Bergsland Design shares the section of the site concerned with graphic design and book production. It’s not a legal DBA, rather a long-used pseudonym covering my graphic design work. If you’ve read my about me page, you can see it’s been a winding road to this place. This page attempts to help you sort out what I do as one part of the three basic areas: graphic design, font design, and teaching.
Bergsland Design the designer portion
Obviously I design much more than books. I’ve got designs on Zazzle—though that’s languishing for lack of attention. I design fonts, and much of my income comes from there. I design curricula and have three courses online in Udemy so far. When I’m bored I design landscapes, home interiors, and recipes.
Pages in this portion of my work
- Book production
- Book production charges
- Book publishing with InDesign CC
- Books on production & design
Here are some posts in this general category
God’s judgement comes with His blessing
God’s judgement comes with His blessing especially when we turn to Him in trust. I was reading Perry Stone’s new book this morning and I was struck in his introduction by the juxtaposition of two major events: in April of 1906, both the San Francisco earthquake, and the Azusa Street revival occurred.
The news called the earthquake the judgment of God. It’s probable that it was that as a consequence of the Gold Rush. In a very real way, the Azusa Street Revival was just as disastrous for the traditional mainline churches. The Christian church in America was judged and found wanting when the pentecostal outbreak occurred under the ministry of a poor black preacher in LA beginning in his house and then moving to a livery stable. It was a judgement on the stale, dead church who refused to allow the Holy Spirit to move in the traditional denominational churches.
Yet, they were both blessings as they began learning how to build better in cities to protect from earthquakes. And, fourteen new denominations were founded out of the pentecostal revival which delivered the church from the dead traditions and moved it into the freedom and power of Holy Spirit.
If God’s judgement comes with His blessing then what is coming with the pandemic?
Well, they’ve learned how to produce a vaccine very quickly. That may turn out to be a real blessing. In the church, we are seeing the Holy Spirit poured out on the sons and daughters. There is a massive work beginning as this second portion of the spiritual revival of the 20th century continues in the new millennium. It continues the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.
But, as was true at the beginning of the 20th century is now true also. The blessing is only experienced by those who allow the Lord to open their eyes and believe. Seek the Lord and let Him show you what is going on.
The revival is upon us
Trust the Lord to bring it to pass in its fullness.
Leading-Trim destroying traditional typography
Leading-Trim destroying traditional typography seems a strange way to start an article on typography. But for the sake of Web developers, who are commonly typographic illiterates, they are toying with changing the historic basis of paragraph spacing, and all line spacing. What set me off is an article I read this morning in Medium, a magazine with which I was unfamiliar.
The head and subhead are:
Leading-Trim: The Future of Digital Typesetting
How an emerging CSS standard can fix old problems and raise the bar for web apps
The true title should be: Let’s toss out traditional typography and do what we want.I don’t want to overstate this, but the article says that what is being proposed for CSS is a new CSS property. You can see below what is proposed. However, there’s a major error in their statement. The truth is: Leading-trim seeks to change the standard we’ve been using for well over 650 years.
“Introducing leading-trim
“Leading-trim seeks to change the standard we’ve been using for 24 years.
“Leading-trim is a new CSS property that the CSS Working Group is introducing. Just as the name suggests, it works like a text box scissor. You can trim off all the extra space from reference points of your choice with just two lines of CSS.”
Leading-Trim is destroying traditional typography by making CSS something other than that
This is no small thing. This means that Word and InDesign, and presumeably all word processors and page layout software, will be on a different system entirely. The article says they are just changing one little rule. Balderdash! That one little rule eliminates the basis of spacing in typography, standard leading—from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender, plus the built-in leading added by the font designer.
This means that traditional typographic design knowledge no longer works on the Web
Now I know this is a hugely complex system where everyone does what they think is right in their own eyes. But this one little new CSS property overthrows all of that.
Giving permission to minister
Who would think that giving permission to minister would be a powerful tool of evangelism? I’m not talking about dead mainline mortuaries either. Yes, giving permission to minister has become a powerful thing in a church where all kinds of unbiblical limitations on ministry are common.
I was reading an article this morning on the New Circuit Riders. In it Yasmin Pierce, one of the members of a CR team says, “Many times, it’s about telling women they have permission to evangelize.” [August 2020, Charisma Magazine THEY DON’T OFFER A WAY TO LINK IT FOR YOU].
PERMISSION TO EVANGELIZE!? Are you kidding me?
They do their work on campuses, and they say they are seeing amazing results after they simply let young women know it’s all right to evangelize. My wife was a pastor, so I know about gender bias. But this is appalling.
Giving permission to minister —young or old; male or female; trained or not
I can hear the seminarians sputter. We left a mainline church because we couldn’t minister without a collar. My wife finished seminary and had an obvious gift—so her blockage may have been bigotry. But I don’t have the call to be ordained, and I was blocked also. Thank God that Jesus, Peter, John, Philip, Steven, Barnabas, Paul did not ask for permission — nor did they go to seminary. There are many more including Spurgeon, McPherson, and so on.
But the Endgame Harvest is being lead by the youth in many cases. Circuit Riders, Perry Stone, and Karen Wheaton are seeing powerful growth by preaching the Gospel and encouraging all youth to respond to God’s call and minister. My concern is if you have a young person or a woman ask you about ministering because of a call on his or her life, you pray and ask the Lord to give you the grace to encourage and mentor such people so they will do what God is calling them to do.
Aliens or biblical view of Jesus
Aliens or biblical view of Jesus by percentage in America has become heartbreaking. It’s clouded by the fact the pollsters will never ask only about Jesus. But, for aliens and UFOs there are good statistics. Click on the image to the left to get it large enough to read.
For example, 57% believe there are aliens and civilizations on other planets. 45% believe that UFOs exist and have visited Earth. This is all muddied by the understanding of what UFOs are. For example, I believe that UFOs exist and have visited Earth—many of them. But I believe that all of them are most likely demonic manifestations which are preparations for the rule of the anti-christ.
A biblical worldview and accurate knowledge about Jesus has become very rare
For example, 70% of adult Americans claim to be Christian, but less than half claim to have a biblical worldview. If you define the biblical worldview using these markers that Barna provides : “believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today”, only 17% have that view. That means that under 12% of American adults have a biblical worldview.
But notice, this only means they believe Jesus was sinless. What about questions like: is Jesus God; is Jesus the only way to salvation, and does not believing in Jesus mean you go to Hell? Then the percentages go lower. Basically, true faith in Jesus has become very rare.
Aliens & UFOs or a biblical view of Jesus by percentage in America
Around half, or a little more, believe that alien civilizations in the universe exist and have visited us. In UFOs: God’s Chariots?: Spirituality, Ancient Aliens, and Religious Yearnings in the Age of Extraterrestrials a Lutheran Theology professor writes, “Are UFOs celestial saviors, coming to save Earth from self-destruction? Are UFOnauts advancing human evolution by birthing hybrid children?” There are more that believe this than there are those who believe the truth about Jesus.
Though the fastest growing religious group is the non-religious, the fastest growth among people who identify as religious is probably Wicca, in America. If you were wondering about the increase of signs of the end, wonder no more. The list in 2 Timothy 3: 1-5 has been fulfilled. America may be at the vanguard of this cultural shift. But there is no doubt. These are indeed the “perilous times” to which Paul was referring .
The surprise is the world’s surprise
The surprise is the world’s surprise. How would they react if they knew the end of the world, as they know it, truly is at hand? No one ever said we’d stop the China virus—the goal was to flatten the curve and bring the growth of the pandemic into a place where we could deal with it better. That was executed beautifully.
Now the media has everyone whipped into a froth. Come on, people, life’s a terminal condition. We all die, unless we’re caught up in the rapture. The point of all of this is to take a look at ourselves, repent of what we are doing wrong, and get our live together. Because—the end of the church age is truly upon us. At this point, the only surprise might be that it takes a decade or two before we get pulled out of here. I’m thinking months, not decades.
The surprise is the world’s surprise—for we’ve known this was imminent since 1948
Though no one knows the day or the hour, the season of the end began in the late 1800s. It took a spectacular step forward with the Balfour Declaration. But when the dry bones gathered together beginning in 1948, reforming into Israel [Ezekiel 37], it became obvious that the church age is drawing to a close.
Jesus told us that it would be like a pregnancy. When the time for the birth drew near, the labor pains would become overwhelming. The world is facing a terrible time of judgement. I was watching a YouTube video of Sodom and Gomorrah yesterday. They’ve discovered the remains. It is just large areas of compressed ash, speckled with balls of brimstone [or sulfur]. The brimstone balls are unique in the world, being almost pure sulfur that can be lit with a match. The building shapes are made of calcium sulfate, which would be the remains of limestone buildings consumed in a fire of sulfur. It was not volcanic. It was a massive hailstorm of brimstone balls. I imagine things were set on fire by lightning—though they didn’t mention that.
Sodom and Gomorrah was quick, a mercy we won’t see in the 7-year tribulation
The evil of those days is almost unimaginable—unless you read the news today. America is reaching that level of cultural and systemic sin, again. Look at the words of Paul in Timothy:
Know this: In the last days perilous times will come. 2 Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, trucebreakers, slanderers, unrestrained, fierce, despisers of those who are good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Turn away from such people. II Timothy 3: 1-5 MEV
Yes, in verse two, the word “men” is anthrōpos, Greek for mankind. Remember, God created Adam in His own image, male and female He created him. All the newly invented genders are part of mankind. In Sodom and Gomorrah, God was merciful and took them out virtually in an instant. Our post-modern culture makes them look like amateurs. The Father is fed up. It won’t be pretty.
But you can escape the coming wrath
All you need to do is believe and allow the Lord to bring you into His Kingdom. The choice is stark. Is is so simple that anyone can do it. If you do not know Jesus personally, you need to take care of that—today!
Identify works of Satan before warfare begins
Identify works of Satan before the warfare begins. Simply lashing out can cause issues. We don’t want to hurt the people involved in the problem. Trying to force a deliverance on a person with mental damage can cause even more damage. You are building a case, seeking insight from the Lord about how to proceed. The warfare is against any evil spirits involved. You are not fighting people. You are seeking to bring healing and wholeness to the person involved.
Identify works of Satan before warfare begins if at all possible
It’s a simple, easy process for the spirit-filled born-again believer. If you are not, you are asking for trouble. This is not a game, or entertainment. You will not understand these things until you have been born of God. If this hasn’t happened yet in your life, you need to take care of that first. Your choice is simple. Meet Jesus now!
If you have not received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, seek it. You may need to apologize to the person you want to pray for. Tell them you need to pray about some things, seeking guidance. Don’t be embarrassed. You’re showing true wisdom.
Jesus is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Simply ask Him to do it in you, or find a spirit-filled person to lay hands on you and pray for the baptism. Jesus loves to give his people gifts. Remember, John the Baptist told us that Jesus was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire. (Luke 3:16) You need spiritual power to fight spiritual enemies. It’s part of our resources as a new creation. But you have to ask Him for it.
Signs you’re dealing with the enemy
We’re looking for fruit. Jesus told us in Matthew 7: 17-18, “…every good tree bears good fruit. But a corrupt tree bears evil fruit. A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a corrupt tree bear good fruit.” So, the question become, What is enemy fruit? Many of these things are surprisingly obvious, once you are looking.
- Strong irrational fear is a clear indicator. If a person is terrified for no reason, suspect enemy spirits. If they have no idea what they are afraid of, this gives you a strong clue. If the fear seems to be coming from outside them, you have another one.
- Incapacitating confusion is another. If the person has trouble communicating due to confusion, you have another clue.
- Overwhelming lusts of the flesh can be another. Continual thoughts and desires about sex, violence, murder can incapacitate some with the enemy spirits triggering seemingly spontaneous actions.
- Compulsive urgency to act now is another. The enemy often pushes for immediate action, without thought, just do it! These spirits want to get a person to do something he or she would not normally do using panic to push that person into instant action.
- Speaking with the voice of another can give you more direct knowledge of actual possession. When it happens, it is obvious.
- Self-destructive behavior is a common fruit of enemy activity. This can be seen in an insistent urge to suicide, cutting the flesh, taking insane risks, feelings of invincibility, intentional attempts to overdose.
- Uncontrollable rage maybe the enabling act to give a foul spirit access within a person’s mind—resulting in possession.
- Blind hatred of believers can be, especially if the person involved reacts to someone they do not know is a believer.
- Works of evil spiritual power can only be done with evil spiritual help. Curses, amulets, spells, hexes, charms, voodoo, and many more variations require the power of evil spirits.
If an enemy spirit is involved, it becomes clear fairly quickly.
Getting the job done, start praying
Ask the person involved if they want Jesus to set them free. Get their permission to pray. Then pray for protection for the people in the group, their families, pets, and so on. The Lord will do that, if you ask.
You should start praying in tongues. This infuriates the evil spirits causing more manifestations. Bind it and stop the manifestations. You don’t have to put up with that. You will be enabled to pray through the Holy Spirit and get direct help and counsel about what is really happening. While you’re praying, be listening for words of knowledge and wisdom from the same Holy Spirit. He will show you what to do. Don’t talk with the evil spirit, it’s a compulsive liar and worse.
Once the Lord has shown you what is going on, and what you are to do about it, simply be obedient. Follow His instructions. It doesn’t take emotion, volume, or strain. Simple prayers, like, “You foul spirit who is causing this manifestation, or this problem (be specific), I take authority over you in the name of Jesus and tell you to go.” Tell it where to go (I usually say to the outer darkness) so it doesn’t cause problems with other people, children, or pets in the place where you are. You can proceed in absolute faith, knowing that this type of prayer always works. Jesus has absolute authority over the situation, and you are in Him.
When you’re done, lead the person who has been set free into a saving knowledge of Jesus—if they don’t know Him. You need to get him or her filled with the Holy Spirit to fill any void left by a departing spirit. If they will not do it, warn them of their danger. Tell them to call upon Jesus when the trouble comes back. For it almost certainly will. If they’re reborn, the problem has been solved and they are free of the evil spirit.
New-found freedom to change in rebirth
We have a new-found freedom to change in our rebirth after we repent and ask Jesus in to our life. The world talks about our freedom. But we have no real freedom until we enter the Kingdom of God. This makes no sense until you’re reborn.
You will not understand these things until you have been born of God. If this hasn’t happened yet in your life, you need to take care of that first. Your choice is simple. Meet Jesus now!
Dealing with our new-found freedom to change
I talked some about the new things we’ve been given to change our lives on the Power to Change page. They enable us to be free to change our lives. But, as far as the world is concerned, this is horrible. Because we are now free to please God, free to be righteous, free to bring healing to others, free to be joyful [which is quite different from happy]. Our freedom brings us freedom from fear, worry, and panic.
Yet, it also brings many difficult choices. For example, we can have freedom from financial stress. All we need to do is tithe off our gross income. When I was first saved, I was an Episcopalian. My priest at the time would regularly state that if you want to know what to do in the Kingdom, do the opposite of what is done in the world. Turn the other cheek comes to mind. Instead of “if it feels good, do it”, we find “make no provision for the flesh”. Our new-found freedom to change enables us to be remade in the image of Jesus.
We can not do whatever we please
We have offered ourself as a living sacrifice to Jesus. We have voluntarily become His slave—for we trust Him to be a good master. We have given up all our rights in the belief that the strait and narrow path will take care of all those issues. We give up our old self, trusting that we will receive who we were designed to be.
Before Jesus, we’re unable to be righteous. After Jesus, we are called to give up sin and inordinate pleasures of the mind and the flesh. After Jesus, it’s our choice. We can chose righteousness and the Kingdom of God—life, or the lusts of the mind and flesh—death. There is no middle ground.
Paul talks about this in Galatians 5: 1, 13, 16 & 17. Read the whole chapter. It’s a wonderful, joyful life we live.
Children, young adults, and mature adults from I John
Understanding children, young adults, and mature adults, as shown in I John, gives us another glimpse of the development of Christian maturity. In fact, training for spiritual maturity needs to begin as soon as the convert passes from childhood to young adult.
We find this explained by John, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
“I am writing to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” I JOHN 2: 12-14 MEV
So, children, young adults, and mature adults give us the progression to maturity
Children have their sins forgiven and have known the Father. Young adults [men, in these verses] are strong, and the word of God lives in them, and they have overcome the evil one. Mature adults [fathers in these verses] have known Him who is from the beginning. In other words, children have been reborn and know the Father as Daddy. Young adults are strong and have filled their spirits and minds with the word of God. They overcome the enemy in their lives. The mature know God deeply and personally within a close relationship.
Children can only feed on pablum and milk
We are blessed that Hebrews gave us a six-point list of what milk includes.
“…leaving the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of: [MEV switching to KJV]
- repentance from dead works,
- of faith toward God,
- of the doctrine of baptisms,
- and of laying on of hands,
- of resurrection of the dead,
- and of eternal judgment.” [Hebrews 6: 1-2 MEV and KJV]
Consider what’s included in this list. For churches focused on the great commission and world evangelism, this is all that is offered in many congregations. The preaching rarely, or never, gets past this level of instruction. Now I agree, discussions of sin, the Blood, the Cross, and so on are a large part of this. I guess they’re covered in numbers 1 & 2. But I think the point is obvious.
Young adults have a great deal to learn and experience in addition to spiritual warfare
But the main thing remains clear: spiritual warfare; sanctification; deliverance; forgiveness; spiritual gifts, callings, and offices; freedom from sin; putting off the old self and putting on the new; works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit; the end times and the rapture; and most of the things which affect believers in our daily walk with the Lord are not covered in milk. They are all part of solid food. Just out of curiosity: ‘How many of you are taught these things in your church?” My assumption is that if they are taught at all, it’s in the context of a small home Bible study. But I could be far off target here.
“You have overcome the evil one.” Please notice that this is past tense. John assumes, as do I, that you will get to the place where your spiritual warfare skills become habitual, and even subconscious, ways of reacting to the events in your lives. This is a similar process to being taught to instantly recognize counterfeit money. You are trained so thoroughly in what the real thing looks like, smells like, feels like, and wears like that a counterfeit is simply obvious. Similarly, you learn to know the Lord so well and what true Christianity is, that the enemy is quickly recognized and neutralized.
Mature adults are comfortably at peace because they have come to know the Lord, personally
As Jesus prayed in John 17, “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” JOHN 17:3 MEV They have entered the Sabbath rest, trusting in the One they know is able. This is the main task of the Bride of the Messiah. It’s a wonderful way to live.
Compare the big ten with American life and weep
Compare the big ten with American life and weep —now you understand why we’re in so much trouble. It’s not that we’re a little naughty. We’re completely rebellious. We are to be holy.
The Ten Commandments have become such a normal part of my life, I no longer think about them. I found I couldn’t even remember some of them. So, I went to refresh myself. Oh my Lord! Our national policy directly opposes most, if not all of them. Let’s take a quick look.
You shall have no other gods before me and don’t bow down and worship them
The virtually official US religion is Secular Humanism. This believes that mankind evolved and will bring itself to enlightenment and perfection. “Secular humanism is a philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.” Wikipedia’s page on the subject. Basically, this makes mankind its own god. All the other gods like mammon, convenience, and hedonism lead from this basic stance.
Don’t take the Name of the Lord in vain
“OMG! You gotta be kidding me.” When’s the last time you heard, in general public conversation, a genuine statement of worship, praise, or thanksgiving to the God who created us? ‘Nuff said.
Keep the Sabbath holy
I’m not talking about that once a week church service. I’m talking about taking one day out of seven, set aside to worship and personally fellowship with the Lord Jesus. I agree there are a few believers around, but not very many. We’re talking about American society here.
Compare the big ten with American life
Most of the other six have been roundly rejected by our culture. As we compare American life — weep for what you see.
- Murder: abortion and black lives matter
- Adultery and fornication: these are no longer even seen as evil, not to mention sex trafficking, pornography…
- Covetous: American materialism
- False witness: government and media
- Stealing: From cheating on taxes to rejecting the tithe, plus normal business practices
- Honoring parents: many don’t even know their father
Paul summed it up to Second Timothy 3:1-5
Know this: In the last days perilous times will come. 2 Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, trucebreakers, slanderers, unrestrained, fierce, despisers of those who are good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness, but denying its power.
What can we do? Watch and pray that we are found worthy to escape the wrath to come. Try to save as many as you can before the church is pulled out of here.
Natural birth pangs growing intensely
Natural birth pangs are growing intensely as 2020 moves on. The now normal reaction is, “Don’t bother me, it’s nothing new.” But they’re now closer & harder—and increasingly they are affecting the entire world.
This month Lamb & Lion Ministries sent out their May Lamplighter magazine entitled The Signs of Nature. I support this excellent and trusted resource of prophetic news and information. The links are for free PDF downloads.
Natural birth pangs growing intensely and who listens?
The first major headline in the Lamplighter asks, Does God still speak through signs of nature? The answer is, “Of course!” Yet, these signs are the most easy to ignore, in our culture. You can see some of the recent headlines listed in the bullets below.
However, something is new. These natural events increasingly affect the entire world. The locust plagues in Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and India threaten famine on a near-global scale. The articles linked below are all from 2020 and disasters are nearly happening daily.
Recent headlines about natural birth pangs trying to avoid yellow journalism
- Large earthquakes in the past 30 days — most are not reported in the news any more
- “Locust Plague of Biblical Proportions Threatens African Famine” Wired April 26, 2020
- The locust plague: Fighting a crisis within a crisis — World Bank Blog April 14, 2020
- “Historic, Unprecedented Flooding Swamps Southern USA” USAToday.com, Febuary 17, 2020.
- “Global Crop Failures Continue” TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com, Febuary 19, 2020.
- “Astronomers Discover Eleven Dangerous Asteroids That Could Impact the Earth” SciTechDaily.com, March 6, 2020.
- West’s Dust Bowl now “Locked In” as world risks imminent food crisis January 6, 2020
Notice that I’ve written all of this without mentioning COVID-19 until now
The plague panic is making everything mentioned before now are far worse threat. Notice: even now that I’ve mentioned the plague, I haven’t mentioned the economic/financial crisis caused by everything I talked about so far.
Relax: none of this is a surprise to any of us who have been teaching about Biblical prophecy
It’s certainly not a surprise to the Lord. God is sovereign. He hasn’t caused these things. Our loving God has allowed these things to get our attention. The Biblical advice remains the same. Get ready, those of you who are already in the Kingdom of the Messiah. Turn to the Lord if you don’t know Him personally yet. For those of us who know the Lord will escape the wrath which is coming. The Lord’s command is clear, yes, it’s set in red in your Bible.
Therefore watch always and pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36 MEV
Rejoice! We are living in Bible Times! Maranatha!