Trimming my wick and adding fresh oil.
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A lot of people are still going to Hell. I hope you're out trying to win some to our Lord Jesus Christ while you're waiting, and not just sitting on your blessed ASSurance.
You just have to try to one-up every Christian who says anything, doncha.
Lynx doesn't talk much about his Christian walk outside of the forum, but I will.
I met Lynx somewhere around 2014; possibly before then... But I know what really kicked it off is that I was having a very rough time and it showed in my posts. I talked about contemplating self-harm. And Lynx sent me a message saying, "I was reading your posts and wondering, is there something I can do to help?"
This started a going on 12-year friendship in which I've talked to him nearly every day for all these years, because I would drag him (and a few others from CC) to every chat I was a part of. I've seen him in all sorts of situations in real time, with all kinds of different people. And over the span of about 3 meetups, I've spent about the equivalent of a month around him in real life.
Lynx might talk a lot about music and video games, but what he doesn't talk about is that his whole life is dedicated to service. I've been to his work place, his church, and around his family (enough so that his uncle gave me one of his favorite terms of endearment -- "Hey, Girl!"
.) I've heard the kids in the background that he was taking to and from church, and laughed out loud when one of them asked him if I was his "side chick." 
(No, I'm not.) When Lynx isn't busy kicking around the forum, he's a full-time caretaker -- of which, in all these years, I have NEVER heard him complain. Sure, he might be tired, exasperated by this or that situation, but NOT ONCE have I ever heard him say, "Why was all this responsibility dumped on me?" etc. In contrast, he's always said that he owed the people he's looked after much more than he could ever do in this life, and was glad to do what he could, which he's never seen as very much. I couldn't handle what he does for 6 months, let alone for years on end.
He's always putting in volunteers hours on sound systems at his church, and helping pretty much the entire congregation with tech support. In the groups I've seen him in, he is always offering to send someone something they need -- or to drive them somewhere they need to go. At one of the meetups I attended, I needed to be somewhere else -- 6 hours away. Lynx drove 12 hours out of his own way -- taking me there and then going back to where he needed to be -- and saw doing so as an adventure, not a burden.
I've had people over the years say things like, "Well of course you're friends with him -- he's only been nice to you. And you're a girl -- of course he's going to try to win your favor." Sorry to disappoint, but nothing could be further from the truth. I've seen Lynx offer to send phones, laptops, and baked goods to everyone in chat -- both the men, and the women. He's also offered to drive across the country, not caring how far it is away, to pick up anyone of either gender who wants to attend a meetup but needs a ride -- and then take them back home. He once even talked about renting a motor home, mapping out a route, then just picking up people along the way, and then dropping them off when it was over.
What people don't see are the times Lynx and I DO argue, which is actually quite frequently. We laugh about it now, but I've had times where I pretty much told him to take a long walk off a short cliff -- and you could have seen the steam coming out of my ears at the time. We still have plenty of disagreements, but most times it's outside of the forum.
So no, you don't have to worry about him "sitting around on his blessed A$$urance" (which was your chosen emphasis of how to spell the word.)
Lynx's ministry is service, and it never lets up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
@jchristian, I know you believe part of your ministry is your writing, and that's great! I really hope you find the audience that your book and writings is meant for.
I have to confess -- the reason I have not explored your writings is because they are way beyond my league. I have never been good at understanding the hard sciences, and just reading your description of the devil corrupting the dinosaurs had me a bit confused.
Put bluntly -- I'm too dumb to read what you write, and that's the reason I haven't been able to participate.
Now, if you had said your book was breaking down behavior chains, such as Antecedent --> Discriminative Stimulus --> Behavior --> Consequence, then gave a Biblical perspective and research/presentations of how to approach these behaviors in a ministering way (increasing desired behaviors; decreasing harmful or negative behaviors,) I would have ordered a copy as soon as I had read the description.
But God just built me differently, and while I must apologize for not being able to understand the depth of your works, I really do hope and pray that you will find the audience it is meant to minister to.
Put on the YouTube video and hit play. It's broken down into a simple story format. There is very little you will find "confusing." In fact, you will likely find it quite enlightening.
There is some "hard science" in the book (not the audiobook though), but I break that down into understandable terms as well.
My 15-year-old daughter read the book and she understood it. It does have a lot of adult themes, but nothing more risqué than what is in the Bible itself (or in the news.) She really liked it.
As for Lynx, he enjoyed coming onto my threads and dissing tremendous amounts of work and effort and Holy Spirit inspiration because he is too lazy to also hit play on a YouTube video and listen for himself. I felt he deserved a little jab.
It's not just about whether or not I'd find your book confusing; it's also whether or not the reader is interested in the topic, and I have limited free time, which I prefer to spend on the subjects I'm interested in. If you ever write about behavior analysis or investing and options chains (maybe an iron condor -- a type of trade -- might even count as a cousin of the dinosaurs,) I will be sure to pick up a copy.
My calling is primarily talking to people about their lives. Sometimes God has me read or study subjects or hobbies I'm not really into in order to understand someone else better; but at the current time, I don't talk to anyone about the hard sciences or dinosaurs, so I simply have no interest.
I've been following your "The Profane" thread from the start and I do understand the contentiousness you have towards Lynx.
For myself, I'm not lazy, I'm just not drawn to the subject of your book. As a bit of a writer myself, I do understand your frustration. You've put a ton of work into something and want other people to experience it so you won't feel you've wasted all your time or talent -- I get that. I'm a different kind of writer -- my primary means is letters and threads, of which I have written tens of thousands over the years. I have often been told I should write books, a blog, and start a YouTube channel, but my writing is geared towards getting other people talking to each other, not just me yapping, so I stick to letters and threads.
I've personally known two other Christians who wrote books, and a third who was working on a children's book. I don't know if you experienced this, but they each paid about $10,000 of their own money to publish their books and each felt they were inspired by God. They had this image in their heart that they were going to sell tons of copies (not for money, but to lead thousands to Christ.)
In the end, they never earned back even a fraction of what they'd paid for publishing and wound up giving away the stacks of copies they had printed to literally anyone who wouldn't say no. The market is beyond over saturated and I think this is something we writers have to accept from the start -- people may or may not read what we so passionately pour our lives into -- and we have to be ok with that.
I also tend not to read things that someone is heavily promoting themselves, but that's just my own personal choice -- and no, it's not laziness, it's just a choice, and one I have for my own reasons. I grew up in church culture with people self-promoting their work left and right after every other service, so it's a sales tactic I've come to avoid. The two people I knew who published books -- one I had to read for a class; the other I read as a favor to a friend, but they were not books I would have chosen on my own.
If I write something no one responds to, I just go back to the drawing board and start again -- but I know it's much easier with the format I use. I've written, I'm guessing, at least a 1,000 plus threads during my time here and sometimes no one responds. I've sent thousands of letters out over my life and sometimes they just get thrown away and never even read, and that's all right. I do understand how discouraging it can be though, because I've written threads that I poured more work into than the papers I had to write in college.
Now of course I can't claim all my writing is inspired by God, but sometimes there are topics I do feel inspired to write about (sexual abuse being one of them,) because people often pour out their hearts about their most personal struggles. Sometimes I spend hours on a thread no one posts in. And sometimes God will tell me it's because I needed the practice, or because someone needed to read what was written but not respond. I think writers have to accept that perhaps no one will read their work, and be ok with that from the start.
Just as you are telling everyone to read/listen to your work and that they will get something out of it, I could easily tell that you should read all of the threads I put up and then go hunt for my other ones -- because you might find some of them enlightening -- but it would be ridiculous for me to do that. People all have their own tastes, interests, and time limits, and I'm not going to tell them they should read anything I write.
Behaviors, interpersonal relationships, and money management are what I currently study because those are the things people talk to me about the most.
But when people start asking me about dinosaurs and the devil corrupting them, I'll be sure to look up your work.
I'm sure there's an audience out there for that, but I'm not part of it, and I wish you all the best in finding the group that is.
I'm sorry, you have no idea what the book is about and have limited time, but you wrote this huge reply.
The book is 10,000% about behavior analysis. Okay. Like, give it a shot. I assure you it is unlike anything you've ever read before. Although, the first part of the audiobook only deals with a fraction of the content of the book.
I'm begging you, like a Christian beggar on the street asking for a dollar, just listen to it. It's not just about dinosaurs; that's just one element of the story. It's about Satan deceiving the world and how he did/does it. It's about how he influenced all the nations in the world before the flood.
One person who read it left this Amazon review: If you ever ask yourself, “How in the world did things get this bad?” Don’t turn on your favorite politician pundit. Read this book! It is beautifully written and although it blends fiction and nonfiction , it is biblically accurate, with many scripture references to back it up. You do not have to walk in the darkness of this world! Loved it!
Another person I talked to said it is "The best book I've read."
Now that was just mean.
Plain old mean.
Low down dog mean.
Lower than a snake belly mean.
She spent that time writing a post sympathizing with your frustration, and explaining that she understands why you might be frustrated. Then you throw it in her face.
Why'd you have to go and be so mean for?
This is exactly why I have no interest in your book or video.
Yes, absolutely, I spent the time to write a long reply to you instead of listening to your work. Why? Because of what I said in both of my posts -- writing on the forum interests me, but, I'm sorry, the subject of your book does not. Does it not count at all that I don't have a personal interest in your subject matter? Just like if people aren't interested in my threads, it's up to them, and no worries if they don't read what I write. Why are you unable to accept that?
You said your book is 10,000% about behavior analysis -- but did you even read in my post about the type of behavior analysis I'm interested in? I'm not all that interested in a fictionalized analysis of the devil and his behavior, but that's just me.
This is why I'm not interested in your book -- as I said before -- I'm not interested in the subject matter. Why does that have to someone be wrong? Why should I spend time on it if I'm not interested?
If I wasn't interested before, then I'm doubly not interested now, because as I explained, I've been around the hard sell/begging all my life, and it's just not something that draws me in or gets me interested.
People who create have to realize and accept that others have different tastes and just might not be interested in their work. Is that some sort of crime? Why cling on and beg when someone has already said no?
This is just me, but a conclusions that might have gotten my interest would have been (after everything else you wrote in your own thread,) "I really hope you'll give it a try and that you'll like it -- but if not, no worries if it's not what you're interested in and God bless." But that's just me.
And the more someone piles on their own accolades (the things you say others are saying about your book,) the less interested I am, just because I'm not drawn to that style of advertising.
I understand you calling people lazy for not paying attention to your work, but what befuddles me is that you seem to have no regard for others' personal interests. All you seem to care about is that anyone and everyone, regardless of their own personal interests, should absolutely read or listen to your book.
The thing is -- last week I actually DID load up your book YouTube and I DID actually try to listen to it -- twice.
But within the several minutes each time, I knew it wasn't for me, and moved on.
So yes -- I tried to listen to your book -- but just couldn't get into it.
Why is that such a crime?
Yes, and you won't have time to read the part where I mentioned that I actually DID try to listen to your book -- twice -- but just couldn't get into it.
As I said, it's absolutely mind-boggling that you can't seem to understand that it's ok, and it's allowed, for people to not be interested in your subject matter. If someone who creates has no respect for their potential audience as individuals, how can they expect people to want to run right out and experience their work?
So it seems you won't read this post -- and that's perfectly fine -- but maybe you'll notice the trend here. I can write what I write, and people may or may not choose to read it, AND THAT'S PERFECTLY FINE. You can post about your book, and people may or may not listen to it, and that's also perfectly fine.
I get to a point in some thread conversations, such as this one, where I'm no longer really writing to or for the person I was conversing with -- I'm writing for others in the audience who might choose to read my posts instead. And whether they do or don't is also perfectly fine. I can choose to create something, and what people do or don't do in response is their own right.
Have you ever considered that the way you come across in your promotion of the book might be a large part of why people apparently aren't paying attention to it?
Yes, I do apologize to @Ceph for derailing this thread.
But I had already left him other thoughts about his time away on his profile and in another thread before this all started.
You are displaying a luxury that you seem to want to deny anyone else.
You have spare time -- you just chose to spend it on the things that interest you. My posts don't interest you, therefore you move on to something that DOES interest you.
Why do you see this as something you have a right to, but not anyone else? Why is choosing what you want to spend time on your God-given right, but if others don't want to spend their spare time on your book, they must be lazy?
Because you seem to think that everyone else should make spending their spare time on your work first priority.
Are they not allowed to choose what they want to do with their spare time, just as you are?