0:00:00 - 0:00:21 I want to make a video response to an Amazon review that was left for through faith by an anonymous person. Um And I hope that something in here touches someone in some way because these themes here are really important. That's why this is I'm taking the time to make this. Uh And I thought a lot about 0:00:20 - 0:00:41 this review today and I didn't intend to spend so much time doing so. But every time I walk away from it, it seems like there's some other relevant point to make that I think is really important that would help someone situations in life. They can provide context, they can illustrate gospel principles 0:00:40 - 0:01:04 or something about us or others or life or God. Um in ways that aren't in ways that are distant enough uh from life that it becomes easier to deceive ourselves. We can read about something and think about something and not realize just how far off we are in actual application of that, which is not coincidental 0:01:03 - 0:01:24 with this book review. Um So it's on the book through faith, which is about finding things of greater value and yet, and how to test that et cetera. And yet in the review, the person says how much time they spent reading books of mine that apparently they found no value in. And this is just the first 0:01:24 - 0:01:47 of many examples in this review of what I wouldn't know how to call anything other than dishonesty. Um, I have a broader definition of that than most people. Um, people tend to limit that to overt lying about things like saying up is down and vice versa, but it turns out that that dishonesty is a broader 0:01:47 - 0:02:13 topic than that and its broader applications have an enormous consequence to life. Um So when I read through this review, there are a few things that strike me. Um First is the misuse of words, which is such an interesting thing. Um This person is obviously literate. Um And this review is written pretty 0:02:13 - 0:02:40 well except for the fact that there are words used here that are clearly used in ways other than what the definition of the word is. So one cluster of those is around the idea of edification or inspiration. Um Those words are about how you change to become more like Jesus. Those words are not about how 0:02:39 - 0:03:13 you feel this person is clearly highly confused about what spirit is. Again. Uh It's all about feeling. Now, here's what's super problematic about that when you denominate the value of something and how you feel about it, all you're doing is measuring its value against how you currently are, it is not 0:03:12 - 0:03:36 a way of measuring how it might reflect something better than how you are. The purpose of the gospel is not to make us feel better about how we are. It's to show us how we can change into people who will be better. And the feeling that flows through those changes, it happens after the change. Um One 0:03:35 - 0:04:07 description of that pattern is that faith comes, I'm sorry that faith precedes the miracle. The miracle comes after faith. Um The feeling of the, the enduring feeling, um the better feeling that endures it comes after you make the change to become a better person yourself. So it's interesting that that 0:04:06 - 0:04:30 theme that runs throughout this review. Um This person definitely evaluates the value of things based on how they feel right now, not based on trying out hypotheses, planting the seed of faith, exercising faith and then seeing what happens and then judging the value of that outcome or even looking at 0:04:30 - 0:04:57 outcomes and uh gauging the value of things based on the anticipated outcome. Instead, it's all about how do I feel right now? Unfortunately, um In addition to using feelings to evaluate the value of things, this person also evaluates uh what could be better based on the value of what they already have 0:04:57 - 0:05:18 . In other words, the similarity to what they already found value in. Now, here's where we, we have to get into a little bit more detail. So specifically, as per, and you should read the review. This person um compares my books to the book of Mormon or the teachings of Joseph Smith. And they say that 0:05:18 - 0:05:50 basically those other things, they make them feel good. Um Whereas my stuff leaves them feeling empty, uh drained of passion, love, desire, depressed, et cetera. Ok. Well, those aren't good things. Um But there's more to the story than this. Um So first off the comparison, this person says they're comparing 0:05:49 - 0:06:13 what I've written um against what Joseph Smith wrote or what the book of Mormon says. But here's what's, what's actually happening is that they're comparing what I'm saying to their impression of what those things say. Um And what do I mean by that, especially when you're coming from a religious background 0:06:12 - 0:06:44 . Um What you think of as the meaning of the authors of scripture is not necessarily what those authors actually wrote, let alone what they meant. You can slip into ro um you can slip into replacing what things literally say with the rote remembrance of what you've been told they say, and that happens 0:06:43 - 0:07:12 very easily. Uh If you need an example of this, just go to the New Testament where the Jews used their impression of what Moses taught against Jesus when Jesus said that Moses testified of him and that if they believed Moses, they would also believe him, Jesus. So, so there's that now, why would a person 0:07:11 - 0:07:38 feel good about their rote remembrance of what something says because what they, what they've done when you, when you cease to look at something with beginners eyes and you um you terminate your analysis of a text in your current understanding of it. See, your life is already reconciled to that. So that 0:07:38 - 0:07:58 would be like having conversations with people who only, only with people who think you're the bee's knees and then you go talk with someone who, you know, doesn't already like you and they're like, man, you're kind of a jerk or whatever, right? All of a sudden you're compared against a different uh 0:07:58 - 0:08:21 standard because you haven't already won over this audience. There, there. Um, maybe a good analogy of this is like if you have kids, they're kind of, uh they're kind of uh uh uh what's the idiom for this? Um Anyway that you have a, uh they're gonna have a presupposition that you're good because you're 0:08:21 - 0:08:42 their father or mother that's kind of yours to lose, right? And maybe as they get older, they have friends and their friends don't have the back story and they're like, wow, I really don't like your dad or your mom and they say well why and they explain why. So, um it turns out that, that there's probably 0:08:42 - 0:09:02 more to it, but if you stop short and you're getting to know the person or the text in this case, maybe what you're comparing against is not actually accurate. All right. Now that's, that's not to say that that what this person is claiming can't be true. I'm not, I'm not saying that that's an impossibility 0:09:01 - 0:09:24 , but I'm just saying there might be an alternative interpretation of the observations here. Um OK, but let's dive deeper into this because I think there's more evidence to support my perspective on this. Um Let's read this, for example, I, I find greater joy in just reading the book of Mormon than I 0:09:24 - 0:09:46 do Rob's book on Joy. It's ironic reading his book on Joy leaves me feeling empty and depressed. Why? Because the review doesn't say why. But I, I know the answer but the reviewer didn't write the answer. What about this? His book on faith though? Not offensive. Well, I guess I failed, um leaves me feeling 0:09:46 - 0:10:05 depressed and less motivated than I was before. Why? I know the answer even though the reviewer didn't write it. So the reason the book on Joy leaves you feeling empty and depressed is because in the book on Joy, I say, hey, things might seem rough and I have to tell you the truth, which is that they're 0:10:05 - 0:10:27 worse than they seem, but that's ok because there's a solution to the problem. And long story short, it's Jesus. OK. Well, why would that cause you to feel empty and depressed? Well, in that book, basically, what I'm saying is all the stuff that makes you feel good right now is an illusion. And you need 0:10:26 - 0:10:48 something more than that. But the good news is something more than that exists and here it is. And I, I point to it because it doesn't come from me. It comes from God. Yeah, that's gonna leave you empty and depressed. If you have hung your value in life on things that are false and won't endure. And 0:10:48 - 0:11:10 guess what you have. If you're a normal person you have. That's why the gospel is necessary in the first place is to give us foundations. Ie the foundation, the sure foundation that cannot be overcome. Ok. Um His book on faith though not offensive leaves me feeling depressed and less motivated than it 0:11:10 - 0:11:37 was before. Why? Why? Because um again, it's a, it's a parallel message in the sense that uh it's telling you the things that you want are actually much harder to get than you thought they were. Now, if you're reading that book, it's, it might be because you want to know how you can get what you desire 0:11:36 - 0:11:59 in life and right out of the gate very early on it says, hey, it's actually even harder to get these things than you thought. And that should sound familiar. It's an echo from joy. But is that a bad thing? No, no. Because if you remain in the simplistic view that, oh, it's just a hop, skip and a jump 0:11:59 - 0:12:16 to have, you know, a life full of puppy dogs and rainbows, you're going to feel a lot better in the short run. And the book of Mormon talks all about this, you find someone who tells you what you want to hear and then you give them money. That's what people do. But if a person, a real messenger comes 0:12:16 - 0:12:35 along, they're not preaching puppy dogs and rainbows, they're saying, hey, there's a lot of suffering here and things are really bad. In fact, they're worse than you thought. But the good news is that we can be of good cheer. Not because it's easy, but because Jesus overcame the world and he showed us 0:12:34 - 0:12:53 the way to do the same, which is to be exactly like him. That's the message through and through. That's the message. Now, this person says that they feel warm and fuzzy when they read the book of Mormon or the teachings of Joseph Smith. But not when they read the books that I've written. Well, why could 0:12:53 - 0:13:13 that, how could that be? Why would that be? Because if you ask this person who I don't know, but I guarantee you what I'm telling you is true. If you ask this person, what is the message in those teachings? They would not say what I just said that things are a lot worse than you think. But the good news 0:13:13 - 0:13:34 is that Jesus has overcome the world and you can do the same by being exactly like him. They'd say that the message is something like he overcame. So you don't have to. And that's false. That's not true. That's not true at all. And if you believe that's true, you're gonna feel great right now. And then 0:13:34 - 0:13:58 the second life comes along as it always does and claps you upside the head. It's, you're gonna realize it's all a lie and you're gonna throw out the baby with the bathwater because that's what people do. You're gonna curse God and die in the phrasing of the scriptures. So that's, that's that part of 0:13:58 - 0:14:31 it. Now, what about this uh this business of, oh yeah, so this is an important thing to mention. So, um so I gotta, I gotta look something up. Um So what about this business of uh well, I guess, sorry, this is the same topic. Um Why do you, why do you come off feeling more depressed and less motivated 0:14:30 - 0:00:00 , more empty and depressed? Well, you can, you're not doing what the book says to do what, whichever book we're talking about. Look, the gospel process has always been all good things come from above God through one way or another. He sends us instructions and then he leaves us with a choice, right? 0:00:00 - 0:15:12 And we get to decide and guess what happens when you decide not to do what you're instructed to do? Well, you don't get to write reviews and say this is false because I felt bad after someone gave me instructions and then I didn't follow them. Of course, you're gonna feel worse. God cannot extend light 0:15:12 - 0:15:33 and truth to you with uh without you feeling bad. When you don't receive it, you will be worse off and you will feel worse off guaranteed. That's like when Moses uh preached to the people, he said, I set before you this day, blessing and cursing. If you do what I'm telling you to do, you will be blessed 0:15:33 - 0:15:53 and if you don't, you will be cursed because God is going to hold you accountable for this life that I'm giving you, that he has sent through me. That's what Moses said. So that's the pattern and that's, that's always how it works. Now, it's, it's difficult. I grant it. It's difficult today because almost 0:15:53 - 0:16:14 everything that you've been exposed to has been messengers of questionable value who basically just rehash all the stuff that you already know and in effect they're doing what I mentioned before. The book of Mormon talks about preachers like this. They're just telling you what you want to hear. And yeah 0:16:13 - 0:16:31 , it's gonna feel great. I mean, who doesn't like being told that they're doing everything correctly that they're doing everything that can be done. And it does provide relief in the short term until all the stuff that you're not prepared to handle shows up on your doorstep. And it's going to, that's 0:16:31 - 0:16:52 , that's one of the main purposes of creation is to make us stronger, to face more of the things that we are currently overcome by and, uh, i it's like taking heroin. It's gonna feel great in the moment, but it's not gonna help you in your life when you tell people that the boogeyman is not real, uh 0:16:52 - 0:17:12 , or, you know, tomorrow is gonna be like today only better. That's not the truth. That's not the gospel. That doesn't help people. It just makes them feel better. Short term, but long term, it's, it's like loading up on debt, the bill is gonna come due and when it does, it's gonna come with all the 0:17:12 - 0:17:33 interest. And not only have you just kicked the can down the road instead of solving the problem, but you've guaranteed that when that can comes back, it's gonna be much bigger than it was before. And if the smaller can kicked your butt, what's the bigger can gonna do? Right? All right. So, um, to sum 0:17:33 - 0:17:53 all that up, look, maybe what I said is complete rubbish. Maybe there's no value in the book. But first off, if that's the case, don't read more than one, like they said, I gave him the benefit of the doubt because he seems to think that his books are really valuable. So I, I read more than one. I said 0:17:52 - 0:18:12 , plainly, look, faith and repentance are the two books that are required reading if your L Ds or used to be teaching for doctrines for sure. But yeah, the other ones are still out there, but those are the really important ones for everybody. If you get through one of those and you don't find what you're 0:18:12 - 0:18:30 looking for, you're not going to find it in the others. Ok. Uh, glory of God is, intelligence should be on that list as well. That's, that's, that's gonna be a little more than most people can handle though. So, if you find yourself lost in that, it's cool. Just focus on the other ones. But, uh, why 0:18:30 - 0:18:48 would you keep reading it? That's, that's bizarre, right? Why would you keep going down the line if you're not finding what you're looking for? So, that's ironic to see you on a review through faith because that's kind of the point of the book is here's how you find what you're looking for. Um, so with 0:18:48 - 0:19:12 that whole bit summed up, let's, let's move along here and let's go to, um, well, next, let's go to this. Uh, not to mention his constant undertone is anger, frustration and arrogance. He bites like an agitated pitbull whose responses seem disproportionately intense and condescending. It's totally contrary 0:19:12 - 0:19:40 to the Christ. The spirit testifies of to me. Ok, let's, let's digest this first off. Um, where to start here. Ok. We're gonna touch on the com what you're comparing it to, uh, you say it's totally contrary to the Christ. The spirit testifies of to me. All right. Um Jesus, as you know, him so far. So 0:19:39 - 0:19:58 do you have a basis to believe that you know, him better than I do because, you know, as you come to know somebody, you find out things about them that you didn't know before. So let's say that all someone knew about me is like they had a picture of me and they might imagine how I am as a person, but 0:19:57 - 0:20:22 they'd be pretty far off because I'm kind of a different person, right than most. So what if we had only had an exchange at the grocery store? They were the checkout person. Um, they might come away with a very different impression of me. Um, let's say that our only interaction was, I don't know, random 0:20:21 - 0:20:44 person on the street did something um bad to me and I reacted to that. So like uh they were trying to steal an old lady's purse and I jumped on him or whatever. Again, they're gonna have a very narrow view of who I am compared to what's really there. Well, I'm just a moral man. Jesus, there's much more 0:20:43 - 0:21:00 to know about him. John said that he couldn't be accurately described in any number of books. That's how he ended his gospel. He's like, well, I've done my best but hey, guys, doesn't matter if, if I had any number of books, it wouldn't be enough, you could fill the earth with them, it wouldn't be enough 0:20:59 - 0:00:00 because that's how much there is to know. So the thing is, is if you're reading books by random people about Jesus and attempt to learn more about him. Uh I wonder what your basis is for saying that what they're saying is wrong because it doesn't accord with what you think about him. Um So later on, 0:00:00 - 0:21:48 in that paragraph, um this person says that my view of Jesus is spiritless and requires a two dimensional reading of Jesus. Now, I find that interesting because as far as I can gauge from this review, I don't know this person, but I can also sort of put pieces together from what the review uh says, not 0:21:48 - 0:22:13 about me but about them. Uh literally a two dimensional reading of Jesus is what you get about him from the scriptures. Now, what's interesting about the, the their choice of that phrase? Um is that if you literally read everything there is recorded about Jesus in the scriptures, you are going to see 0:22:13 - 0:22:38 a person that most people would describe as angry, frustrated, arrogant, agitated, pitbull, disproportionately intense and condescending that you cannot argue with that. It is very plain. Uh especially in the New Testament. That's how he dealt with people uh going by the judgment of the world. If a person 0:22:38 - 0:23:01 like that was running around today, that's exactly what they would be called by someone like the person writing this review. So why is that interesting? Well, you know, beyond the irony, sorry, there's a gap here harassing me beyond the irony of um the phrase two dimensional reading of Jesus uh being 0:23:00 - 0:23:32 used as a criticism against me. Um My, my descriptions of how Jesus is in the way that I act, which is reflecting that um they started as a literal reading of the scriptures as I would read through stories about Jesus. And I would ask, is this what I would do in this situation? The answer is almost always 0:23:32 - 0:23:56 no. And I said, well, why would I, what would I do instead? And why? And how is it that this was a better way? And I would pray about that and um then I would implement everything I learned and over time as will happen with anyone who does this. And this process is, is given in DNC 93 1 to seek his face 0:23:56 - 0:24:17 . That doesn't mean to seek a physical manifestation of Jesus face to face. It's the scriptural phrase, seek his face, which means to point yourself in the same direction as that person and do all the same things they would do to adopt their purpose, to adopt their character. That's what it means to 0:24:17 - 0:24:46 seek the face of the Lord. And there's more in that, in that verse about keeping his commandments. Now, if you do that, you will absolutely end up with a face to face experience with Jesus, you will 100% if you, if you walk in that path, that is how it's going to go, but not how it's going to end. Because 0:24:45 - 0:25:10 when you fully live as you sincerely believe Jesus would in your place the whole way, you're gonna learn more about him the whole way even after, and especially after you meet him as I have and every time he comes to you, which will happen many times you will learn something new about him. And that's 0:25:10 - 0:25:35 not two dimensional folks. That's as multidimensional as you get. I won't even say three. There's probably more. And if that's spiritless, I'm not sure what definition of the word you're using. When you follow God's commandments, it's anything but mechanical and cold and analytical. It's actually the 0:25:35 - 0:26:05 only way to obtain what could ever be called a relationship. The most uh veritable relationship, there is the most living flow of love that could ever be and anything short of that just can't compare. So you can't criticize instructions without testing them, especially if you've been given reasons to 0:26:05 - 0:26:24 believe that the person giving them knows them from their own personal experience. I mean, you can criticize them but it's not very valid. I mean, what, what basis do you have to throw it out, out of hand? Especially if you know this person's calling themselves seeker of truth instead of giving their 0:26:24 - 0:26:52 real name. Um If you truly are seeking for truth and that's why you bother to read other books in the first place. I why wouldn't you put them to the test? Jesus himself said in John 717, if you try it you'll know if you try it, you'll know. So, in the book of Mormon, uh continuing on this theme of the 0:26:52 - 0:27:28 , the bulldog stuff, I prefer to be an agitated husky, not an agitated pit bull, but I'm a husky guy. Um Do you remember this one from the book of Mormon? So let's see. Where is it? Uh There it is, this is second Nephi 126. Uh Leigh is explaining to Lehman and Lemuel that their perception of how Nephi 0:27:28 - 0:27:48 is, is wrong. Now, why does he have the authority to say that? Because he has more truth than Lehman and Lemuel do he has greater awareness? So he has a more accurate view of these things. And ye murmur, ye have murmured because he hath been plain unto you. Ye say that he hath used sharpness. Ye say 0:27:48 - 0:28:08 that he hath been angry with you but behold his sharpness was the sharpness of the power of the word of God, which was in Him. And that which he called anger was the truth according to that which is in God, which he could not restrain manifesting boldly concerning your iniquities. Does that sound familiar 0:28:08 - 0:28:30 ? His constant undertone is anger, frustration, and arrogance. Um We could talk more about arrogance again, using the savior. Um People have this misconception that he walked around saying I'm the savior of the world, I'm the Son of God, but read the accounts that wasn't something that he went around 0:28:30 - 0:28:54 saying other people called him that sometimes and he'd say it privately to specific people under specific situations. But it was extremely rare. Why, why? That's a good question. But sidestepping that for a moment. Um First off, if you saw him going through what is saying, what he did and the situations 0:28:53 - 0:29:17 he did, I promise you, you would call him all those same things worse. In fact, you can read The New Testament and just project it onto the modern day and ask yourself, how would you criticize him based on the criticism that you levy against others? I promise you he would not live up to your standards 0:29:17 - 0:29:40 because your standards are wrong. That's that should be a really clear thing that we can do is just to, to back test our models against the New Testament against what we know about Jesus. And then as far as um biting like an agitated pit bull, disproportionately intense and condescending responses, the 0:29:40 - 0:30:02 New Testament is full of them. Now, you might ask yourself why your personal experiences with the Lord seem to just be warm and fuzzy and they're not like that. But that's a question for you to compare against the New Testament. The fact that a person comes along and generates the same response in you 0:30:02 - 0:30:21 that you would have if you lived in New Testament times with Jesus, that's not a sign that what they have is not the truth or greater truth than you have it's quite the opposite as far as reconciling, why your experiences with the Lord differ from those in the scriptures. You should ask yourself why 0:30:21 - 0:30:39 those differences are not limited to the quality of the interactions that I'm talking about. Namely that you wouldn't describe your experiences with the Lord as him being angry or frustrated or arrogant or like an agitated pit bull or disproportionately intense and condescending. But also that you don't 0:30:38 - 0:31:03 have any of the experiences, the miracles that the good stuff that those people had. Why? Because that level of relationship that those miracles require goes hand in hand with being criticized openly by God intimacy with the Lord. It's not just form and fuzzies, it means that you're fully open to anything 0:31:02 - 0:31:26 he might tell you most of all, any way that you can be better than you currently are. So this is actually in, in your very description of your reaction to this. You are enumerating what you lack with the Lord in the exact path to draw nearer to him and obtain all the stuff that you're searching for and 0:31:25 - 0:31:43 can't seem to find. Why can't you find it? It's not that it's not available. You literally read books with it in there and I'm not just talking about mine. I'm talking about the scriptures. You reference, how did you skip over it? How did you miss that? Well, because you interpreted good is evil and 0:31:43 - 0:32:02 evil is good. Your discerning value based on how good it makes you feel about how you already are in reality. As you draw closer to the Lord, you're going to see all the darkness that's still inside of you. That's part of the process as you come to him, he shows you your weakness. That's what it says 0:32:02 - 0:32:24 in Ether. So you shouldn't be surprised when you see these limitations in yourself, these invitations to be better than you are. Nor should you be surprised when you feel bad for rejecting them? Because that's what you've done. So of course, you're gonna feel bad. Now, as far as plainness goes, that 0:32:24 - 0:32:43 was in that scripture in second Nephi 1, 26 different people will react differently to the same manifestation. For example, when Jesus came and he did a certain miracle, some people reacted to that by glorifying God. Some people reacted that by saying, wow, this must be someone who knows more about God 0:32:42 - 0:33:01 than I do. Maybe I should listen to the other things that they're teaching. Some people reacted by getting very angry. Some people reacted by immediately plotting how they would kill him. Some people just ignored it and said, well, that's nice. And sometimes the very people who were healed had that whole 0:33:01 - 0:33:18 range of reactions. So some people that were healed immediately betrayed Jesus. They ratted him out to the Pharisees. Some people that were healed just went on with their lives as if they had always been healed. They completely ignored the fact that he had done that. Like the lepers, some people fell 0:33:18 - 0:33:38 down at his feet and worshiped him. Some people sold everything they had and followed him. There's a huge diversity of reactions. Right. Well, um, it turns out that when we read stuff in the scriptures and we see these things time and again, it's very easy to misinterpret what that would be like when 0:33:38 - 0:34:01 we read about plainness. Maybe in this person's perception that means that um you know, someone coming with an actual additional dispensation of the gospel might and I mean that in the literal sense, not in the L DS world sense, but a chunk of new truth is gonna be like blazing rainbows and puppy dogs 0:34:00 - 0:34:23 and just have like a uh like a t-shirt gun that you see it at uh baseball games and stuff and they're just gonna be shooting out blessings everywhere. And um where do they get that idea from? Who knows? Because it's not what's in the scriptures. But um plainness, it could be interpreted as this person 0:34:22 - 0:34:47 does as something mechanical, something formulaic. If you're teaching someone, it's interesting and it's just this whole review just screams to me what Jesus said as he was criticizing the Pharisees. Um And he was saying, look, you know that when the sky is red and lowering that you're gonna have bad 0:34:47 - 0:35:04 weather on the next day. But these things are being shown to you so plainly and you can't exercise the same level of logic because you're selectively doing so so that you can hold to things that you already believe instead of changing and being a better person and you're given, you're being given the 0:35:04 - 0:35:28 reasons to believe and to do. And this person says, it almost feels like Joseph knows how to dance while Rob is focused on timing the steps, placement and breaking it down to an algorithm. A computer could use. Do you want to celebrate the fact that Joseph knows how to dance or do you want to learn how 0:35:27 - 0:35:48 to dance? Because you don't teach someone how to dance by dancing, you teach them how to dance by timing the steps placement and breaking it down to an algorithm. A computer could use if you went to take dance lessons and the person just said, watch me and did all this stuff in normal time and just danced 0:35:47 - 0:36:14 and you said, well, OK. But how do you do that? I don't know, just do it, but you'd want a refund, wouldn't you? So there are many teachers out there who don't know how to do or who are just repeating what they've been told. But it's very rare to find someone who sort of naturally figured out how to 0:36:14 - 0:36:37 do it and maybe even who had a hard time learning how to do it and then who has the ability to explain it to people for whom it's not natural that's what makes it an excellent teacher. The best example of this that I know of is, is actually my father-in-law. And, uh, he was really bad at math, really 0:36:36 - 0:36:59 bad. And for some reason, he chose to major in statistics. And one of his earliest teachers pulled him aside and says, said you are not cut out for this, you should drop out. You're never gonna make it. And he was undaunted. And, um, actually what he did was he stopped going to his classes. So he would 0:36:59 - 0:37:21 show up to take his exams. And other than that, he was in the library teaching himself math. And then this was really hard. But in doing this, he became an amazing teacher because he had thought from first principles about every single aspect of the math topics he was looking at. And so he became a teacher 0:37:20 - 0:37:41 and he was loved, he was revered by people. In fact, he started tutoring privately instead of teaching in a school and he had a waiting list and he was charging an ordinate amount of money to tutor. And it's because he had figured out how to explain it to people for whom it was not natural. And if you 0:37:41 - 0:38:07 know anything about math, you know that it's, it's uh it's dominated by people for whom it's natural. So anyway, this is, this is a very strange application of logic and reasoning to, to make this into a criticism. Now again, as I said all of these uh claims of coldness uh are devoid of mentions of trying 0:38:06 - 0:38:34 to apply what's been taught. And instead, um you know, it's a criticism of the instruction but not a claim that the promised results didn't follow. Uh So that's interesting. Anyway, uh I think I have to wrap this up but um hopefully the random kid who's playing guitar in my house, uh I'm going to find 0:38:34 - 0:38:58 out who that is. Uh, hopefully you can't hear that too loudly. Um, so I hope this helps. I don't think I mentioned this, but the very first paragraph does bring up the fact that the lack. So the fact that that the same set of people are the ones leaving the reviews, uh, leads this person to believe that 0:38:57 - 0:39:18 the only ones who do so are doing so because they feel guilty and that they think that they're disappointing God by not doing so a lot could be said about this. But I think I've talked about that enough. I just bring it up again because in addition to all the reasons I've given you for leaving reviews 0:39:17 - 0:39:43 now, you know that you're not your, your failure to do so is giving ammunition for people like this to come to the wrong conclusions about why there aren't more. So anyway, um, a lot more could be said about that. The, the, there's a, a part of covenant theology, there's a part of the process of how 0:39:43 - 0:40:07 things come from heaven, where, what we receive definitely depends on what we've done with what we've already been given. And um the way things are right now because I've chosen to give you all of this for free. Um You don't have many avenues to show your gratitude to God for the light that He gives 0:40:06 - 0:40:26 you through these things. And so in the few ways that you've been asked to share these things with others, including writing book reviews on Amazon for the books that you've actually read, which at least this person did read the book. They said they did. There have been people who've left negative reviews 0:40:26 - 0:40:48 who clearly have not read the book. But um if you found value in these things, you don't give the minimal reciprocation of just spending a minute writing a book review that reflects very poorly upon you. And it's, it's, um you know, this is a part of the review. I, I don't, I disagree with some of it 0:40:48 - 0:41:07 but, but actually some of these criticisms are spot on. I don't think the criticisms at all. I agree completely. Um You do disappoint God when you don't do the smallest little things in response to great things that He does for you. And uh it's not just about disappointing him. I mean, it puts you in 0:41:07 - 0:41:26 a bad place. So I hope that you're not guilty of that, although the vast majority of you are. So um that's definitely something to work on. Because if you don't take seriously the things that you've been given there will come a time where you're held accountable for that part of that accountability will 0:41:25 - 0:41:46 absolutely include you being removed from access to things that haven't come yet. And, um, that's not a place you want to be the things that I have not yet published are of much greater worth than the things that have. And as this reviewer correctly points out, I find tremendous value in the things that 0:41:46 - 0:42:07 I've already published if it weren't. So I never would have been able to receive them from God. And that's the reason why I did and you did not is because I put so much more value into those things than you do. So now your, it's your turn to react to that by increasing the value, you didn't have enough 0:42:06 - 0:42:29 to faithfully receive it yourself before I did. But now you have the opportunity to receive it after I did and share it with others. So that's that uh hopefully something here touches on something that you can improve in your life and we hopefully there are things that, that we've all been able to learn 0:42:29 - 0:42:51 here. Thanks to this reviewer who no matter how much I disagree with them uh or how much I wish that they would make better choices in their life. Um I do commend them for their courage in actually saying what they think. Um Hopefully knowing full well that they were going to evoke this response. So 0:42:51 - 0:42:52 take care.