What good does reading the BIBLE do?

An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his BIBLE. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! I try to read the BIBLE just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. Whatgood does reading the BIBLE do?"

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water."
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead.
The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.

The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket." The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.

"Son, that's what happens when you read the BIBLE. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Jesus in our lives."

Word of God cleanses our hearts and makes us holy- Ephesians 5:25-27 Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, ²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Word of God renews our mind and helps us to know the will of God in our lives-Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Word of God changes our attitude to put on the new self- Ephesians 4:23-24 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

JESUS FOLDED THE NAPKIN

<< John 20:7 >>

New International Version (©1984) as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.New Living Translation (©2007) while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. English Standard Version (©2001) and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. New American Standard Bible (©1995) and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. International Standard Version (©2008) and that the handkerchief that had been on Jesus' head was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up in a separate place. GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995) He also saw the cloth that had been on Jesus' head. It wasn't lying with the strips of linen but was rolled up separately. King James Bible And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. American King James Version And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. American Standard Version and the napkin, that was upon his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. Bible in Basic English And the cloth, which had been round his head, not with the linen bands but rolled up in a place by itself. Douay-Rheims Bible And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. Darby Bible Translation and the handkerchief which was upon his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a distinct place by itself. English Revised Version and the napkin, that was upon his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. Webster's Bible Translation And the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Weymouth New Testament and the towel, which had been placed over the face of Jesus, not lying with the cloths, but folded up and put by itself. World English Bible and the cloth that had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. Young's Literal Translation and the napkin that was upon his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but apart, having been folded up, in one place;

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection

The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes.

The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.

Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, 'They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!'

Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple out ran Peter and got there first. He stopped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side.

Was that important? Absolutely!
Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day.

The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every
Jewish boy knew this tradition.

When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it.

The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished.

Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.

The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm finished."

But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because...

The folded napkin meant

"I'm coming back."

10 percent Royalty ?? Are publishers "cheating" the authors

Of late there have been quite a lot of discussions regarding royalty in Literary World. Few of those are given below 

• Charu http://www.charuonline.com/newarticls/velithirai.html
• Jeyamohan http://www.jeyamohan.in/?p=5683
• Gnani http://idlyvadai.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_4548.html
• Writer Para http://www.writerpara.com/paper/?p=930
• Badri http://thoughtsintamil.blogspot.com/2009/12/etc-1.html and http://thoughtsintamil.blogspot.com/2009/12/etc-2.html

As someone who has been in this field for over a decade, I would like to share my views

A Book, from the time of conception in the authors mind to the readers hand, goes through an intricate, complicated process. 

To understand this, let us assume that I am writing a book on the uses of microscope. Let us also assume that this book is of 250 pages (A5 size) and a publisher publishes 1000 copies of this book with a MRP of Rs 1000

So 1000 x Rs 100 = Rs 1,00,000

Now comes the tricky issue

Who are all getting a share of this 1,00,000 Rupees

• Author gets Rs 10,000
• To print 1000 copies of 100 page A5 size book will cost approximately Rs 30,000 (Typesetting, Proofreading, Covers,  Binding)
• For Typesetting you need a Computer, Printer, Papers, Ink, Software (Have you ever cared to enquire the cost of Adobe Page Maker and Corel Draw) 
• Printing Ink
• Papers
• Cost of Printing Color Pages / Covers
• Laminating the Cover
• Rs 10,000 To pack this and send this to various places
• Packing includes covers , cloths, transit charges
• Most Publishers sell the books at 30% discount (Some sell at 40 % discount) to the distributor 
• So A Publisher spends Rs 50000 on these books and sells this for Rs 70000 to the distributor
• These 1000 Books are then for Rs 80000 to the retailer by the distributor at 20 % discount
• Distributor has warehouse expenses, labour, transit charges to bear
• The Retailer sells this at a discount of 10 % for Rs 90000
• Retailer has shop rent, electricity, wages to bear
• The end consumer gets Rs 10000 (in form of 10 % discount for 1000 books)

So, for a book where MRP is Rs 100, the Rs 100 is distributed as per the following

• 10 Author
• 30 Typesetting, Paper, Printing
• 10 Package and Transport
• 20 Margin for Publisher
• 10 Margin for Retailer
• 10 Margin for Shops
• 10 Consumer discount

Now we represent the above values in a figure

I should now caution you that the above 10-30-10-20-10-10-10 may not be exactly the same for all kinds of books. It varies from book to book, but the variation may not be too high or too low

Now, let us the the same figure again

Voila

What do you see

And

What do you observe

And

What do you infer

(seeing is not same as observing and observing is not the same as inferring)

For every book that is published with a MRP of Rs 100, the author gets Rs 10 and the publisher Rs 20 only

This is reality

Every one who gets angry at the royalty of 10 % fail to see the other factors involved in book publishing

It is not that the Publisher gives 10 % and keeps 90 % himself

Now you might have a doubt

Leave alone the 70 percent. Of the 30 %, why can't the publisher give 15 % to the author and have 15 % for himself

Now look at this again carefully. 

The publisher takes responsible for typesetting, designing and printing the book. He invests his money. And he cannot get the money back in one day

It may take years before that amount reaches him from the retailer to the distributor

Sometimes, it may not come at all !! (if the book fails to sell :( ) 

So it is quite logical that at least 10 % have to be kept aside for investment/loan-interest and of the 20 percent, each get 10 per cent each

So the publisher actually gets only 10 %

That is why, throughout the world, from America to Africa. author royalty of 10 % is standardised, whether it is a book regarding Java Programming or Java Coffee making

Of course, there might be some exceptions like Michael Craighton or Shobha De, but the rule is 10 % only

Are you having any of the following questions

1. Can an author himself publish the book
2. Will he get more profit or more trouble, if he publishes himself
3. How to earn more with the books 
4. Some publishers demand money from me for publishing my books. What is this ??
5. What is print on demand
6. 
   

Stay tuned

We will see this one by one

Any other questions / clarifications / suggestions, please enter in the comment below or SMS 98421 11725

Anger and Love and distance between hearts

This one is a lovely mail and you should read it….. A good one too……..I am sure you will like it.

A saint asked his disciples, 'Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?'

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.'

'But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you?' asked the saint. 'Isn't it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you're angry?'
Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint.

Finally he explained,'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot.. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.'
Then the saint asked, 'What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small...'
The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.'

MORAL: When you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other

The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!

A woman baked
bread for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passerby. She
kept the extra bread on the Window-sill, for whosoever would take it away.
Everyday, a hunch-back came and took away the bread. Instead of expressing
gratitude, he muttered the following words as he went his way: "The evil
you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!" This went
on, day after day. Everyday, the hunch-back came, picked up the bread and
uttered the words: "The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do,
comes back to you!"
The woman felt irritated. "Not a word of
gratitude," she said to herself... "Everyday this hunch-back utters
this jingle! What does he mean? "One day, out of desperation, she
decided to do away with him.
"I shall get rid of this hunch-back,"
she said. And what did she do? She added poison to the bread she prepared for
him! As she was about to keep it on the window sill, her hands trembled.
"What is this I am doing?" she said.
Immediately she threw the
bread into the fire, prepared another one and kept it on the window- sill. As
usual, the hunch-back came, picked up the bread and muttered the words:
"The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to
you!" The hunch-back proceeded on his way, blissfully unaware of the war
raging in the mind of the woman.
Everyday, as the woman placed the bread on
the window-sill, she offered a prayer for her son who had gone to a distant
place to seek his fortune. For many months, she had no news of him.. She
prayed for his safe return.
That evening, there was a knock on the door. As
she opened it, she was surprised to find her son standing in the doorway. He
had grown thin and lean. His garments were tattered and torn. He was hungry,
starved and weak.
As he saw his mother, he said, "Mom, it's a miracle
I'm here. While I was but a mile away, I was so hungry that I collapsed. I
would have died, but just then an old hunch-back passed by. I begged of him
for a small part of his food, and he was kind enough to give me whole bread.

"As he gave it to me, he said, "This is what I eat everyday: today,
I shall give it to you, for your need is greater than mine!" "As
the mother heard those words, her face turned pale and red. She leaned
against the door for support. She remembered the poisoned bread that she had
made that morning. Had she not burnt it in the fire, it would have been eaten
by her own son, and he would have lost his life!
It was then that she
realized the significance of the words: "The evil you do remains with
you: The good you do, comes back to you!" Do good and; Don't ever stop
doing good, even if it’s not appreciated at that time.