| I spent years trying to understand why I did | | | | contentment continues to abide with you even as |
| crime, why I began so young and what I needed | | | | God increases your blessings to what can only be |
| to do to stop! Even after learning the answer, I | | | | defined as "much." |
| spent additional years learning how to stop doing | | | | Next comes what I refer to as the partnership |
| crime. | | | | principle, summarized in Luke 6:38: "Give and it will |
| Impatient greed motivates crime! No! environment | | | | be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, |
| challenges, such as poverty, diminished | | | | shaken together and running over will men give |
| opportunities, etc. neither cause nor motivate | | | | into your bosom, because with the same |
| crime. You do not inherit criminal thinking from | | | | measure you use in giving, I will measure it back |
| your parents or other relatives. You see, crime is | | | | to you." I apply this partnership principle, for |
| a way of thinking that makes it okay to harm | | | | example, with investors. In every investment |
| others for self-gain. You do not do crime because | | | | package I put together, the investors receive 60 |
| others do. You do not do crime because you | | | | percent of the project revenue off the top, |
| grow up in impoverished circumstances. Those | | | | before business expenses, before profit. I do that |
| are all lies, designed to accomplish the third of the | | | | because God, my business partner, promises to |
| three-prong prime directive of crime. All criminals | | | | use the same measure I use--in this case 60 |
| desire to get over on people, to get away with it, | | | | percent--in providing blessings to me. So every |
| and if caught to avoid the consequences, if | | | | business deal yields a 100 percent return for me. |
| possible, so the person can return to doing crime. | | | | Next comes the payment principle, summarized in |
| In other words, crime is a personal, individual | | | | mark 10:29-30 "'I tell you the truth,' Jesus replied, |
| decision that develops from impatient greed. | | | | 'no one who has left home or brothers or sisters |
| Therefore, you do not have to do crime. In other | | | | or mother or father or children or fields for me |
| words, you do crime because you want what you | | | | and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times |
| want and you want it now, no matter who you | | | | as much in this present age (homes, brothers, |
| must harm to get it. Therefore, just as you | | | | sisters, mothers, children and fields) and with |
| decided to do crime, you can decide to stop! | | | | them persecutions and in the age to come eternal |
| Impatient greed often leads to violence because | | | | life.'" |
| this mindset of getting what I want when i want | | | | Now we come to the preparation principle, |
| it, no matter who I must hurt to get it, includes | | | | revealed in Gen. 26:1-3, 15-16: "Now there was a |
| violence. When you do crime, you always try to | | | | famine in the land--besides the earlier famine of |
| go in with an advantage over your victim, just like | | | | Abraham's time--and Isaac went to Abimelech, |
| any other predator. | | | | king of the Philistines in Gerar. The Lord appeared |
| Take a lion, for example. Lions hunt with great | | | | to Isaac and said: 'Do not go down to Egypt; live |
| steath. They track a herd of African antelopes, | | | | in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land |
| for example, until they're able to isolate one from | | | | for a while, and I will be with you and will bless |
| the herd, cut it off and kill it. In the same way, | | | | you . . .Isaac planted crops in that land and the |
| criminals isolate victims, cutting them off from | | | | same year reaped a hundredfold because the |
| whatever could protect them from the crime. | | | | Lord blessed him. The man became rich and his |
| Many people, particularly the families and loved | | | | wealth continued to grow until he became very |
| ones of criminals do not like it when I refer to | | | | wealthy." |
| criminals as people predators, but I don't know of | | | | I was not anxious to return to Durham, my home |
| a better term to succinctly describe the thinking, | | | | town, where I had done all my crime, back in |
| the attitude and the behavior called crime. | | | | 1980 when God revealed through circumstances |
| Okay, now you know why criminals do crime, and | | | | that I was to return here. I was struggling in |
| I don't care how you label it, street crime, white | | | | Charlotte because I had quit my job at the |
| collar crime, whatever, the definition holds up. | | | | Charlotte Observer, as a staff writer, to open |
| Crime is a way of thinking that makes it okay to | | | | my initial homebased business, as a fulltime |
| harm others to get what you want when you | | | | free-lance writer. I knew absolutely nothing about |
| want it. | | | | being in business, and did not take time to learn |
| During the past 40 years, I have learned how I | | | | before plunging into "business" which is different |
| stopped during crime. I have isolated a seven-step | | | | than being a writer. Like many other |
| process of inculcating certain basic principles into | | | | entrepreneurs, I knew how to do the work of |
| my life that have propelled me, over time, from | | | | my business--write professionally for various |
| crime to contribution. In summary, here's what | | | | newspapers and magazines, but I did not know |
| you must do: | | | | how to conduct the business of my work. So for |
| 1. Change your thinking, and when you do, you | | | | the past 28 years, I have lived and worked in |
| can . . . | | | | Durham, and God has granted me, as He did |
| 2. Change your beliefs, and when you do, you can | | | | Isaac, a hundredfold blessing. Even now in the |
| . . . | | | | midst of what almost everyone refers to as an |
| 3. Change your perspectives, and when you do, | | | | economic crisis, I see boundless opportunities for |
| you can . . . | | | | the continuing growth of my personal and |
| 4. Change your attitude, and when you do, you | | | | business wealth. I am indeed in the right place at |
| can . . . | | | | the right time with the right knowledge and a |
| 5. Change your behavior, and when you do, you | | | | longrange plan. |
| can . . . | | | | The sixth of these seven principles you can use |
| 6. Change your results or outcomes, and when | | | | to stop crime is found in Prov. 14:23. "All hard |
| you do, you can . . . | | | | work brings a profit, but mere talk leads to |
| 7. Change your life | | | | poverty." I refer to this as the professional |
| This seven-step process leads to mental, | | | | principle. |
| emotional and physical changes that transform | | | | As many of you know who regularly read what I |
| you from predator to contributor. But it's not | | | | write here, my first job after being released from |
| easy. | | | | prison on Dec. 9, 1968, was as a janitor in a local |
| Remember, a three-prong prime directive | | | | hotel, then called The Jack Tar Hotel/Motel. I |
| governs criminal thinking. Criminals want to get | | | | worked hard there. I began my professional |
| over, get away and if caught, get out as soon as | | | | writing career in the fall of 1969 when I moved to |
| possible so they can return to getting over. The | | | | Greensboro and wrote for a while for a weekly |
| operative term in this directive is "get!" It | | | | newspaper there--The Carolina Peacemaker. Then |
| summarizes the principal motivation of all | | | | back to Durham where I wrote for a while for |
| crime--to get! To stop doing crime, you must | | | | The Carolina Times, and then on to Raleigh where |
| change that thinking to the thinking summarized in | | | | I wrote for a while for The Carolinian. In June |
| what I refer to as the seven economic principles | | | | 1970, I landed my first daily newspaper job--a |
| of the kingdom of God. Please understand that | | | | staff writer with the Wilmington (NC) Star-News. |
| from whateve perspective you view it, crime is | | | | Then in August 1974, after being out of prison |
| an economic issue. You--the criminal--do not have | | | | for just six years, I landed a position as staff |
| something you want! Usually, that "something" | | | | writer with The Charlotte Observer, one of the |
| translates into a monetary value that you can | | | | best newspapers in the southeastern United |
| trade or barter for something else you want, be | | | | States. Again, I know and know that I know that |
| it drugs, a fancy lifestyle, or whatever. | | | | all hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads |
| During the past 40 years, I have learned seven | | | | to poverty. |
| economic principles from the Bible that have been | | | | I refer to the seventh of these principles that |
| the principal reasons I no longer do crime because | | | | have guided me from crime to contribution as the |
| these principles yield a significantly greater return | | | | Providential principle, stated in the following verses |
| to me every month than my entire 20 years of | | | | of Proverbs, chapter 22: Verse 2--"Ill-gotten |
| doing crime did, combined. | | | | treasure are of no value, but righteousness |
| This new thinking process begins with the priority | | | | delivers from death; verse 4--"Lazy hands make |
| principle stated in Matthew 6:33 that says: "Seek | | | | a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth; |
| first God's kingdom and His righteousness and | | | | verses 14 through 17--"Wise men store up |
| God will provide the basics--food, shelter and | | | | knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin. |
| clothing. I do not have the time or the space here | | | | The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but |
| to elaborate on how this principle has been fulfilled | | | | poverty is the ruin of the poor. The wages of the |
| in my life during the past 40 years, but rest | | | | righteous bring them life, but the income of the |
| assured that I know and know that I know the | | | | wicked brings them punishment. He who heeds |
| truth of this principle. | | | | discipline shows the way to life, but whoever |
| Next comes the performance principle, | | | | ignores correction leads others astray. Finally, |
| summarized in Luke 16:1-13 in the parable of the | | | | verses 21 and 22--"The lips of the righteous |
| unjust steward. They key phrase says: "Anyone | | | | nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment. |
| who is faithful in little will also be faithful in much. | | | | the blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds |
| Being faithful in little means learning something that | | | | no trouble with it." |
| the Apostle Paul summarizes in his epistle to the | | | | There you have it--a seven-step process, |
| Phillipians. He wrote: "I have learned that in | | | | focused on seven immutable laws you can use to |
| whatever state I find myself, therewith to be | | | | stop doing crime The choice is yours! |
| content." Being content with little is synonymous | | | | See you at the top! |
| to being faithful in little. This attitude of mental | | | | |