do in your car in 30 seconds each.
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Check the air pressure in your tires, clean the dashboard, get rid of all the junk that's in the pourboards, get rid of the stuff, clean out, organize your glove box or your sensor console, check the fluids uh in your car, or your windshield wiper fluids, check the oil.
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These are things that we could do, but we put off until we need to, and then we tend to not have time to do it.
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But you do have time, you can do it now.
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And you can do it when what were you going to do in the car otherwise?
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Sit there and listen to the radio.
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Maybe.
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So why not use the time effectively?
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I just try to open the gate and show you things you could get done while you wait.
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Okay, so what about people might argue like, are we pushing ourselves too much to the degree of burnout where sometimes those we need those 30 seconds for like mindfulness, or just sometimes we just need to stare at the wall.
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I don't know, just to to clear our our minds and give our mind a rest.
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But if like every 30 seconds of our life do this, be productive, do this, it can lead to a burnout.
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Do you agree or or not?
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If you persisted at it habitually without ceasing, yes, you would burn yourself out.
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But none of but none of us do that.
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Okay.
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We like to be amused.
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To muse is to think.
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Remember back in the old Greek times there were muses, those who would think and come to wisdom.
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Well, we like to muse, but we also like to be mused or to not think.
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We go to an amusement park.
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We do things so that we're not thinking.
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We use this little thing right here.
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We use our phone to watch TikTok and to watch Facebook to write notes and to be amused.
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We watch TV to be mused.
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We go into a fantasy world.
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And to say I don't have time because my life's full, I'm watching too much TV.
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Well, maybe take out a TV show and get some things done.
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I I've never met anybody.
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I have not met them who are actually burned out from doing too much.
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So you're thinking we're doing more amusing than musing in general?
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Because amusing is fun, while musing requires a mental load or a mental, like you have to exert some mental effort.
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And with with amusement, you don't.
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You just sit back and take the information.
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That's right.
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I believe that is very true.
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And I think it's more true of the younger generations because they have more amusing devices available to them with them all the time.
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Okay, so I mean, this is fascinating.
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And I just want to shift gear a bit and ask you about your background and how did you get into that?
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So you were a pastor, yeah, and you taught the Bible, and then how did you get into being an author of, let's say, self-help books?
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How was this transition from being, let's say, a man of God, teaching the Bible, to being an author about like self-help and productivity and all of that?
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How was that shift?
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Well, most of what I write is Christian-based.
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It's a faith-based ministry and writing that I do.
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The first book was, it was a fun book called Cat and Dog Theology, and it's rethinking and living passionately, rethinking the relationship with God and living passionately for the glory of God.
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I called on a pastor at the end of that to have close us in a time of prayer, and he said, No.
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I said, Well, what do you mean no?
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Afterwards, I spoke to him.
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He said, after what you taught us, I realized I don't know how to pray.
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I spent most of my prayer time being the master of God, telling God what to do, what I want, when to do it, how I and he said, I don't really know how to pray the way I should.
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And so we followed that up with another another book, Cat and Dog Prayer.
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From there, I like to do everything with a sense of humor.
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And I began to look at the glory of God all around us and in the animal world.
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And I thought, you know, we so often overlook seeing God just when we look at the world around us.
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I noticed there was a woodpecker that had a tongue that is too long for its mouth.
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But you don't see it flying with the tongue flapping in the wind.
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So what did he do with his tongue?
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God gave him a tongue that was able to reach down inside a tree to pull bugs out.
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But that tongue, he has to do something with it when he flies.
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So he wraps it around his neck and takes the tip and puts up his right nostril.
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Well, that's rather odd.
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Why did God do that?
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Well, the Bible says God made all things according to his will, or he liked it.
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So I wrote a little cartoon book called Because He Liked It.
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And it's just filled with cartoons, but unusual odd things about animals, bugs and fish and birds and all kinds of things.
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That began to grow.
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Eventually, I sat in a church at Christmas.
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I'm sorry, on another occasion, we were talking about Christmas.
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I thought this the guy that was the innkeeper in the original Christmas story, he sounds like a bad guy.
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You know, he had no room for Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus.
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But what does the Bible actually say about that?
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So I went back and reread the story, and I came up with a different story.
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Not different from what the Bible says, but different from what most of us interpret that story to say.
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So I wrote a book called The Innkeeper.
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It's a it's the retelling of the Christmas story, but from the innkeeper's perspective.
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So it brings in some humor, it brings in some thinking that makes your brain cells work a little bit more than just hearing the same story over and over.
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When tongue cancer hit me, they removed part of my tongue, and they the doctor said, You're fortunate we were able to grasp some tongue material onto your tongue.
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And I said, What is tongue material?
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And he said, Well, it's tongue material.
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I said, Okay, where did you get tongue material?
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He said, We got it from a cadaver.
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I thought, oh, oh, a dead guy?
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He said, Yes, he wasn't using it anymore.
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To just say, I do not know if that person was a Christian or not.
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So I told my friends, if I say anything that offends you, it's the other guy talking.
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That's a good line.
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Well, the tongue can the tongue cancer came back, and then I had I had portions of my tongue removed on three different occasions.
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I really, we we really thought there was a day on the calendar that would be my last day.
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And I wanted to give my I wanted to get my life in order.
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I wanted to accomplish what I wanted to do in the length of time that God gave me.
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And that's when I began thinking about the small units of time that I have overlooked and don't use.
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How can I use those?
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And that's where the 30 seconds book came from.
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I love it.
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So, Gerald or Dr.
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G, my question is about your publishing journey.
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So you you published all these books.
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Did you use an agent, a hybrid publisher, a publisher, self-published?
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How was your publishing journey through all of these books and what worked and what didn't work in terms of book sales?
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Okay.
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The first two books, the cat and dog theology and cat and dog prayer, those were written with a friend of mine who had been previously published, and we used his publisher, which was Interversity Press.
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Okay.
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To IVP.
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When the next book came up, IBP was not interested in that one, the cartoon books.
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And so I said, okay, I will publish those elsewhere, but I want to do it now.
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And the only way to do it quickly and to make sure it was done was to do that on my own.
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Correct.
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So I independently published.
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When other books came to mind and to my heart, and I began to continue writing, I began to look elsewhere.
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And it takes so long, they have to fight so many battles to get to the typical publisher.
00:21:35.740 --> 00:21:38.299
I said, there's got to be a better way.
00:21:38.619 --> 00:21:40.779
But I'm not a marketer.
00:21:41.099 --> 00:21:43.180
I need marketing help.
00:21:43.419 --> 00:21:46.139
So there were two groups I looked at.
00:21:46.379 --> 00:21:52.299
I chose not to go down the independent publishing again because they don't help.
00:21:52.619 --> 00:21:54.859
They print, but they don't help.
00:21:55.899 --> 00:21:57.980
If you want it marketed, you do it.
00:21:58.139 --> 00:21:59.259
Well, how do I do that?
00:21:59.419 --> 00:22:00.220
Who do I go to?
00:22:00.619 --> 00:22:01.579
I didn't know.
00:22:01.819 --> 00:22:05.339
So I found a group, a guy that runs it.
00:22:05.419 --> 00:22:07.339
His name is Steve Harrison.
00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:10.299
Steve offers all kinds of help.
00:22:10.619 --> 00:22:14.379
He has public people who specialize in marketing.
00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:17.500
He says, take some of our seminars on that.
00:22:17.740 --> 00:22:19.899
We can do help you with the publishing.
00:22:20.139 --> 00:22:21.339
Let us do that for you.
00:22:21.419 --> 00:22:23.099
We can help with the editing.
00:22:23.339 --> 00:22:28.059
And they did a lot of things, but a lot of it came back to me as well.
00:22:28.460 --> 00:22:32.220
I went that way, but I also kept looking elsewhere.
00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:36.619
And so I found another publisher called Leadership.
00:22:36.940 --> 00:22:38.299
It's a hybrid.
00:22:38.460 --> 00:22:41.259
They let you independently publish.
00:22:41.500 --> 00:22:43.259
They have the rights to the books.
00:22:43.419 --> 00:22:46.700
You know, this is something that our folks need to be aware of.
00:22:46.940 --> 00:22:52.139
When you go with a publisher, Publisher, they own your book.
00:22:52.379 --> 00:22:54.940
They own it and they have rights to it.
00:22:55.259 --> 00:22:56.460
You don't.
00:22:56.779 --> 00:23:03.980
And if you want to do something further with that, you almost have to get every kind of permission from them to do it.
00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:08.859
They will pay you a small amount of royalty for each book they sell.
00:23:09.099 --> 00:23:14.539
But they have to recoup their cost on the printing, the publishing, and all that.
00:23:14.779 --> 00:23:23.980
Well, doing it yourself means you pay less, but now you can't market it unless you have somebody to do that or pay them.
00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:30.299
So the hybrid is one that says we'll take the lights, but only for five years.
00:23:30.940 --> 00:23:36.460
We will put it in hardback the first year, softback the second year.
00:23:36.619 --> 00:23:38.859
We'll do an ebook the next year.
00:23:39.019 --> 00:23:41.339
We'll do an audio the next year.
00:23:41.500 --> 00:23:44.859
After five years, all the lights go back to you.
00:23:45.339 --> 00:23:46.539
I kind of like that.
00:23:46.700 --> 00:23:50.539
Now I pay them up front because they do the printing.
00:23:50.700 --> 00:23:57.019
I pay them for various things that they do, but they do much of the marketing.
00:23:57.180 --> 00:23:58.059
Oh, that's good.
00:23:58.299 --> 00:24:01.819
So they do because they are selling the book.
00:24:02.539 --> 00:24:03.019
I see.
00:24:03.259 --> 00:24:07.419
So they do the they do the marketing, they do the illustration.
00:24:07.740 --> 00:24:09.019
They do so much.
00:24:09.500 --> 00:24:12.379
They don't do everything, but they do a lot.
00:24:13.019 --> 00:24:21.019
And so I pay them more, but then I can buy the books at an independent cost almost.
00:24:21.419 --> 00:24:26.940
Sell them myself, but they can also sell online where I also gain money.
00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:31.180
And then within five years, I have all the rights back.
00:24:31.500 --> 00:24:37.899
So each option that you have has ups and each one has downs to it.
00:24:38.139 --> 00:24:41.740
Some you pay more, but you get more.
00:24:41.899 --> 00:24:45.740
Some you pay less, but you have to do more.
00:24:45.980 --> 00:24:53.019
Some you don't pay, but all you get is a royalty and you lose ownership of the book.
00:24:53.339 --> 00:24:56.779
So those things have to be weighed out by all of your authors.
00:24:57.500 --> 00:25:00.619
So in terms of marketing, what worked best for you?
00:25:01.019 --> 00:25:12.779
I'm I'm not fully there yet, but going with this other agency, the hybrid, where they are doing the marketing, I have some of those cartoon books that I showed you.
00:25:13.019 --> 00:25:17.980
I've now got a series of 15 of those being done.
00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:26.940
And they're being done in not in this small fashion, like this, but they're being they're being done in a book this size.
00:25:28.059 --> 00:25:29.740
And it's all full color.
00:25:30.859 --> 00:25:35.099
They are going to be putting it into social arenas on the internet.
00:25:35.659 --> 00:25:45.579
They have people who have book reading groups, they will interview them, they put them on video, they put the videos on YouTube and other things.
00:25:45.819 --> 00:25:47.659
We're just not there yet.
00:25:47.819 --> 00:25:53.259
So I can't tell you how well that's working, but I am looking forward to it.
00:25:53.579 --> 00:25:58.940
So how does your day-to-day look like as a prolific author and also as a pastor?
00:25:59.019 --> 00:26:00.539
How do you divide your time?
00:26:00.619 --> 00:26:05.180
How do you fight the 30 seconds to write?
00:26:07.899 --> 00:26:15.740
For me, I have to have an unction in my heart that this is a message that needs to be conveyed.
00:26:15.899 --> 00:26:16.220
Okay.
00:26:16.460 --> 00:26:21.259
Once that is there, then I come up with the outline in my heart and mind.
00:26:21.339 --> 00:26:25.180
And there's no telling how long either one of those takes.
00:26:25.339 --> 00:26:28.059
And it might start with a title.
00:26:28.139 --> 00:26:28.299
Okay.
00:26:28.619 --> 00:26:32.059
Because somebody will say something that captures my attention.
00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:36.859
And I think, yes, that is a theme I could write on.
00:26:37.099 --> 00:26:39.099
Then I begin to develop that.
00:26:39.259 --> 00:26:42.700
Then I develop, you know, what's going to go into it.
00:26:43.019 --> 00:26:50.059
When I actually sit down to write, I can write for hours or I can write for a half hour and go quit.
00:26:50.299 --> 00:26:50.779
Yeah.
00:26:51.019 --> 00:26:53.259
I don't keep regular hours.
00:26:53.419 --> 00:27:00.700
I don't say to myself, okay, from eight until five on Tuesday, you need to be at your desk and you're writing.
00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:13.419
Because if I don't feel that unction, if I don't have those thoughts in my mind, you're not going to pour it from my mind through my fingers into the computer and onto a screen.
00:27:13.659 --> 00:27:17.659
And I love it when it just flows.
00:27:17.980 --> 00:27:27.099
When I've thought it through, I have it up here, or I've made my notes and I can work my way through it.
00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:28.220
I love that.
00:27:28.379 --> 00:27:35.180
And I it it might be a half hour, it might be several hours, it might be several days in a row.
00:27:35.419 --> 00:27:42.460
If there's a whole book and I've got the whole thing in my mind, I can knock it out in a couple of weeks.
00:27:43.259 --> 00:27:51.659
Then I have friends and family that do the editing, that kind of thing, and then I send it off to be further edited.
00:27:51.899 --> 00:27:54.940
But for me, well, I'll tell you about.
00:27:55.339 --> 00:27:59.500
Let me deal with this one, the cartoon book, because I was dealing with that this morning.
00:27:59.819 --> 00:28:04.539
I had six new facts about odd animals.
00:28:04.859 --> 00:28:07.819
Animals which most people have never heard of.
00:28:08.059 --> 00:28:10.539
And each one's only a paragraph.
00:28:10.859 --> 00:28:14.700
That's about all I need for a cartoon book like that.
00:28:15.019 --> 00:28:18.940
So it was easy to knock out all six of those quickly.
00:28:19.099 --> 00:28:21.819
I had my notes, I had my computer.
00:28:22.059 --> 00:28:31.740
If I want a photograph of one, I just bring it up on the computer, put that in my notes, and so I got all six and shipped them off to the illustrator.
00:28:32.299 --> 00:28:37.180
That took maybe 30 to 45 minutes, and then I'm done.
00:28:37.339 --> 00:28:40.460
That's all he needs to fill in some gaps.
00:28:40.779 --> 00:28:43.019
So I'm not on a schedule.
00:28:43.180 --> 00:28:45.659
I don't put myself on a schedule.
00:28:46.059 --> 00:28:51.500
I like to write because I feel there's a need to say something.
00:28:51.740 --> 00:28:56.299
I don't want to feel I have to say something.
00:28:56.619 --> 00:28:59.500
I want to think I have something to say.
00:29:00.220 --> 00:29:00.700
I see.
00:29:00.779 --> 00:29:01.339
I like that.
00:29:01.500 --> 00:29:08.139
Do you do this full-time or do you still like practice being a pastor, or now you're just doing the writing full-time?
00:29:08.460 --> 00:29:13.899
Well, I'm I'm turning 75 this year, so I'm not pastoring.
00:29:14.539 --> 00:29:16.299
But I am retired.
00:29:16.460 --> 00:29:21.099
I can do as my time what I wish, but I still enjoy teaching.
00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:26.859
So when I get invitations to go speak here or there, I love to do that.
00:29:27.019 --> 00:29:29.099
And the right What do you teach?
00:29:29.419 --> 00:29:33.419
I teach about missions, Christian missions around the world.
00:29:33.579 --> 00:29:41.740
And while so many Christians think yes, we ought to do it, it's our Christian obligation and our responsibility.
00:29:41.980 --> 00:29:46.460
It's not something they desire, that they're passionate about.
00:29:46.940 --> 00:29:56.379
My job is to be help people become passionate so that that's something they desire to do.
00:29:56.859 --> 00:30:00.220
And so I use a lot of humor to do that.
00:30:00.779 --> 00:30:13.980
But that's something I teach, how to get churches turned on to, become vivacious for, become desirous of, helping God's kingdom to grow around the world.
00:30:14.779 --> 00:30:15.980
So what are you working on?
00:30:16.059 --> 00:30:19.180
What does the future hold in terms of new books coming?
00:30:19.339 --> 00:30:27.019
What is uh I'm look I'm working on one right now, another Christian-based book of solving the Easter problem.
00:30:27.579 --> 00:30:38.139
As Christians, we've learned to live with contradictions, and we know it's a contradiction, or there's something wrong with that, but in faith we accept it.
00:30:38.299 --> 00:30:40.460
Well, faith isn't the question.
00:30:40.779 --> 00:30:43.259
Reason is often the question.
00:30:43.500 --> 00:30:56.059
When we we think, you know, we've been taught that Jesus died on Friday and he rose on Sunday, or that's Friday, Saturday, and he rose Sunday.
00:30:56.220 --> 00:30:56.460
Okay?
00:30:56.859 --> 00:30:59.500
That's not three days and three nights.
00:31:00.220 --> 00:31:02.139
No matter how you cut it.
00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:09.099
So we either have to come up with excuses, the what I call theological excuses.
00:31:09.740 --> 00:31:15.259
Any part of a day or night equals the whole day or night.
00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:22.700
So it's Saturday becomes Saturday and Saturday, or Friday, Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday.
00:31:22.940 --> 00:31:25.659
That's still not three days and three nights.
00:31:25.899 --> 00:31:30.299
But we accept it because the scripture says he died.
00:31:30.460 --> 00:31:35.740
They had to take him off the cross because the Sabbath was approaching.
00:31:35.980 --> 00:31:38.460
So we think Sabbath, that's Saturday.
00:31:38.539 --> 00:31:40.379
So he must have died Friday.
00:31:41.019 --> 00:31:52.139
What we forget or what nobody taught us is that there were special days like the Day of Atonement or the Day of the Passover.
00:31:52.539 --> 00:32:01.819
These were what they considered high holy days, they were also called Sabbath days.
00:32:03.019 --> 00:32:11.419
And Jesus died before the Passover occurred, when the Passover lamb was slain.
00:32:11.819 --> 00:32:16.700
And if suppose that was either Friday or Thursday.
00:32:16.940 --> 00:32:28.539
Well, if it was Thursday, that means Jesus had to be off the cross before three o'clock on Wednesday, because Thursday for the Jews started Wednesday evening.
00:32:28.779 --> 00:32:49.019
Well that would have put him in the grave Wednesday night, Thursday, Thursday night, Friday, Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night, sometime before the sun rose, he's happening out of the grave.
00:32:49.259 --> 00:32:58.139
Now, with that thinking, he died before the Sabbath, but it was the High Holy Sabbath, not the weekly Sabbath.
00:32:58.460 --> 00:33:02.139
And the High Holy Sabbath happened on Thursday night?
00:33:02.460 --> 00:33:08.700
Well, it happens on the Passover day, and the Passover could have occurred on Thursday.
00:33:08.940 --> 00:33:09.419
Yes.
00:33:09.740 --> 00:33:21.980
It can have so there's there's any number of things that could have happened that just don't fit what I call Sunday school theology that we've been taught or led to think.
00:33:22.220 --> 00:33:25.819
I wrote coming up with some other ideas.
00:33:26.059 --> 00:33:29.740
Another book was one called Before I Was Jesus.
00:33:30.139 --> 00:33:37.659
For instance, Genesis says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
00:33:37.899 --> 00:33:48.059
And most of us who were raised in Sunday school, like I was, we picture God as a very, very old, ancient man with long white hair.
00:33:48.379 --> 00:33:51.419
He creates the heavens and the earth.
00:33:51.819 --> 00:34:19.340
But when we read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, especially John, it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh, and a few verses later, and it says, and when he became he, it was through him that all things were made.
00:34:19.579 --> 00:34:22.380
So it was through Jesus.
00:34:22.619 --> 00:34:23.420
Oh, really?
00:34:23.820 --> 00:34:37.820
When you read the book of Colossians, chapter one, and you get down to verse 16, it says that all things were made by him, and there was nothing that was made that was that was not made by him.
00:34:38.220 --> 00:34:40.220
So it was Jesus.
00:34:40.700 --> 00:34:47.659
It was God, but it was God the Son, not God the Father.
00:34:47.980 --> 00:34:53.500
Who who created the words saying it was it was God the Son, not God the Father.
00:34:53.740 --> 00:34:54.539
That's right.
00:34:54.780 --> 00:35:03.019
And when you when you read scripture, it says that God the Father is spirit, and it says he is invisible.
00:35:03.260 --> 00:35:04.700
But isn't that the Holy Spirit?
00:35:04.860 --> 00:35:06.140
No, that's God the Father.
00:35:06.380 --> 00:35:06.940
Ah, okay.
00:35:07.260 --> 00:35:10.220
The Holy Spirit is also invisible.
00:35:10.539 --> 00:35:16.300
But God the Father is spirit, and God the Father is invisible.
00:35:16.620 --> 00:35:26.539
Well, if it throughout the Old Testament, if there were people who saw God, how can they see God if God's invisible?
00:35:27.500 --> 00:35:38.300
So it must have been if Jesus has always been, if it he was with the Father in the beginning, then he has always been.
00:35:38.539 --> 00:35:44.940
Well, where was he between creation and Bethlehem when he came in the flesh?
00:35:45.180 --> 00:35:46.620
What was he doing?
00:35:46.860 --> 00:35:57.900
And we've often attributed so many of the appearances of God throughout our Bible as if it were as if it were God the Father, because we use the term God.
00:35:58.380 --> 00:36:05.260
But in our Christian belief, Jesus is the visible representation of God.
00:36:05.820 --> 00:36:19.340
So this book deals with where in the Bible did God appear, and people were afraid because they knew if they see God, they will die, God the Father.
00:36:19.580 --> 00:36:22.060
They said you cannot see God and live.
00:36:22.380 --> 00:36:25.019
And that happens throughout your Bible.
00:36:25.180 --> 00:36:30.780
Even in So you're saying in the Old Testament, like when when was it Abraham that saw God?
00:36:31.019 --> 00:36:36.220
And you say that was in the form of God the Jesus, uh the Son, not God the yeah.
00:36:36.539 --> 00:36:40.220
If you see him, it is God the Son.
00:36:40.620 --> 00:36:46.539
He is the visible representation of the Father, which no one can see.
00:36:46.860 --> 00:36:49.180
Are you getting pushback for this theory?
00:36:49.260 --> 00:36:51.420
Like people would say, no, you can't say that.
00:36:51.580 --> 00:36:55.580
Is it is it a controversial theory or is it acceptable?
00:36:55.980 --> 00:37:03.420
It's only controversial if you hear the end summary before you hear the steps that get you there.
00:37:03.580 --> 00:37:06.300
And I take you step by step.
00:37:06.620 --> 00:37:10.620
What does the Bible say about God the Father?
00:37:10.860 --> 00:37:17.660
Well, it says he's invisible, it says he's spirit, it says if you see him, you die.
00:37:18.860 --> 00:37:23.500
But, but we have to live with the idea people saw God.
00:37:24.220 --> 00:37:32.300
Even Samson's parents, when they were told that they were going to have a son, both the father and the mother were deathly afraid.
00:37:32.380 --> 00:37:36.220
They thought, oh no, we've seen God, we're going to die.
00:37:36.940 --> 00:37:37.980
But they didn't die.
00:37:38.300 --> 00:37:40.380
Samson from Samson and Delilah?
00:37:40.620 --> 00:37:41.100
Yes.
00:37:42.539 --> 00:37:53.340
In Exodus chapter 4, it says that God came to kill Moses because he had not circumcised his son.
00:37:54.060 --> 00:37:57.980
That's Exodus 4, 14 to 24.
00:37:58.300 --> 00:37:59.900
You have to, well, wait.
00:38:00.140 --> 00:38:01.180
Did they see God?
00:38:01.340 --> 00:38:01.820
Yes.
00:38:02.060 --> 00:38:06.780
What about when the three Hebrew children, my brain's gone blank?
00:38:06.940 --> 00:38:09.980
Shadrach, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
00:38:10.380 --> 00:38:15.100
When they were in the furnace, the king says, Why, how many people did we throw in there?
00:38:15.340 --> 00:38:16.300
They said, three.
00:38:16.460 --> 00:38:19.740
He said, Why do I see a fourth person?
00:38:20.300 --> 00:38:23.500
And he appears as the son of God.
00:38:24.300 --> 00:38:25.340
He's God.
00:38:25.660 --> 00:38:27.740
So who was who was this?
00:38:28.300 --> 00:38:32.539
This was Jesus, but before he came in the flesh.
00:38:32.700 --> 00:38:37.100
Now, I don't want anybody to take my word for it.
00:38:37.260 --> 00:38:41.100
I take you to the scripture, what does the Bible say?
00:38:41.980 --> 00:38:46.220
And then lead you to say, make your own conclusion.
00:38:46.380 --> 00:38:49.420
And when people do that, there's no controversy.
00:38:49.660 --> 00:38:49.900
Yeah.
00:38:49.980 --> 00:38:52.060
Well, I mean, this is this is fascinating.
00:38:52.300 --> 00:38:55.340
And I'm sure people will enjoy reading it.
00:38:55.580 --> 00:39:00.620
And you might you might probably get some pushback, but that's part of the writing process.
00:39:00.860 --> 00:39:04.380
And so where can people find you, Gerald?
00:39:04.460 --> 00:39:06.780
How can they get your books connect with you?
00:39:06.940 --> 00:39:08.940
Like if you can tell us, where can we find you?
00:39:09.260 --> 00:39:10.220
A couple of good ways.
00:39:10.380 --> 00:39:14.940
One is to go to my name, and it just spells a little unusually.
00:39:15.260 --> 00:39:19.660
It's Gerald G-E-R-A-L-D.
00:39:20.380 --> 00:39:22.539
And the last name is Robison.
00:39:23.019 --> 00:39:24.860
That's the one that gets misspelled.
00:39:25.019 --> 00:39:29.100
It's R-O-B-I-S-O-N.
00:39:29.580 --> 00:39:31.580
There's no N in the middle.
00:39:31.740 --> 00:39:36.940
If you were to separate some of those letters, it would say Rob is on.
00:39:37.980 --> 00:39:40.700
Like Rob is on base or something.
00:39:40.940 --> 00:39:52.860
And but if you go to Gerald Robeson.com or go to the most prolific would be Amazon.com, books by Gerald Robeson.
00:39:53.340 --> 00:39:54.620
And they'll be there.
00:39:54.940 --> 00:39:55.500
Great.
00:39:55.740 --> 00:40:05.100
Well, uh, Gerald, this has been fascinating and eye-opening, and now you're gonna make me think about a number of things, including the 30 seconds I waste all the time staring at the wall.
00:40:06.220 --> 00:40:16.380
Also about like God in the Bible and whether it was God the Son or God the Father, which is I never thought before.
00:40:16.539 --> 00:40:18.780
And I am the original Christian, by the way.
00:40:18.860 --> 00:40:21.900
I'm from the Holy Land, so I should be understanding.
00:40:22.940 --> 00:40:27.660
Yeah, I'm the origin I'm the original Christian with ancestry from Northern Jordan.
00:40:27.900 --> 00:40:35.820
I did my DNA test, Northern Jordan and Bethlehem and Bejalah, which is outside of Jerusalem.
00:40:35.900 --> 00:40:36.220
Yeah.
00:40:36.539 --> 00:40:37.900
That's a beautiful area.
00:40:38.060 --> 00:40:39.180
It's God's temple.
00:40:39.500 --> 00:40:40.300
Yeah, exactly.
00:40:40.539 --> 00:40:46.700
Well, again, um, Natasha, I I don't seek to upset anybody.
00:40:46.780 --> 00:40:49.260
I don't look for controversy.
00:40:49.500 --> 00:40:56.460
I look for things that make Christians think more deeply about what they read.
00:40:56.620 --> 00:40:57.180
That's all.
00:40:57.500 --> 00:40:58.140
Yeah, of course.
00:40:58.220 --> 00:40:58.860
Yeah, definitely.
00:40:58.940 --> 00:41:01.180
I mean, we're and I want to help them.
00:41:01.500 --> 00:41:06.460
I want to help them come to reasonable answers to disturbing questions.
00:41:06.780 --> 00:41:13.980
Yeah, I mean, this is fascinating, and I'm gonna dig deeper into that just to uh I'm gonna go down the rabbit hole.
00:41:14.220 --> 00:41:17.740
But anyways, so thank you very much for your time.
00:41:17.980 --> 00:41:23.340
This has been uh amazing and very insightful, and I wish you the best of luck with all your writing and everything.
00:41:23.420 --> 00:41:27.180
And I'm glad you're feeling better after the cancer diagnosis.
00:41:27.420 --> 00:41:38.220
And for anyone who's listening or watching, thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Read and Write with Natasha, and until we meet again Sunday.
00:41:41.740 --> 00:41:45.580
Thank you for tuning in to Read and Write with Natasha.
00:41:45.660 --> 00:41:47.740
I'm your host, Natasha Thomas.
00:41:48.300 --> 00:41:55.580
If today's episode inspired you in any way, please take the time to review the podcast.
00:41:55.820 --> 00:42:01.180
Remember to subscribe and share this podcast with fellow book lovers.
00:42:01.580 --> 00:42:03.180
Until next time.