Update News for December 2020

Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin:

• Christmas 2020
  
• Zip Code List FROZEN Until
  January 11, 2021
  
• Zip Code Renewals Must Be Paid By
  January 8, 2021
  
• Term4Sale – The One For Three Guarantee
  
• Federal Trial is Now Over
  
• Learning Javascript
  
• Our Current Programming Plans for 2020 and 2021

These topics will be dealt with in more detail throughout this bulletin.

 

Christmas 2020

There is a very old expression, “May you live in interesting times”. At first glance it may appear to be a kind of well wishing but in point of fact it was considered a curse. Robert (Bobby) Kennedy used it in a June 1966 speech that he gave in Cape Town South Africa. Kennedy said:

There is a Chinese curse which says ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.

You can hear Kennedy speak those words here:

Kennedy became part of the interesting times that he was referring to; he was assassinated exactly 2 years later.

Our nation, following a very consequential election, is living in more and more interesting times. We are more divided than we have been for over 150 years. Passions are running high on both sides of the political spectrum, and both sides are gripping tightly to their juxtaposed and irreconcilable positions. There seems to be little mood to find a middle ground and the threat of violence has grown greatly this year.

I must confess that I too find myself in no mood for compromise believing that we are at a moment where we either defend the nation as it was conceived and founded, or watch as it is dramatically altered from what it was imagined to be. I wonder where all this will end, and how it will end, but I don’t see a happy outcome no matter which fork in the road we go down; we are simply too divided.

The least compromiser of all is God Almighty. The Bible teaches us that His ways are unchanging, He does NOT change his mind, He does not adapt to us. Human beings are told in the Bible that we either embrace God’s ways and do as He commands or we end up going our own way. Biblical history is full of the stories of men who have gone their own way, rejecting God’s way, and in the end the story is always the same and not a happy outcome for man.

The second important truth that the Bible teaches us, after the fact that God is our creator, is that man is a fallen creature. Man has sinned against God and man is separated from God by that sin. You will find that story right at the beginning of the Bible:

• Genesis 2:15-17 (New American Standard Bible)

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

You can read further about the fall of man here.

To summarize, man did exactly what God told him not to do and man became estranged from God. God did not change, man changed; man became a sinner.

Sin not only divides us from God it divides us from each other. Increasingly those who embrace the Bible and it’s teachings are now considered “taboo”; people despised by modern society. This week I read with great interest this story,

From that article:

Among the organizations originally included were Planned Parenthood, The Trevor Project, Girls Who Code, and World Central Kitchen as well as a group called Exodus Cry. The organization, which purports to help combat sex trafficking, was founded by Benjamin Nolot, who has expressed virulent views on social media about abortion rights and gay marriage.

So the idea to help stop sex trafficking (a new kind of slavery) was deemed good, but because the founder of the group was opposed to abortion and gay marriage, Ms. McCarthy and HBO felt the need to apologize profusely and distance themselves from the group even though it shared their objective of trying to stop sex trafficking. So much for the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

As we now approach Christmas, and I reflect upon it, I suspect in the future that the negative connotations of saying “Merry Christmas” will return with a renewed passion. And why not, given the increasingly strident condemnation of those who embrace Biblical morality. Biblical morality is increasingly at odds with our culture’s secular morality, sometimes called the new morality but which Bible believers re-label as the old immorality.

This all begs the question, why can’t God just compromise? In fact many claim, including many from the mainstream Christian churches, that God is compromising. They say that God is OK with the new moral direction of the country. Really? I am afraid I don’t see that as I read the Bible but please feel free to point out anything that I am missing in the sacred text.

On the other hand the same God who does not compromise has offered a solution to mans’ problem of sin. And just to be clear, EVERY human being is considered by the Bible to be a sinner. If you are a Jew, the Bible says in Daniel:

• Daniel 9:11 (New American Standard Bible)

Indeed, all Israel has violated Your Law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has gushed forth on us, along with the oath which is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.

If you are not a Jew, God makes his case against all of mankind here:

• Romans 2:12 (New American Standard Bible)

For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;

and sums it up here:

• Romans 3:23 (New American Standard Bible)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

From all of this I think we can distill two simple truths. God does not compromise and every human being is separated from God by sin. God has said that He must and will punish man for sin. I believe that God will do what He said He will do.

The solution that God offers to solve our problem is that God has sent someone to take that punishment intended for us, the punishment for sin that we ourselves deserve, and to take that punishment upon Himself. That person has said He will stand in our place. Who is that person? It is God’s only begotten son, born of a virgin in a town called Bethlehem. His name is Jesus Christ. John the Baptist recognized God’s solution:

• John 1:29 (New American Standard Bible)

The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Salvation is a gift that God offers to all men. There is no one who the gift is not offered to. The catch is that the gift must be received. We must act to receive the gift. Here is the Apostle Peter explaining it:

• Acts 2:38-40 (New American Standard Bible)

• Peter said to them, 

“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”

Be saved from this perverse generation! Or put another way, be saved from these interesting times in which we live.

Note the first word that Peter speaks; he says “repent”. If you are to obtain God’s gift you must “repent”. What does that mean? First, it means that you must agree with God and admit that you are a sinner. Repentance also means you must apologize for your sin, and express a desire to turn away from your sinfulness. If you do not repent, there is no gift. Once you have repented, you are in a place to accept the gift.

I don’t know where our journey as a nation is taking us. I have no idea just how “interesting” our times are going to become. But I know our time here is relatively short, and I know where the journey takes me when this life is over. Jesus said:

• John 14:2 (New American Standard Bible)

In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you.

This Christmas, I hope that you have a reservation in heaven. It’s free, but you must have a reservation. If you don’t have one, it’s not to late to make a reservation by accepting the gift of Jesus Christ.

Zip Code List FROZEN Until
January 11, 2021

Immediately following bump week, the zip code list was FROZEN meaning there is no opportunity to add, remove or exchange zip codes until January 11, 2021. Once we have determined who has not renewed their additional zip codes for 2021, we will be able to publish the new list of zip coded for 2021 and zip codes previously full will then be available for purchase by other subscribers.

By now you should received your additional zip code invoice for 2021. You can pay by December 31st if you want to expense the advertising cost in 2020 or if you want to expense the advertising for 2021 you still have up until January 8, 2021 to make your payment.

Zip Code Renewals Must Be Paid By
January 8, 2021

Nothing compels you to renew your additional zip code listings and you will continue to be listed in those zip codes until January 8, 2021 in the event that you elect not to pay those renewals.

IMPORTANT:   If your payment has not been received by the end of business on January 8, 2021, the additional listings that you have will LAPSE and be made available to other subscribers at noon on January 11, 2021. More about that will follow in the January Update News.

If you believe that you did not get sufficient email contacts (as per our 3 for 1 warranty) and that we will need to make a warranty adjustment to your invoice, do not pay your invoice until the last week of December. I would encourage you to contact us on December 28th and we will review your total number of email contacts and weigh that against the number of zip codes that you have, and the number of email contacts that you are entitled to. If you are short, we will determine the credit that we need to make against your invoice for 2021.

Term4Sale – The One For Three Guarantee

The “Guarantee” (Warranty) is that for every 3 zip code listings that you have, you can expect ONE legitimate email contact through the system per year (we don’t count tests and duplicates; spouses and partners are NOT considered duplicates). If you didn’t get that one for three contact then those 3 zip codes will be free listings for the following year and the warranty will carry over to that following year as if you had paid the full normal fee.

If you think you that is the case for you, do NOT pay your term4sale invoice until the last week of December. In that last week call us and we will review your email contacts with you, and compare that to the number of zip codes that you had in 2020. If you came up short, we will issue the appropriate credit and reduce your invoice. If you pay that reduced amount you will keep ALL the zip codes you were invoiced for in mid-November.

How is the credit calculated (if you qualify)?

EXAMPLE:  You have 14 zip codes, three local and 11 that you purchased. For 14 zip codes we expect: 14/3 = 5 contacts (4.67 rounded up). Let’s assume that you had only 3 email contacts (note: we do not count duplicate or BOGUS contacts) On November 15th, we would have invoiced you $198 (11 X $18) for 2021 renewal. However, you really only got the activity we would have expected for 9 total zip codes, which would have been 3 local zip codes, and 6 additionally purchased zip codes. Therefore, we will credit your invoice DOWN to $108 (6 X $18) and give you the same 14 zip codes for 2021. In other words, you will have 5 of those 11 paid zip codes for free.

IMPORTANT:  There are NO REFUNDS. What we do is reduce the renewal cost for the SAME zip codes for the following year. After January 11th you can add zip codes (and pay for those) or you can swap your zip codes for other zip codes.

This guarantee is designed to act as a way to retroactively balance out the cost of zip codes listings that have not produced. Sometimes, particularly for those with smaller numbers of zip codes, or with zip codes in poorly populated areas, the results are not as good. We understand that and our warranty is designed to moderate the cost when results are disappointing.

And, if you are a card player, you know that sometimes you run hot and sometimes you run cold. We’re glad when you run hot, and will try to help if you get cold decked.

Federal Trial is Now Over

The second federal trial in a case we brought for copyright infringement occurred from November 16th to 20th and lasted about 4 1/2 days. Final arguments will be heard by the court on December 17th.

There is nothing more that Compulife and our staff can do at this point, and so we have returned to the work of moving our product development forward. We’ll advise you of the trial outcome when we have a decision, sometime in spring of 2021.

Learning Javascript

Our programmer is now spending time learning much how about developing in javascript. We have decided that the best way to create a new Windows PC interface, that closely follows our new web based interface, is to embrace more powerful web programming capabilities. Once we understand what we can do and not do with our web design, we can re-program our software in Windows knowing that we can duplicate what we come up with on the web.

Our ultimate goal is to have a web based version of our product, and works just with the Windows PC version, and vice versa.

To summarize, our Compulife Basic product, the one you use for your phone and non-Windows devices, will eventually become much more powerful, and our Windows PC product will work the same way.

Our Current Programming Plans for 2020 and 2021

The following is the current order for new work that we will be doing in 2021:

• • Introduction of New PC Version: CQS.EXE

 

• • Overhaul Of Current Product Data Files

 

• Introduction of Compulife Basic Plus (with Pick 12)

Anyone with questions about any of these upcoming projects can call Bob Barney to discuss:

Please don’t email me essay questions, just call. If I’m not in, email me your phone number, I’ll call you.

These planned objectives will easily consume our programming time during 2021. The good news is that once the product data files have been converted, and we have introduced the new CQS.EXE, and upgraded our internet engine to use the new data files, Compulife will be turning it’s full attention to our web based, Compulife Basic software. The long term goal is to have a web based product that does everything our PC based software does.