When Lt. Commander Bobby Thompson surfaced in Tampa in 1998, it was as if he had fallen from the sky, providing no hint of his past life. Eleven years later, St. Petersburg Times investigative reporter Jeff Testerman visited the rundown duplex Thompson used as his home and the epicenter of his sixty-thousand-member charity, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. But something was amiss. Thompson’s charity’s addresses were just maildrops, his members nonexistent, and his past a black hole. Yet, somehow, the Commander had stood for photos with President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, and other political luminaries. The USNVA, it turned out, was a phony charity where Thompson used pricey telemarketers, savvy lawyers, and political allies to swindle tens of millions from well-meaning donors. After Testerman’s story revealed that the nonprofit was a sham, the Commander went on the run. U.S. Marshals took up the hunt in 2011 and found themselves searching for an unnamed identity thief who they likened to a real-life Jason Bourne. When finally captured in 2012, Thompson was carrying multiple IDs and a key to a locker that held nearly $1 million in cash. But, who was he? Eventually, investigators discovered he was John Donald Cody, a Harvard Law School graduate and former U.S. Army intelligence officer who had been wanted since the 1980s on theft charges and for questioning in an espionage probe. As Cody’s decades as a fugitive came to an end, he claimed his charity was run at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency. After reporting on the story for CNBC’s American Greed in 2014, Daniel M. Freed dug into Cody’s backstory—uncovering new information about his intelligence background and the evolution of his con. Watch a book trailer at callmecommander.net.

You can have a profitable business based upon Biblical principles, without sacrificing integrity, honesty, or profitability. There are certain principles that when applied work universally to prosper a business. These principles were put in to place by God for His creation to use. God designed this world to best operate under His laws. When we follow His laws things tend to go well. When we break His laws we get broken. Most secular business books and self-help books fall short because they extol the strengths of men and do not go far enough in giving the glory to God. Some have even taken God's principles and taught them as if they were their own or have given credit to some unnamed higher power. God laws are for the seen and the unseen or what we call the physical and the spiritual. Even non-Christians experience blessings when they apply God's principles in both the physical and spiritual realm. The sad part is they don't give Him glory when things go well. (But when things go bad you often hear them taking His name in vain.) We want to encourage Christian Business Owners to boldly give credit to our God who put these laws into place, who created us with the amazing abilities and capabilities of our mind, soul, and body and who gives us the very breath we breathe to live and prosper. One amazing thing about our God is His great mercy. Even when the world does not give Him the glory He deserves, He still blesses them. Jesus said that the Father sends His rain on the just and on the unjust. And Paul the Apostle tells us that it is the kindness of God that leads men to repentance. Our goal as Christian Business Owners is to first and foremost glorify God in our life and business. We choose to acknowledge Him in all our ways.