Rewards and Faith December 8, 2008

So as I said before I wanted to spend some time looking at Scripture that has to do with prayer in hopes that God’s Word would encourage me in my quest to pray faith sized requests.  Although I looked up quite a few passages today I wanted to share and expound on two verses that got me thinking.

This passage comes from Matthew and is about the Pharisees who pray in the street .  Although the whole passage relates to prayer this particular verse intrigued me. 

Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees you in secret will reward you.

There are several things that strike me.  First, God wants us to pray to him.  The Maker of the universe WANTS to talk with ME.  Incredible to think about, the grace of God abounds in my life so much more than I even realize or give thought to.  Next, God rewardsus for praying!   Prayer is a Christian discipline, (activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill as per dictionary.com) it is something I should have a desire to do out of my love for God.  So, what is so amazing is that God rewards us for doing something that we should want to do, something that improves our Christian character, faith, and walk with God.  Now who knows what the reward is, it could be the improvement of my Christian character, faith, and walk with God, or it could be a reward stored for me in heaven or even that God would answer my prayer in the way I wanted.  Either way, amazing.

The second verse I wanted to reflect on is Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask for in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. 

This verse, I feel, speaks directly to the idea of faith sized requests. This is exactly what I need from God’s Word to encourage me to grow in my faith.  The question still remains, how do I get this faith?

Faith Sized Requests December 5, 2008

A faith sized request is something that that you pray for that you truly believe God can do.  Now, at first, that seems a bit silly, I mean, we all know God is God and he can do ANYTHING.  However, I have found that some of my requests are bigger than my faith, meaning, I may believe God will do something in my head, but my heart just doesn’t believe.  I have been convicted to stop praying for those things for which I do not truly believe God can do. 

I have also been trying to record some of the things I do request and the way God answers them in order to build my faith and be able to ask for anything with confidence.  Now, I do realize, just because I ask God for something does not mean he will answer the prayer the way I hope for.  Also, I don’t want to imply that my time in prayer is one big ‘to-do’ list for God, rather I want to focus on this aspect of my prayer life.

There is one request that I have that I want to have the faith to ask God, but as of yet, I have not gotten there.  Trevor has already asked that God would get us out of our debt by next Christmas.  Now in my head, I know God can do anything, but my heart just doesn’t believe because I know I cannot ask this of God with a clean conscience. 

I have been working on asking some smaller faith sized requests to build my faith (these particular requests all deal with our finances since that is what I am once again trying to muster up the faith to ask God for).  A few months back I asked God to provide a way for us to not have to pay an outstanding medical bill for Ethan’s vaccinations.  After I talked with the office manager, the account was cleared to zero, saving us about $300!  I have also asked that God would provide a way for us to put even more towards our debt than budgeted.  Recently, gas prices have dropped and we have had a surplus in that area of our budget to apply towards our loans.  Most recently I had wanted to have Trevor’s NIU loan paid off by January, but I have the faith and have asked God that we be able to pay off that loan this month.  God is providing extra funds for us to use towards our debt by allowing Trevor to get overtime hours at his job at a pay rate of time and a half (which, when all is said and done should be just about enough to pay off the loan this month!).  These answers to prayer along with others are slowly building my faith and I hope to soon be able to ask God the same request that Trevor has shared with  me, that we would be debt free by Christmas 2009.  There are so many ways God could do this, each one simple for him.  I can’t wait until I have the faith to ask.

Besides recording the answers to prayers it has been helpful to go to the Bible and see exactly what God says about our prayers.  I will reflect on that in a bit.

Meanwhile, to read the article that inspired the post see http://www.bulletininserts.org/faithsized.html

The Dangers of Debt Consolidation December 2, 2008

Let me start by saying that I consolidated my student loans from NIU and we are now consolidating our outstanding loans from TEDS ($22.000).  Our purpose in this is so that we can pay off our car as quickly as possible by only having to make minimum payments on this loan.  Once we pay for our car we will then put all our available money toward our debt. 

We got our letter in the mail today about our debt consolidation, thus the reason for this post.  Our loans currently have a 4.21% and 6.80% interest rate (each semester we took a loan has a different rate).  When we consolidate the new interest rate will be 5.6%.  I think that is a fair enough trade off. 

Here comes the dangerous part of debt consolidation.  If we were to make only the minimum payments each month it would take 20 years, or only 240 payments!  On top of having debt for 20 years on a degree that took two years to get we would have a final cost after interest of $36,378.69.   In other words, we would pay an additional $14,000 or so for our loan.

Debt November 30, 2008

Debt stinks.  Trevor and I have come to an agreement on that.  Neither one of us thought too much about our debt when we were first married, but it is certainly on our minds lately. 

When we got married I owned about  $16,000 for student loans and Trevor had about $5,000 worth of student loans from NIU.   When it came time to decide where to go to seminary, Trevor chose Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS).  Although we decided that he would not get his masters of divinity because it would take four years (and two extra years of taking out loans) we did decide despite the high price tag it was worth it for Trevor to attend.   Trevor loved his experience there and I am so glad he got to go there because I know he really wanted to, however, it left us an additional $23,000 of student loans to pay off.  Even though that is a lot, it could have been a lot more if Trevor had not gotten scholarships and grants.  Two years ago when my car was near its end we financed a new car for about $12,000.  Adding it is incredible, it amounts to $56,000!  What’s more incredible is that Trevor and I have never even made close to that in one year even when we both were working.

We started out faithfully paying the minimum payments on our debt with the goal of paying off my student loan before we had to begin paying Trevor’s (his were in deferment because he was attending graduate school).  We came close to accomplishing that, but not quite.  It was this past summer that we got serious about getting out of debt as quickly as possible.  I read a book by Dave Ramsey (and although I do not agree with all his Baby Steps I do agree with at least steps 1-3) and got fired up about living debt free, Trevor got on board and then things really started moving.  If you are familiar with Dave Ramsey we are on Baby Step 2-Debt Snowball.

 Despite not having an income for about the first 3 months that we lived in Kansas we managed to pay off the $4,000 we had remaining on my student loan from NIU.  We also decided that one of us would get a job (either me a part-time job or Trevor would take on a second job).  Currently, besides working his full-time job Trevor also works an additional 20 hours or so at Target (all income earned there goes directly to debt). 

It has been amazing to be able to see God’s provision for not only our daily needs, but to see his provision for our desire to get out of debt.  One month someone from Harvest (the church we attended before moving) sent us a check for $500!  Another month we miscalculated our income in a good way that left money to put towards our debt.  In October we didn’t realize there were five weeks, which meant we had an extra $600 to put towards our debt.  I can’t wait to see what God does next.  Another great thing is that even though we are trying to get out of debt we have been able to give a greater tithe to the church because of the extra income from Target.  Because we always pay our bills and give at least the minimum on our debt each month we also have the freedom to give freely when an opportunity arises.

We have been paying faithfully on our car loan and still owe about $8,500.  We are really looking forward to January-in January we get to pay off Trevor’s undergrad (only $1,500 left)!   Our goal is to have our car title in our hands by July.  Then we will only have one debt left, a $22,000 debt, but still, only one instead of three or four.

Elizabeth NIU- $16,000      6/08

TEDS (directly from Trinity)- $1000   10/08

Trevor NIU-$5,000

Car-$12,000

TEDS (IDAPP)-$22,000

It is my hope that I will be able to continue to share of the ways God is helping us to get out of debt in future posts.

Joni Eareckson Tada November 29, 2008

With Trevor off at work (Target) and Ethan napping I thought now would be the perfect opportunity to see who Joni Tada is. First off, she is a women, I believe she might be the only women represented in book on Advent (which is why I choose her as one of my first people to look up). Although I did not find much about her conversion story I did find the following.

 She was born in 1949 and became a  believer at a Young Life Camp in 1964.  Joni was paralyzed from the neck down when she was a teenager.  Her church family was a huge influence in her life during the time of this event as they, “demonstrated the love of God in practical ways.”  After two long years of rehabilitation Joni was changed.  While relearning daily skills she also learned to paint (by putting the brush between her teeth).  Today her paintings are only one of the things she is known for today.

It didn’t take Joni long to demonstrate the love of God in practical ways herself.  About ten years after her accident Joni started an organization called Joni and Friends (JAF) whose mission is to accelerate Christian ministry in the disability community throughout the world.   The work that JAF does includes a radio program that encourages believers to live for Christ, provide retreats for special need families, collect wheelchairs for those who need but cannot afford them, and provide churches with information and training to help those with disabilities.   Besides founding that organization Joni has written over 30 books including one called, Joni (her autobiography). 

 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness,”  is Joni’s favorite BIble verse.  What a great reminder of my own weaknesses, God’s grace, and God’s power.(Although that is from the NIV I also discovered that Joni is an advocate for the ESV!).

I foget sometimes how wonderful technology is, I was also able to see a clip of Joni on YouTube and get a glipse of her personality firsthand.  From what I saw and heard Joni is a passionate believer filled with the joy that only God can provide and a spirit of thanksgiving always. 

Advent

 

advent
noun
1.	arrival that has been awaited (especially of something momentous);
2.	the season including the four Sundays preceding Christmas
3.	(Christian theology) the reappearance of Jesus as judge for the Last Judgment [syn: Second Coming]

Advent season is upon us.  To be honest, I haven’t given a lot of thought to Advent in the past.  Growing up I remember different families in the church lighting a candle each Sunday as we got closer to Christmas, however, I never really understood the significance. 

This year (and every year from now on) is going to be different.  I am determined to put my focus as well as the focus of my family on Christ during this season as much as it is up to me.  I just bought Trevor a gift the other day, a book he saw, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promisee of Christmas” a collection of work edited by Nancy Guthrie.  The book is an anthology of Advent readings  to remind us of the riches of Christ come to earth. 

Although not quite yet suitable for Family Worship, I can’t wait until it is.  Trevor and I also decided to find out some information about each of the author’s so we can one day share with our boys (and maybe a girl someday) a little about the writers.  We both picked three authors to research and write a little blurb about.  I’ll happily share what I find on this blog.  I am going to find out about Joseph “Skip” Ryan, Joni Eareckson Tada, and St. Augustine.

It’s hard to imagine the time before Christ came to earth when God was silent for a long while.  That first Advent was 400 years!  The rejoicing of God come to earth as man must have been incredible!  I don’t want to forget this Christmas season how important and joyous of an occasion it was when God brought Jesus Christ into the world, for that was only the beginning. 

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds, and enlarge my mind; letme hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my eyes uplifted to a reonciled Father; place me with ox, ass, camel, goat, to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face, and in him account myself delievered from sin; let me clasp the new-born child for my heart, embrace him with undying faith, exuluting that he is mine and I am his. In him thou has given me so much that heaven can give no more.

-The Valley of the Vison