The Treasure Principle

The Treasure Principle



You can’t take it with you–but you can send it on ahead.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" Jim Elliot


So I just finished this book last night and it has really revolutionized how I think about giving. The entire premise of this book is that this world is not our home, so why build up these earthly treasures that we can't take with us when we die? I have to admit, this is one of the few books that I have read cover to cover as carefully as possible.
 One of the things Randy Alcorn points out is that we are stewards of all of God's assets. We should  carry no sense of entitlement to any of his assets. It is our job to find out what God wants us to do with HIS assets, and then to carry out his will. Alcorn points out that when the basic needs of life are met, why shouldn't the remainder of our money go to further the Kingdom? This book really made me think about my priorities with money. TJ and I have had alot of really good talks about money since God placed this on our hearts a few weeks ago.


" Money never stays with me. It would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find a way into my heart" John Wesley

Here are the major points in the book
T r e a s u r e P r i n c i p l e K e y s


1. God owns everything. I’m His money manager.

We are the managers of the assets God has
entrusted—not given—to us.


2. My heart always goes where I put God’s money.

Watch what happens when you reallocate your money

from temporal things to eternal things.


3. Heaven, not earth, is my home. We are citizens
of “a better country—a heavenly one”(Hebrews 11:16).



4. I should live not for the dot but for the line.

From the dot—our present life on earth—extends a line

that goes on forever, which is eternity in heaven.



5. Giving is the only antidote to materialism.

Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and

a greater agenda. It dethrones me and exalts Him.



6. God prospers me not to raise my standard

of living, but to raise my standard of giving.

God gives us more money than we need

so we can give—generously.

"I am not the point. He is the point. He does not exist for me, I exist for Him. God's money has a higher purpose than my affluence. Giving affirms Christ's lordship. It dethrones me and exalts Him. I recognize God as owner, myself as servant, and OTHERS as intended beneficiaries of what God has entrusted to me"

Read it. It is 94 pages. You have time for that. It has had a huge impact on my life

Adoption

This is something that has been our hearts since we met. Especially with the disaster in Haiti it is something that we have really been talking and praying about. Adoption has always had a soft spot in my heart because of my precious sisters. I am so thankful that God chose them to be in our family and I hope that one day, God will choose children for the White family :)





Hereis the blog with the adoption story

Life has gotten a little crazy...

School has started. The madness has begun. In two days I have seen people that have been stretched to what they think is their max capacity. This will be a demanding semester no doubt. Between forecasts, oil logs, work and wesley, this semester will demand a servant's heart from both of us. God is showing us that no matter what kind of day we have had, it is selfish to assume the other person's day was easy. I feel like so often I assume TJ can serve me because he didn't have work all day, but in reality he has been in class ALL day! Seeing this servant's heart is an intimidating thing. Proof that we need Jesus every second of every day. Praise God! In the last two days I feel like we have gotten a huge dose of reality, between the stresses of class, work, classandwork....it really feels overwhelming. We serve a mighty God who is able to help us in immeasureable ways. what a blessing. It is a weird thought, trusting one human to be faithful to you forever and serve you, and doing the same in return.
   This semester, please pray that the Lord will teach us, that He would sustain us, and that in everything our faith, our passion, our hope will be in the LORD, not each other, not things of this world. It is only in His presence that we are strong. Only here are we energized, motivated. Only here can we love each other and do our best. Pray that we would be here in the presence of our Lord everyday, all day.

Sweet friendships

I cannot be thankful enough for the wonderful blessings God has given me through my friends. It amazes me how an evening with good friends can completely refresh and encourage me. I am seeing more and more that the attacks from Satan are meant to isolate me. They are meant to make me focus on me and my situation and forget to engage myself with fellow believers. There have been such sweet friendships formed during the fall semester and looking back, it was such a God thing. God placed you wonderful friends into my life to encourage me, build me, and give me courage to face tough decisions. I am so thankful. God designed the body to constantly interact with one another and "do life" together. Seeing my sweet friends multiple times a week (some as much as every day) encourages me. I don't think I fully understood the impact the Body of Christ can have on a person, but hindsight is 20/20 right?

a penny for my thoughts

So I Just had a couple of thoughts that I wanted to share.
So I cleaned my room today, and not just one of those weak, just pick up the floor cleans. This is probably the cleanest my room has been since i moved in. Well anyways, point of the story, while cleaning i kept coming across all of the little cards, and notes and pictures that amanda has given me over the last 4+ years i have known her and have kept every one of them. Well i needed a place to put them so i decided to make an amanda box where i now keep anything she has given me. Well going through it today took me back through so many great memories and i think itsx kinda funny and cool that now i have, the best 4 years of my life in a 4x6x10 box on the top shelf of my desk :)

Second is somethin i realized talking to amanda last night. We had one of our trademark long conversations last night, discussing what marriage would look like and how we wanted to build ours and how to do that in a way that was biblical and honoring to God. Well afterwards amanda texted me saying, "And when we work through things i enjoy being with you." and that got me thinking. Satan tries to get Godly relationships to end most often by causing worldly stresses so that the individuals are tricked into believing that they just dont have enough time or energy left at the end of the day (or at any point during) to invest in loving each other biblically. And this statement amanda made, helped me realize how yet again God knew what he was talking about, and that when you sacrifice your own "comfort" and love your partner with Gods strength and Love regardless of how you feel, it leaves you feeling refreshed and just enjoying spending time with that person that previously may have been annoying you simply being there. So those are my thoughts, i'll post more brilliant wisdom later :)
Shalom
TJ

Haiti

Haitians are piling bodies along the devastated streets of their capital after a powerful earthquake flattened the president's palace and the main prison, the cathedral, hospitals, schools and thousands of homes. Untold numbers are still trapped.


President Rene Preval says he believes thousands of people are dead even as other officials give much higher estimates — though they were based on the extent of the destruction rather than firm counts of the dead.

His prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, tells CNN: "I believe we are well over 100,000," while leading senator Youri Latortue tells The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead. Both admit they have no way of knowing.

Being engaged is hard....

Learning to serve one another in every circumstance is hard.
Learning what it means to respect TJ in everything I say and the way I speak to him is hard.
Learning what it means to pursue purity and holiness is hard.
Learning what 1 Corinthians means when it says "Love is patient" is hard.
Understanding little by little what it means that we (the church) are the bride of Christ is hard.
Learning how to communicate when we hit roadblocks is hard.
Being attacked by the Devil all the time, is hard.


Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy 1 Peter 1:13-16

The struggles we are going through are a constant reminder of what our Savior did for me. To be the perfect sacrifice with all the junk in this world. The fact that marriage is supposed to paint a picture of how Christ loves the church, that He gave up His life for her. It blows my mind. I am starting to see such a small small fraction of what that might look like. It's overwhelming. Learning to persevere when our relationship isn't easy has built more character over the last 3 years than I could ever imagine.

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.


Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

And this is our goal. That our marriage will be everything this passage from 1 Peter 3 says. That my attitude will be one of respect and submission towards TJ, even when I don't feel like it. That my spirit will be gentle and quiet. I am engaged to a fabulously wonderful man, and it has been such a blessing to spend the last 3 years of my life with him. Please keep praying for us, especially me, as God changes my heart and breaks old habits that I have had for 21 years. Please pray that I allow God to change me into the Biblical wife I need to be
-Amanda

Checklist

Pick a venue : Done
Set a date : Done
Pick a DJ : Done
Choose a photographer: Done
Propose to Bride: Done
Propose to Groom: Done
Choose a caterer: Almost done
Fall more in love with Groom: Done
Fall more in love with Bride: Done

359 days and counting

So we have a date, a location, an officiant, a couple, a few witnesses and a DJ all but booked, so in my mind once the caterer is secured we are done planning :), not sure if amanda would completely agree. But we are finding now that having spent more of our free time over the break planning and talking about wedding stuff, that now that we are done planning for a while we are having to relearn how we were before we started planning. We dont know what to do with free time that we have before school starts. We are going home this weekend and will therefore be confined in a car together for 7 hours this weekend, and though I'm tired of making the drive I am excited to spend the time together because we always have our best conversations in the car. Please keep us in y'alls prayers, that we continue to learn to create a biblical marriage and that we rely on God's strength to work through our own struggles and the traps of the devil we will encounter.
Shalom,
T "head over heels for his fiancee" J  :)

Verses for today

Here are some verses that I have been reading today

"..I will live among them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore come out and be separate" 2 Cor 6:16b-17

"Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." 2 Cor 7:1.
     This second verse is the one that meant alot to me today. Just realizing how many things I do that can contaminate the body and spirit; everything from eating food that is not healthy, to being harsh or rude towards someone. In this world it is hard to remain set apart from the things of the Earth and set apart to God but He calls us to come out and be separate from this world. This means sticking to my committments about working out and being healthy, not only because I want to, but because God calls us to take care of ourselves because our body is the Lord's temple. drat.



-Amanda

Define Engaged

Listening to Matt Chandler this Sunday we heard something that rings very true for us

engaged (n) ; all the problems of marriage, with none of the benefits of marriage

Please continue to pray for us as we plan not only a wedding, but our Biblical marriage together