Saxon: "Never Surrender"

During the years I tried hard to make my Amway business grow, I used this song to motivate myself to make more calls on prospective distributors. A friend introduced me to Saxon when he sold me an LP of their album "Wheels of Steel." Unless you don't like heavy metal, check out the song here.

Though we are called by Christ to be meek, there are times when we need to make a stand. Like Ecclesiastes 3:7 (Bible in Basic English) advises, there's "A time for undoing and a time for stitching; a time for keeping quiet and a time for talk;"

We see where the disciples took a stand to follow Christ in Acts 4:19 and 20 (BBE). They could have obeyed the rulers, "But Peter and John in answer said to them, 'It is for you to say if it is right in the eyes of God to give attention to you more than to God: For it is not possible for us to keep from saying what we have seen and have knowledge of."

We also see where Paul and Silas were wrongfully imprisoned in Philippi. They were publicly beaten and arrested but the officials wanted to send them away, But Paul wanted nothing to do with sneaking out of town.

Acts 16:37 and 38 (BBE) reads, "But Paul said to them, 'They have given us who are Romans a public whipping without judging us, and have put us in prison. Will they now send us out secretly? no, truly, let them come themselves and take us out.'"

Paul also rejected an offer by Governor Festus to be judged in Jerusalem. He knew that his Roman citizenship gave him the right to be judged in Rome.

Acts 25:10 and 11 (BBE) reads, "And Paul said, 'I am before the seat of Caesar's authority where it is right for me to be judged: I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you are well able to see. If, then, I am a wrongdoer and there is a cause of death in me, I am ready for death: if it is not as they say against me, no man may give me up to them. Let my cause come before Caesar.'"

So we understand that we accept persecution for preaching Christ but we also can use the laws of the land when it's right to do so.

If Christ returns by Monday, I hope to post about computers and how we used to communicate with one another.

Credence Clearwater Revival: "Door to Door"

This song reminds me of one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. Back in February of 1982, I became an Amway distributor. Lured by promises of wealth and self-employment, I decided to give it a try.

Listen to this song about a salesman here:

I soon found that selling products and gaining my own distributors was much harder than the glowing testimonials and motivational materials made Amway success out to be. As James 4:13 and 14 (Bible in Basic English) warns, "How foolish it is to say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into this town, and be there for a year and do business there and get wealth:' When you are not certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone."

I also should have realized that Amway peddled covetousness with their talk of riches and getting people to sign up under me. As Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy 6:5 (BBE) about those who tempt us, their words  are, "Bitter talk of men who, being evil in mind and dead to what is true, take the faith to be a way of making profit."

Though Amway sold products, they were still a multi-level marketing business. Many folks joined to become wealthy without realizing what Christ said in Luke 9:25 (BBE). "For what profit will a man have if he gets all the world, but undergoes loss or destruction himself?"

Many verses in the Bible tell us that honest labour must be rewarded. But as Paul warned again in 1 Timothy 6:9 (BBE), "But those who have a desire for wealth are falling into danger, and are taken as in a net by a number of foolish and damaging desires, through which men are overtaken by death and destruction."

If our Master hasn't come by Monday, I hope to post about the correct self respect we must achieve.

Saturday Song: The Human League, "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of"

This song was one of many which I used to psych myself up when I was an Amway Distributor. Whenever people rejected my offer to join, I would take out the cassette with all my motivational songs on it and listen to each song.

But dreams don't always come true, as I discovered the hard way. Only two of my dreams came to pass. I have my own house and I visited an electronic music aficionado in Moscow, Russia. I never thought I'd set foot in Red Square but here's a photo of me there in January of 1997.

Click here to listen to the song.

Though we don't get everything we want, God does give us those things which will benefit us spiritually and temporally. Psalm 37:4 (KJV) explains, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

If we love the Lord, we'll automatically ask for things which will glorify him and help others. We know that he provides us our daily bread and he wants the best for us. So when we pray for him to be glorified and others to become citizens in Christ's kingdom, we naturally ask for only beneficial things.

Well, what do you think of this song and what I wrote? Please leave a comment. But if you can't or don't want to, have a nice weekend anyway.

THERE REALLY IS NO FREE LUNCH

"Congratulations! You've just won a free trip to the Bahamas!" That's the phone message I keep getting from somebody hoping to trap me with a too-good-to-be-true scheme. Though the principle of offering something for nothing is ancient, modern people still fall for it. Why? Because people have the silly hope that maybe this time it'll work out for them.

I've fallen many times in the past for such easy-money schemes. Amway was one of the first to enchant me. It sounded so possible with its sponsorship of "downlines" who would sponsor more people and so on. Friends tried to warn me that only the few at the top would reap the real benefits of my hard work but I refused to listen. After five years of giving it my best, I realized that my friends were right.

I also became caught up in the Principal Group scandal of 1987. A man called me one day and said a friend recommended this investment plan that would net me a startling twenty percent annually. As I listened to his sales pitch, I realized this could be the break I was looking for. I invested fifty dollars into the scheme and also coaxed my brother to also put in his entry-level investment. Then the news broke regarding the arrest of the leaders of this Ponzi scheme. Though I felt fortunate that I received twenty-six bucks back, I hadn't been cured of my delusion regarding easy money.

The woman who sponsored me into Amway called me up all excited one evening. I thought she was just practicing some new pitch to convince prospects but this was something different. After rushing to the bank and withdrawing a fifty dollar bill from my account, I folded carbon paper around it and posted it to the name at the top of a list my friend gave me. Once again, a news report burst my bubble and I came down with a hard thud.

Believe it or not, there is a spiritual con game spreading through churches in the west and even into third world countries. Preachers such as Joseph Prince, Joel Olsteen, and Joyce Meyer are teaching that you can get whatever you want if you just keep positively confessing that you have it. They teach that we can speak good or ill fortune into our lives. I fell for this nonsense more than forty years ago and the lack of results turned me against God for nine years.

In How I Was Razed, I wrote about how I was taken in by false teaching and chain-letter-like gimmicks. This testimony of God's sovereign rescue of my soul is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers.

WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD USE THEIR BRAINS

I learned a hard lesson thirty years ago. God's angels  aren't my personal security guards. Had I taken charge of the situation by securing the windows myself, I wouldn't have lost almost three hundred dollars.

As I opened the door to the taxi parked outside my basement suite, I saw somebody sitting on the steps to the main floor of the house.  I assumed it was one of the tenants' friends since people often came and went from their place. After telling the driver to take me to the Edmonton Convention Centre, my thoughts were only about the good time I'd have at the Amway convention.

My sponsor, her mother, and I did enjoy the conference, particularly the a cappella group. The Nylons were an up-and-coming vocal harmony group during the early eighties. They performed their songs between Amway speakers.

After having a lovely supper at a restaurant, the three of us parted company. I arrived home and noticed that something didn't look right. When I walked up to a red object and examined it, I saw that it was the bowl I placed under a potted plant. Not only were both things tossed carelessly on the grass but the outside window had been removed and left leaning against the house. Then it sunk in that my suite had been broken into.

The police officer who came to my place dusted for fingerprints and photographed the window which had been removed. He also told me it was unwise to leave so much cash under my waterbed's mattress. I had that cash ready so I could buy the washing machine from the landlord.

My sponsor wasn't sympathetic either. When I asked why God hadn't protected my place, she said, "Because he expects you to use your brain. Remember what the sign said in that Amway film? 'This machine has no brain. Use yours.'"

From that day onward, I've taken the security of my home seriously. I've done what I could to install security systems over the years and I make sure that windows are secured. Like we used to say on the CB, "I send out my signal twenty-six miles and the Lord does the rest." It's impossible to have a completely safe home but people can do as much as they can to deter casual criminals.

I wrote in greater detail about my involvement in Amway as well as a blasphemous house church in my newly-published memoir, How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Please check it out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm.

THE FUNNY SIDE OF AMWAY

Though I experienced many frustrating situations and contradictory pieces of advice while I was an Amway distributor, some of the stories I heard at rallies and on cassette tapes were extremely funny. Jim Jans, pictured at a rally in Lethbridge, Alberta, told a few that I'll never forget.

One story was about the time when Jim and his wife were just starting in Amway. One of the important duties a distributor needed to fulfil is to hold meetings at their homes in order to show the multi-marketing plan to prospective new members. Jim saw a large, red couch in a second hand shop for only $5.00. He somehow managed to get the oversized piece of furniture home and proudly showed it to his wife.

"Watch this," he exclaimed as he stood in front of it. Then he sat down. Instead of being cushioned in comfortable padding, Jim sunk right down to the floor. Springs and dust erupted from the spaces where the cloth of the couch had been held in place with stick pins. He ended up with his knees almost underneath his chin, feeling sheepish at his prideful showing off.

Before Jim had built his network to the point where he could afford expensive cars, he owned a two-tone Ford. It was blue and rust. As he drove a few distributors down an alley way one day, he lost patience with a back-seat driver.

"You want to drive?" he asked as he pulled off the steering wheel and tossed it into the back seat. As the car was slowly moving down the alley, he wasn't worried about crashing it. His pesky friend handed back the steering wheel and stopped giving Jim directions after that.

Then there was the time Jim tried to get a business loan from a bank. As he sat in the manager's office, he showed him all his sales receipts. After a while, the names he read off started sounding familiar. The manager realized after the third time around that Jim kept putting the slips he read at the back of the pile which he held in his hand. I can't remember if he received the loan or not but we all burst out laughing as we realized his sneaky way of making it sound like he had more customers than he actually did.

The funniest tale of all was when Jim, his wife, and daughter were driving away from a distributor's house. "What an entrepreneur that man is," Jim remarked.

"Dad!" his daughter exploded as she sat in the back seat. "How can you say a thing like that. You told us never to say bad things about others and now you just did that."

"What do you think I said?" Jim asked, clearly puzzled by his daughter's outrage.

"You called that man a pile of manure."

I still chuckle about those stories today, thirty years later. Though I failed to build a network of distributors and lost a lot of money, I have fond memories of the rallies and seminars that i attended.

I wrote extensively about that house church in my newly-published memoir, How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Please check it out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm.

THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT CRAZE.

In previous posts, I've mentioned my credulity and how certain individuals took advantage of me. Though they sometimes believed they were doing me a favour, the end results were often disheartening.

One of these well-meaning acquaintances was Patrick, a fellow Amway distributor. After one motivational meeting at a local product distribution warehouse, he handed me a green pamphlet as he remarked, "I don't really have time for this course but it might be of help for building your business." As he explained briefly about what this Pursuit of Excellence course taught, I skimmed over the pamphlet. All in all, the seminar appeared to be a worthwhile investment.

My sponsor, the woman who enrolled me in the Amway "opportunity," also became interested when I showed her the brochure. With little hesitation, we both signed up for the week-long course in February of 1984.

Much of what the instructor taught was familiar to us, having already read self-help books. Additionally, the course covered the four types of individuals (controllers, promoters, analyzers, and supporters), as well as the reasons why they do what they do. Much of the material dealt with visualization, the unscientific notion that people can obtain what they vividly pictured in their minds.

As the days passed, I took copious notes in order to retain what I had learned. Contrary to my expectations, all that information had no effect on product sales. It didn't help me sponsor more people into Amway's multi-level marketing scheme either.

Adding to my disappointment was the realization that the course, and another two that I took afterward, didn't deal with the root of my chronic depression. I had wasted several hundred dollars on what turned out to be smoke and mirrors.

I now realize that it was my pride that kept me struggling to succeed in Amway. Even when the Canadian government sued founder, Rich DeVos, for tax evasion in 1983, I clung doggedly to my belief that I might become rich through that business.

Likewise, I remained a member of a cultic house church for more than fifteen years because I believed they were advanced in God's truth. Now I know that they were mislead and that many of the leader's assertions were blasphemous.

I wrote How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity in the hope that my story would help and comfort others in similar circumstances. My goal is to have my memoir in print and e-book form this year.

I already have two paperbacks published. You're welcome to click on my books link or contact me directly for more information.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND INFURIATE PEOPLE.

Why do some individuals fall for Ponzi schemes and multi-level-marketing hype? From my own experience of money-making rackets, I realize that my pride blinded me to the truth. These schemes are set up to generate substantial wealth for the folks at the top of the pyramid while the bottom level partners lose money.

My introduction to this supposed opportunity to earn an unlimited income came in 1982 when a member of my church introduced me to Amway. From my upcoming How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity memoir, here is the account of my first experience as a multi-level marketer.

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"Now that you're in Amway, Bruce, you're going to have to hold meetings," Sister Eileen informed me as she drove me home from church the following Sunday. "Invite everybody you know but don't tell them it's about Amway. Say that you've got a business plan or a way to supplement income, depending on who you're talking to. Some people get nervous if you call it a business."

"Why can't I just tell them it's Amway?"

"People have heard some nasty things about the company, but they're all untrue. It isn't a pyramid scheme because products are involved. In a pyramid scheme, people send money to the person higher up in the chain and so on and so forth. The Amway opportunity lets people sell products and build their business as big as they want to."

That made sense but I still felt qualms about withholding information from people who had legitimate concerns.

Sister Eileen taught me how to present the plan that afternoon. Filled with excitement, I sat by the phone after supper with my address book. I opened it and dialled each of my friends from A to Z. Instead of being eager to visit me and find out about the opportunity, each one became suspicious when I evaded their direct questions. Some friends remained cordial afterward but I lost most of them, including my CB buddies, that night.

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How I Was Razed is the testimony of how God showed me his true nature after charismatic house church elders misled me for more than fifteen years. You're welcome to contact me directly for more information about this upcoming paperback.